Chapter 1081 Confrontation in the Caribbean (First update, please subscribe)
What was Ming Dynasty’s ultimatum?
Everyone knows Sima Zhao's intention.
What about the future of Cuba, what about sending investigators? In fact, all of this is for one purpose, which is to occupy Cuba.
Even before the Ming Dynasty issued an ultimatum, the United States took the lead in responding - it sent four battleships, the "New York", "Minnesota", "Ohio" and "Pennsylvania", to "visit" Havana. Not only that, the United States also transferred two of the four battleships of the Pacific Fleet originally planned to be transferred to Hawaii to the Atlantic. At the same time, the British Royal Navy also sent two battleships to Havana.
It was precisely because of the support from the United States and Britain that the Spaniards arrogantly and rudely rejected the Ming Dynasty's "ultimatum". At this time, the main force of the Ming Dynasty's Atlantic Fleet was sailing from the Huizhou Bay base to Havana.
However, before that, the Imperial Caribbean Squadron, which has its home port in Mexico and cruises in the Caribbean all year round, had already sailed at full speed towards Havana.
Although the Caribbean Squadron had only one old ironclad ship, the second-class ironclad ship Rio de Janeiro.
Isn't it amazing? Brazil was destroyed, and the place name was changed, but the warships named after it are still in service in the Imperial Navy. The "Brazilian War" began with the Ming Dynasty's floating force air raid on the Brazilian Navy Fleet in Montevideo. That air raid overturned the history of world naval warfare. The Brazilian Imperial Navy was almost wiped out in the air raid. One of its main "Riachuelo" class ironclad ships sank and three were stranded. After the Imperial Army occupied Montevideo, the naval technical officers inspected the three stranded "Riachuelo" class ironclad ships and finally concluded that the three ships were still worth repairing, which was a powerful supplement to the Imperial Navy, which was short of warships at the time.
A year later, the newly repaired Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Aquidaba joined the Imperial Navy one after another, and then joined the Caribbean Squadron, the Imperial East African Squadron and the Japanese Squadron respectively.
The Rio de Janeiro became the lead ship of the Imperial Caribbean Squadron.
Compared to the four mighty battleships of the American fleet, the 6,800-ton Rio de Janeiro was not impressive at all. However, even if it was just a 1,000-ton fast gunboat (torpedo boat), as long as it flew the Suzaku flag of the Imperial Navy with horizontal blue and white stripes on the lower half, as long as it flew the sun and moon flag of the Empire, there was a powerful Empire behind it.
At this time, when the Imperial Navy fleet led by the battleship "Youzhou" was sailing at full speed from the mainland to Havana, a silent confrontation had already begun in Havana.
Overnight, Havana, Cuba became the focus of the world.
In the anchorage area off the coast of Havana, the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Navy on the "Rio de Janeiro" were all looking at the American fleet in the distance with indignation, and the American fleet was also looking at them.
"Did you see that?"
Mahan, who was on the "Pennsylvania", pointed at the Ming flagship and spoke to the officers and school students around him.
"Who can tell me the name of their flagship?"
"Rio de Janeiro! Sir."
"Yes, it's the Rio de Janeiro. Although the city has been named "Huizhou" by the Ming Empire, the "Rio de Janeiro" has been retained in their navy. Do you know why?"
"Of course it was to show the great military might of the Ming Empire. There are many places in the Ming Empire that have not been renamed, and that is also to show their military achievements."
Place names... are silent military achievements. Perhaps the old names will evoke people's memories, but they will also make the conquerors feel proud.
Because of this, the current empire is no longer as obsessed with changing its name as in the past. Of course, this is also because the empire has completed the sinicization of its native land. In the past, the population was small, the territory was large, and the confidence was insufficient!
Now...it's different!
It is only a matter of time before millions of Europeans are "assimilated" by the massive number of Chinese. In this way, they will naturally be freer and less concerned about changing their names, just like Florida, California, and even Mexico, which are occupied by the United States, all have to add a "new" to their names.
It must sound disgusting to the original owner!
But for the conquerors, isn’t this the mighty military power?
Now, in the outer berth area of Havana Harbor, the "Rio de Janeiro", a symbol of victory captured from the Imperial Brazilian Navy, caught the eyes of the officers and soldiers of the United States Navy, making them feel the aggressive posture of the Ming Empire Navy as well as the arrogance of the Imperial Navy.
This kind of arrogance is certainly not without any basis. Their arrogance is based on victory and the shame of the loser.
"This is the triumph of the victor!"
Mahan looked at the warship that symbolized the humiliation of the Brazilian Empire and the glory of the Ming Empire, and he spoke in a very emotional tone.
"This is how the world is. The winners can trample on the losers at will and even trample on their dignity."
Staring at the famous warship that was defeated without firing a single shot, these American naval officers almost subconsciously looked up into the sky, fearing that the Ming Dynasty's floating troops would intercept them.
However, it is not that difficult to copy them - there is also a "Langley" helicarrier in the United States fleet.
Three years ago, after the Ming Dynasty used a fast immigration ship to transform the world's first helicarrier, Britain, the United States, France and other countries also used coal ships and cargo ships to transform helicarriers. What is a helicarrier?
It is an airship mother ship that can carry dozens of combat airships. The combat airships are aerial killers that can defend against airship air raids.
After the Montevideo air raid, how to protect the navy's warships worth nearly a million pounds from air raids became the primary issue facing all naval countries. Just as countries were arguing, the Ming Dynasty's aircarrier came out. Two months later, the British aircarrier also came out. The British had stolen conceptual intelligence including aircarriers and combat airships from the Ming Dynasty a few years ago, which was almost the PPT shipbuilding concept familiar to people in another world.
However, for a shipbuilding power like the Battle of the Empire, as long as they have a PPT, a plan, and a draft, they can build the ship.
Soon they built the helicarrier, and then proudly used the helicarrier and combat airship in the exercise, successfully intercepting the airship unit's sneak attack on the fleet.
Overnight, the helicarrier became famous. After all, before this, the battleship had almost no ability to fight back in front of the airship.
As a result, the helicarrier became the most fashionable warship in the 1880s. The "Langley" sent by the United States this time was the first helicarrier in the United States, which could carry 16 small combat airships.
At this moment, there were four small combat airships patrolling back and forth above the fleet. It was because of them that the Americans felt a little more at ease.
Sometimes, the United States airships would deliberately fly over the Ming fleet and take pictures of the warships of the Ming Empire's naval fleet with cameras. Of course, they were mostly demonstrating there - to show the Ming Empire that, look, we also have airships, and they can use Gatling guns to fire incendiary bombs.
This is definitely an aerial assassin!
With these combat airships, what can your airships do?
However, the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Caribbean Squadron, led by the "Rio de Janeiro", completely turned a blind eye to the American demonstrations. Following an order, they continued their training. The torpedo boats, originally disguised as fast cruiser gunboats, directly used the US warships as "targets" and conducted simulated torpedo warfare at sea.
For a moment, smoke was spewing out of the chimneys of the warships on the sea. While sailing at high speed, they launched "thunder strikes" at the US fleet again and again...
(End of this chapter)
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