Cutting 1719

Chapter 357 The End of the Navy

Compared with land battles, naval battles often have no room for retreat. Whether it is the navy of the Fuhan army or the navy of the Qing army, they must have an advantage in this water battle in order to obtain subsequent victories.

In this battle, Guan Yuanzhong gathered the remaining main force of the Fujian Navy, and his purpose was naturally to complete all his achievements in one battle.If it was placed before the seventh year of Kangxi, the Guangdong navy would probably have participated, but the Guangdong navy at that time was abolished because of the calm seaside, so now only the Fujian navy is left in the Qing court.

In this battle, the commanders of the two sides came from the same school in a sense. They were both members of the once-prosperous Fujian Navy Admiral and slaves of the Shi family in Fujian. From Shi Lang to Shi Shibiao, almost the entire Fujian All sailors are imprinted with the brand of the Shi family.

After the Shi family was completely destroyed, Qiu Ze raised righteousness and defected to the Fuhan Army. Wu Lin, as a new general in the Fujian Navy, also began to show her prominence. He was good at artillery, so he won the trust of Shi Shibiao at the beginning, and after Shi Shibiao died of illness, Yao Tang, the successor admiral of the navy, also valued Wu Lin a lot.

Later, after Yao Tang also died in office, someone suggested to the imperial court that Wu Lin should take over as the admiral of the Fujian navy. The space for the Qing army's activities, and the Fujian navy has been suffering losses since then, so when faced with this situation, Wu Lin also entered the range of choices of the Qing court.

Although the nobles of the Eight Banners who were far away in the capital had great doubts about the loyalty of the Fujian Navy because of the Qiu Ze incident, Man Bao, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, trusted him deeply and strongly recommended him, which made Wu Lin was able to become the new admiral of the Fujian Navy.

Because of the extremely bumpy road to the top position, Wu Lin was very eager to make contributions in order to gain the approval of the court, and he was somewhat wary of Ning Chu's rise, but he knew Qiu Ze better, and that Only followed the navy who defected from Qiu Ze, so Wu Lin also had the certainty of victory in her heart.

"Today's battle is an opportunity for me to win the Qing Dynasty. You should follow me to kill the thief!"

The sound of artillery fire gradually became more intense, and a thick white smoke gradually rose from the sea, but it gradually became thinner under the sea wind. Against the background of the sea wind, the ships of the Fuhan Army gradually approached, and solid bullets continued to shoot from both sides. The cannon was fired, and waves of waves stirred up on the sea.

In traditional water warfare, it is usually important to maintain the formation, but Qiu Ze is now very different from the traditional warfare. He scattered all his ships and moved towards the Qing army's naval fleet in a tendency to encircle. This scene made Wu Lin very surprised. It's not that no one has tried this kind of counter-tactical tactics, but the facts have proved that they are vulnerable to the formation.

The Sand Boats, Ting Boats, Shuttle Boats, Zan Boats, Bird Boats, and Fortune Boats of the Fuhan Army were almost out of formation. They half-encircled the Qing Army's navy, but the ships were extremely loose.

"Boom—"

The artillery of the Qing army also rang out. At such a short distance, many warships were hit by bullets in an instant, and even several warships were hit by multiple bullets, and several large holes were pierced. It sank to the bottom of the sea.

Qiu Ze looked at the warships in the distance with a serious face. Although his flagship was not hit in the round of shelling just now, but a sand ship beside it was sunk into the bottom of the sea. Although everyone did not speak, their stern expressions revealed that It's kind of ominous, and if the fight continues like this, the Fuhan army will undoubtedly be defeated.

"Prepare the rockets!"

As the nearest Qing warship got closer and there were only more than 300 yards left, Qiu Ze finally issued an order. The biggest problem with the rockets right now is not the range and power, but the poor accuracy. The closer it is, the higher its hit rate will be.And using rockets at this distance, its power will be exerted to the extreme.

The Fuchuan where Qiu Ze was on began to raise the signal flag, and the warships that received the signal moved out rockets from the cabins, but there were not many rockets on board each ship. There were only five to ten rockets on each ship. There are about [-] of them on the larger Fuchuan, and those rockets are fixed on the deck, waiting eagerly.

Although the rockets of the Fuhan Army showed up in the Battle of Anqing, they were only used twice after all, and they were not used in subsequent battles. Therefore, most of the Qing army did not know much about this weapon——Wu Lin, as a senior General, although he has been in contact with the battle report and heard about it, but he subconsciously thought it was a land weapon, and he never knew about it.

In addition, the rockets currently produced by the Fuhan Army are actually different from the rockets used before. The rockets that Ning Yu and Lei Tuozi were tinkering with were basically a variant of the Congreve rocket. The disadvantage is very big, the main manifestation is that after it is ignited, it does not know where it flies, and the hit rate is too low.

Since the last actual battle on the battlefield, Lei Tuozi's apprentices have recorded all the relevant data, and then made improvements again, mainly by installing a stabilizing spiral plate at the bottom of the rocket and reducing the diameter of the tail, so that the rocket The propelling force of the bomb itself is stronger, and the trajectory will be more stable when it flies out, which improves the overall accuracy.

After such an improvement, the new rocket no longer needs to use the long guide rod of the Congreve rocket, and it can also be used on a ship. Therefore, after it came out, Ning Yu quickly thought of it. I figured out the idea of ​​using it on the boat, and I found someone to train Qiu Ze and the others in the relevant usage skills early on, and put it in my hand as a hole card.

Therefore, when the rockets of the Fuhan army were taken out, the Qing army warships did not take some precautions. They still showed a dense formation and fired at the warships of the Fuhan army. From time to time, some people shouted It seems that this battle has basically declared victory.

After the soldiers of the Fuhan Army adjusted the relevant shooting angles, they lit the fuses, and saw a white mist rising from all the warships at the same time, and there seemed to be orange-red fire in it, followed by a sharp The sound pierced the sky, and a black streak rose from the smoke and rushed towards the warship of the Qing army.

This scene was so shocking that everyone on the Qing army's warship was attracted. They quietly looked at the white smoke rising from the opposite side, but they were a little puzzled. This thing is obviously related to artillery. Not the same, at least much faster than the artillery
"Boom—"

The rockets fired are also divided into various specifications. Among them, the heaviest rocket weighs forty catties, and the lighter one weighs about ten catties. The sound of the explosion, in which a warship of the Qing army with more than 20 guns was obviously taken care of, and a total of seven rockets hit the ship accurately, and it was torn in half amidst the explosion and smoke. Then it sank to the bottom of the sea.

Wu Lin's heart sank, and he felt a little confused. He had never seen this thing before—no, he had seen the Shenhuo crow before, but compared with this, its power was far worse than this one. , Before that, he had never seen such a powerful weapon.

This is really scary!

In fact, not only Wu Lin, but even Qiu Ze was taken aback. Although he had tried it several times before, it was the first time he had actually used it in actual combat. He hadn't thought of the power of this weapon at all. It can reach such a point, as if it was born for warships. In the face of its destructive power, is artillery still meaningful?
Maybe the current Qiu Ze or Wu Lin is only focusing on the battle in front of him, but for this era, the way of moving this kind of rockets to the ship is already an earth-shaking change. It can be said that it has subverted the naval warfare model of this era.

In this era, due to the immaturity of firearms, the use of artillery is difficult to make a final decision in naval battles. Therefore, the real combat mode of warships still remains in a rather primitive state, that is, collision!Install various rams on the bow, just like two medieval warriors, crushing each other with their bodies!

But since Ning Yu moved the rockets to this era in advance, and then moved them to the ship, it is obvious that each of these two medieval warriors has a musket, and the naval battle has naturally become a close-to-body shooting of rockets at each other. mode, it can be called shooting in line on the sea, after all, in the face of the powerful attack power of rockets, no matter how strong the warship is, it is just a living target
Of course, these are all things for later, at least for now, the navy of the Qing army cannot be turned into rockets. They watched their powerful warships being beaten into balls of flames, but they couldn't think of any countermeasures. , and the power and firing speed of its own artillery are simply not comparable to rockets.

Seeing the Qing army's naval warships gradually being destroyed, Wu Lin's face turned into a dead silence. Instead of looking at the expectant eyes of the people around him, he gritted his teeth and said, "If this battle is defeated, what will our Great Qing Navy look like?" Based on the world?"

"Order, all warships move forward at full speed, and hit the opponent's warship with me!"

The solemn and stirring tone of his voice is moving, and even more trembling.

In naval battles, the ramming tactic was originally a very common tactic, but when Wu Lin issued such an order, she was somewhat helpless, because everyone knew that judging from the current distance, she might not have rammed into the opponent yet. will be swallowed by rockets
At this stage, the distance between the two sides has even been shortened to about a hundred feet. However, the roles at this time have undergone tremendous changes. The warships of the army began to retreat towards the rear. They took advantage of their small size and fast movement to keep themselves and the Qing army in the best position.

"Report to the entire army, use the advantage of rockets to attack the enemy, and do not take the initiative to engage with them."

Qiu Zecai was not that kind of reckless man. He quickly sensed the intention of the Qing army's warship, and hurriedly sent the order. At this moment, he saw a bullet fired from the Qing army's warship, which just hit Qiu Ze. On the lucky boat where he was, a mast was broken, and the flying sawdust hit Qiu Ze's face, and he fell to the ground immediately bleeding profusely.

"General!"

"General!"

Seeing the commander fell to the ground, the soldiers on the side panicked in fright. Not to mention the military regulations of the Fuhan Army, even their own wealth and lives are already tied to Qiu Ze's body. If something happened to him, the rest of the people would all die.

When everyone helped Qiu Ze up, his face was already covered with blood, but it seemed that the injury was not serious. Qiu Ze struggled to sit up, "I'm fine, you all go and pass on my order. The big victory is imminent, don't worry." mistaken!"

"Boom--"

Although Qiu Ze was injured, it was nothing to put on the battlefield. In just a moment, several rockets hit a Qing warship. It was hit by the rockets and burst into flames. Seeing that the sinking was not far away, many soldiers of the Qing army no longer cared about anything else, jumped off the ship, and then swam to the distant Qing army warship.

It's just that the place they swam to was not safe, and more Qing army warships were capsizing one after another, and thousands of Qing army soldiers returned to the sea with the warships.
Looking at the cruel scene in front of him, Wu Lin's expression was very calm. Perhaps this scene was not unacceptable to him. After all, on the battlefield, no matter what happens, it is normal. But he always It's a pity that this ending is different from what he expected, maybe it's destined by God
"Boom—"

A violent explosion sounded on Wu Lin's warship. He felt that the deck beneath his feet was trembling. When he looked back, he saw several rockets flying from the sky.
A wry smile appeared on Wu Lin's face, and then she was swallowed into the sea of ​​flames.
The admiral of the Fujian Navy of the Qing Army died in battle
The naval battle that lasted for more than two hours caused heavy casualties for both the Fuhan Navy and the Qing Navy. However, after the rockets entered the battlefield, the warships of the Qing Army were beaten into pieces almost as if they were being shot at. The torches sank one by one, and then sank in the sea, while more than 20 warships of the Fuhan Army Navy were sunk, and hundreds of officers and soldiers were killed or injured.

When the news of the death of Wu Lin, the admiral of the Fujian Navy, spread, the remaining dozens of warships of the Qing Army Navy no longer had the will to fight. They began to panic and chose to flee, and some warships directly signaled their surrender. , and then quietly parked the warship on the battlefield, all the soldiers knelt on the deck and waited for disposal.

For those fleeing Qing warships, Qiu Ze decisively chose to pursue them, and a very strange scene appeared on the sea, that is, dozens of Qing warships were fleeing for their lives in the distance, and there were dozens of distant warships behind. Ships far smaller than them are pursuing
Of course, it is impossible for the warships of the Qing army to escape, because the small boats of the Fuhan army far surpassed the large ships of the Qing army in terms of flexibility and speed, so that they could not escape at all. When it landed, it would be sunk on the spot by the rockets of the Fuhan army in the next moment. The remaining Qing army warships who were still fleeing had no choice but to surrender after seeing it.

So far, in this encounter in the sea area of ​​Guangdong, the Fuhan Navy's navy has won a big victory, while the remaining Fujian navy of the Qing Army either died or surrendered, and not a single boat escaped, which is a complete declaration. perish, and this is currently the last navy force in the hands of the Qing army.

(End of this chapter)