I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 235 War on Land and Sea (7)

The Duke of York has not yet fully woken up from his luscious sleep. He was standing there, still wearing a loose dressing gown, with his long curly hair loose, and suddenly, a shout came from above: "Enemy attack!" Yes Enemy! The Duke of York understood right away, it was the enemy's fireboat.

He grabbed the front of his coat suddenly, shouted to his servant, and passed through the scurrying crew. Maybe someone saw him, maybe not, anyway, the Duke of York didn't notice, he quickly returned to his own In the cabin, he changed his dressing gown as quickly as possible, and he kept giving orders while inserting the short-handled musket into his belt.

Although it is not known who leaked the secrets of the fleet and let the enemy know that they were replenishing in Sol Bay, the Duke of York knew very well that they were now in a critical and urgent moment. Almost all the combined fleet was still in the bay, and they The enemy of the enemy is on the sea, and in this era when the T-word horizontal tactics are widely used, they are like a flock of sheep locked in a sheepfold.

And because they are a combined fleet, the Duke of York is not the only one who can speak up. Although he is not very willing, the Duke of York immediately found the wizard who boarded the ship in the name of an astrologer, "Can you contact that French... wizard? ?"he asks.

"Immediately," said the wizard succinctly. Right in front of the Duke, he opened a mirror and muttered to the shadow inside. The other side seemed to be waiting for them. The image in the mirror floated, and then A face completely different from the one in front of the mirror is presented: "We have met the enemy," said the wizard of the other party: "There is no time for discussion, we have to fight the morning tide for time..."

   "I am the Duke of York," said the Duke of York, "let your General Estress speak to me."

Victor Marley de Estres, the commander of the French navy in the combined fleet, saw him appear in the mirror, the Duke of York said without hesitation: "General, now we don't have much Time to discuss, so I hope you can help us as your king promised."

   The French general frowned slightly, but nodded slightly: "I'm not sure if I can do what you want..."

   "The Dutch fire ships are approaching us, perhaps in a few minutes," said the Duke of York. "We need nimble little boats to destroy them before they set our ships on fire."

It is true that in the combined fleet, France has only twenty-six large ships and the United Kingdom has forty-six, but when they are large, they mean that they can carry more artillery, and they also mean that they change direction slowly. Before moving to the intercepting position, those fireboats had already completed their mission. But although there are not many large warships in France, there are many small warships that accompany them, which are converted from merchant ships built by the Dutch. After all, they were customized to the specifications of armed merchant ships before.

   "I will," said General Estres, "but our ships must leave port first."

   "You are one and I are two." The Duke of York said that the fleet in Sol Bay has a total of one hundred and fifty ships. What is the concept? They are densely parked on the screen like Zhang He's shells, and they must be evacuated as soon as possible, so that when the enemy attacks, they can only endure the shelling and fight for a way of life with their allies.

There is nothing to blame for the reactions and decisions of the two commanders. With the presence of wizards, the communication of upper and lower orders is no longer a problem. Whether it is the Duke of York or General Estres, they can look down on Sol like a bird. They looked into the mirror as they determined the order in which the ships would exit Sol Bay.

The small French warships, three-masted ships with 40-60 guns, passed lightly through the lined masts and headed for the sea with the rising sun. Their enemy was above all the fire discovered by the lookout. Ships, when they are far away, can be hidden in the bright waves, but as the distance gets closer, they are as conspicuous as rubies set in jasper.

Both the wizard and the admiral had thought before that they wanted to get ahead of the tide, because the Dutch took advantage of the rising tide to push the fireboats towards them, and the French barques met them and fired - Louis Fourteen is not stingy, and all these ships are loaded with new cannons. Even such a small warship, the largest weighs twenty-four pounds, and the smallest is eight pounds. The problem is that although Louis never thought of Abandoning the ocean, but the development of the French navy is far behind other countries. Although the soldiers are brave and the artillery is abundant, the hit rate is really unflattering.

The number of fire ships was only twelve or thirteen, but there were still two fire ships that directly broke through the defense line of the French warships and collided with the British fleet sailing northward. , but no one can hear him at this time, whether he is an ally or an enemy.

Earl of Sandwich, the British admiral in charge of the rearguard, was one of those who scolded, but he was also helpless, and honestly, the French were willing to lend a hand, rather than watching them and the Dutch kill each other, it was wide enough And yes, as for tactics and skills - these are things that need to be accumulated in battle, and they may also thank God for not allowing the French to accumulate more experience, otherwise a country that can be invincible on land and sea It's terrifying.

  The fire ship collided with the Earl of Sandwich and another ship. Fortunately, these two ships were large ships with a hundred guns, and they did not receive much image. Their test was the Dutch fleet immediately after the fire ship.

  ——

Reuter stood on his "Seven Provinces", the warship he had accompanied him for nearly twenty years, and sometimes Leuit felt as if it had come to life - the "Seven Provinces" had been established before. He has made great achievements, from the Four-Day Naval Battle to the Battle of the Medway. It is as invincible as its owner and has no disadvantage. "I hope you can still bring us good luck." The prow of the "Province", raising the binoculars, observing the actions of the Combined Fleet, and then issuing the order - the flags on the ships indicate their respective identities, and Reuter's decision was to focus on the British fleet, not both, Or the French, but the problem is that the captains of the fleet he leads also seem to have their own ideas.

Some people may be puzzled, but the Dutch fleet at that time was like a dragon circling the sea. In terms of management system, the problems that Reuter had to face were roughly similar to those faced by Mr. Prime Minister of the Netherlands—because the Dutch fleet It is also the crystallization of commercial behavior. The money needed by each ship since its birth comes from the taxes paid by merchants, so merchants can dictate the behavior of the fleet, and even send their own agents to control the fleet, and this The agents and managers of the fleet, whether recruiting crew members, maintaining and building their own ships, building warehouses and docks, or smuggling, looting, or organizing **** fleets, do not need to ask Leyte for permission— Even a large warship like the Seven Provinces is just a commodity in the eyes of merchants.

So in Leuite's fleet, there have always been different voices. This time Leuyt has decided to raid Sol Bay. Yes, his speculation is correct, but his wishes are still not available to everyone. obedience, perhaps the captains of those fleets thought that the British were the old enemies of the Dutch, but the French were even more abominable, and they had already achieved the advantage of surprise, and the number and quality of the ships were far superior to this combined fleet. , so they still parted and went to the French fleet.

This kind of behavior of dispersing power is really not wise, but Leuite can only lead a fleet that is willing to obey his orders, and tighten the net as much as possible. At this time, Leuite's fleet has formed a beautiful arrow. Shot at the British fleet that was desperately heading for the North Sea.

And today's wind direction is also extremely unfavorable for the British. If the British fleet wants to break out from the waters of Sol Bay to the North Sea, it is to sail east. At this time, they need the strong wind from the west, but today's wind is from the east. When they came, they were struggling, and the slow one was like a snail, while the Dutch fleet was riding the wind and waves, like birds flying on the sea.

  The first-class ships all arrived at their designated positions, and the "Seven Provinces" lowered the original flag and replaced it with a new flag, which meant that Reuit ordered the ships to launch a full-scale shelling.

It is difficult for those who have not seen the battle at sea to imagine the scene. At this time, it was around nine o'clock in the morning, the sun was shining and the air was clean, but more than 30 large warships and hundreds of guns roared at the same time. Among them, the smoke rising from the muzzle suddenly spread a layer of soft cotton wool on the sea. This layer of cotton wool was suddenly thick, suddenly thin, and accumulated continuously, covering the hull, mast and sails. Captains Climbing up the forecastle, in order to know the situation of the enemy and ourselves from the telescope in time, and then decide what to do next.

The crew was running up and down the deck, and they had to continuously feed each gun with gunpowder and shells. The deck was full of dumped barrels and coiled ropes, and it was even harder to see in the smoke of gunpowder. , there will always be someone tripped or knocked off, or vice versa.

The crew responsible for the shelling were the most nervous and the most tired. They put the shells into the gun chambers from the rear, poured gunpowder from above, ignited the fuse, and then a deafening roar, the gun body suddenly retracted due to the recoil, a group of people. The man needed to hold the rope holding the gun body tightly to prevent it from hitting the rear deck directly, while another group of people frantically lifted the cloth-wrapped mop and reached into the gun muzzle to wipe off the excess gunpowder residue. The point is very similar to the original musket - after multiple shots, someone had to keep pouring cold water over the gun to cool it down to avoid blowing up the chamber.

As soon as the person cleaning the cannon backed away, the person who held the cannon before swarmed up and pushed the cannon back to its original position. Unlike the first firing, the observer would adjust the cannon based on what he saw at the firing port. The angle and direction of the body to ensure the hit rate, or try to directly bombard the enemy's ship mast, forecastle and other important positions.

Van Gent noticed the "St James", the Earl of Sandwich's ship, which he didn't know was the ship that the Duke of York's most trusted lieutenant was on, but the ship was struck by fire. Afterwards, it deviates slightly from the original route, so that it has an imperceptible but real distance from other ships. Van Gent, as Leuite's most credible friend and subordinate, will of course not miss this opportunity. , he immediately ordered his ships to start continuous shelling of the "St James".

Van Gent's ship is "Amsterdam". Although the name of this ship comes from only one city, its configuration and displacement are similar to those of the Seven Provinces. It is like a pair of twin brothers. It is on the lower deck. It has a proud twelve 36-pounder heavy artillery, together with two 24-pounder artillery, forming a powerful strike front, not to mention, there are nearly 70 artillery pieces on the upper deck and the open deck of the bow and stern, In the rising smoke after another, the fire of the muzzle is like the blade reflected by the sword, flashing, flashing, flashing, each flash indicates that they will push the enemy on the road of destruction. step.

In such a dense shelling, Earl Sandwich also realized that he was encountering the full blow of the enemy. He raised the telescope on the forecastle, and when he wanted to find a breakthrough in the smoke, a shell whistled. , rubbed the top of his head and hit the mast behind him, the mast snapped and fell down, hitting the earl's shoulder. When he was dragging down the forecastle, he was still giving orders - under his order, the "St. James" slowly turned to face the "Amsterdam" side and launched a counterattack.

Earl Sandwich temporarily handed over the command to the first mate, and then staggered to the upper deck with the help of the other two crew members. "My collarbone may be broken." He Shenyin said, "The ship's doctor will Heal you," said the crew, as they passed a few people who were busy putting out the flames, then others who were sending cannonballs down the deck, and someone who was jumping on the side of the boat, constantly lifting barrels from the sea, This water is used to cool the gun barrel.

The ship doctor is also busy here, but what he can do is very limited. As soon as he sees Earl Sandwich, he subconsciously snorts, and after a simple inspection, he affirms Earl Sandwich's estimate: "Here Very troublesome," he said, and splinted and bandaged the count, "can you go back to rest?"

   "If I could, of course," said the Earl of Sandwich.

   (end of this chapter)