"Whoosh!"

An iron ball the size of a grapefruit almost brushed his scalp, and Chu Fan subconsciously squatted down.

"Bang!"

Before he could stand up straight, the iron ball smashed into the sea and splashed him all over!

He didn't even bother to wipe the water droplets from his face, and immediately turned to the No. 1 ballista—and sure enough, the pouring water jet also poured the ballista through!

Chu Fan's heart was cold, this ballista didn't want to fire at least today - the bowstring is the most squeamish, but the slightest bit of moisture will affect the bow strength, and now it is drenched by the seawater, can it still be used?

Not only the bowstring, but also the seven or eight ballista shells on the turntable were also scrapped - they had to be dismantled and dried and reloaded after returning to Ushijima.

Glancing at the grief-stricken Erbao Egg, Chu Fan realized that he couldn't fight like this anymore - the eighteen-pounder cannon was too powerful, if he was unlucky enough to take one or two shots, the Chaoyang would be finished, let alone save people, I am afraid it would be difficult to save himself!

Thinking of this, Chu Fan quickly ran to the stern lookout pavilion and shouted to Ge Bi, "Adjust the course!" Walk through the middle of the two ships! Beat them with two cannons in the tail! ”

Ge Bi also saw that something was wrong, the other side's gunners were obviously very experienced, and they fired quite reliably at a distance of seven or eight hundred meters -- in addition to the one that wet the No. 1 ballista, several other rounds were fired around the Chaoyang, and even one shot grazed the stern of the ship, breaking several pieces of the ship's planks.

Under Ge Bi's command, the Chaoyang quickly adjusted its course and quickly passed towards the tail of Cangshan Tie.

In this way, the Chaoyang avoided the side of the Galen's most powerful firepower—there were a full twelve 18-pounder guns on each side!

There were also 18-pounder guns directly in front of the Galen ship, but there were only two, and to Chu Fan's great surprise, the Chaoyang gradually approached Cangshan Tie and had already entered more than six hundred meters in front of the Galen ship. The two guns in the bow of the opponent's ship did not move!

"Badass! It's really you! ”

On the Cangshan Iron, Yan Ruxue waved her arms happily, and her shouts were torn to pieces by the sea breeze.

"Are you okay with Cher?" Chu Fan leaned out, put his hands together in the shape of a trumpet and shouted, "Watch the show with peace of mind!" Look how my brother cleans up these bastards! ”

After shouting, Chu Fan turned around and came to the two ballistas No. 3 and No. 4 at the stern of the boat. It was ordered to load incendiary bombs directly.

After the two gun crews exchanged incendiary bombs, the firing parameters were recalculated, and two sizzling crossbow arrows shot out towards the huge quadrangular sail hanging at the bottom of the foremast of the Galen ship.

After shooting the four-cornered sail without any suspense, more than a dozen fireheads splashed out, but an unexpected scene appeared for Chu Fan.

The oil splashed on the deck burned vigorously, but was soon extinguished by the Japanese sailors; On the contrary, the seven or eight fires that splashed on the sails, which were lazy and barely burned, were sprayed out one by one by the water drawers installed on the deck!

Chu Fan understood what the reason was after a little thought--the perennial naval battles had made European sailing ships pay special attention to fire prevention, so the sails on this Galen ship must have been fireproofed. I don't know what I've smeared, but it's impossible to burn it with oil.

The course of the Chaoyang was about 30 degrees to the Galen ship, so after this round, the Chaoyang had already crossed diagonally and gradually surpassed Cangshan Iron.

After a quick winding, the stern ballista fired another round, this time with the same incendiary bombs, and the effect was similar to the previous one. Minimal damage was done to the Galen ship.

After the second round of ballista fired, the Chaoyang had sailed far to the left side of the Galen and Cangshan iron routes. The distance also widened to about a kilometer, and at this time Ge Bi ordered the mainsail to be lowered, and the wing sail was also half retracted, slowing down to prepare for the second intersperse.

Just as he was turning, Chu Fan's brows were about to wring out of the water - the Western ship was really difficult to deal with, not to mention the ferocious firepower. Even the incendiary bombs, the big killer of naval battles, have no effect, no wonder in real history, the Dutch only eight battleships dared to go straight to the Jinxia area, and Zheng Zhilong If it weren't for the hundreds of small boats, using the tactic of ants biting elephants to death, he really didn't have a trick with the Dutchman's Galen ship!

But now Chu Fan only has one ship. What should be done to damage the Galen ship?

Time passed quickly in thought, and the Chaoyang had adjusted its course, and the second intersperse began.

In order to avoid exposing himself to the fire on the side of the Galen ship, Ge Bi chose a larger interspersed angle this time - almost at a 60-degree angle through the route of Galen and Cangshan Railway.

That is, the Chaoyang has the confidence to complete such a difficult tactical maneuver, and if it is replaced by other Chinese ships with hard sails, it will not even think about it - at the speed of the turtle in four or five knots, it would be good to be able to catch up with the Galen ship!

Due to the large angle, this time it was interspersed, and the No. 2 ballista that could still fight also had a chance to be fired, but what kind of ammunition to use became a headache for Chu Fan.

In the end, when the Chaoyang approached the stern of Cangshan Iron again, Chu Fan made up his mind - to use high-explosive bombs to attack the opponent's sails!

"Tom! Tong! ”

Before the ballista was fired, the eighteen-pounder cannon on the bow of the Galen ship rang out first-the reason why Shimazu Hisao did not let the bow cannon fire when the Chaoyang was interspersed for the first time was because this guy took pity on the jade, for fear that he would not hit the Chaoyang, but would sink Cangshan Tie; But after seeing the unparalleled speed of the Chaoyang, he finally came to his senses and ordered the bow cannon to fire.

However, the gunners of the bow guns were obviously not accustomed to the high speed of the Chaoyang, and both shells fell behind the Chaoyang, stirring up a column of water that rose to the sky.

"Put!"

Just as the Chaoyang was about to rush to the stern of the Cangshan Iron Ship, Erbao Egg, who had already run to the No. 2 ballista position, roared angrily, and the thick and long crossbow bolts sparked straight into the four-cornered sail on the foremast of the Galen ship.

He extended the length of the lead slightly, and sure enough, the bolt first passed through the third quadrangular sail of the foremast of the Galen ship, and then through the third sail of the mainmast, and finally exploded in front of the foremast, and countless pieces of iron porcelain immediately broke the quadrangular sails on the foremast!

Since it was downwind, the strongest wind on the Galen ship was the mast; A number of tiny holes suddenly appeared in the four-cornered sail, which were torn by the wind, and gradually widened under the wind, and finally the whole four-corner sail was torn into strips of rags, and scattered all over the ship.

After the second ballista was fired, the two stern ballistas also opened fire - the ballista shells that exploded almost simultaneously tore the bottom two quadrangular sails on the foremast to shreds in an instant!

The Galen ship, which had lost its foremast and backmast, had its speed significantly reduced.

Before the sailors on the Chaoyang could cheer, the bow cannon of the Galen ship rang out again.

"Tom tom!"

"Poof! ~~Yes! ”

The sound of the wooden planks breaking and the screams of people made Chu Fan's heart pinch suddenly, and when he turned his head to look, his face turned white with fright! (To be continued.) )