Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 709 The Battle of Dajiao Sand Cape
Considering that the Ming army's naval combat capability is not high, it is unlikely that a large-scale naval battle will break out. More shore bombardment and close support missions will be carried out. All Ming army artillery on the fort exceeds this range.So only 2 squadrons were equipped with Caron guns.In order to avoid excessive losses, Chen Haiyang asked the squadron equipped with 24-pound cannons to shell first.

"Should we send out bombardment boats?" Someone suggested.

This trip to the inland river of the Pearl River, the fleet also brought a special bombardment boat, which is a firepower boat specially manufactured by the shipyard for the next step of the mainland raid.

A bombardment boat is a specially reinforced, single-masted small vessel designed for ground attack. It is characterized by a shallow draft and can sail to shallow waters to carry out bombardment.The shape of this kind of boat is like the hard shell of half a piece of hazelnut, and the side of the boat is much higher than that of ordinary sampans, so that it is not easy to roll over and enter the water even if it is shaken violently.A wooden lee board of the same length as the hull is installed along the keel of the underwater part close to the bottom of the boat to counteract the side-to-side shaking of the hull caused by the recoil of the artillery. to two reinforced mounts.For mounting 10" or 15" caliber mortars.

This kind of bombardment boat participated in the fortified battles of Humen and Zhoushan Forts in the First Opium War.It has shown its excellent destroying effect on the opposite shore target.

The bombardment boat manufactured by Lingao adopts the craft of iron frame and wood shell to simplify production and strengthen the hull structure.Moreover, certain improvements have been made, not only can a mortar or a large-caliber howitzer be installed, but also a Hale rocket can be launched after the launcher is installed.Multiple uses for one boat.The Ordnance Factory cast 20 280mm caliber mortars and installed them on 10 bombardment boats.

"Not for now." Chen Haiyang shook his head.The ammunition reserves on the bomber boat are limited, and it takes time and effort to resupply ammunition at sea. He still has to keep the bomber boat to deal with the main battery of Ya Niangxie.

Shi Shishi's 5th spy boat squadron was the first to go out.Shi Shishi issued an order from the poop, and the whole squadron approached Shajiao in a column formation.

As far as the range is concerned, the artillery on the spy boat does not have any advantage. In order to achieve a better shooting effect, it must be fired close to about 400 meters.But in terms of artillery power and shooting accuracy, the difference is not the same level.

The gunners of each ship in the Fifth Squadron raised their measuring instruments to measure the distance, wind direction, wind speed, and ship speed.Quickly use the slide rule to calculate the aiming data.

"The whole squadron is loaded with grenades!" Shi Shishi ordered, "Get ready to shoot!"

The officers and soldiers on the fort probably did not expect that the enemy's ships would not leave through the channel as soon as possible, but were getting closer and closer to the fort.According to the original prediction, the distance between Dajiao and Shajiao is relatively large, and effective pinching firepower cannot be formed between the two forts. When the weak fort encounters a frontal attack, a small number of defenders immediately fall into chaos.The rhythm of firing began to become disordered.The reloading and cooling of the old-style artillery itself is slow, and the gunners who have not received much training will be in a hurry when they fire in an emergency.The artillery fire seemed very messy.

Shi Shishi noticed that the water jets splashed by the shells were of different sizes, and the ballistic smoke trails of the shells were also chaotic. He knew that there were very few Hongyi cannons on the fort that could pose a threat to ships, and most of them were large Francois machines. artillery.

Thick white smoke shrouded the Dajiao Fort, and the shells landed far away from the spy boat, setting off large and small water jets—not to mention the problem of aiming, the enemy fired randomly before they even entered the range. The typical characteristics of the use of firearms by various armed forces on Chinese soil.Although it looked spectacular for a while, many artillery pieces stopped because of the overheating of the gun body.Only some sporadic artillery was still firing, and the shells did not pose any threat.

"Right rudder 20 degrees, all ships follow me!" Shi Shishi saw that his flagship was less than 600 meters away from the fort. At this distance, the 24-pound cannon on his ship was powerful and accurate enough to bombard the fort.

A shell landed not far from the side of the ship, and the Fifth Squadron followed the direction of the flagship, and all turned to the right, aiming the port side at the fort.

"Salvo from the port side!" Shi Shishi roared.

Linte 51 erupted with a huge roar. The salvo of the 4 cannons on the port side and the 2 cannons at the bow and stern caused the entire hull to vibrate. The recoil slams past the bank to the right.The ship's planks and masts creaked.A pungent smell immediately filled the deck.

Six grenades dragged fire and smoke and fell on the beach in front of the fort, setting off a row of high water jets dyed yellow—the flagship fired the standard bomb.

"Damn it! It's too close!" Shi Shisi cursed, "How did you do the distance measurement? Fix it!"

The other three spy boats following the squadron's flagship quickly corrected their distance, and the second and third rounds of artillery fire hit the Big Horn Fort one after another.A faint black flame of an explosion rises from the thick smoke.After the shelling of the entire Fifth Squadron ended, the artillery fire of the Big Horn Fort had completely stopped.When all the shelling of the three squadrons was over, the turn of the fifth squadron was just completed.Heading south, aimed the unfired starboard side at the Bighorn Battery.The second round of shelling began.

The Big Horn Fort was originally built for assault, and the open fortifications could not withstand the bombardment of 24-pound grenades.He was soon silenced by such continuous shelling.The whole fort was covered with smoke and fire.Completely lost combat effectiveness.

Several sampans carrying sailors boarded the Dajiao Fort. The fort made of sandbags was mostly collapsed, the artillery was tilted here and there, and the bodies of officers and soldiers killed by the artillery fire were scattered everywhere on the ground.Most of the officers and soldiers guarding the platform have fled.

Then, the spy boat squadron bombarded the Shajiao Fort. The terrain of Shajiao was more favorable than that of Dajiao, but in a hurry, the officers and soldiers only built a sandbag fort at the foot of Shajiao Mountain.It also quickly lost its combat effectiveness under artillery fire.The sailors quickly boarded the sand corner, not only captured all the cannons, but also captured 11 guards who were unable to escape.The naval losses were extremely slight: in the two-hour battle, there were no other losses except for 4 spy boats being shot and 7 people injured.The spy boat that was shot was just hit by some small projectiles. The most serious damage was that Linte 75 was pierced through the side by a 9-pound shell.But it doesn't affect navigation at all.

The sailors who boarded the forts of Dajiao and Shajiao dismantled all the cannons on the forts, put them on sampans and took them away.Several captured pirate ships in the fleet were used exclusively as loot carriers.

After destroying the two corners of the fort, Chen Haiyang commanded the fleet to continue to approach Diya Niangxie Mountain, the main defense of Humen.He decided not to rush directly through the East Waterway-the East Waterway has cross-strait artillery fire, and many ships will inevitably be shot if they pass directly, causing unnecessary casualties and losses.

From the reconnaissance information, Chen Haiyang knew that the officers and soldiers were completely undefended in the Humen West Waterway, so he decided to lead the fleet into the West Waterway to launch an attack.The artillery of the Dahushan Fort poses no threat to his fleet.The officers and soldiers' idea of ​​using the Dahushan Fort is to prevent the enemy ships that have broken through the east and west waterways from continuing to go up.But Chen Haiyang's goal is to seize Humen first.

A squadron of spy boats entered the East Channel first.Because the East Fort on Shanghengdang Island has not yet been completed, no cannons have been placed.Xu Tingfa garrisoned [-] soldiers at the fort construction site and some small artillery to cover Shanghengdang Island. The officers and soldiers guarding Shanghengdang Island saw that the bandits were about to enter the East Waterway, so they lit the beacon and warned Humen Village.

Xu Tingfa is currently in the Chinese army tent on the top of Wushan Mountain.Watching helplessly the fall of the two fortresses in Dajiaoshajiao three or four kilometers away, there was nothing they could do.Originally, he didn't put much troops and cannons into these two forts.In the concept of Xu Tingfa and others, the thieves would drive directly across the waterway, take the upper rail and break through the blockade of the river. They did not expect that they would destroy the two corner forts one by one.

Now he watched the enemy take the East Channel, which had been left open because the fort was unfinished.Xu Tingfa was very anxious - after passing the East Waterway, only the Dahushan Fort could intercept the enemy ships, and the artillery of the Dahushan Fort was obviously insufficient.as a prior plan.He ordered Chen Qian to lead the naval warships of Humen Village to immediately go to the West Waterway to meet the enemy.

It was the 13th spy boat squadron commanded by Li Guangfa that entered the West Channel.Immediately after he entered the waterway in column formation, he was bombarded by small artillery on the shore.But the small artillery can't hit the ship at all.Li Guangfa ordered to fire back.A few rounds of grenades quickly silenced the small artillery behind the earthen wall, and then the spy boat approached the coast and used a "typewriter" to clean up the officers, soldiers and infantry assembled on the earthen embankment.The lead bullets that rained down left the rest of the people laying corpses in the field, and they were routed.Resistance on the west coast of Shanghengban Island was quickly crushed.

The 10 two-masted navy ships led by Chen Qian did not rush directly to the west waterway, but lined up in the south sea of ​​Dahu Mountain.On the surface, it is said that they will give them a head-on blow only when the Kun thief ships leave the West Waterway.In fact, Chen Qian knew that the enemy's ships were strong and powerful, and he didn't dare to enter the West Waterway to fight with his opponents, so he planned to fight under the cover of the firepower of the Dahushan Fort. Control the West Waterway and cover the landing of the sailors on Shanghengdang Island.

Shanghengdang Island is the "key" of the portal in Humen's defense system. As long as the defensive side controls the island, it can effectively block the east and west waterways of Humen.Therefore, the focus of Chen Haiyang's Humen offensive plan is to take the island.

Since there is no fort on the west side of Shanghengdang Island, the fortification is weak, which gave Chen Haiyang a chance to directly capture the island.As Li Guangfa's No. 13 Squadron issued a signal to control the West Channel, the Daihatsu boat emitted thick black smoke, and it was fully loaded with sailors and marines and sailed towards the West Channel.

　The general geographical shape of Humen is: Dajiao and Shajiao are on the east and west sides of the river mouth.After the boat passes through, it goes up 3 to 4 kilometers and arrives at the lower Humen River.The main part of Humen is Yaniang Shoes Island, which is on the east side of the Pearl River and has Mount Wu on it.The Humen defense system takes Yaniang Xie Island as the core.

　　To the west of Yaniangxie Island is the main channel of the Pearl River. There are two small islands in the main channel opposite Wushan, which are the lower rail and the upper rail.The main waterway of the Pearl River is divided into the east waterway and the west waterway by these two small islands.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)