nucmednet Chapter 287 East Asia's Strongest Warship
Chapter 287 East Asia's Strongest Warship
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At Gao Jie and Liang Xiaoming's repeated requests, Liu Ye had no choice but to give up his plan to go aboard the ship for a close-up observation. Instead, he stood on the shore with the senior personnel of the Qiongzhou Camp, waiting for the live-fire exercise to begin.
This live-fire exercise was conducted while the ship was stationary. The target ship was a medium-sized Fujian-style ship captured from the remnants of Liu Xiang's forces. Because it was severely damaged, although it was barely towed back from the port of Zeelandia, it was no longer worth repairing and reusing. It was used to test the power of the explosive shells.
After careful consideration, a firing distance of 300 meters was finally chosen. This distance exceeded the effective range of the Zheng family's "knock-off Caron cannon" by about 100 meters, while also ensuring a reasonably good hit rate.
With Gao Jie's command, the order was relayed from the open deck down to the gun deck below. The gunner, upon receiving the order, issued the firing command. The 10-man gun crew began their busy firing operation. Two men lifted the heavy spherical explosive shells and gently placed them into the breech, with the end containing the wooden conical fuse facing the muzzle to prevent it from being ignited by the gunpowder too early. These heavy explosive shells were not fundamentally different from the relatively small high-explosive shells fired by mountain guns; both had a disc-shaped wooden sabot on the opposite end of the fuse to buffer chamber pressure and stabilize the flight trajectory. The bottom of the sabot contained a pre-loaded propellant charge, avoiding the tedious step of weighing the propellant.
An experienced gunner stood on the left side of the gun barrel, pierced the propellant charge through the hole in the breech, inserted the fuse secured by a wooden tube, and then lit it. The lit fuse, like a sparking snake, wriggled and burrowed into the breech.
Meanwhile, Liu Ye, on the shore, put down his monocular binoculars and asked Liang Xiaoming beside him with some confusion, "Mingzi, I think Gao Jie has given the order, and the messenger's flag has been raised, so why hasn't the cannon fired yet?"
"Calm down... calm down, don't be so nervous, you have to trust my skills," Liang Xiaoming explained. "Besides, this cannon isn't like a 12-pounder mountain gun that one or two people can operate. It requires about ten people to operate, and the steps and firing time are much longer. You have to understand, this is a British 8-inch, 203mm metric cannon. The explosive shell weighs 59 pounds, which is almost the weight of an adult. Just moving the shell into the barrel and avoiding accidents due to violent collisions is no easy task, not to mention the reset after firing—the cannon itself weighs 3.5 tons, about the weight of two off-road vehicles. Imagine how much strength you would need to lift a Land Cruiser or a Prado..."
Upon hearing this, Liu Ye was dumbfounded; the size and weight of the cannon completely exceeded his expectations.
Just then, a deafening cannon shot rang out from the Lingao, accompanied by a dazzling flame, and a huge spherical shell struck the target ship accurately like a meteor.
As the people on the ship and on the shore watched in hull silence, the shells sliced through the wooden planks on the side of the ship as easily as a knife through tofu, and penetrated the interior of the hull.
A second later, a muffled thud echoed as the shell exploded inside the ship. The massive blast wave ripped apart the seemingly sturdy deck and hull, hurling debris, furniture, weapons, and all sorts of other objects into the air. As the deck collapsed, the tall mast, losing its support, slowly toppled, and the heavy, stiff sails crashed onto the sea, creating towering waves. The entire ship resembled a ripped-out doll, fragile and seemingly on the verge of disintegration.
Everyone was stunned by the power of that shot. To disable a medium-sized Fujian-style ship in the past, it would have required risking boarding and shoving, firing solid shot weighing 10-20 kilograms at close range to achieve the same effect. Now, a single shot was all it took. The contrast was so stark that no one could believe it was real.
Liu Ye muttered, "Mingzi, isn't this considered cheating? I'm starting to feel sorry for Zheng Zhilong. With this thing out, how is the Zheng family supposed to compete?"
Seeing the successful test launch, Liang Xiaoming danced with joy in celebration. Hearing Liu Ye's words, he chuckled and said in a low voice, "Bringing 19th-century guys to the 17th century is a bit of an insult, but Zheng Zhilong can only complain about bad luck meeting us, because we're time travelers. You know, even in the 19th century, before the advent of rifled cannons, bombardment cannons were the ultimate game-changers in naval warfare, let alone in the 17th century when smoothbore cannons weren't even mature!"
Li Fei, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but ask, "With such powerful weapons, wouldn't two or three large ships carrying a dozen or twenty cannons be enough to easily wipe out Zheng Zhilong? Would we still need to fight to the death like the Red Hairs?"
"Not so," Liang Xiaoming shook his right index finger. "First, this kind of cannon is difficult to forge, so production can't be increased; second, explosive shells are always a double-edged sword, capable of destroying the opponent while also risking self-destruction; third, the weight of this cannon, weighing nearly 7000 jin (3,500 catties), and the recoil it generates when firing, mean it can only be equipped on warships of 1000 tons or more, and such expensive warships cannot be built in large numbers. Therefore, no matter how good this cannon is, it can only be used as a last resort, like the Caron cannon."
Liu Ye pondered for a moment: "I understand. This huge ship, equipped with bombardment cannons, is like an aircraft carrier of the age of sail, a nuclear weapon at sea. It's incredibly powerful, but you can't just build it like cabbages?"
Liang Xiaoming nodded. "That's pretty much the gist of it."
Although Li Fei didn't know what aircraft carriers or nuclear weapons were, he had witnessed the power of these cannons firsthand and couldn't help but exclaim, "Even if there are only one or two such large ships and only a few giant cannons, they are still terrifying weapons of mass destruction."
The people on the shore were shocked, and Gao Jie on the "Lingao" jumped up excitedly. What could be more exciting for a fleet commander than to have such a powerful cannon at his disposal?
半个月后，2艘各装备了4门轰击炮和12门24磅炮、18门12磅炮、2o门32磅卡隆炮的1000吨级战舰正式下水，整个亚洲海域最强大的战舰诞生了。
At the bow of the ship, Liang Xiaoming said to the smug Liu Ye, "Let's give our number one warship in East Asia a name."
Liu Ye chuckled and replied, "The names and classifications were already decided when the ship was first built. The 500-ton and 280-ton warships were named after the posthumous titles of the two most skilled generals of the Ming Dynasty, and the 1000-ton class was named after the reign title of the emperor of this dynasty who was renowned for his military achievements—Yongle. As for the ship names, the first one will be called 'Shandong,' and the second one will be called 'Guangdong!'"