I'm not a lord

Chapter 364 When Naval Warfare Turns into Massacre
Upon hearing the mournful cries of the vanguard ships in the front row, Neil immediately realized that the enemy ships' cannons were definitely not the bronze mortars that Arno had mentioned!
That damn Lynn really did hide something!
Arnaud is a damn bastard. He can't even get this much information. Are all the spies he keeps useless?
No matter how much Neil cursed or regretted, he could not change the situation, nor could he change the order to charge.

The entire fleet had already picked up speed, and the oarsmen on every ship were rowing with all their might. At this point, there wouldn't even be enough time to give them a command to stop suddenly.

Neil's fleet was not equipped with long-distance communication devices such as radios.

To relay his orders to hundreds of ships using only flag signals and voices would take at least ten minutes.

By the time the orders were relayed, the two fleets had already collided and engaged in boarding and amphibious assaults.

As for turning back to River Bend Fort?
That's even more unrealistic.

The problem of transmitting orders remains, and with hundreds of warships crowded on the Jinghe River, can they really turn around so easily?
Issuing new orders rashly will only cause chaos in the entire fleet.

Even setting aside the difficulties of relaying orders and turning around, once the fleet actually begins to turn around, it will expose its most vulnerable hulls to the enemy.

The bows of the vanguard ships were covered with sheet metal or thick wooden planks, which could reduce the destructive power of shells to some extent. However, the hulls did not have these features, so they would probably be easily blasted by enemy artillery.

Mayor Neil stood on the stern deck of the flagship and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Don't be afraid, keep moving forward! We have far more troops than they do. Get closer to them and kill all those sons of bitches!"

At this moment, his fleet was like an arrow released from a bow, with no choice but to go, and there was no possibility of turning back.

The captains of the vanguard ships clearly heard his shouts and encouraged their rowers to increase their effort and get closer to the enemy ships as quickly as possible.

Most of the other ships behind only heard strange roars but did not see the cannons firing. Without any clear instructions, the confused captains could only follow the ships in front and continue westward.

In Lynn's fleet, Captain Hawke saw the effect of the first volley of fire and couldn't stop grinning: "Haha, we actually hit four enemy ships! Lady Luck is on our side this time!"

The eight vanguard ships, with a total of sixteen long-barreled cannons firing simultaneously, appeared to have been hit by about six shells to the naked eye. This hit rate was beyond what could be described as high.

Keep in mind that this is firing cannons from a warship that is rocking on the water, and the opposing warship is not a dead target; it is moving at all times.

Moreover, the gunners on the ship had only started working with artillery at the end of last year, making them practically greenhorns. To achieve such a hit rate was not just good fortune; it was as if Lady Luck had kissed them on the lips and bestowed upon them good luck.

Leon stood beside Hawke, and in his delight, he decisively drew his sword and gave the order: "Prepare for the second round of shelling! Sink these traitorous lackeys!"

One of the disadvantages of muzzle-loading cannons is that loading is extremely time-consuming and laborious. You have to first use a stick wrapped in cloth to clean the gunpowder residue in the barrel before you can load the gunpowder and the shell in sequence and fire it again.

Even though Lynn had developed a cloth-packed fixed-load gunpowder to reduce the difficulty and time of loading, the firing interval of the long-barreled muzzle-loading gun was still as long as five or six minutes.

In the fast-paced naval battle, there is certainly no time to reload the vanguard ships.

Therefore, Lynn specifically ordered the warships in the last two rows to be pre-loaded with ammunition, so they could fire in sequence according to orders.

Historically, the excessively long loading time forced military commanders to invent multi-stage firing, a method that is also applicable on water.

This is why battleships in the age of sail were equipped with multiple rows of cannons under their hulls, which were fired in turn to achieve prolonged firepower suppression.

The North does not yet possess such advanced shipbuilding technology, and the shallow, still river cannot support such a large battleship.

Since a single ship can't carry many cannons, let's use multiple ships to make up for it!
At Leon's command, the cannons on the eight warships in the second row roared in unison.

However, due to the insufficient number of cannons, the eight ships were only equipped with a total of twelve long-barreled cannons on their bows.

Because it is a horizontal firing method, the gunner hardly needs to consider the distance to the enemy ship; he can fire as long as the enemy ship is in sight.

Boom boom boom.
After the second rank of warships fired, the third rank followed suit with a salvo.

When the third rank of warships fired, one shell even grazed the flagship Shirakawa, giving Leon and Hawke quite a fright.

They instantly realized that while artillery was effective, it also carried significant risks. Inexperienced gunners could harm friendly forces, and gunpowder was highly flammable and explosive; improper handling could easily trigger a secondary explosion, endangering the entire fleet.

Fortunately, the shells fired in the last two salvos successfully reached the enemy fleet and hit several enemy ships.

As for Neil, who was bombarded by three rounds of salvo, he was almost numb by now.

Almost every one of the eight vanguard ships in the front row was damaged, and the decks of two ships were even pierced. Many sailors and oarsmen were killed or wounded, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness.

Two unfortunate ships in the second row were also hit. A shell happened to hit the sterncastle. The captain survived, but the first mate, who was in charge of directing the deck crew, was hit and torn in two on the spot. His death was extremely gruesome, which caused the morale of the neighboring ships to plummet.

It was only because the communication conditions were so poor that many ships behind were unaware of the dire situation in the first two rows; otherwise, the morale of the entire fleet would have been severely affected.

Neil's eyes were now bloodshot, and he was filled with anger and anxiety. He cursed under his breath: "Damn it, just how many cannons are on that ship? Are those things that easy to build?"

And that good-for-nothing Arnaud, talking about sharing intelligence at all times, pshaw, it's all bullshit, there's no false intelligence at all!
Despite his anger, Neil is not without good news.

Firstly, he knew that reloading the bronze cannon would take a long time, and the enemy's artillery could not be unlimited. He could tell from the sound of the three rounds of artillery fire that each round was weaker than the last.

Secondly, after three rounds of shelling, the distance between the vanguard ships and the enemy's vanguard ships had been reduced to less than 100 meters.

Without his orders, the sailors on the Vanguard ship, who had been stunned by the shells, had already come to their senses and picked up their crossbows to start firing at the enemy ship.

Merchant ships in Amber Harbor have been fighting pirates at sea for years, and the sailors on board have a wealth of combat experience.

The soldiers who could serve as sailors on the vanguard ships were the elite of the elite, and they had already prepared themselves mentally for facing artillery fire before the battle, and were able to maintain considerable fighting spirit and morale even after being bombarded.

In addition to a large number of crossbows, the vanguard ships and subsequent warships were also equipped with grappling hooks, gangplanks, lime powder, small catapults, and other weapons for boarding operations.

Once the two armies officially begin boarding action, these experienced sailors will demonstrate their exceptional skills.

"Stay calm, stay calm. The brief nightmare is over. Now is not the time to panic." Neil placed his left hand on his chest, forcing himself to calm down. Seeing the vanguard ships of the two armies about to converge, he drew his longsword from his waist and shouted to the sky, "Prepare to board! Slaughter them all!"

Upon hearing Neil's voice, the captains of dozens of warships around them followed suit, shouting in unison, and the thousands of sailors on board also yelled and screamed like frenzied monkeys.

This is a tradition in coastal areas. When engaging in boarding combat, people would first make strange noises, which would boost morale and overwhelm the enemy with their sheer force.

So what if you poor inland bastards have cannons? After several rounds of firing, you've only killed or wounded a hundred people, and haven't even managed to sink a single ship. Why don't you keep firing? Have you run out of shells?

Whether it's the number of ships, the number of sailors, or the eliteness of the sailors, we have more and are stronger than you!
Once boarding action begins, what will you use to win?

But these captains and sailors had no idea that their nightmare had only just begun.

Years later, when one of the captured sailors returned to Amber Harbor, he described the naval battle as follows:

This is the most terrifying nightmare I have ever experienced in my life. If I dream of it in the middle of the night, I will definitely wake up in fright and then suffer from insomnia until dawn. Everything I see can only be described as hell!

"Coming, coming, coming!"

As the two fleets gradually closed the distance, Captain Hawke on the stern deck of the White River could even clearly see the anger on the faces of the enemy sailors.

Captain Hawke licked his dry upper lip, rubbed his hands together excitedly, and a cruel smile appeared on his weathered face.
"Looks like these lackeys are still not convinced. Brothers, let's let those bastards on the other side taste the power of the breech-loading cannon and shotgun shells again!"

That's right, the shells Lynn prepared for these breech-loading breech-loading cannons were the most classic type of shotgun shells.

Up to a hundred small iron pellets were pre-loaded into the cannon, and once ignited, they could unleash a rain of shells.

Captain Hawke had test-fired grapeshot many times while in White River Territory, and he knew very well the terrifying destructive power of these cruel shells in close combat. He couldn't wait to see the expressions on the faces of those bastards on the other side.

"Prepare for boarding action!" With Leon's command, the sailors on the ship began to shout and fire crossbow bolts.

Compared to artillery, crossbows were far less powerful; their range, accuracy, and lethality were all quite poor.

Although various types of cannons were deployed, crossbows or steel crossbows were still widely used on the ships, and the sailors did not dislike these old tools that had been with them for many years.

In war, you can never have too many weapons; just throw everything you can at the enemy's face.

When you're truly fighting to the point of running out of ammunition and supplies, even fingernails and teeth can become weapons in the battle; that's what a life-or-death war looks like.

Amidst the frenzied shouts of the sailors on both sides, the distance between the two fleets was finally reduced to a negative number.

Four vanguard ships flying the Amber Harbor flag were the first to break into Lynn's fleet. However, their bows were already battered and their rams, covered in iron, were no longer functional. They passed by the Three Rivers City ships with minimal damage.

But the sailors of Amber Harbor felt little fear. They stood on the deck of the vanguard ship, gripping various weapons, ready to jump onto the other ship's deck as soon as the sides met.

Instead of enemy crossbows or grappling hooks, they were met with four dark holes the size of helmets.

On the Vanguard, the captain, first mate, and sailors from Amber Harbor all stared wide-eyed.

Could this slender iron pipe be a cannon?
The ship's sides were also equipped with cannons?

Didn't the pre-war intelligence say that Lynn had a very limited number of artillery pieces?
How can this ship carry ten cannons?

"fire!"

The next second, the first mate on the opposite ship gave the order to launch.

The gunners immediately lit the fuses, and as white smoke rose, black iron balls spewed out of the cannons, drawing countless thin black lines in the air, while flying towards the deck of the Amber Harbor Vanguard Ship.

As far as the sailors of Amber Harbor could see, they first saw the flashes of light from the cannons and the white smoke rising above, and then watched helplessly as a dense, black 'rain' of bullets pelted down on them.

These raindrops swept across less than twenty meters in an instant, piercing through the sailors' shields, helmets, and chainmail, and then passing through their bodies, leaving behind clusters of brilliant, blood-red blossoms.

Amidst a deafening roar, black 'raindrops' swept wildly across several vanguard ships from Amber Harbor, splashing up countless blood-red sprays.

Neil's flagship was in the second row of the fleet. When he saw his own sailors on the vanguard ship diagonally in front of him being cut down like wheat by rows of black raindrops, his blood ran cold and his heart almost stopped beating.

How can this be?

Is this a type of artillery?
This is even more astonishing than the combined power of twenty or thirty crossbows firing at once!
Neil blinked in disbelief, but the bloody reality before him told him that his most trusted elite sailors had indeed been mercilessly slaughtered by this new type of weapon.

Looking around, there were hardly any figures left standing on the deck of the vanguard ship, which had been hit by a salvo. The sailors were either lying on the deck, barely alive, or crying out helplessly like lambs to the slaughter.

After confirming that what he was seeing was not a hallucination, Neil immediately realized that the water battle could not continue.

The enemy's weapon possesses terrifying close-to-medium range lethality, making it ten thousand times more terrifying than previous artillery in naval warfare, which is turning naval battles into massacres.

If boarding action continues, before reaching a point where boarding is possible, most of the sailors on our deck will be killed or wounded.

Neil bit his tongue, the sharp pain bringing him back to his senses. He slammed his hand on the railing and shouted to the first mate below the sterncastle, "Turn around! Turn around! Retreat immediately!"

The first mate, who had also witnessed the horrific scene, finally came to his senses and gave the same instructions to the sailors and oarsmen.

At the same time, the messenger standing on the mast lookout tower frantically waved his command flag, ordering the ships following behind to turn around and retreat.

But at this point, is it too late to retreat?

(End of this chapter)