Chapter 1521?*. ?(ˊ?ˋ*)??*. Nanyang Sea Battle

The port of Brunei is located at 3o north latitude 111o east longitude on the sea chart. It has been operated and colonized by the Portuguese for many years. It mainly produces cardamom and sugar gum. It is a very important port on the largest island in the Spice Islands of Portugal. Ports and trade nodes.

It's just that it is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Malay Governor Dole Artes Lopez de Preyla. It has been hung under the flags of the Ming Dynasty and the Li family. The Portuguese officials and some colonists in the original port Most of the guards were also expelled and replaced by businessmen from the Li family, locals, and descendants of Ming Dynasty to jointly manage and guard.

And this port city (town) closest to Malacca has naturally become the primary target of the Malay Governor Preyla and his huge fleet.

But fortunately, such a large fleet composed of warships and armed merchant ships must be prepared and set off from Malacca. Therefore, Brunei received the news early on, and then Brunei sent people as soon as possible Take the fast boat to report the situation to the Li Family Fleet who are still in Port of Ternate and are preparing to go south to sweep the Spicy Islands.

Therefore, on this day, the five giant ships of the Li family's pioneering fleet, who urgently led the fleet back and replenished in Brunei, were finally in the South Seas east of Brunei, on the spice route at 2o east longitude. In the open sea around 108o, a large fleet led by the Malay Governor Preyla was encountered.

Of course, it can't be said that it was encountered, but was found by the lookout of the Li family fleet from afar.

That's right, just looking for it!

The chief admiral of the Li family's fleet, Anne Hasta, is here to find the fleet of those aggressive villains who want to steal her territory! Moreover, she still only brought the five super battleships under her command. As for the other ships, she did not bring even one of them, including the first-class battleship that she confiscated for free. .

She intends to use just five main battleships to fight against Preyla's super-large fleet alone!

"Report!"

"Admiral! Found the fleet of the Malay Governor Preyla!"

"Due west!"

"distance……"

"About a hundred miles!"

"From here, there are sail shadows and flags, and the exact number of enemy ships is temporarily unknown!"

At this moment, in the gondola on the tall mainmast, a lookout with a telescope pointed directly and loudly at some scumbag on the conning platform on the lower deck, who was boringly feeding fish and seagulls with bread crumbs. shouted the little girl.

"One hundred miles?"

(???.???)????

"Did they show up at last?"

?(????)?

Annie picked up her binoculars. She knew that the one hundred miles mentioned by the other party was about twenty to thirty nautical miles, which was already the farthest distance that could be seen by sight at sea.

When sailing at sea, the length of the line-of-sight depends entirely on the altitude, the curvature of the earth, and the climate. In theory, the maximum line-of-sight is about 25 nautical miles, but in fact, due to eye height and refraction effects, and the South Sea It is close to the equator, so under the current good climate conditions, the longest distance can generally reach 30 nautical miles, which is about 100 miles in Ming Dynasty.

"ah!"

!(;?o?)o

"But I don't seem to see anything..."

(?￣?￣)

Tried it, and soon Anne gave up.

Because at her height, the line of sight is definitely not as good as that of the watchman on the main mast tens of meters high, so she only sees the sky and the sea level, except for the blue sky, white clouds and sea level, she has nothing to do did not see.

"I do not have either……"

Song Yifeng also nervously picked up another telescope and looked towards the due west direction for a while, and then she quickly said as frustrated as Annie.

"Two admirals!"

"The enemy is still a hundred miles away. If we don't change our course, with the current crosswind, the relative speed between us and them will be about ten knots. It will take at least an hour and a half before we can fly." would come into shelling range."

"At that time, as long as our fleet mainly keeps the distance, pays attention to the course and wind direction, and takes advantage of our ship speed, shelling accuracy and shelling distance, no matter how many enemy ships there are, we will not be afraid!"

At this time, the first officer next to him spoke proudly.

He knew that in this era, those Westerners' cannons and heavy long-barreled cannons generally had a maximum firing distance of about 400 yards when running on the sea, but in actual combat, they must be at least within 200 yards, which is 70 yards. Only about ten feet or even closer can we enter the combat distance and ensure the accuracy and lethality of the shelling.

In other words, the enemy's effective combat distance is about two hundred yards (seventy feet), but it is also possible to take advantage of the large number of ships to attack their Li family's fleet from four hundred yards (one hundred and fifty feet) away. Launch shelling, so they must control the distance from each other at that time, try to destroy the enemy ships outside the range of the enemy ships, and also need to pay attention to the course to ensure that they are not surrounded by enemy ships.

Although the five warships of their Li Family Fleet are made of steel frames, the keels are only made of steel, and the rest are made of wood. They will certainly not be able to prevent the enemy from approaching the shelling. Once the enemy approaches the parts below the waterline And penetrate with artillery, they will only sink faster than the average wooden ship!

"There is still an hour and a half?"

=????(???*)

"..."

(?~?)

Annie picked up the binoculars and looked again, but unfortunately, she still couldn't see anything, only the blue sky, white clouds and calm sea in the distance to the west.

"So slow!"

ε=(′ο｀*))) Alas!

"Then you go and let the sailors and artillerymen prepare in advance. The enemy must have seen us now. They should take a nap first and get up after the shelling is about to start."

(? ￣? ￣?) Hey!

Waiting here like an idiot for an hour and a half, that is, a full three hours, that kind of stupid thing, Annie would definitely not do it, so she threw the binoculars in her hand into the first mate's arms, She was ready to let go.

"That's it!"

?(???;)?=З=З=З

A certain distressed little girl directly left her command platform and ran towards her largest captain's cabin on the lower deck.

"yes!"

"Follow orders!"

The chief mate saluted, but he didn't take those enemies too seriously, and he didn't care about the fact that his admiral wanted to run back to take a nap while the enemy was in front of him.

"Second Admiral!"

"It's still early, you can go back and rest for an hour!"

The first officer saw that the sailors and artillerymen were cleaning the barrels of the guns, fetching water from the sea, and moving the shells and gunpowder barrels in an orderly manner, preparing for the next big battle, and their morale was very high. After he was ready, he still had a lot of time to eat, drink and rest together, so there was really nothing for him to worry about and stare at right now.

"I can't sleep..."

"I heard that the Malay governor Preyla is said to have prepared more than sixty warships, and we only have five here. How can you let me sleep?"

"The other party is not the iron-clad boats and small sampans that came to the Dao family to fight, but there are dozens of warships..."

"Although it may be a little smaller than ours, the number is too much."

Song Yifeng is really worried, because now their opponents are not the Japanese pirates who have few cannons from Lai Dao’s family, and their range is pitifully short, but now their enemies are those Westerners with strong ships and powerful guns. It is very likely that the number of cannons is absolutely no less than their five ships!

At the beginning, when they attacked Wa Kingdom and Pingding came to Daojia, they had a full ten ships, but now there are only five ships left here, while the enemy ships have dozens of ships, and all of them are warships. The big and small broken boats of Lai Dao's house are completely different, so how could she not be worried?

"No!"

"Their warships will not exceed ten, and the rest are all armed merchant ships, so there is nothing to worry about!"

The first mate spoke proudly.

Although the boundaries between armed merchant ships and warships in this era are not too obvious, and the performance difference between ships is also very small, but any ship is equipped with a cannon, and it is not bad to call it a warship after the cannon is opened, but In order to take care of the emotions of the second admiral in front of him, the first officer still soothed him gently.

"Is that so?"

"But I always feel a little scared..."

Saying that, Song Yifeng picked up the binoculars in her hand and looked towards the end of the sea level, and to her surprise, she could faintly see a little bit of the mast.

"one two three……"

"Seventeen, eighteen..."

"ah!"

"I've counted the flags on top of the mastheads of a dozen ships now!"

Looking at it, Song Yifeng couldn't help but exclaimed, and couldn't help but start to worry.

Looking at it from a distance now, there are more than a dozen ships in sight. After a while, after an hour or two, how many ships may appear in her sight.

"..."

The first officer also raised his eyes to look due west where the fleet was heading, but he couldn't see anything without using a telescope.

"It's still early, Miss Song, why don't you go and have a rest?"

"rest assured!"

"When the battle is about to start, I will definitely send someone to notify you and the admiral."

The chief mate became a little impatient. He didn't want the second admiral in front of him to sigh and affect morale.

In this regard, in his opinion, their chief admiral did a better job?

Their great admiral's disregarding, sultry (heartless), never paying attention to any enemy, even if he knows the enemy's large fleet is coming, he is still ready to attack head-on. This is the most capable Motivating.

"All right……"

"You don't need to call me, I will check the time myself."

Sighing, seeing that there is really nothing to do here, seeing that there is really nothing she can do to help, Song Yifeng has no choice but to go down the spiral staircase, planning to go to their common room like Annie, to Stay quietly in the largest captain's cabin for a while.

...

Three hours later, sixty-seven large and small warships led by the Portuguese-Malay Governor Dole Artes de Preyla finally appeared within 1,000 kilometers of the Li family's pitiful fleet of five warships. outside.

At this time, the fleet of the Malay governor was divided into the main force of the large fleet consisting of fifty-four warships in the front, and the thirteen ships led by Admiral Hedram of the Swedish Navy followed about a nautical mile behind. A squadron of warships.

They were so mighty, with sail shadows covering the sky and the sun, and the sailors on the ship were gearing up one by one, rushing fiercely towards the five Li family fleets that seemed to be really big, but somewhat solitary.

"strangeness……"

"The distance is at least a thousand yards away. Why did the Li family's fleet change course and prepare for bombardment?"

At this time, Admiral Hedram of the Swedish Navy who was following behind saw from his binoculars that the Li family fleet directly raised all the sails at a relatively long distance and used the crosswind to complete the turn.

He saw it, the other party made a big arc, those beautiful hulls followed the flagship in front of them in a big circle on the sea, and then kept a side angle with the same course as their fleet Sailing to the northeast, he opened the cannon doors facing them one by one, and pushed out the cannons inside.

"Are you really planning to fire from a thousand yards away?"

"No……"

"That's at least eleven hundred yards to go!"

"What's the use of shelling like that?"

Admiral Hedram of the Swedish Navy was a little confused, so although the enemy ship took advantage of it and changed its course to go in the same direction as them, forcing them to pursue and then unable to use the advantage of numbers to outflank, but he didn't understand, the opponent What was the use of shelling at a distance of more than a thousand yards?

In his opinion, it takes at least 300 yards of shelling to guarantee the accuracy of the shooting, and only 100 yards to guarantee the absolute lethality of the shelling!

"strangeness!"

"Didn't it mean that these Li family fleets were actually disguised by Daming's navy?"

"But……."

"Why is their Royal Navy at this level?"

Following at the rear of the fleet, at least 3,000 yards away from the enemy ship, Hedram, who was unable to catch up or fight, did not order the sailors to enter the combat position, but continued to follow while watching closely with binoculars. Watch every move of the enemy ship.

"!!"

"Also, did it really fire?!"

Suddenly, in the binoculars, Hedram saw that the Li family's fleet actually opened fire on the fleet in front of them by taking advantage of the small angle.

"Who are they in command, this is a joke..."

However, as the muzzles protruding from the gun ports of the enemy ship spewed out flames and black smoke, Hedram soon discovered that with the rumbling sound of the guns, the sharp whistling sound of the shells also quickly disappeared. He heard it, and immediately after, he stared round his eyes, and was frightened back before he even finished speaking.

It is said that each of the Li family's fleet has two hundred and forty-eight heavy cannons?

Therefore, of course he knows that the opponent has a full 120 cannons on each side, and he also knows that the opponent can fire a full 600 shells in a salvo, but the opponent is more than 1,000 yards away. In his view, it would be good if a dozen or so shells could hit the decks of the leading ships and make a few holes. That would be a waste of ammunition!

But how can I think...

"!!"

boom! boom! boom!

boom! boom!

At this time, he actually saw that a round of heavy solid artillery shells or expensive flowering shells directly smashed down densely and accurately in the front of the main fleet of the Malay Governor Preyla, except for three About two-thirds of it hit the sea water and made high splashes, and the rest precisely pierced in on the decks or sides of ships, making big pits one by one, or simply the whole Explode?

At this moment, at the front of the fleet in front, howling shells rained down one after another, ranging from splinters splashing and people turning upside down, to breaking masts and sails and flashing fire, what's more, some ships The ship did not know whether it was due to the detonation of the gunpowder barrel or the explosive bombs, but clusters of flames exploded on the deck and in the cabin, and soon the entire ship was instantly enveloped in thick smoke and fire.

"not good!"

"quick!"

"Order!"

"Don't worry about those ten armed merchant ships, let our battleship speed up with full sail, rush up, we must stop them!!"

Seeing this, I saw that the Malay Governor Preyla's fleet lost two ships under the enemy's shelling. After several ships were injured, I found that the accuracy of the naval guns carried by the enemy ships was beyond imagination. Hedram exclaimed immediately, and hurriedly ordered the three second-tier battleships under his command to break away from the ten slow-speed armed merchant ships behind him, and directly accelerated through the waves with full sail, intending to use the power of the three battleships under his command , Trying to step forward to intercept the Li family fleet.

He must do that, otherwise, if this continues, everything will be over!

At this time, the Malay governor of Portugal, Dole Arte Lopez de Preyla, obviously saw the seriousness of the problem just like Hedram.

Therefore, the battleships they led also quickly accelerated, and gradually separated from the chasing fleet, and directly from another direction, they were ready to cooperate with Hedram to rush up to approach and intercept and flank the five ships that seemed to want to fight. Destroy their nasty Ming ships with ultra-long-range advanced cannons.

boom! boom! boom!

boom! boom!

However, the Li family fleet didn't care about the few battleships that left the fleet, but waited until the loading was completed, and then launched a second round of bombardment against Preyla's large fleet, directly injuring them again. Several ships, and even one of them was directly submerged in the flames and lay across the sea, which seemed to be completely scrapped.

"Help~!!"

"quick!"

"jump down!!"

"The Juneflower's mast is broken, put them in charge of saving lives, and the other ships move on!"

"keep going!"

"Quick! We must get closer!!"

"Leave them alone!"

Hedram's ships were obviously much faster than those armed merchant ships, so after the Li's fleet completed the second round of bombardment, they finally caught up with the large fleet, and directly from those few ships because of the sails. Either the hull was damaged, or they simply drove past the burning and exploding ship.

Looking at the sailing ships that ended up miserable, and the screaming burning men jumping out of the burning armed merchant ship, the sailors on the three second-tier battleships could not help but flash a little Uncertainty and a look called fear.

—————————————

(σ???)σ? Looking for a monthly ticket?

_