Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 356 Crisis
The south wind howled towards the north sea, and the smoke was blown towards the VOC main fleet. At this time, the two sides had not fired many times, and the smoke became lighter with the sea breeze. From the shore of Sheliao Island, the enemy fleet was still clear.

In Zhenhai Fort, there were only a dozen or so cannons with firing range on the second and third floors. Jin Xu and his adjutant commanded the artillery on the two floors to finish a round of firing respectively, and now each gun crew was busy loading.

In order to avoid occupying the artillery firing windows, Lin Hai and others came out of the fortress and stood on the top of the mountain to observe the battlefield situation with telescopes.

So far, it should be said that Huiyou Company still has the upper hand:

The damage to the VOC fleet was visible to the naked eye. Almost every warship was damaged to varying degrees. At least one ship had a gun carriage destroyed on its open deck, but the extent of the damage on the gun deck was unknown.

On the other hand, at the fort at the foot of the mountain on Sheliao Island, all the gun carriages were still intact, and only a few gunners were slightly injured. However, the sandbags of some of the forts were collapsed, and the gunners were busy repairing them...

The reason why Huiyou Company was able to gain the upper hand was that although the enemy's warships had already dropped anchor, they were still swaying with the waves, and their hit rate was naturally not comparable to that of land-based artillery.

At the same time, although the main VOC warships all have double hulls, their protection is obviously not as good as the sandbags in front of the artillery, and the latter will not produce fragments rain.

The artillery of both sides continued to fire. The broadside volleys of the navy were not like the volleys of the army. In fact, there was no synchronization at all. The time when each gun fired was random. The same was true for the land artillery of Huiyou Company. Each gun group fired freely without any unified command.

"Boss, if we keep fighting like this, we have a good chance of winning!" Shibi looked around with a telescope in his hand. In those days, all telescopes were monocular telescopes, which were two or three feet long when pulled out, but the field of view was very narrow, so he could only turn the lens back and forth. From a distance, it looked like he was firing a machine gun.

"It's very difficult." Lin Hai shook his head solemnly. It was obvious that Shibi had never studied mathematics, so his estimate of the situation was too optimistic.

The fact is that the number of artillery pieces on both sides is close to one to three. If we assume that both sides always have enough gunners and ammunition, the team must achieve nine times the efficiency of the enemy's artillery fire in order to win - the efficiency here refers to the speed of destroying the enemy's artillery vehicles, because it is almost impossible to sink the enemy ship with only more than 60 guns firing against nine cruisers.

The number of artillery pieces in the Huiyou Company's firing range is only one-third of that of the VOC fleet. If the bombardment efficiency is not nine times that of the opponent, it means that the exchange ratio of one to three cannot be achieved. This will lead to a further imbalance in the artillery ratio of both sides, and the balance of victory will tilt towards the VOC faster and faster.

This is a cruel math problem, but it is not the whole truth. Huiyou Company has at least two disadvantages that have not yet appeared, which will be exposed as the artillery battle continues:
One is that the artillery fort at the foot of the mountain all used forged iron cannons, which had the advantage of thin tubes and were relatively light, but the disadvantage was that the heat sink of the cannon body was small, making it easier to overheat than cast cannons. Moreover, in order to increase the lethality, the gunners of Huiyou Company still used strong charges, and forged cannons were, after all, tougher than cast ones.

The second reason is that the base of the VOC artillery is movable, so the fleet can weigh anchor and resume maneuvering at any time, leaving the battlefield to reorganize the formation, and then continue the battle with the artillery on the other side. However, the heavy artillery of the Huiyou Company is difficult to move on land, so new artillery cannot be deployed during the battle...

"Go and organize the naval soldiers to prepare for the land battle. I estimate that the artillery batteries at the foot of the mountain may not be able to hold out until dark." Lin Hai did not explain too much, but just asked Shibi to organize people to prepare for the enemy's landing.

Shibi had fought many boarding battles and had fought many battles on land. He had more experience than Miguel in this area, so Lin Hai wanted him to lead the navy soldiers in land battles. This was also the reason why Lin Hai called Shibi to the mountain. Otherwise, as the captain of Dingyuan, he should be on the ship at this time...

"Yes, Commander!" The good thing about Shibi was that he was a little superstitious about Lin Hai, so he went down the mountain to carry out the order without asking why. After Shibi left, Lin Hai continued to observe the battle situation nervously. Soon, he saw that a cannon fort was hit repeatedly, and half of it was almost collapsed. Several gunners fell to the ground on the spot, and they didn't move much after a while.

Obviously, even if these people were not killed, they were seriously injured. Although the sandbags in front of the artillery fort would not produce fragments, the gun carriage and the base below were made of wood. Once hit by a solid bullet, the rain of fragments could take away the entire gun group at once.

Less than half a cup of tea later, Lin Hai witnessed another tragedy behind an artillery fort. An extremely unlucky gunner was aiming when suddenly his entire torso turned into blood and flesh and splattered everywhere. Needless to say, he was hit directly by a solid shell.

The rest of the artillery crew witnessed this horrifying scene, and fear wrapped around them like a giant python, suffocating them in an instant. Their minds went blank, and they could no longer remember any military law. The instinct for survival drove them to abandon their positions and rush up the mountain.

"Shoot those deserters!" Lin Hai waved his hand fiercely, his face as hard as steel. He knew that he could not afford to be lenient at this moment. Desertion was like a plague. If he did not resolutely curb it at the beginning, he would never have another chance later.

Viper immediately led Lin Hai's personal soldiers forward and shot the deserters one by one with their matchlocks. The other gunners who were thinking of retreating were immediately frightened and had to give up the idea of ​​escaping - they had no choice. If they escaped, they would definitely die. If they didn't escape, they still had a chance of survival. If they died in battle, they could be treated as martyrs...

Time passed little by little, and after about an incense stick of time, nearly half of the artillery positions on the shore of Sheliao Island were permanently breached, and there were no spare sandbags to fill them.

The casualties of the Navy's gunners gradually increased. Three artillery batteries were completely silenced one after another. The gun carriage of one of them was destroyed, and most of the crew members of the other two were either killed or injured. There were not enough gunners to continue firing.

The situation on the VOC side was not much better. The port sides of the nine main battleships were all pierced by shell holes. Dead bodies were lying on the open decks of each ship, and sailors were sent to the infirmary for treatment from time to time.

The situation on the gun deck was slightly better because the hull here was thicker. The 7-jin cannon penetrated the double hull of the VOC battleship from a distance of one mile, and its kinetic energy had almost decayed, so its power was limited after hitting the interior of the hull.

After a few rounds of shooting, the problem of wrought iron cannons being prone to overheating began to become apparent. The seven-jin cannons of Huiyou Company gradually went silent after firing a few rounds. The sound of cannons from the bottom of the mountain became increasingly sparse, while the sound of cannons from the sea in the distance was still very dense. The situation became increasingly dangerous...

"Captain, how about sending a fleet to attack?" Miguel was a little anxious. The officers and soldiers of the Navy had rarely fought boarding battles, and he had almost no hope of being able to hold Jilong Mountain after the failure of the artillery battle.

Once the commanding heights on Jilong Mountain were lost, Keelung would be completely lost. The enemy could shoot down at Keelung Fort from here, and also blow up the two cruise ships on the slipway that had not yet been launched.

As for the other ships of the Navy, they are just trapped in a jar, and will be completely annihilated by the enemy sooner or later...

(End of this chapter)