Jiangnan Shipyard, long before the establishment of China, has been the largest civil shipyard in China, with a variety of docks of 1.18 million tons, from the establishment of China, the recovery of the Shanghai concession, can be in Shanghai construction, the expansion of the entire Chongming Island and Pudong area, built a large number of docks, including more than 30,000 tons of civilian freighter docks, there are also a variety of small military docks, the current 10,000 tons of ships below, basically handed over to the quiver shipyard, and Qingdao shipyard is only responsible for part of the small warships, the main forces have already been transferred to the capital ships.

Among the heavy shipbuilding tasks, Jiangnan Shipyard received the construction of 8 5000-ton dock boats 2 months ago, after intense construction, it is currently in the final drying, originally, the experienced master, thought that this was just a simple light patrol or heavy patrol or something, 5000 tons, on the light patrol, a little bigger, the heavy patrol has a little lighter, is a more embarrassing tonnage, so it is more eye-catching.

These 8 ships are relatively special, the hull is relatively small, and even the cabin is very large, in the environment of high sea conditions, the speed will be reduced to an unbearable degree, such a ship, I am afraid that experienced old technicians, do not know what it is used for, everyone is speculating.

After guessing for a long time, there are all kinds of answers, but when the final artillery is installed, it is a twin 14-inch gun, a small boat of about 5,000 tons, and a battleship main gun-level gun. This approach has proven to be meaningless, in the era of high-precision delivery. These ships are targets.

The cannon of the boat, because it was made in the northwest. Its power is not small, but because of the height of the small ship, the position of this gun is not as high as that of a real battleship, the range is not as good, and the defense is also poor. Although there is money in the Northwest, the money is not so squandered?

The opinions of the workers, through regular channels, reflected this issue upwards, and they thought that they would be taken seriously, but they received another answer, this is not the main battleship, it has another purpose, as for the use. Then it is a secret, in short, it is not what the workers think, and there is no question of waste.

The explanation is very simple and very formulaic. The workers did not receive a reply, slightly disappointed, but full of curiosity about the purpose of the ship. There is nothing to say, but it is just used as an after-dinner conversation. The construction of this ship was not delayed, and a total of 8 ships were started. The difference in time is about 10 days, but the time for the final completion is about the same, when the weapons and equipment are completed one by one, and after the waterproof paint is painted, it slowly enters the sea, and the ship is considered to be completed, and it is temporarily incorporated into the East China Sea Fleet of the Navy.

Responsible for transporting these shallow-water heavy gunboats to Southeast Asia is the East China Sea Fleet of the Chinese Navy, along with them, there are also 8 heavy cruisers that the East China Sea Fleet has just entered service, this is a new generation of heavy cruisers, and the artillery has increased a lot, and under the condition of using a new gun barrel, even if it is a 254 mm gun, the power is quite large, and it is conservatively estimated that compared with the traditional 305 artillery, not only the range is longer, but also the power is greater.

Shallow water heavy gunboats, even if the power is increased as much as possible, the northwest has achieved the ultimate in power, and everything except the main gun has been dispensed with, and even the air defense that the northwest has always paid attention to has not been installed on this battleship, but the speed has only reached about 17 knots, and it will take a long time to reach Jakarta from Shanghai.

In this sense, shallow water heavy gunboats are really only shallow water activities, and the maximum combat radius will not exceed 5000 nautical miles, after all, according to 300 nautical miles a day, 5000 nautical miles will take almost 20 days, such a ship, that is, a long-term voyage of about 20 days, for a long time, it is easy to have all kinds of problems, compared to the real main battle battleship, this problem will be more, in order to accommodate the twin 14-inch guns, a lot of things are sacrificed, including seaworthiness and margin, for other ships, There may be a slight problem, which can be offset by the margin, but for this, once there are high sea clearance conditions, maybe, the ship will capsize.

The reason why the shallow water heavy gunboat is called shallow water, on the one hand, it can sail freely in relatively shallow waters, can get close to the coast relatively close, and even enter some relatively small rivers, and has targets for attacking the water, 14 inches, or larger guns, giving him enough firepower, on the other hand, poor seaworthiness and short operating distance, which is also an important feature of it.

8 shallow water heavy gunboats with high hopes, followed by 8 heavy cruisers, went to Southeast Asia together, 16 14-inch guns, can not make up for the gap of 9 capital ships, more than 80 guns, but also let the fleet attacking the Philippines in the future go to a higher level of firepower, and even under certain circumstances, can suppress the land batteries and prepare for the capture of Manila.

The artillery batteries built by the Americans for the Philippines can be adjusted at a limited angle, but the 11-inch artillery is an 11-inch artillery after all, which was a few years ago, the artillery that could be used as the main gun of the battleship, and it is a big killer weapon on land.

Once there is an artillery battle, the army must advance under the attack of the opponent's artillery, and if 155 wants to deal with them, it must also withstand the attack of the opponent, and it can only be deployed in the middle of the firing range, which is quite passive, either losing a large number of artillery and personnel, or using a large number of personnel to attract the vitality of the opponent, and after pushing closer with 155, defeating the opponent, no matter which point, it represents a huge casualty.

The Chinese have never been afraid of casualties, but what they are afraid of is that the casualties have no results, which is also a problem considered in the northwest, and there are only 8 new heavy cruisers 254 and shallow water heavy gunboats 14-inch guns, which can suppress them, and even pull them out with difficulty, otherwise capturing Manila is a very difficult task.

Compared with the intense preparations of the Chinese side, and even for this war, the shallow water heavy gunship that was originally used in other directions was temporarily used, and it took a long time from waiting for its launch to transporting it from the Shanghai shipyard to Southeast Asia.

Richardson, commander of the US Philippines, looked at the position that had been strictly prepared, he was not idle in the past time period, and had done his best to build a position, in his opinion, the position was built very perfectly, between Lanfang and the United States, in order to fight for the Philippines, there must be a war, he believed that this fortification would teach Lanfang's Chinese a lesson. The United States is not a declining Dutch, let alone a French colonial army, they have the ability to resist each other, and if they have the opportunity, they will inflict heavy losses on the Chinese in Lanfang.

What Richardson didn't know was that if any Chinese general, or rather, the American generals in Europe at present, would think that the position he had built was full of loopholes, and there was no even a layered position, the army and firepower were smoothly distributed, and it seemed to be stable, but if the opponent concentrated the attack and opened the way with artillery fire and heavy machine guns, it would be easy to chisel through.

It stands to reason that the US military should not have such a disclosure, for the simple reason that he is still building positions based on previous experience. The current US military, especially the US military that has entered Europe, is gradually growing up in steel and blood, but in this era, poor communication conditions make it impossible to disseminate many experiences well. 1914 was the beginning of the 20th century, the telegraph had been produced, but the cable telegraph was in the hands of the British, the cost of sending the telegraph was extremely high, no one used the telegraph to describe the experience, and even some experience, not just by saying it, understand, just like the US military went to Europe, the British have talked about some attention and practice, but some seem small, even unimportant precautions, only after the test of blood and fire, will be confirmed, simply speaking, no one will be able to listen.

The U.S. domestic army, in terms of hardware, is on par with the European army, but in the Far East, the Philippines and Hawaii, both equipment and experience, are still similar to before the war.

Air Force reconnaissance, reports from some intelligence officers who stayed behind, and occasional naval fire reconnaissance used these channels to find out the situation of the US military in the Philippines bit by bit, and began to improve the investigation of the US military in the Philippines little by little while the Scheer fleet was preparing to leave and waiting for reinforcements from China.

Before the change, when the 9 capital ships of the Scheer fleet had not left, how could they use such trouble, just like India and the Indochina Peninsula before, it would be good to fight without brains, at most it was just to investigate some things on the big picture, and now, without the power of the capital ships, shallow water heavy gunboats and new heavy cruisers, there is no intuitive understanding of the premise, this plan must be made a little more detailed.

Without the absolute superiority of the navy, can not suppress the opponent's coastal defense artillery fire, this needs to be prepared more refined, if the so-called shallow water heavy gunboat is not powerful, maybe he needs to choose another method, only to do the work in advance, in order to ensure victory, and do not produce large casualties, all Lan Fang's battle plans, not only to achieve victory, but also to win beautifully, this is one of Lan Fang's creed. (To be continued.) )

PS: There's something delayed today.,The first chapter is delivered.,Another chapter before 10 o'clock! I'm sorry!