New Shun 1730

Liu Yu winked at the guards around Li Xi, who knew what was going on, and surrounded Li Xi in the middle, using their flesh and blood to block the lead bullets and sawdust that might be blind.

The cannon roared, and the gunner ran to the gun room filled with gunpowder. Now the Tianyuan could only fire from one side, and the gunner on the left was temporarily unavailable.

"Left-hand gunner! Go up on deck! Prepare for hand-to-hand combat."

The whistle and the drum made the left-hand gunner drop the cannon in his hand and run to the deck along the narrow cabin.

At the door of the cabin, the weapons manager was distributing axes and hammers.

The gunners who got the hand-to-hand weapons all squatted on the side of the deck, holding their axes in one hand and the hammock canvas tied to block the opponent's bullets in the other hand.

The lower deck occasionally vibrated with rhythmic vibrations, which were the roars of the cannons.

Heavy iron bullets flew out from time to time, either landing on the hull of the Dutch ship or splashing high water beside it.

The musketeers on the masts were quietly waiting for the distance to close.

When the two ships were about a hundred meters apart, almost in an instant, the gunfire on the Tianyuan and the St. Michael stopped.

The place where the battle should have been the most intense fell into an extremely strange silence.

Because both sides loaded the cannons according to the manual, waiting for the two ships to get very close to maximize the power of the cannon fire.

The sailors on both sides who were preparing to board the battle also had almost the same movements, holding the railing or hammock on the side of the ship with one hand, half squatting on the deck, waiting to get close.

The distance between the two ships was getting closer and closer, and the rotating gunner on the bow of the Tianyuan aimed the cannon filled with grapeshot at the Dutch deck.

Just when the two ships were close to the distance of the hook, the two sides threw the hook to each other with an indescribable tacit understanding, hooking the opposite side of the ship.

At the same time, the gunners of the warships on both sides also launched artillery fire almost at the same time.

At a face-to-face distance, the heavy artillery directly smashed the wooden boards of the cabin. The flying iron bullets, the flying wood chips, and the distance where they could spit and curse at each other without the cabin wood boards blocking them all made the battle on the ship a hundred times more cruel than the battle on land.

The instant firing, the gun room was full of smoke, and seven or eight Dashun gunners were pierced with wood chips all over their bodies. As long as their hands and feet were not broken, they didn't care about the wood chips on their bodies.

They knew very well that everything depended on luck. With good luck, even if they were one step away, they might be unscathed. The only way to change luck is to use a faster reloading speed than the opponent and completely kill all the opponent's gunners. If the enemy is killed, there is no need for the concept of luck.

The unlucky person was smashed by the iron bullet or cut in half by the wood chips. The comrades next to him lifted one leg each and threw it directly into the sea. Clear any possible obstacles for the people who transported gunpowder behind.

Those who were not too unlucky, holding their severed hands, retreated into the cabin, cursing the damn ship doctor, but in their hearts they were relieved to think that as long as they could survive under the hands of the ship doctor, they would never have to participate in such a battle again, and they could also receive the disability allowance within the navy.

The slightly sour smell of burning saltpeter, the stench of burning sulfur, and the blood gathered in the cabin, mixed together, exuding a crazy smell.

Everyone in the gun room could not hear any sound, their own, others' shouts, curses, screams, they could not hear anything, only the buzzing sound of the cannon.

Relying on the better flintlock pull rope than the Dutch, and the reloading speed trained by krypton gold, after the close-range bombardment, the gunners of Dashun took the lead. At the moment when the Dutch had just finished reloading, more than 30 cannons on the Dashun side once again bombarded the Dutch side.

Dozens of large holes revealed the tragic situation in the gun room of the St. Michael, and the diffuse smoke was sometimes visible. Under the cover of the smoke, there were broken limbs, purple intestines, internal organs, or flesh that was smashed into shape by a 30-jin iron lump.

More than a dozen Dutchmen with wooden thorns all over their bodies lay on the cabin, crying and crawling backwards. A Dutchman with a broken leg grabbed his broken leg and threw it at the Tianyuan, venting his last helpless rage.

At the same time as the second round of shelling by the Tianyuan, the sailors gathered on the deck almost simultaneously showed their heads with the Dutchmen on the opposite side.

The two sides were too close, so there was no need to aim at all, and they pulled out their pistols and shot at each other.

The sailors who were the most capable and prestigious took the lead in grabbing the rope of the hook and jumped to the opposite deck.

The rotating cannon on the bow of the St. Michael was killed one by one by the shooters on the mast of the Tianyuan. The grapeshot in the Tianyuan's rotating cannon instantly poured onto the deck of the Dutch ship. Twenty or thirty people were hit by the iron bullets the size of eggs at the same time, sweeping down a large area.

Boarding battle should be the most primitive and barbaric fighting mode at this time and era.

There is no formation, because it is impossible to form a formation on the narrow deck.

There are no long weapons. Any long weapons in such a narrow space will be a death sentence for the opponent.

There is no armor, because sailors cannot wear armor. Even many sailors don't even wear clothes, let alone shoes. They are half naked, holding the most primitive axes, like two groups of raw and blood-drinking beasts, colliding with each other.

Biting, hugging, chopping, stabbing with daggers, hitting with gun butts, digging out eyeballs with hands, lying on the ground and stomping on the opponent's feet with axes like chopping ribs...

This violent scene of returning to the primitive state turned Li Li's previous heroic spirit into hesitation. He had imagined the cruelty of the fleet battle at this time, but he didn't expect it to be so cruel.

Standing by the side of the ship, he saw a Dashun sailor's hand being chopped off, and the sailor with the broken hand lay on the ground and chopped off a Dutchman's foot with an axe.

A Dutchman's eyes were gouged out, and then the Dashun sailor held his head and threw it into the sea. And the Dashun sailor's head was also broken by the Dutch behind him with a pistol. The close-range shooting directly pushed open the skull, and the red and white brains and blood splashed on the fallen canvas next to it. That was a mood that no matter how many ink paintings, masters could not splash.

Li Li's arms trembled slightly. It's not that he had never fought in a war. He had also been to the capital of Japan and visited the wounded after the war, but that feeling was completely different from this wild and wild battle like a beast at this time.

He tried to muster up his courage several times and tried to jump over there by grabbing the rope, but after thinking for a long time, he didn't do it.

He knew that even if he wanted to jump, the guards around him would hold him tightly and pull him back.

Li Li thought to himself that he was already timid.

If he hadn't been timid, he could have justified himself and thought: I really wanted to jump over, but unfortunately the guards held me back.

But now, he didn't have that much justification. He couldn't help but feel that since he was timid, it was all like a show, and he felt disgusted, so why bother?

After thinking about it, he sighed and slowly retreated to Liu Yu's side.

Liu Yu was also under heavy protection, and did not watch the fight on the opposite deck, but observed the naval battle that was about to end in the distance.

It was far away, and he couldn't see the bloody scene like a slaughterhouse. He could only see the cannons of both sides bombarding, moving each other, or seeing the Dutch warships lowering their flags.

"Marquis Jing, Mencius said: Nothing is beyond fate, accept it as it is, so those who know fate do not stand under the rock wall. Those who die after fulfilling their duty have a proper fate; those who die in shackles do not have a proper fate."

"A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, but there must be someone who does. The soldiers fought bravely, but I was a little timid. I really feel bad."

Li Xi said this while standing behind Liu Yu with a little embarrassment.

Liu Yu thought, this is really the standard pity of the superiors and the groaning of the powerful. You can't really empathize with those sailors.

"Your Highness, it is natural for soldiers to eat food. Do you know what supports them when they risk their lives to fight, besides their daily training?"

Putting down the telescope, Liu Yu slowly turned around, took a look at the fierce battle on the opposite deck, and said slowly: "Loyalty to the emperor and patriotism? That is the officers' business, and the meat eaters plan it. The etiquette and laws on the ship are strict. Gentlemen are gentlemen and villains are villains. Sailors cannot become officers, but can only become sergeants. The phrase "the meat eaters plan it" was used on land during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period two thousand years ago, and it can also be used on this sea now."

"The sailors are fighting for the monthly silver, for the 20% bonus of the spoils of a captured warship, for the pension after death in battle, and for the disability after injury. There are subsidies. "

"If Your Highness wants to truly maintain the combat effectiveness of the navy, remember what I said. Don't give no money."

"If there is another way to make a living, no one wants to be a sailor. Your Highness has never seen villages full of starving people, nor has he seen the starving people after the Huanghuai flood. Sometimes, the four words "exchanging children for food" are really nothing when written on paper, but when you really see it, you will know why they are willing to be sailors. "

After saying that, he pointed in the direction of the distant coastline and sighed: "When the Dutch came to Nanyang, less than half of the sailors returned alive every year. Your Highness, do you know what the biggest difference between the sailors of Dashun and the Dutch sailors is?"

Li Li shook his head. He couldn't think of the biggest difference. Since it is said that the sailors of Dashun are for money, could it be that the sailors of the Netherlands are for loyalty to the emperor and patriotism?

Liu Yu opened his mouth and pointed to his intact teeth.

"In the teeth."

"Whether it's Dutch sailors or British sailors, they are basically toothless, all with rotten teeth."

"Because of scurvy. The teeth will fall out."

"The sailors of Dashun have not left the South China Sea after all, and are still at home, so they can be guaranteed not to have scurvy."

"This difference seems to be teeth, but in fact they go farther and sail longer. This is why they can fight us in the South China Sea instead of us fighting them in the Atlantic."

"It is wrong to only see the thief eating meat and not seeing the thief being beaten. Your Highness should remember that the navy must go far away. Even if there is no war and just walks more, it is still a navy and will not degenerate into a navy."

"I really don't want the sailors who have been raised at a huge cost to be defeated. More than a dozen battleships built with mountains of silver eventually had nothing to do and slowly decayed in the port of Tianjin. "

"Sailors are willing to exchange their lives for money, and officers hope to exchange sailors' lives for a future of honor. Your Highness, as the Governor of the Navy, does not necessarily have to be extremely brave and fight in person if he wants to truly control the navy."

"The sailors don't care whether you are brave or not. They care less about how much wine they can get after the victory tonight."

"If you can use force to suppress others, why should the commander fight bravely? I never fight bravely in person, because in order to deal with these broken ships of the Dutch, I prepared more than a dozen battleships and dozens of cruisers. Over the past ten years, I have extorted tens of millions of taels of silver from the court."

"Your Highness really loves his soldiers. He built more warships and got more money. Ten against one is loving his soldiers; using battleships to fight armed merchant ships is also loving his soldiers. Using muskets to fight bows and arrows is simply a model of loving soldiers like his own sons."

"Wu Qi's love for his soldiers is not about sucking pus out of soldiers as the literati remember. It is about his training of military formations, organizing Wuzu, and Wuzu's tax exemption, land, and oxen. But the court always remembers the former, but always ignores the land and oxen."

After saying this, Liu Yu looked at Li Xi who was bowing his head and asked, "Does your Highness's jumping over affect the outcome?"

Li Xi turned around and looked at the deck of the captured Dutch warship and shook his head.

"No."

"If your Highness jumps over, can there be fewer deaths?"

"No."

Liu Yu finally said, "If your Highness has the ability, let each sailor wear three flintlock short guns on his waist?"