Front-loading smoothbore guns had a very low hit rate due to the gap between the shell and the barrel, and the hull shaking during a sea engagement would cause the hit rate to drop further.

So much so that the British Navy of this era stipulated that enemy ships could only fire after approaching 400 yards, and 400 yards was only equivalent to less than 250 steps of the Ming army.

Of course, the British army was close to fighting bayonets at this distance for artillery, and the hit rate was guaranteed, but it was too harsh. But the vast majority of naval powers would not shoot until they were at least within 700 yards of the road.

These shells fired by the Jianyu warship all fell into the sea without any suspense, and they were only slightly magnificent.

When the two sides approached to about one and a half miles, the 26 warships of the Ming army forming a battle line turned their bows to the southwest side in unison according to the plan. The entire battle line was then at a 45-degree angle to the Jianyu battle formation.

The remaining twenty-four small boats, led by Liu Guoxuan, followed behind the battle line in a loose formation to prevent enemy clippers from jumping or setting fires. The firepower of these sentinel ships or small ships is too weak to exert their firepower when they join the battle line.

In fact, even the more than ten Galen boats of sixty or seventy tons were usually not qualified to join the battle line. However, compared to the enemy, the firepower of these ships was quite strong, so they were all incorporated into the battle line.

On the Qing side, the ten warships that formed the main force on the middle road formed a four-row triangular formation, with four boats in the last row, and one less in each row in the front, until there was only one large Fu ship in the first row. There were also twenty or thirty small boats trailing behind to take cover.

However, when the battle line of the Ming army changed to an oblique southwest, the side side was parallel to a hypotenuse of the triangular formation of the enemy army.

Su Li's side tried to adjust the bow of the ship as much as possible so that he could use a little wind power, but under the overall headwind, the road battle formation advanced very slowly, and it took a long time before he finally approached the Ming army's "Long Snake Formation" a mile away.

Chen Xi stared at the Jianyu warship outside the cannon window, rubbing the sweat of his palms on his clothes from time to time.

Because of his excellent eyesight and cleverness, he stood out from the crowd of gunners and became a sightman on the lower gun deck of the Shaowu, responsible for an eighteen-pounder gun on board.

His first trip to sea to participate in actual combat made him extremely nervous, and in the battle against Niu Bin's department, he made several aiming mistakes in a row, and it was not until the last moment that a shot finally hit the enemy ship.

But it was this short actual battle that made him feel like he was reborn. The improvement of real combat is far from comparable to drilling, and although he is still very nervous, he has a kind of confidence that he will definitely be able to hit the enemy ship.

To say that the Daming Sailor really has to thank Niu Bin for giving them a good opportunity to improve the confidence and experience of the soldiers.

Finally, the long-awaited sound of the call came from not far away. Chen Xi knew that there must be fireworks and flag orders issued at the same time, which was the flagship's signal to open fire.

Sure enough, the commander of the gun deck pointed to the enemy ship on the port side, and then the snare drum in the cabin sounded.

Chen Xi took one last look at the enemy ship, which was three hundred and twenty paces away, and there was no problem in terms of the height of the muzzle. He then took a few steps back and signaled to the gunner that he had taken aim.

Gunpowder and shells had already been prepared, and as the gun deck commander shouted in turn, the command "one, two, three......" was heard, and the cannons from the bow roared one after another. When the commander shouted "six", the igniter of Chen Xi's cannon pulled the rope hard, and the hammer at the end of the cannon fell with flint, bursting out of the spark and immediately igniting the gunpowder.

There was a loud sound that made the internal organs tremble, and a seventeen-pound iron ball roared and smashed on the bow of a Qing warship. The enemy ship was smashed by a giant as if it had been punched, and with the scattered fragments of wood, the tip of the enemy ship was instantly shattered, and the oncoming waves rushed into the hull from the breach.

Chen Xi slapped his face excitedly, and hurriedly assisted the igniter and others to push forward the cannon that had retreated to the middle of the ship due to recoil. Thanks to the track supporting the gun carriage and the plumb reset device, the heavy artillery of more than 3,000 catties returned to the firing position in the blink of an eye.

A similar situation played out on every warship that made up the Ming army's battle line, and in just an instant, nearly a hundred shells were fired at the triangular formation of the Jianyu Chinese army.

This time, the gunners played well, and nearly thirty shells hit the target, including seven shells of heavy artillery over 12 pounds.

Sully's boat was in the middle of the penultimate row of the triangle. He suddenly heard a roar of cannons like thunder, and looked towards his left flank, but saw that the four warships on this side were in disarray, and the screams of the soldiers dying could be heard so far away.

The second and third ships were extremely damaged. One had its mainmast broken and fell to the deck crushing seven or eight men, while the other appeared to be wounded on the port side, and Sully had difficulty seeing clearly, but he was unable to move and leaned to the left.

Su Li's heart twitched, how could this be possible, the enemy ship was facing him on the side side, and he actually destroyed his two big ships with a single salvo!

He was accustomed to the traditional mode of naval warfare, so it was naturally difficult to understand the might of battle line tactics.

In fact, it is very simple to say, the role of the infantry line is the same, that is, in order to solve the problem of poor hit rate of smoothbore guns, it is necessary to concentrate as many artillery as possible in the smallest space and cover the enemy ships with dense salvos. The greater the density of shells, the more likely it is to hit the enemy.

The Galen's multi-tiered gun decks and the use of battleline patterns to concentrate the ship's most densely charged sides at maximum density were the most powerful modes of firepower that could be achieved in naval warfare in the 17th century.

Soon, Sully had a first-hand feel for this "strongest firepower mode".

Due to the eighteenth-century artillery mount technology brought by Zhu Linmiao, the Ming army cannon firing interval was very short. As soon as the Jianyu warship advanced another ten feet, the cannons on the battle line were ready to be loaded.

The ships that had previously taken cover on the left flank had lost the ability to move, and Sully's ship was now exposed to the cannons of the battle line.

As the ships gave the order to open fire, Su Li witnessed the volley of artillery on the Ming warship like a starry fire, so spectacular, gorgeous, and shocking, but he never wanted to see this "beautiful scenery" a second time.

There was a terrifying clicking sound in quick succession, the sound of a cannonball piercing through the planks of the ship's hull.

The cannonball itself is small and does not kill many people, but the fragments of wood that are shattered by the cannonball are no less powerful than the scattered shells fired directly from the cannon.

Every shell that hit the enemy ship was scattered all over the ground within a few kilometers, and a large number of soldiers with broken wood in their bodies rolled and wailed in pools of blood......

This round of salvo caused a Qing army's thousand-thousand-mile warship to lose its ability to move, and more than 100 Qing soldiers were killed and wounded.