1890 King of Southeast Asia

"The Battle of the Dardanelles was initiated by Winston in the early and middle stages of the war and was defeated by the Ottomans."

"After the Ottoman Empire joined the war, Russia's maritime transportation was blocked and it was urgent to open up the transportation line. For this reason, the Battle of the Dardanelles was launched in the hope of opening up the Turkish Strait."

Looking at this vague record, Liu Yiming gradually had some memories.

This seemed to be one of Winston's many black spots, and it was also a negative example in the history of world wars of using warships to attack well-prepared coastal artillery positions.

When Liu Yiming looked at this record again, many things emerged in his mind, including why the British launched the Battle of the Dardanelles.

The Turkish Strait connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and is an important channel for the Russian Empire's maritime imports and exports.

After the outbreak of the war, not only did Britain block Germany's maritime transportation, but Germany also blocked maritime transportation in the direction of St. Petersburg. The Black Sea became the most important supply route for the Russian Empire.

As for from the Far East? Transport ships not only have to cross the Western Pacific Ocean where the war is going on, but also have to pass through the Siberian Railway to transport to the East Line. The Siberian Railway has extremely limited transportation capacity and cannot meet the war needs of the Russian Empire.

After all, in addition to the Germans, the Russians also had to face the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had a million soldiers, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria. Now with the Ottoman Empire, it was like one against three.

The Battle of the Dardanelles was located in the southern part of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Going inward was the Turkish Strait, or in other words, Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

It can be said that on the one hand, Britain and France were afraid that the Russian army could not hold out against three, and wanted to relieve the pressure on the Russians and open up transportation lines.

On the other hand, they wanted to deal with the Ottomans first. In the eyes of the arrogant British, the sick man of West Asia was vulnerable.

Solving the Ottomans and getting the Ottoman Empire to withdraw from the war would be of great benefit to the British Empire politically.

"Winston still has some stuff, but not much." Liu Yiming looked at the map and said to himself.

After all, the Ottoman Empire was a country with a vast territory and could be called a great power.

If they were solved, the impact of the defeat of the Kingdom of Serbia would be minimized, and the Allies would be greatly boosted.

Don't think that momentum is useless. It has a great effect. On a larger scale, it can win more friends, including the compromise faction in Germany.

On a smaller scale, it can also boost domestic morale and maintain domestic stability so that more soldiers can go to the battlefield.

Politically, this is a good chess move. Militarily, the raid on Istanbul is not without manipulability.

The British have completed their subsequent mobilization, and have formed countless armies in India, Africa, Australia, Canada, etc. Millions of British or colonial troops are concentrating in Europe.

With a strong navy, the British have a chance to win this battle - as long as they are not too stupid.

"Unfortunately, the battle failed. I don't know which idiot caused it, but you can pay attention to it. If the time is right, you can see if you can take advantage of it." Liu Yiming closed the notebook and locked it.

These notebooks all took away individual small locks, which were not very strong and opened with a small hammer.

However, no one should be able to break the lock, unless they want their heads to be broken open.

…………

At the end of September, the Japanese naval fleet repaired two moderately damaged Kongo-class ships, and all Fuso-class ships except the Hyuga were also repaired.

The Japanese Combined Fleet had nine new battleships capable of action, and it can be said that its strength has been restored.

"The Chinese are so stupid. If they had not been busy attacking those merchant ships during these nine months, but had attacked Sasebo, Japan would have failed!"

"Yes, now that our warships have been repaired, they have lost their chance forever. We are familiar with their tactics. If they come again, the imperial soldiers will definitely win!"

"That's right, the Chinese are so stupid..."

At the Sasebo Naval Base, a group of middle and low-level officers of the Japanese Navy were very excited when they looked at the "repaired" warships.

……

"Kato-kun, the strategic misjudgment has already made the empire pay a heavy price. I smell the smell of failure." Shimamura Hayao looked at the navy who were still full of energy.

"Yes, even if most of the main forces of the Combined Fleet have been repaired, we don't have enough supplies to deal with the Chinese."

"Even if we won the fleet decisive battle, we don't have enough supplies and fuel to support us to go south to their core areas."

"If the army didn't use up most of the supplies, how could it be so..." Kato Tomosaburo also sighed.

These days, the navy has a very bad life, especially after the fleet was damaged, Japan concentrated the supplies on the army to prepare for homeland defense.

Due to the lack of supplies, the repair progress of the navy warships was greatly delayed, and even the Aki and the warships under construction had to be dismantled to make up for the gap in materials.

Even so, because the productivity of workers and supporting factories was occupied, it took the two fleets of the Japanese Navy more than half a year to adjust.

Not only materials, but also coal supply, food supply, etc., the navy's quota during this period was very small, and even many destroyers had to work part-time as fishermen when they went out on patrol.

It was not until the past two months that the navy regained much less material support than before the war.

There was no way. At that time, Japan believed that Nanhua had two more powerful warships that had not appeared, and there were two or more warships that were only slightly injured. They could concentrate the power that the combined fleet could not resist at any time to launch an attack on Sasebo or even Japan.

In order to make the Nanhua Empire at that time pay enough losses and then retreat, Japan was ready to deploy continental army groups in various parts of the mainland to engage in street fighting, so that the Nanhua Empire would suffer unbearable casualties.

However, Nanhua did not attack directly. The Japanese had been on high-intensity duty in the coastal defense forts for more than three months, but they could not wait for the attack of the Nanhua fleet.

On the sea, Nanhua warships frequently attacked Japanese merchant ships, inspected merchant ships going to Japan for trade, and seized contraband.

When the Japanese came to their senses, Japan had lost 100,000 tons of merchant ships, equivalent to a quarter of the total tonnage of Japanese merchant ships.

At this time, Japan realized that Nanhua wanted to strangle them.

To crack it, the only way was to send out the navy and win at sea, but the repair progress of the naval fleet was extremely slow, and the supplies were much less.

Then they fell into the embarrassing situation of running out of supplies.

Not guns and ammunition, but more basic things, coal, iron, steel, chemical raw materials, etc., have been transformed into military supplies for the army.

(According to the tradition of the Japanese army, the army's supplies will not be used by the navy, although they can't be used.)

These basic things are the basis of all industries, and Japan's own production is not enough to use.

For example, coal, power generation, coking, metallurgy, various steam engines, and even chemical industries all require coal to operate, and the consumption is huge.

Japan's coal production is only 12.5 million tons, which seems a lot, but there is not much to distribute to various industrial sectors, especially high-quality anthracite, which needs to be imported to supplement the shortage-this is the main source of power for the Japanese navy.

Site: Tower^Read novels, welcome to download-^

There is also steel. Japan does not have high-quality iron ore, let alone large iron ore. The steel production is not enough to support domestic development, and a large amount of steel must be imported every year.

This year's share was almost consumed by the army, and the rest was consumed by the navy...

"We only have 10,000 tons of heavy oil and 32,000 tons of coal. In addition, there is a batch of about 8,000 tons of coal on the way." Kato Tomosaburo looked worried.

This number seems to be a lot. 40,000 tons of coal was the annual output of a small coal mine before China adopted mechanized mining.

But...

"How can this be possible? The Fuso class consumes 1,500 tons of heavy oil and 4,000 tons of coal for one voyage. Although the distance is not far, there is no fuel..." Shimamura Hayao was stunned at first, then furious, and then calmed down.

The Fuso class needs more than 5,000 tons of fuel to fill up the fuel tank once, and can travel more than 9,000 nautical miles, nearly 10,000 nautical miles. It sounds like a lot, right? (Maximum displacement.)

However, this is a voyage below the economic speed of 15 knots. Once it starts to accelerate, the fuel consumption rate will increase sharply.

Take the Invincible class, the beginning of the battlecruiser, as an example. At an economic speed of one-fifth of the power, when fully loaded with 3,000 tons of coal and 738 tons of heavy oil, the range is 5,000 nautical miles and the speed is 8 knots.

However, when the speed is increased to 23 knots, the endurance will be reduced to 2,650 nautical miles. If the full power speed reaches 5 knots, the range will be shortened to more than 1,000 nautical miles.

In battle, high-speed navigation is very necessary. Whether it is to seize a favorable position, approach local warships or evacuate, it is necessary to increase the speed.

And this is not to increase the air pressure when it is necessary. If you wait until you need to speed up before increasing the air pressure in battle, it will be too late.

After all, steam power is not like electricity or internal combustion engines. The power is obtained after multiple conversions. To increase the air pressure, you need to burn coal or oil to increase the temperature.

Wait until it is needed to add coal, wait for the coal to burn, and then wait for the temperature to increase slowly. I don’t know how many opportunities have been wasted.

Therefore, in battle, the steam pressure is usually kept at a high level, and the excess can be wasted.

A little fuel and a warship and the skilled sailors on it should be clear which is more important.

"Yes, if so, we only have two chances at most. In two battles, we can completely defeat the Chinese and make them accept our request to stop the war." Kato Tomosaburo looked complicated.

Now, the Japanese Navy is in trouble.

"That is to say, even if we defeat the enemy's main fleet, we don't have enough fuel to attack further and solve the blockade of South China against us in Southeast Asia and the Pacific."

"Even if we win the battle, we can't win the war, so why fight?" Shimamura Hayao sighed miserably.

"It's simple, pray for a chance to stop the war." Kato Tomosaburo looked at the playful sailors.

"Is it worth it?"