Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 277 Model Worker "Taishan"
On the sailing ship "Guangming"
King Zheng Guohui of Chu stood on the stern deck, watching the mighty fleet sailing towards the entrance of Manila Bay, and glanced back at Manila Port.

After several years of vigorous construction, the size of Manila Port has expanded more than four times compared to the Spanish colonial period.

The long stone retaining wall of the harbor stretches as far as the eye can see. More than a dozen sturdy stone docks extending into the bay and tall steam cranes create loading and unloading conditions that are among the world's top ports today.

In particular, the six deep-water docks have an average water depth of more than ten meters and can handle giant ships with a maximum carrying capacity of 3 to 5 tons, making them the best in the entire Nanyang region.

Now you can see
In the hinterland several kilometers away from the wide dock square, there are some tall bunker facilities that have just been completed. There are more than a dozen of them within the sight, extending out intermittently.

These bunker facilities, in conjunction with the expanded Fort Santiago, form a strong line of defense that locks down the entire port and can give any powerful invading enemy a headache.

Each bunker is about 36 meters high and 8 meters wide, with a total of 7 floors. The top three floors can be used to set up artillery positions. Each bunker can be equipped with up to 6 10-pound Parrot rifled cannons and can accommodate more than soldiers.

Below the fort is a stone wall about 60 meters long and 20 meters wide. The wall is 4.2 meters high and is very solidly built.

There are lookout posts at both ends and a wooden combat patrol track inside.

The so-called "wooden combat patrol road" is similar to construction scaffolding.

Soldiers can go on the combat patrol road and, under the command of their superiors, raise their rifles and fire volleys to protect the entire dock defense line.

Each bunker can cover an area of ​​more than 300 meters in radius. When more than a dozen bunkers work together, the entire dock area, which is about 4.2 kilometers long, is completely shielded and placed under strict protection.

Such a line of defense cannot solve major problems, but it can definitely make the invading enemy pay a higher price.

Even if they broke through this line of defense of the dock, what would give the enemy a greater headache was the incredibly strong Fubomen Fortress (note: formerly the Santiago Fortress), which still stood before them.

Zheng Guohui looked with satisfaction at the tall Fubo Gate Fortress. The three-story Chinese palace-style pavilion building with flying eaves and brackets. The top floor was a lighthouse that guided the direction. Passing ships could see it from dozens of kilometers away.

Because of such layer upon layer of tight defense, King Zheng Guohui of Chu dared to lead the army to attack and catch the enemy off guard.

If the dock defense line is the third line of defense, the Fubo Gate Fortress is the fourth line of defense, and the Manila Royal City is the fifth line of defense.

Then, the Cavite Peninsula Fortress is the second line of defense, and the Corregidor Battery Fortress at the entrance of the bay is the daunting first line of defense.

Corregidor Island is located 48 kilometers west of Manila, dividing the 18-kilometer-wide bay entrance into two straits, north and south. The reinforced Corregidor Fort is located on the top of the island.

The fortress was equipped with six powerful 6-inch Dahlgren long-barreled smoothbore coastal guns and 15 12-inch rifled guns. Its powerful coastal artillery firepower was a disaster for any fleet.

The firepower of Fort Corregidor was equivalent to that of three heavy ironclad ships combined. In addition, it was a 15-inch Dahlgren long-barreled coastal gun and was placed on a high hill. Its range completely blocked the three-kilometer-long main channel of the strait.

The North Channel is the main channel, which is relatively safe for navigation. It is 3 kilometers wide and is the channel for cargo ships.

The southern waterway is shallow and has many reefs. Now it is completely blocked by the six sailing cargo ships sunk by the Chu State, making it completely impassable.

These six sailing cargo ships were loaded with large stones connected into clumps with wire mesh and sank deep in the South Channel, with their tall masts still standing on the sea.

These masts are all wrapped with warning flags, meaning that passing cargo ships are blocked.

If you really insist on going ahead, it will only cause more shipwrecks.

The well-organized expeditionary fleet passed through Fort Corregidor one after another. The soldiers on the fort saluted in formation and blew a long expedition horn to see the expeditionary fleet off.

When the "Guangming" sailing ship sailed out of the North Channel, more than a dozen sails in front and behind were filled with sea breeze. The powerful dragging force acted on the hull, allowing the "Guangming" sailing ship to speed downwind.

The southeasterly wind that blows all year round makes the speed of the entire fleet increase steadily. The overall speed soon reaches 12 knots, and it sails westward through the waves.

The sailing battleship fleet led by the large sailing ship "Light" quickly passed the slow-moving ironclad fleet and continued to gallop forward at the same speed.

Even if the heavy ironclad ship was running at full speed on the sea with its sails full of sea breeze, its speed was only about six knots, which was only half that of a sailing warship.

Since this was a long-distance raid, the steam engine on the ironclad ship was not turned on, and it only relied on the sails to move slowly. It was soon caught up and surpassed by the sailing fleet.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu walked to the other side of the ship and watched from close range as the ironclad warships were overtaken one after another.

The officers and soldiers on the ironclad warship were in high spirits and raised the royal flag one after another. All the officers and soldiers stood along the side of the ship, saluted His Majesty the King of Chu, and paid high respects.

This was a pre-war review, and the high morale he saw made King Zheng Guohui of Chu very satisfied.

The five ironclad warships were arranged in a straight line. The one in the front was an extremely large ironclad warship, the "Taishan" ironclad warship with a displacement of up to 5 tons, a true giant on the sea.

It was really worth it for the State of Chu to buy this urgently modified ironclad ship.

In peacetime

A large amount of iron ore and copper concentrate are transported between the islands. One ship is responsible for the entire ore transportation route. It can be said to be a hard-working old ox.

When it was necessary to lay submarine cables, the "Taishan" cargo ship was converted into a submarine cable laying ship, making an irreplaceable and significant contribution to the laying and connection of submarine cables throughout the Hainan Islands.

The Taishan cable-laying vessel then laid a long-distance submarine cable from Manila to Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, the cable continued to Macau, and from Macau to Zhanjiang and Qinzhou on the Leizhou Peninsula, before reaching Haiphong. From Haiphong, the cable continued south to Hue, the capital of the Kingdom of Vietnam, and continued south along the coastline to Saigon, and finally northwest to Bangkok.

If it had not been urgently recalled due to the war, this submarine cable ship would have laid the cable to Singapore.

In just a few months

After leaving the Hainan Islands, the "Taishan" submarine cable work vessel laid more than 4900 kilometers of submarine cables, almost completing the long-distance cable line around the Indochina Peninsula.

Laying submarine cables is not as difficult as people imagine. The submarine cables laid by the Chu State were basically along the coastline of Indochina Peninsula, and the water depth was roughly between 80 meters and 200 meters.

When laying submarine cables
There are often 2 to 3 small steamers accompanying the voyage, one of which pulls the cable to navigate ahead and provide a certain amount of auxiliary power.

At this time, the leading steamer has another important task

That is, every 1 to 2 kilometers forward, a lead sinker made of steel wire is thrown into the sea to measure the depth of the coastline, and this is used as a reference to determine the track for laying the submarine cable.

The overall water depth is controlled between 80 and 200 meters. If the water depth is too shallow, move towards the ocean.

If the water is too deep, move closer to the shoreline.

The remaining 1 to 2 small steamers use cables to tow, push and perform other operations to ensure that the huge submarine cable laying ship maintains a stable route and continuously and steadily releases the cable into the water.

This combination can release an average of 4 to 5 kilometers of cable per hour, which is about a speed of more than two knots, and it is carried out in shifts day and night.

After working for a day and a night, releasing hundreds of kilometers of submarine cables is a normal workload.

As long as the materials can keep up, two to three thousand kilometers of submarine cables can be laid every month, which is a considerable efficiency.

nowadays

When facing the imminent invasion threat from the Anglo-French forces, the veteran "Taishan" was once again deployed, and after an emergency modification, it was equipped with a heavy artillery battery, reliving the dream when it was built.

All I can say is that things in the world are unpredictable, and this is too fantastic.

The main reason is that the Taishan has a very good foundation. This giant ironclad ship with a displacement of 4683 tons is 128 meters long and its wide deck can be modified at will.

It is equipped with 6.5-inch thick waterline armor, and the internal steel frame is made of high-quality steel plates of astonishing thickness, which can be described as iron-clad.

The large-caliber naval guns currently equipped on naval vessels of various countries in the world are unlikely to penetrate 6.5-inch thick armor plates and cause substantial damage to them.

How thick is 6.5 inches?
This is equivalent to a thickness of 16.5 cm. The average adult man's clenched fist is about 11 cm high, so 16.5 cm is equivalent to the height of one and a half fists.

Such a good foundation is also the main factor that allows the Taishan freighter to return to its old business.

After remodeling

The ironclad ship "Taishan" was equipped with four 4-inch Dahlgren smoothbore guns and six 15-inch rifled guns produced by the Manila Weapons Factory along the axis of the hull, which was truly full of martial virtues.

With the huge body of a heavy ironclad ship, it is equipped with heavy artillery firepower equivalent to two-thirds of the Corregidor Fortress. When this battleship fires at full speed, it is undoubtedly a sea monster spewing fire all over the body, which is truly unstoppable.

The ironclad heavy ship dreamed of by the talented American ship designers, the Stephen brothers, has been realized to 80% of its functions on the battleship "Taishan". Invisibly, it can also comfort Stephen's soul in heaven and let him rest in peace.

Original design

It is to be equipped with five 5-inch Dahlgren smoothbore guns and ten 15-inch rifled guns to achieve fire coverage without blind spots, and can be ten times stronger than the enemy in naval battles.

The emergency modification was not perfect. The fully rotating platform of the four 4-inch Dahlgren smoothbore guns did not achieve a circular bulletproof gun room design with 15-degree coverage.

Instead, it was streamlined into a semicircular gun shield with 180-degree forward defense. This design alone saved 112 tons of steel for the four circular turrets.

In addition, the removal of a 15-inch Dahlgren smoothbore gun's fully revolving platform saved another 96 tons of steel weight, totaling more than 200 tons.

The advantage of this is that the ship's load is lighter, but the disadvantage is that the rear hemisphere of the gun platform is completely exposed.

If the enemy fleet attacked from both sides, all it would take was a single grapeshot shell from the rear to kill all 11 gunners in the battery, with not a single one surviving.

"Okay, it's powerful enough."

This thought flashed through the mind of King Zheng Guohui of Chu. He looked with admiration at the officers and men of the Taishan heavy ironclad warship, who were lined up neatly on the side. He waved his hand and shouted, "The fate of the kingdom depends on this battle. All officers and men, please unite and fight to the death!"

"I swear allegiance to your majesty and to the kingdom until death! Long live the king, long live the king, long live the king!"

The soldiers shouted in unison, and the loud oaths echoed on the sea for a long time.

The large sailing ship "Guangming" passed by at a rapid speed without slowing down, and soon left the big black guy behind. The distance between them became farther and farther, and gradually turned into five small black dots.

(End of this chapter)