Chapter 426: 426 Battle of East Bay
Chapter 426 Chapter 426 Battle of East Bay
It was three days before Mirage Kazuo led the fleet and escorted the Mirage transport ship that was preparing to land on the island for reinforcements and arrived at the sea off Dongwan Island.
Because he lost contact, he had already concluded that Dongwan City was in serious danger. But he still did not retreat, but led the fleet to continue rushing towards Dongwan City.
According to his idea, he planned to have the army troops storm the Dongwan Port pier and recapture Dongwan City after severely damaging the enemy fleet in the open sea.
He is still very confident in this: on the one hand, his naval fleet is large enough, and on the other hand, the army he escorts is also elite.
The Mirage's naval fleet includes 15 paddle steamers - this is already a powerful force that is difficult to ignore in the western part of the Endless Sea.
In addition to the 30 sailing warships and some armed merchant ships that he had made up, with such a huge fleet, Mirage Kazuo did not believe that he would lose.
As long as he defeats the enemy's sea fleet, he can then use naval guns to suppress the harbor and send soldiers ashore.
The soldiers he transported were all equipped with Cyric Type 1 bolt-action rifles, and they were the elite among the elite of the Mirage Army.
Once these troops land, their combat capabilities will naturally be much more powerful than the second-rate troops equipped with Cyric flintlocks. Retaking the port is not a problem at all. They can even go south to defeat the enemy and retake Dongwan Island!
It is precisely because of this certainty that Kazuo Mirage led the fleet and continued to move south even though it was already known that Dongwan Port was occupied by the enemy.
Soon, they arrived at the sea outside Dongwan Port, and then they saw a weak enemy fleet - the Datang Group's fleet lying across the sea. It didn't seem to be many in number, with only three large, three small and six warships.
But the speed of these warships was very fast. Before the Mirage Navy fleet could get close, the warships of the Datang Group did not retreat but moved forward, showing a desperate attitude.
Mirage Man did not flinch. He actually had the intention of completing the battle. When he saw that the enemy fleet did not run away, he was immediately overjoyed. The two armies immediately formed their own formations on the sea.
Bernard put down the telescope in his hand, looked at the adjutant beside him, and ordered: "Keep the fleet parallel to the enemy! Load all the broadside artillery! Fire at a distance of 2 kilometers! The enemy's formation is dense, don't You need to care about the hit rate.”
“Understood!” The adjutant stood at attention and saluted, and then immediately passed the order to each ship. With the command, the entire fleet turned and pointed its broadside at the enemy fleet in the distance.
Subsequently, all the turrets on the side began to rotate, and each of the slender 150 mm cannons turned the black muzzle to the direction of the enemy.
In the early morning of the 12th day of the Dongwan Island Landing Battle, the naval fleets of both sides engaged in the first large-scale steam-powered warship naval battle in human history off the coast of Dongwan Port, which was known in history as the Great Battle of Dongwan Island.
The Wolf 3 ship headed by the Datang Group fleet opened fire first, firing a salvo of six cannons on the side, directly hitting an enemy sailboat two kilometers away.
Just one round of shelling destroyed two sailing warships and suddenly disrupted the formation of the mirage navy fleet that was trying to get close to them for a melee.
In order to avoid the two sail warships that caught fire and sank, the Mirage Navy fleet had to turn again, and its speed was also affected to some extent.
Since then, the Datang Group's naval fleet, which has an absolute advantage in speed, began to attack the enemy's T, and the distance between the two sides has been maintained at about 2 kilometers.
After Mirage Kazuo discovered that the enemy fleet was traveling at extremely high speed, he immediately changed his tactics. He ordered the fleet to turn north and form a circular formation, trying to cover each other and avoid being cut into the fleet's T-shaped favorable position by the enemy.
Following the chaotic formation change, the Tang Dynasty Navy Wolf 4 battleship found the opportunity to open fire, firing a salvo of six artillery pieces, once again hitting the two sail warships, directly sinking these warships equipped with front-loading guns. The Mirage Navy began to fall into chaos. The captains of the wooden sail warships, which were slow in speed, had big targets, and were not very strong, already regretted coming to such a miserable place.
Mirage Kazuo finally realized that the opponent's warships were much more powerful than his own paddle steamers. The Mirage fleet stationed on Dongwan Island was not a loser, but was really invincible!
After confirming this, Mirage Kazuo has fallen into despair - he can't run away, he can't seem to win, and it's already difficult to win.
What is even more tragic is that if his fleet cannot be defeated and the entire army is annihilated here, it will only be a naval loss. At least he can die in peace.
But the problem is that he also brought a troop transport ship to transport the army! There are also elite troops of the Army up there! The bolt-action rifles in the hands of these troops were all bought with real money. If they are all lost...who will take the blame?
"General...what should we do..." The deputy general also realized the seriousness of the problem and asked frustratedly behind Yihai Yinan.
"What else can we do? At any cost! Send the army to the dock!" Mirage Kazuo, who was already red-eyed, decided to make a desperate move.
He asked himself that it was impossible to cover the retreat of the slow-moving troop carrier. In the current situation, it might be the best solution to send the landing troops to the shore first.
Seeing the enemy warships in the distance firing again, and another warship on our side being hit and exploding, Mirage Kazuo became more and more anxious.
The original spearhead was the original elite of the Mirage Navy, 10 large sail warships. Now, almost all of these warships have been killed in the process of turning around.
If the fight continues, the main force of the Chinese army consisting of 15 paddle steamers will be directly engaged with the opponent.
This is the remaining wealth of the Mirage Navy. If it is destroyed here, the Mirage Navy will not be able to get back up in a short period of time.
In other words, the mirage may even fail to recover - as long as this war does not end in an honorable way, the mirage that has lost its navy will be very passive.
While he was standing on the side of the ship looking at the enemy fleet that was firing in the distance, Bernard was also looking at this mirage naval fleet from the bridge.
Honestly speaking, this is the most combat-effective enemy fleet he has ever seen. The opponent quickly responded to his attack in the most reliable way, but the battleship was too poor and was no match for him.
However, he had no intention of holding back. Mercy was not in line with his character - so he ordered the fire to continue and let the fleet circle around the enemy to massacre, preparing to annihilate this huge mirage fleet on the spot.
But what he didn't expect was that just when his fleet was halfway around, the opponent frantically expanded its formation, desperately preparing to entangle Bernard's fleet.
The enemy transport fleet, which had been at the core and protected, began to rush towards the port of Dongwan City desperately.
—
I admit that I am a big pig, and now I am starting to think about 004’s long legs, black stockings and high breasts...
The number of words today is small because I have been watching 003 for a whole day. Well, I have been watching it until now, and suddenly I felt a sense of excitement and became boring. I don’t know why...
(End of this chapter)