When Gao Qingshi received the news of Daoshan's defeat, it happened that Kafei finally arrived from Japan to the south and landed directly in the Golden Sea.
It was a bit thrilling for Kaiji to come to the south this time, because the fleet first encountered a moderate typhoon. According to the fleet's subsequent statement, it was probably on the edge of the typhoon.
This accident caused slight damage to the ship, but overall it could only be said that it was a near miss. However, after sailing for another day, they encountered real danger-the fleet ran into the Japanese navy and the ships it carried. Reinforcements are coming.
The most serious problem in this accident was the disparity in strength between the two sides: Kafiji's fleet itself was just a small team, with only five ships in total.
The originally planned mission of this fleet was to return the silver earned in Japan to the Ming Dynasty, and store it in the Federal Reserve Bank as the principal of small-denomination banknotes issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of the Ming Dynasty. However, the purpose of carrying Princess Kafei to North Korea was because of high pragmatic orders. An extra mission for Gasser.
Originally, according to the plan, this fleet did not need to approach the North Korean coast. It should start from Misaki Castle, follow the coastline of South Japan to Qingshui Castle, which the Shimadzu family assigned to the Sea Trade Alliance, install the Sea Trade Alliance in Qingshui Castle to make profits on Kyushu Island, and then set sail again, from the south and west of Jeju Island. It enters the Yellow Sea and finally goes straight to Tianjin Port to complete the delivery.
However, due to the new task of sending Kaiji to the south, he installed the Kyushu Island income in Qingshui Castle and then headed north, preparing to go directly from the sea west of Tsushima Island to Tampo (this place is south of Gimhae, Tampo The naval battle broke out in its waters)... As a result, the above two accidents occurred.
There is nothing much to say about the typhoon, and by the standards of later generations, it may not be called a typhoon. It may be just the remnants of a tropical storm that blew to the edges of the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Whales (Sea of Japan).
But it is very strange to encounter the Japanese navy, because this Japanese navy is not only huge in number, but also has large ships alone, including more than 40 Japanese self-modified Oyasiya ships and Keika armed transport ships.
Japan has a limited number of armed transport ships purchased from Beijing, with a total of more than thirty ships. Some of them have been sent to Busan before, and there are no more than twenty ships left in Japan. When they met the Kaiji fleet this time, they found that there were at least fourteen armed transport ships in it. This shows that Toyotomi Hideyoshi now doesn't even care about Osaka Bay and is forcing the invasion of North Korea.
As for the Daan house ship, it was built overtime after Japan discovered that its maritime strength was insufficient. There were already many in Busan Port, and this time more than twenty ships came. According to Japan's production strength, this scale is probably almost overwhelming.
The reason why this crisis was finally resolved was, at first glance, thanks to the Japanese Navy's preference for "iron armor". Both the Da'anzhai and the armed transport ships experienced a problem of reduced speed after adding iron armor (covered with a thin layer of iron), giving the Yunyin Fleet a chance to evacuate.
But is this really the case? In fact, no, the speed reduction caused by the iron armor is indeed obvious, but the main problem is that they are facing the Yunyin formation of the Sea Trade Alliance.
Since it is transporting silver, it obviously carries a lot of weight. Can this ship be light if it is all silver? When it comes to speed, it is only about the same as the Oantaku and the iron-armored armed transport ships that were the main combat forces of the Japanese navy at that time, and it did not really have any advantages.
So in the end it was Gao Huichang, the commander of the Yunyin formation and the captain of the formation's flagship "Xuanyuanguan" (which is located in the northwest of Dengfeng County, Henan), who came up with the idea to make the formation behave like a decoy formation.
Specifically, he took the initiative to provoke the Japanese navy by relying on the advantage of the artillery range. Once the Japanese navy began to prepare for combat, he turned around and fled with the other four ships. When the Japanese troops were chasing him, the firepower could not reach him, but he continued to provoke by relying on the stern gun while driving.
Later, the Japanese army began to find something was wrong, mainly because its formation gradually lost its combat formation, so it slowed down and reorganized the formation. Originally, this seemed to be a good opportunity to escape, but Gao Huichang did not run away. Instead, he turned around and fired a few more shots, so the Japanese army pursued again - and the cycle began.
After this cycle for three times, the Japanese Navy concluded that Gao Huichang's small fleet must be a decoy formation. The reasons are obvious. There are two main points: First, since they are armed transport ships that have not been armored, their speed should be higher than their own. Fast, but the enemy formation still "didn't speed up", which shows that there is something wrong.
Secondly, as soon as our side slows down and regroups, the enemy fleet immediately turns to attack and harass with broadside cannons, preventing our side from completing the grouping, but at the same time it resolutely refuses to get close to our side - in other words, the enemy fleet does not care about the accuracy of the bombardment at all. , they thought it was enough as long as they kept firing at the Japanese navy.
What does it mean? Of course, this is because the mission of the enemy fleet is not to sink or injure our navy, but to continue to provoke our navy, causing our navy to lose its mind, pursue it desperately, and finally rush into the encirclement of the enemy's main force in a chaotic formation. ah!
It has to be said that the Japanese navy has suffered many times in naval battles during the Korean War, being lured into encirclements and beaten, and now it has finally learned its lesson.
So this time, they decided: We will not pursue them anymore. We must complete our main task first - send the reinforcements led by Hideaki Kobayakawa to the Ulsan front line first!
In this way, the supporting fleet of the Japanese navy stopped paying attention to Gao Huichang, who seemed arrogant but could not actually cause any harm to them. They changed their course and headed straight for Busan (they had to go to Busan first), while Gao Huichang continued to harass them. After a while, he pretended that the seduction mission had failed and "left in anger."
Gao Huichang did not stop after sending Kafeiji and her party to Yupu. He simply replenished Danshui and other supplies and then set off to Tianjin Port to pay the money. However, Kafeiji was very impressed by this battle and became pragmatic as soon as she saw Gao. These were reported to him in detail.
Although Gao Pragmatic did not understand the specific tactics of naval battles in essence, Gao Huichang's performance in this crisis really made his eyes shine. Gao pragmatic himself is the best at "predicting people like gods", and Gao Huichang's approach this time is also the embodiment of "predicting people like gods", which obviously made Gao pragmatic take a very high look.
After thinking about it, Gao Jingshi remembered that he had planned to expand the Kanto fleet by more than a dozen ships this year, so he simply ordered a commendation. At the same time, he appointed Gao Huichang as the deputy commander of the Kanto fleet. After completing the shipping mission, he went to Laizhou to receive the new ships. , and then led the new ship fleet to Misaki Castle to take office.
As soon as this incident was over, the battle report from the Ulsan front line was delivered, and Gao Pingshi realized that the Doosan side had suffered some losses, and there was also discord within the Ming and North Korean coalition forces, with both sides insisting on their own opinions and being dissatisfied with each other.
Gao Pangshi was still thinking about the personnel issues, but Kafei went to the Ulsan-Dosan Japanese Fortress structure map provided by Gao Qi and looked at it.
Unlike Gao Pragmatic, who carefully distinguishes between the two sides and who is closer to the truth, Kafihime is thinking about purely military issues. To put it bluntly, it is how to conquer Shimayama Japanese Castle.
When it comes to the attack and defense of Japanese cities, Kafiji is probably more professional than the entire Ming army at all levels, because she herself is an expert in the Japanese city defense system. Her famous battle in the Battle of Ninja Castle was to defend the city with an extremely inferior force - -Although in the end the city had to be handed over due to political changes, it was no longer a military issue.
Gao Pragmatic was silent for a long time, and Kafei Ji couldn't help but said: "Sir, the situation in the twin cities of Ulsan and Dosan is very clear. I think that unless there is a time limit as a last resort, it will be fine as long as a long-term siege. Why must we attack by force? "
Gao pragmatic asked: "If we want to encircle them, how long do you think it will take to force the Japanese troops in the city to surrender or lose their combat effectiveness?"
Kaiji said: "This depends on many factors, such as whether the city's material preparations are sufficient, whether the siege can ensure that it cannot receive foreign aid, and whether the morale in the city will unexpectedly collapse due to some things, etc."
Gao Pingshi was moved in his heart and said: "If Toyotomi Hideyoshi dies, can this news cause the Japanese army in the city to collapse?"
"It's very possible." Kaiji doesn't have a good impression of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Especially in recent years, there have been a lot of rumors about Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Japan. Most of them say that Taiko is now moody and often kills people. What little respect this person had had gradually disappeared.
In addition, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has been forcing Tokugawa Ieyasu to deal with Misaki Castle and Tamana Castle. Although Tokugawa Ieyasu delayed it through various means and only acted a little, it in any case deepened the relationship between Kaiji and Toyotomi. Hideyoshi's disgust, so she was very indifferent to the news that Toyotomi Hideyoshi might be seriously ill, and even looked forward to it.
Upon seeing this, Gao Pragmatic said: "Having said that, it is better to win the battle of Ulsan on the battlefield. This will help us to deter Japan more concretely in the future."
Ji Feiji frowned slightly and asked: "That is to say, do you still hope to capture the twin cities of Ulsan and Dosan through military means?"
"Yes, do you have any methods or suggestions?" Gao Pragmatic asked directly without hiding it.
Kaiji turned her attention to the structural diagram and thought: "Then we must attack by land and water, and I'm afraid I have to be prepared for some... relatively large losses."
"Tell me."
"Yes, sir." Kabiji said: "Sir, if you look at this Dosan Japanese Fortress, regardless of its previous relationship with the Ulsan Japanese Fortress, you will find two characteristics just by looking at its own structure. In general, That is, it is close to the mountains and the sea.
Being based on mountains allows it to build this kind of terrace-like circular defense line, which not only requires our army to attack from behind at every step, but also the circles in this circular shape are quite narrow and cannot accommodate too many soldiers. The advantage of a large army is Unable to manifest.
The height difference between the "terraced fields" in this shape is quite large, which is rare even in Japan. I think this was deliberately done by Kato Kiyomasa based on the characteristics of our army..."
Gao pragmatic interjected and asked: "How do you say this?"
"Ah, this is because in Japan, each force only has a few muskets at most, and not many practical artillery. Therefore, the height difference between the circular defense lines does not need to be particularly large, and it is even deliberately maintained on the defensive side. The musket range can perfectly cover the next level of 'terraces'.
But our army is different. Our army has many powerful artillery. This forced Kato Kiyomasa to increase the height of the terraces to prevent our artillery from effectively threatening the upper defenders. After all, the elevation angle of the artillery is limited. Nor can we arbitrarily raise the elevation angle to "shoot into the sky", thus minimizing the advantage of our army's artillery.
Although this may result in the Japanese defenders' artillery being insufficient to cover the entire range of the lower 'terraces', considering that our army's artillery threatens them too much, such a compromise should be acceptable in Kato Kiyomasa's view. "
Gao pragmatic understood and nodded: "You are right. Ma Gui and the others mentioned in the battle report that the structure of the Japanese city made the artillery almost completely ineffective... You continue."
"Then there is the sea." Kaiji said: "Being close to the sea means that supplies can be obtained from the sea. Although this can only be achieved by taking advantage of the characteristics of the current special weather, as long as they can achieve it, it means that they have become the main force of our army. Weaknesses must be overcome.”
Gao pragmatically asked: "How to overcome it?"
Ji Feiji hesitated for a moment and asked: "As far as I know, it is still the Japanese and Japanese fleets that are currently carrying out the blockade mission on Busan, but the fleet of the Sea Trade Alliance has never carried out this mission... Master, why is this?"
"Because the nature is different." Gao Pragmatic sighed and said: "The Sea Trade Alliance's fleet is indeed powerful, but the operation and maintenance of this fleet does not cost the court's money. It is the Sea Trade Alliance's own responsibility.
If I say that I don't care about spending more money, that may be reasonable, but many of the alliance fleets are ships owned by noble families. If the mission I ask them to perform is too risky, too difficult, and the damage is relatively high, Seriously, that's a bit troublesome for me too.
Of course, the main question is whether these efforts can yield benefits - you have to know that although the Sea Trade Alliance has a strong military strength, this organization is ultimately a commercial organization, and interests are the core link.
In other words, if I give them too many tasks and too heavy responsibilities, it means that I must give them enough benefits after the war as a tacit agreement between us. "
Kafiji wondered: "The captured Japanese warships are also worth a lot of money. It should be enough to pay them off, right?"
Gao pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "There are some troubles in this matter. I am still trying to solve it." He couldn't directly say that the emperor was planning to capture the warships, so he had to stall for a while.
Kafihime is particularly well-behaved in this regard, and knows best about not asking questions. However, in this way, she is somewhat limited in finding a way to take over the Japanese castle of Daoshan militarily. She can't help but frown, and muttered: "If we want to take over the island, We have to do something about the mountains and the sea, I have a plan, maybe I can give it a try."
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Thanks to book friends "Yunfuyueyu" and "Tutte" for their monthly support, thank you!
PS: I went out to do some errands yesterday, and I didn’t even have time to get home in the evening, so yesterday’s chapter was delayed until today. I’m very sorry. However, delay is a delay, and it does not mean asking for leave or being absent from work. This chapter is still a make-up for yesterday, and what needs to be updated today remains unchanged.
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