Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 775: The Main Force of the Army Deploys
Zhu Youdong had been in charge of the national government for more than 30 years, and he had always only set the tone strategically. In terms of tactics, because of the example of Peanut, although he wanted to intervene and see if he had the potential to be a famous general, he was able to hold back when he thought of the various magical operations of the chairman on this plane.
If an amateur history lover like him could hold back, a professional historian like Philip could naturally hold back as well - in short, the rulers of China and the West had never interfered with their generals in any specific tactics.
But precisely because of this, there were many inexplicable things in this unprecedented naval battle that took place from September 16 to 17, 1647.
For example, using airships to bomb a naval fleet not only resulted in almost zero results, but also resulted in the annihilation of our entire force.
For example, sending a light cruiser destroyer fleet to launch a torpedo attack on the opponent's main fleet at night - this is correct. But the commanders of both sides actually sent out all the destroyers in their hands, without leaving one or two detachments to escort their main fleet...
Although these measures are indeed nonsense, bizarre, and contrary to common sense from the perspective of future generations, if you think about it, the commanders of this era never used airships in actual combat. And whether it is Garcia or Inukai Touji, they have never commanded such a large and complete ironclad fleet. Perhaps you can feel a little relieved.
In short, this unprecedented naval battle in the Bay of Bengal has come to an end. The commanders of both sides are thinking deeply and summarizing the lessons learned so as to prepare for better responses in the future.
After the naval battle, of the seven battleships of the Ming Dynasty, Lian Po was hit and Cao Sanxi was severely damaged, and both needed to rest on the slipway for a while. The other five battleships were only slightly damaged, and many of the damaged parts needed to be repaired through sheet metal work , which did not take too long - they could even go out to sea without repair for the time being.
The Western-Ottoman coalition had nine battleships. The Ottoman Berkel and Omar were badly damaged and would not be able to go out to sea again for half a year. The Spanish Duke was hit by a torpedo on the bottom of the ship and had to enter the slipway for repairs. It would not be able to go out to sea again for two or three months. The worst was the Queen Isabella, whose keel was broken and the entire ship was useless - as Garcia said, the remaining value of the Queen was to serve as a fixed artillery turret and contribute to the defense of Colombo Harbor.
The remaining five battleships of the coalition were all lightly damaged, which basically did not affect the subsequent sea operations. Therefore, at the battleship level, the original 9 to 7 ratio between the two sides became 5 to 5.
In terms of heavy cruisers, the Ming Dynasty had 25 heavy cruisers participating in the war. Seven of them were sunk, and five were severely damaged and needed to be repaired in the shipyard. So in the short term, there were still 13 heavy cruisers that could go out to sea.
As for the Western Austrian coalition, 33 heavy cruisers participated in the battle. Thirteen of them were sunk (three heavy cruisers that lost all power were later sunk by torpedoes from Ming destroyers), and six were severely damaged. Only fourteen were left to go out to sea. Therefore, the biggest disadvantage of the Ming Navy was basically eliminated at this time.
At the level of light cruisers and destroyers, the Ming Dynasty had 65 warships participating in the battle (the Fengyang carrying Zhu Youdong withdrew early), and 21 of them were sunk, severely damaged, or abandoned. On the Spanish side, 102 warships participated in the battle, and 26 of them were sunk, severely damaged, or abandoned. In general, Spain still had the upper hand.
However, the Western-Ocean coalition had a great advantage in all aspects before, but now only had a certain advantage in the destroyer aspect. That's why Inukai Touji said that now, the Ming Dynasty's million-strong army can consider landing.
Through this operation, both Garcia and Inukai Touji realized that there were quite a few problems in their command and there were too many lessons to be learned.
For example, in the early morning of the 17th, at two battlefields more than 80 kilometers apart, the Third Destroyer Although they suffered heavy losses, they still achieved great results: it fully demonstrated that if the main fleet did not have high-speed, maneuverable and flexible destroyers to cooperate, it would still suffer heavy losses when facing the enemy's destroyers.
On the contrary, Spain initially used two destroyer detachments to besiege six damaged heavy cruisers of the Ming Dynasty, and sank three heavy cruisers of the other side at the cost of only five destroyers. When more than 20 destroyers of the Ming Dynasty arrived, although more destroyers came from Spain. However, more than 50 destroyers besieged 29 warships of the other side for nearly an hour, and 21 warships of the Spanish side were sunk and damaged. They only achieved the result of sinking one heavy cruiser and 11 destroyers of the Ming army.
Before this naval battle, because destroyers were small and the white-headed torpedoes had low combat efficiency, destroyers were often regarded as errand ships in peacetime and death squads in wartime in their respective fleets. But after this night, the status of destroyers in the fleets of all parties began to improve significantly.
After this battle, the navy had a lot to summarize. Zhu Youdong was very interested in participating in the discussion on these issues. But after thinking about it, he held back: In this war, the Ming Dynasty had the upper hand in terms of the loss ratio, and it was far from winning. Moreover, the navy suffered huge sacrifices in this battle - more than 4,500 people were killed or missing, and nearly 1,000 people were seriously injured and had to retire. Although this number is only the number of a reinforced regiment of the army, the navy is a technical branch of the army, and the time required to train a qualified sailor is much longer than the time required for the army to train an infantryman.
The current Ming Dynasty home fleet was rebuilt almost from scratch by Yan Siqi and Inukai Tsuji over a period of seven or eight years after the defeat in Malacca. The former went to ask for money and equipment, while the latter personally trained all the new personnel. It can be said that Inukai Tsuji knew most of the sailors and even all the officers of the Ming Dynasty home fleet... How could such a tragic loss not turn this general's hair white overnight?
Because of this, Zhu Youdong could not participate in the experience summary and discussion within the navy: Your Majesty, are you coming to this kind of occasion to participate in the discussion or are you dissatisfied with the results and deliberately putting pressure on the generals?
Now, all he could do was to give the navy more support in terms of logistics and demand that the army land successfully and not let the navy sacrifice in vain.
"It's square."
"The servant is here."
"I remember that the First Emperor will soon be put into service, right?"
As a eunuch who served Zhu Youdong for decades, Fang Zhenghua had actually become Zhu Youdong's de facto chief adjutant. Hearing the emperor's question, he skillfully opened a small notebook and said, "According to the telegram from His Royal Highness the Regent yesterday, the outfitting work of the First Emperor is proceeding in an orderly manner, and it is expected to start sea trials in December this year."
"It's too late. Well, it's mid-September now. How many warships can the navy get next month?"
Turning to another page accurately, Fang Zhenghua took a look and answered, "In October, one heavy cruiser and two destroyers were commissioned." Without waiting for Zhu Youdong to ask again, he continued, "In November, three heavy cruisers and six destroyers were commissioned. In December, in addition to the First Emperor starting sea trials, another heavy cruiser and one destroyer were commissioned."
"Well, that's more like it. Go and tell the Minister of Propaganda who is accompanying the army to organize people and collect materials to write about the bravery of our navy officers and soldiers."
"I understand."
"Go and say hello to the assistant ministers who came with you from the Military Service Bureau and the Ministry of Finance. The compensation and other things should be paid out as soon as possible, so as not to disappoint the soldiers. As for the missing, some of them were actually killed in action. And some may have been captured. In any case, first pay them according to the standard for those killed in action, and the preferential policies for the spouses and children of the missing can be reduced by half. If the person comes back in the future, just stop paying. If he hasn't come back for three years, pay him all."
"I understand."
"Go call Liu Zhaosun and the others in, and then get to work."
"Yes, I'll take my leave."
Soon after Fang Zhenghua left, Liu Zhaosun came in with a group of generals in green uniforms. Among these modern green uniforms, there were two Jinyiwei in Feiyu uniforms.
"Everyone, please take a seat. You all know the results and losses of the navy, right?"
"Your Majesty, we all know. The navy brothers fought bravely and turned the situation around. The army is full of admiration."
Because there are many disputes over manpower, raw materials, funds, and the status of who is the master and who is the follower. Disharmony between the sea and the land is an inevitable contradiction. Relatively speaking, like the Ming Dynasty in this dimension, or the old United States in the 1940s. They have a huge territory, a large population, strong national strength, and abundant resources. Both the sea and the land can get relatively abundant funds. So although they don't like each other, their struggles only stay in the verbal bargaining and the struggle for the position of the Privy Councilor.
If Japan in the early 20th century was a small country with the greed to swallow up the whole of East Asia, then the contradiction between land and sea would be completely irreconcilable.
In short, although the Ming army usually disliked the navy, always feeling that these young soldiers ate too finely at sea and spent money too freely after leaving the ship, after the Battle of the Bay of Bengal, the army, which considered itself to be hardworking, could not say anything unsatisfactory about the navy.
"Although the navy does not have complete control of the sea now, at least we can protect you to land without any problems. Even if the Western pirate navy comes again in full force when you land, our navy can guarantee that there will not be too many problems when you land. The question now is, are you ready?"
"Your Majesty, we are ready for what you said."
As of September 17, Zhu Youdong was still able to clearly understand the situation of the Sun Chuanting group and the Cao Wenzhao group through multiple layers of wired telegraph circulation.
Simply put, in his opinion, Sun Chuanting had already gained a strategic advantage on the northern front, and it was only a matter of time before he could reap the fruits of victory . However, the logistics of crossing the Tianshan Mountains from Xinjiang were too difficult. Even if Sun Chuanting won a decisive victory on the northern front, at most he could enter Persia, cause chaos in Persia, and force the Ottoman Empire to withdraw from the war. As for his hundreds of thousands of people entering the Indian battlefield? The logistics would not allow it.
What about Cao Wenzhao? His 450,000 troops were blocked by the 300,000 Ottoman troops at the Dongge Pass. The commander named Boris was indeed of Russian descent. He was helpless against the isolated troops of Cao Bianjiao and Zuo Menggeng in Khyber. But now the Arakan defense line he formed made it impossible for Cao Wenzhao, who had been in the army for decades and had more victories than defeats, to break through.
As for Man Gui, he really didn't know where the Man Gui Army was now.
In other words, to truly defeat India, we still have to rely on the more than one million main army forces currently assembled in Yangon.
"Your Majesty, after repeated discussions among us, we have decided on three landing sites: Dhaka, Calcutta and Yanam."
