The sailors quickly pulled up the sail ropes and quickly retracted the six mainsails on the three masts. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoWestern-style sailing ships have soft sails, which are lighter than Chinese-style hard sails, and because of this, Western-style sailing boats can have tall masts that are close to two-thirds of the length of the boat. If the Chinese hard sail is also hung so high, the center of gravity of the ship will be completely unsightly, just afraid that if a gust of wind blows, the ship will capsize.

However, the retraction of soft sails is much more troublesome, whether it is retracted or opened, the sailor needs to climb to the high mast to operate, which is much more demanding for the sailor.

However, after such a long period of training, the sailors still performed this maneuver very well, and at the same time the cruiser began to jerk to the right, and the ship began to lean noticeably to the left. Sailors ran to starboard and even hung on the outside of the starboard side to reduce the tilt of the boat.

"What are they doing?" In the midst of the military formation, Shang Kexi witnessed the enemy's huge battleship complete such a sharp turn with incredible agility not far from his five-point plum blossom array, and for a moment he could not understand the opponent's purpose in doing so.

This is also normal, although as a naval general, Shang Kexi can be regarded as experienced in a hundred battles, but among the objects he fights, there has never been a Western-style warship, so he knows almost nothing about the combat methods of these Western-style warships, not to mention, the combat methods of the fleet of the "Dutch East India Company" are relatively trendy when put into the Taixi Navy.

However, he soon understood the enemy's intentions, because the opponent's warship immediately fired the first salvo after turning sideways and facing his own ship sideways.

Fifteen eighteen-pounder cannons were fired one after the other, and the port side of the ship was so full of smoke that it was almost impossible to see anything from the gun window. However, Zhang Daniu didn't care to look out, he was busy preparing for the next round of shelling with some other gunners. Zhang Daniu pulled out the chamber from the chamber and stretched out his thumb to the others, indicating that the chambering had been completed -- in the combat environment, the artillery deck was very noisy, and the gunners' ears were generally not good, even if they shouted loudly, the people on the other side might not be able to hear what you said, so all the gunners did not rely on language to communicate with each other in the combat environment, but on sign language.

Seeing Zhang Daniu's gesture, Wang Xigui, who was already waiting next to him, immediately stuffed a wrapped silk medicine bag into the muzzle, and then Wu Ma immediately pushed the medicine bag into the gun chamber with a push rod. The silk burns completely when the gunpowder is burned, leaving no solid residue and therefore not having any adverse effect on the chambering. The use of silk medicine bags, can greatly speed up the speed of shooting, the later generations of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, in the fight with other countries, the reason why invincible, a big advantage is that their gunners can fire almost twice as fast as the opponent, and such a shooting speed, in addition to the Royal Navy is well-trained, high morale, the secret of the silk medicine bag also plays a very key role.

Immediately afterwards, Xia Wu also used an iron skewer to puncture the silk medicine bag from the direction of the fire gate, and then poured some of the prepared ignition powder into the ignition powder pool. At the same time, Winford also stuffed an 18-pound iron ball into the muzzle of the gun, and Wu Ma pushed it into the right position with a push lever, and then, several people worked together to push the gun back to its original position along the slide rail, and then Wu Ma waved the push lever to signal that his gun crew had finished preparing to shoot.

"Well done, boys!" Sanfu Wei Dabiao couldn't help but shout, although he knew that on the gun deck, no one could hear his voice.

However, they didn't need to fire a second volley right away, as the opponent wasn't a Western-style ship that was riding alongside them. They didn't need to shoot more shells per unit of time, and their targets were the small Manchu warships, which had a furlong machine on the bow of the ship, and it was simply impossible to fire at them for a long time in parallel.

Moreover, the first salvo they had just fired at a close range of less than sixty meters had already disabled one of their victims, the mast of the ship had been broken, the hull had been shattered by 18-pound shells, the furlong on the bow of the ship had not known where it had flown to, and although the whole ship was still floating on the sea, it had lost the ability to sail and fight, and could no longer have any effect on the outcome of the battle.

"Spread the mainsail!" On deck, the first mate shouted. The mainsail, which had just been stowed away, was quickly opened again.

"Right rudder three!" The herald shouted, and the helmsman quickly adjusted his direction. In this direction, Captain Jack estimated that he would be able to stagger with another Manchu warship at a distance of about fifty to sixty paces, and at the same time send the ship and the barbarians on board to hell with a precise and deadly salvo.

At this time, several ships following it also began to turn in turn and fire at the Manchu fleet.

Now Shang Kexi has fully understood what the opponent means, the opponent he met this time is different from any opponent he has seen before, these guys' battleships are on the side defense line, there are actually more than a dozen cannons, and they are genuine cannons, not small things like Furlong machines. Even the last smaller enemy ships had four or five cannons on the broadside. Such long-range firepower far exceeded the fleet in his hands. The opponent was very aware of his superiority, so they did not plan to rush into the five-point plum blossom formation and have a melee at all, but like peeling an onion, they used the advantage of artillery fire to kill their own warships layer by layer.

"Damn it, rush up, rush up and fight them!" Although Shang Kexi can be regarded as experienced in a hundred battles, but in the face of such tactics, he can only make such a decision, hoping to rush into the opponent's battle line, cause chaos on the opponent, and then win in chaos.

At this time, Captain Jack's battleship had already fired a second salvo, severely damaging the second enemy ship, this time the result of the shooting was not as good as the last time, although the enemy ship was also badly beaten, but the mast was still there, at least it still had the ability to sail. However, Captain Jack had no doubts about the outcome of the ship, as it was about to face the mending of the warship that followed Captain Jack's battleship.

"Actually, they might as well cut down the mast themselves, so that at least they won't be the priority of mending." Captain Jack even had time and mood to think about his opponent.

"Inform the other ships and prepare to follow me to the left. Both sailors and gunners were ready. Captain Jack ordered.

Captain Jack's plan was that his fleet would next sail along the left edge of the enemy fleet and attack the enemy so that they would quickly reach the enemy's rear and cut off the enemy's way of retreat. If the enemy were to turn their heads and sail backwards, everyone would still be sailing downwind. This would be very advantageous for Captain Jack's fleet, which mainly used crosssails, and in a tailwind state, his ships were much faster than those of the Manchus, and he could use the speed advantage again and again to complete the battle like the one just now.

If the enemy continues to sail against the wind, of course, it will be more troublesome, and Captain Jack can only use the spinnaker to sail against the wind, but considering that the opponent's ship type is not fundamentally different from the merchant ship, they are all ships with a length-to-width ratio of about 4, Captain Jack believes that even if he only uses a triangle sail, his ship can be slightly faster than the opponent's ship, then he can also catch up with them and eat them little by little. Moreover, Captain Jack believed that the ships had come out to sweep the smuggling ships, and that they did not have the need to sail for a long time, so they could not run on the sea for a long time, and the longer they sailed against the wind, the farther they would be from their own port. The more dim their future becomes.

……

Shang Kexi felt that his heart was constantly chilling, although the opponent only had a few ships, and he had fifty ships in his hands, but now the situation of the naval battle was completely one-sided. In the turn that swooped down and then completed right in front of them, the adversary destroyed at least four of his ships in one fell swoop, (which were still adrift at sea, but had lost the ability to sail and fight) and wounded two others. They then made another left turn, following the left side of their own fleet and behind them, destroying two more ships and damaging three in the process. By now, he Shang Kexi had completely lost six warships and wounded five, while his opponent was almost unscathed.

Now Shang Kexi had fully seen the opponent's intentions, judging from the speed of the opponent when he had just killed from the left side of his fleet, Shang Kexi understood that these Dutchman's ships, when downwind, were afraid that they could be nearly twice as fast as their own ships. If they turn downwind, they can easily play the first turn in front of their own fleet over and over again, and their ships will never escape.

"Keep on course." Shang Kexi ordered. He doesn't know what the speed of the opponent's ship against the wind is, but if the opponent's headwind speed is not good enough, then he still has the possibility of escaping, even if the opponent's headwind speed is a little faster than his own, but everyone sails against the wind, and everyone's speed is not too fast, so that the rhythm of the entire naval battle will be slowed down, and the enemy will be able to launch fewer attacks in the same time.

"It's already afternoon, it's August now, it's dark early, as long as we can stay up until dark, we have a way to live." Shang Kexi thought so.