Admiral Feng Sanqiu of the Second Fleet stood on the deck, constantly observing the actions of the Xiyi battleships.
He also learned from the experience of the Xiyi people's naval battle through this battle.
The level of naval warfare of the Xiyi people is indeed much better than theirs.
The Qin army's battle line was very rigidly lined up.
As long as each warship does not fall behind, it is already at its limit, and there is basically not much maneuverability.
It was easy for the Xiyi people to predict their position and suffered a large number of artillery attacks.
The naval battleships of the Xiyi people are arranged in a queue as a whole, but the cooperation between warships is more flexible.
Feng Sanqiu could clearly see that these eleven Xiyi battleships were divided into two parts.
The Dutch battleships cooperated very closely with each other, and the same goes for the Portuguese battleships.
But the cooperation between the two parties is far from satisfactory.
It can also be seen from here that the close cooperation between the battleships is the result of long-term training.
In particular, the Xiyi battleship was hit by them and withdrew from the battle line.
The Xiyi people still maintained their formation, and the vacated positions were immediately filled by battleships, without any dispersion at all.
There is still a gap between the naval technology of the Qin army and these Western Yi people.
The Qin Navy had been destroying pirates before, relying on the power of warships and artillery, but it was unable to show its technical level.
This time they only fought against a small fleet of the Xiyi people, and the gap between the two sides could be seen.
However, the warships of the Qin Navy, especially the battleships, had a much stronger main gun range than the Xiyi people.
Before the two armies entered into a confrontation, they destroyed two Xiyi battleships.
The battleship Yue Fei also damaged a Xiyi battleship, and they are now concentrating fire on this battleship.
Feng Sanqiu could already see through his telescope that the Xiyi battleships had moved to the point where their artillery range covered the Qin army's position.
The artillery on the Xiyi battleships opened fire one after another, and a large number of shells hit the Qin army's warships.
Feng Sanqiu saw the Xiyi people firing a large number of chain bombs at them.
These are two hemispheres connected together with an iron chain.
They are shot out of the barrel and will continue to rotate high in the air.
If the mast is hit, it can easily cause the mast to break.
If the chain bullet hits the sail, it will also directly tear the sail, reducing the maneuverability of the warship.
"Admiral, be careful."
Feng Sanqiu only heard a shout from his guard, and he was immediately thrown to the ground.
The three guards directly covered him with their bodies.
He heard a roar, and then screams came from around him.
Feng Sanqiu slowly got up and saw that the battleship Yue Fei was damaged in many places.
In particular, three large holes were torn out of the sail by chain bullets.
The speed of the battleship Yue Fei has obviously slowed down.
"These Westerners, the hit rate of warship artillery is too high."
Feng Sanqiu could clearly detect that the artillery hit rate of the Xiyi battleships was higher than theirs.
The artillery of the Qin army attacks fixed targets, and the hit rate of naval guns is pretty good.
Just use trigonometric functions and other formulas to calculate the orientation.
Artillerymen combined with their own experience can easily hit the target.
When attacking moving targets, formulas such as trigonometric functions are much less useful, and we mainly rely on experience.
What the Qin Army and Navy lack now is experience.
Feng Sanqiu immediately arranged a reserve team to replace the injured soldiers on the battleship Yue Fei.
He asked the crew to replace the damaged sails in batches.
There is a steam engine responsible for raising and lowering the sails, so the change of sails is much faster.
It was precisely because of the sail change that the battleship Yue Fei's speed was much slower.
It suffered more hits from Western warships.
The battleship Yue Fei was damaged in more than ten places, but it was still counterattacking the Xiyi warships on the opposite side.
Gunnery Chief Wang Doudou is in charge of a 150mm naval gun, which is the main gun of the battleship Yue Fei.
He has never sunk a target since the beginning of the war, and his comrades, like him, have zero records.
Only the battleship Qin Shihuang, whose main guns had a longer range, sank two Xiyi warships.
After Wang Doudou fired many rounds of naval guns, he discovered a major problem with the Qin army's artillery.
Wang Doudou immediately ran to Feng Sanqiu.
"Admiral Feng, I have a way to defeat the Xiyi people. We have to change the current way of fighting."
When Feng Sanqiu heard Wang Doudou's suggestion, he said urgently: "Just tell me the solution. I don't have time to discuss it in detail with you now."
Wang Doudou took a deep breath and said quickly: "Admiral Feng, our army's artillery is inexperienced now.
Our army's artillery forces are all about the same strength, except by chance.
From the beginning of the war to the present, each gun fired ten rounds, and most of them missed the target.
Let each gun fire freely, because the techniques are similar and the overall hit rate is also similar.
We can think of the Yue Fei battleship as a whole.
Each naval gun no longer locks onto its own target.
Directly adjust the parameters of the naval gun to cover an area.
When fifteen naval guns fire like this, one or two shells will always hit the target."
When Feng Sanqiu heard Wang Doudou's suggestion, this was the rocket's combat idea.
He immediately called all the artillery chiefs to implement Wang Doudou's plan.
The battleship Yue Fei's fifteen 150mm naval guns as the main gun opened fire again.
This time the shells came out of the barrel almost at the same time.
They planned the impact points of the artillery shells in advance and fine-tuned the parameters of each naval gun.
Let the impact points of all cannonballs cover a larger range.
No matter what evasive actions the Xiyi battleships made, they could not evade all the cannonballs.
Even with the retractable gun mount as a buffer, the huge impact of the naval gun caused the battleship Yue Fei to swing violently in the sea.
Feng Sanqiu's body swayed with the warship. He held the telescope tightly with both hands and kept staring at the Xiyi battleship ahead.
Most of the cannonballs fell directly into the sea water.
There were two shells, one hit the bow of the enemy ship, and the other hit the center of the enemy ship below the waterline.
The two shells exploded violently, directly blowing two large holes in the Xiyi battleship.
Feng Sanqiu said in surprise: "This method is effective. Use this method to attack continuously immediately."
The battleship Yue Fei fired another salvo. This time it missed the target, but the shells all landed next to the target battleship.
I just didn't expect that the battleship would suddenly leave the battle line and avoid the gunfire of the battleship Yue Fei.
The artillerymen on the battleship Yue Fei were so excited that they fired a salvo again.
This time the target enemy ship was no longer so nimble, and was directly hit by four shells.
This Portuguese battleship was directly blown to pieces.
The battleship Yue Fei was also seriously damaged, but when the Qin soldiers on the deck saw the result, they cheered, and victory was in sight.
Qin Shihuang's battleship came under concentrated fire from the artillery of the Xiyi battleship.
The masts in front were all broken by chain bullets.
Lu Yuanshan saw the battleship Yue Fei achieve two consecutive victories.
He only watched it once and wanted to understand how the battleship Yue Fei won.
The battleship Qin Shihuang also began to fire salvos. They had more naval guns on board, and two 205 naval guns with the longest range, aiming at the Xiyi battleship.
The battleship Qin Shihuang and the battleship Yue Fei fired ten salvos in just ten minutes.
Directly destroyed four Xiyi battleships.
Li Qingmu saw that the Xiyi fleet could not bear the current casualties, and they were preparing to escape.
The Xiyi people lost six of their eleven battleships, and now they have suffered more than half casualties.
Most of the Qin Navy's warships were badly damaged, and the cruisers Wuzhou and Guilin had sunk.
The cruisers faced the battleships' firepower, and they simply could not withstand it.
It was the first time for Li Qingmu to fight against such a powerful navy.
The next time he fights a battleship, he will never let a cruiser join the battlefield.
No wonder the Xiyi people did not let those small warships join the battle line to attack the Qin navy.
If they join the battle line, they will not have much effect and will also drag down the main force.
The flexibility of these warships was not fully utilized.
Li Qingmu saw that the Xiyi people's defeat had been exposed, and the Xiyi people's small warships were at the right distance from their fleet, making them suitable for rocket attacks.
He directly ordered the messenger to light the signal bomb and raise the signal flag.
The three Xiyi-type battleships hidden on the periphery of the battlefield were constantly staring in the direction of the main battlefield.
Li Pinglang stood on the deck of the Hawkeye and saw three signal flares rising. He immediately gave the order.
"Set sail, it's time for us to show off."
The signal received this time was that the Xiyi people had been defeated and they were asked to pursue them.
They serve as a reserve force. If the main force of the navy is defeated, they will be there to respond.
If the main force of the navy wins, they will use their fast speed and flexibility to pursue the Xiyi fleet.
Niu Lu, the captain of the Foshan, saw that the Foshan had been penetrated below the waterline, forming a large hole that continued to fill with water.
"Use a steam engine to pump the sea water out of the cabin quickly.
The engineers immediately plugged up the damage. This small injury will never allow the Foshan to sink."
Niu Lu looked at the cruiser Guilin next to him.
He was hit by a Western battleship's cannon, which detonated the ammunition magazine.
The Guilin sank directly, and the Foshan ship had sent a small boat to rescue the soldiers who were still alive.
Until the war is over, the Foshan cannot easily leave the battlefield.
Niu Lu saw that the command flag on the battleship Qin Shihuang had been raised.
He immediately ordered: "Prepare rockets, equip fire bombs, and use timed fuses to attack the medium-sized warships of the Xiyi people approaching us."
Foshan and other cruisers saw Li Qingmu's signal flag.
The rockets on their ship were immediately ignited, and medium-sized warships were sent to attack the Xiyi people.
Now the medium-sized warship that the Xiyi people are rushing over is just within the best range of the rockets.
A large number of rockets were launched into the sky, with a few flying randomly in the air and most flying towards the fleet of Xiyi medium-sized warships.
As if it were snowing, balls of flames continued to fall from the sky.
The flames fell on the wooden boat and immediately began to burn violently.
It fell on a person, who was rolling on the ground in pain, unable to extinguish the flames on his body, and even set the deck on fire.
The flames fell on the sea, floated and burned on the sea.
A Western warship is equivalent to sailing on a sea of fire.
If they touch these flames burning on the sea, the warship will be set alight immediately.
These Xiyi medium-sized warships became extremely panicked, and they wanted to rush out of the sea of fire.
What greeted them was the Qin Army's cruiser, which launched a second wave of rocket attacks.
…………………………
Machel, the governor of Taiwan of the Dutch East India Company, was very proud of the results they achieved when the war officially started.
People like the Qin Army and Navy only relied on the power of firearms. Judging from their immature methods, they did not have much experience in naval warfare.
These navies, which have only been established for more than a year, have little combat experience to speak of.
They made irregular maneuvers, and the Qin army and navy could not predict their actions.
No matter how powerful the artillery is, if it cannot hit them, it is useless.
They and the Portuguese joined forces to attack and soon achieved results, sinking two warships of the Qin Navy.
The two largest battleships also became scarred.
If you give them some more time, these two battleships will definitely be sunk by them.
Macher has seen that they have a winning chance.
Suddenly, the situation on the battlefield changed.
The Qin navy suddenly changed its combat method and used naval gun salvos to attack them.
Directly sealing off all avoidance spaces near the warship.
If they conduct small-scale maneuvers, they will inevitably be hit by the Qin Navy's artillery shells.
As long as one shell is hit, the warship will be severely damaged and may lose its combat effectiveness.
Machel saw that Viscount Orit's flagship had been hit by the largest battleship of the Qin Navy and turned into a pile of broken wood.
He also saw that the fleet sent out did not play its due role and was burned by the fire caused by the Qin navy using unknown weapons.
"This is fire from hell, they are followers of Satan."
The chaplain on the ship said sadly while praying with his eyes closed.
Macher also knew that the situation was over. If the war continued, their ships would also be sunk by the Qin navy.
On his flagship, the flag of retreat was raised.
Macher directly commanded the flagship, immediately accelerated with full sail, and retreated towards Taiwan Island.
The other battleships followed closely behind and withdrew from the battlefield.
Macher saw an explosion coming from behind, and the mast of another battleship was blown off.
The Portuguese battleship slowed down and was blown to pieces by two Qin battleships.
Machel kept praying with his hands on his chest, hoping that he could escape.
He saw that the warships of the Qin Navy did not pursue him, but rescued his own injured warships and fallen soldiers.
Machel felt relieved at this.
He was thinking about how to use the city of Relanzha to block the Qin army's attack.
Guo Qi said with a horrified look on his face: "Mr. Governor, look quickly, there is a fleet ahead.
There are also three battleships behind us, outflanking us."