Chapter 999: Burn, Navy! (Please Subscribe)

The cannon fire that rang out again did not come from the guns of the Jiangnan and the New Spain — it was the Spanish and English warships following behind the two battleships that had opened fire!

First two warships exchanged fire, then more and more ships joined in, and a great maritime chorus performed by cannon erupted across Kagoshima Bay in the twilight.

When the artillery duel began, the two fleets were more than three li apart, both holding a single line-ahead formation. But seen from high above, one could tell that their courses were not actually parallel — they were slowly converging!

As the distance between the two sides gradually closed, the hit rate of the cannon fire was bound to rise higher and higher!

And once they closed to a certain distance, that would be the moment for the carronades to show their power.

And how to manage the spacing between the two fleets was precisely where Admiral García's command ability would be displayed.

As the two sides traded cannon fire with gusto, this Admiral García, once one of Spain's seven great captains, no longer concerned himself with the artillery situation, but began directing the sailors in handling the New Spain with total concentration — ship-handling skill was indeed the Spaniards' greatest advantage on this evening!

Not that the Spaniards' seamanship could surpass the Dutch or the English — don't even think it. But today, on the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet's side, the core was eight Chinese Flying-class ships. All the Dutch, Spanish, French, and Portuguese ships had to move in concert with these eight Chinese ships.

And the Chinese sailors' skill at handling soft-sail ships was still far below the Spaniards' — those people were a solid hundred-year navy!

Yet skill at handling soft-sail ships actually cannot be displayed when the sails and masts are all intact. At such times a ship's performance matters more, and the Flying-class's performance was certainly better than the New Spain's.

So in the early phase of the artillery duel, the Jiangnan, relying on its superior performance, kept steadily closing the distance to the New Spain.

And as the distance shrank, both sides' chain shot began to show its power!

Two iron balls linked by an iron chain spun through the air, flying back and forth, striking the spread sails, and after a few rounds the sails of both sailing ships had been shredded into rags.

But this did not mean the sailing ships would slow dramatically, because neither side had all sails set; with some sails damaged, they could still raise more canvas to gain additional power for the ship.

And the New Spain had the greater advantage here — not only were her sailors more skilled, but her sail area was larger (a bigger ship, after all), so relatively speaking, her ability to absorb sail damage was stronger.

But the Jiangnan also performed well. Facing the New Spain's superior firepower (more guns) and her own steadily accumulating sail damage, she still strove to maintain speed, chasing the New Spain as they approached the Satsuma Peninsula. At this moment, the two engaged fleets began their second turn. Because this turn took place near Ibusuki Hot Spring, later naval experts called it the "Ibusuki Turn."

The reason such a term came into being was that during this turn, the Eight-Nation Alliance began to execute a fleet-splitting tactic — in the seventeenth century, this was a completely new naval tactic!

The reason the fleet-splitting tactic could be carried out was, of course, connected to this turn from west to north. When they had earlier been advancing toward each other, the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet was to leeward, and naturally could not charge into the wind against the Spanish line of battle. So they could only follow the Spaniards in making the first turn, at which point both fleets began sailing west together, charging toward the Satsuma Peninsula. After approaching the Satsuma Peninsula, Admiral García directed his warships to begin turning north. And Chen Shangchuan's first division also turned north with them. If the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet had not adopted divisional tactics, then the whole force would have continued north, and the two sides would have kept a distance of about three li, slowly closing.

But after the first division turned, the second division, commanded by David Jones, set full sail and continued charging west. To a certain extent they yielded the T-position to the Spaniards, yet when the Flying-class charged, the ship occupying the T-position was not the mighty New Spain, but a small 200-ton galleon. It had only nine 6-pounder guns on one side, utterly incapable of harming the Flying-class's sturdy bow. After several ineffective salvos, just before the sky was about to go fully dark, the division commanded by David Jones suddenly cut the great Spanish fleet in two.

Because the Spanish fleet had previously been ordered to follow the flagship, now that the line of battle was suddenly severed, the dozen or so Spanish galleons behind the cut position immediately lost unified command.

The Eight-Nation Alliance fleet's third and fourth divisions also immediately turned southwest and launched a charge — cutting diagonally into the Spanish warship formation and throwing their order into complete chaos.

Merely chaos, not division and encirclement. Because after completing the charge, the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet's three divisions were themselves thrown into disorder — the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet had been hastily assembled and had never undergone long-term coordinated training; expecting them to pull off divisional encirclement tactics in the dark of night was impossible.

But a chaotic melee was precisely the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet's objective!

The Spanish ships, having lost formation and fallen into confusion, soon discovered they were tangled together with the Eight-Nation Alliance's ships. And the sky had not yet fully darkened, so both sides could still tell friend from foe, and the fiercest exchange of fire in the entire naval battle immediately erupted.

The first to distinguish itself was the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet's Zhejiang. Her captain was named Hong Rihai, born into a Shandong water-bandit (pirate) family, later won over by Su Guansheng, who oversaw the Tianjin fleet, and his whole family became government troops. Later still they made their way into the Northern Fleet, and Hong Rihai, being young, sharp, and literate, was recommended for the Shanghai Sailors' Academy. His grades at the academy were quite terrible, and he barely managed to graduate. But once at sea, this fellow was ferocious beyond measure! Daring and aggressive, he was the first of all the Han captains in the Great Ming Navy's East Sea Fleet to sink a Spanish warship (flying Mongol colors). Because his battle record was outstanding, he became captain of the Zhejiang.

This time he again displayed his usual daring and aggressive spirit, red-eyed and personally conning the ship to charge a four- or five-hundred-ton Spanish galleon. He charged so hard that the commander of that Spanish warship thought this Chinese warship meant to board! He had just ordered the deck crew to brace for collision when the Zhejiang swept past, brushing shoulders.

Seizing the moment as they brushed past, five 24-jin carronades fired together, hurling five deadly wooden-base explosive shells.

At such close range it was impossible to miss; all five explosive shells struck home, sending splinters flying from the Spanish warship and blasting several terrifying holes in her side planking and upper deck.

But the Zhejiang also took a beating. The Spanish warship's guns hastily spat out a great deal of chain shot; some struck the Zhejiang's thick hull planking without penetrating, while some swept across the deck and caused no small number of casualties! This kind of projectile, two iron balls joined by an iron chain, was less lethal against personnel than grapeshot, but it could produce horrifying results! Anyone struck by those two iron balls had bones broken and sinews snapped! And the iron chain was even more terrifying — like a hot knife through butter, it could cleanly slice a whole human body in two!

The deck amidships of the Zhejiang was instantly filled with drifting blood-mist, the dead and wounded lying heaped together, and the gravely wounded, soon to die, let out desperate wails. Victory had never come easily!

But Hong Rihai's attention was not on his own brothers lying dead in swathes, but on that Spanish warship that had taken five explosive shells.

After the two ships brushed past each other, his gaze remained fixed dead on that Spanish warship.

He was waiting for the wooden-tube fuses of the five 24-jin explosive shells to do their work!

Boom-boom-boom — three bursts of flame, accompanied by thunderous roars, rose almost simultaneously from that four- or five-hundred-ton Spanish galleon!

(End of Chapter)