Heavenly Dao Formula

The Angela followed closely behind, spraying out the first round of flames to the southeast.

These gunners are undoubtedly the elite of the empire, not only well-trained, but also highly skilled. In the first round of shooting, the shells were evenly scattered on the surrounding area of ​​the ice ship.

For a time, many water jets shot up into the sky, like a forest of sea water erected on the surface of the ocean.

The ice ship did not slow down at all, and continued to approach the fleet after passing through the water mist.

Captain Flynn was the first to spot a serious problem.

That is, the opponent is indeed a bit ridiculously fast.

Based on his experience, he estimated that the enemy's speed is around fifteen or sixteen knots, which is undoubtedly an astonishing figure—and the full speed of imperial warships will not exceed ten knots even with half sail and smooth wind, and the average speed is usually three to four quarters. He has never tried the extreme speed with full sail on a windy day. One is that it is unnecessary, and the other is that too high a speed will damage the hull structure. But the opponent has no such concerns at all. The slender and smooth hull is prepared for high speed. At the same time, the upper structure also saves the mast and canvas, which makes the center of gravity sink a step further. Even in windy conditions, the Invincible is absolutely Can't run away from the opponent.

The high speed brings great dexterity, and the opponent's hull looks smaller than the pirate ship, so the artillery hit has become a big problem.

If the Jinxia people intend to open formation against the imperial fleet, then Ferlin is confident that he will win with his first-class gunners, but once the opponent does not intend to stop, the hit rate can only be left to chance. For example, after the first round of shooting, the gunner should fine-tune the pitch angle of the muzzle according to the landing point, but during this time, the ice ship has already passed the landing point area and zoomed in to a new distance, so the gunner can only adjust the artillery intuitively again aim at.

"Reload the 32-pound guns on the bottom floor with shotguns, wait for the target to come within a hundred yards before firing!" Filin shouted towards the megaphone.

"What exactly are they trying to do?" Tural put down the lookout glass - now he could clearly see the ice ships approaching with the naked eye. Only now did he discover that not only did these ships have no sails, but they didn't even have muzzles and decks. The head presents a smooth spinning cone shape, and the arc-shaped ice surface extends from the head to the stern. The whole has an indescribable beauty of simplicity.

Feilin suddenly thought of a possibility, and couldn't help frowning, "The ship isn't full of kerosene and explosives, is it?"

"Hmm...it seems like the method mainlanders would adopt." The Lord pondered, "It's just that they are doomed to be disappointed."

There are two mages accompanying the flagship, one is specialized in evocation, the other is specialized in protection. The flame restraint force field of the latter can greatly weaken the effects of burning and high-heat airflow impact caused by the explosion. If the spell is applied to the ice On the ship, the opponent's explosion will only shatter him to pieces.

At this time, the fastest-loading 12-pounder gun had fired its third round of shelling, and with the unremitting efforts of the gunner, good luck finally came——

In this round of free fire, at least four shells landed on the ice ship!

Tural saw with his own eyes an iron ball hit the enemy ship's face.

However, the scene of the ice ship breaking apart did not appear, only the shells were directly bounced off and rolled into the sea water.

how come?

That's a real twelve-pounder gun!

Within this distance, even the oak boards on the side of the Invincible itself could not block the direct hit of this gun.

Shouldn't things like ice cubes shatter when you hit them?

The other hit shells didn't seem to have any effect, not to mention opening a hole in the opponent's ship, leaving a shallow white mark at most.

Tu La suddenly had a bad feeling.

He quickly ordered to the captain, "Quickly replace the thirty-two-pound gun with conventional shells! This thing is harder than imagined!"

This is indeed the case. Within a hundred yards, the twenty-four-pound guns on the middle deck scored a few hits, but all of them bounced off. The conical head of the enemy ship seemed to have been given magical power. Ordinary, it is obviously frozen by ice, but it has a strong protective ability!

Only the heavy projectiles fired by the 32-pound cannon can crack a crack on the ice ship. However, the closer the opponent is, the more frequently the angle of fire is adjusted. There is no time to fire a few times, let alone a lucky hit. .

This also means that they don't need to be stuffed with kerosene and explosives at all, and they can open a big hole on the Invincible with just a strong head——

Use the most original collision method!

The distance of a hundred yards is only a blink of an eye, and the mage has already propped up a restraining force field, but it is meaningless to the ice ship traveling at high speed. The Invincible was finally fully aligned at this moment, the firepower density reached the highest level, and the roar of artillery fire continued, like a storm of flames and thick smoke!

It's just that the rumble of cannons that symbolized victory in the past is now a desperate struggle.

The straightened hull is equivalent to exposing the entire side of the ship to the opponent.

"Watch out for impact!"

The lookout issued a hissing warning.

Then a loud noise covered up all the noise!

The Invincible shook violently, and the towering mainmast made a tooth-piercing crack, as if it would break at any moment. Under the impact, everyone on the deck fell to the ground—except Tural.

He stepped over the captain who was thrown to pieces, strode to the side of the ship and looked down, only to see that the front half of an ice ship had penetrated into the hull of the Invincible, and at the same time, the surrounding sea water was also freezing rapidly. , In just a few breaths of time, a layer of pure white ice crystals has formed on the place where it was hit.

...

Many people will ignore a common sense, that is, "ice" is actually a very solid substance.

Even the living dead themselves are rarely aware of this.

In the eyes of the vast majority of people, ice is clean and transparent, fragile and fragile, and it will shatter when thrown from the ground. Therefore, when Xia Fan proposed this strategy, the Jinxia executives present at the meeting showed incredulous expressions.

Only Xia Fan knew how convenient ice itself was as a construction material—especially with the assistance of the living dead. The hardness of ice is closely related to the temperature. At minus ten degrees, its Mohs hardness is about two to three, which is equivalent to fluorite or copper; and at minus fifty degrees, the hardness of ice can reach six. Level, surpassing iron, comparable to steel, not to mention the wood used for the main body of the sailing battleship.

The disadvantage of high hardness is low toughness, and brittleness is actually a problem caused by extremely low deformability, but this can be solved by technical means. For example, during crystallization, "skeleton" is placed in advance to improve toughness. These skeletons are usually flexible materials. Whether it is the vines produced by Shuzhou or the common bamboo chips in the local area, they can all have an excellent strengthening effect-this is also It is exactly the same as the idea of ​​implanting steel bars in concrete to make reinforced concrete have both strength and toughness.

At the same time, the density of ice is low, and the weight of the same volume is relatively light, which makes the hull of the ship more than ten centimeters thick. Coupled with the concept of inclined armor, an ice ship with almost no vertical facing the enemy is basically immune to spherical shells.

The biggest advantage of using ice to build a ship is not how indestructible it is, but its extremely high engineering feasibility. If the temporary iron and steel smelting, forging of the keel, and waiting for the ship to come out, it will be several months later. However, the hull of the ice ship was only within the thought of Qianyan and the others—in a single night, Qianyan could condense several hulls, and even had enough energy to test which type of ship was more suitable for high-speed driving.

No matter how good the idea is, it is useless if it cannot be implemented. The ice ship is precisely the easiest choice for Jinxia City to piece together a navy under the existing technology.

Even if it's just a one-off.