start an archangel

104 Sea Battle
Looking at the clouds of smoke rising from the side of the enemy battleship from a distance, and the series of low-pitched gunfire, Sidney didn't respond.

This is the limit range of the ship's smoothbore gun. In terms of the accuracy of the smoothbore gun, the probability of a battleship being hit by a shell at this distance is about the same as that of a person being hit by bird droppings.And even if it was shot by the opponent, the potential energy of the shell flying here would have been exhausted long ago, and it would not be able to cause any damage to the thick hull at all.

This is just a deterrent bombardment by the troop carrier fleet. The purpose is to make the invading fleet do evasive navigation to slow down their speed and buy time for their own fleet.

The flying shells smashed water jets one after another within a range of [-] meters around the fleet.

Without Sidney's order, the First Fleet did not make any tactical evasive actions, and continued to move at a high speed.

The distance between the two fleets was rapidly approaching, and the troop carrier fleet was at a disadvantage in terms of position and formation. The sense of urgency made Lucius once again urge the Pegasus Knights to delay the speed of the enemy fleet as soon as possible.

The Pegasus knights, who have always been fighting, began to increase the threat to the sail. They roared in the air in groups of two or three, trying their best to open the gap to defend the griffin, and whenever they had the opportunity, they rushed at the griffin. breakthrough within the protection circle.

However, the Pegasus knights met a royal griffin knight who was a professional bodyguard this time. Shu Xiao not only had to defend himself against the Pegasus knight's attack, but also commanded the griffin to deploy defenses layer by layer to ensure that the sails of his battleship were safe.

After a burst of dazzling tactical cooperation, the Pegasus Knights still failed to break through the defense of the griffins. Their result was that they killed four griffins, but they were killed by the griffins and the archers six.

The onslaught of the Pegasus knights was contained, and the Pegasus distanced themselves from the Griffin to raise their strength and prepare for the next attack, while Sidney's First Fleet entered the best range of naval guns.

"All battleships obey the order, turn the rudder 15 degrees to the right, and all artillery enters the gun positions, targeting the fourth ship of the brigantine battleship. 'Iron Plate Armor' reports your field of vision."

"Iron Plate Armor" is the trailing battleship of the First Fleet, and it will be the last one to adjust its angle during the steering process of the entire fleet.

The brigantine fourth ship of the troop transport fleet is also the fourth battleship in the five-ship sequence of the enemy fleet. Now it is 200 meters to the right rear of the troop transport escort fleet and is entering the formation route.From the perspective, the poop of the brigantine No. [-] has been exposed sideways under the port gun of the First Fleet.

Under Sidney's order, the muzzles of all the port side artillery of the First Fleet protruded from the gun ports, and the dark naval guns aimed at the enemy fleet's brigantine fourth ship.

The strongest defense of a battleship is the two side walls of the ship, where the wood is not only thickened, but also the important parts have external armor plates.The bow and stern building are affected by the load of the whole ship and the front and rear proportions, so the defense is relatively weak, especially the stern building, where the rudder, captain's cabin, and bridge are all located.Therefore, if a ship's poop receives penetrating damage from the rear, it is likely to lose combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

Therefore, when it was discovered that the incoming fleet had begun to enter the bombardment position, the brig No. [-] of the escort fleet did not dare to maintain the route of entering the formation, and turned the rudder urgently to prepare to use its starboard side to meet the bombardment.

The angle reported by the captain of the "Iron Plate Armor" kept echoing in Sidney's ears.

However, the tail ship did not enter the shelling angle for a long time, but the enemy brig No. [-] clearly showed signs of turning its rudder to protect its weak position.

At a farther position, the artillery of the troop transport fleet kept firing, and the shells were getting closer and closer to the First Fleet.At this moment, Sidney decided not to wait for the "Iron Plate Armor" and ordered the entire fleet to fire at the enemy brig IV.

"fire!"

"Boom boom boom boom..."

The 50 artillery pieces on the port side of the First Fleet opened fire from the first artillery group accordingly, and it took 10 seconds to tilt the 50 artillery shells towards the enemy brigant No. [-].

The gunners who fired the gun didn't care what they hit. Under the command of the gunner, they pulled the gun with smoke from the muzzle into the cabin, quickly cleared the gun, loaded gunpowder and shells, and then fired the gun again. Push out the gun port.

Sidney set up the binoculars, and 50 shells drew a series of low and flat parabolas in the air and flew towards the enemy Brig IV.

At this time, the hull of the "Skeleton Soldier" shook slightly.

Shot!But it's nothing, a shell hit the side can not cause too much damage to the "Skeleton Soldier".

Sidney continued to observe the effects of the bombardment.

50 shells fell around the enemy brig No. [-], and the water jets splashed at close range almost submerged the small brig.

The shells fired at different times were still falling, and one of them hit the top of the poop directly, and sawdust splashed into the sea behind.

"Hit!"

Although only one of the 50 shells hit the opponent, the new ship, new cannon, and new sailor can hit the opponent with a single shot at this distance, which has just entered the optimal range, which is already very accurate.What's more, this shell hit the top floor of the enemy ship's poop, where there are usually some long-range units, like elf archers.

Seeing that one of our own warships was exposed to the artillery fire of the enemy's entire fleet, the three warships in the escort fleet, which had already entered the battle queue, accelerated the speed of firing at the first fleet to cover their own warships and complete their turn to protect their own stern. building.The warships of the First Fleet were shot one after another, but the distance prevented the shells from exerting their full power, so they could only weakly knock out marks on the sturdy ship armor.

At this time, the "Iron Plate Armor" reported that it had entered the shelling position, and each artillery group and each battleship also reported that they had completed the second round of artillery loading.

Looking at the enemy ship that was about to turn around, Sidney quickly ordered: "Target enemy brig No. [-], fire! Free fire for three rounds. All ships maintain formation and speed!"

Amidst the bursts of fireworks, a salvo of artillery fires again.

With the first calibration, the number of artillery fired in this salvo has not only increased to 60, but also the scattered range has become more concentrated.

Streams of seawater hit the wall of the brigantine battleship, and shells in the seawater frequently hit the hull of the brigantine battleship.

After the second round of salvo, the First Fleet started three rounds of free fire. After reloading the shells, all the artillery that fired the shells fired immediately without waiting for the order, and used high-frequency firing to increase the hit rate.

While attacking the enemy's No. [-] battleship, Sidney's First Fleet still maintained its sailing speed.His fleet quickly surpassed, ignoring the damaged enemy brig No. [-], while attacking his own troop transport fleet with naval guns, while cutting in obliquely, preparing to use the speed to seize the "T" prefix of the troop transport fleet .

(End of this chapter)