Chapter 3473
The flight from Hambantota to Colombo is about four to five hundred miles and takes about one day. When Conceicao came, he had to bypass the Dutch blockade at sea, so it took more than two days on the way.
At this time, the fleet of the special warfare division does not need to hide its tracks and takes the shortest route to the Port of Colombo, which naturally takes much less time.
Some warships of the Special Warfare Division are equipped with steam engines. If steam power is used to advance at full speed, and the sea conditions are suitable, the time can even be compressed to about eight hours in theory.
Gao Qiaonan originally did not intend to waste precious machine life for such a mission, and the island of Ceylon does not produce coal. The coal required to use the steam engine currently has to be transported thousands of miles from Perak, Selangor and other places in the Malay Peninsula. , supplementation is extremely difficult.
But Consicao obviously knew something about the characteristics of the Haihan warship. He asked Takahashi Minami to activate the steam power system so that he could reach Colombo as soon as possible.
Conceicao's eagerness is understandable. The time he spent on the way here, plus the negotiations in Hambantota and waiting for Haihan's army to prepare for war, a full five days have passed.
Conceicao was not sure whether Colombo's garrison could hold out for so many days. He only knew that he had to rush back with reinforcements as soon as possible. If he arrived a moment earlier and a moment later, there might be two completely different endings. .
Takahashi Minami said frankly that if a steam propulsion system was to be used, it would incur high costs. Moreover, only a part of the warships in the fleet have this function. The remaining troop transports and supply ships can only travel at the normal speed of sailing ships, and it still takes a day to reach Colombo.
Consicario understood quickly. Minami Takahashi gave so many reasons, but they could be summed up in just three words: More money is needed!
At this juncture, even if he knew that the other party was extorting money, Consicao would not waste any more time bargaining. Now that his life was at stake, how could he care about spending more money, even if he agreed to pay the related additional expenses afterwards.
Since the benefactor was willing to pay the bill, Takahashi Minami had no choice but to fulfill his wish and ordered eight warships equipped with steam power systems to use full power and break away from the fleet and move forward at full speed.
The fleet flagship Weixing that Takahashi Minami and Consicario were riding at this time was one of the eight warships equipped with a steam power system.
After the order was given, rumbling sounds came from deep in the cabin, and black soot began to emit from the ship's chimney. White waves were stirred up by the propeller on the stern of the ship, and the speed quickly increased to more than ten knots.
This majesty-class battleship is an improved model that began mass production in the mid-1940s. It was originally part of the Northern Fleet. When Qian Tiandun led the special warfare division south, he chose this ship as his flagship.
The other seven warships, including five expedition-class warships and two exploration-class warships, have enough firepower to handle a general-scale maritime battle.
Several old warships that are not equipped with steam power systems continue to travel together with troop transports and supply ships, serving as escort missions along the way.
Although the withdrawal of the main force of the fleet will make the remaining ships appear to be somewhat lacking in firepower, the fleet should not be bold enough to take the initiative to provoke them under the bright banner of Haihan. What's more, both the front and rear armies of the fleet have radio stations. In case of emergencies, the rear army can also use the radio to ask for help from the front army.
An hour later, the front army of eight steam warships had already left the sail warships far behind.
But Conceicao did not become relaxed because of this, and his face became even heavier. Obviously he really felt that the high speed of the Haihan warship meant a larger combat range and stronger maneuverability.
There is a huge technological gap between the two countries in the fields of shipbuilding and navigation. What is worse is that there is currently no hope of catching up with this gap.
Information from some secret channels shows that Haihan has successfully developed a more advanced marine power system, but it has not yet been installed on a large scale. But Consicario thought from this that after ten or twenty years, the technological gap between the two sides in this field would only further widen, to the point of despair. However, the subsequent episode exposed the unreliability of steam warships at this stage.
Four hours after setting off, the steam power systems of the two Discovery-class warships failed one after another, and they were forced to break away from the front army and use sail power to travel.
Takahashi Minami didn't care about this. The steam power systems equipped on these warships were old models from more than ten years ago, and it was inevitable that they would have some minor problems from time to time. The latest model of steam power system will probably have to wait for the next batch of new ships.
Being able to run for four hours at a time is enough to perform general combat missions. After all, a long-distance attack at full speed like the current situation is an extremely rare special mission for special warfare divisions.
After ten hours of continuous sailing at a speed of about sixteen knots, the six warships of the Special Warfare Division finally arrived in the waters near Colombo.
There are at least a dozen armed merchant ships on the sea ahead. Their identities can be easily distinguished from their appearance and the flags on their masts. They are all Dutch sailing ships.
These ships were cruising on the sea more than ten miles away from the Port of Colombo, apparently on guard against Portuguese reinforcements. But they probably never dreamed that the reinforcements brought by the Portuguese turned out to be the Haihan Army.
Seeing the Haihan warships intruding into this sea area without hesitation, the Dutch were probably a little confused.
Without knowing the intentions of the Haihan Army, they did not dare to open fire to block the other side.
Although the Haihan Army only came with six ships, the firepower of that Majesty-class battleship alone was enough to give these armed merchant ships with a displacement of only three to four hundred tons a drink.
Consicao's attention was not on these Dutch ships. He tremblingly raised his telescope and looked at the city of Colombo on the coast.
Fortunately, he saw through the telescope that the Portuguese flag was still standing on the top of the city, which showed that the defenders still controlled the city and had not been breached by the Dutch.
Consicario let out a sigh of relief, finally relieved of his worries for many days. I hurriedly hurriedly and slowly all the way, and finally caught up.
However, there were sporadic gunfire sounds from the shore, indicating that the battle between the two sides was still ongoing.
Consicao was well aware of the strength of the defenders, and knew that the end of the war might be reached at this time, so he quickly begged Takahashi Minami to take immediate action to interrupt the Dutch offensive against Colombo.
All Takahashi Nan can do now is to bravely rush in and cut off the connection between the Dutch armed merchant ships and the landing troops.
If the Dutch are concerned about their arrival, they should take the initiative to contact their own side to seek negotiations.
If the Dutch still attack the city regardless, Takahashi Minami can only give them strong medicine.
"Send my order and all ships should be ready to fire! If the Dutch want to attack us, then there is no need to be polite to them!"