After listening to William's explanation, Xia Nan said regretfully: "That's really a pity, this battle line is so majestic, I didn't meet an evenly matched opponent, and I showed it to the blind." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

William grinned: "Although the T-shaped tactics cannot be fully used, the 14 battleships can still be used intensively, waiting for the opponent's gang jumping and hand-to-hand combat - once these ships get close, a round of shelling can send them to God." ”

Xia Nan asked: "What if Zheng Yiguan sacrifices the treasures of the fireboat?" ”

"The 16 280-ton patrol ships on the periphery will be able to make a difference. Such smaller patrol ships are not high-value targets in the eyes of arson boat operators, but they are flexible enough to sweep away these arsonboats, which can only go in a straight line. What is certain is that the suffering that the Dutch people have suffered will not happen to us. ”

Xia Nan remembered that he didn't seem to use the bombardment cannon just now, so he asked, "Why don't you use the bombardment cannon equipped on the Yongle class?" ”

"I heard that there is a saying in the state that you don't need a knife to kill chickens, and the bombardment cannons are used to deal with the excess firepower of these small boats, and the reserves of explosive bombs on the ship are limited, so you must keep the flagship and main force to deal with Zheng Yiguan."

As the two spoke, the situation on the battlefield quietly changed. Zheng Zhilong is worthy of being a hero across the ocean, and the subordinates of the Zheng family are worthy of being experienced in a hundred battles.

The bloated and slow troop carriers lowered their sails and slowly withdrew from the front-line battlefield, and countless big green heads of about 400 materials swooped up with great momentum, trying to get close to this line of death--in order to reduce the probability of being hit by shells, these big green heads did not gather into a fleet, but dispersed, and came to the sky like beans--under the cover of the main fleet of the Zheng family, nearly a hundred old ships of smaller tonnage were pouring oil on the cabin, ready to ignite themselves and rush over when the opponent was in disarray.

This kind of counterattack was also expected by William, and it was exactly the same as the battle of Luowan at the beginning - gunboat cover, fireboat charge, and finally hand-to-hand combat, under the existing conditions, Zheng Zhilong could use the tactics to go back and forth with these few tricks.

Looking at the fierce small gunboats, William estimated the distance and ordered: "The formation remains the same, the cannon shells three rounds, and then the Caron cannon fires shotguns!" ”

The order was conveyed to the rest of the warships by the herald under the banner, and the captain of the "Guangdong" Van Bommel was the first to launch an artillery bombardment, followed by the "Shandong", then the "Lingao", "Danzhou", "Chengmai", ...... "boom boom", the cannon sounded again, a series of orange-red flames flickered in the cannon window, from a distance, it seemed like a long series of fireworks spread from the middle to both ends, it was very beautiful, but this was a fireworks that brought death.

Thanks to the scattered formation, the probability of being shot by these attacking big green heads is much lower than when they were ambushed before, but the barrage is too dense, and there are still many ships that are shot in the head. Some of the ship's masts were swept and broken, and the sails fell, losing power and spinning in place; Some of the powder kegs on the decks of the ships were hit by scorching shells, exploded and caught fire, smoke billowed and withdrew from the battle.

Commanding these big green heads was Zheng Zhilong's brother Zheng Lian, who was also Zheng Cai's own brother, and after Zheng Hongkui was hidden, the two brothers quickly ascended to the throne, one replaced the fat cha of his Japanese business, and the other replaced the command of the gunboat fleet. In order to show the courage of his own soldiers, Zheng Lian stood at the bow of the ship to command, and he shouted loudly: "Tell the brothers, don't be afraid of casualties, the big dragon head has opened a reward, and those who die in battle will be given a pension of fifty taels of silver, if you can drag these big plywood boats and create an opportunity for the fireboats, after the deed is completed, the brothers in each boat will share three hundred taels of silver equally!" Rush over to me, hit me hard with a short cannon, as long as you get close, the big ship and the small boat are the same. ”

The high reward boosted the morale of these people, and they continued to rush forward in the face of heavy artillery fire.

William's estimate was very accurate, after three rounds of artillery bombardment, paying the heavy price of more than twenty ships withdrawing from the battle, these big green heads finally approached, and the distance between the two sides was less than two hundred meters, which was already the effective range of the Caron guns.

The sailors of the Zheng family gritted their teeth and loaded the shells, ready to give the opponent back the color, and the cannon on the side of the Qiongzhou battalion also stopped firing, cooled the barrel with cold water, and the Caron cannon was ready to fire.

"Boom, boom, boom", after a short silence, the Caron artillery on both sides opened fire, and on the sea more than 100 meters wide, raindrops of shrapnel projectiles flew around whining, and the dense barrage covered the sun.

The Zheng gunboat, which tried to save face with artillery bombardment, found that it was in a very embarrassing situation in this kind of counter-fire: due to the great difference in tonnage and volume between the two sides, the big green head comparable to the Wuxiang-class patrol ship, the open-air gun position on its deck, the impact point of horizontal firing was only a little higher than the waterline of the Wuyi-class battleship, it was difficult to reach the opponent's deck, and it was impossible to give full play to the power of the "deck killer" of the Caron gun + shotgun combination, as for the Yongle-class battleship several stories high, the Zheng gunners could only look up, and they couldn't even see the deck. Most of the Zheng family's shotguns smashed on the surface of the hull, leaving deep bullet marks, and then fell into the sea, and only a few projectiles flew in through the gun window with great luck, killing several gunners.

The gun deck in the middle of the hull is just parallel to the opponent's open-air deck, and there is no need to adjust even the firing of Zhu Yuan, and the gun muzzle is flat and fires directly, which is as simple as a live-fire drill on weekdays.

If it is a solid bullet, the two sides are in an equal position, and the Zheng family even has an advantage - the solid bullet can directly hit the opponent's waterline, as long as the hole is smashed open and the seawater is poured in, it is enough for the opponent to drink a pot. But now it was shotgun shooting, and after a round of artillery bombardment, more than half of the gun positions of the Zheng family were removed, the gunners were beaten into a sieve, and many ships lost their combat ability in an instant.

Zheng Lian was sweating profusely and hid under the side of the ship to avoid the raindrops of projectiles, without the momentum he had just had. An experienced subordinate next to him reminded him: "If you are in charge, you can't use grape bullets, we are too disadvantaged, change to solid bullets, right?" ”

Zheng Lian suddenly realized, "Yes, yes, change to a solid bullet!" ”

The Zheng family finally reacted and changed to a solid bullet. Although the armor-piercing ability of the Caron cannon is not as good as that of the cannon, the solid bullet weighing 30 catties still has good penetration at short distances, although the Qiongzhou battalion battleship is designed for artillery warfare, and the thickness of the hull is far more than that of the gunboats of the Zheng family, and even more than the armed merchant ships of the Dutch for commercial warfare, but under the blow of multiple shells in a row, there are still ships that have been pierced through the side.

After the damage to the ship's hull, the ship's carpenters hurried down to the gun deck with materials and tools to repair it in the face of gunfire. Thankfully, no solid shells fell into the gun deck to ignite gunpowder or even explosive shells. At the beginning of the war, the Qiongzhou battalion finally faced a real threat.