At half past eleven, on the Lianzhou, a young officer wearing the rank of navy captain stood on the command podium on the upper deck. This man was Captain Fei Qing, the gunnery chief on the Lianzhou.
I saw him saying: "Prepare the nine-pound artillery, the enemy ship No. 1 on the left, the distance is 500, solid bullets!"
At this time, the gunner next to the nine-pound gun on the bow deck took final aim at the enemy ship on the left. As for the loading, it had already been loaded, and he was even preparing for the second round.
The loading gunners are already ready.
The gunners who are preparing to reset the naval gun are in their respective positions. They are preparing to reset the gun as soon as possible after the gun is fired. The gunners who are cleaning the gun barrel are also preparing to clean the gun barrel as soon as possible to clean up the remaining gunpowder residue in the gun chamber to avoid the second reloading.
At that time, the remaining burning gunpowder in the gun barrel ignited the second loading of gunpowder, causing a gun explosion accident. At the same time, using water to clean the gun chamber can also effectively reduce the temperature in the gun chamber, allowing the artillery to operate for a longer period of time.
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The gunners who were equipped with gunpowder and shells were also well prepared, waiting for the second round of loading as soon as the artillery was fired.
The gunner of this nine-pound artillery piece is also a veteran artilleryman in the Tang Dynasty Royal Division, and he is also considered the most skilled gunner in the entire Tang Dynasty Royal Division.
In the era of front-loaded artillery, the technical content of ordinary gunners was average, and they could be trained for a period of time even if they were illiterate. However, if they were gunners, it would be very difficult to train.
Because there is no fire control system these days, the accuracy of the artillery is not high, and the position is almost recalculated every time a gun is fired, and this requires very high requirements for the gunner.
Therefore, whether artillery these days can hit the enemy, especially whether it can hit the enemy's ship, besides relying on luck, the most important thing is the skill of the gunner.
Therefore, almost every gun commander in the Tang Dynasty Royal Division, whether in the army or the navy, is a top talent, and their military rank is generally the highest rank among soldiers: sergeant.
And because these gunners have strong professional knowledge, they can easily get the opportunity to be promoted to officers. Usually after going to a martial arts school to take a crash course, they often become a second lieutenant when they return to the army, and they can then serve as platoon officers.
Captain or even vice-captain.
But for an ordinary artilleryman to grow into a gunner, and a highly skilled gunner, not only does it require a long period of training and learning, but it also has a lot to do with personal talent.
The total strength of the army and navy in the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty was nearly 100,000. Even the ordinary artillery had several thousand people, but the number of artillery commanders was only a few hundred.
And among these hundreds of people, they are almost all the earliest artillerymen, and these people also have different technical levels. Being able to board the Lianzhou and serve as the gunner of this ninth-level artillery is enough to prove his strength.
After receiving the order, he began to perform the final calibration. During this process, he was still calculating various data silently. After finally taking aim, he directly said: "Fire!"
Suddenly, the match rope of this nine-pound cannon was ignited!
The match rope burned quickly and ignited the propellant in the gun barrel. In the next moment, the gunners saw the artillery in front of them violently retreating backwards. Even the gun body weighing several kilograms was unable to withstand it.
The powerful recoil of the artillery.
At the same time, a thick cloud of white smoke was released from the original muzzle, and the violent sound of the cannon reached everyone's ears.
Many artillerymen immediately took action quickly, but not everyone was paying attention to the artillery itself. The gunner of the artillery and the gunnery chiefs on the upper deck were all paying attention to the impact point of the artillery shells.
The distance of only 500 meters did not take long for the rapidly flying artillery. Soon they clearly saw a small black dot flying in front of the enemy ship.
However, this shot did not hit the enemy ship, but it did not make everyone look depressed. When fighting at sea, the ships of both sides were in motion, and the ships were still shaking on the sea. The hit rate was far from what it was.
So high on land.
This is why the artillery has a range of several kilometers, but it only fires at a distance of 500 meters.
If you fire from a distance of 500 meters, you will not be able to hit the target. If you fire from a distance of 1 or 2 thousand meters, you will basically just hear a sound.
The first shot missed, but the gunner of the nine-pound cannon had no time to regret it. He once again began to calculate and shoot after Zhu Yuan. At the same time, the gunners under him were also nervous and busy.
They had to move the artillery that had been knocked back for a long distance back to reset, and then began to clean the barrel, load propellant bags, place matchlocks, and insert solid spherical shells.
These tasks may sound relatively simple, but in fact they are quite troublesome. Because they involve artillery, no one dares to relax. They are all done very carefully and strictly follow the procedures.
After the gunners were reset and loaded, the gunner took aim again himself. This time he took a long time to aim!
After the aiming was completed, the second shell was also fired.
As soon as his artillery fired, he also heard the continuous rumbling sound of cannons from behind. Just by hearing the sound of the cannons, he knew that it should be the other nine-pound cannons and seven-pound cannons in the fleet that were firing.
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Because it takes time for fleets to get closer to each other, and artillery firing also requires a certain shooting angle, the firing times are not uniform, but occur first and then later.
But now only the nine-pound and seven-pound cannons are fired. As for the five-pound cannon, because of its range, firing at a distance of five hundred meters is a sheer waste of shells.
So now the ships of the main fleet of the Second Fleet have fired their cannons one after another, but the sound of the cannons is not intensive.
And because the distance is a bit far, the hit rate is relatively low.
After more than ten minutes of vigorous fighting, only two or three shells hit the enemy ship.
Naturally, it is impossible for these two or three shells to cause any actual damage to the enemy's ships. At most, they will only cause a few casualties.
However, only a few of these shells hit, but it brought a huge morale gain to the fleet, because it meant that our own side was indeed able to hit the opponent, and the opponent seemed to be unable to fight back without large-caliber naval guns.
This kind of thing means that one side hits the other side, but the other side can't fight back. Even if the hit rate is lower, or even unable to cause any actual damage to the opponent, it is a good thing.
Because every time it hits an enemy ship, the sailors cheer.
However, this kind of cheering does not represent the middle and high-level generals in the fleet!
Because the effect of long-distance bombardment is not obvious enough, it means that our own side cannot rely on the range advantage of large-caliber artillery to gain the upper hand. If we want to achieve effective results, we may have to continue to close the distance!
It's just that once you get to a distance of two to three hundred meters, or even further, although you can have more artillery to fire and achieve a higher hit rate, the Ming army's artillery will definitely fight back.
By that time, I'm afraid the battle will be very fierce.
On the Lianzhou, Ouyang Gui still acted like a calm and indifferent civil servant. Although he also paid attention to the bombardment, he obviously did not show any dissatisfaction, let alone intervene in the bombardment personally.
That is the business of each ship's gunnery officer, not the fault of his fleet commander.
At this time, the staff officer beside him said with a hint of excitement: "Sir, according to the current speed and direction, in ten minutes at most, the distance between the two sides can be shortened to 300 meters. By then, our large number of five-pound artillery can also
Now that we can fire, we will definitely be able to severely damage the enemy ships!"
However, Ouyang Gui shook his head slightly: "Why do you close the distance? Now we can hit them, but they can't hit us. Isn't it good? Send the order, keep a distance of four hundred meters!"
As he spoke, he shook his head slightly!
Most of the naval officers under my command were transferred from the Army, and they also brought with them the high spirit and courage from the Army. Although this is also a good thing, it is not a good thing for today's battle.
Close the distance and fight hard?
Ouyang Gui doesn't want to do this unless he has to, because his idea is not to annihilate the opponent's fleet. In fact, it can't be done even when the enemy is strong and we are weak. What he really wants is very simple, that is, to entangle his opponent.
Just covering the landing fleet.
Therefore, in this naval battle, it is not important whether the main fleet can sink the opponent's warships. What is important is to hold the enemy back!
In the end, the current situation remained, with the two sides maneuvering and entangled with each other several hundred meters apart, and then after a few hours, he led the fleet to retreat and return.
Because by that time, I am afraid that the landing fleet will have already landed on Qiongzhou Island, and there will be no need for the navy to continue to fight head-on with the enemy fleet.
The navy of the Tang Dynasty was weak, so if you could save a little more energy for the navy, you should save a little more!
But Ouyang Gui's idea was just wishful thinking, because only fifteen minutes later, Ouyang Gui realized that something was wrong!
The enemy fleet actually did not continue to follow him and continue to close the distance, but began to turn towards the east.
Seeing this scene, he immediately said something bad in secret. This must be the enemy's fleet discovering the landing fleet and running to intercept the landing fleet regardless of himself.
If it is really bypassed by the Ming Navy, the landing fleet will be in danger.
The Ming navy turned around and distanced themselves at this time. They definitely did not want to run away, they wanted to intercept the transport fleet, and this kind of thing was not allowed by Ouyang Gui.
He never forgot his duty: to cover the Army landing!
So after seeing this, he ordered without hesitation: "Send orders to all ships to close the distance and entangle them!"