"Sir, Mrs. Liu said that they are running out of gunpowder and shells, and I'm afraid they won't be able to fight again after this battle." Early that morning, Liu Wenxiu hurriedly came to see Wan Lei.
"What? They ran out of it so quickly, and they didn't fire many cannons." Wan Lei frowned.
"My subordinates believe that they are deliberately hiding their secrets," Liu Wenxiu said in a low voice.
"Want to hide something secret?" Wan Lei shook his head and said: "If I had known they had bad intentions, I wouldn't have expected them to work together. But now that the war is coming, I don't need to pay attention to them. After this battle, let them
Stay on Penglai Island as backup. Anyway, our warships are the main battle force from beginning to end, and they are the backup."
"They just have bad intentions. They just asked us to give them some gunpowder. They obviously want to steal the gunpowder from our hands. What kind of gunpowder is our gunpowder? Can it be used by their small iron cannons? I really don't know.
Liu Wenxiu said very unhappily.
"Okay, don't complain anymore. We have few warships and we need someone to help with errands. This time we just spend some money to buy some handymen. Once the Ming Dynasty Navy is eliminated, this sea will be our world from now on.
, this small loss will be earned back quickly."
"I just don't like them. These guys don't pay attention when fighting. They only want to gain benefits. It's true." Liu Wenxiu cursed a few more times in a low voice and didn't bother to say more. But after all the words, in normal times
He is very measured in his dealings with others, and this mature and steady mentality is one of the reasons why he was appointed as the commander of the army.
"How much ammunition do we have?" Wan Lei asked again.
"We still have a lot of ammunition. In these two games, we have used less than one-fifth of it. But our gunpowder is so expensive that it is really painful to use it." Liu Wenxiu is right, the navy uses this kind of gunpowder.
Propellant is a mixture of smokeless gunpowder and black powder in a certain proportion. Smokeless gunpowder is very rare. It has been produced for more than a year. There are only a few tons in stock in the army, and most of them are equipped in the navy.
"When the cannon is fired, there are thousands of taels of gold. This is not true at all." Wan Lei seemed to be talking to himself. Although he defeated the enemy in two consecutive battles, the construction of warships, the casting of cannons and the production of gunpowder
, these are all money-burning businesses, and you really can’t afford them if you don’t have money. Fortunately, we captured some military rations and lucky ships, otherwise we would have really suffered a big loss.
"It seems that we need to open a maritime trade route as soon as possible to earn back the money." Wan Lei secretly made up his mind.
At this time, a sentry hurriedly reported: "Commander, Haiying reported that the enemy ship has sailed 40 miles away. We should make preparations early."
"You're here so soon. Okay, you're good to be here. Now Commander Liu has somewhere to vent his anger." Wan Lei smiled slightly and told Liu Wenxiu to do whatever he wanted without asking for instructions.
"Haha, you know me, sir." Liu Wenxiu laughed and resigned.
After two actual battles, it can be said that Liu Wenxiu is very familiar with naval battles, and Wan Lei dares to let him do it. Moreover, as his commander grows up, the navy will have someone to entrust to Wan Lei.
Lei no longer has to be a supervisor on the ship.
Of course, the elite guards who secretly supervise the army still have to stay. After all, the navy often walks on the vast sea and is beyond the reach of the whip. Wan Lei has to keep some secret hands to prevent these naval commanders or generals from kidnapping warships and separatizing the sea.
The Pirate King is coming.
The Peiping Army actively made complete preparations, but Wang Ning's troops from the Ming Dynasty who came to support from the east were still moving forward without knowing anything about the crisis they were about to face. Because the northwest wind was still blowing at this time, the wind was still very strong. , so Wang Ning's troops are coming very quickly, and the Yanxing Formation composed of a hundred warships looks very majestic.
In the center of the ship array, there was a huge fortune ship with the word "王" written on it on a big black flag. Needless to say, this was Wang Ning's flagship. As the Prince Consort of the Ming Dynasty, this guy was quite handsome, but not too much. His long life at sea has made his face very haggard. The pain of rough seas is really not something that a playboy like him can bear.
"Prince-in-law, the rear army camp is forty miles ahead. We should slow down the ship and send the vanguard to investigate the situation." A staff member sitting aside suggested.
"Don't those thieves just have a dozen gunboats? It's no big deal. We have a hundred big ships. We can sink them if we just run over them." Wang Ning said nonchalantly, and then said angrily. : "That Chen Hui and his fifty warships can't even deal with those little thieves. He's such a loser. He's causing trouble for us on this trip."
"The prince-in-law is right. There is no one in the court named Chen, and he does not know what is good or evil. The prince-in-law personally comes to help in the battle, but he does not send anyone to meet him from afar. It is really abominable."
"After this battle is over, he won't have any share of the credit. I'll find an imperial envoy to give him a copy later and let him go home and farm." As the prince-in-law who stepped in, Wang Ning can also be regarded as a second-grade official. He was also in charge of the Governor's Mansion of the Rear Army. He was several ranks higher than Chen Hui, and he also had a wide range of status and connections. Of course he had the capital to be arrogant, but in short he looked down on Chen Hui.
Wang Ning also didn't expect that without his help, Chen Hui would be dead. As a prisoner of the Peking Army, Chen Hui might not be able to get ahead in his life. What Wang Ning didn't expect even more was that he was following Chen Hui's footsteps. Following in his footsteps, he stepped into the trap of death.
Soon, the fleet led by Wang Ning advanced another twenty miles, and the destination was in sight. At this time, an array of more than twenty broken ships finally appeared on the sea, lined up in a row, blocking the way. Wang Ning seemed to be heading there to welcome him. However, this way of welcoming made Wang Ning feel insulted.
"Please tell me the password!" Someone on the boat shouted loudly as the incoming boat was still a few hundred meters away from Wang Ning's fleet.
"Password?!" Wang Ning became even angrier when he heard this. He came all the way to support him, but these guys were so ignorant that they asked him to give him the password. How could he not be angry?
"Have you blinded your eyes to see that this is the Prince Consort's warship?" Wang Ning's cronies yelled.
"If you can't tell me the password, you are pretending to be a pirate. You can't even try to trick me." The people on the boat were still stubborn and determined not to give way to the other party.
"Pirates? A bunch of blind things! This is the Prince Consort's fleet. Get out of the way quickly, otherwise you will be in trouble." Wang Ning's staff were also angry and shouted at the top of their voices. However, The people on the opposite fleet seemed to be dead, and no one responded. These aides wanted to shout again, but they saw smoke starting to appear on the warships, which seemed to be on fire.
"Huh?!" Wang Ning was dumbfounded when he saw the warship on the opposite side burst into flames. He didn't know what was going on. And just as they were stunned, a sharp alarm sounded on the ship's roof, and the sentry shouted loudly. He shouted: "Oh no, warships have appeared from the west and north and are rushing towards us.
"No, we've been ambushed!" Wang Ning suddenly woke up and shouted, "Quick, get out of here."
However, it was already too late at this time. The two fleets that were pressing in from behind had already started shelling. The roar of gunfire resounded through the sky, and lead balls weighing dozens of kilograms flew over like they were free of charge.
It hit the ship array hard.
Since Wang Ning had a hundred ships and formed a large formation with a high density of ships, after this salvo of artillery fire, many warships were hit. Seeing that the situation was not good, many captains wanted to take advantage of the ship formation.
After squeezing out, dozens of warships squeezed and collided with each other on the narrow sea, immediately turning into a mess.
"Hurry, rush out of here." Wang Ning shouted wildly, and rushed forward with his flagship and several frigates around him, hoping to rush through the fire ship array on the opposite side, but as soon as they rushed halfway, they saw those
The already blazing warship suddenly exploded and opened fire. The flaming ship's planks flew in all directions, and a "line of fire" dozens of meters wide was formed on the sea. Want to rush over? It's probably impossible.
The way forward was blocked by the line of fire. Wang Ning was so anxious that his eyes turned red, and he immediately ordered the warship to turn around and bypass the line of fire. However, just as the warship turned, the sound of gunfire, which had only stopped for about two minutes, came again.
Hundreds of large lead balls came overwhelmingly and landed on the dense formation of ships. After a volley of fire, more than a dozen warships were "gloriously" injured.
"Disperse, disperse quickly!" Wang Ning also saw that the denser the ships were, the easier it was to be bombarded. It was better to disperse to reduce battle losses. However, his order was given too late, and many
The warships had been injured and could not move at sea. Some of the uninjured warships lacked unified command and could only bump into a bunch of broken ships. Very few of them rushed out, and they were unable to form a powerful counterattack.
.
Just when Wang Ning had no choice but to flee for his life, the two attacking fleets had dispersed and formed a crescent-shaped encirclement on the open sea. At this time, these gunboats no longer fired salvos, but aimed at
They grabbed the lucky ships on the periphery and carried out a one-on-one massacre and bombardment.
The Fu boats used by the Ming Navy had watertight cabins that could withstand sinking, but not shelling. Many Fu boats were hit by two or three cannons and were knocked crooked, stranded on the sea and unable to move. And the gunboat positions seemed to have some signs of damage.
With this in mind, fire a few shots at each lucky ship. If it hits or misses, ignore it and continue looking for the next target.
Being bombarded as if they were living targets, Wang Ning was angry and frightened when he saw that he had no way to escape. He immediately adopted the advice of his staff and sent out water boats, using the method of ants gathering on the boats, hoping to restore the situation of the war.
Wang Ning also wanted to use cannons to fight against those nasty pirates, but the cannons on his ship were small, had a short range, and were only mounted on the bow and stern of the ship, making it difficult to aim. Even if he fired the cannon, he could only hear a sound.
It has no practical effect. Now we can only rely on the brave men of the sea to fight hand-to-hand combat with those nasty pirates and strive to seize the enemy ship.
Soon, hundreds of small boats were put down and rushed out of the ship formation like ants, rushing towards the enemy formation. However, when they rushed near the enemy formation, they found that these warships began to form a formation, with huge sails pulled up, and they rode on.
With the strong northwest wind, the huge warship rolled directly towards them...