In July 1634, a large-scale naval battle finally broke out. [No pop-up novel network]

In the middle of the Las Parmas and Madeira Islands, the White Navy concentrated 300 large warships and the Western Combined Fleet concentrated 500 warships, and launched a protracted battle. Since July, the waters south of Madeira have been in a state of war. Except for the silent night, the sound of artillery almost never stopped. The purpose of each side is to consume the living force of the other.

The White Army Navy is based in the Las Palmas Islands, and the Western Combined Fleet is based in the Madeira Islands, constantly sending a large number of warships to fight on the vast sea. The fierce fighting lasted for most of the year. By the beginning of 1635, the loss of the combined fleet of the West had exceeded 200 warships.

Of course, that's all for later. Any large-scale naval battle begins with a small battle. The engagement, known as the First Battle of the Atlantic, began with the battle between the White Navy's Fourth Fleet and the British fleet. To be precise, the time of the battle was July 23, 1634.

On that day, the sun had just come out, and the observation posts of the white-clothed navy had already spotted the traces of the enemy fleet. This is a mixed fleet of Western countries, with about 150 warships of various colors. On the side of the White Army Navy, there are three detachments led by Chen Xinhai himself. The specific numbers are the Fourth Fleet, the Ninth Fleet, and the Fifteenth Fleet.

Xu Canxu's own position is a deck member. Therefore, in the initial stages of the battle, there was basically nothing to do with him. His only task is to be ready to replace others at any time. Due to the distance between the two sides, there were no casualties, so he had no need to replace someone else. Since there is no task, he is happy to watch the excitement at leisure.

From the telescope, the number of warships in the Western Combined Fleet is very large, which is more than 30% more than the number of warships on the side of the White Army Navy. However, the tonnage of the enemy's warships does not seem to be as large as that of the white-coat navy. On the side of the white-clothed navy, there are basically large warships with a displacement of more than 1,500 tons. And on the side of the enemy's fleet, there are also warships with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons. You can see at a glance which is better and which is worse.

The combined fleet of the West put on an aggressive posture of taking the initiative to attack. Their battleships, lined up in a T-shape, tried to tear apart the battleships of the White Navy with powerful artillery fire. If the white-coated navy is not fooled, the losses will definitely be great. However, the warships of the White Army Navy are not fools either. With Chen Xinhai's order, the warships of the white-clothed navy were also arranged in a line.

Seeing that the white-coated navy did not take the bait, the Western Combined Fleet put on a T-shaped lower horizontal again, obviously, this is going to take an offensive formation. If they break through from the middle, and all the guns on both sides of the battleship are fired, the losses of the white-clothed navy will also be very serious. As a result, Chen Xinhai quickly gave the order and also put on a column formation. In this way, the two sides have only a hard-hitting choice.

There is no doubt that going head-to-head is not the best option. The so-called killing of 1,000 enemies and self-loss of 800 is said to be such a situation. No clever general will easily go head-to-head with the enemy. Otherwise, even if it is won, it will be a very costly victory. What the consequences of the pyrrhic victory will be, it is not known. However, in the case that the formation cannot completely overwhelm the opponent, the chess match will meet the opponent, and the only choice will be the hard encounter.

There is a big difference between naval and land warfare. The mobile surname of the battleship is much worse than the mobile surname of the warhorse. If you repeatedly maneuver the battleship, it will inevitably lead to your own confusion. Besides, it is too difficult to communicate on the sea. It is a very difficult thing for any order to be conveyed to all the warships. The chance of error is almost 100%. Therefore, a wise admiral will never change his order repeatedly.

Basically, once both sides have made up their minds about what strategy to adopt, they will try to implement what strategy they will in the next battle. The risk of changing formations is very great. From a probabilistic point of view, the probability of failure is much higher than the probability of success. If you are attacked by the other side when you change formation, it will be a tragedy.

Finally, after realizing that it was impossible to obtain a strategic advantage, the Western Combined Fleet decided to use all its warships to launch a frontal assault on the White Coats Navy. All the warships of the Western Combined Fleet hoisted the red pennant to the top of the mast. The meaning of this action is not clear to the white-clothed navy for the time being, but judging from the actions of the opposing warships, the Western Combined Fleet should be ready to fight to the death with the white-clothed navy.

"Commander, how do we deal with it?" Zhou Jian asked in a low voice.

"They attack theirs, and we fight ours." Chen Xinhai replied calmly.

His order was for each detachment to choose its own combat opportunities and seek opportunities to attack. Their purpose is not to block the attack of enemy warships, nor do they need to achieve any strategic goals, they only need to find a way to sink a few enemy warships, even if they complete the mission. Of course, if it is possible, it is also possible to sink a dozen enemy warships. In the event of a dangerous situation, the individual detachments can deal with it on the fly and do not need to ask for instructions.

Obviously, Chen Xinhai did not want to wipe out the entire Western Combined Fleet in a single battle. His aim was to inflict certain losses on the enemy and to dampen his morale. The enemy loses a few battleships today, and a few battleships tomorrow, and the effect will definitely show itself slowly. From a long-term point of view, the follow-up development of the White Navy Navy will be much stronger than that of the Western Combined Fleet.

Don't look at the current Western Combined Fleet, in terms of the number of warships, it is a little more than the White Navy. In fact, this is already the end of the crossbow of the Western powers. They have vacated all the warships. However, a considerable part of the warships of the White Navy carried out missions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and did not participate in the decisive battle.

In terms of the stamina for building warships, the Western powers are no match for the White Army. The current white-clothed army, which controls the vast area along the Pacific and Indian Ocean coasts, tens of millions of square kilometers of land, hundreds of millions of people, and financial revenue, is absolutely astronomical. The capture of the white-clothed army on the battlefield alone was enough to build tens of thousands of large warships.

For example, when the white-clothed army conquered the Mughal Dynasty this time, they plundered more than five million taels of gold and tens of millions of taels of silver. So much wealth is concentrated in Xu Xingxia's hands, and he likes to be reckless and militaristic, so he is naturally crazy about expanding his army. There is no longer any need for the army to continue to expand, so a large amount of military spending is naturally tilted towards the navy.

At present, the white-coated navy has new large warships launched almost every day, and the total number and tonnage of warships are constantly increasing. In fact, in the sixth year of Taichang, the total strength of the navy had surpassed that of the army and became the largest branch of the white-clothed army. Now, the total number of soldiers in the white-coated army and navy is close to a staggering 500,000.

On the contrary, the Western powers could only control the Atlantic, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean for maritime trade, and the profits of trade continued to shrink. Without enough profits, there will be no fiscal revenues. There is not enough financial revenue, and naturally there is not enough military spending. Without enough military spending, there will be no sufficient number of warships. It's a matter of the same vein.

Moreover, behind Chen Xinhai, the White Army Navy already has at least five detachments, heading from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of the Americas. They will set up port bases in places such as Caenne and Pernambuco. Their purpose is to harass and control the Americas and covet the Caribbean. If possible, take control of the Caribbean.

Of course, these detachments of the White Coats Navy did not come to the Americas to visit. Their goal was to disrupt as much as possible the maritime trade and transportation lines of the Western powers, and to plunder, capture, and sink the enemy's merchant ships. Xu Xingxia had already ordered that no matter what method they adopted, as long as they could inflict effective damage on the enemy, they could gain combat merits.

There is no doubt that Xu Xingxia's order is definitely a great blessing for some admirals from special backgrounds. Many of the admirals of the Western powers were pirates. Some of the generals of the White Army and Navy were pirates. Among them, the most famous ones are Zheng Zhilong, Yan Siqi and others. They turned out to be pirates, but later they felt the strength of the White Army Navy, so they applied to join the White Army Navy.

This time, Zheng Zhilong, Yan Siqi and others were all sent to the east coast of the American continent. When they passed by Kalihet, Xu Xingxia summoned them and gave them a face-to-face lecture. One can imagine what the consequences would be if five fierce pirates appeared in places like the Caribbean and passed by such a merchant ship. Not to mention wealth, I am afraid that even the most basic shipbuilding timber needed by the Western powers will not be able to maintain a sufficient supply.

"White Coats Navy ...... Are they going their own way? Good! We attack! For the sake of the British Empire, forge ahead! At this time, the Western Combined Fleet also began to move.

Nominally, it is a combined fleet of the West, centralized management, centralized command, and centralized combat, but in fact, it is still the fleets of various countries under their own command. No country would be willing to surrender its fleet to the other. They just tried to coordinate their actions as much as they could.

The first to bear, of course, was the fleet of the Dutch. Secondly, there is the fleet of the British. They have always been the most active in fighting against the white-coated navy. This time, the combined fleet of the West took the initiative to attack, and the British decided to take the lead.

The Fourth Fleet of the White Navy, facing a detachment of the British Navy.

At that time, the British Navy had not yet been called royal or something. They are still called the British Navy. The commander of this British naval detachment was called Lafaydy. The military rank is Rear Admiral. He was a typical pirate by birth, but later cleared his name and joined the British Navy. In terms of combat experience, it is still very rich.

"One-on-one? Very good! Let's go on the offensive! Lafaity said in a deep voice.

Lafayette is still very confident in his detachment. His detachment had more than thirty large warships. Among them, there are 20 warships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. Moreover, most of these battleships have only recently been launched. Both technically and in terms of quality, it is quite guaranteed.

In order to defeat the imposing white-clothed army, the British once again made a relatively large improvement in the casting of cannons. On large warships, they installed smoothbore guns with a caliber of more than 360 mm. This super-large-caliber smoothbore gun can throw an 80-pound solid bullet hundreds of meters away. If it is a shotgun, the range is more than 3,000 meters.

Of course, this is not the most important reason. The most important reason was that Lafayette had full confidence in the artillery skills of his detachment. The British Navy has always placed special emphasis on artillery artillery, and their officers and sailors have put a lot of hard work into it. This is also the confidence of the British to defeat the Dutch repeatedly. The defeat of the Spanish Armada at the beginning was also due to the artillery skills practiced hard by the British.

"Approaching to three hundred meters, open fire!" Lafaydi categorically ordered.

At a distance of less than three hundred meters, absolutely no artillery is fired, this is the unwritten rule of the British Navy.

No one knows when this rule was handed down. However, all the British admirals silently complied. Research shows that this rule is still very scientifically based. Because, for a smoothbore gun, if the firing range exceeds three hundred meters, the hit rate is basically miserable. Even the most clever gunner cannot guarantee that he will hit the target with ten solid rounds. Rather than wasting shells in vain, exhausting the gunners, and depleting morale, it is better to wait for the enemy ship to enter a distance of three hundred meters and hit in one fell swoop.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Before Lafaity's words fell, a mighty cannon fire came.

But it was the battleships of the White Army Navy that opened fire. The white-clothed navy does not have a rule of never firing artillery at a distance of less than 300 meters, and as long as there is an opportunity, they will not hesitate to open fire. At this time, the distance between the two fleets is at least 1,500 meters!

Xu Canxu stood on the top of the deck, holding a telescope to carefully observe the impact point. But I saw that one after another cannonballs roared away, constantly falling on the sea surface and exploding, stirring up a large number of water columns. It's a pity that those water columns are relatively far away from the British battleships, and even the splash of water can't splash on the British battleships. In the first round of firing, no shells hit.

It's not that the level of gunners in the White Army Navy is too poor. From the first year of Taichang to 1634, the white-clothed navy had been fighting on the sea for more than ten years. More than ten years is enough time for the White Army Navy to train a group of experienced gunners.

The gunners of the Fourth Fleet are quite level. The reason why I didn't hit it was because it was too far away. To be honest, at such a distance, it is entirely up to God for the howitzer to accurately hit the opponent.

Of course, if the British despised the White Navy because of this, they must have suffered. Because, after the first round of shelling, the gunners of the White Army Navy will quickly adjust the firing parameters. With the help of rangefinders and goniometers, the battleships of the British were not so lucky for the next round of firing.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Sure enough, the second round of firing of the navy of the white-coated army soon began again.

The huge recoil generated when the howitzer was fired made Xu Canxu feel that the soles of his feet were constantly trembling. For some reason, he felt that the second round of shelling was obviously more violent and ferocious than the first round. The vibration of his heart was even stronger. It is estimated that it was the first round of shelling, only some of the artillery fired. After adjusting the firing parameters, all howitzers will be fully fired.

In the roaring sound of cannons, one after another shells whizzed towards the British battleship. Sure enough, after adjusting the firing parameters, the hit rate of the howitzer was greatly improved. A large column of water rose in the middle of the British battleship. The splash of water shrouded the nearby British battleships in a white mist.

"Boom!"

"Whoa!"

Suddenly, a deafening loud bang came, which made Xu Canxu feel shocked.

He hurriedly turned his head and looked in the direction where the loud noise had come from. I saw a dazzling fire erupt from the telescope, as if the sun had exploded in an instant, stabbing his eyes almost unbearable, and tears couldn't help but flow out.

He hurriedly wiped away his tears, and when he looked closely, it was a British battleship that was hit directly by howitzers in the middle of the ship's midboard, and it caught fire. It is not known what the shell hit, which caused a raging fire, and the light of the fire seemed to hide the light of the sun. The British sailors on the battleship desperately tried to stop the spread of the fire.

However, the damage from the explosion of the howitzer was simply too great for them to compensate. The raging fire continued to spread in all directions. The flames even burrowed into the cabin. Soon, the captain had to announce the abandonment of ship. A large number of British sailors jumped into the water to escape. The entire sea surface suddenly boiled.

"What's going on?" Lafaydie's face was very ugly.

There were still thousands of meters away from the battleships of the White Navy, and his fleet had lost one battleship, which was indeed not a good sign. He had to wonder, could it be that the Dutch really did not exaggerate? Could it be that the artillery fire of the white-clothed army and navy is really so powerful? Can a single shell really destroy a large warship?

Earlier, although the British received some news from the Dutch, they learned that the artillery of the White Army Navy was powerful. However, after all, they have not tried it themselves, so naturally they will not easily believe it. Because of their previous hostile relationship with the Dutch, they thought that the Dutch were deliberately exaggerating to cover up their ugly defeat in the East! But now, the British have to believe it.

The artillery fire of the white-clothed army is really so powerful!

A single shell can really destroy a large battleship!

"Boom!"

Suddenly, there was another muffled sound.

But it was the British battleship that suddenly exploded violently.

It is estimated that the raging fire detonated the ship's ammunition bay, causing an unprecedented explosion. The violent explosion immediately completely destroyed the British battleship, and the fragments sank directly into the sea. From the time the battleship was hit to the time it sank, it seemed that there were less than twenty minutes in between. Such a rapid rate of sinking really surprised the British. In addition to being surprised, they began to feel a hint of fear again.

"Damn it! Hum! Rafaydi's face was so gloomy that it was almost raining.

There is no doubt that the sudden sinking of the British battleship was an absolutely serious blow to the morale of the British Navy. It is estimated that many British naval officers and sailors will feel a blow to the head and a little numb when they see the sinking of this British [***] ship. The number of warships of the British Navy, although not as large as the Dutch, and not as large as the tonnage of the Dutch, but, judging by the results of the battle, it was clear that the British were going to gain the upper hand.

Since defeating the Spanish Armada, the British Navy has never lost a warship in battle! In every naval battle, the British Navy was the first to damage or sink an enemy ship. After a long time, the British even had the illusion that their warship would never be the first to sink. Unexpectedly, this good record was destroyed by the white-clothed navy.

"Boom!"

Unexpectedly, another loud bang came.

Another British battleship was hit by a shell and was in danger.

The British battleship, although it did not catch fire and burn, although there were no visible scars in the outward appearance, although the dynamics on the sea surface did not change significantly. However, the interior of its cabin was already a hopeless mess. Somehow, the shells of the white-clad navy actually went straight through the deck and exploded in the cabin.

The interior of a battleship's cabin has always been the most vulnerable. There are people, artillery, and ammunition, and once they explode, the consequences will be unimaginable. The 75-millimeter shell fired by the White Navy exploded right in the middle of the cabin. As a result, everything around was completely destroyed. The cannon of the blown out gun carriage rolled back and forth in the cabin. There are also powder kegs that are also rolling back and forth, and they may explode at any time.

"Poof!"

"Poof!"

The situation was so dangerous that without waiting for the captain's order, the British sailors jumped into the water to escape.

Sure enough, the choice of those British sailors was absolutely correct. Because, in less than five minutes, the battleship had many small explosions in a row, the sides of the ship were penetrated in many places, and the sea water poured in desperately, causing the battleship to continue to sink. About thirty minutes later, the British battleship completely disappeared below sea level.

"Damn it! Damn white-clad army, I won't let you go! "The sinking of two large warships in a row, Lafaydi's cheeks are about to twist. How could the proud British Navy be beaten such an occasion, in full view of other powers?

(To be continued)