Chu Liuxiang was very depressed. It was the first time he realized how powerful those big Portuguese machine guns were. While he could fire one shot, others could fire seven, and they didn’t have to worry about the barrel overheating and exploding.
Once within range, its lethality is much higher than that of his beloved Dafagong.
What’s even more depressing is that the muzzle of their gun can rotate up, down, left and right, so even if the enemy is within a hundred meters, they can still hit him.
The position of their bow gun group was originally high, and the Japanese ship was short. At this distance, the Dafa Gong and Banshe guns could no longer hit each other, and adding spacers to the rear of the guns was useless...
"Damn it, what kind of bullshit design is this?" Seeing the big Portuguese guns spitting out flames and harvesting the lives of the Japanese pirates one after another, Chu Liuxiang spat in frustration, thinking that if this continued, the limelight would be snatched away by the Portuguese gun crew, and his dream of special promotion would definitely be ruined.
The only ship that could be hit now was the Atakabune, which had a broken sail and was far behind.
But the hull of the Ataka ship was very strong and could not be penetrated by grapeshot, and even if it was penetrated by solid bullets, it would be of no use.
"I have no choice but to use my ultimate move, the red fire bomb!" Chu Liuxiang gritted his teeth and said.
"Ah, Gunner, that's too risky, isn't it?!" The smoke-stained gunner was startled, and the assistant gunner, loader, and gunpowder man also looked at the gunner in fear. They had only practiced that thing twice, and they were scared to pee their pants every time.
"You sons of bitches, if you're timid, don't try to imitate others in firing cannons!" Chu Liuxiang spat, "That bastard ship is so strong, how can we hit it without red fire bombs?!"
Although the security team is not an army in name, the military law is as strict as that of Qi's army. The artillery commander gives an order and the subordinates can only execute it.
The gunpowder man had no choice but to drag out a thick iron charcoal barrel from the cabin and ignite the charcoal in the barrel with a torch. When the blue flame was burning, he clamped four hollow iron bullets into the charcoal barrel.
"Captain, how long will this take?" The gunners who had no artillery to fire loaded their Longqing rifles for self-defense while watching from afar the gunpowder man sweating profusely as he fanned the fire and roasted the iron balls.
"Wait." Chu Liuxiang rolled his eyes at them unhappily, which was a bit awkward.
Normally, the shells should be heated red from the beginning. But this thing is too dangerous. Once it falls on the deck, it can cause a tragedy. So the gunners are very resistant to this thing. After several drills, even the gunner on the ship is too scared to force the gunners to prepare this dangerous thing called "red hot shells" by the sailors.
So at first, the gunpowder man who was in charge of preparing the ammunition didn't even light the charcoal bucket. After all, there was a bucket of propellant sitting under his butt, and it was too dangerous to light another bucket of fire.
~~
The bow gun turret over there was closed, but the big Portuguese ship over here was doing a booming business.
Nearly two hundred Portuguese cannons on twenty warships roared at the same time, forming a dense cross-fire network, madly harvesting the Japanese pirates on the deck.
Almost every ship was hit hard, and quite a few were destroyed. The sea was filled with the bodies of the pirates, and the injured were crying and screaming, like hell on earth.
Those small early morning boats were seriously lacking in protection, and even the rowers suffered heavy casualties. Almost all of them lost power and floated helplessly on the water, becoming sitting ducks for the Coast Guard.
However, the sides of the Guan ships were higher, and the rowers were rowing below the deck. The shotgun shells were not good enough to penetrate the defense, so the damage to the rowers was naturally limited. So even if the pirates on the deck had been wiped out, the rowers below were still rowing desperately, allowing the Guan ships to keep approaching the Ming army ships.
The so-called "Kansen" refers to the ships that Japanese pirates set up checkpoints on important sea routes in the Middle Ages and collected tolls from passing ships, hence the name "Kansen".
Since the Guanbune was designed to catch up with ships that refused to pay tolls, it was designed with speed in mind. In the Warring States Period, this type of ship was used as a military ship. With 40 or 50 oarsmen rowing hard, the speed it could reach in a short period of time was indeed incomparable to that of a sailboat driven by wind.
Therefore, even though the Ming fleet had been sailing downstream with full sails and trying desperately to keep its distance, it was still being constantly approached by the Japanese pirates' ships!
Besides, the big falconet wasn't a true rapid-fire cannon. After firing the pre-loaded sub-guns, the firing speed suddenly slowed down.
After all, we can't completely destroy the enemy with firepower alone...
~~
The two sides were less than 30 meters apart and finally entered the attack range of the Japanese pirates.
The Japanese pirates lying on the deck had been waiting for this moment. They immediately lit the fuse and fired the "iron cannons" in their hands.
The so-called "teppo" of the Japanese is the matchlock gun. In contrast to their rejection of artillery, they highly praised the matchlock gun and made a large number of imitations.
In fact, it was the Portuguese brought by Wang Zhi who passed this technology to the Japanese...
Japanese craftsmen are still very spirited, or rather rigid. They strictly follow the original standards for the firing device and barrel manufacturing process of the iron cannon, and meticulously build each musket, so the iron cannon they imitate has always maintained a very high standard, which is basically the same as the level of Guangdong-made ones.
Hundreds of "iron cannons" fired with a crackling sound, and stone bullets, iron bullets, and lead bullets were shot onto the deck of the Wuwei ship.
But the deck of the Wuwei ship was a full zhang higher than that of the Guan ship. Under the threat of the big Portuguese, the Japanese pirates could not stand up and shoot, and their disadvantage in attacking from below became more obvious.
Most of the bullets hit the side of the ship and could not hurt the hard ironwood at all.
The small number of bullets that hit the deck were all blocked by the high sandbags, causing almost no casualties.
The marines on the deck also began to fire from the bunkers. They had all undergone rigorous marine shooting training, and could hit the target with their sophisticated Longqing rifles within 20 to 30 meters.
Their mission is to find the Japanese pirates who cannot be defeated by the Portuguese and resolutely annihilate them!
Although the Japanese pirates had tried their best to hide behind various shelters, the Marines were high above them and had a clear view of them. With rifles, there were almost no blind spots.
After a burst of gunfire, the Japanese pirates hiding in the cabins, in the cracks of the deck, and behind the bow guard plates were shot and screamed.
However, the fighting spirit of these Japanese pirates is still amazing, but of course they are helpless... They are now charging downstream, and if they want to escape they have to go upstream. Isn't that an invitation to the Ming Dynasty's artillery massacre?
So they had to bite the bullet and attack, which would increase their chances of survival. They firmly believed that as soon as they made contact, the balance of victory would immediately tilt in their favor!
The Japanese pirates continued to approach with howls, and after firing their cannons, they had no time to reload, so they shot arrows and threw torches at the Wuwei ship. After throwing the torches, they threw oil cans at the ship like meteor hammers.
Fortunately, the officers of the Coast Guard... oh no, the police officers, were all veterans of the Qi Family Army, very experienced, and had made fire prevention preparations in advance. They covered the fire-prone parts with wet quilts and spread fire-proof sand on the deck.
So although the Japanese desperate struggle caused a certain degree of panic, it was quickly put out.
However, during the firefighting process, some security guards were shot and fell to the ground, resulting in casualties...
Moreover, the firefighting affected the firepower against the enemy. The Japanese pirates' Guan ship finally approached, and they immediately couldn't wait to put down the tattered shield boards and prepare to use them as ladders to climb onto the Wuwei ship.
"Stop them!" The gunners in charge were furious and roared at the Portuguese machine gunners to continue firing, while at the same time ordering the Marines to put on bayonets!
The Marines took out a foot-long bayonet from their waist and inserted it into the barrel. This was the second major improvement of the Longqing style, which prevented the musket from becoming a fire stick when close to the enemy.
The Japanese began to climb the shield, and a hand-to-hand combat was imminent!
Unexpectedly, at this moment, an astonishing scene occurred. The last Wuwei ship in the battle suddenly set sail and rushed towards the warships of both sides at full speed!
“Fuck!”
"What?!"
On the sea, exclamations were heard in both Chinese and Japanese.
Before the screams had died down, the Wuwei ship crashed into a Guan ship. With a bang, the Guan ship built by Songshan disintegrated in the middle. The Japanese pirates who were climbing onto the security team's ship fell into the water like dumplings.
Amid the cheers of the security team members, the Wuwei boat continued to move forward, smashing several Guan ships that were crowded together one after another, and finally stopped after crashing into another Wuwei boat that was unable to dodge.
Fortunately, everyone was strong enough, and only people on the deck were thrown to the ground, but the hull was not damaged.
Although only a few Guan ships were smashed, it dealt a serious blow to the Japanese military morale and greatly boosted the morale of the security team members!
At this time, the five armed sand ships in the rear finally came around from both wings. Although they could not directly hit the Wuwei ships like the Wuwei ships, they provided strong support to the besieged Wuwei fleet with fierce artillery fire.
The large Portuguese cannon, which had been reloaded, sprayed shotgun shells at the crowded Guan ships, causing the remaining Japanese pirates to suffer a devastating disaster.
Of the majority of the Japanese pirates on the Guan ships, only one in ten remained, and the samurai in charge of the command could only draw manpower from the oarsmen to attack.
The oarsmen were not even foot soldiers, but farmers who fished and farmed. They were fine in the cabin just now. But when they got on the deck, they saw the blood-flowing, hellish scene, and were scared to death. They even boarded the ship? It was better to catch urine...
Of course, there were also Japanese pirates who rushed onto the deck, holding shining Japanese swords, and began to kill everyone!
However, what awaits them is the strongest formation on earth in the 16th century, the simplified version of the 'Five Elements Formation', the 'Mandarin Duck Formation', which set the record for the casualty ratio in the cold weapon era, was produced with honor by Qi Jiguang and taught by Tong Zigong to fight against the Japanese pirates.
There is no other way. The space on the boat is limited, and the 12-person mandarin duck formation cannot be deployed. It can only be split into a "five-element formation" to make do with this.
The security team members were divided into groups of five, with two people holding a shield and a spear in the front, forming the first line of defense. The other two spearmen followed closely behind, and there was a sword and shield man at the rear to prevent anyone from attacking from behind.