The British Navy was beaten

(0843)

In July 1634 AD, a large-scale naval war finally broke out.

On the middle sea between the Las Palmas Islands and the Madeira Islands, the White-Clothed Navy concentrated three hundred large warships, and the Western Combined Fleet concentrated five hundred warships, and launched a protracted battle. Since July, the southern sea surface of the Madeira Islands has been in a state of war. Except for the quiet night, the sound of artillery almost never stopped at other times. The purpose of both sides is to consume the other's vitality.

The White-Clothed Navy took the Las Palmas Islands as its base, and the Western Combined Fleet used the Madeira Islands as its base, and continuously sent a large number of warships to fight on the vast sea. The fierce battle lasted for more than half a year. By the beginning of 1635 AD, the losses of the Western Combined Fleet had exceeded 200 warships.

Of course, these are things that happened later. Any large-scale naval battle begins with small battles. This battle, known as the First Atlantic War, began with the battle between the Fourth Fleet of the White Navy and the British Fleet. To be precise, the battle took place on July 23, 1634 AD.

That day, as soon as the sun came out, the observation post of the White-Clothed Navy had already discovered the enemy fleet. This was a mixed fleet composed of Western countries, with about 150 various warships. On the White-Clothed Navy, there were three squadrons led by Chen Xinhai himself. The specific numbers were the Fourth Fleet, the Ninth Fleet and the Fifteenth Fleet.

Xu Canxu's position is a deck key. Therefore, in the initial stage of the battle, there was basically nothing he had to do. His only task was to be on guard and take over others at any time. Since the distance between the two sides was very far and there were no casualties, he had no need to take over others at all. Since there was no task, he was happy to watch the fun.

From the telescope, it can be seen that the number of warships in the Western Combined Fleet is large, more than 30% more than the number of warships on the White-Clothed Navy. However, the tonnage of enemy warships does not seem to be larger than that of the White-Clothed Navy. On the White-Clothed Navy, there are basically large warships with displacement of more than 1,500 tons. On the enemy fleet, there are warships with displacement of less than 1,000 tons to be launched. Which one is better or worse can be seen at a glance.

The Western Combined Fleet was in an aggressive and proactive attack. Their warships were arranged in a horizontal line on the T-shaped shape, trying to tear the warships of the White-Clothed Navy with strong artillery fire. If the White-Clothed Navy was accidentally deceived, the losses would be great. However, the White-Clothed Navy's warships were not fools. With Chen Xinhai's order, the White-Clothed Navy's warships were also arranged in a single shape.

Seeing that the White-Clothing Navy did not take the bait, the Western Combined Fleet set a T-shaped horizontal line. Obviously, it was necessary to take an offensive formation. If they broke through the middle and all the cannons on the sides of the warship were fired, the White-Clothing Navy would also suffer serious losses. As a result, Chen Xinhai quickly ordered and also set up a column formation. In this way, the two sides had no choice but to fight head-on.

There is no doubt that head-on battle is not the best choice. The so-called killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred will mean this situation. No skilled general will easily fight the enemy head-on. Otherwise, even if you win, it will be a very heavy victory. It is unknown what the consequences of the tragic victory will be. However, when the formation cannot completely overwhelm the opponent, facing the opponent will meet a good talent, head-on battle becomes the only choice.

Naval warfare is very different from land warfare. The maneuverability of a warship is much worse than that of a warhorse. If the maneuverability of a warship is repeated, it will inevitably lead to one's own confusion. Moreover, the connection on the sea is really too difficult. Any order is very difficult to convey to all warships. The probability of error is almost 100%. Therefore, a skilled naval general will never change the command repeatedly.

Basically, once both sides make up their minds to adopt what kind of strategy, they will implement as much as possible in the subsequent battle. The risk of changing the array is very great. From the perspective of probability, the probability of failure of changing the array is much higher than the probability of success of changing the array. If you encounter an attack on the other side when changing the array, it will be a tragedy.

Finally, after realizing that it was impossible to obtain strategic advantages, the Western Combined Fleet decided to use all warships to launch a frontal attack on the White-Clothed Navy. All the Western Combined Fleet warships hung the red pennant to the top of the mast. The White-Clothed Navy is not clear about the meaning of this action for the time being, but judging from the actions of the opponent's warships, the Western Combined Fleet should be preparing to fight the White-Clothed Navy to the death.

"Commander, how do we deal with it?" Zhou Jian asked in a low voice.

"They attack theirs, we attack ours." Chen Xinhai answered calmly.

His order was that each squadron chose the opportunity to fight and search for opportunities to attack. Their purpose was not to block the attack of enemy warships, nor did they need to achieve any strategic purpose. They only needed to find ways to sink a few enemy warships, even if they completed the task. Of course, if possible, it was possible to sink a dozen enemy warships. If they encountered dangerous situations, each squadron could deal with it improperly without asking for instructions.

Obviously, Chen Xinhai did not hope to eliminate all the Western Combined Fleet through one battle. His purpose was to cause certain losses to the enemy and to suffocate the enemy's agility. The enemy lost several warships today and several warships tomorrow, which would accumulate into more small amounts, and the effect would definitely be gradually demonstrated. From a long-term perspective, the subsequent development of the White-Clothed Navy is much stronger than the development of the Western Combined Fleet.

Although the current Western Combined Fleet has more warships than the White-Clothed Navy. In fact, this is the end of the Western powers. They have freed up all the warships. However, a considerable number of the White-Clothed Navy's warships are carried out in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and have not participated in the decisive battle.

In terms of the potential for building warships, the Western powers are no match for the White-Clothed Army at all. The current White-Clothed Army controls the vast areas along the Pacific and Indian Ocean coasts, tens of millions of square kilometers of land, hundreds of millions of people, and fiscal revenues are definitely an astronomical figure. The capture of the White-Clothed Army on the battlefield alone is enough to build tens of thousands of large warships.

For example, when the White Army conquered the Mughal Dynasty, it plundered more than five million taels of gold and tens of millions of silver. So much wealth was concentrated in Xu Xingxia's hands. He, who liked to be a militant soldier the most, naturally expanded his army wildly. There was no need for the army to continue to expand, so the large amount of military expenditure was naturally tilted towards the navy.

The current White-Clothed Navy has launched new large warships almost every day, and the total number and tonnage of warships are increasing. In fact, in the sixth year of Taichang, the total strength of the Navy had exceeded that of the Army and became the largest branch of the White-Clothed Navy. Now, the total number of troops of the White-Clothed Navy is close to an astonishing 500,000 people.

On the contrary, the Western powers could only control the Atlantic Ocean, North Sea and Mediterranean to conduct maritime trade, and trade profits continued to shrink. Without sufficient profits, there would be no sufficient fiscal revenue. Without sufficient fiscal revenue, there would naturally be no sufficient military expenditure. Without sufficient military expenditure, there would be no sufficient number of warships. This is a consistent problem.

Moreover, behind Chen Xinhai, the White Navy already had at least five squadrons, heading from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of America. They will establish port bases in Karnne and Pernambo. Their purpose is to harass and control the Americas, covet the Caribbean Sea, and if possible, control the Caribbean Sea.

Of course, these squadrons of the White Navy were not for visiting America. Their goal was to destroy the maritime trade transportation lines of the Western powers as much as possible, plunder, capture, and sink the enemy's merchant ships. Xu Xingxia had ordered that no matter what method they took, as long as they could cause effective damage to the enemy, they could achieve military achievements.

There is no doubt that Xu Xingxia's order is definitely a great blessing for some naval generals of special background. Among the naval generals of the Western powers, many were pirates. Among the generals of the White-Clothed Navy, some were pirates. Among them, the most famous ones were Zheng Zhilong, Yan Siqi and others. They were all pirates, but later they felt the strength of the White-Clothed Navy, so they applied to join the White-Clothed Navy.

This time, Zheng Zhilong, Yan Siqi and others were all sent to the east coast of the American continent. When they passed by Kalihat, Xu Xingxia summoned them to give them face-to-face advice. It is conceivable that in the Caribbean and other places, if five fierce pirates appeared and pass by such merchant ships, they would have the consequences. Not to mention wealth, I am afraid that even the most basic shipbuilding wood needed by the Western powers would not be able to maintain sufficient supply.

"The White Navy... are they going to fight for their own battles? OK! Let's attack! For the sake of the British Empire, move forward bravely!" At this time, the Western Combined Fleet also began to move.

In name, it is the Western Joint Fleet, which is centralized management, centralized command, and centralized combat. In fact, the fleets of each country are commanding their own. No country would be willing to hand over their fleet to the other party. They just coordinate their actions as much as possible.

The first to bear the brunt was of course the Dutch fleet. Secondly, the British fleet. They have always been the most active in fighting against the White Navy. This time, the Western Combined Fleet launched an attack on the initiative, and the British decided to take the lead.

The Fourth Fleet of the White Navy was facing a squadron of the British Navy.

At that time, the British Navy had not been called royal or other names. Their name was the British Navy. The commander who commanded the British Navy squadron was named Rafadi. The rank was the Major General of the Army. He was a typical pirate. Later, he was whitewashed and joined the British Navy. In terms of combat experience, he was still very rich.

"One-on-one? Very good! Let's continue to attack!" Rafadi said in a deep voice.

Rafadi was still very confident about his squadron. His squadron had more than thirty large warships. Among them, there were twenty warships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. Moreover, most of these warships were recently launched. Both technically and in terms of quality, they were quite guaranteed.

In order to defeat the aggressive white-clothed army, the British made relatively large improvements in the casting of cannons. They installed smoothbore guns with a caliber of more than 360 mm on large warships. This super-large-caliber smoothbore gun can shoot 80-pound solid bullets hundreds of meters away. If it is a shotgun, the range will exceed three thousand meters.

Of course, this is not the most important reason. The most important reason is that Raphaeling had full confidence in the artillery art of his squadron. The British Navy has always emphasized artillery art, and their officers and sailors have made a lot of hard work for it. This is also the confidence that the British can defeat the Dutch repeatedly. The fact that they were able to defeat the Spanish Invincible Fleet was also due to the artillery art practiced by the British day and night.

"Early up to three hundred meters, fire the gun!" Rafadi ordered decisively.

It is an unwritten rule for the British Navy to fire a distance of less than three hundred meters.

No one knows when this rule was passed down. However, all British naval generals silently abide by it. Research shows that this rule is still very scientifically based. Because for smoothbore guns, if the range exceeds 300 meters, the hit rate is basically terrible. Even no matter how skilled the gunner is, he cannot guarantee that he will hit the target with ten solid bullets. Instead of wasting the shells, exhausting the gunners, and consuming morale, it is better to wait for the enemy ship to enter a distance of 300 meters and hit it in one fell swoop.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Before Rafadi finished speaking, a huge sound of cannons came.

However, the warships of the White-Clothed Navy fired their guns and fired them. The White-Clothed Navy has no rule that they will never fire their guns within a distance of less than 300 meters. As long as they have the chance, they will fire their guns without hesitation. At this time, the distance between the fleets of both sides is at least 1,500 meters!

Xu Canxu stood on the deck, holding a telescope to observe the bounce points carefully. But he saw shells roaring away, constantly falling on the sea and exploding, stirring up a large number of water columns. Unfortunately, those water columns were far away from the British warships, and even water splashes could not splash onto the British warships. In the first round of shooting, no shells hit.

This is not that the level of gunners in the White-Clothed Navy was too poor. From the first year of Taichang to 1634 AD, the White-Clothed Navy had been fighting on the sea for more than ten years. More than ten years have been enough for the White-Clothed Navy to train a group of experienced gunners.

The gunners of the Fourth Fleet were quite good. The reason why they didn't hit was because the distance was too far. To be honest, at such a long distance, it depends entirely on God's intention to accurately hit the opponent.

Of course, if the British despise the White Army Navy for this, they must be the ones who suffer. Because, after the first round of shelling, the gunners of the White Army Navy will quickly adjust the shooting parameters. With the help of the rangefinder and angle meter, the British warships will not be so lucky in the next round of shooting.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Sure enough, the second round of shooting of the White Navy began soon again.

The huge recoil generated when the howitzer fired made Xu Canxu feel that the soles of his feet were constantly trembling. For some reason, he felt that the second round of artillery was obviously more violent and more cruel than the first round of artillery. The vibration in his heart was also stronger. It was probably the first round of artillery, and only some cannons fired. After adjusting the shooting parameters, all howitzers would fire.

Amid the vigorous sound of cannons, one by one, the shells roared towards the British warships. Sure enough, after adjusting the shooting parameters, the hit rate of howitzers greatly increased. A large number of water columns rose up in the middle of the British warships. The splashing water enveloped the nearby British warships in a vast white mist.

"Boom!"

"Crazy!"

Suddenly, a deafening sound came, which made Xu Canxu feel shocked.

He quickly turned his head and looked in the direction of the loud noise. He only saw a dazzling ball of fire burst out from the telescope, as if the sun exploded in an instant, making his eyes almost unable to bear it, and tears flowed out involuntarily.

He hurriedly wiped away his tears. After a closer look, a British warship was directly hit by a howitzer and caught fire. He didn't know what the shell hit, causing a raging fire, and the flames seemed to cover up the light of the sun. The British sailors on the warship took desperate measures to try to stop the fire from spreading.

However, the losses caused by the howitzer explosion were too great, and they had no way to make up for it. The burning fire continued to spread around. The raging flames even penetrated into the cabin. Soon, the captain had to announce the abandonment of the ship. A large number of British sailors dived and escaped. The entire sea surface suddenly became boiling.

"What's going on?" Rafadi's face looked very ugly.

It was still thousands of meters away from the warships of the White-Clothed Navy, and his fleet lost a warship, which was indeed not a good sign. He had to wonder, did the Dutch really not exaggerate it? Could it be that the artillery fire of the White-Clothed Navy be so powerful? Can one shell really destroy a large warship?

Before, although the British got some news from the Dutch and learned that the White Navy's cannons were powerful. However, after all, they had not tried it personally, so they naturally would not believe it easily. Because of their hostile relationship with the Dutch, they once thought that the Dutch deliberately exaggerated it to hide their ugly failure in the East! But now, the British have to believe it.

The artillery fire of the White Army is really so powerful!

One shell can really destroy a large warship!

"Boom!"

Suddenly, another muffled sound came.

But it was the British warship that suddenly had a violent explosion.

It was probably a blazing fire that detonated the ammunition compartment of the warship, which triggered an unprecedented explosion. The violent explosion immediately completely destroyed the British warship, and the debris sank directly into the sea. From the time the warship was hit to the sinking, it seemed that there was only less than twenty minutes in the middle. Such a rapid sinking speed really surprised the British. In addition to being surprised, they began to feel a hint of fear.

"Damn it! Humph!" Rafadi's face was so gloomy that it was about to rain.

There is no doubt that the sudden sinking of this British warship is definitely a very serious blow to the morale of the British Navy. It is estimated that many British naval officers and soldiers will feel a blow when they see the sinking of this British ship. Although the number of warships in the British Navy is not as large as that of the Dutch and not as large as that of the Dutch, judging from the results of the battle, the British obviously have to gain the upper hand.

Since defeating the Spanish invincible fleet, the British Navy has never lost warships first in battle! In every naval battle, the British Navy first injured or sunk the enemy's warships. Over time, the British even had the illusion that their warships would never sink first. Unexpectedly, this good record was destroyed by the White Navy.

"Boom!"

Unexpectedly, another loud bang came.

Another British warship was hit by a shell and was in danger.

Although this British warship did not catch fire, although there were no obvious scars on the outside, and although the dynamics on the sea did not change greatly, the inside of its cabin was already a mess and hopeless. For some reason, the white-clothed navy's shells actually passed through the deck and exploded inside the cabin.

The cabin of the warship has always been the most fragile. There are personnel, cannons and ammunition here. Once it explodes, the consequences will be unimaginable. The 75mm caliber shell fired by the White Army Navy exploded in the middle of the cabin. As a result, everything around was destroyed. The cannons with the bomb mount rolled back and forth in the cabin. There were also gunpowder barrels rolling back and forth, and could explode at any time.

"Plop!"

"Plop!"

The situation was so dangerous that without waiting for the captain's order, British sailors dived and escaped.

Sure enough, the choice of those British sailors was absolutely correct. Because, in less than five minutes, the warship had several small explosions in succession, and the ship's side in multiple places was penetrated, and the sea water poured in desperately, causing the warship to sink continuously. About thirty minutes later, the British warship completely disappeared below sea level.

"Damn it! Damn the white-clothed army, I will definitely not let you go!" Raphaelid's cheeks were twisted in a row. Xiang, the proud British Navy, was beaten hard in front of other powers on such occasions, in full view of other powers. How could he bear it?

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Chapter completed!