1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 688: Victory

"Add more coal! Go down and fight them face to face!"

After much deliberation, Zhang Jingxiu finally came up with a way to defeat the enemy.

Most of the ships in Pratt's fleet were small gunboats, and they were sailing downstream. If they wanted to get close to the enemy fleet, the Yankee's civilian ships, which were already bulky and wrapped in wet cotton bags, would definitely not be able to escape.

"Major Zhang is going to board the Yankees!" Wang Huoxiu understood and found a rifle, put a bayonet on it and prepared to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Yankees.

"You're fucking ganging up on me!" Zhang Jingxiu knocked Wang Huoxiu's forehead hard and scolded him, "With the guns and cannons in our hands, can we get close to those Yankees and fire shotguns? Do we even need to gang up on them and fight them hand-to-hand?

Besides, we have rockets on board! There is no point in fighting the Yankees with knives and axes!"

"I understand!" The gunner of the main gun responded immediately, "If we can't sink their ship, then kill all the people on board!"

Under Zhang Jingxiu's command, the Western Army's gunboats burned coal, ran at full power, and rushed towards the Northern Army's Missouri Fleet.

400 meters.

300 meters.

200 meters!

Seeing the Western Army's gunboats getting closer and closer under their artillery fire, the Union Army sailors became somewhat confused and at a loss as to what to do.

"Lieutenant Colonel Lambert! The Westerner's ship is about to hit us! Our ship is too heavy to avoid it!"

The helmsman on the Missouri Fleet's flagship, the Crescent, used all his strength to manipulate the rudder, trying to turn to avoid the impact of the enemy ship.

Unfortunately, their ship was originally a civilian transport ship, not a warship. Not only was their ship overloaded, but the hull was also wrapped with wet cotton. Even though the helmsman had already turned the rudder to the bottom, the Crescent could only turn slowly to the right.

By the time the distance between the two sides reached 100 meters, the shells fired by the Western Army's Sacramento guns were able to penetrate the wet cotton and hit the cabins of the front ships of the Missouri fleet.

A hot conical shell pierced through the cotton armor of the Crescent, easily shredded the wooden hull, and penetrated into the cockpit. The splashing liquid lead burned the six crew members in the cockpit, who let out heart-wrenching wails.

As the distance between the two sides grew closer, the Western crew opened fire not only with cannons but also with rifles.

The Western Army's powerful firepower suppressed the crew on the deck so much that they could not raise their heads to fight back.

Tommy, a 16-year-old loader on the Crescent, squatted in the ammunition compartment, stuffing silk powder bags into copper shells with trembling fingers.

From the deck above his head came the muffled sound of Spanish army grapeshot. Dense lead bullets penetrated the teak deck. He raised his head timidly and saw the early morning sunlight leaking into the dark cabin through the bullet holes, forming beams of light with gunpowder dust floating in them.

The gunpowder dust reminded Tommy of the cotton wool floating around his farm.

"Put out the fire! Put out the fire! Put out the damn fire!"

Before the enemy ship hit the Crescent, it was already riddled with holes. The cotton armor on the ship was burning, the deck was burning, the entire ship was billowing with black smoke, and the sailors were scrambling to put out the fire.

A non-commissioned officer pushed Tommy who was motionless and said, "Tommy, what are you still standing there for?! Go and put out the fire! If the fire spreads to the ammunition compartment, we will all go to hell."

Tommy fell down after being pushed by the sergeant, and red blood flowed out of his chest uncontrollably.

Lieutenant Colonel Lambert turned pale. He knew that they could not defeat the Westerners' gunboats with just the Napoleon cannons.

Lambert gritted his teeth, drew his saber, pointed it at the enemy ship, and shouted, "Prepare to board! Use bayonets and scimitars to take back our Platte River!"

The Union soldiers reacted immediately, grabbing rifles, swords, and even hooks and axes, and stood by the side of the ship. Several soldiers dragged wooden boards and tried to put them between the two ships after the Westerner's gunboat approached, making it easier to board the Westerner's gunboat.

But the Western Army had no intention of engaging them in a boarding battle. The terrified Union soldiers stood on the deck and saw the Western Army crew members raising their rifles and firing fierce volleys at them. After just a burst of volleys, more than a dozen Union soldiers were hit by bullets. The shot Union sailors screamed and fell into the river, splashing blood.

After the volley of gunfire ended, the Western crew on the gunboat lifted out long and thick objects from the ammunition compartment, mounted them on the launcher and aimed at them.

"Rocket! It's their rocket!"

A Union soldier who escaped from the Kearny Fort Group back to Omaha quickly recognized that these were rockets equipped by the Western Army and jumped into the Platte River to escape without hesitation.

The fact was exactly as the Northern soldier had expected. As soon as he jumped into the river, the rockets equipped on the Western Army's gunboats ignited and fired a volley, making a shrill scream and flying towards their ships and exploding on the deck.

Although the accuracy of the Sacramento rocket, which was improved based on the Congreve rocket, was still very low, the Western Army's gunboats were only 20 to 30 meters away from the Union Army's ships at this time.

The distance made up for the disadvantage in the rocket's accuracy. Although a small number of rockets deviated from the intended target and shot into the water, most of the rockets accurately hit the Union ships.

The rocket exploded on the deck, hot shrapnel flew everywhere, the wooden boards were torn apart, and the burning flames instantly engulfed a small boat of seventy or eighty tons.

A Union sailor on the Crescent was blown away by the explosion and fell heavily on the deck. He looked at his burning sleeves in horror and let out a heart-wrenching scream.

Soon, another rocket pierced the sail of the Crescent. The blazing flames engulfed the white canvas. Thick smoke billowed, and the wind fanned the fire. The sail was burning like a huge net of fire.

The Loach-class gunboat is a small boat with a displacement of between 80 and 200 tons. It cannot carry heavy rockets and can only carry small rockets with 32 pounds or 64 pounds of explosives.

Even so, these rockets were far more powerful than the 12-pound main guns on the gunboats.

Basically, these small civilian boats of the Northerners would lose their combat effectiveness even if they did not sink after being hit by two or three rockets.

Lambert barely managed to stand still. Seeing the rockets fired by the enemy ships constantly setting his own ships on fire, he was so angry that he cursed: "These damn Westerners are like devils from hell!"

He looked around and saw that his flagship, the Crescent, had completely lost its ability to move. A dozen ships in the front of the fleet had been damaged to varying degrees, and the ships in the rear were fleeing in panic. The Missouri Fleet had no chance of making a comeback.

Lambert waved his hands with tears in his eyes and shouted, "Retreat!"

"Chase them! Don't let these Yankees get away!"

How could Zhang Jingxiu, who had won the first battle, give up this good opportunity to catch the drowning dog? He ordered to pursue the remnants of the Northern Army fleet without hesitation.

Relying on the excellent maneuverability of the Loach-class gunboats, they chased the remaining Northern Army enemies all the way and fought fiercely until the Northern Army's support fleet arrived, and then they reluctantly withdrew their troops.

This naval battle ended with a great victory for the Western Army's Pratt Fleet.

At the cost of two gunboats being sunk and four gunboats being seriously damaged, Pratt's fleet sank 11 ships of various types, including the Missouri Fleet's flagship Crescent, and captured 13 ships.

After McClellan learned that the Missouri fleet had suffered a disastrous defeat in the battle for the Platte River, he decisively ordered the sinking of the wreckage at the confluence of the Platte and Missouri Rivers to block the waterway and prevent Western warships from entering the Missouri River.

At the same time, a heavy artillery regiment equipped with Parrot heavy artillery was sent to block the river and bombard the Western Army sailors who were clearing the river.

Under fire from Union heavy artillery, the Pratt Fleet failed to expand its victory and achieve its intended combat objective of entering the Missouri River. It could only retreat in disappointment and move out of the range of Union heavy artillery, waiting for the arrival of its own heavy artillery before considering clearing the river.