Dominate the Country

"Cai Qian!" A great pirate in the history of the original time and space. He traveled across the seas of Fujian and Zhejiang, killed Li Changgeng, the then admiral of the Zhejiang Navy, and many generals and deputy generals of the Qing Dynasty. He claimed to be a king and established a system. He was a powerful figure who raised the banner of "anti-Qing and restoration of Ming". Now he is the admiral of the American Fleet, a colleague of Li Changgeng, and the commander of the previous fleet.

"Guan Tianpei!" A hero in the first opium war in history, only slightly inferior to Lin Zexu, and his fame seems to be one level higher than Chen Huacheng who defended Wusong and the three generals who died in Dinghai.

Now he is the deputy commander of the advance fleet, the rising star of Chen Han's navy, and the part-time captain of the Egret. His deputy is Zhang Bao, a native of Xinhui, Guangdong Province, a man suspected by Chen Ming to be Zhang Baozai.

Zhang Baozai was a big pirate in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. His main activities were in the sea of ​​Guangdong Province. In history, he was implicated in the Six Flags Gang, the Red Flag Gang, Zheng Yi Sao and other figures. If you look closely, he is a member of the Zheng family. Zheng Yi, the leader of the Red Flag Gang, is the son of Zheng Lianchang, and the former leader Zheng Qi is the son of Zheng Lianfu. Zhang Baozai is Zheng Yi's godson. After Zheng Yi's death, he got involved with Zheng Yi Sao. Judging from the time, he is almost a contemporary of Cai Qian. But compared with Cai Qian, who claimed to be a king and raised the banner of "anti-Qing and restoration of Ming", he sank his ship and his whole family died without a burial place. Zhang Baozai chose to surrender after several victories over the Qing Navy and even the Portuguese fleet in Macau.

Chen Ming dared not guarantee that Zhang Baozai was Zhang Baozai, otherwise Zhang Baozai, who was only three years younger than Guan Tianpei, would not be a right lieutenant now, and he was just promoted.

But no matter whether Zhang Baozai was the Zhang Baozai in history, as long as he performed well in the next naval battle, Chen Ming would only promote him vigorously.

If a key person like Guan Tianpei did not perform well in the naval battle, Chen Ming would not really turn a blind eye and continue to push him to a higher position.

As for Cai Qian, he had already proven himself in the previous naval battle.

Chen Ming looked up to the southeast. If the time was right, the naval battle would have begun at this time.

Recalling the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage in his mind, Chen Ming was not sure at all. He was confident that Chen Han's naval warships were not inferior to those of the Europeans, but he was afraid of the stormy waves there.

Although history is created by people, it is obvious that natural storms can occasionally leave a strong mark in history books.

Just like Kublai Khan's two expeditions to Japan, just like the Dunkirk evacuation in the original time and space.

In 1274, Kublai Khan sent a Mongolian-Han-Korean coalition of more than 30,000 people to launch an offensive against Japan. The initial progress was very smooth, but an unexpected typhoon overturned more than 200 Yuan army ships overnight, and the Yuan army had to retreat back to the country on the remaining ships.

Seven years later, Kublai Khan gathered a stronger force - 140,000 troops and 1,400 ships, intending to conquer Japan in one go. But a typhoon that lasted for two days attacked the Yuan army fleet and destroyed most of the ships. The surviving Yuan army was simply unable to compete with the relatively better prepared Japanese.

In the early days of World War II, the Axis powers won victory after victory on various battlefields. The British and French coalition defense line almost collapsed under the rapid offensive of the German mechanized forces, and more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were trapped in the English Channel next to Dunkirk. The German army pressed forward step by step towards Dunkirk from the west, south and east, and the British and French coalition forces were in a critical situation.

Worse still, effective rescue was almost impossible - the German Air Force was far superior to the British Royal Navy, and the ships that came to rescue were bound to be destroyed. However, although the German tanks were only 20 miles away from Dunkirk, what Winston Churchill called "God's salvation" happened. The weather was good, with low clouds and heavy rain, and the German Air Force was forced to land. Even better, the sea was filled with thick fog, and the English Channel was unusually calm - all of this was quite beneficial for the Allied retreat.

Nature is so magical!

Chen Ming is now afraid that his fleet will encounter a big storm in the Strait of Magellan or the Drake Strait, and then Chen Han's decades of accumulated naval elite will be destroyed.

Chen Ming doesn't care about ships; but he cherishes people very much.

…

At the exit of a bay in the west of Estados Island, a sail slowly rose from the sea level, and then a row of sails rippled. Eleven main battleships of the European Drake Passage Fleet rushed out of the bay, facing the glow of the morning sun, one first-class sailing battleship, six third-class sailing battleships, four fourth-class sailing battleships, and four cruisers wandering on the outer sea.

The entire Drake Passage Fleet was all present, with sails spread out one by one, rushing straight to the west.

But the entire Drake Passage is in the western prevailing zone, where the currents and waves are all from west to east. Although this does not mean that sailing warships cannot run from east to west, in that case, this place and the Strait of Magellan in the north would not be able to become a sea route connecting the east and west coastlines of America. But the wind, waves and currents do affect the speed of the fleet!

If we take the Egret, which is now at full speed, as an example, the speed of the latter's three motor sailing ships is twice that of the European Drake Passage Fleet.

In naval battles, being able to run fast is always a very good attribute. If I can't beat you, I can still run away.

As the three motorboats, which were already at a speed of ten knots, rushed to the west end of Estados Island, the two sides actually met each other not long after. After all, the entire Estados Island is only one hundred miles. Ten knots is more than thirty-five miles per hour.

Guan Tianpei looked at his watch, it was 9:18 in the morning.

When the two warships on the sea discovered each other almost at the same time, Guan Tianpei and his men had only been an hour since they set off.

"Attention everyone! Attention everyone! Our ship is about to enter the enemy's range! The engineer, please wait for my order and prepare to speed up. All gun positions are ready-" Guan Tianpei shouted loudly.

At this time, he could clearly see all the enemies, and looking at the time, it was 9:35. Guan Tianpei was very nervous. This battle was of great significance to the country and himself. He clenched his fists tightly, the joints on his fingers were clenched white, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Attention, engineer! Our ship has entered the enemy's range. Listen to my orders. When I count to ten, immediately accelerate to the right and turn the rudder." This is the advantage of the motor sailboat. Although the speed will drop from the peak after turning directly, it will not fall to the bottom. Moreover, Chen Han's sailboats are now all hard sails, which are easier to adjust than soft rice and more adaptable to different wind directions. There is no need to pull the sails hard to increase the speed. Even if the sailboat suddenly changes direction, the pressure on the hull will increase suddenly due to the force of the sails, breaking the ropes and shaking the hull. That is not false. And what about the hard sailboat? Although the speed is not fast enough when going with the wind and water, that is, the force on the sail surface is small, but when the hull suddenly turns, the tearing force of the sail on the hull will naturally decrease. In addition, the angle can be adjusted quickly, and the side effects of hard sails are much smaller than those of soft rice.

To put it simply with two words, soft rice is extreme, and hard sails are moderate.

"Attention, front main gun, prepare to fire! One! Two! Three..." Guan Tianpei's eyes were fixed on an American warship that had entered the 2,000-meter interval. Every count seemed like a desperate roar.

There were no warships flying the British flag in the Drake Passage Fleet. The latter had all become lighthouses.

"Boom!" A huge splash rose from the sea surface 40 to 50 meters to the left of the Egret. At this time, Guan Tianpei had just shouted six. Through the telescope, he saw that the muzzle of the bow gun with a large caliber on the American warship opposite had not yet dissipated the blue smoke.

After the hexagonal gun became popular in large quantities, the European warships also replaced the old smoothbore guns, including the bow gun and the stern gun. What they lacked from Chen Han was the turret!

The enemy's artillery fire did not disrupt Guan Tianpei's rhythm. When he shouted ten, the entire Egret, like a flexible fish, pulled away from the enemy warship to the south.

"Fire!" Guan Tianpei roared.

The European cannons had already sounded, and Chen Han's cannons followed suit.

Although the accuracy of the hexagonal guns, whether it can hit a moving target at a distance of more than 1,500 meters depends on God's mood, but the distance within 2,000 meters is indeed within the range of the hexagonal guns.

The speed of the Egret is 10 knots/hour, which is equivalent to 18,000 meters per hour+, that is, it can run 300 meters per minute. In this era where the time to fire a shot is calculated in minutes, this is a very, very terrible speed, and even the lead time needs to be prepared before firing.

The sailing direction of Chen Han's motor sailboat is an 'S' curve. This makes it more difficult to hit. Of course, if the motor sailboat is exposed to the side of the enemy warship, dozens of hexagonal guns fire together, and the motor sailboat will be hit no matter how fast it runs.

Therefore, the current combat mode of motor sailing boats is to occupy the ‘T’ position as much as possible, take advantage of their speed, take advantage of their flexible steering, just like grinding, and grind the enemy bit by bit. If it is a one-on-one duel between the two warships.

Otherwise, as it is now, the enemy has 15 large and small warships, and there are only 3 of them. Using 3 motor sailing boats to ‘grind’ 15 sailing warships of different sizes is like a small black donkey dragging a ten-ton millstone.

Therefore, before the final naval battle, it is necessary to divide the enemy’s troops by using the strategy of splitting the petals of plum blossoms.

So the sound of the guns became louder, but no one hit each other. Both sides could not grasp the speed and movement rules of the countermeasures well. The distance between the two sides was more than 1,500 meters, and the huge first-class sailing battleship looked like just a fly. At this time, it was really inaccurate to fire the gun.

Before there was a breakthrough in optical instruments, firing the gun still depended on the eyes.

In the era of rockets, the distance between the two sides in naval battles was only more than 500 meters, not 1000 meters, or even 1500 meters. Smoothbore guns can also hit far away when they are not accurate. But if you do that, the safety of naval warships is safe, but the efficiency of war will be greatly reduced.

Even in the second half of this century, after the Battle of Lissa, the distance between the two sides was close to 900 meters, and the Italian warships opened fire first, but it was ineffective. The Austrian warships sailed to about 270 meters before returning fire. It can be said that apart from the bug of rockets, although the optical instruments fifty years later have made some progress compared to the current distance measurement technology, there has been no substantial progress.

So, firing at a distance of 1,500 meters + is completely a matter of luck.

Shells kept falling around the Egret and other three motor sailing ships. The closest one was only 20 to 30 meters away, and the splashes of shells falling into the sea were all splashed on the deck of the Egret. But the distance between the warships of both sides always hovered between 1,200 meters and 1,500 meters.

Whenever the European fleet approached, Guan Tianpei would command the three motor sailing ships led by the Egret to pull away. This battle lasted for more than an hour, and at least half of the 18 warships' side guns had not fired.

The time had already reached 11 o'clock.

The Egret was also hit by a bullet.

With a "bang", a big hole was smashed in the deck of the ship. Guan Tianpei and Zhang Bao felt that the warship under their feet trembled violently in the sound of the guns, and they also clearly heard the sound of the wooden shell breaking in the loud noise.

"Check, check immediately."

Guan Tianpei was not worried that the Egret would be penetrated by a single shot. No matter how powerful the hexagonal cannon was, it would not be so powerful. But the internal structure of the warship was complicated, and no one knew where the hexagonal shell would fall.

Another Swift was hit by two shells in succession on the side, and they were not far from the waterline. The nervous captain shouted at the brass pipe in the command desk: "Check the damage quickly, see if the ship's side is flooded?"

In addition, the front turret of the Egret was hit. At that time, Guan Tianpei was fully focused on the Swift. The latter had just sent a signal, and the speed of the ship did not slow down. Guan Tianpei was relieved in his heart, and then he heard a loud "boom--". Then Guan Tianpei felt a shock under his feet, and he was about to kneel on the ground. A cloud of green smoke rose from the main turret in front of the bow. Through the green smoke, Guan Tianpei could see the hexagonal shell embedded in the iron shell of the outer wall of the main turret with his naked eyes.

"Blocked it!?" More importantly, not long after the turret was hit, Guan Tianpei saw with his own eyes that the bow of the ship shook, and the cannon inside the turret roared again.

So lucky? Not only did it block the hexagonal shell, but the latter's impact on the outer wall of the turret did not cause the padding wood inside to break?

If the padding wood really broke, Guan Tianpei didn't think that the gunfire could be heard in the turret.

This is the rear door of the turret being opened from the inside, and two gunners with blood on their shoulders walked out first, and then a gunner who had closed his eyes was carried out. This is the killing caused by the hexagonal shell, one dead and two injured.

Guan Tianpei and Zhang Bao looked at each other, and they could see the smile and endless surprise in each other's eyes. Big surprise.

"Attention, engineer! Full right rudder, speed up to the southeast!"

When the time came to 11 o'clock, the three motor sailing ships were distributed in a triangle, wrapping the Drake Passage fleet. This is the formation that had to be changed during the uninterrupted sailing of the warships of both sides.

The Europeans continuously sent out warships to flank, surround, round, and detour in order to force the Chinese warships to open the "T" position. Guan Tianpei had encountered this situation before. But at that time, Guan Tianpei did not choose to "divide the troops". At that time, the battle had only lasted for less than an hour, and "forced division of troops" seemed too fake. But now, Guan Tianpei thinks it's okay.

After the Egret raised a row of red, green and yellow flags, the Swift was the first to hang a black flag. At the same time, the speed of the Swift slowed down a bit. At this moment, the Swift, located in the south-east position, began to turn right like last time, pulling away from the Europeans, overtaking outside, and rushing to the front to meet the Egret.

However, the speed of the Swift was slowing down imperceptibly. Twenty minutes later, when the Swift, which had overtaken the Egret, was less than five miles away, a Spanish warship to its north was only two miles away from it.