I Am Louis XIV

Admiral Sandwich's flagship is the new iron-clad King of the Seas. The former "Sea King" was famous because it was indeed the largest ship and had the most artillery when it was completed and launched in 1637, and the second was because this ship led to the fall of a king, although There are also many reasons, but this ship with a total value of more than 40,000 pounds has indeed caused public dissatisfaction.

After Charles II came to the throne, the giant ship sank in a battle against the French, but Charles II didn't know what kind of mood he had, so he rebuilt the ship and took the lead in ironing it, just to Compared with the original "Sea King", there are a lot of artillery pieces--the ironclad ships of this era are all mounted with iron plates or iron sheets on the wooden hull and deck, and the weight is considerable. The original "Sea King" cannons It weighed 350 tons, and it couldn't even move with the iron armor, so the number of artillery pieces was reduced to eighty.

However, in order to ensure the firepower, the original artillery has been updated several times, and the current 80 artillery pieces are the most powerful firepower today.

But as I complained with Cunningham, even though the steam engines and boilers of the "Sea King" have been adjusted several times, the power they can provide is still not comparable to that of the French, thanks to Louis XIV The rubber that the wizards found in Brazil is rich in Brazil. This place was once a Portuguese colony, but it was taken away by the Netherlands. After the Netherlands fell, it was resold by France to Portugal—at a favorable price.

Portugal and France are now in-laws. Of course, it is impossible to argue with Louis XIV in the rubber trade, and they also want ironclad ships. Sufficient quantities and high-quality rubber quickly flowed into France. Although the United Kingdom also has Sumatra, this is called It is a rubber island, but the British have not yet mastered or stolen the method of vulcanizing rubber. The problem of rubber bonding and melting at high temperatures cannot be solved, so it cannot be directly applied to hot and humid boilers and steam machinery.

Without rubber seals, a large part of the steam would be wasted in vain during transmission and operation, which is why the speed of the ships of the other two countries has never been comparable to that of the French ironclad ships of the same ton.

When the British fleet in Portsmouth arrived at the sea area where the battle started, it was already approaching the sky, and the scorching and dazzling sun seemed to be able to illuminate the black smoke. The fleet poured shells, oh no, they can't be called a mixed fleet now, even if there are small ships that escaped, they dare not re-engage in the battle of the ironclad ships.

Cunningham suspected that the French ships might have had a ton of shells on board.

Fortunately, Portsmouth's fleet finally arrived at this time, and it didn't matter what it was to seize the T-head position at this time. The net set by the French fleet was exactly two columns parallel to the English Channel, and four British ironclad ships The ship is sandwiched between them, like a multi-layered sandwich. The Portsmouth fleet departs from the port and is perpendicular to the place where the French fleet is approaching the Gulf of Seine. Towards.

The French were like beasts with their prey in their mouths, greedy and unwilling to give up, even though Portsmouth's fleet far outnumbered them-their ironclad ships calmly and quickly turned to face the British ships. At that time, Admiral Sandwich's face was gloomy-it was the first time he had fought against the French, and only then did he notice that their ironclad ships were more flexible than their ironclad ships when turning.

It is not without support that the French are so arrogant, because at this time the French fleet entrenched in Brest has also arrived. There are no ironclad ships in this fleet, but there are 20 battleships, second only to the Dunkirk fleet. Like the ironclads, the shells of the Cunningham have considerable power, and the combination of three ironclads (the other two still besieged Cunningham's fleet) unexpectedly also contained the attack of the Portsmouth fleet.

Admiral Sandwich felt irritated for a while, and Charles II knew very well that someone was waiting for his failure, and because he could not bear any failure, even if the war had just begun, his too huge investment would make him restless. I just want good news, but after several encounters, the French fleet seems to have no intention of going to war with the British fleet, and as long as they are willing to evacuate, the British ironclad ships will not be able to catch up with them.

Some people are suggesting that they should send troops to Dunkirk or Calais... Of course, every Englishman wants to go crazy, but Charles II hesitates - he can't leave his Guards , So after repeated weighing, they decided to use the old method first, that is, the privateering license system that started from the time of Elizabeth I, to bite off a few pieces of fat and good meat from this giant whale in France.

Private plundering, or in other words, the profits obtained from public plundering have appeased the court, Congress, and the people, but this appeasement is based on constant victories—let alone a country's baoli machinery directly confronting innocent people , the British would only be proud and talk about it--of course, if they failed, they would cry bitterly and curse the damn French or any enemy for being barbaric, cruel, and ruthless.

With such a premise, Admiral Sandwich must be very careful. He does not want to win any brilliant victories. He is old, his blood has already been coagulated, and his net worth is very rich. His original expectation was to force the French to give up their prey. Well, anyway, it wasn't him who failed in the robbery, but Cunningham, an upstart.

To his disappointment, even when he saw the ironclad warships lined up on the sea horizon, belching black smoke, the French fleet did not show the slightest timidity. The cards were played in a dizzying fashion, and finally Admiral Sandwich's decision was made by a cloud of gold and red fireworks - almost obscuring the daylight.

One of Cunningham's four iron-clad ships exploded, and they were all iron-clad ships. Even though Charles II's scholars and craftsmen finally developed a steam engine that could drive the iron-clad ships under the double oppression of rewards and gallows, they still did not It is not difficult for the French to find the focus of attack by ingeniously changing the cabin where the boiler room and steam engine are located to other places.

Nothing is more frightening than Cunningham. His flagship has opened a fatal gap. He shouted loudly and asked his crew to drive the ship out of the attack range of the French ships as soon as possible, but if they can, they will "We've been stopped!" said his first mate, pointing to a three-masted ship lying ahead of the "Charles I".

"Then hit it!" Cunningham gritted his teeth and said, "We are an ironclad ship with iron rams!" Anyway, the French did the same.

The first mate hesitated for a moment, but gave in before Cunningham's red eyes. He ran out of the cabin and carried out the captain's order. "Fix yourself, prepare to hit!", everyone who heard it immediately searched for stable places around them, such as masts, guardrails or iron anchors, and fixed themselves with readily available ropes and belts.

The Charles I slammed into the three-masted ship responsible for intercepting them, and as Cunningham said, it rammed the wooden three-masted ship head-on, with the black iron ram as the British expected. It directly crashed into the back of the opponent, and the three-masted ship moved nearly a hundred feet across the sea before slowly stopping. Some sailors fell into the sea, and the cabin was flooded with water. knock down.

The French's embarrassment made the British laugh, but they froze after only laughing for a few minutes...the "Charles I"...couldn't be pulled out.

The coal in the boiler is still burning, and the steam is rushing to the cylinder, pushing the piston to one end repeatedly, driving the paddle wheel to fly, and the paddle wheel stirs the sea water, making a deafening sound, piles of foam dissipate and pile up, pile up It dissipated again—but the "Charles I" just didn't move, or in other words, it could only tow the three-masted ship about eighty or ninety feet in length, because the ram was firmly stuck behind After destroying a quarter of the ship's hull and half of its artillery, and taking the lives of nearly a hundred people in the victim's cabin, the "Charles I" now has such a burden that cannot be shaken off.

It stands to reason that such a situation should not have happened. The ramming tactics of ships have lasted for hundreds of years. Craftsmen and captains are more skilled in how to build and use ramming horns than how to deal with artillery. The ramming horns are located at the bottom of the bow, which looks like A spear point, but no shaft behind the point, that is, suddenly swelled into a huge obtuse angle - so how did it get stuck? But Cunningham didn't want to know at all at this time. He asked the workers to increase the kinetic energy-even if the steam engine was destroyed, it didn't matter. The steam engine could be rebuilt and reinstalled, but his flagship must not fall into the hands of the enemy.

"Yes, yes," said the worker, "but sir, the machine may explode."

"... I don't think fate will be so harsh on us," Cunningham said.

As soon as his first officer returned to the deck, he asked Cunningham to leave the "Charles I" and transfer to another ship. Cunningham shook his head and refused, "It seems impossible for me to return to England. , if the goddess of fate is so cruel to me, let me sleep here with the 'Charles I'."

He looked around and touched the short gun on his waist, because the "Charles I" is now equivalent to a ship deeply embedded in the enemy. After a short period of confusion, the French and the British have begun to join During the battle, musket bullets roared in the air, and some crew members drew out short swords or daggers, using cold sharp blades to taste the blood of the enemy.

"However, what is Admiral Sandwich doing?" Cunningham murmured.

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"Prepare for the White Queen," said Admiral Sandwich.

Everyone knows that the symbol of the Tudor dynasty in England is red and white roses. The red rose represents the Lancaster family, and the white rose represents the York family. Henry VII of Lancaster married Elizabeth, the princess of the York family. , in order to obtain the legitimacy of the succession to the throne, so Princess Elizabeth, who was also the queen later, was also known as the Queen of the White Rose.

But the White Queen Admiral Sandwich was talking about was not the White Queen.

—————

"White phosphorus bomb!"

"The British used white phosphorus bombs!"

Admiral Victor, the commander of the Brest fleet, frowned, but it was not surprising that when they were perfecting the plan in the king's small reception hall, Louis XIV mentioned white phosphorus bombs. It was none other than the Sun King himself who first used the white phosphorous bomb. He used it twice, once against the black wizards of Flanders who may have murdered Louis XIII, and once against the Azap infantry of the Ottoman Turks The former is because the black wizards have strange abilities that ordinary people cannot match, and the latter is because they want to break the number advantage of the Ottoman Turks.

Their majesty the king also admitted that the threat and lethality produced by this kind of ammunition against flesh and blood is unprecedented. If something must be said, it may even reverse an inevitable defeat, but if possible, he hopes To be able to seal this ammunition away from the world forever. But if you think about it with your knees, you know that this kind of thing is impossible. Even if Louis XIV is willing to have that compassionate heart, his enemies, Leopold I or Charles II, will not let such a Chance.

Because the second use of white phosphorus bombs was during the Great War, it is no secret that Leopold I was developing white phosphorus bombs, just like he was also building his own ironclad fleet, and Charles II - British coal resources It is rich, but like iron ore, they found enough phosphate ore resources in the African colonies, and although France has colonies in Africa, just like America, in the initial colonial frenzy, France fell behind the countries One step, so that it is still very passive today.

Louis XIV is not too naive, whether it is wizards, alliances with heretics, or white phosphorus bombs, etc., he can use this to gain an advantage, and others will not be dull and continue to maintain a passive posture-like steam engines, Charlie Although the Second King could not steal the secrets of Louis XIV, he could offer high rewards. The smart people are not only in France. It didn’t take long for several engineers to develop a machine similar to the steam engine made by Mr. Papin. After all, steam power can be traced back to the first century AD.

The technical content of the white phosphorus bomb is not comparable to that of the steam engine. It has a low ignition point and it will be natural when it comes into contact with the air, so there is no need to detonate it. The smoke and steam that come out are poisonous. On objects—otherwise, white phosphorus bombs are not very effective against scattered white phosphorus, or in the face of people who have never gathered together.

Obviously, the British went a step further in this regard. The white phosphorous bombs fired by the British fleet from Portsmouth can firmly attach to the mast, sails and decks, and even smooth hull decks can Continuously burning on it, the highest temperature that white phosphorus can achieve cannot melt black iron, but it can carbide the wood under the iron armor plate. When the outer layer of wood loses its original toughness, the armor fixed on it will of course fall off. !