open sea

Chapter 408
The armed merchant ship whose rudder was broken did not let Shi Qi get what he wanted. The skilled New Spanish helmsman immediately learned that the rudder was destroyed and informed the captain. The sails were lowered, and they sailed towards the friendly ships at the slowest speed, calling for the nearby ships to pull them over with hook lines.

There was no collision, just a little unavoidable confusion.

But this is enough for Shi Qi. The front ships yaw to avoid the damaged merchant ships, and the rear warships are blocked by the merchant ships and slow down. The orderly formation is forced to separate. This is Shi Qi's plan. Chance.

The five shark ships walked in an arc, always facing the departing warships with their starboard guns, and the artillery blasted out rhythmically from front to back along with the hull.

Their captain, Luodi Scholar, is a serious person. He seldom talks harshly and is meticulous in his work. During the daily training of the flag army, he even nailed a huge log off the coast of Xiangshan, so that every gunner on the ship passed the log standing in the shallow sea through the porthole. Fire.

This mere obedience or, to put it bluntly, useless training made his gunners fire at nearly equal intervals in naval battles.

In other words, every cannon on the ship fired roughly at the same position, the rear cannon smashed the smoke of the front cannon, and the rear cannon continued to repeat.

The angle of the gun is almost the same, the position of the gun is almost the same, the target is almost motionless at sea, and the accuracy is almost the same.

The guns on Shi Qi's ship were aimed accurately, and they could basically hit them; if they were not aimed correctly, all the artillery on the entire ship was fired.

From the standardization of artillery casting molds to gun sights, from artillery drills to the scientific training of gunners on artillery angle sights, coupled with the advancement of telescopes and distance measurement, they were originally the most accurate gunners of this era.

Fifteen ten-jin cannons hit twelve shots.

Twenty general Zhenshuo cannons hit fourteen of them.

25 two-pound guns, 21 hits.

Of course, the role played by the two-pound gun in the artillery battle of this level of warship is that it destroys the ship far less than hurting people, and hurting people is less than scaring people. superior.

Sometimes the planks wouldn't get in, leaving a useless noise to startle the sailors in the boat, and then fall into the sea.

It won't break the hull of the ship, no matter how accurate it is, it's useless.

Even so, Shi Qi, who was standing on the side of the ship, still clearly saw the enemy ship suffered heavy damage. The hull near the bow on the port side was completely smashed, and the sailors running on the lower deck were busy pushing the dead gunner's body into the sea. .

The heavily damaged New Spanish warship turned its rudder slowly, and the two bronze stone-shooting cannons at the bow made a loud noise. The stone cannons were already accurate at this distance, and the huge boulder flew and screamed, and one of them hit the tail of Shi Qi's team. On the side of the ship, the huge impact even caused the hull to shake violently, while the stone bombs fired on the other side stirred up waves higher than the side of the ship not far away, splashing sea water to the deck.

The craftsmen on the lower deck shouted loudly and ran back and forth.

Deformation is only second. According to the strength of the hull of the [-]-material shark ship, it cannot withstand this kind of heavy artillery bombardment. Although it has not been smashed out of the hole at this time, the consequences are worse than being smashed through. The girder of the deck was cracked by the heavy blow, and the support pillars of the next person hugging each other were also knocked out of order, and there was a heart-pounding creaking sound at this moment.

Once the beams and columns are broken, the large upper artillery deck supported by them will collapse directly, and the hull structure will also suffer disaster. The ship may even break into large pieces of sampans by itself during the next voyage.

The captain of this ship is Zheng Cong. He has worked diligently and diligently for six years since joining the old man Zheng’s military household. He has never made any great achievements. At that time, there were bandits on the sea again, and they made great achievements in suppressing the bandits, so they were promoted from a hundred households to the first level, and now they are the deputy thousand households of Luzon Zhongwei Macheng.

This attack on Guandao was a dangerous battle with fewer attacks and more attacks. Shi Qi originally wanted him to follow Chen Lin's army and not take the lead with Deng Zilong's two hundred and five, but Zheng Cong insisted on following, so he got the captain from Shi Qi's men. post.

Just like Deng Zilong and Shi Qi, the two small soldiers with nine ships, only the Pioneer Army has this specification, but the captain can't get Zheng Cong's turn no matter what.

On a five-hundred-dollar shark ship, the full quota of officers and soldiers on board is one hundred and twenty, at least sixty-four.

Deputy Qianhu was in Chen Lin's army, and he was the captain of at least three ships.

Shi Qi knew that Zheng Cong felt that his meritorious service was not worthy, and he wanted to fight the front line to make meritorious deeds and kill the enemy. Otherwise, even if he received a fifth-rank salary, he would not be able to hold his head up in front of his colleagues. Big.

As a result, the ship has not yet landed on Guam, and the ship has been severely damaged by this.

Zheng Cong didn't care about his distress at all. The hull was hit hard by shells just now, knocking him from the starboard side to the port side when he was ordered by the stern tower. The meaning of the low poop, he has long been thrown out to drink water.

He fell so badly that he didn't have time to heal his injuries when he heard that the hull of the ship was severely damaged, and when he swayed down the deck, he saw the crooked support pillars, which made him gasp, "This, this can't bear the cannonball. "

"Qianhu, I can't hold it anymore." The old shipwright was busy asking his apprentices to nail the cracks in the hull of the ship, and said to Zheng Cong, "If the heavy artillery is fired, the ship will break up. Tell General Shi to get out."

The undamaged hull has a complete structure inside and out; the hull has been punched out with large holes, at least the internal structure is still intact; but the internal structure is damaged, and the ship cannot withstand the shelling of the rear seat, even with a cannon carriage.

After the improved ship shape, the draft is deep, and the hull is under great pressure. It must have a solid internal structure to ensure safe navigation. Now that the internal structure has been destroyed, it is impossible to participate in the war.

"Retreat? Can't retreat." Zheng Cong picked up the fallen bag, pointed heavily at the crooked support, "Let him stand for me, the boat can't fall if it doesn't sink!"

"The heavy cannons at the bottom can no longer be fired, and the two-pound cannons above will continue to fire."

After finishing speaking, Zheng Cong led his troops back to the upper deck, and said to the helmsman, "Follow the fleet."

He can't go, this will withdraw the fleet, which will definitely affect the morale of his own fleet, the five five hundred material shark ships are already weaker than Deng Zilong's four thousand material ships, he can't withdraw.

He can't understand the overall situation, but the number of ships can still be counted. The battle between the enemy and the enemy is tense, and they are barely evenly matched. If those annoying small ships are not counted, they even have the upper hand in the number of large ships. The competition is who will flee first .

He, Zheng Cong, doesn't have to do meritorious service, and he can't be the first to escape with his tail between his legs!

"The ship is sinking!"

Just when Zheng Cong made up his mind to fight to the end, Shi Qi, the flagship, smiled. He could see that the stern ship had suffered heavy damage, but the ship still followed, indicating that the problem was not serious.

What really made him happy was that the lone warship of the enemy was finally pierced below the waterline after being fired twice in a row. Run, apparently sunk.

"Prepare to pursue, the enemy has only five large ships left, they should withdraw!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)