Under the repeated demands of William and Lin Weiye, Xia Nan had no choice but to give up the plan to get on the boat for a close observation, and took the high-level personnel of the Qiongzhou battalion to stand on the shore, waiting for the start of the live-fire exercise. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The live-fire drill was carried out in a stationary state, and the target ship was a medium-sized Fu ship captured from the remnants of Liu Xiang, because the damage was relatively serious, although it was barely towed back from the port of Geranza, but there was no value in repairing and reusing, and it was just used to test the power of the explosive bomb.

The distance of the shelling was repeatedly considered, and in the end a distance of 300 meters was chosen. This distance is beyond the effective range of about 100 meters of the "copycat version of the Caron gun" equipped by the Zheng family, and it can ensure a good hit rate.

William gave the order, and the order was passed from the upper deck to the lower gun deck, and the gun commander gave the order to shoot. The artillery crew of up to 10 people began a busy firing operation, two people lifted the heavy spherical explosive bomb and gently put it into the gun chamber, and the end of the wooden conical letter tube was inserted in the direction of the gun muzzle to avoid being ignited by gunpowder prematurely - this kind of heavy explosive bomb is not fundamentally different from the grenade fired by the relatively small mountain gun, both of which are equipped with a saucer-shaped wooden cartridge at the opposite end of the letter tube to cushion the pressure of the chamber and stabilize the flight trajectory, and the bottom of the cartridge is a fixed charge pack, The tedious process of weighing gunpowder for firing is avoided.

An experienced gunner stood on the left side of the gun hull, punctured the fixed charge through the hole in the fire door, stuffed the fuse fixed by the wooden pipe, and ignited. The ignited fuse writhed like a sparkling snake into the chamber of the cannon.

At the same time, Xia Nan on the shore put down the monoculars and asked Lin Weiye beside him with some puzzlement: "I see that William's order has been given, and the flag of the herald has also been signaled, why haven't you seen the cannon yet?" ”

"Rest easy." Lin Weiye explained, "This cannon is no better than a 12-pounder mountain gun that can be operated by one or two people, it requires about 10 people to operate, and it takes more steps and firing time." You know, this is a British 8-inch, metric 203 mm caliber cannon, the weight of the explosive shell is 59 pounds, the metric 52 pounds of shells are about to catch up with the weight of an adult, just moving the shell into the barrel, and to avoid accidents caused by violent collisions, it is not an easy task, let alone the reset after the launch - the net weight of the gun body is 3 and a half tons, almost the weight of two off-road vehicles, you imagine how much strength you need to lift a car like the Overlord or the Land Patrol......"

Summer Nan was dumbfounded, the size and weight of this cannon were completely beyond his imagination.

At this moment, there was a "boom", and a deafening cannon sound came from the "Lingao", accompanied by dazzling flames, and a huge spherical cannonball accurately hit the target ship like a meteor.

Under the silent gaze of everyone on the ship and on the shore, the cannonballs easily smashed the wooden planks on the side of the hull like knives cutting tofu and burrowed into the inside of the hull.

A second later, with a muffled "bang", the shells exploded inside the hull, and a huge wave of air lifted the seemingly hard deck and hull, and various miscellaneous objects such as broken wood, tables and chairs, and blades were thrown into the air. After the deck collapsed, the tall mast lost its support and slowly fell, and the heavy hard sails slammed down on the sea, stirring up skyrocketing waves. The whole ship is like a doll torn from it, fragile and seemingly ready to disintegrate at any moment.

Everyone was stunned by the power of the cannon. In order to make a medium-sized ship lose its combat effectiveness, in the past, it was necessary to risk being boarded and jumped, and firing more than ten or twenty rounds of 30-kilogram solid bullets at close range to achieve this effect, but now it can be achieved with just one shot. The contrast is so great that everyone can't believe that all this is real.

Xia Nan muttered: "Lao Lin, this is cheating on the hanging, right?" I have some sympathy for Zheng Zhilong, as soon as this thing comes out, how can the Zheng family still play it? ”

Seeing the success of the test launch, Lin Weiye danced and celebrated. Hearing Xia Nan's words, he said with a smile: "The guys in the 19th century got it to the 17th century, and they were some bullies, Zheng Zhilong could only complain about his bad luck and ran into us." You know, even in the 19th century, before the advent of rifled guns, bombarders were the ultimate weapon that changed the rules of the game in naval warfare, not to mention the 17th century, when smoothbore guns were immature? ”

Murong Longcheng on the side couldn't help but ask: "With such a sharp weapon, can two or three big boats, carrying more than ten or twenty cannons like this, easily destroy Zheng Zhilong?" Do you still need to fight to the death like the red hair? ”

"No, no, no." Lin Weiye shook his right index finger, "First, this kind of cannon casting is not easy, and the output cannot go up; Second, explosive bombs are always a double-edged sword, which can destroy the opponent at the same time, but also the risk of destroying oneself; Third, the weight of a nearly 7,000-pound gun and the recoil generated when fired can only be equipped on a battleship of more than 1,000 tons, and such an expensive battleship cannot be built a lot. Therefore, no matter how good this cannon is, it can only be used as a trump card for the final word, not like the Caron cannon. ”

Xia Nan thought thoughtfully: "I understand, this big ship with bombardment is an aircraft carrier in the sail era and a nuclear weapon at sea, which is hugely powerful, but it can't be built like a cabbage?" ”

Lin Weiye nodded, "That's pretty much it." ”

Although Murong Longcheng didn't know what the so-called aircraft carrier and nuclear weapons were, the power of this cannon was witnessed with his own eyes, and he couldn't help but sigh: "Even if there are only one or two such big ships and only a few giant cannons, it is still a terrifying weapon." ”

The people on the shore were shocked, and William on the "Lingao" jumped up even more excitedly, such a powerful cannon was actually used for his own use, what could be more pleasant than this for a fleet commander?

Half a month later, two 1,000-ton warships equipped with 4 bombardment guns, 12 24-pounder guns, 18 12-pounder guns, and 20 32-pounder Caron guns were officially launched, and the most powerful warships in the entire Asian sea were born.

At the bow of the ship, Lin Weiye said to the complacent Xia Nan: "Name our first ship in East Asia?" ”

Xia Nanle replied: "As early as when the ship was built, the name and classification had already been thought of. The 500-ton and 280-ton warships respectively used the names of the two most warlike generals of the Ming Dynasty, and the 1,000-ton level used the name of the emperor with outstanding martial arts in this dynasty - Yongle. As for the ship number, the first one is called 'Shandong', and the second one is called 'Guangdong'! ”