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The sea battles of the Age of Discovery were a combination of the two extremes of grandeur and boredom.

When the fleets of both sides engaged in a naval artillery exchange at close range, the spectacle was enough to shock anyone watching the battle, and it would also strike fear into the hearts of any soldier in the middle of the battle.

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

And more importantly, the warships in these years are directly measured by the number of guns, and they are casually dozens of naval guns, even if they are small and medium-sized warships of two or three hundred tons, they can also have about 20 naval guns.

A battleship has dozens of guns, and an entire fleet often has hundreds of guns, and when so many guns are fired, almost the entire sea will be filled with gunsmoke, and the roar of huge cannons will be constantly echoed.

However, naval warfare in this era was also extremely dull!

Because the speed is too slow, even if it is a smooth wind, it is difficult to achieve a high speed, in most cases, the speed is only about five or six knots, and the speed is full, and it is also greatly affected by the wind direction and ocean currents, resulting in the battleship not wanting to turn and turn.

This means that in fact, the fleets of both sides will have to spend at least a few hours from discovering each other to closing the distance and fighting, and if it is a chase battle, then sorry, a few days are easy.

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

Now, Tong Shangchao and the unknown but obviously ill-intentioned small fleet in front of them seem to be about to break out, but in fact, it will be several hours before the real battle breaks out.

Therefore, although Tong Shangchao and the others were already preparing for war, the whole fleet did not say that the atmosphere was too tense.

Tong Shangchao After they had a meal, they boarded the bridge again, and saw that the battleship in front of the right was originally just three vague small black shadows had already narrowed the distance again, but now the wind direction was more favorable to Tong Shangchao and them, so Tong Shangchao They could continue to maintain high speed without turning, and the other party definitely needed to change direction, so that it would be more difficult for the other party to catch up.

However, Tong Shangchao knew that even if the time was extended, the other party would definitely be able to catch up, because the other party's three ships were all triangular schooners.

They are not large, the displacement is at most more than a hundred tons, and definitely not more than two hundred tons, but the single-mast schooners are used, the hull is slender, and usually such ships are very fast and quite agile in maneuverability.

And Tong Shangchao's fleet, although it is said that they are all new ships, and their speed is faster than that of ordinary merchant ships, but they are still inferior to this kind of fast ships, even if they are his frigates, they cannot compare with the speed and maneuverability of such fast ships.

For the current various sails, the speed that can be faster than the spinnaker is only the Datang longitudinal sail specially set up by the Datang Royal Institute of Technology this year by combining the advantages of China and the West.

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

And more importantly, this kind of sail suit has not been designed for a long time, and it has not yet been applied on a large scale.

Most of the warships of the Datang Navy and civilian merchant ships still use traditional sails, if you only look at the sails, the warships of the Datang Navy are almost no different from the sails of the Spanish Galen ships.

What's more, his fleet is still essentially transporting merchant fleets all the time, including frigates, which are full of cargo, and the speed is much slower than when the ships are empty.

So in the end, it is almost certain that he will be caught up, even if the other party can't intercept him, but he can slowly catch up from behind.

But Tong Shangchao is not without confidence, his confidence is the powerful firepower of his own fleet, especially the frigate with a displacement of 350 tons under his command, which is the capital ship of the navy, with strong firepower, which is not comparable to those small ships of more than 100 tons.

Even if it is the other three merchant ships, they are armed merchant ships, and their firepower is not weak.

Even if the three fast ships on the opposite side caught up, Tong Shangchao still had a lot of confidence to repel them.

But how to give full play to your own powerful firepower, this requires Tong Shangchao's command!

If you just stupidly flee all the way west, and people catch up from behind unhurriedly, you will not be able to exert your most powerful side firepower.

So half an hour later, Tong Shangchao ordered to change the formation, from the previous column led by the frigate, to the frigate deviated from the course, and the three armed merchant ships were still a separate team, forming a parallel formation of the frigate and the three merchant ships, and then gradually fell behind, and finally, the frigate fell at the end of the fleet, and the merchant ship took the lead!

An hour later, Tong Shangchao once again ordered to change the course to the northwest, and at this time, the enemy's three pirate ships were also coming from the northwest, which caused the two sides to go directly in opposite directions.

Tong Shangchao's idea is very obvious, that is, to intervene with these pirates, and exert his most powerful side firepower when he intervenes!

But those pirates on the other side were obviously not stupid, they also changed their course, trying to change this situation, and in the face of this situation, Tong Shangchao changed course again.

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

And when adjusting the course, the wind direction also changed again, seeing that the east wind was about to blow, Tong Shangchao was too lazy to entangle with them, and directly ordered to readjust the navigation and continue to the west.

Now it is not long before the night, if the other party doesn't want to lose himself at night, even if he has to catch up and entangle or even fight, otherwise, one night is enough time for Tong Shangchao to change several voyages 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 Shangchao leave, and as soon as the voyage was adjusted, they immediately caught up, and the speed was getting faster and faster.

At this time, these pirates gave full play to the advantages of the dhow sloop, and soon went around, and wanted to directly bypass the escort frigates, insert themselves into the merchant fleet, and disrupt the formation of Tong Shangchao's 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 Shangchao showed a hint of ridicule and muttered: These fools!

Immediately afterwards he ordered: "Maintain the formation and collectively turn forty degrees to the right!" ”

With this turn, his fleet was almost completely horizontal, and then aimed all its broadside guns at the three enemy ships rushing up from behind!

When the enemy ships found out that something was wrong, they also followed the turn and tried to break away, and they had already broken into the fire coverage of Dong Shangchao's fleet on the side of the ship's guns.

"Fire!"

With Tong Shangchao's order, his ship took the lead in roaring!

The rumbling of artillery is constantly sounding in the Indian Ocean!