Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 496 Battle of Ironclad Ships (I)
In the historical plane, mankind entered the era of sailing warships in the 17th century and sailing warships played the leading role in naval battles for more than two hundred years until the mid-19th century.
Such a long period of time coincided with the Age of Exploration and the prevalence of colonialism. As a result, countless battles were fought at sea, and countless excellent commanders studied countless tactics. But in the end, it all came down to simplicity: battle line, seize the T-head.
Now, because of the time traveler, the sailing warship has only been the protagonist of the naval war for a few decades, but the ironclad ship has been born ahead of time. What are the tactics of this ironclad ship? In fact, the commanders of both sides have no idea.
Of course, as time travelers, whether it is Zhu Youdong, Philip or Rudolf, they will clearly tell their naval generals: at least for now, the most effective tactic for ironclad ships is still the battle line and seize the T-head.
However, it is easy to say, but how to combine ironclad ships with wooden sailing warships in actual combat is really difficult for commanders. Moreover, anyone who can stand in the position of commander of the country's fleet is good at and brave enough to think independently and put it into practice, and is definitely not someone who blindly obeys the king's words.
Therefore, when Li Guozhu and Alva discovered that each other had ironclad ships on this day, they made the same choice: to separate the ironclad ships and not mix them with the sailing ships.
Since the commanders of both sides have the same idea, the next thing will be easy.
As Fengyang, Casti and Aragon successively separated from their own formation, and one moved from east to southwest, and the other moved from west to southeast, the distance between the three ships quickly narrowed, from the initial 20,000 meters of the lookout's line of sight to 10,000 meters, 8,000 meters... When the distance between the two sides was only 5,000 meters, Li Guozhu ordered: First gun turret at the bow, aim at the opponent's bow ship, and fire!
Following the commander's order, the impatient gunner quickly pulled the fuse of the 150mm main gun on the ship. Then, all the soldiers on the Fengyang felt the ship tremble slightly, a puff of green smoke came out of the muzzle of the gun barrel, and a black shadow soared into the air at lightning speed, rushing towards the target in the distance.
More than ten seconds later, the shell landed on the sea some distance away from the leading ship, the Casti, stirring up a huge column of water.
"The impact point is still three hundred meters away from the enemy ship."
"Hiss~" On the other side of the battlefield, although Alfonso, Sun Guozhen and others were leading their battleships towards the other side's sail battleships, the commanders of both sides were actually focusing their attention on the ironclad ship. When Alfonso and others saw a shell from the Fengyang flying over 4,000 meters, they were shocked and felt very complicated.
Alfonso himself patted the command platform of his large sailing warship named Manila with a lonely look on his face and said: "Old friend, no matter whether this battle is won or lost, today's battle may be your last glory. A new era has arrived."
A general like Alfonso, who was only in his early thirties, had such feelings. The Duke of Alva, who came from a naval family, boarded a ship at the age of sixteen and sailed across the seven seas on Spanish warships for nearly thirty years, had mixed feelings at this moment.
However, as the commander of the ironclad ship, he really didn't have much time to express his so-called feelings: "Order, Casti, Aragon, fire back!"
The Fengyang of the Ming Dynasty was planned by Zhu Youdong and designed by Zhu Youxiao. There is no doubt that His Royal Highness Prince Lai has a high talent for engineering. But the problem is that His Royal Highness Prince Lai was less than 20 years old at that time, and Zhu Youxiao made many .
For example, in the late 19th century in the historical plane, the first generation of ironclad ships generally had to be equipped with 150mm naval guns on cruisers with a displacement of at least 4,000 tons. However, the current Fengyang, with a full load displacement of only more than 2,000 tons, was equipped with six 150mm main guns, which was obviously top-heavy. When Yan Siqi and Li Guozhu took the ship for sea trials, they found that the ship did not dare to fire six guns at once.
What about the two Spanish ironclad ships? In general, the design is quite reasonable: they also have a displacement of about 2,000 tons and a manually rotating turret, but the main guns are three 100mm naval guns, two in the front and one in the back, and the secondary guns are three 75mm breech-loading guns on each side of the ship. In this way, the ship and the guns are more coordinated, and they can go all out in combat without having to worry about too many things outside of combat.
This is natural: the Chinese Empire has been technologically advanced since ancient times, but has rarely paid attention to extracting theories from practice. Although natural sciences in Europe suffered a catastrophe in the Middle Ages, basic scientific research has been booming since the Age of Exploration. In addition, the traversers have different majors, so the ironclad ships of both sides, at least in terms of design, are more reasonable.
However, it is reasonable, but because the barrel of the ship's gun is so much thinner than that of the other side, even if Casti and Aragon fired at the same time, the momentum is still much weaker than that of the Fengyang just now: the water column stirred up by the shells falling on the sea is obviously smaller than that of the other side.
"The impact point is still 500 meters away from the enemy ship!"
"Keep the current route unchanged. The two ships' main guns will fire in turns, and adjust the firing parameters according to the impact point."
The Spanish side made up their minds to continue approaching, but when they saw the water columns stirred up by the opponent's artillery shells, Li Guozhu had a different idea.
"I remember that because we almost capsized the ship after firing six cannons with full ammunition a few months ago, we reduced our propellant charge to 70%, right?"
"Yes, Commander."
"That is to say, if our naval guns were fully loaded with propellant, the last shot might have been a straddle?"
"Yes, Commander. The enemy ship is only about 4,000 to 5,000 meters away from me. And we already know from previous tests that the maximum range of our ship's main guns is 7,000 meters."
"Hahahaha, I started out with the mentality of dying if I don't succeed, but I didn't expect this battle to be so easy to win. Order, turn south five degrees, depressurize boilers, and reduce speed to seven knots."
"Yes!" The staff officer turned around after giving the order and said, "Commander, do you mean to show weakness to the enemy first, then keep a distance and fight from the periphery?"
"That's right. Now it depends on how fast the enemy's warships can run. If they are faster than us, I will accept my fate. It's a one-on-two fight, and they deserve to die. If they can't run faster than us, haha, if they can't run faster than us, and their guns can't reach as far as we can, then they are finished!"
"Commander, according to the intelligence of the Royal Guards, the Western fleet on Luzon Island does not have any ironclad ships. The two ships now must have come from Europe thousands of miles away. There are engines on the bottom of the ship..."
“Hahaha, that’s it!”
Following Li Guozhu's order, Fengyang slightly adjusted its bow and began trying to create distance from the enemy.
"Sir, the Chinese ironclad warship seems to be trying to escape?"
"Escape? No." Duke Alva put down the telescope with a serious expression and shook his head: "The enemy commander has discovered that their cannons are more powerful and have a longer range than ours. They want to keep a certain distance and attack us from outside our range! However, it seems that the enemy's speed is not too high."
"We just estimated it, it's about eight knots."
"...I remember that the theoretical maximum speed of our two warships is fifteen knots?"
"Yes, sir. But the Aragon can only run at a maximum of twelve knots. As for the Casti, it can run at ten knots, but..."
"Well, may God bless the Casti to hold out to the end." After making a cross on his chest, the Duke of Alva began to give orders: "Speed ten knots, right rudder thirty, and try to get as close to the enemy ship as possible!"
