The main force of the Beiyang Expedition Fleet arrived on the battlefield a little earlier than Takagi San expected. There is no doubt that Fleet Commander Gao Zhenxin’s attitude towards this battle is to win the first battle!
Compared with the Nanyang Fleet, the Beiyang Fleet itself is slightly weaker, and has never had the opportunity to fight a big battle. In recent years, he has almost been able to threaten certain big names in Japan and engage in naval gun diplomacy. Of course, he is very envious of Gao Jing of the Nanyang Fleet - if nothing else, just the name next to the character "王" is enough for him to covet.
Gao Jing really had a series of battles in Nanyang. Even the statement submitted to the master the year before last year had to admit that the Nanyang fleet was "exhausted." It’s true that a full man doesn’t know how hungry he is, and I, from Beiyang, also want to be tired!
Moreover, the most important thing is that if things continue like this, the size of the Beiyang Fleet will not even be able to maintain the current "two-ocean ratio". Then wouldn't he be a pain in the ass as the commander?
Therefore, Gao Zhenxin attached great importance to this battle. After receiving the report from Takagi San, he directly ordered the entire fleet to speed up and surround them.
The first to appear on the battlefield were the two second-level cruisers "Simingzhou" and "Sichengzhou".
These two second-class cruisers are the earliest batch of warship-class warships built and equipped in the Liangyang Fleet. A total of six ships were built, two of which were returned to the Northern Ocean and four to the Southern Ocean.
The six warships are all named after the former Tusi Tuzhou-level places in Guangxi. The first ship is the "Si Mingzhou", so it is also called the "Si Mingzhou" class cruiser. The second ship is the "Sichengzhou". The two ships are actually sister ships. The "Simingzhou" was launched and named only half a month earlier than the "Sichengzhou".
This naming is obviously to commend the Guangxi chieftain for his contribution in the founding period of the highly pragmatic southern Xinjiang cause. Therefore, although these two warships were launched earlier, the corresponding personnel on board are also of high quality.
Two "Si Mingzhou" class cruisers joined the battle, allowing the "Dengzhou" and "Jinzhou" to breathe a sigh of relief after having already eaten dozens of shells each.
Although these dozens of shells did not cause much damage to their hulls, more than twenty crew members of both ships were killed as a result. Considering that the single-ship capacity of the "Laizhou" class cruiser is only 346 people, the loss of more than 20 people is actually a loss of about 7% of the personnel, which has already had an impact on the operation of the battleship, not to mention that in addition to death in battle, Dozens of people were injured, varying in severity, and were in urgent need of medical treatment.
But having said that, the two ships "Dengzhou" and "Jinzhou" can actually be separated from the battle. The reason why they urgently need to fight is to hold back the Spaniards and prevent them from escaping. Now that the two ships "Si Ming Prefecture" and "Sicheng Prefecture" have arrived, Takagi San decisively ordered to keep the distance, and urgently needed to replace the solid artillery shells for firing, instead of stepping forward to engage in a close-range artillery battle. At the same time, in this way, the damage control work and injury treatment work on the ship will be better carried out.
When the second "Simingzhou" class ship appeared, Commander Silva already had a very ominous premonition. He had already guessed that something big was going to happen today, and Captain Echevari's face turned pale.
Are you afraid of death? In fact, these two are not really afraid of death, but both of them, the noble commanders, considered that losing this battle might bring bad consequences to their families.
After all, everyone in Castile thinks that their navy is invincible. Perhaps it is understandable that it occasionally fails in Europe, but how can it also fail in the Far East?
But at this time, Silva and Echevari suddenly saw another giant ship - this time it was really a giant ship: the third-level battleship "Liu Rengui" appeared in their field of vision.
At this moment, it is only the sixteenth year of Wanli, that is, 1588 AD. The largest warship in Europe at this time is only about 1,200-1,400 tons. It was not until 1637 that the British Sea King reached an unprecedented 1,683 tons, and that was because King Charles I of England at that time forced more artillery.
And what about the "Liu Rengui"? It is a 1,600-ton pure warship with two decks of guns, 72 artillery pieces of various types, and a crew of up to 460 people. It is enough to be called the most powerful warship in the world at this time.
[Note: The number of guns carried by Jinghua III-class battleships is still significantly smaller than that of European battleships of the same tonnage. For example, the British "Sea Sovereign" mentioned above was originally designed to carry 90 guns, but was later interfered by Charles I. The number was forcibly increased to 104, and the artillery alone weighed 153 tons.
However, this issue has been explained before, because although the hull of the Jinghua battleship mainly refers to European battleships and is designed and built using technical means such as tight ribs and double hulls, they also retain certain watertight compartments, which improves anti-sinking capabilities. At the same time, it also affects the amount of artillery carried.
Another point is that Jinghua's gun ratio is also different from that of European warships at this time. Jinghua warships have more long and heavy guns and fewer light close-in defense guns. Long and heavy guns are usually much heavier than light close-in defense guns. , so its gun capacity is correspondingly reduced. ]
In any case, when the "Liu Rengui" appeared in front of the Spaniards, everyone was stunned, and many people subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"Your Excellency, Commander, it seems that the legend of Nanyang is probably true." Echevari murmured: "The indigenous people of Nanyang said that the Chinese sent large treasure ships with many sea monsters more than a hundred years ago. The team cruised to Southeast Asia and other places, and those big treasure ships were bigger than all the ships they had ever seen - they had seen our warships - this legend does not seem to be based on rumors."
Silva didn't care about the Nanyang legends. He just stood there for a while, and then suddenly said: "I heard that the Chinese like to use swords to execute prisoners. Mr. Captain, maybe we can die with dignity."
Echevary was stunned and speechless. After a while, he smiled bitterly and said, "Perhaps we should feel lucky that we can avoid being hanged like pirates."
The conversation between these two people may need to be explained. In the early European Middle Ages, since the feudal lord was the actual ruler of the fief, a large number of people living in the manor had to abide by the manor's laws. Because the lords needed farm laborers to cultivate the land and produce other daily necessities for themselves, they rarely imposed severe penalties. In most cases, manorial law did not carry out the death penalty - it was usually a fine or, at best, flogging.
It was not until after the 11th century AD that merchants began to build cities. Commercial cities were largely outside the jurisdiction of lords, so they gathered many landless peasants who did not want to be exploited. However, the more people gather in a city, the easier it is for chaos to occur. When the lower-class citizens are unable to support themselves, various criminal activities begin.
City managers are not as "benevolent" as manor owners. For them, the foundation of a commercial city is the protection of private property - only by severely cracking down on thieves can deter crime and stabilize urban order. Therefore, European cities in the Middle Ages began to enact various severe penalties, especially for thieves.
The most cruel of these is the dismemberment of limbs, but this is rarely used, usually for treason. There are not many clear records of "decomposition of limbs". One of the examples occurred not long ago in this book, in 1584, when the Netherlands launched an independence movement with the intention of breaking away from the Spanish crown.
First, the leader of the movement, William I, was assassinated by a fanatical Catholic. Four days later, the assassin, Balthasar Gerard, was brutally executed in Amsterdam. His punishment was to have his limbs dismembered.
The torturers tied Gerald to a wooden frame in the city hall, and then used a hot iron to burn his right hand until the flesh was bloody. Afterwards, Gerald's body suffered multiple burns. The executioner then cut him into four pieces, cut open his stomach, dug out his heart and slapped his face... As a warning to everyone, his body was hung on four streets in Amsterdam. Next to a city gate.
Dismembering limbs is indeed too cruel, and the church will certainly object (of course the Netherlands will not listen to the church now). Therefore, for those who have committed the most heinous crimes, the most common methods of execution are wheel punishment and beheading.
Rotation is a very distinctive method of execution in Europe: the prisoner is tied to a large wheel, and then his limbs are smashed with a hammer, causing him to die in pain. This process is likely to last for several days. Use it to compare with China If so, it may be "similar but similar" to "Ling Chi".
In 1435, there was a very detailed description of a round of torture. It said that a prisoner was first hit by the executioner on his right leg 6 times from the back, and then hit the back 16 times... The executioner would be careful not to torture the prisoner to death. .
A knight in the 14th century committed a serious crime and was tortured so that all the bones in his limbs were smashed. He remained on the wheel for several more days before dying, while his wife knelt and cried below.
In 1518, a double murderer named John Brandt was sentenced to death by the Cologne court. He lived for another 24 hours after being tortured, and did not die until the next morning.
As for beheading, it is actually the "sword torture" mentioned by Commander Silva just now. This punishment was considered the simplest but most decent method of death penalty in medieval Europe, and it could only be "enjoyed" by people with a certain status.
According to the analysis of later scholars, sword punishment originated in the army, and the medieval army was mostly composed of nobles and their entourage. Therefore, even if the death penalty is carried out, sufficient respect must be given - sword punishment is concise and clear, and will not cause too much pain. , and the "sword" itself also has some good symbolic meanings.
More importantly, sword torture places extremely high demands on the executioner. An unskilled executioner may not be able to cut off the prisoner's head with one sword. Scenes that are too bloody are not acceptable. Based on surviving evidence, scholars have concluded that a medieval execution sword weighed approximately 7 pounds, meaning it would have been difficult to master without extensive training. Therefore, many cities in the Middle Ages did not have executioners who could perform sword punishment, and sometimes they had to hire executioners from neighboring cities.
As for the reason why Echevarry called the "pirate-style hanging" considered disgraceful by both him and Silva, it actually had a lot to do with the importance Europeans attached to "private ownership."
European cities have been intolerant of thieves for a long time. Some people might be hanged for just stealing a few pieces of bread - as just mentioned, early European cities attached great importance to private property.
For hundreds of years, hangings were an integral part of European cities. The execution time of the prisoners has been announced long ago, and the whole city will come to watch. Before the 18th century, the method of hanging was simpler: the criminal would climb a ladder, the executioner would put a rope around his neck, and then remove the ladder. Criminals often struggle for a period of time before slowly dying.
After the 18th century, the British invented the "long fall" type of hanging, which is often seen in later movies: after the prisoner is put on a rope, the executioner pulls the mechanism, the wooden board under the prisoner's feet opens, and his body will fall rapidly, and the prisoner will Death occurred quickly due to broken cervical vertebrae.
Of course, no matter what period it is, the bodies of most criminals will continue to be hung on the gallows until they rot and stink, in order to shock the public.
So why are all the pirates you see in movies hanged? Now everyone should be able to get the answer.
The first is that hanging is not very technical, and there is no need to find a special executioner to perform it. Especially if there are a large number of pirates caught, hanging is the most convenient and fastest way.
Secondly and most importantly, in the eyes of early city councils and law enforcers, the main crime of pirates was to rob people of their property. In essence, their behavior is not much different from that of thieves. They all occupy other people's private property, and hanging is the most appropriate method according to custom.
Of course, another reason is that hanging is painful enough for prisoners. Moreover, Europeans at that time generally believed that hanging was the most humiliating way to die, besides wheel punishment.
By the way, waterboarding and burning were mainly methods of execution used by the church in the late Middle Ages to deal with heretics. For example, in the famous witch-hunting movement, waterboarding was a method of torture; and burning was considered the most appropriate method to kill those "possessed by demons."
It seems that the Spaniards still have a little understanding of China and know that China "likes to use sword punishment (beheading)", but their understanding is obviously very superficial, because all Chinese dynasties have recognized the saying "human life is at stake" , so "asking to kill" has always been a very serious matter.
Of course, if it is "engaged in military law", this category may really need to be excluded.
The appearance of the "Liu Rengui" had already made Silva and Echevari despair, and the "countless" armed transport ships that followed from all directions completely made them lose the courage to resist.
What else are you resisting? Although they have lost count at all, what is the concept of one hundred and fifty sea ships? The Invincible Fleet is only of this size!
[Note: Let me emphasize again that the Armada itself is actually a temporary fleet. Judging from the order issued by Philip II to the Armada, the main task of the fleet is to send the main Spanish army in the Netherlands. Went to England to fight on land. Therefore, this fleet is largely a transport fleet. The Spanish may not have thought that the English navy could be regarded as a strategic force at first.
The colonial fleets of Spain and Portugal basically did not participate. The colonies of the two countries only provided money and some material support for the organization of the Armada. This was one of the main reasons why the failure of the Armada had little impact on Spain's sea power, so it later organized several Armada expeditions to Britain. ]
Although there are only five regular warships in the Beiyang Expeditionary Fleet in front of us (plus two Rangers, it can be counted as seven), the more than one hundred armed transport ships are also large ships carrying guns! Even if they only have 28 guns on each ship and only 8 heavy guns, the elephants will be killed by too many ants - forget it, the elephants haven't encountered the ants yet, half of them are dead now, so how can we fight them?
Commander Silva and Echevari looked at each other. Both of them could see the deep despair in the other's eyes, but neither one was willing to say that word first.
However, in the end, it was Commander Silva who spoke first out of a sense of responsibility. He looked around at the people in the command room and said: "Gentlemen, the situation is very clear. We are surrounded. The opponent's advantage has become too great to increase. Continue to resist. It is obviously in vain. The merciful Lord will not be happy to see the unnecessary sacrifice of his people, so in the name of the commander of this fleet, I order you to fly the white flag and surrender to the enemy fleet... May good luck be with us."
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