1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2141
Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen did not spend too much time meeting the envoy from Nagasaki. After all, Imai Youhui was just a businessman who came to inquire about news, not an official who came to negotiate on behalf of the shogunate. There was no need to discuss some in-depth discussions with him. topic.

Of course, the Tokugawa shogunate may have learned of the news of the outbreak of war in the Hirado clan at this time, but the big shots in Edo Castle, more than 2000 miles away, must first determine the trend of the Hirado clan's situation before they can consider what attitude they should take. After this sudden incident, officials were selected and sent to Kyushu to deal with the matter.According to the estimates of the Haihan military, this step-by-step process may take more than 20 days. Before the officials sent by the shogunate arrived in Hirado, the Haihan army should have retreated successfully.

Therefore, for Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen, they were not prepared to contact and negotiate with the shogunate in advance, and the possibility of fighting was even more minimal.If the Tokugawa shogunate really planned to organize a counterattack, it would probably take a month or two just to mobilize troops and supplies from all over Kyushu.What's more, from the standpoint of the shogunate, as long as the invaders don't continue to expand the scale of the war, but target the Hirado clan on the separatist side, then sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight is the best choice at this time. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages. There is really no need to come down to this muddy water in person.

The most worrying thing for Qian and Shi at the moment is to evacuate Hirado Island as soon as possible.This eagerness is not only to avoid unnecessary complications, but also to save the cost and material consumption in the process as much as possible.Every day the operation in Hirado lasts means that the Ministry of National Defense will have to pay tens of thousands of military expenses for this, and the pressure on logistics supplies will gradually increase as the operation time prolongs.

Therefore, in the conversation with Imai Youhui, they said that all military operations were only aimed at Hirado, not the shogunate or Japan, and that the Haihan army would withdraw from Hirado in the near future, and they had no intention of occupying land here.

Imai Tomoki only stayed in Hirado Port for half a day before boarding the ship and returning with Haihan’s official answer. For him, the visit went much smoother than expected. Not only was he received by Haihan’s senior officials, but also He also expressed his attitude very straightforwardly.Although they did not elaborate on why they started the war against the Hirado Domain, Imai Tomoki thinks that is not the point. The Haihan people have promised not to let the war spread to a wider area. This is really valuable news. .

In Imai Tomoki's view, as long as Nagasaki is fine, it doesn't matter if the Hirado Domain is razed to the ground by foreign enemies.What's more, based on what he saw in Hirado Port, the local urban area did not seem to be full of wars, and he did not hear about the whereabouts of the feudal lord Tian Chuansuke and others. Presumably the local fighting situation was not tragic, but the defenders were forced to Just exited the Hirado city area.Besides, the Haihan people are planning to withdraw their troops. Obviously, the war is over, and Nagasaki doesn't have to worry about being affected by Chiyu.

Of course, the news that Tomoki Imai brought back to Nagasaki will also be sent to Edo, and these news will definitely cause some deviations in the shogunate's judgment on the situation in Hirado. It is impossible to predict the extreme handling that the Haihan Army will take in Hirado Way.Even the shogunate, who wanted to weaken the trading status of Hirado Port, probably didn't think about erasing it from the map.

In the next few days, naval ships continued to transfer people from Hirado Island to temporary resettlement sites in Seogwipo Port, Jeju Island in batches.Zhejiang, Shandong, Liaodong and other places have also begun to dispatch civilian ships to Jeju Island to perform population transfer tasks after receiving orders.

The Fuzhou Navy, which has been authorized to act, finally has ample room to play. Xu Yuzhuo led the fleet to search along the north coast of Kyushu Island like a mad dog, determined to find Mizuhira Hirado before the Haihan Army issued an order to withdraw troops. The main force of the army.

But this goal is not easy to achieve. The coastline in northern Kyushu is winding and winding, and there are many large and small offshore islands. There are quite a few places where a dozen or twenty warships can be hidden. An area is completely unfamiliar, and the search efficiency is not high.Moreover, Xu Yuzhuo didn't dare to let go of his guard and rush forward rashly. If he was ambushed by his opponent, it would really be a joke for the Haihan people.

The hard work paid off, and after several days of searching, the Fujian navy found traces of the enemy in a bay called Kaya Bay about [-] miles away from Hirado Port.

In fact, the reconnaissance ship sent by the East China Sea Fleet had also arrived in this area before, but because they were not familiar with the environment enough, they had never entered the depths of Kaya Bay, so it was difficult to find Hirado hiding in a hidden port in the bay. Navy warship.

After realizing that Gyozo was exposed, the Hirado navy did not hide in the Kaya Bay and wait to be beaten. Instead, they raised their sails and anchored in a very short period of time to break out of the bay in a battle formation. It can be seen that they have been They are all on guard against the opponent's sudden attack.

And Xu Yuzhuo obviously couldn't let the enemy slip away from his nose again, so he immediately ordered to block it with all his strength, and the warships of both sides started a personal fight on the sea surface at the entrance and exit channel of Kawuwan.

In terms of equipment level and combat experience alone, the Fujian navy undoubtedly has a clear advantage. Apart from the fact that some of the warships in the formation were purchased directly from Haihan, the naval guns equipped on board more than [-]% It is provided by Haihan, and the Fujian Navy has participated in various overseas military operations of Haihan all year round. It has rich actual combat experience. The power of weapons and equipment.

However, after all, the Fujian navy is fighting away, and they are completely unfamiliar with the environment here, which somewhat affects the performance of the navy fleet in the battle.Although the opponent was discovered first, but he did not have time to occupy the favorable terrain in advance, so he had to choose close combat with the enemy ship, which greatly reduced the advantages of weapons and equipment.

The main force of the navy commanded by Wei Zhi has been hiding here for many days with a fluke mentality, but in the end they still failed to escape the enemy's search, which also frustrated Wei Zhi's plan to preserve his strength.However, the only thing that made him feel lucky was that the enemy fleet chasing him under the banner of "Xu" was obviously the Xu family army from Fujian.

Almost all of the new warships built by the Hirado Navy in recent years are here, and these warships are equipped with several cannons made by the Hirado clan themselves. Although the combat performance is limited, the destructive power in close combat is not enough. Neglect, so that it can also gain something when it fires against the Fujian Navy.

One side wanted to block it desperately, while the other side wanted to break out of the siege. The two fleets unreservedly poured firepower at each other at the moment of contact. The broken masts continued to scatter onto the sea amidst the miserable cries of the sailors, making the combatants either bloody and murderous, or shivering and at a loss. Let it go.

This is not the first time Xu Yuzhuo has experienced such a battle at sea. A few years ago, when he was only the commander of the navy, he had a similar battle experience with Shibazhi, who was dominating one side in the Fujian Strait at that time.It's just that at that time, neither the navy nor the opponent had such an advanced warship equipped with multiple cannons. The two sides decided the outcome through a relatively primitive boarding battle.

Obviously, the way of fighting at this moment is more intense and dangerous. Cannonball will ruthlessly harvest all life on its path, and it will not change in any way because of his special identity.But this made Xu Yuzhuo very excited. He brought the fleet all the way to Hirado, wasn't it just to complete such a life-and-death battle at sea?

By defeating the opponent in this way, Xu Yuzhuo can fully appreciate the sense of accomplishment that only belongs to the winner, instead of being able to fight for the Haihan army throughout the whole process as before, and won the war without even engaging the main force of the enemy. victory.

Xu Yuzhuo believed that it was only the victory of the coalition camp, not his personal record.The task of defeating the Remnant Party of Eighteen Zhizhi must be accomplished by oneself, instead of relying on the hands of the Haihan people to achieve the goal again.If he hadn't had such an obsession, he probably wouldn't have rushed back from Fukue Island with the fleet.

Wei Zhi, who commanded the Hirado Navy, did not have such ambitions as Xu Yuzhuo. At least at this moment, he no longer dared to think about the unrealistic goal of destroying the enemy fleet. Escape from Kawuwan first would be the first goal. One priority.

Courage is something that can support people to accomplish some feats beyond their abilities, but it will also be slowly worn away by time and the environment.After retreating for the first time, the courage will dissipate little by little.

When Wei Zhi was a member of Shibazhi, he had already retreated once, instead of staying in the south to live and die with his companions.He kept telling himself that he came to Hirado to bear the burden of humiliation, as long as he was prepared, when the time came, he would naturally have the opportunity to take revenge on the Haihan people and the Fujian Xu family.But a few days ago, when he saw the densely packed enemy warships in Furue Bay, he couldn't help but choose to retreat again. Afterwards, when he learned that Shota Ishimura, who was sent to lure the enemy in the Hirado Strait, was almost wiped out, even I am a little fortunate that I chose to retreat decisively.

Wei Zhi believed that his evacuation was to preserve his strength, so that the Hirado Domain could still maintain a flexible and mobile maritime force, and he also successfully received some people to evacuate from Hirado Island after that.His motives are beyond reproach, but Wei Zhi has gradually lost the courage to fight his opponent desperately after retreating again and again, so that today when he saw the Fujian Navy coming to his door, his first reaction was not to fight to the death with his opponent, but to fight to the death. Break out from Kaya Bay as soon as possible.

Survival has unconsciously become Wei Zhi's goal in battle. With such a mentality, you may be able to successfully slip away again and again with good luck, but it is absolutely impossible to defeat your opponent. up.

Based on this mentality, the fighting spirit of the Hirado Navy comes more from the desire for survival, rather than the strong desire to fight like their opponents.When the purpose of fighting is to escape rather than win the battle, then there is not much suspense about the trend of the battle.

Although the warships of the Hirado Navy were able to form a certain effective attack on the Fujian Navy when the two sides fought at the beginning, the battle soon began to favor the stronger and more determined side.

Objectively speaking, the gap between the two sides in terms of weapons and equipment is not so large that it cannot be overcome, but the gap in the technical and tactical levels of the combatants is obviously greater. Maintain the intensity of firepower output in the environment, and many sailors in the Hirado Navy have not experienced such a big scene. When they are in a hurry, the combat efficiency will inevitably be reduced a lot.

In order to prevent the Hirado navy from escaping, the naval warships that originally had the advantage in equipment did not hesitate to use the method of collision to complete the interception, and then the sailors, under the cover of the shells opening the way, used the ancient method of jumping to close Fighting at a distance.

Although this clumsy combat method is not efficient, it can fully stimulate the combat potential of the soldiers. After all, fighting face to face is much more exciting than fighting with firearms twenty or thirty feet away.

When more than ten warships from both sides collided at the entrance and exit of Kaya Bay, which was less than one mile wide, the channel leaving the bay was blocked.Even if Wei Zhi wanted to escape, he couldn't make the warship grow wings and fly out of Kawu Bay.

The only thing he should do now is to give up the idea of ​​escaping, and lead his subordinates to fight to the death with the Fujian navy, maybe he can still fight for a chance.

But it's a pity that some things have slowly produced inertia in Wei Zhi's mind, affecting his judgment of the situation.When he found that he could not go out from the sea, the first coping strategy he thought of was not how to open the blocked channel, but to give up escaping from the sea, and instead chose to land on the shore, trying to abandon the fleet. In exchange for a chance to escape.

But his intention was quickly seen through by Xu Yuzhuo, who had rich combat experience. Xu Yuzhuo had been paying attention to the warship flying the signal flag to command the Hirado Navy for a long time, and he judged that the commander of the enemy army should be on this ship.Seeing that the opponent was showing signs of leaving the battlefield, Xu Yuzhuo immediately commanded his flagship and another warship to quickly outflank it, sandwiching the warship that was trying to escape from the battlefield, and then bombarded it with full firepower.

Although the ship was also trying to fight back, after eating more than a dozen shells in succession, there was an obvious water leak in the belly of the ship, and the hull began to slowly tilt and sink, and finally ran aground on a shoal less than a hundred feet away from the coast. .At this time, the kerosene bomb thrown from the navy warship had already ignited the upper deck of the ship. The wind helped the fire, and soon turned the stranded warship into a big fire.

(End of this chapter)