The third-class sail battleship is the main warship of the navy of the Western powers in the sail era, and it is also the most perfect combination of firepower, speed and cost of the battleship in the sail era, the tonnage is only half of the first-class battleship, but the firepower can reach about two-thirds of the first-class battleship, and it is still a water combat force that cannot be ignored in the era when the steam warship has not completely replaced the sail warship. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After the six third-class sail battleships of the Tsarist Russian army and more than 20 red single boats of the Qing army joined forces to enter the battlefield, the Lin Zhi Department of the Wu army on the north bank, which had run out of picric acid rockets, was first hit hard by this kind of water mobile battery, and more than 100 gunwales poured solid shells and shotguns like thunder into the Wu army battery that had been fully exposed, causing heavy casualties and corpses on the Wu army on the fort, and it was difficult to fire back fire.

The artillery fire of the Qing army's red single boat also contributed to the abuse, and also continued to hit the solid artillery shells on the Wu army battery, and cooperated with the artillery fire of the Tsarist Russian fleet, which was already covered with bruises, to make the Wu army's north bank battery even more wounded, and also beat the Wu army officers and men who fought in the open air to more casualties.

The pressure is too great, and only more than 20 of the 50 artillery pieces on the battery can still be fired one after another, in this case, the most correct choice for the Wu army on the north bank should be to abandon the battery position and transfer the army to preserve the strength, Wu Chaoyue also told Lin Zhi, the deputy commander of the first corps of the Wu army, who was in charge of the position on the north bank, early on, that Lin Zhi was allowed to lead the army out of the battle when the casualties were too large.

However, Lin Zhi chose to continue to insist, and because of the heavy casualties of the gunners, he transferred a battalion in charge of land warfare to the front line to help transfer the wounded and carry the shells, and he himself also personally went up to the batteries where shells were bouncing everywhere, and went to the front line to boost morale, and commanded the officers and men of the Wu Army to continue to open fire, and continued to bombard the enemy ships with less than half of the artillery left, gritting his teeth and holding on, attracting the fire of the enemy ships and sharing the pressure for the south bank batteries.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the enemy's ships to focus on attacking the batteries on the north shore, the batteries on the south bank of the Wu army were also using their strength to bombard the enemy ships desperately, bombarding the enemy ships with picric shells that were easily reluctant to use in normal times as if they did not need money, and they also played at a higher level in the fierce battle, and fired faster than during training, but unfortunately the distance was too far, the hit rate was not high enough, and the results achieved were limited, not only could not share more pressure for the friendly troops on the north shore, but also forced the enemy ships closer to the north shore and hit the Wu army on the north shore more seriously.

The sound of fierce artillery fire has long resounded through the heavens and the earth and the north and south of the river, and the river is full of explosive waves, blazing fires, and the warring parties have sacrificed their lives and fought desperately, until the sky is dark, and the sun and moon are dark. However, it is very sad that the combat strength of the Wu army is a fixed target, but the warships of the Qing and Russian coalition forces are mobile targets, and there is an absolute advantage in the number of artillery, so as the fierce battle continues, the Wu army battery gradually shows defeat, the north bank battery is gradually dumb in the enemy's fierce artillery fire, and there are only more than ten artillery pieces left that can continue to fire.

At the same time, the first line of defense of the Wu army's barrage without mine protection has also been broken through by the Qing and Russian coalition forces, and Wu Chaoyue, who has nothing to do, has no choice but to order the sailors to retreat to the camp and carry out his secret orders. However, at this time, the sailor side preemptively sent a boat, and Bao Chao, the commander of the Jiujiang Naval Division of the Wu Army, took the initiative to ask for battle, asking Wu Chaoyue to allow the sampan fleet of the Jiujiang Naval Division to dispatch to attack the Qing-Russian Allied Naval Division, which lacked the protection of small boats.

After hesitating for a moment, Wu Chaoyue still decided to give Bao Chao a chance to show his loyalty, and ordered: "Tell Bao Chao to wait for the enemy to break through our second iron line of defense before making a move." Also, tell Bao Chao that he must not be too war-loving, and he must retreat immediately when it is time to retreat. ”

The order was delivered, Bao Chaojun quickly prepared for the attack, Wang Fu and Xu Lai led the main force of the Wu Army's naval division to withdraw to the southern channel of Shazhou, and a number of large cargo ships hurriedly loaded with sand and gravel set off from the naval camp and rushed to the narrow waterway in the north of Shazhou to wait for orders, ready to sink themselves and block the shipping route at any time.

At this time, the first fleet sent by the Qing and Russian coalition forces had already withdrawn from the artillery battle, and went all out to destroy the Wu army's barrage iron cable, while cutting the Wu army's iron cable with a furnace and a giant axe, and destroying the floating objects on the water connecting the iron cable, the Wu army suffered a loss when the mine was broken and failed, and the fire of the battery was seriously suppressed, so it could only watch the enemy destroy the iron cable that the army had worked hard to erect. Therefore, the progress of the Qing-Russian alliance was very smooth, and they soon destroyed the second barrage of the Wu army and began to attack the third and last barrage of the Wu army.

Bao Chao personally led the Wu army Jiujiang naval division then attacked, more than 120 light and flexible military sampans each carried five soldiers, like a fish swimming in the water to kill the enemy downstream, the Qing Russian coalition fleet found that the situation was not right and quickly opened fire, but the sampan size was too small, the sampan fleet of the Wu army was far away from each other, not giving the enemy a chance to be easily hit, so the artillery fire was not effective, could not play a blocking role, the Wu army sampan fleet was smooth sailing, straight over the self-army iron cable defense line that could only intercept large ships, Directly broke into the enemy group.

In the midst of the fierce and bloody battles, in which Qing and Russian soldiers condescended and shot at the Wu soldiers on the sampans with muskets, while the Wu soldiers drove their boats between the enemy ships and fired back, while throwing grenades and oil bottles at the enemy ships as much as possible, and setting fire to the enemy ships.

"Ahh Yes! Bang! Bang! ”

The soldiers on both sides who were shot and shot screamed endlessly, and the picric acid grenades with their own burning properties also continued to explode in the fierce battle, and the shrapnel flew sideways and ignited the fire oil thrown by the Wu army's officers and soldiers, and a number of Qing army's red single boats, which were already seriously damaged, ignited the fire again, and the Russian battleship whose side was blown out of the big hole also caught fire in the cabin under the key attack of the Wu army's sampan fleet, which was seriously tilted and could no longer continue the battle.

Correspondingly, the price paid by the Wu army's sampan fleet was heavy casualties, in the face of the dense guns of the Qing and Russian coalition soldiers, one after another Wu soldiers were shot and wounded, and one after another fell into the water and died, and many Wu army sampans were directly hit by the enemy's artillery fire, and even the people and boats were turned into powder, and the death was extremely miserable. Bao Chao was also shot twice in the fierce battle, and his injuries were not light.

The greatest threat to the Wu army's sampan fleet was the shotgun of the Russian battleship, and the shotgun with the iron barrel as the body of the bullet was dissipated and turned into dozens of high-speed lead bullets. In order not to give the Wu army's sampan a chance to get close, the Russian battleships have been shooting indiscriminately, only caring about the density of firepower and ignoring the Qing army's red single boat, which may also be shot.

After a long time of scuffle, the sampan fleet of the Wu army, which suffered heavy casualties, could not withstand the enemy's fierce firepower and was forced to flee from the battlefield and retreat, with the result that only about 70 of the more than 120 sampans successfully escaped from the battlefield when the assault was launched, and almost every soldier on the sampan was killed or wounded.

Of course, the soldiers of the Wu army under Bao Chao were not sacrificed in vain, and the five red single boats of the Qing army ignited a sky-high fire under their attack, and the soldiers of the Qing army's naval division could not be saved, so they could only abandon the ship and escape. Most of the wounded Russian fourth-class battleship was also burned by them, and although it did not sink on the spot, it could no longer be put into battle. In addition, the Wu soldiers also sank a number of small rowing boats of the Qing and Russian coalition forces, and on the whole it can be said that the gains outweigh the losses.

By this time, only nine of the twelve sail battleships of the Tsarist Russian fleet could continue to fight, and three of them were seriously wounded. The losses of the Qing army's sailors were even more staggering, and only seven of the first 23 red boats put into battle were left, and all of them were wounded. Three of the second batch of Red Dan boats that were put into battle were sunk by the Wu army's forts, and two others were seriously wounded, and the losses of the soldiers were so heavy that the generals of the Qing army's naval divisions could not bear to count them.

It must be explained that the Qing-Russian coalition army actually entrusted Wu Chaoyue's overly conservative decision-making blessing, did not choose the main battlefield of the decisive battle in Tianjiazhen, which is more suitable for shore artillery operations, and chose an overly cautious tactic of attrition at various levels, and established the main battlefield on the open water surface of the Xiangyuankou defense line. If the Wu army had such a firepower density at Tianjia Town, then the rapid water flow and narrow river surface of Tianjia Town alone, the Wu army's shore artillery attack would have wiped out the first two waves of the Qing and Russian coalition fleets.

Wu Chaoyue's tactical decision is only conservative, but it is not wrong, Tianjia Town, which has a narrow water surface, is more suitable for shore artillery to exert its power, but if Wu Chaoyue chooses to fight a decisive battle in Tianjia Town, once the iron cable defense line is broken by the enemy, Wu's naval division will be forced to fight a decisive battle with the Tsarist Russian Combined Fleet, which is several times stronger than itself. However, this is not the case at the mouth of the source, the Qing and Russian coalition forces have not had time to break through all the Wu army's barrage iron cables, and the main force of the Wu army's naval division has already taken refuge in the south channel of the sandbank, and there is still no need to risk fighting with a strong enemy.

Wu Jun's naval division was unwilling to fight a direct decisive battle, but the Qing-Russian allied forces were very happy to strive for this situation, and just after dredged the Yangtze River channel, Wu Quanmei tried his best to raise his troops to advance westward and take upstream, and the Qing-Russian combined fleet that was in front couldn't wait to rush upstream, out of the range of Wu's shore artillery, and only the fifteen Russian steam gunboats led by Novosilsky himself remained in the rear, waiting for the opportunity to fight a decisive battle with Wu's naval division.

Before the main force of the Qing Army's naval division led by Wu Quanmei rushed to the upper reaches of the sandbank, the fleet of the Tsarist and Russian coalition forces had already lined up in the open area of the water and began to bombard the shore positions of the Wu army in the upper reaches of the sandbank.

In order not to be too dispersed in combat forces, Wu Chaoyue's artillery position deployed in the upper reaches of the sandbank was not large, only a dozen artillery pieces and one battalion of troops, and the initial purpose was not to completely block the southern channel of the sandbank, but to facilitate the evacuation of the main force of the naval division to the camp at an emergency moment, and to prevent the enemy from suddenly attacking the camp of the Wu army's naval division from the upstream.

The Qing army naval division led by Wu Quanmei had just arrived at the scene, and before they could open artillery to help the battle, they could not withstand the enemy's fierce artillery fire, and the Wu army on the shore had already taken the initiative to abandon their positions and retreat downstream.

"The thief Wu has run away! Hurry, go! Above! Cut the chains, open the channel and kill the Wu thief! ”

The Qing and Russian coalition forces shook the sky with joy, and immediately couldn't wait to send small boats to destroy the Wu army's six-way iron cable defense line at the north corner of the sandbank, and they were beaming with joy up and down, as if they had seen the wonderful picture of the Wu army's naval division being forced to escape from the southern channel of the sandbank and being caught by the self-army and the Russian steam fleet.

The happy smile quickly solidified on Wu Quanmei's face, because the small boat of the Qing army that rushed to the front to destroy the iron cable suddenly came back with a report, saying that a number of large cargo ships that had almost sunk in the river were found downstream of the iron cable. Hearing the news, Wu Quanmei was stunned at first, and then roared loudly, "How could Wu Thief know about our tactical plan?" How could it be possible to prepare for the temporary preparation of the ship to sink itself and block the road? ”

No matter how much they roared, it was useless, the channel south of the sandbar was already narrow, and after more than 20 large cargo ships loaded with sand and gravel sank themselves on the channel, the red single ships and sail battleships of the Qing-Russian combined fleet naturally had no way to navigate, and they could no longer complete the established tactical plan of attacking the camp of the Wu army's sailors to force the Wu army's sailors to fight a decisive battle. Therefore, Wu Quanmei had no choice but to send someone to report to Novosilsky and let Novosilsky decide the next battle plan.

In fact, even if there is no Qing army general who inadvertently leaked secrets and let Wu Chaoyue deduce the battle plan of the Qing-Russian coalition army, the Qing-Russian coalition army will not be able to complete the established battle plan.

One more explanation, Wu Chaoyue's trick was learned from the chairman, but what Wu Chaoyue didn't know was that the chairman's trick was actually learned from the Russians - in the Crimean War, in order to protect the fortress of Sevastopol, and knowing that it could not be a perverted British naval opponent at sea, the Tsarist army simply sank most of the Black Sea Fleet ships and blocked the channel for the British and French navies to reach the city of Sevastopol, which also achieved ideal results.

Unexpectedly, Wu Chaoyue would use the tactics pioneered by the Russian army to deal with the Russian fleet, after receiving the report from the front, Novosilis of course roared angrily, scolded Wu Chaoyue for being shameless, and once resented the British, suspecting that the British who had suffered this kind of loss gave Wu Chaoyue the idea - but the British did not do this kind of thing.

Forced to have no choice, Novosilis could only quickly convene the staff officers to discuss countermeasures, and as a result, the Russian staff team put forward two contingency suggestions to Novosilis: the first is to withdraw the troops to recuperate, and then attack the source mouth after redrawing the battle plan. The second suggestion was to recall the forward fleet, concentrate artillery fire to suppress the Wu army's southern bank battery, dispatch steam gunboats to attack the Wu army's estuary position, destroy the Wu army's estuary position and dredge the southern channel, and then march directly to the Wu army's naval division camp.

Looking at the sky, he saw that it was still only afternoon, and there was still time for offensive operations, and considering the heavy losses suffered in this battle, Novosilis categorically refused the opportunity to give up the attack, unwilling to give the Wu army a chance to rebuild its defensive position—then it would be difficult to fight again next time. However, Novosilis nevertheless asked a question to the staff of the Self-Army, asking: "Why can't we put our steamship fleet in charge of suppressing the southern bank batteries of the Qing rebels?" Let the main forces of the Qing Navy Division and our sailing fleet be responsible for smashing the estuary positions of the Qing rebels? ”

"Mr. General, we must retain forces that can fight in the narrow waterways." The chief of staff replied: "If the main force of the Qing rebels' naval division insists on hiding in the narrow waterway, then we must let the Qing naval division undertake the task of attacking the narrow waterway, otherwise, our large warships will definitely suffer even greater losses when they enter the narrow waterway to fight." ”

After thinking about it for about five minutes, Novosilis decided to adopt this tactic formulated by the staff committee, but Novosilis made some slight adjustments, in addition to informing the main force of the Qing army's naval division to change the battle plan, he also asked Wu Quanmei to divide a small fleet to act as the vanguard to attack the estuary, reconnoiter the Wu army's estuary defenses, and also test the secret weapons of the Wu army reported in the intelligence.

Wu Quanmei of course did not want to accept the request of sending a fleet to the Tsarist army as cannon fodder to test the position of the Wu army at the mouth of the river, but after hearing that after the test, the Tsarist army would dispatch the main steamboat team to attack the estuary, but Wu Quanmei raised his hands to welcome it, and immediately agreed, "Okay, just do it, we are responsible for the temptation, and you are responsible for attacking the fortification!" ”

To find out what happens next, check out the next chapter, "The Secret Weapon Appears"!