Chapter 817 The White Army Navy was established!

(0817)

September of the second year of Taichang was also a day destined to be recorded in history for the White-Clothed Navy. On September 8, the White-Clothed Navy was officially announced. In order to show its importance to the Navy, Xu Xingxia rushed from Xi'an Prefecture to Weihaiwei in advance to preside over the establishment ceremony of the White-Clothed Navy.

"Dongdongdongdongdongdong!"

"Dongdongdongdongdongdong!"

On the sea, more than a dozen warships hung with golden dragon sword flags were lined up, firing continuously. The rumbling sound of cannons shocked the entire sea near Weihaiwei. The smoke of gunfire was very strong, and the sea breeze blew, and you could smell it when you stood on the shore.

Faced with such a powerful naval lineup, the White-Clothed Army was naturally very excited and felt that the White-Clothed Army was becoming more and more powerful. Originally, the White-Clothed Army had no opponents on the land. Now, the navy appeared, and there were probably few opponents on the sea. The vast sea would belong to the White-Clothed Army Navy.

However, other people who attended the ceremony with Xu Xingxia, such as those from North Korea, those from the Western Regions, those from Nanjing, and those from Mongolian grasslands, may not be in this mood. The stronger the White Army is, the more they have to support the rule of the White Army. Otherwise, what is waiting for them will definitely be a disaster.

"You guys did a great job! Worth commending!"

After the establishment ceremony, Xu Xingxia shook hands with the designers of the warships, the heads of various technical jobs, and the heads of the shipyards to express his gratitude. It is precisely because of these people's unremitting efforts that the white-clothed navy has risen and grown rapidly.

After more than a year of vigorous shipbuilding, the current White Army has a total of 36 "Taishan"-class warships and twelve "Wutaishan"-class warships. In addition, the larger "Tianshan"-class battleships are also under design and construction will be started next year.

Among them, the displacement of the Taishan-class warships is about 600 tons. This is the warship with the largest number of white-clothed navy. It was originally designed and built as a test subject. Its main task is to design other warships and provide sufficient test data. Many of the data designed by the warships need to be tested in practice before it can be obtained.

It is gratifying that the designers later discovered that the overall performance of the Taishan-class warship is not bad and can basically meet the needs of actual combat. Especially in offshore operations, there are basically no obvious defects. So Xu Xingxia ordered batch construction and batch equipment. As a result, it temporarily became the battleship with the largest number of white-clothed navy.

The Taishan-class battleship is equipped with eight howitzers with a caliber of 75mm, four on each side. The number of such cannons is indeed too shabby compared to the Western cannons with dozens or even hundreds of cannons, and it cannot be used at all. The smallest warships of the Western powers, even ordinary armed merchant ships, have more than eight artillery pieces!

However, in terms of the quality of artillery, the Taishan-class warships are several streets higher than the Western powers. The Taishan-class warships are equipped with modern artillery, with long range, fast firing speed and great power. The 75mm caliber shells have very powerful explosion power. For wooden battleships, they are fatal. No matter how huge a warship is, as long as one is hit, it will be peeled off even if it does not die.

Originally, ambitious designers were preparing to install larger caliber or more howitzers on warships. Even if they did not install one hundred in the end, at least thirty would have to be installed to be just like this. As a result, they regretted that wooden warships could not withstand the recoil of large caliber artillery at all, and the caliber of 75 mm was already the limit.

Similarly, wooden battleships cannot withstand too many modern artillery numbers. Eight cannons are already at their limit. Moreover, eight cannons must be fired in a staggered manner and cannot be fired volleys. Otherwise, it may cause damage to the warships. From the perspective of wooden battleships, the harm caused by recoil is even more serious than the harm caused by fierce enemy artillery fire.

Fortunately, the number of cannons has decreased and the number of personnel can be greatly reduced, so the space on the warships seems to be much more abundant. In the past, the cabins were completely airtight and the air was very bad. The living environment of the sailors was also very poor and they were easily sick. When they arrived at the White Army Navy, everything was greatly improved.

Not only has the living environment of the sailors improved, but the capacity of the warehouse has also been greatly increased, and the battery life has also been greatly enhanced. If the warehouse is filled with supplies, the Taishan-class battleship can float on the sea surface for at least one year and six months. During this year and six months, it can ensure that the crew's body will not have major accidents.

Obviously, this is very beneficial for long-distance expeditions. It only takes half a month to travel from the Shandong Peninsula to the Nanyang area with a good wind. If it is a bad wind, it will take three months at most. This means that from now on, the White Navy can intervene in the war in the Nanyang area.

The displacement of Wutaishan-class battleships is about 1,000 tons. The displacement of Tianshan-class battleships exceeds 1,500 tons. In terms of the internal structure of the warships, they are not qualitatively different from the Taishan-class battleships. In order to facilitate construction, the designers amplified the Taishan-class battleships in proportion and made some minor adjustments to obtain a new battleship.

Their main weapons and equipment are twelve and sixteen howitzers with a caliber of 75mm. This is obviously due to the expansion of the tonnage of the warship. From a combat perspective, the firepower of the twelve and sixteen 75mm howitzers have been very powerful. Especially when bombarding on the other side, the effect is simply devastating.

In order to show his importance to the navy, Xu Xingxia personally served as the highest commander of the navy. Chen Xinhai was the deputy commander of the navy. Chen Xinhai was a relatively rare technical officer within the White Army. He served in the Ming Navy in his early years and was quite familiar with the sea. There was almost no surprise in his position. Because no one was able to compete with him.

In fact, the senior leaders of the White-Clothing Navy were basically young and strong from the former Ming Navy. They were basically under forty years old, and they were very dissatisfied with the current situation of the Ming Navy. This dissatisfaction was particularly obvious after the Lulianghai Battle. Because the dissatisfaction was too obvious, they were once listed as the target of surveillance by the Jinyiwei and could take fierce actions against them at any time.

The Battle of Lulianghai was said to be a victory, but it was actually a loss. Or it was a victory for us ourselves. In fact, the Ming Navy and the Korean Navy were just forcing the Japanese back. The Japanese ships suffered little loss. Otherwise, they would not have enough ships at all and would retreat all the Japanese troops in Korea back to their country.

This group of young and powerful officers from the Ming Navy were naturally unlucky for Xu Xingxia. They loved the sea very much. They were full of enthusiasm for expanding the marine territory of the Ming Empire. Their "invasion" was very strong. They had no chance to show their talents before, and they all gathered under the banner of the White Army Navy.

Of course, due to the restrictions of the original Ming Navy, Chen Xinhai and others did not know much about the seas outside the near sea, especially the distant seas. For example, they did not know much about the Nanyang area. The original Ming Navy had no chance to visit Nanyang at all. Well, the Zheng He fleet, which was too far away, did not count.

However, it doesn't matter. As long as you are willing to work hard and study hard, you have to master the basic knowledge of the world's oceans, there is still little problem. Isn't this Xu Xingxia? Since Xu Xingxia personally served as the supreme commander of the navy, it is impossible for him to just talk but not do things, right? He can only search for his dry heart, rack his brains, and send out all the marine knowledge he knows.

The main task of the White-Clothed Navy after its establishment was of course to curb the Japanese. As for the current situation, the Japanese ambitions have not yet completely perished. They also have a chance against the North Korean side. The White-Clothed Navy is to destroy their chances. Not only will it defeat the Japanese, but it also gradually erodes Japan. Therefore, the White-Clothed Navy must launch a planned and orderly attack on the Japanese coastline.

The one who was most enthusiastic about attacking Japan was of course King Fu Zhu Changluo. According to Xu Xingxia's promise, Japan would be ruled by him in the future. Therefore, when the White-Clothing Navy was established, he hurriedly rushed to join in the fun. He wanted the White-Clothing Navy to launch an attack on Japan immediately and support him to the throne.

Unfortunately, his wish is temporarily lost. The White Army is not fully prepared yet and is landing in Japan. The Navy is a navy, and logging in is a landing, so it cannot be confused. It is not difficult to defeat the Japanese on the sea. However, there is still a lot of preparations to be done to ensure the smooth landing of the troops.

Xu Xingxia divided the white-clothed navy into three fleets. The first fleet was mainly responsible for the Japanese side, destroying Japanese naval warships and shelling the Japanese coastline. The second and third fleets were mainly responsible for the Nanyang region. Most of the newly launched warships were deployed to the Nanyang region, and a small number went to deal with Japan.

For the White Navy, the key is to compete for the Nanyang Sea.

The wealth of the Nanyang region has always been coveted by Xu Xingxia. In the Nanyang region, the Western powers are dancing happily. The Spanish, Dutch, British, Portuguese, French, and their lives are very prosperous. They have made huge profits from the Nanyang region, and they all make a lot of money. These profits should have belonged to the great powers of the East. To be precise, they should have belonged to China.

In order to strengthen the existence of the White-Clothed Navy in the Nanyang region and facilitate the battle of the White-Clothed Navy in the Nanyang region, Xu Xingxia decided to set up a naval base in Leizhou Prefecture, the southernmost tip of Guangdong, to build a larger shipyard and repair shop. The main task of the Leizhou Shipyard is to produce the largest "Tianshan"-class warships in the assembly line.

In addition, Xu Xingxia also made a decision to build a large naval base in Yazhou, the southernmost tip of Qiongzhou Prefecture, and send naval logistics troops to garrison to facilitate warships entering the Nanyang area to dock on-site supply and carry out general repairs.

In mid-September, the second and third fleets of the White Army Navy, which were fully prepared, formed a mixed fleet, and under the leadership of Chen Xinhai, they marched south to a mighty extent.

...

In October of the second year of Taichang, the sea near Manila.

Although it was morning, Manila seemed very busy.

Merchant ships of all sizes are either preparing to line up to enter the port or just coming out of the port. The dense masts and white sails emit dazzling light under the reflection of the rising sun. These merchant ships have one common feature, that is, they are very deep in draft, almost at the edge of the deck, and they can be seen as the amount of cargo carried.

Those large merchant ships, whose displacement is more than 800 tons, should be traveling back and forth to the ocean. They either transported cargoes such as porcelain, silk, tea, medicinal materials from Manila to Europe for dumping. Or they were loaded with heavy raw silk, ready to pass the Kuroshio route and sail to Mexico's coastal ports in the eastern Pacific.

Or maybe, European countries were loaded with a large number of muskets, cannons, swords and other weapons, and traveled across the ocean and arrived in the Far East thousands of miles away. The firearms and equipment of European powers were still very popular in the Far East. At least, it was quite popular before the rise of the White Army. After the rise of the White Army, it was not clear whether the weapons and equipment of the Western powers were still so popular. It is estimated that they should not be so popular.

As for other merchant ships, they are in various ports within the Nanyang region. There are many ports in the Nanyang region, such as Brunei, Malacca, Jakarta, Sisai, Ambona, Magasa, Hanjerumachen, Jiadedin, Azhen, etc. Different ports have different cargo needs. Each cargo ship is the link connecting these ports.

Suddenly, it seemed as if I felt something. The merchant ships slowly drove out of the port suddenly stopped slowly. Various sharp whistles spread throughout the Manila port. The lookout at the top of the merchant ship was also constantly waving the red pennant, as if passing dangerous messages to everyone around.

Several port patrol ships that found that the situation was wrong were rushed toward the outside of the port. As a result, before these patrol ships left the port, the people around the Manila port were shocked to see that a huge fleet appeared near the port. Large warships, like silent monsters, slowly approached Manila. The slowly appearing and coming pressure could suffocate people on the spot.

There will be...

...
Chapter completed!