Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 346: The Decisive Battle on the East China Sea (Part 3)
The guns roared and the smoke billowed. The battle started at 11:00, and by 11:25, at least the four battle lines in the middle of the battlefield had each completed their penetration of each other.
"Wind direction? Wind strength?"
After the leading ship, the Sun No. 1, passed the last battleship of the Japanese fleet and there were no more enemy ships on its flank, the first thing Yu Zigao asked about was not the damage to his own ship, but the problem with the wind.
"Marshal, the wind is from the northeast now, and the wind force is about level three."
"Okay, our ship will turn west, and then head southwest. Order the rest of the ships in this battle line to follow!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Whether we can see it or not, we must send a flag signal to Admiral Inukai in the east."
"Yes, sir!"
The captain went to carry out the order himself. Only then did Yu Zigao call the first mate on board and ask, "What is the damage on this ship?"
"Marshal, our ship was hit by two shells, neither of which was in a vital position. In addition, except for the place where the shells hit, the surrounding wooden boards showed no signs of cracking, so it will not hinder subsequent operations."
"Where are our follow-up ships?"
"So far, we have not received any application for any ship to withdraw from the battle line."
"Great! It seems that these warships are a bit crudely made, but as His Royal Highness the Second Grandson said, their defense is still not bad. All battleships follow the previous order. The next time the battleships clashed, we should try to get closer to the pirates' battleships."
"Yes, I will go down and pass on the order right away!"
At the beginning, Yu Zigao was not very confident about the quality of his ships, so in the first round of battleship bombardment, he cautiously limited the distance between the two battleships to between 600 and 800 meters.
At such a distance, the hit rate of a muzzle-loading smoothbore gun was a bit horrible. However, as the flagship of this battleship, the Sun No. 1 was the first to be hit by dozens of Japanese ships in turn, and was still hit by two of the hundreds of shells flying .
But now it seems that the ship did not fall apart because of these two shots. The subsequent ships must have been hit by guns, but no one applied to withdraw from the battle line. That shows that the quality of these warships is still acceptable.
So Yu Zigao naturally became bolder, thinking that in the next round of confrontation, he would shorten the distance to increase his hit rate.
He felt relieved and prepared to take bigger steps, but Tokugawa Yoshinao was a little depressed.
Some of the thirteen first-class battleships in our battle line were hit by one or two shells, while others were unscathed. Even the ships that were hit by shells were not affected in subsequent operations. However, the situation of the forty second-class battleships following the first-class battleships was not so optimistic.
As a freak of the Japanese with a big gun on a small boat, the Japanese 700-ton second-class battleship cannot fight the enemy's second-class battleship alone due to its speed - it will be attacked by the enemy on the outside. However, it is too thin to fight the enemy's first-class battleship. Facing the 145mm cannon of the enemy's first-class battleship, if it is hit by two shots, it will easily become paralyzed.
"Koufangdian, the flags of the ships have been received. The Matsukaze was hit by three shells, one of which was at the stern... The ship requests to withdraw from the battle line."
"Hey, the first battleship bombardment, and at such a long distance, there's a battleship...Okay, approved. Let them continue to sail south and see if they can find an island nearby."
"Hi."
Shaking his head in annoyance, Yagyu Kanbei came up and said, "Koufang-dono, the Ming fleet is turning west and will probably be heading towards us soon."
"So how should we respond now?"
"Gongfangdian, according to what you taught us before, the most important thing for sailing warships is to seize the T-head. Next, I predict that the Ming fleet will gradually advance from the northeast to the southwest, and we will advance from the southeast to the northwest. Whoever reaches the intersection of these two lines first will get the T-head."
"Yoshi, Yagyu-kun, although I am your teacher, I don't put all my energy into this. Please continue to command the next battle."
"Hi Yi!"
Following the orders of Yu Zigao and Yagyu Kanbei, the two battleships began to turn, and after the turn was completed, they slightly adjusted the sails according to the current wind direction and wind force. Both sides began to run at full speed towards the intersection where their lines extended.
On the other side, in the battle line of Ichi-21 to Ichi-40 led by Inukai Toji.
The situation of this battle line is not good: in the first mutual penetration just now, this battle line was sandwiched between the Japanese fleet battle line and the Siamese first-class battleship battle line. Although these battleships are almost all things that will be thrown away after this decisive battle, there is no need to consider the damage to the hull caused by firing from both sides at the same time. However, you fired from both sides at the same time, maximizing the firepower of your ship. But you can't stand being hit by guns from both sides.
Therefore, among the twenty first-class battleships in Inukai Tōji's battle line, seven or eight of them were injured. Fortunately, the distance between the two sides in the first round of penetration was relatively far, so even if they were hit by cannons, the damage to the hull was not great.
However, after experiencing the attack from both sides, Inukai Toji did not want to repeat the same thing again. Therefore, after the lookout reported that Yu Zigao's battle line was heading west, he decisively ordered: "Adjust the sails, sail against the wind, head northeast, and then turn due south. All the warships in this line should follow this ship's turn."
"Yes, sir!"
"We don't know if the enemy can see us. Let's signal General Sun Guozhen to lead his battle line and continue to move eastward. This will give us more width on the battlefield."
"Yes, sir!"
So, with the adjustment of the commanders of each battle line, the battlefield was originally seven battle lines, with a distance of about one kilometer between each other. Slowly, it became eight battle lines, divided into four groups, fighting each other. The distance between the four battlefields also became farther and farther as the warring parties made various maneuvers in order to seize the T-head or to avoid the other side from seizing the T-head. In the end, a super large battlefield was formed with a distance of more than 10 kilometers between the east and the west!
This made Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi's fleet, which were hiding in the southeast of the battlefield, a little depressed.
According to the pre-war plan, the mission of Yu Zigao's fleet was to approach the enemy fleet and then use chain shells to destroy the enemy's masts as much as possible. Everyone expected that once Li and Yan's fleets appeared on the battlefield, the enemy would probably retreat. And if the enemy still had a large number of remaining ships, then even if they won the naval battle, it would not mean much.
Therefore, we must find a way to hold the enemy back. The best way to hold the enemy back is of course to make the enemy warship lose power - in the era of sailing warships, in order to have more space to equip cannons and ammunition, the rowing deck and rowers were all eliminated. The wind is the only power, and without the sail, there is naturally no power.
"Marshal! Our forward reconnaissance ship reported that we have seen General Sun Guozhen's flag seven or eight kilometers to the northeast. They are engaged in a battle with a group of Siamese second-tier warships. The current situation is that both sides have damaged warships and have withdrawn from the battle line. General Sun's battle line still has 23 ships, and the enemy still has 39 ships."
"Hiss~ Seven or eight kilometers away, the lookout took a telescope and took a closer look in my direction. I might have been exposed. What's wrong with Sun Guozhen? It's not like he doesn't know I'm hiding here!"
It's a pity that Sun Guozhen is not here. If he heard Li Guozhu say this, he would probably spit at him: I am 30 against 47! And there are 20 battleships with mushrooms. Is it easy for me? Of course I know you are hiding here. But can I control the enemy's pressure, wind direction, water flow, etc.? In order not to be occupied by the opponent, I have no choice!
"Well, we can't tell. We can only... Hey, Zhenquan, why here?"
"We are about to be discovered. If I don't come over now to discuss with you how to fight later, when will I come over?"
"Well, I mean attack, what do you want?"
"We will definitely attack, but we need to discuss how to do it specifically."
"How do you want to stay?"
"Simple, let's follow the previous division of labor. The sixty Jinling-class ships will follow me to the north to help Sun Guozhen eat up these second-class battleships of the Siamese. You will lead the thirty-five Beizhili-class ships to the south first."
"Go south? You mean go around in a circle?"
"Yes, go around. This place is close to Japan but far from Siam. The three thieves came so quickly this time, they definitely didn't bring a supply ship. In other words, the food in their cabins may not be enough to last until they reach the Mekong Delta. As for Taiwan Island, the Spaniards only have a port but no fortress there, so they will definitely die if they run there... So if your fleet appears on the south side, they will all flee north, and we can chase them for three to five days at most, and fight a pursuit battle. And if your fleet appears on the north side, they will still have to flee north, and we can fight a battle of annihilation."
"That's good, but now that Sun Guozhen has run so far, the entire battlefield must be very large. It will take me at least two hours to go around like this. I don't know if Yu Shuai can hold on by then."
"You have to have faith in Commander Yu. When they are galloping on the sea , you and I are still sea merchants! But you have to try your best to speed up. It's already one o'clock in the afternoon. If it takes three o'clock to get around, are you confident that you can finish the battle before the sun sets?"
After hearing what Yan Siqi said, Li Guozhu immediately jumped up and said, "Okay, that's it! Hoist the sail and set off!"
