Chapter 213: Killing the King (X)

The Zheng family's Fuchuan fleet had initially been sailing from north to south.

After spotting the approaching enemy, the Fuchuan promptly changed course and fled toward the mainland to the west. When the Special Task Fleet closed in at an unheard-of speed, Zheng Zhilong, realizing escape was impossible, reformed his entire formation back into a north-to-south charging line.

In this season of late June, sailing north to south came at a price: headwinds.

Whether during the earlier charge or the current scattered flight, the Fuchuan were in fact operating under unfavorable wind conditions.

But none of that mattered now. With heavy casualties and their speed reduced by flooding, the Fuchuan fleet now resembled an outstretched hand, splitting into two groups as they tried to round Luci and flee for their lives.

The Special Task Fleet, already rounding to their rear flank and firing at full force, promptly detected the enemy's attempt to scatter and escape. By this point, if the wolf pack didn't pounce and tear in fiercely, they'd lose all reputation.

And so, the three destroyers immediately assigned tasks via Walkie-Talkie: the destroyer with hull number 303, Xingang Creek, was responsible for pursuing the two Fuchuan east of Luci, while the other two destroyers went after the three enemy ships where Zheng Zhilong's flagship was located.

Zheng Zhilong's flagship was easy to identify, because its banner was different from the others. Furthermore, the Transmigrators' Tracker had already precisely marked the Pocket Watch's location once both sides closed within a five-kilometer range.

Thus, ships 301 and 302 unhesitatingly locked onto their target and gave chase, rapidly closing the distance to within two hundred meters: the Fuchuan had no cannons at the stern, so they didn't even have a chance to turn and strike back.

Guns and cannons roared in full fury.

Within two hundred meters, the Army soldiers on the destroyers finally began to play their part: volley fire mowed the pirates down into the water like harvesting Wheat. Moreover, at this distance, the Napoleon Cannon was no different from pressing a gun to someone's forehead; amid the Roar, every salvo sent Iron Balls slamming into the enemy ships' sterns.

After today's real combat, the long-standing debate within the Crossing Navy over Caliber and rate of fire would finally be settled.

In the era of the Iron Ball Cannon, the destructive effect of a 12-pounder and a 24-pounder was not actually as different as one might imagine.

The 12-pounder had a Caliber of 117 Millimeters, while the 24-pounder was 148 Millimeters. In other words, although the Iron Ball's weight doubled, its Diameter only increased by about three Centimeters. When hitting an enemy ship, the 24-pounder merely punched a slightly larger hole.

However, the ancillary demands of the heavy cannon were far greater: an extra-reinforced deck and Gun Well, an extra auxiliary loading system, an extra gun mount and Slide Rail, extra gun crew, and so on and so forth...

In short, given the massive total system weight and the higher demands on the firing platform, the heavy cannon was somewhat lackluster in terms of the destructive effect it could actually deliver.

Furthermore, when striking dense crowds as they did today, the 24-pounder and the 12-pounder had practically no difference in effect: both carved a bloody alley through the ranks, and an Iron Ball three Centimeters larger could not kill many more people. Yet in the time it took the heavy cannon to slowly reload, the 12-pounder had already fired several more salvos — its overall efficiency was actually higher.

... In the present 17th Century, the Smoothbore Cannon had another flaw extremely detrimental to heavy guns: its sighting method. The pitiful trajectory and sighting method of the Iron Ball resulted in this: whether light or heavy, at long-range firing of around a thousand Meters, the hit rate was equally appalling.

The Transmigrators had no solution either.

At most, the Transmigrators could use various eyepieces to measure distance and angle, but they could not equip the Iron Ball Cannon with a gunner's laser ranging Scope, a gunner's day/night Scope, a digital-analog hybrid fire-control computer, a target angular velocity measurement Device, or various ballistic correction sensors...

When it came to being the least bad, the Transmigrators were currently number one in the plane, but when it came to being strong or long-ranged, everyone was about the same... At long range, no one could be sure of a hit; at close range, the Napoleon 12-pounder's high rate of fire, and the comprehensive destructive effect it brought, surpassed that of the 24-pounder cannon.

The premise that "caliber is justice" requires the shell to be stuffed with half a catty... three taels of explosive... The Iron Ball Cannon does not fall into this category. Therefore, the Heavy Cannon Faction would from this day forward fall silent, and the light-cannon rapid-fire school would become the mainstream configuration of the future Crossing Fleet.

Back to the Battlefield.

Soon, under the dense, close-range cannon fire of the two destroyers, one Fuchuan at the very rear, struck by multiple Iron Balls, began to slowly sink. The Crewmen aboard jumped into the water one after another, some swimming toward the Fuchuan ahead, others toward Luci. Seeing this scene, Liu Zhe picked up the Walkie-Talkie and began shouting: "Circle around, attack from the outer ring! Allow the remnants to land on the island, but do not permit any escape to the open sea!"

And so, the Army soldiers on the three destroyers fired a chaotic volley at the pirates trying to swim out to the open sea, forcing these men to swim toward Luci.

The Fuchuan, already sensing the apocalypse, made their final struggle: the two ships to the east, seeing only one destroyer in pursuit, split up and fled in different directions, hoping that in the chaos, at least one could escape.

However, ship 303 was no ordinary vessel — it had a monster aboard.

The next moment, ship 303 lowered all sails, switching the vessel to full Coal Gas Power propulsion: the Propeller power provided stable output, unaffected by Wind Force, and allowed for precise maneuvering.

The destroyer, now moving slower, smoothly glided past the stern of one Fuchuan. At this moment, the distance between the two sides was deliberately adjusted by the destroyer to only about forty Meters. The pirates on the opposing ship were now so close that even their stubble was clearly visible.

Then, a big man wearing Mysterious Color Trousers and a tank top stood up from the gunwale. Just as he flicked the butt of a Jade Seal Cigarette in his hand into the Seawater, at his feet, a soldier with a large birthmark on his face deftly took a set of RPG from an aluminum alloy case and handed it to the boss.

Wei Yuan stood with his feet planted neither parallel nor wide, steady on the slightly rocking deck: with a loud "Boom—", following the intense blaze erupting from the Rocket launcher's rear, the stern of the opposing Fuchuan simultaneously exploded with a thunderous crack. Fireballs and Thick Smoke rose with the splintered wood and helmsman blasted skyward — a terrifying display, a scene of spectacular carnage.

Seeing the Fuchuan, after its intimate encounter with the High-Explosive Incendiary Warhead, begin to burn fiercely, ship 303 immediately abandoned this corpse, accelerated in a short burst, and headed straight for the other one trying to escape.

The men on that ship were no fools; they didn't understand what an RPG was, but they only needed to understand its effect. Large numbers of Crewmen began jumping into the sea, and this ship became the first prize captured by the Navy since the start of Open Battle.

Just as 303 was blasting and firing chaotically at the Sea Surface and organizing Manpower to board the ship, Liu Zhe's Main Force had also driven the two Zheng family ships to a dead end. The volleys of cannons and rifles within two hundred meters finally forced Zheng Zhilong, a Hero of the Age, to issue his final command: beach the ships.

Luci was an island the size of a palm.

Located in the Putian Outer Sea, Luci was ten nautical miles from the mainland, with an area of less than two square Kilometers. The island had no fresh water, nor any treacherous Terrain that could be used to hold a position. The only thing that could pose an obstacle to the Special Task Fleet was probably some beautiful coral and sea trees.

Of course, the obstruction caused by this coral was limited: Luci had the "Old Eagle Head," a natural deep-water bay capable of berthing a ten-thousand-ton giant ship.

So the fleet was now organizing a landing in the large bay at the island's center.

The landing would take time; after all, the destroyers could not, like the two Fuchuan already stranded on the Beach, ignore the damage reefs and coral would do to their hulls and charge directly onto the shore.

The current situation was this: two warships were circling Luci, killing every pirate still on the Sea Surface. Meanwhile, destroyer 301 had already assembled all three of the fleet's boats in the deep-water bay, and the landing operation, personally overseen by Marine Commander Qian Tieshan, was underway.

The first wave of assault was the most critical, so a total assault team of twenty-two men, split among the three boats, began the Beach assault.

The Marine unit, though small in number, was currently used by the Transmigrators as a special forces unit, so every team member was excellently equipped and highly skilled. Each seven-man squad was outfitted with various individual protective Equipment. Their main weapons were the MK17 Rifle and the M9 pistol, and an M60 squad Machine Gun using 7.62mm NATO rounds was also in the hands of Qian Tieshan's group.

When the Marine unit was first quietly Established, the Crossing Army had carried out a weapon redistribution plan.

Given that a certain Power Base's "Import" model for supplies was hell-level difficulty, the Consequence was this: all firearm-type weapons were ultimately limited to a few models and bullet Calibers, in order to maximize parts interchangeability and ammunition utilization.

Through that internal redistribution, all the MK17 assault Rifles purchased earlier by Cao Chuan were Assigned entirely to the Marine unit. This was a case of accidental success: the expensive Rifles that Cao had bought at great cost in his early days were, in fact, the best special operations weapons available today. Even America's Navy SEALs couldn't afford to use them; only the First Airborne Special Warfare Unit was equipped with this advanced assault Rifle.

As a result, the standard weapons used by the Crossing Faction's Army and Navy to hold the line were uniformly changed to the AK47 assault Rifle. These three main combat firearms, including the several M60 squad Machine Guns, all used the common 7.62mm Bullet.

Additionally, the military's standard-issue pistol was only one type: the. 45-caliber M9 pistol. The Intelligence Department and some civilian Transmigrators, however, used two pistol models: the P226 and the HKP7. These two expensive, law-enforcement-specific pistols used the common NATO 9mm pistol round.

The landing boats, carrying MK17s and M60 Machine Guns, quickly charged onto the Beach in the middle of Luci. At that same moment, the pirates, driven to a dead end, saw for the First Time an opportunity for hand-to-hand combat with the enemy — and this brought tears to their eyes.

And so, without any need for the Great Boss to rally them with a rousing charge, over three hundred heroes, long-suppressed and newly ashore, automatically surged forward from all directions. Even with the Seawater still wet on their bodies, even with many having lost their weapons, they still pressed close behind their comrades, hoping to pick up a Steel Knife and plunge it into an enemy's chest.