William looked at Xia Nan, who nodded: "Their will has been destroyed, and the leader is dead, so they can be rescued." Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info we need more sailors. ”

Since the boss agreed, William ordered the group to lower the ropes and let those who had fallen into the water climb up. The pirates didn't expect Lin Chuanzong to touch the tiger's butt and save these accomplices, and they couldn't help but look at him with a hint of admiration.

The sudden encounter became the best teaching material, not only allowing William and others to verify the performance of the Caron cannon, but also completely deterring the captured pirates, witnessing with their own eyes the strength of the battleship and the cannon, which outweighed any coercion and temptation.

The pirates abandoned the darkness and turned into the crew of the "Lingao". Because of his performance that day, Lin Chuanzong won the favor of William and the admiration of the pirates, and was appointed as the boatswain of the "Lingao".

From being a waste in the eyes of an accomplice to being reused today, Lin Chuanzong cherished this opportunity, and he worked hard to learn everything about the ship, from the operation of Western-style sails to the shooting and maintenance of new cannons. After coming into contact with these never-before-seen weapons, he vaguely felt that the "new shopkeeper" was not a thing in the pool, and over time, not only would Zhu Cai Lao not be an opponent, but even a giant like Liu Xiang would fall under such a strong ship and cannon, and if he seized the opportunity, he would have the hope of getting ahead.

Affirmed by the actual combat test, Lin Weiye began mass production of the 32-pound Caron gun. In his plan, all tonnage warships could be equipped with this gun, the difference was only that different tonnage warships were paired with long-barreled cannons of different calibers. Sun Yuanhua was very interested in artillery, he was idle, and every day he took Wang Zheng to follow Lin Weiye in the arsenal and watch how the cannon was cast.

The Bofu shipyard increased its horsepower, and the fourth and fifth Wuyi-class battleships were also launched, just waiting for enough artillery armament and enough sailors to pilot. Charles began the construction of the 1,000-ton Yongle-class battleship, which needed more high-quality wood, and the craftsmen took their apprentices to Lingao, Chengmai and other places to find suitable trees. Fir wood, pine wood, iron wood and quince wood were all collected and transported to the shipyard, and even a considerable amount of camphor wood was purchased from Guangdong and Fujian.

After the "Lingao" gradually formed its combat effectiveness, Xia Nan's next plan was to recruit enough sailors, and he set his sights on the scattered pirate gangs in the waters of Guangdong.

Early one morning in the fifth year of Chongzhen, in the thick fog, three Wuyi-class warships appeared outside an island near Guangdong.

At the bow of the boat, Lin Chuanzong said to William: "Captain, this island is called Tuolu Island, with a radius of ten miles, not far from Guangdong. There is a group of men and horses on this island, and the leader is called Liu Heizi, who specializes in robbing merchant ships in the sea of Guangdong. "He was a fisherman from Guangdong and a former pirate, so he knew the geography of the neighborhood and the pirates entrenched on the islands.

"How many ships and how many people do they have?" William asked.

"Liu Heizi is not much stronger than my original shopkeeper, there are only five or six ships at most, and there are no more than five hundred people who can go to sea, and the rest are women and children."

William nodded: "The pirates don't go out to loot so early, the ship must be anchored somewhere." Find the ships, sink them, and Huang will take care of the rest. ”

Huang Hansheng led 300 escorts on the last two ships and participated in the operation together. Of course, the purpose of cracking down on pirates is not to maintain law and order in the waters of Guangdong, but to run in warships and sailors and train them in battle, and the more important purpose is to capture pirates and expand the strength of the fleet.

The flotilla followed the island's coastline to the northwest, rounding a cliff and soon discovering a natural harbor large enough for 20 medium-sized vessels, with six galleons quietly moored here. These ships have 200 or 400 fortune ships, as well as smaller wide ships, and several ships have a bronze cannon in the bow.

William whistled and said to Lin Chuanzong, "This is it." If the pirates here are not as large as you say, then they can't have any other ships, and there is no better natural harbor on such an island, which should be all they have. ”

He stretched out his palm and slashed forward: "Pass my order, the 'Lingao' will approach to two hundred meters, and all the artillery groups on the right side will be replaced with solid shells, and the target is to moor the ships, and two rounds of artillery bombardment!" ”

The sailors on the deck who were in charge of the herald went down to the gun deck and conveyed the order to the gun commander, who was in charge of all the artillery commands, and the gun commander ordered the Caron gun on the right to assemble the solid shells, light the torches, and prepare them for fire.

The "Lingao" has completed all the artillery configurations, with 4 12-pounder long-barreled cannons and 10 32-pounder Caron guns on each side, for a total of 28 guns. Due to the inability to keep up with the artillery production capacity and the lack of gunners, the other two new "Chengmai" and "Changhua" could only choose to run naked and temporarily act as troop carriers.

When everything was ready, William ordered: "Launch!" ”

The order was transmitted to the gunner at one level, the fuse was ignited, and the "zizi" burned, igniting the cartridge of the fixed shell.

"Boom, boom", there was a deafening loud bang, 4 12-pounder cannons and 10 32-pounder Caron cannons spewed flames at the same time, and 10 spherical cannonballs weighing nearly 30 pounds flew towards the six pirate ships.

The huge cannonball smashed the deck, the cabin, the hull with strong kinetic energy, smashed the mast, the heavy hard sail fell, the hull began to roll sideways, and the sea water slowly "clattered" into the large hole opened by the cannonball.

The second round of shelling began again, the shells whizzed and smashed more large holes, and the hull was devastated. A small tonnage ship had already been flooded too much and was slowly sinking. The rest of the ships had not yet sunk, but most of the masts were broken, the hull rolled into the water, and it was only a matter of time before they sank, and it was impossible to start.

With William's business done, all he had to do was block the entrance to the harbor, and the rest was the convoy.

The "Chengmai" and "Changhua" avoided the half-sunken pirate ship, and the escorts lowered their pedals and rushed down.

Huang Hansheng was the first to get off the boat, commanded everyone to get off the boat in order, and then lined up. After lining up, everyone is armed with rifles and moves forward in a fighting position. Their mission is to find the pirate's lair, defeat the pirate and capture as many prisoners as possible.

There was a commotion on the hillside across the beach, and a group of people ran down shouting, disheveled, waving their hands and seemingly awakened from their sleep by the sound of cannons.

Huang Hansheng smiled, "Save us trouble, send it to the door ourselves, so that we don't have to look for it everywhere." Turning back and ordering: "All reload and get ready to shoot." ”

(To be continued.) )