Wild North America 1846

After General Dai Changfu left, Richard calmly picked up a report on the imperial case and read it carefully.

This is a military intelligence report sent back by the Royal Navy Expeditionary Fleet from New Orleans. After a four-month journey, the fleet circumnavigated the entire South America and arrived at the city of Coler in Panama Province on the Gulf of Mexico in early July, where it conducted a

Personnel replenishment and warship maintenance were carried out, and 37 patients in the fleet were treated ashore.

More than 20 days later

Due to the anxious urging of the Southern Confederacy, the expeditionary strike fleet had to end its rest and recuperation ahead of schedule, and took along two large cruise ships, two coal ships and five 5,000-ton cargo ships stranded in the port to form a mighty force.

The mixed formation sailed north.

The mixed formation arrived in the waters off New Orleans on August 11, where the first Atlantic naval battle broke out with the U.S. Union Navy (North).

In this short naval battle that lasted one and a half hours, the Tang Kingdom's advanced iron-clad destroyers "Qiuyue", "Chunyue" and "Hanyue" showed their fierce appearance. With the advanced Colt 30-pound breech master

Naval guns and dexterous maneuvers sank the 752-ton coastal iron-clad patrol ship "Minuteman Spirit" and the 630-ton "St. George" of the U.S. Northern Navy, and wounded and captured the "Lawrence", a 2,550-ton steam merchant ship.

, and captured two coal ships, achieving a complete victory.

The victory of this naval battle greatly shocked the arrogance of the Northern Navy, reversed the passive situation of New Orleans after being occupied by the Northern Army, and blocked the fleet led by General David Farage of the Northern Navy in the Mississippi River port.

, became the turtle in the urn.

How could this be?

The northern naval commander, General David Farage, was ordered to carry out the blockade mission, which was still very difficult to carry out.

The northern navy, which has limited strength, has to block more than 5,630 kilometers of southern coastline and patrol nearly 200 ports and navigable rivers.

What is even more sinister is that if you want to completely cut off the connection between the Confederacy and Europe, you may also run the risk of triggering disputes with European countries.

However, the Tang Kingdom's participation in the war quickly caused the entire Western Front battlefield to collapse. The U.S. federal government (the North) urgently needed to exert greater war pressure on the South, so blockading the southern coastal ports became a necessary choice.

When General David Farage arrived at the port of New Orleans, in order to capture the two forts on the east and west of the river mouth, he bombarded them for seven consecutive days. As a result, the forts remained motionless.

In desperation, General Farage chose a dark night, led seventeen warships in a row, and took the risk to break through.

The Confederate fortress defense forces heard the noise and fired fiercely at them, sinking one battleship. The other three ships were also severely damaged and could not continue to move forward, but the remaining 13 ships safely broke through the blockade.

When he arrived in New Orleans, General Farage discovered that New Orleans was defenseless. Thousands of Confederate soldiers originally stationed there had already fled, and the rest were ordinary people.

So General Farage took a big advantage and captured New Orleans without firing a shot, and the Confederate flag was replaced by the Union flag.

More than two months later, General David Farage was still unable to persuade the southern defenders at the two forts at the mouth of the Mississippi River to surrender, and the two sides remained in a stalemate.

The Northern fleet captured New Orleans, but the navigation of the Mississippi River was still controlled by the Confederate fortresses. Without their permission, all ships passing by were sunk.

The entire New Orleans port was completely useless. The Northern Army could not obtain supplies through the port, the Confederates could not use the port, and the mountains of cotton could not be exported to Europe. It was a stalemate.

Until the expedition fleet of the Tang Kingdom arrived, it broke the deadlock while annihilating the armored patrol fleet at the mouth of the river. Instead, it blocked 13 warships led by General David Farage in the Mississippi River, making it impossible to get out.

The advanced artillery shells equipped by the iron-clad ships of the Tang Kingdom use proximity fuzes. The shells fired by the 30-pound main gun are sharp and have a higher damage power than the 60-pound solid shells. They can easily break through General Farage.

The outer shell of the attached ironclad ship was dealt a fatal blow.

On the other hand, the 13 battleships led by General David Farage all used solid cannonballs. At most, they left a conspicuous dent on the surface of the opponent's battleship, and it was unthinkable to break the armor.

With such a huge disparity in the strength of the ships on both sides, how could General David Farage dare to risk the lives of his sailors?

The Royal Expeditionary Fleet of the Tang Dynasty was personally led by Lieutenant General Pan Hengchen, Chief of Naval Staff, with the flagship "Qiuyue". Commodore Zheng Shuyu, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, was also in the expeditionary fleet, with the ship "Hangyue", which can be said to be the most important member of the Royal Navy.

All the best.

In addition to the three 3,550-ton ironclad destroyers "Qiuyue", "Chunyue" and "Hangyue", the expeditionary strike fleet is also accompanied by five 1,500-ton "Hangyue" class ironclad frigates, including seven improved "Hangyue",

The 8th ship "Bitter Winter", the 9th ship "Ice", the 10th ship "Han Dew" and the 12th ship "Frost", almost 70% of the entire navy's assets were used, and then a new ship was formed.

An expeditionary fleet with 8 ironclad ships as its core.

Now the No. 4 and No. 5 ships of the "Qiuyue" class ironclad destroyers have been launched successively and are undergoing sea trials. They are expected to be delivered to the Navy before the end of the year.

Line 6, Line 7 and Ship 8 are being worked on day and night at the shipyard, and the construction progress varies. They will be launched into the water for trial sea trials at the end of next year and the first half of next year. It is estimated that they will be delivered to the Navy from the end of next year to the first half of the next year.

Ship No. 9 has just landed on the slipway, and the three warships No. 10, No. 11 and No. 12 are waiting for empty docks. They are expected to be docked for construction at the end of the year or the first half of next year. They will not be completed until the next year, that is, the end of 1862 or later.

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Therefore, the armored destroyers "Qiuyue", "Chunyue" and "Hanyue" are the three leading stars of the Royal Fleet of the Tang Kingdom. Once they are lost, there will be no place to replace them.

Unlike the United States of America (North), which developed its navy at all costs, the Tang Kingdom maintained a steady and steady development strategy. Even after the outbreak of the North American War, it did not significantly increase naval funding.

This made Lieutenant General Pan Hengchen, Chief of Naval Staff, very anxious. He understood that His Majesty still did not trust the combat effectiveness of the Navy, so he personally took command of this expedition to the Atlantic and deployed all the navy's elites to attack, making sure to create a beautiful situation.

If you want to increase the military budget, you must demonstrate your merits.

The United States (North) suffered a big loss at the beginning of the war and was frightened by the British. This is interesting to say.

Soon after the war began in October 1857, the Confederacy was eager to gain support from the European powers, so it sent Mason and Slidell, politicians with diplomatic experience, to break through the blockade and go to Cuba aboard the British cruise ship "Trent", preparing to serve as envoys to Britain and France respectively.

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After learning about it, the Northern Federation went to intercept. The steam cruiser "San Jacinto" successfully intercepted and captured the two men on November 8, 1857.

This behavior made Britain furious. Britain claimed that its flag had been insulted and declared war on the North, and sent its Royal Navy fleet and 8,000 soldiers to Canada.

This time, the James Buchanan government was frightened. On the one hand, it quickly sent envoys to Britain, France and other countries to speak softly and do their jobs. They humbly begged for release, and obediently released politicians Mason and others.

Slidell, this is a slap in the face.

On the other hand, it stabilized domestic public opinion, took advantage of information asymmetry to promote the victory over the British in 1812, and encouraged the enthusiasm of the people who were not afraid of declaring war against the British. This was a double-dealing effort.

It took a lot of effort to get through the mud.

After encountering threats from the British, the United States recognized its shame and became brave. It set up a special armored construction bureau and worked hard to build the navy throughout the war, almost completely curbing the economic lifeline of the Confederate Army.

It was the end of September 1860, the fourth year since the war broke out. The number of warships of the United States of America (Northern United States) had grown to more than 500, totaling more than 370,000 tons, and more than 4,500 artillery pieces of various calibers. Its strength was quite impressive.

compare with

The expeditionary strike fleet dispatched by the Tang Kingdom consists of eight armored warships with a displacement of only 18,000 tons, which is one twentieth of the size of the Northern Fleet.

The characteristic of the Tang Kingdom fleet is that the ships are advanced and unified, all using propeller power configuration, and all using unified Colt breech-loading naval guns, which are divided into three artillery calibers of 30 pounds, 20 pounds and 12 pounds, with fast speed and fierce firepower.

, representing the latest technological level of today's armored warships.

The "Qiuyue" class ironclad destroyer is equipped with four 30-pound main naval guns, two at the bow and two at the stern, all arranged forward and backward along the central axis. The broadside firing can exert full firepower.

The ship is also equipped with six 12-pound Colt secondary guns, three on each side, which can be used as supplementary firepower. The firepower density is quite high, and it can be said that the ship is strong and powerful.

The most deadly thing is the triggered fuse shell fired by the ship, which is loaded with a large amount of yellow high explosives. It is not the kind of solid shell that hits a crater. This is almost a dimensionality-reducing blow to the American ironclad ship.

Richard closed the military intelligence report in a happy mood and prepared to go to Wanshou Mountain (Wanshou Mountain, an auspicious homonym for Ten Thousand Beasts) in the imperial court with his hands behind his back to tease the ferocious beasts that were kept deep in the mountains.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen these little guys, and I still miss them so much...

Lieutenant General Pan Hengchen's military intelligence report came from New Orleans, which meant that the Royal Navy led a fleet that had defeated the US fleet, landed in New Orleans and reoccupied it.

The process of the naval battle was not complicated. The expeditionary strike fleet could not linger in the offshore area outside the mouth of the Mississippi River for a long time. After it was determined that the Northern Army's David Farage fleet had avoided the battle.

Lieutenant General Pan Hengchen decisively led the fleet into the Mississippi River and followed the river to the vast port area of ​​New Orleans, where he launched a fierce battle with the U.S. Northern Fleet.

To say it was a fierce battle would be better to say it was a one-sided bloody massacre.

The warships of both sides started shelling from a distance of 8 chains. After shelling each other for 11 rounds, the warships of both sides approached a close range of 4 chains. The accuracy of the artillery fire further increased, and both sides received hit results.

The Northern Fleet's artillery hit a dozen holes, and the Tang Kingdom's expeditionary fleet hit a dozen big holes. The violent explosion of the artillery shells flew away the Northern Fleet's forts, broke the keels, and opened fire one after another on the sides of the enemy ships.

Big mouth...

The gap is too obvious and it's completely bullying.

After more than an hour of shelling, of the 13 warships led by General David Farage, five were sunk, two were severely damaged, and the rest all hung up obediently and surrendered.

General David Farage and several of his officers fled to the port in a small boat, and then led thousands of U.S. Marines to retreat in embarrassment, respectfully giving up New Orleans, an important port city in the South.

Cruise ships and cargo ships from the Expeditionary Strike Fleet docked at the port of New Orleans one after another, and a large number of Royal Marines disembarked from the ships, and also occupied New Orleans without firing a single shot.

At this point, the biggest headache for the United States and the Confederacy has been solved. Next, a steady stream of cargo ships will set sail from here, loaded with cotton, heading to Europe and France on the other side of the Atlantic, reopening the trade route that is vital to the south.

Next, Lieutenant General Pan Hengchen will divide the fleet into three, establishing the first, second and third squadrons respectively, with an "Qiuyue" class armored destroyer and a "Hanfeng" class armored frigate as the core, plus

They boarded various Confederate ships and headed east and then north along the port of New Orleans, searching for and annihilating Northern warships, and lifting the blockade of coastal ports one by one.

This phase of the campaign is expected to last 4 to 5 months.

Actual combat shows

The Tang Kingdom's advanced strong ships and cannons had an overwhelming advantage over the U.S. Northern warships. Those U.S. Northern warships equipped with solid artillery shells were no match at all, and they were accurate every time.

Lieutenant General Pan Hengchen is well versed in the principle of "strike while the iron is hot". This is also a good opportunity to perform in front of His Majesty. How could he not do his best?

The better the performance of the expeditionary fleet, the more likely it is that the Royal Navy's next plan to propose a 7,800-ton "Zhenwei" ironclad ship will be approved, and that will be the Royal Navy's dream ship that truly goes to the ocean and can participate in world ocean competitions.

In the plan, the "Zhenwei" ironclad will be equipped with four 60-pound Colt cannons. This amazingly powerful cannon can sink enemy ships with one shot. It is exciting to think about it.

Of course, such an iron-clad giant ship, which brought together the world's top shipbuilding technologies, was expensive to build and posed a high challenge to the shipbuilding technology of the Tang Kingdom. It could be described as a national treasure.

In order to obtain His Majesty's royal approval, the Royal Expeditionary Fleet must perform extremely well in order to get a share of the army's glorious victory.

There is really no way, the land and sea armies of the Tang Kingdom are too deeply involved.

The Royal Army achieved brilliant victories one after another, which overwhelmed the Royal Navy. It had almost no place in the court. The performance was so outstanding.

If the Royal Navy cannot produce a solid record, it will be unconvincing, let alone compete with the Royal Army for military budget. It is better to go to bed early.

As the leader of the Royal Navy, Lieutenant General Pan Hengchen has always had an unyielding heart.