open sea

Chapter 405 Four Ships
The huge Galen ship steered quickly in the sea, and the creaking of giant trees was mixed with soldiers waving weapons and shouting like a rainbow. The entire fleet gradually dispersed, and rushed towards the Ming army fleet one mile away with overwhelming momentum. go.

When the distance had just reached one league, the bow heavy guns were fired one after another, and the heavy stone bullets that could only be stuffed into the gun chamber with the joint efforts of several people were blasted from all directions one after another, but there was only one target—a line of shots, with funny patterns carved on the bow Ming fleet.

Those colorful patterns meant nothing to the Spaniards any more than the brightly colored feathers on the American warriors.

The stone-shooting cannon made earth-shattering rumbles, and huge stone bullets smashed into the sea. The latest one stirred up waves that were so high that even the gunners of the Ming army on the side of the ship tasted salty. shudder.

Shi Qi led five five-hundred-year-old warships on the left flank, and Deng Zilong led four thousand-year-old warships on the right flank. The two fleets sailed across the hull slowly and separately. It looks like a whole, just like before.

The two ramming ships that were originally arranged in front of the formation are now following the ironclad ship on the right side. When the eighteen sailors received the withdrawal order, several of them were wet. Even if they stood in front of the formation for a while, they were determined to stop Without the embarrassment of the heart and the terror of life and death.

But it seems that the general has changed his mind and wants to use them as a surprise army.

Anyway, it feels so damn good to be blocked by a big ship!

The enemy ship fired one after another. After the bow gun was fired, the bow was fired sideways with the front side string gun. It didn't pay attention to tactics and simply used whatever it could. It had no rules but looked shocking enough.

The twelve sea fortresses are gradually approaching, and they are focused on spraying artillery fire everywhere. Dozens of small boats carrying sailors are paddling over, making every Ming soldier's breathing heavier, and the knuckles of the hands holding the weapons turn white. Do your best to control your fear.

This kind of oppression is the specialty of the Spanish fleet. In the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, more than once when the fleet approached the enemy in such a posture, what awaited them was not a charge but a pursuit.

From time to time, shells hit the deck of the shark ship, and the swaying warship was in chaos. The general flag and the small flag shouted loudly to make his subordinates hold on to the sail ropes and hold on to the rails. His subordinates urged the chief to fire the cannons again and again, but Deng Zilong on the flagship decided not to move. Even the sound of the war drums stopped, and so did Shi Qi on the other side. The fleet that was under fire was still slowly floating on the sea.

They were changing course in small increments, almost imperceptible under attack.

The distance between the two navies is getting closer and closer, one is vicious and the other is harmless to humans and animals. In just one mile distance, the Spanish fleet fired hundreds of cannons. The distance between their fleets is getting wider and wider, because the bow needs enough The space swings left and right to blast out the front row of artillery on both sides.

Fortunately, most of these warships were newly built by Nanyang Wei. Luzon provided enough solid wood for the Nanyang Governor's Mansion. The thicker and thicker the hull can withstand this level of blow, even if a shell can break the hull by chance and leave a hole , will also be urgently repaired by the craftsmen in the cabin.

The ironclad ship is not afraid of this kind of damage. In fact, the iron skin of the ironclad ship is very thin, and any shells hitting the hull can break the iron skin. After all, Chen Mu's original intention of building the ironclad ship was to prevent fire, not to prevent artillery.

When the shell hits the iron skin of the iron-clad ship, it is a hole, but this can greatly disperse the impact of the shell. The shell that breaks through the iron skin can only be embedded in half of the hull, and cannot penetrate at all.

It is not difficult to make an iron-clad hull that can resist guns, but the difficult thing is that the iron-clad hull that can resist guns is moved by wind.

Deng Zilong is estimating the distance, no, he is measuring the distance.

In the world, a good captain does not have to be a good gunner, but in the Nanyang Governor's Mansion of Ming Dynasty, a captain must be a good gunner, and a gunner must know how to measure distance.

In the Sixth Year Edition of Longqing's "Handbook for Artillery Firing", Chen Mu simplified the necessary steps before firing as much as possible.

Deng Zilong compared the size and distance of the Galen ship's bow marked in the manual through the observation hole on the artillery deck of the iron-clad ship, and accurately grasped the distance between the enemy ship and them—Nanyang Wei was ordered to be the flag army and the scale of the Galen ship scale. The painter has finished the painting. When the arms are stretched out, the distance is as big as one mile and two miles away. You only need to look at the distance to know the distance.

The error varies due to measuring the ship's size differently than the Galen's ship, but this is enough.

"Adjust the gun angle, three hundred steps!"

This angle is only a little higher than that of flat fire. The iron-clad ship is full of experienced gunners, who can adjust the muzzle properly by turning half a turn of the rotary shaft, followed by the sound of drums at the stern, so that the flags are unfurled to order the subordinate ships, and several sails are fully opened. The bottom cabin of the big ship opened the oar window according to the order, and the eight pairs of large oars stretched out into the sea.

The stern boats of the fleet that had been delivered slowly separated at this time, and one left and one right speeded up and divided into two teams, stabbing obliquely at the two wings of the enemy fleet.

"What do they want to do?"

Mendoza, the commander of New Spain, watched the enemy ships outflank the two sides from a distance, and looked suspiciously at the empty sea, there were no enemy ships.

What he worries most is not that these pagan ships want to outflank them. Outflanking is a joke. How can nine ships outflank a fleet of 41 ships?

He was only worried that the two fleets would separate to reveal a large number of enemy ships hidden behind them. Now it seems that his worries are obviously unnecessary. The enemy army only has these pitiful nine ships. The Westport fleet is still extremely weak.

"Two armed merchant ships went to intercept them, dragged them for a while, and other ships chased them, and they couldn't let them escape."

Mendoza smiled softly, put on his helmet, looked at the soldiers on board and said, "Get ready to fight!"

outflank?

Who wants to outflank?
Anyway, Deng Zilong didn't want to outflank him. When two armed merchant ships intercepted in front of him, he didn't care. He just stared at the two galleons rushing straight to the side, and estimated in his heart that he would be chased to [-] paces. distance, clenched his fists, and then slapped hard on the boat rail.

The orderly has been waiting a long time!

"fire!"

On the port side of the iron-clad ship, nine ten-jin heavy guns from front to back shot out flames one after another, and the shells hit the chasing Galen ship with a loud noise.

Immediately afterwards, the sixteen sixteen cannons on the port side of the six Ding Liujia-class shark ships blasted out one after another. They aimed at only one target, and they bombarded whoever the ironclad ship hit.

More than [-] heavy artillery fired at a distance of [-] paces at the same time. Even the Galen ship could not hold on. Several holes were blasted below the deck, and even a board was lifted. The ship tilts, and a single focus fire briefly disables it.

In front of the fleet, there was a bang almost at the same time.

The small collision ship hit the hull of the armed merchant ship, and the ramming horn used to deal with the large warship blasted the armed merchant ship from the middle, and the large hole almost caused the entire ship to be inserted horizontally into the belly of the ship.

The same scene was almost replicated on the left wing of the battlefield, and the landing scholar clenched his fists.

"Eight more!"

(End of this chapter)