Chapter 440 The Naval Battle of Flower and Bird Island
Soon, Fang Bu's pirates also responded to Chen Bu's attack with horn blasts.
So the remaining two thousand large ships of the two groups of pirates, leading countless fast ships, launched a charge towards the commercial fleet from all directions.
Although the morale of the Ming army officers and soldiers in the city fleet was greatly boosted, they did not dare to be too confident. These veterans all knew that the enemy was outnumbered and that if they were not careful, they would be doomed.
They took the time to cut the cables connecting the enemy ships and remove the frames supporting the crossbars, so that their ships could regain their mobility.
At the same time, the sailors shouted slogans and pulled the sail cables with all their strength to raise the battleship's sails again.
Even the newly released prisoners, regardless of their physical weakness, helped turn the windlass and slowly raised the four-claw iron anchor from the bottom of the sea...
Finally, with the concerted efforts of the soldiers, the cables were cut off, the wooden frames were dismantled, and the horizontal logs fell into the sea.
As the anchors left the seabed one by one, the sails were raised one by one, the sea breeze stirred the sails, and the ships finally began to move.
Yu Tongyuan stood on the stern deck of the flagship, calmly directing the helmsman to adjust the direction. The herald would also use semaphores to convey his orders to the warships behind.
Then, one ship after another, the entire fleet must make adjustments according to the order in order to keep the battle line neat and tidy without chaos.
This was the main subject of their previous training. Even on the way here, they were racing against time to practice, and then they barely achieved it. No matter how the flagship changed direction, the rear ship could always maintain the long snake formation, and the following ships were able to maintain the long snake formation.
degree.
Although Yu Tongyuan and Liao Dingguo have been scolding the people below for their stupid heads and poor cooperation. Lao Liu was dumbfounded. He could basically master the battle lines in such a short time. The quality of the Chaohu Navy was already beyond imagination.
Okay.
~~
However, the level of the pirates was not low, and they managed to encircle the Ming army before they could escape.
Then they launched an attack on the Ming army from all directions, trying to crush it with absolute numerical superiority.
Moreover, there are cannons on their ships, but only two cannons are installed on the bow... And only the two thousand ships are equipped with two cannons. The other fast ships are equipped with at most one cannon, and many ships are not even equipped with one.
After all, not everyone can build a cannon. Moreover, iron cannons are severely corroded at sea, and if they are not taken care of, their service life will be very short. It is very rare that the pirates can maintain their current firepower.
But these twenty or thirty iron cannons were completely inadequate compared to the more than three hundred bronze cannons installed on ten commercial warships.
As they entered the firing range, both sides fired. Amidst the rumbling sound of cannons, the first naval battle in human history where the outcome was determined by artillery - the "Battle of Flower and Bird Island", completely entered its climax.
This was a seriously unfair battle. The side with an absolute numerical advantage was beaten dizzy by the side with an absolute numerical disadvantage using superior firepower——
The city's fleet formed a battle line, constantly pouring out terrifying firepower. There were even warships that were attacked from two sides, firing from both sides at the same time!
The Ming warships opened fire, and the shells they fired fell around the pirate fleet, constantly stirring up water jets. Every moment, the pirate warships were hit by cannonballs, and the ship was in a mess. Some sails were damaged.
The cannonballs were torn off and power was lost. The unlucky guy's boat was also hit at the waterline and flooded... The casualties were insignificant.
The pirates also knew that fighting each other would lead to death, so they desperately tried to get close to the Ming warships, regardless of the huge losses, so that they could fight hand-to-hand.
Moreover, the remaining seven ships are equipped with return guns, and when they reach a suitable distance, they can be launched.
But the Ming warships formed a long snake formation, constantly changing directions, and were as slippery as a snake. They would always stay away from the pirates' main ships before they approached, and always kept a safe distance from them, using artillery fire to keep them away.
Distance causes damage.
However, there were too many ships of the pirates, and the commercial fleet could only avoid those two thousand large ships. There were still large and small speedboats approaching, braving fierce artillery fire, desperately trying to get on board.
For such warriors who are not afraid of death, the soldiers of the Ming army naturally have to treat them well - with a wave of shotguns and a close attack, the enemy ships are basically finished... and some small boats are even beaten into sieves on the spot and directly flooded and sank.
.
But the pirates also had some tricks. They discovered that there would be hundreds of breaths of time between the Ming army firing two artillery shells.
There was nothing we could do about it. After all, the Ming army's gunners were all novices and they fired too few cannons. Only by firing more real cannons could we improve our posture and increase the speed of our cannon fire.
No matter how fast you train your hand speed by just simulating cannon fire, you will still be in a hurry when it comes to actual combat. Either you forget to put the gunpowder or you forget to stuff the cannonball, and you can't get up to speed even if you want to.
Therefore, the pirates deliberately used small boats to consume the Ming army's artillery fire, and then used the safe time before the next artillery shell was fired to pick up the ship!
There was nothing wrong with this plan, but they forgot that not only did the army install cannons, but they also changed their ships... Pirate speedboats kept docking with the army's warships, but most of the pirate ships were behind the two-thousand-year-old army ships.
In front of you, you can only attack from behind.
Not to mention facing those two giant ships with 4,000 pieces of materials, attacking the deck was almost as difficult as attacking a city. The pirates could only set up ladders and climb up.
But on the bumpy sea, climbing a ladder from one ship to another is no different from doing acrobatics. The Ming soldiers above don't need to overturn the ladder. They just need to shake the ladder vigorously, and the pirates above will look like dumplings.
Fall down.
The two sides fired at each other with bows and crossbows. However, the side with the upper hand still had the advantage, and the exchange ratio was still terrible.
Therefore, in naval battles, the bigger the ship, the greater the advantage. Small ships can follow the drums and play the main role? Do you understand if you don't have the ability?
As a result, until one hundred breaths passed and the Ming army was reloaded, no pirates could attack the Ming army's deck.
Then, the clippers that came up were subjected to the next round of shelling.
The world is completely quiet...
This is also the reason why the Ming army dared to fight one against ten. The large ships of the Bao Shipyard gave them the confidence to ignore the small ships.
After the ten large ships of the pirates were incapacitated as soon as the war started, they only needed to pay attention to the remaining fourteen ships worth 2,000 tons. As long as these ships were not allowed to approach, they would be basically safe.
Even the small pirate ships rushing ahead would act as a substitute for the city fleet and block the approach of the larger pirate ships.
The fact that these favorable factors appeared together on the side of the Ming army was not simply due to luck.
It was the commander of the Ming Army who had deduced it countless times in the ‘war game’ invented by His Royal Highness the King of Chu before he came up with this combat plan that could create many favorable conditions!
Therefore, His Highness the King of Chu’s confidence in using less to defeat more is not unreasonable arrogance...
In this way, the ten warships of the city fleet always maintained their formation, constantly interspersed among the enemy formations, and continued to use artillery to cause damage to the enemy ships.
