The lookout on the rail of the armed merchant ship Lucky Fortune observes the sea surface through a high-magnification telescope.
He discovered the pirate fleet immediately.
After Yu Fuyun got the news, he had all the cargo ships gather together.
There are also a small number of cannons on the cargo ships of the Guangdong Maritime Trading Company. The crews have also undergone preliminary training, and there are armed teams equipped with rifles on board.
When a cargo ship is attacked by a small pirate ship, they also have a certain ability to protect themselves.
Yu Fuyun led all the armed merchant ships in a column, with one side of the ship aimed at these pirate ships.
By arming merchant ships with a large number of cannons on their sides, they concentrated firepower to destroy pirate ships.
Yu Fuyun led the armed merchant ship, maintained formation from the downwind, and slowly approached the pirate ship.
During this time, he communicated frequently with Cao Zhengyuan, the staff officer of the South China Sea Fleet.
Yu Fuyun learned from him some combat formations commonly used in naval battles.
The complex formations of naval battles and the tactics that require changes in formations are definitely not something that their team can do.
Armed merchant ships follow the flagship and maintain a long snake formation. These excellent captains can still do it.
Yu Fuyun also did not have enough semaphore operators to rely on semaphores to command other armed merchant ships.
He only informed the captains of these armed merchant ships in advance to follow him.
Wherever the Lucky Fortune goes, these ships will follow the Lucky Fortune.
Whichever target the Hongyun fired its guns at, these ships would follow suit and attack that target.
…………………………
Liu Xiang's fleet is traveling with the wind, so it can approach these cargo ships faster.
When they can see the general appearance of the fleet with their eyes.
Liu Xiang suddenly saw ten escorting merchant ships rushing out from the merchant fleet.
These merchant ships were equipped with some artillery and used similar tactics to the Spanish and Portuguese he encountered.
It's just that the cannons on these merchant ships are very small, so they don't look like much of a threat.
Liu Xiang raised his steel sword and waved it forward: "We are fast in the wind, and my Dragon Slayer will use the Hongyi cannon to destroy the opponent's armed merchant ships.
The other ships rushed up to me to engage in a boarding battle. As long as they bite these cargo ships, they will never be able to escape."
The remaining pirate ships have very few guns and can only engage in boarding battles.
This is also a common tactic used by pirates. Only red-haired warships like his ship Tulong can conduct naval battles through artillery.
In Liu Xiang's impression, the power of artillery is related to the thickness of the muzzle.
The thicker the muzzle of the cannon, the more powerful it is.
The guns on these strange fleets were not as thick as the guns on his Dragon Slayer.
The size of these ships is not as big as his ship.
He felt that these people were just imitating others and were not as powerful as the red-haired warships. He also wanted to learn the tactics of the red-haired people.
As long as the other pirate ships can hold these ships back for a short while.
He can rely on the powerful strength of the Dragon Slayer to destroy all the opponent's ships.
Liu Xiang is extremely confident in himself, and he should be confident in his ability to sit on the Dragon Slayer.
He had seen the Spanish wipe out pirates and only use two such warships to cooperate with each other.
The pirates' dozen or so warships would soon be destroyed without any damage to them.
Liu Xiang saw how powerful these people were, so he went to join them.
…………………………
Yu Fuyun came to the naval gun emplacement.
Two soldiers were holding the shells of the naval gun and loading the naval gun.
The two naval guns distributed on one side of the battleship are all loaded with ammunition.
He asked the gunner: "How is it? Can you hit the biggest pirate ship?"
The gunner said shyly: "Manager Yu, my artillery skills are not very good, and I don't know how to operate high-end tactics.
I can only aim directly, but fortunately the naval gun's direct fire is more accurate.
If it gets closer than fifty meters, I will be confident that I can hit that big ship."
Yu Fuyun said happily: "Okay, let's move forward fifty meters."
He commanded the Fortune and continued to approach the pirate ship.
"Manager Yu, most of the pirate ships are rushing towards our fleet.
Now that the distance is enough, use rockets! Burn these pirate ships directly."
When Yu Fuyun heard this, he quickly stopped him and said, "No, we can't scare the snake away.
We must wait until the naval guns fire to destroy the big pirate ship.
I wonder what the range of the pirate ship's cannon is?
If you are not confident enough, you must not fire.
Once the enemy is alerted and the range of the opposing artillery is long enough, we will be passive.
When that large pirate ship adopts kiting tactics, we will have no way to deal with it.
The defeat had a great impact on us."
Yu Fuyun asked the rockets to target these densely packed pirate ships in advance.
The bows of these pirate ships rushed directly towards their fleet.
Rather than swerving sideways towards their fleet.
If it was the latter, Yu Fuyun would still have to worry, as the pirate ship was prepared to use a large number of artillery to destroy them.
When he saw what the pirates were doing, he no longer worried.
The pirate ship rushed over directly, and it must be extremely fast.
But this also shows that the pirate ship's firepower is insufficient.
They must have adopted the common pirate ship method of jumping gangs and engaging in shipboard battles.
Yu Fuyun laughed as he thought about it.
After all, these people are just pirates, and there is no industrialized country behind them to support them.
How could they possibly afford a large number of artillery pieces?
When he was still in the Hanshui Navy, he also helped the secret guards transport artillery to the invading army.
I have witnessed with my own eyes that the service life of artillery purchased by the army for several thousand taels of silver coins has exceeded half.
The Chuang army would need to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver coins to purchase these artillery pieces.
These people are just pirates and have no way of purchasing a large number of artillery.
Even if these pirates are very rich, the Westerners will not sell them advanced weapons.
It is impossible for the Xiyi people to cultivate a competitor in this sea area.
"Manager Yu, the pirates' large warship has entered the range of our naval guns."
When Yu Fuyun heard the gunner's report, he immediately issued the order.
"Two naval guns were aimed at the pirate's flagship.
After the naval gunfire, rockets fired freely."
When the gunner was preparing the artillery, he locked the pirate's large warship by adjusting the position of the muzzle.
When the gunnery commander heard Yu Fuyun's order, he immediately ordered the arrival.
"The naval gun is ready to fire. Everyone should avoid it and do not stand within the red box."
The gunner was lying on the telescope next to the gun, looking at the location of the large pirate warship.
"The muzzle rotates one degree to the left and 0.8 degrees upward."
"Fort No. 1 is ready."
"Fort No. 2 is ready."
"The No. 1 and No. 2 turrets fire in sequence, pay attention to the stability of the ship."
The gunner ordered the firing sequence, but the armed merchant ship could not withstand the recoil of two naval guns firing at the same time.
The timing of their firing must be staggered.
"fire!"
At the command of the gunner, the artilleryman pulled the gun rope.
The spring pushes the firing pin and hits the primer of the cannonball, causing the black powder in the cannonball to burn violently.
Pushing the projectile head, it flew towards the target at high speed.
When the cannonball flies out of the muzzle, the naval gun also slides backwards along the slide rail at high speed.
As the naval gun slid, the armed merchant ship immediately began to tilt.
Due to its center of gravity, the ship kept rocking on the sea.
The ship calmed down a little, and the gunner issued another order.
This is a small horse-drawn cart, or a small ship such as an armed merchant ship, which can hardly withstand the recoil of naval guns.
The naval gun fired again, and the shells continued to fly towards the pirate flagship.
The Hongyun was shaking more violently than before.
Yu Fuyun quickly took command and shouted loudly:
"Turn on the steam engine and pull the naval gun back to its fixed gun position."
The tonnage of the naval gun is too large, and it will take a long time to return the gun to its position just by manpower.
Fortunately, there is a steam engine on the ship. With the power of the steam engine, the naval gun can be returned to its position quickly.
Yu Fuyun saw that the Hongyun had stabilized, and he checked the results of the bombardment.
The Hongyun fired two shells, but none of them hit the pirate's large warship.
But he had already heard the sound of cannon fire from other armed merchant ships.
The eight rocket launchers on his ship also reminded him of the special flight sound of rockets taking off.
…………………………
Liu Xiang's Dragon Slayer has already approached the opponent's fleet.
He saw the pirate ships under his command rushing towards the fleet. The fleet was quickly approaching, but the other party did not respond.
"My tactics are indeed correct. The small cannons on the opponent's ship have a very close range.
We also rush over and use the Hongyi cannon on the ship to directly destroy our opponent's resistance."
The Hongyi cannon on the Liu Xiang Tulong is a real Hongyi cannon made by the Portuguese.
The range is extremely long and the power is very powerful. The merchant ships in front of him cannot stop the attack of the red cannon's fiery bullets.
Liu Xiang already showed an expression of hope for victory.
Suddenly he heard several loud noises.
Then I saw huge smoke rising from the side of the ship at the head of the opponent's fleet.
"Don't be afraid, they are the brothers who are shelling the past and continue to target the armed merchant ships ahead."
Liu Xiang is encouraging the brothers on the boat.
He suddenly felt the sound of heavy objects falling into the water around the Dragon Slayer.
"How is this possible? The opponent's artillery barrel is so thin, how can it shoot so far.
Fortunately, the opponent's artillery was not very accurate."
When firing a cannon on a ship, the hit rate is usually not high.
They all rely on firepower density to win. As long as he advances a certain distance, the Hongyi cannon on the Dragon Slayer can fire.
Just as Liu Xiang thought this, he heard the piercing sound of cannons ringing out continuously.
Most of the cannonballs flew around the ship.
But there were two shells, one hitting the deck and one hitting the hull below the waterline.
"Fortunately, it's not a fiery bomb. My Dragon Slayer has a sealed cabin."
As soon as Liu Xiang finished saying this, he felt a loud boom.
He flew directly into the sky and soon lost consciousness.
…………………………
The Hongyun's two rounds of shelling did not hit the large pirate warship, and the artillery was reloading the guns.
Yu Fuyun stood on the deck, using binoculars to look at the results of other armed merchant ships.
This round of bombardment failed to hit, so he was probably about to enter a shooting phase with the pirates.
The first round of shelling by other armed merchant ships failed, and the shells fell into the distant sea.
The armed merchant ship launched a second round of shelling, and Yu Fuyun saw two shells hitting the enemy ship.
A shell hit near the mast. The naval gun shell was loaded with ten kilograms of yellow gunpowder, and the explosion was extremely powerful.
A wooden sail warship cannot withstand the power of the explosion of naval gun shells.
Yu Fuyun saw that the cannonballs on the deck of the large pirate warship exploded first, throwing the mast directly into the air.
The pirates on the deck were basically cleared away.
Then the shell hit the middle of the enemy ship near the waterline and exploded.
This warship, which was more than 40 meters long, was directly torn apart by the cannonball and broken into two sections.
The smoke cleared and the pirate ship slowly sank into the water.
When Yu Fuyun saw that the large pirate warship was destroyed, he turned his attention to other battlefields.
At the same time as the naval guns opened fire, rockets carried by armed merchant ships were also fired.
The rocket uses a high-intensity warhead, which explodes directly above the pirate ship.
As if it were raining, balls of flames kept falling down.
These flames fell on the sea and burned violently as they floated on the sea.
As the water flowed to the nearby pirate ship, the flames burned fiercely near the waterline of the ship.
The flames fell on the pirate ship, especially the sails and wooden decks, and immediately burned violently.
Yu Fu looked through his telescope and saw a ball of flame falling on a pirate's arm.
The flames burned fiercely directly on the pirate's arm.
The pirate slapped it with his hand, and the flame immediately dispersed, but it did not go out and continued to burn.
The pirate was in so much pain that he rolled on the deck.
As he rolled, the flames stuck directly to the deck and burned violently.
There were many pirates who couldn't stand the burn of the fire and jumped directly into the sea.
This is the power of fire bombs. Fire oil is a powerful combustion accelerant. It can float directly on the water and burn.
Add sugar and other viscous agents to the fire oil, and it will stick directly to the human body and continue to burn.
There is currently no fire extinguishing method that can quickly extinguish the burning caused by violent fire oil.
Once the violent fire oil burns, the most commonly used method of extinguishing the fire, pouring water on it, will not work at all.
Yu Fuyun saw that the pirate ships were hit by rockets, basically annihilating them, and a large number of pirate ships were burning.
The pirates who were not hit by the fire bombs could only jump into the sea when they saw the burning pirate ship.
There are also flames on the sea, but as long as you don't touch them, they are safer than on the boat.
In this battle, they directly eliminated this group of pirates.
This battle directly created a reputation that made other pirates no longer dare to rob them.
"The fleet is temporarily parked here, waiting for the fire on the sea to extinguish, and then send some small boats to catch the living pirates.
I want to understand some of the power of the Western Yi people from their mouths.
These people are strong laborers and excellent miners."
The armed merchant ship stopped, and the cargo ship behind received news that the pirates had been wiped out.
They slowly came closer and saw the cruel scene of the battlefield.
Li Shengli said in surprise: "The great pirate Liu Xiang was actually wiped out by the government.
This time I went out with the government and gained a lot of experience."
They boarded the Li family's ship and prepared to discuss how to escape and how to surrender to Liu Xiang if they could not escape.
They saw the wreckage of pirate ships scattered across the sea.
Liu Xiang, one of the great pirates off the coast of Guangdong, was wiped out.
"The escort fleet of the government fleet is so powerful, how far can the professional naval strength reach?"
"I didn't expect Liu Xiang to be so vulnerable. If we had known, we would have given money to Liu Xiang's members to arm ourselves."
"I think with the strength of the government, it will take less than a few years to eliminate pirates around the shipping routes.
From this point of view, paying taxes to the government is also a very cost-effective business."
