New Ming Empire mixed in America

Song He was called over by Li Mingqi. How could we discuss the war without the navy?

"This time we are facing a country with the strongest navy in the world. I think it is better to be cautious."

Sun Laifu was caught off guard by Song He, and there was no trace of embarrassment on his face.

Sun Laifu had some complaints about the fact that military expenditures were occupied by the navy during this period.

After all, if the money is allocated to the Army, the National Defense Forces can now expand their numbers and be equipped with continuous-firing rifles.

But now the navy has taken up most of the Xinming Empire's budget. Not only the army represented by Sun Laifu, but also various design bureaus are actually a little dissatisfied.

But Li Mingqi has made it very clear that the focus of the Xinming Empire will definitely be on the Pacific Ocean in the next period of time.

After all, immigration from the Puppet Qing Dynasty was the lifeblood of the New Ming Empire, so these people could only accept it.

The Royal Institution has financial support from the Royal Bank.

And the various design bureaus that were split from the Royal Academy were accounted for by the treasury of the Xinming Empire.

With the current state treasury mainly relying on taxes and foreign trade collected from white merchants, there is no way it can support such a big undertaking.

Therefore, we still have to rely on Li Mingqi's Royal Bank to provide loans to the treasury to maintain it.

This is because Li Mingqi's Crown Coin is a metal currency, has almost no cost and can be circulated in the world.

If this were paper money, the Xinming Empire would have collapsed long ago. Fiscal revenue cannot be increased just by printing paper money.

So what Li Mingqi and Liu Youcai discuss most now is issues like how to balance the financial balance of the Xinming Empire.

"Hey, you haven't seen our navy's new warships. You won't think so after you see them."

Song He was not angry either. He smiled honestly and brought the topic to the upcoming battle.

"Your Majesty, I think the battle should take place in the waters of Mexico. In that case, even if the opponent's army lands, it can only land in Mexico."

Having said this, he also walked to the map, stretched out his hand, tapped on the top of the Baja California Peninsula, and said:

"Now that the military port here is ready for use, we can park the warships nearby to snipe the opponent."

After hearing Song He's suggestion, Sun Laifu also came over to take a look.

After pondering for a while, Sun Laifu said to Li Mingqi: "I also agree with Song He's plan. If the enemy lands in Mexico, we can defend it better."

Li Mingqi is not very good at military affairs, but it is much better for a war to happen elsewhere than at home.

So with Song He's careful explanation and Sun Laifu's supplement, we basically understood what they meant.

That is to surprise the other party in the Mexican waters and disrupt the other party's strategic deployment.

At the same time, when launching a naval battle, let the new warships and iron-clad warships hold back the enemy.

The armored gunboats relied on their speed to cruise along the coast of Mexico, waiting for opportunities to attack enemy troop carriers.

Even if the opponent has completed supplies at the nearest port, they will definitely choose the port here in Mexico for their last pre-war supplies.

So as long as you seize the opportunity, you can take advantage of the gap between the opponent's two supplies to catch the opponent off guard.

If the opponent's cabin is not full, the opponent's escape distance will be shorter when pursuing.

In this way, there is no need to worry about the other party bypassing the Xin Ming Empire to go to Canada for supplies, and now the Victoria Freeport has been occupied by the Xin Ming Empire.

Even if the other party ran to Canada hungry, he would still have to face the embarrassment of not being able to enter the port.

Of course, there is a prerequisite for achieving this goal, that is, the royal fleet of the Xinming Empire can defeat the expedition fleet led by the British.

The expedition fleet led by the British this time was different from the previous bare warships of the Northern Federation.

According to the information received by Jin Yiwei, this squadron not only includes battleships with iron armored hulls but relying on sails, but also a large number of steam gunboats and logistics ships.

There was even a Warrior-class ironclad ship, the Black Prince, which was specially sent out for actual combat testing.

In addition, there were a small number of battleships and gunboats from the Netherlands and Nazionale, as well as two fourth-class sailing battleships that Argentina sent out to express its sincere devotion to the country, which were regarded as the main force of the navy, and some sailing gunboats modified by merchant ships.

It can be said that the scale of this fleet is already very large. Not counting the logistics fleet and the merchant ships accompanying it on the ocean voyage, the number of warships of various types combined exceeds eighty.

It stands to reason that this fleet is enough to sweep away all the monsters and monsters in the Pacific Ocean.

But now that the Xinming Empire has appeared, a monster that cannot be calculated according to common sense, the expedition fleet led by the British may not be easy to use.

Because the Xinming Empire now not only has six new warships modified from the Zhenyuan (Zhenyuan and Dingyuan belong to the same type of warship).

There are also four ironclad battleships that have been redesigned with steam power, covered with a layer of armor, and updated artillery.

Not to mention the armored gunboats converted from steam merchant ships, the number has reached more than two hundred.

For these armored gunboats, Li Mingqi transformed the merchant ships confiscated by the Ming Xie Army and the smuggling merchant ships seized by the navy into various types of armored gunboats.

Not only that, Li Mingqi also purchased many merchant ships from Tsarist Russia, Mexico and other American countries at high prices and refitted them.

Only then did the number of armored gunboats reach a level that could patrol the entire Xinming Empire's coastline.

Now the actual control area of ​​the Xinming Empire is not much different from Chile, and it is in the shape of a long strip.

The north does not include Alaska. Starting from Victoria Freeport, it includes the Oregon region, the former California region, and the Baja California peninsula sold by Mexico.

If it weren't for the New Mexico region, the current territorial shape of the Xinming Empire would be no different than a caterpillar.

This is also the reason why Li Mingqi took the trouble to declare that all the western region belongs to the territory of the Xinming Empire.

Without him, the shape of the country is really too ugly!

The long and narrow country encompasses half of the west coast of North America, so the number of armored gunboats is too small to patrol it.

This is also the reason why the navy of the Xinming Empire is now severely divided between two levels.

As for those offshore patrol boats converted from fishing boats, they cannot be counted.

Unless you rush up and self-destruct, it is difficult to damage the battleships that form a battle formation just by relying on the original version of RPG.

Throughout the 1860s, the world's battleships were still in the process of evolving from sail battleships to ironclad battleships.

The complete body of ironclads is represented by the later Beiyang ironclads such as Zhenyuan, Dingyuan, Dauntless, and Indomitable.

After that came the era of pre-dreadnoughts, dreadnoughts, and super-dreadnoughts. After the heresy of flat-top ships appeared, fewer and fewer countries had large fleets.

And the fleet led by Ying is now at the intersection of change and non-change.

For example, the Warrior-class ironclad is obviously the pinnacle battleship except for the Xinming Empire.

However, due to its only one gun deck, huge weight and high cost, the British Admiralty classified this unprecedented warship as a frigate.

The main battleships currently leading the British Navy are still sailing battleships with three-layer gun decks.

Although in 1861, Dai Ying and Nathan began a naval competition for ironclad ships, it would still take a long time to complete.

The improved ironclad of the Warrior class: the Achilles, would not be completed until at least 1864.

PS1: For the shit shoveling officer: I will greatly update this post if you see that you are not reserved.

PS2: Some information on this battleship says it was launched in 1863, but launching and completion are two different things. According to the information I checked, the completion time of this battleship was 1864.