Do you really want to run away to the Satsuma Domain? How can it be!

Wang Xinyu definitely didn't want to take his fleet farther and farther away from Zhoushan, and even if he got there, what if the pirates stared at him and refused to leave, and waited outside? Don't go to Zhoushan? Now flee back to Xiamen and concentrate all the sailors to fight pirates? That's not the way to do it. The best thing to do is to defeat the pirates. But how can the opponent's ship be defeated by such a strong ship? You must know that in the Battle of Liuluo Bay and the later naval battle of Zheng Chenggong to recover Taiwan, a Dutch ship of more than 600 tons was sunk, and the Ming army itself lost more than 30 large and small warships! This is enough to prove the strength of Western warships. If Wang Xinyu comes with a small boat now, he can be sure that he can defeat the pirates: he can use the method of shelling the big ship behind and attacking the small boat to drive away the pirate ship.

At present, he has a large ship on hand, four medium-sized warships, and he is really not very sure of sinking this pirate ship. You must know that this kind of large ship can send a medium-sized ship of its own kind to the bottom of the sea with a salvo. Although he said that there were flowering shells, the hit rate and explosion rate of flowering shells were really not high, and besieging this big ship with five ships could fire sixteen flowering shells of the thousand-pound Franc machine at one time, and the maximum number of two or three rounds that could have an effect, and the opponent could sink a medium-sized warship of himself with one salvo. By the time he sank this big ship, he would have to lose at least two ships.

Wang Xinyu knew very well that the power of the heavy guns on the lower deck of the big ship, the solid shells fired by the guns were mainly aimed at the waterline position, and the two-hundred-ton medium warship was basically unable to stop it after a salvo.

What to do?

Pregnant! Wang Xinyu suddenly thought of a good way: use four medium-sized warships to entangle with this pirate ship from afar, and harass him with chain bullets. Attack your own big ship by biting the tail of the pirate ship! Even if the big ship turns around and gives itself a volley, his big ship will not be sunk if it is hit by a volley. If you have a chance to destroy the opponent's rudder with a flowering shell, you win.

As long as you keep biting the opponent's tail and hitting, you have a chance to destroy the opponent's rudder!

If there were no flowering shells, Wang Xinyu would definitely not dare to take this risk, the shotgun could not destroy the rudder, and the probability of a solid bullet hitting the rudder would be the same as aiming at the moon. But it's different with a flowering bomb, and the probability of blowing up the rudder is not too small by striking at the stern of the opponent.

After making up his mind, Wang Xinyu called Chen Lei: "Pass the order, let the four ships disperse, form a diamond-shaped formation, and prepare to attack the pirate ship!" Let them be careful not to let the enemy ship get too close! Harassment from a distance with chain shells, and you can't let enemy ships get close to you and fire a salvo! Otherwise, it's dangerous! ”

"No!" Chen Lei turned around and asked the pro-soldiers to send a flag signal.

Receiving the flag signal, the four medium-sized warships immediately dispersed, preparing to form a diamond-shaped attack formation.

Wang Xinyu's own big ship turned, broke away from the team, and headed for the rear of the pirate ship.

Seeing the flotilla in front of him change formation, Albert sneered: "These Ming people are still planning to attack us!" It's self-defeating! In that case, let's break it individually! Show them the power of our Royal Navy of the British Empire! ”

Although Albert was already a pirate, he and his sailors were from the British Navy, and they had a raiding permit, so they could join the British Navy in time of war. So Albert is still proud of the British Royal Navy.

The Derek rushed towards the nearest Ming warship, and when the distance between the two sides was still more than 500 meters, Albert found that the Ming warship was firing indiscriminately, while speeding up, desperately escaping from his pursuit.

Two chain bullets landed in the water next to the Drake, sending up a white column of water.

Albert sneered: "These Orientals, they will open fire at such a distance!" What a bunch of cowards! ”

In naval battles back then, when a large ship like the Drake fought with enemy ships, it often approached within 300 to 200 meters before opening fire, striving to paralyze the opponent with a single salvo. If the opponent is a small boat, a single salvo can sink it in one fell swoop. And firing from a distance of 500 meters is not accurate at all, and it will not be able to form a salvo fire.

The Drake chased after it with full sails, and the distance was getting closer and closer, and just when there were still four hundred meters away, three other Ming warships rushed up to the Drake, the red-coated cannon on the bow of the ship spit out white smoke, and three chain bullets flew in a whistling manner.

"Regardless of those ships harassing! Concentrate your firepower and wreck one ship first! Albert gave the order.

His idea was: wrecked a ship, if the other ships were deserted and fled, then ignore the ships that escaped, take people on the crippled ship himself, take the people on it, take them hostage, take the food and goods on board, and then let the captives take them to find a port to repair their ship. If the other ships don't run, then break them down and sink them one by one.

The long-range shooting of the Ming battleships had no effect at all, and all the shells fell into the sea.

The Drake ignored the other three Ming warships that were approaching the Ming army that was firing at her, but stared at the ship in front of her, and the distance narrowed little by little.

"Fire!" With three hundred meters remaining, the Drake began his first volley.

A salvo of a fourth-class cruiser with more than 30 cannons was still spectacular, with dazzling fire erupting from the starboard gun door, white smoke rising from the sea, and shells whistling down to the Ming warship 300 meters away.

The attacked Ming warships also fired back, but the Ming warships only had three jack franc machines available on the port side, compared to the Drake, which had nearly twenty cannons fired at the same time, the counterattack of the Ming warships was like a firefly that wanted to compete with the sun and the moon, and none of the three shells fired hit.

The Drake fired a salvo of nine 24-pounder guns and eight twelve-pounder guns at the same time, and at once it rained seventeen shells on the Ming warship.

Two 24-pound shells and one 12-pound shell hit the Ming warship, the shells hit the cedar plank, and the holes were fiercely chiseled in the plank, and the wooden planks flew sideways, injuring three Ming sailors.

Before the Drake could start the second salvo, the Ming warship took advantage of the fast reloading speed of the Franc cannon and fired a second row of shells, and then quickly broke away.

This time, the Ming warship was lucky, and one of the three chain bullets hit, tearing off a piece of the Drake's sail, making the big ship a little slower.

The Ming warship hurriedly fled the danger zone and fired chain shells at the Drake with its tail cannon from a distance.

At this time, three other Ming warships also surrounded the big ship, firing five hundred meters away, and constantly smashed the chain bombs.

On the battleship of the Ming Army, after the gunner of the thousand jin Franc machine gun ignited the artillery, he immediately hooked the gun out of the belly of the gun with a hook, and then replaced it with a gun equipped with chain bullets, and carried out a second round of shooting.

"The ships of these Orientals are firing too fast!" Albert was annoyed.

Despite the fact that long-range shots posed little threat to his large ship, the sail was hit two more times, which forced the British to have to raise the sail again. Because the speed slowed down, the Ming warship in front of it, which had been bitten by itself, fled, and the British could not organize a salvo to inflict heavy losses on the opponent at one time.

"The upper and lower gun decks are all reloaded with chain shells!" Albert ordered, "Stop the ship of the Orientals and go up and fire a salvo!" ”

The British were very skilled, as if performing acrobatics at sea, and soon raised the sails again, and quickly approached the Ming warship in front.

"Fire!" Albert yelled.

"Boom, boom, boom" The Drake spewed out a volley of fireballs, and the entire sea was reflected red by the firelight, and white choking smoke rose from the sea, enveloping the entire battleship.

In this round of volleys, four chain bullets hit the Ming warship 300 meters away.

A large piece of the two hard sails was torn off by the chain bomb, and the chain bomb also entangled a sail rope, pulled and flew out, and the rope was forcibly broken, the sail fell, and the speed of the ship was suddenly reduced.

"Reload grapeshot! Mainly to kill and injure the people on board! Albert shouted.

On the Ming warship, the sailor shouted anxiously: "Raise the sails quickly!" The pirate ship is coming up! ”

At the same time, the three thousand pound Franc machine guns on the port side also carried out a round of counterattack, the Ming army replaced the flowering shells this time, three shells smashed over within 300 meters, and two shells hit the British warship, but one of the shells was blocked by thick oak wood, rebounded into the sea water, "boom" a loud sound, and the sea water was blown up a column of water that rushed to the sky. Another shell landed on the upper deck of the British troops, but unfortunately did not explode.

"Blossom Bomb!" A British sailor exclaimed.

It bounced on the deck a few times, and finally smashed a plank of flowers, and a puff of green smoke came out. The surrounding British soldiers dodged one after another, but after watching for a long time, the shells did not explode.

"Damn! The Orientals actually have flowering bombs! Albert was also taken aback.

If this shell had exploded, I am afraid that the sailors on the ship would have suffered a lot of casualties.

However, Albert also felt lucky, the Ming army's fast-firing artillery penetration was too small, as long as it was not hit by a cannonball on the upper deck, or not by a cannonball directly into the gun door, his battleship's thick oak plank could bounce the cannonball into the sea.

The British, on the gun deck, nervously cleaned the chambers, loaded gunpowder, and stuffed shells. After completing the preparations, the Ming warship in front had just raised its sails and was ready to flee.

At this time, the distance between the two ships was only 200 meters, and the British battleship fired a salvo, and the grape bullets turned into countless iron balls, hitting the Ming ship. In this round of salvo fire, six shells hit the target, and the steel balls sprayed by the grapevine shells formed a fatal killing fan, killing eight Ming soldiers on the spot and wounding more than 10 others. Even the sails were battered by grape bullets.

However, the three flowering shells of the Ming counterattack hit two of them, one of which was bounced into the sea, and the other shell was lucky enough to explode when it just hit the board of the British ship, and the impact force of the shell itself and the power of the explosion caused the planks in the deck of the British gunners to break, and the broken planks flew everywhere, and several British gunners were injured and fell on the deck screaming.

The British, under the command of the officer, methodically reloaded, preparing for another salvo.

This time it was loaded with solid shells, and the British planned to completely paralyze the Ming warship in front of them with a salvo.

At that moment, Albert suddenly felt a sudden jolt of his ship, and a twenty-four-pound chain bullet struck the sail, pulling away a large part of the sail and breaking several ropes. The shell flew from behind them and happened to hit the sail.

"There's a big ship of the Orientals in the back!" At this time, the British discovered that one of the largest ships of the Ming army had bitten their buttocks.

The Drake slowed down, and the wounded Ming warship in front of it took the opportunity to flee the danger zone.

"The ship in the back is definitely the flagship of the Orientals! Left full rudder! Attack that big ship with broadside fire! Albert shouted.

Seeing that the pirate ship in front was preparing to turn, Wang Xinyu also gave an order: "Right full rudder!" Full sail, full speed! ”

The Drake has a large hull and slower steering. Before he could turn around, the Ming battleship had already rushed quickly past the port side of the Drake.

"Fire!" Albert deserved to be a good captain, and he seized this fleeting opportunity.

The British battleship fired a salvo on the port side, and seventeen solid shells rained down on Wang Xinyu's ship. In this round of salvo, five shells hit, and suddenly Wang Xinyu's ship was shattered, wooden planks were scattered, sails were broken, and more than 10 soldiers were killed or wounded. One of the soldiers was hit in the head by a flying piece of wood, and his brain burst on the spot.

However, at the moment when the two ships passed by, the four 2,000-pound Franc cannons on the port side of the Ming battleship also roared, and four flowering shells flew out, and three shells hit the target!

The shell penetration of the two-kilogram franc cannon was much stronger than that of the thousand-kilogram franc cannon, and except for one shell that was catapulted into the sea due to the angle problem, two shells pierced the gun deck of the British battleship, and one of the shells exploded in the upper gun deck of the British army!

A fireball rose from the upper deck of the Drake, billowing white smoke erupted from the gun door, and the vicinity of the shot site became a living hell, killing three British sailors and wounding more than a dozen others.