The Hengshan was billowing with thick smoke and turned around towards the open sea with its right rudder full.
Woohoo! As the whistle sounded, the Hengshan suddenly accelerated. A large rolling wave was plowed out of the stern.
At first, Theodore excitedly hammered the bulwark with his fist. He thought it was the shelling that caused the enemy ship to catch fire and emit thick smoke. But he soon discovered that something was wrong, because all the smoke came from a chimney.
came out. After the smoke started coming out, the ship suddenly accelerated.
Under normal circumstances, when the wind direction remains unchanged, turning will definitely slow down the speed. But this boat accelerated during the turn, which was like seeing a ghost.
"Cake buyer, what did I see? Could this be a battleship blessed by Satan?" First mate Benjamin trembled and made the sign of the cross.
The snow-white hull and sails of the Hengshan are in sharp contrast to the black skull and crossbones flag flying high on the top of the tallest mast. All of this marks the ship as a pirate ship. Especially at the stern, there are two people wearing
European-style rear admiral uniforms, female officers wearing three-cornered hats. One of them also wears a one-eyed dragon eye patch. It looks like a proper pirate captain.
"Oh my god, the pirates in East Asia actually have such powerful battleships, which are bigger than our first-class battleships and have even bigger guns." Second Officer Karl exclaimed.
The Hengshan quickly turned its bow, leaving its stern facing the Prince and three armed merchant ships, and then headed for the open sea.
"No, catch up immediately. Their guns should be eight-inch carronade cannons. We can't let them distance themselves."
At this time, the English fleet fired another salvo. This time, because it was static fire, and the Hengshan became vertical, the projection was greatly reduced, with only two 36-pound guns and ten 24-pounders.
Shells from the pounder hit the stern and sides of the ship.
There was a loud noise, and a 36-pound artillery shell hit the eight-inch armored steel plate surrounding the bridge. It was directly ejected by the steel plate. The steel plate did not even leave a crater.
Another shot hit the captain's cabin. It penetrated the floor-to-ceiling glass window at the rear of the captain's cabin, shattered the captain's desk, and then penetrated from the front, flew into the deck, and shot a soldier delivering ammunition.
Have to be crushed.
The shell grazed the deck, jumped up, and fell into the sea with a thud.
Xiao Niangpi and Lin Yueru were so frightened that they turned pale. It was the first time they discovered that naval battles were so dangerous.
There was no safe place in the entire ship. If the command platform's wall hadn't been covered with eight inches of steel armor, if the shell had just hit it, looking at that position, at least the first mate would have been gone.
After the steam engine started, coupled with the thrust of the sail, the ship quickly reached a speed of ten knots, left the bay exit at high speed, and entered the open sea.
Dong Tianpeng finally felt relieved. The shot just now scared him to death.
It's not that he is afraid, but he has hurt his wife and he can't explain it. This time, it's better. As long as he enters the open sea, there will be plenty of room to move around. Let's see how he kills these British guys.
However, he also woke up in his heart. He had fought too many battles with the wind and lost his vigilance. He rushed directly to such a close distance and was shot through the side by someone else's heavy artillery. Fortunately, there was a distance of more than 200 meters.
You know, in this era, when sailing warships faced off in Europe, they often bombarded them from a distance of sixty or seventy meters.
If we had just rushed within 100 meters, the opponent's twenty-four-pounder cannon and thirty-six-pounder cannon could penetrate our own battleship. The loss would definitely be greater.
Afterwards, the British also rushed out of the harbor. Four warships fired at the Hengshan, which was 500 meters away. At this distance, their artillery speed had seriously slowed down. Several of the 36-pounder guns hit the Hengshan.
But none of them penetrated. One of them got stuck on the ship's side wall, and the others bounced off.
"Madam, how do you plan to deal with these people? You can use incendiary bombs to burn them directly. If you want to capture them, use solid bombs. First destroy their gun bunkers. Then board the ship and fight hand-to-hand. But I guess they have mortars, these
Large-caliber mortars will fire explosive shells, which is still a threat to us." Dong Tianpeng asked.
Xiao Niangpi thought about it, and she thought that if it were Yang Fan, he would choose to capture these people. Because she knew that the master was very concerned about the situation in Europe.
I said before that Europe is fighting a Thirty Years' War, but I don't know what the outcome is.
"Three armed merchant ships can be sunk, but this warship can be captured." Xiao Niangpi ordered.
Because she and Lin Yueru are rear admirals. Dong Tianpeng, whose military rank is higher than that of navy captain, is somehow higher. According to the principle of military rank, Xiao Niangpi has the right to command.
"Here! I will sink three small ones and capture one big one." Dong Tianpeng put his legs together and said loudly.
The Hengshan did not fight back in these rounds of shelling, but kept its distance and cruised in the distance, leaving Theodore a little confused. At this time, Earl Masfeld also limped up.
"Dear Earl, I have to tell you honestly that we must give up the mission and retreat. At least this can avoid our unnecessary losses. We are no match for that huge pirate ship." Theodore said with some shame.
"No, no retreat is allowed. We have four ships, and they only have one. We are a first-class battleship. Our sailors are well-trained. Such a retreat will bring shame to His Majesty. I order you to open fire quickly and sink these damn pirates.
Find the treasure." Earl Marsfield was obviously irritated.
He was furious because of his panic. In his opinion, the enemy had caught him off guard with their shameless sneak attack.
Didn’t you see that the enemy ship was shot and ran away in thick smoke? These cowardly idiots.
He was still scolding his subordinates for their cowardice, but he did not notice that the Hengshan had turned around.
At this time, the Hengshan ship had turned around and charged over again.
Because the Hengshan ship occupies the upwind direction, the sails on the three masts are filled with wind, and with the help of the steam engine, the speed instantly soars to 25 knots. The bow of the ship stirs up huge waves.
"Cake buyers, what's going on? How can they drive so fast?" Earl Masfield was shocked.
Taking advantage of its speed, the Hengshan cut diagonally towards the side of the British fleet. The gun windows of each battleship were narrow and the shooting range was very narrow. They quickly lost the shooting range. They also quickly turned the rudder to prevent pirates from attacking their vulnerable stern. However,
, their turning speed is far inferior to that of the Hengshan.
Although they were in the inner circle and Hengshan was in the outer circle, they were still ahead of the Hengshan.
Five minutes later, the side of the Hengshan seized the T-head, and seventeen heavy guns on the side were aimed at the armed merchant ship Kraken.
A burst of smoke and fire erupted from the side. With a deafening bang, ten fifty-pound shells hit the Kraken at a distance of 300 meters.
The mizzen mast and main mast of the Kraken were hit by chain bombs. It was directly smashed into pieces of wood and sprayed towards the deck. The huge mast fell down with a loud noise, the main mast smashed into the sea, and the mizzen mast fell towards the deck.
, knocking down the sailor on the deck who was manipulating the rigging. The ship suddenly stopped.
