"Nani Li Sang was killed in battle?"

Although it has been more than thirty years since he followed Li Guoshu to the Ming Dynasty and worked for Zhu Youdong, after hearing such news, Inukai Dongji, who was almost completely Chinese, couldn't help but break out in Japanese.

"General Inukai, this is the signal message from the Jilin."

"Bagayaji, this idiot is already an admiral. Why don't you stay in Singapore Port? You have to board the ship and show yourself as a hero, you idiot!" Inukai Douji, whose eyes were red, said this, and immediately started

Order: "Order the Jilin to withdraw from the battle line, protect the general's body, and retreat towards Singapore Harbor. The ship raises the command flag and allows subsequent ships to follow the ship and continue fighting!"

"As you command!"

After the communications officer left in a hurry, Inukai Toji raised his hand and looked at his watch: "Damn it, there are only six big ships now, how can we deal with the enemy for twenty-six hours? It's useless to smash them all!"

"What does Inukai Shogun mean?"

Glancing at the staff officer with a grim expression, Inukai waved his hand: "I have no intention of retreating. The generals all died in the battle, so it is natural for us all to die here. However, I remember when I first came to Ming Dynasty from Japan,

I, who is still the grandson of the emperor, specifically warned me that we Japanese always die meaninglessly for the so-called martial name, and I must change it. Therefore, gentlemen, it does not matter if we die in battle here. But if we

It is meaningless if we all die here and fail to buy enough time for our rear fortress."

"What do you want, General?"

After pacing twice, Inukai Touji made up his mind: "Send two communication ships, one to find General Yan Siqi and ask him to lead his team to retreat! The other one will notify the torpedo team in the rear, well, they will retreat

It’s been almost twenty hours, right? As long as the commander is not an idiot, he should have reloaded mines at the port, right? In short, let them re-lay mines behind us, ignore our retreat, and block all waterways as much as possible! Tell me!

If they hurry up, we can buy them four hours at most!"

This, this is a way out!

But regarding Inukai's nearly suicidal order, the staff only hesitated for a moment and quickly executed it.

…

"Your Excellency, the enemy's lead ship has withdrawn from the battle line. The second battleship in the enemy's line of battle has raised a new flag. It must be the command flag."

"Hahaha, it seems our strategy is correct. Order the entire fleet to focus fire on the opponent's new flagship."

"As you command, Your Excellency."

As soon as the communications staff walked away, the gunnery staff came over with a frown: "Sir, I must remind you that the ammunition reserves of the 305mm main guns of our two battleships have dropped below the warning line."

"Um?"

"Your Excellency, this battle has lasted too long. It has been more than eight hours. In the eight hours, the twelve 305mm main guns of our two battleships fired a total of nearly 800 shells. Now

, a rough calculation shows that the total number of shells for our twelve main guns is less than 400."

"Damn it, does this mean that each cannon can only fire more than thirty times at most?"

"Yes, Your Excellency. Due to the frequent use of the artillery for a long time, the stability of the barrel is also declining."

"...I understand, then give the order to let us get closer so that our gunners can shoot more accurately."

"Yes, Your Excellency. However, I must remind you that our speed cannot keep up with the enemy, so it will be difficult for us to get close."

"Hahaha, it doesn't matter. Now we are very close to Singapore Port. I can now confirm that the enemy's fortress in Singapore has not been completed. Otherwise, it cannot be explained why these Chinese people are fighting here and refuse to retreat. So, this

The enemy is now unable to retreat, and our disadvantage of slow speed can now be ignored! Gentlemen, cheer up, victory is at hand!"

"Long live Spain will win!"

Following Alfonso's order, the Spanish fleet turned to the southeast, then to the northeast, and after slowly making a large circle, it made a gesture to bypass the dog fleet.

Inukai, who is experienced in battles, certainly knows that the enemy does not really want to avoid him, but wants to get closer to his side to increase his hit rate. However, as Alfonso said, the location where the two sides are fighting at this time is not far from Singapore Harbor.

By fifty nautical miles, the Ming Navy had no retreat. Therefore, even though he knew the enemy's plan, he still had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead the remaining six large ships to confront the enemy.

However, after the Spanish fleet circled like this, they did get closer to the main fleet of the Ming Dynasty on its north side. However, after they circled like this, they also narrowed the distance between them and a forgotten little character.

The 3,000-ton ironclad ship of the Ming Dynasty, Shangqiu.

Shortly after the night naval battle began, the Shangqiu was hit by a near miss fired from the opponent's 305mm main gun. The tail rudder was damaged and had to leave the battle line.

Because the tail rudder was stuck, the Shangqiu could only move forward on a fixed course. After the warship slowly sailed along the southeast direction at the lowest speed for most of the night, they arrived at a place about fifty nautical miles away from the Port of Singapore.

Throughout the night, all the officers and soldiers on the ship, from the captain down, were flushed: I am so ashamed. My comrades were fighting desperately, but they left the battlefield early. Especially in the second half of the night, both sides continued to exchange words.

In the process of circling and fighting for the letter "T", although the overall speed of the Ming army fleet was faster, it really didn't have much to do against the opponent's two giant ships. Therefore, in fact, the Ming army was fighting and retreating. And then

As the battlefield got closer and closer to the Shangqiu, the battle situation became clearer to these men: at least, they saw with their own eyes that the Jilin was withdrawn from the battle due to heavy damage.

"Captain, Captain! Good news, good news. After our self-rescue all night, the tail rudder can now be moved."

"Ah? Oh, this is really good news."

"But Captain, we just solved the stuck problem, but because two of the connecting rods of the tail rudder are broken, the ship can now turn, but the speed will be very slow."

"That doesn't matter, as long as you can turn. Order, repressurize the boiler, increase the speed, and turn."

"Yes, but Captain, where are we turning?"

"This is an interesting question." The captain of the Shangqiu is a rough man in his thirties with a full beard. His surname is Zhu Ming Congquan, and he is the twenty-third grandson of King Jingjiang in the early Ming Dynasty - this

The family multiplied very quickly. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, when only the sixth character was used in the twenty-cross family tree of Zhu Laosi's family, they had already used up the twenty-cross family tree given by Taizu, so that the family of the Jingjiang king

The clan elders had to make up another twenty crosses themselves.

The faster they reproduce, the faster their title levels decline. In addition, they are Zhu Yuanzhang's grandnephews, so most of the descendants of King Jingjiang live in misery. After Zhu Youdong ascended the throne, he implemented clan reforms, and the King of Jingjiang family was the most supportive.

As for Zhu Congquan specifically, he went through a difficult life of not having enough to eat for several years when he was a child. It was not until Zhu Youdong's clan reform that the family situation gradually improved. His father secretly fished all year round to supplement the family's income and became good at water training. Family

Due to his academic background, he applied for the Royal Military Academy when he was a boy, and then studied at the Naval Academy. After graduation, he was promoted step by step, and now he is also a lieutenant colonel and captain.

After the people below asked where to turn, Zhu Congquan thought for a moment and came to a row of communication copper pipes: "Brothers, I, Old Zhu, have been on the ship as the captain. How have I treated you?"

“Excellent!”

"The boss is loyal and treats us very well."

"The boss takes us to Piaoxiangyuan after every training. He treats us the most often!"

Listening to the various sounds coming from the copper pipe, Zhu Congquan laughed for a while: "Okay, brothers, I, Old Zhu, won't hide anything from you. In this battle, we had to withdraw from the battle line because the stern rudder was damaged at the beginning.

, this night, my face is really burning. Now, the stern rudder can barely be used, and I am ready to fight back, do you think it can be done?"

"OK!"

"Listen to the captain!"

"It's time to go back a long time ago, md. We just listened to people's fighting all night, and we left the battlefield without firing a single shot. If we were to finish the fighting and go ashore later, we would be embarrassed to death by the brothers on other ships.

Already."

"Hahaha, brothers, you are very brave, and I am very happy. But what I want to say is that after I adjust my sailing, I will attack the two giant enemy ships!"

There was silence for a while in each copper pipe. After a while, a voice came from a copper pipe: "Boss, our 105 cannon can't break the armor of those two giant ships, can it?"

"It's true that it can't break armor, and there are still six enemy warships at the moment. If we rush up to one of them, we can't even fire a few rounds of incendiary bombs. What I mean is, we can just drive up and hit them!"

The silence in the row of copper pipes became longer. After a few minutes, a message came from the chief engineer: "Boss, I have to remind you that our rudder can turn, but very slowly. If we really want to hit it,

, you may not be able to hit it."

"Of course, I think it would be best if we could bump into each other. If not, hey, I never thought about bumping into you in the first place."

"What does the boss mean?"

"Brothers, we saw last night that the enemy's giant ships are not invincible, especially if they are hit by mines. That's what I think. Let's just rush over. If we are lucky enough,

If we are not sunk on the way, then when we are only a hundred or two hundred meters away from the enemy's giant ship, we will continue to rush forward and strive to hit it. At the same time, we will send people to wear heavy objects and dive deep into the sea, and then manually hit the two mines on our ship.

The part below the waterline of the enemy's giant ship."

"..." After a longer silence, a sigh came from the gunnery chief: "I will do this, who told me to be good at water."

"Hahaha, you are one of the two people diving deeply, Lao Zhang, and the other is naturally me, Zhu Congquan."

"Boss, you!"

"Captain, it's better for me to do this."

"Okay, okay, don't yell. This country is the Ming Dynasty. The emperor of this country is named Zhu. If we, the men of the Zhu family, don't take the lead in doing such a lifeless thing, why should we ask others to do it? Okay.

, now the captain’s order is issued. First, adjust the course. The navigator must accurately calculate the route and angle. After all, we only have one chance. Second, there is an only son on the ship, or he is not living up to expectations and has not let his wife give birth to a son.
Chapter completed!