These large Anzha ships were equipped with three, four or six cannons and used both sails and oars. They rushed towards Li Zhi's fleet at full speed. The fastest updated. Apparently the officers of the Tokugawa Navy were very confident in these large Anzha ships and believed that these large Anzha ships
The Anzha ship is stronger and can last until the moment of the boarding battle.
The large Anzha ship was filled with sailors, with at least 400 people on board. In order to avoid Li Zhi's explosive shells, all the Tokugawa sailors in the cabin left the cabin and stood on the top deck.
Li Zhi's explosive shell surprised the Tokugawa sailors. The 16-pound shell was already extremely destructive, and it had to explode again. This was a weapon that Japanese sailors had never heard of. This epoch-making weapon even made
The sailors at the bottom felt fearful.
But the Japanese samurai were very calm. As professional officers, they calmly observed the dozens of bombed Anzha ships in front of them, and quickly found a way to reduce the lethality of the explosive bombs.
When shells are fired at the hull of the Anzhai ship, the shells usually hit the high hull and rarely fall on the top deck. Li Zhi's gunner wanted to shoot the shells into the thin deck on the top of the Anzha ship.
It's very difficult. If you aim like that, it's very likely that the cannonball will hit high and fly away.
The samurai found a way to deal with the explosive bombs and kept them on the top deck. The sailors who were ready to join in a melee fight were kept on the top deck not only to facilitate the subsequent boarding battle, but also to reduce casualties.
As long as these dozen large ships can reach Li Zhi's ship, the Japanese sailors who are good at hand-to-hand combat will severely damage Li Zhi's fleet. If they are lucky, the Tokugawa navy may win the war through boarding battle.
Fourteen large Anzha ships adjusted their personnel positions and rushed over with more than thirty small boats.
At a distance of one mile, more than forty steamships in the front row aimed at the dozen large ships in front and opened fire. Hundreds of shells were fired like lightning into the cabin of the large Anzha ship, and many of them hit the target.
There was an explosion in the wooden cabin.
However, the structures of these larger Anzha ships were stronger, and the shells were not able to sink these large ships. And because the Japanese sailors were bent over and hiding on the top deck, the shells fired into the cabin and exploded did not cause major casualties.
The Anzai boats use both sails and oars, and they are very fast. It does not seem to take thirty seconds to cover this one mile distance. Even if they are hit by another round of artillery before joining the ship, these large Anzai boats can persist until they jump to the side.
moment.
Indeed, the Japanese samurai did not act foolishly, and fighting in gangs was still the mainstream of naval warfare in the seventeenth century. Although Western countries in this era filled sailing ships with cannons, the battles between fleets at sea were often divided by boarding battles.
Victory or defeat. The role of artillery in this era was often a supporting role before a boarding battle.
It was not until the 18th century that boarding battles were truly replaced by artillery battles due to the emergence of more powerful artillery.
However, the Tokugawa sailors did not know that the Li family fleet they faced was not a product of this era at all. Li Zhi's fleet was a brand-new product that mixed eighteenth-century technology and nineteenth-century products. In this
The era can be said to be a monster that has never appeared.
Is that steamship covered in iron armor something the Japanese have never seen before in this era?
The armored ships, covered in iron armor and driven by surging steam turbines, have turned history to a new page. The ancient tactic of boarding battles, because of the ironclad ships, will no longer happen in Li Zhi's fleet.
"Woo"
A long whistle sounded, and the ten armored ships rushed out of the linear formation and rushed towards the oncoming Tokugawa family ship.
It wasn't until Li Zhi's armored ship rushed over blankly that the Tokugawa sailors could clearly see these ten sea monsters. The towering chimneys, the power to move forward at high speed without paddle wheels, and the sharp and protruding collisions.
The horns and the hull covered with iron armor all shocked the Japanese sailors who had never seen the world.
For the 300-ton Anzha ship, the 500-ton armored ship can be said to be a behemoth. Such a monster rushed over in armor, making the Tokugawa sailors feel the fear of death.
"boom!"
"boom!"
The cannon on Anzhai's ship opened fire. Dozens of shells were fired at Li Zhi's armored ship at high speed, from a very close distance, and seven or eight of them hit the armored ship.
However, the structure of the Anzha ship determines that it cannot carry heavy artillery. The maximum cannon on the ship is only 18 pounds. These cannons were not able to penetrate the iron armor of the ironclad ship. They only made a few dents on the ironclad ship and then the bullets fell into the water.
These armored ships, which the Japanese had never seen before, were actually invulnerable.
The cannons had no effect. Seeing the armored ship getting bigger and bigger in the field of vision, the Tokugawa family's samurai panicked. They howled at the helmsman and asked the helmsman to turn the helm and duck to the side. Whether it was an Oyasu house ship or a small boat, the Tokugawa family's ships
Their reaction was all to run away from this iron-clad monster.
However, in the vast sea, where is it so easy to turn around and avoid?
The Anzai ship failed to avoid the collision of the ironclad ships. At a distance of three hundred meters, two hundred meters, and one hundred meters, ten ironclad ships slammed into the Tokugawa family's Anzai ship fleet at a high speed of ten knots. The Yangwei took the lead and took the
The iron bow slammed into a large Anzha ship filled with Japanese sailors.
The bow of the Yangwei is protruding forward, and it protrudes further upwards from the bottom to the top of the ship. This shape of the bow is like an inverted plow, which will give the collided sailboat a huge force to tip backward. The Yangwei is larger than the large
The Anzha boat was bigger and taller. His bow hit the side of the Anzha boat, which immediately pushed the Anzha boat to the side.
The Anzha ship was originally an offshore warship that could not sail far, and had a high center of gravity. On the bottom of the ship with a very shallow draft, the Japanese built four full decks from bottom to top. These decks can increase the lethality of iron cannons during offshore operations, but
In front of Li Zhi's advanced iron-clad ship, the Anzhai ship, which had an unstable center of gravity, was overturned by a plow in an instant.
The Yangwei crushed a large Anzha ship, and the Anzha ship suddenly fell over. All four hundred Tokugawa sailors on the top deck were overturned at once. The sailors on the starboard side were even more unlucky, and were directly pushed to the right.
The huge deflection force threw it into the sea.
But the more terrifying thing is yet to come. The Yangwei's steam turbine keeps pumping, applying surging mechanical force to the propeller at the stern. The propeller drains water backwards, transmitting huge reaction force to the Yangwei's hull. The Yangwei continues to move forward.
It squeezed forward and finally overturned the 300-ton Anzha ship.
Only screams were heard, and all four hundred Japanese sailors and samurai fell into the cold December water along with the capsized ship.
