"When the time comes, the Spaniards have no serious intention of negotiating at all, let's start attacking!" Wang Yu turned his head and gave an order to Zhang Yukun.

The Ming fleet flying the sun and moon flag on a blue background raised the red, yellow, blue and black battle flag, which is the practice of international navigation, once this flag is raised, it means that the attack has begun.

Seeing the battle flag of the Ming fleet, the Spaniards on the battery spoke in the language of the flag: "We are willing to negotiate peacefully, please give us another time to think about it." ”

"Didn't think about the time! Time's up! The Ming army issued a flag.

"The distance is two thousand meters, the azimuth is eleven, the angle is one hundred and three, and the number of medicine packs is two." The artillery officer gave the order.

The gunners slowly pushed the turntable on the gun carriage, and the iron wheels under the turntable moved slowly on a circular track, and the whole turret turned, and the muzzle of the black hole was aimed at the Spanish battery on the shore. Several gunners opened the gun door, and a heavy gun shell weighing up to 199 pounds was stuffed into the chamber, and then two fixed charge packs were also stuffed inside, and the gunner closed the upper gun door, turned the spiral bolt, and the gun door was tightly pressed into the barrel, and then inserted a pull igniter through the fire door.

"Gun No. 1 ready!" The gunner issued a debrief.

"Test fire!" The cannon commander shouted.

The gunner pulled the firing rope, only to hear a deafening loud "boom", and a ball of orange fireball erupted from the thick muzzle of the gun, and a cloud of white smoke rose up. Although the Ming army already had smokeless gunpowder, smokeless gunpowder was very expensive, and the propellant used in the battleship guns was still relatively cheap black [gunpowder], and on the sea, the white smoke would soon be blown away, and it would not block the gunner's vision.

The gun carriage mounted on the iron car retreated completely, and the iron wheels of the gun car slid on the rails, hitting an iron plate covered with thick cork in the back, and the gun carriage stopped.

The whistling shells with a piercing screech pierced the air and smashed down on the Manila batteries in the distance. The cannonball landed on the sea about 20 zhang from the front of the fort and smashed heavily into the water, raising a column of water that soared into the sky.

"Oh my God, the people of the Ming Kingdom opened fire so far away!" Although the test shot failed to hit the target, the shells fired from a distance of 2,000 meters had an error of only more than 60 meters, which also surprised the Spaniards. Such accuracy is already very high, although the Spanish heavy artillery on the turret can hit three or four thousand meters, but the smoothbore artillery error is too large, and the real effect can only hit the target by putting the opponent's fleet at a distance of one thousand to six hundred meters. Of course, a smoothbore gun with such a range and accuracy is still a battery gun with a huge weight, and if it is an army gun, because the shells are light, the accuracy is even worse.

At the same time that the Shandong tested a shell, the sister ship of the Shandong, the Jiangsu ironclad ship, and four old ironclad ships also roared at the same time, and five shells whistled away in turn, two of which fell into the sea in front of the battery, raising a huge column of water, and one shell fell in the forest on the right side of the battery, raising countless dead branches and leaves, one shell fell in the sea on the left side of the battery, and a shell flew over the top of the battery and fell on the grass behind, and the rotating cannonball drilled into the grass and swept up the soil and blades of grass. The shell burrowed into the ground and moved irregularly, bouncing again, pulling a crooked diagonal line in the grass, leaving a deep ditch in its path.

The gunners and captains of each ironclad ship observed the effect of the test fire through binoculars, and when they found that none of them hit, they immediately issued another order for the gunners in the turret to adjust before firing the shells.

Although the main guns on ironclad ships such as the Shandong are breech-loading rifled guns, but because the barrel withdrawal gun has not yet been born, the current use is still a frame retreat gun, and the barrel of the rifled gun is longer, which means that the weight of the gun is greater, and the gunners need to push the gun, reset the gun first, and then open the bolt and reload the shell again.

It took three minutes to reload and two minutes to adjust the muzzles, that is, five minutes after the first round of firing, the six main guns on the six ironclad ships let out a deafening roar again, but unfortunately, these six shells looked imposing, but all missed.

"The hit rate is still too low!" After Wang Yu watched the effect of the shelling, he shook his head and said.

"Let's get ready for a salvo! Although the hit rate is low, it is still guaranteed that there will be shells that will hit the battery. Zhang Yukun asked Wang Yu for instructions.

Although it is a rifled gun, at a distance of two thousand meters, the hit rate is honestly less than 10 percent. Wang Yu said: "Actually, we can get closer, enter a distance of 1,500 meters, and bombard with the main artillery, combined with machine guns, we can quickly destroy the Spanish battery." ”

The distance of 1,500 meters seems very close, but this distance is completely a matter of luck for the Spaniards' battery guns, and it is completely a matter of luck to hit the ironclad ships of the Ming army. Even if it was hit by a cannonball, the ironclad ship was not afraid of the solid cannonballs fired by the Spaniards at all, especially the Shandong-class ironclad ship, which was not simply covered with a layer of ironclad on the outside of the wooden hull, but also had a layer of teak wood that could be cushioned outside the oak hull, and covered with a thick layer of ironclad on the outside. The ironclad is made of long rivets, through the teak layer, firmly nailed to the oak layer, this three-layer structure of the ironclad ship, is not the smoothbore guns of this era can penetrate the ironclad ship, even the British 32-pounder long-barreled gun, it is difficult to penetrate the ironclad ship.

In fact, the protection of the Shandong is so good that even if it is hit by its own main gun, it is difficult to cause heavy damage, after all, the fuse technology of the flowering shell is immature, the penetration is not strong, and the flowering shell hits the ironclad ship, and the shell explodes outside the hull; Although a solid cannonball hitting an ironclad ship can penetrate the past, how lethal is a solid iron bump against such a huge ship?

The Spaniards saw that the two rounds of artillery bombardment by the Ming army were not hit, and the Spanish officer sneered: "The Ming people still think how powerful their artillery is, and they want to hit us so far?" ”

While he was talking, someone suddenly shouted: "Oh my God, the warship of the Ming people has moved!" They're coming to us! They want to get closer! ”

"Prepare for shelling!" The Spanish officer shouted anxiously, "Can't let them get too close to us!" If they come in, we'll sink them!" ”

The Ming fleet was getting closer and closer, and the ironclad ship Shandong sailed into a distance of 1,500 meters from the battery, and the Spanish gunners on the battery could already clearly see the huge hull of this giant ship, and it could be seen that this was a steel monster with a strange shape and a much uglier appearance than a sail battleship, the monster was emitting billowing black smoke, and the four turrets turned their muzzles and aimed at the battery.

A row of majestic cannons sounded on the sea, and the main guns of the two Shandong-class ironclad ships emitted a dazzling light, and the shells smashed over with a piercing scream.