Valley Emperor

At 11:30, on the Lianzhou, a young officer wearing the rank of captain of the navy stood on the podium on the upper deck. This person was Captain Fei Qing, the gunnery chief of the Lianzhou.

I saw him saying: "Prepare nine catties of artillery, the enemy No. 1 ship on the left, a distance of five hundred, solid bullets!"

At this time, the gunner next to the nine-jin artillery on the bow deck aimed at the enemy ship on the left for the final aiming. As for the loading, it had already been loaded, and even prepared for the second round. The loaded gunners are all ready.

The gunners who are going to reset the naval guns are in their respective positions. They are ready to reset the guns as soon as possible after the guns are fired. The gunners who clean the guns are also ready to clean the guns at the first time, and clean up the residual gunpowder residues in the guns to avoid the second reloading. At the same time, the residual burning gunpowder in the gun chamber ignites the gunpowder loaded for the second time, resulting in a chamber explosion accident. At the same time, using water to clean the gun chamber can also effectively reduce the temperature in the gun chamber and allow the gun to operate more lastingly. .

The gunners who were equipped with gunpowder and cannonballs were also ready, waiting for the second round of loading as soon as the guns were fired.

The gunner of this nine-jin artillery is also a veteran artilleryman in the Great Tang Wangshi, and he is also the most skilled gunner in the entire Datang Wangshi.

In the era of front-mounted artillery, the technical content of ordinary gunners was average. After training for a period of time, they could act as if they didn't know big characters, but if they were gunners, it would be very difficult to train.

Because there is no fire control system these days, the accuracy of the artillery is not high, and every time the gun is fired, the position is almost recalculated, and this is very demanding for the gunner.

So whether the artillery can hit the enemy these days, especially whether it can hit the enemy's ships, in addition to relying on luck, the most important thing is the skill of the gunner.

Therefore, almost every artillery commander in the King Division of the Tang Dynasty, whether it is the army or the navy, belongs to the top talents, and the rank is generally the highest level that a soldier can achieve: sergeant.

In addition, these artillery commanders have strong enough professional knowledge, so they can easily get the opportunity to continue to be promoted to officers. Usually, after going to the martial arts school to take a crash course, they often come back to the army as a second lieutenant, and they can serve as a platoon at this time. Long and even vice-captain.

But an ordinary artilleryman wants to grow into a gunner, and he is also a skilled gunner. In addition to long-term training and learning, it also has a considerable relationship with personal talent.

The total strength of the army and navy in the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty is nearly 100,000. Even the ordinary artillery has several thousand people, but the number of artillery commanders is only a few hundred people.

And among these hundreds of people, almost all of them are the first batch of artillerymen, and these people also have different technical levels. Being able to go to Lianzhou and serve as the gunner of this ninth-level artillery is enough to prove his strength.

After receiving the order, he began to perform the final calibration. During this process, he was still directly calculating various data by default. After the final aim was completed, he directly said: "Fire!"

Immediately, the matchlock of this nine-jin artillery was ignited!

The arquebus burned quickly and ignited the propellant in the gun chamber, and the next moment, the gunners saw the gun in front of them retreating violently, even the gun body weighing several thousand kilograms couldn't resist it. The powerful recoil of the artillery.

At the same time, a thick cloud of white smoke was also vacated from the original gun muzzle, and the violent sound of the gun spread to everyone's ears.

Many artillerymen immediately moved quickly, but not everyone was paying attention to the artillery itself. The artillery commander of the artillery and the artillery commanders on the upper deck were all paying attention to where the artillery shells landed.

The mere 500-meter distance didn't take long for the fast-flying artillery, and soon they could clearly see a small black spot flying in front of the enemy ship.

However, this cannon did not hit the enemy ship, but it did not make everyone show any frustration. In the battle at sea, the ships on both sides are in motion, and the ships are still shaking on the sea, the hit rate is far from the original. So high on land.

This is also why the artillery has a range of several kilometers, but it can only fire at a distance of 500 meters.

If you fire at a distance of 500 meters, you can't hit it. If you fire at a distance of one or two kilometers, you will basically hear a sound.

The first shot didn't hit, but the gunner of this 9-jin artillery didn't have time to regret it. After starting the calculation again to shoot Zhu Yuan, at the same time, the gunners under him were also nervous and busy.

They're going to put the cannon that's been knocked back a long way back and reset it, and then start clearing the chamber, loading the propellant charge, placing the match, and putting in the solid spherical shell.

These tasks are relatively simple to say, but they are actually quite troublesome, because it is about artillery, and no one dares to relax. They are all done very carefully and work strictly according to the process.

When the gunners finished resetting and reloading, the gunner took aim again, this time he aimed for a long time!

When the aiming was completed, the second shell was also shot out.

And his artillery had just fired, and he also heard the continuous rumbling of the cannon from the rear. Just listening to the sound of the cannon, he knew that it should be the other nine-jin artillery and seven-jin artillery in the fleet. .

Because it takes time for fleets to get close to each other, and artillery shooting also requires a certain angle of fire, the time for firing the artillery is not uniform, but comes first.

But now, only nine and seven catties of artillery are fired. As for the five catties of artillery, because of the range, firing at a distance of five hundred meters is purely a waste of artillery shells.

Therefore, the ships of the main fleet of the Second Fleet have already fired one after another, but the sound of firing is not intensive.

And because the distance is a little far, the hit rate is relatively low.

This vigorous fight lasted for more than ten minutes, and it turned out that it only hit two or three shells of the enemy ship.

And these two or three shells are naturally impossible to cause any actual damage to the enemy's ships, at most it will cause a few casualties.

However, only a few shells hit, but it brought a great morale boost to the fleet, because it meant that the enemy could indeed hit the opponent, and the opponent seemed to have no large-caliber naval guns to fight back.

This kind of thing is that one's own side hits the other side, but the other side can't fight back, even if the hit rate is reduced a little, and it can't even cause any actual damage to the other side, it's a good thing.

Because every time it hits an enemy ship, it can attract cheers from the sailors.

However, this cheer does not represent the middle and high-level generals in the fleet!

Because the effect of long-range artillery shelling is not obvious enough, it means that we cannot rely on the range advantage of large-caliber artillery to gain the upper hand. If we want to achieve effective results, I am afraid we have to continue to shorten the distance!

It's just that once you get to a distance of two or three hundred meters, or even a further distance, although you can have more artillery fire and achieve a higher hit rate, the artillery of the Ming army will definitely fight back. By that time, I am afraid the battle will be very tragic.

On the Lianzhou, Ouyang Gui was still a calm civil servant. Although he also paid attention to the shelling, he obviously did not show any dissatisfaction, and he did not personally intervene in the shelling.

That is the matter of the naval artillery officers, not the accusations of his fleet commander.

At this time, the staff around him said with a hint of excitement: "Sir, according to the current speed and direction, at most ten minutes, the distance between the two sides can be shortened to 300 meters, and then our large number of five-jin artillery can also be used. If you can open fire, you will definitely be able to hit the enemy ship!"

However, Ouyang Gui shook his head slightly: "What are you doing to close the distance? Now that we can hit them, it's not good that they can't hit us. Send the order and keep a distance of 400 meters!"

As he spoke, he shook his head slightly!

Most of these naval officers under their command were transferred from the army, and they also brought the highness and courage of the army. Although this is a good thing, it is not a good thing for today's battle.

Close the distance recklessly?

Ouyang Gui didn't want to do this unless he had to, because his idea was not to annihilate the opponent's fleet. In fact, he couldn't do it when the enemy was strong and I was weak. What he really wanted was very simple, that is, to entangle the opponent, Just to cover the landing fleet.

Therefore, in this naval battle, it is not important whether the main fleet can sink the opponent's battleship, the important thing is to hold the enemy!

In the end, the current state was maintained. The two sides maneuvered and entangled with each other hundreds of meters apart, and then led the fleet to retreat back after a few hours.

Because by that time, I am afraid that the landing fleet has already landed on Qiongzhou Island, and there is no need for the navy to continue fighting with the enemy's fleet~www.wuxiax.com~ The Tang Navy is weak, and I can save a little more energy for the Navy. Keep an extra point!

But Ouyang Gui's idea was just wishful thinking, because only fifteen minutes later, Ouyang Gui realized that something was wrong!

The enemy fleet did not continue to follow him and turned to continue to close the distance, but began to turn towards the east.

Seeing this scene, he immediately secretly said that it was not good. This must be the enemy's fleet who discovered the landing fleet and ran to intercept the landing fleet regardless of himself.

If it is really bypassed by the Ming army navy, then the landing fleet will be in danger.

The Ming army navy turned and opened the distance at this time, definitely not wanting to run, they were going to intercept the transport fleet, and this kind of thing was not allowed by Ouyang Gui.

He never forgets his duty: cover the landing of the Army!

So after seeing this scene, he ordered without hesitation: "Send the ships, close the distance, and entangle them!"