The Zheng family's big Qingtou gunboat counterattacked with solid shells, causing some trouble to the Qiongzhou battalion fleet, so much so that the carpenters on the ship were used for the first time in actual combat. Carpenters on ships www.biquge.info a common practice in the West after naval artillery warfare began to become the mainstream, carpenters were a "high" profession on warships, and the British Royal Navy attached more importance to artillery warfare than other countries, and William introduced this system to the Qiongzhou Battalion Navy. Practice has proved that this well-trained wartime emergency repair has achieved remarkable results, avoiding the danger of secondary shelling damage and flooding and sinking of damaged parts.

The power of the solid bullet when it smashed through the hull was enormous, and William and others, who were in command on a huge ship like the "Guangdong", felt the shock. Some pirate-turned-sailors panicked a little, and in their previous experience, this level of shelling was enough to destroy or sink a ship.

Van Bommel, who is experienced in naval warfare, knew that such panic would affect morale, and shouted: "Don't panic, our battleships are strong enough to hold on to the fire, and soon the gunboats on the opposite side will collapse!" ”

As if to confirm his words, the frequency of firing of the Zheng family's gunboats gradually decreased. After all, with an unconcealed open-air gun emplacement on one side and a tightly covered gun deck on the other, the Zheng family suffered too many losses, and the battle damage ratio was frighteningly high.

William did not order to change to solid bullets to bombard, in his opinion, as long as the firepower points on the open deck of the Zheng family were cleared, these big green heads would be no threat, which was much more efficient than sinking the opponent with solid bullets.

Under the continuous strafing of shotguns, one after another the big green heads withdrew from the battle. No matter how brave the Zheng family's gunners are, after all, they are only flesh and blood, how can they resist such a dense metal storm?

Zheng Lian, who was in charge of the command, didn't have time to be happy, the battle situation had become extremely bad, although the damage caused by solid bullets was greater than that of shotguns, but none of the opponent's rough-skinned and thick-skinned battleships were sunk, and the artillery fire of the counterattack was sharper, so it couldn't last long.

Just when Zheng Lian was considering whether to retreat, the next incident made the Zheng family's gunboat even worse. The sound of "bang" is different from the muffled sound of firing a cannon, a short and heavy cannon can't withstand the continuous firing, and it explodes! The shirtless gunner was tossed high by the air waves, and then fell heavily to the deck, becoming a bloody corpse.

Lin Weiye's insidious trick of using white iron as a material finally worked at the height of the battle, shortly after the first cannon blew up, followed by the second and third...... Perhaps because of the use of the same material and the same casting technology, the limits of these cannons are almost the same, and after firing twenty or thirty shells, they expand due to heat and cracks, and then explode one after another under the action of high pressure in the chamber.

This became the last straw that crushed the Zheng family's gunboat, the original battle situation was not good for him, and now he is still blowing up, and he can't play. No matter how Zheng Lian shouted, the surviving gunners either hid in the bilge or jumped into the sea to avoid the seemingly never-ending rain of bullets on the opposite side. The Zheng family's gunboat offensive collapsed completely.

Van Bommel on the "Guangdong" waved his fist excitedly, he had suffered from such a short cannon a few months ago, and now after changing the court, he finally got rid of it. And the commander of the fleet, William, had no time to pay attention to the local battle situation, and his eyes were already on the vast sea.

At this time, the fire fleet temporarily assembled by the Zheng family's fire line was already ready, just waiting for the order to attack.

Although Zheng Zhilong also saw that the gunboat's hand-to-hand combat had little effect and could not play a covering role in the fireship's attack, he had no other choice but to choose the best tactic to give it a go.

The Zheng family's dragon head gave an order, and nearly 100 fireships rushed towards the "battle line" that was still standing still. In Zheng Zhilong's view, these dozen or so huge plywood boats are the main force of the Qiongzhou battalion, and as long as these boats are burned, he still has a chance to win.

At a distance of two miles, the dead men of the fireship set fire to their own ship. At the moment, the west wind is blowing, which is exactly downwind, and after the fireboat is ignited, even if the operator jumps into the sea, under the action of wind and inertia, the fireboat will still rush into the opposite formation. This kind of trick has been used by the Zheng family countless times, and there are few times when they miss.

The distance is getting closer, 1000 meters, 800 meters, 600 meters...... At only a mile away, everyone was ready to jump off the ship, because if they didn't jump, they would have to enter the best range of the opponent's artillery, endure the "baptism" of artillery fire, and risk dying with their own fireboats.

At this time, the sudden change occurred, and nearly 20 Wuxiang-class patrol ships that had been cruising around the periphery "doing nothing" quietly entered the battlefield and outflanked them from both sides, forming a situation of encircling the fireship fleet.

The dead soldiers who were about to jump ship were stunned when they saw it, what was this going to do?

Just as they hesitated and hesitated, "boom, boom", the Caron guns on the decks of the Wuxiang-class patrol ships on both sides opened fire, and instead of using shotguns as usual, they fired solid bullets directly, apparently trying to sink these small ships directly.

Only then did the people on the boat react, and they hurriedly jumped into the water to escape for their lives, and their heads were cut off by the big iron bumps of the head when they jumped slowly, and they died with a whimper.

The blazing fireboat lost control and continued on its way, pushed by the wind, only at a slower pace. Under the fire of artillery fire on both sides, from time to time, fireships were continuously shot, rolled over and sank into the sea.

When the "unmanned" fireship struggled to move forward under artillery fire, the oncoming cannon sound also sounded, which solved the problem of the Yongle-class and Wuyi-class of Daqingtou freeing up their hands to shell the incoming fireship head-on.

The flotilla of fireships shelled on three sides became rats in bellows, and under the intense artillery fire, one after another the fireships broke down and entered the water, floating on the surface of the sea, and became floating "torches".

Zheng Zhilong saw that the offensive of the fireship was about to be stifled, and his heart was half cold, this battle was controlled everywhere, and the fight was too aggrieved. After half a ring, he spit out a sentence: "Let the third brother go!" ”

When the third Zheng Zhibao heard this order, he bowed his hand silently, and then went down. He replaced the position of the second brother Zheng Zhihu, responsible for leading the Zheng family's most elite subordinates to jump in hand-to-hand combat, compared with the high-spirited Zheng Zhihu at the beginning, Zheng Zhibao at this moment felt more helpless, at that time it was to seize the boat in the advantageous situation, but at this time it was a gamble when the donkey skills were poor. He had an ominous premonition that it would be difficult for him to come back alive.

When the Zheng family was about to use the last crowd tactic, the offensive of the fireships had basically collapsed, and only a dozen ships were lucky enough to break through the interception of the firepower network, and finally completed their mission and crashed headlong into the tall battleship. It's just that a fire attack on a small scale is almost like tickling, and the sailors on the battleship quickly succeeded in extinguishing the fire.