I Am Louis XIV

Now that he knew it was a trap, no matter how sweet the bait was, it could not affect Van Basten's decision. He ordered all the ships to leave the merchant ships immediately and launch a counterattack. The kind that has it all.

But they came easily, how could the hunter easily allow them to escape the snare? Just like what the pirate Gott encountered, these merchant ships tore off their friendly masks, revealed the small cannons hidden in the cargo, and lifted the camouflage on the gun ports on the side of the ship, "These despicable French!" Fan Ba Stern heard his watchman—the officer in charge of the gunners—cry, and he thought so, but the worst problem arose. Not enough manpower.

When we read the materials at that time, we will see a very interesting statistic, that is, one artillery requires twelve people.

This is really puzzling, but if you look at it carefully, you will know that among the twelve people, only two people actually fired the artillery, one filled it and one fired it. What about the other ten people? It is to return the artillery to its original position. Unlike the artillery on land, the artillery in the cabin needs enough distance to ensure that it can relieve the recoil after firing, because in a ship, it is absolutely impossible to let the recoil of the artillery pour on the deck-that Will cause the deck to crack.

So before the invention of "bucket barrels" and other stabilization devices, the gun compartments would have a long distance for the guns to slide back to counteract the recoil, and then, to continue firing, someone would have to push them Back to the original place, and such a heavy artillery, there are not a dozen people who don't want to push it back to its original position.

However, the load of the ship will also be limited to the number of crew members. No matter how generous the captain is, it is impossible to support a group of sailors who push the artillery. There were not many Dutch crew members on the ship, and less than one-tenth of the crew members who boarded the merchant ship were able to escape.

They could only struggle to get off the springboard and drive away the ship, but it was completely impossible to launch a counterattack as Van Basten expected!

Van Basten commanded "William the Silent" to fight those new armed merchant ships, while raising the agreed red and white rose flag, which represented that they needed the support of the British, but the support was delayed, "They came No more, sir, look!" The first mate hurriedly said, "Look, those armed merchant ships... are also ironclad ships!"

What is ironic is that the three iron-clad ships that were originally invincible, after facing the same iron-clad ship, actually raised the red, white and blue tricolor flag - the flag of the Orange family, asking for help from the Dutch.

It seems that there is only one way left for Van Basten, no, it is not surrender, it is a breakout, he ordered to release all the arson ships - no need to approach the enemy's ships, just push in that direction, he and the "silencer" After the "William" and several other ships with less serious losses remained, the other ships quickly retreated to the Atlantic Ocean.

"Not to Portsmouth?" The first mate knew that he should not question the captain's decision, but obviously, Portsmouth is the closest and most stable safe haven - it is the base and port of the Royal Navy, as well as the fleet stationed there.

"To the Atlantic." Van Basten resolutely said.

His decision was correct, because in less than an hour, Jean Bart's ironclad ship and two first-class battleships sailed from the Bay of Saint-Malo and joined the ranks of killings. Only one of the Dutch ships finally escaped, The remaining six ships were all intercepted in England (La Manche Strait). One of them exploded because it was hit by the gunpowder compartment, and eventually sank. Van Basten was forced to surrender. He and the other five ships The captains of the French were "invited" to the ironclads of the French.

Being so close to the iron-clad ship of his dreams, but under such circumstances, Van Basten couldn't help feeling mixed feelings. They were temporarily placed in the cabin of the poop, from here they could see the sky, the sea and the British iron-clad ship ——After finishing the battle with the Dutch, Jean Bart threw himself into the siege of the British without hesitation.

"I hope Joseph won't be too angry." Jean Barr murmured.

———————

Joseph Bourbon, a young man who may surpass his father in the future and get all his grandfather's inheritance (including the king's trust and connections), when he was studying at the military academy, he studied under the Duke of Luxembourg, and people thought he would learn from the king's land. He went to the army to start his military career, but he never thought that the first battle of his life would be fought on the sea.

This is also because the king does not have enough generals at sea. Joseph's grandfather, the Duke of Vendome, was the admiral of France. Although his father was also, that gentleman had no outstanding achievements. It was the gray-haired Duke of Vendome who defeated the French in 1955. After a Spanish fleet, the 55-year-old Spanish fleet can't be said to be in full swing, at least it still has a glimmer of glory. It can achieve such feats, and it's no wonder that Bishop Richelieu finally reached a settlement with this traitor.

Under the influence of the Duke of Vendôme, the young Joseph is actually not so unfamiliar with naval battles. When he quelled those small rebellions for the Sun King, he was also tempered with Jean Barr, but this time ——It is impossible to say that you are not nervous: "I really don't know how His Majesty the King would approve of this..." He took a deep breath: "Absurd idea."

After all, he also has 120,000 points of enthusiasm and expectation. If they win this battle, then the necrosis of the British bone can prevent it from recurring for fifty or even a hundred years. , but if not... This war of succession to the throne may be another Hundred Years' War.

When His Majesty chatted with them, he mentioned that if possible, he hoped to end this war as soon as possible. War is never a beautiful thing, even if it is very profitable, it can torture a country or multiple countries to the brink of death during the period, the sooner the victory is achieved and the result is the most powerful for the entire Europa - perhaps this is The reason why His Majesty passed this proposal.

What Jean Bart was worried about was whether Joseph on the ironclad ship facing the "Charles I" would be angry because he meddled in his combat area. To be honest, no. After all, what they are seeking now is not simply to destroy this mixed fleet, but to—

to drive them away.

Cunningham lost his former composure.

Why are Charles II and Leopold I crazy, even if they are in debt, they have to build ironclad ships? There is only one reason. In the face of increasingly powerful artillery, wooden ships, whether they are third-tier, second-tier or first-tier battleships, have increasingly lost their original advantages. Only ships covered with iron armor The ship was able to withstand the bombardment of artillery. His initial confidence also came from this. After all, the "Charles I" was also a behemoth covered with six-inch iron plates. If it is not exhausted and the barrel does not burst.

But the shells of the French are charged shells.

Since gunpowder and cannonballs have been around there have been attempts to fuse the two but there is only one problem and that is the detonation of the gunpowder we can see in the movie how the gunner is holding the fuse and hissing A round cannonball, stuff it into the barrel, and then fire it, but there is a problem with this kind of cannonball, that is, the problem of premature explosion or delayed explosion occurs from time to time.

An early explosion will destroy the artillery and gunners, and a delayed explosion, especially at sea, is equivalent to throwing a solid stone bomb, but I don't know how the French did it. They successfully solved the problem of the "flame tube", It can be guessed that those "fuses" exploded by the friction of the collision, or some other means, because there were missed shells, and they did not explode in the air.

The effectiveness of charged shells and solid shells is completely different. The armor hit by the former will be deformed and lifted like fish scales. If it is bombarded intensively, the wooden board below will even be exposed, while the latter is just a few pits . The French ironclads thus posed a much greater threat than the Charles I.

After suffering several heavy blows in a row, especially after a piece of armor plate outside the boiler room suddenly fell off, "Let's go to Portsmouth!" Cunningham said through gritted teeth.

Although most of Portsmouth's fleet is also charged with shells, it is a fleet of twelve ironclads together with them. The French have only five ironclads, and they have the advantage.

If you look down from the sky to the sea, you can see a scene like a group of killer whales hunting fish. After leaving the Dutch and pirates behind, the four ironclad ships of the British sailed towards the Isle of Wight in a panic. The iron-clad ships and the fleet followed closely behind. At that time, a seemingly loose but tight encirclement—the French iron-clad ships had the advantage in speed as Cunningham said. They controlled the situation steadily. When the mouth was about twenty nautical miles away, the net was tightened again, and Cunningham's fleet was tightly surrounded again.

Cunningham had already sent a speedboat to the port of Portsmouth to seek assistance. At this time, the chief of the port of Portsmouth was Admiral Sandwich, the British admiral. The Duke of York is on good terms and is not liked by Charles II. If it hadn't been for the war with the French, he might have continued to retire in the country - if you ask him, he would rather retire. It is uncomfortable to be caught between the duke and the king , and he is sixty-five years old this year, he should be sitting by the river fishing in a daze of age.

When the waiter came running out of breath, the old gentleman was about to have a late breakfast. He lost his appetite when he heard about this. The attendants immediately came up to help him change into formal clothes. During this short period of time, the admiral kept staring at the chart on the wall, even though Cunningham's emissary kept chattering, he didn't seem to hear it.

When he left the room, he said to the deputy beside him: "Let all the ships be equipped with the 'White Queen'."

———————

Cunningham already felt something was wrong when he was about to see Portsmouth. But at that time, he didn't know what to do, so he could only hide his uneasiness with anger—what on earth were they going to do? Have you achieved your... purpose? He wanted to drive the ship to escape, or hit the French ship, but their maneuverability was not comparable to that of the French ship. After several conflicts, they were farther away from Portsmouth, and this At that moment, black smoke rose from the port, and his rescuers came.

Cunningham was not at all at ease.

The previous turmoil reappeared in him, and he stood in the forecastle, looking at the French who surrounded them like a cat playing with a mouse. If he had already had advanced detection equipment in this era, he could see that his four ironclad ships were being towed to the south side of the strait, that is, the part close to French territorial waters. With human eyes, all he knew was that they were moving away from the shore.

But for the French fleet, this is normal. They made a gesture and increased their firepower, as if they wanted to capture or sink the four ironclad ships before the arrival of the Portsmouth fleet.

Admiral Sandwich saw through the French conspiracy very sharply, "a trap, a trap." He said, but he still had to walk into this trap as they wished, because these were four ironclad ships, It is also one-sixth of the ironclad fleet of the British Navy. If they are lost, Charles II will definitely send him to the guillotine, and his second son who is also in the army and the eldest son in the parliament will be affected by this .

Since Charles II had an heir, his temper has become more and more eccentric, and because of the previous big clean-up, as well as the Guards and Standing Army he personally formed, he was barely able to sit on that throne—— However, his supporters have begun to outnumber his opponents, so it is not so strange that the king can't hold a grain of sand in his eyes... But Admiral Sandwich, as an elder, he must say, Charlie The Second might have been a good king, provided he was not too eager to compete with Louis XIV of France.

Charles II's heart knot may have existed before Louis XIV was in power, but when he was in exile for several years, Louis XIV was like a puppet, and he could barely bear it, but once Louis XIV took power, Just like a lion with wings, it flew straight to the untouchable high sky, so that everyone had to look up-this made Charles II feel a little uncomfortable. Although they were different in age, people mentioned When it comes to kings, Leopold I, Louis XIV and Charles II are often discussed together.

He lowered his head and coughed twice. The admiral may never be able to get used to the strong and pungent smell from the chimney of the iron-clad steamship, even the sea breeze cannot blow them away.