The fourth-class cruiser of the Black Swan opened fire one after another, and the shells flew from 500 meters away, landing in the sea water around the front and back of the Star Island, and a column of water rose up one after another. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 However, because of the distance, the Star Island was in motion, and the Dutch ship was also tossed with the waves, so it was not easy to hit. The Dutch fired a round of shelling, and none of the 19 shells fired hit the sea.

One of the most accurate shells fired by the Dutch swept a meter away from the stern of the Sing Tao and almost hit the hull.

Seeing that the hit rate of the shelling was too poor, the captain of the Black Swan ordered to rush up, trying to give full play to his advantage of many guns at close range.

"Come closer! Get closer, a small ship like the enemy can be crippled with a single round of shelling! The Dutch captain shouted.

Solid shells are not very powerful in long-distance shooting in naval battles, so it is difficult to sink a battleship even if the battery and the battleship are bombarded all day.

However, once they enter into close range of shooting, the two fleets line up in the battle line, fire a salvo with broadside guns, and fire at each other at a distance of 200 to 300 meters, then the power is very great, especially for battleships, and a round of artillery shelling by a third-class battleship aimed at a fourth-class cruiser or a fifth-class cruiser can completely send the opponent to the bottom of the sea. The distance is close, the hit rate is high, especially the heavy artillery deck at the bottom is directly aimed at the waterline, a row of guns passes, punching a few holes, the cruiser will definitely not be able to stand it.

"The red-haired ghost wants to come near us! Pull the distance! Discovering the Dutchman's attempt, Zhang Jian shouted anxiously.

The oars protrude from the oarsmen's deck of the Star Island, and the slave oarsmen paddle hard, the ship pulling a little distance.

The hexagonal front-loading rifled gun was not very fast, and the tail gun had just fired a round, and the shells had not yet been loaded. This rifled gun takes longer to clean the breech and needs to be cleaned more carefully, otherwise the shell will get stuck and cause the chamber to explode, and the consequences will be more serious once the hexagonal gun with a much larger charge than the smoothbore gun of the same caliber is blown up.

The gunners carefully cleaned the chamber with a wet mop to ensure that there was not a single residue of gunpowder remaining, then loaded the cartridge into the cartridge and loaded the shells through the muzzle.

"Aim, shoot!" The cannon commander shouted.

The No. 3 gun shook violently, and a slender flame erupted from the muzzle, and choking white smoke filled the air, curling up from the turret.

With a piercing whistling sound, the shells flew more than 500 meters across the sea. The shell accurately hit the Black Swan. At a speed of 600 meters per second, the high-speed rotating shells pierced into the upper gun deck of the Black Swan, and the shells tore the wooden planks like high-speed drills, and the wood chips flew sideways, and the flesh and blood in the gun deck suddenly flew and screamed miserably.

The kinetic energy of the shell piercing through the light gun deck continued to spin and fly, piercing through the floor of the cabin and burrowing into the lower heavy gun deck. The splinters of wood stirred up by the spinning shells shot in all directions like shrapnel, overturning a large area of the Dutch.

The shells continued to penetrate the heavy gun deck, burrowing into the bilge, tearing a hole in the bottom of the ship, and the roaring waters poured into the bilge like beasts of prey.

"The boat is leaking!" The Dutch soldiers on board shouted.

The captain of the Black Swan was dumbfounded, he didn't expect the power of this shell to be so powerful, it penetrated from the light gun deck and actually pierced the bilge!

"Go and plug the hole!" The captain shouted.

Before the words could be spoken, there was another shrill whistling, and a second shell flew and hit the upper deck of the Black Swan. The cannonball first hit the guardrail, and the high-speed rotation of the cannonball turned the guardrail into countless fragments, which rained down on the sailors on the deck. Then the shells plunged into the deck at an angle of thirty degrees, and the deck topped up like peeled bananas, and the Dutch sailors around them fell to the ground screaming.

The shell burrowed into the light gun deck and crashed into an eighteen-pounder gun. The cannon of more than 2,000 pounds was hit by a cannonball, flew up like a toy in the hands of a child, and went on a rampage in the cabin, knocking over a large number of Dutch sailors.

The shell pierced through the deck of the light gun, burrowed into the sea with countless pieces of wood, and rose into the sky.

Although the two guns hit, although they were both solid shells, the power of the 90-pound solid shells was already amazing, and it was rifled guns, and the shells were fast and rotated, and the power was dozens of times that of smoothbore guns of the same caliber.

"Keep loading solid shells!" Zhang Jian ordered. The opponent was nothing more than a fourth-class cruiser, and he was reluctant to waste expensive flowering shells. Against a fourth-class cruiser, as long as the solid shells penetrate a few more times and punch a few holes in the bottom of the ship, the ship will not be able to hold up and will soon be able to sink.

The Star Island turned in a different direction, and the two guns in the bow were aimed at the Black Swan. With the order of the gun commander, the two cannons spewed fire in turn, and the cannonballs whistled towards the Black Swan.

One of the two shells missed, fell into the sea, and rose into the sky; The other shot, despite its name, basically just grazed the upper deck, killed one sailor, wounded three people, and tore a few sails, without causing much damage to the Black Swan.

"Sir, another red-haired ghost's warship has outflanked you!" A sailor came to report.

Zhang Jian turned his head and saw the fourth-class cruiser Fort Middle, coming from the right side, and the Dutch battleship approaching him at an angle of more than 20 degrees from three miles away, so that the Dutch could give full play to the power of the port side guns.

"Ready to turn! Forty-five degrees on the left side! Zhang Jian gave the order.

The Star Island turned to the left, which would allow it to avoid the Fort Middle's attack, and also allow the loaded tail gun to be aimed at the Black Swan, which still needed time to reload, and was not reloaded so quickly.

Because of the rapid turning of the Ming army's warships, the speed slowed down, and was approached to within 400 meters by the Dutch's Black Swan.

"Fire!" The Dutch captain roared.

All the guns on the starboard side of the Black Swan spewed fire from beginning to end, like a bolt of lightning across the sea. The whistling shells flew more than 300 meters, and most of the shells fell in the sea, but quite a few of them hit the Star Island.

Three twenty-four-pounder shells hit the oarsman's deck, one of which burrowed into the compartment, and a black oarsman was directly hit by the shell, torn to shreds. The shells slammed down on the floor, and the splashed planks injured several black slave oarsmen. The other two shells did not penetrate the plank, but only dented the thick oak, but the planks of the interior wall shattered, sawdust and splinters flew sideways, and the oarsmen behind fell several people.

Two eighteen-pounder shells hit the upper deck, killing and wounding several sailors.

However, the oak structure, the thickened deck of the Star Island is still quite strong, and five shots were fired, which was just a little skin injury to this ship.

The six short-barreled Cullen guns on the deck of the Sing Tao also fired back, two 64-pound shells and four 32-pound shells flying towards the Black Swan. As a result, a 64-pound shell and a 32-pound shell hit, and the Dutch ship burst into splinters of planks and a scream.

"The tail cannon is ready!" The gunners of the aft gun emplacements reported.

"Fire!" Zhang Jian roared.

The two hexagonal rifled guns in the stern turret spewed fire in turn, and this time Zhang Jian's good luck came: both shells hit the Black Swan, and one of the shells drilled through the deck of the heavy gun, penetrated the ship's plank, penetrated the floor, and drilled into the bilge, drilling a large hole in the bottom of the ship, and a large amount of seawater poured in. And the other shell was even more desperate, after penetrating the ship's board and burrowing into the gun deck, the shell hit a powder keg directly!

The powder keg was hit by a high-speed rotating shell, and the result was known without saying, only a loud bang was heard, and a large fire rose in the Black Swan's cabin, and the spurting flames broke through the upper deck like a volcanic eruption, and rushed out of the cabin, and the fragments of the planks were raised high in the explosion.

The Black Swan was on fire, and the ship's cries and screams rang out.

"This red-haired battleship has been scrapped! Let's take on another red-haired warship! Zhang Jian ordered.

Two miles away, the Fort Middle, heard a violent explosion in the sea, and then saw the flames rushing into the sky. At first, the captain thought that the Black Swan had succeeded, and it may have been a salvo that happened to hit the powder keg of the Ming battleship. But he picked up the binoculars and took a look, only to find that it was not the Ming warship that caught fire, but the Black Swan!

"Damn it!" The captain of the Fort Middle, put down the binoculars, "Maybe the people of the Ming Kingdom are too lucky!" Our ship was hit by him just a powder keg! ”

When the Star Island and the Black Swan were engaged just now, because the course of the shells was not aimed at the position of the Fort Middle, the roaring sound could not be heard on the Fort Middle, only the sound of shelling and explosions could be heard. Until now, the Dutch on the Fort Middle, they didn't know that there was actually a very powerful gun on the Star Island, and they thought that it was because of the good luck of the Ming army that the Black Swan was set on fire.

Now that there is one on one left, Zhang Jian has no scruples.

The Star Island met the Fort Middle, rushing at full speed, the black hole aiming its guns at the Dutch battleship. This time, the starboard side was close to the Dutch at an angle of 15 degrees, which not only ensured the firepower of the four main guns, but also allowed the short-barreled Cullen guns in the starboard gun deck to burst into power.

"The main gun is loaded with solid shells, the starboard sixty-four-pounder gun and two thirty-two-pounder guns are loaded with grape shells, and the two thirty-two-pounder guns are loaded with chain shells!" Zhang Jian gave the order.

Grapebomb is a type of shotgun used at sea. Two 64-pounder guns fired with grapeshells, which could sweep away all the personnel on the opponent's deck at once, plus two 30-pounder guns loaded with grapeshot, it is estimated that a salvo will blow the Fort Middle.

The distance between the two sides was rapidly approaching, and when there were still four hundred meters to go, the Star Island struck first, and the four hexagonal guns opened fire in turn, and the shells smashed into the Dutch battleship with a piercing whistling sound.

At this moment, the captain of the Fort Middle, when he heard the whistling of cannonballs, broke out in a cold sweat on the spot: "Oh my God! What kind of cannon is this? It's a 150-pound supercannon! ”

However, the speed of the shells was much higher than the speed of sound, and when the Dutch captain heard the whistling of the shells, three of the four shells hit the Fort Middle. The Dutchmen on board felt only a violent shock to their ship, and the sailors on board were unsteady on their feet. Two shells burrowed into the ship's hold, smashing the broken wooden planks like shrapnel, and the Dutch gunners on the gun deck suffered heavy casualties. Another shell hit the upper deck, knocked over a mast and burrowed into the light gun deck.

The Cruiser Med was filled with screams of flesh and blood, and the ship and hold were littered with pieces of wood and kicked garbage, as well as human parts and pieces of flesh.

The Star Island fired preemptively, with three of the four shells hit, causing chaos on the Fort Middle. At this time, the distance was only more than 300 meters, and the Dutch were killed and wounded because of the blurred flesh and blood in the gun deck, and the Dutch fired a counterattack with a much worse effect.

A volley of fire erupted from the port side of the Fort Middle, with two twenty-four-pound shells and two eighteen-pound shells hitting the Star Island, and the rest of the shells falling into the water. The attacked Star Island suffered casualties on board six black slave oarsmen and three sailors, and the losses were not very large.

The Star Island continued to get close to the Dutch battleship, and when there were only two hundred meters left, the starboard guns of the Star Island spat out scarlet tongues of fire in turn, billowing white smoke rose from the sea, and most of the shells fired at close range hit the target.

A chain bullet struck the upper deck of the Fort Middle, and the spinning chain ball tore through the sails like a meteor hammer flying out, and finally wrapped itself around a mast, tearing it off. Most of the sub-shells fired from grape shells hit the Dutch ships, and the projectiles swept across the upper deck, and the Dutch sailors standing on the deck operating the sails suffered heavy casualties. Other projectiles hit the lower floor, and some of them penetrated through the gun door, killing and wounding the Dutch gunners inside.

After the two ships met, the bodies of the Dutch ship were covered with blood, and the sails were knocked down a lot, and the speed of the ship was slowed down.

The Star Island made a big circle, and the four hexagonal cannons finished loading. The Star Island, which turned its head, aimed at Fort Middle, spewing fire five hundred meters away.

There were few Dutch soldiers left on board the Fort Middle, the ship was a garbage dump, with broken planks and tattered household items littered with corpses and wounded soldiers. The Dutch soldier, whose hands and feet were broken and his body was punched, fell in a pool of blood and let out a wolf-like howl.

The Sing Tao approached again and ravaged the Dutch ship with its broadside short-barreled guns. And when the distance between the two ships was only more than two hundred meters, the firepower of the Dutch ship's counterattack was almost negligible.

The Fort Middle's mast was broken, the sails were torn apart, the sailors on deck were almost lost, and the gunners in the cabin were killed and wounded. Not only did the Dutch ship lose the ability to fight back, it also lost the ability to escape, and could only watch as the opponent's guns were aimed at itself. If you don't surrender, your opponent will send yourself to the bottom of the sea.

"Wave the flag and make the red-haired ghost surrender!" Zhang Jian ordered.

The cost of shells for hexagonal cannons is expensive, and even solid shells are very expensive, so there are not many shells on this ship, and Zhang Jian must use them sparingly. The best thing is that the opponent can surrender.

"We have no choice but to surrender! Otherwise, they will wait to be sunk. "The Dutch captain gave the order to surrender. (To be continued.) )