The two Spanish corvettes opened fire first, with 10 Cofilin cannons throwing five-pound iron projectiles at the leading Ming warship.
"Bash! Bash!"
The iron pellets hit the side and deck of the Ming warship, making loud noises. The Ming ship was slightly shaken by the impact of the projectiles. Although such small projectiles would not cause any obvious damage to the Ming ship, the sound
The successive crashes still made the sailors on the ship feel frightened.
"Damn it, these red barbarian cannons are really accurate." The sailors murmured in a low voice.
"Xiao Qi, is it time to fight back?" The gunners began to shout loudly. This feeling of being beaten without fighting back was really uncomfortable.
"What's the rush? How many steps are we taking now?" the flag officer yelled at the observer.
The observation soldier rubbed his eyes vigorously, looked carefully, and then reported: "Report Xiaoqi, it is about 550 steps now."
"Okay, start aiming!" the flag officer gave the order. In fact, he was just as uncomfortable as the gunners. It would be a shame if he had an advanced artillery but was sunk by someone first.
The gunners had already aimed their guns at the Spanish corvette dozens of times. After hearing the order, they aimed again with great excitement, then held up the match ropes and waited for the flag officer's order.
"Get ready, fire!" The flag officer waited for a moment, and when he estimated that the distance was about the same, he waved his arm downwards fiercely.
"Boom! Boom!"
The warships of the Ming army also roared, and solid bullets and explosive shells with half the charge flew towards the Spanish light ship.
For a time, the sea was filled with smoke and projectiles were flying everywhere. In order to conceal their strength, the Ming army deliberately reduced the weight of the cannon propellant and the quantity of explosives in the solid bullets. The distance the projectiles flew was only a mere five or six hundred steps, and the projectiles hit the Spanish battlefield.
Although it can explode and ignite fire after the ship, it can only be regarded as a small thing compared with the real lethality.
Even so, the explosion that occurred on the ship still panicked the captain of the Spanish caravel. While steering the ship, he shouted loudly to the sailors: "The Chinese projectiles will explode, put out the fire quickly! Don't let the fire burn the gunpowder."
Bucket!"
Since they had heard in advance that the Chinese fleet was equipped with explosive shells, the Spanish prepared wet sand, wet quilts and other materials for fire extinguishing on the ship. When they saw a fire somewhere, the sailors rushed to it desperately
, struggling to put out the fire. Ships back then were all made of wood, and canvas and other items were also flammable. Gunpowder barrels were not objects that should be kept close to fire. A little spark was enough to ignite the gunpowder barrel.
, sending the whole ship flying.
"boom!"
A bomb hit the side of the Spanish ship "Tovi". There was a loud noise, the side of the ship was exploded, and seawater gurgled into the cabin. In the past, such damage was only within a distance of two to three hundred steps.
It can only be caused by using 50-pound iron bullets from cannons. But the Ming army used explosive bullets to achieve the purpose of destroying the ship at a distance of 500 paces.
"Hurry up and close the gap! Damn it, turn the sail across and get out, get out!"
The captain felt that the ship was tilting slightly. He did not care about fighting the Ming army anymore. He ordered the sailors to quickly pull the sails and prepare to break away from the battle.
"boom!"
The Ming warships behind had also caught up, and another explosive bomb hit the Tuowei. The cracked side of the ship suddenly collapsed, and the seawater swallowed the entire cabin in an instant. The ship sank to the ground at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Shen.
"Damn it! The Chinese cannonballs are so terrifying! They actually sank a light ship with two cannons. A four-masted ship like ours would be finished after just four or five cannonballs!" Kevin said.
Watching from his flagship that the Tovey sank so much that even the top of the mast could no longer be seen within a few minutes, I couldn't help but feel terrified.
Raphael stood next to Kevin and saw all this. He felt more optimistic than Kevin: "Mr. Kevin, such a light ship will sink if it is hit by two cannons. We will sink."
Just think of the Chinese's blooming shells as long-range cannon shells."
"However, no cannon can cause such severe damage at such a long distance. Based on this alone, we will have to pay a lot of extra losses in fighting the Chinese." Kevin said with a dark face.
Raphael said: "Mr. Kevin, now is not the time to be afraid. We should immediately go up and engage in close combat with the Chinese, otherwise we will suffer a lot."
Kevin nodded and sent an order to the flag bearer to speed up all the ships under his command and engage in close combat with the Ming army. Behind him, Fleet Commander Waldo also saw the problem and ordered the entire fleet to follow Kevin's ships.
They pressed forward together and approached the Ming army.
"The red barbarians are coming. They want to fight with us." On the Ming army's flagship, military advisor Tu Wenhuan used a telescope to observe the situation on the sea and reminded Hao Tong.
"It's not up to them." Hao Tong sneered, "Come here, give the order to change the formation, keep a distance from the Hongyi fleet, and concentrate your firepower to kill them one by one."
The messengers waved their flags and issued orders to the Ming warships. The 10 warships quickly changed their formations according to the pre-war arrangement and were divided into three squads. The middle squadron consisted of two 1,000-material warships and two
400-material warships, including Hao Tong's flagship; the two teams on both sides each have a 1,000-material warship and two 400-material warships.
The warships of each squadron covered each other, and the three squadrons formed a horns. The Spanish fleet advanced, and the Ming army slowly retreated, while concentrating firepower to deal with the enemy ships rushing at the front.
The advantage of the Ming army's artillery in the killing distance was shown in such a chase battle. The Spanish fleet tried hard to catch up to a distance of 300 steps from the Ming army in order to use cannon to destroy the Ming army's warships. The Ming army always tried to
Keep a distance of 500 steps from the Spanish and use exploding cannonballs to hit the Spanish warships.
Hao Tong asked his men to tie himself to the mast on the top of the ship in order to maintain balance on the constantly bumping warship. He calmly observed the battle situation on the sea and issued orders one after another:
"Forward to the right, focus on the four-masted ship rushing ahead!"
"Attention, there are two ships from Hongyi that have detoured from the left. Go up to them and kill one first!"
"Tell Li Shoubei that they are too far forward, be careful not to let Hongyi's light boat get close..."
In the chaos, of course, the ships could not completely follow Hao Tong's command. The captains of each ship were also watching the situation on the sea and adjusting their course, speed and attack target in time.
The Ming army had at least two advantages that the Spaniards did not have. One was that each Ming army ship was equipped with high-power telescopes, which could see the situation on a wider battlefield. The Spaniards wanted to outflank them, but they were repeatedly defeated by the Ming army.
Secondly, the Ming army's artillery concealed its strength. If there was a crisis, each ship would show its real trump card and the situation could be reversed in a short time. Since they had the means to protect themselves, each ship could
The ship can be very calm during battle and will not panic due to the fierce Spanish offensive.
In contrast, the situation of the Spaniards is very bad. Their long-range artillery cannot effectively damage open ships, and they can only fight close to each other. On the sea, it is very difficult to close the distance of a few hundred steps.
It was not easy, they had to pay the price in blood almost every step they took.
"Mr. Kevin, the situation is not good!" Raphael saw the subtle changes in the situation, "We have lost three ships, Mr. Waldo has also lost three ships, and the Chinese have not lost one so far.
The ship was completely damaged, but it still maintained the combat effectiveness of ten ships."
Kevin didn't know this. He shouted like a gambler who lost his sight: "But what else can we do now? We are only one step away from the Chinese. If we chase 100 steps further, we will enter our cannon."
The killing range is already within reach. When the time comes, I will let them have a taste of the power of our invincible fleet."
Rafael said: "Mr. Kevin, I think it's not that simple. If we get closer, the Chinese's artillery hit rate will increase. Even if we can sink a few of their ships, we will pay the same price.
Now that the number of ships on both sides is about the same, if we continue to fight like this, it will be a lose-lose situation. What's more, we are now at the front of the entire fleet. If we want to exchange with the Chinese, we will be the first to lose."
Kevin raised his eyes and looked left and right, and asked, "In your opinion, what should we do?"
Raphael said: "Why don't we find a way to slow down a little and let Waldo's ship rush ahead."
"Okay...but don't make it too obvious." Kevin agreed.
Raphael ran to the stern of the ship and muttered a few words to the sailors who were steering the ship. As if the St. Mary's had been hit by something, it suddenly changed direction and was thrust diagonally into the ship. Then, the deck
The sailors on board started running hurriedly and pulled the sails one after another. The St. Mary's wheeled on the sea and could not sail forward.
"What the hell is Kevin doing!" Waldo saw this scene on his flagship and couldn't help but yelled angrily.
"It looks like the St. Mary's rudder was broken, and they are trying to control the course." The staff officer next to him guessed. Situations like this have also occurred in previous naval battles. If the rudder is broken,
, the ship will go astray. At this time, the only way is to stop first, repair the rudder and then move forward. Otherwise, the ship will not know where it went and will not be able to participate in the battle at all.
"Well, I think so too." Waldo nodded. In his impression, Kevin was a brave commander, so Waldo did not think about passively avoiding war.
After paying the price of sinking eight ships, the Spanish fleet finally approached a place only more than 300 steps away from the Ming fleet, and the cannon used to fire 50-pound iron bullets began to show its power. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, novel updates