Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 729
Gao Jing's flagship is called "Xinzheng". The captain of Xinzheng is not a servant with a changed surname, but an employment relationship similar to that of Wei Ximin and Shen Li'an, and his status is comparable to that of a shopkeeper somewhere on land.

His name is Liang Sancai, and he is also from Cantonese, but his identity is a bit special. He was born as an "individual maritime merchant"-of course, this is a better way to say it. In fact, this old man's main business was piracy.To put it bluntly, 90.00% of Ming's maritime merchants are pirates, or have been pirates in the past.

Of course, the "pirates" of Ming Dynasty may not necessarily go to sea to rob. It was caused by the sea. Later, after Gao Gong opened the sea, many former pirates transformed into law-abiding maritime merchants, and Captain Liang Sancai was one of them.

However, his family has no background. He only relied on his personal ability to be the captain, and he did not own a boat. Later, when he went to a higher place, he accepted Jinghua's employment and became a captain of Jinghua's Guangzhou Port transportation team.

"Turn, grab the wind!"

Following Gao Jing's order, Captain Liang Sancai roared at the top of his lungs: "Get ready!"

Under the reprimand of the sailmaster, the sailors pulled the girder rope vigorously together, the pulley moved, and the girder started to rotate with a "squeaky" friction sound.

"Fuck your grandma, show some more strength! Haven't you bastards eaten yet!" While speaking, the beam turned greatly, and all the hard sails were caught by the wind together.As soon as Liang Sancai saw it, he immediately shouted to the three helmsmen waiting beside him: "Left full rudder!"

"Yes!" The helmsmen responded majesticly together, holding the long tiller tightly, and muscle bumps bulged on the strong arms.The rudder parted the surface of the water, and the splashed water rushed towards the belly of the ship, making a splashing sound.

The "Xinzheng" began to turn into the wind, all the sails vibrated against the wind, and the rigging trembled.The sailor at the stern hoisted a mizzen schooner to help trim the stern.The jib at the bow also fluttered, slowly bringing the bow into the wind.

This scene seems to be nothing, but if a seasoned veteran of the sea sees it, he can deeply understand that in that short moment just now, all the sails of the "Xinzheng" were in a state of headwind.If some of these sails were not angled immediately and adjusted to starboard, the boat would be on the windward side and difficult to turn back.

Accurately grasping the timing is crucial. Captain Liang Sancai has rich experience. Although he has only been transferred to this ship as captain not long ago, he has already grasped the sailing performance of the "Xinzheng". Seeing that the bow of the ship has been brought into the wind, he made a decisive decision Howled loudly: "Pull the mainsail!"

It was a traditional order to pull the mainsail yard and the mizzen yard to turn. The sailors shouted in unison, and every muscle in their bodies tensed.They turned the winches, adjusted the halyards, and changed the direction of the yard so that the sail caught the wind at a new angle.

Hard sails and soft sails are the most obvious part of the difference in maritime technology in the age of sailing between China and the West. Many people in later generations believe that the West has won the era of great navigation, so soft sails must be better than hard sails. This is actually a misunderstanding.

Just to mention a few points, one is that the hard sail is supported by the battens, and the shape of the sail surface becomes smaller under strong winds, so it will not lose too much efficiency.

The second is that hard sails can be retracted grid by grid, and the sail area can be adjusted flexibly.

The third is that the front and rear sails of multi-masted sailboats with hard sails change the total stress center through different reefings, thereby improving the effect of the air rudder and enhancing the maneuverability.

The fourth is that the hard sail also has a better performance in the breeze due to the support of the sail surface by the sail.Soft sails, on the other hand, are extremely ineffective when the breeze cannot fill the sail.Therefore, the breeze performance of hard sails is stronger than that of soft sails.

Fifth, due to the fact that there are keel to control the sail surface, the sail surface of the hard sail will not flap like a soft sail when sailing against the wind.Especially when the rigging is loosened to make the sail "turn with the wind", there will be no vibration of the sail surface, and it can easily "turn with the wind" in the breeze.

Sixth, because of the support of the sail battens, the damage to the sail surface is generally localized and does not need to be repaired immediately.A general degree of damage will not have much impact on the performance of the sail, and some people in later generations even think that proper damage is good for the windward performance (I don't know much about the theory of fluid mechanics).

Seventh, the canvas of the hard sail is supported by sail bones, there is no stress concentration, and the requirements for canvas materials are extremely low.

Of course, hard sails are not without disadvantages. The disadvantages are that the sail battens increase the weight of the sail and limit the height of the mast.The second is that the existence of stays limits the addition of stays in the middle of the mast, but the schooner itself cannot be equipped with stays.

The advantages and disadvantages of soft sails are just opposite to those of hard sails. Generally speaking, the biggest advantage of soft sails is that they are lighter in weight. Other aspects such as safety, maneuverability, and simplicity are not as good as hard sails.

This is why Westerners won the age of great sailing by relying on Western-style soft sails, but in later generations of competitive sailing ships, they all switched to hard sails. There is no need to load a gun, just need to be easy and precise to operate.

As for the problem of horizontal and vertical sails, Western-style soft sails can be made, as can Chinese-style hard sails-Jinghua's ships can do it.

The series of actions commanded by Liang Sancai was just right, and with the help of the wind, the yard was quickly adjusted.

The yards turned to a new angle, the back of the sail began to eat the wind, and the sails on the main and mizzen pushed the stern in one direction.The sail on the fore-mast is still against the wind, pushing the bow of the ship from the other direction, like a brake, ensuring that the "Xinzheng" remains stable in the final stage of the tack and will not be blown by the wind to rotate in place.

With the concerted efforts of the sailors, the ship slowly turned to the new course, and Captain Liang Sancai shouted in time: "Pull the front sail!"

Dong Nan, who has become an "apprentice sailor", quickly ran to the front deck with the sailors and adjusted the foremast yard to the same angle as the middle and mizzen yard.

How long it takes to tackle the wind depends entirely on the conditions of the wind and waves.For western soft sails, a pleasant light breeze can help the boat gain speed at the beginning of the turn, and the process may only take a while.But it can take an hour or more in a breeze.The most troublesome is the stormy day, even because it is too dangerous to fight the wind.Once you encounter that situation, you can only retreat and turn with the wind.

However, Chinese-style hard sails are only afraid of stormy days, because too strong wind may destroy the sail surface or mast, and the difference between light wind and light wind is the same on hard sails, and can be done quickly.

At this time, the battle flag was also raised on the main mast of the Xinzheng.Looking from a distance, I saw two Frangji warships coming with the wind.The "Kaiping" and "Huojia" next to the Xinzheng, like arrows leaving the string, seized the upper hand and outflanked them to their left.

Zheng's Flang machine warship also spotted them, and suddenly raised its sails and turned.However, it was too late. It takes time to tackle or turn with the wind. However, due to the complicated operation of soft sailboats and their obviously relatively amateurish handling, this period of time is enough for the three leading Jinghua warships to enter the arquebus. within shooting range.

Gao Jing did not choose long-range artillery battles, he chose side-to-side battles - in artillery battles, he was worried that the opponent's artillery would hit further, and he really hoped to capture the opponent's warships - he knew that Gao Yushi always wanted to engage in some battles. Research on the warship of Hong Mao Fan.

In this case, it is not good to sink. (Windless Note: In fact, it is difficult for solid guns of this era to sink wooden warships. This conclusion can be drawn by referring to the several naval battles between the Spaniards and the English during this period.)
But Zheng's Flang warship took advantage of its artillery fire and opened fire first!

Since the distance was actually very close, the deck of the "Kaiping" was shot twice immediately, and the red-hot solid shells hit the deck, and black mist suddenly rose.

The concussion of artillery, the cracking of ship planks, the swishing of ropes, the screaming and roaring can be heard endlessly.

"Left full rudder! Charge up!"

The "Kaiping" became a target, so angry that Gao Jing on the flagship was furious and ordered to attack.

While ordering the sailmaster to take over the ship and rush over, he called the sailors to get on the yard, ready to jump to start hand-to-hand combat.

The firearms team composed of sailors was divided into two and stood on the forecastle and stern of the "Xinzheng", using the height to provide fire support to the jumpers.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The "Huojia" had already entered the range, completely ignoring the tickling bombardment of the Zheng Jun boat coming from behind, passed through a series of water columns, and concentrated fire on a Frang machine warship on the left.

After a thunderous bombardment, the mast and yards of the Francois were snapped off, entangled the sailors on deck in canvas and cables.This ship seems to be unlucky, because the "Huojia" has no chain bombs, and being able to break the mast is basically an element of luck.

Because it is the flagship, the "Xinzheng", which was a little cautious and late, also entered this fierce battle at sea. With the order of the Musketeers, the Musketeers opened fire in turn, like a shower of bullets and sharp guns. Splinters swept across the deck, and acrid smoke filled the air.

The Franco warship fought desperately, and despite the blood on the deck, the captain and helmsman steered the ship instinctively to avoid collisions—they had been briefly trained by the Franco to take collisions seriously.

Well, this may be one of the manifestations of the petty nature of the Frangji people in a small country with few people, but it may also explain the rigor of Westerners in combat.

The battle continued in the billowing smoke, five feet...three feet...two feet...

The "Xinzheng" was getting closer and closer to the Frang machine warship, and the ship's musketeer team completely suppressed the opponent's firepower, but the Frang machine warship, which was beaten helplessly, still didn't want to surrender.

I saw a man who looked like a captain, holding his injured arm, and ordered the remaining men to clean up the deck, hang the front sail yard with iron chains to prevent it from being cut off, put two boxes of gunpowder on the front deck, Put a box of gunpowder on the deck.

In order to prevent Liang Sancai and the others from boarding the boat, they hurriedly spread a layer of butter on the deck, sprinkled dry peas and large nails with pointed upwards.

"For Jinghua!"

The "Xinzheng" is the flagship. Although it is the same size as other armed transport ships, it has the most sailors and is a well-deserved main force.

The brother warships had already attracted firepower for it and created favorable conditions for a boarding battle. How could Captain Liang Sancai disappoint them?

"For Jinghua!" The others naturally refused to fall behind at this critical moment.

As soon as Captain Liang Sancai swung out of the ship's side, he jumped over with more than 30 sailors.

There were gunpowder barrels on the front deck and the rear deck. The musketeers on the ship did not dare to open fire, so they simply dropped their matchlock guns and jumped over to join in hand-to-hand combat one by one.
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Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, continue to ask for subscriptions and various tickets~
(End of this chapter)