Chapter 121 A Decisive Battle 2

"Are all the guns ready?" Captain Quique of the Hope asked loudly.

"All are ready, Captain, ready to fire at any time!" The gunnery officer responded immediately.

The weather was already cold at this time, and the temperature difference between the high sea and the low land caused the monsoon to blow from the land to the sea, which put the Alda fleet from the port in the upwind position, while the pirate fleet was in the downwind position.

Quique shouted loudly: "Guys, we are now in the upwind position, we must seize this opportunity!"

The sailing warship equipped with cannons has many advantages when it is in the upwind position, because the sea breeze tilts the hull, and the cannon on the side facing the enemy ship will be slightly downward, which can more easily hit the enemy warship near the waterline.

Furthermore, the ship in the upwind position is less affected by the smoke after the shelling, which is more conducive to aiming and loading, unlike the downwind position, which is affected by both the smoke produced by its own shelling and the smoke produced by the enemy.

However, the upwind position also has its disadvantages. For warships with multiple layers of guns, the lower gun muzzles cannot be opened when the waves are too big because of the tilt of the ship, resulting in a sharp drop in firepower.

The downwind position also has its advantages. If the warship in the downwind position cannot win, it can take advantage of the wind to pat its butt and run away. The opponent cannot catch up, but if the warship in the upwind position cannot hold on and wants to escape, it is not so easy.

In general, the probability of a ship in the upwind position sinking the opponent is much greater than that of its opponent. The role positioning of the navy determines the tactics it adopts. There is a very interesting comparison in the Age of Exploration on Earth.

In history, as a land power, France's navy mostly played a second-rate role such as covering the landing of the army and escorting merchant ships. It rarely had a decisive battle. The mission determined that they could not fight for a long time, so the French navy would grab the downwind position most of the time and run away after firing a few shots.

France's mortal enemy at the time, Britain, had a glorious tradition of always having the upper hand. Britain, which pursued a dual-power policy, had dominated the world for two centuries. For them, naval battles meant destroying the enemy, so their huge fleet would try to sink the enemy ships in most cases.

The distance between the two sides gradually approached, and Quick took over the work of the helmsman. The Hope needed to adjust the angle of the ship so that the cannons on the side could be aimed at the pirate ship. Turning downwind is a very dangerous job. At such an important moment, Quick chose to steer the ship himself.

The gunners on the port side held their breath and stared at the pirate ship in the distance, waiting for the order of the gunner.

...

On the pirate fleet side, Garden and others gradually saw the lineup of the Alda Navy. The Hope, which was at the forefront, was particularly eye-catching.

"Is that the legendary strange ship? It really doesn't look like there are oars."

As a qualified pirate, Garden certainly has a great interest in all kinds of things on the water. He became excited when he saw the Hope. The medicine he had just swallowed began to take effect, giving him extremely strong confidence. The panic he had felt when he first found himself running head-on into the Alda Navy had disappeared.

Now Garden was thinking about how to capture the strange ship as one of his collections.

"Let the slaves row harder! Everyone get ready for boarding." The pirate leader ordered loudly, and he couldn't wait to tear the enemy into pieces.

The sound of whips in the cabin became louder.

...

Hope had waited for the moment she had been waiting for. The leading pirate ship was trying to get the side of the ship she hit close to her, and some pirates on the deck were still shooting cold arrows at her.

The gunner saw the opportunity and shouted, "Fire!"

Before he finished speaking, the gunners of the four cannons who heard the order ignited the fire transmission holes almost at the same time, and four solid shells were fired at the same time accompanied by smoke and flames.

The people on the leading pirate ship only saw the four black pipes on the opposite side of the ship flashing with fire, and then the hull was covered by a puff of smoke.

"What happened? Their ship caught fire by itself?" The pirates who were ready to jump onto the other side's warship were confused.

Then they felt the warship under their feet suddenly shook violently. Many people fell on the deck due to the shaking. A huge sound of breaking also sounded, as if someone was smashing the wooden board with a sledgehammer.

This was the effect of the cannonball hitting the pirate ship. Compared with the thick hull of the Hope, the pirates' galley had a thinner hull, and the cannonball hit it like piercing a layer of cream.

This pirate ship has two decks, and the rowers are located in the deck cabin between the upper and lower decks. The cannonballs that broke into the shell directly took away the lives of several rowers, but what caused greater damage to the maneuverability of the entire ship was that the flying wood chips produced by the broken hull turned into deadly weapons and embedded into the flesh of the surrounding rowers.

"Ah~~" The injured rowers wailed and twisted in pain on the deck.

The uninjured rowers were also stunned by the sudden blow and the miserable state of their companions. Many people fell to the ground due to the violent vibration, including the pirates in charge of commanding the slaves. The people in the entire cabin stared blankly at the side of the ship facing the enemy, with the four broken holes on it clearly visible.

They were only stunned for a few seconds, and then people kept shouting in fear: "Devil's weapons!" "The other party used magic!" The cabin was in chaos and no one cared to row.

Soon the miserable situation on the lower deck was known to everyone on the ship. It was the first time for everyone on the ship to encounter such a situation. The normal routine should be to stick the side of the ship to the side of the other ship, and then jump over to chop the sailors of both sides.

Some knowledgeable people knew that the navies of the southern countries were equipped with crossbows that could shoot long-range, but the four black tubes sticking out of the other side's side were obviously not crossbows. I have never heard of crossbows emitting fire and smoke when fired, and crossbows cannot be so accurate and powerful.

The captain of the pirate ship was the first to react. He ordered the first mate: "You go down and supervise those slaves in person. Keep rowing hard for me. We must get close to them quickly, otherwise we can only be beaten here."

The first mate woke up instantly, responded and went to the lower deck.

"You bastards, what are you panicking about. Hurry up and get the ship moving."

The first mate's roar soon resounded through the lower deck.

No mistakes in one song, one post, one content, one book, one bar, one 6, one 9!

"Snap!" The sound of whips hitting human bodies continued to ring in the cabin.

"Lazy guys, go back to your positions! Paddle hard!"

The pirate leaders who were in charge of the slaves also began to yell at them ferociously.

In order not to affect morale, the first mate personally killed the slaves who were wailing because of injuries.

Under the whipping and death threats, the rowers quickly restored order, tremblingly returned to their original positions, and continued to paddle.

While the pirate ship was in chaos, the four guns on the port side of the Hope completed a new round of ammunition loading.

The first round of shelling achieved a good effect, and the morale of the officers and soldiers on the ship was greatly boosted.

The gunner was triumphant, drew his saber and pointed at the pirate ship, and shouted: "Fire!"

The smoke of the previous round of shelling had not yet dissipated, and the second round of shelling began.

"Damn! There is a second round!" The pirate captain now hated the strange ship opposite.

The hull beneath his feet shook violently once again, and he knew without thinking that he had been hit again.

He prayed silently that not many slaves on the lower deck had died, but just as he finished praying, a piece of news that almost made him faint came from below:

"It's over, the cabin is flooded!"

Can someone tell me what methods there are for large-scale saltpeter production with the current technical conditions of the protagonist?