Chapter 2122
"Gao Hongfu, what measures do you think we need to take now to tear through the enemy's defense line?"
The strength of the enemy and ourselves were clear. Tagawasuke had no choice but to withdraw the troops attacking the Onomura blockade. He could only hold back his anger and consult his subordinates for their opinions. Although the war was unfavorable, he still had high hopes for Gao Hongfu. After all, Gao Hongfu was one of the few infantry commanders in the Hirado Domain who had fought against the Kaihan Army, and his performance so far had been relatively calm, and he had not been passive due to the war situation. It was a mess.
Gao Hongfu responded in a deep voice: "Sir, the enemy has dug out official roads and built fortifications. Their purpose is very clear, which is to block our retreat to the south if the battle situation is unfavorable. I just observed the enemy's position It seems that several artillery pieces have been set up here, and a reckless charge will only increase the casualties of our army. To tear this line of defense apart, infantry alone is probably not enough. Maybe we need to mobilize a few more artillery pieces here to hope to rely on firepower. Advantage to repel them ”
"Bring in the artillery..." Tagawa Suke couldn't help but hesitate after hearing this suggestion. Nowadays, all the artillery of the Hirado Domain that can be put into battle, except for some equipped on the naval warships, the rest are basically deployed in Hirado Port. in the coastal defense battery.
If not, it would probably be difficult for the Hirado Domain to block the powerful enemy fleet in the Hirado Strait, making it temporarily unable to land at Hirado Port. If artillery were to be transferred from Hirado Port, three or five guns would probably not be enough. It would require at least more guns than the opponents deployed here, but that would mean weakening the coastal defense force of Hirado Port. If The enemy fleet has stepped up its attack, but the port is a bit mysterious.
And even if artillery was to be transferred from Hirado Port for reinforcements, it would not be a task that could be completed in a short time. The straight-line distance between Hirado Port and Onomura is indeed not that far, but the official road is winding and winding. This journey is still more than ten miles. The artillery needs to be unloaded from the fort first, and then loaded with ammunition and animals. It would take at least half a day to get to the battlefield in Ono Village for deployment, no matter how fast it was.
If the number of artillery in the port is reduced by a quarter or a third, can it still sustain for half a day under the fierce attack of the enemy fleet? To be honest, Tagawasuke doesn't have much confidence in this. If not, both sides will try to save it, but neither side will be able to save it. Therefore, although he also understands that Gao Hongfu's suggestion has certain feasibility, he also realizes the implications of it. Huge risk.
Seeing that Tagawa was having trouble making a choice, Gao Hongfu could roughly imagine the situation he was worried about, so he continued: "If the navy can attract firepower for us at sea, then temporarily removing some artillery from the port will not cause a big problem."< br>
Compared with the land forces, the Hirado clan has invested much more in the naval army in the past few years. Whether it is personnel or equipment, the strength of the naval army is much stronger. And from the start of the war yesterday to now, the navy has not even seen a shadow, let alone participating in the war. Although he knew that this was part of the battle plan formulated by Tagawa Suke, it would inevitably make officers like Gao Hongfu who commanded the infantry of the feudal army uncomfortable. Naturally, he wanted the navy to come out when necessary to share some of the pressure for the hard battle on land. .
As long as the navy can hold off the enemy fleet for one day, Gao Hongfu can organize his subordinates to transport the artillery deployed in the port area here to attack the enemy's temporary defenses built on the official road. After this level is solved and the road south is opened, the artillery can be transported back to the port area for redeployment.
Of course, the plan may not keep up with the changes. No one dares to be optimistic about what kind of battle situation the navy will have against the enemy fleet. Maybe the artillery here has just been pulled into Ono Village, and the navy fleet there will be gone. Even if the barrier is penetrated by then, it will be difficult to change the overall passive situation of the battle.
For the decision-maker Tagawa Suke, there is no sure-fire strategy to choose from at the moment. If he wants to open up the road south, he must take corresponding risks and let the troops deployed elsewhere change their original combat plans to cooperate with the domain. The battle of Onomura. And the risks that were originally concentrated in this place will be transferred to other places. If it fails, it will not only be a matter of this place, it is likely to trigger a chain reaction, causing the navy, Hirado Port and Da A series of accidents occurred in Nomura's three places, and the situation may be completely unmanageable.
Tagawa Jie thought about it and weighed it for a long time, but in the end he could not make up his mind to completely overturn the battle plan he had made before the war. After all, in his opinion, the situation has not yet reached its worst, Hirado Port has not yet been lost, the enemy has not dared to directly attack Hirado City from land for the time being, and the naval forces are still not exposed in the outer sea. In the final analysis, he still had a certain sense of luck and believed that the situation had not deteriorated to the point where he needed to take risks and spend all his wealth to fight to the death with the other party.
Of course, Tagawasuke did not intend to let the feudal army risk their lives to attack the enemy's defense line in Onomura. This place was clearly a flesh-and-blood millstone arranged by the opponent. Without artillery to open the way, it is better not to pay an unnecessary price. good.
And Sun Zhen, who had spent the whole night supervising the work here and could hardly even close his eyes, retreated after seeing that the Hirado clan army only made a tentative attack, and almost jumped out of the trench. He yelled at the other person for being stupid.
In order to prevent the opponent from massing heavy troops to attack the defense line during the day, Sun Zhen urged the civilian husband and his men to reinforce the defense line overnight. He estimated that it should be able to defend against an attack of a thousand people. He would wait for the enemy to attack in a large scale and then teach them a lesson. . But I never thought that my opponent would be very cautious. Seeing that the defenses here had been expanded a lot compared to yesterday, they actually gave up the attack. Sun Zhen, who had waited until now with red eyes, was very unhappy.
Compared to Sun Zhen, who had failed in his quest for war, Shi Diwen found that he seemed to have changed his fortune. Today's attack on Hirado Port had just begun, when a reconnaissance ship sent out fireworks signals from the north of the Hirado Strait, and there was an unknown armed fleet. It is heading south, and judging from its heading, it should be towards the Hirado Strait.
"There is meat to eat!" Shi Diwen couldn't help but perked up after hearing the news. He knew that the visitor was most likely the Hirado navy fleet. Although I don't know where this fleet was hidden yesterday, it seems that the other party can no longer sit back and watch the Haihan Army attack Hirado Port from the sea unscrupulously.
However, Shi Diwen also considered that the purpose of the other party's appearance might just be to lure him away from the Hirado Strait, in order to reduce the defensive pressure on Hirado Port, so he decided to stand still and wait for the other party to take the initiative to approach.
In this battle to cross eastward to Japan, Shi Diwen brought along two flagships of the East China Sea Fleet equipped with steam power systems. However, so far, these two flagships are only watching the battle from the back row and have not participated in the targeted battle. The shelling of Port Toto. This is because Shi Diwen does not want these two precious flagships to be damaged by the coastal defense artillery of Hirado Port. Secondly, it also means that these two flagships, which have the strongest firepower and the fastest speed, serve as a guard on the periphery.
Now that the opponent has appeared, it is time to use these two flagships. Shi Diwen ordered the two ships, Wei Sheng and Wei Bang, to enter combat mode. All combat personnel were in place, the boilers began to fire to preheat, and the sails were slowly raised.
Portuguese officer Simang and North Korean officer Shen Xueyi were watching the battle on the VIA at this time. They were very excited when they saw Shi Diwen giving the combat order. They knew that the Haihan fleet's attack on the other side of Hirado Port was just a feint attack, so yesterday's artillery battle did not show all its capabilities. At this time, Shi Diwen was about to use his flagship to join the battle, which meant that the Haihan fleet was about to start It's serious, and this is one of the main purposes of watching the battle with the army. Regarding the status of Japanese warships and armed fleets, Simang provided a lot of information to Shi Diwen before the war. This can be regarded as a little compensation for Haihan by the Portuguese when it was inconvenient to send troops. Therefore, Shi Diwen still has some idea of the combat effectiveness of the Japanese fleet. If the Hirado clan did not secretly build a batch of Chinese warships, then the original Japanese warships alone would be invincible against the Haihan fleet. machine.
But regardless of whether the Hirado naval forces were deployed in full force today or only part of the warships were dispatched to distract themselves, Shi Diwen did not intend to let go of this opportunity. He planned to rely on the firepower and speed advantages of the Majestic-class battleships, and then proactively attack the opponents after they reached a distance where it was difficult to turn around and escape, so as to complete the battle as much as possible.
"General Shi, the ships they dispatched are the Anzha ship and the Guan ship. It seems that they plan to continue to hide their strength." After Shen Xueyi confirmed the enemy ships on the sea in the distance through the telescope, he immediately reported his discovery to Shi Diwen .
Shi Diwen smiled and said: "If they want to play tricks, let them do it. We don't care so much, so we want to give the enemy a trick to defeat the enemy with strength and lure us to attack? Then I will attack and show them!"< br>
The Hirado Navy fleet arrived slower than expected. The two flagships of the East China Sea Fleet completed their battle preparations in a leisurely manner, while the opponent's ship was still moving slowly. But there was nothing that could be done about it. The Anzhai ship only had one sail, and more than half of its power during combat was provided by the crew's oars. Its maneuverability could not be described as a turtle's speed.
The commander of the Hirado Navy who was responsible for carrying out this task of luring the enemy was Shota Ishimura, who was originally an officer serving in the Hirado Navy. The reason why he was not purged by Tagawa Suke after the Great Fire of Hirado was not because of his great talent, but because he was originally an internal agent placed by the Tagawa clan in the navy, and his allegiance was to the Tagawa clan, not to the navy. The original feudal lord was Matsuura Takanobu.
Shota Ishimura could not be said to have any outstanding military talents, so after Tagawasuke came to power, it was not him who took over the navy, but Wei Zhi, a Han officer whom Tagawasuke relied on even more. Although Shota Ishimura felt a little dissatisfied, he also knew that Wei Zhi's ability was indeed superior to his own, so he could only accept the arrangement and become Wei Zhi's deputy.
But what he didn't expect was that even though he was second-in-command, he would actually be assigned an extremely difficult task when the war came, asking him to take these old warships to the Hirado Strait to lure the enemy. Although Ishimura Shota has average commanding ability, he is not stupid. Of course, he knows that this job is very dangerous and there is a high possibility that he will never return. Wei Zhi handed over this difficult job to him and went to the west coast with a new warship for a sneak attack. The opponent clearly wanted to use him as a stepping stone. This arrangement really made him extremely angry.
But the wartime military orders were overwhelming, and he could not refuse to carry out the tasks assigned by Wei Zhi, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and attack today. Ishimura Shota thought that after the war was over, if he could return to Hirado safely, he would definitely accuse Tagawasuke of Wei Zhi's insidious means of deliberately suppressing him.
The mission given by Wei Zhi was to lure the main force of the enemy fleet away from Hirado Port. Shota Ishimura knew that if he rushed into the Hirado Strait rashly, he would be seeking death, so he deliberately slowed down his speed and headed south. As long as Haihan When the fleet discovers that he has rushed out of the strait, he will immediately order to turn east and try his best to escape.
But this was not easy. The Haihan fleet seemed to ignore its own existence. Even though there were reconnaissance ships on the northern sea that had already released fireworks warning signals, those warships still surrounded Hirado Port and carried out shelling unhurriedly. Seeing that he could not achieve his goal, Shota Ishimura could only continue to move south cautiously. He only hoped that the Kaihan Fleet would take action quickly, otherwise it would not be easy to escape from the battlefield when the distance between the two sides was too close.
There was still about a mile away from the northern entrance of the Hirado Strait, and it would be within the firing range of the Kaihan Fleet. Ishimura Shota finally couldn't bear it anymore and ordered to immediately change direction and head east. If they didn't turn around, the dozen or so ships of the Navy would rush straight into the formation of the Haihan Fleet.
At this time, the Haihan fleet finally moved. Bursts of black smoke suddenly appeared from the two largest warships at the same time, and then began to slowly move northward, heading towards the Hirado navy.
Shota Ishimura had heard Wei Zhi introduce the characteristics of the Haihan warship before, and he also knew that in addition to being equipped with a large number of artillery, the No. 1 warship, the largest among them, also had some weird tricks. For example, black smoke would suddenly appear during the battle, and then The speed will increase to a very terrifying level, and this is one of the fatal shortcomings of the Anzha ship.
"Accelerate! Accelerate faster!" Shota Ishimura immediately realized this dangerous signal and ordered to move forward at full speed.
The full speed of the Anzha ship mainly relies on the crew on the lower deck to increase the rowing speed. However, these dozens of oars alone cannot compare with the surging power provided by the steam engines on the Majesty-class warships. Although the people on the Anzhai ship tried their best, they could still see that the distance between the two sides was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Send a signal and ask the ships behind to stop them!" Shota Ishimura was confused when he saw this, and even tried to let other ships cover his ship to escape from the battlefield. But if the commander's ships were taking the lead in escaping, how could he expect it? Are the other ships willing to stay on the battlefield and fight with all their might?
Sure enough, after this order was issued, it was not well implemented. Almost all the ships still followed Shota Ishimura's ship to turn eastward, trying to escape from the pursuit of the two large ships behind them.
(End of chapter)