Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 149 Four Ironclad Warships (Please support me by the end of the month by voting for monthly tickets and recommendation tickets. I will update the -word series with my best efforts.)
The next day, around 11 a.m.

The large sailing ship "Guangming", with its sails filled with sea breeze, sped all the way and sailed into the calm bay.

In the distant sky

Countless white seabirds flew up and down, making noisy chirping sounds. The blue bay was dotted with white sails and dozens of large sailing ships were anchored, which looked spectacular.

Zheng Guohui and others arrived at the side of the ship early. This was the first time he saw the sailing fleet purchased from the west coast of North America with his own eyes. The magnificent figure made him intoxicated.

On one huge sailing warship after another, the Chinese sailors who had just boarded the ship were practicing various berthing training subjects such as handling sails, pulling ropes, hanging anchors, preparing for artillery fire, and entering and leaving combat positions under the command of retired American officers.

Once these berthing training subjects have been completed, the sailing warship will set sail and begin a series of advanced training including formation training, ship handling, and naval bombardment.

Everything is proceeding in an orderly manner, which makes people feel happy.

Don’t underestimate the dozens of sailboats in the bay; they are only a small part of those eliminated by America.

But for Zheng Guohui now, and for the current Nanyang region, it is already a powerful force that is enough to change the status quo.

At the beginning of last year
The U.S. Congress passed a post-war reduction bill, which cut the huge fleet used in the war by 1%, and the military budget was planned to be reduced to 23/ of the pre-war level within three years.

The army, which had more than 170 million men during the Civil War, was reduced to 2, a dramatic reduction in the size of the army.

The Civil War is over

Countless women are mourning their dead sons, their fallen husbands...

The people who welcomed peace demolished forts, melted down cannons, sealed up warships, destroyed these evil weapons that had caused them to lose their loved ones and their homes, and rebuilt their devastated homes.

America had to pay staggering sums in pensions for fallen soldiers, resume production, and rebuild cities, bridges, and everything destroyed by the war.

The ruins of Charleston, Atlanta, and Gettysburg still smoke and are in desperate need of reconstruction.

More than four years of bloody civil war and displacement have made people disgusted with war and anything related to it, which is reflected in the post-war political level.

In order to comply with public opinion, the American president and government made drastic cuts in military spending and sold all the military equipment that could be sold, including the new ironclad ships that had just entered service.

Only one year

The U.S. Navy's officer corps was reduced by about 5,000 people, and more than 40,000 soldiers were withdrawn, and the Navy's funding was cut to the lowest level.

Zheng Guohui was like a hardworking little ant, tirelessly moving things into his nest, including rifles, individual equipment, field artillery, coastal defense heavy artillery, steam engines, various machinery and equipment, steel plant blast furnaces, shipyard equipment, mining equipment, sailing warships, ironclad ships, large transport ships, etc. He treated them all as toys and worked tirelessly to move them to Mindanao.

Under the captain's command, the rigging hands of the large sailing ship "Guangming" climbed up the tall mast like monkeys and began to furl the mainsail, with shouts and commands ringing in the ears.

The other sailors were busy operating the sails and furling the cables. The large sailboat turned flexibly and headed towards the estuary, and its speed quickly decreased.

Zheng Guohui stood on the side of the ship, staring at the large sailboats in the bay without blinking, looking at one after another, feeling happy and unable to see enough.

The elegant streamlined hull, the white sails, the lyre-like ropes, and the powerful force revealed in silence all filled Zheng Guohui's heart with joy.

This is a huge bargain, totally worth it.

The bay was not just filled with Zheng Guohui's sailing fleet, but also with some large sailing ships that came from far away for trade, including those from Australia and Britain, as well as Dutch and Chinese merchant ships.

Zheng Guohui thought with satisfaction
It seems that the news of opening the port spread quite quickly. In just over half a year, trading merchant ships from all over Southeast Asia have flocked to the port. This is a good sign.

It is impossible for Da Chu to transport all its supplies from the mainland. That would be neither economical nor cost-effective. Trade is still the best way.

Cotton is not produced on Mindanao, but the British Indian colony is one of the world's main cotton producing areas, so Indian cotton and cotton cloth are one of the main trading commodities.

There are also a wide variety of British industrial products, machinery and equipment, steam engines, etc., which are all best-selling goods in Mindanao and can be sold at a good price once shipped here.

As expected of the British Empire that dominates the world, it is difficult to refuse any of the things they take out of their belongings.

The only commodity rejected was opium.

There was once a time when a British opium merchant’s sailboat arrived at Davao Port. After hearing the name of the goods, the Davao Port did not allow the merchant to dock or resupply water and vegetables, and immediately drove the merchant away.

It was made clear to British opium traders that any opium trade in the Mindanao territories was prohibited, both now and in the future.

Compared with the British, the French are much worse and can offer few goods for trade.

The few commodities that the French brought to Indochina, such as rubber, tea and coffee, are still very popular among the locals.

The climate in Mindanao is very suitable for growing natural rubber trees, but there are no such rubber tree varieties locally, and related rubber plantations are under development.

It takes at least ten years for a natural rubber tree to grow from a seedling to the stage where it can be tapped.

This means that during this period, there was a constant need to import natural rubber for people's livelihood, including but not limited to making rubber shoes, rubber wheels, conveyor belts, glue, rubber tubes, rubber pads, hot water bottles, sealing pads, waterproof raincoats, etc., and the demand was not small.

Although the tea from the French colonies was of poor quality, it was cheap and good quality. Many wealthy villagers could afford it. At least adding a little tea leaves to drinking water would make it taste much better.

After satisfying the initial desire to have enough food, people naturally hope for a richer supply, and tea is one of the necessities for the Chinese.

Tea from mainland China supplies the mid-to-high-end market, while tea from Indochina supplies the low-end market, forming a beneficial complement.

After entering Haikou

From a distance, we could see the tall figure of the main fortress at the river mouth. Its majestic future shape had already taken shape, which made people feel inexplicably at ease, as if they had a strong support.

The main dam at the estuary has been built to a height of more than 4 meters. With the work done day and night, it will be built to the planned height of 7.6 meters by the end of this year or early next year.

The heavy coastal artillery from North America is already in place. Once equipped with batteries, it can block the entire estuary, making any invading fleet daunting.

The estuary of the Davao River is not narrow. The wide river surface is about six or seven hundred meters wide, and the vast water surface looks quite spectacular.

After entering
The mouth of the Davao River narrows rapidly and is shaped like a trumpet. The main part of the estuary is at the bottom of the trumpet, which can effectively block the invading fleet's escape space.

Such a defensive posture is not friendly to any invading fleet.

The only way to crack

That is, they rushed forward along the river mouth under the fierce bombardment of artillery fire, and bombarded the fortress with the fleet's large-caliber artillery in order to achieve the goal of destroying the coastal defense facilities.

Doing so will undoubtedly come at a huge cost.

The large sailing ship "Guangming" was moving very fast. In just over ten minutes, it was close to the main fort at the river mouth. On the fort, one could see dense crowds of indigenous convicts working hard, some carrying loads, some carrying stones, some building walls, and some working together to tamp piles... Zheng Guohui did not linger on these convicts for a moment, but looked into the distance at the river bank, eagerly searching for the ironclad warship he had been thinking about.

Oh...I see.

He quickly raised the brass monocular in his hand, greedily searching for the ironclad ship, and couldn't help licking his dry lips.

The four ironclad ships were docked in a row at Pier No. 2. Their tall masts were covered with dense rigging, and their pitch-black hulls reflected the cold steel light, inspiring an indestructible respect for them.

The most notable features are the two thick chimneys, one in front and one in the back, which are the smoke outlets of two large steam engines.

There are also two circular gun platforms, one in front and one in the back. Each circular gun platform is equipped with a powerful naval gun that can rotate 360 ​​degrees, namely the 15-inch Dahlgren cannon in the shape of a beer bottle.

This is the most powerful bombardment gun in the world today. It can fire spherical shells weighing up to 440 pounds. It requires a crane to assist in transporting the shells and its power is extremely amazing.

As long as one of the shells hits the side of the ship above the water, the powerful explosion is enough to tear open the side defenses of any sailing warship in the world today (note: excluding ironclad ships), causing irreparable damage.

Looking at these four dark giants, each of them has a displacement of 1200 tons. They are super large and super thick, so they are naturally very solid.

The average armor thickness of these four ironclad ships is 110 mm, which is about as thick as three fingers of an adult man put together. In addition, the lining of the ship is more than a foot thick with hardwood. They are like warriors wearing heavy armor, with super strong defense.

Zheng Guohui was drooling as he watched. It wasn't because he was ignorant, he was just too excited.

Such an ironclad ship undoubtedly represents the highest level of the world's naval fleet today.

Does Zheng Guohui want to get more?

The answer is clear, but unfortunately it cannot be achieved.

Because the main force of the Northern Navy was on the East Coast, the vast majority of ironclad ships were also deployed on the East Coast. This was also the area where the Civil War was most intense and naval battles were most frequent.

After the Civil War

A large number of ironclad ships were abandoned in the port, waiting to be towed back to the shipyard for dismantling, and then the ironclads were sent to the furnaces of the steel mills, with almost no one interested in them.

But the problem is

The ironclad ships on the east coast could not be transported to the west coast. The only way to transport them to the west coast was to travel thousands of miles south around the southernmost tip of the South American continent, the daunting Strait of Magellan.

After traveling thousands of miles to Central America, sailing over 8,700 kilometers along the Pacific Ocean current, we finally arrived at Minnanao.

This is theoretically possible, but in reality no one dares to challenge such a long and deadly journey.

Such a long voyage, calculated on the map, is more than 23,000 kilometers one way, and the sailing time is more than one year.

This is a completely impossible death challenge in today's era when navigation technology is still very backward.

Even if there are retired American officers who dare to challenge it, the cost of this journey will be ten times that of purchasing the ironclad ship itself, which is not as good as building a new ship.

There are three major difficulties that cannot be overcome, so it is destined that such a great bargain will not be obtained.

The first is the supply ports along the way, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which can barely supply ironclad ships.

There are no more supply ports if we continue south, and there is not even a decent supply port for the next thousands of kilometers of voyage.

The second is the storm-ravaged Strait of Magellan, which is recognized by the navigation community as the Strait of Death. Countless daring expedition captains have been wrecked here and buried in the strait.

The Strait of Magellan connects the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west. It is 592 kilometers long from east to west and 3.3 to 33 kilometers wide from north to south.

The western section of the strait is winding and narrow, with a width of 48 kilometers at the entrance and only 3.3 kilometers at the narrowest point. The rocky shores on both sides are steep and towering, and are ravaged by strong winds and waves all year round.

In addition, the strait is located in the westerly belt at more than 50 degrees south latitude. The strong and water-vapor-laden westerly winds not only bring low temperatures, heavy rain and thick fog to the strait area, but also cause strong winds, rapid waves, extremely poor visibility, numerous reefs and shoals, and large pieces of floating ice drifting with the waves. It is the world-famous Death Strait.

The ironclad ship itself is much heavier than an ordinary sailing ship, has very low flexibility compared to a sailing ship, and is not good at resisting strong winds and huge waves.

Sailing through such a highly dangerous strait is like gambling with your life on tomorrow.

Third, the journey is too long and there are too many unpredictable unexpected factors along the way.

The speed of the Guangming sailing ship continued to decrease, and soon it was about to dock.

Zheng Guohui gathered his scattered thoughts and looked at the four armored ships that were growing larger and larger in front of him, his eyes filled with nothing but satisfaction.

Don’t think about those trivial things. The dozens of ironclad ships on the east coast are like swan meat. You can see them but you can’t touch them.

She was already content with these four big, dark treasures and no longer expected more.

If you really have the ability, you can just build it yourself when the time comes.

At this time on the shore pier
Davao Governor Zheng Shouzhong, Commander of the 2nd Expeditionary Division Zheng Shun, Deputy Commander He Rulin, Pan Tianshou, and Joe Johnson, the boss of the Wan Guo Tong Bao Company, and other prominent figures have arrived. The dock is lined with guards and soldiers, and a large number of people are flocking to the area.

As soon as the Guangming sailboat docked at the pier, the sound of enthusiastic firecrackers exploded.

Dragon and lion dances were accompanied by celebratory gongs and drums, and men and women danced the yangge, creating a joyous scene.

"We, the people of Davao, respectfully welcome the Marshal and wish him good health, a smooth journey, and continued success!"

Zheng Shouzhong led the crowd to greet them and they all paid their respects with great respect.

Zheng Guohui took a few quick steps, held his hands together and said, "No need to be polite, everyone, please stand up. Davao Province has become prosperous today, and you all have made great contributions!"

"It's all thanks to the Marshal's great blessing. Our humble efforts are not worth mentioning."

"Hahahaha...don't be too modest. This is just a small contribution. More would be even better."

Zheng Guohui couldn't help but burst into laughter, and he laughed very happily. He was really very happy.

He turned sideways and looked at Joe Johnson, unable to conceal the admiration in his eyes. He smiled and said in English, "Dear Joe, you have fulfilled your promise to me and have done an excellent job. I will reward you with one thousand dollars. Are you satisfied?"

"Oh, God! I love you so much, my dear coach, I'm so satisfied." Joe Johnson couldn't hide his excitement and his mouth was grinning.

Who wouldn’t be happy to make a fortune out of nowhere?
(It's the end of the month. I'm working hard to update 10,000 words to ask for monthly tickets. The author is working overtime to update and ask for support from monthly tickets and recommendation tickets with practical actions. Today I will update 10,000 words. The same will happen tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)