On the surface of the Aegean Sea, Admiral Abaza Muhammad of the Ottoman Navy held a telescope and watched the battle on the sea, and one-third of the shells hit directly in the first round of fire, which is already very ideal.

This required the best artillery of Venice, and even more so the best gunners, and it was clear that this was the main fleet of the navy of the Republic of Venice.

However, Admiral Abaza Muhammad of the Ottoman Empire did not know that in this shelling, Venice did not use artillery, but a fire dragon purchased from the Ming Dynasty.

In Catherine's opinion, even if the best naval guns and the best soldiers in Venice are replaced, it is impossible to achieve six or seven hundred meters, and the first hit is one-third, you must know that if you really have this strength, the navy of the Venetian city-state republic can completely dominate the Mediterranean.

"Ready, second strike!"

With a third of the dozen Ottoman medium-sized warships in Moyo being shot, these Venetian admirals still wanted to take advantage of his illness and ask for his life, preparing to send these dozen Ottoman warships to the bottom of the sea.

"Stop firing!"

"Why?"

Lieutenant General Chet of the Republic of Venice looked at Catherine in confusion and asked.

Catherine smiled faintly: "No need!" To destroy a medium-sized battleship, one shell is enough, not to mention these medium-sized battleships, one or two at the least, three or four at the most, there is no need to waste it! ”

The admirals expressed their half-belief in Catherine's words, it was not easy to sink a battleship in the era when there were no high-explosive bombs and incendiary bombs, and a few pounds of solid lead ball was really contemptuous for a warship of several hundred tons or thousands of tons.

Although the Ottoman Navy had a large number of medium-sized warships with medium guns, and an armed merchant ship with a displacement of up to 1,500 tons, if you want to sink such a big guy, is two shells enough?

Catherine did not explain too much, and at this time, the explanation of language did not make the facts more convincing.

The fire dragon out of the water killing method is not the same as the ordinary solid shells of this era, the explosion part of the fire dragon out of the water shell, and the flowering shell of the Ning Navy is almost exactly the same, the nitrocell cotton used as the explosive gunpowder, of course, due to the problem of delayed fuse, will not be like the grenades of later generations, contact and explosion.

A cannonball that crashed into the Ottoman battleship began to explode one after another, that is, as soon as Catherine's words fell, the Ottoman warships exploded one after another, and soon the exploding fireworks blew those medium-sized battleships to pieces.

This was not the end, the armed merchandise in which the cannon was hit also rose with smoke, and soon it merged into a black column of smoke and rose into the sky, and the fire rushed from the bilge of the armed merchant ship, climbed up to the deck, and the rigging and sails became the best igniters, and the whole merchant ship was blown to pieces of wood, and large fireballs were thrown everywhere.

The flames swept across the deck, all the way up to the top of the mast, and the huge sails turned into torches, and the light of the fire could be clearly seen from more than ten kilometers away!

The Ottomans looked at this scene and were dumbfounded.

The Venetians looked at this scene and were dumbfounded.

If those medium-sized warships were blown to pieces and sank, they are still reasonable, after all, in previous wars, the losses of the Ottoman Empire have always been light, but the problem is that this is an armed merchant ship of 1,500 tons, and such a large ship was destroyed!

Cold sweat broke out on the forehead of Admiral Abazar Mehmet of the Ottoman Empire, and he took a breath of cool air and muttered, "What's going on?" Who told me what was going on? ”

It's a pity that no one answered the abazaar's question, they were all frightened by such a fierce fire, such a violent explosion, it was terrible!

Major Chet, who was originally disrespectful to Catherine, saluted Catherine with a military salute: "Catherine, it's great that you have exchanged for the city-state the weapon we dreamed of!" ”

"Have you forgotten something?"

"Yes, we should hurry up and buy what the Duke of the East needs, and you can leave as soon as the search is complete! Not only do we have to bring those goods, but we also have to bring enough gold coins to buy more guns and shells before the rest of the world reacts, and the future of the city-state depends on it! ”

"No, I mean to say, we're at war!"

Catherine pointed to the large Ottoman fleet in Wuyang and said, "The most important thing we should do is not to send this group of bitches to the bottom of the sea?" ”

"Yes, yes, yes!"

The admirals of the Venetian city-state immediately returned to their combat posts and began to command their soldiers to load the fire dragon out of the water, which was essentially a rocket projectile, and the reloading speed was very fast, faster than the loading of artillery, and the rate of fire was also fast.

Not long after, smoke billowed from the Venetian strike fleet, and fire dragons rose into the sky, and hundreds of fire dragons flew towards the Ottoman fleet with their teeth and claws.

Due to the closer distance, due to greater confidence in the fire dragon water out, this time the shooting effect was better, and nearly half of the fire dragon water hit the target, and at least twenty or thirty Ottoman warships were beaten into brilliant fireworks.

The second round of shooting, just ended, the Venetian naval strike fleet began the third round, and then the fourth, although the Ottoman naval officers showed great bravery, but the problem was the difference in strength, and it was difficult to make up for it with courage.

What's more, Venice was originally a giant in the Mediterranean, and Genoa and other city-states monopolized the maritime trade of the entire Mediterranean, at that time there were more Venetian warships than dogs, but now, after a protracted war, Venice has greatly shrunk both military and financial resources, and the speed of building new ships in the navy is far from keeping up with the speed of consumption.

The Ottoman navy was getting stronger, but before they could achieve a crushing advantage, the Venetians invented a longer-range, more powerful naval gun.

Thick smoke billowed on the sea surface, black and oppressive, dark clouds generally covered the sea surface, from time to time there were explosions, rolling thunder generally shook the air slightly, very terrifying.

The sea had been stained slightly red with blood, countless corpses and broken wood were floating on the sea, and more people were shouting and shouting on the rapidly tilting battleship that was burning with a raging fire, or jumping into the sea with everything that could float, desperately swimming towards the sea, even after such a distance, their cries could still be faintly heard.

Admiral Abbaza Muhammad of the Ottoman Navy watched the tragedy on the sea with a telescope, without saying a word, his not burly body was like an iceberg, but the back of his hands was bruised, and his teeth were gritted loudly.

The Ottoman navy suffered heavy losses, in the course of just over an hour of fighting, nearly a hundred warships were lost, which can no longer be said to be a battle, it was simply a one-sided massacre, the Ottoman navy was pressed and beaten by the Venetian navy.

Unlike the Ning navy, the Venetian navy was too experienced in combat, and they were more agile, like sharks smelling blood, from time to time they hissed at the Ottoman Empire's main fleet in the Mediterranean.

"Retreat!"

Despite his reluctance, Abaza Muhammad gave the order, and as the Ottoman navy retreated, the naval battle finally came to an end.

Of course, the Venetian navy did not pursue, the main reason was that the fire dragon they loaded this time had been exhausted, and the Venetian navy sank 117 warships of the Ottoman Navy with 2,600 fire dragons, including 63 small and medium-sized warships, 28 warships of more than 1,000 tons, and 36 armed merchant ships.

Although the Venetian navy won more and lost more in naval battles in the face of the Ottoman navy, it also had to pay a heavy price if it wanted to annihilate more than 100 Ottoman navies, but the way to achieve such a result with zero casualties gave Venice great excitement.

The Venetian naval commanders were almost annoyed by the admirals below.

"Your Excellency, Commander, we should pick out the fastest, most skilled sailors, and the strongest hull to equip these cannons, each ship with twelve, no, even eight can greatly increase the attack power of the warship! I have the most excellent warships under my command, and we should be given priority to equip! ”

"What is the priority of equipping you? My fleet has fewer good ships than yours? ”

"Mine, mine, all mine! Whoever dares to rob me, my friends don't have to do it! ”

"It's like we're like to be friends with you......"

The admirals of Venice immediately began a fierce scramble, and they all tore their faces, and they almost had to fight.

Soldiers are like this, the more lethal weapons they love, this disease comes from the violent factor in the human bone marrow, there is no cure, only 20,000 volts of high-voltage electric shock can be cured.

Catherine couldn't help but let out a low sigh when she saw the generals spitting over each other. She really wanted to tell the generals that these fire dragons that were very powerful in their eyes and very amazing were actually only inferior goods, and that the most powerful and farthest cannon in the world was in the east, and although the caliber of that cannon was not as fast as the firepower in their hands, it was more than twice as fast as this fire dragon out of the water.

At a distance of 1,800,900 meters, the naval guns of the Ning Navy can still hit the enemy ships with extremely high accuracy, and what is even more terrifying is that that one shot can blow up the enemy's warships to pieces.

As the overlord of the South Seas, whether it is the Spanish or the Dutch, when they see Zheng Zhilong, they can only be kind and respectful, but the problem is that Zheng Zhilong, who can sweep the Ottoman Empire in Europe, has no power to fight back in front of the naval guns of the Ning Navy.

The four-inch naval gun and five-inch naval gun in Cheng Shijie's hand are the real big killers, of course, seeing that the generals are so happy, Catherine didn't go up to pour cold water.

Nick, the chief engineer of Venice beside the new governor of Venice, Francesco Erizzo, said: "We should not rely on buying from the East, we should find a way to copy ......"

"How much time will it take you to make a replica?"

Francesco Erizzo sighed and said: "Although I don't understand technology, this kind of artillery has changed the way it was fired in the past, it can be said that it is completely different from the artillery we have used for hundreds of years, if you want to imitate it, you need to study it from scratch, but the problem is that we don't have so much time in Venice, and what we lack most in Venice is time!" ”

Catherine said, "As long as we can buy enough fine horses, we can buy fire dragons from His Excellency the Duke!" ”

"Time, still time!"

Francesco Erizzo thought for a while and said: "As a merchant, we should know that since the Duke of the East will sell us this new type of naval gun, in order to maximize profits, he will definitely sell it to others, maybe our opponent Ottomans have already appeared as a representative of the Duke of the East!" ”

Catherine hesitated and said, "Probably not, right?" ”

"Nothing is impossible, we can't put the fortunes of Venice on the whim of the Duke of the East!"

"So ......"

"So!"

Francesco Erizzo looked at Catherine and said, "Miss Contarini, you must rush back to Daming as quickly as possible, and purchase more naval guns before other countries get the news, whether you can repel the invasion of the Ottomans depends on it!" ”

Catherine sighed and said, "I'll do my best." ”

"It's not an effort, it's a certainty!"

Francesco Erizzo said: "In my capacity as the Governor, I will sign a special order to use the gold reserves, or you will set off in a few days with enough gold, spices, and the books and talents that the Governor has named, and as for the goods such as horses, we will organize another fleet to send them?" ”

Catherine frowned: "So urgent? ”

"The Ottomans are not willing to give us any respite, not a single day!"

Thinking of the great threat posed by the Ottomans, Catherine also felt a sense of powerlessness, gritted her teeth, and said, "Okay, I'll leave in a week!" ”

……

Liaodong, Jinzhou Beicheng Athletic Town.

After fierce competition, more than 100 horses went through the knockout round and finally decided the top 16, which also advanced to the top eight.

Before the game started, Cheng Jialong shouted: "Come on, come on, there is still a pillar of incense to seal the plate, the hottest one is the thirteenth dark cloud, one to one, the most unpopular is the seventh rhubarb, press the rhubarb one to twenty-nine, bet betting, bet to see who can win the first place!" Bet on No. 19 snow treading one to three, bet on No. 3 Shadow one to lose five, bet on No. 1 Shocking one to lose six! ”

Zhu Weiyuan looked at Cheng Jialong, who was jumping up and down in the crowd, frowned slightly, and said: "Xianggong, you don't care, the eldest prince of the Haiguo Mansion has set up a private gambling game in front of the public, what kind of system has it become!" ”

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly and said: "What's the point of not betting on horses!" ”

Zhu Weiyuan sighed and said, "He's in the future...... Don't you forget...... Must be ...... all the time"

Empress Zhou gave Zhu Weiyuan a look, and Zhu Weiyuan leaned over to Empress Zhou.

"Queen, am I wrong?"

"You're wrong, I don't know, but ......"

Zhu Weiyuan looked in the direction of Empress Zhou's gesture.

I saw Yang Yunniang and Jin Qiao'er each holding a small box, which contained a golden ingot.

Yang Yunniang smiled: "Jialong! ”

"Aunt Yang, Aunt Jin!"

"Can we bet?"

"Yes, the more the merrier!"

"I'm betting on No. 7 rhubarb!"

Yang Yunniang put the small box directly on top of the No. 7 rhubarb.

Cheng Jialong was slightly surprised: "Aunt Yang, don't bet on the seventh, the seventh is no play!" ”

"This is a mansion located in Nanyuan, your age is not too young, you should have your own mansion, just be your aunt's mansion!"

Hearing Yang Yunniang say this, Cheng Jialong was embarrassed to refuse.

"I'm also betting on No. 7 rhubarb!"

Jin Qiao'er pointed to the identical sister Hua next to her and said: "Aunt Yang gave it to the house, Aunt Jin, I will give you two maidservants, don't look at them as Koreans, but they are Korean nobles, they can speak Chinese, and there should be a few handmaidens around you!" ”

Yang Yunniang and Jin Qiao'er watched Cheng Jialong accept the bet and smiled at each other. (End of chapter)