Zheng Zhilong stood on the Changde, the flagship of the fleet. This was a giant fourteen-foot-long lucky ship. Zheng Zhilong secretly hired Chinese craftsmen from the Spanish city of Manila, and then combined Western technology with the lucky ship craftsmanship to build it.
A giant ship. This ship has a thick hull and a solid structure, with five decks above and below.
This ship is not only huge, but also armed to the teeth. It is equipped with ten 12-pound cannons, as well as 18 18-pound cannons and eight 24-pound cannons that Zheng ordered from the Macau Bugalao Gun Foundry.
, the firepower is very powerful.
The shell that penetrated the ironclad ship just now was fired by the 24-pounder gun on the Changde. In the entire Zheng family fleet, these eight heavy guns were the only ones that could threaten the ironclad ship.
Of course, only eight heavy guns could not defeat Li Zhi. Zheng Zhilong held up the telescope he bought from the Dutch and frowned as he looked at the ten armored ships ramming among the fireships.
Asia's largest pirate has dominated the oceans for more than 20 years, but this is the first time he has seen such a warship. Not only can Li Zhi's warship move forward and retreat at high speeds without sails, but it is also covered in iron armor, making it extremely sharp.
Zheng Zhilong watched one fireship after another being hit or sunk by the armored ship, and his palms became sweaty.
This armored ship is so powerful. How many of the Zheng family's navy must die to win this battle?
It wasn't until he saw the two fireships lit on the side of the Yangwei that Zheng Zhilong relaxed his brows. With the blessing of the Heavenly Concubine, the fireships finally stuck. Once such a raging fire burned, how could these ten ships not burn up?
If the armored ship is driving so fast, the iron sheet on the outside should be very light and thin, right?
Zheng Zhilong stared at the Yangwei with his telescope, praying in his heart that the fire would burn brighter and burn the incredible iron-clad ship to pieces.
However, to Zheng Zhilong's great disappointment, the two fireboats stuck on top of the armored ship burned for a long time but failed to ignite the hull of the armored ship.
If the armored ship was just covered with a layer of iron, it would probably have been burned by these fireships. However, the Yangwei was covered with 3.3 centimeters of armor. How could it be so easy to burn through? The fire burned for more than ten seconds.
It hasn't heated up the armor yet, let alone ignited the hull behind the armor.
Zheng Zhilong was very disappointed to see that the Tianjin people on the armored ship carried long tree trunks and used the tree trunks to hit the burning fire ships on the side of the ship. In the end, they knocked the two burning fire ships away.
Zheng Zhilong suddenly turned pale and couldn't help but cursed: "Lin Mu Ka Hou".
On the Yangwei, Li Zhi looked happily at the fire ship that was knocked away.
When the Zheng family's fireship was built, the preset enemy was a large wooden sailing ship. Probably the Zheng family had never thought that their enemy would drive an ironclad ship. Therefore, the steel spurs on the bow of the fireship were designed to be very sharp and slender. This kind of slender
The long barb hook will penetrate deeply when it hits the wooden hull, but when it encounters hard iron armor, the slender steel barb will not be effective.
The slender steel spines will be blunted after piercing the armor, and the armor-piercing ability will be greatly reduced.
So the sailors on the Yangwei carried the processed cedar trunks and rammed them against the fireship, and the fireship was knocked open. The Yangwei threw away the two fireships and continued to run over them at a high speed of ten knots.
.
The two-masted sand barge in front, which was used as a fire ship, was still watching to see if the two fires could burn the Yangwei, but suddenly found itself in front of the collision angle of the Yangwei. The sailors on the sand barge suddenly panicked.
He rowed as far away as possible. But the helmsman of the Yangwei was not ready to let go of the sand boat. He turned the stern rudder to chase the sand boat, and finally hit the stern of the sand boat.
The collision angle smashed the stern of the sand ship into a pile of tatters. The collision angle was tilted downward along the bow, so the small boat was pushed butt-down into the water at once. The heavy ironclad ship then ran over the sand ship.
In the past, the sand ship and the dozen sailors on it were completely pressed into the water by the 500-ton ironclad ship and never floated again.
After a minute of collision among the fireships, the cannon on the ironclad ship was loaded with shells again. The loud rumbling sound sounded again, and in the huge smoke, the fireships near the ironclad ship seemed to be named, one after another.
Huge sparks exploded from the ground. Some fireships were ignited by explosive bombs, while others were directly penetrated by explosive bombs and sank into the sea little by little.
The pirates on the fire ship were desperate.
This is not a war, this is simply one era crushing another era.
The fireship tactic failed miserably.
This tactic, which once defeated the Dutch and Spanish, helped Zheng Zhilong defeat Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin and Liu Xianglao, and allowed Zheng Zhilong to dominate the waters of East Asia, was of no use in the face of ironclads.
These ten armored ships are like ten giant steel beasts on the sea, not afraid of flames at all.
This kind of war machine that should not appear in this era is too terrifying. Continuing to fight will only lead to death. Although the reward of 800 taels of silver is tempting, it is obviously more important to save one's life. After losing more than 200 fire ships
, Zheng Zhilong’s fireship army collapsed.
The fire ships no longer rushed toward the ironclad, but turned around and fled to the north and south sides. The pirates thought the sails were not strong enough, so they rowed their oars desperately, hoping to escape faster.
The fire ships gradually dispersed. Opposite the ten ironclad ships, there were only more than a hundred blessing ships left.
But Zheng Zhilong had not given up yet. Just as the fireships withdrew, more than a hundred Fu ships once again rained cannonballs on the ten ironclads. More than 600 shells screamed and flew towards the ironclads, hitting the armor with a clanging sound.
The distance between the gunboats on both sides was only three hundred meters, and the accuracy of the cannonballs was much better. The cannons of the Zheng family fleet made large and small dents in the armor. However, except for the eight twenty-four-pound cannons, the other small cannons were still unable to hit.
Pierced the iron armor. Only two shells were fired into the iron armored ship.
Li Zhi's artillery had just finished firing and was still reloading and could not fight back. Li Zhi waved his hand and shouted: "Rush up and sink them!"
"Here!"
The sailors sang loudly and turned the ship's bow according to their commander's order. The sailor operating the boiler suddenly pulled the switch next to the whistle. The air in the boiler rushed out from the whistle, and a huge whistle sounded from the Yangwei.
.
"Woo~~"
This whistle sounded like a horn for an ironclad to charge. Upon hearing the whistle, the other nine ironclads all turned their bows and rushed towards the line of Zheng's lucky ships.
When the Zheng family's lucky ships realized that the ironclad ship was about to rush up and collide with the ship, they turned around and ran away in fear. The pirates had all seen the scene where the ironclad ship collided with the fire ship just now, and no one believed that the larger lucky ship could avoid being sunk.
Fu Chuan was so panicked when he escaped that he even gave up the movement of turning the rudder and returning to shoot.
But the Fuchuan was far from a match for the steamship in terms of speed. There was a distance of 300 meters between the two fleets, and it only took the ironclad ship three minutes to catch up.
The Yangwei aimed at a four-deck Fuzhou ship and rushed over, slamming the angle into the Fuzhou ship's poop.
The wooden Fuchuan was built with economy and practicality in mind. How could it withstand such a fierce collision from an ironclad ship? There was only a loud bang, and the high-pitched poop of the Fuchuan was cut from the middle by the Yangwei, split into two pieces on the left and right.
The seawater poured in crazily from the cracked hole in the bottom of the Fuzhou ship, causing the Fuzhou ship to lose its ability to move forward.
The collision angle of the Yangwei was still in the poop of the Fu ship, and the artillery on both sides opened fire. Thirty rounds of 18-pound explosive shells were like thirty meteors, fired at the other two Fu ships on both sides that were escaping in panic.
