After the news was passed to William, William finally understood what these people were going to do. He knew better than anyone else www.biquge.info the power of the Caron cannon at close range, and he didn't want to taste the power of the 32-pound shotgun -- the top brass of the Qiongzhou battalion knew that the service life of the cannon sold to the Zheng family had shrunk, but its power had not.

"My God, inform all the ships to concentrate their fire on sinking these damn boats, not allowing them to organize an effective counterattack!"

Although the sailors in charge of the herald desperately sent flags to the other ships, it was clear that naval warfare in this era could not be forbidden, and the poor means of communication prevented William's orders from reaching the other ships for a while, and the rest of the ships were still attacking their chosen targets. And more and more people on the pier took the sampan to break through the blockade of the artillery fire, and after paying many casualties, someone finally climbed the big green head.

At this time, the port had become a mess, and due to the suddenness of the incident, the Zheng family had been in a state of passive beating, and there was no way to fight back. After enduring half an hour of shelling and sinking more than a dozen armed merchant ships, the Zheng family's main warship, Daqingtou, finally fired the first shot of the counterattack.

The nearest "Danzhou" was unlucky, and a large shotgun exploded in mid-air, splitting into countless grape-sized projectiles and flying towards the deck. Several sailors who were operating the cable were beaten into a sieve, and flesh fell to the deck in a blur; Liu Yishou, the first mate who commanded the battle at the bow of the ship, was also hit by a shotgun projectile in his left arm, and fell down with a scream, several of his subordinates hurriedly dragged him into the cabin, and after a closer look, the skin of the forearm of his left hand was open, and the white bones of Sensen had been exposed, and he didn't know if the bones were broken.

Immediately after that, several big green heads opened fire one after another, and the rumbling cannon sounded, and the shotgun projectiles flew like raindrops towards these "Yiren deck ships", and under surprise, several Wuyi-class battleships were hit by guns, and there were casualties of varying degrees. Fortunately, the shotguns could only kill and injure people in the open air on the deck, the gunners were on the lower deck, and the main combat forces were not damaged.

But even so, the Zheng family changed the decline of being beaten passively in an all-round way, which also made the people watching the battle on the dock excited, and they shouted: "Shoot these thieves with guns!" ”

Zheng Hongkui also breathed a sigh of relief, these short and heavy cannons bought at sky-high prices are really powerful and worth the money, otherwise in the face of this premeditated sneak attack, the Zheng family would not have time to organize the fireships and hand-to-hand combat tactics that they are good at, so they could only watch their own family being beaten passively.

After the shelling, the remaining seven warships of the Qiongzhou battalion reacted and began to concentrate their fire on these big green heads according to the flags issued by the flagship. This is the first time since the establishment of the Qiongzhou Battalion Navy that the artillery battle has been carried out, and the two sides have come and gone, the cannon is rumbling, and the eyes of the entire Zhongzuo port are all focused on this.

William hurriedly came to the cabin and asked Xia Nan for instructions: "General, our side has begun to have casualties, do you want to use shotguns to fight back?" ”

In a close-range artillery battle, when both sides are unable to sink the opponent's ships in a short time, it is a very efficient choice to "clean" the opponent's deck with shotguns, and this mode is more beneficial to the Qiongzhou battalion navy - their own gunners are on the gun deck in the middle sandwich and will not be fatally injured, while the opponent's guns are all set up on the open deck, as long as they are hit by shells, they will either be killed or injured, and they will directly withdraw from the battle.

Xia Nan decisively rejected William's proposal: "No! Our shotgun is too powerful, the Zheng family has seen it, and as soon as the cannon is fired, the identity will be revealed, then this sneak attack will be meaningless, not only will it not achieve the purpose of blaming the Dutch, but we will have to fight Zheng Zhilong in advance in the future, and this kind of consequence is something we can't afford. ”

William said smugly, "I can understand your strategic intentions, but such sacrifices could have been avoided, and it is not easy for us to train these pirates into qualified sailors......"

"I must correct your perception, William. Whether on land or at sea, casualties are inevitable. In previous battles, we had the absolute superiority in weapons and ships, so the casualties were minimal, but such good fortune did not always accompany us, and we had to face both good and bad. In the future, there will always be Dutch, Spaniards who will not be inferior to us too much in firepower, so we will have to grow in the war. Rather than paying a greater price in the future, it is better to use the current battle to give everyone a chance to practice in real combat. ”

William let out a long breath: "Well, I'll admit it, I was convinced by you, General. I'll command this battle. With that, he turned and walked out of the cabin.

Under the command of the flagship, all the Wuyi-class battleships broke out of the effective range of the Caron guns and cruised to a distance of 500 meters, forming a formation.

The sailors of the Zheng family on the head of Daqing were fighting happily, but they found that the opponent was not playing with him, and he didn't know why for a while, and looked at the other party blankly. The people on the shore cheered and discussed: "The thieves are afraid, this is to escape!" ”

Zheng Hongkui frowned, he didn't think that these people would give up the sneak attack easily, so he called one of his subordinates and ordered: "Send someone to the boat to inform the brothers, don't be led by their noses, operate the boat to meet them, and get close to the fight." He knew that this kind of short and heavy cannon was extremely powerful, but the range was not far, and the maximum power could only be exerted by close quarters, and as for what the opponent was going to do, he didn't know what he had to do, anyway, he had to follow his own combat mode.

It must be said that his idea was correct, but there was a noticeable time lag from the order to the operation, which was enough for the fleet of the Qiongzhou battalion.

Although the Qiongzhou Battalion fleet used a one-line array, it was not a standard "T" shaped tactic, but it was enough to deal with the big green heads with an average of less than ten guns per ship. Just as the sailors of the Zheng family were about to maneuver the ship to meet the front to fight, this miniature version of the battle line opened fire.

The power of concentrated firepower is amazing, 1+1 is greater than 2 at this time. "Boom, boom", accompanied by the thunderous sound of cannons, the 12-pounder cannons of the eight Wuyi-class battleships sprayed orange flames in unison, and the solid bullets rained down on the big Qingtou battleship that was still triumphant just now.

Although the weight of the shell is not as good as the 30-pound solid bullet fired by the Caron gun, the muzzle velocity of the long-barreled cannon is higher, the firing range is longer, the kinetic energy of the shell itself is greater, and the penetration is better, and it easily penetrates the hull, mast, and cabin of the big green head, and sawdust flies everywhere, and the sailors on the deck cry and shout for their mother, and they can't avoid it, and no one operates the cannon anymore, and the Zheng family's counterattack momentum came to an abrupt end.