087 Fleet of Fear(1)
The Ottoman Navy announced its ambition to annihilate the enemy with an army of 12,000 men.
The command from the Empire was ‘Annihilate and plunder the enemy’.
It was said that all the materials captured in this battle were the responsibility of the soldiers.
As a matter of fact, looting is a potion that stimulates human nature, and the morale of the soldiers was literally skyrocketing.
“Let’s smash the enemy!”
“Oooh… … !”
Shouts echoed in all directions like a tidal wave, and the soldiers checked their matchlock guns and aligned their cannons.
The distance from the enemy was 3 km away, and as the enemy ships became more and more clearly visible, the soldiers shouted more whale whales to overcome the tension.
No matter how much he risked his life to collect the loot, the fear of fear only made humans infinitely weak.
Some of them vomited because they could not overcome the tension, and some peed until the bottom of the hull was wet.
Nevertheless, the shouts of the allies from all directions were encouraging them like drugs.
“The enemy is advancing!”
“Get in line! Fix your artillery and hold onto your positions!”
The commanders swung their batons in unison, and the soldiers and slaves followed him and formed a line.
Ottoman soldiers regrouping and checking their positions over and over again.
The commanders gave them good news.
“The wind is turning against us. Even the wind is on our side, and we will be victorious in battle.”
“iced coffee… … !”
“It means that Allah is with us. So, soldiers of Allah, be strong!”
The Ottoman Empire believed that no matter how much the army was equipped with new weapons, it would not be able to resist the wind.
Besides, the enemy was advancing in a straight line stupidly.
It was a strategy reminiscent of the HMS Victory in the Battle of Trafalgar.
The Ottoman commanders snorted.
“Crazy. How can you launch a breakthrough tactic with such a heavy ironclad ship? It is clear that the commander of the opposing team is either crazy or ignorant of tactics.”
In the Battle of Trafalgar, the British navy, which was outnumbered, was able to crush the combined French and Spanish fleets thanks to its skilled sailing skills and excellent performance cannons.
The British cannon, which was able to break through headwinds and had superior performance than the Allied Forces, combined and played an active part in the center of the enemy line, and Horatio Nelson was victorious.
However, the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea here is a place where the currents are quite strong and the wind direction changes frequently.
It was questionable whether even the best helmsman would be able to penetrate the torrent created by the Aegean archipelago.
However, to the Ottoman Empire, this place was like a bedroom, so they knew very well when the direction of the tide would change and what the wind direction would be.
So there was no thought at all that the Ottomans would lose the fight.
In addition, the Ottoman Empire army was determined to build a turret with five rows of cannons to arm the ships.
Even if the fleet’s cannons were sold only for scrap metal, it would be possible to buy a few large mansions.
The Ottoman army was fully prepared to be sure that they would win the battle.
“We are not just a bunch of whistle blowers! Riding a moving turret armed with five-row guns! We will surely win!”
“Wow!”
“The enemy is charging! We will pound the enemy from both sides! Let’s smash those stupid oranges!”
If the 5th row guns fire at the enemy near the edge of their range, today they will become a beehive.
Dung, Dung, Dung… … !
The signal from the flagship to stay in formation and wait for the enemy to arrive was ringing through the drums.
How long has it been so breath-taking?
The shouts of the soldiers were heard from the watchtower.
“The enemy is running! Incredibly fast!”
“Extremely fast?”
The captains took the telescopes.
Then their eyes widened.
“… … Minimum speed of 20 knots. No, maybe we can break through 25 knots.”
“Is that possible? The east wind is blowing now. The enemy is advancing through the east wind head-on.”
“I doubt that too. But the enemy is getting faster and faster.”
It was a sight that couldn’t help but doubt his eyes.
The tower was made of tall cannons that were as large as they had seen in a dream, had speed, and had never been seen before.
The hull was long and thin, unsuitable for his ignorant size, and there were no sails to be found on the well-defended ship.
“… … Is that the power line you’ve only heard of?”
I was so shocked that my jaw fell off.
One enemy seemed to wage war in a completely different way than the Ottoman Empire had expected.
“The enemy has changed the direction of the charge! It splits in two!”
“What… … ?”
“Oh, no! Enemy four, six, eight, keep dividing and forming squads!”
“What, you’re going to fight each one?”
“Enemy splits in all directions and rushes!”
“Damn it, I don’t know why. Do you really need to scatter like that in this urgent current?”
“Are you sure you want to retreat?”
The commanders could not understand at all, and carefully predicted the enemy’s retreat.
But the captains thought differently.
“… … No, if I was going to retreat, I wouldn’t be able to speed up like that. Even if the power, not the wind, pushes the ship, if the steering gear is swung too quickly, the ship will lose its center of gravity. Because that is the law of nature.”
“But are they against the laws of nature?”
The fact that there is a ship that can run steadily at a speed of over 25 knots, the Ottoman Empire had no choice but to be mesmerized.
Some of the captains already knew a little about the reality of the powered ship, but never dreamed that it would have such a great performance.
Such a fleet flexibly split like an organism and rushed towards the side of the second column of the Ottoman Empire.
“The enemy has played a player! We are advancing to the flank of our ranks!”
“… … Without firing the cannons, you hit them head first?”
There was a possibility that even the newest Dutch fleet in existence would be crushed when fired with cannons and eventually be buried.
Therefore, in recent years, it has become a trend to secure the safety of the fleet by inducing naval battles through artillery battles.
Still, I did not understand the use of this tactic at all.
But the captains had no choice.
“Yeah, it’s an iron plate. Shoot the cannons!”
“launch!”
Bubbling bubbling… … !
The fire from the five-row turrets was so spectacular that it created sea fog in sunny weather.
When the smoke of gunpowder made it impossible to tell from all sides, the soldiers thought they had won.
However, that was just an illusion.
“The enemy is charging!”
“… … what?!”
“Enemy ships are perfectly fine!”
“Huh! To say that such a monster exists, is this even reasonable?”
In an instant, the sound of the ship’s side being pierced was heard from all directions.
Eaststellar’s fleet had hit the hull of the Ottoman Empire fleet head-on with its stern.
Quazy!
It was a situation in which the word “breaking each other” would be appropriate.
The enemy did not fire a single shot, but crashed into the ship, rendering the fleet incapable of combat.
It was as if the Ottoman Empire was dreaming that all of this had happened in just 10 minutes.
boo… … !
The trumpet sounded announcing the retreat.
“Retreat from the flagship!”
“Damn it, that’s a situation where we have to break through the wind. No retreat!”
“But if you hold on like this, you will all die!”
“… … Damn it!”
The enemies were right in front of their noses, and the wind was blowing hard, like a palm shoving their faces.
Besides, the current is strong now, so it was difficult to separate the current even when the wind was good.
That was then.
“The enemy is retreating!”
“… … Are you going to retreat?”
“They didn’t pursue us, they stopped there.”
“No, what kind of harmony is this again?”
“Anyway, this is an opportunity for us!”
“Okay, let’s get out of the battlefield at full speed!”
Only six ships survived this battle, and the Ottoman navy was drowning in the cold waters.
The surviving ships had no choice but to run away from their tails without time to regroup.
About ten minutes had passed since six ships, including the flagship, fled at full speed.
No matter how fast the ship was, if this distance was widened, it could be said that the six fleets of the Ottoman Empire had survived.
“… … I almost died.”
“There are no monsters like that. To be ignorantly tearing up ships even after being hit by shells.”
“How the heck can a stern be like this?”
It is surprising to operate an ironclad ship, but it was a shock to the Ottomans to even use such an impact tactic.
But the shock did not end there.
“It’s a cannonball!”
“… … what?!”
Aww!
It was a luxury to be surprised, no, less than 0.1 seconds after hearing the sound of the shells falling, the shelling hit the stern.
However, it was not the only surprising fact.
The shell exploded as soon as it hit the hull.
A single shot shattered the wooden hull, reducing the Ottoman fleet to four.
The Ottoman navy again fled at full speed.
One bombardment continued, and the Ottoman navy was only trembling with white faces.
The pursuit and shelling continued to pour every 30 minutes, lasting for 30 hours.
When I woke up, it was the Dardanelles Strait.
You will soon reach the Sea of Marmary, where you will be able to get help from your allies.
“… … Did you live?”
“No, no. The enemy cannot hit with our cannons.”
“Well, then… … .”
“Istanbul will be a sea of fire.”
“Huh!”
“They deliberately kept us alive. It was to awaken our fears and to warn us that Istanbul was going to burn.”
“… … No, where in the world are these vicious bastards?”
“War is like that. Any means are acceptable to win the war. Perhaps they are a gentlemanly army to us. At least, it showed how ignorant we were, and didn’t we take the step of aggression?”
Eventually, the Ottoman fleet raised a white flag in front of Marmara Island and stopped the fleet.
Then I saw a black fleet approaching quietly from afar.
The huge battleship that appeared to be the flagship had a black anvil, a black hammer, and a skull with blood spattered on it.
“… … Are these the famous Blackhammer Pirates?”
People used to call the Dutch mercenaries the pirates.
Why the mercenary corps, which received royal approval, are called pirates, the regular soldiers did not know yet.
But now they know exactly.
They were hunters who could hunt humans.