At this time, China's first island chain had basically been completed. The islands southeast of Japan were almost all taken away by China through contracts. In the Sino-British secret agreement, Britain recognized China's sovereignty over these islands. To the south was Taiwan, Luzon, and Lanfang. It was just that at this time, due to technical reasons, there was no way to truly form the concept of the first island chain. Even so, Lanfang was the most important piece of the South China Sea islands of China.
Vézé himself did not know how lucky he was. If he had moved against Lanfang a few years later, things would have been completely different. Borneo not only had the Lanfang regime, but also the country of Brunei. Historically, Britain attacked Brunei after 1870 and turned Brunei into a British protectorate. After China got Lanfang, they also attacked Brunei. After two or three years of war, they sent the entire family of the Brunei king, who "admired Chinese culture", to China. In China, the legal "Brunei Annexation Treaty" was signed, and China's substantial merger with Brunei was completed. From then on, the entire Borneo became a part of China.
With the entire Borneo in hand, the next step was naturally to continue south. The Dutch East Indies was not far from the Island of Borneo, and it was even close by sea. Blue sky, white sand in the distance.
Beaches, and seas of different shades of blue. The South Sea Fleet of the Liberation Army was cruising in such beautiful scenery.
The Chinese Navy now had four major fleets. From north to south, they were the North Sea Fleet, the Yellow Sea Fleet, the East Sea Fleet, and the South Sea Fleet. The second strongest of the four fleets was the South Sea Fleet. Recently, there was a saying in the navy that they hoped to reformulate fleet designations based on war zones. Starting from the Fourth Fleet, fleets were stationed according to the various sea war zones. These were adjustments for the convenience of paperwork and combat inference. What really determined the strength of a fleet was the total number of warships, tonnage, and combat power.
On February 4, the nautical records of the South Sea Fleet's Second Fleet recorded the following: "10: 18, found warships about 10 nautical miles south."
If the Dutch East Indies, or the series of islands in northern Australia, were described from east to west as a long snake, Lanfang Province was undoubtedly a boulder on the back of this long snake. The distance to attack south from Borneo was very short. This was also the reason why the Liberation Army was confident in seizing the Dutch East Indies. The navy could easily attack several important ports in the Dutch East Indies, and the army could easily land under the protection of the navy. The Dutch did not have a decent navy, and the midships made full use of this advantage to conduct a comprehensive hydrographic survey of the various sea routes. The fleet also frequently sailed and made all kinds of preparations.
War historians had different opinions on the Second B Squadron's choice at 10: 30 pm, but these preparations were what they should have done. The Second Fleet chose to face that fleet head-on and did not take a more conservative approach.
At 11 o 'clock, the opposing fleet raised the Spanish flag, and both sides immediately entered a state of battle.
Even though Spain is thousands of miles away from China. China and Spain were still at war. The Chinese fleet was ready to fight when they approached the enemy. Seeing the Spanish flag raised on the enemy's bare mast, the Chinese Navy immediately ordered the main cannons on the deck to fire at the Spanish warships. The two steam-powered fleets immediately entered the battle stage.
The Liberation Army had eight warships participating in the battle, and four of them had a tonnage of more than 3000 tons. If they were all small boats of more than 1000 tons, the commander of the Second Fleet would not have ordered them to approach, and would have chosen to move closer to inspect. The opposing fleet numbered about ten ships. Four of them were small boats, and the other six were ironclads of more than 4000 tons. Although the Spanish warships had the advantage in both numbers and tonnage, the advantage was not that great.
The actual battle was not as evenly matched as the data on paper showed. When they entered the battle line and fired at each other, the Chinese Navy was actually at a complete disadvantage. The range and power of the Spanish cannons were extremely shocking, and the main cannons among them could even easily penetrate the Liberation Army's 150mm iron armor.
After more than half an hour of artillery battle, a cannonball penetrated the iron armor of the Second Fleet's flagship, the Changsha, and smashed into the boiler room. After the boiler was destroyed, the Changsha lost its power, and the fleet had no choice but to abandon the flagship and retreat. In the cruel pursuit, another two medium-sized ships were hit and sunk. When the China Second Fleet approached China's port, the Spanish fleet gave up the chase and continued to advance.
Lanfang Province immediately raised the level of combat readiness, and at the same time, sent a message to the central government to report the enemy's attack.
The central government received this news on February 10th. Because the submarine cable laying had not been completed yet, the speed of information transmission at sea was too slow. On February 11th, the central government received another telegram. Just after the defense level of Lanfang Province was raised, another sub-fleet was attacked by the enemy. This time, it was not bad. Only one warship on the China side sank, and two of the enemy's warships seemed to have problems with their cannons exploding, so the battle was stopped and both sides retreated.
"Why are the Spanish fighting back against us now? Aren't they incompetent? "Someone in the military commission raised this question.
Vézé sneered. "We only saw the Spanish flag on the enemy's warships. Anyone can produce the Spanish flag, and anyone can hang it on their mast when the war starts. Can you confirm that the enemy is the Spanish just by seeing those flags? "
"What?" Some comrades were intimidated. If that was the case, there were too many enemies, including the Dutch, the British, the French, and even the Americans. There were only a few countries in the sea that had the strength to fight against China with ironclad warships.
Looking at Vézé closing his eyes and thinking, everyone only dared to whisper. Europe and the United States were countries of foreign devils, and no one had a good impression of them. They were also in high spirits preparing to attack the Dutch East Indies in 1870. Now that the fleet of Lanfang Province was suddenly attacked by the enemy's navy, it was a bit like a blow to the head. The enemy was not as weak and incompetent as they had imagined. They still had the ability to fight back, and could even cause a lot of damage to China with their sharp teeth and claws.
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