open sea

Chapter 1299
Fire boat, shouldn't the fire boat itself be on fire?

That is to say, but the fleet has just sailed into the sea, and it is still six or seven miles away from the port. The fireboat full of hay, grease and wood is on fire first, and it should be burnt out when it arrives at the port.

What's more, there are people on the boat!
Naturally, the sailors on board were not willing to ignite the two fire boats. The mines exploded on their sides and knocked down the oil lamps on board.

But at least for the time being, the two fireships may still be able to achieve their mission. Drake saw from the mast that although the enemy had prepared coastal defense artillery positions on both sides of the coast and in the port, there were only There are only a few ships, and it seems that the Ming army does not intend to start a naval battle with them.

Before Drake left Plymouth, he knew that the Ming army had many armed merchant ships, but now those ships don't know where they went.

In the view of the queen's cousin, Fleet Commander Howard, although his fleet was completely devastated by the small boxes thrown by the Ming army at sea, the shipwrights will repair it to a suitable level as soon as possible, and it is still enough to support the fleet to break through the port. But the explosion did cause a lot of trouble.

The biggest trouble caused by sea mines is not to burst the hard hull of the battleship. This level of damage is actually nothing to a huge warship. What if it is built below the waterline of the hull by a huge stone the size of a human head?They just filled the hole, and if the shipwright nailed a few boards, the boat could go on.

It doesn't even matter if some sea water leaks into the cabin, it's too difficult to bail the water, just throw the ballast out.

What was really damaged was not the big ship, but the small paddle boats used as communication boats that were put down between the battleships. During the explosion of the mines, every sailor in the twenty or so small paddle boats dedicated their duties to passing messages between the battleships. , Many of them carried the mines directly to the boat, and some oar boats were rowing past the mines.

When the mines started to explode, people realized that these wooden boxes floating in the sea were a kind of weapon. Some people struggled to get away from the mines, and some people jumped into the sea, but it still didn't help.

Not to mention being bombarded by flying boulders to the hull, even the waves blasted by the mine are enough to overturn the small paddle boat.

The loss of the communication boat made it extremely difficult for the sailors of this fleet to convey the news of the commander. The ships behind could see the sailors at the stern in the front leaning over and shaking their arms, but they could not hear his hoarse shouts. I don't even know what kind of instructions they want to convey to the commander.

It seems that the command ship is also aware of this problem. Howard's ship raised the Howard family's coat of arms and the Protestant cross successively.

I blinded the boat behind me.

"What does he mean, do you want us to charge with him like we are on land?"

"Raise the flag to charge, right? But we are not an army."

The navy is a new concept to England, or to everyone in Europe, except Spain, which is a kingdom with a serious division of naval and land divisions. At least in terms of regulations, there are always two officers on Spanish ships , one is in charge of water warfare and the other is in charge of land warfare.

As for the fact that the chief in charge of water warfare always fights in land warfare, and that the sailors belong to the lower class, it is only a historical legacy, but they do clearly distinguish between the land and water divisions.

England's navy is still in its infancy, and it was established entirely by the Hawkins family in Plymouth. The combat idea comes from Drake's pirate career. Gunners, sailors, and now Sir Howard showed them the flag of land warfare, and everyone was fascinated.

Confusing, but effective, at least the few ships that are close can understand what it means.

It’s not easy to go a little farther away. A flag is 300 meters away. Normal people can’t even tell whether the wolf or husky is painted on the flag, let alone the rough sea.

However, Li Yuxi, who was condescending on the cliff on the shore, could see clearly that this tobacco merchant had a heavy responsibility. He rarely put armor on himself, and with a telescope, he saw the enemy ships approaching in the bay, especially the first two speeding ships. The fire boat, which was gradually slowing down, said to the left and right: "They have entered the range, set up the dragon flag."

Following the order, in three directions in front of him, six conspicuous red-bottomed dragon flags were unfurled. The first to receive this information was the defenders on the west bank of the Haikou River Bay, where a battalion of four hundred Muye Baojia and 130 Ming merchant soldiers.

Under the command of the battalion general, they walked out of the forest, took off 36 guns from the ship, and unloaded the green cotton cloth from the Fran cannon placed on the shore. The ships at the end of the fleet launched shelling.

Makino Baojia was waiting for an opportunity to hide in the sand. Some of them were guarding with big crossbows and ring knives, while others went into the hidden fortifications dug in advance on the beach and pulled ropes. They set up mines and weapons on the beach. trap.

Then came the east bank, where artillery positions and minefields were also placed, and Francois machine guns were used to bombard enemy ships.

There are hidden reefs on both sides of the four or five mile wide river, and only the narrow middle channel allows ships to enter the port. Shooting at ships in the river from this distance has little effect. There is no difference between soldiers shooting or Makino Baojia shooting, even if the Beiyang gunner is changed, whether it can hit or not depends on how well the enemy ship catches it.

Li Yuxi's idea is to use mines and Francophone guns on both sides of the bank to damage the morale of the enemy to the greatest extent and make them panic. He knows that the enemy will definitely panic, because he has already attacked the Prim River and the Tamar River on the east and west sides of Plymouth. Four lucky boats were sunk and the river was completely blocked.

The current Plymouth is a big pocket, and the enemy army still has a glimmer of life apart from landing hand-to-hand combat, no matter where they run, it is a dead end.

Sir Howard could already see the dense crowd of heads on the coast of Plymouth, and the first thing that caught his eye was the Francois machine gun, along the stone steps leading to the beach, one below, one above, one obliquely, three low stone walls There were gunners standing in the back, all Franco cannons aimed forward.

But they didn't shoot, they just waited quietly, as if waiting for them to land.

The first fireship burned its sails due to too much fire, and ran aground on the way, but more warships were approaching Plymouth, and they bombarded the port with ship cannons, rapid-fire swivel guns and powerful front-loaded Dutch forged steel. Cannons poured shells on wooden and stone buildings.

It took only one round to destroy the port, but at this moment, the two boats that turned into the Prim River first made a loud noise and hit something. One boat ran aground on the river bank, and the other The boat was lying across the mouth of the river, and two more boats collided with it, huddled together.

Behind them, there was a loud battle drum mixed with suona symphony, and people saw the shadow of a huge warship sailing into the sea in the distance, leading several ships to attack them with the wind.

(End of this chapter)