On the Lianzhou, Ouyang Gui and a group of mobile fleet staff boarded the command platform, and then used the monocular binoculars in their hands to look at the Ming Navy fleet that was leaving the port one after another.
"The overall number of the Ming Navy's navy is basically consistent with the intelligence. There are about 150 ships. However, there are more large ships of over 100 tons than the intelligence estimated. They are not about 20 ships as we thought before.
But it has reached thirty ships!”
The chief of staff on the side was observing the situation with a larger and longer high-power telescope while talking about the situation ahead: "On their left and right wings, there are a large number of small boats heading towards us quickly. They should be their fireships. The left wing
There are thirty ships on the right wing and forty ships on the right wing."
"Fire ship offensive? It's the same old thing!" Ouyang Gui naturally saw the general situation through the telescope. Although the power of the telescope in his hand was not that high, he could still see clearly at a general glance.
"Let the First Squadron and the Third Squadron go forward and destroy their fireships first. Keep a distance and don't get entangled by their fireships!" Ouyang Gui did not hesitate at all and quickly gave the order.
: "Send the order to the Second Squadron and the Fourth Squadron behind to keep their distance!"
If the warships in his hands are still the same as before, only armed with modified civilian ships, and he is still a little afraid of the large-scale fireship offensive commonly used by the Ming army, then he now has nine battleships in his hands.
We are no longer afraid of the Ming army’s fire ship offensive!
Because the nine capital ships in his hands are cruisers and frigates, which are inherently good at speed and maneuverability, especially frigates, which are more flexible!
If there was a real competition for speed, these small boats in the hands of the Ming army might not be able to catch up!
In the sea, small boats do not necessarily mean fast speeds. At most, they just need to be more flexible when turning around.
With nine capital ships as the core, as long as we are careful, it is impossible to say that we can annihilate too many of these small arson boats of the Ming army, but we can still avoid them and disrupt their charge formation.
What's more, this time he went to sea to fight, his fleet also brought howitzers, which are even more powerful weapons for attacking ships!
Since the Army took the lead in using 24-pound and 48-pound short-barreled howitzers on a large scale for siege operations, the Navy naturally did not lag behind others and soon moved the short-barreled howitzers directly to these nine ships.
On the battleship.
Moreover, during the test, these howitzers were more effective than cannons in attacking ships. They were not only able to kill a large number of enemy personnel, but also destroy their sails.
After Ouyang Gui's order was issued, the main fleet began to move forward, and the frigate at the front, the Liping frigate, took the lead, with all sails spread out, and headed straight through the wind and waves.
The ships in the rear also followed the sails and moved forward quickly!
A quarter of an hour later, Ouyang Gui ordered to turn 40 degrees to the right and began to seize the upper hand!
How to effectively avoid the attack of fire ships? The simplest and most effective way is to seize the windward position, because although the hard sailing ship can only sail against the wind, and the small boat can paddle forward, it is still unable to compare with the downwind.
What's more, this is a vast sea, and warships can basically sail in any direction that is beneficial to them without fear of hitting a rock or directly hitting a beach.
After several battleships of the main fleet made a large turning mark on the sea, the Ming army boats in front obviously wanted to follow suit, but the wind direction at this time was southerly.
After the battleships of the Tang Navy turned around, although there was a certain amount of headwind, the impact was not too great. However, after the ships of the Ming Army turned around, there was a headwind.
As a result, the Ming army sailors on these small boats began to paddle forward directly.
The distance between the two sides continued to get closer. An hour later, the frigate at the front was already almost 500 meters away from the Ming army's boat.
At this time, the gunnery chief on the ship immediately ordered: "Get ready for each gun!"
At this time, the gunners of each cannon quickly began to load the arson bomb. Well, it was actually a solid cannonball that burned red!
If these days' cannons want to deal with fireships, the best way is to use arson bombs.
Because small boats that serve as fire ships are usually loaded with a large amount of flammable items. Once this extremely flammable material is ignited, the entire ship will turn into a huge fire ship, and then the sailors will dive into the water to let the fire ship
Relying on inertia and continuing to rush forward.
But if these fire ships are ignited in advance, they can be forced to abandon the ship before entering the position!
Under such circumstances, these fire ships naturally pose little threat!
In addition to the arson bombs on the cannon, the frigate also has a 48-pound howitzer and three 24-pound howitzers, each of which is ready to launch grenades at any time.
Five hundred meters, four hundred meters, three hundred and fifty meters. At this distance, it is basically impossible to get closer. If you get closer, you may be intercepted and surrounded by their fire ships.
"fire!"
So at this time, the gunnery chief on the Liping also ordered the cannon to be fired!
As the order was issued, the artillery groups that had been prepared fired one after another. In an instant, clouds of flames and white smoke were sprayed out from the deck of the Liping, and then the white smoke was blown away by the sea breeze.
Amidst the flames and thick smoke, more than a dozen artillery shells flew towards the Ming army arson ship closest to the Liping!
At such a close distance, and it was a concentrated fire, and it was aimed so long in advance, the hit rate was quite impressive. An arson bomb fell into the Ming army's fire ship on the spot, and an instant later
, this fire ship emitted billowing smoke, and then a huge fire!
This Ming army's fire ship had already caught fire in advance before it even entered its position.
Many sailors of the Ming army jumped into the sea to escape, abandoning the fire ship that was already bursting with flames. Of course, the fire ship did not stop, but continued to move forward. However, it lost control and the ship also
It's just a floating target!
The subsequent Tang Dynasty warships ignored this fire ship, but directed their firepower at other subsequent fire ships!
As more and more battleships opened fire, the Ming army's fireships on the sea were ignited one after another in advance. Of course, some of the Ming army's fireships entered a distance of one or two hundred meters, and then
It ignited on its own and tried to ram it, but it was quickly smashed to pieces by the cannons on the battleship and sank.
Although it is difficult for the naval guns of these days to completely sink large ships of several hundred tons, the killing effect on these small ships of only a few tons or ten tons is still very good.
This is a massacre!
The nine battleships used powerful firepower and more than a hundred artillery pieces to sweep across the Ming army's fireships on the right front. However, in the process, the Ming army's fireships were never able to catch up with the main force of the Tang Navy.
fleet, let alone a successful collision.
Facts have once again proven that fire ships can only have a relatively good effect on targets with low mobility or simply stationary targets. If it is on a battlefield in the vast ocean, its usefulness can basically be ignored.
However, in small places such as ports and inland rivers, fireships still play a certain role. However, even so, in the modern naval battles in history, most of these fireships rushed out of the river failed to achieve any practical results.
The Folangji people once encountered indigenous fireboats rushing out of the river in Malacca, but they were still intercepted by the Folangji people's naval gun fire and the auxiliary boats in the fleet.
And this is also the reason why in the battle between fleets in the Age of Discovery, arson ships could be reduced to a supporting role, but could not become a decisive force.
In the era of sailing battleships, naval guns still relied on guns. Whoever had more guns and bigger guns would be able to gain a tactical advantage!
After watching his own fleet successfully annihilate nearly half of the fire ships, and at the same time avoid the remaining half of the fire ships, Ouyang Gui showed a dark color with satisfaction. After this battle, I am afraid that the pseudo-Ming navy will
I will no longer wish to use fire attack tactics in the vast sea.
At this time, the remaining half of the Ming military ships also knew that nothing could be done and began to retreat. Moreover, even if they wanted to catch up, they could not catch up. Their frigates with all sails open can reach a speed of thirteen knots in a tailwind.
Faster than the Ming army’s boats!
However, although the Ming army's fireships returned without success, there were still seventy or eighty warships left by the Ming army, some of which were dozens of tons, and some were one or two hundred tons. Most of them were Fu ships, and Guangzhou
There are also boats and sand boats.
Just looking at this number, it is much more warships than the mobile fleet of the Tang Dynasty Navy. But if victory can be achieved with a large number, then Ouyang Gui will not bring the mobile fleet to fight.
This time the battle was still dominated by nine capital ships from the first squadron and the third squadron. Seven or eight armed merchant ships in the mobile fleet that did not carry ground combat troops also stepped forward to share the pressure.
.
The battle begins again!
The battle between the two sides was also a bit strange. The Tang navy fired artillery while continuing to maintain a fighting distance of about three hundred meters, while the Ming army wanted to rush forward.
This was naturally not because the Tang Navy was timid and did not dare to get close to fight, but because the Datang Navy had an almost absolute naval gun advantage, so it wanted to use naval guns to destroy its opponents.
As for the Ming Army, they don't have many artillery, and many of them are firearms such as Folang machine cannons and bowl-mouth cannons that can only kill people at close range. However, I'm sorry, they don't have such big weapons as cannons.
How many!
So they want to get close to fight in close combat, or even rush over directly to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
The sound of cannons on the sea lasted for more than two hours, and the two sides fought from noon to the afternoon. The winner was finally decided, and the result was somewhat unexpected!