Lord of Ming Dynasty

Well, if he doesn't have such high requirements on the sealing of the artillery, the breech-loading rifle can be used on the road, but it is not easy to use at sea. If the sealing is not good, it may cause a fire. The lightest gunpowder gas will injure the gunner and explode the gunpowder. Barrels, this is no joke, the swaying hull makes breech-loading guns almost synonymous with unsafe.

This is also the reason why Zhang Qiang had to move the rear-mounted artillery off the Huaxia after many experiments.

However, these front-mounted artillery are much more advanced than the front-mounted artillery on the Huaxia Navy warships built seven or eight years ago that captured the Fifth Fleet on the opposite side. The range is 20 meters farther than the enemy. Under the control, the speed is at least one and a half rounds faster than the enemy, the pitching device, the steering device, the high-quality gunner commander, and the gunner commander make the bombardment more efficient.

At this moment, the fifteen warships of the Huaxia, like wolves in the flock, wounded and destroyed [-] enemy warships, severely damaged a thousand-ton enemy warship captured by the Huaxia Navy, forced one to surrender, and forced away two enemy warships. warship.

Cut off a piece from the flank of the enemy fleet, and then circled a big bay, pierced from the flank of Zheng Zhi's fleet to the side of Du Ge's fleet of three warships that were besieging Xie Lan's fleet scattered and fled. Under the unified command, the artillery on the side fired nearly a thousand shells at the side of the Duge Fleet, which was almost densely piled up 320 meters away. Nearly [-] shells fell into the sea, and nearly [-] shells fell into the enemy. On both sides of the warship, a straddle shot was formed, and several shells hit the enemy's hull, making the enemy's battleship panic.

Chapter 824 Set the Victory

As it gets closer and closer, the accuracy of the shelling increases. Under the enemy's counterattack fire, the Huaxia fleet resisted the enemy's intensive firepower, relying on its own hull is stronger than others, and insisted on fighting from the east to the southwest, and from the On the other side, the five harassing Huaxia joined forces. With their joining, the Huaxia fleet had [-] warships capable of combat. In the battle line situation, they circled around the northern periphery again and attacked the enemy's fleet.

Because there are fewer and fewer battleships, there were more than 600 warships on both sides before, circling in circles on the wide sea of ​​600 nautical miles, approaching each other and fighting each other. There are too many ships, so many ships in Xie Lan's fleet are actually overwhelmed by the number of enemies and ships. Because there are too many ships, thirty nautical miles seems to be a wide range, but in the battle of more than [-] ships, it is really not How wide, so many ships were captured and burned.

With its firepower and maneuverability, the quality of its soldiers, and the performance advantages of its ships, the Huaxia Navy Fleet did not give in. In the beginning, Xie Lan killed nearly a dozen enemy warships with the advantage of long-range artillery fire. The fierce artillery at close range damaged and sank more than a dozen enemy warships again.

Several parties also lost one or two warships, so that the two sides have reduced a total of more than 30 warships. For every thirty warships reduced, the battlefield will be wider. In the second half of the early stage, Xie Lan's Huaxia Navy fleet lost At most, nearly [-] warships and warships were lost. In the middle period, the battlefield became wider. The eldest prince and the others were lured away by the new warships of the Huaxia Navy and sunk fifteen ships. The battlefield widened again. The prince's fleet was lured away by the Huaxia fleet, driven away, and finally wiped out, and the battlefield suddenly became clear.

So Xie Lan's fleet can still fight inextricably with Zheng Zhi's fleet even though it is seriously injured and the number of personnel is severely reduced.

When Du Ge's fleet came, there was pressure, but in the end they were rushed and beaten by the Huaxia fleet. As soon as they came up, they sank a dozen ships and destroyed three ships, allowing them to run to the periphery and continue to deal with Zheng Zhi's fleet. At this time, Zheng Zhi's fleet was only about [-] ships. Although it was supplemented by old-fashioned armed merchant ships from Palawan Island, it was restrained and crushed by five Huaxia ships. In the end, the [-] warships of the Huaxia fleet took over Du Ge When the fleet arrived, Xie Lan and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.

With [-] battleships and warships heavily wounded, they arrived at the periphery to chase the escaped Zheng Zhi fleet. Yes, Zheng Zhi's fleet escaped.

In order to be able to escape, Zheng Zhi changed to a [-]-ton Dutch warship. Compared with the smaller tonnage, the higher the speed, he left the remaining dozen warships and let them block Xie Lan's nearly thirty ships. The pursuit of warships and warships.

In fact, Du Ge also had a strong sense of going there, losing nearly [-] warships. Later, he saw that he had no hope of winning, so he led the fleet and fled towards Siam.

But how could Zhang Qiang give up on him?

Leaving the fleet in circles to drag Du Ge's nearly [-] or [-] warships and warships left on the battlefield, he led five Huaxia battleships to chase after him at high speed, causing more than a dozen warships to lose power along the way and could only float on the sea.

When they chased to the southernmost sea area of ​​Annan, it was completely dark, and Du Ge and his fleet had only a dozen warships left.

"Catch up with him and annihilate them." Zhang Qiang roared angrily on the deck of the ship.

Kodak rested tiredly on the hard platform at the bottom of the first mast on the ship.

He was exhausted today. He had never experienced such an intense battle since he was a soldier. He was no better than the middle-aged Zhang Qiang, who was in his teens, and he was already in his fifties this year.

"Separate, each boat is five miles apart, use light signals to communicate, light a bonfire at the bow, use glass mirrors to reflect light, and search the sea surface." Zhang Qiang gave orders continuously, walking around tirelessly, this was the only time he was close The distance is close to the traitor Du Ge, and he must be captured.

Kodak said weakly: "Your Majesty, the enemy still has more than a dozen ships. If we go further west, maybe the Dutch on Kogong Island will meet them. In the dark night, except for our speed, no one else can outnumber us. Compared with our enemies, forget it, the army of the Third Fleet will arrive tomorrow, and we will look for them then."

"No, no, we must find him, I will cut him into pieces, this traitor." Zhang Qiang still gave the order relentlessly.

So one night, the five Huaxia ships searched for nearly 30 nautical miles back and forth, but there was nothing to be gained. The hull is [-] meters, so the enemy disappeared in the vast sea under such circumstances.

When the sky was about to light up, Zhang Qiang woke up from his dream and felt a burst of cold on his body, which forced him to wake up. He was wrapped in a wool felt blanket, and the bonfire beside him had not been completely extinguished. The command fleet met, and the eight Huaxia ships came at high speed not far behind. Looking at the speed, it reached eleven knots in the sixth-level wind, which completely exceeded the ten knot speed during combat.

It seemed that they were worried about their own safety and came after them quickly from behind.

It was Pei Lan who was chasing after him, and he led the eight Huaxia warships.

On the battleship were soldiers from Zhang Qiang's personal guard regiment, Perrin's personal guard battalion from the Third Fleet, and a battalion from the Marine Brigade of the Third Fleet.

When Peilan got on board the Huaxia 310 ship, Zhang Qiang learned about the battle situation near Palawan Island.

"Your Majesty, the situation is like this. The temporary fleet I led finally dragged down Du Ge's [-] warships and warships. Those warships and warships headed by the capture of our Fifth Fleet, and then the auxiliary ship Huaxia, flew The shearing boat dragged the British fleet and sank it, destroying [-] enemy warships. When the five Huaxia ships that were guarding the prisoners were replaced by Xie Lan's fleet, the five Huaxia ships joined the battle, and they defeated the British fleet. But the British fleet was cunning, their boats were small and the water was shallow, and they finally fled into the center of the Borneo Islands. With the help of the Nanyang Chinese pirates on board, they got rid of us among the small islands of Borneo and disappeared. In the end they had three warships fleeing the battle.

Later, the addition of 450 Huaxia ships caused us heavy damage, and captured 130 of the 230 warships, and the others were sunk. We sank a total of [-] enemy ships on Palawan Island, destroying The enemy had [-] ships, captured [-] ships, captured the eldest prince, the second prince, Zheng Zhi, Du Ge, as well as the British and Spaniards, a total of [-] sailors and soldiers.

We lost 630 warships and 260 warships in this battle, and one Huaxia was severely damaged, one lost power, one auxiliary ship was sunk, one was severely damaged, and the other Huaxia were injured. There are still twenty Huaxia ships that can fight, and nine auxiliary ships.

In addition, our personnel losses totaled 3000 sailors, [-] were captured, most of the others died in battle, and a small number were seriously or slightly injured. "

Zhang Qiang felt that the sky was falling, the Fifth Fleet was destroyed, the Sixth Fleet was abolished and sold by him, and the rest were assigned to the Fifth and Fourth Fleets, and part of them were assigned to the Third Fleet and the Third Fleet of the Moat. Among the defenders, although the first half month's naval battle has wiped out the entire fleet of the first prince, second prince, Zheng Zhi, Du Ge, and the Spaniards, in comparison, the Fifth Fleet was destroyed and the Fourth Fleet was beaten back. The level of the Coast Guard was lowered, and the Third Fleet also lost some ships and sailors.

When I was worrying about how to reduce and arrange the manpower and ships from the sixth to fourth fleets, this naval battle seemed to help me, and directly wiped out most of my two fleets. The two fleets totaled only [-] ships Battleships, battleships, more than [-]% of them were lost this time. If the losses of the Third Fleet and the Huaxia Fleet are added, then the Fifth Fleet is gone, and the Fourth Fleet can be abolished directly.

I originally wanted to abolish or sell all the more than 300 remaining warships of the Huaxia Navy, but now I don't need it, and there are about [-] warships and warships left.

This force is not enough to cover the nearly [-] nautical miles coastline of the entire Huaxia Kingdom.

If you expand a circle outward, from Shikoku Island to the Gulf of Siam, the entire East China Sea and South China Sea, the defense line in the inner circle of Luzon Island is more than 700 nautical miles, which is not enough for ships to cover.

However, this also reduces the navy's military and maintenance costs, manpower wages, pension costs, and welfare costs. The officials of the household department may be very happy.

Zhou Porridge in the cabinet and the others are also laughing.

The financial expenditure has been reduced, and they can all use it for domestic development, instead of investing a lot of money in the navy. The navy used to have [-] warships, but it was a gold-swallowing behemoth. one-fifth of the financial cost.

The battle was a miserable one.

But on the other hand, it also established the sea power of the Huaxia Kingdom. There is no strong water enemy that can threaten the Huaxia Kingdom in the sea area thousands of miles around the Huaxia Kingdom.

Just when everyone was cheering for the arrival of reinforcements, and when Zhang Qiang was communicating with Pei Lan and Kodak, a [-]-ton warship of the Huaxia Navy Fleet sailed from the distant sea.

The captain of Huaxia 310 shouted in surprise: "Oh, isn't that the first [-]-ton warship we sent to investigate the direction of Manila? Wasn't it sunk by Du Ge's fleet? Or was it not by the Spanish fleet later? caught?"

As the [-]-ton warship approached, Zhang Qiang saw dense bullet holes on the body of the warship, which were hit by solid bullets from the enemy. The mast on the sailboat was also lowered a lot. It seems that the spare mast on the ship was replaced. The spare mast should not be too long, otherwise the ship will not be able to fit it, and it will be stored in sections, so it will not be high.

The number of people on board is also much smaller. For a 300-ton warship, according to the past, there must be more than [-] sailors, gunners, soldiers, and [-] to [-] miscellaneous handymen in a ship. Now there are only [-] to [-] in line. It appears that they escaped after a hard fight.

When the captain of the warship and the captain of the sea team boarded Zhang Qiang's ship and reported their experience, they brought a message that Zheng Keshuang had arrived again, and he would wait for him in the moat.

Zhang Qiang was a little distressed. He didn't know if Zheng Keshuang and Zheng Zhi were from the same group, whether Zheng Zhi's behavior was a collective decision of the Zheng family, or whether it was ordered by Zheng Chenggong.

822 Chapter Five Falls

"Clean up, the Third Fleet is temporarily stationed in Saigon, defending the sea area from Manila to Koh Kong Island, to the inner sea area that expands from the trench gate to the straight line of Baodao State in Manila, from the trench gate to the straight line to Baodao State The sea area is guarded by the remaining fleet of the Third Fleet." Zhang Qiang said to Pei Lan who had rushed over.

Kodak asked anxiously, "What about the Fifth Fleet?"

He is the deputy commander of the Fifth Fleet. I don't know if Liu Taiyun is dead or alive, but the Fifth Fleet can't be unattended. With meritorious service, he was promoted to the commander of the Fifth Fleet.

Zhang Qiang glanced at Kodak, "Go back and take the 300 captive ships, oh, by the way, a lot of ships were captured before, although so many ships are old, but there are not many, there are more than 400 ships, you should repair them as soon as possible, Use as many as you can repair, lead them to the Fourth Fleet one after another, and you will take over as the commander of the Fourth Fleet, plus the remaining ships of the Fourth Fleet and the ships of the Harbor Guard, there are almost more than [-] ships.

Your task is to defend the waters from Annanyan Port to Xisha to Manila on Luzon Island called Guevara, then turn back to the Dongsha Islands, and reach the sea area on the side of the Momen. The two have repeated routes. Your task is to be the first Third Fleet reserves exist in the area, ready to support them.

Xie Lan of the Fourth Fleet was transferred to be the Commander of the Fifth Fleet, temporarily taking over the ships and manpower of the Third Fleet in Saigon. Xie Lan is now the Vice Admiral Commander, and he has committed a crime. Therefore, you lead him and he is your deputy. Acting as fleet commander for you temporarily.Your task is to defend the line from the center line extending from the moat to Baodao Prefecture and the South China Sea. "

At this time, Perrin quit, and said anxiously: "Your Majesty, we dispatched warships and warships from the trench gate this time, and dispatched more than 300 warships and warships. Where do I only have more than 100 warships and warships?" , How can I defend such a large territory? This is nearly 3000 nautical miles, and there is a Spaniard with counterattack capabilities in the middle, and Zheng Zhi's fleet. He may not have a few ships, but he took In the territory of the First Prince and the Second Prince, they still have at least 50 merchant ships, and they are a force to be reckoned with after refitting, and we cannot guard against them in such a long sea area."

"Then won't you rest for a few days and then take your soldiers and horses to clean up the territory of the first prince and the second prince, and then land on Palawan Island?" Zhang Qiang asked back.

Then he said to Xie Lan: "Take a rest for a few days, cooperate with Perrin's army to take down Palawan Island, and then transfer your garrison to Palawan Island, and cut off this route for me."