On the second day of October, early in the morning, east of the Yangtze River estuary. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"Fire!"

On the battleship Zhenhai of the Ming Army, accompanied by the excited roar of the captain, blazing flames continued to shoot out from under the cannon doors one after another, and in the smoke of black powder, one after another high-speed rotating cast steel shells pierced the air like meteors with a piercing roar, and rushed directly to the target with the disc fuse that had been lit and the black powder loaded inside.

Their goal is a long, winding dragon.

A long line of fifty-six warships, which had come out of the mouth of the Yangtze River, was sailing south at full speed, preparing to intercept the Qing army's Yangtze River division of the northbound fleet of the Ming army in Hangzhou Bay.

The types of these warships are all lucky ships without exception, although Kang Mazi has hired a few European shipbuilders with high salaries, or swaggering adventurers, but in the end, shipbuilding depends on a sufficient number of workers, and the shipbuilders under him can't build European ships, and only those few liars are useful. These ships were no different from the older ones that had preceded them, they were larger at best, and all the guns were still piled up behind the bulwarks and in the aft tower. Lan Li's handsome ship is the largest, according to the Ming army's displacement standard of nearly 1,000 tons, that is, 600 modern standard tons, and a total of 40 13-and-a-half pound guns according to the Ming army's standard, that is, 18-pounder guns according to European standards, and the rest of the ships are almost the same, even the smallest has 30 12-pounder guns of European standards.

In fact, the strength of this fleet is already quite not weak, and it is definitely qualified to fight to the death with the Ming fleet before it was replaced with rifled guns.

This is also the reason why Lan Li dared to kill.

But alas, he didn't know that his opponent had changed levels.

The Ming army battlefleet led by Luo Zhang had been hidden north of the mouth of the Yangtze River, and after releasing the Yangtze River naval division, he immediately took advantage of the northwest wind blowing from the side and rear, and opened his sails to catch up from the rear at full speed, completely blocking the road for Lan Li's retreat to the Yangtze River, and then attacked the Qing warships from back to front with the head of the fleet, two miles apart, and took advantage of the faster speed of the ship to attack the Qing warships in turn.

And so the battle began.

At the moment when the Zhenhai opened fire, the cannons on the Qing warship on the opposite side also let out an angry roar.

Without any fancy show, without any hesitation, without any action to delay time, at the moment when the two battleships were facing each other, like two duel cowboys of the American West, shells were fired almost at the same time, and in the blink of an eye, the column of water stirred up by the shells rose in front of the two ships, and a cannonball fired by the Qing army even hit the starboard side of the Zhenhai, but the eighteen-pounder shells fired at such a distance had no possibility of penetrating the battleship.

And at the moment when the shell was bounced off by the solid oak wood and fell into the water, a huge explosion resounded across the sea, and the Qing warship was instantly reduced to pieces.

Forty pounds of heavy artillery shells.

"Onward, next goal!"

On the deck of the Zhenhai, Luo Zhang waved his hand and said lightly.

On the second deck at his feet, next to a frighteningly thick front-loading rifled gun, the sailors who had completed the cleaning of the breech were loading silk medicine bags into the bore as fast as they could, and the shells in the shape of lotus bones, as thick as a small bucket, with lead butts underneath. This is what just smashed a Qing warship, 40 catties of heavy artillery shells, or Yang Dashuai's favorite call bombardment, carbon steel cast shells with a caliber of nearly 200 millimeters, a total weight of 40 catties, and more than 10 catties of black powder inside, using a time-delayed disc fuse, which can ensure that it explodes inside after penetrating the target.

Less than a minute later, the Zhenhai, which was sailing at full speed, was already approaching the penultimate Qing warship.

Obviously, the tragedy of the battleship just now frightened the Qing troops on this battleship, and before they could enter the best combat distance, the guns on the Qing battleship continued to roar, but unfortunately their shells still could not penetrate the Zhenhai, which was several levels higher, at such a distance.

In the frightened and desperate eyes of those Qing sailors, this giant ship with a double-layer gun muzzle was once again in the opposite position on the side of the company, and then dense firelight sprayed out on the starboard side of the Zhenhai, and a huge cannonball of a forty-pound bombardment instantly smashed the pine plank, which was not too thick, and drilled into the port side of the Qing warship. After relying only on kinetic energy, it smashed its interior into a mess, and suddenly turned into a terrifying fire ball, and the explosive power of more than a dozen catties of black powder blew this battleship more than ten zhang long like a sausage gnawed from the middle, and it was about to be broken in two.

"It works well, go on, next!"

Luo Zhang waved his hand again with satisfaction and said.

However, at this time, the Ming warships behind were gone, so did they still have a chance to sink the enemy ships? Immediately after that, these warships flew protest flags.

"Okay, I'm the admiral of the fleet, and I have to be fair and tell them that the Zhenhai sank six ships and then withdrew from the battle, and then the Dinghai also sank six ships and then withdrew from the battle, and the remaining four battleships sank five each, and then withdrew from the battle, and as for the remaining Tartar battleships to the cruiser, it should be fair, right?"

Luo Zhang said with a smile.

Well, this distribution scheme is fairer.

"Also, raise this flag as my Admiral Flag to the bow of the ship, tell Lan Li, and let him die to understand!"

Immediately afterwards, he took out a worn-out battle flag from his arms, handed it to the captain of the Zhenhai, and said.

This flag looks very old, and there is even a piece of it missing, but the Qiu character in the middle of the flag is still complete.

The captain of the Zhenhai took it and handed it to a sailor, and soon it was raised on the front mast.

According to the rules of the Ming army, on the middle mast is the dragon hugging the sun and moon flag representing the Ming Dynasty, on the rear mast is the Qinglong flag representing the Ming Navy, and on the foremast is the commander's flag on the ship, and on the Zhenhai as the flagship is Luo Zhang's admiral flag. Now this flag has replaced his original Admiral Flag after it is raised, but the Admiral Flag of the Ming Navy is designed and customized by himself, and he also has the right to choose to replace it, so Luo Zhang's behavior is in line with the regulations, so after notifying the ships with the flag, this flag officially became the new Admiral Flag.

And at the same time, on a large fortune boat in the distance, Admiral Lan Li of the Qing Army's Yangtze River Naval Division was also looking at this flag, because he felt as if he had seen it.

"Qiu?"

He thought with a frown.

But he didn't have time to think about anything else, the cannons of the Ming fleet were like a huge hammer, smashing his battleships one after another from back to front, and at this time, looking at the billowing smoke gradually spreading forward in the distance, Admiral Lan was about to split. He really couldn't understand what means the Ming army used, could it really be that the legendary demon law existed? The terrifying artillery fire was beyond his comprehension, and in the clairvoyant mirror, he could clearly see that the starboard side of the Zhenhai with the upper and lower gun ports was densely sprayed with flames, and then one of his battleships was blown to pieces in the blink of an eye.

Nothing unexpected happened.

One of his warships was bound to sink in a volley of this terrifying giant ship, and the strange scene made even this famous general for his bravery feel creepy.

"Change formation, the front team turns around, and flanks to the left!"

Of course, he would not be willing to sit back and wait like this, and then gave the order, at least he still had a numerical advantage, led by his flagship, the Qing fleet that was heading southwest suddenly turned around, and the Ming fleet was in front of the horizontal fleet, although Lan Li didn't know anything T-worded, but he also knew that this was the best tactic to concentrate firepower.

The Zhenhai, which had completed its assigned task, withdrew from the battle, and then the Dinghai filled its place and began to sink the Qing warships by name.

Their opponents will certainly not sit still, in the face of this desperate enemy, the Qing army's formation was completely disrupted, except for Lan Lizheng led more than 20 warships in the front team, according to the plan to cut to the front of the Ming fleet, the other Qing warships that could not rush in front of the Ming army to complete the change of formation, completely lost their command, more than a dozen fled to the right in the shallow water area to try to get rid of the Ming army, and the remaining some heroically launched a decisive charge towards the Ming army.

The whole battlefield was in chaos.

As the corresponding Ming army of those cruisers have also dispersed, just like the cheetahs roaming the grassland, they have begun their own sea hunting, their main target is the fleeing Qing battleships, and the remaining four battleships of the battlefleet are still following behind the Dinghai, lined up in the most standard battle line, constantly pouring cannonballs at those Qing battleships that are desperately charging, and soon more and more smoke rises from the sea.

"Target, enemy flagship!"

At this moment, on the Zhenhai, which had withdrawn from the battle, Luo Zhang looked at the Qing fleet that was cutting over, and pointed to the large lucky ship with the blue flag and said.

As if he had a heart in his heart, Lan Li on the Dafu ship also stared at the giant ship that had just sunk his six warships, but he was unscathed, because he had already remembered where he had seen this flag, Penghu twenty years ago, the Penghu Battle that made him famous, this was the banner of his opponent, Qiu Hui, the general of the Zheng army who died after the defeat.

"Phew, remnants of traitors!"

He spat viciously and roared, "Target, sink the Zhenhae." ”

On the sea, which was slightly yellow because there was too much mud and sand, the flagships of the two respective fleets, like two generals on a land battlefield, rushed straight at each other as fast as they could.

Twenty years ago, the personal soldiers of Qiu Hui, the general of the Zheng army, were the vanguard of the Qing army in the Penghu War twenty years ago.

This battle with a bit of fatalistic flavor immediately separated the two ships from each other two hundred zhang apart, and the result was immediately separated, four 40-pound shells of the bombardment cannon almost simultaneously drilled into the starboard side of Lan Li's flagship, and less than a second later, the Qing flagship, together with their fleet admiral, turned into a terrifying flame. (To be continued.) )