Cutting 1719

Chapter 598 Prelude to Naval Battle
On the thirteenth day of May in the sixth year of innovation, at the time of the fierce battle in Batavia, the monsoon in the South China Sea had already blown the sails, and at a place only [-] nautical miles away from the city of Batavia, a huge fleet was advancing .

At the forefront of the fleet are six third-class sailing battleships, namely Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jiyuan, Jingyuan, Laiyuan and Zhiyuan, all named by Ning Yu himself, and then there are more than 30 traditional Chinese Guangzhou ships , and then there are more than 80 large and small warships, most of which are equipped with black-holed artillery.

Dingyuan is currently the flagship of the Great Chu Navy, and the flag of the Great Chu Navy is flying high above it at this time. The Tuanlong flag with a red background and a yellow border is flying up and down in the wind. Several officers of the Great Chu Navy are standing on the bow at this time , the leader of them was Qiu Ze, Admiral of the Great Chu Navy, and beside him were several naval generals who were talking softly.

"The strength of the Dutch navy has been put on paper, they are by no means our opponents, we will definitely win this battle!"

"However, according to the news from the inside, Batavia has newly arrived five third-tier battleships, adding to the original four, the number has risen to nine, plus other armed merchant ships, it is still not to be underestimated!"

"Junmen, should we hurry up? Although there is no delay right now, I am worried that the deployment of Batavia will go wrong."

"Let's just do our job well and don't worry about anything else."

Everyone made suggestions, but these words did not really reach Qiu Ze's ears. He just quietly looked at the endless sea, like a carved stone statue, firmly occupying everyone's attention.

After a long time, this admiral, who can be called the soul of the Great Chu Navy, slowly said: "In the past year, we have been soaking in the sea almost day and night in Guangzhou, and the shells we fired were almost Everything in the past has been added up, but even so, I still dare not slack off in the slightest—"

"Before this, we have also seen the warships of the Dutch, and we have fantasized about fighting with them, but I still want to tell you one thing, no matter how much preparation you have made before, no matter what kind of plan you have, when you really arrive on the battlefield When we go up, it will all go to zero, we only need one thing, and that is victory!"

Having said that, Qiu Ze turned his head solemnly, looked at the crowd and said coldly: "We must not disappoint His Majesty's high expectations, and we must not allow failure to occur. If this battle is not won, I will sink with the ship." On the sea!"

Everyone's heart trembled, they lowered their heads together, and put all the thoughts in their hearts, such as excitement, nervousness, fear, fanaticism, etc., behind them, leaving only a dead calm.

Be a cannonball without thought, and with the ignition of the fuse, it is launched into the sky, draws a beautiful arc, and finally hits the ship.
After driving all night, as the sky gradually dimmed, small blurred black spots appeared at the end of the sea, those black spots gradually began to grow in size, and the outline gradually became clearer. The fleet of the Fuhan Army also hoisted the signal flags. For a while, the battle clouds were dense, and the smell of gunpowder between the two sides rose to its peak.

Obviously, the whereabouts of the Dachu Navy Fleet has not been hidden from the Dutch East India Company.

Both Da Chu and the Netherlands are very clear about the fact that the victory of the land battle will be determined by the sea battle. If the Da Chu navy fleet wins, then the marines accompanying the army can land calmly and take Batavia with the rebel army. , Conversely, if the Dutch East India Company wins, then everything will be wiped out, and the rebel army will be destroyed without foreign aid.

Therefore, the result of the naval battle is not only concerned with the heartbeat of the coaches of both sides, but also the fate of the two empires.

When the sails of the Dutch East India Company clearly appeared in front of everyone, Qiu Ze did not panic at all, because when he saw the other party, it did not mean that the war was about to break out. The stern is narrow, not many cannons can be placed, and the range of the cannons is limited. Therefore, when fighting, the gun holes opened on both sides are used to fire salvos. Since this method is very similar to the line tactics of land warfare, naval warfare is also It's called line tactics.

When the fleets of the two sides meet, they usually need to get close to a distance of two hundred yards or even closer, and then face the enemy sideways, forming a long line end to end, which is conducive to the fleet's firepower, so that each battleship has half The artillery can shoot at the enemy, so as to ensure the maximum firepower.

Qiu Ze calmly ordered the fleet to set up the battle line and seize the favorable position of the T prefix. This kind of naval warfare tactics that appeared as early as 1652 broke out with Britain and the Netherlands. Therefore, when the Chu Navy is training, it will naturally conduct targeted training.

With the sound of a series of drums, the signal flags on the flagship of the Dachu Navy Fleet began to evolve continuously. Those complicated and effective flag information constitute the true background of naval warfare in this era-victory is never just a need Courage, but also enough order.

I saw that under the command of Qiu Ze, the signal flag on the Dingyuan was constantly changing, and all the warships began to finely adjust their direction. They began to cut from the upwind position to the direction of the Dutch Navy's advance, so as to facilitate Hold your own vantage point in the upcoming naval battle.

As the commander of the Dutch East India Company's naval operations, De Vries naturally discovered the movement of the Dachu Navy at the first time. This veteran of the Dutch Navy has rich experience in naval battles in the past, and he easily judged the opponent. However, at the moment, they also ordered the fleet to change direction without haste.

The two sides have already launched a very fierce game from the beginning of the tactics of seizing the T prefix, but compared to the experienced De Vries, the Chu Navy is more like a young boy who has just started to grow, so the distance between the two sides is gradually widening Under the recent premise, there is no achievement in this kind of tactics.

Qiu Ze naturally knew that the other party was not an opponent like the Qingshui Division. He frowned and observed the warships of the Dutch East India Company through the binoculars, and continued to calmly say: "We have already begun to gain an advantage, pay attention to the change of the wind direction."

"Yes."

The chief of staff of the fleet, Huang Zeru, also nodded lightly. After all, in this era of sailing warships, warships have very strict requirements on the direction of the wind, and they can often find the key to victory when the wind is in their favor.

When the time came to ten o'clock in the morning, the game between the two sides had lasted for more than four hours, and at this time the distance between the two sides had reached within a thousand yards, and the artillery on the bows of the ships began to roar. However, due to the extremely low hit rate, neither side caused any losses to the other side.

In this era of sail warships, this is not a strange thing. After all, warships rely entirely on wind power and have limited maneuverability. Very difficult, and naval battles often lasted for protracted periods of time.

eight hundred yards,
six hundred yards,
Time passed by, and the artillery battle between the two sides also entered a very intense stage. From time to time, scattered solid bullets hit the opponent's hull and brought up a large number of sawdust fragments. From time to time, naval soldiers on board were shot middle.

Looking at the approaching fleet on the opposite side, Qiu Ze's face became more serious, and he issued a series of orders very calmly.

"The four ships Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jiyuan, and Jingyuan are going to cut in from the upper wind to shorten the distance with the enemy ships. As for the two ships Laiyuan and Zhiyuan, they will focus on attacking the enemy's flagship and must bite it firmly. , drag it into the melee!"

This tactic is actually beyond this era, because with the help of weapons such as rockets, the Dachu Navy can completely cut up the local fleet, and then use its own firepower advantage to force the enemy fleet to engage in melee, thus concentrating Strike the part of the enemy fleet that is relatively upwind, and because this part of the fleet is relatively downwind, it cannot turn around flexibly under the restraint of the wind direction.

After the orders were issued one by one, the adjustment steps of the Dachu Navy on the sea surface became more and more orderly. When this scene appeared in the eyes of De Vries, he couldn't help but feel deep fear. It is not as simple as it looks on the surface, but there is a hint of cunning in the jerky. If it has gone through the baptism of today's World War I, I am afraid that its future growth will exceed everyone's imagination.

When the naval battle was about to start, the battle outside the city of Batavia was also in full swing. As the leaders of the rebel army, Huang Chu and Lin Cheng placed more than a dozen baskets of silver dollars and silver taels in front of the formation. These will be used as rewards for the army. It is used to boost everyone's morale, so as to fight bloody with the Dutch.

"Brothers, we will reward you with 100 taels of silver for killing a Dutch soldier!"

"If one of the officers or the leader is killed, not only will you be rewarded with 500 taels of silver, but you will at least be able to become a fifth-rank official in the Nanyang Chief Envoy in the future!"

A series of inspiring rewards were proclaimed by everyone, which revived the morale of the rebels who had begun to sag, and also made the battle before the battle more brutal.

As the chief of staff, Xu Lin distributed the troops with a calm face. The task he got was not to capture Batavia. The old-school Fuhan army, with the help of a large number of artillery, may surprise Batavia and take it directly, but these people are not enough to do this right now.

For Xu Lin, what he really wanted to do was to draw the attention of the Dutch, and it would be best to attract the Dutch defenders in Batavia to attack the city, so that the Fuhan army would be able to fight back after landing. It is possible to capture Batavia by surprise and achieve a complete victory in the war.

"Bang bang bang-"

"Boom--"

The Dutch mercenaries are actually not a strong army. After all, it is just a colonial mercenary. Only those officers in it are Dutch, and the others are Javanese. Afterwards, these Chinese soldiers were also detained by the Dutch East India Company.

A large number of mercenaries lined up in a neat line and launched a surprise attack on the rebels' front. They shouted and waved their muskets one by one. As a result, they were often shot by the rebels scattered in the middle of the charge. Several people were killed, and then others began to be a little timid, and when the rebels threw another grenade, these Dutch mercenaries who were not tenacious in the first place began to run back, so such an offensive was naturally nothing Efficiency can be said, not to mention playing for a day or two, even playing for ten days and half a month is probably possible.

Xu Lin is naturally not afraid of such an army. While commanding the rebel army to repel the attack of the Dutch mercenaries, he began to premeditate a counterattack. Naturally, he was not satisfied with fighting the Dutch mercenaries here, but hoped that the real Dutch mercenaries could be captured as soon as possible. The army was attracted from the city, and the number was not large, probably more than 500 people, but these people were the basis of the entire rule of the Dutch East India Company in Nanyang.

As long as these 500 people are eliminated, it will be just around the corner to win Nanyang.

Seeing that the attack of the Dutch mercenaries was defeated again, Huang Chu walked up to Xu Lin excitedly. He was somewhat apprehensive at first, but now he was completely calm and laughed loudly.

"Chief of Staff, these Dutch soldiers really can't help fighting, should we rush back and charge?"

Huang Chu, who had already begun to think of himself as a peerless famous general, gave a counterattack suggestion without hesitation, regardless of the people under his command.

However, Xu Lin really had this idea in his heart, so he nodded and said softly: "The fight must be fought. The more intense the fight, the easier it is for the real Dutch red-haired ghost to escape from Badawi. Yali fished it out!"

"Come on, don't worry, chief of staff, this time we're going to beat these Dutch bastards hard!"

Huang Chu led the people away happily. After all, they had been fighting for more than a day, and many people gradually emerged from the battle. They began to become the core backbone of Huang Chu's subordinates.

I saw that with the sound of rumbling drums, hundreds of rebels led by Huang Chu and Lin Cheng launched a counter-raid in the direction of the Dutch mercenaries in a small group, and there were crackling gunshots And the explosions kept ringing.

In fact, when he first formulated the tactics, Xu Lin already understood in his heart that the traditional line tactics require a very high level of training, and it is by no means something that the rebels in the current state of loose sand can play. A small-group assault tactic similar to skirmishing tactics is more suitable for the rebel army, and the core weapon is the grenade.

The whole tactic is very simple, that is, the squad of insurgents spread out to close the distance with the Dutch mercenary soldiers, and then use the cover of their comrades to throw all their grenades into the crowd of Dutch mercenaries. After the explosion sounded, they directly used The bayonet in his hand and the large blade on his back greeted him, pulling the Dutch mercenaries into the melee.

Under this simple and extremely effective tactic, the morale of the Dutch mercenaries gradually fell into a state of complete collapse. Many people gradually dispersed amidst the explosion, but they all began to flee for their lives in embarrassment.

(End of this chapter)