Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 590: Tactics
Think about what happened two days ago, from the probability of ship failure, to energy consumption, to morale, and how well the soldiers sleep... everything started to develop in the direction of "unlucky"!
Gan Ning had already guessed something...
After all, the Chu State's advisers had already analyzed Guo Jia's abilities.
"The combat power has been weakened by 20% out of thin air? This strength...it seems that Wei's 'ghost plan' is ready to act like a ghost!" Gan Ning has already made his judgment.
However, this did not affect Gan Ning's determination to fight a decisive battle with the Wei navy.
From the perspective of winning or losing this battle, perhaps it would be best to delay for a few days and wait for Guo Jia to die suddenly. However, from a grand strategic perspective, Gan Ning actually wanted the current situation very much!
Although the gap between the two sides has been narrowed now, Gan Ning, who is aware of some of the negative effects of Guo Jia's abilities, is very clear that in the next few days, the Wei army will definitely choose to have a decisive battle with the Chu navy.
Achieve success in one fell swoop...
It is not only Guo Jia's wish, but also what Gan Ning, or the State of Chu, wants to see!
If the battle is delayed until Guo Jia dies suddenly, the navy of the Wei Kingdom, which is put together by the government and the people, will inevitably become cautious. Even if they can win, what if the enemy disbands on the spot?
Once the enemy is broken into pieces, the State of Chu will also feel a headache - there are indeed too many of them!
Especially among them, there are many privateer ships belonging to powerful families...
It is rare to have the opportunity to catch all the rats in the sewers in one fell swoop.
The most important thing is, in Gan Ning's opinion... the gap between the two sides has narrowed?
It has indeed narrowed, but even after the narrowing, there is still an essential gap!
Therefore, the "decisive battle" became the common will of both sides, and a great battle at sea began...
But less than half a day after the battle began, when the ships of both sides approached or had already entered the battle area, Guo Jia began to regret it, even to the point of confusion.
What is that huge ship in the distance that is half a mile long and appears to be covered in steel?
Why can this thing still sail?
And... according to the intelligence, the Chu army's artillery is not that much more terrifying than the Thunderbolt Chariot, right?
That’s right, at this time, the Chu State’s only armored warship, the “Renzhichu”, had appeared within the range that Guo Jia could see .
After calculating the distance and length, Guo Jia even suspected that he was seeing a mirage.
What made the Wei navy cry the most at this time was not the super giants in the distance, but the battleships, gunboats, escort boats, and torpedo boats nearby...
Because the caliber of the ship-borne artillery is larger, its range far exceeds the mountain artillery that appeared in the Hanzhong military situation to forcibly demolish Yangping Pass.
What’s even more terrible is that the Chu Navy’s gunboats have also prepared a number of “shrapnel shells”!
In recent years, the Ministry of Industry has solved the problem of delayed detonation by using a conical wooden tube with scales on the outside and a gunpowder channel filled in the middle to detonate the gunpowder in the shrapnel shells.
The principle is actually very simple. The heat of the gunpowder when firing the shell will directly ignite the compacted gunpowder in the wooden tube. The delay time can be adjusted by cutting off the wooden tube.
In the modern history of another world, it can be said to be a very simple technology that has been used for a long time...
The Chu State's "technology" in terms of shrapnel bombs was obviously relatively backward, but venting its firepower on the Wei State's warships that still used Thunderbolt chariots as their main weapons still posed as an attack on an elementary school.
Even if the already unstable shrapnel bullets had a much higher chance of exploding due to Guo Jia's "Strange Assistant Ghost Strategy", it would not change this point...
After all, not to mention the range difference between the Thunderbolt Car and large-caliber ship-borne artillery, the effects of the Thunderbolt Car's stone bullets and shrapnel shells are also very different.
For gunboats, even if they were unlucky enough to be hit, at most some buildings on the deck would be damaged, and hitting the armor would be considered a "miss". As for Wei's warships...
If the shrapnel explodes on the deck, it will cause a hole and water leakage if you are unlucky. If it happens to explode on the side of the ship, then unless you are extremely lucky, the countdown to sinking will begin!
As for the densely packed small boats, the Chu State simply ignored them...
The water ghost troops who relied on their good swimming skills and wanted to destroy the boat were not even noticed!
The Wei State had already figured out the rudiments of battle line tactics with its improved Thunderbolt chariots and sailing technology. What about the Chu State navy, which had more advanced power and strategy than the Wei State?
The battleships led the way, followed by the gunboats, and formed a battle line...
In the terms of land warfare, it means deploying a "long snake formation", "brushing" past the enemy's formation while firing the cannons on the side of the ship.
Boarding? What boarding?
Not to mention the speed issue, the size of those small boats with five, six or even more than ten people, just approaching the battle line, even if they are not hit by artillery, there is a risk of being swept into the water flow of the warships...
As for the Wei main ship that wanted to leave the battlefield and start a new battle formation, it was also greeted by the torpedo boats roaming around.
The pole-torpedo boat is half the length of the Wei army's main ship, and has a "pole" almost as long as the captain. The pole is equipped with slides and other mechanisms that can release "mines" at the front end - the high-explosive type.
Compared to artillery, the torpedo boat should be considered an enhanced ramming capability.
Although the risk factor is very high, every time the "pole" hits, it directly detonates the explosives, and a main ship - a wooden warship - will have no chance of survival if it hits this thing!
Compared with artillery with low hit rate, torpedo boats are undoubtedly very "refreshing" warships.
In addition to the smaller ship-borne artillery, the escort boats also had manual levers - the Wei army's small boats could basically only try to board and protect the escort boats at the head and tail of the battle line.
However, every time they got close, a long pole equipped with a grenade slide would be poked over, so it would be no problem to take down a boatload of "little friends" .
When Guo Jia first saw that the State of Chu had set up three "long snake formations", he was puzzled at first, and then he suddenly realized.
Because naval warfare was in its infancy, the Wei navy was also exploring and improving the power of the Thunderbolt Chariot, which had already given them the rudiments of battle line tactics. With Guo Jia's talent, after seeing the Chu army's long snake formation, he basically understood the secrets of naval warfare in the era of Thunderbolt Chariots and artillery in an instant.
However, it was already more than one step too late.
If the Chu army also had thunderbolt chariots and wooden sailboats, they could still fight, but now...
All the naval battle formations that Guo Jia had trained before and the various situations he simulated have now become a joke.
It hadn’t been a long time since Gan Ning had thought about a battle formation… a naval engagement?
The three most important tactics are: thick armor, large caliber, and sufficient power!
There are only three minor ones: the generals should not be stupid, the soldiers should not be afraid, and training should be more!
The thunderous Thunderbolt Chariot, under the venting of artillery and shrapnel, became as quiet as a lady from a noble family.
As the long snake formation moved, the main ships of the Wei navy continued to sink...
Even if they wanted to retreat, the Chu navy would chase them and sink them all regardless of size - and unlike on land, enemy troops who fell into the water would not be rescued and could not be rescued even if they shouted for surrender!
If there are lucky Gilded Generals or Golden Jade Generals who can jump up and immediately remove their armor and surrender, there is still a chance of survival.
The gap between the Wei navy and the Chu navy is not only in hardware, but also in software...
