Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 767: The Beginning of the Great Sea Battle
"Crack! Boom~"
A huge flash of lightning flashed across the night sky, illuminating the surrounding sea area for a moment, and also brought a burst of dense muffled thunder. Later, a torrential rain suddenly poured down from mid-air.
"Puh~" Spiting out the rain in his mouth, Dong Zhining, the captain of the Qiongzhou light cruiser who had just entered the command cabin, wiped his face and asked: "Is there any problem with the radio device?"
"Captain, I just tried to contact the Wei Zhongxian heavy cruiser in the rear. The other party received the signal and responded quickly."
"Phew~ That's good. I heard that the radio equipment of the Ganzhou light cruiser had problems a few days ago. As a result, after finally discovering the enemy fleet, they were unable to notify the main force in the rear in time. Facing the gathering Western pirate fleet, they could only flee on their own. Hey, luckily there was a heavy fog on the sea that night, so the escape was relatively smooth. If we encounter the same situation tonight, one lightning will expose our position, and then another will expose it again. We will really be crying."
On September 15, 1647, when the Manchu-Guizhou Army Group came out of the Himalayas and prepared to quickly enter Khyber and take the initiative to be the biscuit sandwich between 20 Indian divisions, the main fleet of the Ming Navy had been cruising in the Bay of Bengal for seven or eight days.
The Indian Peninsula is the place for the decisive battle, but the key to deploying a large number of troops and supplies is still the navy. However, no matter how powerful the Ming navy is, it is impossible for them to fight a decisive battle with hundreds of warships while escorting thousands of transport ships carrying hundreds of thousands of soldiers to land.
Even if the Ming Dynasty was extremely lucky and the first batch of main forces landed smoothly, the navy would still have to prepare for the challenge of the enemy fleet while dispatching a large number of warships to escort the subsequent transport fleet - wouldn't this be asking for trouble?
Therefore, it was the consensus of all the generals of the Ming Dynasty that they should first fight with the main naval force of the enemy before the army landed.
Therefore, after arriving in Yangon, Zhu Youdong's main focus was to intimidate the various princes gathered there and speed up the running-in of the nearly two million army troops. He did not mention the landing at all. As for the navy, it continuously deployed fast warships to search for enemy warships everywhere.
However, although the Bay of Bengal is not too large, that is only relative to the vast ocean. For warships in the sea, finding the enemy's main force in the Bay of Bengal is only a little easier than finding a needle in a haystack. Therefore, starting from September 7, the Ming Navy dispatched more than 30 batches of warships, and only found the presence of enemy ships once.
Unfortunately, the radio equipment on the Ganzhou light cruiser had problems that time and could not send out signals. As a result, facing the enemy's fleet of more than ten warships, the Ganzhou could only turn off all lights and retreat under the cover of the sea fog.
In fact, it was not only the Ming navy that was looking for the Spanish fleet. The Spanish navy was also looking for the Ming fleet.
The current situation is very clear: if the Ming Dynasty gains control of the Bay of Bengal, then the Ming Dynasty's endless manpower and endless supplies will be unimpeded, large-scale, and rapidly deployed to the Indian Peninsula. Once this situation is formed, no matter how hard the European coalition forces try, even if they win in the end, it will only be a miserable victory.
If Spain gained control of the Bay of Bengal, then as long as Zhu Youdong did not go crazy, the Indian campaign might end before it actually started: in this way, the EU would not only save India, but the Ming Dynasty's wartime economic system, which had already been running at high speed, would suffer serious internal injuries and would not be able to recover for several years.
Of course, for Spain, the most ideal situation is: first let part of the Ming army land. Then have a naval battle in the Bay of Bengal, defeat the Ming navy, and gain control of the sea. The Ming army that has already landed will become a turtle in a jar, and will either be annihilated or surrender.
However, although this idea was beautiful, Philip did not dare to take the risk : he did not have high-level spies like Richelieu and Louis XIII in the Ming Dynasty. Although according to the official report released by the Ming Dynasty, the other side launched a total of nine battleships, and the American Squadron repeatedly confirmed that the other side had two battleships in America. But what if the other side was a deception?
In other words, a naval battle is not necessarily a sure win. What if we let the enemy land easily and we lose the naval battle again?
The victory or defeat of the naval battle is one thing. What makes Philip even more anxious is the northern line: the other side's commander is called Sun Chuanting, who made Cromwell and Raimondo suffer a lot in America in his early years, and also made him suffer the heart-wrenching pain of losing his son. This time the opponent is in Central Asia. According to the telegram sent by Hussein to the General Staff, the Ottomans were completely played around by Sun Chuanting. The situation on the northern line is really precarious. Philip came to India in person because of his talent for "breaking the army", and Ibrahim, who was far away in Constantinople, had called many times, urging Philip to send powerful troops to support the northern line. Otherwise, he would order the Boris Group blocked in the Ganges Delta to go north to reinforce Hussein. In Ibrahim's view, let alone sending 300,000, even if you send 3 million Indian soldiers? That is not considered strong support.
But how could Boris's 300,000 men go north? The Cao Wenzhao group of the Ming Dynasty had already appeared at the Dongge Pass.
Therefore, on the one hand, we do not know the true strength of the other side's navy, and we want to find out. On the other hand, the northern line is tight: the real Indian battle has not yet begun, and the northern line is in danger of overturning. If the northern line is really defeated, well, with the complex transportation conditions in Central Asia, it is estimated that the other side will not be able to send too many troops to the south. As long as the Khyber Pass is defended, it will not have much impact. But in any case, from the perspective of terrain, the Ming Dynasty, which has obtained Central Asia, will look down on India from a high position. The Ottoman sphere of influence, such as Persia and Afghanistan, will all be destroyed-in this case, will the Ottomans withdraw from the war first?
Therefore, no matter what, we must first fight a battle with the Ming Dynasty’s navy.
…
"Garcia, have we still failed to find the enemy's main fleet today?"
"I'm sorry, your majesty. Not yet."
"Forget it. I was planning to save this killer move for later, but the northern route is very dangerous right now. In order to buy time, I approve your use of the airship to conduct reconnaissance."
"Ah? Thank you, Your Majesty. Please rest assured, Your Majesty, with the airship, we will definitely be able to discover the other party in advance."
…
The next day, early morning of September 16th.
Last night's storm has passed. After the baptism of lightning, the entire sea is now filled with fresh air and the visibility is extremely good.
"Huh~" After breakfast, Dong Zhining smoked a cigarette on the deck and stretched himself comfortably: "Hey, if I can survive this battle, when I retire, I will buy a small yacht. In weather like this, I will take my family fishing on the sea. It is really the ultimate enjoyment in life."
"Haha, Captain, can you bring one of your subordinates with you at that time?"
"Bring them all. It will be more lively when there are more people."
"captain!"
"What's up?"
"Eleven o'clock, look up."
"Look up? Eh!" Dong Zhining first looked at the sea level in the direction reported by the lookout, but saw nothing. Then when he raised his head, he saw a small black dot in the sky.
This little black dot is slowly approaching their warship. Its speed is not that of a flying bird.
He quickly picked up the telescope and adjusted the focus. After looking through the telescope for a few seconds, he put it down again and quickly put it to his eye again: "What, what is this?"
There was no way. The airship was classified as a top secret by Philippe and Ibrahim. Louis XIII didn't know, Richelieu didn't know - and the Ming Dynasty didn't know before sending troops.
At an altitude of about 20,000 meters away from the Qiongzhou light cruiser, the Spanish Navy's "airmen" on the "Pioneer" No. 1 airship, which was suspended at an altitude of about 1,000 meters above sea level, discovered Dong Zhining and his team long before the Qiongzhou.
"Captain , the Chinese light cruiser is starting to speed up and approach us."
"This should be just a single ship deployed by the Chinese for reconnaissance. Ignore it. We will continue to move towards the five o'clock direction and must find the Chinese main fleet."
"yes."
In this way, as the two sides moved towards each other, the distance between them was soon shortened to less than five kilometers.
"Hiss~ A big balloon with a pod about ten square meters hanging below it. There is a vague figure on the pod. This is incredible!"
After being stunned for a long time, Dong Zhining finally came back to his senses. He glanced at the people on the ship who were staring blankly with their heads raised, and shouted, "What are you all standing there for? Send a telegram to notify the rear!"
"Oh, yes!"
The researchers sent by Fangshan Academy of Sciences to send telegrams hurriedly ran to send telegrams. The first mate of Qiongzhou walked to Dong Zhining with a serious face and said, "Captain, the Western bandits have invented another amazing weapon."
"That's true. With this, the Western bandits' observation ability on the battlefield is much better than ours. But..." He quickly smiled confidently: "But so what? The other side has a new thing, so we don't have to fight this battle?"
After whispering this, he started to yell again: "You are all unsophisticated people who have never seen the world! You are stunned by a balloon? Don't say that our emperor is also the reincarnation of a blue dragon, coming from the sky. Even thousands of years ago, our craftsman Lu Ban could make a mechanical eagle that could take people to the sky. This thing is nothing more than a large Kongming lantern. Where is the machine gunner? Raise the elevation angle to the maximum and see if you can shoot him down! "
"Captain, the Chinese down there are adjusting the angle of their machine guns."
"Hmph, these ignorant yellow monkeys." Although he had an indifferent expression on his face, the captain still cautiously gave the order to ascend.
Then there was nothing else: the 20mm machine guns of the Ming Dynasty were prepared to deal with possible close targets: such as pirate ships, slow white-headed torpedoes, etc., and they were not used as anti-aircraft guns at all. Therefore, its maximum elevation angle was only 40°. After the airship rose to an altitude of 1,500 meters, all the weapons on the Qiongzhou were powerless.
"Damn it!" As a Ningbo native, Dong Zhining would say this when he was anxious. But after cursing, he began to give orders again: "Send a message to the rear, the opponent's flying ball is at least 1,500 meters high. Although the maximum range of our machine guns is 3,000 meters, it is limited by the small elevation angle and cannot pose a threat to them."
"yes!"
Because the radio technology of the Ming Dynasty was not mature at that time, the transmission distance was extremely limited. Therefore, about 20 kilometers behind the Qiongzhou was the location of the Wei Zhongxian heavy cruiser. And behind the Wei Zhongxian was the battleship Wang Jian... It was passed up layer by layer, and at nine o'clock in the morning of that day, Zhu Youdong, who was in Yangon, received the report.
"Damn Philip, or Iprahin, you guys are really amazing. You actually built an airship. And you kept it secret so well!"
After quietly complaining in his heart, he turned to Sun Yuanhua, the president of the Academy of Sciences who had accompanied him to Yangon, and said, "Can the machine guns on our warships quickly increase their elevation angle?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, it's just a matter of a few screws. But in this way, the operation of the machine gun will lack mechanical fixation and assistance. When the real battle comes, the soldiers will have to rely purely on manpower to control it. This efficiency and accuracy..."
"It doesn't matter. If a real fight breaks out, in a ship-to-ship battle, machine guns won't do much. Besides, the enemy's airships are so slow that it's enough for each of our ships to have one or two machine guns to pose a threat to them."
"Then I will immediately order the Fangshan graduate students on each ship to quickly modify one or two machine guns."
Just as they were discussing this, Fang Zhenghua rushed in again: "Your Majesty, there's a call from the Qiongzhou ahead, saying that a large number of Western pirate naval vessels are following the guidance of the opponent's flying ball and are rushing towards the direction of our fleet's main force."
"..." After a moment of silence, Zhu Youdong sensed that Tianshu, Tianxuan, Wenqu, and Pojun were all approaching him quickly. He raised his head with a determined look and said, "Send the order, meet the enemy!"
"As you wish."
"Another order, have Inukai Tōji dispatch a destroyer for me. I want to go out to sea with the fleet and watch the battle from behind!"
