Screams of surprise rang out on each warship, and the raindrops in the sky caused heavy casualties to the Zheng family's fleet. **"""*
"Fight back quickly, fight back with grapeshot!"
"Avoid it, avoid it quickly!"
Facing the sky full of iron beads and sudden blows, although the experienced Zheng Zhibao felt very sorry for the casualties of the sailors, he did not retreat, but ordered the fleet to counterattack immediately.
"Everything, everything..."
The three No. 2 Fortune Ships of the Zheng family at the front opened fire, and their firepower, now equipped with grape bullets, suddenly became much more ferocious. In an instant, a hail of bullets sprayed forward.
"Sir, it's dangerous, get down quickly!"
The flag-bearer who had been standing next to Tu Hai saw the rain of bullets flying towards the fleet and immediately threw Tu Hai, who was watching the battle, to the ground.
But Tu Hai stood firm and said impatiently: "Why panic, we and the others can't reach here. It seems that the Zheng family's fleet responded very quickly. They have many ships. We will suffer a lot if we work together like this.
Order the fleet to retreat and shoot from a distance!"
"yes!"
Fleet battles test the overall quality of the entire fleet, the experience of the sailors and the commanding ability of the commander. Regarding the latter, it seems that Tu Hai has done a pretty good job.
"Bump bump bump..."
A sound like fried beans rang out from the previous ships. It was the sound of iron beads hitting the hull. The screams of sailors could be heard from time to time in this sound. Anyone could understand that these people who had been shot
It is difficult for sailors to survive.
But Mo Hui was not as lucky as Tu Hai. The warship he was riding in was always at the forefront, so half of the grape bombs fired by the Zheng family's warship were directed at them. Fortunately, the Spanish three-masted sailboat always came towards them.
It is famous for its thick skin and thick flesh. The hull is made of fine oak. The iron beads hitting the hull made a harsh sound of "pah pah pah", and at the same time there were the screams of the sailors who were shot.
.
"Bang!" With a dull loud noise, a sailor fell from the mast and landed right next to Mo Hui and Li Xiaojun. Mo Hui looked back and saw that the sailor's head was hit by an enemy's grape bullet.
It had been blasted to pieces. Red blood and white brains were scattered all over the floor.
Looking at the sailor lying on the deck, Mo Hui gritted his teeth and shouted loudly: "Someone, please carry this brother down, and another person will come up."
"I go!"
Mo Hui gave the order. A backup sailor immediately climbed up the mast using both hands and feet and continued to control the sail.
"Sir, Commander Tu sent a signal, ordering us to distance ourselves from the enemy ships, keep a hundred and sixty steps away from them, and then attack the enemy with superior artillery fire."
"Yeah! That's right!" Mo Hui thought for a moment and shouted with a hint of surprise: "Look at my stupid brain, our artillery has a farther range than theirs, why are we so close to shoot at them?
, quickly tell the brothers to distance themselves from those turtle sons, and then beat them hard!"
"Yes, this method is good!" Li Xiaojun on the side also agreed with this order. Although the morale of the Qingzhou Navy was still high at this time, some congenital defects cannot be made up for by courage. For example, the training level of both sides,
Shooting skills, reaction time, etc. all take time to accumulate and accumulate, but it is a very wise approach to distance the two sides and use the advantage of one's own artillery range to offset the opponent's experience and skills.
As the orders were issued one by one, the fastest fast cruiser was the first to retreat. The Dafu ship and the Spanish galleon that were left behind were relatively slow to move, so they turned a big turn and gradually retreated to the rear.
.Although they were retreating, the artillery did not stop and continued to spray flames.
Just as Zheng Zhibao was having a good fight, the lookout on the mast loudly reported: "Fourth Leader, those cowards have escaped!"
"What?" Zheng Zhibao, who was giving orders, quickly looked through the telescope after hearing the report, and found that the Qingzhou Navy on the opposite side was slowly retreating. At this time, he had reached a distance of about 250 to 300 meters from himself.
"Hahaha..." Zheng Zhibao burst out laughing when he saw this, "Let me just say, how can those Qingzhou landlubbers be our opponents? Look at it, they haven't even started fighting for two-quarters of an hour.
Tails escaped."
"Sir, do we want to continue chasing?" the first mate next to him asked.
"No need." Zheng Zhibao, who was in a good mood, waved his hand, "Sen'er has to send people ashore to land. We can't run too far. We have to be careful that they come back and kill them, leaving twenty Cangshan boats to guard here.
, let’s go to the port and put down the infantry brother.”
"Yes!" The flagman ran to the side and was about to issue an order to the surrounding ships. Suddenly, a black iron pellet flew from the front and hit the top of the hull. It made a loud "bang" sound and shook the hull.
A big hole was made on the top, and then the iron pellet bounced back, fell to the deck and bounced a few times, rolling on the deck. A sailor from the Zheng family accidentally touched the iron pellet with his foot.
, and then let out a sharp scream. It turned out that such a projectile seemed inconspicuous, but it was actually extremely hot. The sailor's calf had been burned.
"Son of a bitch, you can hit so accurately at this distance!" Zheng Zhibao cursed bitterly, but he didn't want to pay attention to these first ships that had withdrawn from the battlefield. He had more important things to do.
"No, they fired shells again."
Following the warning sound coming from the mast, Zheng Zhibao was suddenly startled and saw another dense rain of small bullets flying from the front. The experienced Zheng Zhibao immediately jumped onto the deck without thinking. Almost at the same time, these bullets
The rain splashed on the exposed hull like raindrops, and there were bursts of screams.
"Help me, someone help me!"
Just when Zheng Zhibao had just crawled out of his hiding place, a sailor with his face covered in blood was lying on the deck rolling in pain. His body was like a beaten rag bag, with blood seeping out densely everywhere. Zheng Zhibao could only
One look and he knew he couldn't be saved.
"These bastards, they are looking for death!" Zheng Zhibao was enraged. He grabbed a sailor who was rescuing people and roared loudly: "Hurry up and order the gunners to fight back! Hurry up and fight back!"
"Bang bang bang..."
The Zheng family's fleet immediately began to counterattack with artillery fire, but they were surprised to find that all the projectiles fired this time were shot into the sea water, and they did not even catch the sides of the opponent's ships.
"No, it's out of range!" Zheng Zhibao's heart sank when he saw it! Because the grape bullet's body is lighter and smaller, with the same charge, the range of the grape bullet is more than half closer than that of solid bullets, exceeding
At a distance of two hundred meters, grape bullets are useless.
When he was in a daze, another round of grape bullets was thrown at him like water. This time, the number of grape bullets was even more than the previous round. The dense rain of bullets crackled on Zheng.
On the family's fleet, sailors kept screaming and fell into the water or fell to the ground and died.
Mo Hui, who was standing on the deck just now, was still startled when the Zheng family's fleet fired grapeshot again. A long string of projectiles passed over the sea, like a flock of frightened black crows.
Mo Hui was so scared that his heart was about to jump out when he saw the sky and the sun. If these bullets fell on the deck, at least another number of people on his ship would be killed. Fortunately, these iron balls were flying away from the ship.
They all fell into the sea when they were thirty or forty steps away. There was a neat sound of falling into the water "plop, plop".
"Damn, thank God!" Mo Hui took a deep breath and ordered loudly: "Keep firing grapeshot!"
"Everything..."
"Everything..."
After two or three more rounds of attacks, the Qingzhou Navy took advantage of the distance to beat the Zheng family's fleet to the point of losing their temper. They wanted to hit but they couldn't reach them. If they wanted to pursue, the other side would attack them when they saw one of them approaching.
Retreat immediately, keep a proper distance from yourself and continue firing.
Now Zheng Zhilong was so angry that he almost burst into flames. He thought about how he had suffered such losses in all his years in Southeast Asia. In desperation, he issued an order that he regretted and hit the wall after the war.
"Order, all Cangshan ships should catch up, get close to the enemy ship and give me a hard hit!"
The Cangshan boat is a shallow-draft, fast-speed vessel that is light and agile. It is mainly used to chase enemies and retrieve heads. It is equipped with 2 Qianjin Folang machines, 3 bowl-mouth blunderbuss, and 4 Lumi blunderbuss, and has 37 people on board.
, 4 sailors and 33 soldiers, mainly used to chase enemies and retrieve heads.
"Master Four, the opponent's fleet is very powerful. It's too dangerous just to let the Cangshan ship approach." The first mate on the side quickly stepped forward to dissuade him.
"Pah!" A loud slap sounded, and Zheng Zhibao shouted with red eyes: "You bitch, you dare to disobey my orders. Do you want to be punished by military law? Go quickly!"
"yes!"
The first mate, who was shuddering in his heart, knew very well what kind of harsh punishment would be meted out for violating military orders during war. He did not dare to say anything and immediately lowered his head to deliver the order.
After receiving the order, the Cangshan boat immediately broke away from the cover of the Fu boat and used its speed advantage to press against the Qingzhou Navy. At one time, more than fifty Cangshan boats were like dexterous small fishes shuttled back and forth on the sea, heading towards Qingzhou ahead.
The navy rushed over.
"Well, what is that? Do you want to use those small boats to entangle us?" Tu Hai, who was guarded by a group of ships in the center of the fleet, quickly saw through the opponent's plan through his telescope.
He immediately gave the order: "Order, the fast cruiser will move forward immediately, form a wild goose formation, and prepare to destroy the enemy with rifles!"
Following Tu Hai's order, thirty fast boats also rushed out and faced the enemy fleet. Soon, the ships from both sides were entangled together. (To be continued...)