The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 371 The Great Voyage Age

Standing on the bow of the boat, Zhu Linmei looked at the blue sea and blue sky in front of her, and took a breath of the salty sea breeze, feeling refreshed and happy.

After a while, he heard the muffled sound of cannons coming from the sea on the east side, and the sailor behind him pulled the rope and began to lower the sail, and the speed of the watch boat under his feet slowed down immediately.

"Your Highness," a naval officer stepped forward and reported, "Garden Island is not far ahead, and the last general has sent someone to contact the Admiral."

Zhu Linmei nodded, and raised her eyes to look at the outline of the mountain in the distance, which was Mount Jiadeng on the island.As the outlet of Mawei Port, it is also the training ground for Daming Navy and Fujing Naval Academy.

He waved his hand and said, "Don't disturb Damu, let's go to his side."

"The last general obeys." The officer then ordered the sailors who were furling the sails to change to half sails and continue to sail eastward.

After another meal, Zhu Linmei could already see the gunpowder smoke blown by the sea wind on the sea ahead.He took out the binoculars and looked over there, and saw two teams of warships entangled together, fighting inextricably.

Most of these ships are Fuchuan ships, but they are all changed to soft sails, obviously to imitate Galen warships.

The side with the blue flag on the ship has seven warships, all connected end to end, always facing the enemy with their sides.It is the standard naval battle line play.

The side with the yellow flag has 24 or [-] warships, which seems to be a large number of people.Among them, twelve large ships were in front, unfolding into an arc, and surrounded the opponent.In the nearby waters, more than a dozen small arson boats shuttled.It should be the traditional tactics of the Ming army navy.

The distance between the two sides is only about four or five hundred steps, and they are constantly "firing" at each other.At the same time, the yellow team's arson boat circled around, trying to find the opponent's opening to set fire.

However, the blue team's formation is extremely flexible, constantly turning to the upwind position to avoid being surrounded, and at the same time bombarding the "enemy ship" with its dense artillery on the side.

The warships of the yellow team are only equipped with heavy guns at the bow, and the three or four guns on the side of the ship are all light guns under six pounds.In addition, their dispersed formation cannot concentrate their firepower, and it is extremely difficult to achieve a salvo. Therefore, although they have a large number of warships, their firepower during the confrontation process is only less than [-]% of that of the blue team.

Not long after, two ships of the yellow team were judged to be "sunk" and then sailed out of the battle circle.The blue team immediately inserted through the gap formed by the two ships, dividing the enemy's battle formation into three pieces.

The commander of the yellow team was obviously very experienced. Seeing that his side had fallen into a passive position, he immediately ordered the largest flagship Drum Sail to rush towards the center of the blue team's formation, not only blocking nearly half of the blue team's firepower, but also tending to disrupt their formation.The other warships took advantage of this gap and quickly gathered towards the upper air outlet.

The blue team stopped shooting immediately, and the middle of the formation was sunken back, forming a U-shaped encirclement of the attacking enemy ships.Afterwards, the blue team commanded the ship to shake the flag, and all the ships fired at the same time, instantly "bombing" the yellow team's flagship into the bottom of the sea.

After eliminating the interference, the blue team quickly resumed formation, biting the yellow team in a straight line and shooting non-stop.The yellow team continued to have warships sentenced to "sunk", until they lost the last ship, and only relied on two arson boats to "burn" an "enemy ship".

Although it was just a sea battle drill, and all the cannons were fired with pine blocks, it still made Zhu Linmi's blood surging.

He couldn't help but sigh in his heart, this is the age of great navigation, an era of using sails and cannons to compete for world hegemony!In history, Ming Dynasty only acted as a spectator once, watching the European powers complete the great geographical discovery and develop rapidly.But this time, I will never let Daming miss this historical opportunity again!

Before the "fierce battle" over there was over, a guard ship spotted Zhu Linmi's sentry ship and quickly surrounded it.

After the two sides confirmed their identities, one of the guard ships was immediately sent to report to Zheng Chenggong.

Soon, more than 30 warships lined up in a neat triangular formation and sailed to the sentinel ship.

Only then did Zhu Linmei see clearly that most of them were Fuchuan of sixty to seventy tons and fast boats of less than ten tons, which should have been purchased by the Navy from the private sector for training.

Only the two leading warships stand out from the crowd. Not only are the hulls several times larger than the other ships, but their shapes are also obviously different. There are eleven artillery openings on both sides of the ship, which is extremely powerful.It was exactly the same as the [-]-ton Galen warship on the berth yesterday, and it was the latest Galen warship built by the shipyard.

Afterwards, Zheng Chenggong boarded Zhu Linming's sentry boat in a messenger boat, and Shi Lang, Liu Guoxuan, Zhang Guoxuan and others followed him closely.There were two foreigners at the end of the group. Zhu Linmi vaguely remembered that one of them was a Portuguese naval officer captured in Macau a few months ago. His name seemed to be Lopez.

Zheng Chenggong first led the crowd to salute, "My subordinates have lost their way, please forgive me."

Zhu Lin smiled and waved her hands: "I was afraid of delaying your military training, so I didn't know you. We are all from our own family, so there is no need to be polite."

He looked at the warships still flying yellow and blue flags, and praised: "I just watched your rehearsal, and it's only been a few months, and you've already trained in a neat formation and skillful coordination, which is really good!"

You must know that in the age of sailing, ship control is all about experience, coupled with the low level of communication, it is absolutely extremely difficult to keep all ships in a straight line end to end and fire at the same time.This is one of the reasons why it is said that the navy is the most difficult to train among all arms.

Zheng Chenggong bowed quickly and said, "Your honor is too high. Most of the soldiers in the navy originally lived by the sea, and they are very familiar with boats, so they can become an army with a little practice."

He looked at Lopez behind him again, "Indeed, these barbarian sailors recruited by your lord are very good at water warfare, and they are also quite familiar with the battle line tactics taught by your highness. With them accompanying the drill, the soldiers are very proficient. speed."

The barbarian sailors he was talking about were the Portuguese navy captured by Zhu Linmi in Macau, and now these people are serving as training partners for the Daming navy as prisoners of war.

Since the Portuguese began to use Galen ships very early, their experience was of great help to the Daming Navy.In addition, Zhu Linmi gave them some wages, which made them even more happy to share their money.

Liu Guoxuan continued from the side: "What the admiral said is very true. If it weren't for the help of these barbarians, it would have taken a lot of effort to manipulate those cloth sails proficiently."

Daming has always used rigid sails, which are very easy to operate, but the disadvantage is that the wind-eating area is small.The western soft sail is just the opposite. It has a large wind area and can increase the speed of the ship, but it is extremely cumbersome to operate.It takes more than a dozen people to barely control a single sail, and it is not easy for inexperienced novices.

Zhu Linming praised Lopez for a few words, then walked back to the cabin with a few people, and asked Zheng Chenggong: "Omu, how many soldiers are available for the Navy?"

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(End of this chapter)