I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 479 Shuangwan Naval Battle (4)

The tactics of the Cunningham mixed fleet have always been like this - because they are all targeting the merchant fleet, there is no need to compete with the enemy for the T-head position as in regular warfare. Generally speaking, the iron armored fleet led by Cunningham will come. Breaking through the ranks of the merchant ships is mainly to separate the armed merchant ships from the merchant ships, just like the alpha wolf separates the shepherds from the sheep, and then the main battleships of the pirates and the Dutch follow, attacking the masts or keels of the merchant ships, making them Incapacitated, the smaller ships of the latter two would spread out, forming a loose encirclement from which few could escape.

This time, as they always did, Cunningham's flagship "Charles I" raised the yellow flag at the same time, but also accelerated the speed. One ironclad ship was pushed back, and three ironclad ships pierced into the middle and fore and aft of the merchant fleet, respectively, to separate the merchant ships and armed forces. The merchant ships were divided - because the armed merchant ships had gun muzzles, which were easy to distinguish - and then the ironclad ships turned to face the armed merchant ships laterally, because the shells of the ordinary armed merchant ships could not penetrate the iron armor at all, they were like an insurmountable barrier.

  If the pirates and the Dutch are over fast enough, they will gather around to tighten the net, and even the armed merchant ships will surrender at this time.

   They robbed the cargo and, depending on the situation, took the ship for themselves or scuttled it on the spot.

Even if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Cunningham knew that the boiler room must have been as hot as a furnace now. The workers were shoveling coal into the open furnace like crazy. The flames were burning, and the white steam rushed. Enter the cylinder, push the piston, the crankshaft connected to the piston drives the connecting rod to move, and the flywheel attached to the connecting rod rotates frantically, with rumbling and clanging sounds everywhere—with this series of actions, hidden under the armor The oars went from standing still to rising slowly, and then fell heavily, but it seemed that in an instant - you only felt the hull shake, as if the previous sacrifice had finally achieved the mercy of the gods, immeasurable power Lift the ship from the sea, and the invisible wings take it to break the sea, air and clouds.

   No matter how many times, Cunningham would not get used to and hate this feeling, he shouted loudly, thank the king! Thank God!

   He watched with pleasure the "Charles I" slicing through the lengthy merchant fleet like a hot knife through butter, and the nearest armed merchant ship might have been only five feet away at the smallest! The two sailors held each other as they reached out on the sides of the boat, and they looked at each other until the surging water formed a fleeting white wall between them.

In the gap cut by the "Charles I", the merchant ships hurriedly turned to avoid, leaving the Charles I two armed merchant ships, which were also Calais ships, and the sailors ran hastily on the deck, discarding them. Cargo, lowering or raising the sails, opening the muzzles... the helmsman did everything he could to hold the rudder, turn it to one side, and try to fire before the Charles I turned transverse, but everyone knows that with steam driven and sails Of the drives, the former definitely has the advantage in steering - but Cunningham doesn't care about their dying struggles, he even finds it funny.

Sure enough, even if the two armed merchant ships fired, their shells—stone bullets and solid bullets, either bounced off the armor plate or left only a few dents and scratches, except when the stone bullets were torn apart, which caused some In addition to the minor injuries of cowards and unlucky ghosts, whether it is a rod bomb like a dumbbell, an expansion bomb that looks like a vernier scale, or a chain bomb similar to a meteor hammer, it is simply a bunch of chain star bombs... Ten years ago, they might not have been able to threaten a first-class battleship with heavy slats like the Charles I, and now there is no hope. Cunningham and his soldiers even watched with interest in their futile efforts. After being busy for a while, I finally fired when I wanted to escape.

The cannons rumbled, but unfortunately for Cunningham, the first shelling failed to achieve any effect, but this is not surprising, except that the artillery still lacked accuracy at this time, the lethality of the shells It's not as strong as people think. Don't look at the smoke of gunpowder in this era, the fires are everywhere, and the chances of the ship being sunk are still very low. These shells are mainly used to hit the enemy's keel and mast, so that the It was incapacitated, and then the gangplank was used to fight or clear the deck with grape bombs at close range, sometimes to penetrate the opponent's cabin, flood the ship, or fortunately hit the opponent's gunpowder store directly.

   Like the steam ironclad, there is another deadly place, that is, the boiler room, but since it is known to be the key, the iron armor there is of course thicker than other places. Cannonballs from armed merchant ships, whose armor could not be broken anywhere else, certainly could not threaten the boiler room of the Charles I.

"Catch up!" Cunningham ordered after the second round of shelling, the two armed merchant ships seemed to have abandoned their duties and began to flee so intently that the second wave of the Charles I failed to The success was achieved, and the "Charles I" followed closely behind them - the armed merchant ships were also merchant ships, and the wooden boxes they had thrown into the sea had been picked up, and they were filled with snow-white wool, presumably more and better under the deck s things.

When Cunningham raised the telescope again, he only felt a dazzling golden light. It turned out that they were turning from west to east. At this time, the sun had already jumped out of the sea. , he squinted his eyes subconsciously, and reached out to wipe the tears, "How many knots do we have now?" He asked the attendant beside him.

   "Six stanzas... no, seven stanzas, sir!"

   Seven Festivals! Cunningham's heart was like his Charles I, jumping up and down suddenly, he looked up viciously, and he didn't need to take out a handkerchief he knew that they were sailing upwind now, what kind of sailboat could be in a headwind Running out of seven knots? He suddenly realized this problem, and raised the binoculars quickly, to his delight, the two armed merchant ships had indeed narrowed the distance with them - is it a speed limit? Do not! It's them slowing, turning, and fighting for the T!

   It's not even quite right to say, since the Charles I wasn't far enough from them to turn the former...and it was a solitary one-two. In the early naval battles, the formation could only be maintained at the beginning, and almost all of them would eventually be reduced to catching and fighting. Even the most skilled generals could not display chess pieces on the undulating sea - the Charles I now faces this kind of In an embarrassing situation, all ships tacitly assumed that these two armed ships were his prey, and no one tried to meddle or overtake them.

  Wait, is this really just an ordinary armed merchant ship? Cunningham has not forgotten his previous doubts. He looked through the binoculars and found that the previous shelling was not ineffective, but it was just like the shells of the two armed merchant ships failed to penetrate the armor of the Charles I. "Charlie The shells of the "I" only smashed the wooden boards on them... Even armed merchant ships should not be smashed so easily - at this time Cunningham was able to see clearly enough, clearly see The gap in the other side's hull - under the thin broken wood is a dark iron plate!

   This is not an armed merchant ship, but an out-and-out steam ironclad!

After losing the need for camouflage, the soldiers on the deck removed the last layer of humiliation, and after removing the pile of wooden boxes, the squat chimney was exposed, as if mocking, and a lot of thick smoke came out. Especially in the morning light.

   "Ironclad, it's a French ironclad!" A soldier couldn't help shouting.

"Thank you, sir," Cunningham said gloomily, "I think we saw it all." He was annoyed at being deceived by the French, but when it came to panic and fear, it wasn't, it wasn't the Battle of Dunkirk It's time, they are also ironclad ships, with similar tonnage, whether it is the French artillery, or the ram, don't expect him to retreat without a fight.

   The ironclad disguised as an armed merchant ship fired.

   Not stone bullets this time, and those gimmicky solid bullets—real cannonballs.

  ————

  While Cunningham was gearing up to fight the vile Frenchman, the pirate Gott's ships had chased the merchant ships into the Gulf of Saint-Malo below the entrance to the strait.

Speaking of the Gulf of Saint-Malo, it has always had an indissoluble bond with pirates. When pirates were at their most rampant, they even entrenched here and became the tyrant here, but he was soon expelled from the city of Saint-Malo. Therefore, a strong and tall city wall was built to resist the re-invasion of pirates. However, because of its geographical advantages, the bay of Saint Malo is often regarded by pirates as a wonderful place that can be used as a safe haven and black market.

   Gott probably knew every corner of the Gulf of Saint-Malo, every reef, perhaps every grain of sand better than these merchants? He stared only at the few Calais ships that were hunchbacked because of their piles of cargo, tossed the thorny armed merchant ships to the English and the Dutch, and only pursued the fattest prey to bite and bite, all the way. After chasing into the sea between Jersey and Manquier Islands, you can already see the holy Mont Saint Michel and the church towering on the top of the mountain from here.

   At this time, the Calais ships seemed to have nowhere to go. They slowly stopped, with their backs to the city of Saint-Malo, facing Goth's ships.

Gott's three-masted ship was called "Good Luck" - a proper pirate name, but he looked at the "Charles I" on the left and the Dutchman Van Basten's "Wilhelm the Silent" on the right , was content, anyway, the name was at least not so... depressing, but if he could get an ironclad from the British, he'd name it Gort I.

   This fruit is right in front of his eyes, and he can get it at his fingertips.

At this moment, the merchant ship in front of him suddenly raised a red flag, and just when Gott was confused about when the red flag was also used to signal surrender or negotiation, the sheep took off its sheepskin, revealing sharp Fang - The guards on Calais's body were suddenly opened piece by piece, revealing the muzzle hidden below, aiming at the "Good Luck" and the pirate ships surrounding it.

With the exception of the "Lucky", the pirate ships here are only brigs, with less than two feet of hull fenders, and the result is that a twenty-four pounder gun is enough to penetrate them, not to mention those who can't wait to get on board. The pirates will get too close, plus, **** it! The grape bombers on these Calais ships were able to shoot the range of ordinary shells. The sound of the guns was followed by a whining after another. The deck was a mess, with flying wood chips, broken masts and bloodstains everywhere.

Gott immediately ordered to retreat, and he couldn't care about other ships. Fortunately, although his "Lucky" was not driven by steam and sails, it was a galley. At the bottom of the cabin, three hundred galleys were tied A strong black slave, and at the sound of the pirate's whip, they began to row desperately. Gott blocked their pursuit by blocking the scattered sloops and flute boats between him and the Calais—the little boats he had ordered to be temporarily converted into arson boats—for they were piled high with wool previously hauled from the sea, He told the crew to fill it with kerosene and set it on fire.

   The "Good Luck" slowly retreated, and there was a flaming wall of fire between the Calais ship, which had removed its camouflage.

Seeing that they could withdraw from St Malo Bay, suddenly, with a long shriek resounding through the sky and the sea, from behind the cliffs of Jersey piercing high into the air, an ironclad and two ships sailed out. First-class battleships, they can be said to take the T-head position calmly, that is to say, between Cape Treguier and the Manquier Islands, blocking the only exit without morality, "Good Luck The weak stern of the No. 1 was facing the muzzle of the series of black holes.

   A red flag was slowly raised from the mast of the ironclad.

The cannon roared, and the "Good Luck" was not so unexpectedly one of the few ships sunk by the shells - it and its companions were almost caged, attacked back and forth, and the long-awaited ironclad ships headed for it. All the cannonballs poured over them, and when the arsonists burnt out, the camouflaged and armed merchant ships joined them in ravaging them, and the pirate ships, from the smallest flute ship to the Good Luck, finally became wooden boards floating on the sea.

   Among the pirates, there are also lucky ones who got away with it. They held wooden barrels or boat boards, or they simply swam to the shore with their superb water.

   "How to deal with these people?" asked the first mate.

   "These are pirates," said his captain, "and they rob and kill as soon as they come ashore."

   "I see, sir," said the mate, and before long the captain heard gunshots and wailing, and perhaps a curse or two, but the place soon returned to calm.

   "Okay," the young captain Jean Barr said while rubbing his ears and neck, "It's up to Joseph and the Marquis de Senere."

   (end of this chapter)