Section 165 Battle of Big Horn and Sand Horn

Considering that the Ming army's naval combat capability was not high, the possibility of a large-scale naval battle was not large, and more of it was necessary to carry out shore bombardment and close support missions, and all the Ming artillery on the battery exceeded this range. So only 2 squadrons were armed with Caron guns. In order to avoid excessive losses, Chen Haiyang asked the squadron, armed with 24-pounder cannons, to carry out artillery bombardment first.

"Do you want to send out artillery boats?" It was proposed.

This trip to the Pearl River Inland River, the fleet also brought special artillery boats, which were specially built by the shipyard for the next step of the mainland raid operation.

A bombardment boat is a specially reinforced small, small, single-slooped vessel designed for ground assault, characterized by a shallow draft and can sail to shallow waters to carry out shelling. The exterior of the boat resembles the hard shell of half a hazelnut, and the side of the boat is made much higher than the usual sampan, so that it is not easy to roll over into the water even if it is shaken violently. In the underwater part close to the bottom of the boat, along the keel of the ship was a wooden downwind plate of the same length as the hull, which counteracted the swaying of the hull from side to side caused by the recoil of the guns, and in the middle part of the boat there were one or two reinforced gun mounts. It is used to mount a 10-inch or 15-inch caliber mortar.

This type of artillery boat participated in the storming of Humen and Zhoushan forts in the First Opium War. It shows its extremely haode anti-shore target destruction effect.

The artillery boats manufactured by Lingao used the process of iron bones and wooden hulls to simplify production and strengthen the hull structure. And some improvements have been made, not only can mortar or large-caliber howitzers be installed, but also Hale rockets can be fired after installing the launcher. One boat for multiple purposes. The Ordnance Plant cast 20 mortars of 280mm caliber and installed them on 10 artillery boats.

"Not yet." Chen Haiyang shook his head. The ammunition reserves on the artillery boat were limited, and it was time-consuming and laborious to replenish ammunition at sea, and he had to keep the artillery boat to deal with the main battery of the Asian Shoes.

Shi XIV's 5th Special Service Boat Squadron was the first to come out. Shi XIV gave the order from the stern, and the whole squadron approached Shajiao in a column formation.

In terms of range, the guns on the spy boat did not have any advantage, and in order to achieve a better shooting effect, it was necessary to fire at a distance of about 400 meters. But in terms of artillery power and firing accuracy, the difference is not a level.

The gunners of each of the ships of the 5th Squadron raised their measuring instruments and measured the distance, the direction of the wind, the speed of the wind, the speed of the ship. Quickly use the slide rule to calculate the aiming data.

"The whole squadron loads grenades" Shi 14 gave the order, "ready to shoot"

The officers and men on the battery probably did not expect that the enemy ships would not leave through the channel as soon as possible, but instead moved closer and closer to the battery. According to the original expectation, the distance between Dajiao and Shajiao was large, and effective pincer fire could not be formed between the two batteries, and as soon as Liliang's thin batteries encountered a frontal attack, a small number of defenders immediately fell into chaos. The rhythm of the cannon began to be disrupted. The old guns themselves were slow to reload and cool, and gunners who had not had much training would be scrambling to fire in an emergency. The artillery fire appeared very messy.

Shi XIV noticed that the water columns splashed by the cannonballs were of different sizes, and the ballistic smoke traces of the cannonballs were also very messy, and he knew that there were very few Hongyi cannons on the batteries that could pose a threat to the ships, and most of them were probably large Franc machines and other guns.

Thick smoke hung over the Dajiao Fort, and the shells landed at a great distance from the spy boats, setting off large and small columns of water -- not to mention the problem of aiming, the enemy opened fire indiscriminately before even entering the firing range, and this is a typical characteristic of the various armed forces in China in this time and space using firearms. For a while, it looked spectacular, but soon many of the guns stopped due to overheating. Only a few sporadic artillery pieces were still fired, and the shells posed no threat.

"20 degrees on the right side, all ships follow me" Shi XIV saw that his flagship was already less than 600 meters away from the battery, and at this distance the 24-pounder cannon on his ship was powerful and accurate enough to bombard the battery.

A shell landed not far from the ship's side, and the 5th squadron, following the turn of the flagship, turned to the right and aimed the port side at the battery.

"Port salvo," Shi 14 roared.

Provisional 51 erupted with a loud roar, and the salvo of the four cannons on the port side and the two cannons on the bow and stern of the ship made the entire hull vibrate, and the people on board clearly felt that the entire hull was pushed by the recoil of the guns. The planks and masts creaked. A spicy smell suddenly permeated the deck.

Six grenades dragged fire and smoke down on the beach in front of the battery, setting off a column of water dyed yellow high - the flagship fired a benchmark shell.

"**It's too close," Shi Fourteen cursed, "How do you do the ranging?" Quick Fix"

The second and third rounds of artillery fire that followed behind the squadron's flagship hit the Bighorn battery one after another. The smoke rises faintly with the black sè of the explosion. After the shelling of the entire 5th Squadron was over, the artillery fire of the Great Horn battery had completely ceased. When all three squadrons were shelled, the turn of the fifth squadron was just complete. The course pointed south, and the starboard side, which had not been fired, was aimed at the Great Horn battery. The second round of shelling began.

The Bighorn Fort was originally built by assault, and the open fortifications could not withstand the bombardment of 24-pound grenades. Soon dumbfounded by such a continuous shelling. The entire battery was filled with smoke and fire. Completely lost its combat effectiveness.

Several sampans carrying sailors climbed up to the Big Horn Battery, where most of the sandbags had collapsed, the artillery was crooked, and the ground was littered with the corpses of officers and men killed by artillery fire. Most of the officers and men defending Taiwan have fled.

Then, the squadron of special service boats bombarded the Shajiao Fort, and the terrain of Shajiao was more favorable than that of Dajiao, but in a hurry, the officers and men only built a sandbag battery at the foot of Shajiao Mountain. It also quickly lost its combat effectiveness under artillery fire. The sailors quickly ascended to the sand corner, and not only captured all the artillery, but also captured 11 defenders who could not escape. The naval losses were extremely light: during the two-hour battle, there were no losses except for four spy boats that were shot and seven wounded. The spy boat was only hit by a few small projectiles, and the most serious damage was that the Linte 75 was hit by a 9-pound shell that pierced the side side. However, it does not affect the navigation at all.

The sailors who boarded the Forts at Grand Cape and Sand Horn dismantled all the cannons from the forts, loaded them on sampans and took them away. There were several captured pirate ships in the fleet that served exclusively as transport ships for the spoils of war.

After destroying the Liangjiao Fort, Chen Haiyang commanded the fleet to continue to approach the main defense of Humen, Yaniang Shoe Mountain. He decided not to rush directly through the East Waterway, which was cross-artillery, and many ships would inevitably be shot if they passed through it, causing unnecessary casualties and losses.

From reconnaissance information, Chen Haiyang knew that the officers and men were completely unfortified in the Humen West Waterway, and decided to lead the fleet into the West Waterway to attack. The artillery of the Big Tiger Mountain battery posed no threat to his fleet. The officers and men conceived the use of the Dahushan Fort to block the enemy ships that had broken through the east-west waterway from continuing their upward movement. But Chen Haiyang's goal was to seize Humen first.

A squadron of spy boats entered the East Waterway first. Because the east battery on Upper Runge Island has not yet been completed, no cannon has been placed. Xu Tingfa stationed 300 soldiers at the fort construction site and a number of small artillery pieces were used to cover Shangheng Island, and the officers and soldiers on Shangheng Island saw that the thieves were about to enter the East Water Road, so they quickly lit the wolf smoke and alerted Humen Village.

Xu Tingfa was on the big tent of the Chinese army on the top of Wushan at this time. Watching the fall of the two forts at Dajiao Shajiao, three or four kilometers away, there was nothing they could do. Originally, he didn't put many troops and artillery into these two batteries. In the concept of Xu Tingfa and others, the thieves would sail directly through the channel and go straight to the upper rungs to break through the river blockade, but they did not expect that they would destroy the two corner batteries one by one.

Now he saw the enemy taking the East Waterway, which had been opened because the fort had not yet been completed. Xu Tingfa was very anxious in his heart -- after crossing the East Waterway, only the Dahushan Fort could intercept the enemy ships, and the artillery of the Dahushan Fort was obviously insufficient. As a precautionary plan. He ordered Chen Qian to lead the naval warships of Humen Village to immediately go to the West Waterway to meet the enemy.

Entering the West Waterway was the 13th Special Service Boat Squadron under the command of Li Guangfa. As soon as he entered the channel in column, he was bombarded by small artillery on the shore. But small artillery could not hit the ship at all. Li Guangfa gave the order to fire back with artillery. A few rounds of grenades quickly knocked out the small artillery behind the earthen wall, and then the spy boat approached the shore and used "typewriters" to clear the officers and infantry assembled on the earthen embankment. The rain of lead bullets left the rest of the people strewn across the field, and the army was crumbled. Resistance on the west shore of Upper Rung Island was quickly destroyed.

The 10 brig ships led by Chen Qian did not rush directly to the West Waterway, but lined up in the South China Sea of Dahu Mountain. Ostensibly, they would only wait for the thieves' ships to leave the Western Waterway and give them a head-on blow. In fact, Chen Qian knew that the enemy's ships were strong and his guns were strong, and he did not dare to enter the West Waterway to fight with the opponent, so he planned to fight under the cover of the fire of the Dahushan Fort, but Li Guangfa was not in a hurry to engage in the battle -- the task assigned to him by Chen Haiyang was to control the West Waterway and cover the landing of the navy troops on Shangheng Island.

Shangheng Island is the "key" of the portal in the Humen defense system, and as long as the defending side controls the island, it can effectively block the east-west waterway of Humen. Therefore, the focus of Chen Haiyang's Humen attack Jihua is to take this island.

Since there was no fort on the west side of the island, the fortifications were weak, giving Chen Haiyang the opportunity to directly capture the island. As Li Guangfa's 13th Squadron signaled that it was taking control of the West Channel, thick black smoke came out of the Daihatsu boat, and it was loaded with sailors and marines and sailors and sailors heading towards the West Channel.