During the entire shooting process, the squadron still had some advantages. Because although the squadron has not all replaced new ships, the ships currently in use were all manufactured when the country was at its peak. Although they are old, they are still relatively strong, and their freeboards are significantly higher than those of the Shimadzu fleet.
And the most important thing is that Liu Haojia spared no effort to buy them artillery and muskets, especially the artillery layout. It is a pity that this kind of old ship did not consider the placement of the artillery at all when it was built, so each ship can only add six or seven artillery pieces at most.
Moreover, both sides were relatively fast ships, and the sea was very bumpy, and the hit rate of the smoothbore cannon was really regrettable. Therefore, although the two sides fought fiercely, there were not many casualties.
But when both sides approached forty or fifty steps, the casualties suddenly began to increase! Because at this distance, both bows and arrows and fire guns have a certain accuracy, casualties on both sides are inevitable. However, in the entire shooting process, the squadron with the absolute advantage in the number of firearms had the upper hand!
At this moment, half of the forces of the Shimazu family's navy on the right were approaching, trying to attack the Ming army squadron from both sides. The squadron was not to be outdone, and while trying its best to maintain the formation, it shot to both sides as much as possible. , especially the artillery never stops!
At this time, we can see the disadvantage of old ships not having gun decks! Since the squadron ships were remanufactured without firing gun emplacements, all existing gun emplacements are open-air. Therefore, under the intensive attacks of the Japanese, the sailors at the gun position always fell to the ground one after another! Especially for the gun emplacement on the bow of the ship, the soldiers could only use shields to cover the gunners. Even so, people would get injured and dragged away from time to time!
And at close range, every artillery attack will bring huge losses to the Japanese! Li Wenliang and Zhang Zhiyong also discovered the fact that artillery was dominant. They immediately ordered the fleet to try to keep a certain distance from the Shimadzu fleet and use artillery to consume the opponent's strength, so the two sides fought fiercely!
On the right side of the battle line it was a different situation. Since Huashan Jiugao divided half of his men to try to flank the Ming Navy, his right wing became very thin, with less than half the number of pirates. But this group of pirates showed their cunning side at this time.
Without any coordination, the left wing of their line actually slowed down the speed together, turning the entire line into a diagonal state, in order to let away the ships that turned to the center of the battlefield. It can be seen that they don’t want to fight a tough battle at all!
Standing on his flagship, Liu Guangting was anxious when he saw this situation, but he could not order the pirates to entangle each other! Because although he has the title of the leader of the sea, they are just a loose alliance after all, and they are essentially fighting on their own.
However, Liu Guangting still sent an order: "Speed up! Tell the people on the left to increase the speed as soon as possible and surround the remaining Japanese fleet. Whoever captures the ship will own it!"
Liu Guangting had a good idea. He wanted to use benefits to lure the pirates to fight hard. But he overestimated the pirates after all. You must know that even regular soldiers who have neglected training will perform better on the battlefield than a group of rabble!
Seeing that the superior enemy ships seemed to be trying to outflank them, the Japanese commander on the right wing immediately ordered to assemble and set up a circular formation with the two Anzha ships as the core, giving full play to the role of the Anzha ships as a sea fortress!
While covering each other, the two Anzha ships used iron cannons and large tubes to fire from a long distance. Once the pirates got close, they would be besieged by the Kanbo ships. The small morning boat weaved in and out of the fleet, and would attack the pirate ship when it saw it alone, so it simply repelled the pirates' first attack!
At this moment, the three cruisers that had rushed out a long distance had turned around. They raised their sails and forced themselves into the battle line of the Shimadzu navy! As soon as they rushed over, the artillery fired, severely damaging one Guan ship and slightly damaging two others!
Moreover, they rushed in from a very clever position, directly cutting off a small section of the flank of the Shimazu fleet! Upon seeing this, Liu Haojia immediately ordered his own ship and No. 2 ship to circle in place to prevent the battle lines from re-closing. Order the No. 3 ship to focus on attacking the opponent's core Anzha ship.
Liu Haojia’s tactical thinking is very clear
Indeed, that is to rely on the firepower of their own ships to gradually divide the Shimadzu fleet, and then use their Anya ships as sea fortresses as the key targets. As long as the Anzha ship loses its effect, they can rely on the superiority of ship quality to gradually defeat their opponents!
After receiving the order, the third cruiser directly adjusted its course and rushed towards the Shimazu fleet. Zhang Zhiyong applauded repeatedly when he saw this, and immediately sent two warships to pick up the cruiser and protect the stern of the cruiser. Don't let Japanese ships approach.
The No. 3 cruiser immediately turned around after rushing into the Shimazu navy, circling around an Anzhai ship, and kept shelling! And he also used the most primitive arson bomb!
This primitive arson bomb is very simple. It consists of putting a solid cannonball in a charcoal furnace and burning it red, then adding a piece of cork on top of the gunpowder in the barrel, and then loading the red-hot cannonball into it to avoid the temperature of the cannonball from igniting. propellant.
But at this time, the gunners must fire the shell as soon as possible, otherwise the heat of the red-hot shell itself will easily ignite the propellant.
This kind of cannonball lands on the opponent's ship after being fired. If no one notices it, or rolls to a corner, it won't take long for the ship's planks to ignite! If you are lucky and land directly on the powder keg, it will be a shocking big explosion!
Although the Anzhai ship was severely hit, they did not give up the counterattack! The soldiers in the cabin shouted trumpets and rowed the oars, trying hard to get close to the cruiser! The seki ships and small morning boats swimming around it also continued to harass, trying to slow down the cruiser's speed.
At the same time, they continued to gather together and throw flying grabs at the Ming army's ships, hoping to enter the boarding battle as soon as possible. However, even if a flying catcher successfully captures the cruiser, he will be quickly chopped off by the soldiers with axes! I have dozens of artillery pieces, so I am out of my mind to engage in a battle with you!
Moreover, the cruiser also hit the stern of a small morning boat during the operation! The heavy hull directly crushed the thin stern of the morning boat to pieces! After the cruiser passed by, this unlucky little morning boat spun around on the sea and sank, leaving only some soldiers on the sea swimming to their own ships!
