Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 344: The Decisive Battle on the East China Sea (I)
Standing on the command tower of the Yamato on the vast sea of Edo Bay, looking at the white sails like clouds, the dense artillery under the white sails, and the rising sun flags raised on each ship, Tokugawa Yoshinao felt very complicated.
Japan is still too small after all. If it wants to challenge a big country, it will have to risk its national destiny. This time, when I stood here, I couldn't help but think of the historical plane, Ito Yuheng in the 19th century, Togo Heihachiro in the early 20th century, and Yamamoto Isoroku who led the fleet to Pearl Harbor in November 1941...
"Gongfangdian, we are about to set off. Do you have any instructions to give?"
With such a vast sea and hundreds of warships, there was no way to speak in an era without high-power loudspeakers and radio. After a moment of contemplation, Tokugawa Yoshinao raised his head with a smile and said, "Yagyu-kun, please prepare a pen and paper for me."
The wolf-hair brush soaked with ink was soon delivered to his hand. After holding his breath for a while, he wrote these words on the rice paper with full strength:
"Today the weather is clear and the waves are high, Japan is prosperous and the war is in progress. All members are working hard and working hard!"
…
In the early morning of February 15, 1618, thirty nautical miles north of Naha Port in the Ryukyu Islands, five Jinling-class battleships were lined up horizontally on the sea with a distance of one kilometer between them.
"Huh~" Watching the sun rise from the sea, the view became bright again. The captain of the Suzhou battleship let out a long sigh: "Finally I made it through this night. Damn, if those Japanese pirates approached at night, I would be really worried. Um, what time is it now?"
"Captain, it is 5:45 Beijing time now."
"Oh, I was really nervous. I woke up so early."
"Hahaha, Captain, I didn't realize you were afraid of death too."
"Asshole, who the hell isn't afraid of death? Well, to be honest I'm not absolutely afraid of death, but I'm afraid of death in a meaningless way. If we miss the main fleet of the Japanese pirates , or if we discover them but don't pass on the news in time. Even if we survive, we will still be living a life worse than death!"
"Captain is right. Commander Yu sent us out..."
"Ding ding ding! Ding ding~"
"Zheng Yi Guan, what did you find?"
"Captain, a large number of warships! At least a hundred!"
"Okay!" The captain slapped his thigh fiercely: "Light the signal smoke, raise ten rows of Kongming lanterns, raise the sails, and send a signal to other ships. We are retreating!"
"Yes, sir!"
At 5:45 am on February 15, Suzhou, which was on the first alert line spotted the Japanese, Thai and Western joint fleet heading south and immediately issued a warning. Then the news was quickly transmitted to Naha Port by the Ming warships on the second and third alert lines, using beacon towers, smoke signals and sky lanterns.
At 6:23, on the 1,200-ton Sun-1, the messenger directly pushed open the door of the room where Yu Zigao had rested last night.
Yes, this battleship is called Sun 1, and the following ones are Sun 2, Sun 3, and so on to Sun 40. As for the second-level battleships that were also rushed out, they are called Moon 1, Moon 2...
"Marshal! News has come from the front, the Japanese pirate fleet is coming! Ten rows of Kongming lanterns, no less than a hundred Japanese pirate warships!"
"Great! They're finally here! Pass the order, all fleets leave the port and line up!"
"Yes, sir!"
Yu Zigao had no choice but to say: he had a total of 100 warships, including 40 1,200-ton first-class warships. However, 80 of these warships were shoddy. After more than a month of launching, at least 10 warships had warped and bulged boards, moldy, and even mushrooms growing on them.
He really hoped that the Japanese would come soon: if they didn't come, these warships would fall apart one after another.
With the help of his personal guards, the old man quickly put on his armor. When he walked out of the cabin and stood on the deck, the entire fleet was already busy in an orderly manner: during the one month in Naha, in addition to sending out twenty old ships of reliable quality to perform surveillance and reconnaissance missions, the other eighty new ships had to practice how to leave the port in an orderly manner every day.
Therefore, although the entire Naha Port is now full of masts and overlapping sails, it seems to be very orderly, busy but not chaotic.
"Finally you're here."
It was not only Yu Zigao who uttered this sigh. Many captains and sailors of the fleet also felt a sense of relief.
"Hahaha, Du Anzhi, please don't die."
"Humph, Zheng Hongyuan, how could I, Du Youning, die? As for you, I heard that the mushrooms growing on your Moon No. 6 are enough to feed all the sailors on your ship. If you go out on such a broken ship, don't let it fall apart before being hit by a few enemy artillery shells."
"Bah! Although this ship will be abandoned after this battle even if it is not seriously damaged, it is my Zheng Wei's first ship after all. I took good care of it! Your ship, Yue Shisan, is a new ship from the later batch. I heard that the deck is also buckled, right?"
"Heat expands and cold contracts, this is common sense. It is against the laws of physics if the unshaped wooden board is directly put on the warship and does not bulge. Did you learn it in vain in Fangshan?"
"Then you should also know that the wood was not completely dry before it was put on board. The spores are not dead yet, so it is normal for mushrooms to grow!"
After the two Fangshan students joked with each other for a while, their crew members came forward and reported loudly: "Captain, our ship is ready. After the Japanese battleship in front leaves the port, we can leave the port at any time."
Hearing this, the two of them quickly put away their playful expressions and became serious.
"Hongyuan, take care, see you later."
"Anzhi, see you later!"
Large ships have many more masts and sails than small ships, and are much more difficult to operate. Therefore, Yu Zigao arranged for the large ships to leave the port first.
After the remaining forty Yue-class warships left the port and the twenty Jinling-class warships that were on outer perimeter alert joined the fleet, Yu Zigao's fleet reached a size of one hundred ships.
It was impossible for the commander to control such a huge fleet. Therefore, after the fleet was fully assembled on the sea, Yu Zigao quickly issued an order: "Order, divide the Sun-class warships into two rows, each row of 20 ships, one row will be led by me personally, and the other row will be commanded by Lieutenant General Inukai Tsuyoshi."
"Yes, sir!"
"The Yue-class battleships and Jinling-class battleships are also divided into two columns, commanded by Lieutenant General Wang Mengxiong and Lieutenant General Sun Guozhen respectively."
" Yes, sir!"
"Four rows of warships, two rows of Japanese-style warships in the middle, advance 500 meters. The other two rows of warships will trail slightly behind and guard on both sides. The distance between each row is stable at 2 kilometers. After seeing the enemy, each row of warships must try their best to follow the lead ship of the row. If anyone dares to flee without fighting, the captain will be beheaded, and one out of ten remaining crew members will be killed! If anyone, despite being injured, withdraws on their own without receiving the order from the lead ship of the row, the captain will be beheaded, and one out of ten remaining crew members will be killed!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Finally, raise the flag. The flag signal is just four words: Win or die!"
"Yes! If you don't win, you will die!"
At 8:35, all Ming army warships left the port.
At 9:50, the Ming fleet completed its formation and began to head north, and began to accept the outer warning warships to join the fleet.
At 10:23, the lookout on the leading battleship No. 1 discovered the Japanese, Thai and Western joint fleet coming from north to south.
