Gao Jing's flagship is called "Xinzheng", and the captain of Xinzheng is not a family member who has changed his surname, but an employment relationship similar to Wei Ximin and Shen Li'an, and his status is equivalent to that of a general shopkeeper somewhere on land. → Eight →. Eight ** Reading, .↓.o≥

His name is Liang Sancai, and he is also from Guangdong, but his identity is a little special, he is an "individual maritime merchant" - of course, this is a better way to put it, in fact, this old man's main business was piracy. To put it mildly, 90 percent of the maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty were also pirates, or had been pirates.

Of course, this kind of "pirates" of the Ming Dynasty may not necessarily go to the sea to rob, they just do maritime merchants with the identity of pirates - this matter is more complicated, there are no 10,000 words to say, anyway, the reason is caused by the ban on the sea, and later after the high arch opened the sea, many former pirates turned into law-abiding maritime merchants, Captain Liang Sancai is one of them.

However, his family did not have any background, he only relied on his personal ability to be a captain, and he did not have a ship, so he later went to a high place, and accepted the employment of Jinghua and became a captain of the Jinghua Guangzhou Port Transportation Team.

"Turn, grab the wind!"

Following Gao Jing's order, Captain Liang Sancai roared at the top of his throat: "Ready-up!" ”

Under the reprimand of the sail chief, the sailors pulled the cross truss rope vigorously, and the pulley moved, and the cross truss made a "squeak" friction sound and turned.

"Grass your grandma, show some more strength! You haven't fucking eaten! As he spoke, the crossbow turned greatly, and all the hard sails were affected by the wind. As soon as Liang Sancai saw it, he immediately shouted at the three helmsmen waiting beside him: "Zuo Manrudder!" ”

"Yes!" The helmsmen responded majestically, clutching the long tiller tightly, muscular bumps rising from their strong arms. The rudder swept open the water, and the splash hit the belly of the ship, rattling.

The "Xinzheng" began to turn into the wind, and all the sails "snapped" and vibrated against the wind, and the rigging trembled. The aft sailor raised a squirrel to help adjust the stern. The spinnaker in the bow of the ship also fluttered, slowly bringing the bow into the wind.

This scene seems to be nothing, but if a knowledgeable sea veteran sees it, he can deeply understand that in the short moment just now, all the sails of the "Xinzheng" were in a state of headwind. If some of the sails do not immediately rotate the angle and adjust to the starboard side for wind, the boat will be on the windward side of the bow and it will be difficult to turn back.

Captain Liang Sancai has rich experience, although he has only been transferred to this ship as a captain for a short time, he has already figured out the sailing performance of the "Xinzheng", and when he saw that the bow of the ship had been brought into the wind, he immediately roared: "Pull the mainsail!" ”

It was a traditional command to turn the mainsail and aft sail beams, and the sailors shouted in unison, and every muscle in their bodies tensed. °C∮ 8°C∮8°C∮ read °C∮ book, .⌒.o≈ they turn the winch, adjust the turning of the sail rope, change the direction of the sail boom, so that the sail is at a new angle to the wind.

Hard sail and soft sail are the most obvious part of the difference between Chinese and Western sail technology in the era of sailing, and many people in later generations believe that the West won the Age of Discovery, so soft sail must be better than hard sail, which is actually misunderstood.

To mention a few points, one is that the hard sail is supported by the batbone, and the sail surface deformation becomes smaller under strong winds, so it will not lose too much efficiency.

The second is that the hard sail can be retracted one grid at a time, the sail area can be flexibly adjusted, the sail is also very convenient, and the adaptability to different wind speeds is strong.

Third, the front and rear sails of the multi-masted sailing ship with hard sails are retracted differently to change the general force center, so as to improve the effect of the air rudder and strengthen the maneuverability.

Fourth, the hard sail also has a better performance in the breeze due to the sail bone supporting the sail surface. Soft sails, on the other hand, work very poorly when the breeze can't puff up the sails. Therefore, the breeze performance of a hard sail is stronger than that of a soft sail.

Fifth, due to the baton to control the sail surface, the hard sail will not slam like a soft sail when sailing against the wind. In particular, when the rope is relaxed, the sail will not oscillate without oscillating the sail, and it can easily "turn with the wind" in the breeze.

Sixth, because of the support of the batbone, the damage to the sail surface is generally localized and does not need to be repaired immediately. Ordinary breakage will not have much effect on the performance of the sail, and some people in later generations will think that proper breakage is good for windward performance.

Seventh, the canvas of the hard sail has the support of the canvas bone, no stress concentration, and the requirements for the canvas material are extremely low.

Of course, hard sails are not without disadvantages, one is that the batten increases the weight of the sail and limits the height of the mast. Second, the existence of the support bar restricts the addition of support cables in the middle of the mast, but the squirrel itself cannot be equipped with support cables.

In general, the biggest advantage of soft sail is that it is lighter, and other aspects such as safety, maneuverability, and simplicity are completely inferior to hard sails.

This is also why Westerners relied on Western-style soft sails to win the Age of Discovery, but in later generations of competitive sailing, they all switched to the roots of hard sails - Western-style soft sails are lightweight, so they can load more cannons, but in the competitive era, they do not need to be loaded, only need to be easy and accurate to control.

As for the issue of sailing, Western-style soft sails can be done, and Chinese-style hard sails can be done as well - Jinghua's boats can do it.

This series of movements commanded by Liang Sancai was just right, and with the help of the wind, the sail boom quickly adjusted.

The boom turned to a new angle, the back of the sail began to eat the wind, and the sails on the mainmast and the aftermast pushed the stern in one direction. The foremast, on the other hand, was still headwind, pushing the bow from the other direction, acting like a brake, to ensure that the "Xinzheng" remained stable in the final stages of the wind-rushing steering and would not be blown by the wind to spin in place.

With the concerted efforts of the sailors, the ship slowly turned into a new course, and Captain Liang Sancai shouted in time: "Pull the sail!" ”

Dong Nan, who had become a "trainee sailor", hurriedly ran to the foredeck with the sailors and adjusted the foremast to the same angle as the mid and aft masts.

How much time it takes to turn in a rush depends entirely on the conditions of the wind and waves. A pleasant breeze for Western-style soft sails can help the boat gain speed at the beginning of the turn, a process that may only take a stick of incense. But in the breeze it can take an hour or more. The most troublesome thing is the stormy day, and even because it is very dangerous, you can't grab the wind. Once you encounter that situation, you can only retreat to the next best thing.

However, the Chinese hard sail is only afraid of stormy days, because too strong winds may destroy the sail surface or mast, and the difference between light wind and light breeze is no different on a hard sail boat, and it can be done quickly.

At this time, the battle flag was also raised on the main mast of the Xinzheng. Looking from afar, I saw two Francophone warships sailing downwind. The "Kaiping" and "Huojia" next to the Xinzheng were like arrows from the string, seizing the upper hand and outflanking them to their left side.

Zheng's Franc warship also spotted them, and suddenly raised its sails and turned. However, it was all late, and it took time to turn to the wind or downwind, and due to the complexity of the operation of the soft sailing ships and the fact that their skill was obviously amateurish, this time was enough for the three Jinghua battleships in the lead to enter the firing range of the arquebus.

Gao Jing didn't choose long-range artillery battles, he chose broadside battles - in the case of artillery battles, he was worried that the opponent's artillery would hit farther, and he really wanted to capture the opponent's warships - he knew that Gao pragmatic had always wanted to conduct research on a few red-haired warships.

In that case, it's not good to sink it.

But the Zheng's Franc fighter ship relied on the advantage of artillery fire to fire first!

Since the distance was actually very close, the deck of the "Kaiping" was hit by two shots, and the red-hot solid shells smashed onto the deck, and suddenly black fog rose.

The concussion of artillery, the cracking of ship's planks, the whizzing of ropes, the screams, and the roars were incessant.

"Left full rudder! Rush up! ”

The "Kaiping" became the target of others, and Gao Jing on the flagship was so angry that he ordered an attack.

While ordering the sail chief to take over the ship and rush over, he beckoned the sailors to the sail boom and prepared to jump into the gang for a white-knuckle battle.

The fire qiāng team formed by sailors stood in two on the bow and stern of the "Xinzheng", using the height to provide fire support to the jumping gang.

"Bang! Boom! Boom! ”

The "Victor" had already entered the firing range, and despite the tickling and shelling of the Zheng army's boat that had arrived from behind, it passed through a series of water columns and concentrated its fire on a Franc warship on the left.

After a thunderous bombardment, the mast and sail boom of the Franc warship broke, entangled the sailors on deck in the canvas and cables. The ship seemed to be unlucky, as the "Pick" did not have chain bullets, and it was basically a matter of luck that the mast could be broken.

Because it was the flagship, the slightly cautious and belated "Xinzheng" also entered this fierce battle at sea, and with the order of the fire qiāng team, the fire qiāng team took turns firing, and like a shower of bullets and sharp pieces of wood swept across the deck, filling the air with acrid smoke.

The Franc Battleship fought to the death, and despite the blood pouring from the deck, the captain and helmsman instinctively steered the ship to avoid collisions - they had been trained by the Franc Mechanics for a short time, and they took collisions very seriously.

Well, this may be one of the manifestations of the petty family spirit of the small country and the widows of the Franco, but it may also illustrate the rigor of the Westerners' warfare.

The battle continued in billowing smoke, and the five zhang ...... Sanzhang ...... Two meters ......

The "Xinzheng" got closer and closer to the Franc warship, and the ship's fire team completely suppressed the opponent's firepower, but the Franc warship, which was beaten to the point of no resistance, still did not want to surrender.

I saw a man who looked like a captain, holding his injured arm, and ordered the remaining men to clean the deck, hang the foresail boom with iron chains to prevent it from being cut off, and put two boxes of huǒyào on the foredeck and one box of huǒyào on the deck of the rudder building.

In order to prevent Liang Sancai and them from getting on the boat, they also hurriedly smeared a layer of butter on the deck, sprinkled with dried peas and large spikes pointed upwards.

"For Jinghua!"

"Xinzheng" is the flagship, although the size is the same as other armed transport ships, but it has the most sailors and is a well-deserved main force.

The brother battleship had already attracted firepower for it and created favorable conditions for broadside battles, how could Captain Liang Sancai disappoint them, shouted "For Jinghua", grabbed a cable, and took the lead in swinging over.

"For Jinghua!" Naturally, others are not going to be left behind at this critical moment.

As soon as Captain Liang Sancai swung out of the ship's side, he jumped over with more than 30 sailors.

There were huǒyào barrels on both the front and back decks, and the ship's fire qiāng team didn't dare to open fire, so they simply threw down the fire rope qiāng, and jumped over one by one to join the white-knuckle battle.

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