"Zheng Zha is considered the hero of the party, and his courage is quite bold. He actually thought of intercepting me on my way back. Haha, it's a pity that I still underestimated me, Zheng Chenggong."

When Zheng Chenggong saw the Vietnamese fleet more than 20 miles away in the north through a high-powered telescope, he couldn't help but reveal a hint of surprise on his lips, followed by a proud smile.

Frankly speaking, Zheng Zha's plan this time is very consistent with the art of war.

If Zhu Shuren himself could go to the battlefield and witness this naval battle, he might exclaim: Zheng Zha's ideas are so similar to those of Togo Heihachiro more than two hundred years later in parallel time and space.

During the Japanese War, Togo Heihachiro, in the Battle of Tsushima, fought "taking advantage of the fleets mobilized by the Lucians from the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. They had just sailed 20,000 nautical miles across the ocean and arrived in the Far East. They had not even had time to resupply."

The idea of ​​"cutting him off halfway".

It's a pity that Zheng Zha didn't expect that in the entire seventeenth century on earth, Zheng Chenggong was the naval god of all mankind. Zheng Chenggong had already prevented the risks of any dirty tricks he could think of.

In the historical Battle of Tsushima, an important reason why Togo Heihachiro was able to trick Rozhdestvinsky was that all countries in later generations must abide by international law. Whenever a war breaks out, the military ports of neutral countries cannot allow warships of belligerent countries to dock for supplies.

Therefore, the Rakshasa fleet did not have any supplies for 20,000 nautical miles. Not only Britain, which was pro-Japanese at the time, did not provide supplies, but also France and Germany could not provide supplies.

But now, the situation that Zheng Chenggong faces is very different from that of Rozdestvinski - how can the Dutch in this era have any neutrality?

Zheng Chenggong had just captured the cannons and muskets sold by the Dutch to the Burmese Red Barbarians during the conquest of Burma. There were even thousands of muskets. It was suspected that the Dutch had delivered them after the war between the Ming Dynasty and Burma. However, the Ming Dynasty did not have them.

The only way to obtain conclusive evidence is through inference.

But this was enough for Zheng Chenggong to threaten the Dutch in Malacca, not to mention the latest information he received showed that the Dutch had sold warships to the Vietnamese Zheng and Nguyen Phuc families in the past two years.

All kinds of pressures were enough for Zheng Chenggong to threaten the Dutch and sell ammunition, grain, fruits, vegetables, and medicines to the Ming Dynasty fleet when he arrived in Malacca and stopped for a while on his return voyage.

If the Dutch don't sell, then Zheng Chenggong will have to weigh it up: Your homeland is 50,000 miles away (by sea around the Cape of Good Hope). If they really fight the Ming Dynasty in Malacca or Batavia, the Netherlands can get around most of it in time.

Are there reinforcements coming from Earth?

In the end, the Dutch chose to make peace and make money by selling arms to both sides to make war money.

Zheng Chenggong actually didn't care about the Dutch artillery and muskets. All he wanted was gunpowder and cannonballs. He thought these cannonballs were of poor quality. They were just solid bullets rather than Ming-style explosives. If he didn't have to make do with them, he wouldn't even bother to buy them.

.

After resting for three days in Malacca for supplies, Zheng Chenggong sharpened his sword and continued his journey north without skipping the woodcutting site. During these three days, the troops also went ashore to eat several meals of fresh meat, as well as enough fresh fruits and vegetables, and took them with them before leaving.

A batch of fruits and vegetables that can last ten or eight days will prevent scurvy and maintain the best physical condition to prepare for any danger.

It was under such circumstances that Zheng Zha thought he had caught Zheng Chenggong, who was running out of ammunition and food. In fact, Zheng Chenggong had already saved a hand and spent money in Malacca to supply enough.

When Zheng Zha was happy about catching his enemy, he didn't know that Zheng Chenggong was even happier than him.

…

"Is this the largest warship of Zheng Chenggong? It looks more powerful than the heaviest Galen gunboat of the Red Yi people, but why doesn't it have a stern? This ship is definitely not suitable for observation, nor is it suitable for using musketeers to suppress deck shooting in close combat.

, the deck is too flat and too low, if it is picked up, it will definitely be hacked badly."

Zheng Zha's eldest son, Zheng Gen, is the de facto fleet commander for today's sea battle. When Zheng Gen saw the Ming Dynasty's 80-gun sailing battleship for the first time through the telescope, he was a little uneasy. Although he felt that Zheng Chenggong lacked supplies and ammunition, he still felt that Zheng Chenggong lacked supplies and ammunition.

How can such a big ship not be astonishing?

Fortunately, Zheng Gen also understood naval warfare tactics and the art of war, and he could see the advantages and disadvantages of the sailing battleship at a glance. But he didn't know if those black cannons would give people a chance to get close to the ship's side for hand-to-hand combat.

However, by observing the number of warships on both sides through telescopes, the scale advantage of the Vietnamese Zheng family is still very obvious. After all, they are fighting at home, and they can overwhelm all the warships, big and small, and the whole family.

Zheng and Ruan Phuc jointly produced a total of eight Galen warships, more than twenty heavy Karak warships, and thirty to fifty small Western gunboats with triangular sails and Latin sails, plus countless more with only one or two guns.

The Guangzhou ship with cannons is already the overwhelming power of the Vietnamese navy.

In contrast, if Zheng Chenggong fled back to China this time and came out after being fully prepared, then Zheng Chenggong would also be able to bring many small and medium-sized Fuzhou and Guangzhou ships to help in the battle.

However, this time it was precisely because he was on his way back from the ocean, and those warships with a cost of less than 200 yuan were not seaworthy enough to sail to Burma and back. This meant that Zheng Chenggong automatically abolished a large number of the Zheng family's small boat combat power, and could only rely on

Large and medium-sized ocean-going fleets operate independently.

After Zheng Gen's observation, he only saw two largest 80-gun sailing battleships on Zheng Chenggong's side, and four smaller 66-gun sailing battleships (he did not know that the name of this kind of ship was a sailing battleship, and he had never seen it before)

,

There are 6 38-gun sailing frigates and 12 24-32-gun small sailing frigates. The total combat power is 24 gunboats. The others are large troop carriers with insufficient firepower, generally with less than 10 guns, and there are dozens of them.

The remaining transport ships were all left in Myanmar by Zheng Chenggong and used to maintain the Irrawaddy River logistics route for the occupation forces left by Li Dingguo.

In terms of quantity, the Vietnamese Navy has about thirty large ships, fifty Latin-sailed Western gunboats, and hundreds of ordinary Guangdong ships. Zheng Chenggong has only 24 large gunboats, no small gunboats, and one less transport ship than the Vietnamese Navy.

Magnitude.

Zheng Gen felt that he had a good chance, but up to now, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and face each other on a narrow road, the brave would win.

…

The distance between the vanguards of the fleets on both sides quickly approached within ten miles, and then eight miles and seven miles quickly engaged each other while adjusting their formations. It was at this last moment that Zheng Gen noticed that Zheng Chenggong’s fleet was

The way the shape unfolds is very different from him.

In this era, the "Sail Battleship" had not yet appeared in the West. It was not until the Seven Years' War in the 1830s that it was fully mature. In the third Anglo-Dutch War a few decades before that, the Anglo-Dutch

Both sides tried to upgrade their warships in actual combat, and gradually discovered the advantages of battleships. Only then did they completely eliminate the high-stern Galen gunboats.

Therefore, in this time and space, the Ming Dynasty became the inventor of the battleship. And since the West did not have the concept of battleships, there would be no T-shaped formation anti-gun tactics.

Even if the two sides exchanged artillery fire, they would only attack each other head-on, and then bombard each other as they passed each other. Otherwise, they would just play a drag-and-drop tactic like in the Anglo-Spanish War.

Because the range of naval guns in this era is too close, the accuracy of smoothbore guns is even worse, and the waves are bumpy, it is impossible to shoot at each other from a distance of one or two miles. In many cases, the distance between guns is only two to three hundred.

Steps are even closer.

We are so close, how can we draw up the battle line? Of course we have to fight one on one, and fight against each other individually.

However, just before the two sides engaged in battle, Zheng Chenggong turned his fleet in advance and dispersed the twenty-odd gunboats to the left and right wings, seemingly intending to swoop in and outflank Zheng Gen. Only the fifty or sixty Dafu ships were left.

The large and wide ship was in the middle of the army and slowed down to block the front route.

"Zheng Chenggong is very confident in his escort gunboats. Just relying on the 24 gunboats in the lead, he dares to attack my main force? So he left the other heavy troop carriers with many but insufficient artillery in the middle and slowed down?

Isn't he afraid that these 24 gunboats will be destroyed by me in batches?"

Zheng Gen felt a flash of disbelief in his heart. Of course he saw the characteristics of Zheng Chenggong's tactics, that is, a heavy ship with few guns is not easily entangled, and it can also use the advantage of outflanking to bite the Vietnamese navy.

However, the shortcomings of this tactic are also obvious, that is, the forces will be dispersed, and superior forces cannot be concentrated to enter the battlefield at the same time, making it a refueling tactic. When 24 gunboats are surrounded by two wings, the huge Chinese army cannot help at all.

Zheng Gen couldn't help but feel hot inside. He immediately raised a flag and asked his own fleet to ignore the formation. He rushed as fast as possible to approach Zheng Chenggong's gunboat fleet as quickly as possible, trying to use the time difference to annihilate Zheng Chenggong's troops first.

So all the Vietnamese warships had their sails fully loaded, and they also used their oars full power, and all their bows rushed towards the enemy. Some of the light boats that had been specially deployed before the war were even ready to light the fire, and wanted to rush forward and fire.

Attack and burn the enemy.

As the two sides approached, Zheng Chenggong, the leader of the ship, was certainly not polite. After all, there were so many boats on the other side, and it was quite troublesome to be caught close to him, so he started firing from almost a mile away. The accuracy of the first round was indeed poor.

, and there is no hit rate.

When Zheng Gen saw this, he felt reassured. He secretly thought that the accuracy of the Ming army's artillery was not better than expected, and a round of firing opportunities was wasted. He estimated that when the reloading was completed and he could fire again, his vanguard boat would be able to approach seven more times.

Eighty steps.

However, what surprised him was that the Ming army reloaded much faster than he thought.

As Zheng Chenggong turned the fleet in a direction parallel to the Vietnamese navy's assault fleet, the relative speed of the two sides was no longer so fast. The Vietnamese vanguard warships approached about fifty steps, and the Ming army's warships were loaded again. And this

The firepower density of one shot has also been significantly increased.

Only then did Zheng Gen notice that in the first round of test firing, the Ming warships did not even use the heavy guns on the bottom deck, but only the light guns on the upper deck. And even in this second round of firing, it was still only

The upper and middle layers of artillery are used, and the bottom one is always holding back its ultimate move.

This shocked him deeply, because he discovered that the tonnage of the guns on the middle gun deck of the Ming army battleship was actually almost as heavy as the bottom deck heavy guns of the Manila-type three-layer gun-deck Galen battleship he had on hand.

The firepower may even be stronger, at least that's what you hear from the sound and the light of the fire.

You must know that during the sail battleship period, in order to stabilize the center of gravity of the battleship and prevent it from rolling left and right and capsizing, heavier cannons were mounted on the lower decks and lighter cannons were mounted on top. Otherwise, if it were the other way around, it would be

It will be top-heavy and very unstable. It is also the restriction of the center of gravity that limits the scale of heavy guns on the battleship. After all, only so many can be placed on the bottom floor.

Traditional Galenic battleships had a tall stern, higher cargo bays, and a higher center of gravity. Therefore, many of the final cannons of that era only had 32-pound guns, and only a few super-heavy Galenic battleships had 42-pound guns.

However, the Dutch would definitely not be willing to sell ships with 42-pound guns to the Vietnamese. They are important weapons of the country. The most heavy cover in the foreign trade version is the 32-pound gun.

In comparison, after the later generations entered the 18th century, the lower guns of the sailing battleships could weigh up to 68 pounds, which was more than half the weight of the heaviest guns. This was because the center of gravity of the entire ship dropped after the poop tower was cancelled.

, the sway is also reduced, so after the tonnage of the bottom gun is increased, it will not sway and get water.

The Ming Dynasty's current sail battleships have made great efforts in watertight compartments and waterproof gun doors, which can ensure that after the gun doors are closed in stormy weather, even if the closed gun windows of the lower gun deck are immersed in seawater, there will be no leakage. This way

Later, the Ming Dynasty gained a greater advantage in terms of the weight of its single cannon.

In naval battles, the larger the caliber of a single gun, the greater the penetration depth! Only then can it completely penetrate the opponent's thick armor and drive out water! Otherwise, you can only rely on flicking and scraping to smash the superstructure. As long as you don't die.

The ammunition depot cannot be sunk.

…

As the fleets of both sides entered a full firing distance of two to three hundred steps, the Ming warships finally replaced incendiary bombs and grape bombs. The upper light cannons took turns to fire intensively, with rounds of semi-volleys, or rounds of fire, with a high density of firepower.

The Vietnamese's arson boat was so overwhelmed that they couldn't even get close.

Zheng Chenggong was always calm and would not wastefully fire volleys when facing enemy boats to prevent the firepower from overflowing. As for those boats filled with arson fuel, as long as they had two holes opened or were hit by incendiary bombs, they would be destroyed.

He was killed almost immediately.

Zheng Chenggong also asked the relatively clumsy sail battleship to pull back appropriately to keep its distance, and let the more flexible and faster sail frigate go ahead.
To be continued...