Chapter 180 The Conspiracy of the Boston Empire II
Therefore, this kind of warship adopts a diagonal turret design, that is, the front and rear turrets are staggered along the diagonal. In this way, the two front and rear rotating turrets can attack the bow or stern of the ship at the same time, while the ship's warehouse is placed on both sides.
In the middle of a fort, it will not block the fort's firing range.
Although this design made the warships less stable, it was popular in the Western Continent for a long time because it was suitable for bow engagement rules. Until the 'Lanting' class battleship designed by Fang Xiaoyu became a great success, defeating the popularity of the Western Continent in one fell swoop.
The countries in the Western Continent changed this design idea to the Cossack fleet with its bow-based combat method.
This 9,748-ton 'Sibai'-class ironclad ship, the design of the 'Calando', the flagship of the Saint Martin Empire Navy, although it seems outdated around the world, is already the flagship of the Saint Martin Empire.
The latest ironclad ship.
Among the other seven ironclads following the flagship, there are two of the same class as the "Calando", the "Santa Ada" and the "Trada", and the other five are more old-fashioned ship-side gun rooms.
Ironclad ship.
As for the cruisers, four of them are unprotected cruisers commonly known as "glass ships". They are basically shot to death. Such a piecemeal fleet purchased in different eras is the entire possessions of the Saint Martin Empire Navy.
.
Marshal Dinant sighed. His warships were too old. They were far inferior in performance to the newly launched warships of the Boston Empire. However, the country could not build warships, and the Western Continent imposed a military and technical blockade on the country. The current warships
Even the repair parts are custom-made from China, so there is no need to talk about the upgrading of warships, or even the gradual elimination of wooden sail warships like the Boston Empire.
Marshal Dinante felt envious when he thought of the speed of development of the Chinese Territory. It only took him a few years to go from a barren land that no one cares about to one of the few major forces in the Eastern Ocean. Moreover, he is
It was strong on both sea and land, and defeated the Cossack Empire, which was a great power, in both directions. This was simply a miracle.
The current Marshal Dinant has no extravagant expectations that the Saint Martin Empire can rise as quickly as the Chinese Territory. What he most hopes is that the new warships built by the Chinese Territory for the Saint Martin Empire can be delivered as soon as possible so that he can be more confident at sea.
"Marshal, an enemy ship has been discovered." The sailor's report brought Marshal Dinant back from his thoughts. He raised the telescope purchased from the Chinese leadership and looked forward. A thick black smoke column appeared on the sea level. This was obviously a
A huge armored fleet.
In this era, steam engines were still relatively high-end products and were expensive. For the sake of economical consumption, most merchant ships were sailing ships. Even if there were a few steam ships occasionally, they would not be of such a large scale.
The opponent's mast gradually appeared on the sea level, followed by the ship's cabin, turret, and hull. When the fleet appeared in front of Dinant, the corners of his eyes couldn't help but twitch.
This is a fleet composed of eight ironclads and eight cruisers. Although it seems that the number of this fleet is smaller than that of the Saint Martin Empire fleet, Dinant knows in his heart that he is definitely not its opponent.
Not to mention the opponent's large ironclad ship with a displacement of more than 12,000 tons, even the eight cruisers are definitely not less than 4,000 tons. Judging from Dinant's experience, these warships are all new warships that have been in service for no more than one year.
Warships are much more advanced than our own warships.
Seeing the other party approaching him at full speed, Dinante realized that he might have fallen into a well-prepared trap. It was obvious that the news of the Boston Empire's invasion of the Central and Southern Alliance was definitely deliberately released by the Boston Empire.
This well-equipped fleet does not carry any troop transport ships at all. They are definitely a trap deliberately prepared by the other party. If this is really the case, then our fleet will be in trouble today.
Although he was unable to defeat him, Marshal Dinant knew very well that he could not immediately turn to escape. He knew very clearly that with the opponent's speed and firepower, if he ordered an escape, the outcome would be tragic. Under the pursuit of the opponent, at least everyone
The sailing warships can never outrun each other, and there are only a few old ironclads left.
Now all Dinant can do is to consume the strength of the Boston Navy as much as possible. Even if his fleet is eventually destroyed, he will paralyze the Boston Imperial Navy for a period of time to buy enough time for the new warships built by the Chinese Territory to enter service.
Marshal Dinant gritted his teeth and ordered: "Assault with the whole army, get close to the enemy ships and attack." The Saint Martin Empire Navy has been in battle for a long time and is relatively well-trained and fast.
After receiving the order from Marshal Dinant, the St. Martin Empire fleet immediately formed a battle formation. Eight ironclads formed an arrow, the cruisers lined up on both wings, and the slowest wooden sail warships served as backup. The entire fleet headed towards Boston.
The Imperial fleet sailed away at full speed.
Just when the armored fleet battle at sea was about to break out, the conspiracy on land was also going on simultaneously. A small group of soldiers wearing Boston military uniforms crossed the border between the Central Yugoslav Alliance and the Saint Martin Empire and attacked the Saint Martin Empire Army stationed here.
A patrol resulted in the death of seven soldiers of the Saint Martin Empire.
The furious General Caolan, the commander of the St. Martin Empire, immediately ordered a pursuit. With a regiment of troops as the lead, the St. Martin Empire Army crossed the border and advanced into the hinterland of the Central and Southern Alliance.
The men who attacked the St. Martin patrol this time were soldiers wearing Boston military uniforms. Caolan took it for granted that since the attack he received came from Boston soldiers who crossed the border of the Central and Southern Alliance, then the Bostonians must have entered the Central and Southern Alliance.
This situation also proves that the intelligence received by the empire is definitely true. Now that the authenticity of the intelligence has been confirmed, according to the predetermined plan, it is necessary for him to enter the Central and Southern Alliance to attack the Boston Army to prevent the other party from occupying favorable terrain.
The southern part of the Central South Alliance is full of rainforests, and the roads are extremely difficult to walk. The Saint Martin Empire army was marching hard in the rainforest, trying hard to track the small group of soldiers who attacked the patrol. Fortunately, the small group of soldiers did not move fast, and always walked away as if they were apart.
In front of the Imperial Army of Saint Martin.
After marching for more than ten kilometers, this small group of soldiers disappeared near a huge barracks. Seeing the dots of bonfires in the barracks, Kaolan, who looked excited, thought that he had finally found the Bostonian barracks, and struck first.
, General Kaolan immediately ordered the troops to launch a full-line attack.
The large group of Saint Martin soldiers immediately launched an attack on the barracks, but strangely the opponent seemed unprepared. The combat power in the barracks was unexpectedly weak. After two hours of fighting, the opponent's resistance completely collapsed. Excited
Kaolan didn't think there was anything wrong with this, and immediately led his team to pursue the victory and drove the enemy back ten kilometers.
Keolan, who was in excitement, received a report from a regiment commander: "General, the enemy soldiers we killed were all wearing the uniforms of the Central and Southern Alliance."
"What?" Caolan screamed. He was not an idiot. When he heard this, he immediately understood that he had been tricked. The ones who attacked him earlier must have been a small elite unit of Bostonians. They deliberately attacked the patrol and then killed him.
It was led to the vicinity of the Central and Southern Alliance military camp, giving the illusion that the Boston army was stationed here.
"Stop the pursuit, station on the spot. Clean the battlefield and search for Boston soldiers." Although he knew that this arrangement was of no use, he needed to calm down, think about countermeasures, and verify the situation. But when Kaolan saw that he
When the soldiers carried the corpse wearing the military uniform of the Central Yugoslavia Alliance, he had no idea at all.
"Advance at full speed, the main guns of all ironclads open fire." Dinant ordered loudly. At this time, the Boston Imperial Fleet had just entered its own firing range, but the opponent's longer-range main guns had already covered five rounds of firepower.
Already one of the cruisers was hit and started to sink.
Violent artillery shells began to fall around the Boston fleet. Fleet commander Rear Admiral Dewey immediately ordered the fleet to speed up and turn around. While continuing to fire around the St. Martin Imperial fleet, he avoided the opponent's artillery fire. His tactics completely copied the Chinese leader's method of dealing with the Cossack fleet.
.
Seeing that the other party started to maneuver, Dinant's mouth showed a smile. Dewey's fleet had just sailed not far away when a group of wooden warships came towards them. These were the sailing warships of the Saint Martin Empire towed behind. They were driven by Dinant.
He deliberately stayed behind to deal with the Boston Imperial Fleet's hunting tactics.
This tactic was first used by the Chinese Navy. It became famous in the battle with the Cossack Empire's expeditionary fleet and was regarded as a classic naval battle tactic by various countries.
Dinant has naturally done considerable research on this tactic, but this tactic requires sufficiently high-quality warships, and it must have powerful battleships with uniform gun specifications.
These battleships also need to have strong enough firepower, thick enough armor and considerable speed, so that they can rely on intensive firepower to attack while avoiding the opponent's artillery fire.
The St. Martin Empire's old and messy fleet cannot use this advanced tactic. Although it cannot be used, it does not prevent Dinant from coming up with a way to crack it.
This time, when Dinant saw the composition of the opponent's warships, he vaguely felt that the opponent would use this tactic, so he deliberately left the wooden sail battle fleet, which was the slowest and least valued by the opponent, at the end to intercept the maneuvering opponent's warships.
This plan really worked.
This tactic just takes advantage of the Boston fleet's unfamiliarity with this tactic. If they encounter it again next time and the opponent is more careful, this tactic will be difficult to work.
At this time, Marshal Dinant didn't have much to worry about anymore. Whether the St. Martin fleet could be saved this time was a question. Who would think about the next naval battle?
The St. Martin's Empire warships blocking Dewey's fleet head-on ignored their own safety. They desperately fought the ships horizontally and shot the Boston warships with fierce broadside fire.