Chapter 507: Decisive Assault

"Panic what!" Lorist grabbed Jenorio behind his back as he drew his sword. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Woo Woo ......" Lorist fired more than a dozen feathered arrows in a row, but a series of screams rang out on the deck below and on the adjacent whaling ship, and the originally empty deck was full of feathered arrows of different lengths. The unsheltered artillery firing group and catapult operators had nowhere to hide, and nearly a third of the casualties were suffered in this hanging attack......

Lorist's heart sank, because he was at sea, so all the family soldiers on the ship took off their family standard armor and replaced them with a light and buoyant water beast skin armor to avoid the unfortunate accident of accidentally falling into the water. Moreover, Lorist believes that with the long-range attack power of the bronze artillery, destroying the enemy two or three hundred meters away will not give the enemy a chance to fight in close combat at all, so this water beast skin armor is more equivalent to the role of a life jacket, and it does not add much defense to the wearer.

Ignoring the fact that more than sixty or seventy large armed warships in front of him had been destroyed by chain bombs and flint bullets, not only did not evacuate, but instead used the burning battleships in front of him as shields, taking advantage of the opportunity of the fireworks to block the field of vision, the fireships continued to advance against the tailwind, successfully narrowing the distance between the two sides to within 150 meters, and then launched the first counterattack with a longbow and hoisting, bringing a lot of casualties to the Norton family fleet.

Arrows rained down......

Lorist had never imagined that the longbow would be so powerful in naval battles, there was no one on the deck who could fire catapults and cannons, and the soldiers were hiding in search of shelter, and there were white arrow feathers everywhere, as if a large area of dwarf trees had grown on the deck.

This kind of longbow shooting is also the Armada relies on the ship to have a large number of people to play, Lorist also installed a large steel crossbow on the ship, with a range of nearly 300 meters, but it was abolished because the attack power was too poor. In naval battles, crossbow arrows are not as good as artillery, and they cannot hit a big hole in one shot, and ordinary ships can still run fast like a hedgehog after being hit by crossbow arrows. However, the Armada used a large number of sailors to shoot longbows to cover a sea area, but it brought great threats and casualties to the Norton family.

"The enemy ship is one hundred and twenty meters away......!" said the dutiful lookout, who had a few feathered arrows stuck in his body, fell from the mast to the deck, and after two blows, he fell silent.

Lorist jumped off the slipway: "Joe, you protect Genorio." ”

Striding in front of a catapult, grabbing the twisting arm toggle to reset the long arm of the catapult, Ovicis hurriedly rushed over: "Your Highness, let me come." ”

Lorist shouted at the rain of arrows with his sword in one hand, "Go and get me some gunpowder packs in the cabin, and let the guns fire and destroy the fireships ahead!"

Ovicis braved the rain of arrows to rush into the cabin, and soon the bronze guns below the deck broke out again with a rumbling thunder, although those battleships that were on fire were difficult to be destroyed by the guns at once, but the upper part of the fireship that had been hit by several iron projectiles was shaken into the sea, and the fire was less and the smoke was blown by the sea breeze, revealing the large armed warships of the Armada with half-open sails behind them, and the giant ships of the sea castle of Sepnim further behind, from a distance, the bows of these battleships were full of archers with bows and arrows.

Lorist kicked the catapult's bracket to the front of the block, which marked the catapult's nearest effective throw distance.

"Put the powder packet on the throwing spoon, pull out a fire rope next to it, cut it in half, light the fire, quick!" Lorist yelled at Ovikis, who came out of the cabin with a couple of powder packets.

Without scissors, Ovikis directly cut off half of the arquebus with the sword in his hand, and just as a rocket landed beside him, he grabbed it directly and lit the arquebus. Lorist snapped the boom, and the long arm of the catapult rose into the air, and the powder bag was thrown far away.

Soon the gunpowder pack turned into a small black dot, and just as it was about to fall into the group of shooters on the enemy battleship, suddenly the fire flashed, and a thunderclap came from afar, and all the shooters on the bow of the gunpowder bag were almost swept away.

Lorist was overjoyed: "Quick, let's continue!"

Ovicis stood in front of Lorist: "Your Highness, let's come, you command ......"

At the same time, the surviving operators on the deck were beckoned to come, and soon a second powder bag also flew into the sky. There were seven or eight groups of catapult operators who were not killed or wounded, and Lorist arranged for one group to go to the cabin to carry the gunpowder packs, while the other six groups came together to launch the catapults, and Lorist and Ovicis held their swords from the rain of arrows.

After a chaotic throw and explosion, the middle of the front was spared from being attacked by a rain of arrows, but the formation of the Armada charge had changed from convex to concave, and the distance between the two sides of the Norton family's horizontal formation was less than a hundred meters.

All the artillery was firing desperately, but it didn't work very well. Mainly, the fireships in front of the Armada became the natural shields of the subsequent warships. These large flaming warships were not those thin merchant ships, no matter how hot the fire above was, the hulls below were still not affected, and the cabins of these charging large gunships were cushioned with bags full of flour, so that they did not fall apart or sank after being bombarded by these heavy artillery fire.

.....

Viscount Penelope felt ashamed that he had been the commander of the Armada for decades and had fought at sea for decades as a young man who was more than a decade younger than his son. Viscount Penelope was flustered when the more than sixty large armed battleships that were charging in front of the line collided with the battleships in the second row and were attacked by stone-throwings, and when the burning stones fell from the sky, turning seventy or eighty battleships into fireships. His first thought at that time was to evacuate as soon as possible.

Although it was in the name of preserving the living force of the Invincible Armada, Viscount Penelope was really scared at that time. Moreover, none of the fleet leaders who were together opposed the evacuation proposal, and everyone was frightened by the incredibly sharp long-range attack of the Norton family fleet. It was hard to find a way to make the guns of the Norton family fleet lose their maximum utility, but the enemy's catapults were more powerful, and the range and power of the stones were greater than the Armadama's newly equipped catapults. No one could have imagined that the sixty-five large armed fleets lined up in the front would be destroyed so quickly in such a short time......

A firm voice stopped the evacuation order that Viscount Penelope would issue. At the critical moment, Young Master Sereham stood up, and it only took a few words to make the fleet leaders change their minds about retreating, and gritted their teeth to fight the Norton family fleet to the end.

Master Seriham said that if you evacuate now, you can escape today but not tomorrow. The Norton family's armed warships have blocked the way to the Golden Bay, and when everyone evacuates, they will also send that artillery fleet to harass, we are in a dilemma, and if we continue like this, we will collapse sooner or later, it is better to fight a decisive battle with the enemy vigorously, and he has already found a chance to win.

What is the chance of victory? The top commanders of the fleet looked confused.

"It's simple......," said Seriham, who refused to place a stormtrooper at sea on the large armed warships in front of him in order to avoid casualties and to test the might of the Norton fleet guns. Although they blocked most of the damage from the shelling, they didn't expect the Norton family to have such a powerful trebuchet, which turned the warships in front of them into burning fireships.

But these fireships have also become the best cover for the follow-up fleet, although we have lost these dozens of warships in the front, but we still have more than a hundred large armed warships. We went up to the top, used these fireships as shields, and then lowered the sails to avoid premature detection by the enemy, and slowly approached them. Today is a smooth day, the direction of the current is the same as the direction of the wind, and the time and place are on our side.

And now we are less than 200 meters away from the enemy, as long as we get closer to 50 meters, we can organize men to use the method of longbow hanging to give the enemy a powerful look, if we are close to 100 meters, then the long-range attack weapons on our warships will also be useful, can suppress the enemy's artillery and catapult attacks. Even we can make the fireships that are in front of us our weapons, and we can burn the enemy's warships in the past......

Seriham's words strengthened the confidence of the senior commanders of the armada. When the group's archers launched a counterattack with longbow hanging and heard a faint scream from the front, all the top fleet commanders cheered. It's not easy, but it's finally brought casualties to the enemy, even if it's a very small casualty, it's a great victory.

However, not long after everyone was happy, the sparkling packages thrown from the Norton family fleet exploded on the bow and the sea, and the sailors who gathered on the bow to shoot arrows were almost swept away. Viscount Penelope was shocked: "What's that?"

Young Master Seliham replied with a grim face: "Don't care what it is, in short, it's a new trick of the Norton family." Now we have only one way, this 100 meters we must rush over as soon as possible, take advantage of our numerical superiority to rush to the opponent's warship, seize the ship and win the final victory! My lord, there is no time, give the order to charge with a full sail, and order the small rapid ramming ships that follow us to prepare and launch a charge in the last 50 meters, which can not only disperse the enemy's firepower, but also provide us with cover!"

The loud horn sounded, this is the last charge, but also the signal of the decisive assault, almost all the intact battleships erupted in the cheers of "ten thousand victories", all the sails that were half sailed were quickly raised, and the speed of the fireships in front of them also increased a lot at once, and the brave sailors ignored the tragic situation of the archers on the bow of the ship, and operated a variety of long-range attack weapons to launch a fierce attack on the fleet of the Norton family less than 100 meters away.

The artillery of the enemy fleet was also firing desperately, and the sturdy hull felt the violent vibration from time to time, and the whistling of the sharp iron projectiles that swept past the ears. But no one will be afraid, even if the companion next to him is unlucky enough to be hit by a cannonball, and suddenly loses his head or has a big hole in his chest and abdomen. The sailors were still indifferently firing various long-range attack weapons at the enemy.

......

A rock the size of a human head smashed down on Lorlist's side, bounced off the thick deck and flew in the other direction. Lorist glanced at the stone indifferently, and then turned his gaze to the Armada ahead.

"Hurry up, prepare the chain bullet ......" Schward kept urging, only four of the ten land artillery guns that stayed on the deck were still firing, and the artillery firing group was seriously damaged when it was attacked by the longbow hanging fire, and now the wounded have been rescued from the cabin, and Schward made it up for a long time to make up four semi-intact firing groups.

"My lord, the chain bomb is gone...... this is bad news.

Schward looked at the enemy ship that couldn't see a hundred meters away, and sighed: "Prepare shotguns, and then prepare weapons for everyone, I think we may have to fight hand-to-hand in close combat." ”

As soon as the words fell, I heard a loud noise from the whaling ship next to it, and the fire and black smoke flashed, and a violent explosion occurred in one of the windows that was being shelled on the second floor, and by the way, a large hole was blown open in the deck, and a marine gun on it, along with the shelf, was thrown high and fell into the sea......

"Bastard, why are you so careless!" Schward was furious, this must have been a mistake in the busyness of the launch team, either stuffing too much gunpowder or putting the gunpowder bag too close and being led by the fire, it was too demoralizing to make such a critical mistake at this juncture.

From the side of the Invincible Armada, there was another whimpering conch, a burst of cheers of victory, and faintly through the burning fireships and smoke, you could see behind the large armed warships flashing small rapid ramming battleships with a thick and sharp shining cold light giant spear, these small rapid ramming battleships were like a centipede with long legs, stretching out twelve oars on each side that rowed through the waves, and quickly swept past the battleships in front, through the gap between the burning fireships and the smoke, and shot at the whaling ship like arrows... ...

"Ram the battleship! Lower the muzzle, fire the shotgun, aim, release!"

All the artillery firing groups were no strangers to the small rapid-ramming battleships of the Armada, for they had heard the gunners of the Thunderstrike Fleet boast more than once about how they dealt with the small, rapid-ramming battleships. Shotgun is the best weapon, one shot is accurate, and one shot can overturn a boatload of people. It's just that they forgot the most important point, the Thunderstrike Fleet never let small quick ramming battleships come close to a distance of fifty meters.

The sound of artillery rang out one after another, and more than 100 small fast-hitting battleships that were rapidly approaching on the sea surface rose from time to time with patches of blood mist, but there were less than 30 small fast-hitting battleships with medium guns, and more ramming battleships had already approached a distance of less than 20 meters and launched the final sprint!

Soon one after another crashing battleships crashed headlong into the whaling ship, and the sound of thumping and thumping continued to sound, and when the whaling ship shook violently, one by one the flying claws were thrown up from under the ship and hooked the side of the ship. The sailors on the ramming battleship climbed up with a short sword in their mouths, grasping the rope of the flying claws along the wall of the ship.

There was a shout of slaughter on the left, and Lorist turned his eye to see an armada's giant ship of the sea castle of Sepnim rammed headlong into a whaling ship, and the whaling ship was hit by one end in the air, and the bronze cannon and catapult on the deck tumbled and fell to the other end. Numerous heavily armed sailors appeared on board the giant ship of the sea castle of Sepnim, who were climbing on ropes and rushing towards the whaling ship.

There were also six artillery firing groups on the whaling ship next to them, and they were turning their guns under the command of Jim, the deputy commander of the artillery battalion, to turn their guns and fire shotguns at the whaling ship that had been hit, and the giant ship Sepnim was fired......

Lorist turned his gaze back indifferently: "Jenorio!"

"Your Highness, I'm here. “

"Give the order to the medium armed fleet on the right to attack. Go around and shell the position of the enemy ship's waterline at close range. Order the guards in the cabin to attack and follow me to counterattack the enemy ship!"

"Yes, Your Highness!"

......