My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 368: Firing the Wrong Gun
As the order was given, the spotter at the main gun position stared closely at the pirate flagship while loudly reporting various data to the gunner.

"Ten kilometers away, already within attack range!"

The gunner immediately gave the order: "Fire!"

With two loud bangs of "boom" and "boom", the main gun's twin 305mm 20-caliber gun barrels fired two shells respectively, with a sharp sound of breaking through the air, whistling towards the flagship where Lu Mingda was!

Afterwards, there were a few more loud "boom boom boom" noises. It turned out that the secondary guns also opened fire.

After firing the first round of shells, the artillerymen were not idle. They quickly opened the breech blocks, cleaned the gunpowder residue, and prepared for the next launch.

At the same time, the gunner, the soldiers on the ship, Xu Da and others were all nervously observing the results of the bombardment.

Through the telescope, one shell accurately hit the pirates' flagship, while another shell landed on the sea not far from the flagship, causing a violent explosion. The waves almost overturned other small boats.

Hitting the first shell was a good thing, but what surprised them was that the shell that hit the flagship did not explode on the ship, but exploded on the sea not far behind the flagship.

How is this going?

The same thing happened to the shells fired by the other secondary guns, which surprised Xu Da and others. Was there something wrong with the shells?

At this time, on the flagship where Lu Mingda was, all the pirates were staring at the two big holes at the bow and stern, with horror and shock on their faces.

Just now, at the moment when the shell hit the flagship, it directly broke through the bow, forming a violent heat flow, like a meteor, instantly penetrating the entire hull, and then shot out from the stern, and finally plunged into the sea due to the change in flight direction!
The pirates looked at all this in disbelief, their brains buzzing. What had just happened? Why were there suddenly so many big holes in the ship?

At this moment, a terrifying "crack" sound was heard from under the main mast, the deck began to warp, cracks began to appear on the wooden boards, and then the main mast began to tilt backwards at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It turned out that after the shell pierced through the stern of the ship, it destroyed the base of the main mast, and the hull could no longer support the weight of the main mast.

As gusts of sea breeze blew, blowing on the fully spread sails, the mast had already begun to tilt, further exacerbating the tilt of the main mast.

The change in the direction of the sails caused the flagship to involuntarily change its course and crash into other ships. However, this was not the most fatal thing. What was more fatal was that as the main mast gradually tilted, it had begun to affect other masts!

"Reef the sails! Hurry and reef the sails for me!"

After Lu Mingda reacted, he immediately shouted loudly. Only then did the other pirates wake up as if from a dream and began to pull the ropes and reef the sails in a hurry.

It has to be said that these pirates who have been making a living on the sea for years are quite skilled when it comes to raising and lowering the sails. It's a pity that no matter how fast they lower the sails, they cannot change the reality that the mainmast is about to collapse.

Lu Mingda looked at the chaos in front of him and was shocked. Was he hit by the Ming army's artillery shells just now?

When did the Ming Dynasty’s artillery become so powerful?
The distance was clearly twenty miles away, and today's artillery could only fire a few miles at most. How on earth did the Ming army's artillery manage to hit the ship, and even penetrate the entire hull? Where in the world could there be such sharp and powerful artillery?
What’s even more terrible is that the Ming army’s Dingyuan battleships began to prepare for the second round of launch.

After firing the first round, the Ming army soldiers were also confused. During normal training, these shrapnel shells would produce a violent explosion the moment they hit the target.

But we clearly hit the enemy's flagship just now, so why didn't it explode?
Looking from afar on the deck at this time, the enemy's flagship seemed to be fine, with no signs of damage.

Could it be the blessing of Mazu?
Bah, bah, bah, how could Mazu bless that group of unscrupulous pirates?

Inside the bridge, Xu Da seemed to have thought of something and ran to the deck. Li Wenzhong and Tang He followed him. When the gunners saw the commander coming, they were about to salute him, but Xu Da waved his hand and asked directly, "What kind of bullet did you just fire?"

"Commander, what we just fired was an armor-piercing shell!" the gunner replied hurriedly.

"No wonder!" Xu Da finally figured out what happened and why the shells didn't explode immediately after hitting the enemy ship.

At this time, Li Wenzhong and Tang He also understood what was going on. They were suddenly at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and felt an inexplicable sense of absurdity in their hearts, like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

The armor-piercing shells used by the main guns during testing and training are all aimed at high-strength steel plates of tens of millimeters or even hundreds of millimeters, and they hit several pieces at a time. How can the small wooden boards of the enemy ships compare with steel plates?

No wonder the shell didn't explode immediately. It must have pierced the enemy ship directly, so it exploded after diving into the sea.

The gunners also looked helpless. They couldn't blame anyone else. They usually used armor-piercing shells in training, and now when they saw the enemy ship coming, they subconsciously used armor-piercing shells.

"Change the grenades for me. Whether it's the main gun or the secondary gun, change them all to grenades!"

Following Xu Da's order, the gunners immediately got busy.

"Change grenades!"

"Commander in chief, switch to grenades!"

After a busy period, the sailors in the ammunition magazine under the deck pushed the grenades over with a cart, hung them on hooks, and then lifted them up.

After the shells came up, the gunners put the powder barrel on the tail of the warhead and stuffed it into the gun barrel. Then another artilleryman stuffed the propellant bag into the gun barrel, closed the breech block, and began to aim, preparing for the second round of firing.

As the observer aimed at the target again, the gunner gave an order and the 305mm 20-caliber gun barrel roared like thunder again!
"Boom boom"

Two shells were fired again like thunder, rushing towards Lu Mingda's ship along the sea surface at a speed that could break through the air!

Lu Mingda also heard the sound of the Ming army firing. He looked up and saw two black objects rushing towards his ship at lightning speed.

As the two shells grew larger in sight, Lu Mingda's heart sank deeper and deeper.

At the same time, when the sail was halfway retracted, the deck could no longer withstand the weight of the mast. Only terrifying "crackling" and "crackling" sounds could be heard continuously, and the deck continued to crack.

It's really a case of misfortunes never come alone. After one wave of troubles comes another. At this moment, Lu Mingda no longer has the arrogance he had just now. Now he feels a little regretful.

Why do you have to sit on the largest flagship to look majestic? The largest ship is the best target for the Ming army!
As more rumbling sounds were heard, the secondary guns of the Dingyuan-class battleships also opened fire, and more shells attacked the pirate fleet.

"Damn it!" Lu Mingda jumped off the boat without thinking.

"Oh!"

"Boom!"

A cannonball accurately hit the pirate flagship, causing a violent explosion instantly. The huge shock wave blew countless pirates away, and countless cannonball fragments flew in all directions, instantly turning many pirates into hornet's nests!
(End of this chapter)