Usuki Mountain Castle, on the castle tower.
Master Zonglin was stunned when he saw the fireworks in broad daylight. How could the people of the Ming Dynasty have such a terrifying secret weapon?
Isn't this too much of a bully? How can we fight this war?
"My lord, forget it. The gap is too big." Zong Huan advised fearfully, "The Bungo navy you worked so hard to train cannot be destroyed just like that!"
"Strike once, strike once and then sound the horn." Zong Lin's fingers slid quickly on the rosary beads, and sweat appeared on his forehead as he said, "My navy has come out in full force, but we can't even capture a single enemy ship. We've been defeated. How can we negotiate with the Ming people?"
"Alas..." Zong Huan felt a growing sense of foreboding. The Bungo navy was probably going to be wiped out by their lord...
~~
On Ship 101, considering the previous tragedy of a back-arrow shooting and injuring one of their own people, the guards quickly carried Master Zhao into the cabin as soon as a whoosh sound was heard.
"Let me go. The rocket won't fly backwards this time." Zhao Hao struggled unhappily, "My nephew has already improved it!"
In fact, the northwest wind was a bit strong today, and according to the regulations, rockets could not be launched when fighting against the wind. However, Zhao Shizhen used wood chips to install a simple three-tail wing on the Leigong rocket, which finally solved the problem of the rocket flying back when fighting against the wind.
Don't underestimate this small tail fin, it contains a lot of knowledge. When a rocket is flying, it will encounter various air disturbances. If it is not corrected in time, under the combined effect of inertia and resistance, the tiny disturbance will be rapidly amplified, causing it to fly randomly or even upside down.
When the rocket deviates slightly from its path, the tail fin will use the air resistance generated in the reverse direction to bring it back to its original orbit, which can greatly improve the stability of the rocket.
Even the number of fins is important. If there are only two, disturbances in the plane parallel to the fins will not be corrected and the rocket will go off course. Four will create more air resistance, which will slow down the flight. Therefore, for this rocket, three fins are the best choice.
This is science, the result of countless experiments. Without Mr. Zhao's advice, Zhao Shizhen really couldn't figure it out in a short period of time.
Looking through the porthole at the rockets whizzing away, whether they were accurate or not is another matter, but there was no more backwards flight. Young Master Zhao couldn't help but pat Zhao Shizhen's thigh in joy.
"Once you make your 'Rocket Drift', this Oda City Rocket will be completely complete!"
"Oda City Rocket, what a nice name..." Zhao Shizhen grinned, not knowing whether he felt pain or happiness.
Rockets fell on the Ataka ship with such force that they could pierce through a samurai in armor. But the most terrifying thing about it was that even if it lost power and fell to the ground, it could still continue to burn for more than five minutes - first the long tail flame continued to spew fire, and then ignited the grease-coated outer shell, and the rocket turned into a torch.
Moreover, the Yatakabune was built with pine and fir wood, which have low density and high oil content, and are very easy to ignite. This is why the large Western sailing ships must use century-old oak - oak is not flammable. Century-old oak has a very high density and no oil content, which makes it even more difficult to ignite! Without sufficient combustion aids and high-temperature heat sources, it cannot be ignited at all.
Otherwise, during the Battle of Futianura, the Punishment Fleet fired thousands of rockets, which would have set the carrack on fire. However, through effective damage control and the inherent flame resistance of the century-old oak, the Duke of Goa, which was hit by nearly a hundred arrows, was completely intact - so it is said that expensive things have their reasons, and you get what you pay for, and this is always true!
On the Ataka ship, although the navy desperately threw the incoming rockets into the sea, the sails and the hull soon caught fire, and under the influence of the northwest wind, the fire raged and could not be controlled in a short time.
Seeing the two ships on fire, Wakabayashi Zhenxing felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife. He leaned on his sword with both hands and shouted with gritted teeth:
"It's less than three cho's distance. Sailors, hold on!"
Unexpectedly, the next moment, he was stunned and found something wrong - he saw the Ming Dynasty sailboats lined up in a line, firing cannons and sailing south with the wind.
The first few warships have now left the battlefield and stopped firing.
If we can force them to retreat, we can give an explanation to our lord.
He was just thinking about his luck when he suddenly looked around and saw that behind the row of Ming Dynasty warships, there was actually another row of warships waiting in full battle array. The two rows of warships were two cho… or about 220 meters apart.
When the warships in the front row gave way, the artillery fire from the warships in the back row could not wait to fire up. The intensity of the artillery and rocket fire continued, and as the warships in the first row gradually withdrew from the battlefield, the distance between the two sides widened again...
Why is it that the military grows fastest in actual combat? A month ago, the Coast Guard would have failed this complex tactic. But now, the series of operations are basically up to standard.
~~
The Bungo navy was also dumbfounded. They paid a huge price and tried their best to get close to the enemy. They didn't expect that the enemy would use this double-line tactic to easily disintegrate their plan.
Seeing that the distance between the two sides was widening again, the warriors commanding on Guan's ship, the shouts of "rabbit ge ge" suddenly became sporadic.
"How could this happen..." Zong Lin, who was standing in the distant mountain city, could not understand the despair in Zhen Xing's heart at all.
Facing an enemy with overwhelming advantages in equipment, tactics, and even training, the light in Ruolin Zhenxing's eyes completely disappeared. He had no confidence at all, only endless despair.
This made him lose his composure in an instant, and he suffered from the Japanese ancestral problem of getting easily carried away.
Everyone saw Wakabayashi Zhenxing close his eyes in pain. Then he opened his red eyes wide again, drew out his long sword, pointed at the second row of enemy ships in front, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Give me the rabbit!"
"Rabbit, give it to us!" Inspired by their commander, the warriors became energetic again and urged the rowers to continue rowing!
"Fuck, this isn't just stubbornness, this is suicide!" Ma Rulong was stunned. In the pre-war meeting, they all agreed that as long as they used the kite-flying tactic to make the opponent's attempt to close the distance fail, no matter how stubborn the Japanese were, they would retreat in despair.
Besides, it was clear that they came here to demonstrate, not to demolish the house.
I didn't expect the enemy to be so stubborn and crazy.
Ma Rulong was unsure now, so he quickly ran into the cabin and asked Zhao Hao, "Sir, do you still want to fight?"
"Fight? Why don't you fight anymore?" Zhao Hao glanced at him strangely.
"If they continue to fight, they will be wiped out. Will they become enemies with the Otomo family?" Ma Rulong said worriedly, "Will it affect the master's plan?"
"Haha, don't worry, Brother Wang!" Young Master Zhao laughed loudly and said, "The Japanese are like this. They are very stubborn and won't bow their heads easily."
"Yes." Ma Rulong nodded in agreement. Looking at the enemy ships charging across the street with artillery shells and rockets, he felt the horror of this nation.
The Oita Bay is about to turn red, why don't they care? !
"So you have to keep working harder. Once you completely defeat them and scare them, and carve fear into their bones, that's when they'll call you daddy." Zhao Hao waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "What I'm more concerned about is, how many times can you retreat without getting into chaos?"
“Hehe.” Seeing that Master Zhao didn’t care, Ma Rulong felt relieved. He wiped his red beard and grinned, “Master, you think too highly of them. If they retreat again, it will be a mess.”
"Hmm." Zhao Hao nodded and smiled. "It's pretty much what I thought."
~~
Wang Rulong is indeed self-aware.
According to tactics, when the second row retreats, they should move in the same direction as the first row, in case a collision occurs before the first row has finished retreating.
But today's wind direction is northwest, so the speed of the second row evacuating to the north is obviously slower than the speed of the first row evacuating to the south.
As a result, the last few warships in the second row were finally bitten.
Half an hour into the battle, the Japanese ships' large guns and bows and arrows finally came in handy.
Seeing that the two sides were within a hundred steps of each other, the Bungo navy shouted excitedly, quickly lit the fuse, and prepared to aim and shoot!
Unexpectedly, real hell has arrived for them!
The previous bombardment and rockets were not aimed at humans...
The Hongxi cannon and the Portuguese cannon on the Ming ships were designed for close-range defense! Especially the Hongxi cannon that fired grapeshot, which could really kill a whole ship with one shot!
Moreover, from such a close distance and from a high vantage point, it's almost like shooting at the face, how can I miss the target?
A dozen Hongxi cannons that fired three rounds a minute and dozens of shotgun cannons that fired seven rounds a minute formed the crossfire and death barrage that made every enemy ship that approached within a hundred steps come to an abrupt stop.
Seeing their lively comrades on the boats being beaten to pieces in the blink of an eye, not a single one was left alive! The impact on the hearts and minds of the navy and the destruction of their wills were incomparable to anything they had experienced before!
At this time, the row of warships that had retreated before finally lined up again three hundred meters away, and the artillery fire of the Ming fleet suddenly became fierce again.
The advance of the Bungo navy finally slowed down.
On the flagship ship Ataka, a cannonball landed in front of Wakabayashi Chōsei. The flying wood chips instantly hit him in the face, and he immediately fell on his back with a scream.
"Be the master!"
"Commander!" His men rushed forward and helped up Ruolin Zhenxing, whose face was covered in blood.
Although he was wearing a helmet, it was not of high quality enough and there was no face guard installed on the helmet. As a result, he was stabbed in the right eye by a sharp piece of wood. The sight of blood gushing out was shocking.
His men hurried to treat his wounds, but they heard him hoarsely say, "Retreat, retreat quickly..."
After saying this, he fainted.
"Quick, sound the horn!" the subordinates gave the order quickly.
The sound of clang clang clang gongs rang out, and the Bungo navy woke up as if from a dream, as if they had been pardoned. They quickly turned their boats around and rowed back the way they came.