Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 686 The Essence of Maritime Combat

  In this era, artillery was still an extremely rare item. Most people's impression of it was actually equivalent to that of a trebuchet used for siege.

  It is bulky, troublesome to drag, has a very low hit rate, and its production is not like a catapult that can cut down wood and collect materials from anywhere, so it has always been disliked by many generals.

  Even because it is extremely rare, many veterans who have been on the battlefield do not know that this thing exists in the world.

  The artillery made by the Baoyuan Bureau has rarely been seen in front of the world, except for being used to deal with Japanese people in Japan. Even Li Jinglong didn't know that the Ming Dynasty's artillery had made such great progress.

  Moreover, artillery is a perfect match for sea-going ships. On the one hand, sea-going ships are wide and can directly carry bulky ship-guns, which is no more troublesome than transporting cannons on land; on the other hand, artillery generally has extremely strong recoil and needs to be fixed on land. After using it, often after a few shots, the enemy will be out of range, and the artillery on the gun mount will be useless. However, the artillery placed on sea ships does not have such concerns. The artillery can travel with the ship and can be used flexibly. The three methods of destroying enemies at sea are limited. Before there were ship cannons, they mostly relied on shooting sticks, arrows, fire ships, and relying on the sea. The strong impact of the ship itself can kill the enemy on the side. With the artillery, there is a way to directly damage the enemy from a distance.

  Now Li Jinglong has tasted the benefits of using artillery in naval battles. I saw gunpowder smoke rising continuously over the Ming army's warships, and cannonballs pouring towards the dense fleet of Fan people. The Fan people had no effective means of defense and counterattack, and could only be beaten passively, and they were in a mess. .

  Li Jinglong is not completely a straw bag. In fact, even if he is a straw bag, judging from the current situation, it can be seen that those Fan people are being suppressed and beaten by the Ming army. This surprised and excited him: there were only a few ships on his side, and although the ships of the Ban people were smaller, they seemed to cover the sea. But looking at the situation now, our side actually has a big advantage?

  Can the battle be fought so easily?
  "Chase, don't let them run away, fire!" With the situation prevailing, Li Jinglong finally no longer felt uneasy and panicked, but became excited. Watching the Banjin fleet sink in pieces under the downpour of artillery fire, he felt the joy of mowing grass for the first time. Seeing that the foreign fleets were gradually retreating due to the chaos, Li Jinglong, who was full of enthusiasm, felt that this was a good opportunity and directly issued the order to pursue them without much thought. The officers and soldiers of the Ming Army fought with the people on land all night. They were holding their breath when they returned to the ship. Now that they had received the general's order, they ignored each one of them, turned the bow of the ship, and rushed to catch up.

  Even many Ming people have never seen artillery, let alone these Ban people who have lived on the island for a long time. These large ships that can spray cannonballs and flames have long been terrifying sea beasts in the eyes of the people. Seeing the giant beasts chasing after them through the waves, they dared to resist, and each one of them rowed with all their might. Under the pursuit of the Ming fleet, they scrambled to disperse.

  "Hahahaha, so happy, so happy!" Li Jinglong roughly counted, and there were more than fifty Fan ships sunk by just a dozen of his ships. Later, during the pursuit, the Fan ships collided with each other, and there were even more. When those foreigners saw the Ming Dynasty ships chasing after them, they took the initiative to throw themselves into the sea. The sea was as messy as dumplings. Although they wanted to avoid the Ming army by swimming, how could the Ming army let them get what they wanted? After several arrows, there were already countless corpses floating on the sea, but our own side suffered almost zero casualties.

  Even his own father has probably never had such a great victory, right? What Uncle Wu said was indeed true. Fighting at sea was indeed much simpler than on land.

  If I only fight naval battles, maybe I can become the Ming God of War who is victorious in every battle?

  "Young Master, our morale has been exhausted. What should I do next?" the soldier asked from the side. At this time, Li Jinglong was imagining how he would be praised by his father after winning and revitalizing his family. He suddenly came back to his senses after hearing the requests from his left and right. He is not really stupid, but deep down in his heart he is always fearful and wary of the dangers of the battle formation. Now that I have seen the crushing power of the artillery, that trace of fear has disappeared, and I no longer feel inferior and give up on myself, and my mind has become more active.

  Since the range of the ship's cannon is so far, why not line up the ship on the sea and then fire the cannon at the people in the port? As soon as this thought came out, Li Jinglong suddenly felt that there was much to do. He immediately ordered the ship to turn around and return to the port, aim its side at the port that had been occupied by the Ban people, and began to bombard the Ban people in the port with artillery.

  The firing of artillery is ten times more terrifying than fire cannons. The earth-shattering momentum suddenly frightened the Ban people and quickly abandoned the port they had finally captured. The Ming army took advantage of the situation and waited for the port to land, driving out all the Fan people who had lost their morale. It was already bright at this time, and even if the Fan people still had the will to fight, it would not be that easy to break through the Ming army soldiers' line in the daytime.

  "Good stuff! What a good stuff!" Seeing that he had won a complete victory in his first battle, Li Jinglong scratched his head and scratched his head with joy. He moved closer to the barrel of a cannon on the deck that looked a little red due to the continuous firing, as if watching She looked like a peerless beauty, with radiant eyes.

  He truly felt that he had figured out the secret to Guangdong Cao's mansion.

  "...Fifth Uncle, I have mastered all the essence of maritime warfare."

  "War at sea is all about these four words, 'the ship is strong and the artillery is powerful'! No matter how elite or unparalleled generals he is, it won't work on the sea! As long as the cannon is thick enough and can shoot far enough, it can count." An enemy twice as powerful as us can only passively endure our attacks."

  "There is nothing in this world that cannot be solved by one cannonball. If so, use two! Uncle Wu, there is a nephew guarding this country in Ryukyu, so just relax! If those people dare to come again, Then let’s see how my nephew hits him!”

  A few days later, Zhu Su rushed to Liuqiu with two lucky ships. The dust had settled on Li Jinglong's side, and the soldiers were working hard to repair and heighten the city wall. Li Jinglong didn't even get off the ship in the past few days. He had food and accommodation in the ship. When he saw Zhu Su coming, he couldn't wait to show him the results of the battle and preach his "maritime war art."

  "..." Zhu Su looked at Li Jinglong, who looked excited and arrogant, and was speechless. This Ming God of War is really not a fuel-efficient lamp. He was fearful to death before, but now after a big victory, he has transformed directly. Warlike madness.

  Zhu Su, who felt that it was too much to go too far and felt that it was time to hit him, stopped Li Jinglong's impassioned speech, pointed in the direction of the cabin and said: "Although what you said makes sense, is your waste of this battle a bit too much? "

  "As the saying goes, 'a cannon fires a thousand taels of gold.' In this battle, a full third of the cannonball reserves of more than ten ships were destroyed. Even eight ship cannons were destroyed due to overheating..."

  "Those people have never seen the world. Since they escaped, why bother to let people fire cannons and pursue them at the same time? When the pursuit was over, the bow of the ship was facing the enemy ship. Didn't all the projectiles fired by the cannons on the side of the ship fall into the sea? I Let me tell you, I got our ship's cannon from the Baoyuan Bureau's prototype on my own initiative, but I haven't listed it as military expenses for reimbursement. The cost of these shells was all on credit from the Baoyuan Bureau. Yes, when I return from the sea, I have to return the money for the shells to the national treasury."

  "The admiral of each fleet is responsible for the expenses of each fleet. You are the admiral of this fleet, and the cost of these shells will be deducted from your earnings from this trip to sea..."

  (End of this chapter)