Chapter 65 The Enemy Comes Up + The Counterattack Begins + The Spitter Strikes Again (5,000 words)

"Hahaha......" Everyone laughed, they really didn't expect that Cheng Chuliang, who has always been known for his iron and blood, would have such a shy side, which is simply eye-opening.

"If today's incident spreads, do you think our Cheng Dadu Governor still has the face to see people?" Realizing that this was Li Zhen's calculation, he might not have to run for his life, so the people in the bridge couldn't help but relax, and Li Ergou asked teasingly.

"That's for sure, and if the Quanzhou fleet knows, he will be ridiculed at most, but if the Yuezhou fleet knows, it is estimated that he only has ......"

"Then he'll have to change his face to live." Li Zhen also added, which immediately caused another burst of wild laughter.

The contradiction between the Yuezhou fleet and the Quanzhou fleet is almost irreconcilable, this is not a secret, after all, the two sides have clashed in public more than once, and even developed into a weapon fight several times, for which Li Zhen has severely punished a lot of people, but the contradictions between the two sides are also accumulating deeper and deeper, but they are all in a naval district, and they don't see each other when they look down, it is simply a small conflict in three days, and a big conflict in five days, so that Li Zhen got used to it later, as long as no one died, they could only go casually.

Fortunately, Datang's fleet is about to undergo a major change of defense, and the two fleets will be assigned to different places at that time, and it is best not to meet again in the future.

"Your Highness, if you have any arrangements, let's take them out quickly, I'm afraid we won't be able to support it after a long time." After laughing, Li Ergou said with a straight face, now no one knows how long the cannon in front of him can sound, if Li Zhen fails to take out his back hand before the cannonball runs out, the enemy may really rush up, and even if Li Zhen is fully prepared, it will be useless.

"It's okay, let Cheng Chuliang take the top for a while, the palace is not ready yet." Unlike the anxiety of Li Ergou and others, Li Zhen is not worried at all, not to mention that the fleet's shells should be able to support for a while, even if they are really close, Datang's fleet is not vegetarian - in addition to having artillery and strong crossbows, these battleships have a lot of melee artifacts, and they are not worried about being close to the enemy...... What's more, even if there are no these weapons, the fleet also carries more than 10,000 elite marines in the fleet, and so many people cooperate with Li Zhen's youth army, even if they are close, what can they do? With their combat effectiveness, it is enough to support a short period of time.

"Governor, we're running out of shells." Another half an hour passed, the design frequency of the Quanzhou fleet became lower and lower, and the sound of explosions gradually became sparse.

"What about our losses? What about the catch? Cheng Chuliang stood on the deck, facing the wind and rain, and asked casually, it has been so long, and the storm has not stopped, of course, it has not increased again, but it is difficult to say when it will stop, according to the analysis of the navigator, this time the storm is estimated to last until the afternoon.

"If you want to harvest, I'll count it." Li Daoyun recalled the data he had counted and said: "According to the intelligence from various ships, we have sunk at least 20 large and small ships of the other side during this period of time, and seriously injured at least 50 or so, which is enough to make them lose their combat effectiveness, and there are countless minor injuries. ”

"That is, the enemy has at least one hundred and thirty ships?" Cheng Chuliang's face is ugly, although there are a lot of sunks, this achievement is even better than the usual time when there is no wind and waves, but this does not solve the situation that the enemy is strong and I am weak, the number of enemy ships is still above himself - of course, if it is just a large number, Cheng Chuliang is not worried, the problem is that there are not many shells on his side now, wait a minute, the enemy will definitely come over, and then it will definitely be a broadside battle, there are so many enemy ships, there must be more people on it, even if there are marines on his side, The young army with the prince is probably not the opponent of the other party.

"About 180 to be exact." Li Daoyun reported an even more ugly number: "Because the sky is too dark, our statistics are very vague, the enemy's ships are not only 200, but about 220 ships, and later after we started the war, the other side reinforced almost 30 ships......

"Forget it, let's talk about our losses." Cheng Chuliang waved his hand irritably, he also figured it out, whether it was one hundred and thirty ships or one hundred and eighty ships, they were all a difficult enemy, and they were not capable of being enemies.

"On our side, the casualties were about 200 people, most of them were minor, only a third were seriously injured, and there were not many deaths, most of them were hit by shrapnel from the flying stream. As for the ships, we didn't sink any ships, but two destroyers and one cruiser were hit and caught fire more seriously, and it is estimated that they will be scrapped, and several cruisers were slightly damaged, but they should be able to barely sail, but in the end they can escape this catastrophe, it is difficult to say that the battleship was not injured, and even if it was injured, it was a skin injury and would not hinder navigation. Li Daoyun sighed, and said with some pity, in fact, the two destroyers and cruisers still have the value of rescue, the problem is that they are now in a big war, and they are still at a disadvantage, it is difficult to say whether they can escape or not, and there is no time for the injured warship to be treated.

At this time, the fleet had been disarmed, so the fleet was now in motion, and it was still in high speed, although the moving warships were difficult to aim, but they were also difficult to be hit, and it was too obvious that the enemy commander was not a fool, they could not be undetected—in fact, the enemy commander was not a fool, but a smart man, a very difficult enemy.

Cheng Chuliang has concentrated his forces more than once, trying to break out of a gap and break out of the enemy's encirclement, but his assault is often detected by the enemy in advance, and then is dealt with as a concentration, the enemy is a circle, no matter which direction Cheng Chuliang goes, the nearby enemy ships will quickly gather together, and there is no rush at all - of course, if he really wants to charge at the cost of his life, he can still rush away, but there is no need for that, as long as Li Zhen's plan is successful, all the enemies will have to die here, There is no need to sacrifice ships at all.

"Let's get ready for hand-to-hand combat." Cheng Chuliang changed his previous frustration, but now he is full of energy: "Your Highness's killer plan has been activated, the only thing missing now is time, we must buy enough time for Your Highness." ”

"Yes, I see."

"In addition, order the ships to stop firing, pretend to run out of shells, and put the enemy closer before fighting." Cheng Chuliang thought for a moment and then commanded.

"I've already done what I'm told, don't look at the fact that our rate of fire has been reduced now, in fact, we still have a lot of shells, enough to deal a heavy blow to the enemy." Li Daoyun said with a smile.

"Great, worthy of my deputy." Cheng Chuliang said with satisfaction: "If you can really escape today's catastrophe, I will recommend you to Your Highness and let you also go out to be a fleet governor, with your qualifications are completely enough." ”

"Then thank you Governor." Li Daoyun did not refuse, although he was not from a professional background, he had been in the navy for five or six years, and he had learned everything he should have learned, and it was no problem to be a fleet governor.

In fact, Cheng Chuliang's initial strategy was a bit wrong - suppressing the enemy outside the range of their artillery fire is equivalent to pressing the opponent in an absolutely safe area, which is indeed a correct and safe method, but the premise is that your own ammunition must be sufficient and sufficient, and the shells must be sufficient enough to support the fleet for such a play.

But with all the problems with the fuses of the cannon, there is a fatal problem in this strategy, that is, the farther the distance, the lower the hit rate of the shells, the same ship may need ten shells to hit ten kilometers away, but if it is placed five kilometers away, it only needs three shells to hit the target, which is a great saving - of course, when it is five kilometers, it may also be hit by the enemy, but now there are not many shells, of course, it is necessary to focus on effective killing, What's the use of just relying on a barrage to keep enemies out without causing damage? When the shells run out and the enemy surrounds you, you'll be the only one who will die.

It's a pity that Cheng Chuliang forgot about it just now, but fortunately, Li Daoyun found out about this and took the initiative to help him make adjustments, otherwise the shells would have been finished a long time ago.

"Governor, the enemy is coming up." Just as the two were talking, the lookout reported on it.

"Did you come up?" Cheng Chuliang suddenly laughed: "What a group of fools, they fell into the trap of His Highness and didn't know it, but they really dared to surround it-order it, continue to reduce the firepower, one ship allows five cannons to fire, and wait for the enemy to get close and give them a ruthless ......"

"Yes."

"I'm really curious, what is Your Highness's killer weapon?" Li Daoyun said with a smile.

"I'm also curious about this, but I'm even more curious, what does the enemy's ship really look like?" Cheng Chuliang didn't say much about this matter, but just smiled: "To be honest, after fighting for so long, I really don't know what the other party's ship is like, whether it is a merchant ship refit or a serious warship." ”

"It's supposed to be a merchant ship, right?" Li Daoyun guessed: "Just now, Poor Dao counted it, they only have a maximum of ten cannons on each ship, even if you count the other side, there are so many, and there are only twenty guns in total, and this number of naval guns can withstand only ordinary merchant ships." ”

"Hehe, it depends." Cheng Chuliang was noncommittal, but he still didn't think so, Li Daoyun's analysis was indeed reasonable, but according to his observation just now, the enemy ship was shot several times but did not sink, which is obviously not something that the fragile structure of a merchant ship can withstand, only a warship can withstand such serious injuries.

"The enemy is coming, and it's really rampant."

Perhaps it was because they knew that the Datang Navy was no longer out of shells, so the enemy ships began to drive this way unscrupulously, and they didn't even bother to go to the S-shaped line, but went directly in a straight line - you must know that the battleship does not take a straight line when it advances, and taking a straight line in an artillery battle is simply looking for death, and the enemy only needs to calculate the amount in advance, which is simply a dozen and one accurate. Of course, now that the Yuezhou fleet is left with no shells, they naturally have no scruples.

"Looks like we're both half right." Seeing the ship sailing quickly, Li Daoyun chuckled and said - the distance was too far just now, and they didn't see it clearly, but when the other party got closer, they found that the enemy's ships were also varied, including merchant ships and cargo ships, but there were also warships that looked different from the Tang warships, but they could also be seen to be warships of warships, etc., and the flags on it were also messy, belonging to the major forces, and at first glance it was a miscellaneous army.

However, it is such a ragtag army, but it has calculated itself, so that it has fallen to the point where it is now - and depending on the meaning of the other party, they obviously want to capture their own fleet detachment, which is simply a great shame for themselves, if it were not for Li Zhen's order, Cheng Chuliang would have ordered the warship to sink itself.

"It's almost the distance, get ready." Because it was in a straight line, the enemy's speed was very fast, and in just two quarters of an hour, it was already less than half a mile away from the Tang fleet.

"Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable, do you really want to use that thing?" A trace of unbearability flashed in Li Daoyun's eyes.

"I said, how did you become so pedantic?" Cheng Chuliang turned his head and glanced at Li Daoyun: "Now that the enemy wants us to die, of course we have to use all kinds of means to fight back, this is already my last resort, if you can't bear it, you can see if you can persuade them to let us go?" ”

"Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable, poor Dao understands." Li Daoyun also woke up, that's right, now they are enemies of life and death, is it interesting to be compassionate and compassionate here on the battlefield where you die or I die?

Li Daoyun was quickly ready, and no one noticed that under the guns on the side of all the battleships, thin pipes were exposed......

"Governor, it's almost the distance." An old man in his fifties stepped forward to report.

"Let's get started."

"Yes, let's go."

"Zi~"

"Zi~"

"Zi~"

“……”

With the old man's command, all the battleships no longer emitted the roar of cannons, but the "sizzle" sound similar to the liquid jet - and the spray from these tubes is indeed liquid, but it is not an ordinary liquid, because as the liquid is exposed to the air, these liquids actually emit a burst of red light, and then 'boom' and burn violently......

At this time, the enemy's ship was less than 100 meters away from the nearest Datang warship, and the hook rejection on the enemy ship (a Chinese special water warfare tool, said to have been invented by the public transport class, similar to the Western gangboard, which can jam the enemy's ship and then carry out gang jumping) has been erected, but they will never have a chance to use it, because their hook refusal has not yet fallen on the Tang warship, and their bow has already ignited a raging fire......

As mentioned before, Datang's warships not only have long-range weapons such as strong bows and crossbows and artillery, but also have very powerful weapons in the face of the enemy's close combat, among which the most typical and most famous is naturally the Spitfire - the Spitfire is a war artifact designed by Li Zhen, the principle is to use the machine to pressurize the air in the cannon, and then the air expands and sprays out with the fire oil, driving the ignition device at the nozzle mouth to ignite the fire oil to burn the enemy. At the beginning, this weapon was only used as a Datang version of the flamethrower, and the effect was extraordinary, the first battle was used by Li Zhen on the Turkic battlefield to burn the elite golden wolf guard of Jieli Khan in one fell swoop, shocking both sides of the enemy, the power is terrifying, the only drawback is that the speed of pressurization is relatively slow, so each war needs to prepare multiple Spitzers.

Later, Xue Yantuo and Hui Hui fought a decisive battle in the northern Turkic region, and they were both defeated, and the Tang Dynasty picked up a cheap one in the back, and by the way, captured a group of Tungusic people who fled from Europe from the hands of Hui Hui, and then got a group of craftsmen and the formula of Greek fire - this group of craftsmen once participated in the design and development of the terrorist weapon Xila fire, and later they were obtained by Hui Hui on the way to the east, and contributed Greek fire, and burned Xue Yantuo's army with fire in the final war.

In the end, with the demise of Hui and Xue Yantuo, these craftsmen fell into the hands of the Tang Dynasty, and the Greek fire became the trophy of the Tang Dynasty, and it was added to the design of the Spitfire, which increased the power of the Spitfire.

But even so Li Zhen was not satisfied, and summoned the world's famous craftsmen After nearly ten years of changes, the Spitfire was finally changed to the point of perfection, no need to ignite, the fire oil ignited when it saw the wind, the range was as high as two hundred meters, and the firing interval was only ten breaths (this speed is not slow, although it is not as good as a firearm, but the rate of fire is also about the same as that of an ordinary cannon), the fuel is mainly distilled gasoline, but some special chemicals are also added to it, the ignition point is very low, and it can also burn on the water surface, which is very difficult to extinguish, Once entangled with the target, unless the target is burned out, it will never be extinguished - it can be said that this is an absolutely terrible weapon, and the deterrent power is even more terrible than the artillery, after all, the cannon bombardment kills people with one shot, but the Spitfire cannon burns people alive, which weapon is more terrifying.

It's just that the performance of the cannon in recent years is too amazing, it has been active in the major battlefields, and its excellent performance has attracted the attention of almost everyone, although the Spitfire has appeared on the battlefield earlier than the cannon, but it was also twenty years ago, and it has not appeared again in the past twenty years, coupled with the deliberate concealment of the imperial court, so it is not known, and no one has noticed, even if someone really remembers it, the Spitfire has not appeared for so many years, and the power and range are not as good as the cannon, would also think that the imperial court had given it up, but they never imagined that the imperial court still hid such a terrible demon, and suffered a big loss for a while......