Soon, all three of the Spaniard's cruisers joined the shelling of the Endeavour, and gradually more shells hit the Endeavour. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info But to the disappointment of the Spaniards, almost all of the shells that hit were bounced back by the thick oak planks, especially the shells fired by the two boats in the back, which basically ricocheted due to the angle of entry.

"The enemy failed to penetrate our armor." Zheng Sen said this in his heart, and then ordered: "Continue to accelerate, let's go and seize the enemy's T-head." Then he turned to Zheng Du again and said, "Third brother, you see, our speed is faster, so that we can get to the front, and then turn to the left and aim our port side at their bow." At this time they only have two guns that can fire, but we have twenty guns, and ours is better and faster. They're definitely not going to be able to shoot like this, you know? ”

Zheng Du nodded, turned his face to the Spanish warship over there, and after looking at it for a while, he suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly asked, "Then what if people also turn to the left?" ”

Zheng Du's question made Zheng Sen very happy, so he smiled and said, "That's a good question." Well, first of all, let's talk about the difference between the Tessie sailboat and our fortune ship. ”

This is a fairly basic question, at least for the children of the Zheng family. Even if he didn't follow Zheng Sen to participate in this battle, he must be clear about such basic knowledge.

"The Tessie ship is fast downwind, sturdier than our fortune ship, and can carry more cannons. However, when sailing against the wind, it is not as good as a fortune ship, and it is too expensive. There are also too many sailors needed. Big brother, am I right? Zheng Du said.

Zheng Sen nodded, habitually stretched out his hand to rub Zheng Du's head, and said with a smile: "What the third brother said is good!" is worthy of being a child of our Zheng family! Well, third brother, you also know that Daddy's fleet is coming. You see how we and the Spaniards are sailing? ”

Zheng Du blinked his eyes and thought for a while, "We are all sailing with the wind...... Ah, I see, big brother, you just want to turn their sailing direction to the headwind, don't you? So when Daddy came, Daddy's ships were all good ships, and they fought against the wind, which was stronger than when they were downwind, and the Spaniards' ships couldn't run fast against the wind, they couldn't run fast, and they wouldn't turn too fast, so we gathered around, and as soon as the fireboat was released, they were finished...... Big brother, do you think I'm right? ”

Zheng Sen was observing the state of the enemy's flagship at this time, and he was really taken aback when he suddenly heard such a sentence. Zheng Sen knew that in the original history, his third brother surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty with his father Zheng Zhilong and several other brothers, and then was imprisoned by the Manchu Dynasty with Zheng Zhilong, and finally killed together. In his life, he never had the opportunity to take charge of himself and show his talents. Therefore, although Zheng Sen can't say that he doesn't attach importance to this younger brother, this kind of attention is only based on the concept of "fighting tigers and brothers", and he doesn't think that this younger brother has any extraordinary talent. But now it seems that this brother really has some talent for naval warfare.

"Third brother! Did you think of it yourself? Zheng Sen asked.

"yes." Zheng Du replied.

Zheng Sen thought about it for a while, and felt that it was impossible for anyone else to predict that such a situation would occur today, and he would ask such a question at this time, and Zheng Du naturally couldn't get any tips from others. Moreover, Zheng Du, as a concubine, is still just a side room of the Zhuang family, and the resources he can get from the family are also very limited, and they are not enough to make such preparations for him.

"Very good, very good!" Zheng Sen said, "In the future, my family will have another general!" ”

……

"Colonel, that boat is robbing our thorns!" "It's fast, at least fourteen verses." ”

"yes, it's fast!" Nelson nodded and said, "It's a terrible ship." For us, it is even more terrible than those battleships of the first rank with a hundred guns. If we come across a first-class battleship, we can run with all the sails full, and those guys will run to six or seven knots at most, and they will definitely not be able to catch up with us. However, this ship can run so fast, and its ability to resist strikes is not weaker than that of a first-class battleship, if we encounter it alone, we can't beat it, we can't run, except for looking forward to the dark or the wind and waves, or the fog, there is almost no way at all. Such a ship, used to attack the routes of other countries, intercept their merchant ships, it is a nightmare! ”

Listening to Nelson's words, Babbel also nodded and said, "What you said is right, after all, no country can use expensive first-class ships to carry out escort missions. Not to mention first-class ships, even escorting with cruisers is a very luxurious thing. So the large logarithmic merchant fleet, if it encounters the interception of such a warship, it is simply ...... Also, Colonel, do you remember those unarmed schooners of the Zheng family? The kind of ship that sends their messengers to declare war on us. You see, there's two more over there. I have heard some of the merchants who used to trade in the North Harbor mention these ships, and they say that they can sometimes run at speeds of more than sixteen knots, as if they were flying on the sea. Colonel, I suppose that when they intercepted our merchant ships and silver ships, they must have searched for them with such ships first, and then led the warships to intercept them. This makes it more difficult to dodge their interception. The battleship in front of us, coupled with this fast flying clipper, is simply the perfect combination of pirates. Damn Zheng Yiguan, he is a pirate, even if he becomes the general of the Ming Kingdom, he is still a pirate in his bones! ”

At this time, Endeavour began to turn to the left.

"Full rudder to the left! Keep it parallel to it! Nelson shouted. In any case, it is impossible to give the opponent the advantage of the T-head, although the angle of tilt of the plank greatly increases the chance of ricochet when shelled from the front, but the firepower of the bow is too weak to form a decent threat to the opponent. The opponent can get very close and destroy the sails and masts with a volley of chain bullets. If you fire from the front, even if the chain does not hit the foremast, there is still a chance to hit the mainmast and the aftermast. It's also a lot higher in terms of the odds of hitting. And once the sailboat loses its mast, it becomes a dead fish to be slaughtered, so in any case, Nielsen cannot allow its opponents to take the T-head advantage.

The "Endeavour" successfully forced the enemy ships to turn to the left continuously, and now both fleets were sailing against the wind, and the speed was suddenly slowed down.

Both ships had their mainsails stuck, and in the upwind they relied mainly on the spinnakers tied between the foremast and the bowmast.

"In a headwind, they don't necessarily go faster than us. Maybe we can try to grab their t-heads instead. Seeing that the speed of the "Endeavour" and other Zheng family warships had also decreased, Nelson had such thoughts. In fact, he also knew that it was not very likely that the opponent's headwind speed would be lower than his own, because the ratio of the opponent's spinnaker to the boat was not smaller than his own. And the shape of the hull of the opposing side may be more suitable for high-speed driving. However, sailing against the wind is a test of the sailor's skills, because when sailing against the wind, the ship needs to constantly take the Z-shaped route to catch the wind. Nelson felt that his sailors should be better than the Zheng family in this regard. So Nelson thought he could give it a try.

At the beginning, the effect was really good, the opposing warship obviously did not control the angle very well when it turned in the Z-shaped navigation, so the speed dropped significantly, and as a result, Nelson and the fleet seemed to have achieved an advantage in speed, of course, this advantage was not big, less than a section. It is not easy to rely on such a small advantage to grab the T-head, at least not in a short time. However, Nelson is confident that in just over an hour at most, he will be able to use his accumulated speed advantage to grab a T-head.

……

"Brother, why don't you open the sail between the masts?" Zheng Du asked.

In order to increase the speed of sailing against the wind, in addition to the usual spinnaker at the bow position, recently, during the repair in North Harbor, the "Endeavour" and several other cruisers were also put on the mast between the masts, and the schooners were installed that could be retracted. At this time, if these sails were fully opened, although they were not as good as the authentic schooners, they would definitely sail much faster against the wind than they are now. Of course, Zheng Sen also spent a lot of money for this design. The mast of the Taixi sailboat is high, and there are many sails on it, unlike the Chinese sailing ship, when the sail is closed, the sail of the Chinese sailing ship is down, and the canvas of the Western-style sailing ship is rolled up, so even if the sail is collected, the Western-style sailing ship may still have the problem of high center of gravity, if the longitudinal sail is pulled up in the middle of the mast, the center of gravity will be higher and higher, and the stability of the ship will become more and more problematic. In order not to make the center of gravity of the ship rise too much, Zheng Sen can only choose some lighter fabrics to make sails as much as possible, and it must be both light and strong enough, at least for now, Zheng Sen only knows one kind of fabric that can do this, and this cloth is silk.

Even in China, it is absolutely expensive to use silk like this, and silk is too delicate, and the light and moisture will greatly reduce its performance, so it is very difficult to take care of these things at sea, or it costs a lot of money. If not from the Spaniards in one breath . grabbed a large amount of silver, and Zheng Sen was really reluctant to do so. As for the Europeans, it is even more unthinkable. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, fighting a war has always been a competition to compare who will waste money.

"We're going to give them a little hope." Zheng Sen said, "When Daddy's warship arrives, we will surprise them again." ”