The bottom deck of a third-level battleship is equipped with twenty artillery pieces. A salvo of seven battleships can fire one hundred and forty shells.
This number is really not that much in today's naval battles, so the momentum is not very fierce.
But how powerful it is, the British who have withstood the blow know best.
This round of volley fire really caused a lot of damage to the British.
It's not that the empire's artillery is highly accurate, but that today's naval battle tactics determine that most of the salvoes of artillery shells will fall within a coverage area.
Line arrays have not been widely used outside of Imperial.
The British navy's tactics were still a swarm of attacks.
The small boats rushed ahead, providing cover for the larger battleships and serving to confuse and harass the enemy.
Large warships are divided into several squadrons. After engaging the enemy at close range, they concentrate their firepower on a local area to hit the larger number against the smaller number.
Accumulate small victories into big ones, and ultimately achieve overall victory.
This approach worked well before the invention of line arrays.
Both the British Navy and the Dutch Navy are masters of this tactic.
It's a pity that the British Navy encountered the Imperial Navy that evolved in advance.
Without giving the British fleet a chance to rush in and strangle them at close range, the Imperial Navy took full advantage of the longer range of its artillery and started artillery strikes from a very distant position.
From the perspective of the Imperial fleet, the black British fleet covered the entire sea surface, as airtight as a herd of buffaloes.
Although this formation is powerful, it also allows the artillery of the imperial fleet to increase the chance of hitting.
Anyway, the cannonballs were fired in a straight line, hitting from the front of the British fleet, and might hit some ship.
Of course, even so, many shells still fell into the water.
But one-third of the shells paid off handsomely.
Because the British fleet was charging head-on, as long as it was hit by a cannonball, it would penetrate from the bow of the ship to the interior of the sailboat, creating a bloody storm all the way and causing a huge mess.
Not to mention small ships, even large battleships cannot stop the Imperial Navy's artillery shells.
Robert Blake watched with his own eyes as the battleship Ark Royal next to him was hit by a cannonball. As a result, the entire bow of the ship was completely destroyed. The screams and smoke rising inside the cabin even affected the vision of friendly forces.
The most serious was the Yorkshire.
This warship, which had experienced many battles and had outstanding achievements, was very unlucky.
A cannonball penetrated the interior, causing extensive damage and eventually destroying the powder barrel.
The cannonball itself has a scorching high temperature, and it still carries flames as it rubs along the way. The gunpowder is ignited on the spot, resulting in a fatal explosion.
A black cloud suddenly rose from the middle of the Yorkshire's hull, and then a strong explosion shock wave pushed all the surrounding warships away.
The Yorkshire was broken into two pieces on the spot, one facing forward and the other standing straight up towards the sky, and then slowly sank.
Many crew members hugged the broken walls and howled so loudly that it made many British people pale.
Robert Blake had no choice but to shout.
"Speed up, bite the Chinese fleet, and make them pay. Order the artillery on the bows of each ship to fire immediately!"
Heavy artillery is deployed at the bow of large battleships to avoid blind spots of firepower.
Because this kind of artillery is placed alone, its caliber is very large, its power is unparalleled, and its range can reach an astonishing 1,500 meters.
The British battleship was unable to cross the hull at this time and attack the Imperial fleet with a side-swiveling artillery group. They had no choice but to charge and fire back with the cannon on the bow.
Although there are not many such artillery, it is better than nothing.
The result can be imagined. The sparse artillery shells flew over and all fell into the air, causing no damage to the imperial fleet.
When the Imperial fleet attacked the British fleet, it covered one side, so it was able to achieve results.
When the British fleet fought back, it had to hit a thin line, so one can imagine the difficulty.
Not to mention today's smoothbore cannons, even if a battleship from the World War II era wanted to hit the enemy, with various technical bonuses, the probability was still very impressive.
After the cannons on the lower deck are fired, the next step is the upper deck.
De Ruyter did not run up to appreciate the artillery firing, but focused on observing how the Imperial Navy sorted out the artillery fire.
He noticed that the Imperial Navy's naval guns did not use two ropes to limit the recoil like European ones, but the base was fixed in a huge iron frame.
The base of the artillery also has four wheels, which are very accurately stuck in the inner frame of the iron frame.
After firing, the artillery retreated, but due to the restrictions of the iron frame, the artillery did not leave the fixed range.
And when the artillery retreated to the bottom of the iron frame, there was obviously something in the frame that acted as a buffer, causing the artillery to slowly stop.
De Ruyter quickly lay down and looked into the iron frame. As a result, I saw two huge iron pieces on each of the two corners inside the iron frame.
He understood immediately.
This should be a springy reed.
This discovery made him admire the whimsical ideas of the Imperial Navy.
The next thing that deserves his attention is how the Imperial Navy handles the artillery after firing.
I saw a soldier holding a huge iron tube, almost as thick as a cannonball, and stuffed it through the muzzle.
There was only a squeaking sound inside the barrel, and when it was taken out again, there was the sound of water flowing inside the iron cylinder.
He saw the soldier running to the side holding the iron cylinder, and after opening the back cover, what poured out was hot water.
Then he opened the tightly sealed box next to him, only to be greeted by the cold air.
This kind of box is actually filled with ice cubes.
The soldier put the ice cubes into the iron cylinder, sealed it again, and waited intently for the next operation.
De Ruyter quickly came to his senses.
This iron cylinder is actually used to cool down the inside of the gun barrel.
There is no doubt that this approach is much more advanced than in Europe.
In Europe, after the artillery is fired, a soaked mop needs to be stuffed into the barrel of the gun to clean and cool down at the same time.
In many cases, it is even necessary to replace the mop several times to allow the temperature inside the bubble room to drop.
The moisture must then be removed with a dry mop before the artillery can be used again.
But this approach will definitely seriously hinder the efficiency of artillery firing.
The Imperial Navy used iron cylinders filled with ice cubes to cool down the inside of the gun barrel without getting wet, and it was many times faster.
As for whether the paper propellant used by the Imperial Navy will leave any residue inside the bubble hall...
De Ruyter found that the paper used by the Imperial Navy was very easy to burn quickly, leaving almost no obvious residue, and of course it had no effect on the next use of the artillery.
After looking at each link, De Ruyter already felt that this time was worth it.
(End of chapter)
