Chapter 1641 Head-to-head confrontation
Looking at the five Haihan battleships approaching, Juan naturally had no reason to retreat. He believed that these were by no means the main force of the opponent's fleet. They were probably just auxiliary troops staying on the periphery to perform rear cover and could eat one or two of the ships in one go. It's also good. Dang Ji ordered the fleet to spread out from left to right, preparing to surround these Haihan sailing ships from the sea.
However, Juan's order had just been issued, and new changes had already occurred in the battle formation on the opposite side. The four Discovery-class battleships began to turn westward to seize the advantageous position of the wind, while the black sailboat was single-handedly heading towards the Manila fleet. He rushed straight over, and it seemed that he planned to go directly through the middle.
Regardless of whether the other party was crazy or deliberately provocative, Juan would never allow this ship to show off its power in front of him. He immediately ordered the main forces in the middle, including the flagship "San Diego", to target this black sailboat, striving to win the first prize. The opponent was severely damaged in one round of firefight.
Of course, if Juan had witnessed the confrontation between the "Martin" and this strange warship, he might change his current tactics and not try to fight with this black sailing ship. It's a pity that no one in his camp knows the combat method and lethality of this black sailboat. The Spaniards can only use traditional naval battle methods to fight.
The consequences of this are also obvious. Before the black sailing ship entered the range of the Spanish naval guns, the rotating turret located at the bow of the ship opened fire first. Before Juan could even open his mouth to laugh at his opponent's impatience, he saw that another sailboat on the port side of the flagship had been shot. Large pieces of ship plank exploded at the bow and scattered into the sea like a goddess scattering flowers. Mixed with faintly audible screams.
"What is this!" Juan was puzzled by what he saw in front of him. It was incredible that the Haihan naval gun could hit with one shot from such a long distance. According to his knowledge from the last battle with the Haihan battleship, although the opponent's naval gun has a certain advantage in effective range, it does not seem to be so exaggerated. Obviously, this should be some kind of new weapon developed by Haihan, and its performance is far superior to the naval guns it equipped in the past.
While Juan was still scratching his head and wondering how to deal with this new weapon, Wu Sen, the commander of the "Black Shark", was extremely dissatisfied with the hit just now: "My order is to target the largest flagship. , why did it hit the boat next to it?”
In fact, Wu Sen had originally planned to capture the thief first. The gunner of the "Black Shark" did aim at the "San Diego" and fired. However, due to the bumps of the waves, the angle when the cannon was ejected was slightly different. Deviation, after flying several hundred meters in the air, it had already deviated from the target. It passed diagonally above the bow of the "San Diego", but happened to hit another Spanish sailing ship behind it on the left, accidentally hitting it. It can be considered that this shell was not wasted.
However, because the "Black Shark"'s naval gun has used more advanced integral shells, its reloading speed is much faster than the old artillery in the past. Before the Spaniards could respond, the second shell had already been fired. chamber. At this time, the distance between the "Black Shark" and the target was shortened by nearly two hundred meters. This time, there was no deviation in the shooting. It hit the starboard side of the "San Diego" very accurately and fired a hole on the hull. A big hole.
Juan's face was already dark at this time. Although he was safe, the "San Diego", as the flagship, had been shot as soon as it came up, which still made him quite unhappy. You must know that he led the Manila fleet to attack to outflank the Haihan people's retreat, rather than to engage in an offensive battle with the opponent's fleet. However, based on the two frighteningly accurate shots fired by the opponent, he was almost certain that the black ship The sailing ship is by no means an auxiliary unit serving as a guard on the periphery, but a genuine combat unit.
Why would the Haihan people deploy such powerful units several nautical miles away from the battlefield? Of course Juan understood that this measure was to guard against enemy attacks from behind, and he was obviously ready for battle, so he As soon as they met, he rushed forward to fight without hesitation. He felt that the other party had underestimated him. Even if this battleship was equipped with new artillery, did he want to challenge my entire fleet? If I don’t blow you into a honeycomb, I won’t call you Juan!
The "Black Shark" inserted head-on between the "San Diego" and another Spanish sailing ship at extremely fast speed, and then aimed its two naval guns at the "San Diego" and opened fire. Of course, the Spaniards were not idle either. There was no need for Juan to issue orders at this time. All the naval guns facing the side of the "Black Shark" were firing crazily.
The two ships sandwiched between the left and right sides of the "Black Shark" are only a hundred meters away from the target. Even if the two sides pass each other for a short time, as long as the shells are poured out at this distance, at least there will be a target. About a third hit the target. The actual situation was exactly like this. Juan could hear the collision sound of the cannonballs hitting the hull of the black sailboat from the deck, but the scary thing was that these cannonballs did not make big holes or gaps in the hull. Instead, they were all thrown into the sea, as if they had encountered an invulnerable monster.
"What on earth is this!" Juan couldn't help roaring again. He could accept that the Haihan people's weapons were sharper than his own, but his own artillery could at least overwhelm the opponent in terms of numbers. In this kind of close-range firefight, the Spanish side with the absolute advantage in the number of artillery should have the upper hand anyway, but this is not the case. More than ten shells that hit the opponent's hull failed to even break through the defense. This situation was really difficult for him to accept.
In the process, the two naval guns on the Haihan battleship also hit the starboard side of the "San Diego" one after another without any suspense. An artillery emplacement on the second deck was directly hit, triggering a small explosion. A large hole with a diameter of about two meters exploded on the side of the ship, and nearly one-third of the second deck of the "San Diego" was destroyed. Although the hull has not lost balance due to this, half of the guns on the starboard side are unable to continue fighting.
Even so, the Spaniards still had to thank God for his protection, because if one of the shells had missed it by half a meter, it would have probably hit the main mast of the ship. If the main mast is seriously damaged, it will be impossible for the ship to evacuate the battlefield, let alone continue to fight.
The other four exploration-class battleships were not idle during this process. They grabbed the upper hand early, then stretched their formation horizontally, aimed their broadsides at the bow of the Spanish fleet, and used a round of standard T-shaped tactics. shelling. Although no Spanish galleon was destroyed, several shells accurately hit the target. Relying on its speed advantage, the Haihan battleship quickly left the battlefield after completing the bombardment and began to draw a huge arc on the sea, preparing to implement the next round of T-shaped tactics.
At the same time, the bombardment of the Cavite port had come to an end. Under the cover of artillery fire from three Majesty-class battleships, a troop transport carrying two companies of the Marine Corps approached the dock. Although there were still some Spanish armed men on the shore trying to resist and prevent the Haihan army from landing, they were responded to by rifle volleys and a few grenades that clattered to their feet.
After quickly clearing the resisters on the dock, the troop transport successfully docked and lowered the landing ramp on the bow. The wolf-like Haihan soldiers swarmed out and quickly built a beachhead on the dock to cover the landing of more friendly troops. "Where's our artillery? Hurry up and mount the artillery over here and blast out the firepower point on the opposite side!" Yu Tiezhu yelled and issued combat instructions to his subordinates. The Marine Corps was responsible for the lead in this landing in Cavite, but the Army's First Battalion and Seventh Battalion also participated in the landing. Yu Tiezhu currently serves as the commander of the First Battalion.
Lu No. 1 Battalion and Lu No. 7 Battalion are both based on Hainan Island. Although they are not as well treated as elite units such as the Special Forces Battalion and the Marine Corps, they are regular troops with many actual combat experiences. Moreover, there has always been a competition between Yu Tiezhu and the commander of the seventh battalion, Ruan Xiangqian. This is not only a competition between the two army battalions, but also a competition between the Han officers and the overseas officers in the Haihan Army. Both of them currently hold the rank of major. Whoever can get more military honors on the battlefield will have greater hope of taking a step forward. Yu Tiezhu, as the first batch of soldiers of the Haihan Army, naturally cannot lose to juniors like Ruan Xiangqian.
The task Yu Tiezhu received was to lead his troops to clear the Spanish fire points near the dock and assist the Marine Corps in expanding the size of the beachhead. The Spanish used various materials and houses on the docks to build layers of defense lines. Although they were only temporary fortifications, it can also be seen that the military strength of Spain, an old colonial empire, cannot be underestimated. Fortunately, the Haihan Army had a clear advantage in terms of firepower output. The three-hundred-meter firefight distance was enough to make enemies holding old-style flintlock guns cower behind the fortifications and tremble.
Of course, Yu Tiezhu will not be satisfied with just suppressing his opponent with firepower. He needs to command his men to clear out the enemy's firepower points within his field of vision as quickly as possible. Using infantry to advance is of course the fastest and easiest way, but this will inevitably come at the cost of a certain number of casualties, and Yu Tiezhu does not want to suffer any larger casualties in a battle where his side already has a clear advantage. , so he needed the artillery to be in place immediately to remove the Spanish firepower.
The Lu Yi Battalion he led had an artillery company. Although it only had eight small-caliber field guns, it was very useful in this kind of landing operation. This small-caliber gun could be easily disassembled from the gun truck, and other The gun body can even be transported by two strong soldiers, and it is also more convenient to unload it from the ship to the land.
Soon two artillery pieces were deployed on the firing line under the command of Yu Tiezhu, and they launched an artillery bombardment at the fortifications hidden at the entrance of a warehouse a hundred meters away. At the same time, a platoon of infantry was divided into two groups, the left and right groups, under the cover of artillery fire. Surround this fortification.
"In case of resistance, shoot to death!" Yu Tiezhu warned the infantrymen performing the assault mission again. During this expedition to Manila, the Ministry of National Defense required front-line troops not to kill unarmed personnel indiscriminately. However, locals who tried to resist the Haihan Army did not need to ask for instructions. If they encountered resistance, they could be killed directly.
After three rounds of shelling, no one at that firepower point came out to shoot again. Two groups of Haihan soldiers quickly outflanked the fortifications, and then fired at the fortifications from a close range. They had no intention of capturing anyone alive from here - if this was necessary, the battalion commander would definitely have said so when he issued the order just now. .
With the support of artillery, the speed of removing enemy firepower points has also been accelerated a lot. The temporary bunkers made of bricks and stones can basically be destroyed with one shot, and it is difficult to play a blocking role. Probably the Spaniards did not expect that Haihan would be able to deploy the artillery immediately at the beginning of the landing. After all, when the two sides fought in the Taipei area a few years ago, Haihan took a long time to put the heavy artillery in place after landing at Tamsui River. Artillery was delivered to the front lines.
An hour after the two sides exchanged fire at the Cavite Port, about five companies of Haihan troops had landed one after another and completely occupied the northeastern end of the Cavite Peninsula. Yan Chujie handed over the combat command at sea to Wang Tom, while he personally went ashore to direct the subsequent battles here.
At this time, a few nautical miles north of Cavite, the Manila fleet still had not escaped the fight between these Haihan warships, and several more Haihan warships were coming aggressively from the south for reinforcements.
Since the number of Haihan warships that participated in the previous battle was too small, no ships in the Manila fleet were destroyed or sunk. However, the "Black Shark" relied on its high speed and strong armored shell to penetrate through the Manila fleet's formation. They came out and shot east and west, causing the Spaniards to complain incessantly.
Juan also tried to encircle and suppress this strange ship, but unfortunately, the speed and steering performance of the sailboats under his command could not compare with this ship. Before the encirclement was completed, the ship had already slipped out like a loach at every opportunity. The other party was not frightened at all in the close-range firefight. The shells fired at it seemed to have no other effect besides making a crackling sound on the other party's hull.
"Can't anyone kill this damn monster?" After Juan commanded the "San Diego" to shoot at it for three rounds, he couldn't help but have a trace of despair in his heart. He couldn't catch up or fight. Move, how are we going to fight this battle? If a few more ships like this emerge later, the question to consider is whether they can escape.
At the same time, his opponent Wu Sen lamented the lack of power of the shells on the "Black Shark". It seemed that several shells had hit the opponent's flagship, but they had never been able to destroy the key parts of the ship.
(End of chapter)