Chapter 871 Encounter at Sea
Zhujiajian Island is located on the southeast side of Zhoushan Island, separated by less than one nautical mile. This large island of more than 70 square kilometers is the fifth largest island in the Zhoushan Islands. Together with Mount Putuo to the north, it forms the east side of Zhoushan Island. barrier. In later generations, Zhujiajian Island was a famous tourist attraction, but at this time, the only residents on the island were fishermen and pirates, and no one came here specifically to enjoy the scenery and vacation. However, there are also some people who come here not for fishing or tourism, but to seize control of this place.
On May 4, the Haihan Fleet approached Zhujiajian Island and encountered the so-called "East China Sea Coalition Forces" organized by the Zhoushan Boat Gang in the waters south of the island. Although this miscellaneous army was hastily organized under Wang Jialin's organization, its scale is not small. The fleet that appeared in the waters off Zhujiajian Island alone consisted of forty or fifty sailing ships, including several large ships worth 400 yuan.
The participating forces on Haihan's side consisted of twelve exploration-class and four expedition-class warships. Other reconnaissance and supply ships immediately withdrew to the periphery after discovering the enemy ships, and combat ships came forward to engage in the battle.
Shi Diwen is still dealing with the renovation of the temporary military port on Liuheng Island. The person commanding this operation is his subordinate Wu Sen, a former South Vietnamese naval officer. Wu Sen surrendered to Hai Han after the Battle of Hue in 1629. In the same year, he was naturalized and entered Hai Han Navy to serve. During these four years, Wu Sen received systematic training and multiple opportunities to enter the Victory Port Military Academy for further study. He also participated in many combat missions from 1630 to the present, and has become one of the generals of the Haihan Navy. In this expedition to Zhejiang, Wu Sen served as the second-in-command of the Haihan Fleet. When Shi Diwen and the flagship Enterprise did not participate in the battle, he was responsible for commanding the operation and had the right to fire independently. His command authority was compared to Xu Yuzhuo, who participated in the operation on behalf of the Fujian Ming Army, was even taller.
For the soldiers who entered the navy after 1630, Wu Sen's Annan origin did not pose any problem, because more and more non-Ming and even non-Han soldiers joined the Haihan militia. In the consciousness education that recruits of the Haihan Militia receive, their past origins are not important; their common identity of Haihan is the object of their allegiance. The army's invincible and impressive achievements, extremely high welfare benefits, and the high status of Haihan soldiers in this social system have attracted a large number of young immigrants to voluntarily sign up to join the army.
In this expedition to Zhejiang, more than three-quarters of the naval members were recruited after 1630, and there were even a small number of recruits who had only joined the army last year and had been in the army for less than a year. Most of those who enlisted before 1630 and remained in the army had been promoted to officers at various levels. Currently, except for the majesty-class flagships in each fleet, which are still directly commanded by time-travelers, all other classes of warships are in charge of naturalized officers.
After observing the number of the opponent's ships, Wu Sen was not careless and immediately ordered the non-combat ships to evacuate the fighting sea area, while the remaining combat ships adjusted their formation and began to seize the upper wind position. The Haihan fleet's combat method is to use the mobility of the ships to seize a favorable position, cut the enemy fleet into formations, and use its own powerful artillery fire to attack the enemy ships.
For the maritime armed forces in the Far East that still use traditional gang-hopping tactics as their main attack method, opponents like Haihan are simply a nightmare. The entire battle is almost in a passive state of being beaten, and they can hardly even get close to the opponent's ship within three seconds. There is no chance within ten meters. Even the Dutch and Spanish, who also use artillery as their main means of attack, are not as good at mastering this method of combat as Haihan. Coupled with the performance gap between weapons and ships, they have both been defeated in naval battles. Haihan Fleet's men.
These armed ships of Zhejiang pirates are not much different from those of Fujian Shibazhi. They are also relatively traditional civilian ships and military ships. The better ones can be equipped with some firecrackers and earthen cannons, while the worse ones can only be carried by the sailors carrying cold guns. Weapons are waiting for the opportunity to jump into gangs. It's okay for such an armed ship to rob ordinary civilian and merchant ships, but if it is to be used as a warship on the battlefield and face a powerful opponent like Haihan, it is obviously not enough.
The Haihan fleet traveled from the east side to the west. After a round of bombardment on the "East China Sea Alliance" fleet, it immediately turned north and took the opponent's retreat. Most of these pirate ships are just ordinary Fuchuan Guangzhou ships. Their steering flexibility is indeed far inferior to that of the Haihan warship. The most terrible thing is that their command system is not clear, which leads some ships to want to continue to move forward and bite them. At the tail of the Haihan fleet, another group of ships wanted to turn around to avoid being taken back by their opponents, and it was impossible to form a unified action.
When Wu Sen saw that the opponent's fleet was already mobilized by him, it would be easy to deal with it. As long as the Haihan warship performs normally, it will be enough to make the opponent spin around on the sea. The unit under his command has far more experience in group combat at sea than these civilian armed forces. He doesn't even need to issue detailed orders to deal with this kind of situation. The captains under his command know what to do.
The Haihan fleet began to turn in a clockwise direction, but did not stop after taking the opponent's back path, but continued to circle around the outside of the opponent's fleet. Although the Haihan fleet was on the periphery, because the performance and speed of the ships were much better than the other side, the "East China Sea Alliance" actually had nothing to do with Haihan. It was not until they followed them around that the pirates realized that they were Passivity cannot continue any longer.
However, the inferior performance of the ships made it impossible for the pirates to keep up with the pace of the Haihan fleet. During this millstone-like circular movement, seven or eight ships were lost due to water in the cabin and broken masts after being shot. The ability to continue fighting. The only trouble the pirates can cause to the Haihan warship is to use ignited arrows to shoot the Haihan warship from the ship. Without being able to join forces, they can only hope to ignite the opponent's ship with igniting objects. sail.
However, the possibility of this tactic being effective is slim. The Haihan warship has always maintained a relatively safe fighting distance. Coupled with the wind and waves on the sea, the route and landing point of the light arrow after it leaves the string are almost completely unpredictable. , on the contrary, it will be easier to attract artillery fire from the opponent - the primary target of the Haihan warship's bombardment is not necessarily the one closest to itself, but those enemy ships that still have the strength to launch a counterattack. Kill these resisters first. After that, slowly deal with the remaining opponents. This naval battle started in the afternoon. After an hour and a half, six ships of the "East China Sea Alliance" had capsized and capsized. About one-third of the ships had to withdraw from the battle. More than half of the ships suffered varying degrees of damage. There are only twenty-three out of ten ships left that are completely undamaged and can continue to fight.
On the Haihan Fleet side, the battle damage to personnel and ships was very slight. The only three dead personnel appeared on an exploration-class warship. This was caused by an accidental explosion of a cannon, not by the pirates. caused by the counterattack. Although the sporadic rockets fired from the pirate ships did hit the target, they did not successfully ignite the sails on the Haihan warship. As for the shooting of earth cannons and bird cannons, in addition to attracting more dense shells, It did not pose a substantial threat to the Haihan fleet.
Seeing that they were no longer able to fight anymore, the pirates had no choice but to withdraw from the battlefield. However, due to their lack of unified command and the fact that they were suppressed too much in the previous battle, the retreat completely turned into an escape, and everyone scrambled to escape. During the transfer, no one considered the issue of the queen at all. Several seriously damaged ships actually collided with each other due to steering failure, and the scene was very chaotic.
Wu Sen had been paying attention to the surrounding sea during the battle, but his opponent did not seem to deploy an ambush in this sea area. Until the fleet was scattered and retreated, no one came to reinforce it.
"Send my order and land as planned!" Wu Sen looked at the sky and gave the order decisively. Although this naval battle delayed the original landing time by two hours, Wu Sen believed that the other party was unlikely to make targeted arrangements for the landing in advance. It's not that he doubts the opponent's will to fight, but the coastline of Zhujiajian Island is too long and there are many harbors suitable for landing. It is impossible to defend all the southeast, northwest and northwest. The most important thing is that the opponent is not familiar with the Haihan Militia's landing tactics at all. Even if there are some manpower on the island, it will be difficult to organize a decent defense line.
The landing point chosen by the Haihan fleet is located on a relatively flat beach on the west coast of Zhujiajian Island. Although the water depth here is shallow and cannot allow the Haihan warship with a deeper draft to directly dock, the advantage is that the terrain is relatively smooth. It is open, and you can clearly see the situation of a large area on the shore from the boat, and judge whether there is an ambush.
The Anant War Camp was still in charge of the landing operations. The soldiers rowed small boats launched from the warships and approached the coast. Not to mention pirates, not even fishermen could be seen here. According to the information obtained before the war, there is a fishing village less than two miles away. However, let alone fishing boats, there is not even a fishing net hanging on the shore. Fishermen and fishing boats who want to come here should They have all evacuated in advance. But this doesn't matter to Haihan. The purpose of occupying this island is not to benefit the limited population on the island, but to block the sea channel from Zhoushan to the southeast.
The west side of Zhujiajian Island is adjacent to Zhoushan Island. By setting up a lookout post high on the shore, you can directly monitor the movements of the southeastern coast of Zhoushan Island, which is the famous Shenjiamen Fishing Port in later generations.
The place name Shenjiamen was first seen in the "Illustrated Book of Xuanhe's Envoy to Korea" written by Xu Jing of the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, he was sent to Korea as an envoy on the order of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, and it was from this place that he set out to sea. The book calls this place "a place where fishermen and woodcutter people live together in dozens of houses, among which they are given big names." There is also an explanation of the gate: "Most of the mountains in the sea are facing each other, and there are waterways through which boats can be passed. They are all called gates." ". However, in its original history, this place had to wait until more than two hundred years later during the Tongzhi and Guangxu years before it became prosperous. Now it is just an ordinary fishing port, not even the main wharf of the Zhoushan Boat Gang. However, as the southern islands gradually fell under the control of Haihan, this area has gathered a large number of remnants of bandits who escaped from the south. Wang Jialin was unwilling to allow these people to enter his core area, but he had to accept them for the sake of morality. These people were placed in Shenjiamen.
Perhaps the naval battle in the afternoon severely damaged the confidence of the "East China Sea Allied Forces". The Haihan Militia's landing operation on Zhujiajian Island was not interfered with at all. More than 300 soldiers successfully completed the landing in just over half an hour. . This landing force will not be stationed here permanently. Their task is only to clean up the island area and ensure that there are no large groups of pirates lurking here. After Zhujiajian Island is cleared, this place and the adjacent Dengbu Island will be used as the forward positions for the next attack on Zhoushan Island.
But these local forces in the East China Sea were obviously unwilling to give up. The next morning they organized a wave of counterattacks and sent nearly a thousand armed personnel to the island from the northern coast of Zhujiajian Island, hoping to stop the sea. Occupation of the island by Han militia groups.
But if you can't beat it at sea, the same result will happen if you switch to land. The soldiers of the special operations battalion used rifles to tell the pirates what a real army is. However, this time the pirate armed forces did not even have a chance to hurt their opponents. They were already beaten to death by bullets fired from a hundred meters away. Eight falls.
(End of chapter)