The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 56: Battle of New York Bay

While the Ming Army was conducting joint training with the North American militia, the Ming Navy was also not idle.

Qin Nanxing personally led the fleet, completely blocked the waterway off the coast of New York, and began looking for opportunities to destroy the British fleet in North America.

Qin Nanxing arranged for the reconnaissance fleet to observe for a while and then gave up the tactic of attacking the anchorage.

More than a hundred years ago, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the British lost their anchorage to the Dutch and suffered heavy losses.

From then on, the British became particularly strict in guarding the anchorage.

There are also three layers of patrol boats outside New York Harbor, and the closer you get to New York Harbor, the more patrol boats there are.

So when the Ming fleet came, it encountered a British patrol ship on the sea more than 300 kilometers away from the Port of New York.

Qin Nanxing felt that if they forcibly raided the port, these numerous patrol boats would definitely take turns to transmit information back to the port.

When the Ming fleet really approached the New York Bay, the British fleet in New York Harbor would also come out to meet the enemy.

The British army also built a large number of artillery batteries on the islands and land around New York Harbor.

The Ming fleet rushed into the port to engage in battle, which was equivalent to expanding the number of enemy firepower points and reducing their own firepower scale advantage.

So Qin Nanxing finally decided to wait outside.

If they keep capturing British patrol boats, it will be only a matter of time before the British send out a large fleet to investigate.

Britain's real main fleet is in its homeland. The total number of ships in the colonies may be considerable, but there are definitely no large number of capital ships.

The Ming fleet is waiting outside the port, so the cost of victory in the end should be smaller.

In the next few days, the Ming fleet captured more than a dozen patrol ships and merchant ships entering and leaving New York.

Henry Clinton, commander-in-chief of the British Army in North America in New York City, soon discovered the problem.

Clinton was originally planning to abandon Newport and then personally lead the soldiers from Newport south together with the 8,000 troops from the mainland.

Clinton prepared to attempt an offensive to capture Johnston.

Johnston is an important port in the southeastern United States and is currently the most populous city in the southern United States.

Clinton originally sent a clipper to New York to inform the local commander to pack up, but the ship that delivered the message never returned.

The key point is that some patrol fleets out to sea have not returned yet even though it is time for the shift change.

The combination of a series of strange news made Clinton increasingly vigilant.

But Clinton did not think of the Ming Dynasty at all, but naturally thought that France might send more fleets to North America.

On September 1779, 9, Henry Clinton made a decision and ordered the British troops in New York to prepare for battle.
Commodore John Lord Byron was arranged to lead half of the warships to leave the port to confirm the situation in Newport, and the other half of the warships were also on standby.

This Lord Byron is the grandfather of the famous British poet George Gordon Byron.

Not long after Byron led a fleet of more than 40 warships of various types out of the New York Bay, he encountered a situation that shocked him extremely.

A fleet of a huge scale, the largest that had never appeared in the New World, accelerated and cut in from the side off the coast of New Jersey in the south.

They all flew the Ming flag and seemed ready to cut into the center of the British fleet.

If the British fleet led by Byron did not adjust its course immediately, it would be cut off by the Ming fleet, turning into a formation that was most advantageous to the Ming fleet.

"There are no French? But the Ming people? But this Ming fleet is too suspicious!"

Byron muttered something in his mind, and immediately ordered the British fleet to adjust its course, preparing to sail in the opposite direction to avoid the Ming fleet.

At the same time, he sent people to use flag signals to inquire about the situation of the Ming fleet and arranged for a speedboat to return to New York Bay to report.

However, the Ming fleet never responded, and the distance between the two fleets was getting closer and closer.

British fleet commander Byron was also becoming increasingly nervous.

Although the actions of this Ming fleet were very suspicious, the North American army had not yet received notice of the declaration of war on the Ming.

Byron did not dare to open fire rashly, but instinctively tried to find a way to avoid the Ming fleet.

However, the Ming fleet had made preparations in advance and cut in from the upwind direction.

If the British fleet wanted to force its way around it, it would not only need a large turning range, but would also significantly reduce its speed.

Even if they can avoid it, the distance between the two sides will eventually be very close.

Byron certainly did not want to fight with the Ming Dynasty, as that would mean the chances of winning the entire battle would be reduced to infinitesimal.

But Byron's mind was still calm, and he quickly sorted out his thoughts in the extremely tense atmosphere.

Since it is impossible to avoid it completely, we should be prepared to enter the battle and strive to be in the most favorable posture for our fleet.

Since we cannot open fire rashly, we should prepare all the artillery and immediately fire back if the enemy opens fire.

When Byron's order was passed down, all the sailors and soldiers immediately became nervous.

The distance between the two fleets was getting closer and closer, with the nearest warships only two hundred meters away, and there was even the possibility of a collision.

At this extremely tense moment, the Ming fleet indeed opened fire first.

The deafening roar of artillery fire continued, and hundreds of heavy shells were fired at the British fleet.

The premonition finally became reality, and Byron was in despair at that moment.

Even if Britain was fighting the Ming alone, the British would not be in complete despair now.

The naval forces of both sides are basically equal, and their homelands are separated by the entire Old Continent, so there is no way to fight a full-scale war.

However, when the Ming Dynasty joined the camps of France, Spain and the United States, the situation became extremely bad.

These thoughts flashed through Byron's mind for a moment, and his body was already roaring with force to give the order:
"Fire! Fire with all your might! No matter what the situation is, the British Navy will never be afraid of fighting!" A sudden encounter began.

The war between Ming Dynasty and Britain in North America finally officially broke out off the coast of New York Bay.

The sounds of gunpowder exploding, the whistling of shells, the tearing of the hull by hits, and the roars of officers and soldiers soon became one.

The originally calm sea surface quickly turned into a battlefield filled with smoke.

Warships were constantly hit by the enemy, and sailors kept falling into the water screaming.

The Ming fleet had originally been in a relatively advantageous position to meet the enemy on the battlefield.

The number of warships in the Ming fleet was about three times that of the British fleet, and the number of battleships was several times that of the British fleet.

As a matter of course, the Ming fleet quickly gained absolute advantage on the battlefield.

British fleet commander Byron stood on his command platform, commanding the warships to maintain their formation as much as possible and trying to speed up and leave the battlefield.

There is absolutely no chance of winning if you fight, you can only run away if possible.

Henry Clinton in New York City was extremely surprised and confused when he received the report from the returning warship.

I was thinking wildly in my mind, what on earth is the Ming Dynasty trying to do?
But he immediately gave orders verbally and with his hands, ordering the warships in New York Harbor to set sail immediately and go out to sea to deal with a possible war.

Shortly after the second batch of British warships set out to sea, they heard the roar of artillery fire outside the bay.

The fleet commander immediately ordered everyone to enter combat status.

The British Byron fleet, which had been half-surrounded by the Ming fleet, was not too surprised when it discovered that its companions appeared in the rear.

Because two more Ming fleets joined the battlefield on the north and south sides.

The number of Ming Dynasty's main battleships has exceeded sixty, of which eight are first- and second-level battleships of more than two thousand tons.

In addition, there are at least one hundred and twenty level four and level five battleships.

The British fleet in North America had a total of just over a hundred ships, and only less than ninety of them finally participated in the battle in New York.

This was also to help focus Henry Clinton's Southern offensive.

Among them, there are only ten battleships, all of which are level three battleships of about 1,600 tons, and the rest are level four, five, or even level six ships.

It was completely sufficient to suppress the colonies in the past, but it is not qualified to fight a decisive battle at sea with other naval powers.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty's fleet, the number alone is twice as large, and the number of artillery is more than three times as large.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty took the initiative to ambush and had the advantage of formation and initiative. The British North American Fleet was now in a state of being beaten up.

As expected, as soon as the second British fleet came out, it was immediately blocked by the newly joined Ming fleet.

They had no chance to join up with Byron's first fleet, and were sandwiched and attacked by two Ming fleets from above and below.

Although the two British fleets were trying to fight back, they had no intention of continuing the fight.

The decision to escape was made the moment the shooting began.

But under the absolute disadvantage, even escaping is not that easy.

Byron has discovered that there is a group of very special ships in the Ming Dynasty fleet.

They would not approach the battlefield, but would move quickly back and forth on the periphery at a speed that was beyond common sense.

There was a chimney emitting thick smoke in the middle of their hull, and two huge wheels on both sides were rotating and paddling.

These smoking warships traveled back and forth around the battlefield to deliver messages, scout the movements of the British fleet, and command Ming warships to encircle the British ships.

The melee continued until nightfall, when more than 30 British warships finally broke through successfully.

Most of them entered the North Atlantic and headed directly for mainland Europe.

Because the situation in America is beyond redemption.

Several other ships retreated to New York Harbor and reported the naval battle situation to the British commander in North America.

In the era of sailing warships, the main material of ships was wood, which had limited defense capabilities against heavy shells.

But the specific gravity of wood is less than that of water, so it will not sink even if it is thrown directly into the sea.

Therefore, in naval battles in the Age of Sail, warships were often destroyed, but it was difficult to sink them directly.

The result is that there will be a lot of prisoners - if the victor is willing to salvage -

After the battle outside New York Bay, fifteen British ships were destroyed on the spot and were no longer worth repairing.

However, there were still as many as thirty basically intact warships captured by the Ming fleet.

Some of the sailors on the 40 warships died in the melee, while others were rescued by other British warships.

But most of them became prisoners of the Ming Navy, with a total number of more than 6,000.

The Ming side suffered only two level four ships and three level five ships that were severely damaged, and a total of more than twenty warships of various types were slightly injured.

The size of the two fleets is too different, so this is a one-sided fight.

But in the end it was definitely a great victory.

In reality, all military commanders will never actively pursue winning with fewer troops in actual combat, unless the actual situation is dire and they have to rush into battle. They will also not hope to fight the enemy to exhaustion with equal strength.

Because war in reality is cruel, no one is willing to pay the price of failure, and romantic fighting is neither valuable nor meaningful.

Therefore, if we can build a crushing situation, we will definitely work hard to achieve a crushing layout, and then win at the lowest cost.

(End of this chapter)