Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 347: The Decisive Battle on the East China Sea (Part 4)
When Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi were preparing to attack, as time went on, the fighting on the four battlefields in the north gradually became more intense.
Among these four battlefields, the two rows of warships on the westernmost side have the greatest disparity in strength.
They were the Spanish Manila Fleet, which had 17 1,200-ton first-class battleships and 33 600-ton second-class battleships. Engaging them were 30 second-class battleships led by Wang Mengxiong, the lieutenant general of Funing Town.
As soon as the two sides fought, Wang Mengxiong realized very clearly that such an enemy could not be fought head-on. The only thing their side could do was to take advantage of speed and try their best to pull the enemy to the west to reduce the burden on Yu Zigao in the middle.
However, Spain had more second-level warships than Wang Mengxiong had. So after observing the battlefield situation, Alfonso immediately decided to divide his troops.
Our 33 second-level warships left the main battle line and took advantage of the northeast wind at the time. They ignored the enemy ships in front of them and went around from the south, preparing to reach the western end first, and then join forces with our main battleships to attack Wang Mengxiong's battle line.
Although Wang Mengxiong used to command Fuchuan ships, he only started to learn to be a real sailing warship commander in the last two or three months. However, as a veteran, he could still tell when he was attacked by the enemy. So, when the Spanish fleet just split up, he immediately knew that something was wrong.
The problem is simple to understand, but it is not easy to solve: the wind is blowing from the northeast on the battlefield, and the enemy's second-level battleship is heading southwest, which is a tailwind. If our fleet wants to maneuver at the maximum speed, it must also move southwest - which will inevitably intersect with the enemy's route.
Therefore, at the westernmost end of this naval battle, the situation became that two rows of warships were desperately heading southwest, with a row of larger warships desperately chasing behind them.
Starting from 11:45, by 12:30, Wang Mengxiong's battleships had already exchanged several rounds with the Spanish second-level battleships.
At the beginning, due to the distance, the hit rate of both sides was not high. Thousands of artillery pieces fired at each other several times, and only one or two warships were hit by one or two shots, which did not have much impact . However, as time went on, the two lines of high-speed warships quickly approached each other, and the hit rate of both sides gradually increased.
“Boom~Crack~”
There was no vibration under his feet, but the sound was so loud that Wang Mengxiong frowned again: "Which ship behind was hit again?"
"General, it's the sixth of the month."
"Why is the sixth of the month so unlucky?" Wang Mengxiong turned his head to look at the smoke rising a little further away from the side, and frowned even more tightly: "If I remember correctly, this is the twelfth shell that the sixth of the month has been hit by, right?"
"This, I did not count."
"Hey." After taking a deep breath, Wang Mengxiong said, "How many of our warships have withdrawn from the battle line now?"
"Four warships have already withdrawn."
"Where's the red barbarian ghost on the other side?"
"Forgive me, General. There are only two."
"It's only been less than three months since we took over this new building, and our accuracy is still not as good as theirs."
After saying this, Wang Mengxiong raised the telescope on his chest and looked towards the south, then quickly turned his head and said, "We are only about 400 to 500 meters away from the enemy now, right?"
"That's right, General. Five hundred and fifty meters at most."
"Okay! Pass the order down. We won't go southwest anymore. Tell the helmsman to go due south!"
"Ah? General, although our Moon One is about two or three ship lengths ahead of the enemy's lead ship, this distance is not enough for our entire battleship to occupy the T-head in advance!"
"Stupid! I didn't even think of occupying the T-head! If we cut south directly now, either those red barbarians will get scared and follow us, thus giving us the channel. Or, their bows will hit us directly, and then we will rush up and engage in a boarding battle!"
"ah?"
"What? When the Marshal (Yu Zigao) led us to travel around the southeast, although our Dafu ship had a few guns, in the end, it was still decided by boarding and jumping on board. What? We have only used this new warship for a few months, and we don't dare to fight in close combat?"
“…”
Seeing his guerrillas keeping silent, Wang Mengxiong was furious. He reached out and hugged the guerrilla, risking being directly destroyed by the enemy's shells, and came to the side of the ship: "Look, although we can't see the first-level warships of the Red Barbarians behind us because of the following of our warships. But you and I both know that they are following closely behind, right? The Red Barbarians on the opposite side will be fine for the time being even if they withdraw from the battle line. And once our warships withdraw from the battle line, they may be wiped out by the group of Red Barbarians following behind! If we still insist on the current fighting style, we will all be finished in two hours at most! Now, our only way to survive is to find a way to turn the artillery battle into a boarding battle. As long as we get involved with the Red Barbarians on the opposite side, the first-level warships of the Red Barbarians behind us will be useless!"
"General, I understand. I will convey your order and have my brothers prepare for close combat."
"Well, signal with the flags that this ship intends to ram the enemy ship. All ships in this column, follow up. If you don't win, you will die!"
"Yes, sir!"
…
"Captain, the Moon 5th ahead sent a flag signal saying that the Moon 1st is ready to lead us in close combat with the enemy ships."
"Well, our hull quality is not as good as others, the accuracy of our shells is not as good as others, and there are a group of deadly first-class battleships chasing us... We should have made such a decision a long time ago."
Captain Zheng Wei Zheng Hongyuan of the Yue Liu was in a very bad state at the moment: about twenty minutes ago, his ship was hit by the eleventh cannon, which hit the deck directly, destroying part of the guardrail and breaking his right hand with a piece of broken wood. Although the skin and flesh were still connected, he couldn't lift his right hand. What was even more annoying was that there was another piece of broken wood with a sharp edge that simply pierced into his stomach.
Although the armor he was wearing blocked most of the potential energy, the sharp edge of the wood still opened a large hole in his stomach. His intestines didn't flow out, but a large pool of blood flowed out.
So this guy looks very pale at the moment.
What's worse is that the wood planks of this warship were not completely shaped and dried. In order to ensure that the ship would not disintegrate prematurely, the workers at the shipyard applied too much tar (pine resin extract) to it. Then, after being hit by many shells and catching fire on the ship, the whole ship was filled with billowing smoke, making it a big target and greatly interfering with the shooting of the gunners on the side. Not only his ship, but also the 20 shoddy warships among the 30 warships in this column all had the same problem to a greater or lesser extent.
Therefore, Zheng Wei had long since stopped wanting to continue the artillery battle with the enemy. In his opinion, since the battle line had successfully reduced the burden on the main force by attracting the enemy's superior fleet with its inferior fleet, the next thing to consider was how to offset the enemy's advantage and fight the battle in a way that the party was good at.
What is good at? There are too many sailors from Funing Town in this battle line, and boarding battle is what they are really familiar with and good at.
"Pass the flag signal to our follow-up ships and inform all ships that this ship will follow the flagship closely and prepare for boarding battle with the enemy!"
"Yes, sir!"
