Chapter 139 The First Battle of the Navy

In addition to the army, there is also the large and medium-sized Royal Navy. After Xiao Tianjian returned to Nanjing, Xiao Tianjian directly grasped the construction of the navy. Under his will, the original water forces in Songjiang Prefecture and Ningbo Prefecture were greatly expanded into six water camps. In addition, Lao Zheng and Bao Boats outside Nanjing City spared no effort to invest in Xiao Tianjian. Under the entrance, it was also completely rebuilt, and the old dock was re-excavated, forming a shipyard with a total of six docks. When the docks were re-excavated, it was also expanded into a medium-sized dock that could build more than 2,000 materials, all kinds of supporting shipyards such as sail cable workshops, iron works, tung oil workshops, etc. In addition, There are wood warehouses for storing various materials, hemp rope warehouses, tung oil warehouses and other facilities serving shipyards, which have also sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain.

A large number of shipbuilders collected from all over the country were sent to the Chinese shipyard for resettlement. At the same time, more than 2,000 apprentices were recruited to enter the shipyard and the auxiliary workshops of the shipyard. While helping to learn the skills of shipbuilding, each craftsman is responsible for bringing several apprentices, and first in the way of passing on to teach. In the future, these people will be the basis for the expansion of the shipbuilding industry in China and North Korea. It will take less than five or six years. As long as the capital investment of China and North Korea can keep up, China will have huge production potential again and become a major shipbuilding country in the world.

In addition, under the supervision of Xiao Tianjian, the shipyard stopped the construction of all civilian ships after September and went all out to build warships for the navy. Due to the limitations of technical conditions and material preparation, it is not possible to build too many warships here now. It can only build Haicang ships with less than 200 materials, and the displacement is full. Its volume is about 100 tons, which is already the largest ship that can be built by the shipyard for the time being.

As for the larger Dafu ship and Fu ship, they can't be built for the time being. This is not the thing that makes Xiao Tianjian depressed. What makes Xiao Tianjian more depressed is that when the first Haicang ship was launched, Xiao Tianjian rushed to the shipyard to watch the Haicang ship launch.

It doesn't matter that the displacement of the Haicang ship is not large. Xiao Tianjian can not care about it. After all, the Nanjing Shipyard has just resumed production time, and it can't build a too big warship overnight. However, after asking about the performance of the Haicang ship, Xiao Tianjian was really disappointed.

Xiao Tianjian originally did not know about ships. Before he came to this era, he only stayed in some limited information and some foreign film and television aspects of ancient naval warfare. He thought that the warships of this era, both China and the West, were full of cannons on both sides, and drove to the sea to open the battle line to bombard them. Such a scene was really It makes people's blood boil.

But after asking about the performance of the Haicang ship they made, Xiao Tianjian was disappointed and almost ordered to tear down the Haicang ship on the spot.

It turned out that when Xiao Tianjian asked about the number of cannons loaded on the Haicang ship, the craftsmen of the shipyard told Xiao Tianjian that this ship could only be equipped with four thousand-pound flan machines, that is, medium-sized flan machine guns at the bow and stern. In addition, on both sides of the side of the ship, they could only be equipped with small cannons like bowls, and even more than four pounds of shells. Dafa, who has been eliminated by the Dazhong army, dare not install it. Otherwise, when the gun is fired, the recoil force can crack the hull and cause the ship to sink into the water.

The rest of the weapons are at best some muskets, crossbows, swords, gray bottles, sprayers, fire bricks and so on.

After listening to this, Xiao Tianjian knew that he thought it was too simple. The sailors in the Ming Dynasty were powerful and completely blown out. So he quickly found someone to inquire about the warships of the sailors in the Ming Dynasty. After a closer understanding, he understood that the sailors' warships in the Ming Dynasty were already far behind the West by this era.

Although it cannot be denied that China's shipbuilding industry was very developed in the past and has created excellent sea ships such as Fuchuan Guangchuan and Sand Ships, the structure of the ship is because of the use of rib plates. Although it plays the role of a watertight compartment, the sink resistance of Chinese ships has been greatly improved, but because there are no strong ribs, The structure of the ship cannot withstand the huge recoil force when the cannon is fired. In addition, it can't form a connected deck on the warship like the Western sail warship. The cannon can only be placed on the bow and stern of the strongest structure, and light artillery such as bowls or small Frans can only be placed on the upper deck on both sides of the ship's side. Even the three-pound cannon that the large and medium-sized army has begun to dismantle may cause the deck to break when firing when it is placed on the ship.

Such a result made Xiao Tianjian very discouraged, which fully shows that China's shipbuilding level and technology have begun to lag far behind Western countries in this era.

But even so, Xiao Tianjian could not immediately start building a Western-like sail warship. He could only build such a Haicang ship to meet the needs of the navy. Otherwise, his navy would have to rely on the sant to guard the coast.

In this way, although he was not satisfied with the performance of the Haicang ship, it was better than nothing. In the first two or three months, Xiao Tianjian urged the shipyard to build nearly 30 Haicang ships for the navy at a fast speed, and immediately delivered them to the water army of Songjiang Prefecture and Ningbo Prefecture.

At the same time, Xiao Tianjian also issued a decree to temporarily implement sea closure measures along the coast of Zhejiang, Shandong and Nanzhili. In addition to cutting off the land Zheng family's access to goods in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Nanzhili, it also forced the Zheng family to temporarily be unable to obtain supplies and goods channels along the coast, causing some losses to Zheng Zhilong Group.

Of course, this sea sealing strategy is only a temporary measure. As long as the matter in the south is solved, Xiao Tianjian will definitely open the sea ban and let Chinese sea merchants go abroad.

Liu Jiang did not live up to Xiao Tianjian. In recent months, in addition to the transfer of marine soldiers from the mainland to supplement the water camps of Songjiang and Ningbo, he has also recruited a lot of coastal fishermen from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to join the army. After intensive training, it has initially had a certain combat effectiveness, and the navy of China and North Korea began to show The prototype has appeared.

Under the attention of Xiao Tianjian, the Ministry of War has also added a group of soldiers for the navy and enriched them into the navy, including a group of well-quality lecture hall graduates. Although they are not familiar with naval warfare, their military literacy far exceeds that of ordinary soldiers. In the future, these people will become the backbone of the navy.

As for the Naval Lecture Hall, although the Military Department was established in Ningbo Prefecture according to Xiao Tianjian's intention, at present, due to the extreme shortage of talents, only a framework has been set up. The first batch has only recruited more than 100 teenagers to go to school. First, learn some simple things about boating and water warfare. If you want to establish a For a real naval academy, there is still a long way to go in the future. Xiao Tianjian also knows that he is eager to hurry. It is impossible to eat a fat man in one bite, so it is not too tight.

According to the deadline set by Xiao Tianjian, Liu Jiang launched the first battle since the official establishment of the navy on the sea outside Ningbo. Liu Jiang personally led the fleet and thousands of naval generals. In addition, Liu Yaoben also sent two elites under his command. The war camp cooperated with the navy. Outside Ningbo, it forcibly launched a large-scale landing battle against the Zhengjia Marine Division, which was located in the area of Zhoushan. The navy dragged the Zhengjia Marine Division at sea with warships, and then the army under Liu Yaoben and the two newly formed naval battalions took the opportunity to take a variety of miscellaneous ships. He forcibly landed on the Zhoushan Islands and competed with the people of the Zheng family who were enlisted on it. In the end, after the navy paid a considerable price, a Zheng family sailor who was stationed in the Zhoushan Islands and had recently frequently harassed the coast of Zhejiang was expelled from the Zhoushan Islands.

Although the price paid by the navy in this battle is not small, the harvest is not small. The biggest gain is to let the newly built large and medium-sized navy experience what is called naval battle for the first time. Even if it is only a junior, it is also rare for the newly formed Royal Navy. For the development of the future navy, no Doubt is very important.

And after this battle, it also made Dazhong and North Korea understand the strength of the Zheng family's sailors. At sea, at least now the Zheng family's sailors are still a force that cannot be despised. When they fought at sea, they were experienced and very fierce, and the mobilization was quite fast. At the beginning of the battle, the Dazhong navy, He was directly beaten by the Zheng family's water army and lost a lot. He almost collapsed on the spot. If it hadn't been for Liu Jiang's hard life and the governor would not retreat, and the number of muskets on the ships of the Dazhong Army was relatively large, and the firepower was relatively advantageous! Obviously, the sailor sent by the Zheng family was not their main force and elite, and their fighting spirit was not strong. After seeing that Zhoushan had been landed by the Dazhong army, and the scheduled Songjiangfu fleet suddenly appeared on the sea, which greatly hit the morale of the Zheng family's sailors. Zheng Zhibiao, the younger brother of Zheng Zhilong, who led the army, continued to fight. There was no possibility of winning, so he took the initiative to withdraw from the battle. Otherwise, the result of this battle may be very tragic for the Royal Navy.

However, at the same time, the Dazhong army also learned that the Zheng family's navy is relatively weak in land warfare. Although their navy is powerful, once the Dazhong army lands, they will not be able to fight against the Dazhong army on land. This also allows the Dazhong army to accumulate a lot of experience for the next attack on Fujian.

In a word, the result of this battle made Xiao Tianjian more satisfied. The recovery of the Zhoushan Islands, for China and North Korea, at least the situation along the coast of Zhejiang began to improve a lot, which also made the Zheng family lose a strong support point on the coast of Zhejiang. Therefore, after the battle, Xiao Tianjian vigorously praised Liu Jiang and him. The Royal Navy generals under his command, and the casualties in this battle, made the navy all excited. Their morale suddenly rose a lot, and they felt like they were raising their eyebrows.

After all, since its establishment, the navy has been a supporting role in the army, mainly responsible for providing transportation support for the army. This is the largest water battle launched by the Dazhong Army Marine Division since its establishment. Although there are many lessons, there are many losses and losses. There are more than a dozen lost ships and various ships, but in the end, this battle was won, which made the navy, which has always been looked down upon by the army generals, really raise its eyebrows and exhale, and also let the navy have an intuitive understanding of future development. For the next step of naval construction, there is no doubt. It comes to the role of connecting the front and the back.

In a word, in the past three months, the Dazhong Dynasty has basically completed military preparations for the south. It can be said that the last blow to the two small court of Nanming is basically ready, only the east wind.

(Today, I would like to thank my friends for their reward!)