Wang Rulong's provocation really worked, and the gunners became cautious. They lay on the tail of the gun, opened one eye and closed the other, sticking to the rear sight, so that the rear sight, the notch on the muzzle and the target in the distance were in a straight line.
The direct aiming of artillery is similar to the shooting technique of muskets. Usually, when a skilled gunner is training on land, he can hit nine out of ten shots within a kilometer. But at sea, the warship shakes and the enemy ship moves, so the hit rate drops to a terrible level.
Wang Rulong was very annoyed by this. He asked Chu Liuxiang, a master gunner, to impart his experience, but he couldn't explain it clearly. It's not that Chu Liuxiang cherished his own skills, but he really didn't know why he was so accurate... The gunner thought, isn't this a matter of course?
It was not until Captain Pinto became Mr. Ping that the coast guards solved this puzzle. Because the biggest influence on the hit rate of a warship is the roll, the gun barrel will shake up and down with the waves, if it is raised high, it will fly away, and if it falls low, it will sink into the sea. Therefore, the gun must be fired when the gun barrel is pointing in the horizontal direction.
Chu Liuxiang was a natural gunner who could find the horizontal plane by instinct. But most gunners who didn't have this talent didn't need to worry. Colonel Pinto taught them a very simple method - hang the lead pendant on the line in the air, and the line will always be perpendicular to the horizontal plane, so when the deck is perpendicular to the line, the deck is exactly on the horizontal plane.
Although this method is not accurate, it is simple and easy to learn. After repeated practice, the gunners can greatly improve their hit rate by changing the angle of the lead weight and matching the burning speed of the fuse. Although the hit rate for moving targets is still impressive, for fixed targets, it is about the same as the one in ten, but it can be improved to three or four in ten.
In a situation like this where the enemy ship is almost stationary, you can basically hit the target with the same hit rate as a fixed target.
Therefore, soon after the battle began, it turned into a shooting training, and the gunners even picked up paper and pens to conduct target shooting tests on the spot.
When a hundred guns fired at once, thirty or forty shells hit the target. How could the Kobayakawa navy withstand this? Their pinewood ships could not withstand the bombardment of 11-jin iron shells. Even at a distance of one kilometer, the Yongle cannons could easily tear apart their Guan ships and Kobayakawa.
The Japanese ships were hit by several shells and either fell apart or took on water, and more than half of the sailors on board were killed or wounded... In a short while, more than a dozen ships leaked and disintegrated and sank into the strait. The blood of the dead and wounded sailors dyed the sea red, but was quickly washed away by the rushing tide.
Ichikawa Tsunehiro's Ataka ships were relatively well-protected and were safe for the time being. He looked at his subordinates who had become living targets for the Ming Dynasty with a grim look on his face. If this continued, it wouldn't be long before all these 100 ships would be destroyed.
"Sir, didn't the lord say that the Ming people were too far away to be hit accurately?" asked the samurai of the Ichikawa family in disbelief.
"My lord, you also heard it from others!" Ichikawa Nobuyoshi was the most outstanding ship commander of the Mori family. He was a famous general who had participated in the Battle of Itsukushima and defeated the Otomo navy. After thinking hard, he finally realized the problem and ordered in a deep voice: "Pass the order, tell them to keep a distance and move sideways!"
The sound of the drums on the Ataka ship changed, conveying this somewhat complicated order. The Japanese are really good at paying attention to details.
The Guan ships and Kohaya followed Ichikawa's orders, dispersed as much as possible, and cruised horizontally at a fast speed.
Now the hit rate of the Ming Dynasty's artillery dropped again.
"Fuck it, let's stop playing!" Wang Rulong spat fiercely and ordered loudly: "Small ship squadron move forward and kill them!"
The flagship hung a yellow lantern for attacking small ships, the first blood ship immediately raised the command flag, and the sailors of ten black tail ships set sail, took advantage of the strong northeast wind, resisted the strong ocean current, and slowly approached the enemy ship.
"The tide is too strong in this damn place!" Wang Rulong frowned as he looked at the small fleet that seemed to be stuck in the mud.
"It's normal. The Japan Current is one of the most powerful ocean currents in the world. When it passes through the Kanmon Strait, the waterway suddenly narrows and the current naturally becomes fierce." Zhao Hao said calmly: "Ushiwakamaru didn't understand this back then and almost suffered a great loss."
"Hey, young master, you really know a lot." Wang Rulong couldn't help but admire him very much, but what is this 'beef balls'? It sounds delicious.
Seeing that the main force of the Ming Dynasty fleet stopped firing, a team of small warships was sent to approach. When the two sides were within two hundred feet, Ichikawa Keiko gave the order, "The first team attacked!"
As for the vacant defense line they left, it was filled by the second team behind them.
Hearing the drum beats urging the charge, the remaining seventy-odd warships of the First Fleet immediately became alert. The helmsmen desperately turned the rudders, and the oarsmen rowed desperately to turn the bows around, and then they took advantage of the ocean current to quickly sail towards the Ming Dynasty's leading fleet.
"Change to grapeshot, change to shotgun shells!" The gunners on the small ships shouted orders in their throats. The ammunition carriers took out fixed ammunition from the ammunition depot in the cabin and put them in the backpacks of the ammunition carriers.
The ammunition carrier trotted back to the breech block with a rattan ammunition basket on his back, and the loader took out the shells and loaded them into the barrels of the cannons.
At such a close distance, there is no need to observe and measure the distance. The gunners can simply fine-tune the muzzle and aim and shoot!
"Fire!" The gunners gave the order, and the rumbling sound of cannons rang out on all the ships! Not only the small-caliber Xuande cannons, but even the Hongxi cannons began to fire!
To a certain extent, the Hongxi cannon made up for the shortcoming that small ships could not be equipped with the Yongle cannon, allowing them to fire powerful firepower despite their small size!
Thousands of iron balls of all sizes were sprayed like raindrops on the approaching Japanese ships of Kohaya and Kan, instantly turning them into sieves along with the people and ships...
Almost in the blink of an eye, the grapeshot fired from ten medium-sized Wuwei ships killed all the people on seven or eight Japanese ships.
The gunners, whose artillery skills were becoming increasingly skilled, quickly scraped the barrels, reloaded, and fired!
Another seven or eight ships of sailors were slaughtered...
Ichikawa Tsunehisa could not help but be stunned. The power of the Ming Dynasty's close-fire artillery was really terrifying!
"Rabbit, give it to me!" Although the remaining half of the navy of the First Fleet were already terrified, they were not afraid of anything as long as they thought of their beloved lord watching them from the Moji Castle... heavy fog. In fact, it was because Kobayakawa had strict military discipline and anyone who deserted in battle would be killed without mercy.
Since running back would mean death, at least dying facing forward would give me some compensation.
They rowed as hard as they could at the speed of a dragon boat race, and with the help of the ocean currents, they got close to the Ming warships after only five rounds of shooting.
The navy soldiers raised their muskets, bows and arrows, picked up their iron rods, and prepared to fight back!
However, at this time, the Ming Dynasty warship turned the rudder! The large rotating Portuguese machine guns installed on the side began to speak, with a firing rate of seven rounds per minute, suppressing the Japanese so much that they could not raise their heads to fight back...
The oarsmen in the cabin rowed the warship desperately, trying to ram the Ming Dynasty's sailboat so that they could board it!
They obviously haven't heard of the power of the Wuwei ship...
"Prepare for collision!" Seeing that the warships of both sides were about to collide violently, the police officers and police officers on the Wuwei ship hurriedly grabbed the railings and bulkheads around them to stabilize themselves. At the same time, they loudly reminded their comrades to pay attention:
"Prepare for impact!"
Amid the terrifying sound of the collision, waves flew up along with the broken wood, and all the Japanese ships that hit were shattered, but the Wuwei ship remained unscathed.
The navy was dumbfounded. They didn't know what materials the Ming Dynasty ships were made of and how they were so strong. They could only watch these flexible small warships turn and retreat.
"First Squadron, charge!" Seeing that more than half of their own side had suffered casualties, but still hadn't hurt the enemy at all, the red-eyed warriors shouted orders at the top of their lungs.
I didn't expect that those warships were small, but they had a lot of guns. Now it was the turn of the Hongxi cannons and Portuguese cannons at the stern to fire, and they were sprayed again...
At this moment, the gong sounded behind the Kobayakawa navy, signaling the troops to retreat. The helmsmen and rowers turned the boats around and retreated as if they had been pardoned, rather than accompany the brain-damaged samurai to their deaths.
By the time they were out of the range of the Ming Dynasty's close-fire cannons, there were only forty or so ships left, and almost all of them were injured, looking extremely miserable.
~~
On the top of Moji Castle, Kobayakawa Takakage laughed while clapping his folding fan.
"Now you all believe it, right? They don't dare to fight in close combat!"
"It is true what the adults said." Raishima Michitsugu and other naval commanders could not help but be convinced.
"Okay, everyone, hurry back to the boat." Kobayakawa looked at the sun that was sometimes visible in the sky and said, "There's still half an hour before the tide changes direction."
As he said this, he closed the folding fan in his hand and said in a cold voice: "Destroy them all and seize their firearms!"
Compared to the Ming Dynasty's warships, he was more envious of those long and short cannons. If the Mori family had these things, they would definitely be able to defeat the Oda army!
"Hi!" The captains responded and left the castle, ready to board the ship to fight a decisive battle with the enemy.
Kobayakawa suffers from seasickness, so he didn't want to make things worse.
~~
Dan-no-ura.
Ichikawa was lucky enough to merge the First and Second Divisions into one, and then repeated his old tricks, moving back and forth to avoid the shells and provoking the Ming army to attack.
The Ming people seemed to be really impatient. This time they did not send out a single small ship to attack, but more than 30 warships attacked at the same time.
"Hold on to them!" After giving the order, Ichikawa looked back at the crowd still flowing on the floating bridge and couldn't help but sigh secretly. These people didn't know that they had become bait for their lord to lure the enemy.
Of course, no one can blame the lord, because the Kobayakawa navy was the first bait. Regardless of the victory or defeat of this battle, it is bound to suffer heavy losses...
After calming himself down, Ichikawa Keiko turned his attention back to the front.
It was almost a repeat of the previous scene. No, it was an enhanced version. The Ming Dynasty deployed all their warships this time, and their firepower was increased several times!
The losses of the Kobayakawa navy naturally doubled, and warships were sunk one after another. When the two sides were close enough for Hongxi's cannons to fire, the navy finally couldn't hold on any longer, and they turned their ships around and fled into the fjord.
Their miserable appearance made Kobayakawa in Moji Castle unable to tell whether they were pretending to be defeated or really defeated.
But it doesn’t matter. The Ming Dynasty people will definitely chase after us. Looking at the pale sun rising to the zenith in the sky, Kobayakawa clenched his fists tightly.
"The ocean currents are changing! The plan works!"
P.S. There is one more update. I will return to China after this battle. This flag is set...