The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 120 Deep in the North Atlantic ([-])

In the art of war, the most valuable part is the analysis of intelligence.Especially in such a vast battlefield in the ocean, the speed of information transmission is so slow, and every limited message is so precious.

This forces every commander to develop a professional sensitivity and be able to make prescient judgments and then issue correct orders when facing unknown battlefields.

We have to admit that the Anglo-Saxons are a nation that is extremely good at learning. They like to "take" the outstanding achievements of other countries and nations for their own use without any psychological burden.

After the Kingdom of Prussia established a staff system in the army following the Qi model, the Royal Navy of England also established a staff department ten years ago (1715), with a number of senior naval officers serving as staff officers to conduct detailed analysis and analysis of military strategies and tactics. Deductions provide professional operational guidance to the Naval Committee and senior naval generals who go to sea to combat, thereby minimizing the possibility of one-sided and arbitrary decision-making by individual generals.

After all, in a large army, the number of generals with outstanding minds and genius command skills is very small.The Royal Navy of England hopes that its army can be like Qi, where every tactical decision comes from the keen intuition and professional judgment that are trained at every strategic point.

After the Atlantic Task Force led by Royal Navy Admiral William Penn left England, it faced strong westerly winds and slowly sailed into the windy and rough waters of the North Atlantic. The biggest problem it faced was how to navigate the vast ocean. Zhongneng found Qi's attack fleet and lured them to attack him.

After some careful planning, the accompanying naval staff officers believed that the Qi fleet traveling in the North Atlantic must have established a temporary camp on a certain island so that ships in various situations could be repaired simply and at the same time. Provide timely medical treatment and careful care to injured and sick crew members.

You must know that the Qi people came from afar and had no stable sea base beyond the Canary Islands.Although there are ports in the Mediterranean such as Morocco, Egypt, and even the Ottomans, as long as the English navy blocks the Strait of Gibraltar, they will be trapped in the Mediterranean Sea the size of a "bathtub" without doing anything.Unless they want to fight a decisive naval battle with the Royal Navy.

However, after half a year of fighting, they found that the Qi people were obviously unwilling to engage in a strategic decisive battle with the Royal Navy. Instead, they broke into pieces and hid in the depths of the ocean. They began to frequently attack English merchant ships and destroy England's trade routes, as if they were trying to block England. foreign trade channels to achieve the purpose of continuously weakening England's economy.

This tactic has been used by the English Navy against countries such as the Netherlands, Spain, France, Prussia, and Sweden in the past few decades, and has achieved good results. It not only plundered a large amount of materials and money from the sea, but also Forcing the other party's maritime transportation or foreign trade to come to a standstill effectively contributed to the final victory of the Kingdom of England.

The damn Qi people must have learned this kind of flexible tactics from past successful war experiences and used them on England.

So, in order to maintain a long-term blockade strategy, the people of Qi must choose a hidden sea base.Not to mention direct damage to the ship during battle, even if it sails at sea for a long time, it will also cause inevitable wear and tear on the ship, as well as a large number of people getting sick or injured.

Looking at the surrounding waters, there are not many islands that are close to England and can sail into the depths of the ocean at any time to threaten England's merchant ships.The Shetland Islands located not far northeast of Scotland, the Faroe Islands northwest of Great Britain, and the cold and remote Iceland may all be used by the Qi people as temporary anchorages for the short-term rest and maintenance of the fleet.

The fleet staff officers determined that the Shetland Islands were too close to the mainland of England and the Qi people would not risk stopping here.Then the Faroe Islands and Iceland may become the targets chosen by the Qi people.

According to feedback from those fishermen who escaped Qi's attack from the North Sea, the Qi fleet turned around and sailed westward after attacking them.Although this action seems to indicate that the Qi people are going into the depths of the ocean to continue searching for merchant ships returning to England from North America, there is also a high probability that they will sail to the Faroe Islands or the southern waters of Iceland and return directly to one of them. temporary anchorage.

Because they captured so many fishermen, it was impossible for them to keep them on the ship and swim in the ocean with the fleet.You must know that at sea, every supply stored on the ship is extremely precious and cannot be consumed by the captives at will.

Therefore, instead of aimlessly searching for Qi's fleet at sea, it is better to cruise to the Faroe Islands and Icelandic waters to try your luck. If you can find Qi's anchor camp, that would be the best, and you can take advantage of the situation to align. The Chinese launched a siege.

Yes, through reports from merchant ships and fishing boats that returned to England one after another, the Qi people at least divided their fleet into three parts, operating respectively in the North Sea, the northwest sea of ​​England, and the southeast sea, and arbitrarily intercepted and attacked their merchant ships belonging to England.

In other words, there are probably less than twenty Qi ships scattered everywhere. With our several times superiority, once we entangle them, we will inevitably hit them hard.

This huge fleet was divided by William Penn into three squadrons, which were further divided into two squadrons, each with its own commander. Twenty-two warships disguised as merchant ships and six small supply ships formed the central guard fleet, while the other twenty warships served as the "escort formation" and were divided into two, and were classified into the vanguard fleet and the rearguard support fleet.

Payne's battle plan was that after encountering the Qi fleet, Nolan Madden, commander of the vanguard fleet, would lead eight warships into the center of the enemy fleet and assume a posture to cover the "merchant fleet"; Thibault, commander of the interior fleet, would Er Raymond led more than [-] warships disguised as merchant ships to spread out their formation and pretend to be fleeing, attracting Qi warships to attack.Payne himself led the rearguard fleet to destroy and besiege the opponent's warships that had fallen into chaos, directly attack the opponent's flagship, prevent the opponent from retreating, and finally annihilate the surrounded Qi fleet one by one.

In order to ensure the combat effectiveness, Payne required all subordinates to fight in strict accordance with the pre-war deployment, and was not allowed to act without authorization. At the same time, he required them to give full play to their proactive and daring spirit of close combat and attack all Qi warships within sight.

The Royal Navy Atlantic Task Force has made all preparations. As long as they encounter the Qi fleet, with their arrogant character, they will not let go of the "fat prey" in front of them and pounce on it without hesitation.As for who is the hunter and who is the prey in the end, only God, who knows everything, can prove it.
-
In the early morning of November 11, the fifteen warships of the First Squadron of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet were located 18 kilometers southwest of the Faroe Islands.The storm forced the entire fleet to reverse course, causing them to spend four days sailing eastward, trying in a zigzag manner to approach the latitude of their intended target.This situation continued until early this morning, when the wind direction finally allowed the fleet to turn the helm again and sail towards the waters of the Faroe Islands.

"Tianwu" and "Rongshui" are the battleships at the front of the fleet. In addition, there are two fast cruisers scattered more than ten kilometers ahead according to the conventional arrangement. In addition to alerting the fleet, they also need to search for possible existences. prey, and the "Yu Jing" was chasing a suspicious sailing ship about eight kilometers downwind.

A light breeze blew across the sea, and the thick fog had not been blown away for a long time, so the visibility around the fleet became extremely limited.However, at about 38 o'clock in the morning, the "Tianshu" cruising ahead sent a signal that a suspicious fleet had been discovered: eight ships - later revised to [-] ships - the unknown fleet appeared in the north-east direction.

Squadron commander, Guangwei General (Rear Admiral) Zhong Zhilin immediately ordered the fleet to meet them and sail northeast.He formed two closely formed columns so that he could easily switch to battle formation at any time.

At noon, the commanders of both sides had noticed the presence of the other side's fleet.They were about 25 kilometers apart, but the fog on the sea was so thick that they were unable to make any moves for the next two hours.

The English Atlantic Task Force was originally heading in the direction of the Faroe Islands, but after the vanguard guard ship discovered the suspicious fleet, they then turned to meet it like the First Squadron of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet, hoping to figure out the other party. The details.At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the vanguard fleet in front sent a report to Commander Payne that a Qi fleet consisting of fifteen ships was approaching.He immediately ordered all the warships to sail against the wind and sail to the windward battle line in order to enter the battle.

On the Qi side, the "Tianshu" and "Rongshui" also identified the enemy fleet - a huge merchant fleet escorted by more than ten warships, and the situation became clear.

The commander of the First Squadron, Zhong Zhilin, sent out a signal to keep the fleet on course and shorten the distance between the warships to 200 meters.He was not prepared to fight for the upper hand with that fleet, but hoped to engage the enemy at a leeward position, which would be more advantageous for the seven sailing warships in the fleet.

By this time, both sides had yet to recognize the exact strength of their respective opponents.Thick fog gathered again, and the two fleets could only vaguely see the enemy's figures through the fog.Over the next hour, the two fleets continued to approach in thick fog.

After 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the fog dissipated, and the cruise ships deployed in the front of the First Squadron of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet finally saw the enemy's battle array clearly, so they sent back their specific situation with a signal.

The large number of the opponent's ships made Zhong Zhilin extremely stunned, and he was suddenly faced with a difficult decision.

"General, the number of English ships is 38, which is almost twice my advantage, and the other side is obviously showing a tit-for-tat posture. I highly doubt that those ships that look like merchant ships are probably disguised professional ships. Battleship." Fleet Chief of Staff, General Mingwei (Commodore) Hou Guangtai said in a deep voice: "It is reported that European countries have done this decades ago and achieved good results. Therefore, we should not continue to move forward now. , let alone fight with the enemy."

"General, as for whether the opponent's merchant fleet is disguised as a warship, we will find out if we move forward and try." Captain Linghui (Lieutenant Colonel) Zhao Jinchun, the captain of the Houji, was eager to try, "If we get close to them, , the British and foreign fleets still put on a fighting posture, which shows that they are confident, and may prove that those merchant ships are probably disguised warships to lure us into the battle. But if the other party is really a merchant ship, we hesitate here If you don’t decide, they might take the opportunity to slip away.”

"Right now, the fog has not completely dissipated, and none of us know whether there is another British-Yiyi fleet in other directions besides the more than [-] British-Yiyi ships in front." Hou Guangtai shook his head and said: "I always feel a little strange. , when my cruise warship discovered them, it did not do any evasion, but sailed in our direction. Once we fought with them, if we got into a melee and another British and foreign force came out, it would not be very good. It’s easy to get away.”

"Our fleet has seven steam warships. Now more than two hours have passed, and the boilers have all been heated up and operating at full capacity. Even if there are dozens more British and foreign ships, as long as we want to retreat, they may not be able to. stop."

"The steam warships can withdraw from the battlefield, then the remaining sail warships will be left to the Yingyi?"

"We can divide the fleet into two parts, with the sail battleship as the rear guard and the steam battleship as the leader. We can break through the opponent's vanguard fleet and enter their central defender fleet. If the opponent is indeed a merchant ship, the sail battleship will follow up and attack the target. Hunt them one by one. If the opponent is indeed a warship disguised as a merchant ship, we can withdraw from the battlefield immediately, while the sail warship is on the periphery, so we can avoid entanglement with the enemy and pull up the sails to avoid it at any time."

"What will happen if our steam battleship breaks into the enemy's formation and is surrounded by the opponent's superior force, and is entangled and unable to withdraw? Although our sail battleship can watch the battle from the outside, what if the Yingyi ambush fleet suddenly breaks out? Can we guarantee that we won’t be taken advantage of by the other side and end up in a hard fight?”

"..."

"Has the leeward Hound No. 3 sent back any news?" Zhong Zhilin waved his hand to stop everyone's argument, turned to the intelligence staff and asked.

"Back to General, there is no news from Hound 3 yet."

"The Yingyi fleet directly ahead still hasn't changed its formation?"

"Ten minutes ago, the Tianshu ahead reported that eight escort warships from the British and Yi fleets were ten kilometers away from us. They seemed to be on alert and protecting the fleet."

"In other words, after the British and foreign fleets were discovered by us, they have not made any move to retreat?"

"Yes, General."

"Haha..., putting such a big piece of fat in front of us is really mouth-watering!" Zhong Zhilin chuckled twice, "I just don't know if this piece of fat contains deadly poison. In this case, We might as well..."

"Report to the general, there is something unusual in the British and foreign fleets." A sentry officer quickly entered the command cabin and reported loudly: "The ship in the middle of the British and foreign fleets began to turn around and sail toward the southeast!"

"Huh?...Do they want to leave?"

"General, Ying Yilu is scared. ... Let's catch up!"

"General, this move by Yingyi may be a trick to lure the enemy. Don't be fooled easily!"

"Since the enemy has fled, if we don't catch up and take a look, wouldn't it have dampened the spirit of our imperial navy?" Zhong Zhilin said proudly: "No need to say more, send signals to all ships and prepare to engage in battle!"

(End of this chapter)