Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 497 Battle of Ironclad Ships (Part 2)
As the two sides moved towards the south in tacit understanding, the three ironclad ships moved farther and farther away from their own sailing battleships, and finally disappeared from everyone's sight.
During this process, both sides continued to fire at each other. During the more than half an hour of advancing southward, the Fengyang fired more than 30 shells one after another, while the two Spanish ironclad ships fired nearly 100 shells.
Among so many shells, the one with the best accuracy was fired by the Casti, which was only thirty meters away from the Fengyang, which could be considered a near miss.
The reason why such results were achieved was, of course, that the Fengyang consciously reduced its speed, and the distance between the two sides had now been shortened to less than three thousand meters.
"How far are we from our team now?"
In the command room , the map officer picked up a compass and measured: "Report, we are now nearly ten kilometers away from the bay mouth."
"Okay, what I am most worried about are the two enemy ironclad ships. One is fighting with me, and the other is rushing into the sail battle line to kill everyone. I didn't expect the enemy to be so cooperative. Both ships followed us. Now, it's time to teach them a lesson. Send an order, keep the speed unchanged for the time being, right rudder thirty, and all ships will head due west."
"yes!"
Following Li Guozhu's order, the Fengyang changed its course from southeast to southwest and then headed west. As the course of the ship changed, the six main guns of the Fengyang and the four secondary guns on the starboard side all aimed at the Casti and Aragon to the northwest.
"Well, it looks like the other party is finally not going to run any further. I'm really worried that if this continues, Casti's engine won't be able to hold up."
Although ironclad ships were new, the commanders of both sides had long understood in domestic tests that ironclad ships were completely invincible when facing sailing warships, except when they were afraid that the enemy ships were too many and would desperately rush over to fight boarding battles. Therefore, in the eyes of the Duke of Alva, when the engine of one of our ironclad ships might fail at any time and the firepower of a single ship was insufficient, it was the safest approach to concentrate two ironclad ships to knock down the enemy's ironclad ships first. As for the duel between sailing warships, in his view, Spain had been roaming the seven seas for more than a century. When the forces of both sides were similar, he was convinced that his side could win even without the participation of ironclad ships.
While he was thinking about this, he suddenly felt his feet shaking: "What's going on?"
"Sir, it was a near miss, only ten meters from the stern of our ship."
"Investigate the battle damage."
Soon, a sound came from a copper tube: a near miss, and the flying shrapnel killed three soldiers and injured two at the stern secondary gun position.
"It seems that the Chinese artillery is getting more and more accurate. We have to get closer. Not good!"
Just when the Duke of Alva was about to make another effort and increase the speed again, he suddenly !
"Wansheng! Finally, a cross-shot appears!"
"Damn it! The six main guns are firing in turns. If this is a salvo, we would have fired four rounds by now. Finally, there is a cross-fire!"
However, before Li Guozhu could continue to be happy, he felt his body shaking involuntarily: "What's wrong? Where did you get shot?"
"Commander." Soon a voice came from the copper tube connected to the damage control team: "The armor belt in the middle of the waterline was hit by a shell, leaving a gap of about five or six centimeters, but the rest is fine."
"Okay, keep the speed and course unchanged, and continue the bombardment."
…
"Long live!"
"God bless!"
As soon as the Fengyang was hit by a cannon, cheers suddenly rang out from the two Spanish warships: "We hit it directly without any crossfire. What kind of luck is this? It must be God's blessing. I didn't expect that in the far east, God's power has not weakened at all!"
At this moment, the distance between the two sides was about 3,500 meters, which was not a combat distance for sailing warships. Therefore, although the gunners on the three ironclad ships had received special training, they were used to operating muzzle-loading guns on sailing warships within a range of 500 meters. The combat distance suddenly increased to several thousand meters, and this was also the first actual combat, so the gunners on both sides were extremely uncomfortable.
But regardless of whether they were suitable or not, this distance was too close for a breech-loading cannon that used smokeless gunpowder as propellant and dana dynamite as cannonball powder. So, the hits naturally began to appear slowly.
In this process, the first to hit was most likely the Spanish warships: there were many ships, and the caliber of the guns they carried was reasonable, so they could fire in unison. In this way, the high number naturally led to the first hit.
Shortly after a shell fired by the Casti hit the Fengyang, the main gun of the Aragon also fired a cross-fire at the Fengyang!
"Huh~" In the cold winter, Li Guozhu wiped the sweat from his forehead fiercely, looked at the staff officers who were full of worry but expected him to order the whole ship to speed up, and gritted his teeth fiercely: "What are you looking at! At this moment, the enemy is not too far away from our sailing team. We have to continue to find ways to tie them up. Don't speed up for the time being... Ouch!" After a stumble, he yelled in anger: "Where was it hit again?"
"Reporting to the commander, the stern deck was hit by a cannon, killing seven brothers, but the rest are fine."
"Oh~" After a slight sigh of relief, Li Guozhu immediately yelled at the copper pipe: "Where is Zheng Yiguan? Is Zheng Yiguan dead?"
"Commander, I am still at the gun position."
"Damn it, you're the artillery chief! Why haven't you hit the target yet? I'm telling you, if you don't hit the target again, I'll put yourself in the cannon and shoot you out!"
"Commander, the barrel is too small. I can't fit it in."
Although this guy, whose nickname is Yiguan and whose real name is Zheng Zhilong, had excellent eyesight as a lookout before, and later showed his talent in arithmetic and geometry during the short-term training at the Naval Academy, he was assigned to the Fengyang as the chief gunner. But he was only seventeen years old, and it was inevitable that he was young and energetic. Even in the face of Li Guozhu's roar, he still had the courage to speak out.
Of course, as the chief gunner, he was also annoyed that he couldn't hit the target after firing so many shots. After defeating Li Guozhu, he simply pulled the gunner away and went to the gun position himself. He used his left hand to coordinate with the crude aiming instrument for a while, and his right hand kept fine-tuning the gun position. After completing so many actions quickly and coordinatedly, he pulled the trigger hard!
"Boom~" A cannonball shot up into the sky, and after flying in the air for only six or seven seconds, it suddenly fell from the sky and accurately hit a chimney of the Casti!
“Hit!”
"Victory!"
The shells fired by the 150mm naval guns were much more powerful than those fired by the 100mm naval guns. The shell first hit the chimney, then opened a hole along the chimney wall, and continued downward with potential energy, hitting the deck at the base of the chimney before exploding. Then, the violent explosion directly blew off one of the two chimneys on the Casti!
At this moment, due to the cannon fire, the thick smoke on the Casti, which had not been cooled and concentrated by the chimney, poured out directly from the engine room below the deck. For a moment, the scene on the Casti looked quite horrible.
"Sir, we are in trouble!"
"What do you mean?"
"The engine, the engine of the Casti, is on strike again!"
"Damn it! At this time."
…
"Commander, that's not right."
"What's wrong?"
"This is a gunboat from the other side. Its speed is so fast..."
"Huh? Hahaha, these are all ready. Zheng Yi Guan might destroy the enemy's engine room with one shot!" Li Guozhu slammed the command table hard and shouted, "All ships speed up to 12 knots, change the course from due west to 11 o'clock northwest! We won this battle!"
