Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 4: Butterfly Takeoff Plan
"General Ding? Admiral Ding Ruchang of the Beiyang Fleet?" Sun Gang was stunned. "He's not in Weihai?"
"You don't understand, do you? The admiral of the Beiyang Fleet has to stay in Lushun for a period of time every year. I heard that the court will review the navy this year, so he may have to stay here for a while." She said with some pride, and looked at him strangely, "You want to see him? My father can help you with this."
Sun Gang smiled bitterly and shook his head, "He's the commander of the naval fleet, I'm just a commoner. Even if he is willing to see me, will he believe me?" He remembered the predicament he faced when he wanted to see the president of the head office in the bank but couldn't even get in. He could imagine the majesty of the naval commander at this time. He should think about how to help her.
"I've seen those warships firing cannons. It was earth-shaking and amazing. But the high school history books said that they never defeated the Japanese. I'm really surprised." Ma Yue looked at him and said.
Her words made his thoughts return to the dust of history. There were many reasons for the failure of this naval battle that was related to China's future national destiny. She, who had only read high school history books, would not understand the truth. Perhaps because this naval battle took place in the waters of her hometown, her understanding of this period of history was particularly profound had excerpted a lot of relevant historical materials on the Internet and knew many unknown details. But if he wanted to change this history, where should he, a small soybean, start?
He came back to his senses, remembered something, and said to her: "As far as I know, the war will affect the Liaodong Peninsula and Shandong. You have to be careful about your business there."
"Ah?!" The woman was indeed a money animal. She screamed when she heard this: "Our business is mainly in Liaodong, Liaoxi and Shandong. Most of the medicinal materials pass through Liaodong. Isn't that miserable?!"
"Time is running out, you have to help me." Sun Gang held her hand and said, "If we succeed in changing this period of history, those tragic things may not have happened."
"Tell me what you need, just ask." She held his hand and said firmly. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she asked carefully, "You don't want to buy a warship to fight the Japanese, do you?"
"That was because I got kicked in the head by a donkey. I read too many erotic books on Qidian. But I'm not that stupid." Sun Gang gave her a sullen look. "I, Sun, would never do anything like throwing meat buns at a dog or eggs hitting a stone."
"That's good. Haha, you are my personal consultant now. I will follow any good suggestions you give me." She tapped his nose. "I have to go to work now and won't accompany you. If you feel bored, you can ask someone to accompany you. Don't get lost by yourself. There are a lot of human traffickers now. I tell you."
Sun Gang was so upset when she heard this that she laughed three times and went out.
Watching her pretty figure disappear, Sun Gang's thoughts returned to thinking about the history that was about to unfold.
In fact, in the first ten years before the outbreak of the war, the development of the Beiyang Fleet had been in trouble due to various reasons (almost all related to corruption). The new fast cruisers that had been ordered could not be delivered because of the internal sabotage of the court, and ended up being sold to the Japanese for nothing; the navy was forced to stop purchasing ships and equipment... It's no use talking about this now... But putting all this aside, can we win the naval battle with the existing strength alone?
Suddenly, a spark flashed in his mind!
Cannonballs!
The key to naval warfare in this era is actually artillery shells!
During the naval battle, the 305mm cannons of the two battleships, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, fired a total of 197 shells, with a hit rate of over 20%, but why did they not cause devastating damage to the Japanese?
The traditional view is that the shells were filled with sand.
Indeed, due to the corrupt elements in the munitions department, many staff members were bribed by Japanese spies and put cement and sand in the shells, so that many shells did not explode when they were fired, including both coastal artillery and naval artillery. But this does not seem to be the whole reason.
He was thinking hard about the problem of the shells, when suddenly an idea dawned on him.
Shell charging.
At that time, the Chinese artillery shells were still loaded with black gunpowder used for firecrackers, which was not very powerful, and even the propellant seemed to be the same. The Japanese used yellow gunpowder made of picric acid, which was called Shimase gunpowder, and the propellant was also smokeless white cotton gunpowder.
I remember that when I was in college, I seemed to hear those guys in the fine chemical industry saying in their casual conversation that this yellow gunpowder made with picric acid had a greater explosive force than TNT, and would produce a very high central temperature fire, and could burn on steel and in water.
Because of its great power, even the navies of the European powers at that time did not dare to use this kind of yellow gunpowder to load artillery shells, fearing that it would destroy themselves at a certain moment. But the Japanese were not afraid and dared to let their fleet use this in 1893.
No wonder, during the naval battle, seven warships of the Beiyang Fleet were caught in fire, even the "Dingyuan" was burned to the point where it was almost unable to move, and the steel beams of the "Laiyuan" were even bent!
The key to solving the problem may lie in this gunpowder!
If there was a 305mm shell loaded with picric acid yellow gunpowder, the Japanese flagship "Matsushima" would have been smashed to pieces, and the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Mr. Ito Yuheng, might have gone directly to meet that great god.
If there were 100 rounds, without any other warships, just the two battleships "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" could blow all the Japanese warships into pieces!
The Japanese were crazy to dare to challenge the battleships with strong armor and huge guns with a fleet of cruisers and gunboats! This incident itself proves that the Japanese naval warfare level was not very good at that time, at least not as good as they boasted (they repeated this mistake in the Pacific War).
If the torpedo depth of the torpedo boat "Fukuryu" could be shallower, the torpedo might not have passed under the Japanese ship "Saikyō Maru" which was converted from a merchant ship, and the Japanese Chief of Staff Kabayama Sukenori, who was watching the battle on board, might have died on the spot.
If Deng Shichang had removed the torpedoes in the torpedo tubes of the Zhiyuan ship before going to sea, the torpedo tubes would not have been hit by Japanese ships, causing a huge explosion, leading to his death before fulfilling his ambitions.
A little further away, during the Battle of Tsushima, if... hehe!
He was horrified and suddenly realized that he was more familiar with this period of history than he had imagined. What had just happened could become a turning point in history.
His thoughts began to come alive again. There were countless examples like this in the history of world wars! Not to mention the distant past, if the Japanese officers and soldiers had not mistakenly piled the torpedoes and bombs on the deck of their aircraft carrier during the Battle of Midway; if the American officer who coordinated the attack of the carrier-based aircraft formation had not made a mistake in the time, allowing the unprotected torpedo attack aircraft formation to arrive at the battlefield a few minutes earlier and become a target, attracting the attack of the Japanese escort fighters, giving the dive bombers that arrived later the first prize, the Japanese Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere might have been completed.
Since I know all this before you, I don’t believe that I can’t create a butterfly effect!
He found paper and pen and began to write excitedly.
