Chapter 81 Sweet Harbor Storm - Battle of Juhua Island (1)
Chapter 81 Sweet Harbor Storm - Battle of Juhua Island (1)
Why is it to starboard instead of port? This question is obviously meaningless. Lelin has been in the navy for several months, and she still understands the basic principles of being a soldier: obeying orders and following orders.
"Aim directly at the hull," Xi Yazhou said regretfully, "It's a pity that there are no grenades, otherwise one shot would be enough to sink a ship."
"You can use incendiary bombs." Le Lin suggested.
The so-called incendiary bomb is of course not a gasoline napalm bomb, nor a white phosphorus bomb, or a thermite bomb, but a solid iron ball that is burned red. The effect of this thing is pretty good, but the gunner must be very careful when operating it and pay attention to safety.
, so neither the artillery of the army nor the navy likes this kind of ammunition.
"Okay, just use incendiary bombs."
The 12-pound cannon on the ship is one of the four standard artillery that was recently manufactured by the industrial department based on Lin Shenhe's proposal and prepared to be equipped with the army. The imitation prototype is the US military's m1857 12-pound cannon, also known as
Napoleon gun. Although this gun is a smoothbore gun, it can accurately project a standard 12-pound shell to a distance of 1480m at a shooting angle of 5 degrees with a 1.13kg standard propellant charge, and the shooting angle is 10 degrees.
At that time, it could reach an astonishing 1,911 meters. Although it was a smoothbore gun, its shooting accuracy was at a relatively high level at the time, enough to engage the enemy at a distance of 1,000 meters, and it only needed a few rounds to fire.
The entire company of enemies was incapacitated. It was an artillery piece commonly used by both sides during the Civil War.
The only disadvantage of this kind of gun is that it is relatively heavy, almost half a ton. But there is no problem if it is mounted on the deck of a ship and used to bombard targets at sea.
In order to facilitate shooting at sea, these four artillery batteries are fixed on a simple turntable, and the recoil recoil principle is used to reset the artillery.
The nearest enemy ship on the starboard side was less than one nautical mile away. With the power of the m1857, the enemy was already within shooting range, but Xi Yazhou still did not give the order to fire.
Xi Yazhou's idea is to hit with one hit: the big whale has to hold on for at least 20 minutes before it can wait for the reinforcements from the A detachment arriving from ten nautical miles away. Therefore, it is best to hit a large number of enemies with the first shot, otherwise the following will be a
A hard fight.
The accuracy of the m1857 is naturally good on the shore, but when hitting a target 1,000 meters away on a bumpy sea, only God knows whether it can hit the target. Although Xi Yazhou is not a naval enthusiast, he at least knows about naval artillery battles in the sailing era.
Only a distance of less than 100 meters can ensure that most shots can hit effectively. The British even emphasized firing within 50 meters.
Even if the m1857 is more powerful and accurate than those old smoothbore cannons, in order to ensure accuracy, it is still necessary to compress the shooting distance to less than 400 meters.
Ten minutes passed. Everyone was waiting. The gunners stared at the iron balls in the heating furnace. To ensure safety, the heating furnace was surrounded by a thick protective layer of sand. If necessary, the furnace could be covered immediately with sandbags.
No. The sailors behind the sandbag wall stared out from the shooting holes one by one. The pirate ship was getting closer and closer.
Xi Yazhou put on the 80 steel helmet brought to him by the messenger, but refused the stab-proof vest. Standing on the deck wearing this thing would make him hot to death. He remained silent, carefully watching the enemy's movements with his binoculars, and
He estimated that the three boats on the starboard side were faster and the four boats on the left side were slower.
Finally, the boat closest to them was within 400 meters away.
"Attention deck and gun emplacements!" he shouted.
There was a slight sound on the ship, and then it fell silent again.
"Start shooting!" Xi Yazhou ordered, "Target at 3 o'clock."
The order was immediately conveyed to the deck. The straw mat covering the gun positions was quickly lifted, and the straw bags that hindered shooting were also thrown into the sea. The black cast iron barrels of the four artillery guns were instantly exposed on the deck.
"Distance two links!" the rangefinder quickly reported the straight-line distance to the target.
The gunners made no move. It turned out that these were Army gunners, and they were accustomed to using meters as the unit of length. Lelin quickly corrected: "The target is at 3 o'clock! The distance is 360 meters!"
"Target 360 meters, load 1 incendiary bomb!"
The gunners quickly filled the gunpowder bag in the gun chamber with a moist soft mud cake, which was made of straw and clay. Then the gunners used iron pliers to carefully pick up a red-hot cake from the stove.
The two gunners used an iron lifting frame to load the hot iron ball into the muzzle of the gun.
It can be seen that this thing is dangerous enough. If the mud cake that isolates the gunpowder does not play its role well, the artillery will fire by itself. At least the gunner who is busy in front of the muzzle will not survive.
"Fire!" Le Lin shouted.
The four cannons opened fire one by one from No. 1 to No. 4 in a tacit understanding, and the deck was suddenly covered with a layer of light smoke.
"Damn it!" Xi Yazhou cursed. The smoke when the artillery fired was really annoying. When will nitrocellulose propellant be available?
After the smoke from the artillery fire blew over the ship, Xi Yazhou saw the effect of the previous attack on the enemy ship: the leading single-mast ship was shot above the waterline, and black smoke was rising. The people on the deck were
He desperately fetched water in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
Although the effect was good, it did not "kill" the opponent instantly, which made Xi Yazhou a little disappointed.
At this time, white smoke rose from the three ships coming from the front, and the rumbling sound of cannons was heard. However, these hastily fired cannonballs fell into the sea far away from the whale. Xi Yazhou knew that the enemy's artillery was
It is not very powerful and will not be effective until it reaches 50 meters. You can safely and boldly pack up the ship on the starboard side first.
In the next shot, the incendiary bomb pierced the sail and flew into the sea. The enemy's sail burned and soon turned into a torch. Another shot flew across the rear deck, and the whole rear stern was
The sail tent collapsed in a chaotic mess, and no one among the dozen or so people gathered there was spared. They were all beaten to pieces, with their skin charred and their flesh mushy.
"Okay! Good fight!" Xi Yazhou was extremely excited when he saw this, "Keep firing incendiary bombs!"
But the incendiary bombs were gone. It would take a long time to use a stove to heat a big cold iron ball. Le Lin had ordered solid bullets to be used instead.
The distance between the two sides has approached nearly 200 meters, and the 12-pounder cannons are almost 100% accurate within this distance. The first sloop on the starboard side has almost been completely paralyzed, with a raging fire burning on the stern, and the deck is full of people.
Broken corpses.
The deck of the Great Whale was shrouded in smoke from artillery fire. A gust of wind blew. When the smoke dispersed, Lelin almost screamed. One of the four ships on the port side had already approached less than fifty meters away.
On the deck, the shirtless pirates holding double-headed spears, waist knives and bamboo pole spears with murderous intent stared at them with red eyes, waiting for the moment the two ships came close to each other to jump over and fight.
Following the command of the marine platoon leader, the marines behind the sandbags opened fire. With the sound of neat gunfire, the pirates gathered on the deck fell down in a row and fell into the water as if they had been swept by a sickle.
At this time, the four cannons aimed at the enemy ship on the starboard side also fired a beautiful volley. Four out of four shots were fired, and the 12-pound iron ball tore a large hole in the waterline of a brig - it began to sink.
, the pirates above jumped into the sea one after another and boarded a brig behind.
The sailors on the deck cheered. "One ship was sunk and one was hit and set on fire." Le Lin reported.
"Okay," Xi Yazhou replied, "keep shooting and change to shotgun shells!"
The salvo fired by the sailors just now inspired him. Since the distance is less than 200 meters, shooting with shotguns on a ship with no protection and a large number of people gathered on the deck will definitely achieve good results, even if it cannot sink the opponent.
, at least it can kill a large number of enemies and weaken the enemy's hand-to-hand combat effectiveness.
The 12-pound shotgun began to sweep across the deck of the pirate ship. Each shot of the cannon would eject 68 iron pellets, "washing" the deck of the pirate ship like a heavy rain. Almost no one could survive such a bombardment.
, the last ship on the starboard side gathered a large number of pirates who were ready to join the gang. After a salvo, there were no more active people on the entire deck.
The threat on the starboard side was basically eliminated, but the three ships of the Gu family approaching from the front also arrived in front of the Great Whale. They rushed towards the ship, and the twelve cannons mounted on the bow opened fire at the same time, making it impossible to avoid it.
Unfortunately, the big whale was hit. The stones and iron bullets hit the sandbags, making a dull "pop" sound, and green smoke rose from the wet straw bags. Then another shot hit the foremast, and the sail slumped down.
There was chaos, and a roar was immediately heard from the enemy's ship.
The artillery battle between the two sides continued for ten minutes. The enemy ships and the whale were invisible in the white smoke of the burning gunpowder. Only when the smoke receded could we know the losses caused to each other. The first casualties had already appeared on the whale.
Personnel: An iron bullet penetrated a sandbag wall, and three sailors and a gunner behind it were hit and died on the spot.
"Pay attention to protection!" Xi Yazhou shouted. Suddenly his head shook and he felt a little dizzy. A stone bounced off the helmet.
The pirate ship began to attack the whale with various weapons. Guns fired cracklingly, and gunshots were crackling everywhere. Stone bullets, iron bullets, lead bullets, feather arrows, javelins and torches were all thrown onto the whale.
Bullets rained down on the deck. Although they were protected by high sandbag bunkers, there were still more casualties. Xi Yazhou was almost hit several times. For a moment, his calf trembled, and he wanted to
He crawled behind the bunker, but firmly believed that he was protected by the aura of the protagonist. Xi Yazhou, who was possessed by the aura of domineering, commanded Ruoding. He stood tall on the poop and gave orders calmly, as if he was directing the sound during a review.
Like a gun salute.
"Why hasn't Detachment A come yet?" Xi Yazhou seemed calm, but in fact he felt guilty. If Detachment A doesn't come, I'm afraid we will have to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
More casualties began to appear on the ship, and the dead and injured were immediately sent to the lower deck, where the wounded received emergency treatment. Sailors poured sand onto the blood-stained deck to prevent people running back and forth from slipping.
"fire!"
"Double shotgun!"
"Fire in the mizzen mast, damage control team!"
"Hygienist, someone is injured!"
…
The shouts of the sailors on the deck, accompanied by the sound of guns and the howls of the enemy, made Lelin feel dangerous and exciting. He was covered in cold sweat, but his whole body was immersed in an indescribable and huge pleasure, which was almost light.
He was about to fly. He held a pistol in one hand and a naval officer's sword in the other. He danced and shouted in Cantonese. No one could understand what he was saying. Fortunately, there was no need for this now.
The usual training has had full effect, and everyone knows what they should do.
The big whale's guns were fired, and the smoke filled the air, like a fire-breathing dragon, moving slowly on the sea.
Suddenly, Xi Yazhou discovered that the enemy's ships began to turn around. Detachment A must be coming! He quickly picked up the telescope, and sure enough, in the gap where the smoke dispersed, two fishing boats were approaching at full speed in the distance, with white waves rolling, and the navy
The flag is flying.
"Finally here!" he muttered.
The addition of the two fishing boats immediately ended the battle. Although Gu Dachun was originally surprised by the firepower on the Big Whale, he knew that he had more people and boats. As long as he surrounded them and fought hand-to-hand, he could still capture the Big Whale, not to mention his own
The three ships had not suffered much damage. But the arrival of these two sailless and oarless clippers made him immediately understand who his opponent was.
The opponent was the Australian who had defeated Liu Xiang and Zhu Cai Lao's troops! No wonder the firepower was so strong! Thinking of this, Gu Dachun almost burst into tears. Compared to Leizhou's Zhu Sanye, Gu Dachun, who has been working in this area all year round,
Dachun knew a lot about the rumors about the Australians and heard a lot about their strange things, especially the big iron ships and iron clippers.
"Quickly, hang up the flag and leave!" Gu Dachun's face turned pale and he ordered.
The direction of escape does not need to be taken care of. In the past few years, every time when the sea robbery has not gone smoothly, or when the army has been encircled and suppressed, or the enemy has been chasing me, I have just run towards Juhua Island. As long as I cross the Maojiao Pass, I will be safe. What's more, this time
It was an iron clipper that was much faster than them. If they escaped in a straight line, they would definitely die. Only by running into the enchantment formation on Juhua Island could they possibly escape.
The Gu family's three boats were the first to turn around and, driven by sails and oars, fled towards Juhua Island. Then, the remaining boats also turned around and fled.
On the sea, two powerless floating ships and one ship with flames rising into the sky were left. The people on these ships had basically been killed and injured, and the sails, masts, and rudders were all destroyed. Even if there were some living people, they could not be used.
They moved. The sea breeze carried the wails and curses of the pirates who had been abandoned on the broken ship.