Chapter 208: The Night Battle of Luohe

Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun, who were in command of the ship, as well as those naval generals, all knew that the heaven-given opportunity had come.

Fan Chengkun pointed to a nearby warship and said, "Let's take him first, right?" ”

Liu Yun nodded.

Fan Chengkun ordered the searchlight to shine on the warship, and Li Wei's mortar also followed the searchlight at the warship.

By this time, the warship under the searchlight had pulled up its anchor and was setting sail. Without the help of the sails, it was very difficult to get the boat up and running quickly by the paddler. It can be seen that the sailors on this ship are still well trained, and the artillery on board has already begun to prepare the charge.

But from the moment the searchlight reached the ship, all their efforts were useless.

A total of twenty mortars were lined up on the front and rear decks of the steamer, in order to strengthen the deck. The entire deck was covered with a layer of steel plates. In this way, the recoil of firing a mortar is transmitted to the entire deck. For the convenience of command, the twenty guns were divided into two groups.

Fan Chengkun thought that the first strike must achieve obvious results, so he ordered 20 mortars to fire together, 10 of which fired shells from the black ** warhead and the other 10 guns fired oil shells. In order to hit more accurately, Li Wei personally fired a shell, which was closer, and it fell into the water and exploded with a "pass". But this was enough, and Li Wei reported the correction parameters. Then came a salvo of twenty mortars.

No one on that ship, where the ship was lit by searchlights, wanted to be exposed to such intense light that the eyes could not see anything else for a long time after one glance. On deck with his back to the searchlight, his eyes could be shaken by the light reflected off the ship. The gunners had long since abandoned the work of charging and avoided the blinding light.

When Li Wei's first shell was fired, it was followed by a sharp whistle of "squeak". Then an explosion was heard in front of the ship. These sounds immediately terrified the entire fleet of boats on the river, because they had never heard the "boom" of the steam engine, the blinding white light they had never seen before, and the explosion with a shrill scream they had never seen before. But after all, these sailors are veterans who have been in battle for a long time, and the officers and soldiers of the Ming army's sailors who surrendered have also fought on the battlefield for many years. Despite their fear, they struggled to start their ships and prepare them for battle.

But the warship, which was locked by the searchlight, had no chance to make other efforts, and a total of twenty **** shots flew towards it. Since the steamship was in constant motion, most of the shells flew off. In total, only seven or eight shells landed on the deck of the ship. But for such a wooden sailing ship, these shells were enough. After the shells exploded, the deck was blown into large holes, and the oil bombs quickly ignited a fire, and the sails and rigging on the ship burned like a big candle. The fire on the ship illuminated the river and both banks, and the sailors on the boat jumped into the river in the midst of the fire. The worst of all was the paddlers on the lower deck, many of which exploded in the bilge after piercing the wooden deck. The fire oil bombs burned in the airtight cabin and soon ran out of oxygen in the cabin, and the hot and toxic gas quickly suffocated them to death.

Liu Yun, Fan Chengkun, and Li Wei all saw the power of ****, and as soon as they studied it, they decided that there were no ten mortars to deal with a warship, because such firepower was enough to inflict a devastating blow on such a wooden warship.

By the light of the fire, Fan Chengkun assigned targets to the two artillery crews on the steamship and the artillery on the warship towed behind.

This time, the artillery on the ship was dragged behind, and the assigned target was a ship next to the burning ship. The warship was of the same model as the one on fire, and at this time it had turned around and fired a shot at the steamer in a hurry, of course not knowing where the shells had hit. The targets assigned by the two artillery groups on the steamer were two warships on the other bank of the river.

The artillerymen on the warship that was being dragged behind, seeing that the artillerymen on the warship in front had already opened fire, and there was already an enemy warship on the opposite side that had been hit and caught fire, they were so anxious that they stomped their feet, but the order did not come down, and they were also in a hurry. This time it can be regarded as an order, and the captain of the battleship came behind the mortar and said to the leader in charge of the artillery, don't miss. The artillery captain said: "Don't worry, I promise to solve the problem in one round." ”

Since the steam warships had been moving south along the Luo River, they had always maintained a slow speed upstream, and before the guns were fired, they all fired a comparative shot. Then there was a salvo of artillery from the groups.

After a round of volleys, the three warships of Li Zicheng's navy caught fire at the same time, and only one of the sailors on board was still desperately trying to extinguish the fire, and for the sake of safety, he was given another salvo, and as a result, the sailors who were desperately fighting the fire were blown up into the sky, and the living sailors all jumped into the water one after another.

In just a few minutes, the four large warships of Li Zicheng's navy were all set on fire, and what made Li Zicheng's navy even more terrifying was that only one of the ships barely fired a cannon during the period.

There were also some small warships next to the big ships, and the steamers of Yaogang ignored them, but after taking out four warships, they sped forward. The battle before and after a total of several minutes has already made the Yaogang people understand the power of their warship. Although it has long been known that steamships and mortars should be extremely powerful, they are all the results of observation during the exercise, and what the actual combat is must be tested in the war. Needless to say, everyone understood these few minutes.

The Yaogang people lived up to the opportunity given to them by God, and they drove their ships upstream, and encountered two warships, and when the searchlight shone on one of the warships, the two warships also fired a cannonball each, and the two cannonballs landed a few feet away from the steamer. Fan Chengkun commanded the searchlight to shine on the boat on the left, and the mortar shells fell on the ship at the same time, in the light, the body parts of the soldiers on the ship flew into the air and fell into the water, and then the fire caused by the fire oil bomb quickly lit the mast and sail rigging of the three-masted ship into several torches, and the other warship that came with it felt that it was too late to run again. But now it was too late to run anywhere, it had just turned a little direction, and the beam of the searchlight had already shone on him, and the dazzling light made everyone on this ship dare not raise their heads to look. But they all turned around and ran desperately, and when they reached the side of the boat, they jumped down, and soon after the ship was illuminated by the pillar of light, the soldiers on the boat were blown up to the sky, but they had just seen it, how could they dare to stay on the boat for a moment, and those who jumped into the river with quick reaction and did not die were considered lucky, just as they thought, the same fate as the ship soon fell on this ship. Nearly ten shells exploded after close contact with this ship, and although the oil bomb did not have the temper of the black ** warhead, his enthusiasm was also unbearable for this wooden ship. Soon, two torches were lit on the river near the mouth of the Luo River, one on the left and one on the right. The officers of the steamships at Kiln Hill did not appreciate their masterpieces much, and quickly drove past them in search of a new target. At this time, several shells fell very close around the steamer. There were two warships on the front side of the wind that pulled up their sails, and rushed down the river to the warship of Yaogang by the wind, and the speed of the incoming ship was very fast, and the most important thing was that it could be seen that the ship on the opposite side was completely desperate.

Because there are many small warships around these big ships, so that the small warships separate these big ships very far away, and several big ships in the direction of the estuary in the "boom" explosion, one after another ignited the fire, which also made the officers on the big ships behind them a little frightened, but now the enemy is coming from the direction of the estuary, and they have no chance to run now, because if the boat escapes, it will have to go upstream, so that there is no help from the slender man against the wind, and it is impossible to run fast and not far by relying on the pulpherman. The general of the navy on the ship thought to himself, it is not easy for my red-coated cannon and Furlong cannon to hit you at night, so it is better to sink you with my heart. As soon as he connected with another ship, they rushed down in front of and behind them. Fan Chengkun had already seen them with a telescope, and he ordered a group of artillery to open fire. As a result, the ship that rushed ahead quickly caught fire. But the ship rushed towards it in flames, and it was not until the second round of shells poured on it that the ship tilted slightly sideways, slowed down, and leaned to the side and leaned towards the shore with the raging fire. But the ship sacrificed itself to cover the ship behind it, and as soon as the burning ship dodged to the side, revealing the bowl mouth rocket fireball on the ship behind it, it fired at the steamship with the explosion of the crossbow and bow thunder on the steamship. Until the projection distance of ** was on the big ship**, they threw themselves on this ship one after another, blowing up the opponent's warship into a sea of fire, and the opponent's ship did not counterattack again. However, the warship stubbornly rushed towards the steamer, apparently trying to die with the steamer. Because the front of the warship was equipped with a long, pointed iron vertebrae, if the string of the wooden ship was hit by it, it would definitely be knocked open and cause serious damage to the ship.

Today, however, it encountered a steamship reinforced with a kiln, the bow of which was also equipped with a cone, and the entire front of the ship was welded with steel plates.

On the deck of the steamship on this side of Yaogang, there were also a few shells and rocket fireballs from the bowl, except for the explosion of the bowl-mouth gun, which injured a few artillerymen, and the fireballs and rockets ignited the clothes of several artillerymen, it did not cause much damage to the steamship. Because the entire deck of the ship was paved with steel plates, the slightest fire could not help it.

But although the ship was in flames, it was not slow. At this time, Fan Chengkun knew that he couldn't dodge, because if he didn't dodge well, he would aim his side at the bow of the opponent, and even if he dodged the impact of the other party, the first ship would use its speed to break the rope between the steam ship and the warship towed behind, so that the boat behind would lose power.

There was no other choice, Fan Chengkun ordered to hit the bow of the ship with the bow in front of him. I heard a bang, followed by the sound of the squeaks of steel grinding against each other. The iron cone of the other ship collided directly with the iron cone of the steamer, and then staggered from each other, and the iron cone then hit the steel plate of the ship, making a piercing squeak.

The two ships squeezed into each other and began to tilt. Although the artillery on the steamship was prepared, they were slipped and laid on the deck.

After all, the steamship was powered, and after a while, the two ships missed, and the ship with the raging fire was still pushed off the course by the steamer and headed for the shore.

The steamer had just turned its hull, and the artillery on the warship was being dragged behind and fired. This made Li Yunhe and Fan Chengkun very strange, and he didn't order how the boat behind him could run away. When they took a look, they realized that there were two more warships coming from the opposite side, and before Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun could see clearly, a lot of shells fell around their ships, obviously the other party fired almost at the same time as the ships behind. The boat behind fired in a hurry, and only one shell landed on the boat on the left, but it was a fire bomb, and the boat quickly caught fire. When the searchlight shone on the boat that did not catch fire, the boat was obviously panicked and even more chaotic, Fan Chengkun was about to give a password to order the artillery to shoot, and Liu Yun, who was looking at the boat with a telescope, said: "Don't open fire, this boat is estimated to be ours." ”

It turned out that Liu Yun found that the boat was out of control, and everyone was in charge of the boat. Sure enough, after a while, the boat deviated from the course and leaned to the shore, ran aground on the river bank, and the people on board jumped ship one after another to flee for their lives.

Liu Yun said: "Leave this boat alone, come back and clean it up." Keep moving. ”

Soon after the steamship advanced, the sound of cannon roaring came from the riverbank, and several shells landed in the river, but it was still far from the steamer. The searchlight shone on the riverbank in the distance, and there were several batteries on the riverbank in the distance. Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun both knew that this thing was a great threat to the warship. Li Wei measured it and said: "Within the range of the mortar, the No. 2 charge will do." ”

Fan Chengkun ordered three groups of artillery to concentrate on attacking a fort with explosives, and after the searchlight locked on a fort, thirty guns concentrated on attacking this fort, and soon smoke billowed from this fort. Then the searchlights began to lock on to another battery, and soon the smoke was billowing from this battery again, and so all three batteries were beaten with smoke.

At this time, two more warships came down the river, Fan Chengkun felt that this was another cannon thing, when the searchlight locked on one of the warships, the ship suddenly turned to the shore and rushed over, directly stranded on the shore, when the searchlight shone on the other warship, the ship also headed for the other shore, and the sailors and soldiers on the ship also jumped ship and fled for their lives after being stranded on the shore.

After waiting for the steamship of Yaogang to move forward again, he found several tall batteries on the shore in the distance. Just when Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun were hesitating whether to hit this fort, there seemed to be the sound of mortar shells exploding in the direction of the estuary behind them.

------------------

Calculus formulas, tables of chemical elements; Conquer Japan in the east and attack Mayi in the south; Penicillin, syringe. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".