Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1484 Beiyang Expedition ([-])
Commander Silva is worthy of being the commander of the Spanish Navy. His plan is obviously based on his previous experience in fighting against English pirates.

Sailing on the sea is different from human actions. If you can say advance, you can advance, and if you say retreat, you can retreat.Especially in the era of Fengfan, a series of extremely complicated operations are required to turn a ship, and the turning angle is so large that it is even more difficult to turn around. Not only does it require cumbersome operations, but more importantly, it is quite time-consuming.

Commander Silva judged from his observations that the speed of the "Left Wing Hussar" was faster than that of his own fleet, so he believed that it was impossible to chase and kill it.But this kind of situation is not unfamiliar to him. When he was serving in the Caribbean region, he had repeatedly encountered situations where pirate ships ran faster than his warship, and gradually learned and explored some corresponding countermeasures.

As an excellent aristocrat and a dedicated Royal Navy officer, he even studied the pirates' tactics in order to find a way to deal with the pirates' harassment and robbery.

Any hunting campaign begins with the discovery of the prey.To achieve this goal, pirates mainly use two methods - using confirmed intelligence, or free search.

In the first case, having obtained from their spies the necessary information concerning the movements of a ship laden with valuables, the pirates set out to sea, laying an ambush in a suitable place to intercept it.This method is the most effective, since a surprise attack will always demoralize the crew of an enemy ship.

Silva believes that this should not be the reason why the Jinghua battleship appeared here and encountered his own fleet.The reason is not complicated: although the sailing time of the Grand Treasure Fleet is relatively consistent every year (because ocean currents and wind directions have to be considered), it stands to reason that the other party, as the largest merchant in Manila, must be able to judge the arrival time of the Grand Treasure Fleet, but this year there is a Unexpectedly, my departure time was more than 20 days later than in previous years.

If it was said that the Jinghua battleship had waited for him at sea for more than 20 days, Silva would never believe it.What's more, he has already judged that there is a "Ming Dynasty Fleet" behind this ship. It is impossible for the entire large fleet to wait at sea for more than 20 days, right?From this point of view, it should not be a pre-set ambush.

In addition to relying on intelligence to set up an ambush, pirates also often use the "free hunting" method.The Caribbean Sea is a bustling business area in this era, and it is not too difficult to detect traces of merchant fleets or solo ships.

After all, although the sea is boundless, there are always waterways for sailing. These waterways are all "roads" that have been waded out. They are safe and fast, and regular ships will definitely choose to use the waterway.

When the pursuit began, in such pursuits the pirates almost always won, because their ships were lighter, more maneuverable, and faster.Of course, generally speaking, pirates rarely attack large treasure fleets. They usually pick ordinary merchant ships or single treasure ships.

Additionally, pirates strictly follow a set of rules that help them succeed in battle.

First, they always managed to approach pursued ships from upwind, a practice that allowed them great maneuverability before the battle began.Once there is an exchange of fire, the wind will blow the smoke of gunpowder and fire to the enemy's side, so that the enemy's firing and sailing work will be in trouble.

Second, the pirates tried their best to attack the enemy ship from the stern, because in this case only the stern guns could fire at them.In order for the broadsides to come into action, the enemy had to turn the ship around, and during this time the pirates had time to stay close to the enemy ship.

In addition to these main rules, pirates also used a number of other methods to win naval battles.For example, their ships always have spare oars, which allows them to sail a certain distance from the enemy even in calm weather, and within this distance, there is a high probability that the enemy's artillery fire will not cause damage to the pirates. Any losses—because even light guns using grapeshot have a long time between shots, so the enemy may not have time to reload the gun after the first shot.

What Commander Silva didn't know was that although Jinghua's high-speed reconnaissance ship did not have a spare propeller, it was the same as the "spare propeller" in terms of design ideas, and even had a standing, more advanced propeller.

Continuing to talk about pirates, after catching up with the enemy ship, the pirates hooked its stern with hook rods and "cat claws", and the first thing to do next was to try their best to jam the rudder of the attacked ship.Immobilized, it became an easy prize for pirates who boarded its decks and interiors to engage in boarding.

Pirates also often employ various tricks in their operations.For example, before the boarding battle, that is, when there were only a few meters away from the enemy ship, the pirates who had been hiding behind the high ship's side yelled and stood up, pretending to attack.

However, they immediately took cover again, and the enemy shooters, enraged by these actions, had already fired salvos.Due to reload time issues, this is equivalent to self-disarming.The enemy had no time to reload their muskets, and the pirates took advantage of this and moved on to the real attack.

This is what pirates do when they encounter other ships unexpectedly at sea: without hesitation, they immediately hoist on the mast the flag of the country to which the encountered ship belongs.

According to the law of the sea, the opponent should answer this gesture with a salute, so the captain of the opponent did the same, and fired the shells in his gun in vain.The pirates judged the situation and either rushed forward to fight on board, or continued to advance according to the original route.

[注：这段文字中所说的“海洋法”并非具体某一部法律，而是如7-9世纪意大利《罗得海法》、10世纪《阿马斐表》、12世纪《奥尼朗法》、14世纪《海事法集》等一部部欧洲航海者们熟悉的“规矩”演变而来的默认法则。真正的“海洋法”应该是19世纪之后才开始由国际条约确定下来。]
One of the characteristics of a pirate ship is its large crew.This is due to the requirements of tactics, because Silva has long understood that boarding is the main tactic of pirates.It required a large number of soldiers, and the pirates, despite all the inconveniences and self-restraint they endured, tried to bring as many men as possible on board before each expedition.

However, they are never superfluous—the loss in boarding battles can sometimes reach almost half of the entire ship's crew, so the pirates will never think there are too many people.

The characteristics often displayed by these pirates also made Silva more convinced that the warship with the book and sword flag in front of him was not a pirate.

It challenges the Jumbo fleet with a single ship, which is not in line with the habit of pirates to fight more and less; it does not have the upper hand, and is almost in the headwind. If it is not a Chinese hard-sailed warship, it can run 3 knots. Although it made a move to approach the fleet, it did not continue to approach with all its strength after the calibration. It seemed that it preferred to be at a relatively safe distance and fly a kite with the advantage of long and heavy artillery; it did not change itself. Instead of using the flag on the ship, he used a strong semaphore to show his identity without hesitation.

All kinds of performances prove that this is an official warship—whether this official represents the Ming Empire is still unclear, but it at least represents the current dominant maritime force in the South China Sea speaking strongly to Castile. According to the Asian Navy, it even issued a war warning.

Oh, not just a warning, it even fired a calibration shot.For Commander Silva, this is a knife that has been stretched out in front of him.

Silva has studied and seen the fighting style of pirates. Regarding the high-speed warship in front of him, he thinks it is very similar to a pirate ship. Although its combat method seems to be completely different from that of a pirate ship, one thing is certain : When one's own side has no speed advantage, if the opponent is determined to escape, then there is really nothing he can do.

However, it cannot be said that there is nothing to do with such an enemy.When a pirate ship faces a treasure ship, unless they are too strong to fight, they will definitely keep a close eye on them until they find a flaw.

The same should be true of the Jinghua battleship in front of me. It will not give up the "search" just because it led its team to Manila.

Silva knows the tactics he wants to adopt, that is, when he pretends to go to Manila, the fleet and the Jinghua warships behind him cannot form a single file, that is, they cannot use the stern of the ship to face its bow, but should run in an arc , make your fleet beveled with their layers.

When the degree of this oblique angle became smaller and smaller, the Jumbo Fleet, which had been prepared for a long time, suddenly turned more vigorously, and accelerated with full sail, approaching the Jinghua battleship.At this time, the Jumbo Fleet was in a grouped outflanking situation, so that no matter which direction the enemy ships turned, it would be too late to break out of the encirclement.

Silva's move was indeed beyond Luo Yuan's expectations.Through the binoculars, he found that the Spanish Treasure Fleet, which had been aggressive just now, had turned away without hesitation after a round of calibrating fire.

This action surprised him quite a bit: although the Spanish Great Treasure Ship bears the name "Treasure Ship", it sounds like a simple cargo ship, but in fact it is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

They are 1200-ton military Galen. In the words of the master, they "can run rampant among hordes of pirate ships" in the distant America, and they are definitely not helpless transport ships.

More importantly, the Spanish military Galen is not a secret to Jinghua. Jinghua and many Ming maritime merchants have seen their fleet in Manila port, and also seen the dozens of cannons on their ships.It can be said that the firepower of these six big treasure ships is far stronger than his "Left Wing Light Cavalry", especially the melee artillery, which is more than one level stronger.

Under such circumstances, the other party actually retreated without saying a word?
Luo Yuan couldn't help sneering: "I came to lure the enemy, but he also wants to lure me? Huh, it's interesting. It seems that the master is far-sighted. The Spaniards are indeed not comparable to the pirates we faced in the past. I even doubt that they They were stronger than the Portuguese at the time of the naval battle off the coast of Bandurang."

The naval battle off Bangdurang was when Gao Jing was investigating the sea outside Champa in the southern part of Annan, and encountered the Frang aircraft fleet flying the flag of the Taungoo Dynasty in Myanmar. The opponent did not know why, and put on a threatening posture , a naval battle broke out to forcibly drive Gao Jing's fleet away from the sea area where the incident occurred.

In this naval battle, Gao Jing did not take advantage of it. One armed transport ship was sunk, one was severely damaged and abandoned, and many others were damaged.However, the opponent did not get a good deal. Four warships suffered heavy losses, and one surrendered after being besieged.

Later, the battle report was submitted to Gao Wushi, but Gao Jing still counted the victory.But in fact, Gao Pragmatic tends to think that the performance of his own fleet is slightly inferior to that of the Portuguese, only because the fleet led by Gao Jing at that time had a relatively obvious numerical advantage-he had more than 20 ships of different sizes at that time, while the opponent only had seven large ships. There were no boats - so in the end it was the Portuguese who evacuated the area first.

Inside Jinghua, especially the Liangyang Fleet and the two major shipyards in the North and South, they have studied this battle many times.The overall view is that the Portuguese are proficient in naval warfare, and have very sufficient experience in "fighting more with less", and are also very capable of taking advantage of their own warships.

But now that Luo Yuan met the Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet face to face, he judged that the fleet was more difficult to deal with than the Portuguese from just one match that was not counted as a fight.This difficulty is not only difficult because the opponent's military Galen is bigger and stronger than the Portuguese ships at that time, but also because the opponent's commander is quite experienced.

Luo Yuan even thought that the other party might have seen through his mission of luring the enemy, which was even more powerful.Of course, Luo Yuan didn't know that Silva was used to the methods of pirates when he was on the Atlantic route, and he had an extremely strong sensitivity to high-speed ships like the "Left Wing Hussar".

Hearing what he said, the first officer of the "Left Wing Hussar" couldn't help feeling a little worried, and asked, "Captain, shall we still chase?"

This time Luo Yuan didn't answer right away, but thought for a while before saying: "Chasing, but don't worry, let's chase a little slower, and after a certain distance, we can see our semaphore on the 'Dengzhou' but the Spaniards can't." When the 'Dengzhou' is on board, first report the situation to the Dengzhou, and then catch up."

The first officer asked, "How to report?"

"Just say that the other party is very cautious, and I'm afraid they have seen through our strategy of luring the enemy." Luo Yuan said in a deep voice: "Our ship suggested that Dengzhou immediately send a signal to the rest of the formation to let them advance at full speed to outflank, and our ship will take the initiative Step forward and stall your opponent."

The first officer was taken aback for a moment, then hesitated and said, "Shall I go aboard and fight with them?"

"Why, are you afraid of hitting six?" Luo Yuan squinted his eyes and glanced at the Spanish treasure fleet in the distance, and said with a soft snort: "We have to take advantage of our speed and bombard the Spaniards indiscriminately. A hit is good, but a miss might irritate them.

As long as we suddenly slow down for a while during the fight, the Spaniards will definitely think that there is an opportunity, and then rush over to capture our ship. At that time... It depends on our engineers brothers. up.

As the old saying goes, wealth and wealth are sought in danger, and now that the other party is so cautious, how can we succeed if we don't take some risks?I don't want the child to be unable to trap the wolf. I don't believe that the other party is so angry that I harassed him and turned the table. Are they belong to the bastard? "
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Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thank you for the support of book friends "Shan Qi Zhao Bi Xin" and "Cao Mianzi", thank you!
(End of this chapter)