The Ming Dynasty was also the first country to establish a large-scale submarine force. But Xiang Xiaoqiang discovered more and more that the thinking of people in this era really cannot escape this era.
To say that the Ming Dynasty established a submarine force, it was during World War I. At that time, Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare was in full swing, and it almost broke the neck of Britain. The German Ocean Fleet and the British main fleet fought against each other in Jutland.
The naval battle can be described as a battle of giants, a great competition between the national strength, technology, hard work, and naval competition results of both sides for many years. In this way, Germany only achieved a tactical victory in that naval battle, but it still failed to achieve its strategic purpose.
:Breaking into the Atlantic Ocean.
At the same time, the German submarine force, that group of inconspicuous "little guys", did what the "behemoths" of the Ocean Fleet failed to do. Not only did they enter and exit the Atlantic Ocean at will like their own backyard, but they also almost cut off the British
Throat. The whole world has seen the tremendous power of submarines and discovered the low-cost, high-effectiveness weapons of submarines. All far-sighted naval strategists have discovered
, Submarines that in their eyes could only be "sneaky" have now become almost a "strategic weapon": no matter how small the submarines are, as long as there are enough, they can effectively blockade a country, at least an island country.
Cut off the maritime transportation line, the blood vessel of its national economy. Even if that island country is the world's largest naval power, this is an out-and-out strategic weapon.
It was at that time that many countries began to prepare to build their own submarine forces. And Ming Dynasty was not willing to lag behind and quickly began to form Ming Dynasty's submarine force. Ming Dynasty had its own considerations: Looking at the world, there is no more powerful country than the two countries of tomorrow.
Like Britain and Germany
.Not only is one a mainland country and the other an island country, but the difference in naval strength between the two sides is also very close to that of Britain and Germany at that time. Japan is the potential maritime opponent of the Ming Dynasty. In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty ministers, Germany can
If it can be done, Ming Dynasty can do it as well.
However, later the Allied Powers implemented the "fleet escort system", which no longer allowed cargo ships to sail alone. Instead, many cargo ships were gathered together to form a fleet and then sent warships to escort. In this way, the probability of German submarines discovering cargo ships in the ocean was reduced.
It has been greatly reduced. Secondly, even if it is occasionally discovered, German submarines are operating alone. Faced with heavy escorts from the fleet,
It is difficult for a single submarine to achieve many results. Coupled with the continuous advancement of anti-submarine technology by the Allied Powers and the continuous application of new equipment such as acoustic detectors, the number of cargo ships sunk by German submarines dropped sharply, and their own losses increased sharply. By 1918, all over the world,
In full view of the public, Germany surrendered, the German navy collectively scuttled itself, and the "unrestricted submarine warfare" failed.
Since then, the status of submarines in the eyes of navies of various countries has declined sharply. From a "strategic weapon" in 1916 to 1917, it has suddenly turned back into a "crooked" and "sneaky" thing. Even the Ming Dynasty almost wanted to abolish it.
The newly established submarine force, that is, this infant submarine force, demonstrated its new purpose in time to avoid being abolished.
The so-called "new uses" are also something that other countries do not have - that is, long-term, large-scale operations behind enemy lines. Although the Navy Ministry and the General Naval Staff did not realize the usefulness of submarines, special agents such as Dongchang Jinyiwei did.
Submarine, a “new form of transportation”
Sweetness. In the past, it was extremely difficult for Ming Dynasty agents to infiltrate Beiqing or pick up someone from Beiqing. They either had to escape death by smuggling across the Yangtze River, or take a surface ship and land on a deserted coast somewhere in the middle of the night. But
The chances of both being discovered are too high.
But now, you can take a submarine from almost any point on the Beiqing coastline, float up from the shore a few hundred meters or even tens of meters away, and ride a small rubber raft ashore. The concealment is greatly improved. The Beiqing security force wants to find out.
It is simply as difficult as climbing to the sky. Thanks to the submarine, the Ming Dynasty's work behind enemy lines against the Beiqing Dynasty was suddenly in full swing. It is for this reason that Xincheng
The Ming Dynasty's submarine force escaped the fate of premature death and barely survived. After more than two decades of continuous struggle, it developed step by step and reached today's scale of more than ninety submarines. To this day, the Ming Army's submarine force
Among them, the one with the most practical combat experience is not the ocean-going submarine force, but the small submarine force like the "Grasshopper" responsible for operations behind enemy lines.
…
Xiang Xiaoqiang also learned these things from Qiu Qiu’s mouth. Xiang Xiaoqiang understood Qiu Qiu’s complex emotions towards submarines. On the one hand, submarines provided their girls with an opportunity to fight on the front line.
, providing them with the opportunity to become combat heroes. On the other hand, the submarine's cold
The decline of weapons such as submarines, and even the "decline" of weapons like submarines, made them feel sad. They are also people of this era, not "hindsight" like Xiang Xiaoqiang. They do not think that they are smarter than the senior officers in the Navy Department.
, so in their view, weapons like submarines are more or less about to decline.
Now, Xiang Xiaoqiang plans to rebuild the Ming Navy's confidence in submarines, just like he cultivated their confidence in aircraft carriers.
Xiang Xiaoqiang tried his best to explain all the reasons to Xiong Dingming:
First, submarines are cheap to build and have a short construction period, so mass production is feasible in the short term.
Second, precisely because submarines have low construction costs and short construction periods, the inherent flaws of submarines—slow speed and narrow field of vision—can be made up for by quantity. Even if more research and development efforts are invested in submarines, submarine technology will also develop.
The speed will not stay low forever.
third,
Submarines can do what surface ships cannot, that is, easily break through the blockade and go deep into the ocean. Note that this means "conveniently" breaking through the blockade. Of course, the Ming Army's surface ships can also break through the blockade. But the cost is too high.
First, you can only choose Taiwan, the southernmost point of the Ryukyu island chain, and then
Then make a large circle to the north. Secondly, every time you pass, you need to be prepared for air combat and naval combat. Just like this time the Tianshu squadron broke into the ocean. The submarine can choose any part of the island chain and easily
Passing through. Entering the ocean from the north of the island chain can save more time and shorten the voyage.
Fourth, in future naval battles, as in land battles, air supremacy is the key. With the glorious voyage of the Tianshu Squadron, "without air supremacy, there is no sea supremacy" will soon become the consensus of all countries. Even if you haven't understood it this time
Come here, then there will be several more naval and air battles, and the dullest person will understand this truth. Therefore, if you want to block Japan, you must control the sea in the Western Pacific. And who can control the sea in the Western Pacific depends on who can control the Western Pacific.
Air superiority over the Pacific.
fifth,
Geographically, the Japanese archipelago is deeper into the Pacific than the Ming Dynasty. Planes taking off from Japan have a shorter flight distance. It is also more convenient for aircraft carriers to fly directly into the Pacific Ocean from Japan. On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty's planes fly directly into the Pacific Ocean, and the distance is definitely not enough, so they must
Aircraft carriers are used, and every time the Ming army's aircraft carrier enters and exits the Pacific, it requires a lot of trouble. It cannot be compared with Japan at all. In the future
What is likely to happen is that the Ming army has gone through great pains to send several aircraft carriers to fight against a large group of land-based aircraft taking off directly from the Japanese mainland. It is conceivable to what extent it will suffer. In other words, in the Western Pacific,
It is difficult to compete with Japan for air supremacy. This is not because Ming Dynasty does not have enough aircraft, nor is it because the pilots are not good, but is determined by the geographical location of the two countries.
Sixth, since it is difficult to defeat Japan in the fight for air supremacy in the Western Pacific, it is necessary to adopt a combat method that basically does not require air supremacy - submarine warfare.
…
Xiang Xiaoqiang put these principles on the table one by one, and they could make sense to each other. Although Xiong Dingming was restricted by old ideas, he had to take it seriously when faced with such rational analysis.
"Sir Xiang," Xiong Dingming said slowly while lowering his head and thinking, "I know that both of your wives are submarine officers, so..."
"Mr. Xiong," Xiang Xiaoqiang was very sensitive and said immediately, "Mr. Xiong, this has nothing to do with them. I support submarines not because my wife is a submarine officer. You see, I have also strongly supported tanks, aircraft, and aircraft carriers before.
Do I still have a wife who is a tank soldier, pilot, or aircraft carrier officer?"
Xiong Dingming raised his head and laughed dumbly. He chuckled and said:
"No, no, Mr. Xiang, you have misunderstood. I mean, both of your wives are submarine officers, so you must know something about submarines. At least not completely ignorant. Then I think, since you
The several things that you strongly advocated before - armored forces, aviation, submachine guns, and aircraft carriers have all proven to be huge successes, so now you are advocating for submarines, it must not be without purpose."
Xiang Xiaoqiang now feels very comfortable with his ears and said with a smile:
"Yes, yes. Look, I have supported so many new weapons and new tactics before. Did any of them make a mistake?"
Xiong Dingming chuckled and said:
"Let's do this, you hand over the 'Aircraft Carrier Small Staff' first. I will create a similar 'Submarine Small Staff' and you will be responsible for it. Your wife can also participate. I will ask the Submarine Force Command to cooperate.
You also organize a 'submarine campaign' to prove the actual combat effectiveness of submarines. What do you think?"