The port of Amsterdam is as lively as a festival, with trumpeters blowing trumpets vigorously and Dutch people dressed in colorful national costumes gathering at the pier to see off the Chinese visiting fleet and return home!

Frederick Henry saw them off himself, wishing them a safe journey to their homeland with his and the Dutch, wishing them a safe journey.

At the same time, he asked Hong Xuguan to hand over his handwritten letter to the leaders of the Southeast Province, greeting the leaders of the Southeast Province, and wishing the two sides for peace and common development of trade.

He expressed his gratitude to His Royal Highness Frederick Henry for his hospitality and the friendship of the Dutch, and believed that the bilateral relations were developing well and the trade volume was constantly reaching new highs.

Then the Southeast Army boarded the ship, and the appearance was still very bright, but Officer Hong Xu shook his head slightly: the officers and soldiers were fat and slow.

Of course, the battleship went ashore for repairs, the officers and men were not on the ship, and they ate and drank well for a month, and many people, including Hong Xiguan, had a relationship with the enthusiastic Dutch woman that went beyond the friendship between the two countries, and it was empty!

Although the warship was relaunched three days ago, it conducted assault training, mainly queue training, and it was just a swagger.

So after waving goodbye to the enthusiastic Dutchman, the three warships set sail out of Holland and sailed for the English Channel, and at first the officer did not make a fuss until two o'clock in the afternoon.

The deafening sound of drums sounded through the hatch of the battleship, and the officers and men in the cabin hurried to the deck, and the messy footsteps were urgent, making the already inducing drum sound even more urgent.

It's a drum call to all the crew, and the drill begins!

The exercises and training in the southeastern province were close to actual combat and were carried out in accordance with the requirements of actual combat; officers and men had trained many times before, and some of them ran to the artillery positions assigned to them, while others ran to the cables that they already knew well.

But when they came ashore, they were obviously rusty, and some of the sailors did not wear steel helmets, no armor (the officer said you could wear no clothes but you had to wear armor), so confusion arose.

No one thought it was an exercise to boast about, some of the sailors ran back to the cabin to get their equipment, the sailors on the gangway and the sailors up were huddled, more people were adjusted due to the battle position (Costet took some of the personnel), many of the original rules and regulations that were easily implemented changed, the members of each battle position were changed, and some clumsy sailors were still good in their original posts, but as soon as they adjusted their posts, their original forms were revealed.

They were dragged here and there again in order to get them a suitable position.

The management of these novices who have changed positions is a headache, resulting in overcrowding in the middle of the ship, and people are constantly stepping on other people's toes!

The chaos on the deck of the battleship and on the battle mast lasted for ten minutes, Officer Hong Xu himself held the steering wheel in his hand and watched all this silently, the deputy captain Chen Qiu roared and issued orders, and the officers and non-commissioned officers ran around like crazy, they knew that the captain's eyes were on them, they tried very hard to establish order but in vain, it seemed that all efforts were useless.

Officer Hong had already estimated that this would be a terrible exercise, but he did not expect it to be such a mess, but he was not angry, his innate optimism and the incongruous shaking of the steering wheel he was manipulating had suppressed his irritation.

Returning the steering wheel to the helmsman, he summoned the officers and non-commissioned officers to the downstairs and lectured: "The purpose of the exercise is that once a war starts, everyone should know what they can help in an emergency. Officer Hong said: "It's not okay to stand there and hesitate, you see, there is a vacancy in the gunner position, and the same is true for the sailors under Sergeant Chen. ”

He pointed and said: "See, there is a gun commander in front of each gun, and there is a person who washes the cannon with a sponge and a crew member next to it, this is the minimum gun crew, but some guns are still not equipped with enough manpower!" ”

"Those Marines are mainly responsible for shooting guns and assaulting enemy ships, but sometimes they need to do chores, help the sail repairers to reinforce the masts, and pick up buckets to put out fires, but what about buckets?"

Hong Xuguan commented one by one, shook his head and said: "It's not ready, everyone, don't worry, let's get all the personnel first, let's go." ”

The officers went their separate ways, and there was a period of confusion, and finally it looked like a shape, and all kinds of people gathered on the deck, the chief navigator commanded the pilot, the helmsman at the helm, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the signal, the gun crews of each gun emplacement were formed, the deck sailors were in place, and the marines, the fire buckets were put out, and more than a dozen barrels were lined up, very neatly,

Officer Hong and Deputy Captain Chen Qiu inspected the various battle positions, from the open deck to the gun deck, when they walked down the gangway, they saw that the gun crew on the gun deck was complete, and the gunners were crouching in unison (standing up with a large area of bullets and being easily injured, but the officers must stand for everyone to see!). Therefore, the death and casualty rate of officers is still higher than that of sailors! They thought it was okay and couldn't help but let out a long breath.

"Familiar with your battle position, familiar with your comrades!" Chen Qiu shouted.

"Alright, let's start the walkthrough!" Hong Xuguan said.

The basic subjects include artillery simulated shelling, musket simulated shooting, cable sailors complete the task according to orders, and the subsequent firefighting, rescue of the wounded, damage management, etc. have not yet been ranked.

The artillery crew pushed the cannon forward and backward to simulate the firing process, and only missed the cannon this step; The musketeers were familiar with their muskets; The cable sailors dragged the heavy cable reels, and everyone sweated out.

As soon as the drill was held, problems were discovered, some guys were in a hurry, and some of the gun positions didn't even know where to put the gunpowder!

Hong Xuguan shook his head, he found that he shook his head too many times today, his face became ugly, their actions were too slow, when they pushed the cannon to the gun position, they were light-handed, slow, and elated, thinking that they had done a good job, Hong Xuguan found more than once that the existing soldiers looked at him with smug eyes, and wanted to be rewarded!

The exercise is fake at first glance, there is no fighting atmosphere, and it is not possible to fire artillery, and novices cannot appreciate the key role of artillery in actual combat, nor can they appreciate the high passion when firing artillery.

Fortunately, before going offshore, he deliberately bought too much gunpowder and projectiles, waiting for the guys to taste it.

Chen Qiu also found a problem, leaned over and asked, "Do you need to shoot?" ”

"Good! Let them take a five-minute break to start, start slow, don't rush! Hong Xuguan said calmly.

It is true that there is no hurry, the 6-pounder gun on the open deck cannot hit a very heavy shell, not even an oak tree 800 meters away, and the 18-pounder gun in the middle of the gun deck can, but no matter what the gun, it is not a joke.

The 6-pounder gun weighed more than a ton, the 18-pounder gun weighed nearly two tons, and the gun body was mounted on a heavy wooden frame, and some of the gun carriages were made of iron wood, which sank when it entered the water!

After the cannon is fired, the artillery recoil and the entire gun mount jumps back, like a ferocious beast, rubbing people and hurting, touching people and dying!