The sound of the humming conch echoed between the sky and the sea, continuously.
Lorist stood on the tall whaling ship's berth, holding a refined brass monocular in his hand, watching the shadows of sails appearing on the sea level in the distance, and raised the corners of his mouth: "It seems that Sembawood is still It didn't hurt them. As expected of the Armada, I thought they would use night raids to avoid being attacked by artillery. I didn't expect them to open up their battles to fight us. I don't know how to say they are pedantic Still full of courage, but I like enemies like this…”
It was June 7th, a clear morning, the wind was beautiful and the sun was shining brightly. It would be very pleasant to have a seafood barbecue on the deck. It's a pity that Lorist stayed up all night last night in preparation for the Armada's night attack, and didn't take a hasty nap until early morning. But not long after closing his eyes, Genorio came in and woke him up, because the Armada began to attack.
Lorist didn't understand why the Armada missed such a good opportunity last night. After all, under the cover of night, the hit rate of shelling could be reduced. But the Armada didn't know why it stayed at the same place overnight, and did not launch a desperate charge against the Norton family's fleet until it was broad daylight.
"This should be all out..." Lorist appreciated, but he felt that the commander of the Armada was stupid. Knowing that the Norton family fleet's long-range attack fire was fierce and let the fleet charge, that was not bravery, but commanding one's subordinates to die. Although the navy is an offensive technical arm, such a brainless offensive wise man can't do it.
Sixteen huge whaling ships lined up in a horizontal formation, all facing the enemy's direction with their port sides. Because of the headwind, Lorist ordered all the ships to drop anchor, not retreating a step, and fight a face-to-face decisive battle at sea with the enemy. Even though he was at a disadvantage in the wind direction, Lorist still had the confidence to defeat the Armada with the bronze cannon, a long-range attack weapon beyond this era.
A row of ten black windows are opened on the port side of each whaling ship. These are the gun portholes arranged on the second floor of the whaling ship. Thanks to the strong hull structure of the whaling ship, only the whaling ship Twenty artillery operation cabins can be transformed on the second floor. However, a whaling ship can only be equipped with ten marine bronze cannons. Compared with the eighteen bronze cannons on each side of the Thunderbolt battleship, it is much inferior in firepower.
After adopting Malek's strategy of destroying the Armada, capturing the Golden Bay and landing in Morente City, Master Sid worked tirelessly throughout the winter, rushing to work day and night, plus the previously reserved and newly built bronze cannons for ships were only 300. More than twenty doors. Half of the 16 whaling ships were distributed, and the remaining 160 or so bronze artillery pieces were evenly distributed to more than 40 large armed warships. It can also be regarded as an artillery battleship, capable of ultra-long-range attacks.
In order to make up for the lack of firepower, Lorist also brought Schwader's artillery training camp to the whaling ship, and arranged ten land-combat bronze artillery on the deck. Anyway, the deck of the whaling ship is spacious, and the land combat type bronze artillery has wheels, which can change direction at any time. The remaining more than forty land-combat bronze cannons were arranged on the medium-sized fast armed battleships that had been reinforced and modified, one by one, to deal with the small fast-ramming battleships of the Armada.
Now standing next to Lorist are only the golden archers Josk and Genorio, while Reddy and Hughes Great Swordsman are arranged on the other two whaling ships on the left and right flanks. Let the high-end combat power of the Armada rush to the whaling ship and start killing. And Josk is one of the only two Golden Knights of the four main armies of the Norton family who were accompanied by Lorist, and the other is the former bandit Ovekis.
There were two reasons for Josk to accompany him. After all, although this guy made the mistake of leading the Chaser Legion to attack without permission, it was also to avenge Lorist, and he was always Lorist's confidant. Specially moved from the position of regiment commander to regiment commander for a while, but he formed the Chaser Legion. In order to make Farea, who took over as the legion leader, not too embarrassing, Lorist decided to take this guy with him for a while before letting him go back. At the same time, Lorist remembered the awesome act of this guy who shot the mast with an arrow when he broke out from the Tibetan Gold Bay, so he planned to let Josk participate in this naval battle so that he could make up for his mistakes.
As for Ovekis, this time he is going back to his old business. Lorist found that even though ten bronze cannons for land warfare were arranged on the whaling ship's deck, the deck was still empty. There is no way to do this. The reason why the whaling ship is too big is that the hunted and captured whales have to be dragged to the deck for on-site cutting and storage. If they are not too big, there is no place to place the captured whales.
So Lorist ordered Ovekis to reorganize 320 catapults and pull them to the whaling ship, twenty for each ship. In naval battles, catapults are much more suitable than steel crossbows. Even if the distance is extended to two hundred meters, a stone weighing more than 100 catties will fall from the sky. No warship can handle this stone from the sky. The only disadvantage of naval battles is the warship. It can move, but the catapult is not very accurate. After the stone is thrown out, it has to fly in the air for a period of time. It is easy for the enemy to react and dodge...
The horn sounded loudly, and the watchman on the watchtower on the mast was reporting the enemy's situation loudly: "The Armada is directly ahead, more than 60 large armed warships are in the front line, and the rear is not clear. There are more than 400 ships, and the four battleships of Seppnim Sea Castle are in the middle, with a speed of about nine knots and a distance of 500 sea yards... "
With 500 nautical yards and a distance of 1,000 meters, it is estimated that the battle will take place in about 20 minutes. The only unfavorable situation today is that the enemy warships are facing the wind, while the Norton family fleet is facing the wind. The whaling ships and more than forty large armed warships equipped with bronze cannons are all lowering their sails and anchoring. This is the rhythm of the front.
"Order Semba Wood to lead the Lightning Strike Fleet to attack from the outside and attack the Armada Fleet first. Why dare to be arrogant in front of our Norton family? Do you really think that a large number of ships can overwhelm people?" Lorist sneered. order.
Genorio quickly wrote the order to stamp Lorist's seal on it, then put it in the small silver tube tied to the foot of a petrel in the cage behind him, and let the petrel fly. Five minutes later, there was a loud horn sound from the Thunderstrike battleship, and then the Thunderstrike fleet set sail to meet the charging Armada from the periphery of the sea route.
In less than ten minutes, there was a rumbling sound of shelling on the sea, and it could be seen from the monocular that Sambawood commanded fourteen Thunderbolt battleships to make a clever circle and turned into a large-scale battleship with the charging Armada. The armed warships walked side by side, and at a distance of two hundred meters, they launched a fierce shelling on the flank of the charging Armada...
The violent salvo of gunfire caused white smoke to rise from the side of the Thunderbolt fleet, but the thunder was loud and the rain was little. Except for the two large armed warships that gradually slowed down due to the shelling, the large armed warships on the other flanks The battleships still maintained their original speed and continued to sail forward, but there were also bursts of white mist rising from those battleships. After two rounds of bombardment, none of the battleships were sunk. Lorist couldn't help being surprised.
"The distance is two hundred yards..." The watchman on the mast reported loudly the distance between the two armies.
Lorist stared intently at a warship on the enemy's flank that had been bombarded with a binoculars, and finally saw that the enemy ship had bags piled up on the side of the ship. Puffs of white smoke rose...
"Smart man..." Lorist did not expect that the Armada would use sandbags to avoid and slow down the damage of the warships from shelling. No wonder the Thunderbolt fleet shelled three rounds but not even a large armed warship of the Armada sunk. However, if the Armada thinks that they can use this method to approach the Norton family fleet and turn this naval battle into the melee and team-jumping battle they are good at, it will be a big mistake. Lorist doesn't mind letting them know what long-range annihilation is. tactics.
"Initiate the first round of bombardment at a distance of 300 meters, and then replace the chain bombs, targets, masts and sails of the enemy ship..."
If you want to change the chain bomb now, the artillery launcher has to take out the iron projectile loaded in the barrel first, which will take longer and more troublesome. It is better to shoot the iron projectile first and then install the chain bomb. It is said that the invincible fleet in front of him has not tasted the taste of chain bullets. The four attacks launched by the lightning strike fleet led by Semba Wood used iron pellets and shotgun shells, because he did not need to slow down the speed of enemy warships.
"The distance is three hundred meters!"
With the roar of the watchman, successive rumbles were deafening, and the cannons started firing almost at the same instant. The huge ship under his feet shook violently backwards. Fortunately, the people on the berth were already familiar with the vibration feeling when the artillery was fired. Except for the twenty catapults tied down on the deck rolling back and breaking the ropes tightly, nothing unexpected happened.
The sixteen whaling ships arranged in a horizontal array and the large armed warships in the middle emitted white smoke from the artillery fire almost at the same time. From a distance, it seemed that a white wall appeared on the sea. But soon the gentle sea breeze blew away the white wall, re-exposing the large and small battleships lined up in a row.
The sound of rumbling guns was still ringing in his ears, but Lorist, who was holding up the binoculars, was very disappointed. More than 500 cannons were fired at once, but nearly 200 iron bullets hit the sea surface, causing splashes that soared into the sky. Only the two large armed warships rushing to the front suddenly paused, and the bow appeared There were obvious distortions and a few holes, and the sea water poured in quickly, and the speed of the boat slowed down all of a sudden.
Lorist sighed, there was no other way, the artillery firing team who had just practiced for three months was obviously very inexperienced. Not only could they not aim accurately when going into battle, they were even unlucky. Only two battleships were destroyed, and the result was too speechless. But this is the first round, it should perform better if it launches a few more times...
"Let go!" Schwader slammed down the small red flag in his hand, and the ten bronze cannons used for land warfare on the deck roared again. The owl's ominous cry pierced the entire sky, and rushed forward swiftly.
The menacing Armada fleet lined up with nearly 60 large armed warships at the forefront. The masts broke and the sails broke in the midst of that shrill sound. The speed of the warships that suddenly lost their charging posture dropped sharply and became a mess. There were faint screams. Sounds, cries, and calls for help, and even the battleships charging from behind directly collided with the battleships in front because they couldn't avoid it, and they huddled together more than 200 meters away from the Norton family fleet...
The sharp copper whistle sounded, and the ears rumbled by the artillery fire could still hear the copper whistle through the earplugs. This was an order to stop firing. Lorist thought there was no need to waste ammunition, and now it was the turn of the catapult to show its power.
"Launch!" Ovekis's loud voice spread over the sea, "Boom, boom, boom!" Catapults sent stones weighing hundreds of catties into the sky, and with the sound of howling wind, they flew toward the gathered Invincible. The battleships of the fleet smashed past. The stones fired by catapults during land warfare are basically round, because the elasticity of the ground is used to make the stone ball bounce and kill more enemies. However, the catapults used in naval battles have edges and corners, which is to allow the catapults to have sharp corners to smash the planks of enemy warships.
The first round of launching was just to throw stones to ask for directions, so as to better estimate the approximate distance and falling range. After a short adjustment, the second round of throwing stones became a burning flint bomb. These flint bombs are very simple to make. They are tied to stones with ropes soaked in kerosene, lit and thrown out. When the stone reached the target and fell, the matchlock on the stone had almost been burnt into pieces, and the throwing stones splashed in all directions, increasing the threat of fire.
Dozens of large armed warships charged at the front were already in flames, and they all turned into huge fires. From time to time, some small black spots were seen jumping into the sea from the burning warships. They were the escaped crew members and sailors. The last few large armed warships have lost their masts and sails, but they are still approaching the Norton family along the current.
There was another mournful whine in the distance. It was the Thunderbolt Fleet also using chain bombs to block the charge of the Armada Fleet's follow-up warships. On Lorist's side, there was basically no threat. Except for those large armed warships that were burned like torches, there was no follow-up enemy ships to bypass those burning ships and continue to charge.
"This sea battle, we will definitely win!" Lorist thought proudly, the flames were soaring into the sky in the distance, and the smoke was thick, and he couldn't see what was going on behind him. Perhaps the Armada Fleet is turning around and retreating after suffering such a big loss, and the Thunderbolt fleet commanded by Sambawood is now using chain bomb attacks to prevent the escape of the enemy ship.
"The enemy ship is 150 meters away!" The lookout on the mast shouted in panic.
"What?" Lorist was shocked.
"The enemy ship continues to approach us against the burning ship!" The lookout said in one sentence.
"Ovekis! The catapult continues to launch towards the back of the fire ship. It doesn't matter if you can't see the target! Throw the stone over to me!" Lorist hurriedly shouted at Ovekis on the deck.
I made a mistake, I didn't expect that the large armed warships charging ahead would burn and cover my vision at the same time. The enemy ships that had been hiding behind were hiding behind the thick smoke, using the fire ships in front as shields to continue heading towards the burning fire ships. I'm approaching here, instead of turning around and running away like I thought...
"Danger!" Genorio yelled and rushed over. Lorist looked up, but saw countless shining cold lights appearing in the thick smoke of the burning fireship ahead, flying towards the battleship on his side. Come.
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