1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1155 Sweeping Jinzhou Bay

Seeing the miserable situation of his opponent, Pan Yan also secretly felt lucky for himself. The last time he was able to survive from the ravages of the Haihan battleship, his luck was quite good.It was less than a year since Jinshui Division was established, and most of its personnel were from the former Ming Army Navy. However, it seems that this switch of camps not only did not allow them to find a chance to make a fortune, but instead bumped into Haihan. star.

The "Weiyuan" didn't turn back to look for the bad luck of those warships, but continued to accelerate towards the depths of Jinzhou Bay.According to the information collected from various sources during this period, the main station of the Hou Jinshui Division in the Liaodong Peninsula is Jinzhou Bay, and it is obvious that there will be only a few ships that have shown up.Considering the amount of ammunition carried by the fleet, Tom Wang did not expect to wipe out the Jinshui Division in one fell swoop, but it is necessary to take this opportunity to inflict heavy damage on it to ensure that they will not have the energy to harass the Changshan Islands or It is the Jiaodong Peninsula in the south.

It is not difficult to find the wharf where the Hou Jinshui Division is docked. After all, the area of ​​Jinzhou Bay is limited, and there are only a few places suitable for building large military wharves.It didn't take long for the lookout on the mast to discover the hiding place of Houjin Navy through the telescope, and confirmed that several warships were leaving the shore in a panic.

"Fat meat!" Wang Tom was very excited after hearing the news. He was not worried that the superiority of the opponent's warships would be able to trap his flagship. After all, the tonnage and speed of the two sides were too far apart. However, as long as the operation of the "Weiyuan" does not go wrong, and the speed of the ship is not deliberately slowed down to let the enemy ships surround it, the threat that the enemy can pose to the "Weiyuan" is basically within the controllable range.However, it is relatively easier for the "Weiyuan" to take advantage of its own artillery fire to cause damage to enemy warships. Even if the solid shells are not easy to sink the ship, it is not difficult to make some transparent holes in its hull.

Pan Yan was stunned and rushed into the queue of the Houjin warship along with the "Weiyuan". Targets within the range of fire spit out shells. Pan Yan never thought that naval battles could be operated like this. In the naval tactics he learned, basically after the symbolic firearms were fired, the two sides should engage in boarding battles. The real winner will be determined by hand-to-hand combat.Because everyone's equipment level is basically on the same level, the side with a clear advantage in the number of warships and total tonnage is almost impossible to fail in a naval battle, and the current situation is indeed far beyond Pan Yan's cognition.

Although Pan Yan also had the experience of fighting with the Haihan Navy, only now did he realize that the last time they had deliberately withdrew their hands, or because they were limited by the relatively narrow combat environment in Lushunkou Harbor at that time, they did not play their role. Do your best.Now that the sea in Jinzhou Bay is open, the extraordinary maneuverability of the Haihan battleship can be fully displayed, and the combat effectiveness displayed is far better than the previous performance in Lushunkou.

There were at least [-] warships of the Houjinshui Division leaving the port to fight, but most of them were less than half the tonnage of the "Weiyuan". In terms of the speed of the "Weiyuan", it was impossible to dare to stop this behemoth at sea. It's different from being a cart with the arms of a mantis.

The first enemy ship to make such an adventurous attempt was a Cangshan ship. This kind of warship was equipped with two Franc cannons, seven or eight firecrackers, rockets, chimneys, fire bricks, crossbow bolts and other weapons. Carry more than 30 people.However, Pan Yan believes that the ship should not be full of people, because when the Dengzhou Navy was coerced and defected to Liaodong, the number of personnel was only about [-]% of the regular establishment, and the Jinren were not good at sailing and could accompany the ship. There are not many people who go to sea to fight, and it is almost impossible to make up for this level of vacancies.

The Cangshan ship began to calculate its speed from a distance, trying to circle an arc-shaped course on the sea, and intercept it laterally from the direction the "Weiyuan" was heading.With the maneuverability of the "Weiyuan", it would not be too much of a problem to avoid such an almost futile interception, but Wang Tom was so motivated that he did not intend to adopt an evasive strategy.

"Aim at the bow of the ship and don't keep your hands!" Tom Wang gave an order to the helmsman, and then asked the first officer to sound the siren on the ship immediately to remind the crew and sailors to pay attention to the impending collision.

Of course, Pan Yan also heard the high-pitched whistle, but he didn't understand what the signal meant. While he was looking around, the Haihan officer next to him pushed him to the side of the ship: "Hurry up!" The cable is about to crash into the ship!"

Pan Yanqi said: "Why don't you avoid the other party..." He stopped asking in the middle of the sentence, and he also found that this question is a bit redundant. With the size of the "Weiyuan"'s overwhelmingly dominant hull, there is really no need to avoid it. Open each other. The bow of the "Weiyuan" was also covered with a strong steel ram angle. The opponent crossed the hull to block the way, it was almost like courting death.

When the sailors on the opposing ship discovered that the Haihan battleship was speeding up instead of trying to slow down or dodge, they could no longer dodge and dodge, and could only watch helplessly. "From south to north, he hit the bow of the Cangshan ship he was on.The expected scene of using your own small boat to jam the opponent's large ship did not appear. The ramming angle of the bow of the "Weiyuan" easily tore the sideboard of the Cangshan ship like the sharp claws of a beast, and then with the help of huge kinetic energy, it pulled The whole bow of the ship was shattered.Amidst the exclamation of the sailors, the many naval guns on the side of the "Weiyuan" roared in a posture that was almost attached to the enemy's face. Grape bullets hit the deck of the Cangshan ship overwhelmingly, killing the crew on board. Together with the deck, it was riddled with holes and fragmented.

When Pan Yan saw that the two ships were about to collide, he had already squatted down, grasped the cables beside the ship's side, and prepared to deal with it.With the sudden shock of the hull, Pan Yan heard the constant exclamation from another ship. Terrible screams.

Pan Yan stood up, leaned out against the side of the boat for a look, and immediately turned his head impatiently.Even though he has been in the army for many years, he has never seen such a bloody scene in a sea battle.The front part of the Cangshan ship, including the bow, has turned into about a quarter of the hull, which has been turned into large and small pieces of wood floating in the sea. The sea water is pouring into the inner cabin from the damaged part of the bow. The pool of blood on the deck was full of dead or wounded sailors, and broken legs and stumps were everywhere.Although there were still many wounded still screaming and groaning in pain, there was not a single person who could stand up on the whole boat.

When the "Weiyuan" left the ship behind, Pan Yan noticed that the ship had sunk nearly halfway, and as far as he could see, no one jumped out of the ship to escape. There is no one left alive.If counting from the time when the two ships collided, the whole process of fighting was so fast that people couldn't react at all, and it had already been declared over.As for the outcome of the battle, it was even more one-sided. Except for the scratched paint on the side of the "Weiyuan", there were almost no other damages visible to the naked eye.

Being able to slap an opponent so quickly and thoroughly in a naval battle, Pan Yan never even thought about it before, let alone experiencing it himself.Although there is indeed an obvious gap between the hulls and armament levels of the two sides, Pan Yan still admires the strength of the Haihan Navy for being able to clean up the opponent in such an unreasonable way. The commander is confident in the strength of his own warship, and the response speed of the artillery on the ship is also perfect. Immediately after the impact was completed, the enemy ship was covered with firepower, so that the opponent completely lost even the chance of escape.

And the deterrent effect received by this heavy-handed strike method is also immediate. There were still a few warships that wanted to approach and intercept them. After seeing the tragic end of their companions, they immediately gave up their original thoughts. Keep your distance and try to use the long-range weapons on the ship as a means of attack.But it is a pity that no matter in terms of range, accuracy or lethality, the weapons equipped on these former Ming army warships are difficult to compete with the Haihan naval guns. The attack effect they can achieve is very limited, and it is difficult to rely on the limited number of ships advantage over rampage

"Weiyuan" counterattacked.

After the "Weiyuan" broke another Fuchuan's main mast, the remaining Houjin warships finally realized that the opponent in front of them was not something they could challenge by virtue of their numerical superiority. Basically, they can only play the role of target in front of it.Although everyone can think that the ammunition on this big ship is not endless, and sooner or later the opponent's ammunition will be exhausted, but no one wants to go forward to play the role of cannon fodder.At this time, the Haihan Fleet, which was the first to attack the six warships, had already completed its task and rushed to intervene in this battlefield.

Later, seeing that the general situation was over, the golden warship began to leave the battlefield on its own initiative and sailed to the sea off Jinzhou Bay.Wang Tom was worried that the supply ships waiting outside would be attacked, so he sent several ships to meet them, while the "Weiyuan" continued to sweep along the coastline with other warships.

If you want to pursue desperately, then six out of ten of the enemy ships that flee to the open sea will be chased by Haihan warships, but whether they can be sunk or captured is another matter.The ammunition carried by the warships of Haihan is indeed limited, and Tom Wang dare not be too big to finish all the ammunition in one go. Moreover, the amount of coal and fresh water used by the steam engines on the ship is also limited, and the cruising range that can be supported It cannot support long-distance pursuits, and it is very risky to use up all these precious reserves.Therefore, despite having the opportunity to deal a greater blow to the Hou Jinshui Division, Wang Tom chose a more conservative strategy and shifted his energy to reconnaissance of the enemy.

Before dark, the Haihan fleet captured more than forty people from the damaged and sunk Houjin warship. This time, the status of the prisoners did not disappoint Wang Tom again, and there were several Houjin officers among them.Wang Tom organized the fleet to find a deserted small harbor on the south side of Jinzhou Bay to stop and rest. At the same time, he interrogated the Houjin prisoners of war overnight, and took out some useful information from his mouth intermittently.

The progress of Houjin's business in Jinzhou Bay was very slow. Apart from the warship anchorage found on the west side of Monk Island, there were no other decent coastal piers.Of course, this also has something to do with the objective law that the development of surface combat troops costs a lot of money, but the results are very slow. After all, Houjin is a horseback nation. Haihan attaches so much importance to sea control that he is insane.

For Hou Jin, it is not a wise choice to form a huge navy to attack Shandong or North China across the sea. It may take several years for the preparation work alone, and the cross-sea operations are easily subject to weather conditions. Advance and retreat All prone to problems.In contrast, it is not as easy as the land attack they are good at. Every year, as long as they drive the horses to the Xuanda area like grazing, and organize thousands of cavalry, they can enter the territory of the Ming Dynasty to burn, kill and loot. Worried about being stuck somewhere because of the weather, wouldn't it be better than this unsure naval battle?

Therefore, although the Dengzhou Navy and the Dongjiang Town Navy surrendered to Houjin successively in the past two years, they did not cause the rulers of Houjin to pay enough attention to maritime warfare. The Jinshui Division did not invest more in building ships, but only sent several officers to the Navy Division for management and command.However, due to the lack of trust in the surrendered army by the Houjin high-level officials, the scope of activities of this Houjin navy was also limited to the vicinity of the garrison, so as not to lose restraint after going out to the far sea area, and some people would try to defect and return to Daming again.

In such a situation where laymen are commanding experts and there is a serious lack of trust internally, the combat effectiveness that Hou Jinshui Division can display is naturally very little left.The few warships that dared to attack the Haihan Fleet in today's battle were almost all commanded by the Hou Jin officer, threatening the lives of the sailors' families and personal future, forcing them to forcibly attack the "Weiyuan" charge.

And the consequences of this reckless tactic are already on the table. In today's battle, a total of four Houjin warships were sunk successively, and no less than ten warships were damaged to varying degrees and then retreated from the battlefield. The Hou Jinshui Division has at least 300 personnel, but the casualties on the Haihan Army's side are only maintained at single digits, and the difference between high and low is clear.

However, according to the confession of the captives, after being attacked by Haihan two months ago, the Houjin Navy also realized that there might be a big gap in the combat power of the two sides, so they allocated part of the warships to the west of the Liaodong Peninsula. , Gaizhouwei and other places are stationed on the coast to avoid being overwhelmed by the opponent like the army at Lushunkou.Although what Haihan encountered in Jinzhou Bay today was the main force of the Houjin Navy, it was not all combat power.

(End of this chapter)