The speed of the Tiance military fleet is controlled at about eight knots, and the sailing ships can reach ten to twelve knots with full sails and tailwind, and if the pulp sails are used together, they can reach the speed of fifteen knots in a short time. It was now a northerly wind, and the enemy ship's sidesail was pursuing from east to west at a speed of about ten knots, so the distance between the two sides was slowly shrinking.

Wang Yue said to Wei Xiaoliang: "Xiaoliang, in the face of such an enemy, how should the battle be fought?" ”

Considering that the navy will fight independently for a long time in the future, Wang Yue will mobilize their subjective initiative at any time to cultivate their ability to think independently.

Wei Xiaoliang looked at the current situation again and said, "You can first use our army's speed advantage to drive the enemy ships to maneuver with us." When the enemy ships gradually converge and shrink, our army will crush all the way and cover it with firepower, which is more efficient than attacking from all sides, and can give full play to our army's firepower superiority. ”

Wang Yue applauded: "Okay, just do it." Take out all the spare recoilless guns and mortars and let them try them out, and you'll be in command of the battle. ”

Wei Xiaoliang immediately ordered all ships to turn north with the flagship through the marine walkie-talkie, and the speed was ten knots.

The soldiers of the ships brought out spare recoilless guns and mortars and arranged them on the sides and on the decks under the command of the officers. This increased the number of recoilless guns from six to eighteen per ship, as well as six mortars and six heavy machine guns.

The Tiance Navy's naval fleet drew a graceful arc on the sea surface and suddenly turned, immediately disrupting the Zheng family's fleet outflanking steps. The six sailboats that were inserted forward reacted quickly and immediately swerved. However, they are all sailing ships, and they can only travel with the help of the wind, and the Tiance army fleet is sailing against the wind, so their outflanking plan has gone bankrupt.

Zheng Lian, who was on an 800-material flagship, commanded the encirclement and suppression of the Tiance Army Navy, saw this situation, slapped the side of the ship angrily, and ordered: "Give orders to all ships and pursue them at full speed." ”

Although he knows that the headwind is not good for him, he can't care so much.

A person next to him said: "Second master, these three ships are weird!" It can travel so fast without a sail and steer without hesitation. ”

This person's name is Xu Shaoyan, a down-and-out literati who plays the role of a military advisor for the Zheng family.

Zheng Lian said confidently: "Their ship must be driven by manpower, and it will definitely not last long." ”

As if to confirm his suspicions, the three ships slowed down as they turned to avoid the six sailing ships standing in their way.

Seeing this, Xu Shaoyan complimented: "It's really not what the second master expected, they really slowed down." ”

Zheng Lian continued to order: "Order all ships to increase the speed for me." ”

The instantaneous speed of the sailboat is the simultaneous use of oars and sails, and the boats of the Zheng family sounded the sound of the horn of the swaying pulp, like a dragon boat race.

Wang Yue looked at the enemy ship that was catching up, and said with a smile: "Are you in a hurry to reincarnate?" ”

The Tiance fleet deliberately slowed down and gradually adjusted its formation, changing from a one-line column to a three-ship formation.

At the forefront were the six 400-gauge sailboats, which had been shortened to three miles, and the first to speak were heavy machine guns.

Due to the fact that the sea was open and accompanied by the sea breeze, the sound of heavy machine guns was not too loud. However, the bullets of a dozen heavy machine guns still swept down the people on the two sailing ships one after another, and the foredeck was also swept into a mess, and the sail rigging was broken one after another.

Immediately afterwards, the mortars also spoke, and the eighteen mortars scattered over the three battleships also opened fire.

Only one of the eighteen shells hit, and the enemy ship was hit by mortar shells falling from the sky, and more than half of the wooden superstructure was destroyed in an instant, and the sails also tilted, and the air waves and shrapnel splashed, killing and wounding more than a dozen people at once. Other missed shells fell into the sea, exploding a dense column of water around the six sailing ships.

Although mortars are not suitable for naval warfare, they are also very powerful against such wooden sailing ships with a displacement of only a few tens of tons. The key is that its range ratio can reach more than five kilometers, and the rate of fire can reach ten rounds per minute.

The sound of shells was heard incessantly, waves of shells rushed towards the enemy ships, and heavy machine gun bullets were drawn like whips towards the enemy ships. The ships of both the enemy and the enemy were in motion, and the enemy ships were much smaller than the Western-style battleships, so the shells had a low hit rate, but they were fired quickly and each hit was deadly.

Or the hit rate of heavy machine guns is higher, the rate of fire of 750 rounds per minute is not given in vain, and the direction of fire can also be adjusted according to the trajectory of the ballistics.

For the sake of training, the heavy machine gun was not equipped with an incendiary warhead, and the power of the 12.7 mm heavy warhead was also considerable, and it quickly beat six sailing ships into a sieve. In just over a minute, three sailboats disintegrated and capsized.

Zheng Lian, who was on the flagship in the rear, widened his eyes, and couldn't believe his eyes.

Judging from his experience in naval warfare, the opponent used at least 100 cannons with a caliber of no less than 20 pounds to attack his own ships. He measured it by the height and density of the cupola water column scattered on the surface of the sea, and it was impossible for a small solid iron ball to smash such a column of water. The rate of fire of heavy naval guns was only two to three rounds per minute, so he judged that the opponent's heavy artillery had more than a hundred.

Military advisor Xu Shaoyan exclaimed: "It's not good, I didn't expect them to have so many cannons, it seems that the range is very long." ”

Zheng Lian also knew that he had miscalculated, and the big iron ship had gone up by himself, and he didn't see the cannon at all, nor did he see many cannon windows. Moreover, while the three large iron ships were docked, he also ordered people to pretend to be merchants and observe them for several days, and finally came to the conclusion that none of the three ships were warships.

So he came with confidence, but he was beaten with a stick. Looking at this firepower density, in his mind, he had already raised the combat power of the three warships of the Tiance Army fleet from the armed merchant ships to the height of three Galen.

"Order all the ships to speed up and pass through the four loaves!" Zheng Lian continued to order.

The strategy set by this robbery is to rely on the help to rob the ship, that is, to bully the big iron ship to run fast, which is their greatest confidence.

And against such large iron ships, their habitual arson boats have lost their effectiveness. The effect of the bombardment will not be too great, and it will be a joke to sink such a large iron ship with solid bullets. The effect of the artillery bombardment can only kill and injure the personnel on board, but looking at the current situation, the range of the cannons is much longer than theirs.

In order to improve the hit rate and give the recoilless guns the opportunity to practice naval warfare, the Tiance fleet slowed down the speed of the ships.

In just a few moments, the other three sailing ships were already in a state of collapse, two of them had already caught fire, and the people on board jumped into the sea to flee for their lives.