Chapter 3473
Chapter 3473
Chapter 3473
The voyage from Hambantota to Colombo is about 400 to 500 miles and takes about a day. When Conceicao came, he had to bypass the Dutch blockade at sea, so it took him more than two days.
At this time, the special operations division's fleet did not need to hide its tracks and could take the shortest route to the Port of Colombo, which naturally took much less time.
Some of the special warfare division's warships are equipped with steam engines. If they use steam power to move at full speed and the sea conditions are suitable, theoretically the time can be compressed to about eight hours.
Takahashi Minami had not originally intended to waste the precious life of the machine on such a mission. Moreover, Ceylon did not produce coal. The coal needed for the steam engine currently had to be transported from Perak, Selangor and other places on the Malay Peninsula, and it was extremely difficult to replenish it.
But Conceicao obviously knew something about the characteristics of Hai Han warships. He asked Takahashi Minami to activate the steam power system so that they could reach Colombo as soon as possible.
Consecaliou's impatience was understandable. The time he spent on the journey, plus the time spent negotiating in Hambantota and waiting for the Hai Han army to prepare for war, a full five days had already passed.
Conceicao was not sure whether the defenders of Colombo could hold out for so many days. He only knew that he had to rush back with reinforcements as soon as possible. Arriving a moment earlier or a moment later might lead to two completely different outcomes.
Takahashi Nan told him frankly that if the steam propulsion system was to be used, it would incur high costs. Moreover, only a portion of the warships in the fleet had this function, and the remaining troop transports and supply ships could only travel at the normal speed of sailing ships, and it would still take a day to reach Colombo.
Conceicao understood very quickly. Takahashi Minami gave so many reasons, but they can actually be summed up in three words: you have to pay more!
At this point, even though he knew the other party was ripping him off, Conceicao would not waste any more time bargaining. Now that his life was at stake, he would not care about spending more money and immediately agreed to pay for the additional expenses afterwards.
Since the financier was willing to pay for it, Takahashi Minami had no choice but to fulfill his wish and ordered the eight warships equipped with steam-powered systems to go full steam ahead, breaking away from the fleet.
The fleet flagship Weixing, on which Takahashi Minami and Conceicao were at the time, was one of the eight warships equipped with a steam-powered system.
After the order was given, a rumbling sound came from deep in the cabin, black smoke began to emerge from the ship's chimney, white waves were stirred up by the propeller on the sea surface at the stern, and the speed quickly increased to more than ten knots.
This Majestic-class battleship is an improved model that began mass production in the mid-1940s. It originally belonged to the Northern Fleet. When Qian Tiandun led the special warfare division south, he chose this ship as his flagship.
The other seven warships, including five expedition-class warships and two exploration-class warships, have enough firepower to deal with normal-scale naval engagements.
Several old warships that were not equipped with steam power systems continued to travel with the troop transports and supply ships, performing escort missions along the way.
Although the withdrawal of the main force of the fleet would make the remaining ships seem a little underpowered, the fleet was flying the bright flag of Hai Han, so no one would be bold enough to provoke it. Moreover, both the front and rear armies of the fleet had radio stations, so in case of emergencies, the rear army could also use the radio to ask for help from the front army.
An hour later, the vanguard of eight steam warships had left the sailing ships far behind.
But Consicao did not feel relieved, instead his expression became even more serious. It was obvious that he truly felt that the high speed of the Hai Han warships meant a larger combat range and stronger maneuverability.
There is a huge technological gap between the two countries in the fields of shipbuilding and navigation. What is worse is that there is currently no hope of catching up with this gap.
Intelligence from some secret channels showed that Hai Han had successfully developed a more advanced marine power system, but it had not yet been put into service on a large scale. But Conceicao thought that after ten or twenty years, the technological gap between the two sides in this field would only widen further, to the point of despair. However, the subsequent incident did expose the unreliability of steam warships at this stage.
Four hours after setting off, the steam power systems of the two exploration-class warships malfunctioned one after another, and they were forced to separate from the front army and use sail power to move forward.
Gao Qiaomin didn't care about this. The steam power systems on these warships were old models from more than ten years ago, so it was inevitable that there would be some minor problems from time to time. As for the latest model of steam power system, we probably have to wait for the next batch of new ships.
Being able to run for four hours in a row is enough to carry out general combat missions. After all, a long-distance raid at full speed like this is also a very rare special mission for the special warfare division.
After sailing for ten hours at a speed of about sixteen knots, the six warships of the special warfare division finally arrived in the waters near Colombo.
There were at least a dozen armed merchant ships on the sea ahead. Their identities could be easily identified from their appearance and the flags on their masts. They were all Dutch sailing ships.
These ships were cruising on the sea more than ten miles away from Colombo Harbor, obviously on guard against Portuguese reinforcements. However, they probably never dreamed that the reinforcements brought by the Portuguese would be the Hai Han Army.
Seeing the Hai Han warships rushing into this sea area recklessly, the Dutch were probably a little confused.
Without knowing the intention of the Hai Han army, they did not dare to open fire on their own to stop them.
Although the Hai Han army only sent six ships, the firepower of that Majestic-class battleship alone was enough to give these armed merchant ships with a displacement of only three or four hundred tons a hard time.
Conceicao's attention was not on the Dutch ships. He tremblingly raised his telescope and looked towards the city of Colombo on the coast.
Fortunately, he saw through the telescope that the Portuguese flag was still standing on the top of the city, which showed that the defenders still controlled the city and had not been breached by the Dutch.
Consicao heaved a sigh of relief, finally letting go of the worry that had been hanging in the air for days. After rushing all the way, he finally caught up.
However, sporadic gunfire coming from the shore indicated that the battle between the two sides was still going on.
Conceicao was well aware of the strength of the defenders and knew that they might be at the end of their strength. He quickly begged Takahashi Minami to take immediate action to interrupt the Dutch offensive on Colombo.
All Takahashi Minami could do now was to rush in and cut off the connection between the Dutch armed merchant ship and the landing troops.
If the Dutch were concerned about my arrival, they would have taken the initiative to contact me to seek negotiations.
If the Dutch still attacked the city regardless, Takahashi Minami would have no choice but to use drastic measures against them.
"Pass my order, all ships, prepare to open fire! If the Dutch want to fight us, then there's no need to be polite to them!"