1627 Rise of the South China Sea

As the Minister of National Defense of Haihan, Yan Chujie has mainly focused his energy on the research and development of ordnance technology, the construction of military academies, and the training of military personnel in recent years. He has basically never directly participated in military operations, let alone leading troops to fight on the front line. up.

However, during the executive committee's tour of Hangzhou this time, the two countries were at war, and Yan Chujie must be obliged to do his part.

Although Yan Chujie's specialty is not the navy, he and Shi Diwen are the only senior generals in the East China Sea region.Shi Diwen was in charge of commanding the more complicated land attack, and Yan Chujie could only reluctantly take over the command of the navy.

Before the battle, Yan Chujie and Shi Diwen made a rough battle plan on how to fight against the navy of the Ming army who had been quietly preparing for battle for several years.They all believed that with the Haihan army's huge advantage in equipment, it should not be a problem to win the opponent.

However, the strength displayed by the navy of the Ming army on the battlefield was not as weak as the paper data showed. Targeted tactics and familiarity with the battlefield environment greatly narrowed the gap in strength between the two armies.

After the first wave of self-destructing boats rushed into Haihan's fleet, they managed to create some chaos.

At least six or seven Haihan warships were unable to dodge being hit by it, and were quickly ignited and caught in the fire.

A large hole was blown out of the bow of one of the ships by the self-explosive ship, and the river quickly poured in, and soon the ship tilted.

Although the sailors on the ship tried hard to eliminate danger, they were unable to prevent the ship from gradually sinking into the river.Fortunately, there were other ships nearby, trying their best to rescue the sailors who jumped into the river to escape.

Fortunately, the number of self-explosive ships of the Ming Army navy is limited, and after the ignition is released, it is in a state of unmanned control. It does not matter where the river rushes. Some ships even ignited and then sank themselves. The hit rate is basically random.

However, the large warships in the Haihan fleet dragged behind, and there was still a buffer time to adjust their course to avoid, so although this wave of offensive caused a lot of trouble for Haihan, and even caused casualties, it did not hurt the fleet. main force.

Even so, it has already boosted the morale of the Ming army.You must know that in the past records of the Navy's battles with the Haihan Navy, there are very few records of sinking enemy ships.

Now, as soon as the battle started, the Haihan army had already lost their ships, which showed that the preparations before the battle had indeed played a role, and if they continued to fight like this, they might have a chance of defeating Haihan.

There is nothing wrong with their opinion, but the several large warships that Haihan specially transferred from the sea did not come here as a decoration.When the intended target came within range, these big guys also began to unleash terrifying attack power.

The main gun equipped on the Zhoushan is located on the deck in front of the hull and has a rotating turret, which can flexibly strike targets in multiple directions without adjusting the course.

However, the target of this main gun is not the small boats that charged and exploded, but the big ships that fell far behind.

Limited by performance, most of the weapons on the warships of the Ming army had a range of only one or two hundred feet.However, the range of Zhoushan's main gun is even better than that of the army artillery of the same caliber.

Across the second wave of attacking Ming warships, the Zhoushan directly opened fire on a Fuchuan in the rear.

The first three rounds were slightly off target, and the shells smashed directly into the river, but the Ming army on this ship obviously didn't realize that the opponent could launch an attack from such a long distance.

When the fourth shell hit the ship, it pierced a large hole between the forecastle and the starboard side, tearing five or six crew members to pieces along the way.

Until this time, the people on board still did not realize that it was shelling from a distance.In their cognition, the artillery on the ship should not be able to hit such a long distance at all.

Before the people on board figured out what was going on, another shell hit the ship.This time, it hit a gunpowder keg on the ship, and the explosion caused a large gap more than ten feet wide on the starboard side, ignited the mainsail, and took at least a dozen lives.

The second wave of offensives that risked their lives to rush into the Haihan fleet did not go as smoothly as expected. Almost at the same time that these ships missed the bow of the Haihan warship, the side guns that had not exerted their power began to stand out. Tongues of fire.

Several Ming army warships rushing forward were smashed into a sieve by the densely flying shells in an instant.It wasn't until the last moment that they realized that the firepower of these Haihan ships was far stronger than what they imagined.

The reason why they didn't fire much before may be that the Haihan army was waiting for a certain killing distance.

When the Haihan Fleet's firepower output was officially launched, the damage speed of the Ming warship was even faster than the first wave of self-destructing ships.

Due to the lack of range, many warships of the Ming army were hit by concentrated fire before they had time to fire, and they turned into a pile of broken wood in an instant.

There were screams and explosions on the river one after another, and damaged warships sank slowly into the river, and people kept jumping out of the boats to escape.

Yan Chujie held up the binoculars and looked at the battle on the river expressionlessly.

In his view, although the Ming army has made relatively adequate preparations and has a strong will to fight, it is still difficult to bridge the huge gap between them and the Haihan army based on these alone.

In the face of absolute strength, struggling in vain just increases casualties in vain.

When one-third of the warships of the Ming army lost their combat effectiveness, the Haihan fleet remained in chaos. The commander of the Ming army realized that the defeat was doomed.

But it is not easy for so many ships to turn around quickly on this narrow river.In order to buy time for the big ships, dozens of small and medium-sized warships still did not stop, and continued to plunge into the formation of the Haihan fleet.

The result of this desperate charge was to change from a death squad to a death squad. The Haihan Army once again accepted the results of the battle with intensive shelling.

Although the Ming army's attack also caused some damage to the Haihan Fleet, compared with its own tragic loss, this little result is almost negligible.

Among these warships that launched a desperate charge, only a very few were lucky enough to pass through the Haihan fleet that stretched for several miles, and then left the battlefield and sailed into a nearby river branch to hide.

Those large warships that were holding up the formation finally turned around with the precious time accumulated by human lives, but if they want to leave the battlefield, their situation will not be much better than that of their companions rushing downstream.

"Catch up, don't let them escape!"

Seeing that the opponent was about to leave the battlefield, Yan Chujie immediately gave the order to pursue.

The steam power system on Zhoushan and other large warships has been activated. Even if they are going upstream, the speed can reach more than [-] knots, enough to catch up with the enemy ships that are turning around and fleeing ahead.