On the blue sea, a fleet is struggling to sail on the bumpy waves against the icy sea breeze, this fleet includes a third-class battleship, two fifth-class battleships and three sixth-class warships, which belong to the sequence of the second fleet of the Fujian Navy Division.

The biting sea breeze kept raging in the air, and even though she was wearing a thicker sweater and woolen pants, Liu Xiang still felt the pervasive sea breeze pouring into her neck. She tightened her collar and walked around the deck several more times to warm herself up before she resumed her binoculars to observe her surroundings.

Today's visibility was not very good, and the dark clouds in the sky were so low that even with a telescope they could only see three or four kilometers away, which also made the sailors in charge of the lookout on the mast very uncomfortable.

Uncle Qin's slightly hoarse voice rang in her ears: "My lord, it's too windy here, why don't you go back to the cabin and rest for a while?" ”

Liu Xiang didn't look back, just shook his head and said, "Uncle Qin, there are too many recruits on the ship today, if I don't keep an eye here, I don't feel very relieved!" ”

Uncle Qin persuaded: "It's okay, I'm watching here, you will rest in the warehouse for a while, and I'll let someone call you when it's time for dinner." ”

After hesitating for a moment, Liu Xiang nodded, took off the binoculars around his neck and handed them to Uncle Qin, and walked into the cabin by himself.

Looking at Liu Xiang's back as he entered the cabin, Uncle Qin's eyes showed a hint of distress. The Second Fleet received five new third-class warships and more than 2,000 recruits, and in order to train these recruits and let them become qualified sailors as soon as possible, Liu Xiang and the officers under his command can be said to have put a lot of effort into it.

Due to the tight schedule and heavy tasks, they could not wait for the recruits to be trained before taking them out to sea, as they had done before, and could only adopt the method of training while patrolling at sea, and this practice also led to the fact that the fleet would often have problems of one kind or another when going to sea, which also greatly increased the workload of the captains and officers of the ships, especially Liu Xiang, who was the vice admiral of the fleet, had not had a good rest for several days.

Shaking his head and trying to throw away the distractions in his mind, Uncle Qin raised the telescope.

After observing for a long time, until he felt that his eyes were a little astringent, Uncle Qin put down the binoculars and rubbed his eyes. He took out half a pack of cigarettes and a box of matches from his pocket, lit the cigarette, and leaned against the mast to swallow the smoke.

Since Yang Feng got cigarettes from modern society, because the nicotine in cigarettes can soothe the anxiety in the sergeant's heart, it quickly became popular, whether it is the Jiangning Army or the Fujian Navy Division, almost most of the officers and soldiers have become smoking guns, which Yang Feng has not expected.

According to the regulations of the Jiangning Army, an ordinary sergeant can get four packs of cigarettes every month, the chief and the chief can get eight, and the officer above 100 is given 12 packs.

This amount of cigarettes is not enough for ordinary sergeants or officers to smoke, but Yang Feng also opened a convenience store in the barracks, and a pack of ordinary cigarettes for twenty yuan is not a problem for officers at all, even ordinary soldiers can bear it if they grit their teeth, which is also the reason why cigarettes quickly spread in the barracks.

What the...... Is smoking bad for your health?

Hehe, brother, you think too much, in this era when the average life expectancy is only about forty years old, instead of worrying about the harm to health caused by smoking, it is better to think more about how to make the people of Daming eat more realistically.

I took a puff of the cigarette, inhaled the cigarette into my lungs and spit it out, feeling a lot more energetic. Uncle Qin was smoking a cigarette while looking at the bow of the boat a little bored, when a black dot suddenly appeared in his sight.

Uncle Qin first blinked his eyes and looked at it carefully, then he picked up the telescope and looked at it without thinking, and soon a long series of black shadows appeared in the frame. His expression was suddenly stunned, and his right hand began to quickly turn the knob to adjust the focus, and soon the outline of a ship appeared clearly in front of his eyes.

When he saw the ship, his expression immediately froze, and he casually left the cigarette butt on the deck, turned his head to the rear and shouted at the top of his voice, "Beat the drum and prepare for battle!" ”

"Knock knock ......"

With this voice of his, a rousing drum beat also sounded.

At the moment when the drums sounded, the originally calm battleship boiled like a boiling pot, and the noise and noise also sounded.

"Hurry up......"

"You stupid people, all get up for Lao Tzu and prepare for war immediately!"

"Drop the lifeboat!"

With the shouts and curses of the officers, many sailors came out of the cabin. Some of them climbed the mast and began to operate the sails, some rushed into the gun compartment to open the gun doors and began to operate the guns, and some shook the pulleys on the side of the ship to lower the lifeboats hanging on the side of the ship.

"Uncle Qin, where is the enemy?"

Soon, Liu Xiang also came to the deck, just now she had just returned to her cabin, before she could lie down on the deck, there was a drum of preparation for battle, and she immediately rushed over.

"There." Uncle Qin pointed to the left front and said, "Thirty-three degrees to the port side, about two nautical miles away from us." ”

Liu Xiang took the binoculars from Uncle Qin's hand and looked at them, and immediately made a judgment: "This is the fleet sent by the Zheng family to plague the merchant ships, with a total of three lucky ships and five fast ships. Immediately order our ship to meet them, if we don't peel off their skin today, it will be our incompetence! ”

"Understood...... Catch up! Uncle Qin immediately conveyed Liu Xiang's order without hesitation, and soon the fleet turned around and rushed towards the left front......

And when the fleet led by Liu Xiang rushed towards the other party, the opposite fleet obviously also discovered the fleet led by Liu Xiang, and their reaction was also unexpected by Liu Xiang and others, not only did they not escape, but turned the bow of the ship and greeted Liu Xiang's fleet.

"Huh...... There is something wrong with this Zheng family's fleet! Liu Xiang's good-looking eyebrows frowned slightly, since the last time she was ambushed by Zheng Zhilong's fleet, Liu Xiang's sense of danger seemed to have become more acute.

"My lord, the Zheng family's fleet has rushed over, this situation is a little wrong, is there any conspiracy here?" Uncle Qin asked on the side.

"Hmph...... They're killing themselves! Against our third-class warships, even if there is any conspiracy, we don't have to be afraid at all! Liu Xiang didn't have the slightest fear on his face, the more familiar he was with the battleship under his feet, the more confident Liu Xiang became. Years of experience told her that the combat power of the battleship under her feet was at least three to five times stronger than the original fifth-level battleship, not to mention the protective power, and the twelve-pounder cannon commonly equipped by the Zheng family at present had no way to penetrate the iron armor inlaid on those important parts, and it was almost invincible for the Zheng family's fleet.

"Closer, they're closer!"

As time passed, the distance between the two sides was also getting closer, and when the distance between the two sides approached five hundred meters, Liu Xiang did not hesitate to give the order to open fire.

"Boom!"

"Boom, boom!"

Following Liu Xiang's order, the fourteen thirty-two-pounder heavy guns on the left side of the ship, located at the lowest level of the deck, were the first to sound.

Since this was the first time that the 32-pounder guns equipped by the Second Fleet had been used in actual combat, not only Liu Xiang, but even most of the sailors on the ship were watching the direction in which the shells were flying, expecting a good fortune.

But the anticipation quickly turned into disappointment, and just a few seconds later, as huge columns of water rose around the enemy ships, everyone knew that the round of artillery was empty.

"Alas......" Many people let out a regretful sigh in their hearts, but no one was disappointed, with the accuracy of artillery in this year, if you want to hit the enemy ship at a distance of 500 meters, you have to take shit luck to do it, so after letting out a sigh, the fleet continued to move towards the enemy ship under the command of Liu Xiang.

Liu Xiang was still very calm, and saw her calmly order: "Order the fleet to continue to move forward and wait until the distance of three hundred meters before conducting a second round of shooting!" ”

"Understood!" Uncle Qin agreed, and he was just about to turn around when he suddenly remembered Liu Xiang's hurried shout.

"Shelling...... Everyone duck now! ”

After hearing Liu Xiang's shout, all the sailors on the deck consciously hid behind the obstacles, and in just a few seconds, several water columns began to rise around the fleet.

Looking at the rising water column as high as seven or eight meters high, Uncle Qin lost his voice and said, "It's a twenty-four-pound cannon!" When did the Zheng family become equipped with artillery of this caliber? ”

"Needless to say, of course the Dutch sold it to him!" Liu Xiang's voice seemed to be squeezed out of between his teeth, full of inexplicable anger, "It seems that these Dutchmen are really crazy, they even sold such a large-caliber artillery to Zheng Chenggong, aren't they afraid that the tail will not be lost?" ”

Liu Xiang remembered very well that in the past, the Dutch had also sold artillery to Zheng Zhilong, but generally speaking, they only sold those small-caliber artillery such as eight-pound and twelve-pound, and the Dutch would never sell large-caliber artillery such as twenty-four-pound, and Zheng Zhilong had no choice but to buy it from the Ming army through some related channels.

It's just that the twenty-four-pounder cannon cast by the Ming army itself is not only small in power and short in range, but also in danger of exploding, and in the end Zheng Zhilong can only reluctantly continue to use the twelve-pounder cannon as the main artillery, and now the other party actually used the twenty-four-pounder cannon to confront him at the beginning, so there is no doubt that it is naturally the masterpiece of the Dutch.

"Leave them alone, order the port side to keep shooting, I'll see what tricks they can play."