Lu Ming

Chapter 212 Killing the King ([-])
The two fleets that were facing each other on the sea suddenly changed their course: the Fuchuan fleet from north to south began to collectively turn right.

On the right is the mainland.

"Run away, run away, I really ran away!" On the flagship of the task force with the hull number 301 and temporarily named "Taijiang" within the navy, a group of melon eaters with binoculars sighed at the same time.

And Liu Zhe, the real host of the fleet, has no time to deal with these goods now, so he quickly issued a new order according to the actions of his opponents: "Add coal to the engine room, three-quarter speed."

"Yes! Three-quarter speed!" Next to Liu Zhe, a short boy named Mao Wu, less than 1 meters tall and shaved, put his feet together. After repeating the order loudly, he turned around and walked at a standard pace. Before reaching the microphone, pick up the hand microphone and start talking with the engine room.

Three-quarter speed refers to a speed of 18 knots: full speed is 24 knots.

This destroyer newly produced by the crossing forces can run at a speed of 13 knots when the wind is smooth.And once the engine room at the stern of the cabin starts working and the propellers turn on, the speed of the fleet will soon soar from 13 knots to about 18 knots.

In fact, the full speed of the empty ship is 24 knots.However, the facts have proved that once the wooden boat exceeds 18 knots, the fleet will break away from the safety line of "three-quarter speed", which is a bit of a loss outweighs the gain.

In history, the famous clipper ship "Short Shirt" with a length of 64.6 meters, a width of 11 meters, and a displacement of 2100 tons has a speed of only 17.5 knots.

The "Taijiang", a small all-wooden sailing ship, was born with osteoporosis, and could not be compared with the iron-ribbed wood-hulled clipper ship of the 19th century.They cannot withstand long-term high-speed sailing: at 18 knots, the waves will become as hard as a brick wall, and without steel ribs as a skeleton, the ship will crack and leak over time.

In addition, high speed is also troublesome.Just like using Pousang to reach 100 yards, once the speed reaches a certain level, the handling and stability of a sailing boat like the Taijiang will be greatly reduced.

To some extent, the benefits brought by propellers to destroyers are more reflected in improving the lower limit of the ship: increasing the speed of the ship in headwind, increasing the maneuverability of the ship in complex sea conditions, assisting the ship to enter the port, and so on.

As for raising the upper limit of the speed of the ship, 18 knots is already a warning line, and it is meaningless no matter how high it is.In addition, under the condition that everyone is in a favorable wind at the same time, the speed of the Fuchuan fleet is only six knots at the moment, and it is impossible to escape the pursuit of the fleet.

So just like Poussin chasing the pedal, the task force quickly caught up with the Fuchuan fleet.

It took less than 20 minutes for the two sides to discover each other head-on, to turn and drive towards the mainland almost at the same time, and then to the slow Fuchuan fleet being overtaken by the fleet.But the Fuchuan fleet, which turned to run, was chased up without even crossing Cormorant Island.

The metaphor of a slender hairtail catching up with a fat carp from the rear is not appropriate, but it is the truth: only a fleet with broadside shooting capabilities will pull out the formation of the battle line.In the 17th century, the gang of pirates who played with cold weapons and gangs did not have the concept of a battle line. The current fleet of five sand ships is a traditional zigzag formation.

As for the artillery fire on the Shuofu boat, in fact, it has no effect now.

In Zheng's fleet, each ship's bow is equipped with naval guns sold by the Portuguese to the Zheng family.The 5 guns were fastened to the bow using various counterfeit strapping methods - the technical pirates were neither able to master nor necessary for the turret slide rails.

Put a Fuchuan ship model with a "V"-shaped bottom on the table, and then blow from the side, the model ship will fall over.

Fuchuan, which was designed to transport goods flexibly and eat all kinds of wind, was not originally used to shoot broadsides.Don't say that these Fuchuan don't even have ship ribs. Even if enough ship ribs are installed, the "V"-shaped Fuchuan will capsize on the spot when the side is fired; It will turn into a park-style "pirate ship", throwing the sailors into the sea with a large roll.

In history, 20 years later, in the battle of Guo Xingye to recover the Dayuan Commercial Hall, the only ships capable of firing broadsides were still the "U"-shaped European-style ships purchased by the Zheng family.

And the ships built by the Zheng family, even the so-called "Daqingtou" with a strengthened hull structure, are essentially sharp-bottomed melee ships: only one cannon can be installed on the bow, and the longitudinal keel is used to eliminate the recoil of the cannon .When the artillery is shooting, you can't swing your head left and right, let alone shoot to the side. You can only shoot the bow at the enemy.

This is the case now.

The line of catching up from behind at high speed is almost parallel to the Fuchuan array, and the Fuchuan team has no choice but to turn around collectively just to blast out the iron egg, let alone not be able to blast out: the parallel distance between the two sides is now 1000 Mi, the side with the speed advantage, is freely adjusting the distance between the two sides.

Five minutes later, the line of battle deftly adjusted the parallel distance between the two sides to 5 meters, and then the fleet began to lower the sails and reduce the gas delivery volume—too high speed is not conducive to launching, so everyone should move forward at the same speed.

Seeing that the opponent lowered the sails in the naval battle, Zheng Zhilong is no longer lucky at this moment: he is now very aware of the speed difference between the tiger and the sheep, and having worked in both Dutch and Portuguese companies, he knows very well what the opponent will do next. doing what.

So he could only painfully issue an order that was close to giving up hope: turn to charge.

At the same moment, the iron bullets fired by the 12 naval Napoleon guns on the three destroyers also flew towards the Fu Fleet amidst the white smoke and roar.

The shelling was of course useless.

Even if the distance was only 500 meters, the iron balls fired by gunners who had experienced actual combat for the first time on the bumpy deck were all hit empty without exception. Some iron balls even deviated from the target by hundreds of meters, splashing one after another. Useless water column.

"Isn't this hit too bad? Doesn't it mean that the three cannons are more accurate?" The melon-eating crowd once again began to express their shock.Those who said this were ignorant, but the army and marines who knew how to do it were also surprised, as if they suddenly discovered that the navy was a moth of the people and a shame for time travel.

Liu Zhe was already powerless to argue with these rotten people. He was holding a walkie-talkie and giving orders to the entire fleet: "Left rudder three, keep the speed unchanged, and shoot steadily."

Following Liu Zhe's order, the Zheng pirates who had just turned the bow of the ship and made a difficult charge were surprised to see a beautiful tactical move: the three warships with white sails seemed to be equipped with springs. The battle lines moved 200 meters away in unison.

This uniform tactical action dealt a huge psychological blow to the pirates, because at the same moment, they fired the shells on the bow of the ship.

The five bow guns of Zheng's fleet have different calibers: from 12-pound to 16-pound guns.As for the aiming head. This kind of dosing depends on the brain to estimate, and the distance measurement depends on the naked eye radar. The aiming needs to adjust the whole ship to the shooting method perpendicular to the opponent. At a distance of 700 meters, it is purely relying on blindness and has no effect.

The second round of artillery shells of the task force and the first round of artillery shells of the Fuchuan fleet were fired at the same time. The iron balls fired from the muzzles of the two sides crossed in the air. Except for a splash of water, no one achieved any results.

And the fleet's third round of artillery shells quickly smashed over.

In the Civil War, the skilled Napoleon artillery group fired four shots per minute.On sailing warships in the 1th century, the navy's basic requirement for gun crews was one shot per minute.This data will change in time with the sea conditions: under high sea conditions, every 17 minutes is also allowed.

Today's sea conditions are normal, the wind is a little bit strong, and other aspects are not bad, so the 12 artillery groups of the fleet fired salvos at the normal training speed of 1 round per minute.

However, this speed is a bit unreal in the eyes of the pirates on the opposite side.

You know, when they fired the first cannon, the huge recoil caused the various ropes and skids that bound the cannon to fly away. Just as the hard workers swarmed up to reset the cannon, the opposite side fired another five rounds. Shooting. There is no way, if you fall behind, you will be beaten. Who told the pirates not to have a three-axis CNC machine tool and bearings, and can't process a custom slide rail system that allows the artillery to quickly reset.
In fact, when the Napoleon gun fired to the fourth round, it had already opened.

A 12-pound iron ball skimmed over the deck of a Fuchuan ship, and made a bloody alley of pirates on the deck who were still dreaming of fighting the enemy hand-to-hand.

With the opening of the first shell, iron balls continued to hit the Fuchuan, either smashing a hole in the ship's plank, or killing the crowd on the deck, and the scene began to be tragic.

As for the five blessing boats charging slowly in a zigzag shape, the speed of the first three boats has slowed down due to continuous blows.A strange game scene appeared on the sea: five neat Chinese-style boats are heading south side by side, while three Western-style boats have drawn an arc and quickly bypassed the front of the Fuchuan.

"Brother, the momentum is not good, let's go separately." Seeing the opposite ship ignoring the wind direction and turning at high speed on the sea at will, no matter how dull the pirate was, he understood the essence of the problem: the sheep were being teased by the tiger.

This weird fighting mode makes the pirates who are used to jumping gangs at a loss.You know, even the Dutch, who were arrogant not long ago, also lost their armor and armor under the pirates' ant colony tactics and fled in embarrassment.

But today is different, today's ant colony has actually become a sheep.In the face of the opponent's unsolvable speed and dense shells, the pirate ship suddenly found that he could do nothing. Even the speed of turning around on the inside line was not as fast as the opponent's turning around the outer circle. It was purely a fighting posture of lying down and being hammered.
After hearing his brother's words, Zheng Zhilong, who was standing on the ship tower and kept watching, smiled bitterly at this moment: "I don't think these Kun people are not only good at guns, but also at boats. Today's defeat is not unfair. Sigh. , give the order, let's go separately."

(End of this chapter)