For this reason, the Navy has also spent a lot of money in the past two years to fund related domestic enterprises to develop rifled artillery and more advanced artillery shells. However, it is impossible to achieve any results for a while.
So as of today's Battle of Malacca, the tactics used by the Tang Navy are actually not much different from those used during the Unification War!
I saw six battleships of the Second Mobile Squadron raising their sails and rushing towards the port. They also used steam engines to choose a favorable route. Instead, they did not need to rely heavily on the wind direction to sail like the previous pure sail battleships.
The six battleships of the Second Mobile Squadron formed two squadrons in groups of three battleships, one behind the other, about a hundred meters apart, and sailed towards the port in sequence.
When the leading cruiser approached about 500 meters from the intended target in the port, it was the first to open fire, using the Datang Navy's unique weapon grenade!
The grenades flew out from the barrels of the nine-pound, fourteen-pound, and even eighteen-pound naval guns, and then crossed a distance of more than five hundred meters and landed in the port. Although the hit rate of the shelling at this distance was very low, it was absolutely impossible.
Most of the artillery fell on the sea, but some still fell on Portuguese ships anchored in the port.
Whenever a cannonball landed on a Portuguese ship, it would set off a violent explosion. These cannonballs were not solid bullets, but grenades, and most of them were grenades from large-caliber naval guns.
Quite a lot.
Even though the explosive power of black powder these days is still relatively limited, it cannot withstand the large shells and large amounts of powder. When it explodes, the power is still very considerable.
At this time, the Portuguese also began to fight back, but the first to fight back was not the fleet in the port, but the shore defense artillery on land.
The Portuguese originally built a lot of forts on the shore to protect the port. After the war approached, they stepped up the construction of a lot of temporary forts. Therefore, there were still a lot of forts, and many of them were actually taken from the Portuguese fleet.
The dismantled artillery piece inside.
However, the Second Mobile Squadron was still far away from the port at this time, and due to the shooting boundary, only some of the artillery on the forts could fire, adding up to only a dozen or so artillery pieces.
Listening to the sound of these counterattack artillery, Chen Pengming knew that the smallest caliber of the shore defense artillery that was counterattacking was fourteen kilograms, and there were even many twenty-four kilogram artillery pieces.
After all, it is a shore defense artillery gun. It does not need to consider weight and other issues like naval guns, so it is normal for the caliber to be large and the power to be high.
Besides, these shore defense artillery guns, many of them are large-caliber naval guns in the Portuguese fleet.
Facing the Portuguese's coastal defense artillery counterattack, the Second Mobile Squadron only increased the power of the steam engine, increased the speed, and made a small evasion, but overall it still maintained the bombardment of the port.
The artillery battle between the two sides lasted for about fifteen minutes, and finally ended when the Second Mobile Squadron was ordered to retreat!
Admiral Chen Pengming ordered the Second Mobile Squadron to temporarily retreat, not because the Second Mobile Squadron suffered any losses. In fact, although they were hit by some artillery shells, they were only slightly damaged and were not in trouble at all.
He chose to have the Second Mobile Squadron retreat sideways because he did not see the effect he wanted to see.
Although the Portuguese fleet in the port was bombarded, and warships also fired back in the follow-up process, he did not see from the high-power telescope that the Portuguese gave up the attempt to move the fleet's artillery to Malacca City.
They seemed to have completely abandoned the fleet, prepared to strengthen the defense of Malacca at all costs, and then huddled in the city of Malacca.
Although the bombardment of the Second Mobile Squadron caused certain losses to the Portuguese, it did not completely stop the Portuguese's attempt.
At the same time, he also initially detected the Portuguese's port defense strength through this exploratory bombardment operation by the Second Mobile Squadron!
They completely gave up using the fleet to resist, and instead chose to move the fleet's artillery to land, part of which was used to strengthen the city defense of Malacca, and on the other hand, it was also used to strengthen the port and coastal defense forts.
When the Second Mobile Squadron attacked just now, the large number of Portuguese ships on the opposite side basically did not carry out large-scale actions. Only a few ships counterattacked. Most of the ships continued to anchor in the port like dead fish or even
Park directly at the pier.
Most of the counterattacks suffered by the Second Mobile Squadron were counterattacks from enemy coastal defense batteries.
But this allowed Chen Pengming to find another opportunity!
Although the Portuguese moved artillery onto land and used some of the naval guns as temporary coastal defense batteries, which could effectively increase the coast defense force, the coastal defense batteries also had a fatal flaw, that is, they could not move!
And it is worth noting that the city defense of Malacca is the city defense of Malacca, and the coastal defense fort is the coastal defense fort.
The Portuguese's overall defense in Malacca was centered on Malacca City. Malacca City was a typical large bastion. Although artillery could also be deployed on it, it is worth noting that this Malacca bastion was not built directly on the seaside.
On the seaside, it is still a few hundred meters away from the pier on the seaside. Although speaking of the protrusion on the seaside side, there is also a fort built, which can be used to shoot at the port.
However, the coastal defense batteries in this bastion cannot be the main force of the Portuguese coastal defense batteries in Malacca. In fact, most of the coastal defense batteries are still built outside the Malacca bastion and are independent fortress batteries.
After all, Malacca Port is not a concave port, but a line of ports lined up along the north bank of the waterway. Because Malacca's business has developed in the past ten years, the scope of this port is actually very large, covering several kilometers from east to west.
In this geographical environment, and considering the range of contemporary naval guns, it is impossible for the Portuguese to completely control the port with one or two forts. They have to build more forts to control the port.
Of course, the better way is to directly use the fleet to block the waterway outside the port. The width of this waterway is only about ten kilometers. As long as the fleet is powerful, the blockade can be done in minutes.
Unfortunately, the strength of the Portuguese fleet was so inferior to that of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Tang Navy that the Portuguese fleet simply did not have the courage to leave the cover of the coastal defense forts.
If they take the initiative to fight, Admiral Chen Pengming will be even more happy. He can just assemble the main fleet and sink them. There will still be so many things happening there!
Therefore, the Portuguese gave up the fleet and moved many naval guns to land, which was equivalent to giving up the fleet's mobile defense ability. In the end, they could only protect the port through numerous forts.
In Chen Pengming's view, this choice was almost a fatal mistake. Although the northern waterway of Malacca was wide, it was only a dozen kilometers wide. If the Portuguese fleet had maintained its combat effectiveness, even if Chen Pengming dared to lead the fleet
Enter, but it is impossible to rush directly into the port and engage in a chaotic battle with the Portuguese fleet.
But now the Portuguese gave up the fleet and chose to defend with forts.
This also gives Chen Pengming a chance!
He planned to use the mobility advantage of his fleet to gain absolute strength advantage over most of the Portuguese forts, then gradually clear the enemy's forts, and finally reach the port and completely crush the Portuguese resistance.
After ordering the Second Mobile Squadron to temporarily evacuate, he summoned his combat staff and asked them to quickly come up with an attack plan.
Chen Pengming wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to crush the Portuguese resistance at the port in one fell swoop to better support the landing troops in their subsequent siege operations.
The operational staff officers under the Indian Ocean Fleet Headquarters are basically the most outstanding staff officers recruited from various departments and fleets of the Tang Navy.
Both the Datang Army and the Datang Navy were accustomed to deploying elite forces from various units, especially core mid-level officers, to fight on the front lines when war broke out.
As for the Indian Ocean Fleet Staff Department, this organization is also filled with elite officers transferred from various places by the Navy. Among the twenty combat staff officers, the lowest rank is major. Well, because the combat staff officers of the Indian Ocean Fleet Headquarters Staff Department,
As long as they are graduates of the Royal Academy, and those who have just graduated from the Imperial Academy will have the rank of major, so you really can't find any graduates of the Royal Academy with the rank of lieutenant.
Of course, the senior level is not higher than a colonel, because if you go up, you will be a commodore, and the commodore level basically does not serve as an ordinary combat staff officer. If you serve as a staff officer, you will also serve as the deputy chief of staff or chief of staff of each fleet.
.
These more than twenty combat staff officers basically cover all directions. Some have a background in navigation, some in logistics, some in artillery, and some even in land warfare.
But no matter what background these people come from, they are all the best among their peers in their respective fields.
Take any one of them, they are the sons of genius in the navy, the focus of training talents of the navy, embryonic generals, and future commanders of the main fleet. Otherwise, they would not be able to appear in the Indian Ocean Fleet Staff Department as combat staff.
Whether it is the army or the navy, the combat staff position is the best springboard position within the military. Almost every general officer who was promoted after Xuanping fifteen years, regardless of the army, navy, or even the Guards, was
Served as combat staff officer.
If nothing unexpected happens, in a few years, the group of combat staff serving at the Indian Ocean Fleet Headquarters will have general officers. In another ten or twenty years, there may be a few admirals.
Woolen cloth.
These elite mid-level naval officers quickly made complex calculations and came up with a fleet attack plan.