The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 398

The remaining seven large warships in the middle of the Qing army kept firing after completing their turn.

However, the hit rate of the front-mounted smoothbore guns is really poor, especially Jianlu did not use the cannons intensively, so all four twelve-pound guns and six nine-pound guns on the bow fired three rounds, and only three shells hit the Ming army. Boat.

Among the three cannonballs, only one twelve-pound shell shot through the upper part of the Jianchang's port freeboard at a distance of 120 paces.Fortunately, the Jianchang's thick hull offset most of the power of the shells. When the iron ball entered its cabin, it was at the end of its strength. After knocking down a nine-pound gun, it finally fell to the ground.

But even so, the wood chips that burst out when the shell passed through the hull still caused eight Ming army gunners to fall in a pool of blood, and several others were a little dizzy when the shell hit the hull.

The medics immediately rushed across the gun deck and transported the wounded to the bilge on stretchers.

But then, the Ming army flagship Shaowu raised the flag of the whole army to shoot, and at the same time the horn also conveyed the same order.

The cannon had already been loaded with ammunition, and the observers had aimed many times. All the soldiers of the Ming army held their breath.When the order to fire was heard, more than fifty cannons of various calibers immediately let out a roar that shook the sky.

Most of the six-pounder and nine-pounder guns were replaced with chain bullets or grape bullets, aimed at the deck of the Qing warships and fired.

As the name suggests, the chain bomb is to use an iron chain to connect two shells together and load them into the barrel at the same time.After launching, the two iron balls will rotate around each other under the traction of the iron chain, and it is very easy to entangle the mast of the enemy ship during the flight.

During this round of artillery fire, the Ming army fired a total of thirteen chain bombs, and two of them accurately hit a "Chang" warship and a "Xuan" [-]-material blessing boat in Jianlu.

Under the huge momentum of the shells, the foremasts of the two ships were easily broken like matchsticks, and the mainmast of the "Dingxuan" was even folded back forty degrees under the residual force of the chain bullets. A piece of wooden ballast burst out in the middle.

And those captive ships that managed to escape the chain bombs fled south to other shotguns.At a close range of a hundred paces, with the coverage of shotguns, it is almost impossible to miss.

The hard sails are not like cloth sails, which have holes in each shell. The hard sails will be torn apart like paper under the pull of the shotgun.If the ribs in the middle of the sail were shot, it would cause half of the sail to fly out.

Therefore, the firepower of this round of medium and light guns almost destroyed the masts or sails of the three oncoming enemy ships, and tore off more than half of the front sail of another one.Only the last three boats were able to preserve their power.

But the real god of death was the [-]-pound and [-]-pound heavy artillery of the Ming army.Especially the three [-]-pound guns located on the lower gun deck on the port side of the Shaowu.

Chen Xi stared at the frontmost enemy ship from the sights of the muzzle, without turning her head, said: "Two more circles up."

The igniter immediately turned the handle on the gun breech screw according to his words, and the muzzle of the cannon weighing more than 3000 kilograms was pressed down a little.

Chen Xi narrowed her eyes and took a few more glances, then shook her head and said, "I still have to go up a circle... Hey, good!"

Then the firing hand pulled the hammer next to the fire door forcefully, wound the rope connected to the trigger twice around his finger, and took three steps back.

Almost at the same time, the sound of the trumpet ordering to fire came, and Chen Xi made the last check and retreated to a safe distance.

Amidst the roar of the artillery beside him, the fireman keenly heard the commander shouting "six", and he immediately pulled the firing rope in his hand without hesitation.

With the loud noise that made the gun cabin tremble slightly, a huge iron ball hit the captive ship with the name "Chang" in the forefront with an unstoppable momentum.

The position of the shooting waterline is very particular. If the impact point is too high, seawater cannot be poured into the ship, and if the impact point is too low, it will drill into the water. The huge resistance of the sea water can easily reduce the power of the [-]-pounder gun to Worse than a four-pounder.

Chen Xi aimed extremely accurately, and the shell almost hit the left side of the enemy ship's bow right next to the water.

The destructive force of the cannonball smashed out a terrifying black hole in the front side of the thousand-material warship, and then used the remaining force to penetrate through two layers of watertight compartments before finally stopping.

Because the captured ship was still advancing at a high speed, the sea water poured in from the breach suddenly, and after only a few breaths, the huge warship nearly two feet high dumped to the left.

(End of this chapter)