Chapter 708: Failure to block
Among the eighteen families, Zheng Zhilong is the leader, and the other seventeen families are ranked in order according to their strength. He Bin and Guo Huaiyi, who defected to Taiyuan Port, were the last two in the rankings, while Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi were also relatively low in the seats and did not have much say in the Eighteen Zhi. . Li Kuiqi knew that he could not resist the mission assigned by Zheng Zhilong, but at this juncture he still tried his best to gain some benefits for himself.
The two were ordered to leave, but when they were leaving, Liu Xiang pulled Li Kuiqi and whispered: "If the battle situation is unfavorable, it is important to evacuate as soon as possible to save your life!"
Li Kuiqi looked at Liu Xiang and nodded slowly. He also understood why Liu Xiang gave such a reminder. After all, the two of them would join forces to face the enemy. If the steps were not consistent, trouble would likely occur. Even if you can't fight and want to escape, you have to synchronize as much as possible, otherwise your companions may be trapped on the battlefield and unable to escape.
The two returned to the camp and ordered their troops and generals. However, both Penghu Island and Magong Port were in chaos at this time, and their process of assembling troops was not smooth. Half an hour later, they boarded the ship and set out to sea, but they were unable to gather the hundred-ship fleet required by Zheng Zhilong.
Zheng Zhilong watched the two people's fleet slowly sailing away from the shore on the pier, and ordered without expression: "Let the team boarding the ship speed up. Individuals are not allowed to carry large items, and don't carry jars and jars of things onto the ship." ! ”
When he first decided on the relocation plan, Zheng Zhilong still hoped to scrape the ground and take away everything he could from Penghu, so that he could settle down in the new place more quickly. But the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse, and the entire relocation plan had to be advanced several days, and the time available for boarding the ship was also greatly shortened. In order to ensure that the evacuation of the large forces was completed before the arrival of the enemy fleet, Zheng Zhilong could only order to give up part of the baggage, targeting those guys who had to ship all the wardrobes, rice boxes, bed boards and toilets away. If these people were allowed to slowly carry the large items to the ship, I'm afraid it wouldn't be enough for another three days.
Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi hurriedly hurriedly caught up with the leading fleet of the coalition about thirty nautical miles west of Magong Port. The leading fleet composed of four hundred-material clippers did not undertake the task of maritime combat, so after discovering the pirate fleet leaving the port to attack, it quickly slowed down and at the same time issued a firework warning to inform the large forces behind.
"It seems that the Eighteen Zhi haven't had time to evacuate them all."
After receiving the feedback from the front, Wang Tom said to Yan Chujie and Qian Tiandun who were also on the flagship: "They actually sent a fleet to attack us. There are only two possibilities. One is that Zheng Zhilong has gone crazy, and the other is that he is trying to fight for us." Their retreat buys time ”
Judging from the one-sided record of the Haihan militia in past battles, Shibazhi's courage to dare to face Haihan in a head-on confrontation at sea should have long since disappeared. After the two battles on Nanri Island last year, Shibazhi has obviously realized the huge gap between the two sides in terms of maritime armed forces, and has never sent a fleet to fight along the coast of Fujian again. As long as Zheng Zhilong is not crazy, he should be very aware of how slim the possibility of defeating the Haihan fleet at sea is.
"It's good to warm us up. How many ships have arrived from Shibazhi?" Yan Chujie not only didn't feel nervous at all when he heard the news, but he was even more excited.
"Hundreds of them. However, the number of large ships with more than 400 materials is at most one-tenth, and they will not pose much of a threat to us." Wang Tom said easily: "If everything goes well, the battle can be resolved in about an hour." .”
Tom Wang's tone was very relaxed, but he did not slack off when commanding the battle. He asked the sailors to hoist the flag on the main mast of the "Majesty", and asked the troop transport and supply ships to slow down, with his own fleet in the center, and the other two fleets led by Steven Stone and Roger on the left and right. The two wings formed an arc-shaped array towards the direction of the Shibazhi fleet. The warships of the Ming army followed closely behind, responsible for checking for leaks and filling vacancies on the battlefield, and helping to clean up the fish that slipped through the net.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the fleets of both sides met at sea. Although the number of ships deployed by Shibazhi is quite large, in terms of displacement, there is a big gap compared to the Haihan fleet. Especially compared with the size of the "Dignity Class" warship, the so-called big ship here in Shibazhi also seems very small. The battle hasn't even started yet, but Shibazhi has already lost one in terms of momentum alone.
The Haihan fleet skillfully grabbed the T-head to form a formation, and then used its broadside naval guns to give the Shibazhi fleet a fierce bombardment. At a distance of two hundred meters, Shibazhi basically had no power to fight back and could only passively withstand the Haihan artillery fire. Some of the sailboats with smaller hulls were seriously damaged after withstanding this round of shelling, and had lost the ability to continue fighting.
The pre-war communication between Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi obviously did not play a very good role. After the first round of confrontation, some damaged ships were already trying to change direction and leave the battlefield. However, this attempt seemed a bit futile in front of the Haihan fleet, which had an obvious advantage in speed. The three Haihan fleets began to separate and cut the Shibazhi fleet in a line formation, and the priority was to attack the pirate ships trying to escape from the battlefield. .
Although some pirate ships bravely rushed to the Haihan warship and tried to complete the attack by jumping gangs or setting fire after getting close, under the fierce naval gunfire, there was basically no chance of success in such an attempt. sex. Occasionally, one or two ships can get close. Before the sailors can climb up the high side of the ship, a row of gun barrels have been stretched out from above, shooting at the targets on the deck of the pirate ship from a high position. Pirate sailors who don't even have leather armor have basically zero resistance to this kind of attack. Those who react quickly may be able to crawl into the cabin to escape. The others can only serve as living targets for the Haihan sailors to practice shooting. .
Only half an hour after the war started, Shibazhi's side had basically lost the will to fight. Although only about a quarter of the ships lost the ability to continue fighting, Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi believed that there was no practical significance in continuing the fight and ordered a retreat.
However, the flagship they were on had been identified by Haihan, and it was not that easy to escape from the battlefield. "Prestige Signal" and "Prestige" each focused on a target and pursued it at full speed. In this era, there was no sailboat that could escape the pursuit of the Haihan steam battleship by speed. Therefore, Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi soon discovered that their plan could not keep up with the changes in the battlefield. There is no escape.
Liu Xiang's boat was intercepted first after two masts were broken. However, the people on the boat obviously did not intend to surrender, and still tried to use cannons, bows and arrows, blunderbuss and other weapons to attack the approaching "threat signal". resistance. However, after two rounds of grape bullets swept across the deck, the surviving people on the boat chose to surrender. After all, they watched their companions being torn into pieces by the flying grape bullets. The impact was enough to make people lose the courage to continue fighting. Then the sailors who boarded the ship found a pale Liu Xiang in the cabin. The guy was not injured at all. It was just fright and despair that made his mood a little unstable.
Li Kuiqi, the other leader of the Eighteen Zhizhi, was obviously a bit worse off. He caught up with the "Wei Feng" and used the 48-pound cannon on the bow of the ship to hit its tail. The original goal was to destroy its tail rudder. In order to make it lose its sailing ability, this shot directly penetrated the stern of the ship and blasted into the cabin, blasting Li Kuiqi into a ball of flesh and blood. The sailors who then boarded the ship to search could only confirm the identity of this unlucky guy from the waistband found on the body fragments.
The two flagships leading the team were captured, and the remaining ships had no intention of fighting anymore and scattered for their lives. Wang Tom was worried about the business in Penghu and did not let his troops continue to pursue the escaping pirate ship.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, Zheng Zhilong had received the battle report that the attack had failed. This news actually did not exceed his expectations, but what made him a little disappointed was that Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi not only failed to effectively prevent the enemy fleet from advancing, but they could not even escape themselves. As a result, excluding Zheng Zhihu who died in the battle, and He Bin and Guo Huaiyi who defected, the Eighteen Zhizhi has lost five leaders. Even if it can save the group, it will probably only be renamed "Thirteenth Zhi" in the future.
As the enemy fleet approaches, the time left for Shibazhi to evacuate Penghu has also entered a countdown. However, from the time Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi led their troops to attack until the news of the defeat came back, the number of people who boarded the ship and left Magong Port was only a few thousand, which was still a large gap from the goal of evacuating all personnel.
"Pass my order. The team originally arranged to stay on the island should immediately board the ship and leave the port to intercept the enemy!" Zheng Zhilong had no choice but to move out the death squads from the bottom of the box.
According to the prior plan, Shibazhi would leave an armed force of 2,000 people on the island to deal with the enemy, buying more time for the large force to escape. Half of the two thousand people were Zheng Zhilong's private army, and the other half were recruited by several companies drawn by lot. Since this force wants to stay and fight the enemy to the end, it naturally has to be prepared to die in battle. But in order to be able to block the menacing enemy fleet, Zheng Zhilong can only use this force in advance now.
Before the troops set off, Zheng Zhilong had someone put out a silver box and gave five taels of silver to each participant. If they could come back alive, they would also receive the other half of the equivalent reward. However, most of the pirates who received the money did not have any relaxed expressions, because they also knew that the chance of returning alive after leaving with good skills was slim.
The second blocking fleet met the coalition fleet ten nautical miles west of Magong Port. What is different from the first blocking fleet that was quickly destroyed is that this fleet has dispatched almost all the existing warships of Shibazhi, and the commander of this fleet is also Zheng Zhilong's clansman Zheng Zhiwan. The will to fight is much stronger than the first fleet that was forced into battle.
Under the artillery fire of the Haihan warship, this fleet did not collapse in one blow again. Instead, it rushed up with the artillery fire and fought with ten or more warships attacking one target.
It has to be said that although this kind of strategy is costly, it does still have a certain effect. Not long after the war started, an "exploration-class" warship, the Swimming Crab, failed to turn in time and was directly attacked by five pirate ships. Although the decks of one of the ships were quickly cleared with grapeshot, several other pirate ships still managed to board the ship.
The shouting pirates brandished steel knives and harpoons, stepped on the side of the ship and jumped to the deck of the "Swimming Crab". However, under the greeting of volleys of guns, only three or four out of ten pirates were able to successfully cross the distance between the two sides. The other unlucky ones were basically shot and fell into the sea.
What made the pirates feel very depressed was that even if they successfully boarded the deck of the enemy warship, they still could not gain any advantage in hand-to-hand combat. These Haihan sailors wearing indigo short shirts and dark skin are actually all equipped with a kind of firecracker with a shining spear tip at the front. There will be at least two to three rounds of volleys during the slightest battle break, and then they will use their hands to He fought with a firecracker that was like a short spear. Although some brave pirates could injure their opponents with the weapons in their hands, they would usually be attacked immediately by three or four short spears. And the power of this thing is no less than that of a fire blunderbuss. Once it is stabbed, it will often fall to the ground immediately.
The muskets currently used by the Haihan Navy are actually the same model as those of the Annan Militia. They are short-barreled large-caliber flintlock guns equipped with a one-foot-two-inch bayonet. This short-barreled musket was originally designed to be suitable for use in relatively narrow combat spaces, and to cover close-range areas by firing large-caliber shotguns. It is very suitable in situations such as sea boarding battles. A squad of sailors fires a salvo. , the firepower can almost cover one side of the ship.
Although the pirates jumped on board the Swimming Crab one after another, the results they achieved were very limited. More than 80% of the fallen bodies on the deck were from Shibazhi.
The time left for the pirates was not long. Just a moment later, the other two "Exploration-class" warships serving as frigates quickly approached the "Swiss Crab", and nearly ten artillery pieces opened fire at a distance of less than 20 meters. These pirate ships carried out bombardment.
The other pirate ships that tried to intercept the "Dignity-class" battleships ended up even more miserable, because the "Dignity-class" warships had a small-caliber gun deck on the upper deck and a large-caliber lower deck, and the ship's side was much higher than the pirate ship. After the warships of both sides approached, the lower artillery deck happened to be facing the deck of the pirate ship. A cannonball passed by like a wind and a cloud, tearing the ship plank into pieces together with the pirates, and forcibly tore a large gap across the hull of the pirate ship. Kouzi.
(End of chapter)