Chapter 303 Miracle at Sea (Second update, please subscribe)
The British Navy must be defeated!
If the British Navy cannot be defeated, then the future South China will not be able to win the future war.
The only problem was how to defeat this navy with hundreds of thousands of tons of armored ships.
Of course, to outsiders this was definitely a joke. After all, in comparison, the South China Navy was simply too weak to be worth mentioning.
Thinking of defeating the Royal Navy with this is just a dream!
Sometimes people always have to have dreams. The same is true for countries!
The next morning after he was promoted, a naval lieutenant who called himself Ma Guorong came to meet Liu Tiannian in front of the officers' dormitory. Liu Tiannian took a special look at Ma Guorong.
His appearance is not special. He is the kind of person that people will forget after meeting him once. Lieutenant Ma Guorong
After inviting him to get on the carriage, they took him directly to the Tianya Peninsula. After the carriage had been driving for about half an hour, they finally arrived at a small bay inside the peninsula. This bay was an unnamed small bay, but like the Tianya Peninsula, it was a military restricted area. There were more than a dozen small boats moored near the small pier in the bay.
Although he was an instructor at the Naval Academy, Liu Tiannian did not know the purpose of those small boats. Then they took a carriage to a small dock with high walls. The dock not only had high walls but also had a roof.
The dock was heavily guarded. Ma Guorong showed his ID and made a phone call to his fellow villagers.
There's a telephone here!
After multiple checks, the two finally entered the wall and had lunch in a wooden room. A simple worker's meal: steamed buns, fish and potato cubes. All workers in Nanhua eat the same food. Because sea fish is cheap enough, it has always been the main meat for ordinary workers. Occasionally, they will switch to beef and mutton offal, which are even cheaper.
During the meal, Ma Guorong asked Liu Tiannian a lot of questions, mainly about navigation.
Liu Tiannian naturally answered all the questions one by one. As an instructor in a naval academy, he could easily answer those questions.
"It seems the Marshal did not choose the wrong person!"
Ma Guorong smiled, picked up the rice on the plate with chopsticks, and then spoke.
"The gap between our strength and that of the British Navy is too great. The tonnage of our warships is less than a fraction of theirs. This means that we have to do everything we can to attack them, such as using torpedo boats! Do you know what a torpedo boat is?"
"Is it the torpedo tactic? I remember it was a secret tactic of the navy."
"Yes, the bay we are in is where the navy's torpedo boats are stationed, but they train in Cape Bay,"
Cape Bay is the southernmost bay on the continent, far away from any settlements, and the navy's training there is entirely secretive.
"The torpedo tactic is very effective, but although the torpedo boat is small, it is still easy to be destroyed, so in the past few years, we have been studying a new way of attack - submarines!"
"submarine!"
Liu Tiannian said in surprise:
"You mean the submarine?"
In fact, submarines had already been invented in this era. As early as April 1863, French officer Simon Bourgeois built the world's first submarine "Diver" that was fully powered by mechanical power. It was 36 meters long and larger than any submarine that had appeared before.
"Yes, it is the submarine. After scientists invented the submarine, unlike the British who were dismissive, the French took great interest in it. They hoped to use the new weapon to subvert Britain's advantage from underwater."
“So do we!”
It was for the same reason that Liu Tiannian noticed it.
"However, even though the French noticed it, how could they use submarines to attack surface ships? So we thought of torpedoes!"
Ma Guorong then explained it to him as simply as possible. It was obvious that Ma Guorong was a real expert in submarine technology, and his knowledge was broad and profound, which Liu Tiannian could not match, and he could not help but respect him.
"The submarine travels underwater, which means it is extremely concealed. If a submarine launches a torpedo underwater to attack a surface target, it will definitely be easy to succeed."
Ma Guorong said.
"So, in the past two years, we have been studying how to combine submarines and torpedoes. More importantly, how can submarines sail on the sea for a long time? At the beginning, we used a small triple-expansion steam engine. Although it can drive submarines to sail on the sea, it will face many problems after diving into the water, such as unburned coal continuing to consume air and its ignition problem. In short, after a series of attempts, we proved that submarines using steam engines have no development potential at all! This delayed our research."
Ma Guorong shrugged regretfully, then took out a cigarette from the cigarette box with his slender fingers and said to Liu Tiannian.
"Later, we got a new type of internal combustion engine, and the problem was finally solved. Compared with the steam engine, the internal combustion engine is simply a perfect machine. It is smaller in size and easier to install in a small submarine, and it does not take up too much space..."
The internal combustion engine developed by Otto is definitely a miracle from the perspective of this era. Of course, this miracle is based on the gasoline engine provided by Zhu Xianhai. So far, it has developed into a series of products, and the navy's submarines use one of these models.
"I've heard of Otto's internal combustion engine, but it's too small to be used on warships. But it's just right for submarines. After all, submarines are not that big."
Liu Tiannian said.
"We will need bigger submarines in the future. After all, we need to fight in the open ocean."
Ma Guorong continued.
"The traditional mentality of the British Navy is to fight for sea control in the ocean, defeat the enemy in the naval battle and win the naval battle. Since the Battle of Trafalgar, this has been the only purpose of naval battles! But in fact, for the weaker party, what they pursue is not necessarily sea control, but to prevent the strong at sea from using their sea control. Once the strong's warships can only stay in ports or bases, then they have a powerful fleet but it is useless. If they can really find a way to make them hide in the port, then the rules of engagement will change. This is what we need to do with submarines, to sink them at sea and make the huge British navy dare not go out to sea!"
"As soon as we go out to sea, we will have to face submarine attacks. We don't necessarily have to have control of the sea, but we must destroy the British's control of the sea, or let them have control of the sea but cannot use it!"
On this point, Liu Tiannian and Ma Guorong undoubtedly agree with each other, and it is easy for them to find common ground.
"So our goal is not to compete with the Huang family navy for sea control, but to prevent the British from using their sea control."
After thinking about it, Liu Tiannian said.
"My idea in the past was to turn the sea into a dangerous ocean by laying mines, and to limit the use of the British Navy by laying a large number of mines. Of course, now with submarines, the effect may be better."
"No, the effect is better. I can tell you responsibly that when it is combined with the torpedo, it is simply an unprecedented miracle."
(End of this chapter)
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