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The sky was filled with dark clouds and the west wind was blowing. There were continuous gunshots and flying flames near the two islands. The ignited warships were like huge torches, burning fiercely on the sea, but they could not illuminate the diffuse smoke.
In the blurry light and shadow, there were sounds of killing and screams, which was thrilling...
The battle between Zheng Zhilong and Di Zhongxing was a hasty encounter. Zheng Zhilong wanted to attack both sides, but he did not expect that the Qin army had more warships than his, and because they had the upper hand, a lime war forced Chen Hui to turn around and flee.
Due to the situation and the time, the battlefield was soon divided into two parts. Zheng Zhilong's 100 warships faced Di Zhongxing's 10 warships. While fighting, Zheng Zhilong faced north. Because he was in the upper wind, he had the advantage.
However, due to the thick smoke and obstructed vision, Zheng Zhilong only knew that the enemy was the Qin army, but he did not know it was Di Zhongxing. He thought it was Gu Rong's East China Sea Fleet.
The sixty-odd warships led by Chen Hui were forced to flee south in a hurry by the lime powder. The more than one hundred light warships led by Liu Zhongqin were like a pack of wolves, biting Chen Hui tightly. The ships cut through the waves and flew. The two fleets soon caught up with each other.
In addition to Liu Zhongqin's six large gunboats, the others chasing Chen Hui were light warships such as Hu Ships, Sand Ships, Eagle Ships, and Cangshan Ships. The ships were small and fast, like flying sharks, and they quickly killed their way into Chen Hui's fleet. The two sides were tangled up and fought each other.
Many Zheng soldiers' eyes were blinded by lime, while the Qin army took advantage of the victory to pursue the enemy with high morale. On the sea two or three miles wide, the sound of gunfire was like thunder and the shouting of killing was like raging waves, rising and falling endlessly.
Rockets were flying all over the sky and bullets were hitting the water like a torrential rain.
Warships on both sides were constantly being set on fire by rockets. Sailors jumped into the water to escape, shivering like fish on the sea. Some of them fought for a piece of rotten wood, without distinguishing between friend and foe.
There were flashes of fire on the sea, corpses floating like duckweed, and bright red blood dyed the sea red.
"Turn left!" Yu Sanfa was the captain of an eagle ship of the Qin army. Under his command, the eagle ship moved forward and backward at high speed. "Get closer, get closer..."
Whoosh! A rocket from the enemy ship whizzed past Yu Sanfa's cheek and set his big beard on fire. He hurriedly slapped out the burning beard. The burning pain under his jaw made him furious. He pointed at the stern of the enemy ship and shouted, "Quick. Get closer, Zhang Jieba, prepare the thunder bomb, quick!"
Some of the thirty soldiers on the eagle were busy pouring water to put out the rockets and fireballs fired by the Zheng army, some were adjusting the sails, some were rowing, and some were squatting on the side of the ship to fight back with muskets.
In front of them was a three-masted ship of the Zheng army. It was a big ship, and it was getting closer and closer. The Zheng army fired more and more rockets, and the sound of gunfire became more and more frequent.
Yu Sanfa shouted, "Don't put out the fire, hurry up, bomb him together..." When the two sides were chasing each other, Zhang Jieba and others lit the thunder bombs and threw them at the enemy ships one after another;
Boom! Boom! Boom! A series of explosions blew the enemy ship's stern into pieces and flames. One by one, Zheng's troops were blown to the sea, like dumplings.
The thunder bomb was loaded with black gunpowder, and the enemy was a three-masted warship. Although the stern of the ship was in a mess under the bombardment, it was difficult to cause fatal damage to the hull;
But it doesn't matter. The first round of thunder bombs is mainly to kill the soldiers on the enemy ships, so as to prevent the enemy from killing them from above. There are other magic weapons to deal with enemy ships;
"Throw the incendiary bombs." As Yu Sanfa roared, another dozen or so bombs flew onto the enemy ship. This kind of incendiary bomb was specially developed by the Qin army for use in naval battles. The explosion itself would not cause too much damage to the enemy, but after the explosion, the kerosene and other mixed flammable materials inside would quickly generate a fire.
In a flash, the tail of the enemy ship was ignited, the fire was blazing, the heat wave was overwhelming, Yu Sanfa and his men threw a dozen thunder bombs and incendiary bombs into the middle of the giant ship, and then began to put out the flames that had just been ignited by the rockets against the Zheng army...
The Zheng army also had methods of fire attack, but they were all traditional rockets, fireballs, fire bricks, etc. These things formed fires relatively slowly and were easier to extinguish, but they were incomparable to the incendiary bombs that the Qin army had just developed.
On the sea within a radius of two or three miles, seven or eight Qin army warships were set on fire, but as many as twenty Zheng army warships were set on fire. There were huge fires everywhere, making people sweat profusely, and even their beards and eyebrows were curled up.
The Qin army was ruthless and took advantage of the fact that many Zheng troops were blinded by lime and unable to join the battle. They attacked from both sides like wolves, using thunder bombs and incendiary bombs at will, causing heavy losses to the Zheng army. The sea was covered with corpses and blood.
In the past, boarding battles basically involved rushing onto enemy ships and fighting with swords. If it was still like this, the Qin army would definitely not be able to defeat the desperate Zheng army that had been wandering on the sea for years.
But the Qin army's fighting style had completely changed. There was no hand-to-hand combat. Once the warships of both sides approached within a few feet, a large number of thunder bombs and incendiary bombs would immediately hit them, like hail. There were fierce explosions everywhere, more intense than long-range artillery battles.
Chen Hui has been at sea for half his life, but this is the first time he has seen such a boarding battle.
The Qin army's small warships were like sea wolves, lurking in the mist and waves, and even more ferocious than wolves;
Once they approached within a few feet, the Zheng army's warships were almost inevitably blown up, the cabins collapsed, the wooden planks flew everywhere, and then they were quickly ignited, forming huge torches that illuminated the sky... ..
In this situation, Chen Hui had no choice but to flee desperately. Only by keeping some distance could he have a chance to fight with the Qin army.
Zheng's army had fought several battles with the Dutch before, and the key factor in the battle was not the powerful artillery, but the large number of people and ships. For example, in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, Zheng's army dispatched 150 warships, only 50 of which were gunboats, and the remaining 100 small boats were all fireboats. At the command of the commander-in-chief, hundreds of fireboats swarmed up and hooked and ignited under the cover of the large ships' artillery.
Europeans used only a few fireships at most, and even the Dutch, who were considered the masters of fireships in Europe, had never encountered such an overwhelming swarm of fireships. Their few huge ships were besieged by more than a hundred fireships, and they were unable to focus on one thing while neglecting another, and were bound to be defeated.
But now Chen Hui had 60 to 70 ships of various sizes, and Liu Zhongqin had over 100 ships, which was more than his. They were the ones being besieged, and even if they had fire ships, they couldn't use them.
The Qin army used new weapons such as thunder bombs and incendiary bombs in the naval battle, catching the Zheng army off guard. The two sides were still six or seven feet away from each other, but they were bombarded with these weapons, blowing people and horses to the ground, leaving you no chance to fight back.
Escape, you can only escape!
Chen Hui commanded the Zheng army ships to charge left and right, hoping to escape the Qin army's entanglement. Even the few guns were useless. The two sides were already entangled. The gunboats were huge and difficult to turn. By the time you cross the hull, you are probably already bitten by the Qin army.
In addition, the sea was filled with smoke and visibility was poor, so if you fired, you might end up hitting your own friends.
The drums of war rumbled, the morale of the Qin army was as high as a rainbow, and the shouts were like tides. The warships braved the wind and waves and pursued relentlessly. The two sides fought like this and flew south. There were gunshots and explosions all around. Zheng's warships were constantly caught up and then quickly submerged in the ferocious wolf pack.
Chen Hui had been running for seven or eight miles, but he still couldn't get rid of the Qin army's pursuit. Of the original seventy warships, only thirty or so were left, more than half of them were lost.
Just when he was in despair, he suddenly saw smoke in the south and a huge fleet coming diagonally from the southwest. Seeing the big flag with the word "Zheng" on the opponent's mast, Chen Hui couldn't help but be ecstatic: Zheng Cai and the others are here, finally!
It was indeed Zheng Cai who had arrived. He had more than seventy gunboats, and more than three hundred other light Cangshan ships, Red Dragon boats, Eagle ships, etc. Cutting diagonally from the southwest to the northeast, the rows of cannons on the port side all adjusted their firing angles to the maximum;
As Zheng Cai's flagship opened fire first, the gunboats lined up in a row followed suit, with bullets flying like rain, passing over Chen Hui's ships and fiercely smashing down on the Qin army chasing behind;
Although the two sides were a mile apart, two or three hundred bullets were fired at a time, like a violent storm. There was no need to worry about shooting accuracy. A few bullets would always hit the target.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Three loud noises followed, and one of the Qin army's sand ships and two bluff ships were directly hit. The sand ship with a shallow draft was hit and turned sideways, with the bow completely shattered. The seawater that poured in instantly made the stern of the sand ship tilt up.
The other two ships that were hit were not much better off. The heavy projectiles were so powerful that they smashed the planks of the ships and caused serious damage to the hulls.
Zheng's army destroyed three of Liu Zhongqin's ships with one salvo, and then there was a constant roar. Zheng's naval guns were still roaring, and bullets were whistling like rain. The situation took a turn for the worse... ... ...
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ps: Yesterday I occasionally heard my mother mention "tomorrow is a festival", I thought it was the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, and didn't pay much attention to it. In my hometown, there are festivals every month, the second day of the second lunar month, the third day of the third lunar month, the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month... ... When I got up in the morning, I saw my mother setting off firecrackers to worship the ancestors. When I asked, it turned out to be the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month, but yesterday I thought it was the sixth day of the sixth lunar month... ... Suddenly I felt a little melancholy and a little lost. I remembered the time when Sun Wukong was in Zhongshan: Zhongshan has no sun and moon, and the cold and heat do not know the year.
I type so hard every day without even looking up that I am abandoned by time and disconnected from the world. I am neither in the human world nor in heaven... I am typing... Time flies... I am still typing. Apart from typing, I am nothing... Well, brothers, please give me a monthly ticket to prove that I am still alive...
.(To be continued..)
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