,!
In this era, night fighting is disastrous for most armies. Only some elites with sufficient supplies and balanced meals can avoid the effects of night blindness.
However, even if night blindness is eliminated, night fighting itself can be very difficult. Not to mention this time, even the modern armies of later generations rarely actively choose to fight at night before the popularization of night vision devices. [For example, in this Russia-Ukraine war, both sides tried to avoid night battles. ]
Night battles are often synonymous with chaos. No matter the initiator or the counterparty, no one knows what the final outcome will be, so they will try to avoid it in most cases. Throughout the history of Chinese and foreign wars in ancient and modern times, whenever night attacks occurred, they were almost always gambling attacks launched by the weaker side.
Judging from the current maritime situation of the Ming and Japanese armies, the Ming army is naturally the dominant side and the Japanese army is naturally the weak side. However, when it comes to the specific area where the fighting is taking place at this time, the situation is completely opposite.
Although most of the Japanese fleet's main ships (if the "Tang-like large ship", that is, the armed transport ship and Anzha ship purchased from Beijing, are regarded as the main force) were mobilized to attract the Japanese and Japanese fleets that blockaded Pusan, they still have an advantage here.
They have four "Tang-like large ships" and six large Anzha ships, as well as dozens of small morning ships and Guanzhou ships. However, the Ming army only has a total of four armed transport ships, and they have not been "iron-armored". In theory, their defense power Not as good as Japanese ships.
Of course, the disadvantages of "iron armor" have been exposed in the battle just now. The worrying speed during the pursuit battle almost declared that "there is no such ship", just like the saying: Even eating shit can't keep up with the heat.
But even if there are such problems, traditional thinking is difficult to shake. Since all Japanese naval forces at that time liked to use baked jade for fire attacks, "iron armor" became a piece of equipment that was indispensable.
In Japan, "Bairo" is actually a kind of clay pot, and "Bairaudama" is a grenade-like weapon that is filled with gunpowder in this clay pot-shaped container, ignites the fuse, and is thrown at the enemy.
But they were different from today's grenades in Jinghua. Pottery such as baked jade had ropes on it. It was thrown by centrifugal force through circular swings. Its main purpose was to kill enemy soldiers. Of course, it could also ignite nearby wooden structures.
This is somewhat similar to modern incendiary bombs. The explosive power and fragments of the container are the main sources of damage, but the power of fire is actually lower. The Murakami Navy, Nomi Navy, Kodama Navy and other Seto Inland Sea naval forces at that time were most fond of using it.
Not only ships, but also because East Asian countries are greatly influenced by China, and even buildings are mostly made of wood, the use of baked jade can be even more extensive. [Note: I vaguely remember that I wrote in the previous article of this book why there are so many wooden buildings in ancient China? Here’s a summary: Under the Five Elements philosophy, wood is suitable for raising people, so wooden buildings are generally used in Confucian cultural circles. ]
Compared with the widespread use of baked jade in medium and long-range attacks commonly used by the Japanese army, China actually originally also liked to use various fire attack methods. However, China is far richer than Japan. In the early days of fire attack, special fire attack ships were often arranged. Most Japanese forces could not learn this style of play, so they focused on the method of baking jade.
Of course, East Asian civilization originated in China, so fire attack methods similar to roasted jade actually originated from China. The "Wu Jing Zong Yao" of the Northern Song Dynasty called grenade-like bombs "iron cones", and Japan's "baked jade" "Jade" actually follows this title.
China has subsequently developed more similar weapons. The firearms of the Ming Dynasty are really diverse. For example, the "Flying Fire Crow", which has been eliminated by the Ming army after the high-pragmatic military reform, looks like a concentrated launcher in terms of effect. It is an evolved version of baked jade.
In order to simplify logistics, Gao Pragmatic greatly reduced the types of Ming army firearms. Long-range heavy firearms were directly cut down to only two categories, namely artillery and rockets.
In terms of artillery, since more than 20 years have passed and we still have not been able to develop a true bursting projectile, we mainly rely on the impact of heavy solid projectiles to attack and kill enemies.
Rockets still retain some functions such as explosion and ignition, but they also achieve combat purposes based on rockets of different specifications. As for the so-called "poisonous smoke" rockets in the past, they were axed by Gao Pragmatic.
It's not that he refused poison gas bombs because of his heart attack - in this era, there was no Geneva Convention to restrict the Ming Dynasty. The main reason is that the so-called poison gas at this stage is too ineffective, and if you want it to be effective, the cost is completely unacceptable.
In Gao's pragmatic view, except for some low-cost poisons that can be produced according to local conditions in some areas of the southwest, it is basically impossible to mass-produce, preserve, and transport poisons that can be used on the battlefield. This is something that requires a strong chemical industry to do, and we simply don’t have that level of technology and production capabilities now.
Closer to home, the Japanese naval forces have been suffering from baked jade in the past. Of course, their tactical thinking will be limited by the "anti-baked jade", and they have insufficient understanding of the artillery operations of the Ming army that has transformed.
They thought that covering their warships with a thin layer of iron would improve their defense. This was sheer nonsense in the eyes of the Beijing-China fleet, which was guided by highly pragmatic tactics.
How do you expect your iron sheet, which is at most a few millimeters thick, to be able to withstand shelling? What should be smashed should be smashed to pieces.
However, in the era of sail power, the speed of warships was originally very limited. Using the measurement standards of later generations, it was only 7 or 8 knots most of the time, and the fastest might be more than ten knots.
In this case, if the waterline of your wooden warship is covered with a few millimeters of iron, it will definitely seriously affect the speed. This is not a matter of choosing between a fish and a bear's paw, but a question of choosing between a fish and a bear's paw. I want to choose a tasteless one.
In fact, both Toudo Takatora and Wakisaka Anji have discovered through the previous confrontation that the speed problem has a great impact. However, this problem obviously cannot be solved technically immediately, and only temporary tactical adjustments can be made, which is the two-wing outflank proposed by Toudo Takatora. Rush.
The question is, what will happen to the four ships of the Ming Army?
The Japanese army's change of formation has been detected by the four ships of the Ming army. Gao Lichuan snorted and said: "The Japanese and Guizhou donkeys are so incompetent that they do all these useless things. They can't defeat them with small boats, but I can move with big ships. It seems like everything is stable." With his strategy of light on two wings and heavy on the center, I only need to attack one of his wings to defeat him."
The first mate next to him smiled and said: "It's easy to beat them, but captain, our mission is not to defeat them. If we really beat them away, I'm afraid we will be held accountable if we go back."
Gao Lichuan said with some annoyance: "I think the training of the Japanese navy is really bad. If I have ten ships... no, as long as I have eight ships, and they are further away from the coastline, then within three days I can defeat them all." Annihilate this Japanese pirate navy.
But it's hard to deal with it now. We only have four ships. We can hurt them, but it's difficult to annihilate them. After all, they have so many ships, so they can disperse and flee if they can't. We can't catch them even if we want to, so we can only lure the enemy deeper. "
The first mate asked: "They set up a pursuit posture, but obviously they can't increase their speed. Captain, do you think?"
Gao Lichuan knew what he wanted to ask. He shook his head and said: "If we don't fight tonight, we might be criticized if we turn around easily at night. Anyway, their steady pursuit can't catch up with us, so just hang them up. Order, everyone tonight The ship must keep a safe distance and wait until tomorrow morning.”
"What if the other party stops chasing me?" the first mate asked again.
Gao Lichuan snorted: "If they don't chase us, we will approach them, but we can't let them rest peacefully. Hey, we have exhausted them tonight, and the main force will ambush them tomorrow so we can beat them up. After the war, we will have to give them a lot of money to discuss their merits." Our four ships count as one extra share.”
Well, in the end, recording merit is the last word. But this is not surprising. After all, ideological progress depends on the improvement of education. In addition, it is also affected by various aspects such as status, family environment, life development, etc.
As a servant of the Gao family, Gao Lichuan was not originally a member of the sixth family, but a son of the fourth family. Later, as Gao's pragmatic status became more and more distant from other members of the family, the family power of the Gao family actually reached the sixth floor.
As a result, Gao Lichuan was able to develop better. It was not easy for him to climb up to the captain step by step. There are many levels above the captain, so it is natural to value recording of merit.
The two sides had decided on a plan, and the Japanese navy pursued them in the first half of the night, but because it was already dark, their speed was not even as fast as before. Since the four ships of the Ming Army returned the same way, they were more familiar with the sea conditions, and walked very calmly, always maintaining a suitable distance from the Japanese navy.
In the second half of the night, the Japanese naval forces were tired of chasing because they had to be ready for battle at all times. Not only did their speed drop further, but they also realized that it was impossible to catch up tonight, so they started taking shifts to give some people the rest they deserved.
The four ships of the Ming Army quickly discovered the changes in the Japanese navy. Unfortunately, the semaphores at night did not work well, and the light signals were not as comprehensive as the semaphore. It took half an hour to finally coordinate the order and launch a launch attack on the Japanese navy. Small approaching bombardment.
In terms of results, the significance of this bombardment was very small - after all, the technical limitations were here, and the accuracy of the bombardment during the day was very worrying, let alone at night. It was obviously a huge battle with little results.
But even so, the Japanese navy was still disturbed and had no choice but to wake up those who had just fallen asleep to fight. At the same time, this round of shelling by the four Ming warships also caused the "anger level" of the Japanese navy to soar, and they vowed to wait until dawn to catch up with these four Ming warships and teach them a lesson.
The servants and sailors of the four ships of the Ming Army were not tough people, and fatigue also enveloped them. However, they are not worried about tomorrow. After all, according to the scheduled plan, the Japanese army will be led into the ambush circle tomorrow morning. At that time, the main fleet will take over the follow-up tasks, and they can rest peacefully.
Both parties managed to survive until dawn, but trouble came. At this time, the two parties had actually reached Yupu Bay, but there was heavy fog in Yupu Bay early this morning, and the visibility dropped sharply.
Because the coastline of southern Korea is as complex as a dog's bite, and there are so many islands and reefs, even the four ships of the Ming Army, which had been active around for a period of time, did not dare to run wildly in the heavy fog. The much larger Japanese navy Not to mention the army, the speed of both sides has slowed down visibly.
Gao Lichuan was even more worried that the Japanese navy would lose track of them, so he had to close the distance between the two fleets. What he didn't expect was that this move aroused the vigilance of Anji Wakisaka.
Anji Wakisaka reminded Takatora Todo that the various actions of the four Ming ships indicated that there might be an ambush ahead, just like the routine Yi Sun-shin had used many times before.
Fujido Takatora also attached great importance to this, so the two called some of their subordinates to discuss how to deal with it. Perhaps because Yi Sun-shin had impressed them too deeply before, the Japanese naval forces thought that they might as well take advantage of the heavy fog to break into Okpo Bay and seize Okpo Port first to see the situation.
This opinion was actually first proposed by Anji Wakisaka, and Takatora Toudo did not agree with it. He believed that although he had not heard that the Ming army had a large-scale garrison in Yupu before, and based on the time, the main force of the Japanese army going south might have sneaked into Sichuan by now. Even if the Ming army originally had a garrison in Yupu, it should now withdraw to Sichuan. Emergency.
However, since our side has been at sea, this battle situation is just a guess, and we cannot be sure whether it is true, so we should still remain vigilant, which means we must consider whether the navy can capture Okpo.
Another point is that Todo Takatora is also doubtful about whether the Ming Navy really still has the strength to set up an ambush in the offshore waters of Sichuan - after all, the Ming Navy outside Busan Port is already extremely large, and the blockade mission they perform is obviously the most severe. Importantly, the Ming army should not have left a powerful fleet in Sichuan as a display besides them.
After hearing this, Anji Wakisaka retorted: "The Ming army is not the imperial army. We can only have a high opinion of their strength but not a low opinion. The Ming army fleet outside Busan Port is indeed very large, but who can guarantee their full strength?" Must that be the only ones?”
This statement cannot be proven or falsified before seeing the possible ambush circle of the Ming army. Therefore, Todo Takatora had to change his statement and said: "If the Ming army navy does have such a powerful force, So I can’t help but ask, if we go to Okpo now, will we be trapped in a trap? What if we go to Okpo Port and are blocked again like in Busan? "
This question was like using one's spear to attack the other's shield. Wakisaka Anji was also speechless for a moment. After thinking about it, he had no good ideas, so he had to ask back: "What do you think of His Highness Itoudo now? I won't just say to just retreat." Busan, right?”
Not to mention, after Toudo Takatora discovered that there might be a Ming army trap ahead, he really felt that the prospect of this battle was worrying. It would be safer to retreat to Busan, and at least there would be a chance to preserve his strength - he actually had an "existence fleet" inexplicably. Thoughts are magical enough.
However, this military meeting that failed to reach an agreement quickly had to be temporarily terminated because the fog cleared at this time, and the lookout on a "Tang-like ship" of the Japanese navy suddenly knocked at a very fast pace. A warning gong was sounded to signal the discovery of a large number of enemy warships.
The ambush is really coming.
The expressions of Takatora Toudo and Anji Wakisaka changed greatly.
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ps: Tomorrow is Children’s Day. I wish all readers and children a happy holiday. By the way, I may also go out to play with my children tomorrow, so the update time may be a bit late, so please let me know in advance.
