Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 801: Naval Battle of the Azores
There was constant sound of cannon fire, water columns rising up, and whistling sounds breaking through the air.
On February 18, 1649, the fully-mobile Spanish navy and the fully-mobile Ming navy engaged in an extremely brutal naval battle in the waters near the Azores.
For Spain, if the Azores are not taken back, then both the country and the European Union will suffocate to death because of the tightening of the noose. For Ming, this place is thousands of miles away from its homeland . The fortress group on the Azores and the repair factory that can really repair the severely damaged warships have not been built yet. If they fail here, the whole army will be annihilated. Therefore, for both sides who have no way out, the only way is to fight to the death!
This grand naval battle, in which both sides deployed more than 100 warships, started at 8 a.m. on the 18th and lasted until 5 p.m., when the sun had begun to set in the high latitudes of winter. The main forces (battleships and heavy cruisers) of both sides were already wounded and out of breath.
After all, this was a battle that concerned the survival of the country, so Philip followed the Spanish Navy this time. With the bonus of Pojun, the Spanish Navy's hit rate was nearly 10% higher than that of the Ming Navy. After the two sides fought fiercely for a whole day, the Ming Navy did suffer a lot in terms of the damage to the main fleet.
At the battleship level, the two sides were 12 to 11, with the Ming Dynasty having a slight advantage. However, after a day of fighting, the Ming Dynasty's 12 warships were hit by a total of 78 bullets. Among them, the flagship Lian Po and the slowest Cao Sanxi were hit by 13 and 11 respectively, both of which were severely damaged and could not return to the battlefield in a short time after this battle. On the other hand, the Spanish side had 11 warships, which were only hit by 62 bullets in total. The flagship Fernando V was hit by 11 bullets and was also severely damaged and withdrew from the battle line - but Spain has a large number of repair shipyards and equipment, and Fernando V will definitely return to the battlefield much faster than the Ming Dynasty Navy.
In terms of heavy cruisers, the two sides had 40 to 41, and the Ming Dynasty was slightly behind in terms of numbers. However, due to the problem of hit rate, after a day of fighting, the Ming Dynasty sank four heavy cruisers and severely damaged six, and a quarter of its combat power was gone. On the other hand, the Spanish heavy cruiser only sank one and severely damaged four...
"Send a telegram to His Majesty in the rear. Our army has a slight advantage in this battle. However, because the Chinese have thermal-powered torpedoes, in order to avoid too much loss at night, we request to retreat first. We will continue to fight the enemy at dawn tomorrow. If we can maintain today's hit rate, we can completely defeat the Chinese navy in two more battles at most."
Garcia, who had already switched his flagship to the Augustus, wanted to quit while he was ahead. But Inukai Touji, who was also forced to switch his flagship to the Emperor, had no intention of withdrawing his troops: "Push forward with all your forces, tie up the enemy, and decide the outcome at night!"
"Damn it! The despicable Chinese really wanted to conduct a torpedo war at night."
At 5:10 pm, the Spanish Navy began to slowly retreat eastward, but the Ming Navy, although already at a disadvantage, kept on chasing after it. Moreover, after the slowest ship Cao Sanxi withdrew from the battle line, the Ming Navy's minimum speed was nearly two knots faster than the Spanish Navy, so the Spanish Navy could not shake it off at all.
"What about the storms that often rage in the North Atlantic? Why haven't they come yet? God, this is the area you rule!"
Looking at the gorgeous sunset glow over the sea, Garcia gave two orders helplessly: "Send a telegram to His Majesty in the rear. Night is approaching. To avoid any emergency, please evacuate His Majesty's ship at the highest speed. Also, send a telegram to the destroyers and ask them to move closer to the main fleet."
"...Ah." After receiving Garcia's telegram, Philip sighed helplessly and ordered his ship to retreat first: he was not Rudolph after all, and he lacked the courage to persevere in a critical moment.
As night fell, both sides implemented strict blackouts and stopped firing blindly. The entire sea surface finally quieted down after a whole day of noise.
However, it was in this dark and quiet night that the real killing began.
Garcia was afraid of the high-speed torpedoes of the Ming army, so the entire fleet was very conservatively arranged in a circle: battleships in the inner ring, heavy cruisers in the middle ring, and light cruiser destroyers in the outer ring. Of course, after the new ships obtained in the past one or two years, Spain still had more than one hundred destroyers. Pure defense and blindly taking a beating were not Garcia's character. So he still sent three light cruisers and thirty destroyers to the north at high speed, preparing to launch a torpedo attack on the Ming army after a circle.
On the Ming side, Yan Siqi and Inukai Dongji both understood that if they didn't sink at least two battleships tonight, the Ming navy would be completely destroyed sooner or later if there were more battles like the one in the daytime. So this time, they only kept one squadron of the 100 light cruisers and destroyers of the Ming Dynasty, and all the other eight squadrons were deployed.
…
"Captain, judging by the sound of the enemy's ship's engine, we have already circled to the south of the enemy."
"Okay." Zheng Chenggong, who was only 25 years old this year, was already a naval captain, commanding a destroyer fleet. He raised his binoculars and looked at the dark opposite side for a while, then put it down helplessly: "Although there is no storm tonight, giving us a chance to chase the enemy fleet, there is no moonlight."
After thinking for a while, he said to the communications officer, "Send a message to all ships in this detachment. This ship is ready to fire flares. While illuminating the enemy, it will also expose itself. Therefore, please increase the speed to the maximum and advance at full speed in the east direction."
"yes!"
A few minutes later, Zheng Chenggong's ship, the Fuzhou, fired three flares. The flashing strong light clearly illuminated the figures of the Spanish naval ships not far away.
However, before the Fuzhou's lookout could make a careful identification, a red light, completely different from the pale white light of the flare, flashed from the opposite warship. After the light flashed, a shrill sound of breaking through the air approached Zheng Chenggong's detachment.
"Boom~" Dozens of water columns rose up from the dark sea. Enduring the turbulence of the ship caused by the surging sea, Zheng Chenggong shouted: "What's the situation of the enemy ship?"
"Our ship is about 3,000 meters away from the outermost enemy ships, and at least 6,000 meters away from their core warships!"
"Selinmu! The Western bandits' defense formation has expanded greatly! Send a message to the flagship, reporting the position of our detachment and the position of the enemy battleships calculated by our ship."
"yes!"
Under the heavy artillery bombardment from enemy battleships and heavy cruisers, Zheng Chenggong commanded a light cruiser and ten destroyers under his detachment to evacuate at high speed. However, the enemy commander seemed to know that they were going to run to the east, and his artillery fire was also directed to the east. At 8:20 that night, the Lianjiang ship of the detachment reported: Our ship had lost a shell, and a large hole had opened below the waterline. It was impossible to stop the leak, and we were about to abandon the ship!
"Selinmu, a ship was destroyed without even firing a single torpedo. Call back, permission to abandon the ship. Our detachment cannot send anyone to pick them up now. Brothers, put on warm clothes and sit in the lifeboat for a while."
In just a few breaths, when the Spanish Navy's artillery fire became more and more fierce, in the west, countless red lights flashed in the dark sky: the Ming main fleet, which had been chasing closely, also began to shoot at the place where the red lights were flashing from the Spanish Navy.
The artillery fire from the chasing and killing Zheng Chenggong's detachment quickly died down, and the warships that fired these shells turned their guns around and fired back at the main battleships of the Ming Navy that had also exposed their positions due to the firing. At this point, Zheng Chenggong's detachment could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"Contact the surrounding teams. Which team is closest to us?"
"Captain, Qi Zhenzong's detachment is only seven or eight hundred meters away from us."
"So close? Fortunately I asked, otherwise we would have almost collided. Send him a telegram and tell him that the Western pirates' destroyer defense circle is too large. I suggest that we attack the enemy destroyers first, using white-headed torpedoes at a depth of about one meter. Ask him to join us."
After a brief coordination, the two destroyer squadrons, two light cruisers, and nineteen destroyers all turned their bows from due east to due north, and silently sailed north for about two kilometers, so that the Spanish destroyers not far away could vaguely see their figures with the help of the artillery fire of the main fleet behind them. These twenty-one warships fired flares in unison - at the same time, they rushed forward another two or three hundred meters, neatly pulled the ship sideways again, and fired forty-four white-headed torpedoes together!
"Enemy attack!"
"Lightning strike!"
At this moment, the Spanish battleships were busy exchanging blows with the Ming battleships, and they had no time to turn their guns. So although the Spanish light cruisers and destroyers had already started firing the 75mm guns on their warships, such shells, let alone near misses, would not kill Zheng Chenggong and his men even if they hit directly, as long as they were not in a vital position.
In desperation, the captains of the Spanish light cruisers and destroyers on the periphery could only give an extremely bitter order: "Turn on the searchlights and search for torpedoes."
With the lights on, the sight was indeed much better than before. The depth was only one meter, and the slow , white-headed torpedoes that emitted a large number of bubbles were nowhere to be found. The sailors on the Spanish light cruisers and destroyers started firing at the white-headed torpedoes with the machine guns and cannons on board. They also successfully blew up a large number of white-headed torpedoes. But they turned on the lights!
The overwhelming sound of breaking through the air was getting closer and closer. At 8:30, a round of heavy artillery fired by the Ming army's battleships accurately landed on this particularly conspicuous area of water in the dark. Two of the two Spanish light cruisers and twenty destroyers in this area were directly hit, and nine of them were hit! A full half of the warships lost their combat effectiveness one after another. The outer defense line of the southern wing of this circular formation of the Spanish Navy was suddenly torn open!
"Great! Send a message to the flagship. We will attack the center of the enemy formation. Ask them to divert their fire to avoid accidental casualties."
At this time, the two sides were in the midst of a fierce battle, so there was no time to use code to send messages. So this time, Zheng Chenggong and Qi Zhenzong sent telegrams in plain text. And within a minute, the Emperor Qin Shi Huang replied: "I have received it. I wish you good luck."
This simple reply in plain text was the charge. With the two light cruisers, Fuzhou and Quanzhou, leading the way, 19 destroyers followed closely, ignoring the gunfire of the remaining Spanish destroyers along the way, and started charging straight towards the place flashing red light more than 3,000 meters away!
"Commander, the enemy destroyer is coming from the south."
"…Cancel the blackout, turn on the lights, search for the enemy ships, and destroy them!"
"……yes!"
As Garcia reluctantly ordered the battleships and heavy cruiser formations to turn on their searchlights, Zheng Chenggong and his men suddenly felt that the direction of the charge ahead had become extremely dazzling...
