The surprise military operation against Golden Gate Bay organized by Lieutenant General Duquesne and Tourville was actually a success!
They did catch Zheng Jing, the admiral of the Ming Dynasty's Eastern Fleet, by surprise... Although Zheng Sen's son had a prosperous official career, his military skills were really mediocre. The top brass in the navy actually knew about his skills, otherwise Nor would he be placed in the position of admiral of the Eastern Fleet.
The Toyo Fleet is of course very powerful. It is one of the three main fleets and is in charge of the Pacific Ocean. It is the only one among the three major fleets that has its admiral outside the Ming Dynasty - so this fleet not only has the responsibility to control the Pacific, but also controls Japan for the Ming Dynasty.
Emperor Zhu's attitude towards Japan is generally friendly, but this does not mean that he will not be wary of Japan.
The current Ming Dynasty does not station troops in every vassal state. In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not have troops stationed in most of its vassal states. Those with Ming Dynasty garrisons are generally "frontline vassals". For example, in the vassal states that are located on the frontier and border with enemy countries (open or potential) such as the United States of Xinzhou, the Kingdom of Western Chu, and the Kingdom of Siam, they usually have permanent troops stationed. But the number is usually not too much.
Japan is definitely an exception. Japan is not a frontline vassal state, but it has a large fleet of the Ming Dynasty stationed on its territory for a long time!
The admiral of the Grand Fleet is equivalent to the governor on land, with high rank and great power. Letting a large fleet control Japan, Emperor Zhu never relaxed his vigilance against Japan!
In addition to suppressing Japan, the Toyo Fleet also has another important responsibility - the security of the Pacific routes and Pacific sea control are both responsible for the Toyo Fleet!
Therefore, the establishment of the Toyo Fleet has always been relatively sufficient. Although it may not necessarily be equipped with many new battleships, there are a lot of fast-sailing battleships and military guard-class battleships responsible for escort missions. The total number of warships of various types that have been compiled for a long time is no less than 150. If you include the caravels, the number is more than 200!
In addition, the Toyo Fleet also has jurisdiction over four naval garrison towns located on Japanese soil, including Sasebo, the naval Ryukyu garrison garrison, the naval Ruki garrison garrison (located on the Kamchatka Peninsula), the naval Kinmen garrison garrison, and the naval Mariana garrison. There are eight major garrison mansions including the Mansion. In addition to managing naval assets such as ports, docks, fortresses, forts, and ship repair yards, each naval garrison also commands a varying number of marines.
It can be said that the Admiral of the Eastern Fleet is definitely one of the most powerful positions in the Navy!
But this position can be done by any fool!
Because Japan, which the Toyo Fleet is responsible for deterring, has been very submissive over the years and has never tried to challenge the majesty of the Celestial Kingdom.
And there are no pirates on the trans-Pacific route - pirates have to have lairs too! They generally occupy sea areas near islands and important trade routes. There are no islands between Japan and the west coast of Xinzhou Continent for pirates to settle.
Therefore, the escort missions of the Dongyang Fleet on both sides of the Pacific are not so much escorts as routine training.
This is also the reason why there are generally few battleships in the establishment of the Eastern Fleet.
As for sea control in the Pacific...where is the Pacific? It’s clearly a Daming Lake! Therefore, the admiral of the Dongyang Fleet has always been nicknamed the Commander-in-Chief of the Daming Lake Navy!
Therefore, the admiral of the Eastern Fleet has always been a position held by naval bureaucrats with mixed qualifications - if you want to become the Admiral of the Navy and the Minister of the Navy, you must have the qualifications of the admiral of the three major fleets!
The Nanyang Fleet is the frontline fleet, guarding the Strait of Malacca. There are also a lot of pirates in the Nanyang Islands, some of them are quite powerful, and they can cause several big cases if they are not careful.
Moreover, most of the battleships of the Ming Navy are stationed in Guangzhou Bay, and the Nanyang Fleet is responsible for their combat readiness and training. The Generalissimo's Office sends people to inspect every month. If anything is found, the fleet admiral will be in trouble.
As for the Beiyang Fleet-this is the home fleet! It has a heavy responsibility and is closely watched from all sides. It is also in charge of many battleships and has to hold military exercises with the Nanyang Fleet every year, which is very troublesome.
The Dongyang Fleet is the fleet that is least likely to make mistakes. Even if there is a mistake, it can be easily covered up.
So Zheng Jing is planning to serve as the admiral of the Eastern Fleet for a few years, and then safely take over the job of naval commander of the Generalissimo's Palace...
Unexpectedly, he did not serve as the admiral of the Eastern Fleet for a full year. Zhu Cihong took out more than half of the battleships under the Nanyang Fleet and the Beiyang Fleet and stuffed them into the Eastern Fleet - more than 100 battleships of various types!
A large number of battleships crowded into the Sasebo naval port. There were 20,000 to 30,000 officers and soldiers on board. It was not easy to arrange these people properly.
Before Zheng Jing could figure it out, the deceptive order from above came again, asking him to immediately lead the main force of the Eastern Fleet to the Kinmen Port of the United States of New Zealand to station... This is really a mouthful from above, but a tired leg from below. ah!
The Toyo Fleet originally had more than 200 warships, which were dispatched in two batches. There were nearly a hundred warships stationed in Sasebo Port. Adding the more than 100 battleships that suddenly squeezed in, that was more than 300 warships. .....
They have to go to Kinmen Port in the United States of New Zealand... That is a place with nothing but gold, mink skins, meat, rice, noodles, and seafood.
More than 300 warships, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, all sailed over at once... I don’t know when they will come back! How many supplies do you need to carry? In such a hurry, where can I find those things?
A series of problems came down, which made Zheng Jing, who wanted to finish his term in peace, in a hurry for a while. He finally managed to deal with it and then pulled the fleet to Kinmen Port, a port in the wilderness. There were also a lot of mistakes on the way. , either a collision or a ship falling behind - this is not because the training of the Toyo Fleet is too loose, but that the more than 100 battleships thrown in have never gotten along with the Toyo Fleet, and the Admiral of the Toyo Fleet does not command so many battleships. experience.
After finally arriving at Kinmen Bay, before we had time to settle down the fleet, let alone train properly, urgent reports came one after another that the enemy fleet was heading north!
Moreover, when the emergency report reached Zheng Jing's flagship "Fengyangfu" (Pacific Type C), it was almost dark. His fleet had not been running in at all. How could he dare to pull out of Kinmen Bay at night? Don't let anything happen, it would be really embarrassing.
Besides, the wind is now southeast, and the enemy's fleet is following the wind. It may have arrived outside Kinmen Bay... If someone sets up an ambush outside Kinmen Bay, they may be able to disrupt their own fleet.
So Zheng Jing simply decided to "protect the ship and defeat the enemy". Not only did he not attack with his own large fleet, he also took back all the United States warships patrolling outside the Kinmen Strait. He only used 8 old United States warships to patrol the Kinmen Strait. An artillery column was set up at the entrance. Want to defend yourself from the enemy outside the Golden Gate!
But I never expected that the invading enemy would not hesitate to spend a lot of money to launch a fire ship offensive, and the warships of the United States were so fast - in fact, the navy of the United States thought that you, Admiral Zheng, were pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger, and deliberately wanted to Lure the enemy deep and then annihilate them in one fell swoop.
Kinmen Bay is almost overcrowded by battleships! Are you still afraid of a sneak attack from the enemy? So they deliberately gave way to the Golden Gate Strait.
In fact, Zheng Jing was not afraid of a decisive battle, but knew that his fleet was improvised and could still fight in a majestic formation during the day, but a battle at night would definitely lead to chaos.
So he wanted to delay it until dawn... but the eight battleships of the United States Navy were not powerful enough!
With no other choice, Zheng Jing had no choice but to order each ship to light up its lights and engage in a night battle...at least they would not collide with each other.
In addition, he won't set up a formation and just engage in a melee!
"Send the order to all ships to launch a charge and fight on their own..." On the battleship Fengyang, Zheng Jing looked at the sea of lights around him, and he felt confident in defeating it - it turns out that there are so many ships!
"Retreat! Retreat quickly..." Lieutenant General Duquesne also reacted at this time!
The enemy has at least two to three hundred ships!
This is a trap! There was an ambush here... How could we defeat so many ships?
If you don’t run quickly, you’re going to see God!
