Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1889 The Sword Points at Dongying (Wei [-]) Naval Battle Unveiled
What kind of news is it for Gao Wushi that the Japanese navy sneaked out of Busan to Sacheon or Okpo?
Good news of course!Not only good, but great.

Such actions by the Japanese Navy only show one thing, that is, they know almost nothing about the power distribution of the Pingwa Fleet.If you want to be more precise, you can also say this: the Japanese navy mistakenly believed that the fleet outside Busan Port was the entire force of the Pingwa Fleet.

However, in fact, the Pingwa Fleet was divided into two parts from the beginning, one part was the Ming Army Aid Korea Navy, and the other was the Maritime Trade Alliance Conscript Fleet.

Although the fleet provided by the Shanghai Trade Alliance is called the Conscript Fleet in name, it is in fact a force that surpasses the Ming Army's Aid Korea Navy, and its degree of regularization is even higher than that of the Ming Army's Aid Korea Navy.

This convoy fleet has one second-tier battleship, two third-tier battleships, five first-tier cruisers, six second-tier cruisers, 46 armed transport ships, a total of sixty ships, including fourteen professional battleships. [Note: The first-class cruiser was written as four in the previous article, and it is corrected here. ]
However, due to the need to blockade the Port of Busan, Gao Wushi reorganized the two fleets as soon as he arrived in Sacheon.To put it simply, some ships were mobilized from the conscript fleet and incorporated into the navy fleet.Specifically, all six second-class cruisers and twelve armed transport ships, a total of eighteen warships, all from the Jinghua Beiyang Fleet.

To a large extent, the Japanese army at Busan Port was determined to be unable to leave the port to fight because they discovered that these warships appeared in the blockade fleet of the Ming army. Eight Jinghua No. [-] guns brought by Japan but originally obtained by smuggling were used as coastal defense guns for defense.

However, one thing that needs to be explained here is that it is indeed impossible for the Ming army fleet to block the sea outside Busan Port all day long. work".

Why?Because the topography of Busan has a very interesting feature, that is, there is a large island outside its port, called Jueyeongdo. Later generations of South Korea simplified its name and changed it to Yeongdo.

The area of ​​this island is not small, nearly 12 square kilometers. After the Korean economy developed in later generations, it developed well here. There are even advanced shipbuilding companies such as the National Ocean University, Fisheries Promotion Institute, Maritime High School, and Hanjin Heavy Industries. The "matrix" role of the Korean shipbuilding industry.

However, at this time, Jueying Island was almost a no-man’s land, especially after it was occupied by the Japanese army, the Koreans in a small village on the island had already been killed. The reason was that this place was easily used to observe the Port of Busan. May be used by the North Korean navy.As a result, the Korean navy did not use it, but the Ming navy did.

At this time, the navy of the Ming army lacked foreign combat experience, but when Gao Wushi assigned eighteen pure Jinghua warships to Chen Lin, this blockade fleet had a lot of offensive experience—such as the rapid construction of temporary warships. Docks, temporary berths and simple breakwaters, etc.

Due to the large number of naval divisions of the Ming army, under the guidance of the Beiyang Fleet, the construction speed was very fast, and everything needed for short-term berthing was completed in just four days.Since then, the navy of the Ming army started a big-eyed confrontation with the Japanese navy in Busan Port on the island.

It is precisely because the island is very close to the port that the Japanese naval forces have figured out the Ming army's action rules from observations during this period, so they dared to accept the task of containing one part and sneaking out of the port.

But they obviously made a wrong choice. They thought that all the Ming army aiding the Korean Navy was stationed on Jueying Island. They had no idea that there was still one second-tier battleship, two third-tier battleships, and five first-tier cruisers in Sacheon Port at this time. , and 34 armed transport ships.

To put it bluntly, even if all the Japanese naval fleets are heading towards the fleet, they are definitely not the opponents of this Maritime Alliance fleet.

Highly pragmatic judgement, unless Chen Lin, Deng Zilong and others seriously dereliction of duty, the Japanese naval fleet coming now cannot be the entire force in the Port of Busan, so as long as you are prepared, you will not be beaten If there is a surprise attack, then the Japanese navy should have no chance of winning.

The only question now is whether it is necessary to annihilate this fleet.

Annihilation, the advantage is that the enemy in Busan has completely become a lone army. Considering Toyotomi Hideyoshi's current state, it is impossible for him to temporarily explode troops—especially the navy—to come to a decisive battle. Then as long as this Japanese navy is annihilated, The Japanese army has a higher probability of realizing the reality, and if they can surrender their weapons, it can save a lot of things, and the Ming army can also pay less losses.

What about not annihilating?Hmm... not annihilating does not mean turning a blind eye, it is best to make a forced landing.The more the strength of the Japanese naval forces declines, the more they will be able to do whatever they want in future actions against Japan.

And if they are forced to land, they can continue to strengthen their own strength, and when the time comes, they will be broken up and incorporated into the Japanese conquest fleet. Not to mention how much practical effect they can play, at least they will be able to strengthen their momentum.

Forced landing is an opportunity that ebbs and flows, and with his highly pragmatic and consistent style, he is obviously more inclined to do so.

"Inform Gao Shengyi of my judgment that the Japanese navy is about to attack, and order him to prepare for the battle. The primary goal of this campaign is to make a forced landing on the Japanese navy. If this goal cannot be achieved, the enemy fleet is also allowed to be wiped out." Gao Shengyi Pragmatically made a decision, and immediately issued an order.

The Gao Shengyi he mentioned was the captain of the flagship "Dongchang". After Gao Pragmatically adjusted the formation of the Pingwa Fleet, Gao Shengyi temporarily served as the commander of the Sacheon Squadron.

Gao Wushi doesn't understand naval battle command, and has never participated in the formulation of naval tactics. Therefore, for him, the order is considered to have completed the pre-war preparations, and the next step is to consider whether to accept the Kuroda Army's surrender.

In fact, Gao Yushi felt that the conditions proposed by the Kuroda army were not surrender at all, but more precisely, they should be repatriation. After all, according to this method, the Japanese army did not need to disarm at all, they just had to return to Japan.

It's like when the Japanese came to the North Koreans' house and smashed and robbed them, and then Da Ming's father came out to uphold justice, but in the end he just slapped the Japanese and told him to go back. Is it reasonable that the Japanese didn't even make compensation for the damaged things in the Korean people's homes?
For the purpose of training and training, Gao Wushi proposed whether to accept the surrender of the Kuroda Army, and if so, what conditions should be put forward as an examination question, and let Gao Wuzheng, Gao Wuruo, and Gao Qi's uncle and nephew think and answer.

Gao Wuzheng's point of view is still the same as before, saying that since they dare to come, then we should fight.According to him, since there will be a Japanese strategy in the future, a big victory now will be very beneficial to deter Japan and greatly facilitate the advancement of the strategy.

Gao Qi still focuses on political and economic considerations, and believes that whether to fight the Japanese navy mainly depends on how Kuroda Rosui and the Japanese navy have given their tasks before.

Gao Qi believes that if the purpose of this naval force is to attack Sacheon by surprise, then it should be resolutely wiped out; Tian Jun's surrender.

If you are willing to accept the surrender of the Kuroda army, then this navy army can also let it go.He does not think that doing so will not be enough to deter Japan, but that it will help to divide and disintegrate the various forces in Japan.As for shock and deterrence, the annihilation of [-] Japanese troops is shock and deterrence, but isn’t the forced landing of [-] Japanese troops not deterrent?

In the final analysis, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army has been generally recognized by the Japanese army, and it can even be said to be feared.Let alone the courage to fight a fair field battle with the Ming army, the Japanese army did not even dare to fight the Ming army with a three-fold superiority. This is a clear proof.

Therefore, Gao Qi believes that deterring Japan no longer needs to be achieved by a battle of annihilation, because the Battle of Bizhiguan has already achieved this result-although that battle was not a victory for the Ming army.

Gao Wuruo once again took a relatively neutral answer. He believed that the current Ming army has indeed achieved the advantage Gao Qi said in terms of land warfare. A little short.

Is the Japanese navy afraid of the Ming navy?Judging from the fact that they stayed in Busan Port honestly as soon as they were blocked before, they were still afraid.But Gao Wuruo thinks that this kind of fear is different from the Japanese army's fear of the Ming army. The difference is that the land army is really afraid on the battlefield, while the navy army is only because its scale is obviously not as good as the Ming army's navy. Therefore, I dare not wave easily.

Of course, if there are other reasons, then Jinghua's annihilation of the Anton navy in Japan still had some influence on them.However, it has been some years since this incident, and the deterrent effect may have declined a lot.

After all, the Japanese navy has also made great progress over the years, especially when they obtained the hulls of more than [-] armed transport ships and modified them with "iron armor".Although this modification is almost meaningless in a highly pragmatic view, and it will even cause a lot of problems, but at this time Japan does not know where to go, so they will have a kind of "I have a defensive advantage" mentality.

And after they had suffered a bit on the Korean battlefield, they added some artillery to the ship, so that the Japanese navy actually felt that they had a good fighting power.If it weren't for the fact that the Ming army's navy was too large outside Busan Port, and they were all big ships (in the eyes of the Japanese army, small boats were considered big ships, so the Ming army had no small boats in their eyes), they might actually leave the port World War I.

Gao Wuruo thought that since this was the case, his side also needed a big victory at sea to make Japan fearful.By the way, it also made the North Korean side realize the reality—don't think that having Yi Sun-sin in your sea is a big deal. In the face of absolute strength, all luck is futile.

This time, Gao Wushi agreed with Gao Wuruo's point of view, saying: "Send someone to answer Kuroda Rushui and his son and ask them to wait in Yupu to disarm. As for the return to Japan later, this cabinet department has its own arrangements. By the way, tell him, There is no need to wait for the Japanese navy to pick it up."

Kuroda Rushui's reaction to the news will not be said for now, Sacheon has already taken action.

Gao Shengyi came to meet with Gao Wushi less than an hour later, saying that tactical arrangements had been made within the fleet, and he came to report to the master.

The combat strategy of the Alliance Fleet is complicated but not complicated, and it can even be said to be a very traditional method of warfare: first send three to four armed transport ships, pretending to be sentry ships cruising ahead.After encountering the Japanese navy, these three or four armed transport ships stepped forward to provoke them by virtue of their tonnage advantages, but they had to deliberately pretend to be tentative...and so on.

After he finished speaking, Gao Wushi was very satisfied, approved the battle plan, then convened a military meeting, ordered the fleet to go to sea, and Gao Shengyi took full charge of command.

The Sacheon fleet is entirely from the Maritime Trade Alliance. Jinghua's eight warships are the core force, and the rest of the armed transport ships are mostly provided by various nobles, under the command of Gao Shengyi, who is highly authorized by the pragmatism.

Although most of the armed transport ships belonged to noble families, the enemy formations sent out were all Jinghua's ships, a total of four ships.They were ordered to set off half an hour in advance, and cruise in parallel several miles to the southeast.

Such a wide distance is obviously not a battle formation, but a formation for dragging a net to search, which also fits their disguise as a sentry ship.There are many islands along the southern coast of North Korea, intersecting with the coastline. This is actually not suitable for large-scale naval battles, but it is very convenient for four ships to search at a distance.

However, no trace of the Japanese navy was found until they arrived in Yupu Bay, which caused a headache for Gao Lichuan, the temporary commander of the decoy fleet and the captain of the "Gurishan".It will be night in more than an hour, and the light will become very poor. According to the original plan, they will go to Yupu to berth, and the fleet will replace them with four other ships-this is to avoid their fatigue. over.

Now Yupu City should be occupied by the Kuroda army. Although these people are ready to surrender, they should not control the port.Moreover, the artillery of the Sacheon Fleet is powerful, and he is not afraid of a Japanese army with few artillery pieces looking for death, but this situation is always a bit weird. Gao Lichuan does not want to do this, and he still hopes to finish the naval battle before tonight.

While I was feeling depressed, I suddenly heard the watchman on the watchtower shouting loudly: "Report - the 'Baisha Lake' found a Japanese navy. In the south of our formation, seven enemy ships have been found, and they are suspected of being shut down! The exact number of the enemy fleet unknown!"

Gao Lichuan suddenly lifted his spirits, and ordered: "Signage, my formation turned to the south as a whole, and approached the enemy face to face! All ships moved closer to our ships, and the distance between the formations was shortened to two miles. The entire formation is ready for shelling!"

When the order was issued, the decoy formation composed of four armed transport ships immediately moved into action, turning to and approaching the formation flagship "Jiuli Mountain".Each ship also started to prepare for the bombardment step by step according to the method of many years of training, including the relevant personnel in their positions, the cannon cover opening of the artillery, the delivery of the gunpowder box and the projectile box, etc.

In addition, although everyone did not think that the Japanese forwards had such powerful artillery that they could cause losses to themselves, the damage control team still prepared the corresponding materials and was ready to put out firefighting and repair ships at any time.

The first official naval battle of the Pingwa Fleet's "Guardians" on the Korean battlefield is about to begin.
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(End of this chapter)