The Great Bandit in Kangxi Year

Chapter 291
Five days later, apart from the scattered merchant ships on the Atlantic Ocean, there was no fleet of more than five ships. The sky was overcast and the wind and rain were about to come, which added to the chilling momentum.

At this time, the advance fleet led by Shi Lang had already arrived in the inland sea of ​​France, and a huge number of large and small merchant ships were blocked outside the port cities. The wind and waves beat the sea, and those ships also rose and fell.

Through the telescope, no living person was found on those ships.

Shi Lang was not sure if there were hostile armed personnel in the cabins of these ships. In the afternoon, more than ten clipper warships in charge of investigation came back and told them that the whole coast of France was like this, and the general shipyards were built on the coast. port city.

Shi Lang's heart moved, and he didn't order to set fire to the ship, but his intuition told him that there was something wrong with these merchant ships, but he couldn't explain why.

His purpose this time is to destroy the shipyards of Britain, France, the Netherlands and other three countries. It is secondary to destroying the main battleships of the other party.

But at this time, the French merchant ships blocked the way of the empire approaching the harbor, and the main French warships were nowhere to be seen. Shi Lang sneered, and ordered twenty scissor warships to bombard and test the hundreds of large and small merchant ships blocking the way. Without European soldiers, our side only needs to set fire to the ships one by one, and then bombard the shipyard.

You know, if you want to send all French merchant ships into the sea, the blow to France will be immeasurable, but if you use artillery shells, it is obviously a bit unrealistic.

dong dong dong...

The twenty flying scissor warships approached the merchant ships and unceremoniously used flowering bombs. The orange flames immediately raged on the fragile merchant ships. The merchant ships could not escape the fate of being burned, and the fire took advantage of the wind to intensify the flames on the ship.

For ten rounds of bombardment, the Imperial Advance Fleet fired a total of 2400 explosive shells. After the smoke passed, there was no other movement except the crackling sound of burning, and there was no reaction from the shore.

Shi Lang was more cautious. Things were surprisingly abnormal. A merchant ship without protection was placed in front of the imperial fleet.The French are stupid.

Shi Lang shook his head lightly, but he still let his warship approach the undamaged merchant ship and threw torches or inflammable objects on it.

An hour later, the entire harbor was filled with thick smoke billowing straight into the sky. From time to time, burnt merchant ships sank into the bottom of the sea. They were all merchant ships damaged by the previous bombardment. Shi Lang initially estimated that all the ships would not be burned until midnight at least.

In fact, the range of the rear-mounted rifled artillery of the flying scissor warship can be fired at 2000 meters, or even 4000 meters. However, in order to achieve the maximum destructive power, Shi Lang does not mind wasting more time.

As everyone knows, because of the intrusion of the imperial flying scissors advance fleet, the plan of the Eighteen-Nation Alliance was completely disrupted, and the plan to deal with the Ottoman Empire was directly stranded. He made a plan to leave the fleet of the Dahua Empire at all costs.

And the French innocent merchant ship was part of the plan.

For a century, the European powers that ruled the roost on the sea have been completely angered. In the past, they were the only ones who beat others, and no one dared to break into their secret garden. But this time, the Dahua Empire has beaten them in the left cheek, but It's unbearable to hit them on the right cheek.

The British and French countries could only express their helplessness in the face of the angry envoys of the Persian Empire. However, the British and French countries did not want the Dahua Empire to defeat the Persian Empire so easily. More than [-] elites from various countries were sent to Persia to assist in the war, most of them were officers above the rank of sergeant and assisted the Persian Empire in building a new type of arsenal. Even these people and materials would take four months to reach Isfa, the capital of the Persian Empire. rare.

This time, the Persian envoy looked much better.

However, Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty saw that the Dahua Empire still had the energy to go on expeditions to Britain, France and other countries, and he did not care about preserving his strength. He sent [-] Cossack cavalry, [-] Han Army Eight Banners, and [-] Shenji Battalion to support the Persian Empire.

……

Fast forward more than ten days, the fleet led by Shi Lang has burned more than [-] French merchant ships and three large seaports in a very short period of time, and the five shipyards encountered along the way have also become broken walls and broken marks.

At this moment, the flying-scissor advance fleet just sailed into a strait. The left side of the strait is the British coastline. Shi Lang didn't care. The cruiser fleet, according to the speed of the Sea Lion class cruiser, is almost there.

At noon, the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly, making people unable to help dozing off.

At this moment, the scout ship in front actually came to report: "The front of the strait is full of ships from various countries, most of them are merchant ships, and there are small frigates and cruisers among them. The number is endless!"

Shi Lang frowned immediately, and muttered to himself: "Could it be that the [-]-nation alliance wants to use cannon fodder tactics and crowd tactics? The strait, no good, the rear must be blocked as well."

"Exit the strait immediately!" Although Shi Lang is not afraid of artillery battles, the flying scissor has a great weakness, that is, the deck is only two meters away from the sea level, and if the opponent's small merchant ship approaches, he can easily jump to the side.

After all, our side only has 110 flying scissor fleets. Once they are surrounded, the other party will try their best to help, or harass, and they will exhaust our sailors to death. You must know that this time each flying scissor warship only carried 150 people. Gunners and torpedo launchers, there are no more than a hundred individual soldiers. Although they have revolving lances, they are also very dangerous.

Sure enough, before Shi Lang's fleet exited the strait, he received a report from the rear scouting ship: "A large number of European ships of various types appeared thirty miles away, and there are also many large battleships. The number cannot be estimated."

Shi Lang's heart skipped a beat, seeing that the opponent was unable to attack for a short time, he hurriedly announced the battle plan to all the fleets.

Half an hour later, 110 flying scissor warships lined up in a straight line, sailing towards the enemy ships behind with all their strength, as swift as more than a hundred off-string arrows, and looked majestic, but their opponents had at least More than [-] large and small ships.

Shi Lang suddenly put down the binoculars and sighed deeply. After more than ten minutes of careful observation, there were dozens of warships similar to the Sea Lion class cruisers in the opponent's fleet. He guessed that these were ironclad warships that had just been imitated by powerful countries such as Britain and France. , this time it's hard to beat.

If it is on the vast sea, such an ironclad ship is not an opponent of a clipper warship at all, but now!
Shi Lang was really not sure whether the flower bullet could break through the opponent's armor. Thinking of the possible consequences, his eyes revealed a determination. Since he had no choice and no way out, the only option was to fight to the death.

(End of this chapter)