The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 396
Due to the gap between the shell and the barrel of the front-mounted smoothbore gun, the hit rate is already extremely low, and the shaking of the hull during sea battles will further reduce the hit rate.

So much so that the British Navy of this era stipulated that enemy ships could only fire after approaching 250 yards, and [-] yards was only equivalent to less than [-] steps of the Ming army.

Of course, the distance of the British army is close to that of a bayonet for the cannon, and the hit rate is guaranteed, but it is too harsh.But most of the naval powers will not shoot at least within [-] yards of the approach.

Therefore, the shells fired by the Jianlu warship fell into the sea without any suspense, and they were only a little bit stronger.

When the two sides approached for about one and a half miles, the 26 warships formed by the Ming army turned their bows to the southwest in a uniform manner according to the plan.The entire battle line also changed to form a 45-degree angle with the Jianlu battle formation.

The remaining 24 small boats followed the battle line in a loose formation under the leadership of Liu Guoxuan, and were used to prevent enemy clippers from jumping gangs or setting fire.The side firepower of these sentry ships or small boats is too weak, and they cannot exert firepower even if they join the battle line.

In fact, even the dozen or so Galen boats of sixty to seventy tons are usually not qualified to join the battle line.However, compared with the enemy, the firepower of these ships is still strong, so they are all incorporated into the battle line.

On the side of the Qing army, the ten warships that constituted the main force in the middle line formed a four-row triangular formation, with four ships in the last row, and one less for each row forward, until there was only one large blessing boat in the first row.There are also [-] or [-] small boats trailing behind and responsible for covering.

However, when the battle line of the Ming army changed to pointing obliquely to the southwest, the side was parallel to a hypotenuse of the enemy's triangular formation.

Su Li tried his best to adjust the bow of the ship so that he could use a little bit of wind power, but under the overall headwind situation, the battle formation in the center was advancing very slowly, and it took a long time before he finally approached the "long snake formation" of the Ming army one mile away.

Chen Xi stared at the Jianlu warship outside the gun window, and wiped the sweat from his palms on his clothes from time to time.

Because of his excellent eyesight and cleverness, he stood out from many gunners and became a heavy gun sighter envied by all sailors on the lower gun deck of the Shaowu, in charge of an [-]-pounder gun on board.

It was his first time to go to sea to participate in actual combat, which made him extremely nervous. In the battle against Niu Bin's troops just now, he made several aiming mistakes in a row, and it was not until the last moment that he finally hit the enemy ship with a cannonball.

But it was this short actual combat that made him feel like he was completely reborn.The improvement of a person in real combat is far incomparable to training. Although he is still very nervous now, he has the confidence that he will definitely hit the enemy ship.

To say that the Daming Navy really has to thank Niu Bin for giving them a good opportunity to improve the confidence and experience of the soldiers.

Finally, the long-awaited command came from not far away.Chen Xi knew that there must be fireworks and semaphore orders issued at the same time, this is the signal from the flagship to fire.

Sure enough, the commander of the gun deck on this floor pointed to the enemy ship on the port side, and then the army drum sounded in the cabin.

Chen Xi glanced at the enemy ship for the last time. It was about 320 steps away, and there was absolutely no problem judging from the height of the muzzle.He then took a few steps back and signaled to the gunner that he was aiming.

The gunpowder and shells were already prepared, and as the commander of the gun deck shouted in turn, "one, two, three...", the cannons from the bow of the ship roared one after another.When the commander shouted "six", the firing hand of Chen Xi's cannon pulled the rope vigorously, and the hammer on the breech of the gun fell with the flint, and sparks burst out and immediately ignited the gunpowder.

There was a loud noise that made the viscera tremble, and a seventeen-jin iron ball roared and smashed on the bow of a Qing army warship.The enemy ship seemed to have been punched hard by a giant, accompanied by scattered splinters, the tip of the enemy ship was instantly smashed, and the oncoming waves poured into the hull from the breach.

Chen Xi slapped his hands excitedly, and hurriedly assisted the lighter and others to push the cannon that had receded to the middle of the ship due to the recoil.Thanks to the rails supporting the gun mount and the plumb reset device, the heavy gun weighing more than 3000 kilograms returned to its firing position in the blink of an eye.

A similar situation was staged on every warship that formed the battle line of the Ming army. In just a moment, nearly a hundred shells were fired at the triangle formation of the Jianlu Chinese army.

The gunners performed well this time. Nearly [-] artillery shells hit the target, including seven heavy artillery shells weighing more than [-] pounds.

Su Li's boat was in the middle of the penultimate row of the triangular array.He suddenly heard a roar of artillery roaring like thunder, and looked towards his left flank in shock, only to see that the four thousand warships on this side were in a mess, and the screams of the dying soldiers could be clearly heard so far away.

The second and third warships were severely damaged.The mainmast of one was broken, and it fell on the deck, killing seven or eight people, while the other seemed to be wounded on the port side. Sully's vision was blocked, but it was immobile and tilted to the left.

Su Li suddenly felt a twitch in his heart, how could this be possible, the enemy ship was facing him broadside, and even destroyed two of his big ships with a single volley!
He is used to the traditional naval battle mode, so it is naturally difficult for him to understand the power of battle line tactics.

In fact, it is very simple to say, and the role of the infantry line is the same. In order to solve the problem of poor hit rate of smoothbore guns, the most artillery must be concentrated in the smallest space to cover the enemy ships with dense salvos.The denser the shell, the more likely it is to hit the enemy.

The multi-layer gun deck of the Galen ship, and the use of the battle line mode to concentrate the side of the warship with the most intensive firepower at the highest density, this is the strongest firepower mode that naval warfare in the seventeenth century can achieve.

Soon, Su Li had a personal experience of this "maximum firepower mode".

Due to the eighteenth-century gun carriage technology brought by Zhu Linmi, the firing intervals of Ming cannons were very short.As soon as the Jianlu warship advanced another ten feet, the cannons on the battle line were ready to be loaded.

The warships that had previously covered the left flank had lost their ability to move, and at this time Sully's boat was exposed to the cannons of the battle line.

As the ships gave the order to fire, Su Li witnessed the star-like artillery salvos on the Ming warships, which was so spectacular, gorgeous, and shocking, but he never wanted to see this "beautiful scene" again. all over.

There were horrible clicking sounds from all around, it was the sound of shells piercing through the planks of the hull.

The cannonball itself is not big and can't kill many people, but the pieces of wood that are blown out by the cannonball are no less powerful than the shotguns fired directly from the cannon.

Every shell that hit the enemy ship spread across the ground within a few feet around, and there were a large number of soldiers with broken wood on their bodies rolling and crying in a pool of blood...

This round of salvo made another Qing army's thousand-material warship lose its ability to move, and more than a hundred Qing soldiers were killed or injured.

　Thanks to: Tianhaishan (yes, that’s me), smile in November, Fang Renye, Han & Lie Yan, and Lin Zhifu Ling Fantasies for their generous rewards!Thank you for your long-term strong support, I am grateful, thank you!
　　I have fulfilled my promise of four changes today, quack quack, give myself a big praise!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)