Chapter 352 – Lining up to be shot at sea 2
Chapter 352 – Lining Up to Shoot at Sea 2
The kobolds that emerged from the city streets, instead of being like the popular impression – individually cowardly and fearful of death, and as a whole a rabble – they were like trained soldiers who generally moved in and out, and didn’t scatter in the face of an unconquerable enemy. Although their level still sucked in Harrison’s eyes, they had already greatly subverted the traditional image of kobolds.
The kobold army – let’s call it an “army” for now – was not holding broken metal, but serious swords, and some of them were equipped with leather armor.
Obviously, this wave of kobolds is the pirates released cannon fodder, deliberately used to nausea and consume the kingdom of the army, the pirates real main force must still be buried in the shadows, waiting for the kingdom of the army to slacken when to come to a fatal blow. Death Harrison will not believe that a group of kobolds alone can cross the sea to land in Aldo, wipe out the Kingdom Navy and occupy the western post, and the intelligence collected before did not mention the appearance of kobolds, the pirates are all normal human beings.
Hmph! Want to ambush us in the dark, think twice, we also have our own backhand.
Thinking of this, Harrison gave orders to the officers around him, “Raise two more columns of smoke! Let our friendly forces start attacking the harbor.”
The officer left quickly after receiving the order.
……
In the dock area, a paddle-sailed warship had been unhooked and the deck was filled with pirates with swords in hand, ready to attack.
After listening to a minion’s report, the pirate leader Zod – one of Edward’s right-hand men – said to Nathan standing beside him with a smile, ”Master Mage, the kingdom’s army has already received our little gift! It’s done, shouldn’t we go and clean up those northwestern hometowns, the brothers who went out to patrol said that they are waiting outside.”
They had already detected that there was a fleet outside the harbor watching West Harbor, and from the shape of the ships they could tell that it was the same Northwest fleet that had come in recently.
“Of course, Captain Zod.” Nathan smiled and nodded, “You are in command here.”
He turned back and looked away from the city center where the sounds of fighting were coming from, “Sir Harrison, our gift is more than that oh, the shadow of a gift will be with you for a long time to come.”
Zod, the pirate leader, waved his hand, “Set sail! To meet the homelanders from the Northwest Gulf!”
Rumbling war drums sounded, and the oarsmen stroked their long oars to the sound of the drums, urging one of the warships to head out to sea.
……
“Two more pillars of smoke are rising!”
“The kingdom’s army is asking for our support!”
The lookout on the towering mast on the Unicorn shouted at the top of his voice to the deck.
Tirpitz raised his binoculars and peered in the direction of Westport for a moment.
Before he could make a decision, the lookout shouted again from above, “A fleet is coming out of West Harbor! It’s got a skull and crossbones flag on it!”
“Inform the entire fleet that the target is the pirate fleet to the southeast!” Tirpitz also noticed the movement from his binoculars, he stopped thinking and quickly gave the order.
A series of small flags of different colors and shapes were donned above the masts, this was a new type of semaphore communication that was improved to match linear tactics. Through the semaphore, Tirpitz’s orders were quickly communicated to each ship.
The fleet was now located in the northwest of the harbor, and Tirpitz ordered the fleet to move towards the west harbor. ……
The pirates had a total of 18 ships, they tacitly lined up in a kind of inverted V shape, which was easy to spread out into a horizontal line as well as easy to turn into a two-way column, and the flagships that Zod and Nathan were riding on were located in the hollow of the V shape in order to control the whole situation, and they also had a simple set of flag signals to use for command.
The spires of the V formation pointed toward the Northwest Fleet in the distance, and despite the unfavorable winds, the fleet slowly approached each other, propelled by human engines.
At this moment, at the bow of the pirate flagship, Nathan’s eyes were open and round, looking straight towards the northwest direction, seemingly in a daze, but if one looked closely at his eyes, one would realize that there was a slight flicker of light at his pupils.
Pirate leader Zod rubbed his hands beside him and asked cautiously, “Lord Mage, how is the enemy’s situation?”
Nathan closed his eyes and panted slightly, as if he had just jogged for a while.
After his breath steadied, he opened his eyes and said, “Six sailing ships are in the front and six oar boats are in the back, they are in a line and are heading towards West Harbor.”
“A horizontal line?”
“The kind where the heads and tails are connected …… I suppose it’s a longitudinal line, isn’t it?”
The tactics of naval warfare in this era are basically of two kinds: one is ramming, using the huge ramming horns mounted on the front of the battleships to target the fragile side waterline of the enemy ship, destroying the hull and keel through ramming, causing it to take on water and sink or lose its ability to navigate, using the oars to bring about agility to allow the battleships to make precise ramming and to be able to quickly retreat after the collision in order to avoid being dragged down by the damaged enemy ship; The second is the gangway battle, using their own ship’s side close to the enemy’s side, before contact with the hook and rope hooked to the enemy ship, and then put up a springboard, sailors through the springboard and the enemy to start a white-knuckle battle.
Naval battles at this time usually began as ramming battles and ended with a gangway battle. When the ships of both sides were close to each other and could not hit each other exactly, or one side took action to avoid being hit at the last moment, or caused a collision but the other side was not injured, due to the proximity of the two sides, they had to be killed through a gangway battle to determine the winner.
In order to be able to deploy forces, so that more of their own ships into the enemy ships, the fleet is generally lined up in a row or more rows across the line, the combat parallel to the enemy, this time it is very much a test of the sailors or oarsmen skills, if the two neighboring ships are too close to each other, their wooden pulp will be knocking each other, if too far away, the enemy ship will be the gap between the two ships into the.
As for the long serpentine column, it was generally used on long voyages.
“Haha! This bunch of fools!” The pirate leader Zod laughed out loud.
“Are they waiting to be cut in two by us with this formation? Guess they still think we’re still nestled inside the harbor.”
“Oh, right!” Zod slapped his head, “They don’t have the kind of divine skill that you and Lord Edward have that allows them to see a thousand miles with their eyes. This kind of powerful force is just too useful on an endless sea.”
Nathan smiled and asked, “So, Captain Zod, have you already thought of a strategy against the enemy?”
“Of course!” Zod said contemptuously, “I’ll go around their flanks and then assault their center part, cutting their fleet in two, sinking the oarships first, then dealing with the slow sailing ships, which must have poor maneuverability without oarsmen.”
“Those six oar-boats are not to be had, but those six sailing ships I will present to Lord Edward as trophies.”
(End of chapter)