However, the battle-hardened Portuguese were not frightened at all, but instead fell into anger.
For the commander of the dhow fleet, Lieutenant Colonel João Carlos, was on the ripped-open caravel.
The Portuguese were not interested in the cheap Chinese sailing ships. They only wanted to surround the murderous Wuwei ship and kill the opponent's commander to avenge the lieutenant colonel.
Not only was Lin Feng's boat badly damaged, but its foremast had been broken. Although the mizzen mast was intact, the rigging had broken, and the heavy sail had fallen onto the rear deck. It had completely lost power, and could only watch helplessly as it was surrounded by three triangular sailboats.
The other four sailboats blocked Lin Feng's fleet that wanted to return for support in the east.
The Portuguese and Annan mercenaries on the three caravels used the bulwarks as cover to shoot at Lin Feng's ship with muskets and bows and arrows. They also lit torches and threw them at Lin Feng's ship, wanting to burn the ship and the crazy admiral on it together.
Bullets and arrows rained down like raindrops, but Lin Feng showed no fear. He personally helped the gunner load the gun and loudly encouraged his men.
"Don't be afraid, just sink all the ships surrounding us and that'll be the end of it!"
"The red-haired devils' ship is too high and their guns can't move. They can't hit us at this distance!" While Lin Feng was speaking, she was shot in the head, and her helmet flew off. Her long hair was blown away, and blood flowed down her forehead. She remained unmoved and gave an order with concentration: "Leave your fate to Mazu and concentrate on firing your guns! Lower the muzzle to the lowest level and fire at their waterline!"
Infected by her strong will, the crew regained their composure, forgot about death, and focused only on turning the iron handle at the breech, allowing the screw to push the heavy
The breech of the gun was raised.
This was Zhao Shizhen's third important improvement to the cannon, which to a certain extent solved the problem of the cannon being unable to aim freely. At least the muzzle could now be adjusted up and down.
.
When the screw was raised to its highest point, the muzzle tilted down a full five degrees!
"fire!"
"Fire!" The main gunners, who could not wait any longer, immediately pulled the gun ropes. Amid the rumbling sound of the cannons, thick smoke enveloped the entire ship.
A caravel was hit hard by a cannon in the belly, which knocked all the people on the deck to the ground.
"It's leaking!" The damage control officer in the cabin shouted. The people on the deck didn't care about killing Lin Feng, they climbed up and went down to help plug the leak. Western sailing ships don't have watertight compartments, and a hole can cause the entire ship to sink.
However, after this round of shelling, half of the gunners on Lin Feng's ship had been shot dead, causing the speed of the shelling to become slower and slower.
To make matters worse, due to lack of manpower, the torches thrown over were not cleared in time, and the stern of the warship was already ignited. The rear sail was on fire, accompanied by violent explosions from time to time. This was because the propellant next to the gun position was ignited.
Lin Feng and his surviving men all gathered at the bow and continued to shoot at the enemy with artillery!
In fact, it’s not that they are not afraid of death, but that they focus on one thing so that they don’t have time to feel fear.
Just as Lin Feng said, it is such a lucky thing to die instantly on the battlefield.
However, God did not want to take away this blue phoenix that would soar across the seven seas in the future. At this critical moment, the Travel sailboats suddenly abandoned her, hoisted full sails and sailed south.
Lin Feng wiped the blood off his face and looked west blankly. It turned out that Chen Huaixiu's fleet was approaching.
If the Travel sailboats did not retreat quickly, they would be cut off by Chen Huaixiu's fleet. Especially the four ships in the south, which would be attacked from both sides by Lin Feng's fleet, and they were doomed to be in danger.
The Portuguese dictionary is always filled with the word "treasure life".
Lin Feng was not happy at all, instead she yelled, "You stupid woman with big breasts and no brains, you got fooled!"
The four Portuguese sailing ships deliberately slowed down their speed, waiting for someone to rescue their fleet...
"Boss, come here quickly!" At this time, the dozen sampans that her fleet had lowered also rowed to the flagship that had become a fire ship. The third boss, Big Black Bull, waved and shouted at her anxiously.
"You are idiots too!" Lin Feng cursed angrily.
Despite her scolding, she still asked Ma Yishan to quickly organize his men to carry the injured onto the sampan.
Only when there was no one left alive on the ship did she jump off the flagship that was completely engulfed in flames and take a sampan back to her fleet.
~~
On board the Pingjiang.
Elder Niu smiled bitterly and said, "I didn't expect the leader to put aside his personal grudges and take the risk to save her."
"It's easy to get thousands of soldiers, but it's hard to get a general." Chen Huaixiu said calmly: "I'm just thinking about you, sir. If it were up to me, I would turn the pig's trotter into a roasted pig's trotter."
"Hehe..." Elder Niu smiled bitterly. It turned out that women always say one thing and mean another. The leader is also a woman. But now is not the time to consider Lin Feng. He looked at the four large sailing ships that had sailed two miles away and said, "Leader, what should we do?"
"Just chill." Chen Huaixiu had already thought about the next response before he made up his mind, and said in a deep voice: "Keep moving forward."
At this time, the enemy had the upper hand, and it was too late to turn around and escape - as long as the enemy aimed at the turning point and fired, their ships would be bombarded by artillery fire one after another.
But Master Zhao had given her some advice, telling her that there was more to naval warfare than just gaining the upper hand. In other words, gaining the upper hand was the preserve of the strong, because facing the wind allowed them to quickly approach the enemy, take advantage of their own strengths, and win through intensive bombardment or boarding battles.
As for the weaker side, for example, in this battle, when facing the Portuguese galleon, we should try to enter the battle from the leeward side, take advantage of long-range shooting, hit the mast and sail of the enemy ship, make the enemy lose control, and then seek opportunities to annihilate the enemy. If the battle situation is unfavorable, it is easy to escape from the leeward position at a long distance.
The principle that Prince Zhao privately told her and the generals was, "Whoever can escape after the battle will live to fight again the next day."
And time is on my side, so annihilating the enemy is secondary, and preserving myself is primary.
Chen Huaixiu's trust in Zhao Hao had reached a blind point. Seeing that this was a good opportunity to enter the battle from a disadvantageous position, he decided to save the slut.
However, just in case, she only brought twenty large ships and left the remaining thirty where they were.
This decision saved her own fleet.
~~
Soon, the fleets of both sides encountered each other on the sea, forming a posture similar to a "greater than" sign.
Chen Huaixiu's fleet, consisting of twenty large Fu ships, lined up eastward.
The main Portuguese fleet, consisting of four large sailing ships, was sailing from northeast to southwest.
Overall, Chen Huaixiu's fleet had the upper hand. As soon as the enemy entered the range, the Dafu ship began to fire from the side.
The Portuguese sailing ships ignored the water columns and continued to move forward.
The Dafu ship continued to fire. Although the gunners of these armed merchant ships could not compare with the gunners of the regular coast guard, as the enemy got closer and closer, they gradually hit the target.
However, when the white smoke dissipated, Chen Huaixiu was horrified to find that the freeboard of the enemy warship had been hit by several shells, but it was still intact.
Now the distance between the two sides was within one mile, which was completely within the effective range of their own artillery. If it were a Ming ship, except for the Wuwei ship, all of them would be penetrated by the Hongwu cannon.
Only then did she truly understand why Zhao Hao said "strike the enemy's masts and sails". It was not to show off his artillery skills, but because it was impossible to penetrate anywhere else!
But are masts and sails that easy to break?
Of course, as the two sides continue to get closer, the situation will gradually improve.
But that's also within the opponent's shooting range!
Chen Huaixiu bit her lower lip subconsciously, looking at the densely packed gun muzzles on the large sailing ship, her scalp tingled. Although the enemy only had four ships, there were more than 150 guns on one side! And they were concentrated on four ships. Her 20 warships only had 120 guns on one side, and they were scattered on 50 ships. There was no comparison at all!
"Raise the sail and go full speed ahead." Chen Huaixiu had a bad feeling and immediately ordered, "Keep shooting and don't stop!"
Her subordinates quickly released three blue flares and two yellow flares - actually magic bullets of different colors - to convey her order.
The twenty large Fu ships continued to sail eastward while firing cannonballs.
Lin Feng's fleet was blocked in the south by Chen Huaixiu's fleet. With the headwind, she couldn't help even if she wanted to, not to mention her smaller ship.
~~
When the two fleets approached to within about 200 meters, the Portuguese fleet, which was still almost intact, finally opened fire.
Amidst the flashes of countless flames, the sound of cannons was earth-shaking and continuous, and shells rained down on the last two large Fu ships, causing heavy casualties.
The first ship was luckier. Its mast was fine, but there were several big holes in its sail. However, it did not have much impact and would not be deflated like the soft sail. It followed the main force and sailed eastward.
The last ship's mainmast was broken, and its speed suddenly slowed down...
Ten sailors rowed one oar desperately, trying to increase the speed with two oars, but the speed of the boat still slowed down uncontrollably.
Then they were attacked by a second round of concentrated fire, the whole ship was shot into pieces, and countless crew members were killed or injured...
Fortunately, Zheng Yu's galleys also came to reinforce at this time. They appeared on the west side of the Portuguese fleet and began to bombard and harass them with Hongwu cannons.
At this time, if the Portuguese galleon wanted to pursue Chen Huaixiu's fleet, it had to turn east. The tall forecastle and poop of the caravel made turning a nightmare, and the captain had to be very careful and turn this corner very slowly. Otherwise, there was even the possibility of capsizing.
Therefore, they will be at the turning point where they can only passively take hits for a long time. The enemy's galleys can approach to within 200 meters and shoot calmly - that is also the distance where the Hongwu cannon can really cause damage to the large sailing ship.
Although I don't believe that these twenty ships and twenty guns can cause much damage, but before the enemy's main fleet shows up, these four sailing ships cannot suffer any losses.
Even if only one ship is damaged, it will greatly affect the balance of victory or defeat.
Domingo hesitated for a moment and finally gave up the plan to pursue Chen Huaixiu's fleet. He ordered the fleet not to change course and fired at the Ryukyu fleet.
P.S. Let me explain, the so-called "post first and revise later" only means correcting typos, not the content. The reason why I post first and revise later is actually to let everyone finish reading and go to bed early, it's a good intention... and I revise it immediately after posting it, not to revise it after getting up from sleep. I really love you, please know. I will continue to write the next chapter...