Chapter 406 Our Zheng family has always grown up in maritime merchants, and we are not very familiar with wars!
An unprecedented sea battle broke out at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The sound of nearly 300 large ships' cannons was loud. The strange thing was that the two sides were not fighting at home, but at the mouth of the sea directly south of the Yangtze River.
The fierce exchange of fire lasted for nearly three days before easing. In these three days, the Zheng family lost more than 20 large-scale ships, and the imperial court lost ten large-scale ships. Logically speaking, the Zheng family had many ships and many sailors.
Skilled, they are serious experts in naval battles, but they have become the party with greater losses. The reason for this phenomenon, in addition to the large gap in firepower configuration between the two sides, is mainly related to their opportunistic style of play.
!
The Zheng family had relied on close fire attacks from small fire attack ships in several large-scale naval battles to achieve victory, so they still used this method in this naval battle. But the opponent they faced was different. The imperial navy was
The close firepower configuration is unmatched by any army in this era.
As long as they get close to 20 to 30 meters, the crew's muskets can be used, and grenades can also be thrown on their fast-attack fireships. So that the Zheng family's tried and tested tactics before have become a tactical black hole, and all the small fast fighters who are close to them can use them.
The ship did not succeed once, but instead ended up costing people their lives.
The small boats sent people to death, but the big ships happened to be nearby to provide support. Several big ships were also hit by artillery, and some were directly hit hard and sank to the bottom of the sea. More than 20 ships were sunk, and the number of damaged ships was
It was at least three times that. So three days later, Zheng Zhilong could not withstand the losses and had to withdraw the fleet to the periphery and temporarily stop the offensive.
"Commander, we can't fight like this anymore! The ships in the north have fierce firepower, especially if they can't get close. If we continue to fight like this, most of our fleet will probably be lost here. We can't compete with others in consumption, they are
If we break all the ships here, we will no longer plan the sea route. But we can’t do it. After breaking so many ships, we won’t be able to control the situation at sea in the future.” Zheng Hongkui advised Zheng Zhilong, asking him to change his tactics and stop doing this.
Fight. In fact, he also knows that the boss is no longer prepared to fight like this. He is just giving the boss a step down.
"The imperial court only has so many sea ships. It's hard to imagine that the firepower can be so fierce. Now we have suffered some losses and stopped, and I feel a little breathless. If we withdraw this time, we will be at sea in the future."
The situation is unpredictable and may become increasingly unfavorable to me."
"Soldier, we only need to change our tactics, and there is no need to stop here. My subordinates have watched the battle in the past few days and noticed that although they have strong firepower, their boat maneuvering skills are not good. If we use the idea of killing the enemy with one blow,
Change the situation and switch to blocking the sea route. As time goes by, they will not be able to bear the losses, and sooner or later they will withdraw from Songjiang."
"Blocking the sea route? In this way, the war will drag on for a long time."
"Soldier, I believe that the time at sea now belongs to me and not to the enemy. If we delay it for a month or two, nothing will happen, but if their sea routes are blocked by us for a month or two, the impact will be huge. Their opponents are not only us.
Nanzhi won't sit back and watch."
Changing the breakthrough war to a long-term siege war is not the war development process that Zheng Zhilong expected. Any military decision-maker will never choose a protracted war when the problem can be solved quickly. This is the basic battlefield principle. Fight a protracted war.
, they all had no choice but to make choices. And Zheng Zhilong, like most generals in gambling wars, chose to fight a war of attrition after the tactical concept in the first stage was not realized.
The Zheng family's change of warfare did have an effect at the beginning. The Zheng family had many ships, and Ren Shuangyou and theirs had fewer ships. The Zheng family was more familiar with naval battles, while Ren Shuangyou and his friends had never fought in any naval battles so far. The most important thing is that
, Ren Shuangyou and the others also have other strategic tasks and are very dependent on sea transportation.
After being blocked on the sea road for nearly ten days, Ren Shuangyou and the others became a little bit unable to sit still. The current war has turned into an extremely unfavorable situation for themselves. The Zheng family has been blocking the sea road, and the civilian ship contractors in charge of transportation in Dengzhou
It would be impossible to transport military supplies. With the army on the island, it would be unable to carry out the next military action.
In order to break the deadlock, Ren Shuangyou and the others organized a fleet and went to fight with the Zheng family. But the Zheng family had their brains changed. They no longer competed with Ren Shuangyou and his fleet at close range, but instead fought at random. They did not engage in close combat with the two sides.
The losses have become smaller. The problem is that Ren Shuangyou and the others not only want to reduce the losses, but also want to open up the sea route and completely drive the Zheng family's fleet out of this sea area.
"If you are sincere, can we extend the pursuit distance a little longer? It is best to find an opportunity to give the Zheng family a big one. Defeat their main force in one battle!"
"Commander, this may not be possible. The Zheng family are old pirates, and they have more ships than us. If we extend the pursuit distance, it is possible that they will be defeated one by one. And it will be even more difficult to defeat their main force in one battle.
Yes, the Zheng family has become more mature now. They know where their advantages are and will never give us such an opportunity."
The reality is this. They have many ships and are familiar with naval warfare. The farther away they are and the more offshore they are, the more obvious their advantages are.
"So, is there nothing we can do?" Ren Shuangyou had been fighting for so many years, and for the first time he felt helpless.
Fang Ruocheng did not answer Ren Shuangyou's question. He was equally anxious but helpless. The reality gap was there, unless they could create more than twice the number of ships, or a warship that could rival ten suddenly appeared.
The reason why they dare not chase far away is that although the current sea-going ships have some advantages in firepower, the advantages are not obvious. If one or two sea-going ships go out and are surrounded by five or six enemy ships, it will definitely be a disaster. They are now even in a row.
It is impossible to separate a fleet specifically for the escort of transport ships.
One against ten battleships? It probably didn't matter. After Ren Shuangyou and Fang Ruocheng calculated it, they set their sights on Zheng Cai, who had been inactive in the past few days and was watching the war zone.
This guy has about a hundred ships in his hands. If he can be won over, his broken ships will be repaired and equipped with cannons! In two to three months, the imperial court will have at least thirty to fifty warships. By then,
At least there is a fleet that can escort, which will have a huge impact on the entire battle situation.
"General Zheng, what do you think of the pirates who recently appeared at the mouth of the river?" Ren Shuangyou led the guards and personally ran to Zheng Cai's ship to test his tone.
"The pirates are causing trouble, and I am also very worried. However, there are no soldiers or cannons on my ship to defend against the enemy. I want to relieve the imperial court from worrying about it, but there is nothing I can do. Besides, the imperial court does not let me rent my family's ship.
Are we going to go to war? We, the Zheng family, have always been good at maritime business and are not very familiar with war, so we cannot worry about the imperial court."