Show the edge. [Full text reading] A fleet of about ten ships of varying tonnage appeared about six nautical miles away, named Cheng.
Le Lin, the first mate of the Great Whale, raised her telescope and watched the ships in the distance attentively.
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The wind was gently blowing the two hard sails of the big whale, pushing the ship to move at a speed of 2 knots per hour. The first mate looked at his watch. It has been two hours since the ship left Hai'an Port.
The big whale entered Hai'an last night, and then unloaded the two hundred stones of rice carried on the ship. Later, another two hundred stones of sugar were loaded. In the original plan, the whale was not to carry sugar; after all, its mission was to act as bait. There is absolutely no way to ensure the safety of the goods during the battle. Whether it is flooded, burned or contaminated by human blood, the sugar can never be sold. Moreover, sugar is also a very good burning agent. In case of fire, it is not Just having fun.
But if you don't pretend to be sweet at all, you won't be able to act as bait. Your opponent has placed spies on Hai'an Street.
Xi Yazhou raised his telescope. Watch the progress of these ships attentively. He deleted too many posts on Lingaozhao. His reputation among the masses has dropped sharply, and it has been revealed that the so-called "chart deductions" he does during working hours are all computer war games. Now he is eager to find an opportunity to perform meritoriously. This time it was a maritime operation. The navy's individual officers had gone on many long voyages. The whale was also responsible for the decoy task. It was basically prepared for artillery bombardment and hand-to-hand combat. There was no problem in letting the army take command. Of course, the navy is still responsible for driving the ship.
"First mate," he turned to the first mate and said, "Is this the pirate hired by Kai Yi Tang?"
"It's very possible," Le Lin replied, "but we can't see clearly yet. It will be clear when we get closer."
"Okay" Xi Yazhou said. "Order to be careful and alert. Tell everyone to make necessary preparations.
Immediately the order was conveyed to the entire ship. Various war preparation measures were immediately implemented. The number of watch posts increased to four.
"Report to the detachment. There is a suspicious ship appearing 6 nautical miles away from our ship." Xi Yazhou stood on the rear deck, feeling a bit like a general in the movie, but the deck was full of straw bags, which looked a bit disturbing. Feeling bored.
The detachment consists of two fishing boats and is responsible for providing direct cover to the whale to prevent it from being outnumbered and attacked. They kept their distance in the old sea south of the whale. Technical plan: Once a battle breaks out, the detachment will come for reinforcements. The task of the detachment is to cooperate with the whales to neutralize them on the spot if there are less than 4 enemy ships. If there are more enemy ships, use mobility and firepower to protect the whales and repel the enemy ships while forcing the enemies to flee. An ambush ring has been set up at Juhua Island.
The fleet is approaching at a considerable speed. The wind on the sea is not strong now, but the opponent's speed is obviously very fast.
"They are using oak," Lelin said, "and they are chasing us desperately."
"Maybe someone tipped them off as soon as we entered the port yesterday, otherwise how could it be so accurate." Xi Yazhou looked at the approaching fleet, thinking that there would be a fierce battle soon, and he was very excited. Although he has been a soldier, this is the first time he has done something like this with real swords and guns.
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The fleet is approaching again: the sea. Le Lin estimated that their speed was at least 4 knots. In addition to sails, each ship also uses at least six to eight rafts for rowing. Now there could be no misunderstanding as to the fleet's intentions.
"They're pirates!" Le Lin put down the telescope
"That's right." Xi Yazhou replied, "Get ready for battle!"
The ship's bell on the Great Whale rang quickly, and the sailors came out of the cabin and ran to their respective fighting positions. Among them were the gunners of the Army wearing gray uniforms and red artillery collar badges. They came aboard with four pounder cannons.
The sailors quickly transported the sugar bags piled on the outer layer down the cabin. There was no need to move the other straw bales, which were filled with sand and soil. They were mainly used as temporary gun emplacement bunkers besides pretending to be cargo. Four artillery pieces and ammunition boxes were hidden deep inside these bunkers, covered with straw mats. The sailors operated two water pumps to bring up seawater to wet the straw bags and deck to prevent the enemy from using arson tools.
It was Gu Dachun's fleet that came. Ten ships of different sizes set out from an island near Xuwen last night. Although there are only ten ships, seven of them are temporarily joined by single operators. These ships were all gathered together by Gu Dachun recently. The five thousand taels of silver given to him by Mr. Zhu, plus the candy money he grabbed last time, greatly cheered him up and made him even more excited. This cheap brother-in-law had never looked down on him in the past, but since he successfully intercepted Guang Bing . After robbing him of two hundred stones of candy, his attitude towards him changed drastically, and he could even be said to be very dependent on him, which made him feel very proud. Natural attitudes also become more positive.
Seeing the strange-looking and clumsy-moving big ship in South China in front of him, Gu Dachun felt that Xin Fei Xunfanjing was struggling in front of him, but he rarely realized that he only had so much trouble to find his mother. The busy ships were his own three ships. Surrounding them was enough to solve the problem. This time, Mr. Zhu sent a clear message to him through Qiu Han: grabbing sugar is a trivial matter. The key is that in the future, except for Haiyitang’s ship, no one will dare to transport another ship of sugar from Leizhou. .
Gu Dachun naturally understood the implication of these words. What he said last time was just "let them know how powerful it is." Now the meaning has been completely different. To make people afraid, the best way is to kill people and set fire to them. So this time, he made up his mind not to show mercy.
Zhu Sanye asked him to add ships and artillery to expand his team, which was not difficult. Once you go to Jiangping, you can recruit a lot of rough and scumbag people who are half fishermen and half bandits. They live in this borderland. They are neither Vietnamese nor people from the Ming Dynasty. They are all impoverished and will participate when they get the opportunity. Robbery at sea. Some can also bring boats, which can be regarded as bringing their own production tools. Gu Dachun quickly recruited seven large ships and nearly 600 men.
It's just that cannons and gunpowder are not easy to deal with. Gu Dachun didn't use these gadgets in the past. After finding some temporary connections, he found a workshop specializing in privately casting cannons and bird weapons in the countryside of Qinzhou, and bought more than a dozen cannons at a price of forty taels of silver each. However, gunpowder was difficult to obtain, so Mr. Zhu helped him get a few barrels from the navy in Leizhou. He managed to buy some more himself. It can be regarded as equipping all three of his ships. However, they don't have qualified gunners. The pirates are not very good at serving this thing. They are very wary of this kind of thing where the gun body will jump straight back when fired, and sometimes it will blow to pieces by itself, so the battle will still be fought with jumping gangs. Hand-to-hand combat is the main focus. Now this group of pirates has gathered on the deck, holding all kinds of equipment in their hands, ready to join forces and fight as soon as they get close.
Whether the pirates are attacking the inside of the Great Whale or engaging in a siege, this must be a battle with a huge disparity in strength between the two sides. Le Lin put down the telescope and felt a chill on the back of her neck.
Among the opponent's ten ships, three large two-masted ships can be seen, with three to five cannons installed on them. The remaining seven ships had either single or double masts. But the tonnage is smaller, similar to the common coastal light boats here. There were no signs of mounted artillery. But the deck of the ship was densely packed with dark-skinned men. Although their expressions could not be clearly seen through the telescope, the glint of the weapons in their hands in the sunlight was enough to make people feel frightened.
The opponent had eleven to fifteen cannons. The Whale had only four guns to contend with. The more than 100 sailors on the ship had to fight with 700 to 800 people. It must be a battle with huge disparity between the enemy and ourselves. Of course, the Great Whale enjoys a certain artillery advantage, which is enough to deal a heavy blow to rash enemies as long as they are not allowed to get too close and maintain a certain distance. Large whales can use accurate gunfire to gradually eliminate them.
In short, the crossing forces must do everything they can to avoid side-to-side combat. Once this happens, strength in numbers will definitely prevail in the end. When fighting at sea, once a hand-to-hand combat occurs, the number of people on both sides is more important than when fighting on land. In a battle on a ship, there is no retreat. Escape means death.
Almost half an hour passed, and it was obvious that the fleet had taken another step forward and was approaching the whale. The whale is still moving at the same speed.
It seems that he is unaware of his fate.
Xi Yazhou couldn't help but observe the pirates' actions. It seems the enemy didn't realize it was a trap. Preparations for battle were quickly made on board. The sailors and gunners all stayed at their posts. The gunners concentrated on measuring the distance of the ship and adjusting the angle of the artillery; the sailors lurked behind the straw bag wall and, under the command of the officer, hurriedly bit open the ammunition bag and loaded their Mini rifles. Because this was a battle on a ship and bayonets were inconvenient to use, all sailors and sailors were given a machete.
"Report to the detachment: Ten enemy ships. They are continuing to approach our ship. The second telegram was sent out at a distance of 1 nautical mile.
At around eight o'clock in the morning, the pirate fleet had moved one nautical mile upwind of the Great Whale. Although the pirates were illiterate and had not learned any naval battle tactics, they still knew the strategy of gaining the upper hand in a naval battle. They used big guns to move the ships closer. The whale headed south and maintained this direction. Gu Dachun's fleet formed a formation and rushed forward: three large two-masted ships were in the middle, and the other seven ships were arranged on both sides, three on the right and four on the left, in an attempt to encircle the whale from the sides and surround it at the core. First use artillery bombardment to kill and injure the people on the deck, and then board the ship to fight and seize the ship.
"We must not let them get close to our ship." Xi Yazhou said to Le Lin, "Concentrate all firepower to repel one of the wings first." He looked through the binoculars, "Everyone shoots to the starboard side. Small.!~!
