readx;??5 10 morning. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info{top} point{small} says 3w.

In the South China Sea, a sea area that has almost become the Ming Inland Sea, a huge fleet rises and falls with the waves.

Compared with his brother Zhu Guohui, who went to the battlefield for the first time, Colonel Zhu Guoguang, who had already experienced the test of life and death at sea, walked into the command tower of his beloved "Tianjin" fast cruiser with a calm and relaxed look. The 4,200-ton fast cruiser with an empty displacement had suffered a blow in a battle two months earlier, when the bow turret was destroyed by the 9.5-inch main guns of a British fast cruiser. It had to be driven back to Hong Kong for a first repair, and at the same time, a small change was made, and the 10 120mm caliber secondary guns were also replaced with 155mm rapid-fire guns, so that the caliber of the main and secondary guns of the "Tianjin" was unified. Such a design seems a little strange from the perspective of later generations, but the current naval ships are originally strangely shaped, and the "Tianjin" class is definitely relatively normal among them.

The "Tianjin" under the command of Colonel Zhu Guoguang is the flagship of the No. 1 Rapid Cruiser Detachment, and the commander of the detachment is Rear Admiral Wang Boen, who graduated from the fourth phase of the Royal Naval Military Academy. Zhu Guoguang was the chief of staff of the fast cruiser detachment -- this was the practice of the Ming navy, and the flagship captain of a temporarily formed fleet or detachment was also the chief of staff.

Unlike the low bridge of the "Saxony" class and the even lower and very narrow command tower, the "Tianjin" class command tower is very high, a real "tower", and has a good line of sight. And it was also protected by thick armor. The interior is quite spacious. Below the Command Tower. It is a communications center, with ten of the latest fleet shortwave radios and two longwave radios. It can command ten warships to fight at the same time, and can directly contact the naval staff of Ying Tianfu from thousands of miles away. I don't know how much better the communication conditions are than those of the "Saxony" class. But now, the entire main fleet is in radio silence, and can only receive telegrams, not send telegrams.

"Commander, the Yongli is calling. The convoy has already departed from Cam Ranh Bay. ”

Zhu Guoguang just stopped by the communication center and brought the latest news to Wang Boen. The main fleet left Xingming Harbor last night at night. The port in Bandar Seri Bega, later Brunei, was used for both military and civilian purposes before the war, but has now become the forward military port of the South Sea Fleet, protected by large-caliber shore guns and a large dockyard for ship repairs. And within a radius of 20 kilometers, including Xingming Mansion City, it has become a military restricted area. It was tightly sealed by the army. But for the sake of absolute secrecy, the fleet left the port at night and lurked into the depths of the South China Sea. Wait for the news of the departure of the British Eastern Fleet from Singapore.

There is no doubt that the light cruisers of the British Eastern Fleet were very active in the southern part of the South China Sea. The huge convoy of convoys will definitely be discovered by them. The British light cruisers also had radio stations on board, and news would be sent to Arthur as soon as possible. Admiral Hood's desk.

And the Nanyang Fleet of the Ming Dynasty. Several light cruisers were also deployed at the exit of the Strait of Malacca - all 2,500-ton Hong Kong-class fast cruisers, which were not suitable for participating in a decisive battle of the fleet, so they were specially used for mine-laying, reconnaissance, harassment and escort missions. Zhu Guoguang once led several such cruisers to compete with the British at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca. I also damaged a few ships, but unfortunately there is no record of sinking, in the absence of reliable armor-piercing blasting shells, naval battles are like this, it is easy to sink if injured!

In the Russian-Austro-Austrian-Turkish War 12 years ago, there was even a case in which a wooden-hulled sail battleship was hit by an ironclad ship with solid armor-piercing shells for more than a dozen rounds without sinking, and finally had to be rammed into a battle. This is why the British warships were now equipped with ramming angles, and they were still obsessed with the bow against the enemy.

However, the Ming Naval Ordnance Bureau has always been dismissive of the bow against the enemy and the sinking of the enemy ship! In the eyes of traditional naval powers such as Britain and France, this is because the Chinese navy's top brass is conservative and still in the era of sail battleships. But Zhu Guoguang knew that the column tactics of the Ming Navy and the principle of meeting the enemy on the side were completely the result of his father Zhu Jishi's insistence...... There are really some laymen commanding insiders.

However, after Zhu Guoguang participated in many actual battles, he also felt that the column tactics of facing the enemy on the side were quite desirable, at least it was convenient for command, it was easy to maintain the formation for maneuvering, and it was also possible to concentrate on the use of firepower. The only disadvantage is the lack of final firepower, and there is no collision angle to collide. So there have been many naval battles, and none of them have been sunk, I really wonder if the luck will be better this time?

Just when Zhu Guoguang prayed for good luck. In Singapore, the commander of the British Eastern Fleet, Arthur Brown. Admiral Hood is drawing a cross on his chest, thanking God for his good luck. Because looking out of the window of the office of the Land Command of the Eastern Fleet where he was, he could see three huge ships like mountains! The Royal Navy's newest and most powerful ironclad ships, INS Queen of India, INS Remilis and HMS Royal Oak, have all arrived in Singapore Harbor and are part of the Eastern Fleet!

All three battleships were consistent in type and displacement. The total length is 108 meters, the width of the ship is 26.9 meters, and the average draft is 8.4 meters. This is because the part of the amidships near the bow of the three ships is equipped with a huge diagonal open turret, and three 16-inch 28 times the diameter of the huge guns are placed in the open battery - this is not a "triple assembly", but the three guns are placed in an open battery, which is one of the reasons why the three warships are so fat.

The diagonal turret placement is another reason for the ship's fattening. Historically, the turrets of the two ironclad ships of the Manchu Beiyang Naval Division, "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan", were also placed in this way, both of which were located slightly in front of the ship, and the two batteries were slightly in front and one in the back, and the edges were almost connected. It's a strange shape! However, the purpose of this turret placement is very clear, that is, the six cannons of the two turrets can all be aimed forward. In addition, there were 10 6-inch rapid-fire guns, 14 47mm cannons, 7 14-inch white-headed torpedo tubes.

The unladen displacement of all three ships reached 14,000 tons, and the full load displacement was 15,500 tons. It has two 3-cylinder vertical three-expansion steam engines, 3-shaft double rudders, and 8-seat single-head cylinder boilers, with a power of 9,000 indication horsepower under normal ventilation and 11,000 indication horsepower under strong pressure ventilation, which can provide a high speed of up to 16 knots. The maximum coal load is 1490 tons, and at a speed of 10 knots it can sail continuously for 4800 nautical miles.

The armor adopts a rather novel composite armor method, the main armor belt on the side is about 75 meters long and 2.64 meters high, of which it extends 1.52 meters below the waterline, and the steel surface iron armor in the middle of the main armor belt is 457 mm thick at the thickest point, and then decreases forward and backward at 406 mm and 356 mm respectively, and the inside is a teak support layer 102-203 mm thick. The upper part of the side is a steel-faced iron armor with a thickness of 102 mm (45 m long x 2 m high), and the total height of the gunside armor is about 4.5 m (1.6 m below the waterline and 2.9 m above the waterline).

Arriving almost simultaneously with these three "Empress of India" class was a telegram from the light cruiser "Adventure". A Ming naval escort fleet of around 50 ships has left Cam Ranh Bay and is heading south, including about 25 steam galleons.

They must have wanted to cross the Sunda Strait to deliver supplies to the squadron in Chittagong. Arthur. Hood immediately guessed the purpose of this Chinese fleet. Just 12 hours ago, Will. The Indian army under the command of Hemming had just intercepted about 90,000 squadrons at Finney, which was just over 90 kilometers away from Chittagong. In Chittagong, there are another nearly 100,000 squadrons, which consumed a lot in the previous attack on Chittagong, and must replenish ammunition and heavy equipment before they can continue to go north to relieve the 90,000 squadrons that were surrounded. (To be continued.) )