Chapter 2020 British and French Sea Battle (1)

"The Rise of the Emperor of Europe ()"

What happened in France? It turned out that the French navy, which was a weak chicken, overthrew the powerful English navy and completed a very beautiful classic naval battle in which the weak defeated the strong. The warships used by the French were precisely the galleys hired from Italy before, also called Calais ships.

The prototype of the Calais ship is the one used by the Venetian navy, only a lizard cannon with a weight of seven or eight thousand pounds that can fire 50-pound stone ball shells is arranged on the bow. The 50-pound shells fired by this lizard cannon are definitely considered super powerful in this era. The powerful kinetic energy brought by the 50-pound shell is far from comparable to that of the 6-pound and 12-pound shells.

In particular, the current warships of the English are Kirk sailboats with relatively thin hulls. Being hit by a 50-pound rock was too much for the thin-skinned Kirk sailboat. Of course, the English also reversed their decline because of the French Calais ship, which was later forced to develop the thick-skinned Galen ship. But before that, the English had been crushed by the French Calais for decades.

Of course, the Calais also has its disadvantages. For example, you cannot go to sea to fight on a windy day. Because, after all, the Calais is a galley, and the sail's ability to use the wind cannot catch up with a pure sail. If it is in windy weather, even if the Calais ship is equipped with oars and sails, it will not have any advantage in maneuverability in front of the pure sailing ships of England.

Therefore, the Calais ship can only play in the weather with no wind or very little wind, and maintain a tactical advantage over the English sailing ship Kirk. However, there are very few windless or light weather in England. Therefore, although the French have suppressed England for decades by relying on the Calais ship, there are not many days in a year when they can fight, and they cannot completely suppress England. . Otherwise, England would have been destroyed by France long ago.

This naval battle took place at the end of September, when the weather really started to turn cold, and when the autumn harvest was approaching. Of course, because of the use of phosphate fertilizers, the autumn harvest in Beihai has been brought forward to the middle and late September, and there is no need to wait until October or even November.

The English Channel mainly has weak winds in summer, and then, in late spring and early autumn, the winds are not strong. Originally, the French planned to do it in the summer. However, when the French Calais fleet was first built, Francois I did not use all the hired Italian crew, but used a large number of French sailors. But these newly joined native French sailors were not familiar with the Calais ship, so they had to undergo several months of training before they could skillfully cooperate with the Italian captain and sailors on board.

Then, in September, the training of the French native sailors was basically completed. However, the wind in the English Channel in September is gradually increasing, and it is necessary to wait for a windless or light windy day suitable for playing. In this way, the French Calais fleet waited for more than ten days. It was not until the end of September that they found a breezy weather, successfully left the home port of Brest, and entered the English Channel northward, looking for fighters...

And before the six Calais ships left the port of Brest, in the backyard of an Italian-owned shop in the port of Brest, two homing pigeons quickly took off and flew north...

Obviously, this Italian businessman is an English spy, collecting intelligence for England. Originally, the French planned to pull out this "nail". But Pregent Biddoth, the commander of the Calais fleet, disagreed, and strongly suggested keeping the English spy.

why? Because the French Calais fleet wanted to go to sea to find the English fleet, it was too difficult. Looking for the enemy fleet in the vast sea, I couldn't find it for a few days. The Calais ship is very dependent on the weather. Once the wind becomes stronger, it must return to its home port to avoid being bitten by the English fleet.

Therefore, the French can't afford to wait or find them. Time is the greatest enemy of the Calais. Therefore, Pregent Biddus thought in reverse—since it is difficult for us to find the English fleet, why not let the English come to us?

The English were very wary of the French developing their navy, and they were eager to destroy every French warship. so,

The English bought an Italian businessman and stayed in Brest, just to monitor the French warships in Brest Bay. Once the French warships are out to sea, the merchant will use carrier pigeons to quickly send the message to England. Then, the English will definitely send a fleet to encircle and suppress these French warships.

Now, under the suggestion of Pregent Biddus, forts have been built on both sides of the Brest Bay at the exit. Moreover, they are all heavy artillery above 12 pounds. An artillery of this caliber may not be able to defeat the thickened warships of the North Sea, but it is still no problem to deal with the thin-skinned English Kirk sailing ships. Moreover, the French put the artillery on the top of the mountain, allowing the artillery to have a longer range, and almost blocked the entire mouth of the bay.

Therefore, now the English fleet does not dare to directly attack the French warships in Brest Bay, and can only wait for the French warships to come out by themselves.

Once they receive a letter from the spies from Brest, the English will definitely not be able to resist sending warships to intercept and kill the French warships. Right now, the English haven't suffered a loss yet, and they are so confident that they won't be afraid of these Calais ships from France at all.

Therefore, on the morning of September 25th, the wind was weak, and weather masters (at that time, professional fleets would have experts who knew how to predict the weather, and even many captains themselves were very good at observing and predicting the weather) predicted that the wind would not be strong for these two days. Great, Pregent Biddoth left the port of Brest with great fanfare with 6 Calais ships, and went north along the coast, aiming directly at the port of Plymouth, England in the north.

Plymouth is a very important military port in England and the most important military port on the west side of the English Channel. And because the fleet of the mortal enemy French is generally hidden in Brest, south of Plymouth, the English even temporarily moved the naval command here for the convenience of suppressing the French navy. The current commander-in-chief of the English Navy, Edward Howard, is currently stationed in Plymouth Harbor, ready to take warships to attack at any time, attacking French warships and even merchant ships.

Edward Howard was overjoyed when he received the news that "six French galleys left their home port and headed north" from the carrier pigeon. He believes that the opportunity to eradicate French sea power has come. Considering that the opponent only had 6 ships, Edward Howard simply brought 12 warships to attack.

It is worth mentioning that none of these 12 warships of more than 200 tons belonged to the English court, but were temporarily requisitioned as civilian ships in Plymouth Harbor.

The sailors who fought on the ship were also sailors who were originally on the merchant ship. Of course, not only the original sailors of the merchant ship, but also some sailors with strong combat effectiveness will be transferred from other merchant ships to replace the old, weak and young apprentices on the ship, so as to enhance the combat effectiveness.

12 search warships, carrying a total of 1,500 experienced English sailors. Although these sailors usually serve merchant ships, those who dare to hang out at sea in this era are not good at nothing. In particular, when there was no shipping business, many English merchant ships sometimes acted as guest pirates, robbing the French coastal fishing boats, which caused the French a headache. Therefore, the ability of these English sailors to jump ship and gang is quite good. In particular, they have also been screened to eliminate those with poor combat effectiveness.

Edward Howard was full of ambition, looking at the large number of shirtless English men on the battleship, even wearing blindfolds, full of confidence.

Although the French knights are very powerful on land and have excellent martial arts skills, but at sea, the English are more powerful. Among other things, most of those French knights would become seasick and become soft-legged shrimps when they got on the warships that swayed from side to side. How can a person with an unstable base have any fighting power on the deck?

Moreover, if you wear plate armor, although the protection is super strong, it also sacrifices mobility. Facing this kind of iron can that cannot be cut, the English sailors also have a way to deal with it-kick into the sea...

Since the knife can't cut it, then don't cut it, just kick Cantona directly... Ahem, it's a play, it's just a simple kick...

Although the French in plate armor have amazing protection, they are not flexible enough. As long as they blocked their swords and then took the opportunity to fly over, the French knights who were already standing unsteadily on the boat could easily be kicked into the sea.

And what is the concept of wearing plate armor and falling into the sea? That's bound to sink straight... It's useless to swim, unless you can save the heavy steel plate armor in the first place. However, after falling into the sea, it sank straight away, and it was too late to take it off. It has sunk below, but there is a chance to take it off. But there is a problem - when a person sinks below a depth of 20 meters, the human body will not be able to withstand the strong pressure of sea water. It's very dangerous if you don't wear a special diving suit. This effect is the same as that of Chen Jiang being tied to a stone, or even stronger. After all, the general sinking of the Shenjiang River is only ten or twenty meters to the bottom (except for the Yangtze River), and the deepest Huangpu River is only more than 17 meters, which is not beyond the limit of human beings. There is a small chance of taking off the plate armor and escaping. The average depth of the English Channel is 60 meters, and when it sank to the bottom, it was directly crushed to death by the water pressure, and it was too late to react.

And this is the experience gained from the century-old entanglement between Britain and France. Because it is very dangerous to wear plate armor to fight at sea, unless it is an aristocratic commander who does not need to draw a knife to cut people and is protected by guards, most sailors will not wear plate armor. At most, wear a waterproof leather armor to resist some sword damage. Of course, there are also those who wear light chain armor, which has a good protective effect on the cuts of the sailor's scimitar, but generally only protects the vital parts.

Since the French sailors cannot wear plate armor, the advantage must be on the side of the English sailors who are experienced in naval warfare. Even if the French learned to use swings to train sailors' balance at sea, so what? Compared with the English sailors who are used to fighting at sea, the French have too little experience...

With this confident thought, Edward Howard took 12 English warships and headed towards the direction of the intelligence hint brought by the homing pigeons, preparing to intercept the six French warships and intending to wipe them all out without giving France The opportunity for the human navy to rise again.

In the vast sea, it is very difficult to find enemy ships. In particular, the English did not have telescopes at this time. Therefore, Edward Howard could only send a group of sailors with the best eyesight to climb to the top of the mast, build a pergola, and keep looking south, hoping to find the French ship.

And the French didn't disappoint the English. In other words, Pregent Biedus took the initiative to let England discover his fleet. Therefore, the French arrogantly lit a fire on the roof of the ship building. Moreover, it was wet firewood that was lit. Suddenly, thick smoke rose, which was very conspicuous on the sea...

"Smoke, I see thick smoke!" On Edward Howard's flagship, the English sailors who climbed on the top of the mast to observe suddenly shouted in warning.

"Are you here?" Edward Howard's spirits lifted, as if he had seen the military merit waving to him...