Chapter 214 The Navy’s Best Training Partner

Author: tx Cheng Zhi

Chapter 214 The Navy’s Best Training Partner

Chapter 213

In the age of sailing, sea-going ships generally sailed along the coastline of the mainland. Cheng Shijie set out from Jinzhou West Port, Liaodong. When he arrived in Dengzhou City, he paid a visit to his former boss Sun Yuanhua.

Resting in Dengzhou, the world went all the way south. However, when it arrived at Haizhou Bay, Haizhou Bay (also known as Lianyungang) was called Haizhou or Haizhou Bay in ancient times.

A dozen pirate ships appeared on the sea surface in the South Bay of Haizhou Bay. These pirate ships were mainly composed of a dozen small gunboats with a charge of 400 or 600 charges, and the leader of them was a black-tailed boat.

Although these pirates are not flying flags, you don't need to look at them to know that they are young samurai. The unique Tsukiyo hair and temples, the katana in their hands, and the bamboo armor are really obvious.

"You actually dare to provoke me when you are young. I am really tired of life!"

Cheng Shijie's Eighth Princess was surrounded by four Sea Wolf-class 2,000-material battleships. Of course, they were also the Four King Kongs of the Ning Navy. In the past, the Four King Kongs could be regarded as the main battleships of the Ning Navy, but it was a pity that in just over a year,

, the Four Diamonds became Mrs. Niu.

They have withdrawn from the main fleet of the Ning Navy and serve as the close bodyguards of Cheng Shijie, the commander-in-chief of the Ning Navy.

Cheng Shijie was about to give the order when Shen Boyun, the former leader of the Shachuan Gang who followed Cheng Shijie back from Liaodong, said: "Commander, there is no need to use a machete to kill a chicken. There are some Japanese pirates. We, the Shen family, can deal with them without the brothers of Ning Navy!"

To be fair, the strength of the Shachuan Gang is actually not weak. Otherwise, Zheng Zhilong would have swallowed up the Shachuan Gang long ago. Even though Zheng Zhilong owns more than 3,000 ships, the Shachuan Gang only has 700 or 800 ships. But the problem is that behind the Shachuan Gang, there are actually

There is also a fence-sitting faction that sits on the mountain and watches the fight between tigers and tigers. This is Jiangnan Maritime Group.

They did not allow Zheng Zhilong's family to dominate, so when Liu Xiang fought against Zheng Zhilong, they provided money and effort to help Liu Xiang. When Zheng Zhilong dealt with the Shachuan Gang, Jiangnan Maritime Group also helped the Shachuan Gang.

The reason is simple. If the Shachuan Gang is killed by Zheng Zhilong, and Zheng Zhilong dominates the sea, their Jiangnan Maritime Group will be suppressed to death by Guangdong Maritime and Fujian Maritime. In comparison, Zheng Zhilong’s influence on Fujian Maritime and

Maritime merchants in Guangdong are even closer.

The Shachuan Gang is a maritime merchant in name, specializing in shipping. In fact, there is a blurred dividing line between pirates and maritime merchants in this era. When you can do business, do business well. If the other party is too weak, then

Rob.

When the Shachuan Gang was doing business with Liaodong, if Ning Haijun's combat effectiveness was not too strong and the threat of the Haizhou victory was not there, the cooperation between the Shachuan Gang and Liaodong might not have been so harmonious.

Cheng Shijie also knew very well that Shen Boyun was not joking. The sailors of the Shachuan Gang were indeed capable and could easily destroy these dozen small-time pirates.

Unfortunately, what Shen Boyun didn't know was that Cheng Shijie's attitude towards Xiaotian was different from that of people in the Ming Dynasty. The Xiaotian in the Ming Dynasty was actually different from the Xiaotian in later generations. In terms of national character, Xiaotian was born in the year of dog.

They would wag their tails at whoever defeated them.

The Ming Dynasty is a behemoth that can easily press Xiaotian to the ground and rub it. Many Xiaotians participated in the Korean War, and they have a deep fear of the Ming Dynasty. Even though Zheng Zhilong is a Ming Dynasty, the Xiaotian samurai is very concerned about Zheng Zhilong, who is loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

, not disgusted with it, but rather proud of it.

"Shen Boyun, you are now a member of the Management Committee of Liaodong and a sixth-grade magistrate of Haizhou. As a civil servant, you must have the discipline of a civil servant. You should not do anything like killing!"

"Yes, handsome!"

Cheng Shijie said: "Besides, when a lion fights a rabbit, you should try your best. These are the days when pirates use it to sacrifice flags!"

Seeing that the war was about to break out, Zhu Weiti couldn't help but feel a little nervous standing next to Cheng Shijie.

It's just that Cheng Shijie is very relaxed.

Naval battles in the age of sail meant that both sides seized the upper hand. Because warships in this era relied on sails as the main power, the wind direction was very important.

The ships of the Ning Navy also occupy the upper hand. From the wind direction, the pirates are actually disadvantageous. Whether it is archery, shooting, or cannon firing, the range is affected by the wind direction.

When these pirates saw that Cheng Shijie's fleet was divided into two, and the two were getting farther and farther apart, these pirates understood that Cheng Shijie did not take them seriously at all, but left a small fleet alone to prepare

Surround them directly.

When the pirates discovered that Ning Haijun's warships were speeding up in these small days, they began to want to run away. However, the problem was that it was too late for them to run away now.

"How could their warship be so fast? Look, their sails were not even fully unfurled, but they were nearly two knots ahead of us. If they were fully unfurled, they would definitely be faster. How did they do it?"

In the early days, pirates didn't know how fast the Ming warships were. The answer is actually very simple. Because of their function, in the era of sailing warships, in order to pursue huge carrying capacity, maritime merchants would build merchant ships at a ratio of about three to one.

In this way, the ship has good wind and wave resistance and strong loading capacity, but at the expense of speed.

However, the warships of the Ning Navy, especially the warships of several specifications with more than 2,000 materials, are completely different from the 400-material gun ships. This kind of warships are specially used for fighting, so their hulls are more slender. When the sails are full,

, faster. The fastest clipper ship can run faster than the first generation of coal-eating ships.

Of course, this kind of warship is not without its shortcomings. Because the hull is slender, it is prone to problems when facing side headwinds.

There were still more than two thousand steps away from the pirate ship. These pirates actually did not panic, because in this era, even the shelling distance of Western warships was within four hundred meters, and the optimal distance was three hundred meters or even two meters.

A hundred steps, otherwise Zheng Zhilong would not have been able to defeat the Dutch by jumping into gangs and fighting.

"Boom boom boom..."

The sound of the artillery was like a midsummer thunder, exploding over thousands of miles of waves. A large black cloud instantly rose on the blue sea, the muzzle fire erupted, and hundreds of artillery shells roared out from the muzzle, slamming into the

Pirate ship.

Ning Haijun's artillery lacks the ability to hit with the first shot like the artillery of later generations. At least within a range of two thousand meters, firing is an era of luck. Whether it can hit the target can only depend on luck.

Cheng Shijie did not rely on luck to survive. The method he adopted was covering bombardment. If one shell failed to hit the target, then ten shots would be fired. If ten shots failed, then a hundred shots would be fired.

Cheng Shijie's focus on three-inch naval guns and four-inch naval guns is like the rocket launcher of later generations. The proficiency is not enough to make up for the number. The naval guns of this era dare not use quantity to make up for accuracy. There are two reasons. First, they are front-loaded.

Smoothbore guns have a slow rate of fire and need to clear the barrel. They cannot fire two shells per minute. Secondly, the shells are expensive.

This is not a problem at all for Cheng Shijie. First of all, Ning Haijun’s naval guns, whether they are three-inch guns, four-inch guns, or five-inch guns, are all rear-loading and use metal shells. This kind of artillery

Except for the detonation method and the power of the shells, they are far less powerful than later generations of artillery. In fact, they have reached the level of the 1850s and 1960s.

The effect of the first shooting was not very good. It can be said that the hit rate was extremely poor. Only one shell hit a pirate ship, and it was a blind cat hitting a dead mouse. Most of the shells hit the sea, causing a stir.

Rows of tall water columns.

However, the one shell that hit the pirate ship, even though it was a three-inch gun, directly blew the pirate ship to pieces.

Cheng Shijie raised the corner of his mouth and made a very objective evaluation of this massive but extremely poor bombardment: "It's terrible!"

But the problem is that the pirates who were being bombarded didn't think so. Although most of them didn't get a direct hit, a row of drainage columns raised from the sea inadvertently overturned two pirate ships, which meant a round of shelling.

, they lost three ships.

What made the young pirates extremely desperate was that before they could recover from the violent explosions, Ning Haijun's second round of naval guns came over.

Cheng Shijie didn't mind whether Ning Haijun's gunners fired accurately or not. It was purely for training anyway, and he was still idle anyway. As the three-inch and four-inch naval guns simultaneously emitted heart-stopping roars, black holes sprayed from the muzzles.

There was a thunderstorm-like fire, and each battleship's twelve cannons fired a salvo. The huge recoil made the battleships feel uncomfortable, and the battleships seemed to move back.

The shooting distance was even closer, about 1,670 meters, and more than 100 shells hit the sea, stirring up high water columns on the sea, which meant more than 1,000 taels.

The money was wasted.

Cheng Shijie didn't care about the loss of more than a thousand taels of silver. Once he defeated Zheng Zhilong, even if he invested a thousand times or ten thousand times, he could easily get back his money.

Shen Boyun finally understood where Cheng Shijie's confidence lies, because in this round of shelling, four shells directly hit the pirate warship. This kind of warship with four to five hundred materials, even with a three-inch gun, can blow up a pirate ship with one shot.

There was a big hole, and seawater poured in instantly. The little pirates who were lucky enough not to be killed had to swim in the sea.

In Cheng Shijie's opinion, the hit rate of Ning Haijun's naval guns was too low, less than 3%. However, in Shen Boyun's eyes, Ning Haijun's warship actually had such a high hit rate. You must know that only two rounds of naval gun bombardment

, half of the dozen or so pirate ships were gone, and their combat effectiveness can only be described as terrifying!

With the five rounds of Ning naval bombardment, the entire sea surface was completely clear.

At that time, the peace was only temporary. Starting from Haizhou Bay, the small pirates who appeared were just Zheng Zhilong's vanguard. However, soon after, there were dozens or dozens of pirate ships.

Now Cheng Shijie understood that Zheng Zhilong wanted to test Ning Haijun's true strength.

"Commander, it seems they want to test our navy's combat effectiveness!"

"Real gold is not afraid of fire, let them see it!"

"But!"

If you follow Li Zhixiang's idea, you must not let the main battleships go into battle now, but use a large number of small gunboats to fight the Zheng family.

In the past, the Ninghai Navy had more men and fewer ships. When the Dongjiang Army surrendered to the Ninghai Navy, more than two-thirds of the navy officers did not have ships. They could only serve as infantry on the docks to protect the docks.

.

However, with Ning Haijun's three major shipyards producing at full speed, and the wealthy Cheng Shijie preparing a large amount of wood, not to mention the wood prepared in Liaodong, even the wood originally stored in Sun Yuanhua, Dengzhou, was enough for Cheng Shijie to use for two years.

All the wood used in Ning Haijun's new ship was originally prepared by Sun Yuanhua.

The production speed of warships is getting faster and faster, and the warships are getting bigger and bigger. The naval officers are faced with the unexpected situation of fewer people and more ships. You must know that the current main battleships of the Sea Shark class have 343 people per ship, and ten ships

That's 3,430 people, and the Ning Navy's main force, the Sea Shark class, now has 37 ships, which means more than 12,000 soldiers.

What's more, there are also the Giant Shark class with 5,000 materials, and the Sea Wolf class with 242 people. As for the 37 people on the 400-material gun ship, most of them are from the navy that did not have a battleship in the first place.

Most of the soldiers recruited were recruits from the Liaonan Navy Naval Training Team.

These small gunboats and old gunboats also need a lot of training so that they can participate in battles, which is also a good training opportunity.

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Our warships are all new, and the soldiers are not familiar with them yet. They need to be adjusted. With pirates here, isn't this the best training opportunity? What's more, no matter how well we train in peacetime, it will be different from the real ones.

The battlefield is still different. Now we have such a good opportunity, but it is rare!"

Cheng Shijie was actually most afraid that Zheng Zhilong would follow the old routine and use a small group of pirates to test him. What would happen even if Zheng Zhilong knew the combat characteristics and strength of Ning Haijun's navy?
To be continued...