Valley Emperor

Vol 2 Chapter 1104: Cannons in the Indian Ocean

The sea battles in the age of great voyages are a combination of the two extremes of grandeur and dullness.

When the fleets of the two sides were bombarded with naval guns at close range, the scene was enough to shock anyone watching the battle, and it would also make any soldiers involved in the battle terrified.

Because when the warships of the two sides are fighting, the distance is often very close. There are very few large-scale bombardments over 300 meters, and more are within 300 meters, or even more than 100 meters. distance, and at this distance, the hit rate of naval guns will become quite high.

And more importantly, the warships of these years are all directly measured by the number of artillery pieces. There are dozens of naval guns casually, even small and medium-sized warships of two or three hundred tons. Has about 20 naval guns.

A warship has dozens of artillery pieces, and an entire fleet has hundreds of artillery pieces at every turn. When so many artillery pieces are fired, almost the entire sea will be filled with gunpowder smoke, and the huge cannons will be continuously returned. roar.

However, naval battles in this era are also extremely dull!

Because the sailing is too slow, even when the wind is smooth, it is difficult to achieve high sailing. In most cases, the sailing is only about five or six knots. Great influence, causing the warship to turn when it wants to turn.

This also means that, in fact, the fleets of the two sides will take at least a few hours from the moment they find each other, and then to close the distance and fight together. If it is a chase battle, then I am sorry. Easy and loose.

If the chasing party is in hot pursuit and can keep up, this kind of pursuit can even last for half a month, chasing all the way from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, and from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

Now, Tong Shang and the others are in front of the unknown, but obviously malicious small fleet. It looks like a battle is imminent, but in fact, it will be several hours before the real battle will explode.

Therefore, although Tong Shang and the others were already preparing for battle, the entire fleet did not say that the atmosphere was too tense.

After Tong Shang and the others had eaten, they boarded the bridge again, and saw that the battleship in front of the right, which was originally just three fuzzy little shadows, had drawn a bit closer, but now the wind was even more severe for Tong Shang and the others. It is beneficial, so Tong Shang and the others can continue to maintain a high level without turning, and the other party must need to change direction. In this way, it will be more difficult for the other party to catch up.

However, Tong Shang knew that even if the time was prolonged, the other party would definitely be able to catch up, because the three ships of the other party were all dhows.

They are not big, the displacement is at most more than 100 tons, and it will never exceed 200 tons. However, the single-mast rigging sail and the slender hull are usually very fast and maneuverable.

And Tong Shang's fleet, although it is said that it is a new type of ships, sailing faster than ordinary merchant ships, but it is still not as good as this kind of fast ships. Even his frigates can't compare with this kind of fast ships. flexibility.

For the various current sail outfits, the only one that can sail faster than the jib is the Datang Long Sail specially set up by the Datang Royal Institute of Technology this year, combining the advantages of China and the West.

It's just that the new Datang Longsail is limited by technology, and it is difficult to make it taller and bigger. It can only win by quantity, so you will see that the ships using Datang Longsail are only about tens of tons and hundreds of tons, but they are common. Use three masts or even four masts.

And what's more critical is that this kind of sail outfit was designed not long ago, and it has not yet been applied on a large scale.

Most of the battleships of the Datang Navy and civilian merchant ships still use traditional sails. If you only look at the sails, the battleships of the Datang Navy are almost the same as those of the Spanish Galen.

What's more, his fleet is still transporting the merchant fleet in essence, including the frigates, which are full of cargo, and the navigation is much slower than when empty ships.

So in the end, it is almost certain to be caught up. Even if the other party can't intercept him, he can slowly catch up behind him.

But Tong Shang is not without confidence. His confidence is the powerful firepower of his own fleet, especially the 350-ton frigate under his command. The boats can be compared.

Even the other three merchant ships were armed merchant ships, and their firepower was not weak.

Even if the three fast boats on the opposite side caught up, Tong Shang still had great confidence to repel them.

But how to wield the powerful firepower of one's own side requires Tong Shang's command!

If they just foolishly fled westward, and others caught up from behind, they would not be able to use the most powerful broadside firepower.

Therefore, after half an hour, Tong Shang ordered the formation, from the one-line column led by the frigate to the frigate deviating from the route. The three armed merchant ships were still in a separate team, forming a parallel formation of frigates and three merchant ships. , and then gradually fell behind. In the end, the frigates fell at the end of the fleet, and the merchant ships were at the head!

An hour later, Tong Shang once again ordered a change of sailing, changing the heading to northwest. At this time, the enemy's three pirate ships were also coming from the northwest, which caused the two sides to travel directly opposite each other.

Tong Shang's idea is very obvious, that is, to pass by these pirates, and use his most powerful broadside firepower when passing by!

But the pirates on the opposite side were obviously not stupid. They also changed their course, trying to change the situation. Facing this situation~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Tong Shang changed course again.

The two sides adjusted the course again and again, and time passed slowly.

Moreover, when adjusting the course, the wind direction also changed again. Seeing that the east wind was about to blow, Tong Shang was too lazy to entangle with them, so he directly ordered to readjust the sailing and continue to the west.

It's not too long before the night, if the other party doesn't want to lose him after dark, even if he has to catch up to entangle or even fight, otherwise, one night is enough for Tong Shang to change his voyage several times, and then get rid of them.

Obviously, the pirates on the opposite side also knew that time was not in their favor, so naturally they would not let Tong Shang and the others leave. Once the sailing was adjusted, they immediately caught up, and the sailing was getting faster and faster.

At this time, these pirates completely took advantage of the sloop jib, and they quickly circled up, and they wanted to bypass the **** frigate directly, insert it between the merchant fleet, and disrupt Tong Shang The formation of the fleet.

Now the distance between the two sides is only about three or four hundred meters, and it is about to enter the final stage of hand-to-hand combat!

At this time, Tong Shang showed a hint of sneer and muttered: These idiots!

Immediately after that, he ordered: Keep the formation and turn 40 degrees to the right collectively!

With this turn, his fleet almost swept across, and then aimed all the broadside artillery at the three enemy ships rushing up behind!

When the enemy ship turned bad and tried to escape, they already broke into the range of broadside gunfire coverage of Dong Shang's fleet.

fire!

Following Tong Shang's order, his ship was the first to roar!

The rumble of cannons kept ringing in the Indian Ocean!

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