My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 369 Hit it!

At the same time, another cannonball hit the mast and exploded in the air instantly. All the masts were blown into pieces, and the powerful air pressure generated by the huge shock wave shattered the internal organs of countless pirates on the spot!

Countless fragments flew from the air like flowers scattered from the sky, leaving the surviving pirates with almost nowhere to escape!
The huge mast collapsed in an instant, smashing the already fragile deck to pieces. Just two shells turned the pirates' proud flagship into a wreck in an instant.

At the same time, a large amount of seawater poured into the ship, and the ship was slowly sinking. It would sink soon!
"Abandon ship, abandon ship!"

Someone shouted loudly, and the pirates woke up as if from a dream. They jumped into the sea one after another and swam desperately towards other ships.

They all knew that once the ship began to sink rapidly, the huge whirlpool created would make it impossible for them to escape!
Lu Mingda was the first to jump off the boat. At this time, the pirates on the nearby ship also noticed him and threw down a rope, allowing him to climb up with great difficulty. However, before Lu Mingda could catch his breath, he heard the life-threatening sound of cannon fire again!

The Ming army opened fire again!

Damn, where in the world can you find a gun with such a fast firing rate?
Lu Mingda was almost driven crazy. Wouldn't these Ming troops just quiet down?

"boom!"

"boom!"

There were several more violent explosions, and a small boat nearby was blown up into the sky. The huge shock wave also caused the ship to shake violently. Lu Mingda lost his grip and his forehead hit the deck hard, and blood gushed out immediately.

"damn it!"

He stood up shakily, and finally managed to steady himself, turning his gaze to the sea. Although only two ships were lost and most of the main forces were still there, the destruction of the flagship had seriously affected the morale of the pirates.

Moreover, the power of the artillery was so astonishing that people did not dare to have the slightest thought of resistance.

"Commander Lu, what should we do now?" asked the pirate who rescued him anxiously.

The few cannon shots just now had already scared him completely, and the damage to the flagship made these pirates even more terrified.

What they didn't know was that they had the honor of becoming the first participants in the new era of naval warfare. Unfortunately, they were the ones getting beaten.

Lu Mingda's eyes were almost blurred by the blood, and he felt a burning pain on his forehead. Everything he saw was blood red.

I shook my head vigorously, trying to make myself more sober. Should I just run back in shame?
Not to mention that Chen Zuyi would not forgive him easily, even if he let him go, I'm afraid he would have no place to stand in Srivijaya in the future!

Don't worry, we still have nearly forty ships. Although we have lost our flagship, we are still capable of fighting!
"Quick, raise the sail, speed up, and rush over there!" Lu Mingda shouted loudly.

However, the pirates on the side looked at him in disbelief. Did their commander Lu still want to fight the Ming army's terrifying artillery head-on?
"What are you still wasting time for, you bastards? Hoist the sail!"

Lu Mingda yelled at the top of his lungs, "What are you afraid of? Do you only have courage in front of women? Go over there and join Minggou's boat!

Only in this way will their artillery be useless. Once we kill the Ming dogs on their ship, they will have no choice but to surrender. Do you idiots understand?"

At this time, the pirates understood that Lu Mingda wanted them to board the Ming army's ship. However, regardless of whether they could climb onto the Ming army's ship, the terrifying artillery alone was enough to scare them.

But they had to follow Lu Mingda's order, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and raise all the sails.

At the same time, they sent flag signals to other pirate ships, signaling them to speed up and charge towards the Ming fleet. However, the flagship had been blown into a wreck, and the other pirate ships had long lost their backbone, and they had no idea how to deal with the situation at hand.

Finally, several nearby ships saw the flag signals and hurriedly raised all their sails, while also sending signals to more ships.

After a long period of panic, the pirates finally managed to unify their rhythm, but in the process, several more ships were sunk.

Soon, the Ming army saw a dense group of pirate ships on the sea, which were speeding towards the fleet as if they were injected with chicken blood.

"Recalibrate the distance!"

The gunners calmly aimed at the pirate ships again, although from a visual point of view, the pirate ships were so densely packed that they could be hit with any shot.

However, they knew clearly that it was only because the distance between them was far that it looked denser, but in fact the distances between the ships were still quite large.

Therefore, we cannot be careless and we must aim carefully.

After the pirate flagship was sunk, Xu Da ordered all guns to fire freely, and then the main and secondary guns fired several shells in succession.

The shells whizzed away and then overturned another pirate ship, but more shells fell on the water, causing many huge waves, but did not have much impact on the remaining pirate ships.

Lu Mingda was very proud now. He shouted frantically: "Quick, move forward quickly. As long as we are fast enough, the Ming dogs can't hit us!"

At this time, the artillerymen also discovered the problem. Even if they aimed at the pirate ship, the final landing point of the shells could easily deviate because the ship was moving at high speed!
Just keep aiming and then firing.

After sinking several pirate ships in succession, the pirate ships were already very close to the fleet, exceeding the shortest range of the artillery.

Seeing that the artillery on the Dingyuan-class battleships stopped firing, Lu Mingda laughed arrogantly, "I knew it, I knew it, once we get close, the Ming army's artillery will become a decoration, and will be of no use at all!"

The other pirates also laughed wildly, as if they had already won and successfully captured the Ming army's fleet.

On the Dingyuan, Li Wenzhong was about to order the soldiers of the musket battalion to prepare for shooting, but he heard Xu Da say: "Order all ships to go full steam ahead and ram all these wooden boats!"

"good idea!"

When Li Wenzhong and Tang He heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up, and the driver's eyes were shining even more. He had already started to feel itchy during the artillery battle just now, but unfortunately, due to different job responsibilities, he could only steer the boat steadily to ensure that the artillery could fire stably.

Now the coach gave the order, and he immediately picked up the loudspeaker and shouted to the boiler room:
"Add coal, add coal, heat the boiler to the maximum temperature, I want maximum horsepower to ram the enemy ship!"

In the boiler room, there were noisy voices. A sailor in charge of adding coal asked another: "What did the bridge say just now? They asked us to add coal. Are they trying to speed up the escape from the pirates?"

Another person said, "You have completely misheard. The boilers on the bridge need to be heated to the maximum temperature. They need to ram the enemy ship at the fastest speed!"

"Ramp the enemy ship?" The sailor, who had looked a little tired just now, suddenly became radiant as if he had been injected with chicken blood, and swung the shovel with even more energy!

(End of this chapter)