Chapter Seventy-Six: Each Shows His Powers

On the vast sea, two warships from the east and west were constantly turning to the left, drawing two concentric arcs on the sea.

It's just that the Dutch battleship on the outside is shrinking the distance, and gradually approaching Deng Haonan's ship No. 101 in parallel.

On the bow deck of the USS Foxian, Rear Admiral Van Weit clutched the handrail tightly, his eyes fixed on the Oriental warship opposite. The warship broke through the sea, the waves rolled violently, and the warship had to rise and fall with the waves of the sea while turning.

Bang! The bow of the ship passed over the crest of the wave and smashed into the trough, stirring up an even bigger wave.

The adjutant slapped the sea water that splashed on his face and shouted: "Your Excellency, we have turned almost a circle, and we are about to enter the direction of the headwind!" ”

The sail warship can only travel on the sea breeze, and although it can also sail against the wind, it is limited, and it is impossible to travel in a straight line like the downwind.

The sailboat can sail upwind at an angle of 12-22 degrees to the wind. If you want to go head-on in the direction of the wind, you must sail in a zigzag course. When driving against the wind, the smaller the angle between the boat and the wind direction, the slower the speed. The helmsman will speed up if he sails in a zigzag with a larger angle, but the range will be longer.

The disadvantage of Western sailing ships is that they cannot use omnidirectional winds, unlike Daming's rigid sailing boats, which can rely on 360-degree full winds.

When the angle rotation of the Dutch ship exceeds the wind direction of 135, it can no longer continue to turn left, and must turn right in a different direction and take the zigzag route in order to gain new wind power and continue to move forward.

Major General Fan Weite knew this very well, but it was not the best shooting angle at this time, and he was a little unwilling to waste this opportunity. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty's rigid sailing boats could take advantage of omnidirectional winds, and without such concerns, they could continue to make a left turn to avoid the attack of the Erfoxian.

"Your Excellency, General!" The adjutant urged again.

Major General Van Weite gritted his teeth and ordered: "Open fire!" ”

"Fire!"

The order descended to the commander of the guns on each deck, and suddenly the Buddha Immortal was like a roaring beast, and the port side guns opened fire violently.

Here, just as Deng Haonan was cursing in his heart that the Dutch battleship Erfoxian was about to capsize, he suddenly saw the fire flickering on the port side of the Erfoxian.

Immediately understood that the enemy ship had opened fire, and immediately shouted: "Enemy attack!" Take cover! ”

Knock knock!

A series of muffled cannon sounds followed, followed by the long whistling of shells from enemy ships.

In an instant, the hard wall of the ship was smashed by the Dutch shells, and the hull was filled with holes of a bucket. Broken wood crackled and splashed everywhere. The air wave hit, and the whole person was swept away. The cannonballs were wrapped in unburned gunpowder, and the sparks were scattered, igniting the sawdust that flew in the air, and suddenly sparks were bursting into flames. The deck was littered with burning pieces of broken wood, speckled with specks of smoke.

Deng Haonan leaned down on the battlement and carefully observed the enemy ship's firing.

I saw a thick smoke on the port side of the Erfoxian, and the third gun deck had just finished firing, and the first gun at the bottom not only did not fire, but closed the gun door.

It turned out that the Uhfoxian made a sharp left turn, and the warship cleaved the waves so high that the lower gun deck could not fire because of the waves. Just now, the top layer of artillery fired, and at this time, on the second layer of gun deck below, more than a dozen guns suddenly spat out fire snakes.

Deng Haonan saw columns of white and black smoke coming out from the opposite side, shouted to pay attention to concealment, and immediately hid behind the hardwood at the battlement.

It's just that the expected sound of the cannonball whizzing didn't come. Deng Haonan looked up and saw a drainage column rising on the surface of the battle, and the waves splashed everywhere. It turned out that because of the sharp turn to the left, the battleship tilted strictly, and the gun muzzles on the second gun deck were too low, and the shells hit the sea.

After a round of artillery fire from the Dutch battleship, the helmsman and sailman hurriedly adjusted the direction of the battleship and the angle of the sail and stopped making a left turn.

Deng Haonan saw that the opportunity had come, and immediately shouted: "Stabilize the warship, and the starboard artillery will return fire!" ”

"Stop turning left and hold the ship!"

"Starboard guns return fire!"

Lin Feng, Xue Muhua, Xiao Nai and other officers shouted in response, ordering them to descend to the commander and the commander in the gun deck step by step.

Originally, the warships on both sides were turning sharply to the left, and most of the port guns of the Dutch battleships rushed down, while the starboard guns on Deng Haonan's side were facing the sky. Therefore, Deng Haonan did not order the starboard side to engage the enemy, but made preparations and fought again if necessary.

At this time, after a salvo of fire, the Dutch battleship stopped turning to the left.

They need a few minutes to prepare for the next round of shelling, so Deng Haonan needs to seize this opportunity to return fire.

The order to return fire was given, and soon the battleship stabilized, and the ten thousand-pound Longwei cannons on the starboard side were quickly pushed out.

"Fire!"

The second gun deck was first opened fire under the command of the commander Second Lieutenant Qi Hanquan, and then Second Lieutenant Wen 39 commanded the five guns on the first gun deck to open fire. Suddenly, the ship received a huge recoil and tilted to the left along the waves.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The ten jack Longwei cannons on the starboard side fired one after another, and the shells whistled out of the barrels and flew towards the enemy ship close to the sea and swept the waves. Eight of the shells were close misses, and three of them penetrated directly through the gaps in the masts of the enemy ships and fell into the sea water on the other side. The five shells came too close, stirring up several columns of water several meters high on this side. The remaining two shells collided directly with the three-story deck wall of the enemy ship, instantly shattering the oak wall and sending out sparks and smoke, splashing wooden blocks and injuring several enemy sailors.

After retaliating with a tooth for a tooth, Deng Haonan saw that the Dutch warship could only advance on a zigzag route, while his own warship had the advantage of being able to go straight, so he immediately ordered the warship to continue to turn left, and used this advantage to maneuver with the Erfoxian. I just hope that it will get dark soon, so that I can get rid of her while it is dark.

Next, the battleship took a zigzag route at a wide angle, so that she could gain a greater difference in air pressure, which made her speed continue to increase.

Several times they pursued each other, and both sides suffered losses on both sides. Major General Fan Weite was anxious when he saw that the sky was gradually darkening. So, he decided to take a gamble, betting that Deng Haonan's stern gun could not hit the foremast spinnaker of the Erfoxian every time, as long as it missed once, then the Erfoxian could get close and directly bombard the 101 with the side side.

Obviously, if that is the case, No. 101 will not have more than ten guns on the side of the side, and it will not be able to fight against the Erfoxian with more than forty guns on the side of the side, and the end result will be that No. 101 will be bombed to pieces.

However, Major General Van Witt did just that. Luck didn't get to Deng Haonan's side either, and when the Buddha Immortal was about to come up, the tail Longwei cannon of No. 101 failed to hit her foremast spinnaker.

Taking advantage of the intermittent time of Longwei's cannons, the battleship Erfoxian finally approached.

The muzzle of the black hole was gloomy, and Deng Haonan's scalp was numb.

I am worried about the afterglow of the sunset, as long as it will be dark in ten minutes! It's a pity that the damn sun seems to want to see the ugliness today, so he is very excited and hasn't closed the stall and gone home yet.

"Get ready to fight! Starboard to meet the enemy! ”

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