Hong Tao held the telescope and already roughly understood, four of the enemy's eight sailing ships were relatively large, and they were equipped with artillery, the specific specifications were not clear, but they were definitely artillery. Judging from www.biquge.info frequency of their firing and the smoke produced when firing, it should still be a front-loading gun using black gunpowder, which is about 300 meters away and can't hit anyone for a long time. In this way, you can be bolder, and the closer you get to the rifled gun, the higher the accuracy of the rifled gun.

"Fold the bottom sail, and after the shot the left rudder twenty!" It was about to enter the firing range, Hong Tao stood behind the gun mount, aiming with the grooves on the gun mount and the protrusion on the muzzle, because there was no optical sighting equipment, the cannon also had to rely on the naked eye like the musket, which required the gunner's ability to be very high, much more difficult than shooting. Because the sea is not like land, it is not possible to aim accurately, and it is necessary to be able to predict which side the ship will rock in the next second, understand whether the ship is at the crest or trough of the wave now, and roughly calculate the course and speed of the target ship. Take all of these factors into account, and then find the most stable time to shoot...... Only then will it be possible to increase the accuracy of shooting to twenty or thirty percent. That's right, the naval battles of the sailing period were so fucked up, even if it was rifled guns shooting at close range, four or five shells could hit once, and he was already a sharpshooter.

"Your Majesty, you haven't changed your shoes yet...... "Just about to shoot, a very discordant voice came from behind Hong Tao, and the captain came up with a pair of thick cowhide shoes.

“…… See, your captain is a good captain, and if the gunner doesn't change his shoes, he will die! Hong Tao really wanted to kick this mediocre and verbose guy into the sea with a kick back, but when he turned his head to look, the gunners on both sides were wearing the same big scalp shoes, and he could only endure the anger in his belly, squeezed out a very appreciative look, and took off the leather sandals on his feet.

This thing is self-stipulated, and the reason is very simple, I am afraid of burning my feet!

The rear-loading cannon that fires a copper-shelled shell is not like a front-loading cannon that fires a large iron ball, and when it is finished, it will spit out a hot copper shell. This thing must not be able to pick it up, so it can only fall on the deck behind the gun emplacement, and if it touches the foot in the sandals, it will stab and it will be familiar wherever it touches.

In the humid environment of the sea, it is difficult to heal the scald, even if there is badger oil and alcohol, once soaked in the seawater to the wound, it is likely to become inflamed and infected, and a small scald can kill a person. Therefore, Hong Tao stipulated that the people in the gun position must wear high-waisted and big-scalped shoes and deerskin gloves when fighting, and a special person must be set aside to hold a hook to collect the fired shells, so as not to let them roll around all over the deck. These copper cartridge casings are expensive and cannot be thrown away, so they have to be reloaded and reused several times.

"Long live the sun god! Long live the Divine Messenger! Let the light of the sun god shine on the earth! Hong Tao felt very embarrassed, but the sailors and gunners on the ship were very excited, and shouted slogans together. Hong Tao didn't quite understand what the change of shoes had to do with Banzai, but the war was about to start, and it wasn't a bad thing for them to shout. It's a bold thing, like a crowd of people shouting for invulnerability.

"Six hundred meters!" From the mast came the loud screams of the lookouts.

"Smack...... Rumble...... Stabbing ......" Hong Tao hid next to the gun carriage and pulled the rope in his hand hard. A spring on the side of the bolt was pulled out, then carried back by the force of the spring, and with a snap it struck another part of the bolt, causing the firing pin to strike on the fire cap at the bottom of the shell.

Almost at the same time, the cannon body shook violently, and the upper half of the gun carriage retreated less than half a meter away, rubbing against the lower half of the gun carriage to make a sound similar to scratching glass with fingernails, and Hong Tao had goosebumps all over his body, and his teeth were itching. Qi Zu's design of the erection device is good anywhere, only the sound made Hong Tao very dissatisfied, can't he change the voice?

The shell was fired accurately, towards the three-masted galleon that had hit the head, but unfortunately the timing of the fire was a little late by a few tenths of a second, and the waves lifted the hull a little more, and the result was higher. Looking at the watchman's flag, the shell went over the opponent's mast and fell into the sea a hundred and ten meters away on the other side.

"Your uncle, don't look at it, shoot your own guns!" The helmsman strictly carried out Hong Tao's order, and immediately after he finished firing the cannon, he turned the rudder left and turned the hull sideways. Hong Tao doesn't plan to perform another failed shooting tutorial for everyone, there are still three ships of his own people besieged on the opposite side, so it's still important to save people.

The two Virginia-class sailing ships had already been discovered by the other party, but they didn't take these two small boats that could only see the sails but not the hulls seriously, but the three obviously tall Salmon-class cargo ships in the distance were more eye-catching. Even after Hong Tao fired a shot, the other party still didn't realize what threat the two small boats had. Qizu artillery used smokeless gunpowder, there was no large smoke, and when the wind was not in the right direction, the sound of the cannon could not be transmitted far against the wind.

But soon they knew how powerful the two boats were, and in the first round of shelling two shells hit the same ship, and the hits were also in the same position, all in the amidships. After the three-masted galleon with a displacement of about 400 tons was hit by two shells, it seemed to have no reaction at first, and its speed did not decrease. But after a while, something was wrong. The speed has not decreased, because the sails have not been damaged and the wind direction has not changed. However, the course changed, and he broke away from the array and drove to the west alone, leaning to the right the more he went.

"Tell the Florida, scatter and aim, don't concentrate several guns on one, we have to leave them all behind, it's better to break one finger than to hurt ten fingers, and no one wants to run!" Hong Tao returned the gun position to the gunner, and the command was too busy while firing the gun.

Unfortunately, the remaining seven ships on the opposite side did not please Hong Tao, they immediately realized the threat of these two small boats, and after the second round of shelling, another ship was hit, and then they began to turn east separately, preparing to escape.

"Raise the sails, stop them from the front, and no one is allowed to run! Note that the enemy also has artillery, so don't get close to within 500 meters! Hong Tao didn't want any of the remaining seven ships to run back to report the news, it didn't matter who the other party was or where they came from, the important thing was not to let others know too early that he had sunk them.

A chase took place in the waters northwest of the Azores, flanked by seven European galleons, one of which was wounded. On the other side were two schooners with very low freeboard and very fast speeds, followed by three Asian galleons and two redrafts of the Renaa schooners.

Whether it is a front-loading gun or a rear-loading gun, or a smoothbore gun or a rifled gun, there is no difference at all in the long-range hit rate at high speed, they are infinitely close to zero, and no one can hit anyone. Hong Tao didn't have a rut, and he couldn't catch up with the other party if he slowed down. Now it's a side tailwind, and those schooners are just at full speed, but their own schooners can't play at maximum speed. If you don't slow down and can't hit accurately, you can only scare people.

"Let the Florida follow me and raise the mainsail's wings too!" Seeing that the other party's seven ships were scattering more and more, Hong Tao was also anxious, and he planned to risk his last fight.

Under Hong Tao's command, the wingsails on the foremasts of the two Virginia-class schooners were also raised, raising the speed to the maximum, no longer entangled with each other and shelling each other, but overtaking from the north side at full speed, running to the front of the seven ships, and then retracting the wingsails and slowly slowing down.

Hong Tao planned to use the stern guns to force the opponent to change course, as long as they turned, they had to reduce their speed, and these sailing ships with large sails were very troublesome to operate at a large angle. It doesn't take much, as long as their two ships can hold them down for an hour, the other three Salmon-class ships can catch up, and the speed of the Exocet-class ship is not slow. If you are together, you will hopefully sink or capture all seven ships.

"Alas...... These people are still too far from the navy, how do you usually train? "This method is supposed to work, and the ships behind have already turned south to avoid the shells. But after tossing for a long time, Hong Tao found that the three salmon-class armed cargo ships had not followed. Two of them were salvaging prisoners, and one of them had gone to the battlefield next to the three ships of Karl.

Seeing this situation, Hong Tao had no choice, and then waved the flag to let them catch up, estimating that he would have to hold on for several more hours, and he might not be able to stop these enemy ships that were scattering and breaking through. Once they are completely dispersed, it is basically impossible to wipe them all out, and there is no real difference between running one ship and running five.

"Your Majesty, among the dozen or so of us, only two have served in the Royal Navy's supply fleet and have not fought ......" Faced with Hong Tao's questioning, the captain had to report his grievances.

“…… Fifteen on the right side, went around and grabbed the wounded ship. Hong Tao didn't say anything, the captain was telling the truth. The sailors who volunteered to stay here at the beginning were not serious navy, and they didn't dare to let them stay, and they couldn't explain when they went back. Since it can't be completely annihilated, let's retreat to the second, the enemy has a wounded ship dragged at the rear, that's it!

Compared with the disappointment of his own sailors, the injured brig made Hong Tao a little reluctant to sink. The sailors on it were unusually tenacious, and they would not surrender when they were killed, and as long as the distance was reduced to four or five hundred meters, they would open fire, whether they could hit or not. Even after another shell and the hull of the ship had begun to tilt, Hong Tao still saw in the telescope that several white sailors on the deck were hoisting a cannon with a boom, with wood in front of them, trying to adjust the angle of the gun, and did not want to give up resistance.

"Sink it...... Put the dinghy and rescue all the people who have fallen into the water. "It's a pity that they are all enemies, no matter how brave and unyielding they are, they are still enemies, and in the face of their enemies, they can only be destroyed.

(To be continued.) )