Lord of Ming Dynasty

Was it a mistake that it was just a British merchant fleet?

Zhuang Lin thought for a while, but couldn't make a conclusion, so he could only go up to them, and deal with the enemy's ships first, and then fight them.

The first thousand and 340 chapter three of the Wunan Fleet

The Wunan Fleet, which is also the auxiliary fleet of the New Qin Empire, assembled seven squadrons, plus the assembled supply fleet, plus a [-]-ton warship remodeled from the original British [-]-ton steam engine battleship, as Wunan The rest are [-]-ton steam engine warships and [-]-ton sail warships. The [-]-ton auxiliary fleet escaped the dangerous situation of the British siege on three sides, broke through from the sea, and reached the coast of Morocco. nautical miles.

We met here with two searching ocean-going communication ships. Except for the other two and four ocean-going communication ships sent out in the fleet, the remaining nine ocean-going communication ships are all around.

There are more than 60 ships in total, the main force is a 22-ton steam engine warship, thirteen [-]-ton steam engine warships and eight [-]-ton sail warships, below are [-] [-]-ton sail warships and six A [-]-ton steam engine battleship, and a supply fleet of [-] ships of various types, three [-]-ton steam engine ships, eight [-]-ton sailing ships, and four [-]-ton large merchant ships.

There are nine ocean-going communication ships.

Nine ocean-going communications ships were sent out to look around for the British fleet, lest it be surrounded by the enemy.

About four hours later, an enemy fleet of 240 ships was spotted at a place more than 80 nautical miles away from the Strait of Gibraltar. At this time, the enemy was more than [-] nautical miles away from Wunan's fleet. Afterwards, he immediately turned around and ran at the limit speed of [-] knots, heading south with the wind, and the enemy's ocean-going communication ship immediately chased after him, but we were ten nautical miles apart, and the enemy still chased at a speed of [-] knots, and the distance was getting wider and wider.

Two and a half hours later, the ocean-going communication ship got rid of the enemy's tracking, circled a small half circle, returned to the fleet in five hours, and reported the enemy's distance to Wunan.

For the five-hour voyage, Wu Nan calculated that if the enemy pursued at a speed of ten knots, the enemy would only be [-] nautical miles away from him by throwing away the time wasted by the ocean-going communication ship to get rid of the enemy. .

The enemy is heading south along the shore again, and there is only one direction, so you can see your fleet in about an hour and a half. At this time, the weather is good and the sea view is very wide. You can find yourself about ten nautical miles away China's fleet, such a huge fleet, as long as the enemy's watchman is not blind, he will definitely be able to find himself in the piles of trading ships from other countries scattered in the past.

There are only two ways for me to go, one is to leave the coast immediately and go to the open sea, then the enemy will lose his trace, the sea is vast, who knows which direction the fleet will go, and it is possible to go around and return to the enemy's back .

However, there were also quite a few British trading ships sailing nearby. Five hours later, as long as the other ships sent someone to report, the enemy already knew their whereabouts, so they had no choice but to escape.

Fleeing to the open sea is the best way.

If we go the other way and continue to sail along the coast of Africa, we can only sail further, perhaps to the Indian Ocean, and circle a large circle of [-] nautical miles.

For now, he can only continue to go south, because he has to drag the enemy, and being able to drag the enemy's fleet of more than 30 ships is also a matter of reducing the loss of the reinforcement fleet, not to mention that there are five British fleets in four Five hundred nautical miles away from the open sea chasing him, then the enemy's six fleets will be dragged by him, and the six fleets will have at least sixty or seventy warships of more than 100 tons, and about [-] auxiliary ships. Such a small warship, what a huge force.

If such a force can be towed away, the main fleet and the three auxiliary fleet squadrons that greet them can pass through the Strait of Gibraltar as long as they block the other harassing ships of the enemy, and then quickly sail [-] nautical miles to Newfoundland. Now, Newfoundland has completely reversed the plight of few people and few resources, and has developed in a year or two.

At least 64 troops, 100 sailors, [-] main warships, more than [-] auxiliary warships, and a fleet of [-] to [-] armed merchant ships can be transformed. By then, the New Qin Empire will have the capital to fight against the British. up.

Thinking of this, Wu Nan immediately ordered the fleet to turn southward, go south along the coast of Africa, and send several small squadrons to attack the British merchant ships within a radius of [-] nautical miles. There are still a lot of merchant ships sailing by the British on the coast of Africa, hundreds of them properly, and they can encounter at least [-] ships every day.

The fleet turned and headed south at ten knots.

An hour and a half later, a camouflaged British ocean-going communication ship hoisted onto Wunan's fleet at high speed.

Wu Nan didn't know, because it was difficult to find such a British communication ship disguised as a French ship in the constant flow of trade fleets. Moreover, Wu Nan knew that there must be many British ships in the surrounding area to inform the enemy fleet. , There were even French, Spanish, and Portuguese ships that informed the British that what he wanted was for the enemy to continue to track him.

After sailing for three hours, Wu Nan let the fleet speed up to eleven knots, pretending to throw off the enemy.

But at dusk, a forward scouting ship came back suddenly, and a fleet of ten enemy warships caught up head-on, depending on the situation, to intercept them.

Wu Nan calculated the time, speed, and distance. The enemy fleet behind him was only 25 nautical miles away from him at most. After accelerating for three hours, the enemy fleet was thrown away by at least [-] nautical miles. A distance of one hour is at least thirty nautical miles. If you can eliminate the enemy's ten warships before the enemy's tracking fleet arrives, then your own fleet can still leave the enemy at least an hour and a half away, which is about fifteen nautical miles. My side must solve the enemy's fleet within an hour and a half, or within an hour.

But the ten ships of the enemy's fleet are [-]-ton steam engine warships. This is why the enemy dares to rush towards his own fleet with only ten ships. The steam engine battleships made by the British are all [-] tons or less, and sailboats account for a relatively high proportion.

Unlike a steam engine ship, a sailing ship will not be affected by the wind speed. If there is a huge windless belt, then the entire fleet will have to reduce the speed to only one or two knots to drag the big ship by rowing. The enemy's steam engine ship can swagger and slow down to catch up with itself, and encircle and annihilate itself in the windless zone.

Without wind, the sailing ship is a sea fort and a target for a steam engine ship.

The first thousand and 340 chapters and four British first-class battleships

In less than an hour, the warships coming from the two sides met, and the two sides carefully observed each other's warships and fleets across five or six nautical miles.

Looking at the British fleet, Wu Nan's eyelids jumped. The current European naval fleet is similar to the history of later generations, but the artillery was replaced by the improved artillery of the Chinese Empire, and the ship was covered with iron sheets, which hit the bow ram , some have, some don't, the British and other European countries, such as the French, are actually similar.

Sailing warships are divided into three-layer full-open artillery deck battleships are first-class battleships, two-layer full-open artillery deck battleships are second-class battleships, and the captains are all colonels; cruise ships equipped with 12-pound guns are called first-class cruisers. A cruiser armed with 8-pounders is called a second-class cruiser, and a cruiser equipped with six-pounders is called a light cruiser, and the captains are all lieutenant colonels; smaller warships are called by their ship type.

The British steam engine warships probably copied the current European navy's classification, style, and slightly modified. This is the appearance of their fusion of the warships of the Chinese Empire, but the French are not completely integrated, they are still ancient sailing warships Appearance, just slightly modified.

The appearance of these ten British warships is different from the warships they have seen before. This may be the real main battleship of the British now. The bow of the clipper ship is slightly slender in other places, and the proportion is moderate, but the combat mode is still the same. Sail battleship mode.

These ten enemy battleships are the first-class battleships in the class of sailing battleships. The battleships with three layers of full artillery decks are first-class battleships. Depending on the situation, they must be at least six thousand tons, or absolutely infinitely close to six thousand tons.

Wu Nan felt a little uncomfortable. This is the enemy's main battleship, a first-class battleship.

Depending on the situation, the enemy has not completely given up the sails. It is similar to the experimental steam engine warship of the Chinese Empire, but the tonnage has been increased. The artillery is also the model of the Chinese Empire, but there are no turrets, but more artillery.

The three-story all-through-deck artillery, plus the front ten highland three-story artillery, and the rear is estimated to be the same. There may be more artillery, all of which are new-style artillery, and the enemy's artillery gallery has more artillery. The third floor, this one There may not be thirty to fifty guns on one side of the ship's gun gallery. One fire can project thirty to fifty guns. What about Wunan?

The main force of the artillery is the front two parallel 75mm artillery turrets, which have improved the defensive power, but the firepower is very weak. Although it can turn to 270 degrees to fire, it fully takes care of the front of the battleship, the front side, and the left and right sides. More than 100 degrees of shooting range The range of firepower, but it is impossible to suppress the enemy's [-] to [-] guns on the upper and lower decks and the upper deck guns.

Their encounter was the same as that of the warships of the Dutch fleet that Zhuang Lin encountered, and they encountered enemies covered in hedgehogs.

The whole body is full of firepower. For any firepower in the front, there are more than a dozen artillery pieces on the upper and lower three floors, maybe not all of them are more than 70mm artillery pieces. They take care of long-range, short-range, and medium-range artillery, but there are at least four of them. Six cannons are used to suppress the two front cannons on this side.

They fought closer and took care of the accuracy, but they couldn't take care of the enemy's dense firepower. The warships of the New Qin Empire were not built by themselves, most of them were captured, and because of different thinking and starting points, they focused on defense and The durability of the battle, so there are many armor plates, so the speed is not fast, and the flexibility is definitely not as good as the enemy.

The key is that the enemy has both sails and steam engines, so the enemy's flexibility can completely offset the advantages of Wunan's small warships and higher flexibility.

That is to say, such ten first-class battleships of the enemy can completely defeat them by virtue of firepower, mobility, tonnage and other reasons. Regardless of their more than 60 ships, only twenty ships can be used as the main force, and These twenty ships, Wu Nan calculated, could not defeat the enemy.

"The supply fleet retreated to the open sea with all its strength, and the damaged and repaired warships followed suit. There were still two hours before dark, and we tried to give the supply fleet time to escape in the dark. We entangled them, and the four ocean-going ships The communication ship went to harass the enemy and consume the enemy's artillery shells as much as possible, and our entire combat fleet also retreated and marched to the open sea to get the signal as soon as possible."

Wu Nan issued an order.

The enemy is only four nautical miles away.

After receiving the order, the four ocean-going communication ships that had just returned speeded up and rushed towards the enemy. After the British observed it, they had already started to speed up and formed a battle line formation, trying to seize the T-head battle position.

But they thought too much, Wunan didn't want to fight with them at all, Wunan was running away, the four ocean-going communication ships were not enough to attract the enemy's firepower, and his main fleet of more than 20 ships stayed behind while advancing, while allowing the enemy to maintain a combat team shape, no time to allocate manpower to attack them.

The enemy did not follow other ships, it seems that the enemy came here temporarily, that's good.

After the supply fleet turned around, it began to retreat to the open sea.

In less than 10 minutes, the four ocean-going communication ships have rushed 800 meters in front of the enemy. The artillery in the enemy's lower gun gallery started firing, but the shells fell far away, so there is no reference value. .

Fifteen minutes later, the other warships also turned around. The supply fleet had already run three nautical miles away, about eight nautical miles away from the enemy, and the other fleets were about two nautical miles away from the main fleet.

The direction of the enemy's movement is the direction of the coast. They circled in a circle, wasting at least 5 minutes, and outflanked Wunan's fleet. The four ocean-going communication ships of the Wunan fleet had already approached the enemy at a distance of 500 meters. The enemy's artillery fire began Intensified, the shells were continuously dropped at a distance of 100 meters around the ocean-going communication ship, and the four ships separated by one nautical mile seemed insignificant in the raging waves.

At this time, Wu Nan ordered the six [-]-ton steam engine warships that were far away to come back to outflank the enemy's rear, and the six ocean-going steam engine ships that were more than three nautical miles away quickly ran towards the enemy's rear.

For half an hour, the artillery on both sides of the enemy attacked four ocean-going communication ships and six 1-ton steam engine ships. Nearly [-] rounds of shells had been fired. Wu Nan was sweating. The sailors of the main battleship of the people seem to be well-trained. Thirty rounds of artillery fire in half an hour. How fast is this, almost a rate of fire of one shell per minute.

Although they did not hit anything, due to their small size and dispersion, the enemy has not made any achievements so far. Wunan's fleet is also breaking away, and it has been five nautical miles away from the enemy. In front of it are four ocean-going communication ships and six sailing warships entangled the enemy. , He wanted to end the battle within an hour and a half before, but now he just wants to escape here.

The enemy became ruthless, and regardless of the entanglement of the ten ships, Narrative began to pursue, and the speed was as high as thirteen knots.

Wu Nan trembled in his heart, it was so powerful.