Although only five shells hit the Anglo-Dutch fleet, these five shells caused huge damage. The shells of the twenty-four-pounder gun were devastating, spraying steel slag like a storm. Especially those shot into the gun deck
Those few rounds of artillery shells were able to kill and injure almost one-fifth of the gunners on the entire deck.
Five rounds of explosive shells can do more damage than dozens of solid smoothbore cannon shells.
The sea suddenly became dirty, with pieces of wood blown up by explosive bombs everywhere. The bodies of two Dutch sailors were even blown out of the ship's hull and floating on the sea.
Dutch Admiral Narsinger was stunned by such shells.
In his concept, battles between battleships always occur within one mile. Only within one mile can the heaviest sixty-pound cannon possibly penetrate the hull of a battleship.
But even at this distance, penetration is only possible with probability. For the hull of a third-level battleship, the part closer to the waterline is thicker, and even a sixty-pound gun cannot penetrate the lower part of the hull.
Therefore, in the naval battles of this era, battleships can still survive a half-day artillery battle and return to their home port for repairs. Sometimes, large-scale naval battles compete for the financial funds of warring countries to repair battleships.
However, the cone-shaped explosive shell completely overturned Narsingh's understanding. In front of this rotating shell, the wooden hull was as fragile as paper. And the explosion after penetrating the hull made the armor-piercing
The later blooming bullets can cause heavy damage that is impossible with solid bullets.
Narsingh looked at the five battleships that had been blown to pieces. He was so surprised that he opened his mouth wide and could not say a word.
Narsingh believed that these new Portuguese cannons could destroy a fourth-tier battleship with only twenty rounds.
You know, the cost of a fourth-level battleship in this era is at least 250,000 taels of silver. And the war machine built with more than 200,000 taels of silver can only withstand twenty rounds of shells in front of the rifled cannon. In other words,
, once a shell hits the target, it will cause repair costs of tens of thousands of taels.
And a cannonball only costs a few taels of silver, right?
This is a completely asymmetric war.
Narsingh had previously received intelligence from Batavia, saying that rifled guns appeared in Li Zhi's fleet. The Dutch now believe that the Anglo-Dutch fleet assembled in the Far East was destroyed by Li Zhi's rifled guns.
But that is the distant Far East, which is tens of thousands of miles away.
The Dutch in Batavia have passed the secret of the front-loading rifled gun back to Europe. Just a few days ago, the Parliament in Amsterdam obtained the information about the front-loading rifled gun. But the Dutch have not yet had time to make the rifled gun. They want to
It will take at least several years to replace the entire fleet with rifled guns.
But why do the Portuguese also possess such awe-inspiring weapons? They are the Portuguese who have declined and only have gold coins left!
How much money did the Portuguese spend to buy this new type of artillery? What conditions did Li Zhi put forward to the Portuguese?
William II, the consul of the Netherlands, blushed instantly. Portugal, which was very weak in his eyes, suddenly became stronger, which made him feel angry that his prey had been robbed by others. He seemed not to be fighting the Portuguese, but to fight against them.
Li Zhi, fifty thousand miles away, went to war.
He let out an angry roar:
"fight back!"
Narsingh was stunned, grabbed William II and said: "Your Highness, at such a long distance, our artillery can't penetrate the Portuguese ship's hull at all!"
William II seemed like a lion that had been deprived of its food. His eyes were red with anger. He grabbed Narsingh by the collar and roared loudly: "I said fight back!"
Narsingh was frightened by the furious consul and turned pale, and quickly replied: "Fight back! Yes. We will fight back right away, Your Highness!"
The flag order soldiers hoisted the signal to fire,
More than twenty battleships on the periphery of the Anglo-Dutch Combined Fleet turned their bows and aimed their sides at the Portuguese battleships.
Hundreds of rounds of smoothbore cannon were fired, and the shells rained down on the Portuguese.
William II's eyes were blood red as he stared at the enemy fleet two miles away.
However, the effect of the shelling made him turn pale.
At a distance of two miles, the cannon's accuracy was shamefully low. Hundreds of shells were fired, but only thirty or so hit the enemy's hull. And among these thirty or so shells, none of them could hit the enemy's hull.
Penetrating the hull of a battleship.
The biggest result was caused by a sixty-pound cannon, but it only made a dent in the Portuguese battleship.
William II looked at the depression with a monocular. He hoped that the hull on the depression would crack and shatter. With more than twenty battleships of his own firing, he should make a hole anyway, right?
However, the fact is cruel. William II did not wait for the collapse of the depression. What he waited for was the second roar of the Portuguese rifled cannon.
The Portuguese opened fire again, and fired nearly a hundred rounds of explosive shells at the British-Dutch fleet.
The explosion exploded like a firework display on the battleships of the British and Dutch fleets. William II saw that a fourth-level battleship had its belly blown open. A gunner was violently blown out of the hull and flew with debris.
It entered the sea off Lisbon. Not long after, the heavy gun operated by the gunner also slid out along the large hole caused by the explosion, causing a huge splash on the sea.
The British and Dutch sailors were stunned.
How to fight this battle? There are only three battleships in bloom on the opposite side, but every bombardment can cause heavy losses here. And the collective fire of dozens of battleships here only leaves a mark on the opposite battleship.
Narsingh turned pale and said to William II: "Your Highness, we have no choice but to retreat!"
William II stared at Narsingh with blood-red eyes and shouted: "What did you say?"
Narsingh trembled and said: "Your Highness, we can't defeat the Portuguese in the current artillery battle. If we charge up, the Portuguese will definitely withdraw into the port. There are hundreds of heavy coastal defense guns in the port, and we can't attack them."
Go in. When we stop chasing, the Portuguese warships will definitely come out to bombard us. If we continue like this, sooner or later we will be hit hard by the Portuguese..."
"Now we can only hope that the army can make a breakthrough. We can't defeat the Portuguese on the sea. We blockade Lisbon with great fanfare. If a few warships are bombed and sunk, we will really be laughed at by the French and Austrians."
William II looked at Narsingh and froze for a moment.
Like a furious lion, he suddenly drew his sword.
Narsingh was so frightened that he turned pale and thought that the consul was going to kill him.
However, William II had not lost his mind yet, he just stabbed the long sword into the planks of the ship's side.
Walking into the poop without looking back, William II roared: "Retreat! The entire army retreats!"
