The European diplomatic scene has recently been completely attracted to the Schleswig and Holstein regions.
Even the war between the Renaissance Army and Spain, which was deliberately hyped by some before, attracted little attention.
Spain is now completely reduced to a second-rate country in Europe.
Wang Tao is now in Spain slowly talking to those Spanish nobles and warlords.
Anyway, the Renaissance Army is not in a hurry. The Spaniards' eastern trade has almost completely stopped. They should be the ones who are in a hurry now.
If the Spaniards talk slowly, the nobles who control the trade fleet will naturally put pressure on them.
During this time, Prussian diplomats were active within the German Confederation.
Bismarck has become a rising star in European diplomacy.
This time with the endorsement of the British Empire, Prussia's diplomatic activities in the German Confederation went smoothly.
All of Germany was very interested in regaining these two areas.
Even Austria is preparing to participate this time.
He did not get any benefits in the Balkans. Joseph I was very unwilling. He planned to go with the Habsburg brothers to bully Denmark and improve his prestige.
The biggest thing to worry about when attacking Denmark is the Danish navy. But this time it has the support of the British.
The Baltic Fleet of the British Empire will ensure the safety of maritime traffic in the northern states.
This alone relieves everyone of their worries.
Anyway, Prussia was the main force in the battle on land. As for the other small states, it would be fine if they had some people to wave the flag and some military spending.
But no one knew that Prussia obviously had its own plans.
In order for the Prussian navy to become an army, it must have a hearty victory. Therefore, this war must be launched for these new ships, which Prussia has devoted a lot of effort to.
In a bay in northern Prussia, two ironclad ships of the Prussian Navy were conducting formation exercises with two ironclad ships from China.
Although Prussia built warships under the guidance of the Renaissance Army, they still knew nothing about the tactics of this new ship.
Although Britain and France used steam-powered warships in Crimea, they found some new ways of fighting.
But that is not the real tactic of an ironclad ship. When an ironclad ship is fighting, it must take its speed, armor protection and artillery bombardment into full consideration.
In the previous era of sailing battleships, battleships paid more attention to output capabilities. Therefore, battleships were divided into levels according to the number of guns.
Because of the power of the artillery, it is very difficult for a battleship to be sunk, so more artillery must be assembled.
But now, the emergence of ironclads has changed everything. Krupp's rear-mounted artillery can already fire pointed armor-piercing projectiles.
The power of explosive shells is also more powerful than before. That is because the Prussians do not yet have smokeless gunpowder. If they had smokeless gunpowder, the Krupp artillery would be even more powerful.
The armor of ironclads can protect against most cannonballs fired from wooden battleships. And their speed allows them to take advantage of any position during battle.
Until now, the news that Prussia was building ironclads has not spread.
Everyone knows that Prussia's guns and cannons are pretty good. But Prussia's shipbuilding industry is not looked down upon by countries like Britain and France.
The German naval fleet currently in Prussia's hands was pieced together from Britain and France.
Now the turning point in the history of the Prussian navy came. They finally took the lead among the ironclads in the entire Europe.
The two Prussian ironclads were named "Holstein" and "Schleswig".
These two names are very symbolic. They were born just for this war. In other words, this war was used to test the waters for them.
This expressed Prussia's resentment about Denmark's blockade of Prussia with its powerful navy during the First Prussia-Danish War.
This newly built fleet will be a revenge fleet.
The two warships of the Renaissance Army are classified as destroyers. They are named "Fuyuan" and "Zhaoyuan" respectively. They are not the same style as the "Zhenhai" class destroyers being built by the Renaissance Army.
Because the design of the Zhenhai class was finalized relatively late, it absorbed many experiences and lessons learned from the Jianghe class.
Therefore, the "Zhenhai" class destroyer is the 2.0 version of the "Zhaoyuan" sister ship.
The two warships "Zhaoyuan" and "Fuyuan" originally enlarged the drawings of the Jianghe class without much improvement.
Their displacement has reached more than 3,000 tons. They use a triple-expansion steam engine and four boilers developed by the Fuxing Army themselves. The output power of the main engine reaches 12,000 horsepower, which can allow these two ironclad ships to reach a maximum speed of 20 knots.
This speed is much faster than most battleships today.
In addition, the artillery equipped on it are the latest breech-loading guns developed by Krupp.
Both the rate of fire and the power are far stronger than today's wooden battleships.
Due to its own structural problems, wooden warships cannot be installed with more powerful naval guns.
The British Armstrong factory has also developed breech-loading artillery.
They discovered that this kind of artillery could only be placed on newly developed armored ships.
When they tried to install it on wooden battleships, various problems arose without exception.
Let’s continue talking about the firepower configuration on the “Zhaoyuan”.
Her main gun is a 20 times caliber 240 mm gun with 2 twin turrets. It is a breech-loading gun produced by the German Krupp Company. The secondary gun is a 150 mm single gun, each at the bow and stern.
There is one turret, and one 150mm single-mounted gun is installed on each side of the ship in the middle and rear.
In this way, there are a total of eight artillery pieces on this type of ironclad ship. In order to give full play to the ship's long-distance strike capability, the warship is not equipped with small-caliber rapid-fire artillery.
Since you have the advantage of range, you should make full use of it. There is no need to install small cannons to occupy space.
In addition, two Chinese warships will be equipped with torpedo launchers after returning to China.
According to the agreement between the Renaissance Army and Prussia, during the Prussian-Danish War, the two ironclad ships of the Renaissance Army will be temporarily included in the establishment of the German Navy.
Cooperate with the Prussians to complete the Prussian-Danish War.
The Prussians were preparing to rely on these four warships to attack and annihilate the Danish naval fleet.
The classic case of the Renaissance Army's victory over the Spanish in the Philippines gave the Prussian Navy great confidence.
Relying on eight frigates, the Renaissance Army successfully defeated the Spanish fleet with more than twenty main battleships.
This was unprecedented in the history of European naval warfare.
This naval battle greatly stimulated various naval powers in Europe.
How could a European naval power that has always led the world's naval development trend be willing to let others steal its limelight?
As a result, various European countries started a boom in building ironclad ships.
Prussia saw that everyone was starting to build ironclads, so the ironclads in their hands would soon lose their advantage.
Therefore, Prussia was very eager to launch the Prussian-Danish War.
What happened a few years later in history may have been brought forward because of the commissioning of these four ironclad ships.
Of course, this is only one reason. Another reason is the confidence brought by the victory of the First Fleet.
The total tonnage of the First Fleet combined is less than that of these four ironclads.
Moreover, the Danish navy is far weaker than the Spanish navy.
The German Baltic Fleet is the new name of this fleet consisting of four ironclad ships, three sail-steam hybrid frigates and several supply ships.
The reason why it is called Germany instead of Prussia is because this navy was jointly funded by Germany.
The navy was also funded by the German Confederation.
This starts with the First Schleswig War.
At that time, the Danish navy bullied the small navies of the German Confederation and resolutely sent a fleet to blockade the entire coastal part of the Baltic Sea of the German Confederation.
So Prince Adalbert of Prussia came forward and proposed to establish a navy. This matter quickly received the support of the Confederation Congress.
Because of the previous blockade by the Danes, various small states suffered huge losses.
Coupled with the French's previous aggression against various small German states, these small German-speaking countries gradually understood the importance of unity.
So such a fleet with a German prefix was established.
Prince Adalbert devoted great energy to this end. He established a naval school, purchased ships, and built this navy from scratch.
Tirpitz has always regarded Prince Adalbert as his idol.
As the founder of the German Navy, Prince Adalbert deserves the respect of all naval admirals.
At this time, Tirpitz was standing in the command room of the German Baltic Fleet.
Under his feet is the wooden floor installed on a metal base in the command room. As the flagship warship, the command room has been specially repaired and is obviously more luxurious and comfortable.
The sea was calm, four warships were lined up in a straight line, and their huge chimneys were spitting out black smoke.
There was not a single ship around. For sea trials, the Prussian Navy had already blocked this sea area.
"General Nie, can you tell me in detail how you defeated the Spanish fleet in the Philippines?" Tirpitz asked politely.
Nie Dahua was the commander sent by the Renaissance Army to take over the two fleets. He had been a captain in the Beihai Navy for a long time, and trained in the First Fleet for a period of time.
Then he was sent to Prussia to receive these two new battleships of the Renaissance Army.
Nie Dahua did not participate in the construction of these two ironclad ships.
But he has been on a new warship.
Nie Dahua felt that these two armored ships were enlarged Jianghe-class ships.
It's just a little bigger, and the thickness of the protective armor has been strengthened.
The main gun must be one level higher than that of the Jianghe class.
Accompanying him to receive the warships were many early overseas students sent to various European countries.
Many of these young people have rich theoretical knowledge of navigation, and some have also served as interns on European warships.
This is a group of top students. Nie Dahua is a little nervous with this group of people.
He himself is from a wild background and his theoretical foundation is not good. The only advantage may be his experience and his understanding of new warships.
However, because he came to Europe, he did not catch up with the Battle of Manila.
Tirpitz asked him this question because he felt that Nie Dahua, as a member of the Renaissance Navy, should have channels to obtain more detailed naval battle information.
"Colonel Tirpitz, for this naval battle in Manila, we actually had a lot of luck. First of all, the enemy did not know the existence of this fleet. In order to confuse the enemy, we even exposed the details of our main fleet in advance.
They even used some means to get Spain to concentrate all its fleets in Manila."
"Under such circumstances, our First Fleet, running under the stars at night, completed its deployment outside the Manila port before dawn."
"At dawn, the First Fleet suddenly launched a surprise attack on the Port of Manila. It sank Spanish battleships that were close to the waterway and blocked the waterway. After that, the Spaniards could only be passively beaten," Nie Dahua said.
"Of course, the role of the landing force is also very important. If the landing force had not occupied the fort, we would not have been able to make the Spanish surrender so quickly!"
"How did you sink the enemy's battleships so quickly? You must know that although those battleships have wooden hulls, they are also rough-skinned and thick-bodied." Tirpitz asked because he wanted to know some details.
For example, the Renaissance Army used a new weapon similar to a mine in Manila, and only one of it could sink a huge battleship.
There was no way to completely hide this news.
But because this is a brand new weapon, the Europeans call it a "mobile mine".
"Tirpitz, you should have heard that we do have a new type of naval warfare weapon, but even I don't understand it very well." Nie Dahua heard the meaning of Tirpitz's words and laughed.
Deal with it.
Tirpitz also knew that such a question was impossible to answer, so he brought the topic back to the war with Denmark.
"General Nie, do you think we can replicate this tactic against Denmark?"
Nie Dahua thought for a while and said: "I think it is possible, but we need to make a small change. I think we can leave this issue to be discussed in the combat meeting. Let us complete the next drill subjects first."
ps: Coding is not easy! I feel like I am coding every day and am as tired as a dog. The most important thing is that I still have to go to work. The quality of my life has plummeted. Do I have masochism? I won’t say it anymore. Readers, please vote to comfort me!