: Use the other person's way to give back the other person's boat (Luo Luoqiu will continue to read and collect it!)

To the east of the Luzon Islands, on the Pacific Ocean, night has gradually fallen, and a fleet of ten East India Company sailing ships is plowing white waves on the sea.

That's right, there are ten sailing ships! And they are not motor-driven sailing ships, but large sailing ships with full sails. This is the pinnacle of the British Empire's shipbuilding industry, and it is a ship type that can leave the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry far behind.

This type of sailing ship is called the "East India Company Galleon". It was originally ordered by the East India Company from the British shipbuilding industry to run the Ming Dynasty-India-Europe route. Although they are all fully-sailed sailing ships, they are

It has an astonishing deadweight tonnage of more than 8,000 tons, and a full-load displacement of up to 11,000 tons. Driven by as many as 47 sails with a total area of ​​more than 6,000 and nearly 7,000 square meters, these sailing ships have the highest

The speed can reach an astonishing 20 knots or more!

What is used to control so many sails is not manpower, but winches driven by small boilers and steam engines. Therefore, the number of crew members required to control such a large sailboat is only forty or fifty.

In addition, this type of sailboat has excellent seaworthiness and can sail in strong winds of level 9, which is simply a miracle in the sailing world!

On the right side of these ten miracles in the sailing world, there are ten steam battleships, namely two ironclads (one of which is the Sovereign-class "Revenge"), three dome-armored cruisers, and five torpedo boat destroyers.

Dozens of steam warships emitted smoke rising straight into the sky, looking very imposing. In the sky above those large sailing ships, although there was no black smoke emitted by steam boilers, there were ten white airships floating, being towed by the large sailing ships with ropes.

Pulling it forward, it contrasts nicely with the black smoke of the steamship.

The setting sun shines from the western sky, shining on the white airship and sails, passing through the black smoke, and reflecting on the sea with sparkling light. There is a chilling atmosphere between the sea and the sky.

Every ship in this fleet is flying the Union Jack, symbolizing the British Empire. And on the ten steam warships, the white flag of the British Royal Navy is dancing!

Although the Ming Empire has powerful southern and northern fleets, it has no aircraft, no radar, let alone satellites these days. There is still a radio hidden, so the Ming Navy does not have the ability to operate in the vast Pacific east of the Luzon Islands.

Comprehensive deployment and control.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has not declared war with Britain. Even if the fleet of the British Empire leaves Malacca, takes the South China Sea and crosses the Bashi Strait to visit Japan, as long as it does not pass through the territorial waters of the Ming Empire, the Ming Navy has no reason to stop them - the Ming Dynasty itself.

Didn't they also send a naval formation to Petersburg for a goodwill visit a few days ago? On the way to and back from Petersburg, they even sailed through the English Channel!

On the flagship "Revenge" of this British Royal Navy escort formation, the formation commander George Elliot, who had just been promoted to commodore, was standing on the deck next to the 13.5-inch (343 mm) main gun at the stern of the ship, holding his hand

He looked up at the small airships being towed by the East India Company's sailing ships from the railing. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised, looking very proud. Because these small airships that don't look like much will definitely open up a new world in the near future.

A new mode of naval warfare - airship bombing!

Although the airship was invented by the Ming Dynasty, this invention is something that can be "understood at a glance". Of course, the British Empire, which also has industrial civilization, can also "understand it".

However, the British rigid airships are still less interesting than the Ming Dynasty rigid airships. At present, the United Kingdom cannot build an airship as big as the "Flying Dragon III" because the British gasoline engine is not as good as the Ming Dynasty, and the sealing performance of the hydrogen airbag is also poor.

A little. So we cannot build large airships, we can only build some small airships with shorter range and lighter load.

But being small also has small advantages. For example, it can be easily towed by a ship, and it is not easy to be discovered compared to a large boat, and it is not easy to be hit by ground or sea fire.

If you want to transport a large number of soldiers to airdrop behind enemy lines or load many bombs to bomb enemy cities, large boats are definitely the best choice. But if you want to use airships to sneak attack fleets parked in enemy ports, small boats are undoubtedly more useful.

After all, the "small airship" of the British Royal Navy is not particularly small. It can also be equipped with at least two 260-pound armor-piercing bombs (that is, 8-inch naval guns, shore gun armor-piercing bombs with a wooden tail) for air strikes!

Since the bomb fell from above the battleship, the unarmored deck and superstructure or the top of the turret must have been hit. Even giant ships such as the Sovereign Class and the Hongwu Emperor Class cannot withstand a 260-pound bomb.

An explosion of an armor-piercing bomb!

At this time, the ropes used to connect the large sailing ships on the airships floating in the sky were disconnected one by one, and then the propellers on both sides of the airship cabins suddenly began to rotate, pushing the airships forward together, forming a formation in the sky.

The ten airships formed a column. One after another, the ten airships quickly passed over the British Royal Navy formation at sea, then turned in the sky in front, and one after another headed towards the bow of the "Revenge" battleship.

Flying up, and lowering their altitude as they flew. By the time these airships finally passed over the "Revenge", their altitude had dropped to less than a hundred meters above the sea level.

George Yilu watched these airships intently, and nodded with satisfaction when he saw that each airship had completed a simulated attack. His cousin originally served as a captain on another "Sovereign" class ship under the Indian Grand Fleet.

Ordnance officer, Charlie Elu, who was now transferred to his cousin as chief staff officer on the "Revenge", had arrived at his side at some point. At this time, he whispered to his cousin: "George, these yellow-skinned monkeys

He’s not stupid, he learns things quite quickly, and in such a short time he can control the airship in a decent manner. I just don’t know if Japan dares to make an enemy of the Ming Empire?”

It turns out that the people who just drove the airship to carry out simulated attacks were overseas officers sent by the Japanese Navy to intern at the British Royal Navy's Indian Fleet. The Japanese Navy and the British Royal Navy have a long-standing cooperative relationship and have been sending naval students to the UK, and these international students

The internship unit has always been the Indian Fleet.

When Earl Nelson sent a fleet to escort the East India Company's galleons to Japan, he transferred all these international students to the commander of the fleet, George Elliot.

At the same time, Earl Nelson realized the great value of airships, so he gathered all the airships owned by the Indian Grand Fleet, organized an airship bombing force, and modified a batch of armor-piercing bombs with 8-inch armor-piercing bombs.

When George Elliot learned that Nelson had begun to form an airship bombing force, he immediately thought of sending more airships to the Japanese. After all, the next game between Ming and Britain must take place in Japan.

Now hearing his cousin's question, George Yilu replied with a smile: "Of course Japan does not dare to be an enemy of the Ming Empire, but whether they will become an enemy of the Ming Empire does not depend on whether they dare or not, but on the Ming Dynasty

Do you want to suppress Japan? The Ming Dynasty is different from our Great Britain. She is the only great empire in the East, and she is almost the entire East Asian civilization! Japan, on the other hand, has always been wandering on the edge of East Asian civilization. Although it was brutally exploited and suppressed by the Ming Dynasty, it has

It was not suppressed by the Ming Dynasty. This is not because the Ming Dynasty could not do it, but because it was unwilling to pay the corresponding price. Now, since the Ming Dynasty has decided to break with me, Great Britain, then she will definitely suppress Japan before the break! Because only by suppressing Japan

, East Asia will become monolithic! East Asian civilization does not control as many resources and territories as our Western civilization. If it cannot become a whole, then Ming Dynasty will be at a disadvantage in the struggle with our Western civilization. And Japan, even if

Knowing that his final fate is to be suppressed, he will do his best to resist!"

"Resist? Why try your best to resist?" Charlie Yilu didn't quite understand, "It's in vain."

"No, it was not in vain." George Yilu said, "Japan's resistance determined her value and also determined her status after being suppressed by the Ming Dynasty!

So the twenty airships (and ten more that were disassembled and installed on large sailing ships) and four hundred 260-pound armor-piercing bombs we gave them will definitely come in handy!"
Chapter completed!