Alien Arms Empire

 Chapter 646 646 A blank sheet of paper

The loading of the battleship's main gun is a slow process. In fact, even with a mechanical loader, it is very difficult to increase the rate of fire of the battleship's main gun.

Because it is not a new battleship after all, and the efficiency of the loading system is really not high, so the main gun fire rate of the Tang Army's Dongwan-class battleship is about a few minutes.

The long and irritating wait made Bernard frequently pick up his telescope to look at the enemy warships in the distance.

There was no movement on the enemy ship's side at this time, because the opponent's main gun also needed time to reload. Bernard was counting secretly. He wanted to calculate the frequency of enemy ships' firing.

Of course, more professional people are doing this work, and there are specialized sailors in other positions using stopwatches to calculate the frequency of enemy fire.

The result soon made them breathe a sigh of relief, because after their own side completed loading again and then opened fire, the enemy warship remained silent and did not launch a new round of bombardment.

 There is good news as well as bad news. The good news is that the enemy ship's reloading speed is really slow, and it took so long that it didn't fire a second salvo. The bad news is that our own artillery shells missed again, and they were still near misses.

 The distance between the two sides is getting closer, but because of the mechanical ballistic calculation equipment, the soldiers responsible for controlling the calculation equipment have roughly summed up their experience.

 The impact point of each cannonball can reflect the speed at which the fleets of both sides are approaching each other. As long as you adapt to this speed and reserve a corresponding amount of advance, you can improve the hit accuracy.

After repeated trials seven or eight times, the noncommissioned officers responsible for calculating ballistics finally came up with a plan again and gave a data that they thought was reasonable.

 Then, all the turrets and all the artillery were re-adjusted based on this data.

Immediately afterwards, the gunners fired shells again, and Bernard could feel the warship under his feet shaking slightly, which was the power feedback when the 305 mm caliber cannon roared.

"Boom! Boom!" A series of roars echoed in the air. The shells spanned a distance of nearly ten kilometers and once again hit the sea water diagonally, leaving water columns soaring into the sky on both sides of the Mirage Navy warship.

The school shooter was holding a telescope at his post and shouted excitedly. Even Bernard in the commander's tower could hear his shout: "Straddle fire! Cross fire! Near miss!"

“Straddle fire! Near miss!” Many officers also shouted excitedly. They worked hard for almost an hour and finally got the good news.

 “Beautiful!” Bernard could not help but clenched his fists in excitement. He finally got the shout he had been looking forward to for a long time.

As if the enemy ship had been hit, everyone was celebrating excitedly. Just as they were celebrating, the enemy ship fired a second salvo.

All the officers in the bridge conning tower became nervous again, and soon many shells fell, hitting the water and splashing water columns into the sky.

I don’t know whether it was the Mirage Navy’s well-trained navy or their bad luck. The landing point of this second salvo was obviously very close to the Tang Army’s fleet battle line.

However, before the water column soaring into the sky had completely fallen, the three battleships of the Tang Army fired another salvo.

 Luck was still not on the side of the Tang army. Although it was still a straddle shot, all of them were close misses! The Mirage Navy once again escaped disaster, and the nearest shells grazed the masts of their warships and fell in the distance.

The face of a man from Mirage turned slightly pale. He stood on the bridge of his battleship and was broken into a cold sweat by the shells that had just fallen.

He heard the harsh whistle of the shells, which proved that the shells that had just fallen were very, very close to him.

What frightened him even more was that twice in a row, enemy artillery shells fell around his battleship. This showed that the opponent had very advanced aiming methods and could accurately command the artillery to adjust the shooting angle.

The enemy's warships are faster, and their artillery loading and preparations are also faster. Only after the opponent fires two or three salvos can he fire back one salvo. In terms of firepower density, the Mirage Navy is obviously at a disadvantage.

On his battleship, the artillery reloading speed is very slow, and he can only rely on the sight to roughly correct the shooting angle. Hitting the enemy ship obviously requires more luck.

This feeling of being completely surpassed made Kazuo Mirage very uncomfortable. If he had known that the enemy's warships were so powerful, he would not even have planned such a decisive battle.

God knows how much pressure he is under now. The battleships lined up here are almost all the assets of the Mirage Navy.

If something happens to these warships, then the Mirage will lose its control of the sea, which means that it will be taken over by the Tang State. "If it weren't for those **** in the army, how could I take such a risk and fight the Tang Navy in a place like this!" Mirage cursed in his heart.

But after he finished cursing, he still had to continue to consider how to deal with the unfavorable situation at hand: although his battleships had a slight advantage in number, the actual combat power displayed seemed to be that of the Tang army.

"General, do you want to... adjust the course?" Mirage Kazuo's adjutant asked nervously.

 He was also worried that he would be hit first by the opponent, so at this moment he was already thinking of avoiding the enemy's firepower. Anyway, our artillery is still thousands of miles away from hitting the enemy ship. Wouldn't it be a better choice for us to maneuver to avoid the enemy's artillery fire first?

But Mirage Kazuo didn't think so. It wasn't that he couldn't bear the shooting parameters brought by two rounds of salvos, but based on his experience in naval battles, dodging sometimes could not change the outcome of being hit.

He felt that naval artillery battles basically depended on luck. If you were lucky, you would be able to hit the target with two salvos. If you were not lucky, you might even be able to hit the target with more than ten salvos.

If you start to adjust the course now, the shell that may have missed originally will hit it. Wouldn't it be an advantage for the opponent to send it up?

 So, after thinking for a few seconds, he shook his head and decided to stick to his route and shorten the distance between the two sides to 8 kilometers or even 7 kilometers as soon as possible.

At a distance of seven or eight kilometers, the hit rate of the Mirage Navy's naval guns will obviously increase a lot, because at this distance, just relying on experience and a crude sight, you can hit the already large gun with luck. Target.

 Hence, Mirage Kazuo shook his head, gritted his teeth and insisted on his choice: "Keep the course! Let's wait until the third round of volleys is completed!"

Following his order, the Tang Navy battleship in the distance fired another salvo, and the shells roared towards the direction of the Mirage Navy.

After more than a dozen rounds of shelling tests, this time the mechanical ballistic calculation equipment finally gave a relatively perfect answer.

On the swaying sea, the third-placed battleship of the Mirage Navy was suddenly hit by something, and a dazzling flame burst out.

A shell directly hit the middle of the battleship's hull. It first penetrated the side wall of the first-story building on the battleship deck, then penetrated downwards through the floor, rushed into the lower compartment, and then exploded in the boiler. The top explodes.

 Another shell penetrated the hull of the Cyric-produced battleship near the waterline, leaving a scary-looking hole in it.

Just a moment later, the shell of Cyric's battleship was torn apart by the explosion. In less than thirty seconds, it billowed with thick smoke and its speed was reduced to almost stopping in place. the point.

During the tragic first round of explosions, parts even flew onto the decks of the other two battleships at the bow and stern of the battleship.

Immediately afterwards, the battleship became farther and farther away from the battleship in front, and was soon overtaken by another battleship behind it.

The man from Mirage turned pale. He had originally lamented the 100 mm thick armor of the battleships built by Cyric, and felt that such battleships were simply solid sea fortresses.

But in the blink of an eye, the Cyric battleship that he thought was indestructible was hit by a battleship from the Tang Kingdom, completely losing its combat effectiveness.

At this moment, the battleship of the Mirage Kingdom is as fragile as a piece of white paper!

"Turn immediately after firing! Take maneuver!" Mirage Kazuo, whose expression was completely out of control, clenched his fists and ordered to his adjutant.

 “Boom!” This time, the 320 mm caliber heavy artillery of the Mirage Navy roared. However, out of the original four battleships, only three completed the salvo this time.

The battleship that was just hit seemed to have completely lost its combat effectiveness. The billowing smoke obscured the bridge, and it looked like a gas tank that was about to explode at any time.

Sure enough, when the cannonballs fired by the Mirage Navy once again fell into the seawater and stirred up high water columns, the battleship built by Cyric, which was about to be overtaken by our own cruiser and had completely lost its power, died in the explosion. Got it!

The explosion almost blew away the entire superstructure of the battleship, and the flames engulfed the huge turret between the two chimneys.

The main turret directly in front was lifted into the air by the explosion, and then hit the circular gun base heavily.

The battleship built without understanding and plagiarized almost exposed all its flaws at this moment: the hull defense simply amplified by cruisers and ironclads is seriously insufficient, and the armor thickness compromised to ensure speed cannot resist the attack of large-caliber artillery. .

The backward power system forced Cyric to reduce the armor of the battleship. The 320mm caliber main gun selected simply to surpass the Datang Group had an extremely slow rate of fire. The sighting system, which could not be copied, could only rely on amplification of the backward Datang Group. Aiming systems on other battleships to top up.

In short, the appearance of the Cyric battleship was revealed the moment it was hit by a cannonball: it was actually a battleship without a fire control system, with only the speed of an ironclad, and was only equipped with heavy cruiser-level armor. cruiser…

 (End of this chapter)