Chapter 17: The Crow's Beak
The struggle between the navy and the pirates has a long history, and if you count the blank history, it is a full hundred years. The reason why the www.biquge.info of the pen "Fun" Pavilion maintains the current situation is that both sides are helpless against each other, and the reason is that the strength of the two sides is basically balanced.
The Navy has an advantage in the firepower of battleships, the army is disciplined and obedient. The pirates, on the other hand, occupy a point where they are more familiar with the terrain and have strong individual combat effectiveness, and the morale of the pirates is often stronger when they engage in broadside battles, and the combat effectiveness of the burst is often superior.
But in the same way, if you enter the artillery battle, it is the world of the navy.
The warships of the Navy are different from the pirates, each of which has its own characteristics, but the warships of the Navy are standard warships, in other words, mass-produced aircraft. Among the pirates, it is almost impossible to find two ships that are exactly the same, and sometimes it is possible to guess whose ship it is just by looking at its appearance. This is not the case with the Navy, where warships of the same type are necessarily exactly the same.
Just like the bow portrait of a battleship, the difference in the bow portrait represents the different soul and character of the battleship. Every pirate ship has its own soul, and the navy is a group of completely soulless machines.
In seafaring, it is natural to like ships with souls, but when it comes to naval warfare, standard warships are easier to form a scale and form a battle formation. It is also easy to build a tight and powerful fireline with the same firepower configuration.
At this time, although the Rainstorm had a total of 240 guns of various calibers, including the main guns, it was struggling in the firepower network built by the naval warships. The solid line of fire made the broadside battle a complete joke.
And it is obvious that this time the commander of the Navy side is old and spicy. Not only does it simply echo each other, but the rhythm of the advance and retreat and artillery bombardment between the naval warships is also very fast. Just like the greatest conductor, he directs the orchestra to play the most beautiful music and construct the most magnificent music.
It was just a salvo, and the barrage fired by the naval battleship far exceeded the huge number of guns of the Rainstorm. What's more, under the command of the commander of the Navy, even if the range, firepower, rate of fire, and accuracy of the naval warship are not as good as the Rainstorm, it can do it to the extent that the artillery attack of the Navy's side is just enough to suppress the Rainstorm, and it has never stopped, intensively blocking the place where the Rainstorm is located.
Hoping that the artillery fire on the side of the navy would weaken and that the plan to break into it was stifled from the beginning. The superior performance of the warship was also wiped out by many naval warships under the command of the other side, and the damage was shared, and the combined attack was divided, even if the performance was poor, but under the accumulation of quantitative changes, it also formed a qualitative change.
Rao is Crockdahl opened the sand to defend, and the Tempest itself is strong enough to still encounter a head-on attack in the barrage of the navy.
In the midst of the fire, countless pirates were blown away by the heavy bombardment projectiles, mixed with metallic wood chips, and torn apart. Broken bones flew and blood splattered, accompanied by a miserable howl and gunsmoke, and fell into the vast sea.
It's not that Krokdahl doesn't know the outcome of this, but he can't help it. This time is different from the last time, although the number of warships last time was a little more than this time, but those battleships are far less powerful in terms of tonnage and firepower than this time. And even more lethally, they were caught by the currents.
Bizarre as strange as it may seem, it is.
As soon as the battle broke out, Crockdahl discovered an anomaly in the current. However, he is not a professional navigator after all, and even if he feels that something is wrong, he can't say why. And the ensuing battle also made him forget about this abnormal feeling.
However, in the middle of the battle, when the force of this current became stronger and stronger, it was too late to break free.
Although it is said that if you want to leave, you can break free from the current by accelerating with all your might, but if you still need to deal with naval fire, this can only be said to be an extravagant hope, and all the Tempest can do is go with the flow.
Fortunately, the current only pulled the Tempest in one direction for a certain distance before turning it into a circulation. Although it will not have any further effect on the Tempest, it will also prevent the Tempest from leaving.
It's like a cage that binds the Tempest here.
The perimeter of the Tempest is a naval fleet surrounded in an arc. At this time, there is no need to do the usual thing in naval battles, which is to seize the T-prefix, and the Tempest is facing the side side with the most powerful firepower of all warships.
There is no doubt that for the situation that the Tempest is facing now, the only option is to stabilize the defense first. And the best way to defend is to anchor and not move, so as to give the best play to the advantages of your ship's strong guns.
Standing in the bow of the ship, Krokdal braved the smoke and gunfire, using his abilities to add a sturdy shield to the Tempest. Behind him, the pirates who were supposed to be the stormtrooping squad also became interceptors, intercepting waves of incoming attacks. The busiest of them all is Jean, who eats the metal fruit. He is using his abilities to repair the damaged hull.
Jean the Fishman, whose ability to fight has not yet been fully demonstrated, has fully exploited his potential as a boatman. At this time, the Rainstorm was as if it had been added with a buff that automatically regenerated health, and although it was miserable, it stood tenaciously.
The Navy's encirclement of the Tempest did not become a perfect circle, but rather a gap in the letter C with a capital letter. But for Crockdahl, it wasn't a place of life, but an even more dangerous place of death.
The moon in the sky, long after the battle broke out, seemed to hide out of timidity. In the dark sky, you can still clearly see the outline of the hill at the gap.
The G8 fortress looks like a hill standing on the sea, and it is not at all hideous, but the naval flag fluttering on it is particularly eye-catching.
"If it weren't for Luffy and the others who fell directly into the fortress before, I'm afraid that the situation they are facing now will have to add the firepower of the fortress, right?" Unable to help but muttered to himself with some rejoicing, "Is this another kind of luck?" But it's really ironic...... If there is a naval fleet at this time to make up for the missing firepower, it will fall into a dead end, right? ”
However, it seems that Krokdahl unknowingly awakened the attribute called Crow's Mouth. There was a glimmer of happiness just now, and then it was shattered into nothing.
"Whoa!"
There was a sound of water waves, and the sea, which was already turbulent because of the battle, boiled like boiling water. And the vibration of the ship's hull that followed made Crockdahl feel even more bad.
Hurriedly looked at the sea, just in the direction of the G8 fortress, the gap in the original naval encirclement, a huge whirlpool formed on the sea, the appearance of the whirlpool stirred the irregular surge of the sea, even the heavy rain of the tonnage of the ship could not stand the push of the waves and shook violently.
The whirlpools on the surface of the sea were divided into two sides as the water sounded, and then the naval warships covered with a film like soap bubbles rose from under the sea, and although the soap bubbles burst when the warships were exposed to the surface, they also completed their mission - Jonathan's main fleet, touchdown!
The oiled hull of the ship shone in the morning light. The thick barrels of the guns had been lifted to the side of the ship, and the naval warships lined up in a long line, facing the Tempest on the side, and the black holes of the guns were ready to fire.
Such a lineup can ensure that the powerful firepower is completely dispersed, which is most suitable for the navy's cluster attack.
"Oops!" Before Crockdahl's thoughts were finished, the navy had already opened fire, giving the Tempest no time to react. At the same time, Crockdahl also deeply experienced Cao Cao's original feelings.
"Boom, boom!"
In an instant, dozens of warships and hundreds of guns sprayed out a half-meter-long tongue of fire, and under the light of the fire, pitch-black lead bullets, red **, and chain bullets with two iron balls tied to an iron chain...... All kinds of ammunition for naval warfare were poured out by the navy in an instant, and it seemed that the ammunition depot in stock would be exhausted in an instant.
The battle was completely one-sided. A navy that focused on the remaining three directions left Crockdahl unprepared for attacks from behind, and then they suffered the consequences.
The navy had the suddenness of a surprise attack, and at the same time, the formation and firepower superiority made it impossible for the Tempest to return fire. Even, if it weren't for Crockdahl's quick reaction and the use of sand to prop up an iron curtain on the ship's side, the Tempest would probably have sunk in this instantaneous fire.
However, even though the iron curtain of sand in Crockdahl was solid, it was still in danger of the incessant pouring of gunfire, and the hull of the ship, which had been reinforced by the ability of the fish-man Jean, was damaged in many places in this burst of fire, and billowing smoke rose with it. If it weren't for the Rainstorm adopting a multi-compartment pattern, it might have entered the water long ago.
Suddenly, Crockdahl faced the most critical situation since going to sea. To add insult to injury, the pirates aboard the Tempest were already in a state of chaos.
There are very few people who can remain calm in the face of a life-threatening situation, and it is certain that these pirates are only at the level of miscellaneous soldiers, and there will be no such people. At this time, if Crockdahl can't boost his morale, then the situation of the entanglement between the Tempest and the naval fleet will also collapse in an instant, and at that time, he will have to be captured.
Crockdal's thoughts suddenly turned, just like the last time he broke through, relying on the method of elite assault to smash the Yellow Dragon directly, and the method of repelling the navy has been confirmed to be unenforceable. This is different from the past, under the suppression of the powerful artillery fire behind the naval formation, if several of their important combat forces leave the hull of the Tempest, not to mention whether they can really break through, the ship that they rely on for survival behind them will definitely be destroyed in an instant.
Crockdahl is a capable man, a real landlubber, and if he doesn't have a boat, once he falls into the sea, any miscellaneous fish can pick him up.