Chapter 72 Naval Battle (4)

This night was a rapid update for Gu Ba and Shen Baozhen, which was difficult to sleep. According to Shen Baozhen's idea, it was best to advance forward until the Green Camp soldiers on the ship could swim across the shore smoothly. This was the best state. If that were the case, Lei Xun, Guangheng and other ships could also be put into battle after dawn. But now, it was impossible. In order to ensure the safety of the soldiers on the land, the above ships must be parked behind the main fleet, so that the cards that can be played in their hands were restrained.

Shen Baozhen made such a bet in one fell swoop, but even the emperor in Beijing did not expect that using two iron armored ships and two fast gunboats to block Tuoshan Port was a great tactical adventure. Once it failed, there would be a danger of being wiped out.

However, Shen Baozhen also felt embarrassed. When he left Beijing, the emperor said that the first battle of the navy was related to a whole chess game in the court. If he could win, it would be good. If he lost, he would probably even be able to make the subsequent plan of the Mawei Shipyard. Therefore, Shen Baozhen would do anything to win the French fleet that went to Vietnam. As for the progress of the land troops, it had nothing to do with him.

Guba learned from the flagship in Tuoshan Port that it was already dusk when the war broke out in the offshore. He thought that even if Werda and other ships were defeated, they would be fine if they were covered by night and retreated without any problem. However, they did not expect that the bad news of the battle between Yi Shibi and Aspi was ruined by the battle between them, which forced Guba to cheer up and prepare for the fight tomorrow morning. But he did not expect that the Chinese naval operations would be so crazy. The progress of the matter was completely beyond Guba's expectations. The Chinese rely on the night and quietly advanced to the sea less than ten nautical miles away from Guba, anchored and stopped. They just waited for the sky to get brighter and attacked with all their strength.

Finally, I waited until the end of the sea and sky line to the end, and Shen Baozhen jumped up and ordered, "The whole army increased its horsepower and aimed directly at Tuoshan Port."

The Qing army turbine machine, who had been resting for less than four hours, rolling black smoke came out of the four large chimneys of the Dingyuan. The ironclad ship rushed to the outer anchorage waters of Tuoshan Port at a speed of 15 knots. It was close to it. When I observed with a telescope, there was no merchant ships from other countries in the waters as imagined. The bridges and docks in the distance were deserted, and even a ghost could not be seen.

Shen Baozhen thought for a while and realized the reason: Tuoshan Port is the place where the French fleet docked, and merchant ships from other countries feared the coming war and moved to the land early. This is good. Although he didn't care about this when talking to Lu Wenjing when talking about this matter, he would not care about it, but if the accidental injury really occurred, it would be very troublesome.

The night gradually disappeared above Tuoshan Port, a bright color broke through the sky, the sun shone on the earth, shining with shimmering on the sea, the guard posts on the French fleet instantly discovered the enemy ships, shouting all the way, rushing into the cabin. After a while, the sirens broke through the air and resounded inside and outside the harbor, "Send all ships to launch."

Ding Richang shouted loudly, and Dingyuan launched a round of artillery shells at a distance of four miles from Tuoshan Port. The hull hit a huge earthquake. Ding Richang and Shen Baozhen raised their telescopes at the same time, and at the same time, they put them down in disappointment. The effect of this shelling was very poor, with only three rounds missing bullets, splashing thick water columns, and not hit any of the enemy's warships.

The French fleet's reaction speed was quite amazing. The main combat group turned at a high angle and began to use snake maneuvers to get rid of the threats of the enemy fleet and continue to maintain a combat distance. The main ship Artarant quickly turned to the right, and finally adjusted the course to 210 degrees, that is, to move southwest. Intent to bypass the aggressive posture of the Chinese fleet - this is possible to maintain a sufficient distance from the Chinese fleet, and to get rid of the enemy through rapid turn and avoid the enemy's shelling.

However, there is a prerequisite for serpentine maneuvers. That is, the speed of the fleet must exceed the enemy, otherwise the enemy will never be able to get rid of the enemy with the steering. Shen Baozhen was not clear about this. Ding Richang and Lin Sensen, Chen Zhaoqiang, Luo Fenglu, Liu Buchan and others in the combat command room knew it very well. Seeing that the enemy fleet was accurately serpentine maneuvering as described in the textbooks in the Naval Academy, several young people exchanged an excited look: what they saw in the book was vague and abstract after all, and they could see it in person when fighting on the sea surface, which really benefited a lot.

Ding Richang responded quickly and ordered the commanders on the ship to quickly convey the order, "Zhenyuan, Lei Li and Guangli sailed 210, attacking the enemy ships that left the battlefield and intended to fight in a roundabout way. The other ships followed Dingyuan and divided the enemy fleets and defeated them one by one."

Shen Baozhen grew up in surprise, "Are there any green camp soldiers carrying ships such as Yu Sheng, Lei Xun?"

"I don't care much at this time." Ding Richang said little, and nodded to the helpless messenger standing there. The latter saluted and ran down quickly.

In the dawn sun, the Dingyuan ship suddenly accelerated. When it mentioned the fastest speed of 21 knots, it entered the center of the enemy fleet's fleet's fleet's departure route, and with a fierce bombing, marking the beginning of the official decisive battle between the Chinese and French navy.

There were five ships temporarily leaving the siege with the Atalant flagship, namely the Viper, the Wildcat, the Musket, the Second-Class Torpedo Boat No. 45 and the Desdan, which was originally commanded by Li Weiye. The remaining Triumph, Werda, Reynoldsburg, Tronfon, Duguttening, Vipier, the Jackal, Volta, the Second-Class Torpedo Boat No. 46 and several transport boats. The total number is 17 ships.

The French army naturally have the advantage in terms of quantity. However, the two ironclad ships in Dingyuan and Zhenyuan are the most advanced gunboats in the world. The hull is huge and the firepower is powerful. It is definitely not one. The two French ships can compete with each other. "Before the order, the main gun is aimed at the Triomphe and the port gun is aimed at the Wolda, and the two ironclad ships are sunk first."

The order "one-third rudder, new direction 270, all follow the direction" was quickly conveyed. The Dingyuan quickly turned to the northeast direction inconsistent with its extremely powerful hull, occupying a favorable position in the word "Ding" - such a decision was to force the enemy ships to have only two choices with strong power and angles, either turn to the 270 direction, advance side by side with the Chinese battle group, and engage in a decisive battle of the main force; or turn to the 075 direction. It takes a contrary route and quickly breaks away from the battle.

The latter is naturally not the acceptable result of the French people's sense of honor. Gai Lin was so angry that his face turned red and cursed in his heart: If the Chinese bully people too much, they don't believe it. If there are so many warships on their side, they will not be able to fight against your ironclad ship?

"distance?"

“11,000 meters, if we turn now, we have to…”

"I know, you don't have to talk too much." Gai Lin obviously would not be polite to anyone at this time.

Seeing the sympathetic gazes from his colleagues, the first mate Marshall smiled bitterly.

"Distance?" Gai Lin asked for the second time.

“10,000 meters.”

"Fleet's Heading?"

"It's still 270, no turning."

"Have the fleet speed changed?"

"It is estimated that it is about twenty sections, and there is no big change."

"The Chinese want to fight hard. It's not that easy." Gai Lin turned his head at this time, "Transfer the order, the left rudder is full, the new direction is 255, the speed is 18, all follow the direction and prepare for a volley."

"The new order of combat, each ship concentrates firepower to bombard the No. 1 target ship." Marshall immediately issued a new order of combat.

As Wolda took the lead in completing the full speed steering, the thirty-six 135mm caliber main guns on five gunboats including Triumph, Reynolds, Tronfang, Duguttening, and other five gunboats roared. "Tong, Tongtong" huge smoke rose from the sea surface, and huge shells stormed in the air, exploding surging water columns around the Dingyuan ship. Three shells hit the hull, taking away the lives of more than 30 Qing soldiers.

The sailors on the ship were repairing urgently, while the gunners quickly organized the counterattack. The fifteen 175mm-caliber cannons on the ship sounded, pouring the shells mercilessly on the enemy ship. The power of the 175mm-caliber cannon was earth-shaking. Even if it could not be hit accurately, the huge power of the near-lose bomb was enough to make the French warships shake the sea. The people above were as if they had encountered an earthquake and were unstable, let alone counterattacking.

However, as the war progressed, the Chinese sailors quickly emerged from insufficient training, and the most serious of them was the low shooting accuracy. The most critical role of the gunner in artillery battle was to accurately judge the orientation and distance of the enemy ship, then aim at the enemy ship, and shoot the shells out. In other words, in addition to loading operations, the gunner was the eyes and brain of the artillery. With the technical conditions at that time, the role of the gunner as the brain of the artillery could not be replaced by other equipment, let alone the role of the eyes.

Due to technical conditions and training period, the orientation and distance data measured by the rangefinder will not be too accurate. Moreover, when the information is transmitted to the gunner, there will be a certain interval, and the accurate distance and orientation of the target will also change. In this way, the gunner's experience, that is, the quality of the gunner, is often called, to make up for these problems, so that the quality of the gunner is extremely critical and even becomes the primary factor in the shooting hit rate.

But this is what the Qing sailors lack most. The accuracy of the artillery was so terrifying: every ten shells fired, one or two shots hit the enemy ships was a blessing; in more cases, the artillery fired for a long time, which made people's eardrums hurt, but the final result was that precious bullets were spent in vain.

In comparison, French soldiers were in battle for a long time and soon discovered the enemy's weaknesses. In response to the shortcomings of China's lack of design accuracy, the other party quickly came up with a solution: with Triumph and Renault Castle as the first echelon; Tronfang, Dugutening and Wolda as the second echelon, adopted a steady and steady strategy and took turns to shoot at the Chinese gunboats. This kind of shooting does not require the rate of fire, but only pursues accuracy. Each gun must fall on the ships of local warships - although the firepower is not as good as you and the power is not as good as you, but more ants bite the elephant to death, it depends on how many guns you can get?

This tactic of playing to avoid weaknesses almost immediately achieved effect. Within less than ten minutes, the Dingyuan ship and Lei Kun, Lei Zhen and Lei Xun who caught up behind exploded at the same time, and the flames flew into the air and burned like a huge torch. Fortunately, the French army's gun caliber was limited and did not cause irreversible losses.

Ding Richang's eyes were cracked, but he could not imagine, "This...this..."

"Sir, let the students wait for them to go up."

Everyone looked back at the same time and found that a group of Naval Academy students led by Liu Buchan and Fang Boqian took the initiative to ask for the fight, "You? What's the use of you going up?"

"Sir, can students learn the method of cào guns, or can it be helpful?"

"No," it was not as good as Ding Richang's words, and Shen Baozhen interrupted first, "When I left the capital, the emperor once made it clear that you can't go to the dangerous place in person. If something goes wrong, how can I explain to the emperor?"

Deng Shichang, who was in the crowd, said loudly, "Sir, if the Dingyuan really sank the French army, wouldn't you, Lord Ding and our students all fall into the sea and make food in the belly of fish, turtles, shrimps, and crabs? Even if you are lucky enough to live, you will be captured by the French army. What should you do then?"

"Bastard, Deng Zhengqing, do you talk to the Grandmaster like this?"

"Students dare not."

Shen Baozhen reminded Deng Shichang of the words and exchanged glances with Ding Richang, "Okay, since you have the intention to serve the country, how can I be strong? But it's the first time I'll wait for you to officially participate in the battle at the fort. You must be careful."

"Thank you, sir." Liu Buchan raised his eyebrows, couldn't help but smile and excitement on his face. He raised his right arm and stood in front of Xiong, saluted military salute, and turned around and ran out the first time.

Liu Buchan grabbed the handle of the cabin door and smiled, "How is it? See who can first launch a cannon to hit the enemy ship?"

"When is it? Are you still joking?" Deng Shichang ignored him, flew past him, and turned open the hatch door. As a result, the blood stains on the front deck and the traces of burning flames caught his eyes. The soldiers who were running back and forth were all owed to take a look at the students, and were busy with their errands, "I'll go to the front main gun, who will be with me?"

"I, I, I" are Lin Taizeng, Lin Yongsheng, Luo Fenglu and Lin Sensen. They stood up and walked to Deng Shichang's side.

Deng Shichang nodded vigorously and clasped his fists at Liu Buchan, "Zixiang, take care of yourself, see you after the war."

"Take care too." After saying this, Liu Buchan waved his hand and ran to the stern of the boat along the starboard side with Yan Zongguang, Fang Boqian, Lu Han, Ye Zugui, Qiu Baoren.
Chapter completed!