I Am Louis XIV

The tactics of Cunningham's mixed fleet have always been like this-because they are all targeting merchant fleets, there is no need to compete with the enemy for the T-head position as in regular warfare. Generally speaking, the ironclad fleet led by Cunningham To break through the merchant fleet, the main purpose is to separate the armed merchant ship from the merchant ship, just like a wolf separating the shepherd dog from the flock, and then the pirates and the main warships of the Dutch followed suit, attacking the mast or keel of the merchant ship. It loses its mobility, and the small ships of the latter two will spread out in all directions, forming a loose encirclement that few people can escape.

This time they did as before. While Cunningham’s flagship "Charles I" raised the yellow flag, they also accelerated their speed. The merchant ships were separated—because the armed merchant ships had gun muzzles, it was very easy to distinguish—then the ironclad ship turned around and faced the armed merchant ships horizontally, because the shells of ordinary armed merchant ships could not penetrate the iron armor at all, they were like an insurmountable barrier generally.

If the pirates and the Dutch were over quickly enough, they would gather around and tighten the net, and even armed merchant ships would surrender at this time.

They robbed the cargo, and then, depending on the situation, took the ship as their own or scuttled it on the spot.

Even if he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, Cunningham knew that the cabin of the boiler room must have been as hot as a furnace. The workers were shoveling coal into the open furnace like crazy, the flames were burning, and the snow-white steam rushed into the cylinder, push the piston, the crankshaft connected to the piston drives the connecting rod, and the flywheel attached to the connecting rod rotates crazily. The lower paddles went from standing still to rising slowly, and then fell heavily, but it seemed like in an instant—you could only feel the shock of the hull, as if the previous sacrifice had finally won the mercy of the gods, immeasurable The mighty force lifted the ship from the sea, and the invisible wings led it to break through the sea, air and clouds.

No matter how many times, Cunningham will not get used to and loathe this feeling, he shouted loudly, thank the king! Thank God!

He watched with pleasure as the Charles I cut through the long fleet of merchant ships like a hot knife through butter, perhaps as little as five feet from the nearest armed merchant ship! The two sailors could hold each other with outstretched hands over the side of the boat, and their eyes met until the turbulent water formed a fleeting white wall between them.

In the gap cut by the "Charles I", the merchant ship hastily turned to avoid it, leaving the Charles I with two armed merchant ships, which were also Calais ships, and the sailors ran hurriedly on the deck, discarding Cargo, lower or raise the sail, open the muzzle... The helmsman used all his strength to grasp the rudder, turn it to one side, and try to fire the cannon before the Charles I turned into the transverse position. Among the sail drives, the former must have the advantage in steering-but Cunningham didn't care about their dying struggles, he even found it funny.

Sure enough, even if the two armed merchant ships fired, their shells—stone bullets and solid bullets—either bounced off the armor plate or left only a few dents and scratches, except when the stone bullets fell apart. Aside from the minor injuries of some cowards and unlucky ones, whether it is a bar bomb that looks like a dumbbell, an expansion bomb that looks like a vernier, or a chain bomb that is similar to a meteor hammer, it is simply a bunch of star-shaped bullets with chains... ...Decades ago, they might not have been able to threaten a first-class battleship with thick ships like the "Charles I", and now there is no hope at all. Cunningham and his soldiers even looked at them with great interest After working in vain for a long time, he finally fired when he wanted to escape.

The guns were rumbling, but to Cunningham's regret, the first shelling failed to achieve any effect, but this is not surprising, except that the artillery still lacks accuracy at this time, the lethality of the shells It's not as strong as people think. Don't look at the sea battles of this era filled with smoke and flames. It seems extremely tragic. The probability of a ship being sunk is still very low-these shells are mainly used to hit the enemy's keel and mast. Make it incapacitated, and then use the springboard to fight or clean the deck with grape bullets at close range. Sometimes it is used to penetrate the opponent's cabin, flood the ship, or luckily hit the opponent's gunpowder warehouse directly.

Like the steam ironclad ship, there is another fatal place, that is the boiler room, but since it is known to be the key point, the iron armor there is of course thicker than other places. The shells of an armed merchant ship, which could not even penetrate the armor of other places, certainly could not threaten the boiler rooms of the "Charles I".

"Catch up!" Cunningham ordered after the second wave of bombardment. The two armed merchant ships seemed to have abandoned their duties and began to escape with so much concentration that the second wave of bombardment by the "Charles I" failed. The results were achieved, and the "Charles I" was chasing after them—an armed merchant ship was also a merchant ship, and those wooden boxes thrown into the sea by them had been picked up, and they were indeed filled with snow-white wool. good stuff.

When Cunningham raised the binoculars again, he felt a burst of golden light dazzling. It turned out that they were turning from west to east. The sun had jumped out of the sea at this time, and the sea was full of golden light. The countless light spots refracted by the waves made people unable to open their eyes , He subconsciously squinted his eyes, and then reached out to wipe away the tears that flowed down, "How many knots do we have now?" He asked the attendants beside him.

"Six...no, seven, sir!"

Seventh day! Cunningham's heart was like his Charles I, jumping up and down suddenly, he raised his head viciously, without taking out his handkerchief, he knew that they were sailing against the wind now, what kind of sailboat can sail against the wind Running seven knots? He suddenly realized this problem, and quickly raised the binoculars. To his delight, the two armed merchant ships had indeed drawn closer to them—is it the speed limit? No! It is they who are slowing down, turning, and fighting for the T-head position!

That's not even quite true, since the Charles I wasn't close enough to them for the former to turn...and it was a lone one-two. In the early naval battles, the formation could only be maintained at the beginning, and it would almost always be reduced to fighting against each other in the end. Even the most skilled generals could not arrange chess pieces on the turbulent sea——Charles I is now facing this situation. In such an embarrassing situation, all ships acquiesced that the two armed ships were his prey, and no one tried to get involved or do it for him.

Wait, is this really just an ordinary armed merchant ship? Cunningham has not forgotten the previous doubts. He looked through the binoculars and found that the previous shelling was not ineffective, but, just like the shells of the two armed merchant ships failed to penetrate the armor of the Charles I, "Charlie The shells of the "I" only smashed the wooden planks on their bodies... Even armed merchant ships shouldn't be smashed so easily - at this time Cunningham was able to see clearly enough, clearly See the gap in the opponent's hull - under the thin broken wood is a dark iron plate!

This is not an armed merchant ship, but an out-and-out steam ironclad ship!

After losing the need for camouflage, the soldiers on the deck removed the last layer of veil, and after removing the pile of wooden boxes, the chunky chimney was exposed. It is particularly conspicuous in the morning light.

"Ironclad, it's a French ironclad!" A soldier couldn't help shouting.

"Thanks, sir," Cunningham said darkly, "I think we all saw that." He was annoyed at being duped by the French, but when it came to panic and fear, it wasn't. This wasn't the Battle of Dunkirk. It's time, they are both ironclad ships with similar tonnage, whether it's the French artillery or the ram, don't expect him to retreat without a fight.

Ironclads disguised as armed merchant ships fired.

This time it wasn't stone bullets, and those fancy and useless solid bullets—it was real cannonballs.

———————

When Cunningham was gearing up for a fierce battle with the despicable French, the pirate Gott's ship had already chased the merchant ship and rushed into the Bay of Saint-Malo below the entrance of the strait.

Speaking of St. Malo Bay, it has always had an indissoluble bond with pirates. When pirates were most rampant, they even once entrenched here and became the tyrant here, but he was soon expelled. The city of St. Malo Therefore, a strong and tall city wall was built to resist the re-invasion of pirates. However, because of its geographical advantages, Saint-Malo Bay is often regarded by pirates as a wonderful place that can be used as a safe haven and a black market.

Gott probably knows every corner of the Bay of Saint-Malo, every reef, every grain of sand perhaps better than these businessmen? He only stared at the few Calais ships that were humpbacked because they were full of cargo, and threw those tricky armed merchant ships to the English and Dutch, only chasing and biting the fattest prey wholeheartedly. After chasing into the waters between Jersey and the Mankiye Islands, from here you can already see the sacred Mount Saint-Michel and the towering church on the top of the mountain.

At this time, the Calais ships seemed to have no way to retreat. They stopped slowly, with their backs against the city of Saint-Malo, facing Gott's ship.

Gott's three-masted ship was called the "Lucky" - a decent name for a pirate ship, but he looked at the "Charles I" on the left, and at the Dutchman Van Basten's "William the Silent" on the right He was content with the HMS Gort I, which was at least a less... depressing name anyway, but if he could get an ironclad from the English he would call it the Gort I.

This fruit was right in front of his eyes, within easy reach.

At this moment, the merchant ship in front of him suddenly raised a red flag. Just when Gort was confused when the red flag was also used to signal surrender or negotiation, the sheep took off its sheepskin and showed a sharp look. Fangs——The guard plates on Calais' body were suddenly opened piece by piece, revealing the hidden muzzle below, aiming at the "Lucky" and the pirate ships clustered around it.

Except for the "Lucky", the pirate ships here are all just two-masted ships with less than two feet of hull armor. As a result, twenty-four pounders are enough to penetrate them, let alone those who are eager to board the ship. The pirates are getting too close, and besides, damn it! The grape bomb machines on these Calais ships were able to hit the range of ordinary shells. After the sound of the guns, there was a burst of wailing. The deck was in a mess, with splashed wood chips, broken masts and blood stains everywhere.

Gott immediately ordered to retreat, and he didn't care about other ships. Fortunately, although his "Lucky" was not driven by steam and sails, it was a galley. At the bottom of the cabin, three hundred A strong black slave, the crack of the pirate's whip, they began to paddle furiously. Gott put the scattered sloops and flute boats between him and the Calais to stop their pursuit-these small boats were temporarily converted into arson boats by his order-because they were piled up with shovels that had been scooped up from the sea before. Wool, he told the crew to pour over it with kerosene and set it on fire.

The "Lucky" retreated slowly, and there was a blazing wall of fire between the Calais and the Calais, which had removed its camouflage.

Seeing that they would be able to withdraw from the Bay of St. Malo, suddenly, with a long scream that resounded through the sky and the sea, an ironclad ship and two ships sailed out from behind the high cliffs of Jersey piercing into the air. First-class battleships, they can be said to occupy the T-head position calmly, that is to say, they are lying between Cape Treguier and the Mankiye Islands, blocking the only exit without morality, "good luck "The frail stern of the ship is facing the muzzle of several rows of black holes.

A red flag was slowly hoisted on the mast of the ironclad ship.

With the roar of the cannons, the "Lucky" was not so unexpectedly one of the few ships sunk by the shells - it and its companions were almost locked in a cage, being flanked by front and back, and the ironclad ship that had been waiting for a long time went to It had all its cannonballs poured upon it, and when the incendiary ship was burnt out, it was joined in the ravages by camouflaged and armed merchantmen, and pirate ships, from the smallest flute ship to the Good Luck, finally became Become a plank floating on the sea.

Among the pirates, there were also lucky ones who escaped by chance. They hugged wooden barrels or ship planks, or simply relied on their water skills, and swam desperately to the shore.

"How to deal with these people?" asked the first mate.

"These are pirates," said his captain, "and they rob and kill as soon as they land."

"I see, sir," said the first mate, and before long the captain heard gunshots and wailing, and perhaps a curse or two, but soon the place returned to calm.

"Okay," said the young captain Jean Barr while rubbing his ears and neck, "Then we'll look at Joseph and the Marquis de Seigneille."