sweeping the world

Chapter 659

"Azimuth, ten scales!"

"The distance is thirteen miles."

"The number of enemy ships is seven!"

There is no clock now, and since it is difficult to identify the direction at sea, Liu Yan created twelve major scales to provide the navy with the location of the discovered target, which is the usual o'clock direction.

The lookout on the mast, he holds an elongated monocular, stands high and sees far away, it's fine if he doesn't find it, otherwise the observation field can reach more than twenty or thirty miles.

There are many factors that determine whether a target can be found at sea. In a rough sea, some waves can be rolled up for more than ten meters, which means that a certain area is sunken for several meters.To put it simply, the sea is not always flat, but changes in height with the waves of the sea.

Regardless of whether it is called the Indian Ocean, the Eritrean Sea, or the Asan Ocean as the Han people call it, the sea conditions in this sea area are relatively calm compared with the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean in summer, and the Mediterranean Sea is calmer than this sea area.

When the Han Navy first arrived in Asanyang, any ships that were not our own belonged to enemy ships. Fu Wei, who was notified, immediately issued an order to prepare for war.

"There are only seven enemy ships, and they can be observed relatively close." As the first officer, Liang Min was still able to put forward some opinions: "We need more detailed information."

Fu Wei also meant the same thing. They came here to find out the surrounding situation. As soon as there are seven ships from the unknown forces, the probability of belonging to a caravan is infinitely reduced. Only warships will sail in formation, so it is even more necessary to take a look. What does a battleship look like.

"Adjust the position." Fu Wei's knowledge base does not use the monsoon, but at least he knows where the wind is blowing from, and which direction the warship should stay in is more favorable: "Turn around to the position of the wind!"

The captain's orders will be conveyed layer by layer. The warships communicate with each other using semaphores, and the ship uses ventilation ducts to roar.

Fu Wei's flagship is a warship with a length of 60 meters, a width of 16 meters, and a draft of seven meters. It is divided into five layers and has a load capacity of [-] tons.It has four masts, two bed crossbows at the bow, three bed crossbows on each side of the ship, and two bed crossbows at the stern, with a total of [-] bed crossbows.

The two formation warships are naturally not as good as the flagship. They are 45 meters long, 13 meters wide, and five meters deep. They are divided into four layers of structure. They have a load capacity of 360 tons and only three masts. There is one bed crossbow at the bow and stern, two bed crossbows on each side of the ship's side, and a warship equipped with six bed crossbows in total.

Calculating the speed is more troublesome now, the tailwind and the headwind are the same, and the speed of relying on human oars is even more uneven. Generally speaking, the fastest speed can reach about eight knots.

Before Fu Wei's formation discovered the Gupta Dynasty's warship formation, the information was in an asymmetric stage, that is, the Han fleet discovered the Gupta Dynasty's fleet, but the Gupta Dynasty's fleet still had not discovered the Han's fleet. The Chinese fleet had binoculars, but the watchmen of the Gupta Dynasty could only rely on their own naked eyes without auxiliary tools.

After entering the battle-ready state, each crossbow on the battleship has taken off its covering cloth bag, and loaded the crossbow arrows under various commands.Most of the warriors in the cabin also went on the deck. Each of them had a crossbow, and after finishing the work of loading arrows, they sat cross-legged and quietly.

There is no need to observe too much deliberately, including that the bed crossbow and the strong crossbow are loaded with combustible arrowheads. After all, all ships are made of wood at present, and shooting arrows without setting fire can only kill people. It cannot be sunk, and the only way to sink an enemy warship is to start a ship-to-board battle.

However, since the boarding battle can kill the sea valve at the bottom of the enemy ship, it is equivalent to taking prisoners, and what else is there to sink.

The confrontation at sea generally takes a long time, and often requires repeated detours to seize the favorable position of the wind. At this time, the two sides will continue to shorten the distance, and may stare at each other for a long time before starting the fight, or even stare. Engagement is unlikely to occur throughout the day.

So, there are very few battles at sea where the outcome can be decided in one day. The confrontation between two fleets is basically calculated on a monthly basis. Even if the decisive battle is over, the follow-up pursuit and annihilation of the enemy will take several months. , There will always be fish that slip through the net.

"It's ok." Fu Wei was commanding the formation for a sea battle for the first time, and he still felt a lot of tension in his heart. He put down the binoculars in his hand, shook his palms and gave the order: "Advance to the enemy ship."

At this time, the three-ship Han formation with Fu Wei's warship as its flagship had already seized a favorable wind position.They were close to the enemy formation and were about five (land) miles away, and only the watchers from the Gupta Dynasty noticed it.

The Gupta Dynasty must have had a flagship, which is distinguished by the sail patterns on the warships.

It can be seen that the largest of the seven warships of the Gupta Dynasty is a warship with a length of about [-] meters, a width of four to five meters, and an unknown draft. There are two layers of warships on the horizontal plane. The remaining warships appear smaller. The strange thing is that the small warship has at least four masts.

"It looks like a flat and long style." Fu Wei has already found that the enemy ship is much smaller than his own. Looking at the oar sticking out of the hull, it looks like a centipede: "I didn't find any installation on the hull. A large long-range attack device?"

The warships of the Han Dynasty are a kind of mutated ships after Liu Yan’s intervention. From the style to the structure of the ships, they are generally inclined to the [-]th and [-]th centuries AD, and even introduced some mature theories that are only available in modern times. layout.

At present, the ships of various countries and nations have not completely distinguished the inland ships from the sea ships. The similar point is that the building of the ship will involve some land buildings, such as the eaves of the roof above the water level of the ship. structure.

The seven Gupta warships discovered by Fu Wei's formation were bright yellow in the sea, but it was not known whether it was the natural color of the wood itself or the lacquer behind it.

Ships must be painted, or it is a kind of anti-corrosion paint. In ancient times, there were many nations (countries) who studied paint, but there were not many nations (countries) that first applied paint to sea ships. Ancient India is definitely one of them. .The Central Plains Dynasty had long produced lacquer, but it was used on some household utensils, and it was not used on HNA anyway.

"Their warships are very similar to our inland river ships." Liang Min never put down the telescope in his hand: "There are arrow walls and arrow stacks on each floor, which looks relatively short."

Contemporary warships are basically of the same style. The defense facilities on the ship are in the form of land walls. Naturally, there are parapets and arrow stacks, but they are all made of wood.

The distance between the two sides is about 1000 meters. The Han country has a telescope to observe more carefully and make comments. The Gupta Dynasty cannot see too much detail from 1000 meters away.

"Do you have any relevant impressions?" Pikar Malik didn't look nervous at all. He squinted his eyes and looked at the three fuzzy warships in the distance. After asking his deputy Dirang Kumar, he turned his head and asked again Surveyor: "How's their speed?"

"I can't see clearly." Dirang Kumar didn't feel any nervousness, he shook his head: "The distance is too far."

At this time, the relatively dark-skinned surveyor reported: "The visual speed should be 33'杼'."

Every nation has its own civilization, and every civilization has its own measurement units, such as inches, feet, feet, etc. in ancient Rome, pes, passus, and Luo in ancient Rome. Li (mīlle), Ah San’s unit of length is as complex as it comes.

Ah San was influenced by religion, and many counting units sounded very mysterious. Fuzzy, lingering, instant, instant, flick of the finger, instant, six virtues, emptiness, purity, and nirvana silence each represent a unit of measurement, extremely, Zai, Zheng, Jian, Ditch, Rang, Zhu are of course the same.Asked how big the world is, Ah San replied "One sand and one world, one water and one ocean", and asked if he was afraid!
"The unidentified ship's sails are all unfurled!"

Waiting for the two sides to get close to about 700 meters, the watchman of the Gupta Dynasty finally reported effective observation information.

You don't know what happened to the enemy or yourself at sea, so how can you judge the opponent's attitude?The first thing to look at is the state of the opponent's ship, that is, whether the sail is at full speed, and then judge the possible subsequent actions based on the direction of the bow.

"Ring the bell!" Picard Malik yelled, "They are hostile, ring the bell immediately!"

A bell rang just like that, and it didn't take long for seven Gupta warships to pour out of the cabin to the deck, and the sailors were busy tinkering with sails and nooses driven by the overseer.

The "array line" is not popular yet. The seven Gupta warships tried their best to adjust their positions, and a half-moon formation gradually took shape.

On every warship of the Gupta Dynasty, quite a number of warriors holding bows and arrows can be seen approaching the parapet and arrow stacks, and some people are standing by with stoves, obviously preparing to launch rockets.

While preparing for battle, Picard Malik did not forget the most important part of a sea battle, which is to seize a favorable position from the wind.

Every warship of the Gupta Dynasty was equipped with a considerable number of slaves. At this moment, some supervisors kept whipping their whips and urging the slaves to go faster, faster and faster. Who dared to move slower? A whip in the past.

Fu Wei saw from a distance that the enemy ship formation had changed into a half-moon formation, but he didn't know if it was right or not. Anyway, he felt that the enemy's formation change in such a short period of time was very powerful.

"How long will it take to get into range?"

"At the current speed, coupled with the favorable wind, it's almost here."

Fu Wei has thought about it many times. If he comes to this sea area to meet a ship of a famous force, what kind of contact screen should it be? Every time he imagines, he starts with the launch of the bed crossbow. As a prisoner, what should I say after seeing a foreign race? I really didn't consider the language barrier, and I don't need to think about it. He just said "I'm meeting you for the first time, please go to death" and ordered people to tie them up and throw them away. go to sea.

Liang Min reported: "The enemy ships are vying for a position with favorable wind."

The distance between the two sides is constantly shortening, from 700 meters to 500 meters, the distance is shortening every moment.

"The leader is a white-skinned person?" Fu Wei could clearly see who the other party was with a telescope, and said: "There are also many dark-looking people."

Ah San's caste distinction does not necessarily have to be based on skin, but white-skinned Aryans must be from the upper caste, unless these Aryans are willing to degenerate and intermarry with the lower castes, otherwise they are still upper class No matter how rich a Sudra is, he is inherently inferior to castes above Vaishya.

There is no information about Ah San's caste in Han, but it has nothing to do with it. Fu Wei only needs to confirm which ship is the flagship of the enemy formation and the location of the commander is enough.

"After approaching, attack the ship with colorful sails first." Fu Wei doesn't know what an olive branch is, and he doesn't want to know where the olive comes from, and what does the snake on the olive pattern mean: "Concentrate firepower to cover, fight for Paralyzed the ship once."

In many literary and artistic works, naval battles have always been tense and fierce. In fact, they are simply extremely boring pursuits, and the process is usually extremely long.So in order not to make the book look too boring, describing what the commanders of both sides were thinking at that time is basically the biggest selling point.And the author who writes the book is very capable, and he can even know what he is thinking, extending countless sentiments and greatness, or being dizzy and stupid.

Although 1000 meters is said to be very long, it is actually quite short. The two sides constantly changed their positions to break away and chase, but it took a full four hours to get within 200 meters.

"Measure the wind speed!"

"Bed crossbow adjustment scale!"

"Prepare--"

"shoot!"

When three warships of different sizes are lined up in an "array line", the bed crossbows on the deck must have one side of the ship's side not in the shooting position. After the salvo, the seventeen bed crossbows will shoot out.

"They launched an attack!" Dirang Kumar was a little surprised: "They actually launched an attack!"

When the two sides were chasing each other, the hostile relationship had long been confirmed, and it was not uncommon for one side to launch an attack. The Gupta Dynasty was surprised that the Han warship launched an attack 200 meters away.

Of course, Gu Asan has bed crossbows, and also equipped bed crossbows on warships. Similar crossbow ships have been standing warships as early as the Guishuang Empire. They are surprised that there are civilizations that can do this.

"No matter who they are or where they come from, we have met our opponent!" Kapil Malik said solemnly: "It is an unknown force with strong aggressiveness!"

Fu Wei ordered the ships to fire in salvo, but all seventeen bed crossbows actually missed, and the most accurate shot was within five meters of the enemy ship.

All the first salvos in the first sea battle failed. From Fu Wei to a sailor in the formation, they would all feel ashamed, and all kinds of passwords were hurriedly shouted again, waiting for the next round of salvo orders.

"Let the 'Haman' break away from the formation and return to the port." Kapil Malik said seriously: "Let's see what they are capable of!"

(End of this chapter)