Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 374 Leave no hidden dangers
Two days later

When the Dagang Army arrived near Pontianak, they were met by a group of local Chinese clan leaders and mine owners who came out ten miles to greet them. They were beating drums and gongs and brought hundreds of carts of food, fruits, and pigs and sheep tied to the carts. The welcome was quite grand.

Tens of thousands of people came out to welcome the arrival of the Dagang Army, just like a long drought finally bringing rain.

After the army entered the city

Naturally, there was a scene of slaughtering pigs and sheep and grand celebration, needless to say.

When Colonel Zheng Guoliang asked about the whereabouts of the former Lan Fang commander-in-chief Liu Asheng and his family, the welcoming crowd seemed a little embarrassed, and it was the advisor Huang Bingqing and others who answered the question.

It is said: Liu Asheng and others knew that their crimes were serious and they could not be tolerated by the Dagang army. They had already taken their family property and relatives and fled south to Batavia by boat, living in constant fear.

Colonel Zheng Guoliang was not surprised by this answer. He just smiled slightly and said nothing.

Not long
A fleet of ironclad warships docked at the port of Pontianak, led by three 2300-ton ironclad cruisers, with the flagship "Yandangshan", followed by "Longhushan" and "Songshan", followed by five ironclad patrol ships of more than 5 tons, namely "Ma" No. 300, "Ma" No. 03, "Ma" No. 04, "Ma" No. 06, and "Ma" No. 07.

This powerful ironclad fleet is the main force of the Royal Navy's South Sea Fleet stationed in East Malaya.

After several years of development

The Chu Navy already has 2300 12-ton Huashan-class ironclad warships, with an order for four more under construction. One of the new ships is currently undergoing installation, another is expected to be launched at the end of this month, and the remaining two are under construction on the slipway.

The Chu Royal Navy Fleet is currently focusing on the construction of the 5200-ton "Zhen"-class ironclad ship, which is currently being built in two major shipyards in the south and the north. It will be the main force of the Royal Navy in the future.

The original "Zhen"-class sailing warships, "Zhenyang", "Zhenhai", "Zhenhu" and "Zhenhe" were decommissioned last year and this year, and withdrew from the Da Chu Royal Navy warship sequence.

Most of these original American sailing ships were products of the American Civil War. They served in the Chu Navy for four or five years and experienced dozens of battles, large and small. They were already scarred and had many problems that were a headache.

As soon as they went out to sea, there were leaks everywhere. The sailors on the ship had to plug the holes all day long. It was time for them to retire.

The four main ships of the original ironclad fleet, the "Zhendong", "Zhennan", "Zhenxi" and "Zhenbei", also contributed to the development and growth of the Chu Navy.

Today, it is anchored at the Manila Naval Port all year round, becoming a veritable "Guardian of the Bay".

After the new generation of "Zhen"-class main armored warships are put into service one after another, these veterans will also be decommissioned one after another, and their final destination will be the furnace of the steel mill.

However, its majestic and heroic appearance has been truly recorded in photos and will be included in the Royal Naval War History Museum in the future, becoming one of its many historical achievements.

The Chu Royal Navy in today's era is at a time of transition from the old to the new.

The old generation of sailing warships are gradually being replaced, and the new generation of ironclad warships have become the backbone of the Royal Navy, shouldering the heavy responsibility of guarding the kingdom's sea borders.

In addition to the "Zhen" class armored heavy ships under construction and the sixteen "Huashan" class armored cruisers, the Chu State has also vigorously developed 300-ton iron-hulled patrol boats in recent years.

This 300-ton patrol boat does not belong to the Royal Navy, but to the local water police districts and is one of the local defense forces.

Its daily tasks

It involves patrolling around the sea borders, combating piracy and smuggling, apprehending illegal merchant ships to maintain maritime security, expelling illegally intruding foreign warships, inspecting merchant ships coming and going, and other trivial matters.

The Chu State is now divided into six maritime police districts, namely the Hainan Islands Coast Guard District. The iron-hulled patrol boats equipped in this Coast Guard District all start with the word "Hai" and are called "Hai" No.

There is also the Cebu Seaview Scenic Area. The iron-hulled patrol boats equipped by the Coast Guard area all start with the word "Su" and are called "Su" No.

And so on
There are also the Tongzhou Islands Coast Guard District, named after the Chinese character "Tong" (通), the East Malaya Coast Guard District, named after the Chinese character "Ma" (马), and the Shangri-La Seaview Scenic Area (which includes the surrounding Solomon Islands), named after the Chinese character "Xiang" (香).

The last one is the Remote Islands Coast Guard District, which covers Guam, Saipan, Wake Island, Midway Island, the Hawaiian Islands and all remote islands in the Pacific.

The iron-hulled patrol boats belonging to this coast guard district are named with the word "Jiang" at the beginning, such as Xinjiang No. 11, Xinjiang No. 67, etc.

Those within 50 are all frontier islands on the Pacific route, such as the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, Saipan and Midway Island.

There's no way to count the iron-hulled patrol boats ranked outside of 50. They could be Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Kiribati, or Samoa. The ranking in between is completely nonsense.

Perhaps, only the officers within the Royal Fleet know the secret of how it is arranged?

This 300-ton iron-hulled cruiser is simple to build, has a small tonnage, and costs just over 3 silver dollars, making it particularly suitable for large-scale production.

There are seven shipyards in the country that have the ability to build them, and they have received orders from the navy, with the first batch having 7 ships.

All of them were completed in June this year, and then we received an order for the second batch of 6 ships. Now all shipyards are working hard and building them day and night.

This iron-hulled frigate was equipped with only one bow gun, a standard Army 10-pound Parrot rifled gun, which was moved onto the battleship without any modifications.

The advantage of the 10-pound Parrot rifled gun is that it is cheap. It is produced in large quantities by the Manila Arsenal and the purchase price is only 248 silver dollars, making it suitable for large-scale equipment.

The only difference

Customized circular armored gun rooms and shipborne gun mounts were made for these shipborne ten-pound Parrot rifled guns. The combined value of these two pieces of equipment exceeded 700 silver dollars, which was much more expensive than the guns.

The circular armored gun room sits atop a circular ring and can rotate 360 ​​degrees for firing. A crank is manually operated to turn a gear, which in turn drives the entire gun room. Due to the gun's light weight, it can be operated by one person.

The prototype armored gun room is a circle of circular steel plates with a hollow top. The explosion-proof steel armor is two inches thick and can withstand a direct hit from a 32-pound spherical shell.

Such defensive power cannot be said to be powerful, it can only be said to be barely sufficient. It is enough to deal with pirate ships and ordinary armed cargo ships, but this pair of enemy warships is far beyond the scope.

In fact

Enemy warships are not targets of iron-hulled patrol boats. They can confront each other in maritime disputes, but fighting is useless, as it is like an egg hitting a stone.

This 300-ton iron-hulled cruiser has weak firepower, but its advantage is that its equipment is cheap and large in quantity. It can maintain a cruising time of two weeks at sea. The steam boiler can use coal, wood and heavy oil. The maximum speed reaches 18 knots and the economic speed is 6 to 7 knots.

This is like the traffic police in later generations. In normal law enforcement, cargo ships generally would not take risks and try to confront iron-hulled cruise boats. That is an extremely dangerous act.

When encountering maritime interception and inspection, 9% of cargo ships will comply with orders.

The remaining one percent were either pirates, opium ships, or smuggling ships carrying dangerous goods, all of them vicious criminals.

Although the iron-hulled cruiser only has one small cannon, this ten-pound Parrot rifled gun is one of the most advanced army artillery in the world today, with a long range and high accuracy.

The only drawback is probably its low power.

But this weapon is not very powerful and when used against a cargo ship, it is like pinching a snail with three fingers...you can pinch it with your hand.

The cargo ship was moving slowly, and the iron-hulled patrol boat had a maximum speed of 18 knots, which could kill them in seconds.

The most classic tactic of iron-hulled patrol boats is called the "windward advantage tactic."

That is, when encountering a dangerous ship with armed resistance, the iron-hulled patrol boat uses its high speed to gain the upper hand, aims its bow at the enemy ship trying to escape, slows down, and then attacks with its accurate Parrot rifled naval gun.

At this time, the sailing cargo ship that wanted to escape had two choices:

Or risk being bombarded and rush forward.

If it turns sharply, the sailing cargo ship will lose a lot of speed and lose the possibility of sailing with the wind.

Once the ship's speed has completely slowed down, it will not be easy to increase it.

If the opponent is an iron-hulled freighter, it will be easier to deal with. The general speed of an iron-hulled freighter is eleven or twelve knots. The iron-hulled patrol boat can use the Mongolian kite-flying tactics, occupy a favorable position, fire in turns, and attack the enemy's iron-hulled freighter.

Those iron-hulled freighters without bulletproof armor had ordinary bed boards that were only one inch thick and could not withstand the attack of the ten-pound Parrot rifled cannon at all. One shot would make a hole in it.

In view of the weak firepower of the 10-pound Parrot rifled gun, the Manila Arsenal developed pointed bullets specifically for equipping ship-borne 10-pound Parrot guns.

This cylindrical pointed bullet can deal with ordinary iron plates as easily as eating and drinking water.

The commander of the ironclad fleet that had approached Pontianak Harbor soon came into the city with bad news;

While patrolling the surrounding waters, they happened to encounter a fleet of four sailing cargo ships, which refused to be inspected and tried to escape in different places.

The result speaks for itself
The four sailing cargo ships were sunk one by one, and the property and personnel on board sank into the sea, with no one surviving.

As soon as the news came out, everyone was shocked. Deputy Chief Lu Liang was so frightened that his face turned pale and his lips trembled, making him unable to speak.

The methods used by the Chu people are truly cruel!

Colonel Zheng Guoliang watched the shocked expressions of the Chinese gentry and mine owners in Pontianak with a sneer on his face without saying a word.

How could such a large-scale operation of the Dagang Army be planned without thorough preparations in advance and the cooperation of the navy?

If Liu Asheng really escapes, there will be endless troubles.

On Dutch territory, these people could speak without restraint, and all kinds of slander and black water could be imagined. This had been repeated countless times in the history of Chinese civilization.

His Majesty snorted coldly and glared at him again, the meaning was very clear;

If you don't have the ability, don't take on the job. If you do, do it cleanly and efficiently, otherwise you will be the one to take the blame and it will be useless to blame anyone else.

It was because he understood His Majesty's intention that Zheng Guoliang dared to take action, eradicating the problem completely and leaving no room for maneuver.

Now it seems everything is perfect.

The Lan Fang Kingdom had been completely destroyed from this point on, and all that remained was the Dagang Army occupying this old land.

After public discussion, they were inspired by the benevolence of the King of Chu and were willing to submit to Chu, realize the unity of the Chinese in the Nanyang region, join hands in the great cause, and create a prosperous era in the Nanyang region.

Such an outcome was already destined.

(End of this chapter)