"Stop guessing here now, let's go back and watch the battle later?"
Su Chen didn't want to analyze and guess why and how the Big Eater came to Malacca.
The Big Eater always brought him surprises and confusion. This time it was even worse, and Su Chen was numb.
Besides, the battle is not over yet. As I and Liu Rengui and others, it is better to go back quickly to see the fighting situation at the rear.
Su Chen, Liu Rengui, and Li Chengqian did not take the transport ship again this time.
The three of them boarded the two main gunboats and rushed to the rear.
Before leaving, I left the frigates behind. One stayed here to watch the cannibal camp, and the rest searched along both sides of the strait to see if there were any other cannibal camps.
Su Chen felt that there should be more, and there should be more than one.
The Great Eater has invested a lot of troops in Malacca this time. There are 200 to 300 galleys and at least 30 to 40 thousand people. The camp in front of them is too small.
When Su Chen rushed to the rear battlefield, the battle here was already coming to an end.
In terms of naval combat capabilities, the Great Cannibal is still far from being comparable to the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty.
The reason why the early battle was so frustrating and four main gunboats were lost,
That's just because the big eater chose a perfect place to set up an ambush.
The gunboat cannot retreat in order to cover the transport ship behind it. In addition, the Singapore Strait is too narrow, and the gunboat has seriously insufficient space to maneuver left and right.
Therefore, the main gunboats can only push forward like fools, almost like living targets.
In fact, except for that kind of suicide attack, the Great Cannibal did not have any attack methods that could cause huge damage to the warships of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty.
With the solidity and fire prevention and fire extinguishing methods of the Tang Navy warships,
If the quantity of gunpowder bombs and kerosene is insufficient, it will be difficult to cause fatal damage to the warships of the Tang Navy.
Just relying on the giant crossbows and trebuchets on the big cannibal ship, it is almost impossible to throw a large amount of gunpowder bombs or kerosene onto the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy warship.
The range, rate of fire and hit rate of trebuchets and giant crossbows are not as good as those of bowl-mouth blunderbuss!
The reason why so many gunboats were hit on the battlefield ahead was entirely because the gunboats were restricted in their movement and could not distance themselves from the man-eating galleys.
Otherwise, the warships of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty would not have given the cannibal ships a chance to approach.
On the battlefield behind, because we have to stop the big cannibal,
Like the gunboats on the battlefield ahead, the frigates led by Master Sun Ren also had no room to retreat or maneuver left and right.
In addition, there is no powerful long-range firepower of the main gunboat.
Therefore, the casualties of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty were relatively high at the beginning.
Even if warned in advance, the cannibal will carry out a suicide attack.
Still, three frigates were directly bombed and sunk, or they sank quickly after being hit.
.
The sturdiness of the frigate's hull is still quite different from that of the main gunboat.
Of the four main gunboats that had holes blown into their hulls, only one was completely sunk when Su Chen returned. It was the captain who was unable to do anything and abandoned the ship on his own initiative to escape.
The three frigates that were hit by suicide attacks capsized and sank into the sea not long after they were hit.
In the ensuing melee, three more frigates were severely damaged.
The fire prevention and fire-extinguishing capabilities of the frigate are similar to those of the main gunboat. The kerosene of the big man-eater did not cause much damage to the frigate.
However, those gunpowder bombs still pose a relatively large threat to the frigate.
The three severely damaged frigates were all damaged by gunpowder bombs.
Although the hull structure is not serious, the buildings and decks on the ship were seriously damaged.
The most important thing is the serious casualties.
In fact, no matter whether it is a gunboat or a frigate, as long as a bomb falls on it, the damage to personnel will be considerable.
The big cannibal's crude bomb may not do much damage to the thick deck of the main gunboat, but it cannot do much damage to the soldiers on the deck.
Fortunately, the cannibals put most of their suicide attacks on the battlefield ahead.
Moreover, when the rear battlefield is exchanging fire with the enemy, the battle on the front battlefield is already halfway over.
As soon as the battle at the front ended, the situation on the battlefield at the rear immediately began to change.
First of all, once the transport ship leaves, the rear no longer has to hold its position.
Master Sun Ren immediately ordered the fleet to retreat and distanced itself from the cannibal ship.
Three hundred meters away, they used a bowl-mouth gun to bombard the ship of the Great Eater. At this time, the Great Eater began to feel depressed.
The giant crossbows and trebuchets 300 meters away are simply out of reach. If you want to get closer, you have to endure a round of shelling first!
After finally getting close, the Tang navy ships began to retreat again,
This is because the strait is too narrow, otherwise the cannibal would be even more depressed.
Immediately afterwards, the main force of gunboats and galley fleet came to support, and now the situation of the big man-eating ship became even more difficult.
By the time Su Chen arrived at the rear battlefield, the Great Eaters were already on the verge of complete defeat.
Seeing another gunboat approaching, the big eater immediately began to turn the bow of the ship and flee.
"Want to run?
The Singapore Strait is hundreds of miles behind, let me see where you are going?"
Su Chen led the fleet in hot pursuit.
The cannibal is not stupid. He cannot keep running eastward along the strait.
After fleeing eastward for a while, they all headed south, trying to pass between the southern islands.
Not to mention this is really a good idea,
The cannibal's galley is much smaller in size than the warships of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, and it is powered by oars. It is much more flexible than the warships of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty when traveling among these islands.
But this is also a short-term advantage. It is impossible to escape the pursuit of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty. It is impossible for them to hide in the archipelago forever?
Between the reefs.
Let Cheng Wuting lead other ships to chase the big cannibal.
Su Chen returned to the transport ship by himself, preparing to go back and continue searching for the camp left by the big cannibal.
He also kept Master Sun Ren and asked him to report the battle situation to him in detail.
"Commander, frigates No. 302, No. 406 and No. 601 sank after being hit by enemy suicide attacks."
Su Chenyi frowned: "406, the captain of the fourth frigate team sank directly?"
The warship numbering rules formulated by Su Chen for the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty are:
Cruisers, that is, main gunboats, have two-digit hull numbers, currently ranging from 01 to 18, but ship No. 03 has been sunk, and ship No. 12 is about the same.
The frigate has a three-digit hull number. Each of the six teams has their own team order as the first number.
The 302, 406 and 601 sunk this time were the No. 2 ship of the third frigate squadron, the No. 6 ship of the fourth squadron and the No. 1 ship of the sixth squadron.
The leader ship of each squadron is the No. 6 ship of each squadron.
"Yes, now Ship 401 is temporarily acting as the captain of the Fourth Escort Fleet."
Su Chen frowned and asked Sun Renshi to continue reporting.
"Ships 305, 504 and 605, these three ships were hit by enemy gunpowder bombs and were seriously damaged!"
