High on the mast, the white sails feed the wind, and the enormous power is transmitted through the mast to the streamlined hull, and the copper-skinned bow splits the waves and cruises at a speed of six knots. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

This is a new type of ship mixed with Eastern, Western and Middle Eastern blood, with an eight-to-one aspect ratio, with the same hull as the clipper ship, with a hull with compartments, and the main sail on the ship is a monolithic oriental hard sail, unlike the western canopy ceiling cable sail, this kind of sail has a fast lifting speed, is simpler to operate than a western sail, and does not require too many sailors; However, there are also Western-style top-mast sails, jibs and other sails such as rope sails and wing sails, and the complete sail outfits can accept the wind blowing in all directions.

Compared with the clipper ship, this sailboat is a warship, in order to save the sailors who operate the sails, and increase the oarsmen to make it possible to sail at high speed in the absence of wind or weak winds, so the sail area of the ship is much smaller than that of the clippers, and the main sail adopts a Chinese-style hard sail, so the maximum speed of this ship is only about ten knots when the sail power is simply used, which is much lower than the fourteen to fifteen knots of the clipper ship.

However, this ship, like the Arab ship, had an oarsman's deck, from which countless oars protruded, and when the oars were used together, it could reach a speed of sixteen knots, which was not inferior to that of a clipper ship.

The oarsmen in charge of paddling are all Kunlun slaves bought from Kunlun Continent. The Kunlun slaves, who were all black and had only white teeth, were fixed to the oarsmen's seats, and their feet were fixed to the deck with iron shackles, so that they could rest and sleep when they had nothing to do, and paddled according to orders if needed.

The so-called Kunlun continent is actually Africa, and Kunlun slaves are blacks. Wang Xinyu doesn't pay attention to any human rights, and there are no human rights in this era, and all Kunlun slaves can only be used after castration.

Zhang Jian stood at the bow of the boat, the hunting sea breeze blowing his head, he looked at his beloved ship gently, his eyes were like looking at the woman he liked.

This is a completely new concept battleship, the narrow hull does not seem to accommodate larger guns, so the gun deck is completely equipped with short-barreled Karen guns, this kind of gun has a short range, poor armor-piercing ability, and because of the oarsman deck, this 500-ton ship has a gun deck, and the firepower appears thin.

That's just the surface, the real killer of this battleship is the four hexagonal guns placed on the main deck!

There is a cable on the deck of the boat that ties a hot air balloon. The hot air balloon was 200 meters above the ship, standing high and seeing far away, and the observation post on the ship could see the target more than 30 nautical miles away.

"Report sir!" A soldier came to report it.

The captains of ships in the Nanyang Navy are all honored by the soldiers as commanders, not adults.

Zhang Jian turned his head: "What did you find?" ”

The soldier said, "The flag signal has been sent from the balloon!" Say we have a discovery in the 30-degree position in front of the port side! ”

"Drop the hot air balloon right away! Thirty degrees on the left side! Let's go check it out! Zhang Jian ordered.

The sailors on the fast battleship Star Island signal the flag, the observation posts on the hot air balloon above extinguish the flames, the hot air balloon slowly descends, and the sailors on the deck pull the cable and pull the hot air balloon back to the deck so that it does not fall into the sea. The Star Island then hoisted all its sails and headed northwest at the maximum speed of the sails.

The Dutch fleet, a patrol clipper on the periphery, suddenly spotted a ship on the eastern side of the sea.

"Report to the General! We found a ship of unknown nationality! The Dutch soldier reported to de Knight.

"It can't be an Oriental ship, right?" De Knight was puzzled.

Trope frowned slightly: "It is very likely that it is the ship of the Orientals!" But just one ship, what threat does it pose to us? ”

When the two sides were a little closer, the Dutch finally got a clear picture of the ship through their binoculars: it was a slender ship, with a Western-style bow and stern, but a particularly slender hull, and even more nondescript sails, both Western and Chinese.

"The Orientals have created such a monster? It's ridiculous! De Knight couldn't help but laugh. In his eyes, a hodgepodge of small boats can be very threatening. Looking at the tonnage of that ship, it is not large, and it is estimated that it is only more than 500 tons at most, which is only the level of a fourth-class cruiser.

"Let's get the patrol boat closer and see what's going on." Trop, who was more sedate, said.

The patrol clipper sent by the Dutch approached the strange ship, and this time the Dutch saw clearly that there were two decks below the main deck of the ship, one was obviously a gun deck, and the white gun doors and windows were tightly closed; There is another layer below the gun deck, but the hole is very small, and it is obviously not a gun deck, but more like an oar deck, except that the oars do not stick out. Looking at the flag hoisted by this ship, it is the sun and moon flag of the Daming Sailors.

"Sure enough, it's the ship of the Ming people!" Sailors on a Dutch clipper.

At this moment, the strange ship suddenly accelerated and rushed over, and at the same time opened the gun door, and a cannon protruded from the deck and aimed at the Dutch clipper.

"Let's go!" The Dutch officer shouted.

The sailors on the Dutch clipper paddled desperately with their oars and quickly picked up speed to escape. I heard the roaring sound of cannons behind me, and two shells came one after the other, falling into the sea water next to the Dutch clipper, and a column of water soared into the sky.

The strange ship did not chase the Dutch clipper, but made a big circle, outside the range of the Dutch fleet, passed by the side, and then followed the Dutch fleet, not far away.

De Knight felt that his mighty fleet was like a lion being played by rats, and it was infuriating that their fleet was going to Singapore to fight a decisive battle with the Ming fleet, and it would be a waste of time to send battleships back against the small ship. But being followed by this small boat, I felt as disgusting as eating flies.

When the Dutch fleet slowed down, so did the Ming ship; When the Dutch sent two battleships back to deal with the small boat, the small boat sped away, and what made the Dutch even more angry was that the small boat actually had oars and could speed away like a fast boat. After a while, seeing that there was no more danger, he followed again.

"This damn boat is as nasty as a mouse!" De Knight scolded.

For the whole day, the boat followed the Dutch. When it got dark, the boat still followed the Dutch fleet. When it got dark, de Knight thought his fleet would be able to get rid of the disgusting little ship by changing course. But one night passed, and the next morning, just after dawn, de Knight was furious to find that the boat was following him five or six miles away!

"No! Our tolerance is limited! I can't tolerate a rat-like boat following us all the time! It's hard for us! In case our transport gets behind and gets bitten by this damn boat, that's a big loss! We've got to sink this little wrecked ship! De Knight said angrily.

"Let's send a few ships to sink it!" Trop nodded.

"You don't need too many boats!" Distraught, de Knight yelled angrily, "We only need to send a fourth-class ship to sink this nasty ship to the bottom of the sea!" ”

Trop said, "It's better to be careful, let's send two fourth-class ships to chase this ship, in case the enemy has any ambush waiting for us?" The fourth-level ship is relatively fast, and the patient pursuit, the enemy is a galleys, and it can't last at high speed, as long as the fourth-level ship waits patiently, it can always catch up! If the enemy does have an ambush, let them come back immediately. ”

"Good! Then send two fourth-class ships and send this nasty guy to the bottom of the sea! De Knight gave the order.

The fourth-class cruisers of the Dutch fleet, the Black Swan and Fort Middle, broke away from the Dutch fleet, turned their bows, and galloped away towards the Ming battleship Star Island, which was still following them. These two Dutch fourth-class cruisers are both five-hundred-ton cruisers, and because they are fourth-class cruisers, they have a fast speed, with a maximum speed of ten knots. Each ship was armed with thirty-four cannons and two short-barreled guns, and on the surface it was more powerful than the clipper.

The two Dutch cruisers turned and headed for the Star Island at full speed.

When the Sing Tao saw the Dutch ship, it immediately turned around, and Zhang Jian also ordered the oarsman to stretch out the oars and row away.

On the oarsmen's deck, oars stick out of the cabin and into the water. At the rhythmic shouts of the oarsman commander, the Kunlun oarsmen rowed their oars, and the fast battleship soon reached a speed of thirteen knots, and under the angry gaze of the Dutch, the distance was narrowed a little. However, after rowing for about an hour, the oarsmen were tired and exhausted, and Zhang Jian gave the order, and the oarsmen put away their oars and sailed solely on the sails.

"The ship of the Ming people has slowed down again!" The Dutch sailor shouted pointing to the ship in front.

Two Dutch fourth-class cruisers caught up, and the distance between the two sides gradually narrowed. When the Dutch were about to catch up, the ship sped up again, as if playing with the Dutch, and quickly fled, pulling away from the Dutch, not letting the Dutch come within range of the artillery. To add insult to the anger of the Dutch, the boat also turned around and fired several shells as if provocatively.

At such a distance, the short-barreled Cullen guns naturally could not hit the Dutch warship, and all the shells fell on the sea a mile in front of the Dutch battleship, and a column of water rose to the sky.

"Stupid Orientals! It's so far away to fire! It seems that they are really a boat piloted by a group of farmers! The Dutch captain sneered.

The Dutch battleship chased after him, and the Ming battleship released its oars again and sped away.

"They're definitely playing tricks on us! Pull us away from our fleet! It's hard for us to catch up with them. "The captain of the Black Swan made the flag sound.

Fort Middleer replied: "Since we can't catch up, and even if we can, it will be very difficult, so let's just go back." ”

The two Dutch 4th cruisers had no choice but to turn around and catch up with the Dutch fleet, which was already far away. But at this time, the Ming army ship turned its head again, chased after it from behind, and released a few shells as if provocatively.

"What a damn thing! It seems that without sinking this odious ship, these Orientals will not give up! "A flag was raised from the Fort Middle.

The two Dutch warships changed their tactics, taking advantage of the advantage of two ships against one, and attacked from both flanks, with one ship chasing directly behind and the other outflanking. The Dutch knew that the high speed of the galleys could not last long, and that as long as the oarsmen ran out of strength, the Dutch ships could catch up with the fast warships of the Ming army.

"The red-haired ghost has been fooled! We lure them away from their fleet, and then sink them! Zhang Jian gave the order.

The fast battleship Star Island took the two fourth-class cruisers of the Dutch and pulled farther and farther away from the Dutch fleet. Zhang Jian's mood at this time was extremely excited, he knew that his four hexagonal guns were extremely powerful, but they had not been tested in actual combat, and it was still unknown whether the two Dutch cruisers could be sent to the bottom of the sea in a one-on-two situation. Only through the test of actual combat can the power of this weapon be proven.

The Black Swan and Fort Middle, which were already more than thirty nautical miles away from their fleet, were fleeing quickly and slowly from the Ming warships in front. Perhaps because the Ming oarsmen were already weak, the speed of the boat slowed down and was pulled closer by the Dutch.

"It's still two miles away! Tail gun ready! Zhang Jian gave the order.

On the emplacements of the hexagonal rifled guns in the two aft turrets, the soldiers wiped the chambers, loaded the gunpowder through the muzzle, and then loaded a long hexagonal shell into the bore from the muzzle.

The reload was completed, and everyone was excited and nervous before the launch began.

"Boom, boom, boom" There was a rumbling sound of artillery on the sea, it was the Dutch fourth-class ship that fired first, and there was still more than a mile away, that is, more than 600 meters, so far away, it was not easy for the Dutch smoothbore guns to hit the target.

"Fire!" Zhang Jian roared.

The two tail guns spewed fire in turn, making a deafening roar, white gunpowder smoke rose from the turret, and the cannonballs flew out of the muzzles, making a whistling sound that pierced the air, the sound was extremely harsh, if Wang Xinyu was there, he would find that it was simply the screaming sound of modern cannonballs!

The Dutch were all stunned when they heard the sound of Ming artillery shells cutting through the air.

However, the first round of shelling did not hit the target. Even in the era of rifled guns at the end of the XIX century, the hit rate of naval guns was not so high, and two out of ten shells were good. However, the distance is much closer now than the naval battles at the end of the 19th century, and the hit rate can be 5 to 60%. It was only the first round of shelling, some of the firing data were not well controlled, and the two shells all missed, fell into the sea, and a white column of water rose up.

"Oh my God! How many pounds of cannon is that? At least a sixty-four-pounder cannon! Oh no, the sixty-four-pounder isn't that loud! The Dutchman was dumbfounded as he watched the huge column of water rising from the sea.

"A hundred-pound cannon!" Someone screamed.

"How is that possible? How could such a small ship have a cannon of more than a hundred pounds? "The captain of the Black Swan simply didn't believe his eyes.

On the Star Island, the gunners re-revised the gunpowder reload and reloaded the shells. (To be continued.) )