When the Liu family's fleet got closer, the hull of the fleet was revealed from below the sea level, and there were hundreds of mighty warships.
Yang Peng looked through the telescope and saw that among the warships, more than a hundred were three-masted ships with low heads and high tails. They were equipped with large and small artillery. These ships were at least thirty meters long and were considered large ships of this era.
. Some of the large ships were even bigger. They looked bigger than Yang Peng's battleships. They were probably nearly forty meters long, and there were many cannons placed on both sides of the ship.
Most of these blessing ships had Chinese-style hard sails hanging on the masts. But Yang Peng also saw a dozen blessing ships hanging yellow soft sails through the telescope - those white canvases aged and turned yellow after being hung for a long time - obviously Liu
In the process of dealing with Westerners in Southeast Asia, the family was also influenced by Westerners and adopted Western-style sails on some lucky ships.
Yang Peng saw in the telescope a huge fortune ship sailing in the center of the Liu family's fleet, with high hard sails hung and cannons on both sides of the cabin. The big flag with Liu characters on the ship's mast was fluttering in the wind, which made Yang Peng
It is suspected that this ship is Liu Xianglong's flagship.
But more of the Liu family's fleet are two-masted boats with canopies. These boats are often in the style of "sand boats", and there are also some small lucky boats. They carry more than a dozen sailors. Not only do they have sails, but they also have sailors when sprinting.
The speed of paddling was very impressive. Yang Peng observed these boats with a telescope for a while and found that just as Gao Ligong said, these boats were filled with dry firewood, straw and other flammable materials.
These small boats were actually fire ships. The only tactic was to rush under Yang Peng's big boat and light it on fire. The two fleets were getting closer and closer, and the distance gradually increased to seven or eight miles. Yang Peng put down his telescope and looked ahead.
It felt like half of the field of vision was occupied by the Liu family's fleet. There were too many ships on the opposite side to count, but Yang Peng made a rough estimate and felt that there were at least 600 warships, or more.
There are more than 600 ships, and more than 100 of them are warships with cannons. This number far exceeds Yang Peng's 53 ships. Liu Xianglong is so domineering that he regards the southeastern sea as his own backyard. He really has something to rely on.
The soldiers around Yang Peng were very nervous when they saw the momentum of the Liu family's fleet. Yang Peng shouted: "All ships line up in a long formation and aim their sides at the enemy's fleet! The ironclad ships line up in the center."
The flag soldiers took action and turned Yang Peng's orders into colorful flags and hung them on the flagpole of the Yangwei. The fifty-two ships in the fleet had specialized personnel who kept staring at the flagpole of the Yangwei with telescopes. These personnel
As soon as they saw the new flag command hung on the flagpole, they conveyed the command to the captains of each ship.
The fifty-two steamships turned their stern rudders and took their positions, entering the line array position. From Yang Peng's perspective, he could only feel that more than fifty steamships on the left and right sides formed a wall on the sea.
More than five hundred 18-pound cannons stared at the approaching Liu family fleet. The distance was five miles, four miles, three miles, and the two fleets gradually approached. Yang Peng's 18-pound cannon had a direct range of more than three miles, but
Yang Peng did not let the cannon fire at a distance of three miles. The waves on the sea were bumpy, and the muzzle of the cannon also undulated with the waves. It was meaningless to fire at a distance. Moreover, the artillery of this era would lose its barrel after more than ten shots.
Due to overheating, every opportunity to fire is very precious, so in naval battles, Yang Peng always let the fleet get closer to the enemy ship for a mile before firing.
The gunners in the steamer adjusted the gun carriage to aim at the Liu family's sailing ship in the distance, holding their breath and waiting for the opportunity to fire. From three miles to two miles away, the sailors of the Liu family howled and drove the six hundred warships to Yang
More than 500 cannons on the sides of the fifty-three ships opened fire. On the "wall" formed by the fifty-three ships, the tongues of flames spit out by the more than five hundred cannons formed a fire dragon. More than five hundred bombs were fired at the head and face.
The Liu family's ships flew away.
Most of the shells fell into the sea, causing huge water jets. But dozens of them smashed into Liu Xianglong's three-masted ship, punching a big hole in the hull. After a few seconds, the bomb exploded. The explosion caused a huge explosion.
Sparks spurted out from the holes in the hull, like flowers blooming inside the warship. The holes in the hull were blown even larger, and various wooden planks and wooden barrel fragments were blown out by the air waves caused by the explosion.
Outside the boat, it was a mess.
Another two dozen two-masted fireships were hit by bombs. The flammable materials loaded on the fireships were instantly ignited, and a raging fire was set off, which was very conspicuous on the blue sea. The sailors on the ship jumped into the sea in panic.
Swim to other nearby boats.
After the steamships fired a round of cannons, they all turned around and headed east to widen the distance between the two fleets to prevent the fireships from coming up and burning the ships. Seeing the effect of the bombs, the sailors of Yang Peng's fleet,
The soldiers cheered in unison. Cannons are still very effective! The cannons on the port and starboard sides of the fifty-three steamships can fire twenty rounds together. After these twenty rounds, Liu Xianglong's fireships will basically be sunk.
However, Yang Peng was not excited. He just watched Liu Xianglong's more than one hundred three-masted ships quietly. Sure enough, the Liu family's gunboats were not to be outdone. After being bombarded for more than ten seconds, Liu Xianglong's gunboats all turned around.
Six or seven hundred cannons from more than a hundred Fu ships aimed at Yang Peng's fleet and opened fire.
Yang Peng could see clearly through the telescope: Liu Xianglong's ship-borne artillery was of different sizes. The small one was only a little thicker on the wrist, about a six-pounder or a seven-pounder, while the larger one had a barrel as thick as his head, maybe sixteen.
Eighteen-pounder guns. The largest Fu Ship even had thicker guns, which were twice as thick as Yang Peng's eighteen-pounder guns.
The Liu family has been operating in Fujian for hundreds of years and has extensive exchanges with Western powers, and has accumulated a lot of artillery. Amidst the roaring sound of the cannons, the Liu family's artillery spit out tongues of flame, and the shells came like raindrops. Dozens of shells were fired.
It hit Yang Peng's ship. Of course, the iron-clad ship was fine. The shells only left a mark on the iron armor and bounced out. But other steamships were hit, and some heavy artillery shells penetrated the hulls of the ships.
It crashed into the interior of the ship, causing considerable damage.
Some cannonballs even hit the sailors and soldiers in the cabin, causing casualties. Seeing the effect of the Liu family's artillery, Han Jinxin took a breath and said: "My lord, if we fight like this, even if we win, we will suffer a lot of casualties."
"
Han Jinxin is right. Although the Liu family's artillery is not a bomb, it is indeed huge in number. If the fire continues like this, many ships may be sunk by the Liu family. What is more dangerous is the paddle wheel of the ship. Among the forty-three merchant ships
Only a few have been modified to propeller type, while others are still driven by paddle wheels. If the paddle wheel is hit, the ship will undoubtedly be burned clean by the incoming fire ships.
Yang Peng nodded and said loudly: "The iron-clad ships attack, rush in and defeat them!" The ten iron-clad ships turned around and rushed towards Liu Xianglong's fleet at full speed. Each iron-clad ship used two large steam engines, and the propellers were used for five months.
The debugging of the ship has also been fully installed, and its efficiency is comparable to that of a paddle wheel. When the ironclad ship is running at full speed, it can reach a speed of ten knots, which is equivalent to a speed of eighteen kilometers per hour. In this era of sailing ships, it is an absolute high-speed ship.
The steel ramming angle at the front of the ironclad ship broke through the sea surface, forming two waves on both sides of the ship, and rammed toward the Liu family's fleet menacingly. The gunboats of the Liu family's fleet were lined up behind, and a large group of them were crowded together in front.
They were all fire ships. The fire ships that had been chasing Yang Peng's fleet were overjoyed to see the armored ships approaching. What they were worried about was that Yang Peng's fleet had sunk all the fire ships here in the distance, but they did not expect that the ten ships would
Suddenly delivered to your door.
Although they also saw that the ironclads were all covered with iron armor, they had no experience in fighting ironclads. In their concept, as long as they were ships, they could be burned. On the front of the Yangwei, there were pirates on a two-masted sand barge.
Cheering loudly, he picked up the oars and rowed hard, rushing towards the Yangwei as quickly as possible.
But when the Yangwei got closer, they realized something was wrong. The Yangwei was too heavy, and it was going too fast. The waves caused by the sharp collision angle were one foot high. The fireship, which was more than ten meters long, collided with it.
If you go up there, the only result will be to be hit and sunk.
"Turn the rudder! Shacai! Turn the rudder!" "Avoid that iron ship!" The pirates panicked and shouted loudly in Minnan dialect, asking the helmsman to get out of the way.
However, it was too late for them to react at this time. Although the fire ship turned hard to the left to avoid the sharp collision angle of the ironclad, it was still severely hit by the starboard side of the Yangwei. The fire ship that panicked to avoid the ironclad was unable to
The bow of the ship was aimed at the ironclad, and the impact occurred on the starboard side of the fireship. The sharp steel spikes on the bow did not penetrate the hull of the ironclad.
The fire ship was loaded with tall piles of dry firewood, and its center of gravity was very unstable. It tilted completely when it hit. The five-hundred-ton Yangwei did not move at all, but the dozens of tons of fire ship turned over and overturned in the waves.
There, more than a dozen pirates fell into the sea water. Some pirates were even pressed into the sea water by the overturned hull and never floated again.
Not only this fireship, but also the other fireships in front could not adapt to the high-speed collision of the ironclads. Even the speed of the blessing ships of this era did not exceed seven or eight knots with the wind, and the speed was even slower in the crosswind and headwind. How could it ever
A high-speed collision at a speed of ten knots? The fire ships in front all rushed towards the Yangwei at first, but when they rushed closer and saw the sharp collision angle of the Yangwei, one after another they panicked and avoided.
But is it so easy to turn around when sailing on the sea? The Yangwei ran rampant among the fireships, sinking three fireships in just a short while, completely crushing them nakedly. It was not just the Yangwei that was doing violence, but also the other nine iron-clad ships.
It was also a sweeping sweep. Ten armored ships were like ten giant elephants rushing into the middle of a group of jackals. No matter if you have sharp teeth or not, I would just trample them at will.
When the pirates of the Liu family saw these ten menacing iron-clad ships, they became a little frightened. The pirates' hands and feet became weak and they stopped rowing hard to rush up. Just when the pirates were discouraged, the cannons on the iron-clad ships opened fire again.
Except for the artillery on the poop, which had no target, all the other thirty-one gun positions of the ironclad were firing. At this time, the muzzle of the cannon was a hundred meters or even dozens of meters away from the fireships on both sides. It was almost a precise shot.
.
The cannons on the left side of the Yangwei fired one after another, and the recoil force acted on the hull. The hull was pressed to the left little by little amid the roar of the cannon fire, creating a wave of waves on the sea. Then the cannons on the right side opened fire one after another.
, the ship's hull straightened to the right again amid violent vibrations, and finally tipped slightly to the right.
Bombs exploded one after another on the two-masted fireship. The nearby Liu's fireships were ignited one after another as if they were controlled by Yang Peng's matches. The Yangwei only fired one round, and there were ten people around it.
The two fireships ignited huge fires. Some of the Liu family pirates' clothes were also burned, and they jumped into the sea screaming.
The huge flames dazzled people's eyes and outshone the bright sunlight. The scene was like a whole forest burning around the ironclads. Ten ironclads sunk or ignited at least a hundred fireships.
, only then did Liu Xianglong's flagship react. The long horn of the Liu family's fleet blew, three long and three short, and Yang Peng didn't know what it meant.
Hundreds of shells were fired from Liu's Dafu ship behind, and probably dozens of them hit the target, slamming into the armor of the ironclad. However, except for one heavy artillery shell, the other shells failed to penetrate an inch of thickness.
The iron armor. The only heavy artillery shell lost its kinetic energy after hitting the armor, and did not cause major damage.
However, the sound of the horn inspired the pirates on the fire ship. The pirates howled and rekindled their fighting spirit. They aimed at the side of the ironclad ship and rowed with all their strength, hoping to pierce the steel thorns on the bow of the fire ship.
In iron armor.
In front of the Yangwei, more than twenty fireships rushed over from the left and right fronts respectively, as if they had surrounded the Yangwei. Yang Peng sneered and shouted: "Turn the rudder!" The Yangwei turned its bow slightly and abandoned it.
He hit the fire ship on the right and ran over several fire ships on the left. The sharp collision angle broke through the hull of the first fire ship almost without any hindrance, and pressed down, crushing the dozens of tons of fire ships.
The small boat was cut into two pieces. Then the hull behind the collision angle pressed up again, pushing the two-piece fireship wreckage into the sea water.
More than a dozen pirates died instantly. As soon as the Yangwei turned to the left, the dozen or so fireships on the right could no longer keep up with the speed of the Yangwei, and were getting further and further away. The dozen or so fireships on the left were as big as
Most of them were facing Yangwei directly and were unable to hit Yangwei's belly. Yangwei continued to turn to the left, and two more fireships were knocked over by the heavy ironclad ship on the sea.
Only the two fireships on the far left still had an angle, and they rushed up at high speed, ramming the steel thorns on the bows into the armor of the Yangwei. If the pirates on the fireships could sink a steamship, Liu Xianglong would
The pirates on the ship were given a reward of 800 taels of silver. Seeing that the steel spikes had been fixed on the iron armor, the pirates on the ship were so excited that they seemed to have seen the white silver, and immediately lit the thatch and dry firewood on the ship.
Those thatched dry firewood had long been poured with oil, and there was some black powder inside. They burned violently when exposed to an open fire. The fire quickly engulfed the two small fireboats. The port side of the Yangwei was in flames, and the two boats
The fire ship turned into two huge fireballs. The fire breath burned the armor of the ironclad ship.
Liu Xianglong stood on the Changde, the flagship of the fleet. This was a giant lucky ship with a length of 14 feet. Liu Xianglong secretly hired Chinese craftsmen from the Western 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 ordered by Liu from the Western Bugalao Cannon 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 Liu family fleet, only these eight heavy guns could threaten the ironclad ship.
Of course, only eight heavy guns cannot defeat Yang Peng. Liu Xianglong held up the telescope he bought from a Westerner and frowned as he looked at the ten armored ships ramming among the fire ships.
Asia's largest pirate has dominated the oceans for more than 80 years, but this is the first time he has seen such a warship. Not only can Yang Peng's warship move forward and retreat at high speeds without sails, it is also covered in iron armor, making it extremely sharp.
Liu Xianglong watched one after another fireships being hit or sunk by the ironclads, and his palms were sweating. This ironclad was so powerful, how many people in the Liu family's navy would have to die to win this battle? Until he saw the Yangwei.
Liu Xianglong relaxed his brows when the two fireships were lit on the side. With the blessing of the Concubine Tian, the fireships finally stuck together. Once such a raging fire burned, how could these ten ships not burn up?
The iron armored ship was driving so fast, so the outer iron sheet should be very light and thin, right? Liu Xianglong stared at the Yangwei with his telescope, praying in his heart that the fire would burn brighter and burn the incredible ironclad ship to pieces. However, Liu Xianglong let
What was extremely disappointing was that the two fireboats stuck on top of the ironclad ship burned for a long time, but they failed to ignite the hull of the ironclad 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.
Liu Xianglong was very disappointed to see that the Cangzhou 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.
Liu Xianglong turned pale all of a sudden and couldn't help but cursed: "Lin Mu Ka Hou". On the Yangwei, Yang Peng looked at the fire ship that was knocked away with joy. When the Liu family's fire ship was built, the preset enemy was a large one.
Wooden sailing ship. Probably the Liu family had never thought that their enemies were driving ironclad ships. Therefore, the steel thorns on the bow of the fire ship were designed to be very sharp and slender. Such slender thorn hooks would sting very hard when they hit the wooden hull.
Deep, but when it comes to hard iron armor, this kind of slender steel thorn will not be effective.
The slender steel thorns will be blunted after piercing the iron armor, and the armor-breaking ability is greatly reduced. Therefore, the sailors on the Yangwei carried the processed cedar trunks and rammed them against the fireship, and the fireship was knocked open. Yangwei
The ship 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 on the ground. Some fireships were ignited by bombs, while others were directly penetrated by bombs and sank into the sea little by little.
The pirates on the fire ship were desperate. This was not a war, it was simply the crushing of one era against another. The fire ship tactic failed miserably. This kind of tactics once defeated the Westerners and Spaniards and helped Liu Xianglong defeat Li Kuiqi and Zhong Zhong.
Bin and Liu Laoba, and the tactics used by Liu Xianglong to dominate the East Asian seas were of no use against ironclad ships.
These ten armored ships are like ten giant steel beasts on the sea. They are not afraid of fire at all. This kind of war machine that should not appear in this era is really terrifying. Continuing to fight will only lead to death. Eight hundred taels of silver will be rewarded.
Although tempting, it was obviously more important to save one's life. After losing more than 200 fire ships, Liu Xianglong's fire ship 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 fled away. Opposite the ten ironclad ships, there were only more than a hundred Fu ships left. But Liu Xianglong had not yet surrendered. Just as the fire ships withdrew, more than a hundred Fu ships once again poured shells at the ten iron-clad ships. Six hundred
Multiple artillery shells screamed and flew towards the armored ship, 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 Liu family's 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.
Yang Peng's artillerymen had just finished firing and were 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, and the air in the boiler rushed out from the whistle, and a huge whistle sounded from
Output from the Yangwei account.
"Woo~~" This whistle sounded like the clarion call for an ironclad ship to charge. After hearing the whistle, the other nine ironclad ships all turned their bows and rushed towards Liu's line of Fuchuan.
The Liu family's lucky ships realized that the ironclad ship was about to rush up and collide with the ship, so 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 not be 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 Fu ship was far from a match for the steamer in terms of speed. There was a distance of 300 meters between the two fleets, and it only took three minutes for the ironclad ship to catch up. The Yangwei aimed at a four-deck Fu ship and rushed towards it.
In the past, the collision angle was slammed into the poop of the Fuchuan. The wooden Fuchuan was built with economy and practicality in mind. How could it withstand such a fierce collision with an ironclad ship? Only a loud bang was heard, and the high stern of the Fuchuan was heard.
The building was cut from the middle by the Yangwei, split into two pieces on the left and right.
Seawater poured in crazily from the cracked hole in the bottom of the ship, and the ship suddenly lost its ability to move forward. The collision angle of the Yangwei was still in the poop of the ship, and the artillery on both sides opened fire. Thirty rounds were fired.
The eighteen-pound bombs were like thirty meteors, shooting at the two other lucky ships on both sides that were fleeing in panic.
What happened after all? Let’s look at the breakdown next time.