King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 676: The Winds of Sailing

"This matter is complicated and involves a lot of things... I don't know how to deal with it, so I asked my sister-in-law!"

Hearing Baochai's words, Yuanchun sneered inwardly.

Without even saying hello, they took Yingchun away. How can this be called not knowing what to do with her?
While complaining in her heart, Yuanchun said: "After all, it is a shameful thing. I think it is better to suppress it!"

"When my thirteenth brother returns to the capital in the future, if he doesn't mind... I will send my second sister to your house!"

"If he doesn't want to, then let my second sister live a peaceful life with the green lamp and yellow book for a long time!"

Now that Baochai knows the situation, the previous plan is no longer possible. Yuanchun's words are from the role of an elder sister, planning for the future of her poor younger sister.

"In that case...that's fine!" Baochai nodded.

Then she asked, "Should I report this to my mother?"

If the two of them work together, they can certainly suppress the matter easily. At this moment, Baochai asks whether she should tell the Queen, actually she is trying to prevent Baochai from betraying them halfway.

"It's not impossible!" Yuanchun answered ambiguously.

"I think it's better to report this matter to our mother. She has a long-term vision and can give us some pointers if we have any shortcomings!"

"Yeah!" Yuanchun responded.

"In that case, sister-in-law, let's go together!" Baochai spoke again.

Yuanchun was so angry that she almost laughed, but she finally held back her laughter.

"can!"

So Baochai stood up and said, "Then let's go now!"

"Why are you in such a hurry!"

"There is no time to lose, sister-in-law, don't be careless!"

Having said that, Yuanchun had no choice but to get up and leave, heading straight towards Kunning Palace.

When the Queen learned of the situation, she was much calmer than Baochai and the others had expected. She knew very well what kind of person her youngest son was.

In the end, the Queen agreed with Baochai's opinion and strictly ordered the two of them to keep the secret, otherwise they would be held accountable if the news leaked.

Of course, Baochai would not leak the news, so the Queen's words of warning were actually spoken to Yuanchun.

This also means that Baochai’s goal has been achieved.

Things had basically been resolved at this point, so Baochai and the other person returned to Ningshou Palace.

As for the Queen, except for the first day when she was there all the time, she would go there for half an hour each morning, noon and evening afterwards, so this time she did not go with Baochai and the others.

When Baochai and her companion returned to Ningshou Palace, they encountered another interesting show.

It turned out that Prince Rui Zhu Jingyuan had returned. He had indeed been on the road these days and looked exhausted at the moment.

As soon as he entered the Ningshou Palace, he threw himself in front of the coffin of the retired emperor and cried so hard that his filial piety moved the heavens...

"Grandpa, Grandpa...why are you..."

"I ran all the way, risking my life to go back, but I still couldn't see you for the last time. I am an unfilial grandson..."

"My grandson kowtows to you and comes to apologize..."

Zhu Jingyuan kowtowed and cried, and at least on the surface he looked extremely filial, but Baochai and Yuanchun treated him as a joke.

Only Chen Zhi felt distressed when she saw her husband kowtow more than ten times, so she went forward and tried to hold him back.

"Don't worry about me. I'm going to kowtow to my death in front of Grandpa's spirit today, otherwise I'll feel miserable..."

"If the Emperor were in heaven, he would feel sad to see your Highness' behavior..."

"Grandpa loved me so much back then, but I didn't get to see him for the last time. I am so unfilial..."

It was in this style that the couple performed very skillfully without any rehearsal, until the emperor sent someone to stop them.

Things in the capital were calm, but thousands of miles away at sea, the waves were surging and the air was filled with blood.

The Ming navy left the port on October 28th, and it has been nearly a month now.

During this month, the Ming Dynasty fought against the Spanish fleet, but the scale was slightly larger and overall neither side gained an advantage.

The problem now is that the Spanish fleet is already running low on ammunition, and its replenishment efficiency through supply ships is too low.

For the Ming Dynasty, although the supply conditions have improved a lot, the navy is now thousands of miles deep in the sea, which makes all the generals worried.

Since the Ming Dynasty had a navy, it has rarely been so far away from the coast.

So at this stage, both the Ming Dynasty and the Spanish are in a very difficult situation. One wants to run but is always caught, while the other wants to chase but is afraid of getting into trouble.

Under the influence of these two kinds of thinking, both sides almost unanimously believed that the time had come for a decisive battle.

On the third day of December, two huge fleets were approaching deep in the South China Sea of ​​the Ming Dynasty.

Because Zhu Jinghong was out at sea, he only learned about the death of the retired emperor two days ago, and it was brought by the crew of the supply ship.

This incident did not affect him too much. After all, winning the battle was the top priority at the moment.

Zhu Jinghong's command ship was at the rear of the fleet. In front of him was a nautical chart with some small ship models placed on it, which could display the military situation of both sides in real time.

The situation on the Ming side was that the Nanjing and Zhejiang naval forces were already the central army, with the main forces stationed in front of the fleet, and some warships distributed on both sides to guard the flanks.

The Liaodong Navy was a detachment, currently to the west of the main fleet, responsible for escorting a dozen supply ships arriving from Taiwan and providing reinforcements when necessary.

The so-called decisive battle does not mean that the two sides have agreed to start fighting, but that it develops as the situation develops.

For example, Zhu Jinghong’s current target is a Spanish fleet that has separated from the main force in front, which has only about twenty warships.

The vanguard of the Ming navy was about twenty miles away, so the enemy's sails could be seen with a telescope on the lookout tower of the vanguard warship.

"So at the current speed of the ship, our army will be able to catch up with the enemy in about another hour!"

"It's only because their sails were broken and we didn't give them a chance to repair them that they couldn't run fast!"

This refers to the commander of this warship and the Tongzhi and Qianshi under him, who are Zhu Jinghong's special combat staff.

"We can't be careless. After all, there are more than 20 warships. If we really take them on... the main force of the Western Barbarians may come to rescue us!" Zhu Jinghong said in a deep voice.

A deputy governor replied: "Our main force is coming. Even if the Western barbarians come to rescue us, those twenty warships will be destroyed by the time they arrive!"

Zhu Jinghong nodded, but still felt uneasy, so he ordered, "Contact the Liaodong Navy's express ship. How long will it take to find them?"

"About four quarters!"

If everything went well, the military order would be delivered in half an hour, and the reinforcement would take another half an hour. Zhu Jinghong felt that it was too far away.

As the saying goes, a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit. Now that the war is about to begin, he thinks it is better to move closer.

What's more, the Liaodong Navy was set up as a detachment, and its purpose was to provide support when the local main force attacked.

At the moment, Zhu Jinghong suspected that the enemy might provide support, so it would be much safer to move the Liaodong navy closer, in his opinion.

"Right now, the Liaodong Navy is 20 miles away from our main force. Immediately send an order to have them move within 15 miles!"

The distance is fifteen miles, so the time for support to arrive will be shortened. If it is fast, it will arrive in three quarters of an hour (45 minutes).

Of course, if you want to arrive faster, you can shorten the distance, but this will increase the possibility of being discovered and it will not be able to achieve the effect of a surprise attack.

"Yes!" After arranging these, everything returned to calm.

This is what naval battles are like. Most of the time, they are peaceful, with both sides chasing each other on the sea, and artillery battles only take up a very small amount of time.

Walking out of the cabin and standing on the side of the ship, Zhu Jinghong picked up the telescope and looked at the vast ocean in the distance.

The enemy's sails are visible and become more exposed as time goes by, which means the distance between the two sides is getting closer.

"Your Highness, there is an island ahead!"

After hearing the reminder from the general beside him, Zhu Jinghong adjusted the direction of his view and sure enough, an island vaguely emerged to the east of the enemy ship in front.

"Which island is this?"

Due to the prosperity of maritime trade, many islands were marked on merchant ships. These nautical charts were eventually collected by the navy, and after sorting, a relatively complete Ming Dynasty nautical chart was made.

Currently, when sailing out to sea, there are special people on the warships who are responsible for calculating the positions of the ships. Although there are errors, they are not a big problem.

After Zhu Jinghong asked the question, he gave the answer a few minutes later.

"Your Highness, the island ahead should be Dayu Island!"

The so-called "Big Fish Island" was later called "Kalayan". Now there is only a small fishing village on it.

Looking at the markings on the map, Zhu Jinghong nodded, and then ordered to keep a close eye on the enemy's movements.

Soon, a few minutes passed, and the commander just now reported: "Your Highness, the enemy and us are less than five miles apart. The enemy has already adjusted the position of the warships. It seems that they are going to fight a desperate battle!"

Zhu Jinghong ordered: "Follow the predetermined plan, move closer and destroy them!"

"Yes!"

The specific battle plan has been decided, and now this kind of military order that emphasizes execution can be issued directly using flag signals.

The two fleets were getting closer and closer, and their respective soldiers had already pushed out their artillery, ready to strike as long as they were ignited.

One thousand meters, eight hundred meters, six hundred meters...

In fact, this was already within the range of the cannon, but it was shaking too much in the open ocean, so it had to be brought closer before it could be fired.

Similar to the fighting style of line infantry, whoever fires first is more likely to lose, after all, the one who fires later is closer and can shoot more accurately.

The enemy has more than twenty warships of various types, and the Ming Dynasty now has more than seventy main warships.

It would definitely not be possible to rush in at once. The Class A and Class B ships are at the front, and the rest of the ships are on the flanks or in the rear, ready to support the battle situation in the front at any time.

The vanguard of the two fleets were now nearly 400 meters apart. In this situation, the choice of when to fire was entirely in the hands of the ship commanders.

In other words, with the backward communication means nowadays, Zhu Jinghong can no longer effectively micro-manage, and all he can do is wait for the results.

Three hundred and fifty meters, three hundred meters, two hundred and fifty meters,

The ships of both sides were getting closer and closer, and the distance was already very dangerous, but the Spaniards still did not fire.

On the Ming Navy side, the person in charge was Wang Long, who could no longer wait.

"fire……"

Following his order, the cannons of his Class A ship roared, and the other ships around him also followed suit. For a while, the roar of cannons was endless.

A-class ships have thirty guns on one side, while B-class ships have twenty. Nearly thirty warships are attacking now, and each round of salvo fires more than six hundred shells.

In addition to the empty shells, each of the twenty or so warships on the opposite side was hit by more than twenty shells, and the already damaged warships were now even worse.

After the Ming Dynasty opened fire, the Spanish fleet finally opened fire as well, but their energy density was much lower, posing a threat to the Ming Dynasty warships but not a big one.

The two sides started to fight each other. When Wang Long proposed to allocate warships again to encircle and kill the Spanish fleet from other directions, Zhu Jinghong disagreed.

The reason was that the twenty-odd Spanish warships that were caught up looked a little too strange.

"Is this a trick?" Zhu Jinghong thought.

As for how it was a fraud, he had no idea, but he just felt that something was not right.

Little did he know that the main force of the Spanish fleet was on the other side of the island, and had received supplies two days ago and had sufficient ammunition.

The more than 20 ships left behind at this moment were just baits thrown by the Spaniards to attract the attention of the Ming Dynasty.

After the naval battle in the distance had been going on for more than ten minutes, Count Luis, the commander of the Spanish fleet, stood at the bow and ordered: "Attack!"

"Our army will attack from behind your main force, and you will have no way out!" Louis said viciously.

This time he led his army north, full of confidence to annihilate the Ming navy, but due to various outrageous actions of the Ming army, he was unable to defeat the enemy in this battle.

In addition, due to the lack of supplies, he was defeated one after another. Although he had strong troops at his disposal, he did not use their full strength.

But now, his remaining fifty-odd warships, after obtaining supplies, will be able to launch a surprise attack from behind, and it will be easy to capture the Ming army.

Of course, Louis was just optimistic in his mind. He would not be careless when dealing with war, and he also had the idea of ​​using all his strength like a lion fighting a rabbit.

As for Zhu Jinghong's side, after more than 30 Class A and Class B warships launched a barrage of attacks on more than 20 warships in front, they finally defeated the enemy and made them unable to fight back.

During this process, the defense range of the Ming army navy was lengthened. It was originally three miles wide and two miles long, but now it has become three miles wide and four miles long.

"Your Highness, the enemy has no power to fight back. It looks like our vanguard is about to board the ship!" reported a commanding officer.

"Ok!"

Up to this point, everything was going smoothly and the Ming army suffered few casualties, but Zhu Jinghong still felt uneasy.

At this time, he looked towards the island not far away, and saw towering mountains standing on it, examining the passing warships.

On the vast ocean, seeing these islands that were much taller than the warships made Zhu Jinghong feel a sense of oppression.

At this time, he glanced at the sea around him and suddenly realized that the entire fleet was too scattered.

Apart from the more than 30 warships participating in the battle at the front, the ships that did not participate in the battle were too far away, and the current situation could not be called a fleet.

"Send the order immediately, all remaining ships to move closer, this is the highest level order!" Zhu Jinghong shouted.

His sudden shout startled everyone around him, but they all immediately followed the order.

The flag signal was sent out, and the nearby warships received the order and conveyed it to the warships farther away.

Although this is relatively efficient communication, the transmission speed is still relatively slow.

The slow transmission of orders is one thing, but adjusting the direction of the warships after receiving the orders is an even more troublesome matter.

About ten minutes later, the entire reserve fleet began to move closer, and at this time the sails of the Spanish main flagship had passed the cover of the island and appeared on the sea.

When the first batch of warships appeared, the Ming Dynasty realized that something was wrong, and the alarm sounded immediately.

"Your Highness, enemy ships appear in the north!"

At this moment, Zhu Jinghong was looking towards the north. He saw more and more warships appearing, which made his heart suddenly feel cold.

"Let all our ships come together immediately, all of them!"

Everything here includes the thirty or so warships that annihilated the enemy on the south side, as well as the Liaodong Navy fifteen miles away.

Obviously, the sudden appearance of the enemy warships behind him made Zhu Jinghong have extremely bad guesses.

(End of this chapter)