In the historical plane, mankind entered the age of sailing battleships from the 17th century. Until the mid-19th century, sailing battleships played the leading role on the stage of naval warfare for more than two hundred years.

Such a long time coincided with the Age of Discovery and the prevalence of colonialism. Since then, countless battles have been fought on the sea, and countless excellent commanders have studied countless tactics. But in the end, it all comes down to simplicity: battle lines, seize the T.

.

Now, due to time travellers, sail battleships have only just assumed the leading role in naval battles only a few decades ago, but ironclad ships were born in advance. What are the tactics of this ironclad ship? In fact, the commanders of both sides have no idea.

Of course, as time travellers, be it Zhu Youdong, Philip, or Rudolf, they will clearly tell their naval generals: At least for now, the most effective tactic for ironclad ships is to seize the battle line and seize the T.

However, it is easy to talk, but how to combine ironclad ships with wooden sail battleships in actual combat is really difficult for the commanders. Moreover, anyone who can stand in the position of commander of his country's fleet is good at,

Those who have the courage to think independently and put it into practice are definitely not those who blindly obey the king's words.

Therefore, after Li Guozhu and Alva discovered that each other had ironclads on that day, they made the same choice: separate the ironclads and not mix them with the sailing battleships.

Since the commanders on both sides have the same idea, the next thing will be easy to handle.

As the Fengyang, the Casti, and the Aragon separated from their own formations, one side moved from east to southwest, and the other side moved from west to southeast. The distance between the three ships quickly narrowed, and the lookout hand's line of sight was limited from the beginning.

20,000 meters, gradually reaching 10,000 meters, 8,000 meters... When the distance between the two sides was only 5,000 meters, Li Guoshu ordered: The first turret on the bow of the ship, aim at the opponent's lead ship, and fire!

Following the commander's order, the impatient gunner who had been waiting for a long time quickly pulled the match rope of the ship's 150mm main gun. Then the entire Fengyang officers and men felt a slight shake in the hull, and the gun

A burst of green smoke came out of the barrel's muzzle, and with lightning speed, a black figure rose into the air and flew towards the target in the distance.

More than ten seconds later, the shell landed on the sea some distance away from the leading ship Casti, causing a huge water column.

"The impact point is still three hundred meters away from the enemy ship."

"Hiss~" On the other side of the battlefield, although Alfonso, Sun Guozhen and others were leading their battle lines towards the opponent's sail battle lines, the commanders of both sides were actually focusing on the ironclads at the moment.

Bian. When Alfonso and others saw a shell from the Fengyang flying more than 4,000 meters, they were shocked and had extremely complicated emotions.

Alfonso himself even patted the command podium of his large sailing warship named Manila with a lonely expression: "Old man, no matter how you win or lose this battle, today's battle may be your last."

It’s glorious, and a new era has arrived.”

Generals like Alfonso, who are only in their early thirties, have such emotions. The Duke of Alva, who was born in a naval family, boarded a ship at the age of sixteen, and sailed across the seven seas on a Spanish warship for nearly thirty years, feels even more mixed emotions at this moment.

However, at this moment, as the commander of the ironclad, he really has no more time to express his so-called feelings: "Order, Casti, Aragon, fire back!"

The Fengyang of the Ming Dynasty was planned by Zhu Youdong and specifically designed by Zhu Youxiao. There is no doubt that His Highness Lai Wang has extremely high engineering talent. But the problem is that His Highness Lai Wang was not yet twenty years old at this time.

Zhu Youxiao also made many mistakes when it came to the design of the ironclad ship, which required the cooperation of multiple disciplines.

For example, in the late 19th century in the historical plane, the 150mm naval guns on the first-generation ironclads generally had to be installed on cruisers with a displacement of at least 4,000 tons. However, the current Fengyang has a full load displacement of only 2,000 tons.

With a surplus of tons, there are actually six 150mm main guns, which is an obvious top-heavy configuration. When they got the ship for sea trials, Yan Siqi and Li Guozhu discovered that the ship did not dare to fire a salvo of six guns.

What about the two ironclad ships on the Spanish side? Generally speaking, the design is relatively reasonable: they also have a displacement of about two thousand tons, and they also have manually rotating turrets, but the main guns are three 100mm ships with two in front and one in back.

The guns and secondary guns are three 75mm breech-loaded guns on each side of the ship. In this way, the ship and guns are relatively coordinated, and they can go all out during combat without having to think too much about things other than combat.

It is natural for this situation to occur: the Chinese Empire has developed science and technology since ancient times, but it has paid little attention to extracting theory from practice. Although the natural sciences in Europe fell into disaster in the Middle Ages, starting from the Age of Discovery, basic science

Research is in the ascendant. In addition to the different professions of the time travellers, at least in terms of design, the two Spanish ironclads are more reasonable.

However, it is reasonable, but because the tube of the naval gun is so much thinner than that of the other party, even if Casti and Aragon fired their guns at the same time, the momentum was still much weaker than that of the Fengyang just now:

The water column stirred up by this cannonball falling on the sea was obviously smaller than that of the opponent.

"The impact point is still five hundred meters away from the enemy ship!"

"Keep the current route unchanged, the main guns of the two ships fire in turns, and adjust the firing points according to the impact point."

The Spanish side made up their minds and continued to approach, but seeing the water jets stirred up by the opponent's shells, Li Guozhu had a slightly different idea.

"I will remember, because a few months ago we played a six-gun salvo with full ammunition and almost capsized the ship, so we lowered the propellant to 70%, right?"

"Yes, Commander."

"In other words, if our naval guns were filled with propellant, the shot just now might have been a straddle fire?"

"Yes, Commander, the enemy ship is now only more than 4,000 meters away from me, close to 5,000 meters. And we already know from previous tests that the maximum range of the ship's main gun is 7,000 meters."

"Hahaha, I started fighting with a win-or-win mentality. I didn't expect this battle to be so easy to fight. Order, turn five degrees south, depressurize the boiler, and reduce the speed to seven knots."

"Yes!" The staff officer turned around after giving the order: "Commander, what do you mean, first show weakness to the enemy, then distance yourself and then fly from the outside to attack?"

"That's right. Then it depends on how fast the opponent's warship can run. If they are faster than us, I will accept my fate. One-on-two, head-to-head, and deserve to die. If the opponent can't outrun us, haha, he can't outrun us.

, and the cannon can’t hit us far, then they are doomed!”

"Commander, according to Jin Yiwei's information, the Western fleet in Luzon Island does not have ironclad ships. The two ships now must have come from thousands of miles away from Europe. There are still engines on the bottom of the ship..."

"Hahaha, that's it!"

Following Li Guozhu's order, the Fengyang slightly adjusted its bow and began to try to distance itself from the opponent.

"Sir, it seems that the Chinese ironclads are trying to escape?"

"Escape? No." Putting down the telescope with a solemn expression, Duke Alva shook his head: "The other party's commander has discovered that their cannons are more powerful and have a farther range than us. This is to keep a certain distance and hang them within our range.

They are attacking us from outside! However, it seems that the opponent’s speed is not too high.”

"We just made an estimate and it's about eight knots."

"...I remember that the theoretical maximum speed of our two battleships is fifteen knots?"

"Yes, Your Excellency. But now the Aragon can run up to twelve knots. As for the Casti, it can run ten knots now, but..."
Chapter completed!