Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 487 Spain is about to end in the great battle (please subscribe, please vote)
It was the tenth day of February in the 11th year of the Republic of Ming Dynasty.

The Spanish Armada, which had been lingering outside the open bay of Da Nang for twelve days, finally began a tentative attack.Eleven East India Company gunboats temporarily equipped with long oars braved the strong westerly wind on the sea and broke into Da Nang Bay under the last cover of darkness before dawn.After a brief exchange of fire with several crab boats belonging to Hui Ninh Town of Daming, they turned around and retreated to the mouth of the Khan River located deep in Da Nang Bay.

The exchange of fire between the light ships of both sides was brief and not very intense.The navy in Huining Town is not a real navy. At best, it is a maritime police or coast guard. The personnel are not transferred from the navy, but the original "pirates" of Dahao.Of course they were good at anti-smuggling and combating piracy, but they were no match for the Dutch East India Company's navy.However, Yu Qilin and Zhu Qipao did not ask them to carry the Western warships to death, as long as they could serve as an early warning and investigation.

The eleven gunboats of the Dutch East India Company followed these crab boats and sailed southward, finally arriving at a small and shallow bay next to the mouth of the Khan River.By this time, the thick darkness before dawn had faded, and the sky was beginning to light up.In the early morning light, the captains of the Dutch East India Company saw a defense system that they could not believe.

The entrance to the naval base, known as "Kampat Sweatwater", is about one nautical mile wide. It is blocked by two chain-linked ship arrays connected by bow and stern, leaving only a very narrow space for one ship. The opening for entry and exit of the battleship.

Among them, there is an iron chain chain boat array on the outside, which is composed of [-] to [-] Fu boats, Guang boats, and Bird boats connected from bow to stern.These Fu Chuan, Guang Chuan, and Bird boats were originally the favorite ships of Nanyang Chinese merchants. They were cheap to build and required few sailors to operate. Because they used hard sails that could be rotated, they were very suitable for sailing in changing wind directions. of inland navigation.

However, after the Ming Dynasty was in a state of war with pirate powers such as Spain, the Netherlands, England, and Portugal, many Western privateers appeared in the waters of the South China Sea!This resulted in excellent commercial ship types such as Fu Chuan, Guang Chuan, and Bird Chuan, whose hulls were not strong enough and whose firepower was weak, gradually being replaced by large old lock ships with both military and civilian uses.

The latter's light-load displacement can usually reach seven or eight hundred tons. It has a sturdy hull and a double-layer gun deck. It is usually equipped with 28 cannons, half of which are 18-pound heavy guns and half of which are 12-pound cannons.This firepower and tonnage are completely configured for a fifth-level battleship (frigate)!If they were to form a fleet and go sailing again, no privateers from Western pirate countries would dare to touch it!

The temporarily eliminated Fuchuan, Guangzhou, and Bird boats were parked in many trading ports under the Ming Dynasty. They were used to build floating water city walls, which can be regarded as useless ships.

However, the chain-link ship array in the inner circle looks a bit extravagant. It is a floating city wall on the sea composed of a first-class battleship, more than twenty fourth-class battleships and a dozen large armed galenic ships!

What is this operation?Almost half of the Spanish navy's strength has become a water defense line?And what is the use of this line of defense?Are you ready to turn naval battles into positional battles?

Admiral Sabala, who received the enemy situation report sent back by the Dutch gunboat, also felt incredible, but he soon figured it out.Although the Chinese have now learned to build and operate Western-style soft-sail battleships, they are not a maritime nation after all. They are a conservative mainland nation who only want to defend their own one-third of an acre of land - they are even fighting with the northern Tatars. A Great Wall stretching thousands of miles was built where the people bordered!

Even if such a nation has a powerful navy, it only uses it as a great sea wall to protect the sea territory, rather than a sharp sword used to attack the enemy's coast!Therefore, it is normal for them to use warships as stones to build a sea wall in Da Nang Bay.

However, this "sea wall" has a fatal weakness, that is, it is afraid of fire attack!The Dutch in the Spanish Armada are particularly good at fire attacks - Admiral Zabala knows this very well!

So Admiral Zabala immediately worked with his Dutch deputy Constantin Nobel, who was also the naval commander of the East India Company, to formulate a Spanish-Dutch version of a plan to burn serial ships!
In order to ensure the greatest success of the operation, they decided to dispatch most of the light ships and twenty arson boats at hand to take the lead, use the cover of night to break into Da Nang Bay and burn him first!
Then twenty more flexible fourth-level battleships followed in, taking advantage of the Ming Navy fleet being thrown into chaos by the fire ship raid to kill people!In order to ensure the success of the raid, Admiral Zabala and Constantin Nobel also decided to send out the Spanish Armada's Dutch fourth-class ships and British fourth-class ships, which are most capable of fighting in melee!

In addition, Spain's first-class battleship "Our Lady of Concepcion" will also sail into Da Nang under the protection of several Spanish fourth-class ships to take command on the battlefield.The remaining ships from various countries belonging to the Spanish Armada will form a formation to cruise outside Da Nang Bay to prevent Ming warships from taking advantage of the chaos to break out. In this battle, the Spanish Armada must completely break the backbone of the Ming Navy's ocean-going fleet.

After the plan was formulated, it has been strengthened several times, and in fact it has become a joint fleet of Spain, Britain, and the Netherlands. The Spanish Armada, which has more than 100 ships, is wandering outside Da Nang while "borrowing" "East wind" - To burn the serial ship, there must be an east wind, preferably a northeast wind, otherwise it would be difficult for the Armada to rush into Da Nang!
The Spaniards' method of "borrowing the east wind" was, of course, praying to God the Father!
I don’t know if it’s because the King of Spain has been excommunicated by the Pope, so Admiral Sabala’s prayers didn’t work quickly. It was “borrowed” for more than ten days, until the night of February 21, Sabala Pulling the Northeast Wind that the Admiral wanted was long overdue!
After learning that the wind direction had become extremely favorable to him, Admiral Sabala made a prompt decision and issued an order to attack Da Nang.The first detachment, composed of dozens of Spanish, Dutch, and English warships and more than 20 arson boats, took advantage of the dark night, still with eleven Dutch gunboats as the vanguard, and sailed into the open bay of Da Nang.

The same situation happened when the Dutch gunboats entered Da Nang last time. These light ships with a displacement of no more than 200 tons were still blocked by the Ming army's fast crab boats, and those fast crab boats were still quickly repelled.

Subsequently, the first detachment of the Spanish Armada that rushed into Da Nang Bay took advantage of the favorable wind and followed eleven Dutch gunboats and quickly arrived near the camp at the mouth of the Khan River.

About one nautical mile away from the camp at the mouth of the Khan River, the flagship "Our Lady of Concepcion" stopped moving forward.Admiral Zabala and his deputy Nobel were standing on the stern deck of the ship, looking forward with telescopes like statues, trying to judge the situation of the Ming army from the flickering lights in the darkness ahead. .

I don't know how long it took before Admiral Zabala put down his telescope, took out his pocket watch and looked at it. Then he turned to Nobel and said, "Major General Nobel, it's almost time. Let's get started. May Heavenly Father bless the King of Spain and his family." Consul of the Netherlands and King of England!”

Major General Nobel turned around and shouted to the staff officer next to him: "Signal rocket. Launch!"

The people currently responsible for commanding the Da Nang water camp operations are Colonel Yu Qilin, chief of staff of the Ming Dynasty Ocean Fleet, and Colonel Zhu Qipao, the garrison envoy of Da Nang.

Lieutenant General Cotentin has led 3000 of the best officers and key sailors, riding horses and mules provided by Qiu Hui, to Thanh Hoa, where General Annan's shogunate is located several hundred miles away.There they will board the 4 third-level battleships and 24 fourth-level battleships belonging to the Ming Dynasty Nanyang Fleet heading south from Guangzhou Bay (located in Leizhou Peninsula) - before Cotentan and Yu Qilin led the fleet into Da Nang, they So he released a lightly loaded Galen ship and sailed quickly to Guangzhou Bay, requesting the Nanyang Fleet to quickly go south to Qinghua.

After the battleships of the Nanyang Fleet are reunited with the officers and sailors brought by Cotentin, almost each battleship can be supplemented by more than 100 experienced officers and key sailors!

This will greatly enhance the actual combat effectiveness of the Nanyang Fleet!

In addition, Vice Admiral Cotentin will also temporarily serve as chief of staff to Admiral Chen Shangchuan, the admiral of the Nanyang Fleet, and may actually be in charge of command.There are still more than 11000 officers and sailors of the Navy's ocean-going fleet remaining in Da Nang.Zhu Qipao already had more than 3000 people under his command, and he temporarily recruited more than 5000 people. Together, there were almost 20000 people!

On the night of October 21st, when the northeast wind picked up.Both Yu Qilin and Zhu Qipao knew that the Spaniards would launch an attack soon - they had all seen "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". How could they know about borrowing the east wind and burning the serial ship?
Besides, the Dutch have always been good at setting fires!The Spanish were burned in Downs Bay, the British were burned in the Thames River, and the Galen ship built by Zheng Zhilong with great difficulty was burned in Xiamen Bay!

Yu Qilin has carefully studied these classic naval battles. How could he not be on guard?
So Yu Qilin immediately issued an order for the whole army to stay overnight, and all officers and soldiers boarded the ship.When the early morning of the next day arrived, the alert was once again heightened. All officers and soldiers entered their stations, opened their eyes wide, and looked at the dark ocean in front of them.

A dozen crab boats under the command of the Da Nang garrison are also ready. Except for a few patrolling at the entrance of Da Nang harbor, the other crab boats are deployed between the two "water walls."

And at the mouth of the Khan River and the Chashan Peninsula - at both ends of the bay where the mouth of the Khan River is located, two carefully disguised artillery positions are also ready!These two artillery positions are equipped with 18-pound and 28-pound heavy guns that were moved from the Liaodong and more than twenty other fourth-level ships. The number exceeds 200!
As for Yu Qilin and Zhu Qipao, they were sitting in a small fortress near the mouth of the Khan River, quietly waiting for the decisive moment to come!
Just as time passed by minute by minute, and it seemed as if nothing would happen on this night, a brilliant light like fireworks suddenly exploded in the distant night sky!

"It's begun!" Zhu Qipao suddenly stood up and rolled up his sleeves, looking like he was about to pounce and kill someone.

Yu Qilin calmly took out a pocket watch made in Foshan, looked at the time under the dim lantern light, and said with a smile: "It's four o'clock in the morning. You chose a good time!"

The sky is not bright yet but is about to be bright, the northeast wind is getting stronger and stronger, and the most common morning fog in the bay has slowly begun to rise, as if a layer of gauze has enveloped the entire Da Nang Bay.

In this fog, more than 20 arson boats were drifting silently towards the Ming army's water camp with their sails inflated.Suddenly, one of the arson boats first burst into flames, and then the other arson boat was ignited. After a while, more than twenty flashes of light appeared on the originally dark sea!

By the light of these twenty or so fires, the officers and soldiers guarding the Ming Army's water camp could vaguely see the "shadows of boats" of various sizes floating towards them!

The Guangchuan, Fuchuan, and Bird boats located outside the water camp of the Ming Dynasty also had artillery!Although the hulls of these civilian ships can hardly withstand the recoil of large-caliber artillery, they are now "disposable ships" and there is no need to take this into consideration.

The cannons installed on these ships were not high-quality and high-priced bronze cannons, but cheap 12-pound cast iron cannons.The barrels of all these 12-pound cast-iron cannons have been loaded with chain bombs designed to hit masts and sails.

As the commanders on these Guangchuan, Fuchuan, and Bird boats loudly issued orders: "Let go!"

Hundreds of 12-pound cast-iron cannons had their muzzles exposed, each fuse was ignited, and tongues of flame spewed out from each muzzle!
The gas released by the detonation of the gunpowder pushed the chain bullet out of the gun barrel, whistling and spinning towards the flickering fire ahead!Those fire ships were already very close to the Ming army's "Water City", so they were easily hit.And the 12-pound chain bomb is quite powerful, enough to cut off the mast of a fire ship!And once the masts of the fireships fell down, the force of the wind that propelled them weakened a lot.

In the first round of shelling alone, more than 5 fireships were hit. As their masts fell with a click, their speed suddenly slowed down. It was obvious that it would be difficult for them to persist until they hit the Ming army's "water city". "Yes!"

Seeing the Ming army's "Water City" with such strong firepower, the gunboats and fourth-level battleships following the fire ship immediately lost their composure and turned on the spot, changing from facing the enemy on the bow to facing the enemy on the side. Start targeting the Ming army's "ship wall" with side artillery and blast it!
However, the Ming army's artillery remained unmoved. They just fired chain bombs with their heads covered, not only at the fireships, but also at the gunboats and fourth-level battleships that took the initiative to fire and exposed their targets.

Shells were flying back and forth on the sea, and smoke and thick fog were mixed together, shrouding everything.

At the fortress at the mouth of the Khan River, Zhu Qipao, who had seen such a scene for the first time, was so excited that he danced and shouted: "Throw away your mother! Beat, beat hard."

Yu Qilin has long been used to seeing artillery battles exploding on the sea, so he is very calm now.Moreover, he did not expect that a "ship wall" could stop the Spanish offensive. Those "ship walls", even the first-class battleship Liaodong, other fourth-class ships, and armed Galen ships, were all used for sacrifice and extortion. of.

A boat is nothing at all!
In the eyes of this naval captain, who looked kind but had become a bit cold in his heart, they were nothing more than bargaining chips and pawns in the struggle for sea power.

As long as we can get corresponding Western ships and personnel, that's enough.

What he really cared about were good, experienced naval officers and sailors not with their lives but because they were difficult to replace.

At this time, a blazing fire ship had already hit the "ship wall"!The fire swept toward the "ship wall" but did not immediately ignite the wooden hull.

This is because a layer of fireproof mud has been applied to the planks and decks of all the wooden boats that make up the ship's walls, and sand and water buckets are also prepared to put out the fire.In addition to gunpowder and the wooden boat itself, other flammable items were also removed as much as possible.There were no sails, no ropes, no flags on board.So these ships are not easily set alight
(End of this chapter)