1627 Rise of the South China Sea

653 Sea Battle
Shibazhi spent a lot of money to invite the Dutch to come to Nanri Island to help in the battle, not just to let them serve as sentinels on the periphery.In fact, Zheng Zhilong very much hoped that the Dutch could play the role of the Haihan people in the opponent's camp. After all, the last time the Ming Haihan coalition forces attacked Nanri Island, the main force was not the Ming army, but the Haihan militia that came to help. The foreign aid is worth giving away the boxes of vain money.

Zheng Zhihu was already full of anger when his request for help was rejected yesterday. If he hadn't asked for help from the other party, he would have turned his face at that time.But after one night, the navy of the Ming army couldn't help but knocked on the door, and now the Dutch couldn't be free even if they wanted to.Zheng Zhihu didn't order his men to go to sea to help the Dutch, so he was more or less interested in watching the fun.Of course, he also knows that although the number of warships of the Ming army seems to be much larger, it is difficult to cause substantial trouble to the Dutch. Just swarm up and surround them.

The performance of the Dutch did not disappoint Zheng Zhihu. While bombarding the warships of the Ming army with fierce artillery fire, they kept a reasonable distance from the battle to avoid giving the opponent the opportunity to come close to each other.The Ming army soon realized their disadvantages in terms of weapons and ship performance, and soon began to turn their heads west and fight and retreat.

Of course, Van der Wegen also noticed the change in the opponent's tactics, but he didn't intend to let it go. Since Mingren was so ignorant and sent him to the door, he should seize this opportunity to teach them a lesson.Of course, the main reason is that Van der Wegen realized that the opponent's combat level did not seem to have improved much compared to before, and his own fleet could take advantage of the victory to pursue and deal a further blow to the Ming army.

As for the fact that the company's top management is worried about the antagonism with Daming, Van der Wegen doesn't particularly care about it - based on the combat effectiveness of the Daming Navy now, even if they turn their backs, it will be difficult to cause any trouble for the East India Company, it is better to seize This opportunity will deal a severe blow to the arrogance of the Fujian navy. Maybe they will consciously retreat when they encounter Dutch sailing ships at sea in the future.

At first, Zheng Zhihu gloatly watched the Dutch fleet chasing the Fujian navy at sea, but soon the smile on his face froze—another fleet suddenly appeared on the east side of Nanri Island. The size of the fleet is not large, there are only about ten ships from a distance, but what makes Zheng Zhihu chill is that the fleet is composed of all Haihan warships.

Obviously, the Haihan people have been quietly waiting for the opportunity to attack. Although they haven't figured out what their combat purpose is, Zheng Zhihu has already had a bad feeling in his heart.

"Pass my order, the sailors board the ship and leave the port immediately, and signal to the red-haired men not to continue chasing westward!" Zheng Zhihu responded decisively, and immediately issued a combat order.

But one of the biggest problems of civilian armed forces is command efficiency. When Zheng Zhihu's order was conveyed to the pier a few minutes later, the warships here were not ready for battle, and even the sailors didn't know where they were.The sky had just dawned at this time, and although the pirates had already stepped out of their tents to watch the battle at sea, most of them were still disheveled, and few of them realized that they might also immediately participate in the battle at sea.

By the time the captains of the ships gathered their subordinates and organized them on board, a long time had passed since Zheng Zhilong gave the order.At this time, the Haihan people's fleet also approached the north coastline of Nanri Island from the east. Before Shibazhi's sailboat had time to leave the port, it faced the dilemma of being blocked by the Haihan people in the harbor.

At this time, the Dutch also noticed the Haihan fleet that suddenly appeared behind them, and began to slowly turn back.Van der Wegen also realized that the Fujian Navy's offensive was just a feint, but the real killer move was the Haihan fleet ambushing nearby.However, he was not as flustered as Zheng Zhihu. Although Haihan's surface troops were said to be quite powerful, they were only compared to Shibazhi and the Ming army. Van der Wegen would not be so easily influenced by some rumors.Which one is stronger and which one is weaker, it still has to go through a trick to see the outcome.

At the same time, Xie Li also issued an order on the flagship "Tiger Shark" of the Haihan fleet: "Raise the gun windows, and the six small boats will stay to block the harbor. Other ships will follow the flagship to intercept the Dutch fleet! The target enters You can fire within the range, no need to ask for instructions!"

The so-called "six small ships" are the exploration-class warships with the smallest tonnage among the six Haihan-style warships, two of which were sold by Haihan to the Fujian Navy for export.Of course, this kind of smallness is only a relative statement. The tonnage of nearly [-] tons is considered a big one in Shibazhi's fleet, and each ship is equipped with about ten artillery pieces. Those sailing boats are more than a notch above.A few years ago at the Pearl River Estuary, the Haihan Navy used this type of warship as the main force, defeated the superior Liu Xiang fleet, and took the actual control of the Pearl River Estuary waters in one fell swoop.

And the four expedition-class warships with larger tonnages are the main force used to deal with the Dutch.This level of warships not only has more than double the number of cannons on board than the Exploration level, but also has different types of cannons. The larger hull allows it to carry larger and heavier naval guns. Its caliber and The length of the barrel is more advantageous than that of the exploration class.Of course, the most important thing is that the Haihan Military Committee can confirm that the performance of the naval guns on its warships has greatly surpassed its contemporary competitors at sea in every aspect, and the Dutch are no exception.This was enough for Xie Li to have full confidence to divide his forces when facing the Dutch armed fleet, and to deal with the Dutch with only four warships.

While the pirates were still in chaos at the pier of Nanri Island, the fleet of Holland and Haihan had already met on the north side of Nanri Island.Both sides turned ahead of time, trying to seize the T-position to take the lead, but under the influence of wind direction and ocean currents, no one could take advantage of this link, and it turned into two parallel columns going north. .

"Come closer!" Xie Li gave the order without fear.Before the war, Qian Tiandun had given Xie Li a private instruction. As long as the results were achieved in this battle, Qian Tiandun would submit a letter to the Military Commission to ask for credit for him. Xie Li would also be the first naval officer to be promoted to the position of lieutenant colonel. naturalized personnel.

The adjustment of the opponent's course naturally fell into the eyes of the Dutch fleet commander Van der Wegen. For the Dutch who make their home at sea, there is no such option as "fear" in naval battles. He also issued an order to adjust the course. Order, let the fleet approach the opponent's sailing route.

The distance between the two fleets quickly shortened from 600 meters to less than 200 meters. Haihan's side fired first, and the guns on the side of the "Tiger Shark" fired one after another, and the shells roared and smashed at the Dutch sailing ship.

One of the shells passed just a few meters above Van der Wegen's head, tore a two-foot hole in the sail, and fell into the sea on the other side of the ship.Although the shell did not cause substantial damage, Van der Wegen was shocked, because it showed that his fleet had entered the range of the opponent's naval gun, but at this distance, his own naval gun seemed to be It's hard to be 100% effective.

With a shock under his feet, the shells fired by his own sailboat immediately confirmed Van der Wegen's worries.These few shells fell into the water more than ten meters away from the opponent's sailboat, and could not cause any damage to the opponent at all.

"Very good, keep this distance and keep shooting!" Of course, Xie Li also observed this detail, and this was exactly the scene he was waiting for.The performance advantage of Haihan artillery is enough to enable the fleet to maintain a relatively safe distance, and carry out long-range strikes on enemy ships without being injured by enemy weapons.

Van der Wegen's countermeasures were completely opposite to Xie Li's. He chose a simple and crude solution to change this passive situation: "Come up, get close to their ships! Let them know that our shells are not made of flour of!"

In terms of the strength of the hull alone, the Dutch sailing ships are not inferior to the warships built by Haihan. Some Dutch sailing ships even have certain advantages in the thickness of the outer deck.But the Dutch sailboat, like all other Western ships, has a very fatal shortcoming, that is, there is no watertight compartment.

The ship structure of watertight compartments was invented in the Tang Dynasty, and it was widely used in sea-going ship construction after the Song Dynasty, and even some inland river ships also adopted this structure.When Zheng He's fleet sailed to the West, all seagoing ships adopted a watertight compartment structure.

This kind of compartment has three very significant advantages in function. One is to improve the sinking resistance of the hull by dividing the sealed compartment; Storage and safekeeping during transportation.

From the perspective of shipbuilding technology, watertight compartments have another advantage that must be mentioned, that is, watertight partitions replace the process of adding ribs to the hull, which greatly simplifies the shipbuilding process and shortens the construction period. can be shortened a lot.

Although this advanced shipbuilding technology had been spread overseas when Zheng He sailed to the West, it was the end of the eighteenth century when Western countries really introduced and promoted this technology in their own shipbuilding industry, that is, from now This point in time is about a century and a half later. In 1795, the British Bentham shot six new warships for the British Royal Navy, and it was the first time that the watertight cabin structure of a Chinese-style sailboat was applied to the construction of a Western-style warship.

For this difference in hull structure, every member of the Haihan Navy has received relevant knowledge training during the training period, and understands how this difference will affect the ships of both sides in sea artillery battles.Therefore, the soldiers on Haihan's side have a natural psychological advantage for the sea artillery battle.

As the distance between the two fleets further shortened, shells finally began to hit the Dutch sailing ship. At this distance, only relying on the oak hull could not resist the huge kinetic energy of the shells, and it was easy to tear a big hole in the hull. Clear all obstacles in your path.

The Dutch sailing ship called Fluyt is an improved type based on the early Spanish galleon, which reduces the weight of the hull and reduces the number of arms and sailors, and increases the cargo hold below the waterline .This change enabled the Dutch sailing ships to achieve the goals of high speed, light weight, low cost, high cargo capacity, and ease of construction. It is also one of the important reasons why the Netherlands has risen to a maritime empire in a short period of time.However, the shortcomings of this kind of sailing boat are also very fatal. The draft is very deep, but the hull is relatively thin. Although it is relatively exciting and flexible, it lacks the ability to resist attacks and output firepower.

In the mid-17th century, about ten years later, during the Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch navy and armed merchant ships were severely damaged by cannons in front of the heavy battleships of the British Navy. The Dutch could only rely on the quality of the sailors and the speed of shipbuilding. Advantages in equipment to make up for inherent deficiencies in equipment.

This disadvantage has not been fully exposed at present, because there are only a handful of sea forces in the Far East that can directly compete with it, and whether it is the Spaniards or the Portuguese, or even the Daming Navy, the number of armed ships is very high. It is difficult to compare with the Dutch. Large-scale naval battles must be dominated by the Dutch.However, under the current conditions of a small-scale naval battle of six versus four, the disadvantages of the Dutch sailing ships were undoubtedly exposed under Haihan's artillery fire.

First of all, under the premise that the total number of naval guns is not much different, the hit rate is more than doubled. With the support of a relatively high hit rate, the Haihan warship took the lead in destroying more than one-third of the Dutch sailing ships. gun positions, which led to a rapid decline in the firepower output of the Netherlands, and the hit rate fell to a horrible level.

Secondly, the lethality and killing effect of the Haihan naval guns are much stronger than that of the opponent, and as long as the Dutch sailing ship is penetrated by shells near the waterline, the performance of the ship will be affected due to a large amount of water entering the hull in a very short period of time. There will even be a significant roll-this is almost equivalent to the loss of the ship's broadside guns.However, because the Haihan warship has a watertight compartment structure, even if it is penetrated and flooded, it will not have a major impact on the performance of the ship in a short period of time.

The sea artillery battle between the two sides lasted less than half an hour, and three sailing ships in the Dutch fleet lost their combat capabilities one after another under the artillery fire.On the other hand, Haihan's side, although all four ships were hit by bullets, none of them withdrew from the battle due to injuries, and they were still able to continue to launch artillery offensives against their opponents.The firepower output capabilities of the two sides were not much different, but the proportion changed rapidly during the battle.After the Dutch sailors approached the opponent's sailing ship under heavy artillery fire, they discovered in despair that the opponent's sailors and crew were equipped with all flintlock guns. Now they must bear the double blow of artillery and muskets.

(End of this chapter)