Everyone looked at the place he pointed out, and sure enough there was a row of rocks like stone pillars, almost half the height of the island, with lush plants growing on the top. So everyone nodded to show that they had seen it.
Liu Guangting continued: "There is a small waterway behind the row of rocks. You can only find it by going around the left side of the rocks. Through this waterway, you can directly enter the interior of the island. There is a small lake inside, so this group The pirates put the dock inside the island!”
Hearing this, Li Wenliang slapped his thigh and said: "I have walked through this sea area many times, and I have seen this island several times, but I never expected that this island has such a secret place. It is really rare! "
Liu Haojia also nodded and said: "It is indeed a magical skill! But how many people are there on this island? Who is the leader? How do you usually behave?"
Liu Guangting said: "There are not many pirates in this group. There are about a hundred people, old and young! Their leader was blinded in one eye when he was fighting with others, so he was nicknamed Kang Duyan! In order to keep his nest His secret is so ruthless that all the ships he has robbed will be killed because he does not want anyone to know that there are pirates robberies near this island, so that no one will think that his lair is here!"
Li Wenliang looked at the island with the telescope Liu Haojia gave him and said: "This island seems to be very easy to defend and difficult to attack, so we can only rely on speed!"
Liu Haojia did not have a deep understanding of ancient naval warfare, but he had enough combat common sense. There is only a narrow waterway here, and it is still under the control of the opponent. The only way to do it is to rush in along the waterway as quickly as possible. It doesn't matter how many sacrifices you make in the middle! As long as you rush into a ship, victory is within your reach!
So Liu Haojia nodded in agreement and said: "That's right! Remember this! Now you give the command! I really have no appetite for the fresh water that has turned a bit off on the ship. I hope there is fresh water on this island!"
Liu Guangting smiled and nodded and said: "Second Young Master, don't worry, the places where pirates choose to live usually have fresh water, at least there is a spring, otherwise they won't be able to stay!"
This is a series of orders that Li Wenliang has issued. The flag whisperer quickly waved the command flag to convey the order. Soon, six ships from the fleet came out, raised their sails and sailed quickly towards the island in front.
Liu Haojia once again put the telescope in front of his eyes and looked at the island, and at the same time said: "Do you think there will be any lookouts on the island?"
Li Wenliang said: "There will definitely be! But at this time I very much hope they are just drunk!"
Liu Haojia squinted his eyes and carefully searched the top of the island, and said slowly: "As an officer, you can't place your hopes on the enemy's carelessness. You'd better be prepared to sacrifice!"
Li Wenliang nodded without saying a word, and raised his telescope to look at the six fast-moving ships. These six ships have lined up in a long line and are heading towards the island in front of them.
As the saying goes, "Looking up the mountain and running to death, the same is true on the sea." It's easy when you see an island, but it takes a long time for you to get there. By the time the six ships approached the island, it was already an hour later.
And just as Liu Haojia guessed, the pirates on the island not only set up lookout posts, but were also ready to fight. Because we were close enough at this time, we could already see people moving on the top of the mountain through the telescope.
Just by looking at their activities, you can already guess what they are doing. The pirates on both sides of the waterway are removing some shelters, revealing two simple trebuchets. This kind of manually operated trebuchet is not very efficient and has poor accuracy, but it has huge advantages in narrow waterways!
The fragile wooden boat will be severely damaged if it is hit by rocks! If you're lucky, it's possible to penetrate the deck! Especially when a sailboat enters a waterway and the wind is close to zero, the sailboat's speed will be very slow and it will be more likely to be attacked.
While everyone was watching, the first sailboat had completed its turn and sailed into the waterway behind the reef. Due to the obstruction of reefs and islands, the wind here weakened and the speed of the ship quickly began to slow down.
Seeing this scene, the pirates on the cliffs on both sides of the waterway cheered! They seemed to see victory! Especially the leader of the one-eyed pirate shouted loudly: "Aim at the first ship and smash it! As long as it is stuck in the waterway, the officers and soldiers will not be able to enter!"
Just when the pirates cheered loudly to encourage themselves, the leading warship suddenly stretched out ten oars from each side, inserted into the seawater, and began to rise and fall rapidly! The speed of the sea ship suddenly became faster! The pirates on the cliff were stunned by this scene!
Looking at the history of shipbuilding in China and the world, it is easy to find one thing. When people mention galleys, the first thing people think of is Greek warships and the derived Roman warships! I believe that those who have watched the two movies "Ben-Hur" and "Cleopatra" are familiar with this kind of sailing boat! But it seems that few have heard of Chinese sailboats, and have never seen them in movies!
So did China really have no sailing ships in history? In fact, there is! The Chinese have been using oars for a long time, but the smarter Chinese have invented sculls that are more effective than oars! Unfortunately, the more efficient propulsion scull comes at the cost of huge operating space!
Coupled with the differences in combat environments and strategic thinking, the Chinese Navy does not have a strong pursuit of warship speed. Therefore, Chinese sailboats have not become mainstream, but oar sailboats are relatively common. Especially on inland rivers, smaller boats can even just use oars!
But there is still a sailing boat with outstanding performance that appeared in Chinese history. That was in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, that is, in the early 16th century, not long after the Portuguese came to Asia, conflicts broke out between the wine barrels and the Ming Dynasty. The most famous one was the Battle of Tuen Mun in 1521! During the war with Portugal, the Ming Dynasty learned three things: cannons, French cannons and centipede boats!
In fact, there are some differences between bird cannons and fire cannons used by the Ming army. The blunderbuss is very close to modern firearms. It has a cover, a front sight, a butt, and a trigger. It can be held with both hands and fired. This greatly improves accuracy.
Fan Wenjing of the Ming Dynasty once wrote in "Shi Lv" that a bird gun is lit with a match rope and held with both hands without shaking. Therefore, it has eight or nine hits and can shoot down any flying bird in the forest, hence its name! Therefore, all Ming armies switched to using matchlocks, but the verbal name still used fireguns.
