Chapter 1299
Chapter 1299
Chapter 1299
Although Liu Shang doesn't know much about military affairs, he can still understand whether the naval guns are shooting fast and accurately.In addition, he has a good memory, and he memorizes all the shooting results of the battleship that appeared on the stage, one by one, and silently compares and analyzes while watching.
The Haihan Navy is undoubtedly the first team. Except for one ship that hits seven targets and five hits, almost all other ships hit six or even all hits, and the time spent is also significantly better than warships from other countries.Portugal and the Netherlands followed closely behind. Although each of these two countries only had one ship to participate in the military exercise, it can be seen from this target shooting project that their strength is indeed extraordinary. The ship can open the situation on the southeast coast of Daming.
The naval forces of Daming, Annan, and Champa are obviously inferior, but seriously, these participating troops, including the so-called Guangxi Navy, can actually be said to be Haihan people After being trained by one hand, if a large-scale war occurs in the South China Sea, then these naval forces are likely to fight together as Haihan's allies.Even if they are weaker, they win because they have more ships and more guns. Even Portugal and the Netherlands, which are stronger than them, will find it difficult to compete with them.
Liu Shang thought about the Daming Navy that he knew, and silently put it in a lower gear.At present, the naval divisions that are still under the command of the imperial court and the Ministry of War are probably mainly deployed in the area north of the Fujian Strait.After Haihan occupied Zhoushan Island in Zhejiang, the navies in the Qiantang River and the Yangtze River were quietly restricted by it.
Haihan had already demonstrated its own strength in the process of attacking the Zhoushan Islands in the north. The local navy in Zhejiang also knew that their equipment and combat capabilities were not at the same level as Haihan's navy, so they did not dare to provoke Haihan.And after the Hangzhou Tongsheng Wharf fire at the beginning of this year, Haihan sent troops to Hangzhou Bay to block the Qiantang River. A series of actions showing force completely dispelled the local garrison's idea of using force to fight Haihan.
As for the navy north of the Yangtze River, to put it too exaggeratedly, they can only manage the fishermen. There is no good way to deal with the Haihan Navy with strong ships and guns.Last year, Haihan sent his troops northward to establish a stronghold in Dengzhou, Shandong, and the local government could only watch helplessly as the Haihan army easily captured Zhifu Island.It seems to be an unrealistic wish to expect the Beidi Navy to restore Daming's dignity.
Liu Shang didn't understand why the navy in the coastal area of Ming Dynasty would have nothing to do with the Haihan people. Didn't the Dutch who made trouble in the Fujian Strait in the early years also go back to Taiwan Island by the Fujian navy?The Portuguese, who are also armed at sea, also do business in Macau obediently, and they have been relatively quiet in recent years.How come the Hai Han people are jumping up and down along the coast of Daming, but all levels of government are pretending to be deaf and dumb, watching from the sidelines, and have not seen any severe measures to suppress them.
Now that he has come to Hainan Island to see all kinds of scenes, Liu Shang gradually understands the difficulties of these local governments. If he wants to use force against the Haihan people, he must not want to, but he really can't.Just relying on the equipment of Haihan Haihan, the Daming Navy cannot fight, catch up, or escape. This battle is impossible to fight at all.Instead of being convicted by the court after losing the battle, it is better to maintain the superficial peace like this.Anyway, the guy in the Forbidden City doesn't know the real situation in the south at all, as long as he reports good news and not bad news, he can keep his official position under his butt.
How to defeat such a powerful army, Liu Shang watched the exercise while silently calculating various possibilities in his heart.But unfortunately, after much deliberation, he couldn't think of any effective way to stop Haihan's military expansion.Could it be that he really watched Haihan develop so unimpededly, and turn Daming into a vassal state like Annan in 20 or 30 years?
Liu Shang was naturally unwilling, and he believed that among the onlookers present, he was not the only one who was unwilling.Would those Fan people from the West be willing to submit to Hai Han?But it's a pity that Liu Shang doesn't know any Western language at all. Even if he has the opportunity to get in touch with those foreigners, he seems to have no way to communicate in depth.
Finally, the last Haihan warship that appeared on the stage ended the target shooting competition at sea with a score of [-] out of [-] targets.There is no doubt that the Haihan Fleet's results have filled the top ten, and they are definitely the big winners in this sea competition.However, for other countries, there is nothing to regret about losing to Haihan in such a competition. After all, the gap in strength between the two sides exists objectively.To be able to find out the gap between our company and the Haihan Navy during the competition is the actual significance of completing this military exercise.
The unwillingness that Liu Shang thinks is of course an objective existence, but for countries outside the region such as Portugal and the Netherlands, the strength of Haihan will not directly affect the security of their homeland, which is completely different from the situation of Daming.Moreover, the Western colonial countries have a far more comprehensive understanding of the world than the Ming people. It is very clear that Hai Han's current influence is actually concentrated in a corner of the South China Sea.Outside of this region, Haihan's sense of existence is actually far inferior to countries like them that colonize the world.
The conflicts between these countries and Haihan are mainly in terms of commercial interests, but force has been proven not to be the best way to resolve conflicts. In the face of Haihan's powerful strength, they can only choose cooperation rather than confrontation to ensure Its business share in the Far East will not be completely taken away—at least it cannot be lost to competitors who also come from Europe.As for continuing to confront Haihan with force, it is neither rational nor in line with their respective commercial interests.Probably only new players like the British who have never dealt with the Haihan people will lose their will to challenge this big devil, and the result is self-evident.
Haihan has been publicizing the results of the Battle of Xingdao for nearly a month, and in recent days, some British officers have been taken back to Sanya for trial. These signs are all warnings to Portugal and the Netherlands, which are also from Europe. The mind cannot be moved casually.Liu Shang wanted to instigate the two countries to confront Haihan, but he was overthinking it.
However, seeing that the shooting of the last ship has ended, but no one announced the end of today's military exercise, Liu Shang couldn't help being a little puzzled. Could there be other arrangements for the exercise?
He was not the only one who had the same question, and someone took the initiative to ask the accompanying officer in charge of explaining the military exercise about the next arrangement.The officer replied: "The military exercise is not over yet, please stay calm." But he didn't mention anything about what happened next, and it was obvious that it was something like "restricted by confidentiality regulations" reason.
Liu Shang has followed the inspection team for so many days, and he has somewhat understood some of the rules in Haihan's officialdom, especially when it comes to military secrets. If the relevant people don't take the initiative to talk about it, they can't ask the bottom line.What's more, Yu Xiaobao was also present. If it was really confidential information, he should be inquiring about it. It was not the turn of a small person like himself to speak.
But seeing Yu Xiaobao's appearance of being an old god, he must have gotten some inside information before that.Liu Shang thought to himself that it is impossible to drive him away at this time, so he can rest easy and wait to see what tricks Haihan can do.
Not long after, he heard a noise coming from the boat next to him. Liu Shang stood up and looked around, but saw a boat on the sea to the south heading towards Xieyang Island.Judging from the smoke from the top of its hull, this is also a warship that uses a steam propulsion system as auxiliary power.
The reason why Liu Shang is sure that this is a warship is because Haihan has only installed steam engines on battleships and a small number of inland river transport ships so far.Arranging this ship to appear alone at the end of the military exercise, obviously it will not be an ordinary sailing ship.
After the ship got closer, Liu Shang noticed that the size of the ship should be between the majestic class and the exploration class. The steam engine is located in the middle of the hull, and there are two masts at the front and rear of the chimney, which set up the front and rear mainsails on the ship. .However, on the side of the ship, there were no deck gun positions and lower gun windows that should be seen on the Haihan battleship. Liu Shang couldn't help but wonder, isn't this really a warship?
Liu Shang slowly moved the telescope in his hand and aimed it at the hull. He suddenly discovered that the hull of the ship did not seem to be the usual wooden hull, but pieces of iron shell spliced together by rivets.
Ironclad ship?In Liu Shang's impression, this kind of thing seems to have only been heard in rumors. Both Dongying and North Korea built iron-clad ships decades ago, but their combat effectiveness is relatively limited, and they can only operate in offshore waters.When Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent troops to North Korea, it was for this reason that he failed to bring the iron-clad ship. As a result, he was defeated by the turtle ship commanded by the North Korean general Yi Sun-shin. , It can be regarded as a kind of iron-clad ship with a relatively different appearance.
But Daming is not interested in this kind of ship, thinking that it is bulky and not suitable for going too far out to sea, and it is subject to too many objective conditions.Before Liu Shang came to Hainan Island, he had also heard that the Haihan people had built an iron-clad ship as big as a hill, but after seeing it from a distance in Sanya, he thought that the ship might be just an empty shell made by the Haihan people, parked in the port Just to scare the people.
Liu Shang believes that if this kind of iron ship can really cross the ocean as Haihan people said, then they have been in Hainan Island for eight years, why these ships have been docked in the harbor and never left?Why did the Haihan people no longer build iron ships, but switched to producing wooden sailboats?This may explain that all the rumors about the iron boat are just stories made up by the Haihan people.Like other stories they made up, they are all to scare the foolish people and consolidate their rule.
But the ship that appeared in front of me at this time is obviously an iron-clad ship. Although it may be an ordinary wooden sailing ship under the iron armor, the purpose of the Haihan people to build this ship is probably not just to make the hull Outsourced with a layer of iron armor that looks cool, right?
What about the guns on the ship?Liu Shang knew that the Haihan people would never do useless work. Such a warship equipped with a steam engine and iron armor could not be unarmed. There must be powerful naval guns on board.But if the artillery is not deployed on the side where it is most convenient to shoot, where can it be placed?
Liu Shang looked back and forth twice from the bow to the stern before finally confirming that the artillery setup of this ship is quite different from his previous perception.There are two flat bulges on the deck, one at the front and one at the back, which can be turned slowly. When it turned to a certain angle, Liu Shang finally saw the gun barrel protruding from it, two at the front and two at the front. From its appearance, it can be determined that the barrel is correct.
Judging from the trajectory of its rotation, the addition of the front and rear movable turrets should be able to cover the surrounding area of the hull, and there should be a large area of overlap.The protruding bridge, mast and chimney on the deck are all located between the two forts, which will not block the view of its firing range at all.Although this ship seems to have only four cannons, its range of fire is no smaller than that of a majestic class battleship equipped with more than 50 cannons.Of course, due to the large difference in the number of naval guns between the two, the frequency and intensity of firepower output are probably incomparable.
Although Liu Shang understood the general structure of this iron-clad monster ship, he still didn't understand Haihan's purpose in building such a ship.If a dense artillery deployment method is adopted on this ship, wouldn't it be much better than the sparse four barrels?Even if the turret is well-conceived and can rotate with the two naval guns, but after all, the number of artillery is too small, how can it be compared with other warships with dozens of naval guns at every turn?Could it be that the Haihan people intend to rely on the iron armor on the outside of the ship to resist the opponent's shelling during the battle?
Liu Shang thinks about it carefully, and this inference seems unreasonable. Even if he can withstand the shelling of the enemy ship, he still has to rely on the firepower output of his own ship to seriously injure the enemy. After thinking about it, the only four guns are an obvious shortcoming.
Unless... these four cannons are different from the cannons on the Haihan battleships I have seen before?This thought flashed through Liu Shang's mind, but he shook his head immediately, trying to expel this thought from his mind - the warships of the Haihan people are already so powerful, there is no need to continue to upgrade their naval guns.
Even so, Liu Shang had a strong premonition in his heart. The Haihan military specially arranged for this ship to appear here and now, perhaps not just to attract attention with its strange appearance.Seeing the boat sailing towards the shooting area on the west coast of Xieyang Island, Liu Shang thought, did this boat come here specially for shooting?
Sure enough, it was at this time that the accompanying officers explained to them the last item of the military exercise, which was that the ironclad warship named "Warrior" would carry out the task of bombarding the target on the opposite shore.And this ship is not owned by the Navy, it is an experimental warship jointly built by Haihan Ordnance Industry and Shengli Port Shipyard.
(End of this chapter)
Although Liu Shang doesn't know much about military affairs, he can still understand whether the naval guns are shooting fast and accurately.In addition, he has a good memory, and he memorizes all the shooting results of the battleship that appeared on the stage, one by one, and silently compares and analyzes while watching.
The Haihan Navy is undoubtedly the first team. Except for one ship that hits seven targets and five hits, almost all other ships hit six or even all hits, and the time spent is also significantly better than warships from other countries.Portugal and the Netherlands followed closely behind. Although each of these two countries only had one ship to participate in the military exercise, it can be seen from this target shooting project that their strength is indeed extraordinary. The ship can open the situation on the southeast coast of Daming.
The naval forces of Daming, Annan, and Champa are obviously inferior, but seriously, these participating troops, including the so-called Guangxi Navy, can actually be said to be Haihan people After being trained by one hand, if a large-scale war occurs in the South China Sea, then these naval forces are likely to fight together as Haihan's allies.Even if they are weaker, they win because they have more ships and more guns. Even Portugal and the Netherlands, which are stronger than them, will find it difficult to compete with them.
Liu Shang thought about the Daming Navy that he knew, and silently put it in a lower gear.At present, the naval divisions that are still under the command of the imperial court and the Ministry of War are probably mainly deployed in the area north of the Fujian Strait.After Haihan occupied Zhoushan Island in Zhejiang, the navies in the Qiantang River and the Yangtze River were quietly restricted by it.
Haihan had already demonstrated its own strength in the process of attacking the Zhoushan Islands in the north. The local navy in Zhejiang also knew that their equipment and combat capabilities were not at the same level as Haihan's navy, so they did not dare to provoke Haihan.And after the Hangzhou Tongsheng Wharf fire at the beginning of this year, Haihan sent troops to Hangzhou Bay to block the Qiantang River. A series of actions showing force completely dispelled the local garrison's idea of using force to fight Haihan.
As for the navy north of the Yangtze River, to put it too exaggeratedly, they can only manage the fishermen. There is no good way to deal with the Haihan Navy with strong ships and guns.Last year, Haihan sent his troops northward to establish a stronghold in Dengzhou, Shandong, and the local government could only watch helplessly as the Haihan army easily captured Zhifu Island.It seems to be an unrealistic wish to expect the Beidi Navy to restore Daming's dignity.
Liu Shang didn't understand why the navy in the coastal area of Ming Dynasty would have nothing to do with the Haihan people. Didn't the Dutch who made trouble in the Fujian Strait in the early years also go back to Taiwan Island by the Fujian navy?The Portuguese, who are also armed at sea, also do business in Macau obediently, and they have been relatively quiet in recent years.How come the Hai Han people are jumping up and down along the coast of Daming, but all levels of government are pretending to be deaf and dumb, watching from the sidelines, and have not seen any severe measures to suppress them.
Now that he has come to Hainan Island to see all kinds of scenes, Liu Shang gradually understands the difficulties of these local governments. If he wants to use force against the Haihan people, he must not want to, but he really can't.Just relying on the equipment of Haihan Haihan, the Daming Navy cannot fight, catch up, or escape. This battle is impossible to fight at all.Instead of being convicted by the court after losing the battle, it is better to maintain the superficial peace like this.Anyway, the guy in the Forbidden City doesn't know the real situation in the south at all, as long as he reports good news and not bad news, he can keep his official position under his butt.
How to defeat such a powerful army, Liu Shang watched the exercise while silently calculating various possibilities in his heart.But unfortunately, after much deliberation, he couldn't think of any effective way to stop Haihan's military expansion.Could it be that he really watched Haihan develop so unimpededly, and turn Daming into a vassal state like Annan in 20 or 30 years?
Liu Shang was naturally unwilling, and he believed that among the onlookers present, he was not the only one who was unwilling.Would those Fan people from the West be willing to submit to Hai Han?But it's a pity that Liu Shang doesn't know any Western language at all. Even if he has the opportunity to get in touch with those foreigners, he seems to have no way to communicate in depth.
Finally, the last Haihan warship that appeared on the stage ended the target shooting competition at sea with a score of [-] out of [-] targets.There is no doubt that the Haihan Fleet's results have filled the top ten, and they are definitely the big winners in this sea competition.However, for other countries, there is nothing to regret about losing to Haihan in such a competition. After all, the gap in strength between the two sides exists objectively.To be able to find out the gap between our company and the Haihan Navy during the competition is the actual significance of completing this military exercise.
The unwillingness that Liu Shang thinks is of course an objective existence, but for countries outside the region such as Portugal and the Netherlands, the strength of Haihan will not directly affect the security of their homeland, which is completely different from the situation of Daming.Moreover, the Western colonial countries have a far more comprehensive understanding of the world than the Ming people. It is very clear that Hai Han's current influence is actually concentrated in a corner of the South China Sea.Outside of this region, Haihan's sense of existence is actually far inferior to countries like them that colonize the world.
The conflicts between these countries and Haihan are mainly in terms of commercial interests, but force has been proven not to be the best way to resolve conflicts. In the face of Haihan's powerful strength, they can only choose cooperation rather than confrontation to ensure Its business share in the Far East will not be completely taken away—at least it cannot be lost to competitors who also come from Europe.As for continuing to confront Haihan with force, it is neither rational nor in line with their respective commercial interests.Probably only new players like the British who have never dealt with the Haihan people will lose their will to challenge this big devil, and the result is self-evident.
Haihan has been publicizing the results of the Battle of Xingdao for nearly a month, and in recent days, some British officers have been taken back to Sanya for trial. These signs are all warnings to Portugal and the Netherlands, which are also from Europe. The mind cannot be moved casually.Liu Shang wanted to instigate the two countries to confront Haihan, but he was overthinking it.
However, seeing that the shooting of the last ship has ended, but no one announced the end of today's military exercise, Liu Shang couldn't help being a little puzzled. Could there be other arrangements for the exercise?
He was not the only one who had the same question, and someone took the initiative to ask the accompanying officer in charge of explaining the military exercise about the next arrangement.The officer replied: "The military exercise is not over yet, please stay calm." But he didn't mention anything about what happened next, and it was obvious that it was something like "restricted by confidentiality regulations" reason.
Liu Shang has followed the inspection team for so many days, and he has somewhat understood some of the rules in Haihan's officialdom, especially when it comes to military secrets. If the relevant people don't take the initiative to talk about it, they can't ask the bottom line.What's more, Yu Xiaobao was also present. If it was really confidential information, he should be inquiring about it. It was not the turn of a small person like himself to speak.
But seeing Yu Xiaobao's appearance of being an old god, he must have gotten some inside information before that.Liu Shang thought to himself that it is impossible to drive him away at this time, so he can rest easy and wait to see what tricks Haihan can do.
Not long after, he heard a noise coming from the boat next to him. Liu Shang stood up and looked around, but saw a boat on the sea to the south heading towards Xieyang Island.Judging from the smoke from the top of its hull, this is also a warship that uses a steam propulsion system as auxiliary power.
The reason why Liu Shang is sure that this is a warship is because Haihan has only installed steam engines on battleships and a small number of inland river transport ships so far.Arranging this ship to appear alone at the end of the military exercise, obviously it will not be an ordinary sailing ship.
After the ship got closer, Liu Shang noticed that the size of the ship should be between the majestic class and the exploration class. The steam engine is located in the middle of the hull, and there are two masts at the front and rear of the chimney, which set up the front and rear mainsails on the ship. .However, on the side of the ship, there were no deck gun positions and lower gun windows that should be seen on the Haihan battleship. Liu Shang couldn't help but wonder, isn't this really a warship?
Liu Shang slowly moved the telescope in his hand and aimed it at the hull. He suddenly discovered that the hull of the ship did not seem to be the usual wooden hull, but pieces of iron shell spliced together by rivets.
Ironclad ship?In Liu Shang's impression, this kind of thing seems to have only been heard in rumors. Both Dongying and North Korea built iron-clad ships decades ago, but their combat effectiveness is relatively limited, and they can only operate in offshore waters.When Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent troops to North Korea, it was for this reason that he failed to bring the iron-clad ship. As a result, he was defeated by the turtle ship commanded by the North Korean general Yi Sun-shin. , It can be regarded as a kind of iron-clad ship with a relatively different appearance.
But Daming is not interested in this kind of ship, thinking that it is bulky and not suitable for going too far out to sea, and it is subject to too many objective conditions.Before Liu Shang came to Hainan Island, he had also heard that the Haihan people had built an iron-clad ship as big as a hill, but after seeing it from a distance in Sanya, he thought that the ship might be just an empty shell made by the Haihan people, parked in the port Just to scare the people.
Liu Shang believes that if this kind of iron ship can really cross the ocean as Haihan people said, then they have been in Hainan Island for eight years, why these ships have been docked in the harbor and never left?Why did the Haihan people no longer build iron ships, but switched to producing wooden sailboats?This may explain that all the rumors about the iron boat are just stories made up by the Haihan people.Like other stories they made up, they are all to scare the foolish people and consolidate their rule.
But the ship that appeared in front of me at this time is obviously an iron-clad ship. Although it may be an ordinary wooden sailing ship under the iron armor, the purpose of the Haihan people to build this ship is probably not just to make the hull Outsourced with a layer of iron armor that looks cool, right?
What about the guns on the ship?Liu Shang knew that the Haihan people would never do useless work. Such a warship equipped with a steam engine and iron armor could not be unarmed. There must be powerful naval guns on board.But if the artillery is not deployed on the side where it is most convenient to shoot, where can it be placed?
Liu Shang looked back and forth twice from the bow to the stern before finally confirming that the artillery setup of this ship is quite different from his previous perception.There are two flat bulges on the deck, one at the front and one at the back, which can be turned slowly. When it turned to a certain angle, Liu Shang finally saw the gun barrel protruding from it, two at the front and two at the front. From its appearance, it can be determined that the barrel is correct.
Judging from the trajectory of its rotation, the addition of the front and rear movable turrets should be able to cover the surrounding area of the hull, and there should be a large area of overlap.The protruding bridge, mast and chimney on the deck are all located between the two forts, which will not block the view of its firing range at all.Although this ship seems to have only four cannons, its range of fire is no smaller than that of a majestic class battleship equipped with more than 50 cannons.Of course, due to the large difference in the number of naval guns between the two, the frequency and intensity of firepower output are probably incomparable.
Although Liu Shang understood the general structure of this iron-clad monster ship, he still didn't understand Haihan's purpose in building such a ship.If a dense artillery deployment method is adopted on this ship, wouldn't it be much better than the sparse four barrels?Even if the turret is well-conceived and can rotate with the two naval guns, but after all, the number of artillery is too small, how can it be compared with other warships with dozens of naval guns at every turn?Could it be that the Haihan people intend to rely on the iron armor on the outside of the ship to resist the opponent's shelling during the battle?
Liu Shang thinks about it carefully, and this inference seems unreasonable. Even if he can withstand the shelling of the enemy ship, he still has to rely on the firepower output of his own ship to seriously injure the enemy. After thinking about it, the only four guns are an obvious shortcoming.
Unless... these four cannons are different from the cannons on the Haihan battleships I have seen before?This thought flashed through Liu Shang's mind, but he shook his head immediately, trying to expel this thought from his mind - the warships of the Haihan people are already so powerful, there is no need to continue to upgrade their naval guns.
Even so, Liu Shang had a strong premonition in his heart. The Haihan military specially arranged for this ship to appear here and now, perhaps not just to attract attention with its strange appearance.Seeing the boat sailing towards the shooting area on the west coast of Xieyang Island, Liu Shang thought, did this boat come here specially for shooting?
Sure enough, it was at this time that the accompanying officers explained to them the last item of the military exercise, which was that the ironclad warship named "Warrior" would carry out the task of bombarding the target on the opposite shore.And this ship is not owned by the Navy, it is an experimental warship jointly built by Haihan Ordnance Industry and Shengli Port Shipyard.
(End of this chapter)