[237] Melee combat

When Deng Shichang received an order to appoint him as the commander of the North Sea Fleet, asking him to lead the North Sea Fleet to Qingdao to undergo modifications and go south to fight to the death with the Chinese fleet of the Royal Navy, he thought he had heard it wrong, and read the telegram repeatedly before he knew it was true.

Along with the combat telegram, Yao Fan's secret telegram was sent to Dagukou in Tianjin, which was personally handed over by the commissioner of the Ministry of Intelligence.

Deng Shichang opened the telegram, and there was only a simple sentence on it: "Prove your courage to the motherland, so that the motherland can rest assured that it will hand over the fleet that dominates the four seas to you." ”

Deng Shichang had seen the royal fleet flaunting its might in China's territorial waters, and knew what a group of formidable opponents it was. On the sea to Qingdao in the south, he also wondered whether the new government would test his loyalty, or whether it would use the hands of the British to eliminate the sailors left behind by the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

For this latter idea, Deng Shichang quickly ruled it out.

Chen Weipeng, the political commissar of the North Sea Fleet, was sent from Beijing by the General Political Department, Chen Weipeng was loyal and decisive, he had studied in a private school but did not get a show, his family opened a lacquerware shop, and he was born in a small handicraft family, and he dispelled Deng Shichang's concerns with his enthusiasm for the republic and his fanatical worship of Yao Fan.

"Old Deng! For the sake of the motherland, why bother with this?! The revolutionary army led by Chairman Yao was invincible and liberated the whole country! How arrogant are the forces of the Five-Nation Coalition that came to interfere in China's internal affairs! Aren't you also beaten to pieces! When the Yangtze River Fleet met our revolutionary army, it was beaten to the ground, and all six boats were fed to Wang Ba! ”

Ever since Chen Weipeng came to the North Sea Fleet, he has taken dozens of people from his political office to give ideological education to the sailors and officers, and Deng Shichang understands that the ship is now full of Chen Weipeng's people, and everyone is looking forward to the new China and a new life in which everyone is equal as propagated by the political commissar and the instructors of the political department.

The government did not adjust the treatment of the officers and men at the grassroots level of the naval division, and it was still 10 taels of silver for first-class sailors and 20 taels of silver for first-class gunners, but the income of the senior officials of the naval division was greatly reduced, for example, the annual salary of the admiral of the naval division plus the annual income of the shipwright was 8,400 taels, which was forcibly demarcated according to the unified salary standard of the whole army. Although Deng Shichang was promoted from the "Haidongyun" gunboat to the position of commander of the North Sea Fleet, his monthly salary was only 245 taels, and his annual salary was 2,940 taels, which was not much higher than his previous annual income of more than 2,600 taels.

However, for the grassroots sailors, all the salaries are now paid in full, and there are no more deductions, and they are completely paid by the political department, which is equivalent to doubling the income.

Moreover, the political commissars sent by the new government have no arrogance, and they have implemented a new military discipline of equality between officers and soldiers on ships and bases all day long, never kowtowing again, and have also abolished the corporal punishment, so the new government is extremely popular among the grassroots sailors.

After more than a month of studying the common regulations, practicing a special queue, and emphasizing military appearance and discipline every day, the North Sea Fleet took on a new look.

Deng Shichang knew that the whole country was under military control at the moment. Even the former admirals of the Beiyang Naval Division, the Nanyang Naval Division, the Fujian Naval Division, and the Guangdong Naval Division were dismissed from their posts and examined, and almost all the lay admirals and generals who were transferred to the Naval Division from the army were executed or sent to labor camps, and only serious professional officers who graduated from the Fujian Shipbuilding Academy could be reused.

At present, among the three fleets reorganized from the four major naval divisions, the personnel changes are extremely drastic, and the "ship administration department" has blossomed alone, and the "political administration department" has risen rapidly with the poor-born "political zhì department", and the Manchu bureaucrats who have been installed in the naval division and the army officers of the Huai army and the Hunan army have been swept away. Under such violent turmoil, Deng Shichang originally only hoped that Mingzhe would protect his life and stay in his beloved navy with warships.

But that person heard about him Deng Shichang out of nowhere, and promoted him to the commander of the North Sea Fleet in one fell swoop like a rocket!

Deng Shichang had never seen that person, but now there are portraits of him everywhere, and he looks amiable, wearing a simple green military uniform like a soldier, but he does not have a red collar badge or a military cap.

Deng Shichang read that person's writings, and after reading it, Deng Shichang understood the meaning of the word zheng zhì for the first time in his life. Deng Shichang was convinced by the various new teaching materials secretly issued by the central authorities, and heard that these were all compiled and printed by that person himself.

"Principles of Naval Vessels", "Navigation and Ship Strength", "Sea State Analysis and Operations", "Basic Maritime Positioning", "Maintenance of Ocean-going Ships", "Regulations on Maritime Maneuvering and Formation", "Navigation Psychology", ............ In principle, these materials are not allowed on ships, and if they are shipped, they must be destroyed immediately if necessary to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy.

Deng Shichang has been eagerly studying these secret teaching materials provided by the navy for senior officers, and the more he reads it, the more profound he feels, and he admires that person even more in his heart.

At the Qingdao wharf, Deng Shichang saw for the first time a machine called a crane, a long boom capable of lifting dozens of tons of cannons from ships. Some of the workers came aboard the ship with a strange large tin can, and used an air gun that breathed blue fire to cut off the base of the gun's gun like tofu.

"I've heard that this is the most advanced technology in the world." Political Commissar Chen Weipeng said proudly to Deng Shichang.

After observing the land shooting performance of the Type 82 80mm recoilless gun, Deng Shichang was convinced.

"This cannon is extremely powerful! I have never seen such a violent flowering bomb, and if a wooden ship is shot, even a thousand-ton ship will not be able to withstand it!

It's just that such a great power is so magical, there is no recoil, and the two of them can open fire, which is really a militaristic weapon!

This shell can actually encapsulate the propellant in it, and there is no need for the artillery to load and pound the barrel in battle, which greatly saves the firing time, 5 to 6 rounds a minute, which is really incredible! The artillery of the Qing Dynasty always takes 3 minutes to fire, I have never seen such a fast cannon, and the power is so amazing! Deng Shichang sighed again and again.

"It's a pity that the range is not enough, if you can lengthen and thicken the barrel, and fill the shells with more gunpowder, it must be able to go far and far, and it will definitely make my Qing Navy prestige in Asia!" Deng Shichang sensitively put forward a hypothesis.

"Lao Deng, we must try to fight in close combat, although the recoilless cannon is powerful, it can't reach far, only by rushing within two thousand meters can we hit the opponent with a dismount." Political Commissar Chen Weipeng advised.

"The British naval guns generally fire at 4,000 meters, with a salvo distance of 3,000 meters, and if they want to rush to within 2,000 meters, they must have the courage to die."

"Old Deng."

"Comrade Wei Peng, rest assured, I, Deng Shichang, will definitely live up to Chairman Yao's kindness."

In the spring of 1877, the East China Sea was facing easterly winds, and the boundary between water and sky in the distance above sea level appeared and disappeared, and snow-white waves lapped against the battleship, accompanied by the loud sound of steam engines, like an epiphany.

Deng Shichang's muscles tensed all over his body, and he ordered: "All warships will raise their full sails and meet the enemy in a formation." ”

Therefore, when the Royal Chinese Fleet lined up in a single column to the west of the sea battlefield, the five warships of the North Sea Fleet lined up in a horizontal line and pulled full sails towards the Royal Navy in the T position to the west.

"A decisive battle? It seems that these yellow-skinned pigs have not learned what deference is in the several punishments given to them by the British Empire. Griging looked disdainfully at the lonely figure of the North Sea Fleet's five small ships of more than 1,000 tons.

The Royal Navy's flagship of the Chinese fleet, the USS Ellecourt, has a displacement of 4,700 tons, 3,550 horsepower, a full power output of 12 knots, and a full sail downwind of up to 15 knots.

A fifth-class battleship, the Cleopatra, has a displacement of 2,380 tons and a full power output of 2,540 horsepower.

The two sixth-class ships, the Pegassa and the Abateros, had a displacement of 1130 and 940 tons, respectively, and a steam power of 940 and 830 horsepower.

Even two small gunboats have a displacement of more than 500 tons and a power of 500 horsepower.

Compared with the blockade fleet that rushed into the Yangtze River before, the main force of the Chinese fleet at the sea at this moment is the embodiment of its true strength.

The flagship of the North Sea Fleet is the Weiyuan, with a displacement of 1,268 tons and 750 horsepower, which is China's first and only iron keel warship, the iron keel for shipbuilding is purchased from France, the main engine is purchased from the United Kingdom, and the hull is manufactured by the Fujian Shipbuilding Office. In order to deal with the increasingly fierce siege of the city and land by the revolutionary army, the Fuzhou Shipping Administration was in a hurry, and actually advanced the battleship that was supposed to be launched in 1877 to the end of 1876, but it was just in time for the revolutionary army to sweep the country, so after Yao Fan took over the national navy with preferential treatment, the Weiyuan was transferred to the north as in history and became the flagship of the newly formed North Sea Fleet.

This is the case these days, China can't even build a 750-horsepower marine steam engine, and a qualified iron keel can't be cast.

The only advantage of the Weiyuan is that it can drive at a high speed of 16 knots when the sail is downwind, and the structural stability provided by the narrow hull and iron keel allows him to make better use of the wind.

The remaining four ships of the North Sea Fleet averaged 9 to 10 knots and a full sail of 13 to 14 knots.

With the onslaught of the North Sea Fleet's full sails and full power, the British Royal Navy opened fire.

Seeing the enemy ship firing guns, Deng Shichang glared and ordered in the walkie-talkie: "Don't be afraid! Catch up! Each ship has its own target, bites to the death, must rush into the range of 2,000 meters, as long as it can hit a high-explosive grenade, it will definitely make the British pull the list! ”

The rhythm of the rolling waves also seemed to intensify as the British fleet shelled.

The battleship, which was slowing down in order to improve its hits, shook and crushed the waves around it and threw it into the sea, and the Royal Navy began to fire its guns from a distance of 4,500 meters. The main guns of the warships of 1877 took three minutes to fire, and some large-caliber guns even took five minutes to fire a shot, which gave the North Sea Fleet plenty of time.

Deng Shichang understood that according to the current average speed of 12 knots downwind of the fleet, it would take 8 to 9 minutes to close the distance from 4,500 meters to about 1,500, which was about enough time for the opponent's naval guns to fire three salvos.

Griging's first shot at 4,500 meters did not choose a salvo, the ships chose to fire their guns in turn, and the guns on the battleship clanged one by one, firing at the North Sea Fleet alone, and what they wanted was the kind of continuous momentum, so that there would be no intermittent period for the fleet to fire, and there was no need to wait for a long time after the salvo.

As an independent fleet from the East India Fleet, the Chinese fleet of the Royal Navy is not large, and the warships are in average condition, except for the flagship Ellecourt, the rest of the ships do not have a long-range shooting range of 5,000 to 6,000 meters. Therefore, it is generally used to close to 3,000 to 2,000 meters and then drown the opponent with accurate and dense artillery fire.

Griging has full confidence in his battleship, with the strength of the Royal Navy's battleships, those solid artillery iron pellets of the Great Qing Kingdom cannot be shaken at all, as for the flowering bombs, the flowering shells of the Qing Kingdom can only be broken into 4 to 6 pieces, and the lethality is extremely low, if it hits the thick oak shell of the British battleship, it can only blow up a black graffiti.

Griging heard Sir Hus, who participated in the Second Opium War, say that the Chinese navy is extremely cowardly, and the range of artillery is extremely short, only about 1,500 to 2,000 meters, once it rushes to a distance of 500 meters, the dense artillery on the British battleship is enough to beat all the courage of those yellow pigs, and whether to choose to accept the surrender of the other side, or simply beat the other side into a pile of driftwood at close range, depends entirely on the mood of the British navy.