China has been called the Celestial Dynasty since the Han Dynasty. This "Celestial Dynasty" has several meanings, one of which is unquestionable: the Celestial Dynasty is the first dynasty in the world!
The Ming Dynasty was called "Strong Ming" in later generations. This strength was not only the foundation of the court, but even the emperor did not dare to show any weakness in foreign affairs. At the same time, this kind of tenacity is also the persistence in the minds of ordinary Ming people. Otherwise, how could the Yangzhou Tenth Day and Jiading Three Massacres occur in the Jiangnan area that has always been regarded as moderate after the Tatars entered the customs?
On the contrary, weak people and compromisers appear more in the bureaucratic class. As Ma and En said, the bourgeoisie is naturally weak and compromising.
Takagi San is also one of the "ordinary people of the Ming Dynasty", and his strength when facing foreigners is also fully revealed at this moment.
Even though the Ming Dynasty banned the sea for more than a hundred years and only reopened the sea for more than ten years, this "number one in the world" is not something you and other barbarians can call themselves!
Thousands of officials look to Chang'an, and all nations worship Han Yuan.
That is China, that is the atmosphere of China. The master said that Yi Di is afraid of power but not virtuous. When it is time to give him "power", there must be no ambiguity.
At this moment, faced with the menacing Spanish fleet, Takagizo took a deep breath, simply threw the word "lure the enemy" out of the sky, and decisively ordered: "Command the gunner, commander of the gun, fire volleys freely! There is an enemy but not me, there is no one." I'm invincible!"
"Here!" The orderer clasped his fists and responded to the order with a bang. He ran out of the command room and went to the gun cabin on the bottom deck to shout the order to the gunnery commander: "Captain's order: Free volleys of artillery fire. There are enemies but no one, and no one but me." !”
[The "Dengzhou" is a cruiser with two decks of guns. The bottom deck has more gun positions on the non-open deck, so the gunnery commander himself takes command from the bottom gun cabin. ]
The gunner's blood boiled when he heard this, and he raised his arms and shouted: "Order! Listen carefully to all the gun positions on the starboard side. There is no enemy but we, and we are invincible! Listen to my command: four marks on the muzzle, full charge - fire!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" A series of artillery salvos fired from the starboard side of the "Dengzhou".
But the gunnery officer doesn't care about the results of the bombardment - that's someone responsible. He kept shouting without stopping: "Cool the barrel! Clean the barrel! All actions must be fast - prepare gunpowder and shells! Each member of the inspection team will supervise and record the preparation time of each artillery team. Anyone who is slow will be flogged immediately!"
In later generations, some people once said that the navy is the military service with the strictest discipline. This kind of strictness is not inferior even to fleets such as the Beijing-China Liangyang Fleet, which is more commercial-oriented.
Loading preparation can only be accomplished by the division of labor of a complete gun crew. If a certain link is slow, it may reduce the efficiency of the entire gun crew. Therefore, the inspectors on the ship are required to flog the gun crew that does not move fast enough on the spot. ——Take a whip. This is not about who is slow and who is whipped, but which gun crew is slow. Everyone in a gun crew will be whipped.
Under this kind of punishment, no one in the artillery crew dared to slow down even a little bit, because if you were even a little slow, you might harm your comrades who are usually closest to you. That would really be "social death" on the spot.
In a traditional human society like China, almost no one would do this. Everyone would try their best to speed up, and the colleagues around them would loudly remind each other that they must strictly follow the instructions - because everyone has accepted it. With specialized training, everyone knows that classic movements are the most optimized movements.
Even so, the first round of bombardment by the four warships in the enemy formation still missed. The rangefinder on the deck (a unique configuration of Jinghua in this era) sent a messenger to deliver the results of the first round of bombardment. The results showed that the overall error of the first round of bombardment was nearly one mile from the Spanish fleet. At the same time, the rangefinder also The approximate speed of the Spanish fleet was reported.
Of course the gap is huge, but the gunnery commander is calm because this is a normal phenomenon. In fact, the accuracy of long-range naval gunfire could be said to be extremely ugly until the First World War.
There is a very key point that must be said here: Anyone who talks about accuracy without talking about distance is just a rogue. Because for things like shelling, the closer the distance, the higher the accuracy. Once the distance is extended, the accuracy rate will decrease. In different eras, after the distance reaches a certain level, the accuracy rate will drop significantly and cliff-like.
In the famous Battle of Jutland in later generations, the hit rate of the two elite navies of Britain and Germany was only about 2%, and the hit rate of their battleship main guns was less than 1%. Of course, the main guns of their era had a much longer range than they do now, so it's not surprising that the hit rate dropped.
By the time of World War II, for example, the new battleships of the United States after 1943, such as Iowa, North Carolina, and South Dakota, were all equipped with radar fire control systems. They can use radar range measurement, speed measurement, and heading to guide the main gun firing. At the same time, the main gun can also fire in bumpy sea conditions through a gyro stabilizer.
However, what was the hit rate of naval guns during this period? Medium and short range: at 10-15 kilometers, it can have a hit rate of 5%-8%, and the 9 main guns can hit one shot every 2-3 salvo rounds; medium and long range: at 18-25 kilometers, about 3 % hit rate, approximately every 3-4 rounds of salvo, the probability of hitting one shot. Long distance: At 30-35 kilometers, the actual hit rate is still only 1%, and you can barely hit 1 shot every 10 rounds of salvos - this depends on your appearance.
The three levels of medium and near, medium and far, and far are not only divided in this way in later generations. In fact, the two ocean fleets in Beijing and China are also divided in this way today. They are nothing more than divided according to the proportion of range. In World War II, the U.S. Navy's naval artillery fired more than 30 kilometers, and now it can only hit the sky for more than two kilometers. But as long as it is divided according to proportion, in short, it is normal to miss the long-distance artillery. If it hits, it belongs to the ancestral grave. Smoke.
However, because Jinghua was specially equipped with range finders, Jinghua's ships still had a huge advantage in adjusting shooting parameters. The "Dengzhou" quickly adjusted the muzzle scale and launched a second salvo.
Because the Spanish's speed was reported by the range finder, this round of shooting was more targeted, and they were now "charging" with full sail and downwind, and the distance between the two sides was also shortened by about a mile, so the accuracy was better than before. Greatly improve.
In this round of shelling, the "Dengzhou" alone hit 4 rounds, 3 of which hit the "San Antonio", the flagship of the Spanish Treasure Fleet, and the other one was originally aimed at the "San Antonio". But for some reason, it hit the "Almeria" on its side and rear instead.
However, neither the "San Antonio" nor the "Almeria" suffered much damage.
The "Almeria" only had a hole the size of a human head on the deck, and no one was hit. It was quite lucky.
The "San Antonio" was a little more unlucky. A shell that hit the deck smashed an unlucky sailor into a pulp on the spot. After penetrating the deck, it killed two gun crew members on the second deck and destroyed a ship by the way. cannon. The other two shells hit the side strings, but due to the high hull of the big Galen ship, the locations of the two hits were also quite high.
In sea conditions with limited wind and waves like the South China Sea, as long as there is no storm, these two puncture wounds will not even allow water to enter the hull. And if the Spaniards could escape smoothly, the carpenters on the ship would be able to roughly repair these two damages very quickly.
Although the damage to the Spaniards was very small, the artillery range and accuracy of Jinghua's decoy formation still surprised them, especially Commander Silva and Captain Echevari, who suddenly became nervous. got up.
"Oh, God! Are these pagan cannons kissed by the devil? At such a distance, they actually achieved a hit?"
"Commander, I have ordered the repair of the battleship, but the current situation does not look right..." Captain Echevari frowned: "The other party dares to challenge us with a weak fleet, perhaps because of this magical accuracy. long heavy cannon."
"What suggestions do you have, Mr. Captain?" Silva asked, grabbing the armrest in front of him.
"Your Excellency, Commander, I have noticed that the opponent's flagship has been leading the fleet in an oblique arc. This can not only prevent us from quickly closing the distance with them, but also gradually lead us away from our original course. "
Echevari is worthy of being an old captain, and he can see Takagizo's intention at a glance: "We are basically still in the tailwind, but with the opponent's flagship leading the team to maneuver like this, we probably only need to go through... No By ten minutes, it will become the right string that is catching the wind.
Your Excellency, Commander, I have the duty to remind you that the other party is four Chinese-style hard-sailed warships. The side attack will have almost no effect on them, but for us, it will seriously affect the speed of our ships. . At that time, it is very likely that we will not be able to catch up with the enemy ship - that is to say, the boarding battle will not be carried out smoothly. "
In fact, there was no need for Echevarry to remind him of this. Commander Silva was also an experienced naval officer himself, and he also saw this trouble. Therefore, he replied without thinking: "We also adjusted the course, and the entire fleet turned 15 degrees to the right and moved forward. When the distance between the enemy and ourselves was reduced to two miles [Note 1], each ship fired back. In addition, do not slow down the speed, and must Try your best to get the chance to engage in battle!"
[Note 1: Sorry, I can't find any authoritative record of what unit of length the Spaniards used during this period, so I had to make do with miles. ]
Echevari believed that although the commander's order was not subtle, it was still very reasonable at this moment, so he quickly and faithfully executed the order. While letting the own ship make adjustments, it sent people to desperately signal to several other ships - this was the trouble of not having semaphores.
The communication of orders between them originally relied on small traffic boats. If the distance was close enough, "communication basically relied on shouting." However, our own warships are now moving at full speed, and it is obviously impossible to notify them by rowing boats.
"Communications basically rely on shouting" is also unreliable - the other party is shelling, whose voice can be loud enough to overpower the roar of the cannon? So I had to gesture wildly. Whether the other party could understand or not, it all depends on the understanding.
Fortunately, the Spaniards seemed to have quite good understanding. After the flagship "San Antonio" turned slightly, the other ships followed suit and tried their best to keep a frontal alignment and lure the enemy formation away.
In fact, such a deflection is not very helpful in maintaining the wind. Both Silva and Echevari understand this, but their focus is to fire back after approaching, and to strive to get within "ten minutes" Complete docking.
However, this move was mercilessly ridiculed by Takagi San on the "Dengzhou". He sneered: "Huh, you are a stupid ass who will never look back until you hit the south wall... I am a cruiser!"
Turning his head, Takagi San ordered: "Signal: Our ship is about to accelerate, all ships keep a distance from our ship." After a pause, he turned to the first mate: "All masts are full, speed up and deflect. I want to speed up as soon as possible." It has become a situation where both the enemy and ourselves are taking advantage of the situation."
As this order was issued, the speed of the enemy formation immediately accelerated. They not only deflected, but also continued to "retreat diagonally" in the opposite direction to the direction of the Spanish fleet due to the difference in wind. Although the speed of this "oblique retreat" is not high, it can still slow down the time when the two parties finally come into contact.
At the same time, the ships were still carrying out bombardment. At this time, the hit rate of the bombardment had improved to a certain extent. The six large galleons of the Spanish fleet had been hit by nearly twenty bombs. Although the artillery of this era was not very powerful and did little damage to the wooden hull, such continuous shots inevitably had a certain impact on the morale of the Spanish.
Of course, none of this is critical. At this moment, Takagi San did not expect to sink six such giant ships by shelling alone, and the Spaniards did not think that these shellings could cause any fatal damage to themselves. In the eyes of the Spaniards, these cannons were just a nuisance, and only a few unlucky ones would actually die from the cannonballs.
However, under the full acceleration of Takagi's third formation, the "sidewind" state that Echevari had originally anticipated actually occurred only six minutes later.
At this time, the artillery fire from both sides also began to become more accurate. The Spaniards had previously fired artillery from a distance of two miles, but unfortunately no hits were caused. There was only about a mile left. Although the Spanish fleet received more than twenty cannons, they also hit Jinghua's warship. Although there were only six, it was enough to excite the Spanish.
This is related to the attributes of the guns mentioned before. The Spanish artillery equipment does not have enough long and heavy guns, but there are many powerful guns at medium and short range.
Their shells were heavier and larger, causing the "Dengzhou" to be hit by three rounds, the "Jinzhou" of the same class also suffered two hits, and the "right wing hussar" suffered one hit. On the contrary, as the "culprit", the "Left Wing Hussars" unexpectedly had divine help. Not only did it miss one shot, but it also hit the opponent with at least eight shots.
Although the "Dengzhou" received three heavier shells, the high-quality teak wood from southern Xinjiang used by this class of cruiser made a great contribution. One of the shells with a bad angle was actually directly bounced away, only cracking the deck wood. , even failed to penetrate. One of the remaining two hit the side string, leaving a hole; the other hit the sail and fell overboard from the opposite side of the ship.
The advantages of hard sails were clearly revealed at this moment. A hole slightly larger than a person's head would have almost no impact on the entire ship. The sailmaster just observed it briefly and said directly, "Don't worry about it now."
However, changes in the wind situation put the Spanish fleet into real danger.
Takagi San grinned and said relaxedly: "Send the order, the entire formation turns left and U-turn, quickly distance yourself - everyone, the weather is so good, it's time to fly kites!"
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