Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1485 Beiyang Expedition ([-])
The "Dengzhou" began to speed up, but not at full speed, but the mainsail was fully hoisted.Their task now is to keep a distance from the "Left Wing Hussar" ahead, neither too close to be spotted by the Spaniards, nor too far away to avoid being accidentally lost-the situation at sea has changed too much. If the Spaniards suddenly deviate from the course and the "Left Wing Hussar" is eager to keep up and speeds up, the "Dengzhou" may lose its target.

But when the semaphore signal from the "Left Wing Light Cavalry" came, Gao Musan changed the established plan after thinking for a while, and did not adopt Luo Yuan's suggestion.

He solemnly ordered: "Send a semaphore to the 'Left Wing Hussar': Our ship will notify the rest of my fleet to join your ship and jointly pursue the Spanish fleet. Your ship is not allowed to challenge alone again. In addition, your ship is required to do it right away." Combat preparations, our side is expected to launch a battle-line bombardment attack on the Spanish fleet using battle-line tactics. This order."

Then he turned around and said to another stern flag-bearer: "You are going to inform the large fleet behind: the battle situation has changed, and our formation can no longer complete the task of luring the enemy fleet without contact. I decided as the temporary commander of the formation. The formation will launch a line-of-line bombardment on the Spanish fleet in order to hold the enemy fleet in battle and create conditions for the encirclement of the large fleet. This report."

These two orders are undoubtedly a battle notice, and the entire "Dengzhou" immediately cheered up and down. Just like the previous battle preparations on the "Left Wing Hussar", the "Dengzhou" also moved quickly, according to the two ocean fleets. The tactical code of conduct strictly implements pre-war preparations.

And after the "Left Wing Light Cavalry" in front received the answer and order from the "Dengzhou", Luo Yuan couldn't help feeling warm in his heart.

Although Gao Musan's orders were strict, with words such as "not allowed" and "required", Luo Yuan knew that under these imperative words, it was the love and love of Brother Musan for him.

Although the "Left Wing Hussar" is a battleship built completely according to the specifications of a warship, it has strong and tight ship ribs, and the hull, especially the key parts of the deck, is made of high-quality aged teak everywhere. Looks solid enough.

However, the "Left Wing Hussar" is not a main battleship after all-according to the highly pragmatic plan, it is clearly determined that a battleship that can participate in the decisive battle of battle line bombardment is considered a main battleship.

The "Left Wing Hussar" is a reconnaissance ship, and its purpose of construction is not to participate in the decisive battle of battle line bombardment.Its super-high mast, clipper bow, bilge propeller and other novel designs are all aimed at "high speed", and these construction methods make its gun load definitely lower than other warships of the same tonnage.

In addition, the artillery factory obviously refused to equip only two warships with shells of different specifications, so the pure combat capability of the "Left Wing Hussar" has always been regarded as the bottom of the pure battleships of the two ocean fleets.

In the principled provisions of the Two Oceans Fleet, the "Ranger" class generally does not take on the task of artillery battle on the battle line, and is only used in "extreme circumstances such as our side's serious lack of artillery force in the decisive battle on the battle line". It is regarded as "a force that can be considered for participation in the war".

Now that Luo Yuan's decision is to some extent regarded as feeding a tiger with his body, how can Gao Musan, who is as close to him as a brother, sit back and watch?What's more, Gao Musan also has his own latest judgment on the overall situation.

Luo Yuan told him that the commander of the Spanish fleet was very cautious, so he refused to take the bait.This sentence cannot be read alone, but should be expanded to think: the other party is cautious, what is cautious?Naturally, the opponent believed that there was a large fleet behind the "Left Wing Hussar", and this large fleet must be capable of defeating or even annihilating its large fleet of treasure ships, so he refused to pursue it lightly, so he was not fooled.

How to reverse the situation in this situation and create opportunities for the real big fleet?In the final analysis, it is still necessary to contain the Spaniards so that they cannot continue to drive to Manila at full speed.At this time, the large fleet was still a little far away, Gao Musan estimated that it would take at least two hours for the large fleet to catch up.

Then, how to hold the Spaniard for two hours has become what Gao Musan must consider and complete.At this time, reverse thinking: the opponent thinks that the large fleet behind the "Left Wing Hussar" can easily defeat them, so Takagi San pulls out all the enemy formations and shows them to the Spaniards—we have only four ships, of which There are also two non-main battleships, do you dare to fight?
Gao Musan believes that in this case, the opposing commander should be able to unload the psychological burden, and come and fight the "enemy ship" to the death.

The only pity of doing this is that Takagi-san didn't want any losses to the enemy formation at the beginning.Because Gao Pragmatism has always been an "institutionalist", his two-ocean fleet has very detailed standards for the determination of combat achievements. Among the highest-level military achievements that can be obtained by performing the mission of luring the enemy, there are requirements for their own battle losses.

In other words, as long as Gao Musan's decoy formation suffers battle damage, at least the "highest level of combat merit" will say goodbye to him.

Water flows to lower place, man goes to higher position.Takagi Sanyi was of course aiming for the highest level of military exploits at the beginning, but the reality is not satisfactory, and now he has no choice but to settle for the second best.If you can't even complete the mission, the so-called "highest level of military exploits" is just a daydream.

The Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet slanted all the way, because the "Left Wing Hussar" in the rear would adjust according to their course, forcing them to constantly adjust their course, which greatly slowed down the speed of the fleet.Not long after, the Grand Treasure Fleet discovered an abnormality in the rear.

"There are four ships in total, two of which are large ships no smaller than ours." Captain Echevari said in a deep voice, "It may be difficult to deal with, but I think the advantage is still on our side."

Commander Silva nodded and said: "I am very happy, Captain Echevari, we have reached the same point of view."

"I am also very happy, Your Excellency Commander." Echevarri added: "So, what are you going to do now, Your Excellency? Are you going to continue to Manila to avoid damage, or to defend the dignity of the Kingdom of Castile's navy?" Fight them against each other?"

Commander Silva took a deep breath, raised his chin slightly, and proudly said with the pride of a standard Castilian nobleman: "On the ocean of this world, only the Kingdom of Castile can make rules."

He paused slightly, and said coldly: "Now, in the name of the commander, I give an order: the entire fleet turns around, the sails are fully sailed, and the St. Andrew's cross flag is hoisted! Gentlemen..." Silva's voice suddenly became He became excited and shouted: "Castile is watching us!"

The St. Andrew's cross flag is the naval flag of the Kingdom of Castile. It is a red cross with red thorns on a white background, which is derived from the Burgundian cross flag.

The title of "Charles the Bold", Duke of Burgundy earlier passed to his daughter, Duchess Marie after the "Splitting Skull Incident".The duchess first married the later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian (but the title did not belong to her husband), and her title was passed on to her son after her death-her son's son later became Charles V.

Because Charles V's father was still alive at the beginning, his main title was Duke of Burgundy for a long time.In terms of chronological order, Charles V was first the Duke of Burgundy, then the King of Spain (in fact, it was the King of Castile, the King of Aragon, the King of Naples, etc.), and then the King of God. Emperor Luo.

And because Charles V himself was born in Ghent (located in the Netherlands) and grew up in the Netherlands, he had the deepest affection for the Netherlands, so he took the Burgundian symbol "Burgundy Cross" to Spanish and widely used.It is for this reason that the red thorny cross flag of St. Andre is rarely seen in Burgundy in later generations, but it is very common in Spain.

[Note: In fact, the two are slightly different in the form of Vitex, one is a symmetrical arrow and the other is an asymmetrical Vitex, but they are still very similar. ]
The Castilian Navy has always hung this flag, but "raising the top" means starting a battle, which is the same meaning as the "Z flag" when the British Navy started a battle later.

The six large Galen ships of the Spanish fleet began to turn quickly, but just like the Armada and the English navy, the Spanish fleet at this time relied on the wind direction and did not intend to face Jinghua's decoy formation on the side.They faced the enemy head-on, and rushed over with full sail and wind.

There is no doubt that the Spaniards still choose to take the string and dance to help them think that they are worthy of everyone.

After the "Dengzhou" raised the command flag, the assembled enemy formation has basically completed its turn. Although it did not maintain the perfect T-head battle line, it basically achieved this.

Although there is no standard semaphore command, the Spanish fleet still roughly looks like a front and arrow array in accordance with the naval tradition.The flagship "San Antonio" took the lead, and as the arrow of the front arrow array, it went straight to lure the enemy formation.

In terms of luring the enemy formation, the flagship "Dengzhou" successively issued two semaphore: follow our ship to maneuver; allow each ship to start calibrating and control the salvo timing by itself.

"Follow our ship to maneuver" is because Takagi-san already has a deep understanding of his own ship "Dengzhou", and he is confident in leading the maneuver to keep the distance from the Spanish fleet, so that he can stay in the T-head position for a long time, which is convenient Battle line bombardment.

There is no way to "allow each ship to start calibrating and control the timing of the salvo by itself".There is no fire control system in this era, and there is no radio walkie-talkie for real-time communication.It is impossible for Takagi-san to know when each ship is ready to load, when is a good time to fire a salvo, etc., so it is impossible to ask the entire fleet to bombard simultaneously, and can only let each ship play freely.

Although Jinghua has had fewer live ammunition trainings than before due to financial constraints in the past one or two years, it has maintained at least four live ammunition trainings in a year.Three of them are regular training of two bases, and one is intensity training of four bases.

The word "cardinal number" may be a characteristic vocabulary used by Jinghua at present, but it is a common word in military affairs in later generations.But common is common, and many people actually don't know what the word means, let alone what the so-called "a base number" is.

Essentially, the ammunition base is a unit of calculation for ammunition supply, and the base quantity is a base quantity or weight of materials specified for a single item of equipment.Its standards are usually uniformly stipulated by the highest leading organ of the military according to the national industrial production level, troop carrying capacity, tactical and technical performance of weapons, and general consumption laws.

If we explain the situation in the future, then for example: a 7.62 mm semi-automatic rifle has a ammunition base of 200 rounds, a submachine gun has 300 rounds, an 82 mortar has 120 rounds, and a Jiefang CA10 transport vehicle has one The base quantity of oil is 161 kilograms, and the base quantity of war rescue medicinal materials for 100 people is 9 kilograms...etc.

This is the so-called "one calculation unit", which is also an ammunition base for guns.

In this era, Gao Pragmatism may be the first to introduce the concept of "cardinal number".Of course there are reasons, the main reason is that the regulation of ammunition base can bring great convenience to command and support.

It is not only convenient for superiors to issue orders, instructions and other writing, but also convenient for ordnance departments at all levels to calculate the number of ammunition and report the level of ammunition support to their superiors.The use of ammunition bases can not only simplify and standardize the complex numbers, but also facilitate calculation, supply, memory and confidentiality.

Since the establishment of Jinghua’s armed family system, Gao Jiajiading has been required to learn and master Arabic numerals. Gao Pragmatic even introduced decimal points, so it is convenient to use the word cardinal number to deal with logistics work (after all, one of Jinghua’s major advantages is the logistics system).

Suppose there is a military order that says "carry 3.5 ammunition base", even if this order is discovered by the enemy during the transmission of the order, the enemy will not know what it means - Europeans may know 3.5, but most of them do not know Chinese characters , and they don't know what a base number is; let alone the enemies around Ming Dynasty, they may know Chinese characters, but they don't know 3.5, and they also don't know what a base number is.

The base number of shells for the Jinghua Liangyang Fleet is 10 rounds. This standard is really too small for later generations, but in this era, this base standard is not too small.

The artillery ammunition base of the later Red Dynasty is the standard amount for the artillery to perform a mission, and the calculation unit for the artillery ammunition consumption is called the "cannon standard".The number of rounds of ammunition for a gun standard of a barrel artillery is one-tenth of a base number of ammunition;

Generally speaking, the ammunition base of a general 122mm howitzer is 80 rounds, so a rapid fire of 122 rounds of a 8mm howitzer is a gun standard.

When Gao Yushi was in the county party committee, he accompanied the leader to inspect the training of the county's reserve forces, so he knew the system.However, the situation in later generations is different from the present. How can there be any "rapid fire" now?

After desperately working on various artillery technology improvements, optimization of loading steps, coupled with strict loading training, the rate of fire of Jinghua's artillery is just faster than that of other artillery of the same period (of course, mainly referring to the European army).There is no such thing as haste at all, it is a little better than a snail, and it is already a remarkable achievement to be able to evolve to turtle speed.

It is precisely because the rate of fire is too slow, and the transportation capacity of this era is also too poor, so the base of Jinghua's shells is much smaller than that of later generations, and naturally there is no "cannon standard".

To put it bluntly, it will take a long time to finish firing a base number of shells in actual combat.A few years ago, when there were still many pirates along the coast, Jinghua wiped out a pirate, and most of the participating ships could not even finish a base number of shells.

However, this time they were not fighting pirates, but the current "World's No. [-] Navy", so Gao Musan was still very cautious. Under his command, the enemy formation prepared as many as six shells.Ammunition with six bases is divided into three batches, each with two bases is a batch, and it is transported to the gun position first.The next two bases are on standby in the ammunition compartment, and the sailors in charge of handling are directly on standby in the ammunition compartment.

A "bang" sounded on the sea.

The "Left Wing Hussar" was the first to prepare for battle, and the long and heavy artillery it was equipped with used the lightest shells, and it fired the first shot after officially contacting the enemy with the longest range.

Gao Musan glanced at it, then turned his gaze to the Spanish fleet, and said softly: "The master said that the Spanish navy prides itself on being invincible, so his fleet even dared to call itself the 'Invincible Fleet'. Hmph, today I want to see it, What is the quality of the number one in the world!"
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(End of this chapter)