In the sixteenth year of Wanli, that is, 1588 AD, Spain seemed destined to have a bad year. At the same time that the Armada suffered a major blow in England, the largest private maritime armed force in the Ming Dynasty was also pursuing the Spanish Philippines.
The Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance took the main force of Beijing's Beiyang Fleet as the core and formed the Southern Expedition Fleet. The fleet is composed of a three-level sailing battleship and two-level four sailing cruisers of the Beijing Beiyang Fleet as the core main force, supplemented by armed transport ships of each of the nobles and the armed transport ships of the Beijing Beiyang Fleet.
Among them, the three major princes each sent five armed transport ships, the marquis sent three ships, and the uncles sent two ships.
The nobles who stayed in the capital during the Ming Dynasty included the Dukes of the Three Kingdoms, the Thirteenth Marquis (including relatives who were granted the title of Marquis), and the Twenty-first Uncle (including relatives, but not including Li Chengliang). Therefore, this time the nobles contributed a total of 96 armed transport ships. The ship has more than 2,600 artillery pieces, including 768 No. 2 long heavy guns.
In addition to five professional warships, Jinghua also dispatched 49 armed transport ships as planned, and additionally dispatched two experimental high-speed reconnaissance ships that were newly launched into service. The reason why they were named "high-speed" was mainly because of this Two new designs were used in both ships: the Atlantic bow and the "sail propeller twin power".
The so-called Atlantic bow is actually what the Germans called it later, and its form was originally derived from the scissor bow of the scissor sailing ship. Originally, this kind of clipper sailboat was a high-speed sailboat designed by Americans in the 19th century. Because of its excellent sailing performance, it attracted various countries to imitate it.
During the period until the Second World War, German naval ships usually had to operate for a long time in the Atlantic Ocean with rough sea conditions and frequent storms to carry out engagements, so they were very fond of this kind of bow and named it "Atlantic Bow". ”, meaning that it is very suitable for sailing in the storms and huge waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
As the name suggests, the flying scissor bow will narrow the waterline of the bow to an almost blade shape to achieve the so-called "long and sharp curved scissor-shaped bow post", which presents a posture suitable for racing and can break waves at sea ( Shearing waves) move forward to reduce wave resistance, so it is called "flying shear" performance.
This design is very similar to the concept of the small waterline and low-resistance hull line of later generations. Combined with the outwardly floating bow and freeboard, the ship will not have serious waves when sailing at high speed, ensuring the strength of the ship. Power can be converted into high speed to the maximum extent.
Since it is so excellent, why is it still used as a test ship here by Gao Jingshi? The reason is that it is very difficult to build. Later ships of the same style required cold forging of the bow pillars with 10,000-ton hydraulic presses and other large equipment. However, Gao Pragmatic did not have such equipment, so he could only let Jinghua's craftsmen study how to transform "his design concept" on their own. into real objects.
It was very troublesome to turn a wooden sailing battleship into a clipper ship, so it was eight years after he proposed this design that the first two test ships were built. Moreover, the successful construction was possible thanks to Jinghua's supply of high-quality giant wood from various countries in southern Xinjiang, and the materials were carefully selected to be able to build it.
Of course, another reason why it took so long to build these two high-speed reconnaissance ships is that Gao Pragmatic insisted on testing marine propellers.
The marine propellers at this time obviously could not be steam-powered. The propellers used by these two ships were still primitive artificial power and required a bearing transmission system that was considered very complicated in this era to drive the propellers to rotate.
In essence, this is a thankless design. The manufacturing is complex, the cost is high, and the efficiency is actually average. It was only implemented due to high pragmatism.
This design encountered great difficulties during the construction process, and to Gao's surprise, the difficulty was not the drive shaft problem he initially expected, but the problem with the hull seal at the propeller extension.
Things like propellers have one end in the cabin and the other end outside the ship. In this way, there must be a gap at the joint of the propeller, and this gap is at the bottom of the water, so it is very important to make the joint of the propeller waterproof.
The connection between the propeller and the hull of modern ships in later generations uses professional sealing materials, such as rubber or Teflon and other materials with good waterproof performance, which can achieve very good waterproof performance. But Gaowu Shi doesn't have Teflon, even rubber, he has no place to get it - that stuff is still in America.
To say that the propeller is waterproof, first of all, it depends on a main component, which is the bearing connected to the propeller, called the tail shaft. The sealing ability of the tail shaft will be an important reflection of the technical level of a country's shipbuilding industry in later generations.
Gao Wuchen will definitely not be able to develop later technologies such as bearing pressure waterproofing, so he can only accept a certain degree of water seepage and use waterproof grease to protect mechanical parts in advance. This leads to a problem, that is, the part needs to be disassembled and overhauled every certain time, and this time is not too long.
As for the joint between the drive shaft and the ship, we can only rely on primitive means, such as embedding thin wood and then permeably applying tung oil, etc. The final result is only barely usable - water will still seep, so special design is needed to store water in the seepage part. The pool is then cleaned manually, that is, picked out in buckets.
All in all, these two test ships are typical of high cost and average efficiency. If they were not highly pragmatic and insisted on "moving forward in the right direction," they would definitely be killed by the shipyard.
However, high cost is an absolute concept, while efficiency is generally a relative concept - on the contrary, these two ships have more than 60 "rowers" to drive the propellers, but the speed is actually only when the propellers are used. will improve. What is absolutely true is that when the propellers are started, the speed of this class of ships is more than a quarter faster than that of ordinary pure sail warships.
Since it was equipped with more than 60 people, the carrying capacity of this type of ship was greatly limited, so in the end Gao Pragmatic could only agree with the shipyard's opinion and use it only as a reconnaissance ship.
If Gao Pragmatic hadn't always known that technological progress was not achieved overnight, even he might have been pushed back.
An expeditionary fleet consisting of more than 150 armed ships was organized, with 27,828 sailors and more than 13,000 infantry and artillery armed servants.
Among them, there were 5,600 armed servants from various noble families, roughly 300 from each family of the three great princes, 200 from each family of the marquis, and 100 from each family of the uncles.
Jinghua temporarily mobilized some marines from the Nanyang Fleet, and together with the marines of the Beiyang Fleet, they were temporarily organized into two alliances, with about 8,000 people. Gao Yimin was temporarily recruited from Liaodong to serve as the chief general of the land division, and he was assigned the post of temporary commander of the first town of the Southern Expedition (a town commander was officially called the commander). The 5,600 people under his command were collectively assigned to the temporary third association of the Southern Expedition. Gao Yimin is temperate.
The commander of the Southern Expedition Fleet is directly served by Gao Zhenxin, the commander of Beijing's Beiyang Fleet. The flagship is the only sail battleship "Liu Rengui" of the Beiyang Fleet.
The expedition fleet set off from Tianjin Port on the third day of June, stopped at Quanzhou for supplies, and officially entered wartime status. The Nanyang Fleet immediately sent more than two hundred navigators to join the expedition fleet, under the control of Gao Zhenxin.
On June 22, the expeditionary fleet's advance formation reconnaissance ship "Left Hussars" discovered six large Spanish treasure ships off the northern coast of the Philippines. The expeditionary fleet had a dispute over how to deal with the six large Spanish treasure ships that unexpectedly appeared.
The leaders of the noble family believe that these six large treasure ships should be surrounded and suppressed at sea. Their reasons are threefold:
First, a large amount of gold and silver that "must exist" can be seized to prevent the Spaniards in Manila from using these gold and silver to bribe locals to help defend the city;
Second, it can boost morale and allow the entire fleet to launch the attack on Manila with the highest enthusiasm;
Third, destroying or capturing these six large treasure ships can also prevent the Spanish fleet in Manila from greatly increasing its strength. Before the dispatch of troops, the Spanish were expected to have about 12 warships in Manila. If these six ships are added, it will directly increase the number of ships. half.
However, several battleship captains on the Jinghua side disagreed. They believed that although it was not difficult to defeat the Spanish fleet at sea, as a warship that sailed around the world, the Spanish fleet had an advantage in speed.
The vast majority of our warships are armed transport ships, and their speed is not advantageous. If we want to encircle and suppress them, we need to predict the opponent's route in advance and set up an ambush in advance to achieve what we want. The current situation is that the opponent is in front of our fleet. Once our fleet catches up, the opponent will definitely speed up and flee, and will not be able to catch up.
In addition, if you conduct an encirclement and suppression at sea, there is a certain chance that the opponent may sink the ship (there is no sea valve at this time). It is generally not easy for a wooden warship to scuttle a ship to self-sink, but since the opponent is a large Spanish treasure ship, which carries a large amount of heavy gold and silver, the success rate is expected to be high.
If it really sinks, wouldn't this unexpected windfall fly away like a cooked duck?
Therefore, the captains of several battleships in Jinghua put forward two suggestions:
First, we dispatched two reconnaissance ships and two second-level cruisers to provoke the Spaniards and lead the Spaniards to actively pursue our ship. At the same time, the large fleet carried out dispersion and encirclement maneuvers centered on the predetermined ambush location. The purpose of the entire tactic is to have already entered our encirclement when the Spaniards discover our main force.
Second, regardless of the Spanish's large treasure ship fleet, let them enter the Manila port, our large fleet will go directly to Manila, blocking the Spaniards in the port and unable to get out.
They believe that although this tactic seems relatively passive and seems to do nothing, in fact due to the huge numerical advantage of our fleet, most of the Spanish warships do not dare to go out to the port to fight despite their strong single-ship combat effectiveness.
In this way, as long as our army lands a little further away - for example, from the north bank of the Pasig River - and then crosses the river to encircle the city of Manila from a long distance (meaning that it is beyond the range of city defense artillery and Spanish fleet artillery), and at the same time, the Pasig River is cut off and stored. Water operations are carried out to prepare to flood Manila. Once Manila is captured by us, the Spanish fleet in Manila Port will become a turtle in the urn, and we can do whatever we want.
If Gao Zhenxin's original intention is to follow, he actually doesn't like the second plan very much, because although the plan seems very feasible, if the battle is carried out according to this plan, then the contribution of the expedition fleet itself in this battle will probably be lackluster - ——Aside from blocking the sea outside Manila Port, the fleet is almost not required to do anything from the beginning to the end. What else can be said about this?
His current name is still Gao Zhenxin. According to Jinghua's rules, it means that he has never made any great achievements. As the commander of Beijing's Beiyang Fleet, he has not had much opportunity in the past few years - the Beiyang Fleet can at most deter some famous names in Japan, but North Korea does not even need deterrence. They originally faced Ming Dynasty's merchant ships. The team is just cowardly, how can we talk about making great achievements?
Therefore, Gao Zhenxin originally wanted to fight a big battle and achieve a great victory at sea. Only in this way could he have the opportunity to change his name to "a single name next to the word "王".
During the hesitation, Gao Zhenxin sighed inwardly, turned to Gao Yimin and asked: "Brother Yimin, what do you think of these two suggestions?"
Of course, Gao Yimin could also see the difference between the two suggestions. To be honest, he was quite satisfied with these captains, because none of them concealed the second tactic because they wanted to make meritorious deeds. I have to say that the master has always emphasized team spirit and overall victory, which is really prescient.
However, this forced Gao Yimin not to only care about the interests of the army, because since the navy could do so fairly, he could not lose the dignity of the army for this.
After thinking about his words for a moment, Gao Yimin replied: "I personally think both plans are reasonable. However, given my limited understanding of naval warfare tactics, I cannot accurately judge whether the first suggestion is more feasible...
Besides, we are still at sea. According to the master's order, all decisions and actions at this time are made by Commander Zhenxin. Brother Zhenxin, there is no need to worry about anything, just fight how you want. "
Gao Zhenxin first expressed his gratitude, and then asked the representatives of the honorable nobles which one they would prefer if they chose from these two plans.
After all, it is the "United Fleet". Since they have rejected their own suggestions, they still need to consult their opinions on the other two suggestions proposed by Jinghua, otherwise they will appear too overbearing.
When asked this question, the representatives of the honorable nobles were particularly unified. They all said that the first option should be chosen: luring the enemy to set up an ambush and encirclement and suppression at sea.
Gao Zhenxin was a little surprised at first, but he soon realized that the situation of the nobles sending troops this time was different from that of Jinghua.
Gao Yimin's status in Jinghua is relatively high, and he is a person who is highly valued by the master. Moreover, the army has dispatched 8,000 people and two associations, and its strength is relatively strong, so Gao Zhenxin had to consult Gao Yimin's opinion.
But the nobles were different. They dispatched 96 armed transport ships at sea, but the land division only sent 5,600 people. Even the three major princes only sent 300 people each. From such a comparison, it is obvious that sea power is stronger than land power, so this reflects to another level: the distinguished representatives who come to discuss matters on the "Liu Rengui" are all people from their respective fleets.
Gao Zhenxin gained the support of the distinguished forces and finally made up his mind and ordered: "In that case, the four ships 'Dengzhou' and 'Jinzhou' together with the 'Left-wing Light Cavalry' and the 'Right-wing Light Cavalry' came forward to provoke To lure the enemy, use "Dengzhou" as the formation command ship.
Our fleet is preparing to implement a dispersed encirclement plan. The planned encirclement location is one hundred and twenty miles due south of here. Now I ask all military staff to step up your planning and arrange the formation of dispersed formations..."
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