unclear

Chapter 1018 Loss
"Commander, the enemy fleet has dispersed and is divided into seven small fleets, heading from 260 to 320. The closest one is the flagship, which is heading towards 320 alone, 4 kilometers away, and will be within range in another hour."

After just two rounds of shelling, the navigator came over with a nautical chart and explained the changes that had taken place over the past ten minutes, waiting for new orders.

"If there really is a count commanding the flagship, he deserves his title. Forget about the flagship and get rid of the tail first. Right rudder 40, heading 350, starboard to meet the enemy!"

With just these few parameters, Yan Bushi understood what the Spanish fleet was going to do without even looking at the sea chart, and then expressed due respect to the enemy commander. The enemy was obviously trying to disperse and get rid of them, and they had to use the flagship to cover their retreat.

But even though I knew it, I couldn't do anything about it. There was no other way. There were too few ships, so I could only focus on attacking one or two. Since the enemy's flagship was delivered to my door, I would not be polite and take every ship I could.

The Qin-class warship, no longer entangled in the course, immediately hoisted the full sail, increased the speed to the maximum, and turned around to attack the two enemy ships with relatively small displacement. It was too weak to attack the flagship alone, and he had to cripple these two troublesome guys before the friendly forces joined up, so as to free up his hands to fight with all his strength.

At this time, on the sea more than 60 kilometers away from these ships, five Qin-class warships were lined up in a row, 5 kilometers apart, like a net, searching westward at full speed for any clues nearby.

"Your Majesty, we have found sailing gear about 10 kilometers ahead, but we can't see the shape of the ship clearly yet."

Hong Tao worked for three hours in the first half of the night, and then went back to the cabin to sleep. He slept soundly until he was woken up by Wang Chengen, who said it was the first mate who came with new information.

"Okay, got it. I'll go up right away."

Hong Tao stretched himself, took the wet towel handed over by Wang Chengen, and signaled the first mate to go up first. He couldn't even see the sails and the shape of the ship. There would be no progress for at least half an hour, which was enough time to wash up.

"Flathead, did that guy make any moves?" After the first mate left, Hong Tao asked the flathead who was standing by the door while asking Wang Chengen to help him put on his clothes.

"He hardly slept. Whenever he had the chance, he wandered around the ship. He went around almost every place except the places where people were not allowed to approach. I bet that if I searched him now, I might find a few drawings about the structure of this ship."

Although the flat-headed brother talked about counter-espionage work, his face was still so honest, without any cunning. This is called talent. Anyone who sees this sturdy, strong, and taciturn man will not think that he is smart, cunning, shrewd, or sharp-sighted.

In fact, this guy is a talent, with a typical honest appearance and a cunning heart. In the past few years, in addition to continuing to play the role of a personal bodyguard, he has gradually taken over the management of the Advisory Office and Gecko, and his ability is far better than Wang Chengen.

"Hmph, it's abnormal if you're not interested. As long as he doesn't break the rules, just pretend you don't know. Put your guns away and don't let him notice anything." Ever since Cohen got on board, Hong Tao guessed that he would be interested in the structure of the warship, so he asked Flathead Brother to arrange people to watch it around the clock.

The essence of the Qin-class warships is not the aspect ratio and the hull structure, but the mast splicing process, the rudder control system, the anti-roll fins and anti-roll water tanks, the connection and use of sail rigging, and the guns. Understanding these technologies will immediately promote a large improvement in shipbuilding technology.

But except for standing on the deck to look at the sails and rigging, other places are restricted areas. In fact, even if you look a few times, you can't learn it. Let the flat-headed brother stare at Cohen because he is afraid that he can't resist the temptation and take risks, causing everyone to tear their faces apart and it will be difficult to get along in the future. After all, they will have to cooperate for a long time. "Your Highness, it's not good news. There are three ships in total, one of which looks like No. 114, and the other two look more like Spanish ships." After boarding the deck, the navigator came over first, his face rather solemn.

"Direction and speed?" Hong Tao was originally very happy, mainly because he had a good sleep. He didn't expect to encounter such a heart-wrenching question as soon as he got up. The smile on his face disappeared immediately.

"…Course 280, speed is very low, and the three ships are very close, I can't see them clearly now."

"Don't jump to conclusions. Wait until you see clearly." Seeing the navigator hesitant to speak, Hong Tao nodded to indicate that he understood, and at the same time spoke to comfort the officers present.

It was very special for three large sailing ships weighing hundreds of tons to be together with their sails lowered on the sea. If it was an enemy-to-enemy relationship, it would be even more special, and it probably meant one thing: one side had captured the other side's ship.

The Guangzhou-class armed cargo ship has a displacement of 650 tons and is equipped with five 5mm breech-loading naval guns on each deck, and a 75mm breech-loading naval gun at the stern. The firepower of the entire ship is still good and can fully cope with the sailing warships of this era.

But there is a premise, you can't get too close. Once you get too close, its hull can't withstand the bombardment of the front-loading smoothbore cannon of this era. And it is not as good as the Qin-class battleship in terms of turning and speed, so it is not easy to get rid of it.

Now a Guangzhou-class armed cargo ship and two Spanish ships were close together, and it was possible that the Guangzhou-class captured the other two ships. But the reverse possibility was also not small, because even if the enemy ship was captured, it was not necessary to lower all the sails.

"His Majesty, the 114 has been badly damaged, and there was a fire in the superstructure. The two Spanish galleons are in a similar situation, one of them has taken on a lot of water, and the hull is tilting."

Half an hour later, more news came from the watchtower, and this time it was even worse. Judging from the surface alone, the possibility of the armed cargo ship being captured was increasing.

Over the years, except for capsizing and sinking due to weather conditions, the navy has never lost any ship in combat, including armed cargo ships. At this moment, the officers present were a little overwhelmed and turned their eyes to the emperor.

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"Adjust your course and look carefully! Do you still look like a soldier? There are always casualties in a war. You are the navy, not the sea god. Cheer up and do what you need to do. Don't think about useless things!"

To be honest, after hearing about the status of No. 114, Hong Tao did not feel depressed, but secretly delighted. He was not abnormal. As the founder of the navy, he believed that this situation should have happened long ago.

There should not be a general who always wins, nor an army that has no losses. Appropriate losses in battle will remind officers and soldiers to always be aware of the danger and seriousness of this job and avoid the breeding of arrogance.

In fact, the navy commanders have been acting like the best in the world these years. Even when facing an enemy that is several times their size, they still charge and attack aggressively, but they lack caution. As the saying goes, modesty brings benefits, while arrogance brings harm. If they continue like this, they will suffer even greater losses sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)