Bombay was originally a group of seven small islands, known as the Seven Islands of Bombay. The earliest written records dated back to 250 BC. The ancient Greeks called it Hippodamia.
The Portuguese conquered Bahadur Sultanate of Gujarat in the 16th century. Sand had obtained these islands. They then gave it to King Charles II as a dowry in the 17th century. Charles II's father, Charles I, had lost his head in the civil war, and his successor, Charles II, had lost much of his power. The King also ingeniously rented his wife's dowry to the increasingly powerful East India Company at a low rent of ten pounds per year.
The colonialists of the East India Company were rich and overbearing. After obtaining the island, they quickly built a deepwater port on the east coast as their first port of call when they came to South Asia. The population of the city also rapidly increased from 10, 000 in 1661 to 60, 000 in 1675.
As Mumbai became increasingly prosperous, the East India Company simply moved its headquarters from Surat to Mumbai, turning it into a forward base for its colonial business in Asia. As the world's colonization situation improved, the business of the owner, the East India Company, also flourished. Unfortunately, Mumbai's narrow and crowded terrain made it difficult for them to keep up with Gao Zhan. Because of this, the British were quite dissatisfied. After weighing the pros and cons, he began to reclaim the sea.
Under the encouragement of whips and bayonets, the Indian locals showed an excellent performance of hard work and overtime. Since the rain and the sun could not stop the British colonial foreman, they could not stop the pace of the Indian laborers. Hunger, disease, and even death could not stop mankind's ambition to transform nature. The local Indian laborers were workers at the construction site when they were alive, and when they died, they were buried under the construction site as a final contribution to the land reclamation project.
The area of Mumbai, which had been merged into a large city, had increased by several times, reaching 438 square kilometers. India's first passenger rail line, the Bombay and Thana Railway, opened in 1853, and the American Civil War. Mumbai once became the world's cotton trading market, and its economy was booming. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the prosperous ocean trade and excellent geographical conditions became the wings of its rapid development. As a result, Mumbai's status as a city became even more important, becoming one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea. Another thirty years of exhibition followed. It grew into a major central city. The booming trade economy also stimulated the improvement of the city's infrastructure and the construction of many buildings. Its population swelled to 80,000, ranking second in India, second only to Calcutta.
In 1881, Bombay was fully deserving of its title as the first port in the Indian Ocean. Asian products, whether it was China's porcelain, tea, Japan's silk, or India's cotton, all had to be transshipped here. After that, they would cross the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean Sea to finally reach the distant Europe. If it wasn't for the war between England and China that cut off the trade route, European products would have been transported to Asia through this route and distributed, bringing huge profits to the Western colonists.
Lieutenant General Ding Ruchang led all the elite warships of the Chinese Navy to fuel the port and then set sail north. Chinese merchant ships had once visited Mumbai. At that time, many of the sailors were from the navy. Now they have returned to the navy and are involved in navigation work.
Along the way, the Chinese warship maintained a speed of 12 knots. The performance of the steam turbine made the navy very satisfied. The structure of the triple-expansion steam engine was much more complicated than that of the steam turbine. The blades of the steam turbine only needed to withstand the blowing of the steam, and the material change was only heat expansion. For the current metallurgical technology, it was not even a small problem. What could be considered a problem were the large marine transformers that conducted the power. The transformers were not difficult for the talented Military Governor Of Vaize, so the Liberation Army's loyalty to Vézé was unparalleled. Disrespecting the ancestors was a crime punishable by death in China's tradition, not to mention that the ancestors who were still alive were the emperors.
Lieutenant General Ding Ruchang received the order to bombard Mumbai. It was the first time in the history of the Liberation Army that they attacked civilian facilities. At that time, China was the only country that had a radio, and the ionosphere only reflected a very limited amount of radio wave signals. Therefore, the Navy Command had enough time to pass on the Military Governor Of Vaize's words of "learning from the British as a good example" to Ding Ruchang.
After the Indian Ocean Fleet Command understood the spirit of the Military Governor Of Vaize, they presented their own understanding of the results. The navy's thinking was relatively simple. If China completely destroyed the British mainland port, the British would still surrender. Now that the Indian port was shelled, it had no effect on the British mainland. Was this forcing the British to surrender? The most likely outcome would be to infuriate the British and make them rush over to fight with China. It was a good thing to fight the British as soon as possible.
During the five-day voyage, the fleet obeyed the order and sailed with the French flag up high. It was not until outside the port of Mumbai that the French flag was lowered and the China flag was raised.
The first to rush was the cruiser. The ship did not care about the large amount of coal consumed at high altitude. It rushed to the port of Mumbai, which had not reacted yet. The three wooden sailboats were at the front. No one knew what they were carrying. The only thing they could be sure of was the British flag on the mast. The cruiser that rushed into the port had slowed down. At a distance of 10,000 meters, it bombarded the merchant ship with direct fire.
The explosive shell whizzed out and came into close contact with the merchant ship within two seconds. The violent explosion blew half of the wooden hull away. The seawater rushed into the open gap, and in less than three minutes, the ship sank. Without looking at the result of its battle, the cruiser continued to move forward into the port. As it drove, it fired fiercely at the ships that blocked its way. The battleship and the heavy cruiser followed behind and moved forward into the port.
The most eye-catching building in the port of Mumbai was not the customs building in the port, but the warehouses that were connected. The 300 and 260 cannons fired mercilessly at those warehouses. With the current artillery level of the Chinese Navy, the warehouses were hit one after another. The high temperature instantly ignited the cotton, and the warehouse area became a sea of fire in an instant.
The cruiser fired fiercely at the anchored ships. Wood chips flew everywhere, and iron pieces flew everywhere. Even if they were not immediately sunk, these ships were severely damaged and completely lost the ability to sail for a few months. The British already knew that the Indian Ocean Fleet had been destroyed in Colombo, but Colombo continued to fight. Through the submarine cable, the telegrams continued to reach the British Indian authorities. According to the normal battle pattern, the Chinese Navy should cooperate with the 6th Army to capture the port of Colombo, not suddenly appear in Mumbai.
Of course, the British had a lot of experience in naval warfare. The news from Colombo also included the disappearance of the Chinese Navy fleet. The British also considered the possibility of the Chinese Navy attacking the southern Indian ports. But according to the calculations of ten ships, it was impossible for the Chinese Navy to appear in Mumbai. However, the impossible happened. Not only did the Chinese Navy come, but they also launched an artillery attack on Mumbai.
The British warships outside the port finally started to move, and they encountered the Chinese cruiser formation. These eight cruisers were all high-quality warships selected from the 24 warships. At this time, they had all been modified. The steel and wrought iron armor was replaced with nickel-cadmium carburized armor, which was worth more than gold. Although the armor was only 150mm thick, its defense was exactly the same as the previous 300mm steel armor. Relying on this armor, the cruiser ignored the 200mm cannons of the British Navy, and directly began to attack. The upper deck of the British warships was instantly turned into a sea of fire in front of the 150mm cannons. The commander participated in the naval war a few years ago, and knew the power of China's 150mm cannons. The other British warships that had not been injured had to avoid the spearhead of the Chinese Navy.
The huge ocean trade made Mumbai busy almost all year round. The large and small merchant ships coming and going from south to north made the nearby sea a bit crowded. The black smoke emitted by the steam ships covered the sky, so the entire port was shrouded in a gray fog. Although it was already October, Mumbai, which was located at the edge of the equator, did not feel cold at all. The strong sunlight that penetrated through the fog condensed by the soot could even bring people a scorching heat. Coupled with the unique humidity of the port city of Shanghai, the whole of Mumbai was like a huge steamer basket.
After the baptism of the bombardment, Mumbai became even hotter. Thick smoke billowed from the burning port warehouses, and the flames rose. The huge fire even temporarily changed the direction of the wind, causing a gust of hot wind to blow towards the port. The Liberation Army Navy could even feel the heat of the wind.
"Retreat!" Ding Ruchang was not excited because of the victory. The burning city made Vice Admiral Ding Ruchang's expression very ugly. Even the heat coming from the window could not make the coldness on his face show any signs of melting. The burning Mumbai port had been destroyed, and the goal of the battle had been achieved. But what Vice Admiral Ding Ruchang thought of was not the glory of victory and the rewards and promotions that glory brought. It was not that he did not want these, but the tragic result of the war made the Vice Admiral feel fear in his heart.
Now the defeated party was Britain, so Britain's most important port city in India and even in the Indian Ocean, Mumbai, suffered such a tragic loss. If the defeated party was China, then what kind of brilliance and destruction would China's rich and beautiful coastal cities suffer?
The war of the navy was not a cruel battle between the warships of both sides, the soldiers operating the warships. Such a battle was extremely cruel, and even cruel to the point of a little beauty. More than ten days ago, the British Indian Ocean Fleet slowly sank under the clear sky. Before that, they had fought a heroic battle. Some small warships with collision horns even decisively chose to hit the British ships when they had no chance of winning. Then, under the concentrated fire, they were shot into pieces and sank into the sea. Vice Admiral Ding Ruchang admired such a heroic style and action from the bottom of his heart.
But the navy did not only have this kind of battle. The battle that happened in front of them was a one-sided massacre. And as long as the navy still existed, this form of massacre was inevitable. Even if there was no pity for the foreigners of the enemy country, Vice Admiral Ding Ruchang had to consider how to avoid such a tragic fate for China.
Before going out, the Vice Admiral was actually quite dissatisfied with the Military Governor Vaize's words of "learning how to rule the world from the British". What was there to learn from the British? Now he somewhat understood what they had to learn. The port of Mumbai had gathered a huge amount of wealth, which was accumulated by the hard work of countless people. It would take several years to accumulate this wealth, but it would only take a few hours to destroy it.
The Vice Admiral's order was quickly carried out. The attack was successful, and the goal was achieved. The Chinese ships did not stop, and the cruisers chased after the British Navy. The unlucky warships were turned into torches, and the lucky warships escaped the attack of the Chinese Navy. The Chinese ships did not chase after them. The fleet changed direction, abandoned the burning port of Mumbai, and sailed away from the port bay, which was full of damaged and broken ships.
In the eyes of a few people who still had time to watch the Chinese Navy ships, the Chinese ships moved southwest at a shocking speed, and soon disappeared under the horizon.
When the news of the shelling of Mumbai and the heavy damage to the port reached London, the British Imperial Navy was hesitating. The eight Sovereign battleships had been launched and could also be used in the war. The powerful fleet that was enough to destroy any European navy did not destroy the confidence of the Chinese Navy. In addition, whether to start the construction of eight more battleships became the topic of discussion in the British Parliament.
In the second half of 1879, Britain encountered an economic crisis. Before the eight battleships started construction, the price of British steel plummeted. The new battleship needed not only tens of thousands of tons of steel, but also many industries. With this stimulus, Britain barely survived the beginning of the financial crisis. In the second half of 1880, the financial crisis showed signs of intensification again. At this time, the United States began to build railways again, and imported large amounts of steel from Britain. In the eyes of Britain, the financial crisis could not be avoided, but it passed with ease.
Britain had always thought that China's system was effective in dealing with the economic crisis. The state led the economic development and could ignore the problem of profit. A large part of the content of China's newspapers was about how many railways were opened this year, how many counties had trains, how many routes were opened next year, and how much transportation services could be provided. If Britain did the same, many companies would have to go public to make money. In a few years, news of a large number of companies going bankrupt would come. All the companies in China were state-owned, and with the support of the state's major shareholders, it was not a problem for the company to operate at a loss.
It was no longer news in Europe that infrastructure construction could drive economic development. The various monopoly systems that emerged in the 1970s had done a lot of research on this. The result of the research was that as long as they could survive this period of loss, all the money could be earned back in the next period of economic prosperity. It was just that the overall profit was very low.
After the completion of the eight Sovereign battleships, a lot of experience was accumulated, and there were many good ideas for the design of the new generation of battleships. Britain was considering whether to take advantage of this opportunity to build eight more battleships of the next generation. At that time, the odds of winning the war with China would become greater.
After learning that the British Indian Ocean Fleet was destroyed, the British Admiralty knew that their wishful thinking had failed. The British Grand Fleet had to attack. If they could win against the Chinese Navy this time, it would be fine. If the Royal Navy was defeated, then the short-term shipbuilding plan would be completely put on hold. Before the design of battleships that could beat the Chinese Navy, the shipbuilding of the British Royal Navy would be greatly affected.
The Admiralty originally wanted to consider whether to wait until the funding for the new warships was confirmed. After the Chinese warships shelled Mumbai, the Admiralty knew that there was no longer any possibility of waiting. The goal of the British Royal Navy was no longer to destroy the Chinese Navy, but to protect Britain's most important colony, India. The land area of India was only about two million square kilometers, which was not big among the many colonies of Britain. But there were hundreds of millions of Indians in this more than two million square kilometers of land. These people produced and lived. The former provided products for Britain, and the latter bought products from Britain.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
