Chapter 696: Forced Rush into the Strait of Hormuz
I hope he doesn't mess up, otherwise his team of elite marines will be responsible.
Lapu Pasu and Wu Cheng are good at making decisions, so Su Chen can only leave it to him.
I don’t know where they are now, and I can’t control them even if I want to.
It was already the second half of the first lunar month, and the time agreed with Byzantium was approaching. There was also news from Persia.
Su Chen called all the main officers together and began to discuss when to attack the Strait of Hormuz.
"Commander, the big cannibal is staying motionless in the strait. We don't seem to have any good ideas to think about this time. We can only force the passage. It is estimated that some losses are inevitable."
Liu Rengui frowned and said.
Su Chen nodded: "Then you all should make some tactical preparations and try to minimize the losses. The main purpose is to guard against the suicide attack of the cannibal."
Everyone has a bit of a headache regarding the suicide attack that took place last time in the Singapore Strait. To be honest, there is no good way to deal with it.
Fortunately, the maps brought back by the Persians were very detailed and recorded information such as where are the small islands, where are the reefs and shoals in the Strait of Hormuz, and how wide the waters are in each place.
This allowed the Tang Dynasty Navy to have some understanding in advance, so as not to be blind to the situation in the strait.
The Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty left the Port of Jask and was preparing outside the Strait of Hormuz, waiting for suitable weather to forcefully pass through the strait.
Five days later, a moderate northeasterly wind finally came.
The Tang navy formed a formation and rushed into the Strait of Hormuz against the wind.
Due to the special herringbone shape of the Strait of Hormuz, when entering from the Gulf of Oman in a northeasterly wind, the first half of the journey is against the wind, but the second half is with a tailwind.
The reason why the Tang Navy chose this direction to enter was because Su Chen and others did not think that the Great Eater would not choose to attack them in the first half of the journey.
The Great Eater will most likely start its attack when the fleet reaches the top of the bend. At that time, the fleet will have to change its course at a large angle, which is when the speed is at its lowest.
If the Great Cannibal takes action in the first half of the journey and the fleet finds that something is wrong, it can withdraw directly. With the speed of the Royal Navy warships of the Tang Dynasty, the Great Cannibal cannot catch up.
As for the second half of the journey, the Great Eater will definitely swarm a large number of ships. At this time, the Datang fleet can only rely on its own speed to quickly cross the strait. Then when it reaches the vast sea, the Great Eater will have nothing to do with the Datang fleet.
The speed of the man-eating sloop was much lower than that of the Tang warships, and it could not catch up with the Tang warships in the vast sea.
In general, the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty did not want to fight with the Great Eater in the strait, and planned to use its own speed advantage to quickly pass through the strait. Anyway, the strait was so wide that the Great Eater could not block it.
Sure enough, as everyone thought, we didn’t encounter any man-eating ships in the first half of the journey.
But when the fleet came to the herringbone turn of the strait, densely packed ships suddenly rushed towards the Tang Navy fleet from all directions.
The fleet turned the ship around as fast as possible, raised the foremast and sails at the same time, and rushed forward with the wind.
Eight frigates were in front, and the other ships followed in four columns, charging forward in a tight formation.
The transport ship is in the middle, six paddle-sail warships are on both sides of the transport ship, and the main gunboats and frigates are mixed on both sides.
A large number of bowl-mouth gun mounts were temporarily installed on the decks of all warships, and all bowl-mouth gun mounts were loaded with shotshells in advance.
Even the guns of the main gunboats are directly loaded with shotgun shells.
Since there is no intention to fight with the enemy in the strait, all preparations are based on speed and defense.
Hedging against the large food ships that came close, whether it was a naval gun or a bowl-mouthed blunderbuss, they would basically be destroyed with one shot.
The Strait of Hormuz is wide enough, and the Tang Navy has sufficient knowledge of the waters and waterways within the strait in advance.
It would be difficult for Dashi's sloop to intercept the Tang naval fleet.
?The cannibal ships were divided into several formations and scattered in the strait. When Lao Yuan saw the ships of the Tang Navy, he hurriedly came over.
It turned out that except for the ships within a certain range ahead that could be intercepted in time, the ships on both sides could not catch up at all.
The Big Man Eater still used the same tactics as last time in the Singapore Strait. After trying to get close to the Tang Dynasty naval fleet at a certain distance, he used trebuchets and giant crossbows to throw bombs and Greek fire.
At the same time, the suicide attack ship directly rammed into the Tang warship.
The Tang warships paid no attention to the Dashi ships that were throwing bombs and Greek fire in the distance, and concentrated on dealing with the Dashi ships that rushed up to carry out suicide attacks.
In this case, it is difficult for the cannibal's suicide attack to be effective.
A group of eight suicide attack boats rushed towards a main gunboat, but they failed to get close. There were more than thirty naval guns and muskets on one side of the gunboat.
For shotgun shells fired at close range, large-scale sloops with a displacement of only a few dozen tons can basically be scrapped with one shot, and almost all of them will sink to the bottom after three shots.
"Obviously the frigate's firepower is much weaker, so the cannibal's suicide attack has to hit the main gunboat."
Li Chengqian held up the telescope and said.
"They are all suicide attacks. Of course, we have to pick the most valuable target. The main gunboat looks much more valuable than the frigate,"
"If our transport ship wasn't protected in the center, they would have swarmed towards our transport ship. They look bigger."
Li Chengqian frowned and said: "How long will it take to get rid of the Great Cannibal? I saw many ships were hit by the Cannibal's bombs and Greek fire."
Su Chen shook his head: "Who knows how many ships the Big Eater has prepared, waiting for us inside the strait,"
"We are well prepared this time. The man-eating Greek fire has little effect. As long as the bombs are not too unlucky and hit the vital points continuously, there is basically no big problem."
"As long as it is not hit by a suicide attack, it will be difficult for the cannibal to damage our ships in a short period of time."
As soon as Su Chen finished speaking, he saw in the telescope that a frigate was hit sideways by a suicide attack ship.
"Brewed!"
Immediately afterwards, another main gunboat was hit by a suicide ship.
Su Chen and Li Chengqian hurriedly took telescopes to observe carefully.
Fortunately, the damage to both ships was not serious and the speed would not be affected for a short time.
"The Big Eater became smarter. Before the No. 104 ship was hit, several Big Eater ships rushed towards him, attracting firepower for the suicide attack ship."
Li Chengqian held up the telescope and saw the scene just now.
Su Chen sighed, not only that, this time the cannibal's suicide attack ship was different from the last time.
In the Singapore Strait, the suicide attacks were all newly built and simple ships. If you identify them carefully, you can still distinguish them in time.
The suicide attack ship this time is not much different from other ships, and it is difficult to distinguish.
