1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2127
Although the Tokugawa shogunate has tried every means to weaken Hirado's trade status in recent years, trying to support Nagasaki, which is under the direct control of the shogunate, and gradually replace it, in the Kyushu region, the traditional trade portal Hirado Port is still golden in the eyes of many people. Cornucopia, after all, more than half of Japan's cross-border trade is still completed in Hirado Port, and the abundance of oil and water can be imagined.

There are eighty people who want to replace the Matsuura clan, but the Hirado clan is not a lamb to be slaughtered. Not only does it have a powerful navy, but it has also absorbed many powerful foreign figures in recent years. The most powerful prince in Kyushu.Although there are quite a few people who covet Hirado, most of them are scruples about the force possessed by the Hirado clan, and dare not openly show hostility.

However, in this extraordinary period, the Hirado Domain first experienced a coup, and then fell into war. Wei Zhi believes that there will be people with ulterior motives who will take advantage of the fire after getting the news.If Tagawasuke hadn't left a reliable armed force for Tagawa Nanazawaemon, then once the Hirado domain was defeated, it is very likely that external forces would take advantage of this gap to seize the ruling power of Hirado.Especially the Tokugawa shogunate, which has always coveted Hirado, probably will not let go of such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to easily intervene.

Based on this judgment, Wei Zhi did not try to pull the fleet to participate in the battle near Hirado Island again, but decided to give priority to preserving strength in order to escort Tagawa Shichizaemon to take over Hirado after the war.

Wei Zhi's decision to make such a decision can't be said to be right or wrong. He doesn't know the current battle situation on Hirado Island, and he may lose everything if he makes a rash attack.However, in this way, the East China Sea Fleet, which is responsible for launching an offensive from the sea, can save a lot of trouble, and can concentrate its firepower to deal with the port defense fortifications whose firepower has been greatly reduced.

Lu Yuanlong, who is in charge of commanding the defense line of the port, is also having a difficult time. In addition to the several artillery pieces ordered by Tian Chuansuke to be transferred to the defense line in the south of the city, many of the artillery deployed at the port have actually been damaged during the fierce exchange of fire over the past two days. status.

This is not all destroyed by the artillery fire of the East China Sea Fleet. Although the artillery cast by the Hirado Domain can also be used normally, due to technical and material limitations, these artillery still have a certain gap in performance and service life compared with imported products. .

If these artillery pieces are only equipped in the vassal army as the treasure of the army, occasionally pulled out to show their strength in armed conflicts with external forces, or to perform some low-intensity combat missions, these Hirado self-made artillery are certainly enough competent.However, if it is used for high-intensity combat, nearly a hundred rounds of shells are fired every day, and its quality will soon be exposed.

Some artillery even fired only a few dozen rounds before cracks began to appear in the gun body, and the artillery burst in the afternoon of the first day of the battle.Lu Yuanlong had to replace the cracked cannons with spares one by one to avoid unnecessary losses to the limited number of gunners under his command.

In addition, the ammunition inventory consumption rate far exceeded Lu Yuanlong's pre-war predictions. Even if Haihan did not launch a general offensive, and continued to fight at such an intensity for a day or two, the artillery deployed at the port would still have a useful life. The ammunition continued to fight with the Haihan fleet.Moreover, since Jingchuan's military workshop was destroyed by Haihan, the Hirado Fan army could no longer obtain ammunition supplies from the military workshop for the time being, which meant that the Fan army would soon have to rely on cold weapons and marines equipped with muskets. The Han army fought hard.

If the war situation reaches that point, Lu Yuanlong actually knows what the outcome of the Hirado Army will be. He has already experienced a similar situation a few years ago when he was still in Shibazhi, and he still remembers it to this day. mind.

But at this time, no matter whether it was going south from the land or evacuating from the sea, the Haihan army had cut off the retreat, and Lu Yuanlong knew that there was no other choice now.Since surrender is impossible, the only option is to fight to the death.

Tian Chuansuke personally went to the south of the city to oversee the battle, and Lu Yuanlong will be fully responsible for the defense of Hirado Port. But to be honest, he doesn't have any good means to fight the battle right now. Let Tian Chuansuke be able to concentrate on dealing with the enemy's offensive on land.

According to the combat plan, the East China Sea Fleet arrived at the scheduled battlefield first.This is already the third day that Shi Diwen led his troops to attack Hirado Port, and he has almost mastered the positions and shooting ranges of the various forts in the port, so today he does not intend to keep any more, and is going to let the two majestic ships Class warships join the battle.

Among the warships of the Expedition, Exploration, and Majestic classes that the East China Sea Fleet fought, due to hull structure and cost issues, only the Majestic class deployed two new breeches with a longer range on each side of the side, which can also take into account land attacks. naval gun.

The cost and ammunition value of this thing are much higher than the old-style front-loading naval guns, but because the manufacturing process is more complicated, the actual production capacity is very limited, and it is unlikely to be supplied to the military in large quantities in the short term.Shi Diwen also thought of many ways before and after, and finally ordered eight guns from Haihan Military Industry.For this reason, Beks also specially sent a group of technicians from Sanya to escort these cannons to Zhoushan, installed them on two Majestic-class warships of the East China Sea Fleet, and conducted a two-month-long test on the sailors who operated these cannons. training.

Shi Diwen took a lot of effort to get these cannons. He regarded them as a secret weapon of the East China Sea Fleet, and it was the first time these cannons were put into battle during the Eastern Expedition to Hirado.However, the battles in the past few days actually failed to give these new cannons a chance to fully demonstrate their strength, including the process of the two warships chasing down the Hirado navy yesterday. These cannons were not activated because Shi Di Wen believes that the opponent's strength is too weak, and there is no need to waste precious ammunition on the Ataka ship of the Hirado Navy.

After watching the battle two days ago, Shi Diwen can basically confirm that the range of the secret weapon on the majestic-class battleship is not much different from that of the port's coastal defense gun, so it is ready to be used in today's battle.

And Lu Yuanlong, who was commanding the battle at the port, saw that the two huge warships came to the front row today, instead of just standing in the distance to watch the battle like two days ago, he had a faint premonition.

However, although there are densely packed naval guns deployed on the sides of these two large ships, they did not fire all of them like other Haihan warships, but fired sporadically, as if they were conducting some kind of test.

Lu Yuanlong would not simply think that the opponent's move was just to test the firepower or confirm the effective range. He learned artillery tactics from the Portuguese, so he naturally understood that the opponent had already figured out the fort deployment in the port area through the two days of fighting. , and there is no need to repeat it slowly at this time.

He quickly understood what the purpose of the Haihan army's move was. Although the frequency of firing by the two large ships was low, the accuracy was much better than the artillery battles of the previous two days. A shell accurately hit a coastal defense fort, blasting the artillery and several gunners away.Obviously, the shooting accuracy of this big ship is higher than those of the warships that were put into battle two days ago, and the battlefield information collected by the other party before this time did not really come in handy until this time.

Since the fire reconnaissance in the previous two days was sufficient, the bombardment targets of the two Majestic-class warships were also very clear. Starting from the forts on the periphery of Hirado Harbor, they were called one by one with shells.Moreover, the engagement distance between the two ships is very good, and they will not put themselves within the cross-fire range of the port fire prevention guns. The maximum range of one or two guns on the coast may be able to get them.Although the coastal defense artillery has its own advantages, it is difficult to exert its power in the previous two days under the careful response of the opponent.

With precise calculation and control, the two ships steadily harvested the coastal defense fort at a rate of one shot per minute.Although the advancing speed was slow, the progress was visible to the naked eye, and Lu Yuanlong saw that the fort on the shore was precisely hit by the opponent, but he couldn't come up with a way to fight back, so he felt secretly desperate at the moment.

Lu Yuanlong recalled that it was a similar situation when Shibazhi fought against the Haihan Army and Xu Jiajun in Penghu. Although the brothers all had the determination to fight to the death, they were unable to fight back when faced with the opponent's firepower, and eventually fell into despair step by step. in the situation.

"Assemble the peasants and soldiers. If the enemy troops want to land in Hirado Port, we must try our best to stop them!" Lu Yuanlong knew that it would only be a matter of time before the coastal defense forts were solved by the opponent, and almost all the elite of the Fan army were transferred to the southern defense line of the city. At present, he only has more than a hundred artillerymen stationed in the port area and more than a thousand farmers and soldiers left by Tian Chuansuke. If the opponent wants to forcibly land at the port, he can only pull all these people out to fight desperately. Although this is just a countermeasure that is better than nothing.

Lu Yuanlong didn't have the slightest confidence in these people. Most of them had already turned pale when they heard the rumbling guns of the land and sea battle. Desperate with the enemy.Once the enemy landed at Hirado Port, these peasants and soldiers would probably disperse immediately, and even sending a supervisory team to escort them might not be effective.

However, the opponent's actions were really unpredictable. After destroying five or six forts, the two warships slowly left the battlefield on their own initiative.Lu Yuanlong could only guess that this might be because the opponent needed to replenish ammunition, so he took the initiative to retreat.However, he did not dare to be careless in the slightest, and hurriedly ordered people to count the losses of the coastal fortifications, and replenish manpower for the forts that suffered casualties but the artillery could continue to be used.

At this time, only about one-third of the artillery pieces left in the coastal defense battery of the port could barely fight. Lu Yuanlong knew that at this time, as long as the enemy fleet swarmed up to launch a strong attack, it would be difficult for his own side to stop them from landing.

At this time, the vanguard of the Special Operations Regiment had just arrived near the defense line in the south of the city. Sun Zhen confirmed the situation of the enemy's defense line ahead through the binoculars, and shook his head rather disapprovingly.

The opponent's defense deployment was obviously extremely hasty, and they could only rely on the private houses on the outskirts of the city to establish a defense line.There are fortifications piled up with soil and various sundries between some houses, but before the gaps where the fortifications were built, the other side just blocked the way with bamboo and wood refusal horses.

Although the positions established by the Haihan Army on the front line of Ono Village also used bamboo and wooden horses as part of the fortifications, the deployment method was obviously different from that of the Hirado Army.The Haihan Army built parapets behind the bamboo and wood fortifications and dug out trenches, deployed infantry in them, provided shelter and could shoot at enemies blocked by the bamboo and wood fortifications. This tactical and fortification combat system complements each other. It was the quality that the Hirado Army lacked.

However, Sun Zhen did not become careless because of this. He knew that his task was not only to defeat the opponent, but also to achieve the combat goal at the lowest possible cost.The opponent's strength is limited, so there should be no major casualties, otherwise it would be too sorry for the trump card game of the Special Operations Group.

Sun Zhen carefully inspected this line of defense with a telescope, and still found a few artillery positions that were not too well hidden. It seemed that the opponent was reassured and wanted to meet his side here.

Now that the opponent has deployed artillery on the defense line, Sun Zhen is not in a hurry to launch an offensive, but patiently waits for the field artillery behind to be in place.In the artillery battle on land, he had never seen anyone wrestling with the Haihan army. Since the Hirado army wanted to challenge the difficulty, he should give the artillery a chance to perform.

The combat exploits in Sun Zhen's eyes, in Tian Chuansuke's view, are one of the few available methods at hand.If this line of defense is still unable to stop the opponent, then the undefensible Hirado city behind the line of defense will completely fall into the hands of the enemy.Tagawasuke wanted to increase his confidence, but when he saw the enemy army stopped in the distance, instead of feeling relieved, he felt that the enemy army was preparing other means of attack, and the pressure became even greater. up.

Sure enough, it didn't take long before several cannons dragged by military horses came to the front line.After Sun Zhen introduced the battlefield situation to the artillery company commander, he began to deploy the artillery to the combat position.

Seeing that the few cannons that appeared on Haihan's position didn't look too big, and the barrels didn't seem to be as thick as his own cannons in the position, Tian Chuanjie relaxed a little.But he didn't know that although the Haihan army's field guns had a small caliber, their range and accuracy were far superior to the western-style muzzle-loading guns in his own formation.

Of course, Tagawasuke was not idle either. Since the opponent deployed the artillery right under his nose, he of course ordered the gunners to watch the target immediately, and to strike first if possible.But the gunner's response made him a little disappointed. The position of the opponent's artillery has exceeded the effective range, and firing now is of no benefit other than exposing the firepower.

(End of this chapter)