Chapter 537 is about dignity and the future

Breakfast is rice porridge, and the Dengzhou Navy emphasizes the consistency of officers and men in terms of diet. The luncheon meat is diced, with some dried shrimp, mung bean sprouts, ginger and stewed in one pot, as well as two large steamed buns. After eating breakfast unhurriedly, it was already half past eight in the morning. There was no one else in the restaurant, so Chen Xie slowly walked up to the front deck. The sailors were cleaning the deck, kneeling on the ground grinding with a special stone. Chen Xie's appearance did not affect the efficiency of their work, and the young soldiers just raised their heads and smiled, and continued to do this rookie job. Chen Xie smiled back, and after walking around the deck, he turned to go to the next floor.

On the third deck, the gunners began to inspect the cables, and every detail could not be spared. These soldiers have all experienced the most brutal training, and they are already the elite of the elite in today's Ming Dynasty. Seeing Chen Xie's soldiers, they all subconsciously stood upright, Chen Xie raised his hand to return the salute, and walked back and forth on the seemingly chaotic deck.

After making sure that every soldier could see him, Chen Xie returned to the top deck that belonged to him.

The weather on the sea was good, the breeze was gentle, and the attitude of the battleship was very steady. Waiting for Anthony here, after a night's voyage, the Dutch did not abandon the pursuit of the Ming fleet, and the distance between the two sides became closer. At the current distance and speed, there are at most eight hours left to catch up with these Dutch fleets.

Chen Xie replied lightly: "Before you came to inform me before you received the enemy, don't report anything else repeatedly, I believe you." ”

In a simple sentence, Anthony felt as if he had been beaten with chicken blood, and his waist was straight. As a Portuguese, after staying in Daming for so long, I have long stopped treating myself as an outsider. In Dengzhou. They were not excluded, and they easily married their daughters-in-law and settled down. Because he is in the army, the social status of himself and his family is also guaranteed, of course, leaving Dengzhou is counted separately. These outsiders also seem to have little opportunity to contact some conservative local officials. In Dengzhou. If there are still those who dare to discriminate against soldiers, they will be discriminated against by the whole society. Without Daming, we are nothing. This concept has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

A morning passed in a tense chase, and many soldiers forgot even what they had for lunch. It was already three o'clock in the afternoon, and there were still about four hours before it got dark. By this time, the Ming fleet had caught up with the Dutch fleet. Knight had to admit that everything he said was true.

"Command. Prepare enough chain bombs, and if you continue to run like this, you will definitely not be able to run away. You have to go back and fight a little bit, and holding on until dark is victory, and if there is a storm it would be even better. Knight's words, after listening to it, reluctantly admit that he was right. As an experienced naval officer, he naturally knew what the situation was now. So, let's be his assistant.

Report. The Dutchman turned, apparently not ready to continue running. Otherwise, the ass is against us. You can only be beaten passively. Anthony came to Chen Xie and made his last report before the war. Chen Xie stood up and said, "Hang the Z-shaped flag!" Playing the flag is related to the dignity and future of the Ming Dynasty, I implore you to fight hard, Chen Xie bows! ”

Hearing this order, Anthony hesitated. That's a scary thing to say. Chen Xie bowed, this ceremony is too heavy. But Chen Xie waved his hand very firmly, stretched out his hand and straightened his military uniform, and slowly walked to the bow of the ship, standing there like a statue. Behind him was a guard holding high the banner of the word "Chen".

Anthony silently saluted Chen Xie's back and strode back to his command post. After Chen Xie's instructions were conveyed, a huge "Z" flag was raised, which was a signal for a decisive battle. The signal soldier relayed Chen Xie's instructions to each warship in the form of flags.

"It's about the dignity and future of the Ming Dynasty, I implore you to fight hard, and Chen Xie will bow down!" The hoarse shouts of the signalmen rang out from every battleship, and every herald, after seeing the rest of the passage clearly, burst into tears and shouted with all the strength of milk. These words echoed in every corner of every ship, and the officers and soldiers who heard this all subconsciously straightened their waists.

"After counting the past, Daming struggled in the wind and rain of external humiliation and internal strife, and was born Lord Chen, with his brothers on land to fight in the east and west, and gave Daming a peace. Now it's the turn of the brothers at sea, so you can't embarrass the adults. On the third-class battleship Guangdong, the captain Jiang Fangcheng shouted loudly to the soldiers under his command to boost morale.

"Listen to me, glory and wealth, right in front of you, it depends on whether you have the ability to get it." This is the pre-war mobilization of Li Dangdang, the captain of the third-class battleship Jiangxi, who grew up in a den of sea bandits, studied for a few days, and his parents followed Li Guozhu to surrender and entered the Dengzhou Naval Academy. Because the navy is expanding too fast, seventy percent of the warships are used by these young graduates as officers.

The red lady did not follow Chen Xie out, dressed neatly in the cabin, sat on the deck, and waited silently to take it. In front of her, there was a war knife, once Chen Xie had an accident, she could go one way and be martyred. No one forced her, she just didn't want Chen Xie to be too lonely on Huangquan Road alone, and it was good to have a companion. The deeper thought is, he is dead, what am I doing alive?

The cannon door had been opened, the parts used to hold the cannon had been removed, the shells the size of a human head had been loaded into the cannon, and each gunner was patiently waiting for instructions. Hu Sanwa's hand holding the torch was trembling slightly, ten years ago he was a pirate cub, after Li Guozhu surrendered, these fifteen or sixteen-year-old half-grown dolls were all hit and educated. Literacy, training, numeracy, learning to use all kinds of maritime equipment. When he was eighteen years old, he put on this military uniform on the ship and entered the Dengzhou Navy, and five years later, he also became an excellent gunner in the Dengzhou Navy.

Looking through the gun doors and watching the fleet decisively seize the upper hand, a tactical classic mentioned in the "T" prefix is about to inevitably appear. In an instant, Hu Sanwa's blood boiled all over her body, and her hand holding the torch trembled even more.

"Strange, how could they be ready to fire at such a distance?" Knight would never think that the navy of the Ming Empire was a rice bucket, and it was impossible to make such a simple mistake. The current distance is almost six hundred meters, is it possible to fire at this distance? What effect can that have? How could a shell penetrate the oak planks on the side of the side?

"Fire!" The moment he heard the order, the moment the hull swayed downward, Hu Sanwa lit the lead, the cannon shook violently, and retreated, and the gunners didn't have time to check the results of the shooting, so they swarmed up. Make the most of this time and shoot more shells. Clear the chamber, load the shells, make sure the cork is not loose, attach the baffle, light the fuse, and fire another shot. The slowest rate of fire of each gun on the Jiangxi will not be less than two minutes, and the gunners who exceed this time will be cleaned up very badly after the battle. Beating with a military stick is polite, and the whip sticking to the sea water is the most deadly thing.

The Jiangxi, which was in first place, opened fire, and the dense shells were aimed at a Dutch merchant warship, the Dream. The 24-pounder rifled gun, which fired solid shells at a distance of five hundred meters, penetrated the deck on the side to sink the enemy ship, which was the combat philosophy of the Dengzhou Navy. One salvo, another salvo. Just two minutes later, the cannon of Guangxi, which followed up, also sounded. The fleet formed a crooked "one", and used the moment the "T" was formed to pour artillery fire at the fastest speed.

No other sound could be heard on the sea for a while, and the sound of dense artillery was left in his ears, and Chen Xie, who was standing at the bow of the ship, had been watching the progress of the entire naval battle. The telescope never took it down, Jiangxi fired, Guangxi fired, Guangdong, Shanxi, Jiangbei, Shandong, and ....... The air on the surface of the sea is trembling, and the tip of the nose can feel the dense smell of gunsmoke.

The deck under his feet suddenly shook violently, and Chen Xie knew that his flagship Liaodong had opened fire. One sound is a 12-pounder rifled gun, one is a 24-pounder rifled gun. At this distance, a 32-pounder smoothbore gun will not sound, which is a pure waste of ammunition.

The Dutch battleship "Dream", which was at the forefront, was drowned by shells almost in just ten minutes. The manufacturing capacity of the Ming Empire is indeed far beyond the level of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Firing at a distance of about 550 meters, within ten minutes, the "Dream" was left with seven or eight huge bullet holes, not counting the shells that hit the surface buildings. The only surprise was that the warships of the Ming Empire fired solid bullets and no chain bullets, which was obviously an inexperienced table.

If Knight had known that it was rifled guns firing on the opposite side, he probably wouldn't have thought so.

The "Dream" issued a flag, was shot into the water, and was plugging the leak. The "Brilliant" sent a flag message, and was hit by more than 10 bullets. After just twenty minutes, a total of six battleships were heavily damaged, and the fatal thing was that the distance between the two sides was always very good, and the Dutch fleet, which was trying to move forward, did not complete the task of trying to get into the effective range in the slightest.

"Can't wait, turn around, raise the muzzle and fire!" Knight saw that it would definitely not work if this continued, and gave the order to open fire. At this distance, even if the chain bomb hits the target, can it tear the cable?

Whizzing, one shot at a time, the chain bullets danced from afar, and the high-speed rotation was terrifying. Han Shan wanted to step forward and press Chen Xie down, but looking at his standing back, he retracted his steps and stood straight together.

Bang bang The effect of this chain attack was obviously not very good, except for a cable on one ship that was torn off, no other damage was caused, and some of the masts that were hit by the bullet did not even shake a few more times.

On the other hand, during this period of time, the warships of the Ming fleet opened fire one after another, constantly hitting the Dutch battleships. After two hours of fierce fighting, the entire Dutch fleet was not spared, and all of them were shot, which was nothing more than a difference. Knight's flagship was also hit by two cannons, shells pierced the upper deck, a cannon was destroyed, and five soldiers were wounded. (To be continued......)