Chapter 1504: If We Don't Run Fast, We'll Be Meeting God!

The surprise attack on Golden Gate Bay organized by Vice Admiral Duquesne and Tourville was actually a success!

They truly caught Zheng Jing, Admiral of the Great Ming Eastern Ocean Fleet, off guard. This son of Zheng Sen, though blessed with a smooth official career, was genuinely mediocre in the art of war. The navy's high command all knew his level well enough — otherwise they would never have placed him in the post of Admiral of the Eastern Ocean Fleet.

The Eastern Ocean Fleet was of course formidable — one of the three great main fleets, responsible for the Pacific. It was the only one of the three main fleets whose Admiral's headquarters was located outside the Ming homeland — thus this fleet not only bore the duty of controlling the Pacific, but also kept the nation of Japan in check for the Celestial Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Zhu's attitude toward Japan was generally rather friendly, but that did not mean he would leave Japan unwatched.

The Ming of today did not station troops in every tributary state. In fact, the Ming had no garrisons in most tributary states. Where Ming troops were stationed, they were generally "front-line tributary states" — for example, the United States of Xinzhou, the Western Chu Kingdom, the Kingdom of Siam, and other such frontier places bordering enemy states (open or potential) usually had permanent garrisons, though the numbers were generally not very large.

But Japan was an absolute exception. Japan was not a front-line tributary state, yet its territory had long hosted a major Ming fleet on permanent station!

The admiral of a major fleet was equivalent to a Governor-General on land — high in rank and great in authority. Having a major fleet stationed over Japan, Emperor Zhu had never once relaxed his vigilance toward Japan!

Besides keeping Japan in check, the Eastern Ocean Fleet bore another heavy responsibility — the security of the Pacific sea lanes and command of the Pacific sea were both the Eastern Ocean Fleet's charge!

Therefore the Eastern Ocean Fleet's establishment had always been fairly ample. Though it might not necessarily be assigned many new-model ships of the line, it had a great number of fast sail warships and escort-duty Military Guard–class warships. The total number of warships of all types on long-term establishment was no fewer than 150; if light fast sailboats were counted, it was over 200!

In addition, the Eastern Ocean Fleet also administered eight major naval garrison commands, including four located on Japanese soil with Sasebo among them, the Naval Ryukyu Garrison Command, the Naval Liugui Garrison Command (on the Kamchatka Peninsula), the Naval Golden Gate Garrison Command, and the Naval Mariana Garrison Command. Each naval garrison command, besides managing naval assets such as ports, docks, fortresses, batteries, and ship repair yards, also commanded varying numbers of marine troops.

One could say that Admiral of the Eastern Ocean Fleet was absolutely one of the most powerful and prestigious posts in the navy!

But this post was one that even a fool could do well!

Because Japan, the nation the Eastern Ocean Fleet was meant to overawe, had been extremely submissive all these years and had never attempted to challenge the majesty of the Celestial Empire.

And on the trans-Pacific sea lanes there were no pirates either — pirates needed lairs, after all! They generally lurked in seas near dense island clusters that were also important trade routes. But between Japan and the west coast of the Xinzhou continent there were no islands for pirates to settle on.

So one could say that the Eastern Ocean Fleet's pile of escort missions back and forth across the Pacific was, rather than escort duty, more like routine training.

This was also why the Eastern Ocean Fleet's establishment generally had few ships of the line.

As for command of the Pacific sea — what Pacific? It was plainly just a Ming lake! So the Admiral of the Eastern Ocean Fleet had always had a nickname: Regional Commander of the Ming Lake Water Army!

Therefore the post of Admiral of the Eastern Ocean Fleet had always been a position where navy bureaucrats padded their résumés — to become Navy Commissioner and Minister of the Navy, one had to have the credentials of having been admiral of one of the three main fleets!

The Southern Ocean Fleet, by contrast, was a front-line fleet, guarding the Strait of Malacca. The Southern Ocean islands were also crawling with pirates, some of them quite formidable, and a moment's carelessness could produce several major incidents.

Moreover, more than half of the Ming Navy's capital ships were stationed at Guangzhou Bay, with the Southern Ocean Fleet responsible for their combat readiness and training. The Grand Marshal's Office sent inspectors every month, and whatever they found, the fleet admiral would be in trouble.

As for the Northern Ocean Fleet — that was the home fleet! Its responsibilities were grave, it was closely watched from every side, and it also administered quite a few capital ships, and every year it had to hold maneuvers with the Southern Ocean Fleet — a great deal of trouble.

The Eastern Ocean Fleet, by contrast, was the major fleet least likely to have mishaps, and even if a mishap occurred, it was easy to cover up.

So Zheng Jing was prepared to serve a few years as Admiral of the Eastern Ocean Fleet, then smoothly take over the post of Navy Commissioner of the Grand Marshal's Office.

He never expected that before he had served a full year as Admiral of the Eastern Ocean Fleet, Zhu Cilang would pull out more than half of the capital ships under the Southern Ocean Fleet and Northern Ocean Fleet and stuff them into the Eastern Ocean Fleet — that was over 100 ships of the line of various types!

A great mass of ships of the line crowded into Sasebo naval port, with twenty or thirty thousand officers and men aboard. Settling all these people properly was no easy task.

Before Zheng Jing could get things sorted out, another crushing order came down from above, requiring him to immediately lead the Eastern Ocean Fleet's main force to Golden Gate Harbor in the United States of Xinzhou and station there. Truly, when those above move their lips, those below break their legs!

The Eastern Ocean Fleet originally had over 200 warships, deployed in two batches. Nearly a hundred warships were permanently stationed in Sasebo port, and with the sudden influx of over 100 ships of the line, that made over 300 warships.

All of them had to go to Golden Gate Harbor in the United States of Xinzhou — a place that had nothing at all except gold, sable pelts, meat, rice and flour, and seafood.

Over 300 warships and tens of thousands of officers and men, all setting out at once with no telling when they would return! How much supplies and matériel would they have to carry to be sufficient? And in such haste, where was one to find all those things?

A string of difficulties crashed down, throwing Zheng Jing, who had wanted to finish his term in peace and stability, into a long spell of frantic scrambling. He barely managed to cope, and only then pulled the fleet into Golden Gate Harbor, a port like some desolate wilderness. Along the way there was also a pile of mishaps — either collisions or ships falling out of formation. This was not because the Eastern Ocean Fleet's training was too lax, but because the over 100 ships of the line thrown in had never worked together with the Eastern Ocean Fleet, and the Eastern Ocean Fleet's Admiral's headquarters had no experience commanding so many ships of the line.

They had finally reached Golden Gate Bay, and before they had time to settle the fleet in, let alone train it properly, urgent reports of an enemy fleet coming north arrived one after another!

And by the time the urgent report reached Zheng Jing's flagship, the Fengyang Prefecture (Pacific Type C), it was almost dark. His great fleet had never been integrated at all — how dared he pull it out of Golden Gate Bay in the middle of the night? If some accident happened, it would be a disgrace beyond all disgrace.

Besides, the wind was now from the southeast. The enemy fleet had the wind at its back and might well already be outside Golden Gate Bay. If they had laid an ambush outside the bay, they might throw his own fleet into chaos.

So Zheng Jing simply adopted a "preserve the ships to contain the enemy" approach. Not only did he not lead his great fleet out to attack, he even recalled all the United States' warships patrolling outside the Golden Gate Strait, and merely arranged eight of the United States' old-model warships in a bombardment column at the entrance to the Golden Gate Strait. He wanted to hold the enemy beyond the Golden Gate!

But he never imagined that the invading enemy would spare no expense and launch a fireship assault — and those United States warships ran away with astonishing speed. Actually, those United States Navy men all thought that your Great Admiral Zheng was playing the pig to eat the tiger, deliberately luring the enemy in deep so as to annihilate them in one blow.

Golden Gate Bay was nearly bursting with ships of the line! Afraid of an enemy sneak attack? So they deliberately opened the passage through the Golden Gate Strait.

And Zheng Jing was not actually afraid of a decisive battle; he knew his fleet was thrown together at the last minute. By day it could still fight a proper pitched battle, but if battle began at night it would certainly dissolve into chaos.

So he wanted to drag things out until dawn — but those eight ships of the line of the United States Navy proved useless!

With no alternative, Zheng Jing had to order all ships to light their lamps and fight by lamplight through the night — at least they would not collide with one another.

Moreover, he gave up on formations and went straight for a melee!

"Signal all ships: charge, and every ship fights on its own." Aboard the battleship Fengyang, Zheng Jing gazed at the sea of lights around him, and in his heart he actually felt confidence in victory — turns out we have so many ships!

"Retreat! Retreat at once!" Vice Admiral Duquesne had by now also come to his senses!

The enemy had at least two or three hundred ships!

This was a trap! They had fallen into an ambush. With that many ships, how could they possibly win?

If we don't run fast, we'll be meeting God!

(End of Chapter)