Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 690: A Fish That Slipped Through the Net
"Commander, our lookout has spotted an enemy ship 20,000 meters away from our ship."
"Humph, these damn yellow monkeys are really brave. They actually dare to run so far to attack us? Order the first team in the front to go forward and fight."
"yes."
At ten o'clock in the morning on November 6, 1639, Spanish Vice Admiral Alfonso led three battleships, six heavy cruisers and more than twenty light cruisers and destroyers to the sea about sixty kilometers away from Singapore Port.
As a general who had fought against the Chinese navy many times and had been imprisoned by the Chinese navy, Alfonso said it with ease, but in fact, even though he had three battleships, he never dared to underestimate his opponent. So, after discovering the enemy ships, he sent out the first squadron led by the Marquis to attack fiercely.
However, for Major General Garcia, commander of the First Squadron, when the distance got closer and he could see more clearly, he felt that the Chinese ships on the opposite side looked a bit strange: it would have been fine if their tonnage was only over 1,000 tons, but the key was that these more than 20 ships all had only one naval gun at the bow, without even a stern gun!
"Has the enemy ship entered the firing range of our ship?"
"Sir, the enemy ship closest to us is about 7,000 meters away. The main guns of the Marquis can hit it."
"Then let the Marquis fire a shot first to see the situation. Also," Garcia thought for a while and said, "All First Squadron slow down."
A few minutes later, the main gun on the Marquis of Santa Cruz fired the first shell. Within a few breaths, the shell fell into the water. The strong explosion stirred up a huge column of water and also forced several nearby Ming minelaying ships to interrupt their work.
"Those damn Western bandits are here so fast. What's our progress?"
"Ninety-seven percent of the work has been done. The remaining part is a safe waterway no more than 30 meters wide ."
"There is no other way. Raise the flag and have the brothers retreat. The last ship will be responsible for laying the remaining mines along the way."
"Yes, sir!"
Soon, Garcia saw the actions of the Ming Navy clearly through the telescope: "Damn Chinese, these ships are not warships, but minelayers! Communications officer, quickly contact the commander-in-chief in the rear and ask him to move the sailing warship fleet behind us."
Following Garcia's report and Alfonso's arrangement, soon, the approximately two hundred 1,200-ton sailing ships that were initially hanging behind the ironclad fleet slowly moved forward.
It was obvious that these warships had not had proper maintenance for a long time. Not only were the hulls extremely dirty, but the parts below the waterline that occasionally emerged from the sea surface due to the shaking of the sea water were covered with various barnacles and seaweed.
These old sailing warships quickly became obsolete and obsolete due to the emergence of ironclad ships. Their original fate was to quietly wait for decay in various ports of Spain. However, in the Indian Campaign of 1638, the Ming Navy blocked the Ceylon Strait with mines, causing the Spanish Navy to suffer heavy losses and was forced to delay the landing campaign on Ceylon for a long time.
In view of this, Philip ordered the country's still operational sailing warships to sail into the Indian Ocean - at that time he had already made up his mind to control the Strait of Malacca.
At this time, behind these sailing warships were five ironclad transport ships. However, at this moment, there was no food, weapons or ammunition on their ships. What they had were only a large amount of various sand and gravel loaded in containers in advance on Ceylon.
When the sailing warships arrived in front of the Ming army's minefield, the transport ships came close and began to pour sand and gravel into the hulls of the sailing warships through cranes. As the amount of sand and gravel loaded increased, these wooden warships, which were originally dirty and loose but generally light, began to creak and wail, and their drafts also increased rapidly...
Watching the wooden hulls gradually lower, with some of the more heavily equipped ships almost reaching the sea level, Garcia said, "It's almost time. Let these old men get on board and pave the way to victory for our new generation of warships."
Following Garcia's order, the few sailors on the warships adjusted the sails according to the wind direction and quickly jumped into the lifeboats at the stern. And these old bones, which kept creaking under the heavy pressure, slid towards the southeast involuntarily under the urging of the sea breeze.
"Boom! Boom boom!" Huge explosions sounded one after another. One mine after another was detonated, and one sailing ship after another was completely shattered.
Due to technical limitations, all of the Ming Dynasty's mines at that time were trigger-type anchored mines - if the bottom of a ship hit a mine and it continued to move forward and continued to put a certain amount of pressure on the mine, the mine would explode.
The Ming Navy concluded based on the use of its own ships that the draft of a 3,000-ton warship in the sea is about 3 to 3.5 meters, depending on the salinity of the sea area. In inland rivers, since the buoyancy of fresh water is not as good as that of sea water, the draft of a 3,000-ton warship in an inland river will reach about 5 meters.
The draft of the Ming Dynasty's 5,000-ton warships, in the same waters, is generally 0.7 to 1 meter deeper than that of the 3,000-ton warships.
Therefore, the depth at which the Ming Dynasty's minelayers laid mines in this sea area was mostly 3 to 4 meters underwater.
In the Indian campaign last year, Alfonso's fleet suffered a great loss in the Ceylon Strait. Afterwards, they carefully cleared, confiscated, and studied the mines of the Ming Dynasty. So now, they sent the sailing warships, whose draft reached 3.5 to 4 meters due to the addition of heavy objects, into the mine array set up by the Ming Dynasty.
"Boom~Boom~" One sailing ship after another was smashed to pieces by the huge explosion of mines, but the sound of the explosion also made the Ming Dynasty navy soldiers behind the mine array feel increasingly nervous.
"Time? Progress?"
"General, it is now 1pm on November 6th, and there are still 44 hours until the time agreed upon with the gentlemen from Fangshan. According to the enemy's progress, it will take at most six hours to wade through our minefield to open a waterway. However, I and others have calculated that this method can only open a waterway of 100 meters wide at most. It will be difficult for the enemy to turn around in such a waterway."
"Well, the only thing we're afraid of is that the enemy will rush in front with a huge ship, and we won't be able to stop them."
After saying this, Li Guozhu began to give orders: "Order, the drafting staff will calculate the enemy's exit position out of the minefield. Then my fleet will form two rows of horizontal formations about 3,000 meters away from the exit. Order the entire army to fight to the death!"
"Yes, fight to the death!"
The communications officer went to the copper pipe to issue an order. Li Guozhu turned around and said to Yan Siqi, "Zhenquan, you and I can't be on the same ship, so?"
"I will go to the Luoyang (3,000-ton class) and command the battle line of small ships."
"Hey, I said I was going to Luoyang."
"Nonsense! Don't think you are much safer on the Jilin (5,000-ton class) than I am. Who knows, the main guns of their giant ship might not waste their ammunition on my small ship, but aim all their ammunition at you?"
"Haha, that's true." After a light laugh, Li Guozhu clasped his hands together with a serious expression and said, "Take care, Zhenquan."
"Take care, see you later!"
As the Ming fleet began to adjust slowly, the Spanish ships became more and more skilled at dumping sand and gravel, and the sailing warships drifted downward more and more frequently. At 7:00 p.m. on the 6th, a sailing warship smoothly moved forward along the waterway paved by its predecessors who died heroically, and glided to a position about 2,000 meters in front of Yan Siqi's fleet, before Yan Siqi ordered a concentrated fire attack and eventually sank it by the Ming army's naval guns.
"Sir, the Asuncion did not hit any mines during the entire journey. It was sunk by enemy naval guns. However, the Chinese are very lucky. It is almost dark now. Who knows, they can live another night."
"Hmm..." Looking up at the increasingly dark sky, Garcia took a deep breath and said, "Order, Marquis de Santa Cruz, turn on the searchlight and move forward!"
"Sir, are you going to have a night battle tonight?"
"There is no way." Garcia thought for a while and felt that he still had to let the staff below understand his ideas, so he patiently explained: "According to the intelligence provided by Li Yongfang, the Chinese did not build a large fortress before because Singapore Port is in the hinterland. But now, the loss of India will inevitably make the Chinese pay attention to the defense of Singapore. And at this moment, the Chinese fleet is guarding the exit of the minefield tightly, which also happens to show that their engineers are working intensively in the rear. So, now both sides are fighting for time. If we suspend the attack because it is getting dark, then the time won by the Chinese will definitely be more than one night, because that night, their minelayers can continue to lay mines."
"Understood, sir. We are willing to follow you and engage in a night battle with the enemy."
"Hahaha, thank you all for your support. Ladies and gentlemen, what kind of battleship is this? It is named after the great Marquis of Santa Cruz, Alvaro de Bazin, who was the commander of the French, British, Dutch and Portuguese combined fleet that annihilated a fleet twice its size in just five hours. This battleship is destined to be invincible!"
"Yes, sir, we will certainly replicate the great victory of the Marquis of Santa Cruz tonight."
"Hahaha, yes. Now I order the remaining sailing warships to continue moving forward. The First Armored Squadron, all turn on their searchlights, with the Santa Cruz in the lead, and form a column. In one hour, move forward!"
"As you command, sir!"
An hour later, seeing that none of the six sailing warships ahead had detonated their mines and were sunk by the Ming army's cannons, Garcia was completely relieved. Standing in the command tower, he gently waved his hand forward, and the entire warship shook slightly. The propeller at the stern quickly rotated, and the Marquis de Santa Cruz took the lead and entered the mine array.
At first, the speed of the Marquis was only four or five knots. However, after sailing slowly for more than half an hour, the engine room gradually became bolder and the speed of the Marquis gradually increased to ten knots.
Gradually, following the beam of the searchlight, the figures of the Ming army warships became clearer and clearer in Garcia's telescope.
"Sir, the enemy is within ten thousand meters of us."
"Hahaha, this is within the firing range of our main guns? Order, the bow main gun, fire first!"
"As you command, sir."
Just as the artillery staff officer was about to walk to the communication copper tube to deliver the order, something strange happened!
The entire body of the Santa Cruz suddenly shook violently, and then a series of dull explosions came from the bottom of the ship.
"What happened? Trapped on a reef?"
The telephone rang in the control tower. Before the duty officer could speak, he heard a panicked roar: "Commander, we hit a mine! The bottom of the ship is damaged and a lot of seawater is pouring in!"
