Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 656 Zheng Zhilong's Fight
"Bang~" After flying more than 7,000 meters in the air, the shell of Chongqing's 150 main gun was exhausted due to potential energy, causing it to fall from mid-air and land on the sea surface about 600 to 700 meters away from the Prince. It exploded and stirred up a huge column of water.
"Humph, that's way off. Ignore him and keep moving forward!"
However, as soon as Barudis finished his words, another artillery shell flew over from the Ming army. This time, the impact point was only more than 100 meters away from the Prince.
Barudis's expression finally became serious. After thinking for a while, he ordered: "Left rudder 10, follow the flagship's turn."
"Yes, left rudder 10."
Following Barudis' order, the Spanish fleet began to turn.
Large ships turn slowly, and during the Prince's turn, the distance between the two sides continued to close. Since the Ming army had turned the left rudder in advance, the turn was completed. The Spanish fleet, led by the Prince, was passively attacked during the turn.
"Bang!" Just when the leading Prince turned most of its body, a black shadow flashed over everyone's head, and then the black shadow quickly fell on the sea on the other side of the Prince.
"Oops, it's a crossfire!" Barudis raised the telescope again and estimated the distance between the ship and the enemy fleet. He said with a grim expression: "The 150mm main gun has a range of more than 7,000 meters. The Chinese gunpowder technology is really amazing."
"Sir, this is nothing. Our sea trials in Europe have already shown that 150 shells cannot penetrate the Prince."
"Well, I'm not worried about the Prince. I'm worried about the six battleships behind us."
As if to prove Barudis's bad words, when the Prince had just completed the turn and the Madrid followed closely, a shell fired by the Ming army hit the Madrid's stern directly. The huge explosion lifted the Madrid's rear turret upside down - although it didn't fly away, the two guns of this turret were tilted and it was obvious that they were unusable.
As the Spanish warships came up one after another and turned, the eight Ming warships continued to fire. In about fifteen minutes, the 48 main guns of the eight Ming warships fired hundreds of shells. Since the Madrid, the Seville was hit by two shells, and the Barcelona was hit by one shell. The Barcelona had the worst luck, although it was only hit by one shell. But this shell happened to fall near its chimney. The huge power of the shell explosion directly cut off half of the chimney. The deck of the entire warship was suddenly filled with black smoke, and the two turrets at the bow lost all sight and completely silenced.
However, that was all. A 4% hit rate was not bad, but it was definitely not good. At this time, the Prince had completed the turn, and all the main guns had been moved to the direction facing the Ming army.
"Fire!"
Following the order of the chief gunner, the six main guns of the Prince fired in turn, and the 10,000-ton behemoth finally roared completely. The huge roar could be heard clearly even by the Ming soldiers who were six or seven kilometers away.
After a short and sharp sound of breaking through the air, six huge shells fell into the sea one after another, stirring up six huge water columns again.
"General, the Jiujiang behind us was hit by a near miss, and the armor below the waterline was damaged."
"Is it serious? Will it affect subsequent operations?"
The communications officer was about to answer when he was interrupted by a violent explosion. After the explosion subsided a little, the voice of the observation post outside the command tower roared through the copper pipe inside the tower: "The enemy ship has straddled me, and it is a near miss!"
"Sai Linmu!" After muttering a curse in Fujian accent, Zheng Zhilong shook his teeth and said, "Right rudder five."
"General! The enemy ship has already achieved cross-fire on me! And the enemy ship's shells are obviously very powerful. What if we shorten the distance?"
"What is our mission this time? Isn't it to find out the details of the giant ship of the Western pirates? I have felt some of their offensive capabilities, but what about defense? How can we know without firing a few shots at them? Continue forward, right rudder five!"
"Yes, right rudder five!"
…
"What? These Chinese are still approaching us?" Putting down the telescope, Barudis said bitterly, "Well, since you want to die, I will grant your wish, Right Rudder Five!"
As both flagships turned slightly to their right sides, the distance between the two fleets shortened again. As a result, the hit rates of both sides increased.
"Bang!" Another shell hit the Barcelona's midship, creating a not-so-big hole in its armor belt below the waterline. Seawater instantly rushed into the ship's hull through the hole. Although the damage control team on the ship tried desperately to plug the hole, the entire ship began to slow down helplessly.
"Hehe, notify the following ships to attack the enemy ship with thick smoke first. Even if we can't sink it, we must force it to retreat first..."
“Boom boom!”
"What's going on?"
"General, the Jiujiang behind us was hit! It should be the big ship of the Western bandits that fired it."
With a "clang" sound, Zheng Zhilong quickly opened the heavy iron door of the command tower, stepped onto the bridge in one step, raised the telescope and looked in the direction of Jiujiang.
When the Jiujiang came into Zheng Zhilong's sight, even though this man who had been in the army for twenty years and had seen many tragic battlefields, could not help but feel his eyes warm and tears almost fell.
It's so miserable.
The shell from the Prince was inserted from the bottom of the Jiujiang's chimney, penetrated the deck at this position, and penetrated a long distance into the hull before exploding. This explosion directly broke nearly half of the Jiujiang's hull amidships!
The captain of the Jiujiang immediately gave the order to abandon ship. The sailors on the deck began to throw various life-saving supplies into the sea, while the sailors under the deck were also desperately moving towards the deck.
At this moment, a series of violent explosions were heard from the hull of the Jiujiang. After the explosions of the ammunition subsided a little, the Jiujiang let out a mournful wail, and the entire hull broke into two parts from the middle. After that, the bow and stern were lifted high, and in the huge whirlpool, it began to sink rapidly.
"How many people escaped?"
The staff officer beside him put down his telescope with a sad look on his face: "I estimate that there are no more than fifty people. But even with these people, we still have to consider whether the whirlpool caused by the sinking of the entire hull will..."
"Hey!" After slapping the railing hard, Zheng Zhilong walked into the command tower with a gloomy face: "Full left rudder!"
"Yes, full left!"
"Hahaha, now the distance between us has shortened to less than 6 kilometers. Isn't it too late to escape now?"
The naval battle between the two sides lasted for about an hour. In such a short time, Barudis was very satisfied with the result of sinking an enemy ship. Although the Prince had many shortcomings such as difficulty in control, slow speed, slow firing rate, and extremely low hit rate, the 305mm main gun, facing the 5,000-ton ironclad ship on the opposite side, would either miss or severely damage or even sink it.
With this one advantage, all other disadvantages can be ignored.
"Order all ships to concentrate their fire on the Chinese flagship!"
"As you command, sir!"
"Hey, tell our gunners, I know it's their first time to operate such a huge cannon, but please can they aim more accurately. I never gave the order to attack the second battleship in the enemy's queue. I always asked our ship to attack the enemy's flagship. But they actually sank the second ship in the enemy's battleship. I really don't know whether to reward them or punish them."
"Understood, sir. I will personally go down to the No. 1 gun position and urge them to concentrate their fire on the flagship!"
Following Barudis' order, the Spanish fleet this time began to concentrate its fire on the Ming fleet that had turned in front of the enemy. The remaining seven Ming warships were hit by the enemy's shells one after another. Fortunately, the shells were fired by the other five Spanish ironclad ships, and the hits were not in vital areas.
During this process, the Prince, the largest ship in the Spanish fleet and always in the front position, was finally hit by the Ming army. But what made the Ming army soldiers furious was that it was okay for the 150mm main gun to land on the enemy deck - you could see the explosion and smoke. But after hitting the armor belt below the waterline of the enemy ship, except for causing the enemy ship to shake slightly, the enemy's speed was basically unaffected!
"Huh~" After Chongqing completed the turn, Zheng Zhilong breathed a sigh of relief: "Damn, it seems that the enemy's big ship, in addition to the thick pipes, is also thick-skinned. But I can see that after fighting for so long, the speed of the enemy ship has not exceeded 12 knots. Humph, order all ships to burn boilers to the maximum, and the whole team will leave the battlefield at a speed of 16.5 knots."
"yes!"
Just as the communications officer responded loudly and was about to leave the control tower to go to the signal tower to signal, a huge explosion was heard and all the personnel in the control tower fell backwards uncontrollably!
A shell from the Prince's main gun hit the stern of the Chongqing in mid-air. While lifting the stern turret, it pressed hard on the stern of the Chongqing like an invisible giant hand. Then the bow of the Chongqing rose high from the sea surface and fell hard onto the sea surface.
"What happened?" Zheng Zhilong struggled to get up from the ground, not caring at all that his scalp was quickly swollen from hitting the round blunt corner of the command table. He held the copper tube in both hands and yelled at the damage control personnel.
"General, the stern was hit, the No. 3 turret was destroyed, and the stern rudder was damaged!"
"Engine room, how much has the speed of this ship been affected?"
"General, the speed is decreasing. We can still run 15 knots. But this is not fatal. The fatal thing is that the stern rudder is damaged and the ship is fixed to turn left!"
"Selinmu!"
After a loud roar, Zheng Zhilong covered his aching head with one hand and held the copper tube with the other hand: "Attention, all crew members, attention, all crew members! I am Zheng Zhilong, and I have decided to use the Chongqing, whose stern is damaged, to cover the retreat of other ships! If you don't want to sink with the ship, jump into the sea quickly!"
After he finished shouting this, he turned around and said to the officers in the command tower: "Let's all retreat. If we are unlucky and get hit by two more cannons from the enemy's big ship, no one will be able to escape."
"General, please retreat first!"
"Nonsense!" Zheng Zhilong's facial muscles trembled slightly. "How can I retreat? Where to retreat? Jump into the sea and then ask the Guangzhou behind to stop and rescue me? Who knows, the Guangzhou might be trapped as well!"
"Then why do you ask us to jump into the sea, General?"
"You're so stupid. It doesn't matter if you jump into the sea and die. If you don't die, you can still be a prisoner. Although being a prisoner is uncomfortable, it's better to live a miserable life than to die."
"What about you, General?"
"Hey~" Zheng Zhilong waved his hands and laughed bitterly, "I am definitely not a person who is ready to die. Didn't I just want to take everyone to escape? But..." He spread his hands and said, "Unlucky, the stern rudder is broken, and I can't escape. Hey, since I became the commander of the squadron, I have always been very good at eating fine food. I can't get used to it if I have to eat prison food."
"Hahaha, General, you can't get used to prison food, but can we?"
"You..." Zheng Zhilong looked at his men with tearful eyes and slammed the table fiercely: "Well, then let's fight to the end on Chongqing! Artillery Staff, let our remaining four main guns fire at full force. Engine Staff, you go to the bottom of the ship and guard the sea valve. If the Western bandits want to capture our ship, we will open the sea valve and sink it!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Send a signal to the Guangzhou, and transfer the fleet command to Colonel Qi Zhenzong. Tell them that the pirates' large ships are slow, and in half an hour at most, they will no longer pose a threat to us. As long as we don't disband the formation, the pirates' ordinary ships will never be able to wipe us out. As long as one ship can be withdrawn to Hawaii today, our sacrifice will be worth it!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Hahaha~" Zheng Zhilong laughed happily as he saw his men carrying out his orders in an orderly manner despite their different thoughts. Then he looked deeply to the west: Sen'er, your father will die for his country today. I only hope that you will study hard and lead a bigger and stronger warship in the future to avenge your father!
After saying this silently in his heart, he shouted again: "Everyone, take your positions and fight to the end! Everyone, let's meet at the Martyrs' Shrine!"
"General, see you at the Martyrs' Shrine!"
