Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 692: The Navy’s Fu Flag
"General, another warship from the Western bandits has rushed out. What should we do?"
"It is better to cut off one finger than to hurt all nine. What else can we do except to beat the enemy to death with a flurry of punches while he is unable to fight back? Signal the rear battle line, and have the three ships of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan break away from this battle line to intercept the new warships of the Western bandits that have joined the battlefield. The rest of the ships, follow this ship and continue to besiege the giant ship of the Western bandits."
"Yes, sir!"
After the communications officer went out to pass the order, Li Guozhu said to the artillery officer, "Inform the gunners of the three main artillery batteries. The first battery uses armor-piercing shells to hit the enemy ship's bow and midships that have been burned. The second and third batteries continue to use incendiary bombs. I want to set the entire ship of the Western pirates on fire!"
"Yes, sir!"
Not only Li Guozhu , but the captains of all the ships of the Ming Navy discovered the abnormality of the Marquis ship on the opposite side one after another, and then everyone spontaneously issued the strategy of penetrating armor to try to break it while continuing to attack with incendiary bombs.
"Damn it!" As the majority of the Ming army's firepower continued to pour on the Marquis's hull, slowly, the stern of the Marquis also began to burn. And as the overall temperature rose, not only the deck that was directly burning, but also the more than 4-meter-high command tower could no longer stand.
What made people even more desperate was that the gunners could not stay in their gun positions due to the high temperature, which greatly reduced the firepower of the entire ship. The Chinese light cruisers and destroyers of about 3,000 tons actually approached as close as 700 to 800 meters and used their 25mm machine guns to fire at the already busy damage control team on the deck of the ship!
“Boom!”
The Marquis's No. 3 turret fired another shell, but the billowing smoke completely obscured the gunner's vision. Although this shell achieved a cross-fire, the impact point was extremely off.
Even this ridiculously off-center cross -fire was the swan song of the No. 3 battery: the stern also began to burn, and if the soldiers in the battery accidentally touched the inner wall of the battery with their arms, their skin and muscles would quickly be roasted and sizzling - in such an environment, no matter how well-trained the Spanish navy were, they could not hold out.
"Engine room! Engine room!"
After yelling at the copper communication tube for a long time, there was no response. Garcia stretched out his hand to the copper tube in frustration. While screaming from the high temperature, he was also surprised to find that the copper tube had a little finger mark left on it from the slight pinch he had just given it.
"Commander, the entire ship is on fire and the damage control team is no longer able to control it. As the captain of this ship, I ask you to move to the lifeboat on the back of the hull first."
"Ah..." Garcia sighed and didn't say anything heroically about swearing to live and die with the ship. Instead, he said calmly, "The communication copper tube has been damaged, and the entire ship's command system has been paralyzed. I agree to leave the ship. But before that, there are two more orders."
"Please give your orders, sir."
"First, communications officer, you go down to the engine room in person and tell the officers there to stay at their posts, maintain the current course, and continue to move forward to completely clear the exit of the minefield. Second, get a lifeboat and find a way to tell Colonel Fernando of the La Coruña that the command of the First Squadron has been transferred to him. Tell him to find a way to guard the exit of the minefield until the Duke battleship behind us safely sails out of the minefield."
"As you command, sir."
" First Squadron Command, follow me off the ship."
"yes!"
At 9:03 on the evening of the 6th, the Marquis broke out of the mine array. Since the Ming army had seized the T-head first, and the Marquis had to use the bow to face the enemy because there were mines on both sides of the hull, it was attacked by 30 Ming warships. After being hit by a large number of incendiary bombs, the entire deck superstructure of the Marquis was burned, so that the Marquis lost its combat capability and its commander, Major General Garcia, was forced to leave the ship.
Yes, it was the commander who left the battleship instead of issuing the order to abandon the ship. Because the flames burned upwards, the part below the deck of the battleship, although damaged by the armor-piercing shells that came one after another, was still far from being sunk. At least its engine room could still remain operational. So Garcia's idea was to let the Marquis, the big torch, keep sailing on this course. If God blesses and it does not sink midway, it can rush to any land to land and run aground.
"Admiral, it seems like someone is jumping into the water from the Western pirates' giant ship!"
"Um...what time is it?"
"It's ten-thirty at night."
"MD, we fought for an hour and a half, using almost the entire fleet's strength. Thirty ships attacked one ship, but it only made it lose its combat effectiveness, and it is still far from sinking it. Oh, big ships, when can we have such big ships?"
"General, what should we do now? Continue the attack?"
"There's no need for that. The enemy has obviously withdrawn from the battle. As members of the navy, do we really need to kill the enemy's divers?"
"Of course that's not possible. As a sailor, who can guarantee that they will never jump into the sea?"
"That's it . We don't have time to take in prisoners right now. Send a message to this battleship and follow the flagship. Turn the rudder to the left and we will return to the gap in the minefield."
"Yes, sir!"
At 10:45, the 3,000-ton battleship led by Yan Siqi returned to the exit of the mine array. At 11:00, the seven 5,000-ton battleships under Li Guozhu also returned. But at this time, the exit of the mine array was very different.
Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, three 5,000-ton battleships, did have an advantage over the La Coruña of the same class. But it would take more than an hour for a 155mm main gun to sink a battleship of the same class. Although the La Coruña was only 5,000 tons, its defense was much worse than that of the Marquis. But he was facing only three opponents instead of thirty. So, when he faced three opponents who had seized the T-head at the bow, although he was beaten badly, he did not suffer from the situation where the whole ship was on fire and could not play its combat effectiveness.
Therefore, La Coruña fired back while being bombarded, and followed the track of the Marquis, and immediately cut right after leaving the minefield, pulling its hull sideways so that the three gun turrets could fire, while also allowing the other two 5,000-ton battleships behind it, the Sevilla and the Madrid, to sail out of the minefield smoothly.
Then when Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi led the team back, all they saw was a three-on-three bang-bang-bang battle.
"The enemy's second giant ship has not yet appeared. There is still hope. Order the three ships of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan to return to the formation and reorganize the battle line!"
"yes!"
Just as the communications officer was trying to respond and was about to go out to pass the message, suddenly, everyone in the command tower of the Jilin heard a muffled sound. When everyone looked out the window following the sound, they saw a huge column of water rising about a hundred meters away from the Sichuan battleship that was fighting fiercely with the enemy!
"305 guns! The Western bandits' giant ships are coming out! Quick, quick, pass the order, let Yun, Gui and Sichuan return to the team and defend the T-shaped formation!"
Li Guozhu was passing on the order, and the three Spanish heavy cruisers, including the La Coruña, which had previously been facing southwest and northeast, began to turn left in unison. Although their firepower was temporarily unavailable during the turn, and they were hit by many Ming army artillery fire, this turn not only further shortened the distance with the Ming warships, but also gave the Duke, who was at the mouth of the mine array, a lot of room to maneuver after leaving the mine array.
The Duke continued to face the enemy with its bow and was moving forward. The three damaged heavy cruisers, including the La Coruña, had already completed the left turn. Then, with their bows facing northeast and their sterns facing southwest, the three warships formed a horizontal formation again, blocking the Ming fleet and the Duke. This allowed the Duke to complete the turn calmly behind the friendly ships, almost intact.
At 0:30 a.m. on the 7th, the Madrid was hit by 18 shells from the Ming army, two of which hit below the waterline. After a large amount of seawater poured in, it struggled and slowly sank. But at this time, the Duke had completed the turn, and three gun turrets were aimed at the Ming army's battle line.
"Boom boom!" At 0:32, the Duke fired its first salvo after completing the turn. Six huge shells fired by the 305 main guns, one of which landed on the sea surface about 30 meters away from the 3,000-ton Shangqiu warship of the Ming army. However, even such a near miss was too heavy for the small body of the Shangqiu.
"Admiral, the Shangqiu sent a signal that the rudder was damaged and it was difficult to turn."
After hearing the report from the communications officer, Li Guozhu, who had been anxious to block the minefield at first, now looked calm. He said softly, "Tell the Shangqiu to allow them to withdraw from the battle line."
"yes!"
"Order, raise the blessing flag!"
"……yes!"
The so-called "Fu" is the last surname in the Hundred Family Surnames. There is nothing after this surname. Moreover, the word "Fu" is often engraved on tombstones. Therefore, when this word is used as a flag by the navy, it is the same as the "Z" flag used by the navy in the historical plane using the British flag language.
At 0:25, the Ming Dynasty's Jilin took the lead, and all ships successively hoisted the Fu flag. At this time, Spain's third 10,000-ton giant ship, the Barcelo, also broke out of the mine array.
For the Ming Navy, the truly brutal battle has begun.
