Bringing the Railway to Daming

After spending the Mid-Autumn Festival in the capital, Zhu Yuanzhang left and returned to Fengyang. As autumn approached and the weather turned cooler, he planned to spend some time in Fengyang recuperating.

Just a few days after the Mid-Autumn Festival, a unique naval battle broke out in the shimmering English Channel.

It is described as unprecedented because this naval battle differed significantly from previous naval battles fought in this area.

The first difference is that one side of the war was the Ming army, which was appearing in the English Channel for the first time. Although it was a joint force of the Jin, Dai, and Ning vassal states under the Ming Empire, it could still be considered a Ming army.

The second difference is that this was the first naval battle fought with firearms in the English Channel.

Of course, the disparity in strength between the two sides in this naval firearms battle was enormous, not only in terms of numbers but also in terms of equipment.

As a European "power" that once extended its influence into the European continent and even occupied most of France in the past few decades, the Kingdom of England naturally has one of the best navies in Europe.

The English fleet that encountered the Ming army just now consisted of twelve large cogs and dozens of similar variant light ships.

Cokes were developed by the English from shipbuilding techniques learned from the Vikings. They were short and wide, equipped with stern rudders and bow sails, and generally had a displacement of no more than 200 tons. However, the large cokes in this fleet were an improved version, much taller, with a displacement approaching 500 tons, enough to dominate the coast of Western Europe.

Furthermore, the current King Henry IV of England had the foresight to equip these large coks with replicas of general's cannons to increase the fleet's offensive capabilities.

However, each large cog was only equipped with two general's cannons, one at the bow and one at the stern.

In addition, there were trebuchets, which had been used on European warships for many years, as well as longbowmen, spearmen, and other types of soldiers. Including the sailors, a large cog had about two hundred men.

Therefore, this main English fleet probably only had more than three thousand men.

Taylor, as the commander of this fleet, already held the rank of major general—he was only in his thirties and was in command of a main English naval fleet of more than three thousand men, which made him very proud.

But at this moment, he stood at the bow of the flagship "Neptune", looking at the Ming fleet in front of him, his expression extremely solemn, as if he was about to die.

On the sea ahead, there were not many Ming warships, probably only a few dozen, but definitely not more than a hundred.

The smallest of these warships was about the same size as their large cogs! The largest warship was several times larger than a large cog, and had double decks. Even the key parts of the ship, such as the bow and stern, were covered with iron armor. With its tall hull, it was awe-inspiring!
In addition, these Ming warships all had doors or closed windows on their sides. Although Taylor had never been on a Ming warship, he instinctively felt that those windows probably concealed some powerful weapons.

As the Ming warships approached with full sails, Taylor asked his adjutant again, "Smith, is it really impossible for us to shake off this Ming fleet?"

Smith was older than Taylor, looking to be in his forties or fifties, and was an experienced naval officer.

Hearing this, he smiled wryly and said, "Commander, although the Ming army's warships are larger, their sailing technology is also superior to ours. It is impossible for us to shake off their pursuit."

Taylor's face darkened further upon hearing this, but he quickly made a decision, saying, "Even if we can't escape, we have to try—these Ming warships look very powerful, and we can't possibly be their match."

"Besides, this place isn't far from our starting base port. Perhaps if we hold out a little longer, we can escape back to the port. Then, with land support, we can fight this Ming fleet."

"Immediately relay my military order: all warships must sail at full speed toward the base harbor!"

The messenger beside him responded and went to relay Taylor's order.

Before long, the English fleet had increased its speed a little more.

On the Ming side, aboard the flagship of the Jin-Pan fleet, the Jin-Pan fleet commander Lin Kui observed a series of changes on the English fleet through his binoculars and sneered, saying, "I originally wanted to get closer and force them to engage in a naval battle with us, but it seems that won't work now."

"Pass on my order: command all main warships to fire on the English fleet ahead, and order the escort ships to accelerate and intercept the enemy ships!" "Yes, sir!"

The messenger responded and quickly relayed Lin Kui's orders through a series of flag signals.

Then, more than a dozen main warships stopped, turned sideways, opened their gun ports, and revealed rows of dark cannons.

These cannons are not the Great General Cannons, but the Divine Might Cannons brought from the Ming Dynasty or purchased later. They are also the naval cannons commonly used by the Ming Dynasty Navy today!

On the other side, Taylor noticed from afar that more than a dozen tall warships in the Ming fleet had stopped instead of accelerating to catch up, which he found very strange.

His eyesight was excellent, and the weather was clear, so he could vaguely see that the "windows" on those tall warships were open, revealing something. However, due to the distance, he couldn't make out what it was.

But as an experienced and talented naval commander, Taylor quickly came to a conclusion.

"God, could those windows be showing cannons?"

Thinking about this, and considering the range of the general's cannons, Taylor felt strange again—could the Ming warships really hit them from such a distance with these cannons exposed?
Soon, he saw pale white smoke rising from the windows of those tall warships, and almost at the same time, cannon fire rang out!
Boom boom boom...

One after another, cannonballs flew across two or three miles of sea, heading straight for their fleet!

At this, Taylor's goosebumps weren't just on edge; he felt like his pores were about to explode. After a jolt, he yelled, "Take cover! Tell the helmsman to be careful of the shells!"

However, it was too late, or rather, the shells came too fast.

Hundreds of iron projectiles hurtled toward the sea where the English fleet was located. Although most of them landed in the sea, a dozen or so still hit the warships.

English warships, designed primarily for defense against arrows and catapults, were like paper when faced with powerful cannonballs; a single iron shot would leave a hole in them!

If the bullet hits a point above the waterline, such as the upper deck, it would be better; perhaps the bullet would lose its destructive power after penetrating a deck.

However, if the waterline was breached, the warship would begin to take on water—among the several warships that were hit, two were such unfortunate ships, which not only experienced a sharp decrease in speed, but also heard panicked shouts from the ships, and the ships slowly sank.

The sinking of these two ships, coupled with the other warships turning to avoid cannon fire, slowed down the entire English fleet.

Taylor's flagship, the Neptune, was fortunate enough to escape unscathed by any cannon fire. However, when Taylor turned around and saw that the entire fleet had slowed down considerably and was even in disarray, his heart sank, just like the two ships that had been destroyed.

He knew that he had given the wrong order.

He should have ignored everything from the start and let the entire fleet continue its escape at full speed!

"It's not too late yet, the remaining warships still have a chance to escape..."

As he muttered this, Taylor was about to issue a new order when he heard a series of artillery shells.

Boom boom boom...

Taylor turned around and saw hundreds more shells raining down on him; his heart sank. (End of Chapter)