Dominate the Country

On the night of the sixth day of September, it rained heavily on the sea.

The raindrops as big as soybeans hurt people's faces. The White Shark and the Earth Comet, a fourth-class sailing battleship, sailed silently in the pouring rain.

Zhang Bao, who had a three-inch scar on his cheek, was wearing a poncho and standing on the top deck of the forecastle, looking at the sea with wide eyes.

The visibility on the dark sea was extremely low, and the sound of rainstorms covered up many sounds. Zhang Bao could only look at the flickering lights of the Earth Comet, which were very weak and appeared and disappeared. He was secretly annoyed in his heart. He shouldn't sail tonight. Before sunset, he would have a chance to find a strategically located anchorage to escape the wind and rain. But at that time, he finally chose to sail overnight.

During the pouring rain, it was very difficult for the warship to sail. The wind and waves on the sea could be called strong, but they could also throw people into the sea. In the vast ocean, there are three-foot waves even if there is no wind. Now it is raining heavily. How can there be no wind at all? And it's not easy for two ships to stay in formation.

Zhang Bao really regrets it now. In this kind of weather and this kind of visibility on the sea, it is easy for the ship to lose contact. And if they are separated at this time, I am afraid everyone knows what it means.

Zhang Bao stood on the deck and observed nervously, his hands and joints turning white from clenching for a long time, which also reflected his nervousness and worry at this time.

"Tell the Comet to hurry up, pull out the broken signal light and replace it with a good one." Keep in touch at all times.

At night, communication between ships can only rely on signal lights. Zhang Bao shouted hoarsely, with a subtle tremor in his voice. A sudden heavy rain disrupted all his plans. In such bad weather, communication between the two ships was basically impossible. In other words, the possibility of the White Shark and the Earth Comet becoming separated has been infinitely magnified.

He is not a serious sailing and racing leader, Zhang Bao is just an agent. The former commander of the White Shark was killed in the previous battle, and Zhang Bao made outstanding achievements in the battle, so he was promoted to acting commander. If this mission is not completed beautifully, Zhang Bao's future will inevitably be cast into a shadow. More importantly, this sea area is currently a key patrol area for the Europeans. The Earth Comet is only a fifth-level sailing battleship. After being separated, it is likely to be chased by the Europeans. If it cannot come back, Zhang The responsibility of insurance is greater.

Sailing in the dark is always full of unexpected factors, let alone such a rainy night. Fortunately, the wind and waves on the sea are not very strong now, but with such heavy rain, there is no guarantee that the wind and waves will not be strong in the second half of the night. If the weather worsens and the two ships break up, God knows what will happen.

However, it turned out that there were no stormy seas in the North Atlantic in the second half of the sixth day of September, but the heavy rain was still pouring, and in the second half of the night, there was an extra tail behind the buttocks of the White Shark and Earth Comet.

Yes, the time was at 2 o'clock in the morning, and then until 5 o'clock in the morning, the lights of the enemy ships tracking far behind were still looming in the rain. Zhang Bao counted them, and there seemed to be four lights everywhere. Damn, there are already three more ships than the one at the beginning! This place is only a day's sail from Boston, which is a bit close. Although the European warships take this area of ​​the sea very seriously, they contacted four warships in three hours. This is impossible!

Seeing a little more lights behind him, Zhang Bao felt sick in his heart. He absolutely did not believe that the Europeans would be able to assemble four warships so quickly. He must have been unlucky enough to hit the 'fish nest'.

These ships followed patiently and had no intention of taking the initiative. They were like a pack of wolves hunting on the grassland. At first, a few wolves slowly hung behind the prey, creating pressure on the prey and driving them to run towards it. The ambush circle also exhausted their spirits, waiting for the best opportunity to arrive.

Zhang Bao was absolutely sure that the ships behind him were waiting for support. So he had to think of a way.

It was already dawn, but the rain was getting heavier. There seemed to be a thunder in the distant sky. Zhang Bao looked up and did not see lightning striking from the sky.

The Earth Comet's main sail has been lowered, and the ship's speed can be maintained at 3 knots. All the sails of the White Shark were dropped, and the speed was maintained at this speed. And those guys at the back...

"They are currently maintaining an average speed of 3 knots and are about three nautical miles away from us." This is consistent with the White Shark and the others.

The distance of three nautical miles is not that far. If the White Shark turns around and kills a carbine now, it can catch up in half an hour at most. This was even when the Europeans fled back after seeing it. If they don't dodge, this time can even be shortened to 15 minutes.

The turning speed of a motor sailing ship is much faster than that of a sailing warship, and the east wind is blowing in the North Atlantic. If the White Shark turns, it will be a headwind. The hard sail hung on the motor sailboat is far more adaptable to headwind conditions than the soft sail. Coupled with the power of the steam engine, the speed of the motor sailboat will not suffer much loss at all, and it can still reach a speed of 10 knots/hour. However, the speed of the sail warship has to be doubled, and the speed after this reduction is based on the premise that the Europeans have completely raised the sails.

Therefore, it would definitely not be difficult for the White Shark to get close enough to fight.

Zhang Bao estimated the distance and relative speed between the two sides and made up his mind. He wants a dozen!

In another hour or two, the sky will be bright. Even if there is lightning in the sky, both sides will see each other clearly, which is very disadvantageous to the White Shark.

So if you want to fight, you have to fight early!

The White Shark has the advantage of speed. Even if it can't win, Zhang Bao is confident that he can easily escape. The premise is that the Earth Comet does not drag its feet. Zhang Bao asked the signalman to send a message to the Earth Comet.

The rain continued to fall. The Earth Comet was on fire, but the steam engine on the White Shark was already running at full capacity. At the same time, the White Shark also began to turn around. "Right full rudder, pull up the sail for me."

The enemy ship continued to approach in the dark, and they had not yet discovered the White Shark's movements.

The entire White Shark had turned its bow, and the thunder in the air finally struck down.

Suddenly, the sky flashed, but it returned to darkness in an instant. Then, there was a sound like the collapse of the sky and the earth, and thunder.

It was a purple-blue sword that cut through the sky. That shining arc ran down from the clouds all the way to the edge of the sky. Instantly, it illuminated half of the sky.

Soon, another dazzling flash line appeared in front of Zhang Bao's eyes, and there was another loud noise. It was still a ray of light that broke through the sky, and the whole sky became bright white. The winding lightning was like a white dragon, and it was like a big tree, crossing the blue sky.

The Europeans finally saw the shadow of the White Shark. The latter did not continue to flee to the west, but turned around and rushed towards them aggressively.

The four European warships also responded quickly. They were turning. There was no way, who made these four enemy ships small warships?

Although they were not small like single-masted warships, four two-masted warships, none of which had a tonnage of more than 500 tons, were also difficult.

However, it was really difficult for the sailing warship to turn around. It took the four warships ten minutes to complete this goal. And in this process, their sails were not fully spread.

Looking at the White Shark again, the distance between it and the four brigs has been shortened by half.

The four European brigs turned around one after another, but their speed was far behind that of the motor sailing ship. In less than ten minutes, the bow gun of the White Shark opened fire, and the distance was close to 1,000 meters.

If it were broad daylight, such a distance would have been an appropriate distance, and the guns of both sides could have fired more accurately. But now it is night, and it is raining heavily, so 1,000 meters is not enough in this case.

There are wind and waves on the sea, and it is raining heavily. At this time, it is quite safe to put the distance into 500 meters.

So the bow gun failed to hit the target in one shot. Zhang Bao stood on the command platform, and then saw more than 20 guns on the port side firing at once, and the white smoke was knocked down by raindrops as soon as it rose.

The White Shark is naturally the fastest in a straight line, but in order to better exert the firepower of the warship, it must take an "S" shape and aim the muzzle at the enemy while moving the ship sideways.

The four enemy ships no longer wanted to escape. The enemy's speed advantage was very obvious. If they continued to escape, unless they scattered and sacrificed one to protect the other three, the four brigs really had no confidence that they could escape the pursuit of the White Shark. But if they were not in a hurry to escape and turned around to fight the White Shark to the death, they would still have hope of becoming the winner.

This is like the infantry and cavalry in the cold weapon era. Europeans are now short-legged infantry, and the White Shark is the cavalry.

When the two meet, as long as the infantry is willing to fight to the death, the cavalry may not necessarily win; but if the infantry is determined to escape and the cavalry keeps chasing behind, the winner must belong to the cavalry, and it only needs to pay a very small price.

The two brigs continued to flee westward, but the two brigs on the left and right suddenly split to the north and south. Are they trying to escape? No. The two brigs were going to attack the White Shark from both sides. At the same time, the two brigs in front also slowed down, not only taking a curve, but also trying their best to fire back at the White Shark with the stern guns and the guns on the port and starboard sides.

Zhang Bao looked at the European ships leaving on the left and right and smiled disdainfully. He could tell what the foreigners were thinking with his toes. But should the White Shark be afraid? When the two brigs on the left and right approached from the side, the White Shark had already passed by the two warships in front.

The speed of the two ships in front was constantly slowing down, and now it had become 2 knots/hour, but after the speed slowed down, their accuracy did not improve much. Of course, the White Shark's accuracy was also very poor. Until the two warships were in a parallel position...

"Boom! Boom!" The dense rain curtain could not stop the orange-red flames from the porthole on the second deck on the starboard side of the White Shark. The spectacular sight of twenty-four 90/75/60 ​​caliber hexagonal cannons firing one after another was still very shocking. One by one, the shells whistled towards the enemy ship at a distance of seven or eight hundred meters.

The gunners on the White Shark fired at a level close to that in training, with two rounds in three minutes, and at such a high speed, they continuously sent shells into the enemy's hull. It was also difficult to see clearly in the night. Under the command of the gunner, the gunners fired seven or eight salvos in one breath, and then began to fire freely.

During this period, the distance between the White Shark and the two-masted warship on the right was shortened from seven or eight hundred meters to five or six hundred meters, and then back to seven or eight hundred meters. When the White Shark sprayed flames at the two-masted warship, the two-masted warship also bombarded the White Shark without avoiding. The final result was of course that the two-masted warship suffered a loss.

Although the number of guns on the White Shark cannot be compared with that of a traditional three-level sailing battleship, it is more than that of a brig. And the caliber of the guns is also larger. The front and rear turrets of the White Shark are both 120mm hexagonal guns. In addition, there are several small guns installed on the bow and stern sides, and the guns on both sides start from 60mm and go up to the largest 90mm. The hexagonal guns on the opposite brig have a maximum caliber of only 75mm, and the largest guns on both sides are less than 50mm. Otherwise, how could a motor sailing ship like the White Shark be built so large in tonnage? It is comparable to a three-level sailing battleship.

The larger the caliber of the naval gun, the more amazing the destructive power, especially when the two sides are only five, six, seven or eight hundred meters apart in a straight line.

The warships on both sides have eaten a lot of shells. After all, for the hexagonal guns, such a distance can guarantee a certain hit rate. Especially the European brig, the White Shark fired 100 or 200 shells at it. Even if most of them missed, it would still take dozens of shells. And it was a small boat, which meant that the hull was thin and not strong. Now the brig was full of holes, broken planks and groaning wounded. The whole ship was like a young wife who had been ravaged in a bandit's den.

Of course, the White Shark also took some shells. Not only were there five or six holes on the side of the ship, but even the stern was pierced with three large transparent holes.

This is the disadvantage of close combat between warships. Even if a first-class sailing battleship fights a sixth-class sailing battleship, it will be penetrated by iron bullets.

The two ships passed by each other, and the 24 side guns and bow and stern guns of the White Shark fired the last round of salvos, which once again dealt a heavy blow to the brave brig. Then it drew a beautiful arc and was about to go around to the back of the ship. If it succeeded, this cannon would deal a heavy blow to the two-masted warship.

But the Europeans were not given away for nothing, not to mention that the ship had other helpers. The White Shark could only regretfully drill into the distance, so as to pull away and come back again.

At this time, a little fire appeared on the side of the White Shark in the pouring rain. Is this one of the two scattered two-masted warships?

"Haha..." Zhang Bao laughed happily, "Let me send you off too."

Zhang Bao was not satisfied with the previous bombardment, and now another dead ghost came to his door.

The White Shark quickly approached the lights, and Zhang Bao clearly saw the bow of the ship through the falling lightning.

But at this time, the lookout who was tied to the mast in the mast suddenly sounded the alarm, "Unknown lights were found in front..."