Chapter 1198: This Is No Good Student! (Please Subscribe)

The Battle Flag, also known as the "Annihilate the Enemy on Sight, Ever-Victorious" flag — red background, black characters — slowly rose to the top of the Wuchang Prefecture's mast and fluttered in the light breeze over the Strait of Malacca. This was the signal for battle!

"Hoist the Battle Flag! Prepare bar shot!"

Every Ming warship captain following behind the Wuchang Prefecture gave the same order the moment they saw the Battle Flag. Then, on every warship, a piercing bell rang out — the sound of the battle alarm, meaning that battle had begun!

All hands must exert themselves to the utmost and perform their duties faithfully!

Even the high heavens above seemed to sense the fighting will of these brave Ming sailors, for the originally gentle southwest wind suddenly strengthened, as if it wanted the two fleets sailing toward each other to meet as quickly as possible.

"Report! Enemy fleet at ten thousand yards!"

When the lookout aboard the Zeeland Provincial Council shouted out ten thousand yards, Tromp and David Jones could already make out the Ming fleet's formation with their naked eyes.

The Ming fleet was drawn up in two parallel columns. The forward column consisted of five small oar-and-sail ships — a screening column whose task was to fend off the enemy's fireships, that is, to set them ablaze with incendiary shells while they were still far from the main formation.

The rear column was the Chinese main line: eleven warships in order, the larger ones in front and the smaller ones behind, bearing down on the Dutch fleet at full speed.

"Full speed," though, was limited by the wind in the Strait of Malacca — no more than six or seven knots.

"They should turn to starboard at a range of one thousand to fifteen hundred yards from us, either to seize the T or to hold a parallel course with us and engage in line-of-battle gunnery."

David Jones could tell how the enemy would fight with his eyes closed — it was all laid out in the Battle Instructions. The Ming warship squadron was on escort duty, so it could not pass the Dutch fleet on opposite courses; otherwise the landing fleet off Temasek Island and the Strait of Johor would suffer.

"How should we fight?" Tromp asked.

"Use the division tactic," David Jones said. "The Zeeland Province squadron takes the same course as the enemy; the Seven Provinces squadron cuts straight through between their sixth and seventh ships; the Holland Province squadron sweeps around from behind."

"When do we begin the division?" Tromp was, for once, content to be a hands-off commander — and why not, when his deputy knew the Ming navy so well?

David Jones said: "When both sides begin to turn. We can turn first and make them follow, so that we complete the turn ahead of them. Once the turn is complete, both sides will be running before the wind. Our ships have larger sail area and greater speed, so at full sail we should easily cut them off. According to the Ming navy's Battle Instructions, once a formation is cut, the severed portion will resort to melee tactics. If we use two squadrons to surround five of their ships, victory should come quickly."

"After victory, those two squadrons will immediately turn southeast to search for the enemy's second warship squadron and landing force!"

A teacher was a teacher after all — with his eyes closed he had guessed his student's dispositions eight or nine parts out of ten. Yes, eight or nine parts out of ten — still just a little short.

That little shortfall was that the Ming fleet turned earlier than expected — not at one thousand to fifteen hundred yards from the Zeeland Provincial Council, but at over twenty-five hundred yards.

The reason for the early turn was that, with bar shot, the Ming navy had replaced its large-caliber short guns with medium-caliber long guns. The long guns had greater effective range and were mounted in greater numbers, so they could engage the enemy at longer range.

"Damn it, why did they turn early?" David Jones found his prediction had come to nothing and was somewhat annoyed. Who was commanding over there? How did this fellow pass his exams? A failing grade!

Had Chinese naval training and officer education collapsed once the Dutch instructors were gone?

"No matter. We'll just turn along with them. Our ships outnumber theirs nearly three to one, and our main fleet has greater tonnage and surely more heavy guns. So long-range fire favors us!"

Tromp was not angry — the "failing" commander was not his student, so why should he be? And at this moment the ratio of warships on the sea (not counting light craft) was thirty-two to eleven — an overwhelming advantage! No matter how they fought, victory was certain. The only question now was how much they would lose.

On Tromp's order, the Dutch fleet also began to turn to port under the lead of the Zeeland Provincial Council. When the turn began, the distance between the Zeeland Province and the Wuchang Prefecture was about two thousand yards — a little over eighteen hundred meters. But during the turn, the distance between the two warships closed further to a little over a thousand yards.

At this point the two sides were not holding parallel courses but were gradually closing. At four in the afternoon, when the range had closed to within a thousand yards, the Yingtian Prefecture's port bow gun roared, firing the first bar shot ever used in actual combat in history!

The thunderous naval gun was like a signal, throwing open the curtain on the Battle of Malacca, the battle that would decide mastery of the entire Pacific!

Because of the introduction of isolated gun compartments, it was now very difficult for a ship of the line to fire in unison — before a gunnery engagement began, the doors of every gun compartment had to be closed to prevent the spread of fire and the sympathetic detonation of ammunition. Each gun crew therefore had to fight on its own. However, to facilitate command, the No. 1 gun compartment of every warship — that is, the first compartment counting from the bow — was responsible for firing the "opening shot": it received the order from the ship's gunnery officer and fired the first shell.

Two or three minutes after the opening shot, the remaining guns on the engaged side of the warship would open fire one after another. Explosive shells with wooden-tube fuses could not be loaded into the bore long before firing — that would burst the barrel! So the remaining guns on the engaged side could only light their fuses after the opening shot and then begin loading. Therefore, forget about broadsides.

With each gun fighting on its own, the gunners' aiming skill was put to the test. If they had not switched to the 15-jin long gun, given the aiming skill of Ming navy gunners (actually not low, but nowhere near the Dutch), the outcome of today's battle would have been a foregone conclusion!

But now, the 15-jin long gun was inherently more accurate than the 30- and 40-pound short guns, easier to aim, and much faster-firing. To increase the rate of fire, these guns were also expensive bronze guns (copper has a high thermal conductivity!). And because the 15-jin gun was small, it took up less space, so more of them could be mounted.

On one side of a Yingtian Prefecture-class ship, sixteen 15-jin guns were mounted! Each of the two Flying-class ships had twelve 15-jin guns per side; each of the four Guard-class ships had nine 15-jin guns per side; and each of the four Chiliarch Station-class ships had five 15-jin guns per side.

Thus, on the port side of the eleven Ming vessels, a total of ninety-six 15-jin guns could fire at once. Compared with the spectacular scenes of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, where hundreds of guns fired simultaneously, ninety-six guns firing together was nothing much — but it still startled Tromp and David Jones.

How could there be so many bombardment guns? Nearly a hundred! And they opened fire from so far away — how heavy must their shot be?

The first salvo seemed to fall entirely wide — after all, the range was considerable, and they were firing from pitching warships, so hits were not easy. Still, some of the shells landed not far from the Zeeland Provincial Council, throwing up thick columns of spray.

David Jones stared at the spray and froze again — these were 18-pounders! At over a thousand yards, how could 18-pounders get through the Zeeland Provincial Council's planking?

"18-pounders?" Tromp burst out laughing. "David, so you weren't such a good teacher after all!"

David Jones shook his head and said, "That's not how I taught them. They didn't learn it properly!"

"Enough, no excuses," Tromp said. "Give the order to open fire. It's time to let the Chinese taste the power of 40-pounders!"

"Aye, Rear Admiral!" David Jones nodded and gave the order to open fire.

But before the Zeeland Province's opening gun had finished loading, the Ming fleet's 15-jin guns roared out again, and this time their aim was far better than before! With a dull "thud," a 15-jin shot slammed into the Zeeland Provincial Council's stern planking!

(End of Chapter)