Chapter 2122

"Gao Hongfu, what measures do you think we need to take now to break through the enemy's defense line?"

The strength of the enemy and ourselves were clear. Tagawasuke had no choice but to withdraw the troops attacking the Onomura blockade. He could only hold back his anger and consult his subordinates for their opinions. Although the war was unfavorable, he still had high hopes for Gao Hongfu. After all, Gao Hongfu was a civilian.

Hu Fan is one of the few infantry commanders who has fought against the Haihan Army, and his performance so far has been relatively calm, and he has not messed up his position because of the passive situation of the battle.

Gao Hongfu responded in a deep voice: "Sir, the enemy has dug out official roads and built fortifications. Their purpose is very clear, which is to block our retreat to the south if the battle situation is unfavorable. I just observed the enemy's position

It seems that several artillery pieces have been set up on the mountain. A reckless charge will only increase the casualties of our army. To tear through this line of defense, infantry alone is probably not enough. Perhaps we need to mobilize a few more artillery pieces here to hope to rely on firepower.

advantage to repel them."

"Bring in the artillery..." Tagawasuke couldn't help but hesitate after hearing this suggestion. Nowadays, all the artillery of the Hirado Domain that can be put into battle, except for some of the artillery equipped on the navy warships, the rest are basically deployed in Hirado Port.

in the coastal defense fort.

If not, it would probably be difficult for the Hirado Domain to block the powerful enemy fleet in the Hirado Strait, making it temporarily unable to land at Hirado Port. If artillery were to be transferred from Hirado Port, three or five guns would probably not be enough, and a steady force would be required.

At least there must be more guns than the opponent deploys here, but that means weakening the coastal defense force of Hirado Port. If the enemy fleet increases its offensive intensity, the port will be a bit mysterious.

And even if artillery reinforcements need to be transferred from Hirado Port, it will not be a task that can be completed in a short time. The straight-line distance between Hirado Port and Onomura is indeed not that far, but the official road is winding, and this journey is still

For about ten miles, the artillery needed to be unloaded from the fort, then loaded with ammunition and hauled by animals to the battlefield in Ono Village for deployment. No matter how fast it was, it would take at least half a day.

If the number of artillery in the port is reduced by a quarter or a third, can it still sustain for half a day under the fierce attack of the enemy fleet? To be honest, Tagawasuke does not have much confidence in this, and maybe it will happen.

Although he tried to protect both ends, he failed to protect both ends. Therefore, although he understood that Gao Hongfu's suggestion had certain feasibility, he also realized the huge risks contained in it.

Seeing that Tagawa was having trouble making a choice, Gao Hongfu could roughly imagine the situation he was worried about, so he continued: "If the navy can attract firepower for us at sea, then temporarily removing some artillery from the port will not cause a big problem."

Compared with the land forces, the Hirado clan has invested much more in the navy in the past few years. Whether it is personnel or equipment, the strength of the navy is much stronger. And from the start of the war yesterday to now, the navy has been much stronger.

When it comes to participating in the war, there is not even a shadow. Although I know that this is part of the battle plan drawn up by Tagawa Suke, it will inevitably make officers like Gao Hongfu who command the infantry of the feudal army uncomfortable. Naturally, I want the navy to be there when necessary.

It’s time to come out and share some of the pressure from the hard battle on land.

As long as the navy can hold off the enemy fleet for a day, Gao Hongfu can organize his subordinates to transport the artillery deployed in the port area here and attack the temporary defenses built by the enemy on the official road. After this checkpoint is solved, the southward route can be opened.

road, and then transport the artillery back to the port area for redeployment.

Of course, the plan may not keep up with the changes. No one dares to be optimistic about what kind of battle situation the navy will face against the enemy fleet. It is also possible that as soon as the artillery here is brought to Onomura, the navy fleet over there will

Without it, even if this barrier is broken through, it will be difficult to change the overall passive situation of the battle.

For the decision-maker Tagawa Suke, there is no sure-fire strategy to choose from at the moment. If he wants to open up the road south, he must take corresponding risks and let the troops deployed elsewhere change their original combat plans to cooperate with the domain.

The army is fighting in Onomura. And the risks that were originally concentrated here will be transferred to other places. If it fails, it will not only be a matter of this place. It is likely to trigger a chain reaction and let the water flow.

A series of accidents occurred in the military, Hirado Port and Onomura, and the situation might be completely unmanageable.

Tagawa Jie thought about it and weighed it for a long time, but in the end he could not make up his mind to completely overturn the battle plan he had made before the war. After all, in his opinion, the situation has not yet reached its worst, Hirado Port has not yet been lost, and the enemy has not been able to do so for the time being.

He did not dare to directly attack Hirado City from land, and the navy troops were still not exposed in the open sea. In the final analysis, he still had a certain sense of luck and believed that the situation had not deteriorated to the point where he needed to take risks and spend all his wealth to fight to the death with the opponent.

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Of course, Tagawasuke did not intend to let the feudal army risk their lives to attack the enemy's defense line in Onomura. This place was clearly a flesh-and-blood millstone arranged by the opponent. Without artillery to open the way, it is better not to pay an unnecessary price.

good.

And Sun Zhen, who had spent the whole night supervising the work here and almost never closed his eyes, saw that the Hirado clan army only made a tentative attack and then retreated. He almost wanted to jump out of the trench at that moment.

He yelled at the other person for being stupid.

In order to prevent the enemy from massing heavy troops to attack the defense line during the day, Sun Zhen urged the civilians and his men to reinforce the defense line overnight. He estimated that it should be able to defend against an attack of a thousand people. He would wait for the enemy to attack in a large scale and then teach them a lesson.

.But I never expected that my opponent would be very cautious. Seeing that the defenses here had been expanded a lot compared to yesterday, they actually gave up the attack. Sun Zhen, who had waited until now with red eyes, was very unhappy.

Compared to Sun Zhen, who failed in his quest for war, Shi Diwen found that he seemed to have changed his fortune. Today's attack on Hirado Port had just started, when a reconnaissance ship sent out fireworks signals from the north of the Hirado Strait, and there was an unknown armed fleet.

It is heading south, and judging from its heading, it should be towards the Hirado Strait.

"There's meat to eat!" Shi Diwen couldn't help but perked up after hearing the news. He knew that the visitor was most likely the Hirado navy fleet. Although he didn't know where the fleet was hidden yesterday, it looked like

The opponent should no longer be able to sit back and watch the Kaihan Army attack Hirado Port from the sea unscrupulously.

However, Shi Diwen also considered that the purpose of the other party's appearance might just be to lure him away from the Hirado Strait, in order to reduce the defensive pressure on Hirado Port, so he decided to stay put and wait for the other party to take the initiative to approach.

In this battle to cross eastward to Japan, Shi Diwen brought along two flagships of the East China Sea Fleet equipped with steam power systems. However, so far, these two flagships are only watching the battle from the back row and have not participated in the targeted battle.

was hit by the shelling of Hirado Port. Firstly, Shi Diwen did not want these two precious flagships to be damaged by the coastal defense artillery of Hirado Port. Secondly, he also wanted the two flagships with the strongest firepower and fastest speed to serve as peripheral

The meaning of warning.

Now that the opponent has appeared, it is time to use these two flagships. Shi Diwen ordered the two ships, Wei Sheng and Wei Bang, to enter combat mode. All combatants were in place, the boilers began to fire to preheat, and the sails were slowly raised.

Portuguese officer Simang and North Korean officer Shin Xueyi were watching the battle on the VIA at this time. Seeing Shi Diwen giving the combat order, the two were very excited at the moment. They knew that the Haihan Fleet's attack on the other side of Hirado Port was just a feint attack, so yesterday

The artillery battle on this day did not show all its capabilities. At this time, Shi Diwen was about to use his flagship to participate in the battle, which meant that the Haihan people were about to start taking action, and this was one of their main purposes of watching the battle with the army.

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Regarding the status of Japanese warships and armed fleets, Ximang provided a lot of information to Shi Diwen before the war. This can be regarded as a little compensation for the Portuguese to Haihan when it was inconvenient to send troops. Therefore, Shi Diwen was very concerned about Japan.

The combat effectiveness of the fleet is still somewhat reasonable. If the Hirado clan did not secretly build a batch of Chinese warships, then it can be said that the original Japanese warships alone have no chance of winning against the Kaihan fleet.

But regardless of whether the Hirado naval forces are all out today or only part of the warships are dispatched to distract themselves, Shi Diwen does not intend to let go of this opportunity. He plans to rely on the firepower and speed advantages of the Majestic-class warships to defeat his opponents before they enter.

After reaching a distance where it is difficult to turn around and escape, take the initiative to engage in an attack, and try to complete the victory in one battle.

"General Shi, the ships they dispatched are Anzha and Guan. It seems they plan to continue to hide their strength." After Shen Xueyi confirmed the enemy ships on the sea in the distance through the telescope, he immediately reported his discovery to Shi Diwen.

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Shi Diwen said with a smile: "If they want to play tricks, let them do it. We don't care so much, so we want to give the enemy a trick to defeat the enemy with force and lure us to attack? Then I will attack and show them!"

The Hirado Navy fleet arrived slower than expected. The two flagships of the East China Sea Fleet completed their battle preparations in a leisurely manner, while the opponent's ship was still moving slowly. But this was also

Unfortunately, the Anzha ship only had one sail, and more than half of its power during combat was provided by the crew's oars. Its maneuverability could not be described as more than a turtle's speed.

The commander of the Hirado Navy who was responsible for carrying out this task of luring the enemy was Shota Ishimura. He was originally an officer serving in the Hirado Navy. The reason why he was not purged by Tagawasuke after the night of the Hirado Fire was not because he had

What an incredible talent, but because he was originally an internal agent placed by the Tagawa clan in the navy, and his allegiance was to the Tagawa clan instead of the original feudal lord, Matsuura Takanobu.

Shota Ishimura could not be said to have any outstanding military talents, so after Tagawasuke came to power, it was not him who took over the navy, but Wei Zhi, a Han military officer whom Tagawasuke relied on even more. Although Shota Ishimura felt a little dissatisfied, he also knew about Wei Zhi's

His abilities were indeed superior to his own, so he could only accept the arrangement and become Wei Zhi's deputy.

But what he didn't expect was that even though he was second-in-command, he was actually assigned an extremely difficult task during the war, asking him to take these old warships to the Hirado Strait to lure the enemy. Although Shota Ishimura had commanding abilities,

He was average, but he was not stupid. Of course he knew that this job was very dangerous and there was a high possibility that he would never return. Wei Zhi left this difficult job to him and took a new warship to the west coast to sneak attack on his opponent. It was clear that he was

To use him as a stepping stone, this arrangement really made him extremely angry.

However, the wartime military orders were overwhelming, and he could not refuse to carry out the tasks assigned by Wei Zhi, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and attack today. Ishimura Shota thought that after the war was over, if he could return to Hirado safely, he would definitely complain to Tagawasuke

This is Wei Zhi's insidious method of deliberately suppressing himself.

The mission given by Wei Zhi was to lure the main force of the enemy fleet away from Hirado Port. Ishimura Shota knew that if he rushed into the Hirado Strait rashly, he would be seeking death, so he deliberately slowed down his speed and headed south. As long as Haihan

After the fleet discovers that it has rushed out of the strait, he will immediately order to turn east and try his best to escape.

But this is not easy. The Kaihan fleet seems to have ignored its own existence. Even if there are reconnaissance ships on the northern sea that have already released fireworks warning signals, those warships are still shelling around Hirado Port unhurriedly. Shota Ishimura can't see it.

After achieving the goal, we can only continue to move south cautiously. We just hope that the Haihan Fleet will take action soon, otherwise it will not be easy to escape from the battlefield when the distance between the two sides is too close.

We were still about a mile away from the northern entrance to the Hirado Strait, and we were about to enter the firing range of the Kaihan Fleet. Ishimura Shota finally couldn't bear it anymore and ordered to immediately change direction and head east. If we didn't turn around,

The dozen or so ships of the Navy rushed straight into the formation of the Haihan Fleet.

At this time, the Haihan fleet finally moved. The two largest warships suddenly emitted bursts of black smoke at the same time, and then began to slowly move northward, heading towards the Hirado navy.

Shota Ishimura had heard Wei Zhi introduce the characteristics of the Haihan warship before, and he also knew that in addition to being equipped with a large number of artillery pieces, the No. 1 warship, the largest among them, also had some weird tricks. For example, black smoke would suddenly appear during the battle, and then

The speed will increase to a very terrifying level, and this is one of the fatal shortcomings of the Anzha ship.

"Accelerate! Accelerate faster!" Shota Ishimura immediately realized this dangerous signal and ordered to move forward at full speed.

The full speed of the Anzha ship mainly relies on the crew on the lower deck to increase the rowing speed, but these dozens of oars alone cannot compare with the surging power provided by the steam engines on the Majesty-class warships.

Although people try their best, they can still see that the distance between the two sides is shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Send a signal and ask the ships behind to stop them!" Shota Ishimura was confused when he saw this, and even tried to let other ships cover his ship to escape from the battlefield. But if the commander's ships were taking the lead in escaping, how could he expect it?

Are the other ships willing to stay on the battlefield and fight tooth and nail?

Sure enough, after this order was issued, it was not well implemented. Almost all the ships still followed Shota Ishimura's ship to turn eastward, trying to escape from the pursuit of the two large ships behind them.
Chapter completed!