Chapter 120： fight to the death

"Have the artillery been adjusted?" Quick, the captain of the Hope, asked loudly.

"It's all adjusted, Captain, and it can be launched at any time!" The gunnery officer immediately responded to him.

At this time, the weather was already cold, and the temperature difference between high sea and low land caused the monsoon to blow from the land to the sea, which put the Arda fleet from the port in the upper wind, while the pirate fleet was in the lower wind.

Quick shouted: "Guys, now we are in the upper hand, we must take advantage of this opportunity!"

A sailing warship equipped with artillery has many advantages when it is in the upwind position, because the sea wind blows the hull and tilts, and the artillery on the side facing the enemy ship will face slightly downward, which can hit the waterline of the enemy warship more conveniently nearby.

Furthermore, ships located upwind are less affected by smoke after shelling, which is more convenient for aiming and loading.

However, the upwind port also has its own disadvantages. For those warships with multiple layers of artillery, also because the hull is tilted, the lower layer of the gun port cannot be opened when the waves are too large, resulting in a sudden drop in firepower.

And the downwind also has its own advantages. If the warships in the downwind cannot win, they can use the wind to slap their **** and leave. .

Generally speaking, the probability of sinking the opponent by a ship with the upper hand is much greater than that of its opponent. The role of the navy determines the tactics it adopts. There is an interesting comparison in the era of great navigation on the earth.

Historically, as a powerful country in the army, France’s navy mostly played second-rate roles such as covering the landing of the army and escorting merchant ships. , Hit a few shots and run away.

France’s rival at the time, the United Kingdom, had a glorious tradition of always having the upper hand. Britain, which pursued a dual-power policy, had dominated the world in naval strength for two centuries. For them, naval warfare was to destroy the enemy, so their huge fleet, in most cases The next will try to sink the enemy ship.

The distance between the two sides gradually approached, and Quick took over the work of the helmsman. The Hope needed to adjust the angle of the hull so that the side guns could be aimed at the pirate ship. Steering with the wind is a very dangerous job. At such an important moment, Quick chose to steer the steering wheel himself.

The gunners on the port side held their breath, staring at the pirate ship in the distance, waiting for the gunnery officer's order.

…

On the side of the pirate fleet, Garden and the others gradually saw the lineup of the Arda Navy, and the Hope, which was at the forefront, was particularly eye-catching.

"Is that the legendary strange ship? It really doesn't look like it has oars."

As a qualified pirate, Garden is of course very interested in all kinds of things on the water, and he became excited when he saw the Hope. The medicine he had just swallowed began to take effect, giving him extremely strong self-confidence. At first, the panic that he found himself bumping head-on into Arda's navy had disappeared without a trace.

Now Garden is thinking about how to capture that strange ship as one of his collections.

"Let the slaves row hard again! All ready to take on board," ordered the pirate chief, eager now to tear the enemy to pieces.

The sound of the whip in the cabin became louder.

…

The Hope waited for her long-awaited moment. The leading pirate ship was trying to get the side of the ship she hit to come over, and some pirates on the deck were still swishing sniper arrows at her side.

The gunnery officer saw the opportunity and shouted: "Fire!"

Before the voice fell, the gunners of the four artillery who heard the order lit the fire holes almost at the same time. With the smoke and fire, the four solid shells were fired in unison.

Everyone on the leading pirate ship only saw a flash of fire from the four black pipes on the opposite ship's side, and then the ship's hull was shrouded in a burst of smoke.

"How did it happen? Their ship caught fire by itself?" The pirates, who were gearing up to jump onto the opposing ship, looked bewildered.

Then they felt the battleship under their feet suddenly tremble violently. Under the shock, many people couldn't stand and fell on the deck. There was also a huge breaking sound, as if someone smashed the plank with a sledgehammer.

This is the effect of the cannonball hitting the pirate ship. Compared with the thick hull of the Hope, the hull of the pirate's galley is thinner, and the shell hits it as if it has penetrated a layer of cream.

This pirate ship has two decks, and the oarsmen are located in the mid-deck cabin between the upper and lower decks. The shells that broke into the shell directly took the lives of several oarsmen, but the damage to the entire ship's maneuvering was greater. , The flying sawdust produced by the broken hull turned into a deadly weapon and embedded into the flesh and blood of the surrounding oarsmen.

"Ah~~" the injured oarsmen wailed, writhing painfully on the deck.

Those oarsmen who were not injured were also stunned by the sudden blow and the tragedy of their companions. Many people fell to the ground due to the violent shock, including the pirate who was in charge of commanding the slaves. On the side of the ship facing the enemy, the four broken holes are clearly visible.

They were only in a daze for a few seconds, and then someone kept shouting in horror: "The devil's weapon!" "The other party used magic!" The cabin was in chaos, and no one cared about paddling.

Soon the tragic situation on the lower deck was known to the whole ship. It was the first time that everyone on the ship encountered this situation. The normal routine should be to stick the side of the ship to the side of the other side, and then jump over and chop the sailors on both sides.

Some well-informed people know that the navies of the southern countries are equipped with ballistas that can shoot from a long distance, but the four black pipes protruding from the side of the other side's ship are obviously not ballistas. Fire and smoke And the ballista can't hit so accurately, and its power is not as powerful.

The captain of the pirate ship was the first to react, and he ordered the first mate: "Go down and supervise those slaves yourself, and continue to row hard for me. We must hurry up, otherwise we will only be beaten here."

The chief mate woke up instantly, and after a reply, he went down the deck.

"You bastards, panic farts. Hurry up and get the boat moving."

The chief mate's roar soon resounded through the lower deck.

"Crack!" The sound of the whip whipping the human body resounded continuously in the cabin.

"Slackers, get back to your seats! Give me a hard paddle!"

The pirate leaders who were in charge of guarding the slaves also began to yell at them fiercely.

In order not to affect morale, the first officer personally ended the lives of those slaves who were crying because of their injuries.

Under whip whips and death threats, the oarsmen quickly restored order, returned to their original positions tremblingly, and continued to row their oars.

When the pirate ship was in chaos, the four guns on the port side of the Hope completed a new round of ammunition loading.

The first round of shelling achieved very good results, and the morale of the officers and men on the ship was greatly boosted.

Satisfied, the gunnery officer drew out his saber and pointed at the pirate ship, ordering loudly: "Fire!"

The smoke from the last round of shelling has not yet cleared, and the second round of shelling has begun.

"Damn! There's still a second round!" The pirate captain hated the strange ship opposite him now.

The hull under my feet shook wildly again, and I didn't need to think about it to know that I was hit again.

He secretly prayed that not many slaves on the lower deck died, but at the end of the prayer, a news that almost made him faint came from below:

"It's over, the cabin is flooded!"