Chapter 98: The First Battle of Lingao Cape

Before Wang Ruixiang, the leader of the boarding party, could even get his footing, the deck beneath his feet began to vibrate strangely, and flames erupted from the side of the ship. He didn’t need much military experience to know that they had walked into an ambush.

“Retreat, quickly!” Li Di’s hoarse roar came through the headset. In an instant, the Yu-1 was enveloped in gunpowder smoke.

“All hands, retreat!” He quickly ordered the boarding party to fall back to the ship’s rail and find an opportunity to jump back. From below deck, a number of pirates wielding short knives, picking knives, and hooked sickles had already emerged. They were at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, and even in weapons, they had little advantage—the firepower of five pistols was by no means enough to suppress them.

“Throw number 1 grenades!” he roared. The team members, who had been trained many times, immediately took out number 1 grenades from their chest pouches and threw them.

The number 1 grenade was a bamboo-cased hand grenade developed by the mechanical department, filled with black powder and broken porcelain pieces. Its power was limited, but it was just right for use in the confined spaces of a ship. After the grenades were thrown, the explosions and screams became one. The crew of the Yu-1 on the deck, at the gun positions, and on the bridge also fired their rifles and pistols, instantly suppressing the pirates who were trying to swarm aboard. Taking this opportunity, Wang Ruixiang led his men to quickly climb back. He collapsed on the deck. It had been less than a minute, but it felt like a trip to the gates of hell and back. The Yu-1 looked terrifying at this moment. The steel plates were pitted with pockmarks, and all the glass on the side facing the fishing boat was either shattered or cracked.

“Full speed astern!”

Chen Haiyang gave the order as soon as he saw the last team member climb onto the deck. The sudden increase in thrust caused the bow to dip sharply, and waves churned at the stern as the Yu-1 shot backwards. The three fishing boats were already engulfed in white gunpowder smoke. Flames flickered in the smoke, and the roar of cannons could be heard.

The sound of dense projectiles hitting the wheelhouse was like hail hitting a car roof.

“Get away from the windows and take cover!” Chen Haiyang shouted into the microphone—a fishing boat is not a gunboat, and the windows have no armored shutters for protection. At the same time, he tried to look out through the shattered glass. Just then, “Boom—boom—” the sailboat fired again. This time, the wheelhouse was hit. Everyone was shaken. A large stone dented the steel plate and shattered into many pieces, falling to the floor.

“This is a fishing trap!” Li Di’s face was pale, and he had already shrunk halfway under the console.

Chen Haiyang shook his head. He didn’t have time to speak. It seemed the enemy was well aware of his ship’s advantages—speed and maneuverability. They had set this trap, intending to inflict heavy damage with a single volley at close range, but they had clearly underestimated the protective power of the steel-hulled ship itself.

At this moment, the smoke on the sea cleared a little. The other two fishing boats were rowing towards the Yu-1 with eight oars, moving very fast, completely different from ordinary fishing boats propelled by hard sails and single oars. The decks were crowded with murderous-looking pirates, many of whom were holding torches. It was clear they were preparing to attack the Yu-1 from three sides.

The ballistae on the fore and aft decks of the Yu-1 fired simultaneously. Because the distance was very close, both shots hit their targets. Smoke rose from the decks, and a small firework display crackled, causing a commotion but not affecting the enemy ships’ advance—the number 2 ammunition was tear gas, which, besides a small amount of black powder for bursting, also contained camphor powder and pepper powder. It was specially made for such maritime patrol and public security tasks and had little lethal power.

“Hard to port, full speed.” At this point, the Yu-1 had already reversed forty to fifty meters. Chen Haiyang didn’t know the performance of the cannons on the enemy ships. For safety’s sake, he decided to increase the distance between the ships first to avoid being attacked from three sides, and then adopt a corresponding strategy after assessing the situation.

The roar of the engine grew louder. The Yu-1 made a beautiful half-circle on the sea, easily breaking away from the three-ship pincer attack. At this moment, they were broadside to broadside with ship number 1, and both sides could bring their maximum firepower to bear. Chen Haiyang carefully maintained a distance of 200 meters. According to the experimental firings of various captured firearms by the industrial department, the effective range of small and medium-sized artillery of this era rarely exceeded this distance.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!” Flames erupted continuously from the side of ship number 1, and splashes of various sizes were kicked up on the sea surface, but the closest splash to the Yu-1 was still more than 20 meters away. This gave him even more confidence.

He didn’t plan to fire the ballista. The loading speed of this thing was really a bit slow. It took two people a minute to re-cock the arms by turning the levers on both sides.

“Port side rifles, fire at will!”

The crew, who had long been in a frenzy, immediately pulled their triggers at the fastest speed—fishing in my territory, you’re asking for it! A dozen or so SKS-D rifles were all loaded with 20-round magazines. The dense bullets swept from bow to stern like a torrential downpour. Human bodies, ship planks, sails, ropes… everything on the ship was torn to pieces by the 7.62mm M43 rounds. By the time Chen Haiyang ordered to cease fire, ship number 1 was completely paralyzed on the sea, motionless, with wisps of green smoke rising from it.

“Report damage!”

“Three wounded at the forward main gun, one seriously, no life-threatening injuries.”

“One minor injury at the aft main gun.”

“Three minor injuries on deck.”

The losses were not great. The bulletproof shields and steel gun shields on the ballistae had protected the gunners. But to be honest, the enemy’s firepower was pitifully weak. The projectiles scattered on the deck were a mix of everything: iron scraps, iron nails, stones, porcelain shards…

“Notify the Navy Department, send a ship to clean up ship number 1!” Since the wounded were not in serious condition, Chen Haiyang ordered to continue the pursuit of the remaining two enemy ships.

The other two ships, upon discovering that the Yu-1 had broken out of their pincer encirclement at high speed, had already turned their rudders and begun to flee downwind towards the open sea. They not only used their oars but also raised their sails at the fastest speed.

But sail and manpower could in no way outrun the power of a machine. The diesel engine roared, and the Yu-1 cut through the waves, quickly closing the distance to 200 meters. In desperation, the enemy fired their stern chasers randomly, all of which fell far short of the Yu-1.

“Ram and sink the Yoshino!” Li Di shouted, dancing on the bridge.

Of course, no one would pay any attention to his passion. The Yu-1 was, after all, a fishing vessel, without a ram or anything of the sort. There was no need to perform such a high-risk maneuver.

The Yu-1 continuously fired incendiary tar bombs from its ballistae. A stone ball was used as the core, thickly wrapped in a paste of straw and wood tar, and then wrapped in a straw bag. When it was lit and launched, it would leave a black smoke trail in the sky, making it easy to correct the aim.

The bridge continuously reported the wind direction, wind speed, distance between the two ships, and sailing speed. The gunnery officer frantically calculated with a function calculator and then reported the firing angle of the ballista. The not-so-precise trajectory calculation showed its great value. After six shots, the seventh corrected shot hit the fleeing enemy ship number 2, and its sails caught fire.

The ship slowed down, the distance between the two ships grew closer, and the tar bombs became more and more accurate. Even the ballista on the aft deck was firing at a high angle. For a time, the sea was a spectacular sight. The black smoke of the trajectories wove a net in the sky, and at the bottom of the net was enemy ship number 2, constantly being hit by tar bombs. The fire burned more and more fiercely. Finally, probably because the gunpowder exploded, the ship was torn to pieces in a roar.

“Hail ship number 3, tell them to lower their sails and surrender.”

“Understood!” Li Di immediately changed the tape. Anyway, the words of surrender were all the same: lay down your arms, raise a white flag.

But ship number 3 clearly had no intention of falling into their hands. Taking advantage of the opportunity while they were dealing with ships number 1 and 2, ship number 3 had already fled for almost 1 kilometer. Through the 8x binoculars, they could see that another pair of oars had been added to their stern, and someone was frantically throwing all sorts of miscellaneous items overboard.

“Destroy them!”

Although it was a bit of a pity not to have captured any prisoners, ending the battle safely was the most important thing.

The Yu-1 once again increased its speed and approached to 200 meters, turning its rudder to present its broadside to the fleeing ship number 3, allowing both the fore and aft ballistae to bring their full power to bear.

Ten minutes later, ship number 3 had become a huge torch. Probably because all the gunpowder had been thrown overboard, the ship did not explode. Through the binoculars, they could see the desperate pirates jumping into the sea to escape.

“Rescue the prisoners.”

A total of fifteen prisoners were pulled from the sea. Those who were injured and had no strength to climb onto the ship’s rail were left to their fate. Those who tried to swim to shore were shot in the head one by one with rifles—there was no mercy for the enemy.

This battle, historically known as the First Battle of Lingao Cape, broke out when the transmigrator navy was completely unprepared. The entire battle lasted for nearly an hour. The enemy’s experience and cunning were on full display during the battle, and their preparations for the battle could be said to be thorough. Although the transmigrator navy was hastily assembled, they still achieved a complete victory thanks to their good training and huge technological advantage.

Only three living people were found on enemy ship number 1, which was towed back to port by the Yu-2. Many people had hidden below deck, thinking that the thick planks could protect them, but they were all killed by indiscriminate bullets or died of blood loss. According to those who went down to inspect, blood had flowed from the second deck all the way to the bottom of the ship.

The photos of the ship type quickly received a reply from the intelligence group. This was a so-called “two-masted fast boat” common on the coast of Guangdong during the Ming Dynasty. It was a type of Guang boat, used for fishing and coastal freight. Because it was well-made and suitable for sailing on the high seas, it was a vessel that Europeans in East and Southeast Asia at the time were very familiar with. After measurement, the full length of the ship was 27.5 meters, the waterline length was 21 meters, and the distance between the two sides of the gunwale was 6 meters. It was clear that this size was suitable for anything, including being used as a pirate ship.