The Zheng family's fleet was a little closer, and the hull of the fleet was only emerging from below the sea horizon, and hundreds of warships were mighty. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Li Zhi looked through the binoculars and saw that more than 100 of those warships were three-masted ships, with their heads down and tails high, and they were equipped with large and small cannons. These lucky ships are at least 30 meters long, which is considered a large ship of this era. Some of the large ships were larger, looking larger than Li Zhi's battleships, probably nearly forty meters long, with many guns on either side of the ship.

Most of these ships have Chinese stiff sails hanging from their masts. But Li Zhi also saw in his telescope that more than a dozen fortune boats were hung with yellow soft sails—those white canvases aged and turned yellow after hanging for a long time—and it was evident that the Zheng family was also influenced by Westerners in their dealings with Westerners in the South Seas, and adopted Western-style sails on some fortune boats.

Li Zhi saw a huge fortune ship in the center of the Zheng family's fleet in the middle of the telescope, with high hard sails and cannons on both sides of the cabin. The big flag of Zheng on the mast of the big ship fluttered in the wind, making Li Zhi suspect that the ship was Zheng Zhilong's flagship.

But there are more in the Zheng family's fleet, or two-masted boats with canopies. These boats tend to be in the style of "sand boats", but there are also some small lucky boats. There were more than a dozen sailors on board, not only sails, but also sailors paddling during the sprint, and the speed was very impressive. Li Zhi observed the boats with a telescope for a while, and found that, as Gao Ligong said, they were full of flammable materials such as dry firewood and straw.

These small boats are actually fireboats, and the only tactic is to rush under Li Zhi's big boat and set fire to the ship.

The two fleets were getting closer and closer, and the distance gradually narrowed to seven or eight miles. Li Zhi put down his binoculars and looked ahead, only to feel that half of his field of vision was occupied by the Zheng family's fleet. There were too many ships on the opposite side to count, but Li Zhi roughly estimated that there were at least more than 600 warships, or more.

There were more than 600 ships, including more than 100 warships with cannons, which was far more than Li Zhi's 53. Zheng Zhilong is flying high and domineering, and he regards the southeast sea as his own backyard, which is indeed a support.

The soldiers around Li Zhi were very nervous when they saw the momentum of the Zheng family's fleet.

Li Zhi shouted: "All the ships are lined up in a long formation, and the side is aimed at the enemy's fleet!" Ironclad ships are lined up in the center. ”

The flag soldiers took action and turned Li Zhi's order into a colorful banner and hung it on the flagpole of the Yang Wei. The fifty-two ships in the fleet are kept by special personnel with telescopes on the flagpole of the Yangwei. As soon as they saw the new flag-language order hanging on the flagpole, they conveyed the order to the captains of the ships.

Fifty-two steamers turned their rudders, took their positions, and entered the line formation. Looking at the past from Li Zhi's point of view, he only felt that more than 50 steamers on the left and right sides had formed a wall on the sea.

More than 500 eighteen-pounder guns were eyeing the Zheng family's fleet, which was gradually approaching.

At a distance of five, four, and three miles, the two fleets gradually approached.

Li Zhi's eighteen-pounder cannon had a direct firing range of more than three miles, but Li Zhi did not let the cannon fire at a distance of three miles. The waves at sea were bumpy, and the muzzles of the cannons were undulating with the waves, and it was pointless to fire at a distance. Moreover, the artillery of this era will overheat the barrel if it hits more than ten shots, and every opportunity to fire a cannon is very precious, so in naval battles, Li Zhi let the fleet get close to the enemy ships for a mile before firing the cannon.

The gunners of the steamer adjusted the gun carriage and aimed at the Zheng family sailboat in the distance, waiting with bated breath for the opportunity to fire.

Three or two miles away, the sailors of the Zheng family howled and drove six hundred warships to a mile away from Li Zhi's fleet.

"Boom!"

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! Rumble! ”

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

More than 500 guns on the side of the fifty-three steamers opened fire. On the "wall" of 53 steamers, more than 500 cannons spit out tongues of fire to form a dragon. More than 500 rounds of flowering bombs flew towards the Zheng family's ship.

Most of the shells fell into the sea, stirring up huge columns of water. But dozens of rounds smashed into Zheng Zhilong's three-masted ship, smashing a big hole in the hull.

After a few seconds, the flowering bomb exploded. The explosion sparked sparks erupted through the holes in the hull, like flowers blooming inside a warship. The hole in the hull of the ship was blown even bigger, and all kinds of wooden planks and barrel fragments were blown out of the ship by the air waves caused by the explosion, and it was a mess.

In addition, more than 20 two-masted fireships were shot by the flowers, and the flammable materials loaded on the fireships were instantly ignited, and a raging fire was ignited, which was very conspicuous on the blue sea. The sailors on board panicked and jumped into the sea and swam to other nearby ships.

After firing a round of guns, the steamers all turned around and headed east, widening the distance between the two fleets a little more, so as not to let the fireships bully them and burn them.

Seeing the shooting effect of the flowering shell, the sailors and soldiers of Li Zhi's fleet cheered in unison. The cannon still works! The cannons on the port and starboard sides of the 53 steamships together could shoot 20 rounds, and after these 20 rounds, Zheng Zhilong's fireships would basically be sunk.

However, Li Zhi was not excited, and just quietly looked at Zheng Zhilong's more than 100 three-masted ships.

Sure enough, the Zheng family's gunboats were not to be outdone. After more than ten seconds of shelling, Zheng Zhilong's gunboats all turned their bows. Six or seven hundred cannons of more than 100 Fu boats aimed at Li Zhi's fleet and opened fire.

Li Zhi saw clearly through his telescope: Zheng Zhilong's shipborne guns were of different sizes, the small ones were only a little thicker at the wrist, about six-pounder guns, seven-pounder guns, and the large ones had barrels as thick as heads, which might be sixteen or eighteen-pounder guns. The largest ship had even thicker cannons, twice as thick as Li Zhi's eighteen-pounder cannon.

The Zheng family has been operating in Fujian for more than ten years, and has extensive exchanges with Western powers, but has accumulated a lot of artillery.

In the rumbling cannon, the Zheng family's artillery spat out tongues of fire, and the cannonballs smashed towards this side like raindrops.

Dozens of shells hit Li Zhi's ship. Of course, the ironclad ship was fine, the shell was fired at the iron armor and only left a mark before it was ejected. But the other steamers were beaten, and some of the heavy artillery shells pierced the hull of the steamer and crashed into the interior of the steamer, causing considerable damage.

Some shells even hit sailors and soldiers in the cabin, causing casualties.

Seeing the effect of the Zheng family's artillery, Zheng Kaicheng took a breath and said: "Guogong, if you fight like this, even if we win, our casualties will not be small." ”

Zheng Kaicheng is right, although the Zheng family's artillery is not a flowering shell, but the number is indeed huge. If you shoot like this, you may have to sink a lot of ships by the Zheng family. Even more dangerous were the paddle wheels, with only a few of the 43 merchant ships converted to propeller type, while the rest were still powered by paddle wheels. If the paddle wheel is hit, the ship will undoubtedly be burned clean by the fire ships that come up.

Li Zhi nodded and said loudly: "The ironclad ship attacked, rushed in and defeated them!" ”