After seeing the Ming warships turn in unison, Rouen instantly understood, it turned out that the Ming army did not want to play broadside battles with them, but understood that their gunners were too good to fight with them, so they had to fight bayonets with them at close range.

Rouen originally wanted to preemptively order the cannon, but just now the Flying and the Pony had just conducted a salvo, and at this moment the gunners were busy cleaning the chamber and loading ammunition, and it was too late to fire, and it was too late to turn to the gun on the other side to fire, and he was so frightened that he hissed and shouted as hard as he could: "Turn quickly...... Right full rudder! ”

It stands to reason that this order is correct, aiming at the enemy with the stern and bow of the ship with the smallest area will help reduce the area of bombing, but this order was given too late, how could the Ming army, which had been preparing for this moment for a long time, let go of this opportunity, in the gun compartments of the three battleships Qingyuan, Liaoyuan and Ningyuan, several officers in red vests shouted out almost at the same time: "Open the cannon!" ”

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

With a thick burst of white smoke and a loud noise, dozens of 12-pound solid shells flew out of the barrels one after another and flew towards the Dutch battleship 100 meters away. At the speed of the projectile of more than 400 meters per second, they flew at a distance of more than 100 meters and arrived in less than a second.

"Bang bang...... Bang bang bang ......"

Firing at such a close distance is almost the same as firing at the other side with the chamber of a gun, and if you can't hit the opponent again, the gunners of the Ming army can collectively wipe their necks.

Rouen and Oncos, who were standing on the deck of the Flying Flight, felt the deck shake under their feet, and then something was broken and accompanied by a terrible scream, and Rouen knew that his ship must have been shot without looking.

Sure enough, when Rouen rushed to the side of the ship to investigate the situation, he saw at a glance that the position of the left gun compartment of the Flying was broken several basin-sized holes, and he could even see several gunners lying on the ground wailing.

"Rescue the wounded, the gunners will immediately fire back!" Rouen, with a grim face, gave the order to return fire.

"Fire...... Artillery ......"

After being shot, the Flying and Pony crews sped up a few points in a fit of rage, and soon they fired back fire.

"Tom ......"

"Tom ......"

After a volley, the Dutch also poured several shells into the Ming warship, knocking several large holes into the opposing warship.

"Counter Strike...... Counter ......"

At this time, on the deck of the Qingyuan, Lu Guangbiao had long lost the official position of Admiral of the Navy, and at this moment, he was constantly giving orders like a grumpy veteran, and one order after another came out of his mouth.

"Lower the sails, hang the sails!"

"Left Rudder Five!"

Under the command of Lu Guangbiao, although the sailors on the three warships were all a group of rookies who had experienced war for the first time, and neither their experience nor proficiency could be compared with the Dutch who dominated the sea at this time, the officers and men of the Fujian Navy Division did not collapse because of this, but still gritted their teeth and worked hard to carry out various orders issued by the officers.

The sailmen climbed up and down the mast in a hail of bullets, while the gunners struggled to reload their shells and open fire on their targets.

In the bottom gun compartment of the Qingyuan, dozens of gunners were non-stop, some of them were cleaning the chambers of the smoking guns, and some were busy resetting the guns. After the chamber was cleared, a loader stuffed the chamber with a cartridge and a projectile in the shape of a long barrel wrapped in a thin iron sheet, stabbed it a few times with the strip, and said loudly: "Report, the shell is loaded!" ”

The artillery officer, who had been waiting anxiously, raised the small red flag in his hand high, and then waved it down vigorously: "All gun positions, open the cannon!" ”

At this time, not only the Qingyuan, but even the Ningyuan and Liaoyuan behind also sounded the sound of artillery firing, which was a little weird this time, as if it was the coughing sound of a patient during a cold game.

"Bobobo......"

"Bobobo......"

Lieutenant Colonel Rouen, who was only more than 100 meters away from the Ming warship, immediately noticed it, his face immediately changed, and he lost his voice: "It's not good, the Ming army has launched chain bullets, let the boys evade it!" ”

Lieutenant Colonel Rouen was right, this time the Ming army fired not solid bullets, but chain bullets.

The so-called chain bullet is to use a chain to connect two small shells smaller than the bore caliber together, after firing a shell will drag the other shell centrifugal and fly out, so it will tear a big hole in the sail, or tear the rigging, lucky, can even tear off the mast and paralyze the enemy ship.

The fast-spinning chain bullet can easily slice through the enemy (mainly the sailors on the ship), and is a terrifying weapon, but because its effect is more reflected in the destruction of masts and canvases, and the range is very short, it is rarely used in naval battles. However, the current situation is different, and now the warships of the two sides are only more than 100 meters apart, which is the best killing distance for chain shells, so Lieutenant Colonel Rouen's face immediately changed for a while.

"Bang Bang!"

Soon, Lieutenant Colonel Rouen heard a strange tearing sound coming from his own battleship.

He turned his head to see that his Flying had been hit by a chain bullet. A section of the railing on the right side of the deck, near the bow, had been broken by chain bullets, and the deck was littered with flying wood chips. Lieutenant Colonel Rouen could clearly see the blood stains on the deck. Less than ten meters away from him, he saw a corpse with only the lower half of his body, but the upper half of his body was missing. He estimated that the upper body of the corpse might have been swept directly into the sea by chain bullets. The power of the chain bullet was unbelievable, but everywhere it passed, there was a long series of gaps.

Due to the damage caused by the chain bullets, the sailors of the Dutch Navy near the mast and deck looked in horror at the place where the chain bullets had been broken, and they were quite at a loss as to what to do. The power of the chain bullet is indeed extraordinary. It's okay not to be hit, but if you do, it's definitely a human tragedy.

Looking at the deck strewn with corpses, Lieutenant Colonel Rouen only trembled with anger, and he shouted without thinking: "Pass my order, and immediately change to chain bullets!" ”

"Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, it's too late." The first mate on the side said with a sad expression: "Our artillery has just been loaded, and all of them are live ammunition." ”

"Bastard, why don't you switch to grapeslet bullets or chain bullets?" Rouen was so angry that he wanted to hit people, it stands to reason that as a well-trained navy, there are strict rules on what kind of ammunition to use at what distance, and there is no need for the commander to give orders in person, but at such a close distance, the gunners below and below actually use live ammunition that strikes the farthest distance but is not as powerful as grapeshotfire and chain bullets, which really makes Lieutenant Colonel Rouen a little crazy.

The first mate whispered: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, just now you said that you were going to capture three Ming warships, so the gunners below did not dare to use chain bullets, for fear of damaging the battleships on the opposite side." ”

"I ......"

Lieutenant Colonel Rouen no longer knew what to say, and only then did he vaguely remember that he seemed to have given this order, and that he thought it was wise at the time, but now he realized what a foolish thing he had done, although it was only the time for a round of shelling, but in the rapidly changing battlefield, sometimes seemingly inconspicuous mistakes can make a big mistake.

"Stupid, let them fire their guns, and then replace them with chain shells at once! I'm going to destroy all their ships! Lieutenant Colonel Rouen let out a roaring sound from his mouth.

"Tom ......"

"Tom ......"

The Dutch battleship fired back, rows of projectiles flew towards the Ming army on the opposite side, and several more projectiles hit the Qingyuan, and a projectile swept by less than two meters away from him, hitting a sailor on the deck, after the fist-sized projectile flew, the sailor's upper body immediately disappeared, and the sailor's lower body still maintained its original posture for a few seconds before it collapsed on the deck, and soon a large pool of blood condensed around the mutilated corpse.

However, at this time, Lu Guangbiao was no longer interested in paying attention to these things, standing next to the helmsman, he just kept giving orders to turn, and the huge Qingyuan was moving quickly like a nimble big fish under his command.

"Tom ......"

The Qingyuan carried out another salvo, this time the launch was a little different from the one just now, after this round of salvo, the sharp-eyed people actually saw a large group of dense black dots flying towards the Dutch battleship like raindrops.

"No, it's grapeshot!"

A terrible shout sounded on the Flying.

Grapeshells are actually several, or even dozens or even hundreds, of spherical iron or lead bullets packed in a shell (usually wrapped in a barrel or thin iron sheet) and then fired. But the earliest grapeshot was not wrapped in a shell, and the gunners strung the lead bullets together and then fired them, and the shells looked like a large bunch of grapes, so they were called grapeshot shells, and the principle was actually the same as that of shotguns, but the name was different.

Compared with live ammunition and chain bullets, grapeslet bullets like Celestial Maiden scattered flowers are obviously easier to hit the target. Therefore, Lu Guangbiao decisively ordered the use of grapeshot shells. This kind of weapon, figuratively speaking, is a string of hailstones, overwhelmingly smashed down, there is no way to dodge at such a close distance, the only thing the opponent can do is to ask for more blessings, pray for God to bless himself from the overwhelming rain of bullets.

"Bobo!"

Bullets rained down, and there was a dense noise on the deck of the Flying that sounded like a hailstone had fallen. For a while, there were a lot of black iron iron balls embedded in the wooden planks on the deck of the Dutch, and some iron eggs were dripping and rolling on the deck.

These iron pellets are generally the size of a thumb, and even smaller ones are as big as a little thumb. Don't look at them inconspicuous, they are much less powerful than live ammunition, and basically they can't do any damage to the oak deck and the sturdy hull, but its damage to personnel is huge, as long as it is hit in the body, it is absolutely fatal, it is absolutely fatal to rub and die, no matter how many layers of armor you wear, the result is the same.

What's more, as soon as this thing comes out, it is a large string, and it is dozens or even hundreds of iron pellets when it goes down, and the power is really terrifying after falling like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers.

"Ahh

On the Dutch warship, the screams of the sailors continued to sound.

Obviously, many sailors were hit by grape bullets, and they were screaming in despair before they died. It was like a screaming duck that had suddenly had its throat cut out. The projectiles, which were only the size of their fingers, were so powerful that the screams of many sailors came to an abrupt end.

It has been said that the only place where human beings are equal is at the time of death, and this statement now seems to have some truth. In front of the flying projectiles, Lieutenant Colonels Oncos and Rouen, who were standing on the deck, were not spared.

Just as the Ming battleship was firing, Major Oncos was hiding behind a thick mast, and he was lucky to avoid this wave of bullets, but Lieutenant Colonel Rouen was not so lucky.

After the rain of bullets, when Major Onkos poked his head out to observe the battle with trepidation, he saw a scene that frightened him.

Less than three meters away from him lay two corpses, two of which were no longer recognizable, but Ankos could barely recognize their respective identities from the clothes of the corpses, the one in the red uniform was the first mate, and the other in the blue uniform with a saber hanging next to the corpse was not Lieutenant Colonel Rouen.

It's just that Rouen has long since lost his usual demeanor, and at this time he has lost half of his head, his body twists together in a strange posture, and the lower half of his body has not only lost a leg, but his whole body has been hit by several projectiles like a broken sack, which can only be described as a puddle of rotten meat.

Unkos turned his head to look around again, and found that the corpses of more than a dozen sailors had already lay on the surrounding deck. The appearance of each sailor is horrible. If the vicious grapeshotfire does not hit, it is enough, once it hits, it will definitely be a group of deaths and injuries, seeing this, Onkos simply wants to thank God for his favor, he is near Lieutenant Colonel Rouen, and he was not hit by the projectiles that fell like raindrops, this is not God's favor? It's just that the only bad thing is that Lieutenant Colonel Rouen is dead, what should I do next?

The surrounding cannon was still roaring, shaking Ankos's ears to a faint pain, and Ancos, who was stunned by this bloody scene, was stunned, and the whole person froze in place and didn't know what to do, knowing that there was a rapid cry in his ears.

"Mr. Major!"

"Mr. Major!"

Slowly recovering from his senses, Onkos turned his head to see an officer with a bloody face standing next to him, grabbing his arm and shouting vigorously.

"Mr. Major, Lieutenant Colonel Rouen is dead, what should we do!"