Sneak attack is not only a technical job, but also a tactic that is mostly based on luck. No matter how well planned, a small accident is enough to change the nature of the action.

The assault detachment of the South China Sea Fleet was discovered by the Qing army's patrol ship not far from the White Pigeon Gate Water Village. Seeing that the three British warships in front of him did not mess around, and that the patrol ship had already sounded the beacon smoke alarm before it was sunk, Yang Yandi did not hesitate, immediately raised the flag, and commanded the fleet to speed up and strive to block the south exit of the White Pigeon Village. At the very least, it was necessary to prevent all the Qing naval divisions from leaving the port, so that they would not face too many enemies in the battle outside the port.

Twenty warships, centered on Yang Yandi's flagship, spread out a herringbone formation and swooped down on the Qing army's port. The other six warships drew an arc, forming a single line behind the right side of the main fleet, forming a roundabout mobile detachment.

Although the direction of the wind is very important in naval battles, it is no longer necessary to consider that, as long as it is not a typhoon or hurricane, it is better to adopt different tactics for downwind and headwind.

After receiving the alarm, the Qing army naval division moored in the water village did not know the specific situation, and the water division in the village belonged to various places, although the Nanyang general soldier Xu Long and Raoping general soldier Wu Liuqi were the strongest, but the order was not completely unified. Therefore, the first to lead the ships out of the port is more than 20 ships in Nanyang Town, not so much to face the battle, but to see what is going on.

The more than 10 Qing warships that had left the port with the wind collided head-on with the assault fleet more than 10 miles outside the port, and when they saw that the fleet that was already holding the Ming flag was pressing over in a menacing manner, the Qing generals knew that they were in danger. This guy, as the deputy of Wu Liuqi, the chief soldier of Rao Ping, is not greedy for life and afraid of death, facing a large ship with a tonnage far exceeding his own, he lined up to meet the battle and gain time; On the other hand, he sent someone back to Hong Kong to report the news. Request reinforcements.

"Boom, boom......" The Ming fleet took the lead in firing artillery, and the rumbling sound of artillery opened the prelude to the sea battle.

There were about 400 warships of each battalion of the Guangdong Naval Division, all of which were old-style wooden sailing ships. The largest of these ships was the Naval Governor, which also had a displacement of no more than four hundred tons and was equipped with only ten breech guns. Most of the remaining ships had a displacement of less than 100 tons and were armed with only two guns.

Objectively speaking, there was a big gap between China and the West in terms of the size, weapons, and various technologies of their naval warships. Even the Zheng fleet, the most powerful fleet in Asia, still hasn't kept up with the tide of warship artillery tactics. This can be seen from the naval battles recorded in history when Taiwan was recovered.

“…… The Netherlands, with the largest Hector, led three warships, relying on the superiority of artillery and other equipment. First of all, the cannon was fired at the Zheng military ship. Zheng sent sixty ships with two guns each to meet the battle. The fighting was so intense that the smoke of the shells was so thick that it was impossible to identify the ships of both sides from a little distance. Although the Chinese warships were inferior to the enemy ships in terms of artillery manufactured and equipped, they fought valiantly, taking advantage of their numerical superiority to besiege the Dutch ships on all sides. and finally defeated the Dutch fleet ......"

In addition to the numerical superiority, Zheng Chenggong's superb conducting skills also played an important role. He invented an advanced warship shape. This formation was similar to the "diamond" formation that was being piloted by the British, French, and Dutch navies at that time. The command ship was located in the middle in order to direct the battle. Until then, command ships were in the rear during operations.

Of course, any mode of warfare is compatible with one's own military strength, and because the Zheng army is relatively backward in the technology of ships and artillery, its naval warfare method also adopts a mixture of hot and cold weapons. Shelling, ramming, boarding, fire, etc., rather than using long-range artillery linear tactics as much as in the West.

At the same time, the strongest Guangdong and Fujian naval divisions in the Qing army were inferior to the Zheng army in overall strength, but they were similar to the Zheng army in terms of ship size and artillery equipment. And the gap in strength is the largest. The size of the ships came second, otherwise it would not have been possible to launch the Jinxia and Xiamen battles and take the initiative to take the offensive. Generals who are good at naval warfare, sailors with rich combat experience, helmsmen and sailors with superb navigation skills, etc., are the disadvantages that the Qing army's sailors are difficult to compare with the Zheng army.

The South China Sea Fleet dispatched elite ships to form assault detachments, with three ships with a displacement of more than 300 tons, six ships with a displacement of more than 200 tons, and the rest of them all over 100 tons, and the minimum artillery equipment was also 12 pieces. In the face of the intercepting Qing fleet, the assault detachment, which had an overwhelming advantage in size and firepower, pounced on it, first firing with the bow guns, then interspersed among the Qing ships, and bombarded the enemy at a closer distance with broadside fire.

The height of the Qing warships was less than half of the Ming warships, and they did not dare to collide with the Ming warships. It not only shortened the time for the Qing army's naval division to go out of the port for reinforcements, but also used the power of artillery salvos to sink and damage seven or eight enemy ships in one shot.

The Qing warships sailing downwind were left behind by the assault detachment, and hurriedly turned around and turned their sails under the command of the flagship flag, preparing to continue the entanglement and buy time for their own reinforcements.

Several battleships sailed over and seized the upper hand, and it was the mobile detachment. The windows on the side were already open, and the muzzles of the black holes were pointed at the surviving enemy ships.

The direction of the wind has a great influence on the tactics of naval warfare. The hull of a battleship in the upwind direction is inclined downwind, and the horizontal angle of fire of the guns on this side is low, which is conducive to attacking the hull of the enemy ship; A battleship in the downwind direction, with its hull tilted backwards, and a high horizontal angle of fire from its gunwales, was conducive to attacking the masts and sails of enemy ships.

The choice of the upper hand belongs to the aggressive table, the purpose of which is to sink enemy ships; Choosing the downwind direction is a defensive stance, with the aim of destroying the power system of the enemy ship and making it lose the ability to maneuver, so that it can get out of the battle situation on its own.

At that time, most navies of all countries would not seize the upper hand, except for the British navy. And the British Navy's insistence on seizing the upper hand in combat naturally has their reasons. Because, after forming a line at the upwind port, the captains couldn't even meet the enemy if they wanted to. Do you want to break away from a line to show your speciality? You'll keep drifting, drifting away from the rain of cannonballs from enemy ships. Since you know that you can't escape, you might as well let go and fight to the death in order to defeat the enemy first in the battle.

The French, on the other hand, like to seize the wind in naval battles, and they like to hit masts and crossbars rather than hulls. I'm afraid that I won't be able to beat it, so I scrapped the other party's transportation first and let myself slip away. As soon as the war started, there was a fear of death and cowardice, how could he not be defeated? It is no wonder that the French once came close to Britain in naval strength, but always fell behind in the long war for supremacy at sea.

Further, since they knew that every battle would be put to death without any chance, the British naval captains would usually strictly require junior officers and sailors to carefully train their combat skills in order to defeat the enemy in battle. For a long time, combat effectiveness has been trained in this way. And thinking that since there is a way out at any time, it is naturally difficult to give full play to consciousness and subjective initiative.

The sound of artillery rumbled, the smoke of gunpowder filled the air, and each large ship with a displacement of more than 300 tons and more than 30 guns launched a devastating blow against the Qing warships.

Hearing the sound of cannons, the Qing army's sailors already knew that something was wrong, and the boat that called the police had not arrived, so Wu Liuqi, the general soldier of Raoping, resolutely led the fleet out of the port. At this time, Xu Long, the chief soldier of Nanyang, was still on the shore, and the Nanyang Town Water Division had no main general, and his actions were slow.

It was only that the interception fleet of the Qing army's naval division failed to effectively stop the approach of the assault detachment, and soon after Wu Liuqi led the fleet out of the port, he found that the enemy fleet had already set up a battle formation and was waiting for it. The area of engagement outside the port was greatly compressed, so that the subsequent Qing warships leaving the port were only hindered, and if they did not break through the enemy's defensive line, they would not be able to sail out more ships, so as to balance the lack of firepower of a single ship and give full play to the superiority of the Qing army's naval divisions.

When Wu Liuqi saw this, he immediately raised his flag and led more than 30 ships out of the port to rush forward with the help of the wind.

Artillery fire and smoke billowed out, and the largest naval battle ever between the South China Sea Fleet and the Qing Navy broke out.

Fifteen Ming warships maintained the battle line and slowly moved forward, blocking the Qing army's attempts to expand the space. The other five warships rushed out one by one, bravely heading against the wind and cutting between the Qing warships.

The "Sea Dragon" was the first to cut in, first bombarding the stern of a clear ship with its port guns, causing heavy damage. Then he fired the starboard guns at the enemy ship on the right, and then approached the rear right of another enemy ship diagonally and fired at it again.

About five minutes after the "Sea Dragon" went into battle, the "Sea Eagle" also cut into the enemy line, opened fire on the left and right, and bombarded fiercely. Dozens of minutes later, like the "Sea Dragon", it found that it was surrounded by enemy ships.

A quarter of an hour after the attack of the "Sea Eagle", the "Sea Lion" also went into battle. Each of the five Ming warships cut into the enemy line separately in this way, striking the enemy ships with their broadside guns on both sides, so that each enemy ship was subjected to continuous concentrated fire.

The Qing warships that stormed the battle line of the Ming warships advanced under artillery fire and bombarded the Ming ships with their artillery, hoping to get close to the Ming ships or pass in front of the Ming ships. Under the intensive artillery bombardment, many ships were either sunk or damaged, and suffered heavy losses.

And the Qing warships, which were lucky enough to pass through the gap between the Ming ships, found that the nightmare was not over, and a roundabout mobile fleet was waiting for them.

Wu Liuqi commanded his ship to brave the artillery fire, and after suffering a lot of damage, he finally leaned next to a Ming ship, flew up with several iron chains and hooks, and the Qing army was ready to jump onto the deck and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

A group of black grenades fell with green smoke, and continuous explosions sounded on the ship, black smoke filled the air, shrapnel flew sideways, and screams came one after another, which surprised Wu Liuqi.

…………… (To be continued......)