When Tong Shangchao's fleet was about to catch up with the pursuers behind him, he turned at a large angle, and the situation between the two sides suddenly changed from two words to a T-shape, and Tong Shangchao's fleet also seized the T-shaped head that was emphasized countless times in the Datang Sea Academy for the first time.

After occupying the T-shape, they did not hesitate to shoot out the shells that had been prepared for a long time.

Although the warships of other countries are already equipped with a large number of naval guns, when the navy conducts a decisive battle, there is still no rules to speak of, and more often the naval guns are just an auxiliary means, and it is the broadside battle that determines the outcome or defeat.

But that's not what the Datang Navy did!

From the day the Datang Navy was established, no, it should be said that from the day the Datang Wang Division was established, the basic tactical concept of firepower superiority was basically determined.

On the army side, in pursuit of firepower superiority, they used a large number of artillery pieces and armed them with muskets.

After being equipped with flintlock pistols, a large number of cold weapons such as spears were directly eliminated, and the three-row line line tactics were thoroughly used to give better play to the firepower advantage of flintlock pistols.

The same is true for the navy, where the core goal of each warship of the Datang Navy is to fight at sea, more precisely, to conduct artillery battles on the sea.

Therefore, the number of warships equipped with guns of the Datang Navy is more than that of other countries in the same era, even if it is an armed merchant ship in the civilian population, the number of guns equipped with the new armed merchant ships they use is also more than that of other countries' merchant ships.

In addition to stronger firepower, the warships of the Datang Navy were also born for naval warfare in other designs, such as the general use of higher decks.

This can certainly cause an unstable center of gravity, but it can have a height advantage in mid- and close-range artillery battles, and the guns on the upper deck, especially those with light shotguns, can sweep across the opponent's deck, destroying enemy personnel and the sails of enemy ships.

When the Spaniards and others were still using merchant ships such as Spanish galleons as the main force of warships, the Datang Navy directly abandoned the merchant ship attributes of warships and used more tonnage for combat.

This has also caused a phenomenon, that is, under the same tonnage, the professional warships of the Datang Navy, whether in terms of speed or number of guns, are far superior to those half-hung warships of other countries.

Although the Portuguese and others have also been influenced by the warship design of the Tang Navy, and have also begun to research and build some warships specifically for combat, they have not yet been put into the system.

In this regard, even England, the younger brother of the European countries, is doing better than the Spanish and Portuguese.

When the T-shaped prefix was occupied and the ship's guns were fired in unison, at this moment, it was almost the time when Tong Shangchao's fleet was the most powerful in combat, and dozens of guns from the four warships fired in unison.

But those on the other side are also veterans, regardless of whether it is a certain country's navy or some pirates, this kind of artillery battle scene must be uncommon, so they also began to use the bow of the ship gun to start firing back, and carried out a small range of maneuvers to avoid the shelling.

But they did not choose to turn around like Tong Shangchao's fleet, and then use naval guns against the enemy.

It's not that they don't want to, but they don't dare!

They were all small boats, but they didn't have many guns, and they relied on flexibility and broadside combat.

Engage in broadside artillery bombardment with warships, but few pirate leaders would choose to do so.

They use their agility to maneuver in small areas, then quickly approach, ready to rush over and engage in a broadside battle.

But this idea of theirs soon fell through, because they found that the shells fired in the fleet of the Datang Western Company were a little weird!

How weird?

Their shells turned out to explode!

Although the number of shells that exploded was not very large, only a small part, and they were all fired from the frigate Arctic, it still made the pirates extremely panicked.

Explosions, this is nothing, and they have even seen the explosion of an entire battleship, because there are a large number of guns on board, and when the gunpowder is ignited by the enemy's arson, it is normal for a violent explosion to occur.

They also know that there is a short-barreled howitzer in the Tang Dynasty, which is also a kind of artillery that can explode, but this kind of artillery will basically not be used in medium and long-distance naval combat, because the hit accuracy is too great, and whether it can hit the moving enemy warship depends on whether God gives face.

But now, it's not either of the two scenes!

They found that the shells fired by the fleet of the Datang Western Company on the opposite side turned out to be frequent explosions.

What's going on?

Some of them don't understand, some panic!

In naval warfare, there is a difference between an exploding cannonball and a cannonball that doesn't.

When everybody is using solid bullets, you move the grenades out, and to be honest, that's bullying.

Even if a solid bullet hits the enemy's warship and punches a big hole in the enemy's warship, it is basically difficult to hit below the waterline and sink the battleship, and it is relatively difficult to cause too much damage to the enemy's personnel if it hits other places.

But grenades are different!

This thing will explode, and if you let it fall into the battleship, it will cause a lot of damage!

On the pirate ship on the other side, a middle-aged man with a long beard and a typical western face watched a cannonball land on the deck of his battleship, and then there was a violent explosion.

The violent explosion almost swept through the surrounding pirates, and a nearby gun crew operating deck guns was completely reimbursed on the spot, and after the smoke passed, the deck was a mess.

More than a dozen people fell in pools of blood, some died at the moment of the explosion, while others were only injured, and the seriously injured could only make a snort, while the slightly less injured were crawling, rolling, trying to get out of the hellish place: the explosion also caused a fire, and the debris near the powder keg was already beginning to burn, and it would not be long before a violent explosion would appear.

Looking up again, the other two warships under his command were no better, they were all hit by the kind of shells that would explode, the deck and cabin were in a mess, the sailors who were originally crowded on the deck, ready to jump into the gang, were now crying and shouting to escape from the deck, and one of the battleships was even the sails were beaten to tatters, and they could no longer sail against the wind.

Seeing this scene, the bearded middle-aged man muttered: "How can this be ......?"

He never imagined that he would encounter such a monster when he was ordered to disguise himself as a pirate and ambush in the Andaman Sea, attacking all the non-Portuguese ships that passed through this area.

Although in the previous pursuit battle, he also found that there was a frigate in the fleet of the Tang Western Company in front of him, but he thought that his three ships were extremely fast and extremely agile sloops, although the firepower was weaker, but as long as he rushed up to carry out a gang jump, even if he could not completely destroy a whole fleet, but he could still do it by grabbing one of the merchant ships.

After all, they are just merchant ships, although the merchant ships are armed merchant ships, but the allocation of personnel can not be too much, as long as they don't stupidly engage in gang jumping with the other party's warships, then the problem will not be too big.

It's not like nothing I've ever experienced before!

In the past two years, as a Portuguese, he has been operating in this area, and has been ordered to disguise himself as a pirate to blockade this area, plundering non-Portuguese ships in the past, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but he has never suffered such a crushing defeat as today:

They haven't rushed up yet, but they've suffered heavy losses!

In the past, he also plundered the merchant ships of the fleet of the Datang Western Company, although this new merchant ship of the Datang Dynasty is faster and has more artillery, but it is always a merchant ship, and the escort of the other party's warships is not available all the time, even if there is, but he can rely on his own speed and flexibility to maneuver with them, and then take advantage of their unpreparedness to pounce on them and take a bite.

But I didn't expect that today's situation is completely different from what I encountered in the past!

This kind of shell, which can explode, almost completely upsets the balance of the battle!

Seeing such a scene, he gritted his teeth, and then gave the order to retreat!

I can't rob it!

Continue to catch up, even if their speed is fast, but both sides are in motion, and the distance of a few hundred meters is not something that can be crossed in a moment and a half, and during this time, he is afraid that his battleship will be destroyed one by one by this exploding shell.

But when he gave the order to retreat, there were two ships that succeeded in withdrawing, because there was another ship whose mast had been broken, and was now floating on the surface of the sea like dead fish!

But now he doesn't have time to think about it, anyway, it's not him who stays and waits for death, this continues to stay here, but it is possible that he will die.

On the other side, Tong Shangchao watched the other party's two warships change course and break away at high speed, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth!

These damn pirates are nothing more than in front of my Datang's latest technology grenades!

Alas, if your own company fleet had been equipped with these grenades earlier, the previous losses could have been avoided, but unfortunately, there was no if!

In fact, the grenade of the Tang Dynasty was initially developed as early as the seventh year of Xuanping, and in the eighth year of Xuanping, it was used by the Guards in the Battle of the Goryeo Peninsula.

However, the large-scale equipment of the army and navy was waited until the second half of the ninth year of Xuanping!

The willingness is very simple, because at that time, the domestic arsenals completed the equipment transformation and established a large-scale production line for production, and the first batch of howitzer shells produced was naturally given priority to the military.

Although their Datang Western Company is also an officially registered armed force, but in the end it is a commercial armed force, and if they want to equip this advanced weapon, they naturally have to wait, and wait until the summer of this year, when the fleet of Datang Western Company officially distributes this new type of artillery shells to the capital ships of the fleet, and because the price of artillery shells is expensive, there are not many of them.

But all this waiting, the expensive price is worth it!

Just like those old comrades-in-arms who are still serving in the navy said, this howitzer shell is a sharp weapon that can change the pattern of naval warfare!

Today is he, and it is also the first time that the fleet of the Datang Western Company has used this new shell in actual combat.

However, he has already seen the arrival of a new era of naval warfare!