Lord of Ming Dynasty

"Send the order, weigh anchor, and set sail."

The fleet with many more ships on the sea began to turn around and return to the town of Corvo.

In the dark night, the thick black smoke made the night even thicker.

A hundred nautical miles not far from them, sixty British ships that had just sailed out of Corvo, with captured captives, freed British, and slaves, were loaded with new Qin empires in Corvo The various materials prepared slowly returned to Hero Port.

The Han Chinese and mercenaries in Korwu Town who had fought for a day, and the remaining soldiers of the New Qin Empire were disarmed and thrown under the cabin one by one. Their faces were full of smoke and blood, and they closed their eyes and waited for their fate. They knew that the British There has never been an exchange of captives with the New Qin Empire. Most of the British captives became slaves. In the mines and various workshops and projects of the New Qin Empire, they were either exhausted or executed. Those who were captured before the New Qin Empire were not Know what happened to them, but they were killed or sold into slavery.

Many people are depressed, but they are powerless to change their destiny.

The speed of the ship is not fast, because it is loaded with too many actual supplies, and there are goods on ships docked by various countries. The British will not be so kind, let them go back, and the ships docked here are all the ships of the British enemy. Of course they They will not be returned to them, or they will be allowed to leave. Even the merchant ship was either captured or sunk in the port of Corvo Town.

The defense of Corvo Town is not strong, especially when facing the British super fleet, all they can do is to use the remote location to hide, and now they are discovered by the British, their fate is almost doomed up.

The New Qin Empire didn’t invest much in it either. The coastal artillery were all old heavy artillery captured by the British or French. The firing speed was slow and the firepower was weak. They could only deal with ordinary pirates or fleets composed of merchant ships. With the fast British fleet and the highly improved artillery firepower, there is almost no way to do it.

At dawn, the fleet of [-] ships sailed through the middle of the night, and they were still [-] nautical miles away from Hero Harbor, but only [-] nautical miles away from Wunan and their fleet.

It can be intercepted in about two hours.

The first thousand 390 eight chapters interception

The British who were sailing were very relaxed. After a day of fighting, they sailed for half the night and got up to sail in the middle of the night. Everyone was very tired. While working comfortably, while looking at the sea, some smoked tobacco leaves, while some chatted and laughed at the overreach of the new Qin Empire.

But they didn't know that the god of death was already approaching them. When the sky was bright, the weather was a little bad, the clouds were thick, and the sea breeze was a little stronger, but it didn't affect everyone's mood.

The lookout post also looked at the sea with dazed eyes. Under the cloud, the black smoke in the distance became faintly visible, and the fleet sailing under the cloud was not easy to be spotted by the British.

When the Wunan Fleet of the New Qin Empire approached thirteen nautical miles, still no ship found the Wunan Fleet coming from the depths of the sea, because the wind was blowing towards the Wunan Fleet and their side, and the black jets from the Wunan Fleet's steam engine warships The smoke was blown back by the wind, deep into the cloud.

Ten nautical miles away, the fleet sailing towards Hero Harbor was not found. It was not until eight nautical miles away that the lookout post spotted the Wunan fleet. Not frantically ringing the bell, and then the whole battleship knew it. As the signal was quickly transmitted to other battleships, 15 minutes had passed.

The Wunan Fleet was already approaching five nautical miles. At this time, all the ships had spotted the Wunan Fleet without anyone notifying them. Fifteen or four armored ships picked up speed and ran towards the large and high-tonnage warship ahead. The steam engine battleship, together with the captured eight sail warships, a fleet of seven steam engine battleships rushed towards the middle of the British fleet under the leadership of Lu Fang.

As the emergency bell rang, the British commander desperately issued orders. There were merchant ships with no combat effectiveness in the fleet and some small ships. Some warships protected the small-tonnage ships and left the fleet to run in the opposite direction. The remaining fleet was more than [-] tons. All the warships began to change teams, ready to block the enemy. Some of the sailing warships brought small tonnage sailing warships towards Lu Fang and the others, about fifteen or six equal ships.

The remaining about 20 steam engine ships and sail warships of four to five thousand tons began to form up and head towards the fleet of fourteen iron-clad warships led by Wu Nan.

After 15 minutes, they approached two nautical miles, and the artillery of both sides had already started firing at each other. The artillery roared, and here was the sound of the giant cannon, but it was not very accurate. The distance of 600 meters was also a challenge for the giant cannon.

Although it may be able to hit the enemy at this distance, it actually depends on fate to hit the enemy. After all, both sides are driving rapidly and have not yet transferred to the battle line formation.

The warships of the two sides are still running in the formation.

800 nautical miles, 200 meters, 800 nautical miles, 500 meters, [-] nautical mile, more than [-] meters. Both sides fired nearly a hundred shells, but none of them hit their opponents. At [-] meters, Wunan and the others The formation of the battle line was formed, salvo, two [-]-ton steam engine warships of the British were shot, one shot nearly missed, and half of the hull was blown apart, the enemy's hull was flooded, slowing down a little, and one shell It hit the enemy's deck, billowing black smoke immediately, the cannons and masts on the deck, the cabin, and the steering gear were all blown up into a mess. The ship tilted, immediately slowed down, and withdrew from the battle queue .

This side is also full of water jets, exploding around the ironclad ship from time to time, and the artillery shells of both sides have found the enemy's battleship, but for the time being, the cannons of the New Qin Empire are relying on the density and accuracy of salvos to inflict heavy damage on the enemy. .

At 400 meters, Wu Nan took the battle line and began to circle towards the enemy's other side. The enemy's ships also formed two battle line formations, and the firepower began to increase. Soon the armored ship's hull and deck were also shot. There were casualties, but not serious.

Due to the distance, power, and kinetic energy of these shells, they may not be able to penetrate the deck and hull armor plates, but they can definitely cause damage to people running on the deck of the ship.

The auxiliary guns and rapid-fire guns here are starting to shoot, especially the gun gallery artillery. Perhaps at a distance of 400 meters, the Type [-] gun gallery artillery is also a little bit incompetent like the enemy, but it is better because of its dense firepower. The iron sheets on the hulls of sailing ships and steam engines caused some damage, but also caused great damage to the deck personnel, sails, masts, sailors, and sailors pulling the cables.

Generally speaking, the damage suffered by the British ships was much higher than that of the New Qin Empire. Many sailors and deck sailors were injured and had to be dragged into the cabin for rescue. The number of supplementary manpower decreased at an unbearable rate for the commander , Soon three sailing ships had to stop, because there were not enough manpower to sail, so they had to stop outside the battle line to regroup manpower.

At this time, the three British steamships bombarded an ironclad ship violently. They broke away from the column and approached a distance of 800 meters. They fired violently, and several rounds of salvos came down, paralyzing the gun gallery artillery of an ironclad ship. The rapid-fire guns and 37mm guns of the ironclad ship were destroyed, which severely damaged the ship, but the turret artillery at the front and rear of the ironclad ship also severely damaged them. One was immediately pierced through the boiler room, and the steam engine exploded, causing a fire on the ship. Within a few minutes, The whole ship turned into a pile of fire, and the sailors jumped into the water to escape.

The remaining two ships were also having a hard time. While fleeing back to their own line of battle, they fought back. When they returned, they had no way to fight, because their power had declined, and water was flooded everywhere, so they had to stagger away. The battle line is moving towards the place where the supply fleet retreats.

As the seven warships withdrew from the battle line, the firepower of the British was weak and scattered. Some ships even wanted to escape, hiding behind and refusing to come up. There were only ten ships on the real battle line. Five ships were fighting, and the wounded ironclad ship retreated to the rear, while the remaining thirteen continued to fight the enemy at a distance of 200 meters.

After several rounds of salvo, it was as if a torch had been lit. These sailing ships and steamships, regardless of their tonnage, seemed unable to compete with the armored fleet.

Half an hour, only half an hour after the war started, the enemy's supply fleet only escaped seven or eight nautical miles, and this side was only twelve nautical miles away from the other side, the enemy fleet was beaten into a mess, showing defeat, Wu Nan Seeing this, they immediately dispatched three Type I ironclad ships to support Lu Fang's sail steam engine fleet over there, against fifteen enemy warships.

The first thousand and 390 chapters nine war merchants

The remaining five Type [-] ironclad ships charged forward and exploded three of the enemy's warships nearby. At the cost of one lightly wounded, they won the battle between the ironclad fleet and the fleet of steam engine sailing warships, and captured seven of the enemy's [-]-ton warships. Up to the [-]-ton steam engine warship, two [-]-ton sail warships, and the others were either at large or sunk.

The injured ironclad ship was left to clean up the battlefield, and the remaining five ironclad ships Type I and five Type II pursued the enemy's supply fleet, and Type II went to help Lu Fang and the others. After an hour of fighting, a total of one hour of fighting, Wu Nan The fleet easily resolved the two fleets intercepted by the enemy, about forty warships, the interception of the warships, and then pursued towards the place where the enemy's supply fleet fled.

Their warships that could not fight followed, and the two sides chased and fled on the sea. After two hours of pursuit, they went through half an hour of fighting, half an hour of cleaning up and cleaning the battlefield, and successfully wiped out the British army. Sixty auxiliary and supply fleets captured about 28 warships, escaped seven or eight warships, and sank nearly thirty warships and warships.He lost three sailing ships, a [-]-ton steam engine ship, seriously injured three sailing ships, and slightly injured three ironclad ships.

About [-] British people were captured, about [-] captured mercenaries and civilians were rescued, and the released prisoners and slaves were recaptured.

"The fleet is returning to Korwu Town," Wu Nan looked at the sky, the weather was getting gloomy, and there might be heavy rain, which would be bad for his fleet.

In this battle, 500 people were lost and nearly 700 were injured. More than 300 people were killed and 500 people were injured on Korwu Island, and more than 700 people plus civilians were captured. There were more than 5000 people stationed on the ship plus the people stationed there, and the number of people on the other relay fleets staying there was no more than 100 and less than 6000 people. Nearly a thousand people were killed or injured in the attack on Hero Port, and a thousand people were killed or injured in this battle. The above, plus the loss of the mercenary regiment left behind in Korvo Town, left about 500 people in the fleet, many of whom were wounded.

It also lost the captured enemy prisoners in the port. During the battle, the captives on a ship rioted, which directly caused the loss of all 700 captives on that ship, because a Han soldier detonated the gunpowder on the ship and died together with the enemy. Of the 50 captives, only about [-] were rescued, and Lu Fang immediately ordered the execution of all the rescued captives to deter the others.

In order to guard the captives, many mercenaries who were originally captured were put to good use. They were sent to guard the captives if they were wounded, or to do some things related to guarding the captives. The sailors withdrew to fiddle with the ships, leaving only a small number of people to accompany the mercenaries who did not know how to sail and some former Han soldiers and officers on their posts.

Most of the sailors and naval officers who were transferred were scattered on the captured ships. The previous captures, the captures here, split the auxiliary fleet into two. The real auxiliary fleet, the fleet that undertakes combat missions, changed from the original ten ships to Twenty ships are divided into steam engine fleet and sail fleet, but they are commanded by one commander, and each has a squadron commander. They are the fleet commanders who were promoted to the naval officers who survived with the British in Xinxianju Town.

Because they are experienced enough, they survived the almost annihilated naval battles in Wunan many times, regardless of their talents, but this luck and at least experienced failures and counterattacks are very Wunan's style. Therefore, Wu Nan vigorously promoted these people, if they couldn't beat them, they could escape, and it was very likely that they could fight back.

Don't worry about handing over the fleet to Wunan.

The auxiliary fleet is then divided into a supply fleet. Indeed, there must be a supply fleet. There are many captured ships in the fleet, and there are also many ships that are injured in their own fleet and are not ready to fight. These ships need to transport supplies, prisoners, and wounded.

The losses in the two battles were not small, and the captured ships sank a few, and then captured more ships than sunk, and some were small boats, sloops or brigs, armed merchant ships, British or Europeans I love to do this. Although the warships of many countries have been replaced with steam ships after the appearance of steam ships in Europe, auxiliary ships in many countries or fleets are still the mainstream, and sailing ships for merchants are especially economical and practical. The sloop is still favored.

Therefore, many British captains still use sloops to follow the fleet to fight, supply, and earn fees.

This is a way of doing business left over from Europe. Military merchants, that is to say, fight in the front, and these merchants are responsible for logistics in the rear. They migrate with the army. Wherever the army goes, they will go there, bringing drinks, food, Food, horses, and even some military equipment. They hire bodyguards and mercenaries to protect them. They have their own camps, servants, and small teams. The most profitable is a caravan filled with various women. After the war or during the march, the soldiers spent all the military pay they received on such merchants.

This kind of businessman makes money from wars. Often after a battle is fought, the soldiers basically hand over their hard work money to the businessman. Some soldiers even store their military ranks here. Once they die in battle, some of them have conscience. The merchants will send back to the families of the soldiers, and some merchants will annex them directly. An army finally wins, and the land that the kings and lords need is transferred to them, but they will definitely not make money. Soldiers and officers were left to these merchants.

Of course, there are also risks, that is, once they are defeated or attacked by the enemy, the merchants will not only die, but also become slaves of the opposing merchants, prisoners of the opposing army, and all their property will become the property of the opposing merchants.

Just like now, not only the wealth in the ports and towns of both sides will become the spoils of war for the opposing side, but these merchants will also become the spoils of the opposing army. They will become slaves and be sold. Of course, they will not be in Wunan of the New Qin Empire. If they do that, these people will be sent back to the New Qin Empire and become slaves of the empire.

Their property has become the property of the empire, and their merchant ships have become the merchant ships of the empire. Even those who are serious about doing business, except for the French and Spaniards, or merchants from countries that are not hostile to the new Qin Empire, or their merchant ships will be released. The merchant ships of the British and Portuguese will be confiscated. If they want to find them, they can only go to their own parliament or nobles to ask for these losses.

Although the enemy's main fleet has not been wiped out now, they have copied their retreat, captured as many as 28 good ships and the materials and commodities on them, and captured merchants and their entourage.

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

With so many captured merchant ships and warships, the fleet has become larger again. After the wounded warships and merchant ships were simply repaired, they loaded the wounded and prisoners, about 25 ships, barely sailing at a speed of six knots, and the auxiliary fleet was surrounded by Next to the supply fleet, a huge fleet was formed that was three nautical miles wide and five nautical miles long. In front of the fleet were six uninjured Ironclad Type I warships, and in front were five Ironclad Type II warships, three of which were seriously injured. The Ironclad I staggered behind the supply fleet.

After the Chinese Empire detonated the steam engine technology, after decades of development, Europe accepted things very quickly. No matter how the old nobles stopped them, and how unwilling those sailing boat enthusiasts were, steam engine warships still appeared in all countries, although it is not popular. , but it is always necessary to get a few ships to decorate the facade, and the British who developed earlier have completely mastered the steam engine technology, and can imitate and develop their own steam engine warships.

The French are behind. The French may not be able to innovate, but after they got the steam engine technology from the United Kingdom, they quickly imitated it, and what the United Kingdom has, they immediately imitated it, and some hobbyists or scientists also imitated it. Started research and development, but always one step behind the British, because of the turmoil, the French Revolution made people's minds in extreme confusion, most people are still studying philosophical issues, so although they are equipped with a lot of steam engine battleships that are comparable to the British , but still inferior to the British in the use and development of new technologies.

Then there are the Spaniards, Turks, and Turks who have obtained a large number of outdated steam engine experimental warships from the Chinese Empire 20 years ago. They have no way to manufacture and develop them, but they are considered to be owned. Some Spaniards develop and manufacture , but the technology is still not good enough, and they have to buy French imitation steam engine ships, or buy a large number of steam engine ships from the Chinese Empire. 30 years have passed, and the Spaniards also have a main steam engine fleet.