"Those are the soft sails of the Xiyi people?"

After being reminded by Wang Bing, Undefeated War God and others discovered that one to several soft sails of varying numbers of Western Yi people were added to all the large and medium-sized warships in the fleet.

In fact, compared to the soft sails of the Westerners, traditional hard sails can rotate around the mast and face the wind from many sides, so their wind receiving efficiency is higher.

And because there is a skeleton support, the quality requirements for the sail are also lower. Even if there are many holes in the sail surface, it doesn't matter, it is supported by the skeleton anyway.

But as the saying goes, every gain must come with a loss, and precisely because of the skeleton on the sail, it is impossible to make a traditional hard sail very large. Otherwise, the weight will be greatly increased, affecting the operation of the sail.

The soft sails of the Xiyi people have no skeleton, so although the efficiency is not as good as the hard sails, because there is no skeleton, the sail area can be made very large.

It's just that compared to traditional hard sails, the operation of soft sails is much more complicated. On those Western warships, 80% of the people are responsible for operating the sails and other navigation matters.

Therefore, this time the new battleships of the Royal Navy, all medium and large battleships, while maintaining mainly hard sails as power, have added an uncertain number of Western soft sails to make up for it.

In this way, even though the hull of the ship greatly exceeds that of the Xiyi warship, it can still maintain a speed similar to that of the Xiyi warship.

Of course, these Spanish-style soft sails are generally used when the wind is downwind. When the wind is against the wind, they are still furled and only sailed with hard sails.

…

"Your Majesty, the target ship has been prepared. Please give your Majesty's instructions whether to open fire or not!"

After sailing for half an hour, while Wang Bing was still introducing the differences and advantages and disadvantages between soft and hard sails to everyone, nearly a hundred retired large and small old fortune ships that were used as target ships were now being used.

The navy officer dragged it to the predetermined location.

"Then fire, haha!"

After hearing Chen and Deng's request for instructions, the little fat man waved and stood up excitedly, raised his telescope and looked towards the target ship area.

"After sending the order to each ship and the flagship to fire, each first-level battleship will fire in turn from number one to number nine!"

After receiving the instructions from the little fat man, Chen Lin immediately turned around and rushed to the ordering soldiers to issue orders.

"The guns are ready to be loaded!"

Just as Chen Lin ordered the ships to open fire, Deputy Admiral Deng Zilong also gave the order to load the guns on the flagship.

"Hey, this is it?"

Just after Deng Zilong ordered the guns to be loaded, when they saw the naval gun exposed after the gun jacket was completely removed, the generals of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion and officials from the Ministry of War were surprised by the style of the naval gun.

It turned out that, unlike the Hongyi cannon they were familiar with in the past, this naval gun, which seemed very similar to the Hongyi cannon, actually had an extra pair of 'ears' on the 'butt' of the cannon.

"Attention cannon, sub-munition bomb?"

Just when everyone was still wondering about the extra pair of 'lugs' on this naval gun, a group of artillerymen grabbed the extra pair of 'lugs' and rotated them a few times, and then took out a piece from the top of the tail.

Behind the wedge-like steel plate, everyone was surprised to find that the tail of the naval gun was completely opened, and the entire barrel immediately became as transparent as a folang equipped with bullets.

Obviously, unlike the Hongyi cannon they knew, this naval gun, which seemed to be very similar to the Hongyi cannon, was not loaded from the muzzle, but was loaded in the same way as the Folang machine equipped with muskets.

The cannons are very similar.

In other words, the "Hongyi Cannon" on this ship is a breech-loaded cannon with rear-loading ammunition.

"The target is twelve miles away, two basic medicine packs, and ready for explosive shells!"

While everyone was still wondering about the strangeness of this special fleet style and loading method, the observing gunners of each gun had already put down their telescopes and issued a series of orders.

Subsequently, under the orders of their respective gunners, a group of gunners quickly pushed the huge cone-shaped explosive shells into the barrel of the gun from the hollow tail with ears on the gun.

Then he inserted a piece of cork from the place where the 'wedge iron' was taken out before, and then stuffed two packed cylindrical medicine packets into it. Then he put down the 'wedge iron' again and vigorously rotated the cannon butt in the opposite direction.

For the extra 'cannon ears'...

"The No. 1 gun position is ready!"

"The No. 2 gun position is ready..."

After the final sound of the hammer hitting the 'gun ear' to secure it, reports of the artillery readiness came from each gun position.

"Your Majesty, do you want to fire two shots, haha!"

Just when Chen Lin was about to give the order to fire, Wang Bing 'bewitched' the fat man beside him.

"You know me, the third one, you and I will fire the first and second shots, hahahaha!"

Hearing Wang Bing's 'bewitchment', the little fat man's eyes suddenly lit up!

"Your Majesty, no, in case..."

"It doesn't matter, it's just a cannon, there's nothing to worry about, hahahaha!"

After waving his hand to interrupt Shi Xing's obstruction, the little fat man took a few steps to the nearest gun emplacement No. 1.

"Don't worry, Mr. Shi, these cannons have been fired so many times, and haven't you noticed that these cannons are made of steel tires and copper bodies, they are very safe!"

Speaking of which, since the Japanese used a large amount of copper every year to repay the compensation, and now no longer use copper to make money, the Ming Dynasty really does not lack copper now.

Therefore, the breech-loading naval guns of the Royal Navy this time are all steel-tyred and copper-bodied artillery with better performance. And with the little fat Wang Bing and the two taking the lead, the Undefeated Army God and others were naturally unwilling to lag behind and grabbed their own guns one after another.

The gunner's 'job'!

"boom!"

Soon, under the guidance of the excited gunner at the No. 1 gun position, the little fat man immediately pulled the match rope connected to the flintlock ignition device on the gun.

"call out!"

Following the sound of a cannon, the sharp sound of cannonballs flying rapidly through the air, propelled by gunpowder, also sounded.

"boom!"

In just an instant, a huge explosion sounded, and from the target ship in the distance, a thick cloud of flaming smoke and pieces of wood flew everywhere.

Needless to say, with the previous gunner's adjustments, the little fat man naturally hit the target with his first shot!

"Boom boom boom boom..."

Seeing the little fat man's first hit, Wang Bing, Undefeated Army God and others also pulled the match ropes of their side artillery one after another. The roar of the huge artillery and the sound of the exploding shells instantly filled the originally peaceful sea.

As the flagship's first round of firing was completed, the cannons on the other nine first-class battleships also roared one after another.

All of a sudden, along with the flames that kept flickering and the smoke that filled the salty sea breeze, the roar of artillery like thunder resounded throughout the Bohai Bay in an instant!

"Stop shooting!"

Soon, after two rounds of artillery fire, Chen Lin gave an order and the order to stop shooting was quickly conveyed from the flagship in semaphores.

"hiss!"

As the bombardment stopped and the gunpowder smoke was quickly blown away by the sea breeze, all the accompanying military generals and officials from the Ministry of War, including the little fat man, started to collectively take a breath again.

There was no way, just two rounds of artillery fire attacks. The sea area where the target ship was originally parked was now as if it had been swept by a hurricane. There was no longer a complete ship in sight, and some were just sinking rapidly.

The wreckage of the ship and a large amount of broken wood drifting with the waves!

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