In the sixteenth year of Wanli, that is, 1588 AD, Spain seemed destined to have a bad year. At the same time that the Armada suffered a major blow in England, the largest private maritime armed force in the Ming Dynasty was also attacking the Spanish Philippines.
idea.
The Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance formed the Southern Expedition Fleet with the main force of the Beijing Beiyang Fleet as the core. The fleet has one three-level sailing battleship and two levels of four sail cruisers from the Jinghua Beiyang Fleet as the core and main force, supplemented by the nobles' respective
It consists of armed transport ships and armed transport ships of the Beijing Fleet.
Among them, the three major princes each sent five armed transport ships, the marquis sent three ships, and the uncles sent two ships.
The nobles who stayed in the capital during the Ming Dynasty included the Dukes of the Three Kingdoms, the Thirteenth Marquis (including relatives who were granted the title of marquis), and the Twenty-first Uncle (including relatives, but not including Li Chengliang). Therefore, this time the nobles contributed a total of 96 armed transport ships.
The ship has more than 2,600 artillery pieces, including 768 No. 2 long and heavy guns.
In addition to five professional warships, Jinghua also dispatched 49 armed transport ships as planned, and additionally dispatched two experimental high-speed reconnaissance ships that were newly launched into service. The reason why they were named "high-speed" was mainly because of this.
The two ships use two new designs: the Atlantic bow and the "sail propeller twin power".
The so-called Atlantic bow is actually what the Germans called it later. Its form was originally derived from the scissor bow of the scissor sailboat. Originally, this scissor sailboat was a high-speed sailboat designed by the Americans in the 19th century.
Its sailing performance is very good and has attracted many countries to imitate it.
During the period until World War II, German naval ships usually had to operate for a long time in the Atlantic Ocean with rough sea conditions and frequent storms to carry out engagements, so they were very fond of this kind of bow and named it "Atlantic Bow".
”, which means that it is very suitable for sailing in the storms and huge waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
As the name suggests, the flying scissor bow will narrow the waterline of the bow to an almost blade shape to achieve the so-called "long and sharp curved scissor-shaped bow post", which presents a posture suitable for racing and can break waves at sea (
Shearing waves) move forward to reduce wave resistance, so it is called "flying shear" performance.
This design is very similar to the concept of the small waterline and low-resistance hull line of later generations. Together with the outwardly floating bow and freeboard, the ship will not have serious waves when sailing at high speed, ensuring the strength of the ship.
Power can be converted into high speed to the greatest extent.
Since it is so excellent, why is Gao Jingshi still regarded as a test ship here? The reason is that it is very difficult to build. Later ships of the same style require large equipment such as 10,000-ton hydraulic presses to cold forge the bow pillars, but Gao Jingshi does not have this
For this kind of equipment, he could only let Jinghua's craftsmen study how to transform "his design concept" into physical objects.
It was very troublesome to make a wooden sailing warship into a clipper ship, so that it was eight years after he proposed this design that the two test ships were built for the first time. Moreover, the successful construction was thanks to the fact that Jinghua Younan now
High-quality giant trees were supplied from various countries in Xinjiang, and the materials were carefully selected to build it.
Of course, another reason why it took so long to build these two high-speed reconnaissance ships is that Gao Pragmatic insisted on testing marine propellers.
The marine propellers at this time obviously could not be steam-powered. The propellers used by these two ships were still primitive artificial power and required a bearing transmission system that was considered very complicated in this era to drive the propellers to rotate.
In essence, this is a thankless design, complicated to manufacture, high in cost, and actually only average in efficiency. It was only implemented due to high pragmatic persistence.
This design encountered great difficulties during the construction process, and to Gao's surprise, the difficulty was not the drive shaft problem he initially expected, but the problem with the hull seal at the propeller extension.
Things like propellers have one end in the cabin and the other end outside the ship. There must be a gap at the joint of the propeller, and this gap is at the bottom of the water. Therefore, it is very important to make the joint of the propeller waterproof.
The connection between the propeller and the hull of modern ships in later generations all uses professional sealing materials, such as rubber or Teflon and other materials with good waterproof properties, which can achieve very good waterproof performance. But Gaowei now does not have Teflon
, even if there is rubber, he has no place to get it - that stuff is still in America.
To say that a propeller is waterproof, it first depends on a main component, which is the bearing connected to the propeller, called the tail shaft. The sealing ability of the tail shaft will be an important reflection of the technical level of a country's shipbuilding industry in later generations.
Gao Wuchen will certainly not be able to develop future technologies such as air pressure waterproofing of bearings, so he can only accept a certain degree of water seepage and use waterproof grease to protect mechanical parts in advance. This leads to a problem, that is, the parts need to be replaced every certain time.
Disassembly and overhaul, and this time is not too long.
As for the joint between the drive shaft and the ship, we can only rely on primitive means, such as embedding thin wood and then permeably applying tung oil, etc. The final result is only barely usable - water will still seep, so special design is needed to store water in the seepage part.
pool, and then manually clean it, that is, pick it away in a bucket.
All in all, these two test ships are typical of high cost and average efficiency. If they were not highly pragmatic and insisted on "moving forward in the right direction," they would definitely be killed by the shipyard.
However, high cost is an absolute concept, while efficiency is generally a relative concept - on the contrary, these two ships have more than 60 "rowers" to drive the propellers, but the speed is actually only when the propellers are used.
It will increase. What is absolutely true is that when the propellers are started, the speed of this class of ships is more than a quarter faster than that of ordinary pure sail warships.
Since it was equipped with an extra 60 people, the carrying capacity of this type of ship was greatly limited, so in the end Gao Pragmatic could only agree with the shipyard's opinion and use it only as a reconnaissance ship.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! If Gao Pragmatic had not always been very clear that technological progress does not happen overnight, otherwise even he might have been repelled.
An expeditionary fleet consisting of more than 150 armed ships was organized, with 27,828 sailors and more than 13,000 infantry and artillery armed servants.
Among them, there were 5,600 armed servants from various noble families, roughly 300 from each family of the three great princes, 200 from each family of marquis, and 100 from each family of uncles.
Beijing temporarily mobilized some marines from the Nanyang Fleet, and together with the marines of the Beiyang Fleet, they were temporarily organized into two alliances, with about 8,000 people. Gao Yimin was temporarily recruited from Liaodong to serve as the chief general of the land division, and he was temporarily assigned to the first town of the Southern Expedition.
For the post of control (the chief official of a town is called control), the 5,600 people belonging to the nobles were jointly organized into the temporary third association of the Southern Expedition, and were controlled by Gao Yimin.
The commander of the Southern Expedition Fleet is directly served by Gao Zhenxin, the commander of Beijing's Beiyang Fleet, and the flagship is the "Liu Rengui", the only sailing battleship of the Beiyang Fleet.
The expedition fleet set off from Tianjin Port on the third day of June, stopped at Quanzhou for supplies, and officially entered wartime status. The Nanyang Fleet immediately sent more than 200 navigators to join the expedition fleet, under the control of Gao Zhenxin.
On June 22, the expeditionary fleet's advance formation reconnaissance ship "Left Hussars" discovered six large Spanish treasure ships off the northern coast of the Philippines. The expeditionary fleet had a dispute over how to deal with these six large Spanish treasure ships that unexpectedly appeared.
The leaders of the noble family believe that these six large treasure ships should be encircled and suppressed at sea. Their reasons are threefold:
First, a large amount of gold and silver that "must exist" can be seized to prevent the Spaniards in Manila from using these gold and silver to bribe locals to help defend the city;
Second, it can boost morale and allow the entire fleet to launch the attack on Manila with the highest enthusiasm;
Third, destroying or capturing these six large treasure ships can also prevent the Spanish fleet in Manila from greatly increasing its strength. Before sending troops, it was estimated that the Spanish had about 12 warships in Manila. If these six ships are added, it will directly increase the number of ships.
half.
However, several battleship captains on the Jinghua side disagreed. They believed that although it was not difficult to defeat the Spanish fleet at sea, as a warship that sailed around the world, the Spanish fleet had an advantage in terms of speed.
The vast majority of our warships are armed transport ships, and their speed is not advantageous. If we want to encircle and suppress, we need to predict the opponent's route in advance and set up an ambush in advance to achieve what we want. And the current situation is that the opponent is in front of our fleet. Once our large fleet
If you chase, the other party will definitely speed up and flee, making it impossible to catch up.
In addition, if you are encircling and suppressing at sea, there is a certain chance that the opponent may sink the ship (there is no sea valve at this time). It is generally not easy for wooden warships to sink the ship, but because the opponent is a large Spanish treasure ship, it carries a large amount of
For heavy gold and silver, the success rate is expected to be high.
If it really sinks, wouldn't this unexpected windfall fly away like a cooked duck?
Therefore, the captains of several battleships in Jinghua put forward two suggestions:
First, two reconnaissance ships and two second-level cruisers were dispatched to provoke the Spaniards and lead the Spaniards to actively pursue our ships. At the same time, the large fleet carried out dispersed and encircling maneuvers centered on the predetermined ambush location.
The purpose of the entire tactic is to have the Spaniards enter our encirclement when they discover our main force.
Secondly, regardless of the Spanish's large treasure ship fleet, let them enter the Manila port, our large fleet will go directly to Manila, blocking the Spaniards in the port and unable to get out.
They believed that although this tactic seemed relatively passive and seemed to accomplish nothing, in fact due to the huge numerical advantage of our fleet, most of the Spanish warships did not dare to go out to the port to fight despite their strong single-ship combat effectiveness.
In this way, as long as our army lands a little further away - for example, from the north bank of the Pasig River - and then crosses the river to encircle the city of Manila from a long distance (meaning that it is beyond the range of the city defense artillery and the Spanish fleet artillery), and at the same time, the Pasig River is cut off and stored.
We are conducting water operations and preparing to flood Manila. Once Manila is captured by us, the Spanish fleet in Manila Port will become a turtle in the urn, and we can do whatever we want.
If Gao Zhenxin's original intention is to follow, he actually doesn't like the second plan very much, because although the plan seems very feasible, if the battle is carried out according to this plan, then the contribution of the expedition fleet itself in this battle may be mediocre -
——Aside from blocking the sea outside Manila Port, the fleet is almost not required to do anything from the beginning to the end. What else can be said about this?
His current name is still Gao Zhenxin. According to Jinghua’s rules, it means that he has never made any great achievements. As the commander of Jinghua’s Beiyang Fleet, he has not had any opportunities in the past few years - the Beiyang Fleet can only be a deterrent at best.
Some big names in Japan, but North Korea doesn't even need deterrence. They are originally timid when facing the Ming Dynasty's merchant fleet. How can they talk about making great achievements?
Therefore, Gao Zhenxin originally wanted to fight a big battle at sea and achieve a big victory. Only in this way would he have the opportunity to change his name to a "single name with the word "王" next to it.
While hesitating, Gao Zhenxin sighed inwardly, turned to Gao Yimin and asked: "Brother Yimin, what do you think of these two suggestions?"
Of course Gao Yimin can also see the difference between these two suggestions. To be honest, he is quite satisfied with these captains because they did not conceal the second tactic because they wanted to make meritorious deeds. I have to say, Master
I have always emphasized team spirit and overall victory, which is really prescient.
However, this forced Gao Yimin to not only care about the interests of the army, because since the navy could do so fairly, he could not lose the dignity of the army for this.
After thinking about his words for a moment, Gao Yimin replied: "I personally think both plans are reasonable. However, given my limited understanding of naval warfare tactics, I cannot accurately judge whether the first suggestion is more feasible...
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Besides, we are still at sea. According to the master’s order, all decisions and actions at this time are made by Commander Zhenxin. Brother Zhenxin, there is nothing to worry about.
, just fight how you want to fight."
Gao Zhenxin first expressed his gratitude, and then asked the representatives of the nobles, if they were to choose from these two plans, which one they would prefer.
After all, it is the "United Fleet". Since they have rejected their own suggestions, they still need to consult their opinions on the other two suggestions put forward by Jinghua, otherwise they will appear too overbearing.
When asked this question, the representatives of the nobles were particularly unified, and they all said that the first option should be chosen: luring the enemy to set up an ambush and encirclement and suppression at sea.
Gao Zhenxin was a little surprised at first, but he soon came to his senses: the situation of the nobles sending troops this time was different from that of Beijing.
Gao Yimin's status in Jinghua is relatively high, and he is a person who is highly valued by the master. Moreover, the army has dispatched 8,000 people and two associations, and its strength is relatively strong, so Gao Zhenxin had to consult Gao Yimin's opinion.
But the nobles are different. They dispatched 96 armed transport ships at sea, but the land division only dispatched 5,600 people. Even the three major princes only dispatched 300 people each. In this comparison, it is obvious that the maritime power
It is stronger than the land force, so this reflects to another level: the distinguished representatives who come to discuss matters on the "Liu Rengui" are all people from their respective fleets.
Gao Zhenxin gained the support of the distinguished forces and finally made up his mind and ordered: "In that case, the four ships 'Dengzhou', 'Jinzhou', 'Left Wing Light Cavalry' and 'Right Wing Light Cavalry' came forward to provoke
To lure the enemy, use 'Dengzhou' as the formation command ship.
Our fleet is preparing to implement a dispersed encirclement plan. The planned encirclement location is one hundred and twenty miles due south of here. Now I ask all military staff to step up your planning and arrange the formation of dispersed formations..."
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