The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 133 The offensive and defensive forces are different!

"Captain, the other party has flown a white flag and is requesting surrender!" A signal officer ran over excitedly and reported to Captain Xiong Jichanghui: "That is a supply ship with little force. Faced with our attack, it immediately I’m scared!”

Xiong Jichang nodded, raised his binoculars and looked over.

I saw a white flag hoisted on the side mast of the approximately [-]-ton English war supply ship. The side of the ship was crowded with English sailors, waving their arms as if shouting something. They were probably asking the "Ri Sakura" not to fire any more shells to prevent the ship they were on from suffering greater damage.

Just when Xiong Jichang was about to turn his attention and prepare to find the next attack target, new changes suddenly appeared on the ship. An English officer rushed out from the bilge, holding a flintlock pistol in his hand, and began to yell at the sailors who were preparing to surrender. Speaking of excitement, he raised his hand and raised his gun and shot a sailor who was saying goodbye.

Possibly frightened by the officer's flintlock rifle, many sailors retreated toward the stern of the ship. Next to the English officer, the two officers also subconsciously stayed away from each other. While looking at the sudden change at the scene, they turned to look at the "Li Ying", obviously feeling entangled in their hearts.

Is the Royal Navy's sense of honor more important, or is it more important to save one's own life?

Oh, I didn’t expect the English people to be smart!
  It was obvious that some people did not want to surrender and were trying to fight to the death.

"Since someone is seeking death, we will help them. ...Order the port gun to fire and send them to the sea to feed the fish!" Xiong Jichang put down his telescope, turned to the signal soldier and gave cold instructions.

It's really strange that a supply ship with no force actually wants to fight against our armored ship!

Immediately, he walked to a window in the back and observed the horizon in the distance. Nothing could be seen there. The battleships that had followed them on the attack had disappeared, but from the distance they could see streaks of smoke and the faint sound of cannons. They should have relied on the speed advantage of the sailboat. We are chasing the retreating English warships, but we don't know what the outcome is.

Of course, Xiong Jichang was not too worried that his fleet would be defeated or return without success. In fact, even without the participation of their armored battleship, the dozen or so sail battleships and sail light cruisers could still easily catch up with the escaping English battleships. The only suspense was probably how many targets could be captured.

There are twelve ships in this English fleet, and there are only about eight or nine professional warships. The other several ships are probably requisitioned armed merchant ships as their supply ships. If they were to face an ordinary merchant fleet, with their strength, they would naturally have an overwhelming force advantage. Moreover, looking at their course, there is a high probability that they want to sneak to the Cape of Good Hope, or even sneak into South African waters to intercept and attack our merchant ships.

But they were very unlucky. By chance, they encountered Qi's Second Task Force Expeditionary Fleet in the Gulf of Guinea, and they were all front-line main battleships. If it could not be completely wiped out in the first battle, it would be necessary to cripple the English fleet so that it would no longer have the ability to go south to threaten the coastal areas of Qianzhou (now South Africa), thereby ensuring smooth shipping on the back route.

The English armed transport and supply ship was like an immature child in front of the "Li Ying", provoking its authority with its stubbornness and ignorance.

The few artillery guns on the ship were forced to fire one after another under the force of the officers. Only one of the fired shells hit the "Liying", and the rest of the shells crossed the deck and fell into the sea on the other side.

Seeing that their own artillery shells were almost as if they were scratching the surface, they did not cause any damage to the ironclad ship of Qi. In fear, several English officers roared and ordered the gunners to continue loading the shells and fire the next round of artillery fire.

Presumably, the successful use of conical shells to sink an English battleship proved the power of rifled guns and conical shells, so the "Tori Sakura" gave up the continued use of such shells and instead stuffed several explosive bombs. After entering the gun chamber, under the command of the gunner, he fired one after another, preparing to let the other party enjoy the pain of having the hull of the ship blown to pieces and his own body being torn apart by the gunfire.

Two consecutive rounds of explosive shells hit the English supply ship. The huge explosion opened a hole in the ship's operating platform, and splintered wood chips flew everywhere, instantly overturning several sailors. Immediately, a raging fire broke out from the ship's hull, covering one-third of the deck.

The English officer shouted hoarsely and ordered nearby sailors to put out the fire on the ship immediately.

However, after another round of shelling, several shells hit the hull again. After taking away the lives of several sailors, the fire became even more uncontrollable. Several flames even rolled up the sails, turning the entire ship into a A huge torch.

Perhaps out of panic, perhaps out of desperation, several sailors fell into the sea one after another. As if inspired by this, the sailors on the ship began to scramble for the only traffic boat on the ship in order to escape the sea of ​​​​fire, regardless of the officers' obstruction.

This ship is hopeless!

The sailors fought so fiercely that some of them punched their fellow sailors and even pulled out sharp blades to prevent more sailors from snatching the opportunity to escape.

As for the heroic English officer just now, he has disappeared. He may have escaped to the transport boat under the protection of the soldiers, or he was pushed to the deck and perished in the sea of ​​fire. But at this time, who cares about him?
  Anyway, this supply ship is going to sink. These dozens of people can't go anywhere, and some of them are destined to be buried at the bottom of the sea. Who will pay too much attention to this.

The ironclad "Riying" was swimming in this chaotic sea area, as if it were a satiated black shark, staring coldly at the prey in front of it, watching their death struggle, senseless wailing, and helplessness. Floating and sinking in the water.

However, at this time, the "Liying" was eyeing another English warship several hundred meters away. It seemed that the mainmast was broken by a certain motor sailing ship, and its speed had dropped to a very low level. Perhaps because they were not too worried that the ship would run far away, their own warships left it behind and continued to pursue other targets.

When the powerful gun barrel of the "Tori Sakura" was aimed at the slow-speed English warship, the other party very wisely flew a white flag.

Damn it, I saw two ships being easily sunk by the armored beast in front of me, but I was almost unscathed, so I didn't have any fighting spirit.

This is simply an extremely unequal battle!
  The powerful combat power shown by this Qi armored ship when sinking its own warships, as well as its cold and ruthless killing, almost shattered any chance they had of escaping. Well, it seems like they can't run away. Even if their mainmast is not broken, they can't escape the pursuit of this ironclad ship. The two sides are not on the same level at all. This is certain. Resistance is meaningless and will only cost lives in vain. The ironclad "Liying" slowly approached the surrendered English warship and asked everyone on board to throw away their weapons and lower all sails. Then, several sailors were sent on board to receive the prize.

The British officers and sailors were very fortunate to "view" this Qi Ironclad ship up close. During the two-hour battle, it seemed that nothing had happened, and the paint on the ship did not even peel off much. Although there were a few vague bullet marks on its side, it didn't seem to have caused serious damage to it at all, only insignificant "skin wounds".

What a formidable steel behemoth on the sea!

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the sun was already faltering in the sky, and the sunset was dyed red. Against the scattered boat planks and debris on the sea, there was a sense of desolation like the blood of the scorching sun. Qi warships returned one after another and gathered on the sea where the initial battle took place. Accompanying them were several captured English warships and transport ships, all of which were in pitiable condition, with damaged sails and many injured.

Even if the escaping English warships were smart enough, they scattered and fled in all directions. However, with the high speed and artillery strike power displayed by Qi's sail warships, there may be very few ships that can escape in the end. If it refuses to surrender and fights to the end, the people of Qi will definitely not be merciful and will most likely sink it.

By about 9 p.m., the sea area fell into silence. At this time, the fleets of Qi and Britain, which had been fighting for a long time, had disengaged and the battle was over.

In this battle, twelve Qi main warships faced off against ten English warships. The two sides fought fiercely for several hours on the sea. In the end, five English warships were sunk, three were captured, and two escaped with injuries. .

In addition, one of the supply ships accompanying the English fleet was sunk and one was captured. It can be said that the fleet that was preparing to get behind Qi was almost wiped out.

To be honest, this was not a typical maritime battle. The two sides did not engage in a traditional line battle. In fact, during the entire battle, the English warships did not fight against the Qi people because they felt that their strength was seriously insufficient. After fighting for a while, they immediately fled away from the battle and continued to retreat into the distance.

The direct consequence of this was that the entire battle process was greatly lengthened, forcing the Qi warships to follow behind them and spend a lot of time launching a difficult pursuit.

Of course, the Qi fleet was not without damage. Although the ironclads were unharmed due to their thick armor, many other warships were damaged. Among them, two sail warships were seriously damaged, with bullet holes on both sides of the hull. Two of the sidemasts were also broken.

The most embarrassing thing was that the chimney of a motor sailboat was destroyed, and a solid cannonball miraculously fell into the power system, successfully paralyzing the battleship's steam power system. Considering that it is inconvenient to repair while sailing at sea, limited repairs can only be carried out after arriving at Taihua Island (now Tenerife, Canary Islands). As for the rest of the voyage, we can only rely on the few sails on the ship.

"It's a pity! The English fleet was almost completely wiped out, but it didn't cause many casualties to our people in the battle. If they had known this, they might as well have just come up and bombarded our battle line directly. , don’t waste time, that may kill more of our personnel. As a result, during the pursuit, we were passively suppressed by our firepower almost the entire process, without the ability to fight back, resulting in heavy losses!" An officer said After counting the losses of both the enemy and ours, I couldn't help but feel deep "sympathy" for the English.

"They must have been caught off guard!" Another officer said with a smile: "We discovered during the battle that the English officers and sailors still performed very bravely and had more professional combat skills. But their commanders may have been a little hesitant. Undecided, they want to avoid our pursuit and preserve their strength as much as possible. They probably also want to continue to the South African waters and harass our rear."

"Well, that's right. As a soldier, no matter how strong the opponent is, you should dare to face it head-on. You should not be weak. Even if you know that your skills are inferior to others, you should not be afraid of sacrifice, be brave enough to wield the sword, and inflict maximum damage to the enemy. Only in this way can you shape a soldier. To build courage and confidence as a soldier. If you blindly choose to avoid war and fear war, and destroy your own morale, then what a slap in the face!"

"Professional, courageous, and daring naval officers are the soul of the entire navy's combat effectiveness. If they are all destroyed at once, it will be of no use! I thought, if the English chose to scatter and escape at the beginning of the battle, it was probably I want to temporarily preserve my strength for the follow-up. In other words, if you want to confront us head-on, it's not the same as trying to hit an egg on a rock, right?"

"Hey, you said that to excuse the English!" an officer said jokingly: "When the bayonet is fighting, there is no need to shrink back in fear. In war, you must have the momentum to move forward."

"However, the English people are not rich in capital, and they don't have the strength to fight. It is said that the number of the English navy is less than [-]. Even after the war breaks out, full mobilization is probably only possible at most. Twenty to thirty thousand navy troops will come out. If this is too much loss, we will not be able to get enough replacement."

In this battle, this small English fleet was almost completely destroyed. It suffered such a huge loss at once, and even the English navy with a large family would probably feel a little heartache.

It doesn't matter if some army soldiers and combat supplies are lost on the battlefield. The worst thing is to raise them again at home. However, it is difficult to recover the lost naval warships in a short time, especially sailors and officers with professional qualities.

After all, the navy is not like the army. A farmer can go to the battlefield after ten and a half days of training. After fighting a few battles, he can become an experienced veteran. The Navy needs more professional knowledge, especially officers in various core positions, and it is not easy to train them.

According to the standards of the Qi Navy, a naval officer needs to learn courses such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, ballistics, management, and even some foreign languages. During the internship stage, you must master climate knowledge, understand ocean current information in various sea areas, be familiar with information on multiple ports, and be able to operate all weapons on the ship. If it is a motor sailing boat, you also need to understand the operating principles of steam equipment and be able to easily troubleshoot some mechanical faults...

Look, it is not easy to train a qualified naval officer. The cycle is long, the cost is high, and the success rate is low. It is not without reason that the Navy looks down on the Army at certain times. They are indeed much more advanced than the rough guys in the Army!

Although the English navy was not as good as Qi's, its officers also needed to master a lot of knowledge. Although their naval committee imitated the Qi State and established a naval school, the growth of most officers still relied on word of mouth or apprenticeship to impart knowledge, and training would only be more difficult than that of the Qi State.

The Qi Expeditionary Fleet (First Task Force) fought in the North Atlantic waters for nearly a year. Through battle after battle, it sank and damaged more than [-] English warships, killing and wounding a large number of its naval officers and soldiers. It not only greatly exercised It improved the Qi Navy's ability to conduct cross-regional operations, allowing the fleet to basically adapt to the sea conditions, ocean currents and climate of the North Atlantic, and also seriously weakened the combat strength of the English Navy.

Now that the Second Task Force is about to arrive in Europe, the situation in the subsequent Qi-British war will surely change fundamentally.

Yes, the offensive and defensive momentum is different!
  It is foreseeable that the Qi Navy will take the initiative to seek a grand naval decisive battle with the Royal Navy of England at the appropriate time.
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  (End of this chapter)