The first thousand four hundred and twenty-seventh chapters
Chen Pengming did not hesitate at all. He had to attack first before the Portuguese could react, whether they stopped abandoning the fleet and re-sent the fleet out of the harbor to fight, or they moved a large number of large-caliber fleets to the head of Malacca.
Therefore, Chen Pengming's offensive plan was not just to send a squadron to conduct a test attack as before, but to directly dispatch the main fleet, preparing to bear part of the Portuguese's fort firepower and bombard the enemy's forts and their fleet.
After the order was issued, Chen Pengming also ordered the flagship to raise the battle flag, preparing to personally lead the fleet on the flagship to launch an attack!
The commander led the flagship to take the lead in the charge. This incident made the army liaison personnel accompanying the ship frown. They thought that Chen Pengming was too reckless to do this. He was a dignified admiral, the supreme commander of more than a hundred warships and tens of thousands of soldiers.
Taking the lead in the charge during a critical period of the battle can certainly boost morale, but if you are not afraid of ten thousand, you are afraid of the worst. What if you, Chen Pengming, are accidentally killed or seriously injured and unable to command the fleet?
It doesn't matter if you Chen Pengming is dead, but it will cause the troops to be leaderless and the command is chaotic, which will be troublesome!
In a large-scale battle, a general-level commander personally leads an attack. This kind of thing is almost unimaginable in the army, because in the army, general-level generals usually sit back and dispatch troops.
Generals, they will personally go into battle to fight with the enemy. Let alone generals, even generals at the level of brigadier generals will basically not go into battle to fight in person.
Therefore, the army liaison officers in the fleet did not quite understand Chen Pengming's actions.
But within the navy, Chen Pengming's actions are understood and taken for granted!
In the navy, it is nothing for the fleet commander to personally lead the fleet in combat.
This is because the flagship of the fleet commander is often the battleship with the most powerful combat effectiveness in the fleet and the most complete command system. This is the case with the flagship Guangdong that Chen Pengming rides. Although its protective capabilities are somewhat worse than those of battleships of the same tonnage,
But its firepower is not bad at all, and its maneuverability and related command system are among the best among battleships of tonnage.
It is naturally impossible for such a powerful battleship to watch the show from behind while the fleet is engaged in a decisive battle.
In this case, it is normal for the flagship to lead the fleet to attack.
Chen Pengming raised the battle flag and led the main fleet towards the port. This move instantly made the Portuguese ships in the port and the Portuguese on many coastal defense forts nervous.
Dozens of battleships outside the port moved together, especially the nine battleships inside, which formed two huge battle fleets. Not to mention other battleships, just these nine huge battleships were enough to make those
The Portuguese were frightened.
That is a battleship with a tonnage of over a thousand tons. A battleship of this tonnage is considered to be the top battleship in any country's navy today.
Starting more than a hundred years ago and several decades ago, in fact, various countries, more accurately speaking, the European maritime countries represented by the Portuguese and Spain, actually did not have any professional large-tonnage ocean-going warships.
Because for these two maritime countries, which mainly focus on maritime trade, they need ships with large carrying capacity and armed forces, so during this period, the boundaries between merchant ships and warships were not obvious.
At the same time, maritime warfare is not dominated by artillery battles. In fact, it is still mainly based on boarding battles. Therefore, ships are usually very tall and can carry a large number of combatants in order to gain an advantage and defeat the opponent during boarding battles.
During this period, the most typical ship types were Clark ships and Spanish galleons.
However, this situation has gradually changed in recent decades, because warships of various navies have begun to be generally equipped with large-caliber naval guns. At the same time, naval guns have become more and more powerful, so naval guns have gradually emerged as the mainstay.
Weapons of the battleship.
However, it is worth noting that even though ships of various navies have begun to install more artillery and have begun to use lower decks to deploy artillery, allowing dozens or even hundreds of artillery to be deployed on a warship, the ship type is still generally
Mainly Clark ships and Spanish galleons.
At the same time, these ship types still have some inherent problems. For example, the superstructure is too tall, and the deployment of a large number of artillery can lead to an unstable center of gravity.
At the same time, the hull will still retain a large amount of tonnage for transporting cargo and carrying people.
The most typical one is undoubtedly the contemporary Spanish global fleet. The Spanish treasure ship fleet is almost all large ships. It is common to have a tonnage of over a thousand. They are equipped with more guns, more personnel, and a larger cargo capacity.
It is also extremely huge.
However, both the armed Spanish galleon and the Clark ship were actually transitioned from merchant ships, and they were not designed as warships themselves.
At the same time, Galenic ships began to appear in Spain. Relatively speaking, Galenic ships had lower bows and sterns, a slender length-to-width ratio, and could deploy more naval guns for combat.
However, what is interesting is that this type of Galen ship, which first appeared in Spain, has not been developed in Spain so far. On the contrary, after this type of ship appeared as an armed merchant ship on the coast of East Asia, it was accepted by the Navy of the Tang Dynasty, and then the Tang Dynasty
The Imperial Navy referred to the Galen ship and some designs of traditional Chinese ships, and finally designed a new generation of Tang ships.
To put it bluntly, the Tang Ship of the Tang Empire was the first warship in human history designed specifically for artillery warfare on the ocean. From the beginning of its design, it was not considered to transport cargo or engage in boarding battles.
From its inception, it was specially designed for ocean-going maritime operations.
In the past ten years, as Tang Ships gradually spread to Europe through the Portuguese, Europeans, especially the Portuguese, began to directly build Tang Ships for use as warships. I heard that England and other countries also imitated Tang Ships and Galenic Ships.
Ship, design and build a new generation of Galen-type battleships.
Well, here we have to focus on the Spaniards. Although they have also noticed the development of battleships, they still believe that the gunnery capabilities of battleships are important, but if they want to completely defeat the enemy, they still need to rely on side battles.
Therefore, they will still deploy a large number of combat troops in the fleet, especially heavy armored sword and shield troops.
Therefore, although the Spanish warship development in the past ten years has also improved, it is not as extreme as the Tang Empire, the Portuguese or even England and other countries.
This is not to say that the Spaniards do not develop a fleet. In fact, they are still very enthusiastic about developing a navy. It is just that their tactical concepts are different from those of the Tang Empire, the Portuguese, and England.
This different tactical concept was vividly reflected in the naval battle of Graveline in the original time and space.
The Spanish Armada consisted of about 130 warships, equipped with about 3,000 naval guns, and a crew of more than 8,000 people. However, they also carried more than 20,000 additional infantry.
As for the English, their fleet is about a hundred ships, and there are more than 9,000 combat personnel in the fleet, but these more than 9,000 people are all sailors. In addition, most of the artillery equipped in the English fleet are long-barreled.
The naval gun has an advantage in range. At the same time, the ships are more flexible and more suitable for maritime operations.
The result of this battle is naturally clear. It ended with the disastrous defeat of the Spanish Armada. Although in this naval battle, in a real sea battle, the British only managed to sink five Spanish warships. The Spanish Armada was truly defeated.
It was destroyed by violent storms and thick fog in the North Sea, causing the loss of more than half of its fleet.
But no matter what, the impact of this naval battle was huge, and it even ushered in a new era of naval warfare. Later, even the Spanish began to pay attention to artillery warfare, and quickly equipped a large number of long-barreled naval guns.
, to resist the British pirate ships.
At the same time, what is even more noteworthy is that in this naval battle, both sides had more than a hundred warships, but in fact there were not so many real professional warships. The Armada only had twenty-eight ships, and the Anglo-Dutch Allied Forces had three warships.
There are only fourteen ships, and the rest are all armed merchant ships.
From this we can know that in fact, there are not many professional warships in the navies of various contemporary countries, and even fewer of them have a tonnage of more than 1,000 tons.
This is true whether it is the Tang Empire or Spain, or the Portuguese, England and other countries.
Not even talking about professional battleships, even if the scope is expanded to include battleships with a tonnage of more than a thousand tons, including armed merchant ships, there are not many.
This is also the reason why when the nine battleships of the Tang Navy began to take action, the Portuguese paid attention and even panic.
On many forts on land, the Portuguese were preparing nervously for war, trying to protect the port with shore defense artillery. However, the Portuguese fleet in the port was in some chaos at this critical moment.
Because at this time, some ships also raised their sails and began to slowly leave the port and head out of the port. Among the Portuguese fleets that rushed out, there was a battleship, but most of them were ordinary armed merchant ships.
However, the other ships in the port still stayed in place. Through the telescope, they could be seen hurriedly loading and unloading naval guns.
It was obvious that there were differences within the Portuguese fleet. Some chose to stay in the port and withdraw their sailors and guns to the city to defend the city, while others took the initiative to intercept the Tang navy on principle.
But no matter how the Portuguese acted, they could no longer stop the Tang Navy's attack!
Chen Pengming personally led the main fleet all the way forward, and used steam engine auxiliary power so that the fleet's navigation did not rely too much on the wind direction, thereby obtaining better heading and shooting angles.
Not long after, the rumble of cannons rang out in the port of Malacca!
It’s not the sound of a few or dozens of artillery pieces firing, but the sound of hundreds or even thousands of artillery pieces firing intensively!