Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1248 Naval Battle ([-])

The tense atmosphere was increasing exponentially. Mond on the Electric Switch had locked the shooting director firmly on the leading European-style ship, and was waiting for the command to fire from the bridge.

The distance was reduced to 2500 meters. Mond heard a low roar in front of him. Looking up, Lichun had already fired the first shot, and the flag signal to meet the enemy on the starboard side was raised.He yelled "Grenade shot!"

The artillery shells that had been ready to go went out like thunder, and the battleships behind opened fire one by one. The black smoke clouds and colorful water columns suddenly rose from Zheng Lian's fleet, and the battle began.

The Zheng family's warships immediately fought back, and the Hongyi cannons on each ship fired regardless of the range.The red cannonball rolled in the air with black smoke trails, and flew towards the first team.Most of them fell into the sea without approaching, and only a few flew near the fleet, but they were too far away from the battleship, and the splashed water didn't even wet the deck of the battleship of the First Squadron.

"It's not enough." Lelin was standing on the bridge of Yufeng, holding the binoculars of the US Navy on her chest, wearing a high imitation version of the US Navy's white summer dress, looking at the enemy shells that fell far away, Shaking his head, smug, recalling the scene of patrolling on a fishing boat back then, he couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion in his heart.

Ruan Xiaowu, the gunner on Lichun, was lying nervously on the sight of the bow angle plate, aiming at the water column splashed by the first shell when it fell, holding the Zhong's stopwatch that was as big as an alarm clock hanging on his chest with one hand , Measuring the distance - after three months of study, he has just been promoted to this position.Although he is no longer the captain, being the department chief of such a big black ship is much better than the captain of a spy boat. Everyone in the navy knows that an officer and sergeant who can be picked up to serve on a steam black ship now, even if Ordinary sailors have great prospects in the future.

Since the optical range finder is quite high-tech, there will be no usable products for a while, so the artillery range finder is installed on the battleship and the steering wheel system: an angle plate with a sight is installed on the bow and stern, and the The sight is aimed at the target, and then the distance between the battleship and the target is calculated according to the difference between the different angles displayed by the bow and stern.

The gunnery officer adds a certain distance to this reading, fires the first round, then fires the second round based on the reading, and finally fires the third round based on the reading subtracted from the distance.The range intervals of the three rounds are the same, and the time is similar, and the trajectory can be quickly corrected according to the impact point.

Although this method of distance measurement is backward and has large data errors, it is already Zenith Star technology compared to the general level of space-time distance measurement that basically relies on estimation.

"2350 meters!" he shouted.Then the shooting command post began to calculate the shooting elements and adjust the elevation angle of the artillery.At the same time, the shooting parameters are communicated to each ship through light signals.

The four gunboats followed Lichun and opened fire one by one. Almost all the shells flew towards the European ship leading the Zhenglian fleet. The three-masted ship with a displacement of 4 tons was almost immediately submerged by the water column. A 700mm grenade hit the ship's hull, tearing the hard plank like a piece of paper, and the fragments of the ship's hull flew around, cutting off the heads and arms of seven or eight sailors on the deck. The fire burned immediately up.

Next, the artillery fire of the first battle team became more and more accurate. Within 4 minutes after the first shell hit, the ship was hit twice by 130mm shells. The masts and sail cables were all destroyed. The sea became a huge torch.

Zheng Lian knew in an instant that he would never be able to beat his opponent in the artillery battle. With a loud roar, he ordered the fire attack ship to ignite and charge.However, at this time the next wave of fatal blows came. A 130mm grenade exploded on the oak shell with a thickness of several inches on the outer wall of the flagship. It hit the deck heavily, killing several sailors on the spot.The gunpowder in the open gunpowder cans on the battery deck was ignited and exploded, and the 80 sailors who loaded and fired on the battery deck were killed almost instantly.Flames shot from the gratings on the deck.

"Quick, turn the rudder!" Zheng Lian shouted from the stern tower, the shell had completely woken him up: What's the matter of winning or losing now, the important thing is to escape!

However, it was not easy to escape under the artillery fire of the First Squadron. Although the 130mm shells fired slowly and had a limited number of hits, the 75mm shells hit the hull and deck one after another.The helmsman turned the rudder desperately, and the battleship turned 180 degrees to the port side suddenly. The wind blew more air into the horizontal deck of the ship, and the incandescent flames spread everywhere.The opened gunpowder cans on the deck began to explode one by one.

Seeing that the bombing was inevitable, Zheng Lian jumped from the poop tower into the sea regardless of the towering poop tower.The moment he jumped, tongues of flame rushed into the ammunition depot, bright red flames rose from the deck, and then there was a low explosion sound, and charred fragments flew in the air, and then the whole ship exploded violently, tearing the deck apart. It cracked and turned up, the mast twisted and fell inward, the canvas was instantly swallowed by the fire snake, and the soaring fireworks enveloped the thousand-ton ship, and the black smoke lingered for a long time.

The fire and explosion of the flagship made all other warships lose their will to fight.The three-masted gunboat and other Fuchuan Cantonese ships turned around one after another in an attempt to escape, but they came with the wind and the water, so it was very difficult to change direction at this moment. forward**.The ships seized the opportunity to shorten the distance while firing fiercely,
The turbines were spinning wildly, the boilers were roaring terribly, the white waves aroused by the bow were cut and crushed by the hull, the blue and white Morning Star flag trembled straight on the mast, and the artillery on every battleship fired at the last Fire quickly, using this brief vantage point to unleash the most ammunition on the enemy.The artillery shells dragged a red trail and fell towards Zheng Lian's fleet. From time to time, a black and red flame was set off, and hot fragments were flying in the air.

The 130mm and 75mm grenades exerted terrible power on the wooden boat. The hardwood hull, which was several inches thick, became vulnerable under the attack of the grenade, and was torn and burned like a piece of paper.Although many shells failed to explode due to the problem of the fuze, the large initial velocity of the conical shells fired by the rifled guns also made it easy for the shells to hit the hull of the bow and play a certain role in damage.

The dense smoke after the artillery fire enveloped the deck from time to time, and the sea breeze blew the smoke away one after another, and the lookout post continuously reported the hit status to the bridge.

The battle has actually turned into a one-sided shooting show. The Zheng family's fleet has lost its combat effectiveness after five main battleships were severely damaged and sunk successively. The rest of the ships are just trying to escape.But they ignored the naval warfare tactics of turning in front of the enemy and made themselves the best targets. The gunners tried their best to show their artillery skills, and one ship after another was hit, caught fire, and sank.

It has been observed that more than 14 ships were hit, 10 of which caught fire, and 5 have disappeared from the sea: may have sunk or withdrawn from the battle.

The more than 20 fire attack ships that had already entered the battlefield ignited and began to attack together in the chaos. The fire attack ships went smoothly and were very advantageous, but their position was the farthest from the first team, and there was still a distance of about 3000 meters when they rushed to attack. , Even at a speed of 6 knots, it was still easily avoided by the first team.

"Damn it!" A leader saw that the gangster's boat was running fast against the wind, and couldn't believe his eyes. What's the point of fighting?Let alone chasing my own boat, now it is difficult to even turn, so there is no way to talk about bumping into it.

Once avoided, chasing the steam warships of the First Squadron sailing against the wind and the current is an impossible task for the fire attack ships that rely on the wind to gain sprinting power.

Under the strong sea wind, not only the sailors had difficulty controlling the steering of the ship, but also the fire that had already ignited was blown bigger and bigger. The scorching air made it difficult for the sailors to survive, so they had to abandon the ship one after another.The raging fireboats that lost control drifted aimlessly under the push of the wind.

At 10:40, Ming Qiu ordered the first team to cease fire and began to turn.Part of the ships of the Zheng family's fleet were paralyzed on the water and blazing, and some of them sank to the bottom of the water. Except for a few fuchuan and Guangzhou ships that fell behind and turned their rudders in time to escape, Zheng Lian's fleet was already ten. There is no more.

The follow-up fire attack ships did not know the situation ahead, and when they entered the battlefield one after another, they only saw black smoke rising into the sky, and there were burning wrecks everywhere on the sea. The dense smoke after the artillery firing made the sea dark.The sailors of the fire attack ship were at a loss—they had received orders in advance to launch according to the flagship's flag signal, but now the flagship was nowhere to be found, and the enemy could not see clearly where it was.

While hesitating, a gust of sea breeze blew away part of the gunpowder smoke that shrouded the sea.The sailors on the Huogong ship suddenly saw a terrible picture. The largest warships of the family were burning on the sea, and Zheng Lian's flagship had already burned to the waterline.In the distance, five black ships emitting black smoke are making a huge turn, and the waves are rolling, like giant sea monsters that are gaining momentum, ready to rush over and fight.

Without too much hesitation, when a 130mm artillery shell roared and fell into the water, all the ships turned their bows and fled in all directions. Rewarding silver is not to send death for nothing.

(End of this chapter)