The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 328: The Decisive Battle of Tsushima Island (Happy New Year to All Book Friends)
March 1, the second year of Tianqi, Tsushima Island.

A strong southeast wind swept across the Korean Peninsula, and the islands and rocks made an unsettling whistling sound.

The sea is rough, like layers of mountains.

Looking out from Magaotai, the highest point on the island, you can vaguely see the low city walls of Busan thirty miles away.

In the sea south of Busan, the Tsushima Strait stretches like a narrow jade belt between Tsushima Island and Kyushu Island.

The rumbling sound of cannons was like spring thunder, echoing throughout the strait.

This is the main battlefield between the Kaiyuan Navy and the mercenary fleets of the four countries.

The merchant ships that used to shuttle back and forth have disappeared. At this moment, the Tsushima Strait has become a world of iron and fire.

The sea was filled with smoke and the sound of cannons continued.

A mixed fleet of more than 2,000 ships, including Fu ships, bird ships, Kailang ships, red seal ships, and flat armor ships, bit the enemy like a pack of wolves.

Cannons, flankers, and Crows fired continuously, and the explosions were so frequent that they were indistinguishable.

The sea surface was shrouded in white mist from burning gunpowder, and faint red flames could be seen jumping in the mist.

Unlike the Kaiyuan Navy's mighty fleet, the four-nation mercenary force had less than three hundred ships.

Among them, there were one hundred galleons, and the rest were red seal ships and blessing ships.

Although their numbers are small, their combat power should not be underestimated.

The Galen battleship was equipped with forty-eight large-caliber naval guns and belonged to the Thousand-ton class heavy ship. It was the main battleship type in European naval battles during this period.

Compared with such giants on the sea, the bird boats and wave-breaking boats surrounding them seem too small.

Not only were these ships small in size, but their artillery power was also obviously insufficient. Liu Zhaosun saw several times that the Portuguese artillery hit the side of the giant ships, and the iron balls were embedded in the hull, causing no damage to the target.

Once the galleon took aim and hit the enemy, a twenty-pound gun would instantly create a big hole in a bird boat. After two hits, the small boat would immediately disintegrate.

Half an hour after the battle started, hundreds of bird boats and wave-breaking boats at the forefront were completely destroyed.

Only the fifty-six thousand-ton flat-armored ships brought by Wu Aheng could barely fight against those giant ships.

The so-called century-old navy is not an empty statement.

The Kaiyuan Navy was established only four years ago.

Wu Aheng's tactics were simple: the most powerful flat-armored ships were deployed at the outermost edge of the fleet.

With a large number of bird ships and wave-breaking ships as the core (cannon fodder), they continuously consume the firepower of the enemy fleet.

Wait until the four-nation fleet falls into chaos, and then use the flat-armored ships to launch a fatal attack.

Fortunately, the number of the four-nation fleet is really small, so the Kaiyuan army can rely on its numerical advantage to continuously attack the enemy.

In addition to the flat-armored ships, the large-sized Fukusen and Shuinsen ships can also confront the Galen warships head-on.

There are about 500 of them, and they are the backbone of this naval battle.

The most eye-catching thing on the battlefield was a hundred giant turtle ships that could carry 36 cannons.

This was support provided by the Kingdom of Joseon, and it did not arrive at the battlefield until long after the war had begun.

The turtle ship was about 30 meters long, 12 meters wide, and 5 meters high. Holes were left in the hull for guns, cannons, or arrows.

Because it is covered with iron armor and shaped like a turtle, it is called a turtle ship.

This type of warship played an outstanding role in the Imjin War of 1594-1596. The Battle of Myeongnyang, which is still remembered by Koreans in later generations, was the masterpiece of the turtle ship.

However, the Galen warships on the opposite side did not show any fear after seeing this bulky and slow turtle ship.

The huge turtle with a huge body and covered with spikes soon became the main target of the mercenaries.

Because a large number of redundant supporting structures needed to be arranged inside, it was not conducive to the deployment of large artillery. In fact, turtle ships could only be equipped with small anti-personnel flankers or spray poison gas and flames.

When a galleon encounters a large-caliber cannon, it can only be slaughtered.

It is unknown what the King of Korea was planning, but when they finally arrived at the battlefield, the Kailang ships and bird ships that were besieging the enemy fleet had already suffered heavy casualties.

The Fukusen and Shuinsen also began to retreat.

Although the Kaiyuan fleet was large in number, it was in chaos.

"Get the upper hand! Quick!"

The commanders of each camp blew their bamboo whistles and shouted at the top of their lungs.

However, for those pirates who tried to escape, it was obviously too ridiculous to expect them to obey orders in just a few days and drive the small boat with their teammates regardless of their own safety under the enemy's intensive artillery fire.

"Don't crowd together, spread out your formation, the red-haired barbarians are going to set fire!"

Seeing the situation was bad, the pirates under Li Dan quickly fled towards Tsushima Island in their Fuzhou ships, leaving the clumsy Fuzhou ships behind.

As cannons fired at them one by one, the panicked Korean turtle ships collided with each other and squeezed together without any distinction between east and west.

In order to save ammunition, the Dutch and British finally chose arson to solve the problem.

In the end, at the cost of the loss of ten galleons, eighty bird ships, twelve turtle ships, and twenty large Fu ships were destroyed.

The late-arriving Korean fleet saw that the situation was not good and quickly retreated and withdrew from the final round.

"It's just a Boy Scout game. There's not even any need for boarding. Lord Colombwell, we've overestimated these Orientals. They're nothing more than a bunch of half-evolved monkeys. They only know how to shoot arrows and throw stones!"

Spanish mercenary officer Cortes looked at the burning turtle ship on the sea with contempt and laughed at an Englishman next to him.

"These monkeys don't understand naval warfare!"

Cromwell's face showed a sinister look that was common among British people.

He raised his telescope, looked across the fleet that was burning in a sea of fire, and began to search for the fleeing flat-armored ships.

"Mr. Cortes, boarding battles are outdated. As a captain in the Royal Navy, I need to remind you that our true adversary has not yet appeared."

Spain raised its sword and pointed it toward the distant sea.

"You mean those cowards? Those cowards who didn't even have the courage to stand up and shoot!"

A group of flat-armored warships were lurking beneath the waves. While the Galen was engaged in a melee with the turtle ship, they had quietly taken the upper hand and formed a vertical attack formation.

"Immediately crush the Korean turtle boats and break up the battleship formation! We can't let them stay in the windward position..."

Before the British officer finished speaking, more than a dozen huge water columns suddenly rose from the sea in the south, followed by the rumbling sound of cannons from all around.

A galleon was hit by an iron ball. On the left side, a team of Filipino mercenaries who were transporting ammunition were beaten to pieces, leaving behind more than a dozen mutilated limbs.

Immediately afterwards, a twenty-five-pound shell hit the ship again.

The shells pierced the birch planks with ease and went straight through the side of the hull.

Large streams of sea water poured into the cabin.

The galleon, riddled with scars from Portuguese cannonballs, sank into the sea at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Pitiful cries and shouts rang out all around, as sailors and mercenaries jumped into the sea and were quickly drowned beneath the waves.

The shells fell like hail.

The surrounding ships immediately distanced themselves from each other, and the originally tight formation of the cover ships became loose.

"Maintain formation and counterattack!"

The officers waved the red and white military flags, signaling the black sailors to adjust the ship's course.

They were greeted by even more intense bombardment.

"Over there! The Ming people's coastal artillery!"

Four miles away on Tsushima Island, half of the Kaiyuan Army's artillery regiment was busy.

Thousands of people ran back and forth like ants, carrying ammunition, adjusting targets, firing, and cleaning gun barrels.

Every time the cannon fired, the ground shook slightly, as if a giant sea monster was violently slamming into Tsushima Island.

With Magaotai as the center, within a radius of three miles, there are thirty Type 22 red cannons hidden. The cannons are camouflaged with dead branches and trees, with only the muzzles facing the sea to the north.

The Type 22 Red Cannon was the workshop's key research and development project last year. It has a caliber of 180mm, is loaded with an incredible 50kg of gunpowder, and can fire a maximum of 20kg of iron cannonballs. To change the aiming direction of this cannon, two war horses are needed to turn it.

Transporting this huge cannon requires five war horses and hundreds of soldiers.

Regarding the range and power of the Type 22 cannon, the workshop clerk once made this exaggerated record:

One shot destroyed an area over ten miles long.

It is said that in one firing, its shock wave killed two auxiliary soldiers (Koreans) and a mule who were too close to the muzzle.

There are even rumors that a pregnant woman who lived near the workshop had a miscarriage on the spot after hearing the test firing of the 22mm cannon. The whole family blocked the door of the workshop and demanded fifty taels of silver from Master Craftsman Lei for medical expenses.

These rumors are too absurd.

However, it is certain that its effective range exceeds five miles.

The Kaiyuan army carried a total of sixty Type 22 cannons on their eastward expedition. They were originally planned to be used to attack the shogunate's mountain castle, as it was said that such fortifications were difficult to attack. However, the Tokugawa shogunate was later defeated, so they were never used.

The more important reason was that the transportation of the giant cannons was too troublesome, time-consuming and labor-intensive. When the Battle of Kyushu broke out, half of the cannons were still stranded in the rear.

Ping Liaohou sent additional artillery to the island. After the Kailang boats and bird boats brought the enemy into the artillery range, these huge cannons gave the East India Company's bandits a surprise.

(End of this chapter)