Chapter 1505: Off to Heaven We Go!

As a staunch Huguenot, Abraham Duquesne certainly believed in and loved God, but he was not at all eager to meet Him just yet.

So when faced with the charge of two or three hundred Ming "dumpling ships," he still chose to flee without a moment's hesitation!

What a fine opportunity this was to be sure of meeting God (he would have died fighting to defend the faith, after all!) — to throw it away like this was truly a pity. But it did him no good to be unwilling to see God just yet, because God wanted to see him!

The eleven French warships under Abraham Duquesne's command and the more than two hundred Great Ming warships under Zheng Jing's command were sailing straight at each other. At the time, a southeast wind was blowing over the sea, and a southeast wind blows toward the northwest, so conditions were relatively favorable for Zheng Jing's side — his fleet only needed to charge straight ahead at full speed.

Moreover, if the eleven French warships wanted to escape, they first had to complete a turn. And in the course of turning, their speed was bound to drop.

The distance between the two sides would close even further!

But neither the wind direction nor the turning problem was the most deadly thing. The most deadly thing was that Zheng Jing still had in his hands quite a number of fast sailing ships that could serve as light cavalry of the sea!

A navy's ships must make a choice among firepower, protection, and speed.

And in the age of sail, because there were no high-powered engines, firepower, protection, and speed could not all be had at once.

Thus the 1,000-ton-class (burden) great ships of every nation, because they needed heavy protection and heavy firepower (they even carried sandbags aboard), had to sacrifice speed.

At the same time, in order to carry out scouting, pursuit, communication, and other missions requiring high speed, every nation began designing fast sailing warships and light fast sailing ships.

Vessels of this type usually had long, slender hulls and thin planking, and carried few 12-jin (pound) guns — some carried none at all (a portion of the light fast sailing ships carried none) — and some fast sailers and light fast sailers also adopted a clipper bow that reduced drag to the greatest possible extent!

As a "genius emperor," Zhu Cilang was not only thoroughly versed in matters of state, war, finance, and real estate, but also liked to dabble in invention and creation — though of course he did not personally lead the research teams, but merely supplied the ideas and the funding.

That is, he would have people find some skilled craftsmen, then give them a few words of guidance, sometimes even sketch a rough drawing or the like, and then hand over a large sum of funding and let them give play to their creativity.

So over the past twenty-odd years, Zhu Cilang had lost a great deal of money in the field of "invention and creation"!

Hmm, basically it had been a continuous burning of money. Most of the "golden finger projects" had failed... A great deal of money had been spent, but the "skilled craftsmen" had rarely produced anything that satisfied Zhu Cilang.

And even when some projects did succeed, they did not earn any great windfall profits, and were nowhere near enough to make up for the losses from that great pile of money-burning failures.

The reason for this was twofold. First, Zhu Cilang was not a technical man, nor did he have much energy to manage the matter — he was no expert himself, and he had no time to manage it properly, and there was also no very effective way to hold the people below him accountable.

For example, killing the craftsmen if what they made did not meet Zhu Cilang's requirements, or killing the managers if costs overran...

Second, in the seventeenth century, no nation in the world had a very effective patent protection system, and the Great Ming Empire certainly did not.

Zhu Cilang had also, imitating the model of later ages, enacted a "Patent Law," intending to collect patent protection fees. But in the course of implementing it, he discovered that his "golden fingers" did not seem to sell for much money, and were moreover frequently plagiarized.

For example, the patent for the "clipper bow" that Zhu Cilang's Nanjing shipyard had developed according to Zhu Cilang's drawings, at the cost of much time and capital, had not sold for much money at all.

And the "studded-head explosive shell" and "wooden-handled grenade" developed by the Nanjing Arsenal on the Emperor's instructions were plagiarized all over the world, and no one seemed ever to have paid any patent fee.

As for the obstetrical forceps developed by the Imperial Medical Academy from Zhu Cilang's drawings, they were copied by the midwives, and likewise no one ever paid any patent fee...

But the clipper bow that had earned no patent fees, and the studded-head explosive shell plagiarized the world over (an original creation, no less!)... in the great naval battle of Jinmen Bay, became the key inventions that sent Abraham Duquesne to heaven.

"Boom-boom..."

As the twenty 12-pounder bronze long guns on the port side of the Lorraine fired in succession, the great naval battle of Jinmen Bay had reached its moment of life and death.

The Lorraine was bombarding a fast-moving clipper-type A fast sailing warship!

This was the Ming navy's newest fast sailing warship. Although its burden tonnage was only a little over three hundred tons, both its speed and its firepower were quite respectable.

The clumsy and sluggish Lorraine could not possibly escape pursuit by the clipper type A!

And in Zheng Jing's fleet, there were eight newly commissioned clipper-type A fast sailing warships. Now they all surged out ahead, like a pack of wolves hunting prey, and hurled themselves at the four French ships of the line headed by the Lorraine — their mission was not to sink the French ships of the line, but to wound them!

These clipper-type ships were also equipped with 12-jin bronze long guns, but not many of them — each ship carried only eight 12-jin guns.

Such firepower was not enough to sink a ship of the line, but it was enough to set it ablaze with a hit and slow its speed.

For the French, Spanish, and Dutch warships that had charged into Jinmen Bay tonight, once their speed dropped, death was at hand.

One of the clipper-type ships had already closed in on the Lorraine!

At the sight of this clipper ship closing in at flying speed, the faces of Abraham Duquesne and Tourville both turned black.

How could that ship sail so fast — the clipper-type ships had only just entered service, and had been kept secret all along (Western spies would not pay much attention to warships of this class), so Abraham Duquesne and Tourville did not know that clipper-type ships with such speed existed.

Now, seeing these warships flying toward him, he truly could not even weep.

O God! Have You sent these to carry us up to heaven?

Abraham Duquesne was still unwilling to accept it, so he shouted loudly: "Don't let the enemy's fast sailing ships get close... Damn it, you must sink it, or we're all finished!"

There were still so many enemy ships of the line behind them. If the Lorraine was caught by them, there would be no way out at all.

"Boom-boom..."

The Lorraine fired several more studded-head shells, but without exception they all missed.

And the distance between the two sides had closed considerably again!

"God save us..." All Abraham Duquesne could do now was pray.

"Boom!"

Whether because the distance was close enough, or because God had heard His believer's plea, a 12-pound explosive shell fired by the Lorraine finally struck that clipper-type ship!

Then it burst into an enormous ball of fire against the planking at the port stern of the warship!

But the warship did not seem to have suffered heavy damage, and was still advancing at high speed — its protection was clearly not weak!

"Damn it!" Abraham Duquesne cursed, but he was still powerless to do anything.

Cursing solved nothing, and still less could it stop this fast sailing ship closing in like the wind.

"Fire, fire quickly..." The words had barely fallen when the four 12-jin guns on one side of that fast sailing ship opened fire!

The four explosive shells fired by the clipper ship did not hit their target.

Duquesne breathed a slight sigh of relief, but that clipper ship, already hit once, was still closing in!

"Boom-boom..." The somewhat flustered Lorraine fired off several more rounds. But very unluckily, this salvo did not hit the target either.

Duquesne's heart rose into his throat again. "Quick, quick, open fire..."

But it was the enemy who opened fire! And the distance was close enough!

Duquesne first felt the deck beneath his feet heave violently! Fortunately he had braced himself against the railing, so he did not fall; only then came the thunderous roar and the flash of fire!

Hit! Now we're in for it!

Duquesne could already see flames bursting out from beneath the deck amidships of the Lorraine! Such a large fire—it seemed a powder magazine had already been blown open.

He knew his time was running out... His ship of the line had been hit and was on fire, and would soon draw in enough enemy ships of the line.

The Lorraine was finished!

(End of Chapter)