Li Dan died too quickly, so quickly that everyone watching the battle from the sea felt their hearts clench in pain. Fan Wencheng stayed on the deck of the Amsterdam, staring at the whirlpool two or three nautical miles away in a daze. He recognized Li Dan's ship, and he recognized Li Dan's flag. He had also tried to rope Li Dan in, hoping that this great sea merchant would work for the Jurchens.
But now, this big shot who had been running amok for a while was instantly finished.
When the Liaodong turned at high speed, the captains of all the ships on the sea were terrified. It was as if a monster had emerged from the deep sea and was choosing its prey. When the Liaodong neared Li Dan's ship, everyone let out a sigh of relief. Even though there was a huge difference in strength between the two ships, naval battles were known to take a long time. Everyone felt that …
Since this battleship had its eyes on Li Dan, the battle would not end anytime soon. Perhaps the two sides would have to bombard each other at close range for a long time. Compared to artillery shells, a hundred-ton ship was actually quite difficult to destroy. There were often ships that had been bombarded by hundreds of artillery shells, their hulls beyond recognition, but they could still float on the sea.
But Li Dan's ship had been destroyed in just one round of artillery shells.
It was a two-thousand-ton ship, and Li Dan's ship was well-made and sturdy. It was definitely not a shoddy product that the Revolutionary Army had crudely built with pine planks to save time. This kind of ship could be considered the top of the southeast coast, but it had been destroyed in one shot!
After the hull was hit, wooden splinters flew into the air. The large-caliber bullets had left six large holes in the side of the ship, two of which were even below the waterline. The bullets that had entered the hull had destroyed many watertight compartments, including the keel and ribs. This was the real reason why Li Dan's ship had sunk so quickly.
This also showed that the large-caliber cannon that Zhao Ze had spent a lot of money on was more powerful than expected. The power was so great that even Zhu Chengxiu, who was commanding the battle, was shocked. He had tested his own cannons during sea trials, but had never encountered such an effect.
"Luck, luck, it's all luck!" Zhu Chengxiu, who had gotten off to a good start, did not feel any less pressure. After all, he still had a large number of enemy ships waiting for him to attack. He could only encourage his subordinates and say, "Look, these pieces of trash don't seem hard to beat."
As soon as he finished speaking, hundreds of cannons of all sizes fired at the Liaodong from near and far. For a moment, a large number of artillery shells rained down within a radius of several hundred meters around the ship. The entire surface of the sea was like a boiling cauldron, with countless splashes coming out of it.
Zhu Chengxiu's heart immediately trembled, and she roared and ordered, "What are you doing? What are you waiting for?! "
Li Dan's destruction made all the ships of the puppet Ming and Roy fleets feel a strong threat of death. Even a rabbit would bite when it was cornered, not to mention these sailors who were risking their lives at sea. In this day and age, those who came out to the sea were all fugitives. None of them were kind, and they would struggle a few times before they died.
Cannonballs rained down. Big cannons, small cannons, native cannons, foreign cannons, regardless of whether they could reach them or not, they were all fired at the Liaodong. The navy on Liaodong had just sunk a ship and originally wanted to be proud of themselves. However, when they saw such a scene that triggered public anger, it would be a lie to say that they were not terrified.
On a ship, the captain was the most powerful, and everyone had to obey his orders and work together. If the ship was destroyed, no one would be able to live. On the Amsterdam, Fan Wencheng was forced to go to the deck as a support, and he was responsible for pulling a rope to help a cannon return to its original position.
Sir Roy personally commanded from the deck. He stared at the white-painted warship in the distance and ordered fiercely, "Turn the rudder five degrees to the left. That ship is too agile and fast. We can't go around in circles with it. We must make use of our advantage in numbers and take the initiative to approach it. "
There were hundreds of crew members on the thousand-ton Amsterdam, and all of them were engaged in a tense battle. They were all staring at the terrifying White Devil in the distance, staring at its strange chimney, and staring at the powerful six main cannons on its deck.
The 'Liaodong' rushed out of the chaotic barrage and began to focus its attention on the seven large sailing ships from Taisi. Zhu Chengxiu had made a sharp turn just now to go around the stern of these seven ships. Now, the other party was adjusting their course, wanting to return to a horizontal formation and aim at it from the side.
"Turn the rudder five degrees to the right. Let's pick a weak one first." Zhu Chengxiu was very confident in the speed and flexibility of the Liaodong. Seeing that the opponent wanted to approach him with the wind, he ran to the upwind position after the turn to approach the enemy, making them lose their mobility. "Everyone, be careful. Those guys on the other side also have cannons."
Not only did the enemy have cannons, but they also had a lot of cannons.
At the rear of Roy's fleet was a 500-ton armed merchant ship, the Cape of Good Hope. It had more than 20 cannons in the cabin and on the deck. Although its firepower was far inferior to the Amsterdam, it also had a 24-pound long-barreled cannon. It already weighed two tons and could shoot up to five kilometers away. It was a big guy at the level of a Red Barbarian Cannon.
The bow of the Liaodong split the waves and quickly approached. The lookout on the 'Cape of Good Hope' could only watch helplessly as the enemy rushed to his stern. Even if it was an armed merchant ship, there were cannons on the bow and stern. However, there was only one cannon at most in this position, and it was an inconspicuous little guy.
Upon seeing the 'White Devil' behind them, the crew of the Cape of Good Hope immediately fell into chaos. No matter how they turned the rudder and changed the sails, their hull could only turn at a very slow speed.
At this moment, the Amsterdam in front had already led the team to turn first. When Sir Roy saw that the opponent had run to the rear of his fleet, he immediately shouted fiercely, "Fire! Fire now!"
The first mate of the ship quickly reminded, "Your Excellency, this angle is not good for us. The probability of the cannons hitting the Cape of Good Hope is higher."
"Fire quickly!" Sir Roy's face was distorted, and he had no intention of changing his order. "We must let that ship understand our will to resist. Otherwise, we will only be sent to the bottom of the sea one by one."
The rumbling of the cannons shook the sea again. Dozens of cannons on the side of the Amsterdam fired continuously. Fan Wencheng foolishly accompanied a group of cannoneers that he did not know at all on the deck of the ship. If someone else asked him to pull a rope to pull the cannon, he would only hold on tightly. When the cannon fired, the huge recoil pulled the rope. The rough surface of the rope immediately rubbed against his hands until they were covered in blood.
"Ah …" Fan Wencheng let out a shrill scream. His hands could not help but tremble in pain. He did not expect the recoil of the cannon to be so strong. After he suffered a great loss, he realized that the others would only pull the rope after firing the cannon.
"Don't just stand there! Hurry up and reset the cannon!" An ugly sailor shouted at Fan Wencheng. He did not care whether this man with long, thin braids understood Dutch or not. After he scolded him, he immediately whipped him. This time, Fan Wencheng immediately understood.
Fan Wencheng had never suffered such pain even when he was a slave of Hwang Tae-gil. However, after he was whipped, he had no choice but to use his bleeding palm to grab the rope that was abrading his flesh. And because he did not use enough strength, he was whipped several times in a row. The people on the ship treated him like a slave.
Just when Fan Wencheng used all his strength to pull the rope to reset the cannon with gritted teeth, a cry of surprise resonated on the deck of the ship. Even the Dutch sailor who was whipping him fiercely stopped and stared blankly at the rear of the fleet. The Cape of Good Hope had been shot. Judging from the angle of the shot, it was shot by one of their own who had already changed direction.
What about the White Devil? It scuttled to the stern of the Cape of Good Hope and fired a salvo. Then, it quickly ran away with its high speed. It was this salvo within 100 meters that resulted in two out of the six cannonballs hitting the stern. The stern of the Cape of Good Hope was blown to pieces. Although it was not fatal, it lost the ability to turn.
Due to the fact that the Cape of Good Hope could not change its direction, the unlucky Cape of Good Hope was hit by its own people, especially the largest 48-pound heavy cannon of the Cape of Good Hope. It destroyed a cannon on the side of the Cape of Good Hope and detonated the gunpowder barrel on the gun position.
The explosion of the gunpowder barrel triggered a chain reaction, killing or igniting all the gunners and gunpowder on the nearby gun positions.
For this reason, on the Amsterdam not far away, almost everyone could see a burst of flames appearing on the pitiful Cape of Good Hope. Then, this merchant ship that sailed from Europe turned into a bonfire on the sea. The crew on the ship were desperately jumping into the sea. However, in this weather, people could not last more than a few minutes in the sea.
Fan Wencheng was lamenting the demise of a large ship, but Sir Thomas Roy did not have the time to do so. He ran from the port side of the ship to the starboard side and ordered again, "Turn back, ten degrees to the starboard side."
The first mate had to remind him again, "Sir, this won't work. That ship is much more flexible than us. We're going against the wind if we turn to the right. We can't turn around. "
Sir Roy looked up at the sails and judged the direction of the wind before saying, "Then disband the formation and fight separately. Let the priest pray for us. We need more strength and wait for a miracle. "
As soon as he finished speaking, the lookout on the mast issued a tearing warning, "Captain, that ship is coming towards us. It's coming straight towards us."
What's going on?
A miracle really came when he said he wanted it!
The 'White Devil' turned around but did not move away. Instead, it accelerated and approached the right side of Roy's fleet. Not only did the distance between the two sides not increase, but it was also shrinking, and they were relatively parallel. Sir Roy was both delighted and puzzled by this. However, he could not care less. He immediately ordered all the cannons on the right side of the fleet to aim and fire.
At this moment, Zhu Chengxiu shouted angrily at the helmsman in his bridge, "What the hell are you doing? Turn the rudder! The other side has more cannons than us. We're courting death if we fight head-on! "
The helmsman was sweating profusely and desperately turned the rudder to no avail. He had no choice but to cry and shout, "Commander, the auxiliary transmission of the rudder seems to have failed. The stern rudder seems to be stuck at an angle. I'm afraid we have to use manual steering. "
The Liaodong used too much black technology. It was too advanced and too immature. There were countless problems during the sea trials, and now there were also problems in the war.
When Zhu Chengxiu heard that the rudder had failed, he broke out in a cold sweat. He hurriedly chased the helmsman into the cabin to manually steer the rudder and got someone to find a way to repair the auxiliary transmission of the rudder. However, the observer in the bridge warned, "Commander, we seem to be in trouble."
Zhu Chengxiu cursed angrily, "We've been in trouble since the start of the war."
"But we're in bigger trouble now."
"What trouble?"
"We seem to be about to collide with the enemy's largest ship."
What?
The heavens want me dead!
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