When fighting in a battle, morale is the most important thing.
When participating in a battle where a great victory is expected, the morale of the generals will be the strongest.
To put it simply, it means fighting against the odds, bullying the weak, and getting emboldened.
Killing is also the best way to inspire blood and courage, making the timid become ferocious, and the cowardly looking fierce.
For ordinary soldiers, the head of a captured soldier means land, house, and food and clothing; for military officers and generals, military exploits mean rising through the ranks, returning home in glory, and benevolent to their children.
For generals who are truly determined to protect their homeland and territory, even if they unfortunately die on such a battlefield, they will still be full of heroic feelings of being wrapped in horse leather.
There are less than 4,000 generals in Huaidong Water Camp, and the warships are mainly small and medium-sized warships such as sterns, fighting ships, and walking boats.
In the past, when the Huaidong Water Camp competed with the Chihu Navy for control of the lower reaches of the Huaihe River, they mostly concentrated in the streams and lakes deep in Chuzhou south of the Huaihe River, using weirs, dams, and wooden fences to block the Chihu Navy's attacks.
They did not dare to enter the Huaihe River, but relied on the forts along the bank for passive defense, barely saving the main force from serious damage. Naturally, it was difficult for them to perform well, and they were never taken seriously.
However, this time when they entered Hongzepu, during the water battle over the entrance of the Huaihe River to Hongzepu, the Huaidong water camp relied on two armored ships from Beijing and Xiang, but they
The tactics of bullying the weak were brought into full play. Under Deng Gui's personal supervision, the battle was extremely active and active.
The two iron-clad building ships in Beijing and Xiangzhou were modified on the basis of traditional building ships, but the three-layer cabins above the deck were changed to two-layers.
In addition to reducing the armored area of the warship and reducing its own weight, this can also reduce the possibility of being hit by trebuchets in water battles, improve the stability of the hull, and improve the ability to collide and resist collisions——
Because of this, the armored ship was camouflaged by covering it with a canopy made of bamboo strips. From a distance, it looked more like two ordinary warehouse ships, thus hiding the sight from the scouts who had penetrated the Yangtze River coast.
At that time, there were already some large cargo ships with a carrying capacity of two thousand or even five or six thousand stone, carrying bulk materials such as grain, cotton, gauze, etc., sailing on the main rivers such as the Yangtze River. The world called them warehouse ships.
Two "warehouse ships" tightly covered with "wow awnings" set off from Nancai, Jingzhou and other directions, and passed the Songyang Floating Ferry down the river. When ordinary scouts saw the horses, they naturally assumed that they contained some kind of cargo.
Going to the prefectures and counties on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to sell, or rushing to Yangtai and other places to transport grain, salt and other supplies for return. Who would have thought that two large iron-clad ships would be traveling alone?
Although the armored ship has one less cabin in its structure and its shape is flatter, the hull above the water surface is covered with thin iron plates one minute thick, so its weight is still staggering.
After entering the battlefield, the warship needs to put away the flammable sails. It is naturally difficult to maneuver by relying solely on the bilge oarsmen to row hundreds of large oars.
Of course, traditional large-scale ships also have poor maneuverability. On the water battle battlefield, in addition to directly impacting enemy ship formations with huge ships, they mainly provide support for small and medium-sized warships with greater maneuverability.
In this regard, the performance of the armored ship with stronger protective power is naturally extremely outstanding:
Not afraid of arrows, not afraid of small slingshots, not afraid of fire attacks, even if it collides with enemy ships of the same type, it still has the upper hand.
On the third day when the Huaidong Navy entered Hongzepo, although they were not able to seize the river mouth and enter the Huai River west of Hongzepo, they still suppressed the Chihu Navy with two armored ships that were like mobile fortresses.
near the mouth of the river
The waters have forced the Red Husbands to mobilize more warships from upstream in the past two days, and naval soldiers came in for reinforcements.
"The enemy has six more warships coming out. We can retreat a little!"
Mibao saw through the arrow window that a new warship of the Chihu Navy was entering Hongzepu from the mouth of the Huaihe River. The number of warships assembled by the Lubing Navy in the waters outside the river mouth was more than twice theirs, and they turned back.
Deng Gui suggested to retreat temporarily and put some distance between himself and the prisoner ship array.
The iron-clad ship is like an invincible elephant with strong skin and thick flesh, but it cannot withstand the bites of a pack of wolves.
The sides of the armored ship are also weak points. If the sides are not protected, or if they face brutal attacks and collisions from multiple large enemy ships at the same time, even if they do not capsize, the generals in the cabin will suffer bruises, bruises, broken bones and limbs.
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Therefore, the armored building ships are absolutely inseparable from the protection of small and medium-sized warships. Only the large and small warships of the Huaidong Water Camp actively cooperate in combat can the power of the water warfare mobile fortress be truly brought into play.
Nowadays, the number of warships put into the battlefield by the Chihu Navy has already taken an absolute advantage. Especially since Hongzepu has vast waters, the Chihu Navy’s superior naval power can be completely spread out.
Later, the two armored ships could only retreat temporarily.
If the small and medium-sized warships surrounding the perimeter are sunk or cut off by the enemy at all costs, no matter how sharp the armored ship is, they will not be able to escape.
The Jingzhou Navy was formerly under the jurisdiction of the local Military and Horse Supervisory Department and was responsible for catching thieves as a local garrison. It has not been equipped with large warships such as building ships, nor has it had many opportunities to conduct relevant combat training.
Therefore, two new armored ships were built. Xu Huai selected Mi Bao, who had been a general of the Ye Navy under construction, and General Su Qi'er as commanders.
In order to ensure that the Huaidong water camp could better cooperate with the battle, Deng Gui also personally boarded the armored warship and took charge. Naturally, he was also the highest commander of this mixed navy.
"The envoy wants us to contain the Japanese navy," Jiang Ping was also worried that Deng Gui was eager to fight a tough battle, so he suggested, "At this time, not only will half of the Japanese naval force be attracted to the mouth of the Puxi River in Hongze,
, today’s battle also successfully sank, destroyed more than 30 enemy ships, and wiped out more than a thousand enemies. It can be said that the mission entrusted by you has been successfully completed..."
Deng Gui nodded with a serious look on his face and signaled the warships to move back and distance themselves.
Although the Red Husbands had a posture of blocking the Huaihe River waterway at all costs, they did not dare to pursue it rashly when they saw the Huaidong water camp retreating. Instead, they sent warships to several destroyed water fortresses outside the river mouth.
After pulling away, Deng Gui, surrounded by Jiang Ping, Mi Bao and other generals, walked onto the front deck outside the hatch.
Under the setting sun, Hongzepu's mist is vast, with some sinking warships in the distance and billowing black smoke rising; among them there are also warships from the Huaidong Shuiying, but there are fewer warships than the Lubing warships.
Except for taking the initiative to retreat at this time, the Huaidong Water Camp relied on two armored ships for the past two days and dominated the battlefield most of the time.
Therefore, even though the number of warships destroyed by the Huaidong Water Camp during the fierce battle was not much less than that of the Red Husband, most of them were able to move the soldiers out in time, or salvage and rescue the generals who fell into the water in time. The actual results of the two days of water battles
The casualties suffered were far lower than those of the captive soldiers.
Deng Gui was not the commander-in-chief of the navy, and he had never had the opportunity to see iron-shelled ships before. He did not expect that the addition of just two iron-clad ships would drastically improve the combat effectiveness of the Huaidong water camp. He was quite excited and sighed.
He reached out and stroked the ship's armor after two days of fierce fighting.
The traces of being hit by belemnite can be clearly seen on the ship's armor, but it is not damaged at all.
Perhaps the most dangerous moment in today's battle was when four large ships of the Japanese army came rushing towards them. Deng Gui had to assign four stern ships to intercept them and meet the collision. As a result, two of their stern ships were directly knocked over.
"If Beijing and Xiangzhou can build a few more armored ships like this, Huma will never have the chance to cross the Huaihe River again!" Deng Gui said with emotion.
"To build armored ships, it is better to build more armored ships and armored battleships," Mibao had a different opinion and said with enthusiasm, "According to the armor coverage of one armored ship, ten armored battleships can be built.
If there are twenty more armored battleships in the Huaidong water camp today, we can kill the captives before noon and make them cry and curse them until reinforcements arrive!"
"Really?!" Deng Gui said with a smile, "I'm not familiar with naval warfare, so in this regard it's up to you to speak your mind..."
The protective power of armored ships can only be fully utilized in assault battles. Ironclad ships are limited by their own weight and speed, so they cannot be used in rapid assault ship battles.
With their numerical superiority and greater maneuverability, the Japanese warships cruised around the periphery of the armored ships and came closer. During these two days of actual combat,
The original warships of the Huaidong Water Camp were still responsible, so the casualties were more heavy than expected.
Mi Bao and other generals were dissatisfied because they were unable to reproduce the miraculous results of the Battle of Fengsha Lake.
"The Xinyang Navy built two armored ships and eight armored boats. The results in the past two days should be better. However, if the soldiers are determined to intercept, the casualties will not be too low. After all, the armored ships are still too small."
Mi Bao said, "If the Huaixi War were to be delayed for another year, and both the Jingzhou Navy and the Xinyang Navy had a sufficient number of armored ships, the situation would be completely different from the beginning, and maybe the Jianye Navy would not have to be destroyed...
"
Speaking of the destruction of the Jianye Navy, Mi Bao and other former generals of the Jianye Navy still feel pain that will never be eradicated from their hearts.
Deng Gui smiled slightly, thinking that if the Chihu people could really endure the delay for another year before invading south, they might have enough time to discover the arrangements of Jingxiang and the remaining Khitan troops around Qionglai Mountain, and they might also discover the secrets of Jingxiang in advance.
By building iron-clad warships, we may be able to curb our ambitions to invade the south and negotiate peace with the Qiandi Department one day earlier; by that time, the Jianye Navy may most likely be destroyed at the hands of the Jingzhou Navy...
Zhong Changqing and his troops had already withdrawn to Yingzhou to set up defenses, so he and Molihu rushed to the mouth of the Huaihe River into Hongzepu with the reinforcements to watch the battle.
I saw the Huaidong water camp retreating on its own initiative, and saw that the battlefield was full of sunken or sinking warships.
The Huaidong water camp did not gain much advantage in the water battle in the past two days, but Zhong Changqing and Mo Lihu did not feel relaxed, but became even heavier.
The Huaidong Water Camp, which has always been ignored by them, only received the reinforcement of two armored ships, and its combat power increased so horribly that it even faced the Chihu Navy with twice the number of warships.
Disadvantage, but when the main force of the navy from Beijing and Xiangzhou arrives, will they really have a chance to defend the mouth of the river?
The news coming from upstream is not optimistic either. The Xinyang navy in Beijing and Xiangzhou, reinforced by more than a dozen armored ships, has torn apart the first blockade they deployed north of Huangchuan.
If they hadn't hidden dozens of boats filled with sand and gravel in the reeds upstream and built a miracle, ramming and sinking four armored ships of the Xinyang Navy in one fell swoop, everyone would have doubted their second blockade on the Huaihe River west of Huoqiu.
