Chapter 18 Dongting Lake Water Battle II

Perhaps due to the accuracy and range of the artillery at this time, firing from a distance is often just a waste.

It's not without effect, though.

The biggest effect was that the Ming army's fleet was a little panicked.

Even though everyone knew that the artillery on the opposite side was likely to miss them. But not everyone can remain calm under artillery fire.

In the so-called solidarity on the water, in other words, the command system is also divided by the boats. Huang Chaoxuan was not a naval general.

Suddenly transferred into the water army. There is a feeling of catching ducks on the shelves.

He is always not a qualified naval general, and many times he relies on his own group of brothers to fight and rush. Therefore, Huang Chaoxuan's control over the following is actually not very sufficient.

In the melee, they are almost fighting separately. This defect is not too conspicuous. But now it's revealed.

Under the artillery bombardment, some brave people rushed over, but there were also cowardly people who retreated slightly, and Huang Chaoxuan's fleet suddenly staggered.

Huang Chaoxuan is still influential, at least no one dares to retreat.

Seeing this, Zhou Fuchen just sneered, and with an order, the entire fleet dispersed into more than a dozen teams and rushed over.

Zhou Fuchen has been in the navy for several years since he took over the Runing fleet.

Step by step, it can be said that the army building ideas of the Great Xia Water Division are partly Zhang Xuan's, partly with reference to the Daming Naval Division, and partly with reference to the Zheng Naval Division.

But step by step, it was Zhou Fuchen who implemented the water master.

Zhou Fuchen commanded the sailors and did not fight any major battles. Defeat Shen Tingyang and Huang Fei. However, both battles were led by the Zheng family's sailors.

The rest of the war is only fought auxiliary. At all, it did not take on the task of the main operation.

And this time, it was Zhou Fuchen's first time picking sorghum.

Zhou Fuchen was still a little uneasy in his heart.

No matter what the two generals thought, as they rapidly approached each other, the sound of artillery became more and more intense.

The distance between the two sides entered within 300 steps, and the accuracy of the Xia army's artillery increased significantly, from the previous only to the water. So far, the closer the distance, the better the hit rate of the artillery.

And at this moment, the Ming army also began to fight back.

But the number of artillery of the Ming army was not comparable to that of Great Xia at all, and the artillery fire of their counterattack sounded like nothing more than a death struggle.

Three hundred paces, although the artillery has already begun to work.

But what can work is only a few cannons.

These cannon shells were heavy, and under the impetus of gunpowder power, it was easy to open a skylight on the ships of the Ming army.

Civilian ships are cost-effective, and when they rebuilt them, they didn't think that there was today

use, so in the face of artillery bombardment, there is no ability to resist at all.

began to gurgle into the water.

As soon as the water entered, the speed of the boat immediately slowed down.

However, the wooden boat was also very easy to repair, and someone had already begun to nail the planks with hammers and iron nails.

Wooden boats are relatively easy to repair, plus wood is inherently buoyant. There are no blasting shells, solid bombs want to sink a wooden ship, and there is still some fire to be owed.

After a while, the ships that rushed to the front were all replaced. The wooden boats that were originally rushing to the front slowed down due to the fact that they were shot and leaked, and the ships behind rushed to the front over the ships in front.

After a while, the two sides entered a hundred paces apart.

This distance is already very close.

Some of the ranged weapons on the Ming ships can also be used.

For example, some small cannons, and crossbows and the like, the ships on both sides are two rapidly approaching towers, and the bows and ballistas on both sides attack each other.

However, compared to Xia Jun's advantage over firearms. The counterattack of the Ming army was nothing at all.

In an instant, Xia Jun's firepower was in full swing.

Needless to say, those cannons were all Hongyi cannons, which themselves were naval guns to protect against Westerners, perhaps because of the loading of ships, which limited the tonnage of the artillery. It is smaller, lighter, and less powerful than the Hongyi cannon of the Qing army.

Even then it was a huge thing, and it took a minute or two to fire a shot, and although it was so powerful, if a ship was hit by the keel, it would fall apart almost instantly.

It's just that there is very little such luck. Even without this luck, if a ship is unlucky and hits dozens of cannons in a row, it will not be able to support it.

It's just that it's a bit metaphysical.

Sometimes a shot hits the keel, and as soon as the keel breaks, it immediately falls apart and sinks immediately. Sometimes more than 100 cannons were fired, and people were still floating on the water.

However, in general, this cannon is used to hit ships, although it also has the function of hurting people, but it is only incidental.

But within a hundred steps. The large and small artillery on the Xia army's warships fired together, and they were used to hit people at this time.

The first to strike was the Franc cannon.

The Franc cannon is an artillery gun that began to be introduced during the Zhengde period, and the Ming army has always liked it very much, and the favorite is their rapid-fire ability.

At the beginning, the Ming army suffered enough from the Francophone cannon in the confrontation with the Portuguese during the Zhengde Jiajing period. They never thought that the cannon could be so fast.

Therefore, the Ming people were very concerned about the Franc machine gun, and even carried it forward, becoming a cannon system, from a small Franc machine gun, to a thousand pounds of Franc machine gun, and even a Franc machine gun. The whole nine yards. It became a famous series of artillery in the Ming Dynasty, even Westerners did not expect it.

The Franc machine, also known as the sub-mother gun, is a rear-loading gun. It is possible to install the sub-guns in advance. Fire a shot, that's it

The barrel of the gun is opened and the sub-gun is put in. It can reach a speed of almost a few rounds a minute.

However, such a high speed will not last long.

But in this era, it can already be said that the bubbles are rapid and continuous.

The number of Hongyi artillery equipment of the Xia army is limited, and each warship can be equipped with two or three guns at most, but there are many small cannons such as small Franc machines and various tiger squat cannons.

Varies from ship to ship.

Although the range of these small cannons is not far, they can still hit within a hundred paces.

So almost instantly, countless shells hit the sky overwhelmingly.

Most of these shells are fist-sized pieces. Hit the side of the ship, some were not bounced off, some pierced the side of the ship. However, most of them do limited damage to the ship, and more often hurt people.

Don't look at the cannonball with a big fist, hitting a person is enough to break a person in two, or even penetrate three or five people in a row before stopping.

So the Ming army did not dare to stay on the deck. All hid under the cabin. Except for a few sailors who operated the ship, there was almost no one on it.

However, this could not stop the artillery fire of the Xia army.

Then a cannonball burst out, and in an instant it broke open, turning into a long chain that spun rapidly at a speed that was indiscernible to the naked eye, turning into a long knife that split the entire ship's mast in half in an instant.

When he stops spinning. Only to find out that it was two hemispheres connected by an iron chain.

This is the chain bomb.

There were also some fire bombs.

It's an iron ball that burns red in advance. Hitting a wooden boat can easily cause a fire.

These are all shells that Zhang Xuan remembered in the corner of his memory. However, because the chain bullet needs to be built with a high technology, it needs to be built by hand, especially the iron chain, if the quality is not up to par, it can't withstand the force of separation on both sides, and it can easily become two shells.

As for fire bombs, the danger is just too great.

To make an iron bullet red, it needs to be burned. It is very dangerous to ignite a fire on a ship, after all, wooden ships are inherently flammable, and there is gunpowder on the sides of the cannons.

It's easy to start a fire. Therefore, Zhou Fuchen used this fire bomb very carefully. There are no mandatory requirements for the people below. Only a few sure Xia generals had the guts.

However, even this could not stop the two sides from approaching.

Although artillery is a decisive weapon in water battles, it may not be able to determine victory or defeat for a long time.

Zhou Fuchen is not a fool, seeing that the Ming army is beating a heartbeat. He doesn't do such a loss-making business.

Before the battle of Chenglingji, there was no space. I can't pull the distance at all. Now it was different, Zhou Fuchen immediately ordered. Most of the ships of the Xia army dismounted, changed sails, and went north along the current, trying to keep the distance of the Ming ships, as if they were flying kites.

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