Watching from afar the clouds of smoke rising from the sides of the enemy warship, and the muffled sound of cannons, Sidney did not react.

This is the ultimate range of a ship's smoothbore gun, and in terms of the accuracy of a smoothbore gun, the chance of a battleship being hit by a shell at a distance here is about the same as a person being hit by bird droppings. And even if it was blindfolded by the other party, the potential energy of the shells flying here would have been exhausted long ago, and it would not be able to cause any damage to the thick hull at all.

This is just a deterrent artillery bombardment by the troop transport fleet, the purpose of which is to make the invading fleet make evasive voyages to slow down their ships and buy time for their own fleet.

The flying shells smashed one column after another within a hundred meters of the fleet's circumference.

Without Sidney's orders, the First Fleet did not make any tactical evasive moves, and still maintained a high speed.

The distance between the two fleets was rapidly approaching, and the troop transport fleet was at a disadvantage in position and formation, and the sense of urgency made Lucius urge the Pegasus Knights to delay the enemy fleet as quickly as possible.

The Pegasus Knights, who had always been in a fighting style, began to increase their threat to the sails, and they whizzed through the air in groups of two or three, trying their best to pull out the gaps in the defense of the griffins, and break through the griffins' protective circle at every opportunity.

However, this time, the Pegasus Knights encountered a royal griffin knight who was a professional bodyguard, and Shu Xiao not only had to resist the attack of the Pegasus Knight himself, but also commanded the griffin to be deployed layer by layer to ensure that the sails of his own warship were foolproof.

After a dazzling tactical pullback, the Pegasus Knights failed to break through the griffons' defenses, killing four griffons and six of them themselves.

The onslaught of the Pegasus Knights was contained, and the Pegasus pulled away from the griffins to raise their strength and prepare for the next assault, while Sidney's First Fleet came into the optimal range of the ship's guns.

"All the battleships obeyed the order, turned the rudder 15 degrees to the right, all the guns went into the gun position, and the target was the brig four." Iron Plate Armor' reports your vision. ”

"Iron Plate Armor" is the first fleet to drag behind the battleship, and it will be the last to adjust its angle during the turning of the entire fleet.

And the Brig No. 4 of the troop transport fleet is also the fourth battleship in the sequence of five ships of the enemy fleet, and now it is 200 meters behind the right rear of the troop transport convoy and is entering the formation course. At an angle, the stern of the Brig IV had leaked sideways under the guns of the First Fleet's port side guns.

Under Sidney's orders, the muzzles of all the First Fleet's port guns protruded from the gun doors, and the swarthy naval guns were aimed at the enemy fleet's brig No. 4.

The strongest part of a battleship's defense is the walls of the two sides, where the wood is not only thickened, but also the armor plates attached to the important parts. The bow and stern are affected by the load of the whole ship and the proportion of the front and rear, and the defense is relatively weak, especially the stern, where the rudder, captain's room, and bridge are located. Therefore, if a ship's stern is damaged from the rear through the rear, it is likely to be incapacitated in a short period of time.

Therefore, when it was discovered that the incoming fleet had begun to enter the shelling position, the brig No. 4 of the escort fleet did not dare to maintain the course of entering the formation, and urgently turned the rudder to prepare to meet the shelling with its starboard side.

Sidney's ears kept echoing the angle of the captain of the Iron Plate Armor.

However, the tail ship did not enter the angle of shelling for a long time, and the enemy brig No. 4 clearly showed signs of turning the rudder to protect its weak position.

Farther away, the artillery of the troop carrier fleet was firing incessantly, and the shells were already getting closer and closer to the First Fleet. At this moment, Sidney decided not to wait for the "Iron Plate Armor" and ordered the entire fleet to fire a salvo at the enemy brig four.

"Fire!"

"Boom Boom ......"

The 50 guns on the port side of the First Fleet opened fire in this way from the 1st Artillery Group, and it took 10 seconds to tilt 50 shells towards the enemy brig No. 4.

The gunners who had finished firing did not care what they had hit, and under the orders of the gunner, they pulled the gun, with its muzzle, into the hold, quickly cleared the gun, loaded the gunpowder and shells, and then pushed the muzzle out of the gun door again.

Sidney set up his binoculars, and 50 shells flew in a low parabola in the air towards the enemy brig No. 4.

At this time, the hull of the "Skeleton Soldier" shook slightly.

Shot! But nothing, a shell hitting the side can't do much damage to the "Skeleton".

Sidney continued to observe the effects of this shelling.

Fifty shells fell around the enemy brig No. 4, and the jets of water that splashed at close range almost submerged the small brigs.

The shells were still falling at different times, and one of them hit the roof of the stern directly, and the sawdust splashed into the water behind.

"Hit!"

Although only one of the 50 shells hit the opponent, the new ship, the new gun, and the new sailor were able to hit the opponent with one shot at a distance that had just entered the best range. Moreover, this shell hit the top floor of the stern of the enemy ship, where some ranged troops, such as elven archers, are usually arranged.

Seeing that one of our own warships had leaked under the fire of the enemy's entire fleet, the three battleships that had already entered the battle queue of the escort fleet accelerated the speed of firing their guns at the First Fleet, so as to cover the completion of the turn of their own warships to protect their own stern. The battleships of the First Fleet were shot one after another, but the distance prevented the shells from exerting their full power, and they could only weakly mark on the sturdy armor.

At this time, the "Iron Plate Armor" reported that it had entered the shelling position, and all artillery crews and warships also reported that they had completed the second round of artillery loading.

Looking at the enemy ship that was about to turn right, Sidney quickly ordered: "The target enemy brig ship No. 4, open fire!" Free fire for three rounds. Ships maintain formation and speed! ”

In the midst of the bursts of fireworks, a volley of artillery rang out again.

With the first calibration, the number of guns fired in this salvo was not only increased to 60, but the scattered range was also more concentrated.

Strands of sea water hit the walls of the brig, and shells hit the hull of the brig in the sea.

After the second salvo, the First Fleet began three rounds of free fire, and all the guns that had finished firing the shells, after reloading the shells, fired their guns immediately without waiting for the order, and used high-frequency guns to increase the chance of hitting.

During the attack on the enemy ship IV, Sidney's First Fleet maintained its speed. His fleet quickly overtook it, ignoring the already damaged enemy brig four, and while returning fire with naval guns at the attacking troop fleet, he cut diagonally and prepared to use his speed to seize the "T" prefix of the troop transport fleet.