Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 386 Five-Masted Ship

In the past he has always been on a locally built tugboat of the 70-ton class most commonly found here.Travelers own a lot of these ships, mainly used as transport ships, and sometimes they also serve as patrol boats—to expel fishing boats that refuse to pay fishing taxes, to fight against small groups of pirates who specialize in robbing fishermen, to protect passing merchant ships, and so on.

Recently, the Ministry of Maritime Forces launched the "Maritime Law and Order Rehabilitation Month". From early morning to dusk, ships from the Ministry of Maritime Forces patrolled the tens of kilometers of coastline between Bopu and Mayao.This has led to many more patrol ships, and the ships originally used for transportation have also been transferred to patrol.In order to ensure that the crowd outnumbers the few, the ships are carried out in formations, with three to five ships in each formation.At least one or two ships in each formation are equipped with artillery-many of which are temporarily borrowed from the army.

The appearance of this kind of ship is shabby: on the deck is a temporarily borrowed Army 12-pound M1857 cannon - simply fixed on the front deck with a rope.The cannons were surrounded by straw bags filled with wet sand.The sailors were interspersed with gunners in gray uniforms seconded from the Army, and the Navy did not have so many gunners available.

"Even if all the patrol boats are replaced with boats like 101." Le Lin was full of praise for its sailing performance when she took it out to sea for the first time - brisk, convenient, and the sails use the wind very efficiently. No wonder Mr. Wen said that the triangular sail is the most suitable sail shape for coastal sailing.

At this time, the lookout post suddenly shouted:

"There is a situation at three o'clock!"

Lelin quickly picked up the binoculars hanging on her chest and looked around, only to see a dozen small boats surrounding a large ship two or three nautical miles away.The big boat is a large Cantonese ship that is common along the coast of China. Its tonnage is quite considerable, four to five hundred tons.Le Lin was very surprised—the Qiongzhou Strait is not a must for foreign ships, and it is rare to see such large foreign ships conducting ocean trade.Even if this kind of ship goes to Hainan, it rests at Shenying Port in Qiongshan County, and some simply go directly to Yulin before mooring and resting.It will not go deep into the Lingao-Chengmai ocean.

"How can there be such a big boat?" Lelin couldn't believe her eyes, and quickly adjusted the magnification to the largest eight times diameter:

The hull of the big ship leaned to one side and ran aground on the sandbar. The sails were still hanging, and it was already very broken.But from the binoculars, many people could be seen climbing onto the big ship. There were crowds of people on the deck of the big ship, and smoke and flames rose from time to time.

This is pirates robbing, Lelin suddenly became excited-the boring patrol and capture work finally had some fresh condiments!This is a great opportunity to do something big!

"Battle siren!" he yelled.

The drummer who had been on standby on the poop immediately beat the drums in a hurry.The sailors and soldiers on the deck immediately got busy, the sergeants blew their whistles, and the off-duty sailors and sea soldiers also poured out from below the deck.

"Left rudder, 15 degrees! Go forward at full speed!" Le Lin shouted majesticly while leaning on the railing.

"15 degrees, left!" The helmsman replied the password and turned the steering wheel-the Ministry of Maritime Power has changed all the ships under its command that are in good shape and have a tonnage of more than 50 tons to wheel rudder operation.

Immediately the semaphore on the poop gave orders to the ships on both sides.The following 108 and 111 also began to turn the rudder immediately.

"Put down oars No. [-], No. [-], and No. [-]!!" Ruan Xiaowu shouted.Although Le Lin's command is very powerful, but this boat does not have an engine available, the so-called full speed forward is to put down the three pairs of oars on the boat, and shake it manually to increase the speed.

Ruan Xiaowu is now a serious naval cadet.After returning from sailing around the island, the participating naval cadets all received promotions.Although he was only 15 years old, he had already adorned his sleeves with silver cuffs that symbolized the rank of cadets. With this mark, he was clearly distinguished from the sailors on the deck.The sailors saw him and saluted.However, he still does not need to pay the officer's food expenses, but eats the same food as the soldiers.

He also has an extra armband on his navy uniform—"the commemorative armband of the first circumnavigation of the island", and everyone who took part in the voyage has one.Ruan Xiaowu felt that his pair of double-breasted jackets, which were awkward at first, looked imposing now.He often dressed neatly, and when he was on vacation, he strolled in Dongmen City, looking at the bustling crowds around him, he felt that these people were very rustic - he had already forgotten what he looked like when he came to Lingao.

Today he is the star officer on board 101.Responsible for the second morning shift.That is, the class from 4:8 am to [-]:[-] am.As soon as the battle alarm sounded, Ruan Xiaowu's throat tightened—there was going to be a war!And it's fighting pirates!

As a child of a fisherman's family, Ruan Xiaowu is no stranger to pirates.It is common for a small group of pirates who are not capable of robbing a large ship to attack a single fishing boat without resistance, and steal the catch.The most frightening thing is that pirates often force fishermen to join them, and sometimes they simply take people and boats with them.Especially when the pirates have to fight each other and face the encirclement and suppression of the officers and soldiers, this kind of Latin-style coercion will reach its peak.Several relatives of Ruan Xiaowu encountered such disasters: they either lost their lives or damaged the ship.In the end, Ruan Xiaowu's father was also arrested and became a pirate. During a siege by the government and the army, the ship was destroyed and everyone was killed, and finally the whole family was displaced.Therefore, his special hatred for pirates belongs to the "extremely firm stand" in the file, and was developed by the Political Security Administration as a member of the "Ten-man Group" in the navy.

Propelled by sailors who rowed the oars in shifts, the speed of the patrol fleet increased to 5 knots.

Le Lin ordered, "Fire the warning!"

Immediately, a puff of white smoke came out of the deck gun, and the deafening sound of the cannon echoed on the sea.But the pirate ships surrounding the ship seemed unmoved.Lelin saw through the binoculars that someone was moving things from the big ship to the small boat in a hurry, and someone was playing with long tubes like firearms on the deck of the small boat.

Because the time travel group is also a tyrant in the local area, small groups of pirates are generally unwilling to fight directly with them.Le Lin has encountered many times when the enemy ran away without exchanging fire.If he sails 3 to 4 nautical miles away, his fleet will not be able to catch up.But looking at the appearance of the enemy in front of him, it seems that he doesn't intend to run away.

Le Lin reckoned that there was still one and a half nautical miles away, and the range of the 12-pound cannon was enough, but it might not be accurate.There is no difference between hitting and not hitting.

Maybe it was because the cargo on the ship had not been snatched up, or maybe it was because there were only three ships coming, some of the small boats surrounding the big ship suddenly turned around and rushed towards the fleet aggressively.

"The enemy shows signs of attack." Ruan Xiaowu shouted, "Ready to attack!"

"It's quite courageous, or the spoils of war are big enough." Lelin saw through the binoculars that there were still several ships continuing to unload. It seemed that the enemy was going to keep their spoils at all costs.

"Looks like we're going to fight a war." Lelin's adrenaline surged and she shouted, "Put on armor!"

The orderly beside him hurriedly brought up his stab-resistant vest, knee pads, steel helmet and chain-resistant gloves from the poop cabin, and waited for him to put them on.Le Lin took the imitation U.S. Navy command knife that was handed up at the end, and pulled it out with a high-spirited gesture:

"Order ships, prepare for battle!"

The red triangular battle flag was raised, and the combatants of each ship took their positions.The soldiers began to load their rifles with ammunition, and the sailors used iron cans from the bilge to bring the ready-to-fire gunpowder to the deck-there was no gunpowder left next to the artillery in battle.On the emplacement, gunpowder is installed on the artillery, the transmission tube is installed, and the shells are placed beside the assistant gunner.The shooter loaded the heavy magazine on the "typewriter" and locked it, ready to go.The rifles of the sailors do not have bayonets—the bayonets cannot be used on the ship, and they are replaced by the Navy’s 1629 machete—this is a copy of the famous Rwandan banana machete, and it is equipped in small batches for naval ships.

"Single column, seize the upper hand!" As a naval enthusiast, Le Lin still unswervingly followed the Royal Navy's consistent practice to seize the upper hand and initiate an attack.

"Steady! Don't fire without an order." Lelin's hands and feet were cold, and she almost gave the order in Cantonese again.

At this time, like firecrackers, there was a chaotic crackling sound on the opponent's ship, and many strands of white smoke rose in the fleet.Le Lin has seen this habit of firing firearms before reaching the range, including the soldiers trained by the crossing group. It seems that firearms are used to strengthen courage. A lot of energy for training.

"Five chains away!" The observer kept reporting the enemy's position.

"Flag, call 108 and 111 to follow the flagship."

Once in battle, Le Lin's so-called command is meaningless.Like all naval commanders before the invention of radio, after entering the battle, the actions of each ship depend entirely on the judgment of their respective captains.In the Admiralty, the melee faction has no market, and the formation faction dominates.

At a distance of 3 chains, the 101 patrol boat fired a solid shell. The shell flew over the undulating boats on the sea, and landed on the sea surface to set off a water column.A naval gunner using a range finder immediately measured the distance to the impact point.The gunner immediately corrected the elevation angle of the artillery.

Immediately afterwards, the other two ships also opened fire.One of the sampans was hit, and fragments of the board flew several feet high.

"Fight well and keep firing!"

The fleet crossed in front of the pirate fleet, adopting the tactic of grabbing a T-shaped formation.Except for the 12-pound guns on the three patrol ships, including the 1-pound eagle guns used to kill personnel, and the sailors' rifles, they fired violently at these large and small ships, and the sea was shrouded in smoke.From time to time, the flash of firearms can be seen when fired.

The artillery on the patrol boats has all been converted to shotgun fire.According to the experience of the navy in several battles, at a distance of 50 to 100 meters, it is more lethal to deal with small groups of pirates along the coast of the mainland. The ships of these poor pirates are almost all made of ordinary wood. Thickness is limited.It can't stand the shot of shotgun at all.And their habit of gathering on the deck to wait for an opportunity to jump and fight also gave them the opportunity to wash the deck with shotgun blood.

"Full starboard rudder, adjust to 11 o'clock and try again!" The smoke on the deck had already dissipated, and Le Lin was careful not to get too close to the enemy ship, and turned around to grab the T prefix again.

The operational flexibility of the 101 boat was fully demonstrated in this turn. The spinnaker fell into the windward state within a few minutes, pushing the patrol boat to make a sharp turn.The hull of the boat tilted violently at one point, and the waves hit Lelin's face.

In contrast, the turn of the two tugboats was much more sluggish, and it took more than ten minutes for the three ships to complete the U-turn formation again.

The smoke had dispersed, and in the chaotic exchange of shots just now, the three ships hardly suffered any substantial damage, only the large and small holes in the sails proved that the counterattack firepower of the pirates was also quite rapid.But the losses of the pirates were obviously greater. Several long sampans began to sink, while other larger ships were strewn with corpses and suffered heavy casualties.

The surviving pirates jumped into the water, ready to swim to the other ships in their line.But the people on the other boats now know how powerful the enemy is, and they just want to escape by themselves, why do they want to rescue these accomplices!Therefore, without throwing down a single rope to rescue them on board, the pirates fired indiscriminately and turned the rudder to escape. The pirates carrying goods on the big ship had no time to get down on the ship, and their accomplices cut the ropes and fled on their own. .The abandoned people shouted on the deck, and someone jumped down desperately, trying to swim to escape, but fell to his death on the sandbar alive.There was chaos around the ship.

The second round of shooting from the patrol fleet began again.This time, a chain bomb fired by the 101st slammed into the mast of a sloop, instantly disabling it, and floating before their eyes, packed with men, was a suitable target,

"'Typewriter' fire!" Le Lin has long wanted to try the power of this new weapon.

Two specially trained sailors leaned against the shoulder rests and pulled the firing lever.

The violent vibration when the typewriter fired almost made Lelin fall, and immediately the bridge was enveloped in a large amount of smoke.The gunfire was deafening.

The typewriter had a lot of recoil, and the muzzle shook violently.It roared horribly, and its long muzzle flame blew through the smoke.Bullets swept across the deck, and the heads, limbs, and body parts were torn apart by 14mm lead bullets, and scattered in all directions, even the smoke turned pink—it was a massacre.

There was no need to deal with it with artillery or anything else, and after the typewriter dumped three cartridges at it, the ship floated lifelessly on the water, and there was no living person in sight.

The machine gunners put on the fourth magazine. At this time, the entire "typewriter" had become very hot, and the gun muzzle was emitting green smoke. The machine gunners had to put on thick gloves to continue operating.

"Shoot the sampan at 4 o'clock." Le Lin ordered.There were four or five sampans moving oars and fleeing towards the coast quickly. He wanted to observe the shooting accuracy of the "typewriter". Judging from the violent vibration just now, the accuracy might be worrying.

Sure enough, the bullets fired by the "typewriter" were indeed "strafeing", and the first few rounds deviated far from the small boat.However, once the adjustment was in place and the power was satisfactory, the boat was beaten into the water and sank under the strafing.After a few minutes, the wooden handle of the multi-barreled gun became too hot to hold, and the shooting stopped

"It's so fierce." Le Lin wiped the sweat off her head. The faces of the two "machine gunners" had been blackened by the gunpowder. The entire barrel and body of the gun was emitting green smoke, and there was a burning smell.

"It seems that there are not many bullets." Le Lin checked, and the "typewriter" only knocked out ten magazines.The barrel of the Mini rifle has no problem firing fifteen or six times in a row, and it will not heat up to such an extent.

This battle was the same as previous encounters at sea. It turned into a battle of defeat, and the pirates scattered when they were in a bad situation.Lelin didn't dare to disperse her team and chase after her. She only led her team to chase the largest brig among them, and finally forced it to drop its sails and surrender with artillery fire, and captured [-] or [-] prisoners.Still about half of the ships escaped.

Even so, the sea surface around the sandbar has already turned into a Shura field.The surface of the sea is full of wreckage, hulks and floating corpses.Le Lin's formation salvaged dozens of pirates who were still panting for help from the surrounding sea.

But what he was most concerned about was the big ship that was stranded on the sandbar.What is the origin of this ship that suddenly appeared in the Qiongzhou Strait?

To be cautious, he personally led a ship to guard here, and sent another 111 ship back to Bopu to report, asking to send engineering personnel to check whether the ship is still floating—if it is possible, this harvest can be It's big.

Le Lin sent people to land on the sandbar to see if there were any enemy hiding places on the sandbar. The sandbar was strewn with all kinds of boxes, baskets and the like, some of which had been scattered, revealing the goods inside, most of them were porcelain, Valuable goods such as silk, and baskets of medicinal materials.This should be a typical ocean-going ship for trade in the Southeast Asia.

"Ruan Xiaowu, organize [-] sailors and sailors immediately," Le Lin ordered, "Prepare the equipment and get ready to board the ship!"

"Yes!" Ruan Xiaowu saluted, and hurried to prepare the throwing hook and rope for boarding.

Here, Le Lin took care of the people to clean up the battlefield, packed up the goods and loaded them on the ship, picked up the ships that were still floating in the sea one by one, repaired them if they were worth using, and towed them back with the tow rope.Anything worthless is scuttled.

With a machete on his back and a Delinger pistol in his waist, Ruan Xiaowu spit into the palm of his hand, jumped up, grabbed a thick rope hanging from the ship's side, and climbed up by his example, "First things first" It is the basic principle of officer education of the time-traveling group.The subordinates climbed up one by one.

On the wide deck of the Daguang ship, there were traces of fierce battles, bloodstains and corpses everywhere, as well as cargo scattered during the handling.

(End of this chapter)