Chapter 158: 158 Tangled Pirates
Chapter 158 158 Tangled Pirates
It is indeed not easy, and now these pirates are regretful. They are a large group of pirates from far away. Because the captain is a former naval commander, he knows maritime tactics very well.
This allowed them to obtain many huge profits from plundering, and they were rarely blocked by the army's warships. I accumulated a lot of gold coins over and over again.
It stands to reason that this old naval commander is also a thoughtful person. He did not squander all the money he received, but accumulated part of it. About a year ago, he purchased a decommissioned armed merchant ship that other countries did not want.
He also followed the path he had left behind and managed to keep two of the artillery pieces originally equipped on this armed merchant ship.
As a result, his pirate ship became one of the few pirate ships in the nearby waters that had artillery. Its robbery efficiency was greatly increased, and because it was a new ship, it sailed very fast.
After some modifications, this ship has been equipped with a water tank where the cargo was originally loaded. It can also carry a lot more food, so it has high self-sustainability and can carry out long-distance plunder.
But what they never expected was that they encountered a formidable opponent in the waters near Bunas during their rampant journey. In other words, it is not a difficult opponent, but a life-threatening King of Hell!
The opponent's gunnery skills were quite good, even beyond the pirate captain's knowledge. In this world, it is really rare for a navy to be able to fire so many rounds of shells and achieve a hit effect.
What's more, he had already turned around and fled, and even fired a shot. According to normal principles, the opponent should not press too hard anymore.
After all, the opponent is a regular army, and the commander must bear the responsibility. It was because he was afraid of taking responsibility that he was always on tenterhooks every day, and finally left the navy.
Under normal circumstances, naval commanders will not risk their lives with pirates in order to avoid damage to warships and loss of personnel.
So when naval battleship commanders discover that the opponent also has cannons, they usually do not pursue them, but only scare them to scare them back.
But today's naval commander saw that he had opened fire here, and turned around to show weakness, but he still cut into the battlefield like this crazily, and launched a pursuit regardless of anything.
What made him even more desperate was that just now, the opponent's salvo hit his precious battleship again, leaving irreparable damage on the battleship.
This is all money for pirates like them! But these are losses that cannot be recovered!
His eyes widened in anger, and he drew out his command knife, as if he was risking his life with the opponent, but what he shouted was: "Quick! Speed up! Get them away! Get them away!"
There is no other way, his men are all a group of pirates, pirates who bully the weak and fear the strong... If they are allowed to rob merchant ships, they are like wolves and tigers, but if they are allowed to fight with the officers and soldiers, then they are all timid mice.
Moreover, he didn't want to fight a warship here. His ship was an armed merchant ship with much weakened firepower. It only had two cannons and could not be a match for a warship.
What's more, from the perspective of artillery skills, the opponent is obviously the elite among the elites. They are the absolute main force in a country and cannot be defeated at all!
How could such a murderous **** appear in the waters near Bunas? He was full of questions, but he had no place to ask.
Because while he was thinking wildly here, his men sent two pieces of news that made him completely desperate.
"Ship, captain! Our mast is broken. We must slow down!" A subordinate pointed to a mast in front and shouted to the captain.
Another subordinate also had a face full of frustration, and reported an even more devastating news: "Captain, I, our water tank has been penetrated!"
Suddenly, the old captain who had turned into a gangster felt dizzy. When he was in the navy, he was restrained and did not dare to fight pirates. As a result, when he became a pirate, he encountered a group of perverted navy who fought hard to fight pirates! Is life kidding him?
The mast was broken and the load-bearing structure was damaged, which meant that he had to lower some sails to save the mast that could no longer bear its strength.
Without the sail, he had no way to maintain his speed, and it was impossible to get rid of warships that might be faster in speed.
And the water tank is broken, which makes people even more desperate. They were on the vast ocean, and even if they escaped the pursuit of the officers and soldiers, a boatload of people would still need fresh water.
Without fresh water, drifting on the ocean is actually the same as trekking in the desert. Both of them will die of thirst due to lack of drinking water.
So, the recent losses have put this group of pirates into a completely desperate situation.
“These **** bastards!” Looking at the approaching warships in the distance again, the old pirate captain’s eyes finally burst out with ferocity.
He knew that it was impossible not to be ruthless at this time. If these officers and soldiers were defeated, he and his men could survive for a while, but if they could not defeat this **** warship, they would all be finished now!
"Is the cannon loaded? Fire for me! Fire for me!" He held the command knife, pointed at the target in the distance, and shouted crazily. With his shouting, the warship in the distance opened fire again!
This time, the opponent's artillery was more accurate, and 4 of the 8 shells hit directly, causing sawdust to scatter in the direction of the pirate ship that was turning around.
These flying wood chips killed many pirates, and two cannonballs directly hit the stern watchtower of the turning pirate ship.
Glass shattered by cannonballs and sawdust were flying everywhere in the captain's cabin and chart room. A cannonball directly broke the stairs, and the flying debris caused several pirates who were hiding in the chart room to scream and fall to the ground. .
Although it is not that easy for the solid projectiles of this era to sink a ship, the shells that penetrate the hull can still cause some damage to the hull structure.
Although this round of salvo did not further expand the results of the battle and did not cause any substantial fatal damage to the pirate ship itself, it completely brought the newly arrogant pirates back to their original shape.
The pirates, who had finally mustered up the courage and were ready to fight to the death, ran away again, crying for their fathers and mothers.
"Help! Someone help me! I'm injured! I'm injured!" A pirate who fell to the ground looked at a sharp piece of wood stuck in his leg and cried loudly.
It is a pity that this place was originally a pirate ship and there was no doctor in the first place. Naturally, no one would care about this unlucky guy.
In fact, I couldn't control it even if I wanted to. The only pirate on the ship who knew a little bit about bandaging was usually hidden in the watchtower like a treasure and did not participate in the battle. However, this time, just now, he had been wiped out by a cannonball. .
Just when the pirate captain looked around and saw a sea of vast seas all over the place, and he didn't know what to do, the warship in the distance had already closed the distance to about 300 meters.
“Fire...fire!” The desperate pirate captain shouted hysterically while holding his command knife. At this time, the pirates, who had just barely loaded their cannons, fired the most impressive shot in this naval battle at the warship in the distance.
This shot...still missed.
Because the distance was very close and the pirates had been aiming for a long time this time, they finally had a little accuracy.
The shell they fired flew over a distance of more than 300 meters and landed directly on the stern of the battleship commanded by Bernard. It was only about 15 meters away from the battleship's hull on the sea.
From the beginning of the fighting until now, the pirates finally fired a threatening shot, which can be regarded as a shot to defend their dignity.
Then...then they had to work hard to clear the barrel of the gun, load the shells, and then continue to aim.
It is a pity that Bernard obviously would not give them such a chance. After reloading the shells, Bernard gave the order again and fired the third round of salvo.
It’s no wonder that Bernard was so squandering. In fact, the Tang Dynasty Navy’s family fortune was too strong. The amount of gunpowder and cannonballs produced by this maritime force was astonishing.
There was no other way. Tang Mo went into steel smelting and smelted more than half of the navy's cannons into rails, so that the Elf battleship, which was originally equipped with more than 30 cannons, was reduced to having only 8 cannons on one side. patrol boat…
Those armed merchant ships left behind by John were even more embarrassed. These ships were originally equipped with about 8 cannons, but now only 4 cannons are left to fill the facade.
In this way, the remaining gunpowder and shells will obviously become richer - anyway, Tang Mo is now producing large quantities of smokeless gunpowder. These naval gunpowder, which is mainly black powder, and the excess spherical solid bullets can only Reserved for naval training.
Because of this, Bernard's naval training is very generous, and there are not many opportunities to fire cannons on weekdays, let alone actual combat such as fighting pirates.
It can only be blamed on this group of pirates for being unlucky enough to meet a group of perverts like Bernard - they did not spare cannonballs and deliberately trained gunnery in order to cultivate cutting-edge talents suitable for future naval battles.
As for the boarding battle? Bernard never thought that he had almost completely given up on this tactic according to Tang Mo's orders, especially after leading the navy officers and soldiers to visit the steel battleships in the Datang Shipyard...
By the gods, if the future is full of steel battleships equipped with such dense and accurate artillery, then who will be stupid enough to engage in **** battles?
"End this training as soon as possible! The opponent seems to have no power to fight back." A somewhat bored Bernard said before firing the third round of volley.
(End of this chapter)