As the Minister of National Defense of Haihan, Yan Chujie has focused his energy in recent years on the research and development of ordnance technology, the construction of military academies, and the training of military personnel. He has basically never directly participated in military operations, let alone leading troops on the front line. .
However, during the executive committee's inspection of Hangzhou this time, the two countries were at war, and Yan Chujie was definitely duty-bound to contribute.
Although Yan Chujie's specialty is not the navy, he and Shi Diwen are the only senior generals in the East China Sea Region. Shi Diwen was responsible for commanding the more complicated land attack, and Yan Chujie could only reluctantly take over the command of the navy.
How to fight against the Ming Navy, which had been secretly preparing for war for several years, Yan Chujie and Shi Diwen made a rough battle plan before the war. They all believed that with the Haihan Army's huge advantage in equipment, it should not be a problem to defeat the opponent.
However, the strength displayed by the Ming Navy on the battlefield was not as weak as the paper data showed. Targeted tactics and familiarity with the battlefield environment greatly narrowed the strength gap between the two armies.
After the first wave of self-destructing boats rushed into the Haihan fleet, they succeeded in creating some chaos.
At least six or seven Haihan warships were unable to dodge and were hit by it. Their hulls were quickly ignited and caught in flames.
A large hole was blown out of the bow of one of the ships by a self-exploding ship. River water quickly poured in, and the ship's hull soon tilted.
Although the sailors on the ship tried hard to eliminate danger, they were unable to prevent the ship from gradually sinking into the river. Fortunately, there were other ships nearby, trying their best to rescue the sailors who jumped into the river to escape.
Fortunately, the Ming Navy had a limited number of self-destructing ships. In addition, after being ignited and released, they were in an unmanned state. The river water rushed wherever they went. Some ships even scuttled while burning, so the hit rate was basically random.
The large warships in the Haihan fleet were dragged behind, and there was still buffer time to adjust their course to avoid them. Therefore, although this wave of offensive caused a lot of trouble for Haihan and even caused casualties, it did not harm the fleet. Main force.
Even so, it has already boosted the morale of the Ming army. You must know that in the navy's past records of battles with the Haihan Navy, there were very few records of sinking enemy ships.
Now, as soon as the battle started, the Haihan army had already lost ships, which showed that the preparations before the war had indeed worked. If they continued to fight like this, there would be a chance of defeating Haihan.
There is nothing wrong with their opinion, but the several large warships Haihan specially transferred from the sea are not here to act as decorations. When the intended target entered the shooting range, these big guys also began to release terrifying attack power.
The main gun equipped by the Zhoushan is located on the deck in front of the hull. It has a rotating turret and can flexibly attack targets in multiple directions without adjusting the course.
However, the target of this main gun is not the small boats that charge and explode, but the large ships that fall far behind.
Due to performance limitations, most of the weapons on the Ming army's warships had a range of only one to two hundred feet. But the range of Zhoushan's main gun is even better than that of army artillery of the same caliber.
Across the second wave of attacking Ming warships, the Zhoushan opened fire directly on a Fu ship in the rear.
The first three rounds were slightly off target, and the shells hit directly into the river. However, the Ming army on the ship obviously did not realize that the opponent could actually launch a strike from such a long distance.
When the fourth shell hit the ship, it punched a large hole between its forward deck and starboard side, tearing five or six of its crew members to pieces.
Until then, the people on the ship still did not expect that this was a shelling from a distance. In their understanding, the artillery on the ship should not be able to hit such a long distance. Before those on board could figure out what was going on, another shell hit the ship. This time, it hit a gunpowder barrel on the ship. The explosion caused a large gap more than ten feet wide on the starboard side, ignited the main sail, and also took away at least a dozen lives.
The second wave of offensives that risked their lives to rush into the Haihan fleet did not go as smoothly as expected. Almost at the same time that these ships missed the bow of the Haihan warship, the side guns that had not exerted their power began to stand out. Tongues of fire.
Several Ming warships rushing in front were instantly smashed into sieves by the densely flying artillery shells. It was not until the last moment that they realized that the firepower of Haihan ships was far more powerful than they imagined.
The reason why they didn't fire much before was probably just that the Haihan Army was waiting for a sure-kill engagement distance.
When the firepower output of the Haihan fleet officially started, the damage speed of the Ming warships was even faster than the previous wave of self-destructing ships.
Due to insufficient range, many Ming warships were hit by concentrated fire before they had time to fire, and were instantly turned into a pile of broken boards.
Screams and explosions filled the river one after another. The damaged warships slowly sank into the river one after another, and people kept jumping off the boats to escape.
Yan Chujie held up the telescope and looked at the battle situation on the river with an expressionless face.
In his opinion, although the Ming army was relatively well prepared and had a strong will to fight, it was still difficult to close the huge gap between them and the Haihan army.
In the face of absolute strength, futile struggles only increase casualties in vain.
When one-third of the Ming army's warships lost their combat effectiveness, the Haihan fleet remained intact. The commander of the Ming army realized that the defeat was certain. Now it was time to try his best to reduce losses, and immediately sent a signal to withdraw his troops.
But it is not easy for so many ships to turn around quickly on this narrow stretch of river. In order to buy time for the big ship, dozens of small and medium-sized warships still did not stop and continued to plunge into the array of the Haihan fleet.
The result of this desperate charge was to change from a death squad to a death squad. The Haihan Army once again accepted the results of the battle with intensive shelling.
Although the Ming army's attack also caused some damage to the Haihan fleet, compared to its own tragic losses, this little result was almost negligible.
Among these warships that launched a desperate charge, only a handful were lucky enough to pass through the Haihan fleet that stretched for several miles, and then left the battlefield and hid in a nearby river branch.
The large warships that were originally holding the battle finally turned around with precious time saved by their lives. However, if they wanted to leave the battlefield, their situation would not be much better than that of their companions rushing downstream.
"Catch up, don't let them escape!"
Seeing that the opponent was planning to leave the battlefield, Yan Chujie immediately issued a pursuit order.
The steam power systems on the Zhoushan and other large warships have been activated. Even if they are going upstream, the speed can reach more than twelve knots, which is enough to catch up with the enemy ships in front of them that are turning around and fleeing.