After the black powder was launched, the thick smoke filled the area where the three ships were located, and even if the wind was not small now, it would not dissipate for a long time. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

When the No. 092 and No. 073 ships emitted heavy gunsmoke and staggered past the left and right sides of the pilot ship respectively, the pilot ships in a state of being caught in the middle looked extremely miserable.

The cabin on the middle floor of the hull was battered and tattered, and a large amount of blood seeped out of the cracks with the miserable wails of the crew.

The entire floor of personnel and artillery was basically swept away, and when no one put out the fire, the incendiary bombs exerted great power.

Semi-liquid coal tar, burning and flowing out of the small holes of the iron bullets, ignited the nearby ship's planks.

The fire began to spread on this level, occasionally hitting the blood-soaked planks, erupting into thick smoke and drifting through the cracks in the deck to the upper floor.

The captain of the pilot ship immediately ordered all the people to put out the fire, and the captain had no time to order his men to pursue, and when the smoke rose from below, he must choose to extinguish the fire first, otherwise, once the ship burned down, the whole ship would have to be buried together.

As for the two small ships that raided him, the captain believed that the fleet of 19 ships that followed him would help him teach him a good lesson for the daring raiders.

Ships 092 and 073 knew what lay ahead, and neither of them thought that their ships could be ten in one, so after the pilot ships staggered by, the new orders were taken out by their respective captains.

"Right full rudder."

"Left full rudder."

Ship 092 suddenly began to make a sharp turn to the left, and 073 began to make a sharp turn to the right. With the help of human-powered propellers and advanced rudder systems, the two ships quickly adjusted the boat to the same course as the pilot ship in a way that was absolutely impossible for sailboats of this era.

Just as the captain was sure that the angle was correct, the two lieutenants shouted "Raise the sails." ”

The second officer, with the sailors who had been prepared for a long time, subconsciously repeated the order "Raise the sails." ”

Then they worked together and began to pull the huge ropes, and began to raise several mainsails at the same time.

However, the sails were so heavy that even if everyone was out of the woods, the sails only rose slowly, and there was still a long way to go before they were fully raised.

The remaining 19 ships of Peter's flotilla spotted the battle ahead as early as 092 and 073 when they began firing, and all ships were ready for battle.

At this time, it was already following the wind and began to move closer to the pilot ship.

The two fast crabs, which had not fully raised their sails, were no slower than those with bulging sails, because in their bilges, dozens of sailors were sweating profusely on the transmission system.

Under the full operation of the manpower propeller, in a short period of time, the two fast crabs are really not easy to catch up with by the enemy.

However, after all, it is manpower, and there is no way to compare the staying power with the sail, so it is still necessary to raise the sail as soon as possible before the bilge sailor gets tired and lies down.

Otherwise, once it is surrounded by 20 search boats, even if Changshan Zhao Zilong is alive, it is impossible to survive the concentrated fire of hundreds of artillery.

However, the other sailors on the two fast crabs, 092 and 073, were not idle at this time.

After the two ships made a sharp turn, with the efforts of the bilge sailors, they once again caught up with the pilot ship that was still extinguishing the fire in front.

After changing directions, the side that had just not fired the cannon re-aimed at the pilot ship.

After a sharp turn, the distance between your ship and the pilot ship has become a little farther away, from the original 20 meters to more than 60 meters.

However, for a huge sea ship with a length of more than 50 meters, there is basically no difference between 20 meters and 60 meters, and it can be regarded as firing at the other party's head.

The two ships once again quickly swept past the pilot ship that was extinguishing the fire, and based on the experience just now, the gunners ordered this round of artillery to be a little too high.

As a result, a total of 20 shells of different types smashed between the upper and second decks of the opposing side, and caused great confusion among the sailors on the opposing ship.

A chain bullet hit the opponent's rear mast, and the entangled iron bullets transferred all the kinetic energy to the mast, causing him to fall on the upper deck with the sail and ignite by the incendiary bomb, causing great damage.

This time, the strength of the opponent's counterattack hit a lot, and a total of 5 guns fired projectiles, one of which hit ship 092 and two hit ship 073.

However, they were all small cannons that were lightweight, and they did not cause much damage to the two fast crabs.

As the sails on the fast crab rose higher and higher, the human propellers cooperated with the wind to increase the speed of the boat again, and the two boats easily crossed the pilot boat, which had lost one of its main sails.

At this time, the ships of the flotilla behind began to approach, and when they saw the tragic situation of the pilot ship, they were all a little angry, and the bow guns kept blasting towards the fast crab.

It's a pity that the distance between the two sides is at least 700 meters, and on the bumpy sea, it is too difficult to hit an object less than 10 meters wide with a smoothbore gun at this distance.

Several rounds of shelling by the enemy, nothing worked.

When the gunner of the No. 092 ship saw that the enemy had opened fire, he immediately ordered two gun crews to push two 10-pound long-barreled heavy guns to the stern of the ship through the track laid in the middle, ready to bombard the approaching enemy at any time.

Suddenly, after a loud bang, the sea not far from the 073 ship was splashed by a huge iron bullet, and a large amount of sea water washed onto the deck of the 073 ship, wetting the sailors' clothes who were trying to raise the sails.

The captain, first mate, second officer, gunner, and others immediately began to discuss.

"I'm the second Ao, such a big splash, how big is the projectile used by the enemy?"

"It's at least 20 pounds, and maybe higher."

"Is it wrong? The distance between us and the ship behind us is at least 6 or 700 meters, how can such a heavy projectile hit so far? ”

"I guess it's a long-barreled large-caliber gun."

"Long pipe? With such a large caliber, how heavy is that, if it is pressed on the bow of the ship, won't it be unbalanced from head to tail? Unless,"

"Unless it's a cannon with it in both bow and stern."

"That's the only possibility."

"Hey, it's been so long, why haven't you launched yet? Could it be that the enemy has only one ship with such a giant cannon? ”

"Can anyone see from which ship that shell was fired from?"

"Seems to be the slowest ship at the back."

"That makes sense, the ship can't run fast because it has heavy guns."

"So, go try that boat's catties?"

"I agree, let's come out, isn't it to collect intelligence, when we encounter such a hard stubble, we naturally have to give it a try."

"First mate, you go and ask the meaning of the flagship."

"Yes."