Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 669: Enemies Appear in the Red Sea
In September 1634, the war on the Indian peninsula was completely over, and the Ming Dynasty basically conquered India. Zhu Youdong led the main force back to the mainland after leaving behind Wen Tiren, Mao Wenlong and other civil and military officers and three divisions of the army.
In May 1636, the Suez Canal was opened, and Philip began to plan an expedition to India. However, the Ming Dynasty sent Sun Chuanting to lead the army to America, and the situation in America was in a state of deterioration, so Philip had no choice but to turn his attention to America.
In the same year, Ottoman Grand Vizier Ibrahim sent troops to Persia.
In March 1637, the 10,000-ton battleship Prince of Asturias was officially commissioned after completing outfitting and sea trials. It was immediately dispatched to America.
In June 1637, the Prince participated in the Battle of Lima and sank two Ming ironclad ships. Zheng Zhilong, the commander of the Ming American Fleet, was killed in the battle. Since then, the Ming Dynasty could no longer provide large-scale assistance to the American rebels, while Spain, relying on its naval advantage, quickly concentrated its forces and drove the American rebels into the mountains. The Spanish American colonies were saved from danger.
In September 1637, Philip secretly started preparations for the conquest of India and sent envoys to exchange views with Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire several times. In the end, Ibrahim, who had destroyed the central government of Sassanid Persia and completely tore Persia into six or seven pieces, agreed to send troops to the east. The two sides agreed that if the conquest of India was successful, India would be divided based on the border line of the partition of India and Pakistan in the 20th century. That is, the entire territory of Pakistan and Kashmir, as well as the entire territory of Punjab, belonged to the Ottoman Empire. The remaining places all belonged to the European Union.
In January 1638, the European Union Conference was held in Lisbon. The participating countries unanimously agreed to mobilize 500,000 land forces, all naval forces except the American Squadron, and 300,000 logistical personnel to expedition to India. Europe officially began full mobilization.
In late February and early March 1638, the secret agents of the Jinyiwei in Europe and the Ottoman Empire successively passed the news to India. On the 6th, Wen Tiren convened a meeting of senior officials of the Ming Dynasty stationed in India and representatives of various vassal states to decide to appeal for help to the Ming Dynasty while implementing a general mobilization in the Indian Governorate.
On the 7th, Mao Wenlong discussed with Li Yongfang and initially decided on a counterattack strategy: a small number of elite troops would defend the Khyber Pass relying on the defense system, while the main forces would be concentrated and wait for an opportunity to move.
On the same day, the Ming Indian Ocean Fleet was assembled. Commander Admiral Yan Siqi had six 5,000-ton ironclads, ten 3,000-ton ironclads, and dozens of service ships. Yan Siqi's strategy was to first send a fast detachment of five 3,000-ton ironclads to the southern end of the Red Sea with the support of two supply ships. Relying on the advantage of high speed, they closely observed the local sea conditions and tried to pass on the news as soon as possible.
Also in March 1638, at the Tianjin Binhai Shipyard, the keel of the Yu Tonghai (the commander of the navy under Zhu Yuanzhang before he became emperor and the founder of the Ming navy) with a full load displacement of 15,000 tons was laid.
On April 20, Wen Tiren and Mao Wenlong's reports arrived at Zhu Youdong's desk. Zhu Youdong ordered the Privy Council to quickly formulate a plan and let the cabinet issue a partial mobilization order.
On April 22, the Privy Council submitted a plan to aid India: the first batch of 20 divisions and 300,000 people from the Ming mainland would be sent to India. The second batch would be 10 divisions and 150,000 people. Considering that the control of the sea in this operation might not be completely in our hands, Xiong Tingbi arranged a very short interval between the two batches when making the plan - only one and a half months.
This put extremely high demands on the Ming Dynasty's mobilization system: the first batch of 20 divisions were standing troops, ready to go at any time. But the second batch of 10 divisions were reserve troops, which had to be assembled, armed, and transported within one and a half months, which put extremely high demands on the Ming Dynasty's bureaucratic system.
Fortunately, in recent years, the civil service system of the Ming Dynasty has been basically built, and various assessment systems have gradually been completed. So after this mobilization order was issued by the cabinet, although the officials of local governments cursed, their hands did not slow down at all and quickly started working.
On May 1, the transport fleet under the Ministry of National Defense and some civilian ships mobilized by the cabinet began to gather towards major ports. The local fleet also began to concentrate under the deployment of Li Guozhu, and the first batch of 20 divisions of Ming Dynasty reinforcements also began to advance towards various ports.
On the same day, the keel of the Zheng He battleship, which was of the same class as the Yu Tonghai, was laid at the Changsha Shipyard in Songjiang Prefecture.
On May 5, the first batch of troops began to board ships at Tianjin Port.
…
On the same day, at the southern end of the Red Sea, the weather was fine and visibility was excellent. In the azure waters, two Ming ironclad warships, the Lanzhou and the Qingyang, were cruising slowly.
It was summer here, and the sun was approaching the Tropic of Cancer from the equator. At this latitude at the southern end of the Red Sea, the sun was almost shining directly on it. As a result, the temperature on the two ironclad ships was extremely high. Except for the soldiers in the engine room, all the other soldiers looked out from the awning on the deck.
On the Lanzhou, a shirtless man who was still sweating looked towards the north for a long time, then blinked his dry eyes and said, "Captain, do you think those Western bandits will come?"
Putting away the telescope in a flash, Cao Bianpeng, who was only 25 years old, wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "They will definitely come, but I don't know when. Well, on the one hand, I hope they come earlier so that we can finish this scorching job earlier. On the other hand, if they come one day later, our rear will be more fully prepared, and the reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty will be one day closer. So... well, I would rather continue to be scorched by the sun, and I hope they will come later."
"Captain!" Just as Cao Wenzhao's son was struggling with confusion, the lookout on top began to shout, "A large number of masts have appeared in the north direction, about 15,000 meters away!"
"Here we go!" He clapped his hands vigorously and began to yell, "Stop hiding from the sun, everyone, take your positions, we have work to do!"
Following Cao Bianpeng's order, the officers and soldiers of the Lanzhou, who were lazy at first, quickly jumped up and entered their battle positions at a very high speed. Although the soldiers almost all took off their shirts at the beginning, their skin would often be severely burned when it touched iron objects during the fast running. However, none of the running soldiers made a loud cry, and the entire warship quickly entered the combat state while only the dense footsteps could be heard.
"Signal the Qingyang and have them cruise at least three thousand meters behind our ship. Fire up our boilers to maximum and head due north so we can get a better look at the enemy."
"Understood! Head due north, full speed ahead!"
Following Cao Bianpeng's order, the Lanzhou's slender and light ship quickly turned and then sailed firmly towards the huge EU fleet.
And on the other side.
"Your Majesty Gustav, the Stockholm cruiser in the front sent a signal that an ironclad ship with a speed of about 17 knots was discovered about 15,000 meters away from us. They analyzed that it is most likely a Chinese destroyer."
With the development of European technology, Europeans have the ability to build stronger warships. Therefore, the EU Navy has further subdivided its own ironclad ships: less than 500 tons are boats. 500 to 1,000 tons are communication ships and other service ships. 1,000 to 3,000 tons are destroyers. 3,000 to 5,000 tons are light cruisers. 5,000 to 10,000 tons are heavy cruisers. And above 10,000 tons, of course, are battleships.
However, although the leading knowledge of electricity allowed Europeans to have large ships, the relatively backward material science made their ships generally not very fast. At present, the 3,000-ton ironclad warships of the Ming Dynasty can run at a maximum speed of 17 knots. However, among European warships, only ships under 2,000 tons can run at a speed of more than 17 knots.
Therefore, Gustav, the commander-in-chief of the EU's 500,000-man army, had not spoken yet. Next to him, Lieutenant General Alfonso, the commander of the EU joint fleet, had already spoken: "Let the fleet in front send out three fast destroyers to drive them away!"
After looking at Alfonso, Gustav did not say anything to him. Instead, he turned his head and said to Wallenstein standing on the other side of him: "Sir, how far is our second transport fleet from us now?"
"This? They were just starting to load the ship when we passed through the Suez Canal. I guess they have just sailed out of the canal now."
"That's still at least a day's journey away from us." Nodding slightly, he finally turned to Alfonso and said, "Sir, where are our three battleships?"
"According to the Navy's prior plan, we are not prepared to expose the three new battleships too early in order to attract the Chinese fleet to fight a decisive battle with us. So at this moment they should have just begun to enter the canal, about three days away from us."
…
“Boom~”
As the EU Navy sent three destroyers to chase the Lanzhou away, more and more shells fell around the Lanzhou. However, the 3,000-ton ironclad ship of the Ming Dynasty twisted flexibly in various water columns, and the enemy could not hurt it at all.
"Hmm..." Cao Bianpeng murmured to himself while constantly fine-tuning the focus of the telescope, "There are ten 5,000-ton ironclad ships, about twenty 3,000-ton ships, and more transport ships and auxiliary ships. But there are only about one or two hundred transport ships at most... Hiss~ Isn't this scale too small?"
"Captain, there may be a big enemy behind the enemy fleet!"
"You are quite right."
"Then Captain, hey, should we get rid of these idiots and continue heading north?"
"Nonsense!" With his mouth twitching slightly, Cao Bianpeng put down the telescope and said, "Our Lanzhou, at full speed, can only sustain itself at sea for no more than fifteen days. It's okay for us to rush north now. But when we come back, what will we do if we have no coal and no water? Are we going to eat prison food in the Spanish prison under the white flag? We have everything, so retreat! Let's pass the news back to Wen Xiang and others as soon as possible!"
