1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2123
Since the first Majestic-class warship entered service at the end of 1629, the Haihan Navy has basically continued to build this type of main warship at a rate of one or two ships per year.Although warships of the tonnage level of the Majestic class are not really large warships in the eyes of admirals, they have few opponents in East Asia in this era by virtue of their significant advantages in comprehensive performance such as firepower, speed, and endurance.

The majestic-class battleship has taken into account both sail and steam power at the design stage, and has left a certain space for the upgrade of power equipment and weaponry of subsequent models.Therefore, although admirals are more interested in more advanced steam ironclad ships, and have even built experimental ships such as the Black Shark, considering that the current external environment does not exist that can pose a real threat to the Haihan Navy, the executive The committee believes that there is no need to spend huge sums of money to build more advanced warships for the time being, so the Majestic-class warships will still be the main flagships of Haihan Navy's fleets for a period of time in the foreseeable future.

In this military operation to attack Hirado, a total of three majestic-class warships were dispatched, two of which belonged to the East China Sea Fleet under Shi Diwen's command, and the other warship from the Northern Fleet went to the west coast to compete with the Fujian Navy. Divisions fight together.

With the strength of the Majestic-class warship, it can be said that the Japanese warship with relatively primitive combat methods on the battlefield can be said to be overkill. After the steam engine on the ship is fully powered, the speed will soon increase to more than three times that of the Ataka ship. The distance between the two parties will not take too long.When the Hirado Navy was about a few tens of feet away from the front, the Haihan warship opened fire first.

Majestic-class battleships are equipped with a cannon dedicated to chasing enemy ships at the bow. This 135mm caliber cannon has a longer barrel than the cannons on both sides of the ship, so its range and accuracy are even better. In ideal sea conditions, you can basically point to where to hit within [-] feet, which is very useful for bombarding the stern rudder when chasing an enemy ship.

The VIA in pursuit only fired two shots, and hit the stern of the nearest enemy ship, making a washbasin-sized hole above its rudder. The gunners on the VIA could even faintly hear the subsequent The screams from the enemy ship.

Although the cannon did not hit a vital part of the ship, it immediately plunged the last closed ship towed by the Hirado navy into chaos.Seeing that the opponent was getting closer and closer to him, the commander of the ship did not care about Shouta Ishimura's previous order that all ships move eastward and leave the battlefield, and tried to change direction further to leave the large force and flee north.In this way, if the Haihan battleships behind want to chase the large army, they won't bite themselves anymore.

The idea is correct, but the only problem is that the speed of the VIA catching up is too fast. Before the ship has finished turning, it has already entered the effective range of the VIA's port side artillery.

The firepower output from the side was much denser than that of the bow guns. With the sound of the rumbling guns, the distance from the Weisheng was shortened to about ten feet, and the closed ship was immediately baptized by the shells.Moreover, the Haihan Navy obviously made targeted arrangements for these Japanese-style sailing ships with thinner hulls. The shells used were not large solid shells, but grape shells known as "deck harvesters".

These projectiles are enough to penetrate an inch-thick ship plank at close range. After several grape bullets were hit in a row on the lower deck, the oars on the entire starboard side of the closed ship almost stopped rowing immediately, and the speed of the ship slowed down immediately. down.

But the VIA did not continue to waste ammunition on this ship, and continued to pursue the fleeing Hirado navy along the original course.Before the people on the Guan ship had time to rejoice, the Weibang, which followed closely behind, had already slapped the horse, and the shells poured on it this time were all big guys, and after one round, they shot out near the waterline of the Guan ship. Several holes.Before the people on the ship could rescue the casualties, they had to engage in the battle to plug the damaged pipes. Otherwise, even if they survived the shelling, it would be difficult for them to escape back to the temporary station in the north with a half-sinking ship. .

It's just that Shi Diwen didn't intend to let anyone leave the battlefield at all. The two flagships were responsible for the rapid pursuit and carried out the first round of strikes against the Hirado navy fleet, and a few expedition-class warships followed slowly to clean up the battlefield.Like this kind of enemy ship that has already been tricked and is difficult to leave the battlefield quickly, it is natural that a latecomer will be responsible for making up the knife to make it sink faster.

After that, there was a closed ship trying to use its arms as a car to block the direction of the Via, but the majestic-class battleships were equipped with stainless steel rams on the bows. Although this thing was rarely used, it was always used. It is the standard equipment of Majestic-class battleships.When the two ships collided, the VIA, relying on its tonnage advantage and strong ram angle, effortlessly split the enemy ship into two pieces, while its own speed was only slightly affected, and the hull was not seriously damaged.

Such a result is also equivalent to a warning to the other warships of the Hirado Navy. It is extremely unwise to fight with the Haihan warship, and it is even difficult to achieve the purpose of delaying time.The only thing they can do now is to give up the idea of ​​resistance, try to speed up the speed and flee separately, so that they may have a chance to escape from the battlefield.

But now even escaping has become a luxury. The nautical performance of these Japanese warships is so bad that they can't even escape separately to get rid of the two Haihan warships that are chasing after them.The Weisheng and the Weibang, one after the other, gave a round of close-range bombardment to every ship that was caught up.

Roughly counting, every naval warship that was hit suffered at least six or seven shells. If you are lucky, you may still be able to struggle and continue to escape. If you are unlucky, it may start to sink on the spot.

Shota Ishimura knew that the risk was extremely high when he took over this errand, but even so, it was hard for him to imagine that the real combat situation would be so passive.The Hirado sailor army he led, not to mention opening up their positions to confront the opponent head-on, even if they wanted to create a little trouble for the opponent on the way to escape, it would be difficult to delay the time.

The most powerful weapon on the Anzhai boat and the Guan boat is the musket, but this thing is used in the current combat environment, and it can have almost no effect.Musketeers aim and shoot targets on enemy ships during the ups and downs of the sea, and the hit rate is basically just a matter of fate.

A few ships tried to attack the Haihan warships with ignited arrows, but they quickly failed, because the range of the Haihan guns was far better than that of arrows, and these warships tended to die before they got the best chance to shoot. It has already suffered a round of shell baptism.At this time, there are very few people who can still use bows and arrows to launch a counterattack, which will instead call for more violent shelling.

After an hour of this pursuit at sea, more than [-]% of the participating ships of the Hirado Navy had been destroyed.This is the result of Shota Ishimura's order from the very beginning to withdraw from the battlefield instead of confronting it head-on. If he made a slightly impulsive decision outside the Hirado Strait, or made a decision to retreat a little slower, I am afraid that even one Couldn't last an hour.

Seeing that the two Haihan battleships were still relentlessly chasing after him, Shota Ishimura regretted taking on this fatal job.He now only hopes that the heavy casualties of his troops can really give the Hirado clan a chance to breathe. As for whether the other troops led by Wei Zhi can open up the situation on the west coast of Hirado Island, Shota Ishimura no longer has much expectations. .

But in fact, the navy's attack did not play much role in relieving the pressure on Hirado Port. The number of warships originally invested in the port artillery battle by the East China Sea Fleet was less than half of the total number, and the fleet chasing Ishimura Shota was only half of the total number. A third of the warships were dispatched.

This means that at this time, more than half of the warships of the East China Sea Fleet are still in the waters of the Hirado Strait. Even at this time, the Hirado Domain still has another navy fleet that wants to rush into the Hirado Strait to liberate Hirado Port. , and it is still inevitable that he will be beaten violently.

In fact, after the Haihan Landing cut off the land escape route to the south, the chances left for the Hirado clan have become smaller and smaller.Ordinary civilians may still be able to flee from the forest in the central part of the island to the south to escape the flames of war, but as the ruler of the Hirado Domain, Tagawasuke and his thousands of domain troops, it is absolutely impossible to escape in this way .

There are still thousands of people from the land and sea armies under his command. If they want to flee at this time, the hearts of the people will be completely dispersed. By then, it will not make much difference whether the Haihan people will destroy the Hirado clan or not.Tagawasuke knew the truth, so he just sent Tagawa Qizaemon mother and son out secretly, but he didn't intend to escape.If he died in battle on Hirado Island in the future, there would be at least one heir who could continue Tagawa's family business.

Tian Chuansuke's order to Wei Zhi was to hide in the open sea and wait for an opportunity. After finding out Haihan's attack route, he tried to attack the rear route from the sea, and tried to force the enemy to retreat voluntarily by attacking the enemy's supply ships.

When formulating this battle plan, both Tagawasuke and Wei Zhi believed that the Hirado clan should be able to survive for six or seven days without the navy participating in the battle, but they did not expect that only the first day would have to be launched under the pressure of the enemy's offensive. Exposed all the assets deployed in Hirado Port.And the opponent did not take Hirado Port as the only attack target. While Hirado Port was busy, they had already secretly implemented a landing at another place, and cut off the Hirado Clan's escape route without hesitation. .

To put it simply, the tactics prepared by the Hirado clan had limited effects, but the opponent's actions were somewhat beyond the expectations of Tagawasuke and his staff—the opponent's action efficiency since the start of the war was much higher than theirs. It was much higher than expected.What they thought might take three or four days or even longer for their opponents to complete, but all of their opponents achieved it within the first day of the war.

This also greatly disrupted Hirado's response plan. A considerable part of the original combat plan had to be overthrown and restarted. For example, the current actions taken by the navy are one of them.Wei Zhi didn't dare to continue watching from the sidelines, otherwise, maybe even the city of Hirado might not be able to survive until the third day.He can only take action in advance, trying to ease the pressure Hirado is currently facing from the sea.

Of course, if Wei Zhi can find out which unit of the Haihan Army is currently landing in Boxiang Bay, and this unit has cut off the traffic on the island, he may revise his action plan and cancel the lure and surprise attack These unrealistic battle plans were changed to try to meet the Fan army in the north of the island at night to break through from the sea.

However, the backwardness of reconnaissance methods and the lack of key information made it difficult for Wei Zhi to make an accurate judgment on the situation. Although he tried his best to formulate a comprehensive and comprehensive plan, when the strength gap between the two sides was too large, many combat methods were simply useless. way to implement.For example, Shota Ishimura, who was sent to lure the enemy in the Hirado Strait, was simply unable to command the Japanese warships with low combat performance to achieve the effect he expected.

Another example is the plan to sneak attack on Boxiang Bay, which is not what he expected. It can copy the rear route of the enemy's troop carrier and supply ship on the west coast.Waiting for Wei Zhi here, in addition to dozens of large and small warships from the Fujian Navy, is the flagship Wei Neng from the Northern Fleet of the Haihan Navy.

Even if the number of warships under Wei Zhi's command was doubled, there was still a significant gap between the two sides' combat effectiveness.Therefore, not only did the sneak attack plan have no chance of success, but it would turn into a situation of seeking death at the door.

Fortunately, Wei Zhi had dealt with both the Haihan Army and the Fujian Navy in his early years, and those who suffered losses would be more cautious in handling things. He did not let the fleet rush into Boxiang Bay, but sent two One of the ships went forward, one went into Boxiang Bay to find out, and the other was operating between the entrance of the bay and the Shengyue Strait in the south, to confirm whether there was any sign of the Haihan Armed Fleet nearby.

This prudent arrangement temporarily saved Wei Zhi's fleet. The two ships had already seen the densely packed warships in Boxiang Bay when they were still outside the bay.By the time the Fujian Navy's ship chased them out of the bay, the two Chinese warships belonging to the Hirado Navy had already fired fireworks into the sky, notifying Wei Zhi in the distance to evacuate quickly.

Wei Zhi's warships built on the basis of Fuchuan have much better sailing performance than Japanese warships. When they saw the danger signal from the scout ship, they immediately adjusted their sails and ran northward. Also don't consider the option of confrontation at all.

"These bastards are here, how can they slip faster than rabbits when they meet each other!" Xu Yuzhuo looked at the sail shadows on the distant sea on the deck, knowing that he couldn't catch up, so he was very annoyed at the moment.

He had already figured out that this would be the place where the Hirado navy must save. He originally planned to withdraw the fleet from Boxiang Bay in the afternoon and deploy it to the fishing port at the southern end of Shengyue Island, more than ten miles away, to let it enter Boxiang. In the waterways of Gujiang Bay and Gujiang Bay, wait for the Hirado navy to appear here and then take the back road, but the timing is still a little bit behind.Seeing that the situation was not going well, the other party just slipped away, making all his plans come to nothing.

(End of this chapter)