I want to be emperor

In the summer and July of the 26th year of Chengshun, the Indian Peninsula.

The Indian governor of the Great Chu Empire ruled Xiagehe County, a small port city located on the east coast of the Indian Peninsula. It was occupied by one of the predecessors of the Western Trading Company: Nanyang Armed Trading Company in the 16th year of Chengshun A small port city in , just near the mouth of the Godavari River.

Through the Godavari River, you can go deep into the hinterland of the central part of the Indian peninsula. At the same time, this place is just in the middle of the dynamic coast of the Indian peninsula. Therefore, the Nanyang Armed Trading Company and the local aborigines were here when they were in Chengshun for 16 years. They negotiated, first built a commercial post, and then expanded the area through the concession.

Later, through a small war, the local aborigines were directly forced to sign a permanent lease agreement, and the port itself and hundreds of square kilometers of surrounding land, mainly the land on both sides of the estuary, were permanently leased to the Western Trading Company.

This kind of permanent concession is actually no different from direct cession of territory.

Later, the Great Chu Empire established Gehekou County here, and officially established the local administrative rule. Although this place was not the first colony of the Great Chu Empire on the Indian Peninsula, it was the first colony of the Great Chu Empire on the Indian Peninsula. A place where county-level administrative bodies are established.

Later, the Great Chu Empire set up a governor of India, and the Indian governor was stationed here. He was responsible for administering the [-] large and small colonies of the Great Chu Empire in the Indian Peninsula and West Asia, and was also responsible for exchanges with the Indian Peninsula, West Asia, North Africa and other regions. affairs.

At the same time, it is also the headquarters of the Indian Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire Army and the Indian Ocean Fleet Command of the Great Chu Empire Navy.

After becoming the resident of the Indian governor, Gehe County also ushered in a relatively large development, bringing together many administrative officials and immigrants from the Great Chu Empire, in addition to Western Trading Company and military garrison personnel.

In order to ensure the strategic security of this place, the Indian Expeditionary Army of the Great Chu Empire India has more than 3000 troops stationed here all year round. In addition, the Western Trading Company also has more than 2000 armed employees stationed here.

In addition, in terms of firepower, although the naval gun is still a smoothbore gun, the larger tonnage leads to a single ship with dozens or even hundreds of uniform large-caliber naval guns, which can also greatly crush European warships of the same level.

In a hurry, there are not many such war horses on the Indian Peninsula.

Relying on the grenade, the Great Chu Empire Navy is confident in destroying the enemy's sails in naval battles, and at the same time killing a large number of vital forces on the deck and superstructure of the enemy ship.

After all, the Chu army used guns as weapons on a large scale, so mules and horses and other livestock also need to be trained with guns and guns to prevent mules and horses from wandering around due to the sound of guns and guns during combat.

Liaoxi horse is a kind of war horse specially bred for cavalry. Although it is expensive to raise, it has good adaptability to the climate. As long as food can be guaranteed, there will be basically no major problems.

This time, the cavalry under his command didn't even have horses... What kind of cavalry combat is this!
So after going ashore, he found local friendly troops and asked them to help find a way to get war horses together...

By the way, the horses used by the messengers of the Great Chu Empire have always been top-notch warhorses...and they are given priority. All heavy cavalry and generals' mounts have to be placed in the back row.

For a long time before, there was an embarrassing situation in the navy of the Great Chu Empire, that is, it could not build a large number of warships even if it had money.

But the warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy that came over today are different from those pure sail warships in the past, because there is a tall chimney on the hull of these warships.

After listening, Zheng Sen also picked up the binoculars and continued to look towards the harbor. Four cruisers appeared in the distant sky, and said at the same time: "The Fengzhou-class cruiser is indeed the first-class cruiser of our navy. This size is earlier than ours. The first-class battleships in recent years are even bigger, with a displacement of more than 2000 tons, tsk tsk!"

However, because the Navy of the Great Chu Empire paid more attention to the role of naval guns, it has practiced directly using naval guns to destroy enemy ships in naval battles for more than ten years. Well, it is not sinking, but destroying, making the enemy lose its combat effectiveness.

And because there are no high-powered steam tugboats in Gehe Port, large-tonnage ships can only rely on their own power to enter and leave the port. As far as the transport ship for army soldiers is concerned, it is more troublesome.

However, horses are easy to find, but war horses that have been specially bred and trained are not easy to find, especially the war horses of the Great Chu Empire, which have higher training requirements than ordinary army horses.

Brigadier General Zheng Sen and others looked around in the headquarters for a while, and soon followed other military and political officials in the city to the pier, ready to welcome the arrival of the Indian Third Task Force and the army generals in the fleet.

This tonnage belongs to the category of third-class battleships in the Great Chu Empire Navy.

At the same time, the development of the navies of European countries was far inferior to that of the Great Chu Empire. More than ten years ago, when the Great Chu Empire began to build first-class battleships of more than 2000 tons in batches, the so-called first-class battleships of the European countries still stayed at the Between [-] tons and [-] tons.

Zheng Sen smiled and said: "The frigate is only used to perform secondary tasks, and it is acceptable to have weaker firepower. It is also easier to perform ocean-going missions with such a large hull, which is much better than the previous frigates of five or six hundred tons. !"

This also made Jinling horses completely disappear in the military field, and became the playthings of the royal family and dignitaries. At present, there are only a few horses in stock, only more than 1000.

As for you talking about fighting...

When the warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy completely widened the gap with European countries in terms of quality and quantity, it was after the appearance of iron-ribbed wood-hulled ships.

Today's Gehe City has a total of more than 6 soldiers and civilians. It is the most populous colony of the Great Chu Empire in the Indian Peninsula. Relatively speaking, the number of personnel in other places is relatively small.

Instead of being responsible for daily defensive patrols to protect sea transportation lines.

As for a large number of warships... Sorry, the port capacity is limited, and there are no remaining berths for them to use, so they can only anchor directly in the harbor, and arrange naval sailors to go ashore to rest and relax in turn.

This horse is the war horse of the local indigenous country... They were all pulled directly from their barracks.

At the same time, the better performance of steel materials can also make the ships of the Great Chu Empire Navy even bigger.

Strictly speaking, the long-term naval core equipment in the Great Chu Empire Navy, a large number of third-class battleships are more powerful and a small number of more than 2000 tons of first-class battleships, which are better in performance than the battleships of European navies, but There is no gap between generations.

"Not only the Toyosu class, but even our battleship Suzhou has come here. It is a big guy with a weight of more than 4000 tons. Those European barbarians will be scared to turn around and run away when they see our Suzhou!"

Although it is more troublesome to raise and its endurance is not outstanding, the tall and explosive advantages of this kind of war horse still make it an important war horse in the army of the Great Chu Empire. In the early years, it was only issued to heavy cavalry. Issued to light cavalry units in a small number of first-class combat readiness units.

On a two-story building in the headquarters of the Indian Ocean Fleet in the port, Zheng Sen, who was wearing an 18-year-style admiral uniform and a commodore collar badge, looked down at the bay in front of the port.

The First Task Force is responsible for the protection of sea transportation lines in the south-central waters of the east coast of India, and to a certain extent supports the operations of the Third Task Force.

Sure enough, Zheng Sen saw a gigantic figure appearing among the large ships in the rear, and that was the largest battleship currently in service of the Great Chu Empire: the Suzhou.

There was even a period of time when the guards used a small number of precious Jinling horses as horses for the messengers... but this stuff was too expensive and difficult to raise, so the use of Jinling horses had to be canceled in the end.

It just doesn't have as many qualified ship rib materials available!
At the same time, this is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire Navy engaged in large-tonnage ships very early... The ship's rib materials are limited, and under the circumstances that large-tonnage warships can be built are limited, the performance of a single ship should be improved as much as possible.

That's more ships!
A huge number of ships spread out almost the entire sea surface, and there was no end in sight.

The warships of the Great Chu Empire, except for some warships built in the early days, the warships built later, even sail warships, are very recognizable, and they are very different from European sail warships.

At the same time, it is also necessary to arrange berths at the wharf, to berth, and to load and unload personnel and materials.

It took a long time for the huge third task force and the transport fleet to coordinate and approach one after another, and arrange for some ships to dock.

Although steam ships are quite popular in the mainland of the Great Chu Empire, they are still relatively rare overseas.

The most critical thing is the naval artillery of the Great Chu Empire Navy, which uses new grenades on a large scale. These explosive grenades can cause devastating blows to the superstructure and sails of enemy ships.

Such an arrangement was made because the battleships equipped by the First Task Force and the Second Task Force were all pure sail warships, many of which were old ships with relatively weak combat effectiveness and belonged to the second-tier fleet , the third task force is the main first-line fleet of the Great Chu Empire Navy.

By the time they arrived at Gehe Port, there were only more than 400 good horses left.

Starting from this time, the Great Chu Empire still built a batch of first-class battleships of about [-] tons, and a large batch of third-class battleships of about [-] tons.

As for the third task force, that is the core main fleet in India's strategy. This fleet will be the main combat force and will only appear on the battlefield, ready to engage in decisive battles with the enemy fleet at any time.

Unlike contemporary European warships, they often have relatively tall superstructures.

These seemingly outdated shells can still cause a lot of damage to the wooden sail warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy.

You know, he brought more than 2000 war horses!

To be precise, this is the Third Indian Task Force of the Great Chu Empire that came all the way from the mainland. They were ordered to reinforce the direction of India, and then they will join the Indian Ocean Fleet and become a wartime task force under the Indian Ocean Fleet. , to implement the Indian strategy.

The third task force that came this time and the large number of transport ships it escorted totaled more than 200 ships. In addition to those departing from the mainland, dozens of transport ships joined in Malacca halfway.

It is also an important naval base for the Indian Ocean Fleet.

At this time, another naval officer said: "Look, the Toyosu-class cruiser is also coming, and four of them are coming together!"

Today, the Great Chu Empire ushered in a very special and huge fleet in the most important colonial city on the Indian Peninsula!

The European navies of the same era, although they also used naval guns to bombard them in battle, but due to the limited range and power of naval guns, large-scale boarding battles would still occur in many cases.

But when they were marveling at these steam battleships, black spots appeared one after another on the distant sea.

Not to mention that the port of Gehe has welcomed the arrival of the first Indian task force before. As for the second Indian task force, it is not here, but in Chittagong in the north.

It is also the first ship of the Suzhou-class battleship, with a full load displacement of more than 4000 tons, making it the undisputed overlord of the entire Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

The local aborigines also have their own army, and naturally they also have war horses. It is also possible to buy a batch from them with money.

It is normal for those Chu people who have lived in the colony of the Indian peninsula for many years to have never seen a steam warship.

But what made him unacceptable was that even so, the horses under his hands suffered a large number of downsizing... Somehow, horse plague broke out on the road, and a lot of horses fell ill as a result.

Some knowledgeable Chu people in the port knew that this was a steam warship, but those who had never seen a steam ship were a little surprised.

How can this newcomer start a war so quickly? The navy itself has nothing to do, but after a long journey at sea, the army and the guards have lost seven or eight points of their combat effectiveness. They don't rest on land for ten and a half days. It can't be slowed down for a month.

And it is a warship of the Great Chu Empire!

Colonel Miao Shengrong of the No.70 Second Cavalry Regiment under the No.70 Second Division has been bitter since he landed!
Before his cavalry regiment set off, he had already considered the possibility of reducing the number of horses in the long-distance sea transportation. For this reason, he specially brought one-fifth more horses. A large number of people were arranged for meticulous care.

In the battle of boarding, the height advantage of the battleship is very important.

Relatively speaking, it is taller and more explosive than the Hexi horse, another main battle horse in the Great Chu Empire, but its endurance is weaker, and it is more troublesome to raise.

And this kind of adaptability needs to be obtained through long-term training.

Luo Zhixue's imperial carriage uses Jinling horses with a shoulder height of more than 1.6 meters.

Early in the morning, the population near the port saw many ships appearing on the sea in the distance, and some people familiar with the ships could tell from a long distance that these ships were not merchant ships, even Neither are armed merchant ships, but specialized warships.

Moreover, the army and the guards encountered a major problem, that is, the large number of war horses and service horses they carried suffered a large-scale reduction in personnel during the sea transportation.

There are four cavalry posts under the entire cavalry regiment, and each cavalry post has more than 200 cavalry, and the total number of cavalry is just [-] people.

In the contemporary era, apart from the Great Chu Empire Navy, there is no such a large-scale organization on the east coast of the Indian Ocean, and it also owns steam ships.

If there is no superior navy, then there is still a woolly Indian war, thinking about driving the Europeans out of the Indian peninsula completely.

A middle-aged naval colonel next to him put down his binoculars and said, "It's the Longchuan-class frigate, with a single smoke, a large aspect ratio, and a displacement of 20-[-] tons but only more than [-] cannons. It's the Longchuan-class frigate! "

The arrival of such a large fleet required a lot of work.

According to the configuration of single riding and two horses, there are a total of 1000 war horses, more than [-] Hexi horses, and [-] main war horses are Liaoxi horses. This thing is actually a cross between a Spanish horse stallion and a Liaoxi horse mare. It is a very good war horse.

Under such circumstances, the Great Chu Empire's navy was naturally more inclined to equip more naval guns instead of raising the superstructure.

The main force of the navies of European countries is mainly third-class battleships exported with [-] tons or even smaller fourth-class battleships.

However, before the implementation of the Indian strategy, it was still limited to the Fusang and Nanyang regions. In India, no steam-powered warships had been dispatched before.

Even in the Nanyang region, the navy of the Great Chu Empire did not actually deploy much in the early years, and it was only used in a small amount in the Spice Islands War.

The steam warships that people see today are the first steam warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy to appear in the Indian Ocean.

This is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire Navy had proposed a plan of one hundred third-class battleships long ago, but it has never been realized.

Aspect ratio, low or even no superstructure, these are the important features of many pure sail warships before the Great Chu Empire.

Even in the entire empire, the number of such war horses in service is not large, and there are only more than 1 horses in total, and some of them are still used as horses for generals and messengers.

This is also an important confidence for the Chu Empire Navy to launch the Spice War a few years ago!
It is an important support for launching the India strategy now.

Now there are more than 400 war horses left, which are not enough for each of his cavalry.

After some searching, the Indian governor's office purchased more than 1000 local Indian war horses, namely Malwar horses, at a high price from the nearby indigenous official forces.

"This frigate is good, but the firepower is weaker!"

No matter whether it is tonnage or firepower, of course this is only a gap in performance, but there is no qualitative gap.

After steel replaced wood, the Great Chu Empire did not have to worry about the use of wood when building ships, especially the special ship rib wood.

This is not to say that the warship design of the Great Chu Empire is better, but the result of different choices of naval warfare tactics.

In terms of maneuverability, the warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy had a generation gap with the warships of European countries.

The No.70 Second Cavalry Regiment is the emblematic light cavalry regiment of the standing second-class division. Before the battle, it was strengthened and supplemented according to the standards of the first-class combat readiness division.

Not to mention this kind of war horse that can withstand the sound of guns and guns, even ordinary war horses are not easy to deal with. The only way to buy them is to find local aborigines.

I thought it could be brought to the Indian peninsula for combat, but I didn't expect a large number of staff to be lost due to illness on the road.

Under the same tonnage, the warships of the Great Chu Empire carried more artillery than the warships of their European counterparts, and it was also because of this.

That is to say, the steam engine technology has gradually matured in the past two years. At the same time, some major overseas naval bases have successively built coal warehouses, hoarded coal, and also mined and purchased coal reserves in overseas colonies and indigenous countries. The scale of overseas dispatch of steam engine warships has been greatly increased.

In terms of strategic deployment, the Second Task Force is in charge of the northern waters of the Bay of Bengal, mainly responsible for protecting the safety of maritime transportation in the waters of the Bay of Bengal and intercepting ships from other countries.

"Without our Suzhou, even the Toyosu-class cruiser is enough to crush those European first-class battleships in terms of tonnage!"

After all, the port of Gehe City is limited in size and cannot accommodate this huge fleet at all.

The steam battleship ran to India, and it was not even easy to supply coal, and it could not be repaired if it broke down.

Only at this time did the Great Chu Empire's navy dare to say that it had a crushing advantage against the navies of European countries.

The reason for this is even because the naval gun technology of the Great Chu Empire Navy is better, the range is longer, the accuracy of the hit is higher, and the power is greater.

First of all, the hulls are generally more slender than European sailing warships of average tonnage. This is because the warships of the Great Chu Empire pay more attention to speed and maneuverability, and generally use large aspect ratios to build warships.

In the end, the number of battleships exceeded a hundred!
And now, not to mention, the more than 4000-ton Suzhou has been built, and steam engines are used on a large scale.

This is because the Great Chu Empire Navy had not deployed steam warships to the remote Indian peninsula in the past few years after the steam warship interview due to factors such as coal supply and steam engine failure rate.

Otherwise, on the battlefield, who knows where he would go when he heard the dense rumble of guns and artillery that is unique to the Chu army's combat!

"The first few frigates should be Longchuan-class frigates." Zheng Sen said to the other admirals around him while looking at them.

It is necessary to enter and leave the port carefully, and then some ships are unloaded at the berths, while the troop carrier is simply moored outside the port, and the transfer is directly carried out by small boats.

As for grenades, your Great Chu Empire Navy has grenades, and they also have grape bombs, chain bombs, arson bombs and other types of bombs that are a little behind in performance.

That's why a batch of first-class battleships weighing more than 2000 tons was produced.

You use third-class battleships of [-] tons, and others use third-class or even fourth-class battleships of about [-] tons. In fact, fighting depends more on the tactics of both sides and the quality of the officers and soldiers.

Moreover, the navy of the Great Chu Empire was limited by the difficulty in the supply of ship ribs and wood, so that the number of main battleships had actually been unable to increase.

After the No.70 Second Cavalry Regiment obtained these horses, they began urgent adaptive training... At least these horses had to get used to the sound of guns and guns.

But more importantly, the warships of the Great Chu Empire generally have low superstructures, and some cruisers that pay great attention to speed even use flat-deck hulls.

The average shoulder height can reach 1.5 meters, the body is beautiful, the explosive power is strong, the endurance is moderate, and the breeding is moderate.

To equip more naval guns, the center of gravity of the ship must be lowered, so it is not possible to build too tall superstructures.

And when the Chu army was resting and preparing for the battle at Gehe Port, several other European countries on the Indian Peninsula also felt the breath of storms!

Those Chu people stationed tens of thousands of troops in Gehe Port, and hundreds of ships of various kinds. Any fool knows that they are here to fight...

It's just that they don't know who the Chu people are going to fight!

Naturally, these European colonists did not know that the Great Chu Empire wanted to fight all of them...

Regardless of whether there is a threat or not, just clean it up at once now, so as not to get in the way in the future!