"Why don't we consider attacking them at night? The night will be our best protection. The enemy cannot see our ships clearly. We can take advantage of the cover of night to capture their forts!" An infantryman
The officer spoke.
But the infantry officer was immediately attacked by the captains.
"Humph! Can you think of this method? We don't know anything about the situation below the water near Jilong Bay. We don't know the water depth and channel at all. We are under the muzzle of the enemy's cannon and want to sneak attack them at night.
The fort is simply committing suicide! Once a ship hits the rocks or runs aground, I'm afraid there is no way to save it at all, and it will have to wait to be smashed into pieces by the pirates' cannons!"
Anthony held a pipe in his mouth and smoked quietly, listening to the speeches of his subordinates. After they had enough arguing, he knocked on the pipe and placed it on the table.
"Everyone! I have heard your opinions! Now let me tell you what I think!" Anthony pretended to be as calm as possible, stood up and said to the people present.
Everyone saw Anthony start to speak, so they all sat down and listened to his speech quietly.
"As you said today, we really underestimated the firepower of this group of Chinese pirates! We never expected that these damn Chinese pirates actually got so many cannons from nowhere, and they were so powerful!
Among their forts, there are at least ten heavy cannons, and the others are at least twelve-pound cannons. The number should be about thirty. Such firepower is very fierce!
Today we fought with them and obviously failed to damage their forts, which made us realize that we can no longer underestimate our opponents. These Chinese pirates are completely different from the Chinese pirates we knew before. They have received strict training.
, and their fighting will is very strong, and their fighting skills are also very high. This can be seen from the speed of their shelling, which is even better than the gunners on our ship!..."
When Anthony said this, the captains' expressions were not very good. They didn't want to admit what Anthony said, but they had to admit that it was right, because they also carefully watched the counterattack of the fort today.
From the same gun window on the fort, the time between two firings was very short, which indeed exceeded the firing frequency of the gunners on their ship.
This fully proves that these Chinese pirates are by no means just a mob, but have received very rigorous training. The gunners cooperate very well, so they can operate the artillery and fire so quickly.
And the speed they fired did not affect the accuracy of their shelling. Today they all saw that the hit rate of these pirates' shelling from a distance of four hundred yards actually reached about 20%. This is simply unimaginable.
.
At such a long distance, under normal circumstances, even if their artillery is used to operate the cannon, the hit rate is difficult to exceed 10%. Today, the various types of artillery on their ship fired a total of hundreds of shells, but directly
The number of shells that hit the fort was basically only a handful, and the enemy was under fire
Although the number of cannons was not as large as theirs, they hit their ships with more than thirty shells in a row. Almost every ship took a few hits, causing considerable damage to their ships. One ship was even hit directly.
More than a dozen sailors were killed and injured, and the mast of one ship was almost broken.
Even though their artillery platform at sea was not stable enough, they still found it unacceptable to be defeated by a group of Chinese pirates.
This is also the reason why some of them proposed to close the distance to fight. At such a long distance, their artillery hit rate is too low and the enemy's hit rate is too high, making it impossible to effectively take advantage of their firepower.
"But now that the matter has come to this, we were ordered to come here, and we can't just turn back. The Governor has given us the task, and we must complete this mission!
I decided to continue the attack on their forts tomorrow morning and strive to destroy their forts. In addition, tomorrow we can test the surname and send infantry called speedboats ashore to try to capture their forts. If it works, then we can break through them.
This line of defense entered the bay and launched a bombardment on their castle!
Presumably these Chinese pirates will be scared after losing their external defense line! Maybe they will declare surrender!
After a while, we will send soldiers to investigate whether there is a land passage to Jilong Bay. If it is not possible, we can bypass the forts they built from the land and attack their castle directly. In this case
I guess it will work too!”
Antony continued, telling him his plan.
After everyone listened, this plan was relatively safe. Basically, they adopted all the plans they proposed and integrated them for implementation. Apart from doing this, they had no better way.
So the fleet rested at the temporary anchorage for half a day, and the infantrymen who came with the fleet also sent out personnel to scout along the coastline toward Jilong Bay, trying to find a road that could lead to Jilong Bay on the shore.
Early the next morning, the Spanish fleet once again sailed to the outside of Jilong Bay. This time, the two sides had nothing to say hello to, and they started fighting with a rumble.
The cannonballs crisscrossed across the sea and flew toward their respective targets. Pieces of gravel and dust continued to rise from the land, while clusters of waves rose from time to time on the sea.
This time the Spaniards no longer placed the fleet hundreds of yards away from the shore like yesterday. Instead, they sailed the fleet to a distance of about 300 meters outside the mouth of the bay, and several forts at the mouth of the bay.
A fierce artillery battle began.
For naval guns, the distance within three hundred meters is still a bit far for sea battles and the hit accuracy cannot be guaranteed, but it is enough for shore bombardment. The hit rate and accuracy of the shells have obviously improved compared to yesterday.
Various types of light and heavy artillery shells fell on the fort from time to time, causing rubble to fly outside the fort.
At this time, the inside of the fort is also filled with an unpleasant smell. The smell of gunpowder smoke makes people cough and hurts the eyes. From time to time, the fort is hit by bullets and it will shake violently. When the artillery inside the fort is fired, it will also cause the fort to collapse.
Violent vibrations stirred up large amounts of floating dust.
However, after yesterday's experience, the personnel in the fort performed much better today. They knew that their fort was strong enough and generally difficult to collapse, so they were not too afraid. Even if a piece of the fort was collapsed yesterday, it would still be considered a threat.
Surprisingly, hiding inside the fort is quite safe.
Everyone worked hard to push, load, and fire the cannon. Like running water, some people lifted the ammunition package from the lowest ammunition magazine to the gun emplacement and loaded it into the gun barrel.
Today, Sun Baoqiang personally went to the fort to supervise the battle, because all the affairs at Keelung Fort have been arranged in place, and there is a black head sitting in Keelung Fort to take command, so Sun Baoqiang does not need to stay in Keelung Fort anymore.
And Sun Baoqiang is also a little selfish. He knows very well that to gain a foothold among the Sea Wolves, the most important thing is military exploits. People like them usually stay here in Keelung Fort and have very few opportunities to gain military exploits. This time they finally got it.
When the Spanish attack, it would be a pity if we don't take the opportunity to gain some military exploits.
But in Keelung Fort, because there are Heping Island Fort and Bayjiao Fort as its barriers, under normal circumstances, as long as the enemy does not break through this line of defense, it is basically impossible to attack Keelung Fort. Therefore, if you want to gain military exploits,
Then only by going to the front line in person and sitting in the fort can we have a chance.
Among these three forts, the Heping Island fort is the most critical and the main target of the enemy's attack. It withstands the most intense artillery fire. Therefore, Sun Baoqiang finally decided to sit at the Heping Island fort. As long as he repels a few Spanish attacks,
The merit of being on the front line and commanding operations will definitely not be lost.
After the war started, Sun Baoqiang occupied the position of Feng Twelve's observation port, holding a monocular telescope and constantly observing the enemy fleet on the sea.
Feng Twelve could only squeeze into a gunner's observation window in despair, observe the situation on the sea, and silently calculate the impact point of the cannonball and various shooting elements.
"Feng Twelve! You are all fucking idiots! How can you do this?" After observing for a while, Sun Baoqiang put down his binoculars and cursed Feng Twelve, who was not far away from him.
Feng Twelve quickly turned around and said, "Commander Sun, please give me instructions!"
"See for yourself! The cannons here are fighting independently, choosing targets and firing at will. This is simply spreading firepower! Do you understand?
The boss has told us many times that when our firepower is limited, we must concentrate our firepower on an important target first to ensure its effective destruction! Have you fucking forgotten this? When will we be able to sink them with such a piecemeal approach?
A boat? I think if you, the squad leader, continue to do this, you might as well go back to work and forget about it!" Sun Baoqiang scolded Feng Twelve.
When Sun Baoqiang heard this, he felt that this was really reasonable. Although they had a good time fighting here these two days, they had indeed forgotten this matter. The gunners at each gun position freely selected targets for bombardment, although they also killed and damaged enemy ships.
, but it is true that it did not seriously damage an enemy ship, let alone sink one of their ships.
After being scolded by Sun Baoqiang, Feng Twelve remembered that when they were training before, Yu Xiaotian had indeed taught them some techniques and principles on how to use artillery.
In a situation like today, instead of attacking casually, it is better to concentrate firepower to attack one ship first. When the enemy cannot be completely destroyed, the best way is to concentrate firepower to ensure that it is more cost-effective to effectively destroy one enemy target.
(I actually had a high fever yesterday afternoon. It seems that the medicine didn’t work, so I had to go to the hospital for an infusion in the evening. I will continue to have an infusion this afternoon! I feel dizzy!)