The Rise of the European Emperor

Because of the warning nature, when the A-type artillery and B-type artillery of Weiyuan Fort of the Ming Army fired, they did not use full charge or iron ball shells, but used a little stone to deal with it.

As a result, the two guns were fired with insufficient power. In the ears of the experienced Da Gama, these two guns are five or six-pound guns, which are similar to the main 6-pound guns on Portuguese warships, and cannot keep up with the main Portuguese 12-pound guns.

It was based on such a misjudgment, coupled with the fact that the artillery of the Ming army was huddled in the stone fortress, and Da Gama did not have a telescope to look closely, so a serious misjudgment occurred.

"Hey, I didn't expect this country to have an artillery fortress. However, the power is a bit low..." Da Gama joked confidently. Then he ordered:

"Order the Viseu and Braga to go up, and use the artillery on the ship to teach Xiaming people's small artillery fortress, so that they can see how powerful we are!"

Both the Viseu and the Braga are the main warships in the fleet, both of which have a displacement of more than 200 tons and are of the carrack sailing type. Each of the ships was equipped with two 12-pounders, six 6-pounders, and ten three-pounders. Except for the 12-pound gun, which is a front-mounted gun, the 6-pound gun and the three-pound gun are both rear-loaded Francois machine guns.

Even broadsides had three six-pounders and five three-pounders on each side, plus two twelve-pounders bow and stern.

Under the command of the voice transmission of the loud sailor, the two main warships, the Viseu and the Braga, approached unhurriedly, intending to use shells to teach the Ming army how to behave...

However, when firing the cannons, most of the shells used by the Portuguese were stone shells...

No way, the use of stone shells is now popular in almost all of Europe, and only the rich and powerful North Sea country vigorously promotes iron ball shells.

The reason for this is that European steel production is too low in this era...

The steel production in Europe was quite low at the stage of turning from lump iron smelting to furnace smelting pig iron ingots decades ago. The output of a Krumhorne steel plant in the North Sea country is actually comparable to that of the whole of Portugal.

There is no way, Portugal's geographical location is considered remote in Europe, and its mineral resources are very poor. It was precisely because of the lack of mineral resources that Portugal was forced to vigorously develop maritime trade. If there is no foreign trade, it is estimated that Portugal does not even have the iron to make weapons and armor.

Therefore, in the absence of metal resources, Portuguese artillery can only generally use stone bullets. In fact, not only Portugal, even a rich country like Venice generally uses stone ball shells. Without him, the countries along the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, especially the countries in the southwest, are very poor in mineral resources, and the price of steel is also very expensive.

However, the Ming Dynasty was different. The national steel output was as high as hundreds of thousands of tons, and the price of a catty of pig iron was only more than ten yuan. Therefore, the shells of the Humen Fort can all use iron ball shells, while Portugal can only use stone shells because of the lack of mineral resources. This situation continued in Europe until the late Henry VIII, that is, the mid-16th century. It was not until later that with the rapid advancement of steel technology and shipbuilding technology that ships became stronger and stronger, and it was difficult for stone bullets to damage the hull, they had to be fully upgraded to iron ball shells.

"Let's go up, go up! Let those Ming people know how powerful our great Portuguese artillery is!" The captains of the two warships stood on the deck and shouted carelessly, as if they were sure of victory.

Seeing the two Portuguese ships approaching,

Lin Pingan, guarding the Humen Fort, was a little puzzled—did I make a mistake in my judgment, and these two ships came to negotiate?

But after getting closer, he found that the sailors on the two ships started aiming copper cannons at the fort, and Lin Pingan gave up his heart...

At this time, Lin Shoubei ordered loudly:

"Soldiers obey the order, reload the ammunition, and teach these barbarians a profound lesson!" Then, Lin Shoubei turned around and ordered loudly:

"Outpost, light the beacon fire to warn!" Since it was determined that the visitor was not good, it was natural to light beacon fire to warn the nearby Ming army of the danger.

Afterwards, the gunners of the Ming army in front of the artillery began to tear open the oil paper bag, pour the gunpowder in the oil paper bag into the muzzle, and poke it into it with a thick wooden stick. Then, the 10-jin (12-pound) iron ball shells in the wooden box were stuffed into the muzzle and pierced into the bottom of the barrel. At the same time, another artilleryman took out a tailored fuse from his leather bag and inserted it into the fire hole at the end of the barrel...

At this time, the arrogant Portuguese warship was only more than 300 meters away from the fort, which is the effective range of the Fran cannon. And this distance happens to be the best range for flat shooting...

"Yi Chuan is really arrogant!" Lin Shoubei curled his lips when he saw it from the lookout hole.

At this time, all 10 12-pound guns on the Weiyuan Fort were ready. The commander of each gun reported loudly:

"Report, the No. A cannon has been loaded, please show me!"

"Report, the Type B cannon has been loaded, please show me, sir!"

"Report, the Type C cannon has been loaded, please show me, sir!"

"Report, the T-shaped cannon has been loaded, please show me, my lord!"

...

With a series of reports from the gunner, all ten 12-pound guns were loaded.

Lin Pingan nodded to Zhang Ke, a thousand households in Weiyuan Fortress, and Zhang Ke immediately shouted:

"All gun positions, fire together!"

"Yes, the Type A cannon is on fire!"

"Yes, the Type B cannon is on fire!"

...

After a series of yells, 10 gunners in charge of ignition, holding wooden sticks tied with matchlocks, stretched the burning matchrope to the fuse...

After a burst of "chi chi" burning sound, 10 12-pound guns made explosion sounds of "boom-boom-boom-boom..." within a short period of time.

Then, 10 iron balls weighing 10 catties roared out of the 10 cannons and smashed viciously at two Portuguese warships hundreds of meters away...

"No, I misjudged it!" Da Gama, who was standing on the poop a few kilometers away watching the battle, changed his expression drastically when he saw 10 flames emanating from the Ming army fortress on the shore.

But what made his face more exciting was still behind——As the voice came later, Da Gama realized a serious problem—the artillery caliber in the Ming army fortress was larger than he imagined, and there might be Portuguese guns in it. The power of the main gun on the bow of the warship...

"Why did the Ming people have such powerful artillery?" Da Gama frowned, which didn't match the information he had inquired from Malacca...

According to the smugglers of the Ming Dynasty in Malacca who were bought by the Portuguese, the Ming Dynasty originally had no cannons. A few years ago, Ma Lin, the leader of the North Sea Kingdom, presented dozens of Franc cannons, but they fired small two- to three-pound cannonballs. Even if Ming people are equipped with artillery, it should not be a large-caliber gun like a 12-pound gun, but the most common two-three-pound gun...

"Could it be that those Ming country smugglers deceived me?" Da Gama began to doubt.

But the current situation has undergone drastic changes, and he can no longer afford to think about it. Because, the Viseu and Braga were hit hard...

When the artillery of the Ming army fired, two 12-pound main guns, three 6-pound guns and five 3-pound guns on the two warships also fired one after another.

However, because the closed turret designed by Marin only left small shooting holes, the security of the turret is very high. The Portuguese warship swayed from side to side again due to recoil. As a result, the 20 stone bullets fired by 10 Portuguese guns on each of the two Portuguese warships either hit the thick stone wall of the fort, or simply missed the fort.

On the contrary, the cannons of the Ming army's fort, because the recoil force was absorbed by the stone platform, the shooting and aiming were very stable. Although only 4 of the 10 iron ball shells hit the target in the end, they caused huge damage to the Portuguese warship...

A 12-pound iron ball smashed a large hole in the poop of the Viseu, and a sailor inside was hit in the chest by the iron ball and died on the spot. Fortunately, the Braga, which was closer to the Weiyuan Fort, was in a more upright position. One of the 12-pound iron balls broke the fore-mast of the Braga, causing the fore-mast of the Braga to collapse. It was broken on the spot. And the other two shells were more deadly-they hit the side of the Braga, opening two holes in the side of the Braga...

"No, the side is leaking!" the sailor on the Braga shouted in horror.

"Quickly, block the gap! Block the gap!" shouted Joao, the captain of the Braga.

But before the sailors on the Braga plugged the two loopholes, within a few minutes, the second round of shelling came again. The Braga was hit by three iron ball shells and suffered more wounds.

Captain João had no choice but to shout:

"Raise the sails, leave this position!" Just now, in order to facilitate aiming and shooting, the sailors of the Braga specially retracted the sails to stop the warship. But now, seeing that stopping is just waiting to be sunk, Captain Joao had no choice but to order the sail to be hoisted, and it is only reasonable to drive the ship away quickly...

At the same time, Pereira, the captain of the Viseu, also ordered the ship to raise its sails and maneuver to avoid confronting the Weiyuan Fort. Because, he also saw it - the firepower of Ming Guo Fortress is stronger than theirs...

...