King of German Mercenaries

Marin thought very well, but in this era, even the Europeans themselves who began to equip artillery on warships were not very sure about the effect of artillery.

Strictly speaking, the first large-scale use of artillery by the Europeans in naval warfare was the Battle of Diu fought by the Portuguese in India. Before this, Venetians and Genoese had fought many times in the Mediterranean, but mostly in the old mode of landing.

In the Battle of Diu, the Portuguese fleet relied on the superiority of artillery, and at a certain distance, used heavy artillery to destroy enemy ships. When the enemy ships are approaching, use muskets to block the enemy sailors from jumping into the boat. Then, they also threw grenades to kill enemy ships...

"Grenade... oops, how could I forget this..." Marin patted his head, regretful.

When two ships approach, one throws a grenade at the other ship, which is absolutely enough to kill. Although it is said that the grenades of this era still use black gunpowder with little power. However, the explosion of the grenade will also produce a burning effect. The burning effect, for wooden boats, is very deadly. Moreover, even if the explosive power of the grenade loaded with black powder is not strong enough to destroy the enemy wooden ship, it can kill and wound the sailors on the enemy deck.

As the ships from both sides approached, Marin had no time to think about it. Although Captain Kidd has extensive sailing experience, he is completely an amateur when it comes to using artillery naval warfare. Because, remember what the captain had learned, it was just a battle. Today, when the number and quality of fighters are at a disadvantage, it is absolutely courting death to fight with an opponent. Therefore, Marin simply took over the command and began to use his "on paper" ability to direct this naval battle...

Under the shouts of Marin, the two ships lined up and aimed their guns at the four pirate ships approaching...

Marin is actually very strange, why there is such a large-scale pirate group in the sea of ​​Morocco. You must know that in the era when the big sailing was not yet prosperous, it was definitely a large-scale pirate organization with enough 4 pirate ships and 200 pirates.

In this era, the main market for pirates was actually on the Mediterranean Sea. Because the shipping trade on the Mediterranean is relatively developed. As for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, although shipping is also very developed, there are two maritime hegemons here—Denmark and the Hanseatic League. Under the suppression of the two hegemons, there are fewer pirates. The Mediterranean Sea is too big, and although Venice is strong, it does not have the ability to control such a large Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, in the Mediterranean, pirates are still rampant.

It's just that, before the opening of the Indian route, pirates in the Atlantic had no oil or water at all...

What Marin didn't know was that these pirates were actually a group of pirates officially supported by Morocco. The purpose of their existence is to block the Spanish and Portuguese.

Because two countries, Spain and Portugal, built strongholds on the coast of Morocco, engaged in colonization, and eroded the territory of Morocco. In retaliation, the Moroccans specially recruited a group of murderous Moorish pirates. With the secret funding of the Moroccan royal family, they cruised in the Atlantic Ocean west of Morocco to intercept Spain from going to the Canary Islands, or Portugal going to the West African coast to engage in trade and colonization. of merchant ships.

Unfortunately, Marin's two ships this time were targeted by four pirate ships. The pirates believed that such two large ships must be merchant ships, and the profits must be huge. Therefore, these ferocious pirates obviously regarded Marin's two ships as two fat sheep...

Seeing that the two sides were getting closer and closer, at a distance of 1,000 meters, Marin, who couldn't hold his breath, ordered to start firing...

The ship's 12-pound cast-iron gun, although with a range of over 1,000 meters. However, shooting at a distance of 1000 meters, the hit rate is really impressive... Plus, half of the gunners on the ship are apprentices...

So, one by one iron balls, in front of or behind the pirate ship, smashed one after another with splashes...

The pirates were startled by the roar of the artillery on the two ships of Marin.

However, seeing the unreliable hit rate of the Marin fleet's artillery, I felt relieved and moved on.

In fact, Marin ordered the firing ahead of time, not entirely out of nervousness. Instead, the gunners also have to find their feelings first. The previous rounds of shelling actually had the meaning of school shooting.

However, neither new gunners nor veteran gunners are proficient in how to fire a gun on a warship. For example, the gunners who used to serve in the Tholencher and Oddschild forts were very unaccustomed to the situation where the ship swayed laterally and left and right. Because the deck is swaying laterally, it will seriously affect the shooting accuracy.

Before, when controlling the coastal defense artillery, even at a distance of 1,000 meters, they had a good chance of hitting the enemy's warship. Can fire on the ship, at a distance of 1000 meters, even these old gunners are not accurate at all.

"Turn the rudder, want to sail southeast, and try to be perpendicular to the enemy fleet! Be careful to keep your distance, don't get stuck by the enemy, let's test artillery, and don't fight overboard!" Marin shouted from the poop.

The sailors on the ship were greatly relieved when they heard that they would not fight with the pirates. These sailors, who have no martial arts skills, are most afraid of melee combat with those pirates who are smooth with knives.

And Marin soon joined the gunners to figure out how to hit more accurately. Of course, in order to prevent the artillery from blowing up, Marin kept shouting beside the gunner:

"After firing the gun, pay attention to cooling the barrel with a wet sponge to extinguish the sparks!" If sparks remain in the barrel, the gunner is prone to accidents, killing or injuring himself when the gunner reloads the next time. The wet sponge can not only extinguish the residual sparks in the barrel, but also cool the barrel to prevent the barrel from overheating and causing the chamber to explode. This point was specially mentioned by Marin in his previous life when watching BTV's translation of Laomei's military program.

After the first shot is fired, the naval gun will slide backwards due to recoil. The base of the naval gun is not the same as that of the land gun. The land gun is on two wheels with a stand at the back. And naval guns generally have four wheels, and the shape of the wheels is also very special - not round, but hexagonal or octagonal. Such wheels have a lot of friction and are difficult to roll. But once it rolls up, the unloading force is also great. Moreover, behind the four-wheeled gun cart, a rope was attached before the gun was fired. When the artillery retreats due to recoil, it not only has to overcome the resistance of the four wheels that are not round enough, but also the resistance of the rope. Generally, the gun wagon will break the rope. However, in the process of breaking the rope, the recoil of the artillery was also removed a lot. In this way, the retreat distance of the four-wheeled gun vehicle becomes limited, and the reset of the gun is easier.

After the first shot was fired, the gunners began to work together. First, the first person took the wooden stick of the wet sponge and stirred it in the barrel to extinguish the sparks and cool the barrel. Then, the second person still swipes the tail with a damp sponge. Then, after a third person cleaned the barrel of the gun with a dry sponge, the charge began. After that, the iron ball was put into the gun barrel, compacted, and a seal was installed on the fire hole... Finally, of course, everyone in the artillery team worked together to push the artillery cart back to its original position.

The naval guns on the gun carts have almost no elevation angle, and they are all laid ahead and flat, striving to hit the enemy ship on the horizontal line. However, because the ship swayed sideways frequently, it was very difficult to aim the shot.

After entering the range of 500 meters, the first few rounds of shelling were still not accurate, and the iron balls fell into the sea...

In fact, the firing of naval guns requires a lot of skill. The guns should not fire when the ship is rocking from side to side. Because, if the swaying artillery can hit the enemy ship, it will really step on the dog SHI.

Experienced gunners generally pay attention to the lateral sway of the ship under their feet. For example, the best time to fire is when the boat is just back in a horizontal position. From this angle, the probability of being hit by the artillery is the greatest.

However, even if you know this principle, it is difficult to control the timing of firing. Because, even if you master the time law of the ship's shaking, it is not enough. In addition, the gunner also needs to master the burning time of the seal. The best thing is that the ship just swayed to a horizontal position at the moment when the letter was burned...

But in fact, even if these two points are achieved, it may not be accurate. Because, a ship does not necessarily have only one artillery. If other artillery fires first, the recoil caused by it will change the time for the ship to shake. The timing that the gunner had calculated before may turn out to be wrong.

Therefore, in naval battles, in the era of smoothbore guns, the probability of naval guns hitting enemy ships is very low. Even at a close range of 500 meters, it is difficult for an average gunner to achieve a 10% hit rate. If you want a higher hit rate, then learn from Nelson, boldly lean against the enemy ship, lean against each other...

However, doing so is dangerous. Not even with well-trained sailors. For example, Nelson himself, accidentally hiccupped...

Of course Marin was not willing to take this risk, because his men were still inexperienced, and many sailors lacked courage. So, he chose to fight with the enemy, and then bet on the hit rate of the artillery...