Lord of Ming Dynasty

Scouting what's going on around the fleet has to be fast, it has to be figured out.

The ship exploring the southeast quickly disappeared into the morning mist in the distance, but the sea facing Saigon was cloudless and extremely clear, and it was still faintly visible in a distance of [-] nautical miles. You can see anything at ten nautical miles.

And half of the ship heading for the South China Sea has been hidden in the blue mist of thirty nautical miles.

Due to the slowing down of the wind speed, the ship has dropped to a speed of about four knots, which is far behind the speed of the exploring ship.

Perrin said to the soldiers beside him: "Let the frigate move closer to us, not too far away from three nautical miles, otherwise we will have at least half an hour to support them."

An hour and a half later, the ships on the other side of the bay returned, and there were still ten nautical miles away from them. They put down a small boat, quickly rowed over, boarded Huaxia 310, and reported the situation in that direction to Perrin. Things, they contacted a small fleet patrolling the bay, the Fourth Fleet was basically fine, no enemies were found, merchant ships and patrol ships were all normal."

Perrin said to the squad leader who delivered the news: "Let them catch up quickly and go to the southeast to see where the scout frigate is. He has been away for too long."

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief." As the small captain of the Marine Corps equipped on the ship, he saluted the fleet commander vigorously, and then took a few subordinates to grab the sling and get down to the small boat to row quickly. Walk.

After a while, the ship that was investigating in the direction of Saigon came back quickly, 30 meters away from them, and reported to him across the sea, "The direction of Saigon is facing the bow of our fleet, and the wind speed is [-]. When we return The speed is eight knots, and as we move towards Saigon, the wind speed will become stronger, and the speed of the fleet will drop sharply, and the ships can only travel against the wind at a speed of three knots at the highest point."

Perrin continued to listen to a section of the report, and then shouted loudly: "Go to the southeast of Manila immediately, the scout frigate over there has not returned for two hours, and has not contacted us, and the one going behind has not contacted us either. It’s been nearly an hour, you guys should go catch up right away, remember to come back and report immediately if there is any situation, don’t worry about other things for now. We have to be responsible for the safety of the fleet.”

Chapter 8: The situation is not good

There are dangers under the calm sea, which is the deepest fear of every sailor.

Perrin was a little worried now. As the fleet moved forward, he became more worried, especially the three scout ships heading towards Manila. He regretted which patrol ships and transportation ships he didn't bring, and which ships generally traveled at seven knots. , At eight knots, the maximum speed during investigation can reach ten or eleven knots.

Even in such a light wind, there is a speed of eight knots, and some strong winds in other directions can allow them to go back and forth at a speed of ten knots, which is three to four knots faster than a [-]-ton warship. Although the warship is light in size, it can only provide them with a speed of one knot, which is not much compared with the speed of the thousand-ton warships of their own fleet.

I must keep the fleet at a speed of five knots or four knots slower and wait for them to return. Even if your majesty is in danger, letting your ship travel at almost the maximum speed of six knots will not make him feel at ease.

Since he has to maintain a speed of six knots, he will be farther and farther away from the three [-]-ton warships that went out to investigate. They can catch up after they rest, otherwise they will always keep a distance of tens of nautical miles from them, because it is impossible to go too far for reconnaissance, even if one or two captains decide to run farther, or get lost for other reasons, it is still very difficult. It may be time to go back and return, or lose contact with the home team forever, which is not good.

While he was thinking about the problem, Zhang Qiang came out, yawned, and asked in a daze, "How far are we from Saigon?"

Perrin thought for a while, "Your Majesty, according to this speed, we will reach a small island at noon, which is 280 nautical miles away from the Fifth Fleet. We are now more than 80 nautical miles away from there. With our speed, If we can catch up with the wind in the middle, it is possible to reach somewhere, even if we can't reach it, we will not be more than [-] nautical miles away from it, and we can reach it in the afternoon, and then we will take a rest somewhere, and we will reach the Fifth Fleet at noon tomorrow .”

Zhang Qiang took the strong tea handed to him by the attendant, and sat down casually. The attendant brought him a soft chair. He sat on the bow deck and looked at the distance through the sloping sail on the side of the bow deck. of the sea.

Looking sideways at Perrin who was standing, he was dressed in a Chinese navy uniform, looking lean, handsome, and mighty, with a flintlock gun that had been modified several times pinned to his waist. Hanging the command knife, the shining Damascus command knife, of course, is not a real Damascus knife, it is an imitation sample after the Chinese army's steelmaking level has improved.

Narrower and shorter than the Damascus sword, wider and shorter than the Japanese Toyo sword, it is very suitable for fighting in the small space on the ship.

There is a copper whistle hanging around Perrin's neck, a telescope, and the whistle allows him to call soldiers to find his location and protect him at any time, and it also allows him to immediately wake up the soldiers to fight, and it can also be used as a tool for him to command the soldiers. In this backward era, In other words, on the chaotic battlefield where the sea battles are full of artillery fire and the sound of shouting and killing is one after another, the sharp whistle on this ship can allow him to better control and command the soldiers.

Soldiers have undergone rigorous training to know the meaning of his unique whistle in a chaotic situation, so as to spontaneously form resistance or carry out his orders.

The watchman's voice came from the watchtower: "An unknown ship is found ahead, [-] nautical miles away, approaching at a speed of eight knots."

Before Perrin could issue an order, the watchman shouted loudly: "Three patrol boats flying the flag of our Chinese Kingdom's Navy seem to be injured."

Zhang Qiang and Pei Lan felt tense. At this moment, the navy ship of their own kingdom was injured. What's going on?

What comes to mind is that there are enemies nearby.

Perrin shouted loudly: "Ring the bell, get ready for battle, Alert Level [-]!"

The captain of Huaxia No. 310 beside him shouted loudly: "Ring the bell, prepare for war, alert level [-]!"

Not far away, the first mate, who was watching the enemy on the other side, repeated the captain's words, "Ring the bell, prepare for battle, alert level [-]!"

As his shout fell, the crisp bells rang, and the ship was still chatting leisurely, while the sailors, gunners, and handymen who were doing their work all returned to their respective positions, dropped what they were doing, and went to prepare for the battle up.

The handymen quickly tied up all the movable things with ropes, and threw some things that were easy to run around into the small compartment next to them, closed the hatch, quickly checked the cables around them, retreated into the cabin, and waited for orders , and the sailors ran to their posts one after another. Some of them climbed the ladder and climbed up the mast in full armor. Below they will be responsible for reefing and setting sails to deal with fierce naval battles. The gunners ran back to their respective gun positions , Push the gun to a position suitable for combat, lock the rear guide rail, lift the muzzle, and prepare to send it out of the gun window to bombard the enemy.

The gunner apprentices took out the shells and gunpowder cartridges from the box on one side, and quickly wiped each shell. The shells of the Huaxia Army are standard, and even a little dust will affect the speed and power of the shells.

The marines on the ship moved all the cold weapons knives, machetes, swords, axes, and shields to each position, and then lined up with guns on their backs, preparing to deal with the enemy's jumping gang battle.

Another flag bearer on the watchtower waved the command flag to convey the order to every ship in the fleet.

A trumpeter at the bow and stern of the ship climbed onto the mizzen mast, and blew vigorously the sound of more than a dozen warning horns. Whether it was day or night, the efficiency of sound transmission was farther than that of the flag.

After the soldiers arrived at their posts, the watchman continued to report the movement of the ships in front, "The other side has five ships, and there are two [-]-ton warships behind them. They seem to have retreated. The two sides gathered [-] nautical miles away. That is also our warship, the rear is the warship of the [-]th Fleet's squadron stationed in Qiongdao, and the front is the patrol ship of the [-]th Fleet patrolling this sea area, they are approaching, there are still [-] nautical miles, they speed up .”

Following the shout of the watchman, a ship heading in their direction appeared in the binoculars held by Zhang Qiang and Pei Lan. The speed of the other party was still increasing, and finally it seemed that it had reached a speed of ten knots.

For the 180-ton Huaxia Navy's ships, this speed is already their maximum speed.

Soon it will disintegrate.

The ship timber of the Huaxia Navy is not good enough. This is the sequelae of the Huaxia Navy blindly expanding the size of the navy regardless of the objective laws.

But Zhang Qiang has no choice, because he wants to expand rapidly, make the surrounding enemies tremble, and dare not harass the Huaxia Kingdom, so he uses scale to suppress the enemies who are about to move. After all, the Dutch, the British, and the Spaniards have sailors all over the world. every corner of the ocean.

The quality of their sailors is much higher than that of the offshore fishermen of the Huaxia Kingdom. They have much more experience in manipulating warships and fighting naval battles than the Huaxia Kingdom. Therefore, the Huaxia Kingdom can only use quantity to pile quality at first, but this is also It is much more advanced than Zheng Chenggong's method of blindly piling up enemy ships with small boats. At least the big ships have more fierce firepower compared to them.

After 20 years of training, the navy of the Huaxia Kingdom has developed its own group of experienced young navy officers and soldiers following the retirement of the old batch of pirate sailors. Now Zhang Qiang is preparing to launch a new warship, making the Huaxia Kingdom The navy is so much better than the enemy.

After sailing for an hour and a half, the two sides finally approached ten nautical miles.

Chapter 8 The Stupid Fleet Commander

Perrin faithfully carried out the mission of his own fleet commander, and issued an order, "Raise the king's flag, raise the flag of the flagship, let the three [-]-ton warships on the outermost perimeter closest to the enemy meet them, and tell them to send Small boat, send someone to command the flagship to come up and report, and they are not allowed to break into our fleet."

Zhang Qiang is very satisfied with his actions. Under such circumstances, if the enemy ambushes, if the enemy uses his own ships to attack the flagship, or disrupt the formation of the fleet, then the end will be very miserable.

Less than half an hour later, the three ships of the Fifth Fleet in front stopped outside. After some conversations and disputes, the soldiers on board finally dispatched a small boat to follow the ship of the Third Fleet of the Huaxia Navy. The small boats of the 310-ton warship rowed together to the Huaxia [-] warship where the flagship was located.

"Commander of Patrol Ship No. 302 of the Third Patrol Squadron of the Fifth Fleet, Li Yunfeng has met His Majesty and Lord Pei Lan, Commander of the Third Fleet." Standing on the deck where he was, he saluted Zhang Qiang and Pei Lan. There is a white Arabic numeral 5 on the arm, which makes people know at a glance that he is a sailor of the 5th Fleet.

There is a silver anchor under the number five. The anchors of the first to third fleets are gold. This is the main fleet. The fourth to fifth and sixth are formed by the split squadrons, so only silver can be used. The anchor of the Coast Guard is a black anchor.

"Why did you run away in such a haste?"

Zhang Qiang asked angrily?

Li Yunfeng trembled all over, lowered his head, and said in a low voice: "We were ambushed, it was the British warships that ambushed us, and behind us were ships with unknown flags that ambushed our brigade. The island fleet is almost completely wiped out, we are on the edge of the battlefield, and the boat is small, so we can escape quickly, otherwise we may also be wiped out by the enemy."

"What? The Fifth Fleet has been wiped out?" Zhang Qiang, Commander Pei Lan, and the surrounding captain, first mate, and second mate all exclaimed in unison.

The Fifth Fleet was the pilot of a new type of fleet that Zhang Qiang placed high hopes on, and it was wiped out just like that, which definitely shocked and disappointed Zhang Qiang.

Li Yunfeng said with a heavy heart: "Yes, our commander-in-chief received a request from the envoy of the Zheng family to request the Fifth Fleet near Manila to support them in fighting the Spanish Fleet. I heard that the Spanish Fleet originally had 56 ships of 960 tons. Armed merchant ships, thirty six-hundred-ton Galen armed merchant ships, and eighteen Spanish [-]-ton third-class battleships arrived in Manila from far away Europe, and about [-] expeditionary forces followed the new Governor Orefice White came to take office, and their young master Zheng Zhi asked our Fifth Fleet for support."

"Bastard, bastard, there is no order from the General Staff, no order from the Ministry of Defense, no order directly issued by the Navy Director, and without my consent, who, who allowed him to use the entire fleet to help others and other forces without permission, Is he—is he still the naval general of the Huaxia Kingdom?" Zhang Qiang yelled angrily, waving his arms around and scratching around.

He was very angry. No king would allow his generals to lead troops to fight without permission, and to mobilize troops without permission. That might threaten his rule. Troop mobilization without procedural legitimacy will be subject to questioning, review, and the ultimate penalty of death.

Perrin didn't want his naval colleagues who were similar to himself to be questioned, which might affect him, so he explained: "Your Majesty, it may be that the military situation is urgent and it is too late to report to His Majesty, or the messenger he sent is already on the way, and he feels that the It is more appropriate to send troops."