Chapter 1322 Confrontation at Sea
If Pinto and Luis had previously hoped that the encounter with the Haihan fleet here was just a coincidence, then the other party's quick reaction after the encounter had already indicated to the Spanish commander that this possibility was shattered. The Haihan fleet was obviously prepared, and it had made a posture of fighting the enemy from the moment it appeared, which made the two commanders completely put away their chances. Previously, the Haihan people sent so many fast sailing ships to conduct searches on the sea, and they were probably waiting for their own fleet to show up.
Before the two sides engaged in battle, the Haihan fleet had inadvertently revealed its advantage in ship maneuverability. It was obvious that the two sides turned around only a moment apart, but the Haihan fleet had already seized the positional advantage. Although Louis' Manila fleet responded quickly, it was only halfway through the turn that it realized that the Haihan people had consciously controlled their own route, and still maintained a large angle to cut in front of the Manila fleet. As a result, the side of the Haihan battleship was still firmly aligned with the Spanish battleship's bow direction, and the parallel advance situation that Louis expected would not occur.
Although Spanish warships are also equipped with artillery at the bow, due to limited space, the number is definitely not comparable to that on the sides. In such a large-scale naval battle, the firepower output intensity of the bow gun can only be better than nothing. . And the most terrible thing is that our fleet is in a single-column formation. In this rapid turning situation, the distance is widened and it is impossible to form a firepower network in the battle line. The shooting angles of the ships traveling at the front of the fleet are at a clear disadvantage. , it is very likely that it will withstand a round of intensive artillery fire from the Haihan Fleet.
It's just that if I want to adjust the overall direction of the fleet again, I am already a little overwhelmed. Moreover, the Haihan fleet is in the upper wind position at this time, so it is more convenient to adjust the direction than the Spanish fleet. Lewis gritted his teeth and decided to charge into this wave. He wants to bet on whether there will be loopholes in the opponent's fleet formation during the battle. If the distance between the ships is too large, the Manila fleet can also forcefully cut in from the middle and separate them. At that time, the Spanish fleet's advantage of having more ships will be able to be used in local areas where more ships are used to defeat fewer ships.
Of course, in this way, the ships at the front of the fleet may inevitably become victims of enemy firepower. However, Louis is also a decisive person and knows that the outcome of this battle may affect the overall war situation between the two countries. Without hesitating too much, a new combat order was issued immediately.
Tao Donglai doesn't have as many problems as the Spanish commander. He has full confidence in the performance of his own warships. If he can't withstand the first wave of firefights after seizing the upper hand, then everyone should stop going to sea to fight and stay tight. Just go back to Sanya Port and become a port guard.
The Haihan fleet took the lead and fired the first shot at the Spanish warship on the opposite side from a distance of about 300 meters. Although this exploratory shell fell into the water about 30 meters away from the target, even a series of The sound of cannons sounded, and several shells were fired from the side of the Haihan battleship, flying towards the Spanish fleet's pioneer "Juan" at the forefront.
The "Juan" belonging to the Manila Fleet is a three-masted Galen ship with a displacement of about 300 tons. The ship is equipped with more than 20 artillery pieces of various calibers. In fact, this ship is a private property belonging to the fleet commander Juan Luis. It usually engages in maritime trade throughout the Southeast Asia, but it is also temporarily recruited to join the armed fleet to perform military missions during wartime. This kind of thing is very common in the Far Eastern colonies of Western countries. For example, the maritime armed forces of Portugal and the Netherlands in the South China Sea basically belong to different businessmen and nobles, and they only come together during war. Such a fleet is more than enough to deal with the indigenous armed forces in the South China Sea, but it will still be a little inadequate when facing a professional army like the Haihan Navy.
The "Juan" can be considered a relatively large ship in the South China Sea. In addition, the firepower of the ship's equipment is not weak, and it has always been used to bully others. Commander Louis has great trust in the abilities of his ship and crew. That's why it was appointed as the pilot ship of the fleet. When encountering ordinary opponents, the "Juan"'s firepower is enough to tear a gap in the enemy's line. In a one-on-one battle at sea, Haihan Navy's smaller "Exploration-class" warship may not necessarily have a clear advantage.
But it is a pity that the current situation of the "Juan" is not ideal. When the opponent's broadside guns are pouring shells, the angle between the "Juan" and the "Juan" is too large, and the ship's broadside guns are still unable to enter the battle. , only the bow gun responded symbolically. Of course, the bow gun, which had an effective range of only more than a hundred meters, did not take any advantage in this round, and the fired shells fell into the sea without any suspense.
The cannonballs flying over from the enemy ship were not so polite. One of the cannonballs penetrated the side of the deck and tore the three sailors into a pile of pieces without any bias. Their flesh and blood was scattered all over the deck. Although the sailors on the ship all have rich combat experience, such scenes will inevitably affect their will to fight.
And this is just the beginning. The pause in the middle may not even last half a minute. The second Haihan warship that entered the shooting position also began to fire shells at the "Juan". Although the sailors on the ship had heard about the power of the Haihan Navy before setting off, most people still thought that its level should be on the same level as the Ming Navy. This battle was bombarded by strong winds and rain. , the crew members realized that the rumored news was not fabricated. The combat effectiveness of the Haihan Navy was not weaker than that of their own fleet.
After trying their best to adjust the course to be parallel to the opponent's fleet, the "Juan" was finally able to launch a counterattack, but the crew members were disappointed to find that Haihan's side controlled the engagement distance extremely accurately, and the opponent's route happened to be within their own territory. At the edge of the naval gun's range, almost all the shells hit fell into the sea. However, our own side is within the range of the opponent's naval guns, and from time to time, a few shells will cross over the sailboat and fall into the sea behind.
With the tonnage of the "Juan", as long as it is not directly hit by the ammunition stored on the ship, it is unlikely to be sunk by solid shells for at least a while. At best, it will just be some transparent holes in the hull. Therefore, although they were temporarily at a disadvantage, the sailors on the ship were not completely disorganized and still followed the instructions and resisted step by step.
However, when Haihan's flagship "Visa" entered the shooting position, this delicate balance was finally broken. The shells fired from the "Via" included not only traditional solid shells, but also incendiary bombs that shocked the Spanish sailors. This kind of shell will explode after hitting the "Juan" and produce a large flame at the same time. This is tantamount to worsening the situation for the "Huan", which was already passive.
And Louis, who was supervising the battle on the "San Diego", also noticed something was wrong. The Haihan battleship was traveling much faster than expected. Or to be precise, when the two sides engaged in battle, the overall speed of the Haihan battleship suddenly changed faster than the naked eye. The visible range has increased a lot, concentrating firepower and using broadside guns to attack the "Juan", the first ship of the own fleet, in turns. Although it is currently at a disadvantage, Louis can be sure that the sailing speed of his fleet is not slow at all. The current speed is at least about eight knots, but the Haihan fleet turned around and left his own fleet behind. Louis visually inspected its fleet. The speed is at least 11 or 12 knots. How on earth is this achieved?
Louis couldn't help but think of another rumor about the Haihan Navy that he had heard before. It was said that some Haihan warships were equipped with extremely mysterious propulsion devices, which could provide a third force besides human power and wind power to drive the ship to sail quickly. However, the manufacturing technology of this device is a high-level secret that has been artificially blocked in Haihan, so there is no further detailed information. Lewis was skeptical after hearing this kind of information that lacked evidence, and did not take it into consideration when formulating the battle plan. But judging from the current situation, this rumor is probably true. The chimney-like things on those Haihan warships are constantly emitting black smoke. This feature is consistent with the rumored sailing ships equipped with mysterious propulsion devices.
"Why are Haihan people so versatile!" Louis could only feel deeply helpless at such a performance gap. This is probably not a gap in shipbuilding technology, but an obvious technological generation gap with Haihan on a larger scale. . This is reflected in naval battles, where one is completely controlled by the enemy and cannot even create a chance to counterattack.
After the "Juan" suffered a round of shelling from the "Visa", many fires broke out on the ship. The captain had to order the crew to temporarily give up the counterattack and seize the time to deal with the fire on the ship. Otherwise, it is very likely that the ship will burn to pieces before the opponent can fire and sink the "Juan".
As soon as the "Juan" slowed down, the Haihan fleet saw its flaw. The next two ships got closer to the "Juan" and fired multiple chain bombs towards its deck. Although the principle of this kind of artillery shell is simple, its power in close combat is really not small. The shells fired are genuine deck harvesters. All objects on its path, including the mast, will be cut into two by it. The effect of intensive firing is Even more terrifying.
Unfortunately, one of the masts of the "Juan" was hit by a chain bullet, and the two unlucky sailors were cut in two. The broken mast quickly tipped over to one side of the ship, and a large pile of sail ropes fell into the sea. The crew of the "Juan" had to quickly cut the ropes between this mast and other masts to avoid being involved. At this time, the hull of the "Juan" was already slightly tilted, there were many fires on the ship, and one-third of the sails were lost. It can be said that it basically no longer has the ability to continue fighting.
The "Juan" still caused zero damage to the opponent during the battle, and not a single shell hit any ship of the Haihan fleet. Seeing the "Juan" withdrawing from the line of fire, Louis' face was very gloomy. Not only did he feel sorry for his ship, but more importantly, he suddenly discovered that the naval battle tactics he had mastered seemed to be useless in front of the Haihan people. come out.
In terms of maneuverability and flexibility, the Haihan battleship has the advantage; in terms of speed and ship speed-up ability, the Haihan battleship still has the advantage; in terms of artillery range and firepower output, Lewis still cannot see any advantage for his own side. The biggest and most obvious advantage of the Spanish fleet before the war was that it had more ships, but after the fight, it was discovered that this advantage could not be used at all. As soon as the two sides engaged in the battle, the American fleet was left behind. Then the Haihan fleet accelerated and concentrated its firepower to attack the Manila fleet. The first ship, this made the two Spanish commanders discuss before the war to take advantage of the tactics of attacking more and less, but all came to nothing, and there is currently no way to reverse the situation.
"What a tough opponent!" Although Louis was slightly disappointed with the performance of his fleet, the mere setback of the "Juan" was not enough to kill his will to fight. The Haihan fleet did have a unique set of tactics that suited them, but Louis believed that this did not mean that there would be no chance for the Spanish fleet to perform in this battle.
Seeing that the long battle line drawn by the Haihan fleet on the sea has almost completely passed the front of the Manila fleet, if it continues to advance at this time, it will only be hanging behind the opponent's buttocks. Louis simply ordered to stop the pursuit, gather up the formation first, and protect the "Juan" to complete the damage control rescue on the ship.
Although the "Juan" was scarred, perhaps due to luck, it did not suffer a fatal blow. After dealing with the broken mast and the fire on the ship, the dilapidated sailboat could still barely continue sailing. However, I am afraid that the number of casualties on the ship will not be calculated for a while. It will be necessary to check the remaining personnel one by one before we can know how many people were lost in the artillery battle just now. But in any case, the "Juan" is no longer suitable for carrying out combat missions in the following voyage. It also used bloody lessons to remind other captains of the fleet of the risks of rushing to the front when confronting the Haihan fleet. is quite large.
The two Spanish fleets slowly approached each other at sea and stood ready, but the Haihan fleet, which had taken advantage of the first round of confrontation, was not in a hurry to make a comeback. After severely damaging the "Huan", Tao Donglai ordered the fleet to wait and see the opponent's reaction from a distance, and not to rush back to the battlefield to engage the opponent again.
For the Haihan Navy, this battle has full home field advantage, and now that the opponent's whereabouts have been completely exposed, there is no need to rush to attack it. Tao Donglai knew very well the purpose of his opponent's trip, so he was not worried about his opponent retreating immediately after suffering a loss. As long as he remained patient, he was sure that his opponent would continue to reveal flaws.
(End of chapter)