Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1486 Beiyang Expedition ([-])
China has been called the Celestial Dynasty since the Han Dynasty. This "celestial dynasty" has several meanings, one of which is unquestionable: the Celestial Dynasty, the first dynasty in the world!
Daming was called "Gangming" in later generations. This kind of strength was not only the foundation of the court, but even the emperor dared not show any weakness in foreign affairs.At the same time, this kind of firmness is also the persistence in the hearts of ordinary Ming people. Otherwise, how could Yangzhou Ten Days and Jiading Three Massacres have happened in the Jiangnan area that has always been regarded as mild after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs?
The weak and compromisers appear more in the bureaucratic class. As Ma and En said, the bourgeoisie is naturally weak and compromising.

Gao Musan is also one of the "ordinary people of Ming Dynasty", and his strength when facing foreigners is also fully revealed at this moment.

Even though I banned the sea for more than a hundred years in the Ming Dynasty, and only opened the sea for more than ten years, this "No. [-] in the world" is not something barbarians can call themselves!
Thousands of officials look to Chang'an, and all nations worship Hanyuan.

That is China, that is the weather of the Celestial Dynasty.The master said that Yidi was afraid of authority but not of morality. When he should be given "prestige", he must not be ambiguous.

At this moment, facing the menacing approach of the Spanish fleet, Takagi-san took a deep breath, and simply threw the word "lure the enemy" out of the sky, and categorically ordered: "Commander the gunner, shoot freely! I am invincible!"

"Here!" The orderly clasped his fists fiercely, responded with a bang, ran out of the command room, went to the gun cabin on the lower deck, and shouted an order to the gunner commander: "The captain's order: free salvo bombardment, there is no enemy but no one, and I am invincible!" !"

["Dengzhou" is a cruiser with two deck guns, and the bottom deck has more gun positions, so the gunner himself is in command of the bottom gun bay. ]
Hearing this, the gunner's blood boiled, and he raised his arms and shouted: "Design! All gun positions on the starboard side, listen carefully. There is no enemy but no me, and I am invincible! Listen to my password: four scales on the muzzle, full ammunition and ammunition—fire!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" A series of artillery salvos fired from the starboard side of the "Dengzhou".

But the gunnery officer didn't care about the results of the shelling—there was someone responsible for that.He yelled without stopping: "Cool the gun barrel! Clean the gun chamber! Be quick - prepare gunpowder and shells! All members of the inspection team supervise and record the preparation time of each gun crew. Anyone who is slow will be gauntleted immediately!"

Some people in later generations once said that the navy is the military with the strictest military discipline. This kind of strictness is not inferior even in the more commercial fleet of Jinghua Liangyang Fleet.

Loading preparations can only be done by the cooperation of a complete artillery group. If a certain link is slow, it may reduce the efficiency of the entire artillery group. Therefore, the inspectors on the ship are required to execute the gauntlet on the spot for the artillery group that is not moving fast enough. —take a whip.It's not about who is slow and whoever is punished, but which gun crew is slow, and everyone in a gun crew will be whipped.

Under this kind of punishment, no one in the artillery crew dared to slow down, because if you slow down a little, you may harm the comrades who are usually closest to you, and that would be "community death" on the spot.

In a traditional humane society like China, almost no one would do this. Everyone tried their best to speed up, and the comrades around them would remind each other loudly that they must act in strict accordance with the drills—because everyone has accepted For specialized training, everyone knows that exercises are the most optimal movements.

Even so, the first round of bombardment of the four warships that lured the enemy formation still failed.The rangefinder on the deck (Jinghua’s unique configuration in this era) sent messengers to send the results of the first round of shelling, and the results showed that the first round of shelling was almost one mile away from the Spanish fleet. The approximate speed of the Spanish fleet was reported.

Of course the gap is huge, but the gunner is very calm, because this is a normal phenomenon.In fact, the accuracy of long-range naval artillery bombardment was extremely ugly until the First World War.

Here is a very crucial point that must be said: If you don’t talk about distance and accuracy, they are all hooligans.Because of things like shelling, the closer the distance, the higher the accuracy.Once the distance is farther, the accuracy rate will drop, and in different eras, after the "far" reaches a certain level, the accuracy rate will drop sharply and precipitously.

In the famous Battle of Jutland in later generations, the hit rate of the two elite navies of Britain and Germany was only about [-]%, and the hit rate of the main guns of their battleships was even less than [-]%.Of course, the range of the main guns in their era was much longer than it is now, and the drop in hit rate is not too surprising.

By the time of World War II, for example, the new battleships of the United States after 1943, such as Iowa, North Carolina, and Nanda, were all equipped with radar fire control systems.They can guide the main gun to fire through radar ranging, speed measurement, and heading.At the same time, the main gun can also shoot in rough sea conditions through the gyro stabilizer.

然而在这个时期的舰炮命中率又如何呢？中近距离：在10-15公里，能有5%—8%的命中率，9门主炮每2-3轮齐射就能命中1发；中远距离：在 18-25公里，大约有3%的命中率，大约每3-4轮齐射，能命中1发的概率。远距离：在 30-35公里，实战命中率依然只在1%，每10轮齐射才勉强能命中1发——这还得看脸。

Mid-near, mid-range, and long-distance, these three levels are not only divided in this way in later generations, but in fact, the Jinghua Liangyang Fleet is also divided in this way, which is nothing more than a division according to the range ratio.The naval guns of the U.S. imperialists in World War II hit more than 30 kilometers, and now it is more than two kilometers to break the sky, but as long as they are divided according to the ratio, in a word: it is normal for long-distance artillery to miss, and if it hits, it belongs to the grave of the ancestors. Smoke.

However, since Jinghua was specially equipped with rangefinders, Jinghua's ships still had a huge advantage in adjusting the shooting parameters. The "Dengzhou" quickly adjusted the muzzle scale and fired a second round of salvo.

Because the Spaniard's speed was reported by the rangefinder, this round of shooting is more purposeful, and they are now "charging" with all their strength in full sail, and the distance between the two sides has also been shortened by about a mile, so the accuracy is better than before. Greatly improve.

In this round of shelling, the "Dengzhou" alone hit 4 rounds, 3 of which hit the flagship "San Antonio" of the Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet, and the other one was originally aimed at the "San Antonio". But I don't know why it hit the "Almeria" behind it instead.

However, neither the "San Antonio" nor the "Almeria" suffered major damage.

The "Almeria" only had a hole the size of a human head punched out on the deck, and no one touched a single one. It was quite lucky.

The "San Antonio" was a little unlucky. A shell that hit the deck smashed an unlucky sailor into a pulp on the spot. After penetrating the deck, it killed two gun crew members on the second deck, and destroyed a cannon.The other two shells both hit the sidestring, but due to the high hull of the Galen, the positions of the two hits were also quite high.

In the sea conditions of the South China Sea with limited wind and waves, as long as there is no storm, these two holes can't even allow the hull to enter the water.And if the Spaniards managed to escape, the ship's carpenters would soon be able to roughly repair the two damages.

Although the damage to the Spaniards was very small, the artillery range and accuracy of the Jinghua Lure formation still surprised them, especially Commander Silva and Captain Echevari, who suddenly became nervous up.

"Oh, God! Did these heathen guns get the kiss of the devil? At this distance, they scored a hit?"

"Commander, I have ordered the repair of the battleship, but the current situation does not look right..." Captain Echevari frowned: "The other party dared to challenge us with a weak fleet, perhaps because of this magical precision long heavy guns."

"What suggestion do you have, Mr. Captain?" Silva asked while grabbing the armrest in front of him.

"Your Excellency, Commander, I have noticed that the opponent's flagship has been leading the team in an oblique arc. This can not only prevent us from quickly closing the distance with them, but also gradually divert our original course. "

As expected of an old captain, Echevari could see Takagi-san's intentions at a glance: "We are basically still in a tailwind, but with the opponent's flagship leading the team to maneuver, we probably only need to wait... no In 10 minutes, it will become the right string to eat the wind.

Your Excellency, Commander, I have the responsibility to remind you: the opponents are four Chinese-style warships with hard sails, and the wind on the sidestring has almost no effect on them, but for us, this will seriously affect the speed of our ships .At that time, it is very likely that we will not be able to catch up with the enemy ship—that is, the boarding battle will not be carried out smoothly. "

In fact, there is no need for Echevari to remind this point. Commander Silva himself is also an experienced naval officer, and he has also seen this trouble.So he replied without thinking: "We also adjusted the course. The whole fleet deflected 15 degrees to the right and moved forward. When the distance between the enemy and us was reduced to two miles[Note 1], all ships fired back. In addition, don't slow down the speed, you must Do your best to get the chance to join the battle!"

[Note 1: I'm sorry, but there is really no authoritative record of what unit of length the Spaniards used during this period, so we have to use miles to make do. ]
Echevari believed that although the commander's order was not subtle, it was still reasonable at this moment, so he quickly and faithfully executed the order.While letting the ship make adjustments, at the same time sending people to signal to the other ships desperately-this is the trouble of not having a semaphore.

The transmission of orders between them was mainly informed by small traffic boats. If the distance was close enough, "communication basically relied on roaring."However, now that our warships are advancing at full speed, it is obviously impossible to notify them by paddling a small boat.

"Communication basically depends on roaring" is not reliable-the other party is shelling, whose voice can be loud enough to overwhelm the roar of cannons?So I had to gesticulate wildly. As for whether the other party can understand it or not, it all depends on understanding.

Fortunately, the Spaniard's comprehension seems to be quite good. After the flagship "San Antonio" turned slightly, the rest of the ships deflected accordingly, trying to keep the frontal alignment to lure the enemy formation.

In fact, such a deflection is not very helpful for keeping the wind. Both Silva and Echevari understand this, but their focus is to fire back after approaching, and to strive to be within "10 minutes". Completed boarding.

However, this move was mercilessly ridiculed by Gao Musan on board the "Dengzhou", he sneered and said, "Hmph, a donkey who doesn't turn back if he doesn't hit the south wall...I'm a cruiser!"

Turning his head, Gao Musan gave an order: "Signature: Our ship is about to speed up, and all ships keep a distance from our ship." After a pause, he then ordered the first officer: "Every mast is full of sails, speed up and deflect. I want to It becomes a state where both the enemy and the enemy are on the sidelines."

With the issuance of this order, the speed of the decoy formation immediately accelerated. They not only deflected, but also continued to "retreat obliquely" in the opposite direction of the Spanish fleet's approaching direction due to the difference in wind.Although the speed of this "slanting retreat" is not high, it can still slow down the time when the two parties finally come into contact.

At the same time, the ships were still bombarding, and the hit rate of the bombardment had increased to a certain extent. The six galleons of the Spanish fleet had accumulated nearly [-] bullets.Although limited to the power of the artillery in this era and the damage to the wooden hull, this continuous shooting inevitably had a certain degree of impact on the morale of the Spaniards.

Of course, none of this is critical.At this moment, Gao Musan did not expect to sink such six giant ships by shelling alone, and the Spaniards did not think that these shellings could cause any fatal injuries to themselves.In the eyes of the Spaniards, these cannons are just annoying, and only a very few unlucky people will really die under the shells.

However, under the full acceleration of Takagi's three formations, Echevari's originally expected "sidestring eating" state actually appeared only 6 minutes later.

At this time, the bombardment of both sides also began to become more accurate. The Spaniards had fired at a distance of two miles before, but unfortunately no hits were caused.Now there is only about one mile left. Although the Spanish fleet has received more than 20 guns, it has also hit Jinghua's battleship. Although there are only six, it is enough to make the Spaniards excited.

This is related to the attributes of the guns mentioned before. The Spaniards' artillery equipment is not enough long and heavy guns, but there are quite a lot of powerful guns at medium and short distances.

Their shells were heavier and larger, causing the "Dengzhou" to be hit three times, the "Golden State" of the same level to be hit by two, and the "Right Wing Hussar" to be hit by one.On the contrary, the "Left Wing Hussar" who was the "culprit" actually had divine help, not only missed one shot, but also hit the opponent at least eight shots in turn.

Although the "Dengzhou" ate three heavy shells, the high-quality teak wood from southern Xinjiang used by this class of cruiser made a contribution. Among them, one of the shells with a bad angle was directly bounced, and only the deck wood was cracked. , not even able to penetrate.One of the remaining two hit the sidestring, leaving a hole; the other hit the sail and fell into the water on the opposite side of the boat.

The advantage of the hard sail is undoubtedly revealed at this moment, and a hole slightly larger than the head of the district has almost no effect on the entire ship.The cable captain just observed it for a while, and directly said "don't worry about it for now".

However, changes in the wind situation put the Spanish fleet in real danger.

Gao Musan grinned, and said relaxedly: "The order, the whole formation turned left and turned around, and quickly opened up the distance-everyone, the weather is so good, it's time to fly a kite!"
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Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks for the support of book friends "Cao Mianzi", "Shen Ba Tian Tian", "Dr. Xu Jiahui", "0610", thank you!
(End of this chapter)