Obviously, the order given by Wu Daofu this time was to sacrifice the lives of the soldiers of the Hongtang Whale Division to create an opportunity to fight hand-to-hand combat with the opposing fleet!

It's just that Wu Daofu didn't dare to imagine that if he gave this order, how many brave and fearless Hongtang soldiers would be sacrificed in this seemingly not far away, but it was as difficult as reaching the sky and the distance between the Dutch fleet and a few miles of sea.

But he had to harden his heart and come down to such a cold decision, if he did not approach the Dutch fleet as soon as possible and fight with it hand-to-hand, but the other side would take advantage of the speed and artillery superiority of the battleship to fly a kite tactic against their whale and even the fleets in the other two directions, I am afraid that their casualties will be far more than this!

"Scattered !!" As the distance between the two sides approached two miles, the artillery fire of the Dutch fleet became more and more ferocious and accurate, and Wu Daofu, who faced this scene, gave an order, and followed behind him, more than 40 warships, including self-exploding galleons, scattered in all directions like mosquitoes being driven, but they were very consistent in the direction and circled towards the Dutch fleet.

The Dutch fleet was lined up in a horizontal line, and it was in an imperfect "T" shape with the fleet of Wu Daofu's whale department that was rushing straight over, and it was originally maximized to maximize the power of the artillery fire on their flanks, but now Wu Daofu and their change of direction, except for the "Crazy Shark" with outstanding characteristics, made it difficult for them to find an effective target for a while.

However, after all, they are maritime powers, and when they saw that the fleet surrounded by the three parties had reached a distance that needed to be guarded against, they took advantage of the speed advantage of the warship without turning any longer, and gradually opened up the distance from the whale, shark, and leopard again.

Wu Daofu was also helpless, his own warships, except for the modified self-exploding sailboats that could barely keep up with the speed of the other party, the rest of the ships were gradually pulled apart by the distance that had been narrowed with great difficulty.

This is why the Dutch fleet has always had nothing to fear, and with the superiority of their ships and the hard work of their sailors, they were able to sling many times more enemies than their ships. And this way of fighting has always been a way of fighting that they have tried and tested in the face of enemies other than the naval powers of Western Europe.

However, this mode of fighting is extremely testing the skills of an army commander in commanding the battle, as well as the skills of sailors in handling boats and sails. Because just distancing themselves from the opponent will not allow them to destroy the opponent's living forces, they also need to turn the artillery fire on the flanks to attack the pursuers behind them by turning, so as to achieve the purpose of depleting the opponent's fleet while stalemate.

Therefore, the warships of the Dutch fleet kept the distance between the two sides between two and three nautical miles, which not only allowed the fleet enough time to distance themselves from each other, but also maintained the accuracy of the shells when firing artillery fire at the enemy when changing direction.

Although in terms of speed, Western warships are generally a few cuts higher than the speed of Daming sea ships because of the advantages of sails and battleship construction; But there is no absolutely perfect thing in the world, and the huge body of Western warships makes their warships a little clumsy when they turn!

In terms of speed, Wu Daofu has admitted that his own warships are not as good as the warships of the Dutch fleet opposite, but this does not mean that he will give up the pursuit of the other party. Years of experience in serving warships at sea made him sensitive to the clumsiness of the other party when turning, and when he noticed this defect, Wu Daofu planned in his heart how to take advantage of it.

"Boom! Rumble! ”

Another round of artillery fire grazed the hull of the "Crazy Shark" and fell into the sea, and the stirred up water column floated around the "Crazy Shark", and Wu Daofu, whose body was already soaked, saw that the Dutch battleship was about to turn forward again after leaning the artillery fire on one side: "Give the order, fire the chain bullet!" ”

Chain bullet this unconventional shell, in the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty within the sea area, the use is extremely rare, because the artillery that can fire this kind of cannonball, the general power is relatively large, and the Ming Dynasty is relatively backward in artillery casting, most of the artillery carried by the warship can not meet its requirements, and its cannonball role is relatively single.

In the shooting a few days ago, Wu Daofu and the others have always regarded this chain bullet as a killer weapon, ready to give the opponent a killing blow at the most critical time.

There is no way, even if Hong Tang, who is a full-time combatant, knows a lot about the role of chain shells, but in the daily patrols of Shunsui, Hong Tang generally rarely has the opportunity to use this kind of shells. In addition, in daily life, the development of Qixintang has always been relatively short of pig iron resources, so in fact, in Hongtang's ammunition reserves, the reserves of unconventional shells such as chain shells and grape shells have always been very low.

This time, Wu Daofu's slack chain ammunition on each of their warships was actually only a dozen or so rounds, specially prepared for the bow of the general's cannon.

At this time, under the sound of the flagship's drums, more than 30 whale warships carrying the general's cannon began to load chain shells one after another, seizing the opportunity of the Dutch fleet to fire and then turn around, and after shortening the maximum distance between each other, they successively dumped shells on the sea area where the six battleships on the opposite side were located.

The Dutch sailors, who were experienced in naval combat, noticed the difference in the shelling, and although more of the chain shells fell into the sea because of the accuracy, several lucky ones still fell into the enemy's several warships in a graceful arc that looked like the Hongtang warriors.

"Zla!!"

At the sound that made the Dutchman's soul tremble, several sails, which had been blown by the southwest monsoon, were torn in half. For a while, the speed of the two Dutch fourth-class battleships that had been attacked by chain bullets gradually dropped by a large knot, and the hull that was originally in the middle of the fleet slowly disjointed and fell to the back of the fleet.

"Bastard!!" Commander Lai Jichen had a black face and bowed his head and cursed.

In Western naval warfare, chain bullets are more likely to be fired at the rear pursuers when the sailors are fleeing, so as to block their pursuit; Of course, it is not used by no one to intercept deserters.

But in the Daming sea area, the vast majority of Daming sea ships that use hard sails, to be honest, the powerful ability of chain bombs to destroy sails is not significant, because hard sails are mostly made of bamboo strips, even if they are hit by chain bombs, destroying a big hole, but it will not be like the soft sail made of fabric, under the wind blowing, it is torn into two sections, and it is completely ineffective.

Therefore, the Dutch have been rampant in the Nanyang and Daming seas for many years, and it is really rare to see that the chain bullet has been used by pirates and others, and the Wu Daofu Whale Department battleship has been hiding this type of ammunition in the past two days, which also makes them somewhat careless about the cannonballs fired by Hongtang!

(End of chapter)