Chapter 568 With this round of test firing, the first round of artillery bombardment successfully hit an armed merchant ship at a distance of nearly two thousand meters, and the armed merchant ship did not have time to fire a single shell, and it burst into flames, and with the sound of explosions, it instantly disintegrated, and quickly sank.Of course, Hono's reaction is not slow, as a veteran of naval warfare, desperate is not the only option when he can't beat the enemy.When the first Lord Cortés landed in the Aztec Empire in the city of Tenochtitlan, due to the resistance of the Aztecs, Cortés led the Spaniards to abandon the city and flee to Takuba, but the Spanish soldiers were drowned or captured by the Aztecs because of the excess gold they carried.Huo Nuo immediately ordered his fleet to retreat quickly, and then talk about it later, and first leave the range of the Ming people's naval artillery attack.In Huo No's eyes, dying here in the East is far from worth it.Territory, for Spain, is really nothing.Spain established the largest colony in the world and the first empire on which the sun never set, and neither Taiwan nor Luzon was worth his hard work.For the whole family of soldiers, the first moment the cannon is fired, the head is automatically emptied, don't think about anything, just work.The broadside cannons fired two salves at the combined fleet of fifteen nations, and they quickly reloaded.Due to the staggered arrangement of the two horizontal columns of battleships, the second column was not even allowed to go forward, and the coordinates were slightly corrected, followed by a thunderous salvo of fire.A series of deafening loud noises shook the surface of the sea, and rows of cannonballs rained down on the 15-nation Combined Fleet.This time, the combined fleet of the fifteen countries was dealt an even heavier blow.Three armed merchant ships, two warships exploded like powder kegs, and the flames soared into the sky!
Sir Hono looked at the five ships that burned into torches, and a cold sweat unconsciously came down on his face: "Damn Kolaqua, he's going to kill all of us, all of us.Is this backwardness in his eyes?
So what is advanced?
”At this moment, a Nanyang translator standing beside Sir Huo Nuo said cautiously: "Ten years ago, not five years ago, the sailor of the Ming Empire was still a river sailor, he was not wrong!"
”"Ridiculous, it's ridiculous, Du, how much did you charge Coraquay?
Speak for him like that?
”Hono said indignantly: "The Dutch say that they are sea grooms, we Spaniards are the conquerors of the sea, as early as more than a hundred years ago, we began to try to conquer the sea, do you know how long it takes for a qualified sailor to be trained?"
Do you know how long it takes for a qualified gunner to be trained?
”Less than 50 years after the war between Britain and Spain, the Spanish lost more than 30 ships in the battle between the Spanish and the British navy in the English Channel.However, the British Navy was not yet a fledgling, they had already developed under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth and after more than thirty years of development, they could barely fight Spain.If you want to hit an enemy ship with a front-loading smoothbore gun on the undulating sea, it is like holding a rifle without a scope and shooting at someone 400 meters away.You can crash into a dead mouse with a blind cat, but the first time can be luck, is it that these five warships that were hit are all luck?"
My ship, how can I explain to His Excellency the Duke!"
A red-haired, bearded commander with tears on his face.This time it was a warship belonging to the French Capes, whose history in France dates back more than 400 years to the Southern Song Dynasty, when the Capes family was still a French royal family.However, the current Capes family has declined, otherwise they would not have been reduced to becoming pirates, in Europe, whether it is when pirates go to colonize various places, or do business, it is a thing that those who can't survive will take risks to do.This third-class warship, which belongs to the Capesian family, has a displacement of more than 1,500 tons, and it is a first-class warship that was built at the beginning of this year and is less than a year old.The battle for the Rose in the Wind on its debut turned out to be even more tragic, as the Rose in the Wind was hit by a sulfur incendiary bomb on the foredeck of the ship.This sulfur bomb pierced the first deck and fell directly into the interior of the cabin on the second floor, if this was a lead bullet, the Rose in the Wind actually had little effect, a hole equivalent to the size of the Eight Immortals' Table, and the damage management personnel could repair it in half an hour at most.But the key point was that the brimstone incendiary bomb, the shell exploded inside, and the expanding air wave swept away a deck of the boss and ignited the gunpowder in the cabin, which was even more out of control.The Rose in the Wind was like being bitten by a wild beast from ancient times, and the whole bow of the ship could not fly, and the huge flames began to burn from the inside of the cabin, and quickly turned into a sea of fire, and the sailors covered in fire struggled and wailed in the flames, and let out a scream like killing a pig.Sir Reilly gloated a little and said: "It is better for the Gallic chickens to stay away from the sea, this is miserable, the Rose in the Wind has used almost 50,000 francs, and there is no return!"
”The whole family navy fired two rounds of naval guns, and they were also non-main naval guns, mainly to take the lead.Although Quan Xu did not understand naval warfare, he knew that the Europeans had long been a chicken feather, and although Britain had defeated the Spanish Armada in naval battles, their navy had risen to become a force to be reckoned with in Europe.However, their army had not yet risen and was pressed to the ground by the French army.The two sides have always calculated each other, just like in World War I and World War II, Britain and France were allies, while France lost to the bottom, and it is the same now.The whole of Europe has been fighting for hundreds of years, how can it be said that the union is united?
At this time, the entire combined European fleet began to be in chaos.Zheng Zhilong wanted to fight with Quanxu, so his fleet advanced, and the Capese family lost one of their main ships, and it cost 50,000 francs to build.The European currency of this period was unified with a three-tier system of gold, silver, and copper, just like the franc, to be precise, a silver coin, also called Liver, which was worth one pound of silver, and the value of this warship was equivalent to 22.68 tons of silver, which was equivalent to about 610,000 taels of silver.The cost of building a Sea Shark-level warship is about 8,000 taels (cost), and if it is equipped with artillery, it is almost equivalent to between 35,000 taels and 40,000 taels of silver.The belongings of the whole family army and navy are actually not cheap, only the main warship is almost equivalent to two or three million taels of silver, plus the Flying Fish fleet, which is almost equivalent to the financial income of the Chongzhen Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty for a year.If it weren't for Quan Xu, the imperial court wouldn't have been able to build it at all, let alone raise it.The current situation is that the combined fleet of the fifteen countries is in chaos, some want to fight with the whole family army, and some want to take the opportunity to escape.The British, in particular, had not yet completed their colonization of India, and the Ming had not yet had time to take care of it, and Luzon and Taiwan were the traditional spheres of influence of the Dutch and Spaniards.In Sir Reilly's opinion, the Spaniards were simply tired of life.In Europe, it is entering a Europe-wide melee, and it has come to the East to provoke a behemoth.At this time, Europe could not be said to be completely ignorant of the Ming Dynasty, they knew that the Ming Dynasty numbered more than 100 million, almost five or six Holy Roman Empires, and it was not something that small countries could provoke casually.If the Ming Dynasty didn't invade Europe, they would ask for more blessings and try to start a war with this empire?
What do you think?
After seeing the size of the whole family army and navy, the fifteen-nation alliance was over.In the confusion of these warships, there was also a mistake, and an armed merchant ship of 1,500 tons directly rammed into an 800-ton gunboat.There was no difference between a merchant ship and a warship, they were all the same sturdy, the same wooden ships, and as a result, the losses of the armed merchant ships were not large, at most the sailors fell into the hoists, but the gunboat was knocked out of a large gap, and the sea water quickly poured into the hold.The third sunken warship of the fifteen-nation combined fleet came out, but it was not the record of the whole army, it was an oolong made by their own people.Seeing this, Quan Xu smiled: "It's really European!"
”However, Zheng Zhilong sent small fireships, one or two hundred, which were originally hiding behind the combined fleet.That is to say, Zheng Zhilong has less and less capital, and when he was at his strongest, there were more than 3,000 warships alone, although bird ships and small gunboats of 400 materials were the mainstay.However, those are the main ships.These small boats were not actually built by Zheng Zhilong, many of them are brand new small boats, and there is no need to ask whether they are Jiangnan merchants or rich coastal merchants.The whole family army controls the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, and raises a huge army, where does the military spending come from?
Naturally, it is to generate income, and the key is that the whole family army does not collect taxes like Zheng Zhilong.The gentry Haoqiang has a good relationship with him, he can collect less, or even not collect, and sometimes, a few beauties, or a few guns, and a few cannons, can send Zheng Zhilong away.The whole family army and navy don't take bribes, once they do, they will be driven out of the whole family army, as for the generals to play tricks, is it really a soldier's committee to eat rice?
These fireships were full of fire-burning oil, sulfur, dry firewood, and other fire-starters, burning to the sky, and slamming straight into the whole family of military sailors like angry bulls!
Yang Yandong's face changed slightly: "Damn, it's a fireboat again!"
”He studied Zheng Zhilong and found that this guy likes to win by surprise, is good at using fireships, and when he fights with powerful maritime forces such as Fujian Sailors, the Netherlands, and Portugal, he can always successfully paralyze the opponent, and then take advantage of the opponent's negligence to send fireships to burn the enemy warships in one fell swoop.On the Red Lady, Sanniang looked at the smoke-billowing fireboat, and her face was a little solemn.In fact, everyone is improving.