Barracuda, lively, good at jumping, often swim in groups in the countercurrent, is a smart and free fish.

And the barracuda we are talking about is actually Chen Kui's battle fleet - it was bought by Chen Kui and Murong Qin when I returned to the Ming Dynasty from Dongying for the second time. In general, they are the ships I want, the guns I want, and the modifications I want, so they are the ships I want, the fleet I want!

When I saw them from afar on the shoreline of Deadwood Beach, I knew that this was the boat I wanted! Their curves resemble elegant beauty figures, which are fascinating!

The hull of the ironwood ship allows them to withstand a considerable amount of shelling! And the streamlined hull ensures their unparalleled speed! This is the ship I want: the Calais clipper! It's also called the hybrid clipper is her!

Such ships are definitely not the largest, nor the most powerful in the world, nor are they impregnable fortresses, but they must be the fastest!

In the case of tailwind, the wind alone can reach a speed of 22 knots, and the top speed can even reach 24 or 5 knots! Even against headwinds, you can use the oars together to reach speeds of more than seventeen knots!

Before the invention of the steam engine, which ship could have caught up with such speed?

The displacement of the Calais clipper is among all ships, and it is considered to be a low-to-medium tonnage, probably about a thousand tons. A warship of the fourth rank belonging to European standards. The length of the ship is one hundred and thirty-five feet, about forty-five, and the widest part is more than thirty feet, about less than ten meters, and the whole is in the shape of a shuttle!

In particular, the ones I want are special French royal editions! For this, I also paid more than 3,000 gold coins in processing fees! But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and the labor and materials of the five ships are the best! Even more than the equipment of the Royal French Navy.

The cabins on the ship have also been remodeled according to my request, and all have been converted into artillery firing ports and sailors' stations! Except for the necessary functional areas such as the adjutant's room, staff room, carpentry room, infirmary, and recreation room, all of them have been converted into supply cabins! According to the full supply of 100 people per ship, and the one-to-one loading of water and food, a supply can last about 45 days!

Each ship was equipped with twenty-two rapid-fire cannons on each side, plus three guns in the bow and three in the stern, bringing the total number of guns on the ship to fifty, and the number of one-sided guns was up to twenty-seven!

The maximum pitch angle of the artillery is minus seven to 25 degrees, and the horizontal rotation angle is about 15 degrees, so if the angle between our ship and the enemy ship is 45 degrees, only the bow or stern guns of the ordinary battleship can open fire, and the sky is seven or eight guns. We can guarantee that at least nineteen guns will be able to fire! Definitely a kite weapon! This is not explained!

The range of the artillery peaks at about two and a half kilometers, and decays to the limit at three kilometers, which is already beyond the range of most contemporary artillery except for the latest cannon mortar - of course, the power is not very amazing, but these small wrecked ships that fight Dongying are enough to be enough!

After boarding the ship, Chen Kui and I finally met! After two years of intensive sailing, this middle-aged navigator has a darker complexion and a more resolute spirit!

When he saw me, he took off his captain's hat and bowed to me like a Western navigator, saying, "Welcome!" My boss! ”

Immediately I was amused by his nondescript expression! Sure enough, every middle-aged master has a Tieling sketch master hidden in his heart! So, I gave him an American-style military salute in return.

Everyone didn't understand what I meant by this action, but when they saw that the meaning was the meaning of returning the courtesy, they all secretly learned it.

After a round on the deck, I went to the cabin and looked at it, and there were about one hundred and ten sailors, all of all colors, and the morale was very high! The guns were well maintained, and the decks and cabins were clean. These details can be seen that Chen Kui manages the fleet very well!

"Let's go! Find a place to go on a yo-boat! I said with a smile as I pointed to the empty sea.

"Obey!" Chen Kui said loudly. Another signal was given, and the five boats began to move in a southeasterly direction.

The ship's observer was a Korean, crutches in broken Chinese, and smelled of sticks. But the technology is good. Under his leadership, we slowed down in the open sea at 136 degrees east longitude and 32 degrees north latitude to prepare for the start of the ship trial.

As a leader of a fleet, you must understand your fleet performance in order to make sound judgments. This kind of understanding is not the understanding of the data on paper, but the familiarity in the real sense, the familiarity that makes the attributes of the ship completely engraved in the heart, just like the tacit understanding with the lover, which can only be understood, not spoken.

For the fleet, there is a shortcoming effect, in other words, the parameters of the fleet will be taken as the lowest of all the ships.

At the moment, the five ships of my fleet are of the same type, and theoretically should have the same parameters. However, due to the physical error of the ship itself, coupled with the influence of factors such as the proficiency of the pilot and sailman, there will still be differences of one kind or another. This requires the commander to be familiar with the staff and distribute them reasonably.

In addition to objective factors, there is also the issue of command and dispatch and coordination proficiency. What is needed to improve this aspect is time.

For a single ship, the most important thing to pay attention to is nothing more than survivability, firepower, maneuverability, concealment, etc., let me do a comprehensive physical examination of the five Calais clippers today!

In terms of survivability, although Chen Kui gave me factory parameters, I don't believe this. I think that back then, when the United States army invaded Yuenan, the parameters of the newly equipped M16 small-caliber rifle were picturesque, but they were still beaten by the rough AK47 in actual combat, this fact tells me that I can't just rely on parameters.

What I want is a limit test - I order, anchor the No. 4 ship Weihai in the distance, and I command the flagship Dinghai to fire it live!

My command was not well understood, but I had my reasons. As a result, only four clever observers remained on the Weihai, and all the others were evacuated to other ships.

"Boom!" The Dinghai's port side nine guns were fired - this nine guns did not refer to nine guns, but the ninth gun that we designated as the base gun. When encountering the enemy, the ship will fire a salvo when it comes up, and once it misses, according to the firing frequency of three shots a minute for a single gun, the reloading cycle will fall into passivity.

Therefore, we designate a gun in the middle as the reference gun, and as soon as the gun goes out, we can roughly grasp the data of deviation, and experienced commanders can immediately adjust the direction and height scale, and then cover the fire in the form of salvo or rapid fire, which greatly improves efficiency.

So this test is not only to test the survivability of the ship, but also to test the firepower. I saw that the cannonball whizzed out an arc and flew towards the Weihai at a high speed! After rowing through the air for a kilometer and a half, it finally "plopped" and fell into the sea water 100 meters away from the Weihai.

Seeing this, Chen Kui shouted, "Nine cannons! Raise it up by three moments! Turn right for a moment! ”

There is no concept of dense positions in the current unit of measurement, and my understanding is that it is about ten dense positions at a moment.

As for what is a secret position, to put it simply, it is to subdivide the circumference of 360 degrees into 6,000 or 6,400 small grids, which is more accurate when commanding and shooting, but the current manufacturing process has not yet reached the point of mass production of dense command equipment.

After adjusting and firing again, this cannonball roared out again, hitting the side of the Weihai ship accurately, and hitting a hole the size of a human head with a "poof"!

Chen Kui felt distressed for a while, but he knew that the current love was for a better survival in the future, so he suppressed the unbearability in his heart. During this time, he loved these ships very much, where did he toss like this?

I ignored what he thought, and when I saw the result, I nodded, basically as I expected. So I gave the order to sail, went a short way, and shot again!

After a few rounds, I got the real parameters I wanted - within 1,500 meters, when the angle between the side of the ship and our artillery was more than 75 degrees, there was a high probability that the shells would penetrate the hull protection! After all, in order to maintain maneuverability, the hull is not covered with iron armor, and the frontal protection is not too strong.

When the angle is between 75 and 60 degrees, there is a certain probability of ricocheting, which will not cause damage at all, but there is also a small probability of breakdown, and a certain probability of injury!

When it is less than 60 degrees, it becomes a high probability of ricocheting without injury, a small probability of injury, and it is almost impossible to penetrate!

When the distance is stretched to 1,500 meters - that is, when the Western scale is more than 5,000 meters, the probability of breakdown and damage decreases geometrically, and the probability of ricochet increases significantly!

The ship shoots at stationary targets with a hit rate of more than 75 percent! Shooting at stationary targets while on the move, the hit rate is about 60 percent; On the other hand, when shooting at moving targets, the hit rate has shrunk to 30 percent. This is also within a reasonable range.

Of course, it also depends on factors such as the speed and direction of the target.

For example, if the enemy hits me, with the speed and maneuverability of the Calais clipper for more than 20 knots, it will be even more difficult to hit me! As the saying goes, those who can beat me can't catch up with me, and those who can catch up with me don't exist at all! Speed is my best armor! You don't need oars to row, and you can go out on the waves! It's so handsome! Oh yes!

As for the artillery, it has been tested just now, and there is no need to test it separately, and there is no such thing as a secondary artillery, so I will skip it.

The speed is in person, and when I came, it was already a test, which was amazing! In terms of the world, it is definitely a unique existence!

Mobility, this is another highlight of the Calais Clippers! The rudder rotation time is only six seconds! The turning radius is less than 150 meters!

To explain here, the so-called rudder turning time refers to the rudder - that is, the time it takes for the steering wheel to go from the left limit to the right limit. At sea, unlike on the road, when you pull the steering wheel and say it turns, there is a lag period for a certain period of time.

Unlike some large ships, which start to turn a minute ago, and the rudder is not finished a minute later, and the radius of turning a radius of more than one thousand meters abounds, which is very problematic in avoiding shells and pursuing and escaping.

So the steering of the Calais Clippers is absolutely top-notch! As for the acceleration and deceleration performance, it only takes 20 seconds for the ultimate acceleration and deceleration to go downwind and water, 278 seconds to go downwind and against the current, and about 35 seconds to go against the wind and water, which is already an incredible parameter in the pre-steam era when sail oars were used together!

As for concealment, it doesn't matter if there is no radar now. Besides, a ship with such a high appearance can be worse than Dongying's turtle shell ship?

After the test, I was full of confidence! And once again, I was glad for my decision. This is the power that comes from hereafter—prophet and wisdom.

When repairing the ship, I also made a comparison of the carpenters of several boats, and the best one was Haleha, who made a cameo carpentry, and I couldn't help but sigh, talent is really not a thing to ask for!

Then there was the maneuver that spread from Qi Dudu, and we happily tossed at sea for three days, and I felt that both myself and the crew had a better understanding of the Calais clipper! Of course, especially me.

After doing this, I and the Nine Ghosts are a little impatient! is the so-called sharpening knives to pigs and sheep, now the knife has been sharpened, pigs and sheep, are you trembling?