Chapter 845: The Dignity of the Ming Dynasty (Fourth update, please subscribe)
airship!
From the moment it appeared in Montevideo Harbor, everything was decided.
Although those warships still stubbornly used their own armor and solid central ironclad fortresses to resist the bombing from the air, it was only a matter of time before they sank or were destroyed.
"A battleship? This is really...very sturdy!"
Observing the targets at sea from the air, Ma Guangming looked at the warships shrouded in flames and smoke and said with some emotion,
"The Central Ironclad Fortress is indeed worthy of its reputation!"
The deputy captain An Yangzhi beside him smiled and said,
"What's the point of having a well-deserved reputation? You'll still be bombed by us. That's how war works - if you fall behind, you'll be beaten!"
If you fall behind, you will be beaten!
An Yangzhi didn't know the significance of his wise words; he was just using words to describe the simple reality before him.
Nodding, Ma Guangming said:
"Well, after today, the whole world will know that the once powerful navy is nothing in front of airships. Let's send them all into the sea."
"That's for sure!"
An Yangzhi smiled proudly.
Amid their smug smiles, the airship troops formed two columns in the air, following the flagship, and flew over the enemy ships on the sea one by one at an altitude of 500 meters and a speed of less than 50 kilometers per hour, continuously dropping bombs.
While the airship troops were dropping bombs, the photographer on the airship faithfully recorded everything with a camera.
If there were no film records, no naval soldier would dare to believe this!
What they saw was an unbelievable scene—the airship defeated the battleship!
And the way they were defeated was simply incredible!
In fact, all this is taken for granted. After all, in the past few years, the Ming Dynasty's airship forces have been trying every means to improve the accuracy of bombing. Since the day the simple mechanical sight was invented, there has been no problem for airships to bomb warships.
Now the method for airships to bomb warships is very simple. They just fly slowly in front of the warship's head. Because the airship's speed is very slow, it naturally flies very steadily, so the accuracy of the bombs dropped will not be too far off. With the help of bombing sights, the accuracy is naturally extremely impressive, with a hit rate of more than 5%. It may not seem very good, but as long as a few bombs hit the warship, it can also cause unimaginable damage to the warship.
Moreover, as long as there are enough airships, they can drop enough bombs, so the hit rate can naturally be guaranteed.
This time, the Ming Dynasty dispatched a total of 72 airships, each carrying 18 200 kg bombs, for a total of 1,296 200 kg bombs. If the average hit rate could reach 5%, the Brazilian warships would have been hit by more than 64 200 kg bombs, and at least 20% to 30% of near misses!
In other words, on average each warship would be hit by at least 8 aerial bombs. With such a bombing, not to mention the warships of this era that have no top armor, even if a dreadnought was brought in, it would not be able to withstand such a bombing!
Especially when most of these warships were moored in the berthing area, the airship troops simply chose to drop bombs in a semi-hovering manner after they were in the air, which directly led to an exponential increase in the accuracy of the hit.
In the next few dozen minutes, the surviving Brazilian warships completely turned into targets. The four seemingly very sturdy "Riachuelo" class battleships could only passively take the bombing because they had no time to pressurize their boilers and had to rely on maneuvering to avoid aerial bombing.
But now, they can only endure the bombing in the anchorage port... After all, it takes time for the steam boiler to boil water!
The boat was lost before the water boiled.
Finally, accompanied by a loud explosion, a violent explosion occurred under the destroyed turret amidships of the "Riachuelo". The battleship whose ammunition depot was hit was directly blown into two pieces, and even the cannons were blown hundreds of meters into the air.
In the billowing smoke, everyone was stunned - this was the first time an airship sank a battleship!
History was frozen at this moment!
…
The "Riachuelo" became the first battleship in history to be sunk!
When Emperor Zhu received the telegram sent back by the floating troops, he was stunned for a while, and then an extremely excited smile appeared on his face.
"Haha, I knew this attack would be successful!"
The reason why Emperor Zhu was so excited was that the "airship air raid" plan was proposed by him, and now the results achieved by the airship troops have proved his wisdom!
Of course, this is not the most important thing for Emperor Zhu.
What is the most important thing?
Of course, the Ming Dynasty's airship force once again demonstrated to the world its powerful and invincible strength.
"All the warships will be eliminated overnight!"
Emperor Zhu laughed heartily.
After the battleship "Riachuelo" was sunk by an airship and the Brazilian fleet was destroyed by the Ming Dynasty's airship, the world will surely be in an airship fever again!
This time is even more enthusiastic than the last time, because airships will fundamentally change the status of land and naval battles.
"Those small countries in Europe will surely manufacture a large number of airships! They may not be able to maintain a large fleet, but they can still maintain dozens of airships."
Emperor Zhu said in his heart:
"It seems that we need to develop airplanes as soon as possible. With airplanes, we can use incendiary bombs to attack airships. When the time comes, using airplanes to attack airships will be a sure win... In addition, we need to strengthen the air defense of warships as soon as possible... Well, we can consider anti-aircraft guns. Anyway, the Ming Dynasty has successfully developed rapid-fire guns. However, the best thing is to improve the Gatling gun. The current 30mm Gatling gun has a too curved trajectory. We can improve the shells. Don't let those European guys come back to "learn from the Ming Dynasty to defeat the Ming Dynasty"."
Just as I was thinking about this, the attendant suddenly reported loudly:
"Your Majesty, the ambassador to Brazil has sent an urgent telegram saying that a declaration of war has been submitted to the Brazilian Empire at 10:15 am on July 30, 1876, in the seventh year of Shengde..."
"Haha, the timing is just right!"
Emperor Zhu laughed and said loudly,
"The airship bombing took place at 10:23, which means that our attack on the Brazilian fleet was a normal attack, not a sneak attack. Well, from the perspective of international public law, we still occupy the moral high ground!"
The Ming Dynasty is a country that attaches great importance to international public law. Who makes the Ming Dynasty a civilized country?
The Ming Dynasty never carried out surprise attacks. They always declared war first and then attacked. Although it only took less than ten minutes, from a legal point of view, this was unchallengeable!
A sneak attack is something only the Japanese can do.
My Great Ming, the great Celestial Empire, of course, first declared victory and then fought.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
