Lord of Ming Dynasty

For this reason, Weichen once asked someone to go to the British East India territory to spend money to buy a British sailor, found their outdated ship picture book, studied it carefully, and remembered the appearance of these enemy warships.

In the rear is the enemy's first-class sailing battleship, with a displacement of about 120 to 30 tons. The ship usually has three to five decks, equipped with 50 to 48 artillery pieces, and there are more than [-] artillery pieces on one side. But looking at the enemy queue, it seems that there is only one first-class sailing battleship, two second-class sailing battleships, and the rest are third-class sailing battleships, with a total of about [-] ships.

Obediently, 48 sailing battleships, thirty new [-]-ton new Chinese Empire-style warships, plus their fifty battleships on our side from the sixth to the fourth level that we often see, and Thirty armed merchant ships, my God, how are we going to fight? "

Hong Tianpao thumped slightly, which was exactly what Hong Tianpao was worried about.

"Order to turn around, let's go back to Manila Island, quick, quick," Hong Tianpao hesitated for a few seconds before decisively ordering to run away.

At this time, his fleet was already ten nautical miles away from the enemy, and the general said: "Your Highness, such a huge fleet can't be turned around in a short while, we have to send someone to stop them, we have to change from the rear to the front, let the rear The armed merchant ships and warships of the first team turned first, and then we turned again. Part of the front team turned, and part of the team had to catch up and hold the enemy, otherwise we would all be hit by our own people. If there was a mess, we might not be able to escape. Four hundred warships and warships are all surrounded by the enemy here."

Hong Tianpao is a bit pained. He raided the Spaniards in the previous battle. He has lost 56 merchant ships and [-] armed merchant ships. He has [-] warships. This time, depending on the situation, it is impossible to escape without losing hundreds of ships. Yes, the enemy is too strong, nearly a hundred warships, all of which are much higher in tonnage and firepower than his warships other than the battleship, this battle cannot be fought.

They didn't have much contact with the British, and they didn't fight much. They didn't know the British very well. They didn't expect that the British would come out and intercept them on the way.

Depending on the situation, Zheng Zhi's fate is more or less good, forget it, anyway, he has already benefited, so it doesn't matter what Zheng Zhi is, if Zheng Zhi dies, Hong Tianpao will be fulfilled, which is not bad.

So he said to the general: "You have full command, go to the Manila and raise the flag of the flagship. This place is handed over to you."

"Ah, so-called Wu's eyes are wide open. I didn't expect that my foresight and my own efforts will be exchanged for Hong Tianpao's defense against the enemy. This is obviously a mission of death. Relying on 48 armed merchant ships and 200 ships Warships of [-] tons or less, to intercept nearly [-] enemy ships, their firepower and speed are far superior to their British fleet, what is this not to death?"

Wu said that Hong Tianpao's personal guards forcibly sent 001 tons of Zhao Hui's flagship purchased from the First Fleet of the Chinese Empire, the No. The name was changed to the Manila. Regardless of whether Wu said he wanted it or not, his personal guards ordered people to raise the flagship and take over the command of the forward fleet. Then Wu said that he saw the Chinese fleet on both wings and the rear army turning away. The scene Some confusion.

However, they managed to cause riots in the former fleet. Two [-]-ton warships thought they could also break away. They saw many [-]-[-]-ton enemy sail battleships floating on the sea in front of them. Trembling, he turned around without waiting for an order, so they bumped into each other, Wu so-called cursed in anger, what kind of fleet is this.

If you are timid before fighting, you will be in chaos.

However, hundreds of warships, warships, and armed merchant ships cannot leave in a short time. They are all sailing in battle formation. The fleet turns, even if a ship turns, it depends on how the wind blows. At the moment they have a tailwind, and it is very smooth to rush towards the British quickly, but it is too difficult to turn around.

Wu said that when he saw this situation, he knew that there was no need to turn for an hour. If he wanted to sail against the headwind and get rid of the enemy, he had to hold on for at least four hours. He had already discovered that the British ships were extremely fast. They are all fleets of old-fashioned Chinese Empire ships, and their speed is at least two to three times that. In other words, after four hours, the fleet of the Ryukyu Kingdom can sail about fifty nautical miles, with an average speed of four to five knots. The speed of the enemy's slowest ship is six to eight knots, which is still a headwind. If the tailwind is estimated to reach ten or twelve knots, the speed of this sailing is not much advantage even for the new warships of the Huaxia Army.

Chapter 951 Shameful Escape

British Brigadier General Hadir led the British fleet to ambush Hong Tianpao on the way to reinforce the fleet of Nanyang Kingdom Zheng Zhi. Hong Tianpao saw the enemy's new warships and knew that he was incapable of fighting, so he ordered Wu Suo to lead [-] armed merchant ships and [-] ships. The warships met the enemy, but he ran away with the powerful warships and warships of the Chinese army, as well as the warships and armed merchant ships of the rear army, as well as the escorting warships.

The two sides were only ten nautical miles away, and within an hour, the enemy had already fully confronted Wu's so-called hastily organized front fleet, while the more than 400 ships of the Ryukyu Kingdom just turned their heads, moved three nautical miles away, and began to flee at an accelerated pace.

The British first let their armed merchant ships and colonial warships rush up to fight the enemy. They turned to the outer circle and separated the fleet that pursued Hong Tianpao from both sides.

It doesn't matter if you look at it, if you let the enemy chase from both sides, Hong Tianpao will be overtaken by the enemy in less than an hour, and the entire fleet will maintain a speed of about four to five knots. How can you use this speed? Race the British at six or eight knots?

"Flare the flag and let Fang Badan's fleet assault the enemy's armed merchant fleet and block them." It doesn't matter, you can only let people rush up and mix with the enemy first, so that other ships can spare time to intercept the enemy's fleet , Sometimes there are too many ships, and commanding is also a troublesome thing.

Although Hong Tianpao has implemented the military system of the Huaxia Army, in private, there are still many loyal people who each lead a part of the fleet, or troops, and then obey the dispatch of the above as a whole. If you want to send a part of the whole It is not as easy as the Huaxia Army. If the Huaxia Army wants to transfer a company to another regiment or battalion, it does not need the consent of the general. If the commander disagrees, he has to agree. The transferred company has gone to another battalion, and can immediately integrate into other battalions. In terms of combat effectiveness and combat coordination, because the training of the Huaxia Army is the same and has an outline.

But if you want to transfer some soldiers and horses to other people in the Ryukyu Kingdom, it will take a lot of effort.

The time was spent in wrangling, the enemy had already approached one nautical mile, Fang Badan's fleet was reluctantly separated from the fleet under the unity of the chief officer, to intercept the enemy, other branch fleets, too many ships, of course There must be many branches, each with a chief officer, and began to turn to other places to meet the enemy on the move.

Wu's so-called continuous ordering, issued five orders in a row, sending fifty armed merchant ships and twenty warships to intercept the enemy's nearly sixty armed merchant ships and twenty warships, and then dispatched warships to both sides. Ships and armed merchant ships, in this way, he divided his small force into three parts, with the most fighting in the middle and the least interception on both sides. This is not what Wu said he didn't enjoy intercepting, but he knew that the firepower of one ship against the enemy was stronger than his own. A behemoth with the firepower of more than a dozen ships, no matter how it is intercepted, it will be a loss.

The main force drove out ten nautical miles, and the enemy was only one nautical mile away from us. The enemy's cannons had already sounded, and countless shells were fired from the front and sides. Merchant ships can only use their advantages of small tonnage, fast speed and flexibility to deal with the enemy.

The enemy spread out about five or six nautical miles on both sides, turned, advanced, and outflanked, and then most of the enemy's main warships pursued the retreating Ryukyu Kingdom's main battleship central army from five or six nautical miles away.

On the way, he was intercepted by twenty or thirty armed merchant ships rushing towards him, and then he was intercepted by warships rushing over at the back and in the middle.

The battle was in full swing.

In half an hour, the enemy finally crossed what Wu called the horizontal interception line of the front fleet, and rushed to the rear of the Chinese fleet, which had only fled fifteen nautical miles.

When the first mast of the rear army disappeared on the horizon, the Chinese army had only reached [-] nautical miles, and the enemy's main fleet was already [-] nautical miles away from the intercepted front army fleet, and it was only eighteen or nine nautical miles away from the Chinese army. .

Wu said that he brought fifteen warships and fifteen six-hundred-ton warships in the main fleet of the former army. He gritted his teeth and ignored the inseparable battle with the enemy's forward armed merchant ships and warship fleet. The enemy's main fleet rushed over, and the enemy's sailing battleship was there. He did not intercept the enemy's new warships. He knew that with his own warships, if the enemy's new warships had the same performance as the Huaxia Army's new warships, then these in his hand Battleships simply can't stand against it.

Five nautical miles, but in 10 minutes, he was on his right flank and charged towards the main force of 48 enemy ships and battleships and ships of the line, almost unscathed.

The two sides began to shoot at each other at a distance of 500 meters. The enemy's ferocious firepower caused the indifferent fleet to sink one warship and severely damage two warships. When the two sides approached a distance of 300 meters, Wu called all warships to concentrate their firepower. Tier [-] battleships on the front line where the enemy leads the way.

A round of salvo, the enemy's shells killed or injured more than a dozen sailors on the Manila ship he was on, three cannons were blown up, and the ship was full of holes, but fortunately, it was not seriously injured and could continue to maintain the battle line sailing.

And they caused the same damage to the enemy's five third-tier sailing battleships. The two sides bombarded each other in an arc on the sea surface. The battle lasted for nearly an hour. Two armed merchant ships wandering here escaped, and three were killed. Heavy damage, all others were sunk, five warships were sunk, seven were severely damaged, three battleships were sunk, and the others were wounded and able to move, but their speed had dropped to a horrible level.

At this time, the first-tier battleships and second-tier battleships far away from the enemy's inner line joined in. What Wu said was that the thirty or forty ships that could still fight were concentrated and rushed towards these three battleships. The sixth level, and the bombardment of the enemy's armed merchant ship, approached the enemy 180 meters after half an hour, and the remaining seventeen ships fired together, directly damaging the side of the enemy's first-level battleship, causing it to almost capsize. A second-tier battleship fired at them like crazy.

Under the sporadic counterattacks here, the enemy's second-tier battleship is also covered with scars. Maybe God is pitiful to Wu so-called them. A shell fired from nowhere hit the ammunition depot of an enemy second-tier battleship. After a while, it exploded violently, causing the two sixth-tier battleships that came to the rescue to be affected, and they were overturned by the explosion. The hull was badly damaged and sank within 10 minutes.

At this time, Wu's so-called Manila was covered in scars, and only three warships followed, and fled towards the periphery. Wu so-called knew that it was time to end, and if he didn't escape, he might be killed.

Floating on the screen within a radius of fifteen nautical miles are their ships, and there are quite a few enemy ships, but in fact, they failed, those who could escape escaped, and those who could not escape also staggered, risking the enemy's pursuit. Ships are struggling to leave the battlefield.

The sailboats of the Chinese army were no longer visible in the distance, his mission was completed, as to whether Hong Tianpao could escape, that was beyond his concern.

He had to run too, and he did his best.

Chapter 952 The Thai-Western Allied Forces Can't Hold It Up

Wu So-called finally fled to Palawan Island with two warships, and hid in the port of Palawan Island under the support of the navy frigate of China's Third Fleet.

The five warships, fifteen armed merchant ships, and two third-class sailing battleships followed by the British hesitated for a while before leaving.

The news started from Palawan Island and has been passed on. Half a month later, Zhang Qiang sat in the new Yanjing Palace and watched the news.

Because he has been busy with domestic construction, conquering the Western Regions, and guarding against the Qing Dynasty and Japan, Zhang Qiang took an attitude of ignoring Hong Tianpao's actions. Unexpectedly, after one and a half months, Nanyang has become a mess, and Zheng Zhi's Nanyang Kingdom and the Spanish Manila were almost wiped out by their opponents, and now it is the Dutch and the British who dominate Nanyang.

I didn't want to deal with this matter before because the more chaotic the better, it's best for everyone to die together. Now that I think about it, that's impossible. There is always a winning side, even if it is a miserable victory, the winning side will get a large piece of land From an emotional point of view, what Zhang Qiang hopes to see is the Zheng family of Han descent. From a rational point of view, what Zhang Qiang hopes to see is the Spaniards, not the British who want to dominate the world. Big pit.

Why not Dutch?

Because the Dutch are too weak whether they are in the west or the east, especially after being beaten by the Chinese army, only a small long and narrow island of Malacca is left.

"What are the Dutch and the British doing now?" Zhang Qiang asked Jin Qi.

Jin Qi said: "The British warships are invincible. Zheng Zhi went to Koh Kong Island, and Hong Tianpao returned to Manila Island. Now Manila Island is besieged by the Dutch and Spaniards. The British went back to besiege Cebu Island. Cebu Island There are also Zheng Zhi's [-] troops and hundreds of thousands of people, in general, he once again sent the people to the hands of the butcher."

Wu said that he retreated to Palawan Island and was accepted by our army. The British, Spaniards and Dutch sent people to negotiate many times, asking us to hand over the enemies of the Nanyang Kingdom, otherwise they would attack our territory in Nanyang. Rawang Island.

"It's just an excuse. These Taixi people are like this. When you are weak, you don't say anything, just fight. When you are strong, you always like to stand on the moral high ground to destroy you and let you bear the attack of public opinion. Then they are justified Some of them can obtain their interests through the compromise of our insiders, but they don't know that with the Huaxia Kingdom where I am, they don't want to get even an inch of land or a profit from me without going to war."

"Then how do we respond to them?" Jin Qi asked.

"Don't respond. Responding is tantamount to admitting your cowardice. Ask the soldiers to clean their guns, set up the cannons, and raise the sails. If the enemy comes, I will fight back. Let's talk about other things after fighting. "

As Zhang Qiang's words spread, Perrin, the commander-in-chief of the Third Fleet, breathed a sigh of relief, and ordered Kodak, the former commander of the Fifth Fleet in Palawan Island, to be ready to deal with the enemy's attack at any time. The commander of the fleet, which was later merged into four fleets, could only come to Palawan Island to preside over the matters of the third fleet squadron.

The anti-China alliance formed with the Spaniards, the Dutch, the British, and Zheng Zhi had experienced two major naval battles. Kodak is still very experienced in this area. He managed the Third Fleet in Palawan and Indonesia. fleet.

In fact, the Third Fleet Squadron is almost the squadron with the highest equipment, the most ships, and the most personnel among all the fleet squadrons. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the main fleet.