Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 655: The Prince's First Battle
After Tian Ergeng and Richelieu retreated, Zhu Youdong naturally wanted to call the experts from Fangshan Academy of Sciences and Zhu Youxiao from Binhai Port: Regardless of whether this is true or not, can our Ming Dynasty's own ironclad ships be built bigger?
Zhu Youxiao, who was already the top ship designer in the Ming Dynasty, made it clear that it was OK to make it bigger, even tens of thousands of tons. But there was a prerequisite: electrification. Otherwise, for such a huge warship, the poor air circulation alone could kill a whole ship of people. Moreover, for such a large ship, the gun barrel must be very thick, and the weight of the shells is naturally very heavy. Without an electrified shell hoist, it would be useless to just build such a thick barrel and a ship weighing tens of thousands of tons... In short, if electrification cannot be achieved, such a large ship cannot be effectively commanded and operated.
A group of scientists from Fangshan said: We have made progress in electrical research, but we are still a long way from using electricity safely. Therefore, electrification is impossible to achieve in the short term.
All these things made Zhu Youdong very depressed.
The only consolation is that none of these guys said something like "We haven't developed it yet, so how could those white people develop it?"
In short, everyone said: Our Ming Dynasty's technology is backward, we will definitely work overtime. But the development of science and technology, Your Majesty, you know, has its own objective laws, so...
So Zhu Youdong had no choice but to prepare for a rainy day.
He asked the Ministry of Defense to send the fastest communication ship to Hawaii urgently, and then the people there would notify the American Fleet: If the enemy really drives a 10,000-ton warship over, then fight if you can, but don't fight it if you can't.
Then he sent a letter to the Governor-General of Central and Southern China, Peng Ziqin: India has a long coastline, so I won't ask them to build any fortifications. But Singapore, Singapore! From now on, we need to further fortify.
It's not his fault that he was so easily frightened by the possibility of a 10,000-ton ship. As a time traveler, although not a military one, Zhu Youdong knew very well that if the enemy's ship really existed, it would be a huge threat to the Ming Dynasty, which had many overseas territories.
However, the emperor's reaction was fast enough, even extreme . However, in this era before the advent of radio, the speed of transmitting orders was too slow.
…
June 5, 1637, South America, sea near Quito.
"Boom boom~" On the Chongqing ironclad ship, which had just been in service for a year, the six 150mm main guns fired again. The huge recoil lightly pushed the hull, causing the bodies of all the people on the battleship to tilt slightly.
"Hahaha, you all don't like this feeling of losing balance. But I like this feeling the most. Because every time this feeling appears, it often means that soon, a certain point of the enemy will be overturned by our naval guns again."
In the command tower, Zheng Zhilong, wearing a navy dark blue uniform, was directing the battle while taking the time to look at the new shoulder strap with two gold stars on his shoulders and said proudly: It's not easy. I'm not from Fangshan School, nor from the pirate school of Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi, and I didn't study in the Naval Academy. At the age of 33, I became the youngest navy vice admiral in the Ming Dynasty...
Hehe, although in the promotion order of the 18th year of Tianqi, Yan Siqi finally became a general. Du Youning was also promoted to lieutenant general. But Zheng Zhilong is confident that he will surpass them in the future and become the first naval marshal of the Ming Dynasty!
"General?"
"What is it?"
"The lookout reported that a row of masts appeared at 7 o'clock in the southwest, about 12 kilometers away."
"Oh my goodness, this must be the pirates' navy that finally couldn't help but come here? Well, let's destroy them here. Then, when we bombard Guido and other pirate coastal cities in the future, we won't have to save our shells every time, fearing that we'll run into an enemy fleet that doesn't have enough shells on the way back."
After saying this, his face became serious: "Signal all the ships in our fleet to end the bombardment of the port, follow our ship to form a formation, and prepare for battle."
"Yes, sir!"
Zheng Zhilong's American fleet, in addition to eight 5,000-ton ironclad ships as the main combat force, also has three 3,000-ton battleships. However, because the main guns of these three ships are only 105mm, they are more often used as communication ships at high speed. At this moment, they are not in Zheng Zhilong's array.
In addition to these eleven warships, the fleet also had fourteen transport ships, repair ships, and hospital ships of various tonnages. At this moment, all these logistics warships had left Lima and returned to Hawaii to load supplies.
In short, Zheng Zhilong now has eight neatly arranged 5,000-ton ironclad ships.
And at this moment, the Spanish fleet was more than ten kilometers away from them.
"Sir, our lookouts have spotted the enemy fleet."
"Humph, it's just as we heard when we were resting in Buenos Aires. These yellow monkeys take advantage of our absence and frequently show off their might in the sea of Quito."
"Sir, you are personally leading the Prince here this time. The Chinese are going to suffer."
"Hehe, I'm going to make them suffer more than that. I'm going to sink all these yellow monkeys into the sea to feed the fish! Oh, I wonder if they will make a squeaking sound like real monkeys when they fall into the water."
"Hahaha, sir, after we sink them, won't we know everything?"
This time, the Spanish fleet led by Barudis was also full of elite troops: a 10,000-ton battleship, the Prince of Asturias, and six 5,000 -ton . About 30 kilometers behind it, there were six supply ships loaded with coal, ammunition, and fresh water.
Seven against eight, but because of the Prince, Barudis' confidence is completely overflowing at this moment.
"Order, all ships increase speed to 10 knots, with the Prince leading and all other ships following!"
"As you command, sir!"
As the two sides got closer, the huge figure of the Prince became clearer and clearer in the eyes of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Navy.
"Gulp." His Adam's apple moved unconsciously twice. After swallowing a large mouthful of saliva, Zheng Zhilong looked behind him, examining his subordinates one by one, who had serious eyes but no intention of retreating. He turned around and said to the helmsman, "Full left rudder, seize the T-head."
"Yes, full left!"
Following the operation of the helmsman, the Chongqing's hull began to pull rapidly to the left, and the seven Ming warships behind it also followed the flagship and began to turn rapidly.
"Hahaha, they are monkeys indeed. These guys are really quick to react. Unfortunately, in the face of absolute power, a little bit of cleverness is useless." Putting down the telescope, Barudis shouted into a copper pipe, "Is the enemy ship within range?"
"Report, the enemy ship is now about 9.5 kilometers away from our ship and has entered the range of our main guns."
"Keep observing." After finishing the call with the watchtower, he turned to the gunner and said, "Have one of the main guns at Battery No. 1 fire a shotgun shell at those guys."
"As you command, sir."
With the order, one of the three open-air turrets on the Prince, which was very distinctive, was slowly erected under the drive of the electric motor. After reaching a certain angle, the shell hoist under the turret accurately sent a huge shell into the gun barrel. Then the barrel of the main gun was slowly flattened to a certain degree under the operation of the gunner next to it. After that, the gunner pressed the button at the command of the gun position leader, and the shell immediately took off and flew towards the location of the Ming fleet.
A distance of more than ten kilometers was just a matter of a few breaths for a cannonball. When it was about five or six hundred meters away from the Ming fleet, the exhaustion of kinetic energy caused it to plunge into the sea, and then there was a violent explosion.
"Knock, knock, knock~" a series of teeth-grinding sounds were heard, and metal fragments of various sizes violently collided with the Chongqing's hull. Some metal fragments even flew directly onto the sailors on the deck, taking away some of their limbs or even their lives, and also splashing human blood on the Chongqing's brand new hull for the first time.
"Hiss~ This, this is definitely not a 150mm gun, nor is it a 205mm gun. The caliber is at least 300mm!"
He started as a lookout on a ship at the age of thirteen, and later served as chief gunner, first mate, captain of a sailing warship, captain of an ironclad ship, and fleet commander. In his twenty years of naval career, Zheng Zhilong could quickly make an accurate judgment on the caliber of the enemy's cannonballs just by looking at the momentum of the cannonballs.
However, although the enemy's main gun was at least twice as thick as his own, he still had no intention of retreating at this moment: As early as January this year, Commander Sun learned about the existence of such a 10,000-ton battleship from the captured prisoners. The order received by the American Fleet from the commander was: If you encounter it, you must find out the performance of this battleship!
So, we cannot retreat.
But Zheng Zhilong was not a foolish general who would blindly act. After seeing the enemy demonstratively fire a shotgun that was originally aimed at land enemies, he immediately began to make adjustments: "Notify the subsequent ships to burn the boilers to the maximum and increase the speed to 15 knots. In addition, double the distance between the ships!"
"Yes, sir!"
Before the messenger had time to walk out of the command tower, everyone in the tower suddenly felt a violent shaking.
"What's going on? Are we being shot?"
"General, it's a near miss. The impact point is less than a hundred meters away from our ship!"
"Hiss~ These white guys are pretty accurate with their cannons. Has the enemy ship entered our range?"
"The enemy ship is about 8 kilometers away from our ship, just within the maximum range of our main guns."
"Order, all artillery batteries, open fire!"
