Chapter 38: The First Battle
"It's the Hell God!" Hedram lowered his binoculars, his eyes shining, and said excitedly, "The demonic bow of the Hell God is like a unique one, but I didn't expect the Great Storm to send us to its left front. ”
"Admiral, it doesn't seem to have spotted us yet, it is heading towards the sea fog area, I'm afraid we only have one chance to shell it, if we can't slow it down, we will stagger past it and watch it enter the sea fog area!" Xu Mo said cautiously.
"Tell Charlie to aim for its mainmast......" Hedram frowned and called a sailor to deliver a message to Charlie.
"Wait!" Suddenly, Gerhardt stopped the sailor, turned to Hedram and said, "Your Excellency, don't you sense that the 'Hell God' is heading strangely? We were driving opposite them, and we were supposed to be rear-end in front of each other, and we were not supposed to be on a rear-end course? ”
"You mean, it's coming back?" Hedram was taken aback, and then his face immediately became solemn, "Gerhardt, you're right, I was too excited just now to realize this problem!" ”
"There was no other battleship 'Miracle' in the binoculars, and it seems that the storm not only scattered our fleet, but so did they. Judging from its current course, it is likely that the Hell God wants to return to Oslo or Copenhagen to rejoin another warship and then head north. Gerhardt said cautiously.
"Admiral, although the sea fog here is already on the edge, the fog is still very large, and I'm afraid that the hit rate of the solid shells will not be too high." Xu Mo reminded softly.
"It's our best chance anyway, and if we wait for it to merge with the Miracle, we have a very small chance of winning." Hedram shook his head, but immediately realized something, his eyes flashed, and he looked back at Xu Mo, "Alfred, do you have any other better ideas?" ”
"Your Excellency Admiral, you and Your Excellency Gerhardt are both regular admirals, and when it comes to naval warfare, ten Alfred are not your opponents, but it is precisely because you are regular admirals that you have made a misunderstanding...... Xu Mo's eyes flashed and he said with a smile.
……
"Quiet, quiet!" The deck of the Vistellos was silent, with all the musketeers hidden beneath the ship's side, sails wide open, gliding silently through the fog like ghosts, swooping down on the Hellgod.
With long white hair and a distinctive face, Hedram tied his hair tightly with a turban, changed into a navy admiral's uniform, and changed into coarse cloth clothes. Almost all the officers and non-commissioned officers on the battleship did the same, changing out of uniforms, changing into coarse undershirts, and standing quietly on the aft deck.
On the second gun deck, Charlie and Blakeney were intently observing the distance between the battleship and the enemy through the gun doors, raising a hand to signal the gunners to hold steady.
……
At this time, on the "Hell God", Clifford was in the captain's room discussing the route with several officers. Clifford was tall and handsome, born into an English aristocratic family, and compared with Hedlam's bold and hearty manners, Clifford had elegant manners and rich etiquette.
"Your Excellency, why are we going back?" A sharp-eyed young officer asked his own question, "Even without the Miracle, the Hell God is no match for those pirates." ”
"Jill, the information from the North Sea this time is very strange, originally there were very few pirates in this area, but now there are several whaling ships that have been sacked, I suspect that there may be more than one pirate ship." Clifford said with a frown.
"The Admiral is right, if these pirates have a fleet, then we will have a hard time, and it would be better to return to Oslo to meet the Miracle and continue north." Another young officer said cautiously.
"Dangdang!" While the officers of the Hell God were discussing in the captain's room, the alarm bell on the battleship suddenly rang, and a group of officers looked at each other and immediately walked out of the room.
"Enemy attack!" As soon as one of the leading officers walked out of the captain's quarters, he gasped and shouted loudly.
At this time, the Hell God had almost come to the edge of the fog area, and saw that from the thick sea fog, a three-masted North Sea galley with sharp ramming angles, cleaving the wind and waves, breaking through the sea fog, rushed towards them, and the two sides were almost only a hundred meters apart.
"Lie down!" Clifford yelled at the crowd on deck. The distance of 100 meters is only 10 seconds for two warships with a speed of about 10 knots each, and now it is too late for any combat preparations, and the side that is not prepared for shelling must first withstand a round of shelling from the other side.
"Click, click, click......" The gun doors of the Vistelos opened one after another, and the ship's 12-pounder guns were rolled out one after another. At the same time, the musketeers, who were hiding under the side of the ship, also stood up, raised their muskets and aimed them at all the standing human beings on the opposite deck.
"Fire!" Charlie and Blakeney waved their hands down at the same time and gave the order for the shelling.
"Boom, boom, boom......" The Vestelos seemed to be pushed by an invisible hand, and the hull of the ship tilted, moving sideways on the surface of the sea. Thick flames erupted from the left hull one after another, and as the cannonballs were discharged, the white smoke from the muzzle of the cannon licked the left side of the Hell God like a demon's lips and tongue.
"Bang!" A cannonball bites off the side of the Hell God like a wolf, and then sweeps into the waist of an English sailor, directly breaking the unlucky egg in two.
"Ahh The young sailor let out a terrible scream, and his upper body fell on the deck as he watched his lower body fall into the sea along the hole in the side of the ship. However, apparently the shell was not satisfied with its results, and after killing the English sailor, it exploded at a height of one meter from the deck of the ship, and from inside the shell, which was blown into pieces, a *** rain was released.
"Poof, poof, poof......" With this round of shelling of the Vestelos, a special rainstorm was ushered in on the deck of the Hell God. More than twenty shotguns almost gave the deck of the Hell God a baptism of steel, except for a few lucky ones who had already found cover, the deck of the Hell God was either dead or maimed, and wailing everywhere.
The two ships were almost in a mistake, Hedram, who was standing on the back deck of the Vestelos, and Clifford, who was also on the back deck of the Hellgod, found the captain of the enemy ship at the same time, and the two pairs of equally brilliant eyes watched each other away from them.
The Vistelos burst out of the fog area, but the eyes of Hedram and the officers on board were still glued to the sea fog that the Hell God had rushed into.
Time passed quickly, and soon nearly two quarters of an hour had passed, and the Vistellos was already far away from the sea where the battle had just begun, but the officers were still staring at the sea fog with solemn faces.
"Look, it's out!" The sharp-eyed Blakeney pointed behind him and jumped up excitedly.
"Hooray!" Looking at the huge battleship that had turned its course and broken through the sea fog and reappeared on the sea, everyone on the Vistelos shouted excitedly as if they didn't feel that they were the weaker side being pursued.
Hell God, catch up!