Chapter 289 Only airships? It seems that Ming Dynasty has fallen behind! (Please subscribe and vote monthly)

Log in, you must log in!

Even if the landing force is completely wiped out, as long as the main attack momentum is launched, the Ming Dynasty can be convinced that the main force of the Royal Indian Navy is in the Gulf of Oman, and the purpose of the Muscat Battle will be achieved.

As for the sacrifices of the Indian warriors who landed, who would care? Even the lives of a small number of white-skinned officers and mercenaries, those aloof rulers of the British Empire would not care.

Because the British Empire in this era was a complete bourgeois government, the House of Commons in power was voted by hundreds of thousands of wealthy people in the United Kingdom. These people occupied most of the land in the British Isles and almost all of the United Kingdom.

factories and banks, controlling finance and overseas trade.

Most of them will never enter the military camp - there is no compulsory military service in the UK, and only some shield nobles who have been in the army for generations among the upper class will become officers, and most of the officer positions in the UK can be obtained by those who meet the requirements.

What the aristocratic young people bought with their money was donated classes!

Ordinary people, except for those who are too poor to expose themselves, will rarely serve as soldiers for the few modest military salaries and believe in social Darwinism (in fact, social Darwinism exists in the bone marrow of the Angsa people, and it appears earlier than Darwin).

Earlier) the superior people of Ansar (actually they are descendants of the Normans) would not care at all about the lives of these poor people who betrayed and went to war for a few small sums of money, otherwise the British Empire in history would not have flourished at its peak.

The era brought about the Great Famine in Ireland.

In addition, launching the Muscat landing battle also had another purpose, which was to explore Ming's trump card.

The torpedo speedboats that launched the attack just now and the "long-range high-speed torpedoes" they launched are the trump cards in the hands of Ming Dynasty!

However, what Emperor William and Marquis Nelson were most interested in and worried about were the Ming Empire's aerial weapons - no matter how powerful the Ming's torpedo boats were, they could only carry out sneak attacks in the offshore and could not be used on the ocean. And even if the Ming Dynasty's torpedo boats were

When the fleet is operating in coastal waters, it is not difficult to defend against torpedo boats. All it takes is to build more gunboats. Speedboats that use steam turbines and can run more than 30 knots have long been available in the British Empire.

But if the Ming Empire had a human-operated gliding torpedo, then Emperor William's decisive battle plan would not be able to be carried out. Think about it, this human-operated gliding torpedo is more powerful than a human-operated gliding bomb!

So when Codrington said "I'm not afraid of sacrifice", he was actually very worried in his heart. He was afraid that dozens of airships would fly over with manned gliding torpedoes, which would cause big trouble.

"Admiral, urgent call from the armored cruiser HMS Insolence! Dozens of small airships were found flying from the direction of Ras Al Khaimah to the coast of Muscat!"

When the early morning sun shone on the beach of Muscat, the armored cruiser Insolence cruising in the northern Gulf of Oman sent an urgent message about the discovery of the Ming Army airship group!

Admiral Codrington was holding a telescope at this time, concentrating on the ongoing landing operation.

Although the Ming Army's torpedo boat attack previously sank two armored cruisers, two second- and third-class cruisers of the Indian Grand Fleet, and severely damaged a second-class cruiser, for the Indian Grand Fleet with dozens of old ships

In fact, this loss is still bearable.

The landing operation was not greatly affected. A dozen troop carriers on the sea still followed the original plan, and under the cover of a dozen destroyers and gunboats, they sent out small boats to carry a wave of British and Indian officers and soldiers who landed.

Another wave rushed towards the beach in Muscat.

The terrain near Muscat is not conducive to landing operations. This area goes to the northwest and has a long and gentle coastline. The Ming army simply did not have enough troops to deploy defenses, and the population of the Sultanate of Oman was not large.

, also cannot support the Continental Army. So they have always been guarding Muscat and some nearby ports to expand externally by sea when they are strong, and shrink into the nearby Hajar Mountains when they are at a disadvantage.

With the strength of the Ming Army in the Persian Gulf, when the Indian Empire showed its greatest determination to launch an offensive, it could only retreat to the Hajar Mountains, Ras Al Khaimah, and Qeshm Island, blocking the Strait of Hormuz and the

Attack the opponent and fight a protracted battle.

Therefore, when the defenders discovered that the torpedo boat attack failed to scare off the opponent, they did not persist on the beach. They just used 155mm cannons to bombard the beach where the British and Indian troops landed for a while. After running out of ammunition, they began to attack the Hajar Mountains.

The stronghold inside has been moved.

The Sultan Sultan of Muscat, Sultan Sultan of Oman, had long led his men to run Oman's territory of Zanzibar in Africa. Zanzibar in later generations was just an island, but in its heyday, it included Africa.

There is a lot of potential in the "big territory" along the east coastline and in the northern part of Madagascar (a seaside area).

After hearing the news of the incoming airship, Admiral Codrington immediately became nervous - after the Battle of Kii, the invincible British Royal Navy already had a bit of a phobia of Ming airships!

There were dozens of airships at once, and each airship had to have 10 people on board to operate gliding bombs or gliding torpedoes. That was hundreds!

Moreover, the latest version of the British army's man-operated gliding bomb has been installed with a 30-horsepower five-cylinder rotor radial engine. If the Ming Dynasty had the same equipment, it would only be more powerful!

Thinking of this, Admiral Codrington immediately issued an order: "Suspend landing operations. All ships must form an air defense formation immediately!"

"Yes, sir!"

The so-called anti-aircraft formation is a large ship and transport ship as the center, surrounded by a circle of destroyers, second- and third-class cruisers or gunboats. The large ship and transport ships take a Z-shaped avoidance route inside, while the small ships use anti-aircraft artillery on the outside to conduct air defense.

Raise your gun and hit the airship.

This kind of air defense tactic has been practiced by the British and Indian navies in the past two years. After Admiral Codrington gave the order, more than twenty "small circles" were formed in the sea off Muscat every moment.

"All kinds of anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft guns were set up.

If those airships in the sky dare to lower their altitude for bombing, they will become living targets!

However, Admiral Codrington still did not dare to take it lightly. He just stood at the window of the bridge and looked at the sky through the telescope for about half an hour. When he saw that his neck was a little sore, suddenly, one after another appeared in the telescope.

"A little bit".

"airship!"

"It looks very small, not as big as the Flying Dragon III."

"This should be Ming Dynasty's new airship, right?"

The staff and advisers around Codrington were already talking about it.

And Codrington himself also discovered that the airships in the sky were different from the big Flying Dragon III. They seemed to be much smaller, and the cockpit under the air cabin was also smaller. There should be no internal magazine. There were also appeared on both sides of the cockpit.

There were two flying wings, and there was an engine and a propeller hanging under each flying wing, and there seemed to be two bombs.

Dozens of airships have formed a relatively dense formation in the air, and they seem to be ready for bombing!

However, Codrington breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "It seems that there are only airships, and no one operates gliding bombs or gliding torpedoes. It seems that Ming Dynasty has lagged behind our British Empire in the sky!"
Chapter completed!