Daming 1805

Chapter 80 Horatio Nelson

Compared with the mess in Mumbai, the supply terminal for the British Royal Navy in Mumbai and its surroundings are much more orderly.

A total of twenty former dreadnoughts, and a larger number of cruisers of all kinds, turned the supply docks into a jungle of steel.

On the surface of the sea within a range of dozens of kilometers outside the dock, there are more warships of various types cruising to guard against possible Ming fleets.

These warships are the British-French combined fleet that broke into the Lesser Ocean. The commander of the fleet is the most famous British admiral: Horatio Nelson.

Directly driven by the industrial revolution of the Ming Dynasty, the technology of the whole world has developed rapidly. By the time of Nelson's time, there has been no gang war for a long time.

Nelson, who is 47 years old this year, has not lost his eyes and arms as in history, and his body is still intact and healthy enough.

Of course he didn't know that he would have died in October this year and became a symbol of the spirit of the British navy in later generations.

The current Nelson, with the British-French combined fleet into the Little West, certainly has the idea of ​​a direct decisive battle with the main fleet of the Ming Dynasty.

But the will is not strong.

With the current range and detection capabilities of the warships, although it is difficult for the Daming fleet to truly control the sea control of the entire Xiaoxi Ocean, it at least has most of the sea control.

Most of the area around Xiaoxiyang is the colony of Daming, and Daming's fleet is very convenient for any action.

The combined Anglo-French fleet was limited everywhere.

Before the news of the start of the peace talks was confirmed, Nelson's fleet did not dare to stop at the Tianzhu port, and the supplies were all secretly brought in in batches.

Even more afraid to supply supplies in places like Mumbai that are approaching the front line.

The areas around the British Tianzhu were all vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, and there were also a large number of Ming Dynasty informants in the British Tianzhu itself.

Not only are there various immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, but there are also a large number of local people in Tianzhu who actively serve the people of the Ming Dynasty.

If the Anglo-French combined fleet docked collectively, if they were discovered by these informants and contacted the Daming Fleet to contain them, they would likely have to fight under the most unfavorable circumstances.

In fact, after the British-French combined fleet broke into the Little West, it was ready to immediately return to the Atlantic Ocean.

As for what was said in Daming's newspapers, the British-French combined fleet threatened the Malacca Strait route, this news is indeed true.

Threatening the sea routes of Ming Dynasty is the purpose of the British-French combined fleet, and it is also the actual task.

However, the specific war situation was somewhat different from what was rendered in the Daming newspapers and what ordinary people in Daming imagined.

Nelson's method of threatening the Malacca route was not to attack the land and islands of the Malacca Strait.

That is, in an absolutely disadvantaged state, trying to fight against the main force of Daming in a decisive battle, there is basically no possibility of victory.

In fact, he was cruising in the Little Western region, trying to cut off the sea routes between the mainland of Daming and East Mozhou, South Mozhou, and Dashi.

Support the anti-Ming alliance's military operations in Tianzhu, Dongmozhou, Nanmozhou, and Dashi areas, and interfere with the Daming fleet's support to the battlefield.

The task of the Daming Fleet is to turn the back of the British-French Combined Fleet and force the British-French Combined Fleet to withdraw from the Little Ocean.

After the two sides circled each other on the small western ocean, they chased each other for several days, and several small-scale avant-garde battles broke out.

Although the main fleet has also encountered two times, but because one of them felt that the posture of entering was not good, they left the battlefield after a little contact.

In the era of sailing warships, once the fleet falls into a disadvantage, it is difficult to leave the battlefield under the unfavorable wind direction, and it has to fight decisively.

But in the age of steamships, fleet operations no longer depended on the direction of the wind, and radio allowed the commander to control the entire fleet.

How the superior side can force the inferior side to fight on the spot, instead of running away when the situation is wrong, has become a very important issue in naval battles.

This is the main reason why the largest naval battle of gunboats in human history, the Battle of Jutland, was an anticlimactic, and it is also an important reason why it is difficult to see a decisive battle of battleships in the future.

It was not until the appearance of an aircraft carrier with particularly long hands that this problem was solved slightly. After all, the ship could not run the plane no matter how fast it ran.

Now that the war itself was over, the naval dogfights ceased, and the fleet battle was completely avoided.

After the news of the peace talks was officially confirmed, Nelson approached the Mumbai terminal with the fleet.

But for the time being, it is still only partially docked, and the battleship and crew are also partially relaxed, and are divided into three groups to supply and rest in turn.

The deputy commander from France, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, was in command of the supply operations in the fleet.

Nelson stood on the dock to relax, and his deputy, Cuthbert Collingwood, trotted over with an envelope:

"London telegram, the place for the peace talks has been officially determined, in the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, the Prime Minister has invited you to attend the peace talks.

"At the same time, Your Majesty and the Prime Minister have confirmed that you will be canonized as an earl and promoted to an admiral."

Nelson had already anticipated his own arrangements, and he was not too surprised about the location of the peace talks. He just said with emotion:
"The Cape of Good Hope... It's really a place that brings good luck to us Europeans..."

Collingwood couldn't help but ask with a dry smile:

"Is it really good luck? Many people complained about the brutality of the Spaniards and the Dutch in Luzon and Java, which angered the terrifying dragon, Daming..."

Nelson took the envelope in his companion's hand, pulled out the telegram inside, read the details, and said with a smile:

"Of course it is good luck, if there is no direct route between east and west, we may still be using sail warships now.

"We may even have to fight with swords, and if we are not careful, we may lose our arms, eyes, and even our lives.

"I might wear a black eye patch with hooks on my arms, like the pirate captains in the novel illustrations..."

Collingwood was laughed at by Nelson:

"You are still so humorous. But what are you going to do now? The Prime Minister suggested that you go back to London in advance and go to the peace talks after accepting the canonization.

"We Europeans finally drew Daming this time. This is an unprecedented major event. This negotiation will also become a gathering of the entire civilized world."

"You can leave with a small cruiser fleet, through the Red Sea and... the canals controlled by the people of the Ming, directly into the Mediterranean.

"That way you can go back to London half a month earlier, and the big fleet can be slowly brought back to Europe by me and Ciel."

Nelson listened to his companion's suggestion, and after reading the telegram carefully, he slowly shook his head and said:

"It is indeed an unprecedented event. The Ming Empire's tentacles have completely penetrated into the back garden of Europe - the Mediterranean Sea.

"Europeans will have to accept the fact that Ming will be directly involved in European affairs.

"The most ridiculous thing is that the Europeans couldn't accept this at the beginning, so they took the initiative to launch a war against Ming.

"But now, the war has made it a reality, and Europeans are thankful for it..."

Collingwood smiled helplessly:
"The war has made Europeans realize the reality, and it is impossible to regard the Mediterranean as the back garden of Europeans.

"After all, the Mediterranean Sea was originally a sea between the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, and was not originally the sea of ​​Europeans.

"The Baltic Sea is the sea of ​​Europeans, and it is not unacceptable for Daming to participate in Mediterranean affairs..."

Nelson smiled wryly again and shook his head:
"For us in the United Kingdom, it is not unacceptable, but the countries in the Mediterranean may not think so."

Collingwood did not continue to take this stubble, and pulled back to the original topic:

"So what's your decision? Do you want to go back to London early?"

Nelson shook his head directly:

"The war cannot be considered a complete end until the agreement is formally signed.

"The smoke of gunpowder is still wafting over the world, and the people of the Ming Kingdom may regret it at any time. Now we can't rashly go to the territory of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

"I went straight to the Cape of Good Hope, not to London to be canonized.

"The period before the start of the peace talks was just used to test my new battleship idea..."

Hearing Nelson talking about the new warship, Collingwood immediately understood, shaking his head helplessly and sighing:
"You're still thinking about your—perfect battleship? All capital ships with the same caliber guns, and faster armored cruisers of the same design?"

"Yes--"

Nelson said it very decisively, then turned around quite forcefully, and stretched out his arm to point to the steel jungle on the sea:

"Our huge fleet is actually not the best. The ocean in the future will definitely be dominated by high-speed warships that all use the same caliber of main guns!"

Collingwood spread his hands with a wry smile and said:
"But the fleet of the Ming people is like this now..."

Nelson immediately sighed helplessly, and then tried to convince his companion:
"The choice of the Ming people is not necessarily correct, especially this war has also verified this, it is not that we cannot keep pace with the Ming people.

"If our navy in the United Kingdom wants to continue to develop and replace the Ming navy, we must not just imitate them, we must win by surprise.

"My idea has actually been approved by many naval officials and generals, including Viscount Hood.

"It's just that the people of the Ming Dynasty didn't do that, and because we didn't have solid data evidence, we couldn't really convince the Admiralty.

"So when I came out this time, I was ready.

"The main guns of multiple warships will be concentrated, and under the command of semaphores and radios, they will jointly attack targets at longer distances.

"With these data, coupled with the public opinion craze to defeat the Ming people, Viscount Hood should be able to claim the construction share of the test ship.

"The Ming Navy has not yet built such a warship, and this may become the hope of defeating the Ming Navy!"

After a brief thought, Collingwood nodded decisively:
"Okay, then I'll work with you."

Nelson smiled and nodded:

"thanks……"

(End of this chapter)