Iron Powder and Spellcasters Chapter 70

  Chapter 70 The Golden Lion Galley

At the same time that the person outside the cabin opened the door, the steel cone left Winters' hand.

  No one expected that someone would open the door at this time, Winters and Bud shouted at the same time.

  If you dodge after hearing their reminder, it will definitely be too late. The people outside the door took action before the two of them made a sound, and their bodies avoided the flying sharp weapon and resolved the danger.

   The sharp little thing flew out the door and nailed it to the wooden partition opposite the hatch. The person outside the door reached out and pulled it out, took it into the cabin, and said with a smile, "What? You landlubbers want to fight with our navy?"

Winters jumped out of the bed, stepped over to the other side, held the other's shoulders, and said fearfully, "Fortunately you responded quickly, Cage, fortunately. It's great that I didn't hurt you, and I'll never be in the cabin again. Play like that."

   Glory apprentice officer Cage returned the steel cone to Winters and said with a smile: "If you want to hurt a naval officer, you can't rely on such a small toy."

   "Okay, what you say it is, it is what it is." Winters also smiled and lay back on the bed.

   Bud greeted Cage and asked, "You don't have to be on duty?"

   "Anchor down for a shift, now it's my turn to rest." Cage yawned wearily and lay back on the bunk below Bud.

  This room has a total of four beds. In addition to the three warrant officers Winters, Bud and Andre, there is also a naval trainee officer.

   However, a navy trainee officer is completely different from an army trainee officer like Winters. Cage is far more senior than the three roommates.

   Winters, Bud, and Andre were freshmen out of military academy, while Cage was a midshipman on the Glory at the age of twelve and had been on board for eight years. Army officers with the same qualifications have long been promoted to lieutenant, but Cage is only one of the eleven apprentice officers on board.

   This is because the officer systems of the navy and the army are basically two systems and do not correspond.

  Compared to the strict ladder structure of the rank system of the Alliance Army, the rank system of the Alliance Navy is very flat. There are only three ranks of officers on a ship: Captain, Lieutenant, and Midshipman.

   Among them, the official officers are only captains and adjutants, and the midshipmen are the same as those of the Army Warrant Officers such as Winters, higher than sailors and soldiers, but lower than regular officers.

   In the Army, both Captain and Lieutenant are only lieutenants, the former being the third lieutenant rank and the latter being the second lieutenant, and officers of these two ranks command a centurion of up to eighty men.

   But in the navy, the Captain is the captain, the supreme authority of a warship. Lieutenant is the captain's adjutant, below one person and above all others.

  The force that the captain can command depends on the ship. The Glory has thirty artillery pieces and a crew of more than 500 people. Her captain is at least a colonel in the army.

   And the fat captain on the Skua is also a Captain. The Skua has only a mere twenty sailors, and the fat captain is not even a warrant officer in the army.

   But in the view of the navy, the captain of the Glory and the captain of the Skua belong to the same captain class in theory, and no one needs to salute the other first.

  Because of this huge difference, the Veneta Army and Navy simply ignored each other's rank and everyone went their own way. A warrant officer like Winters doesn't need to salute even when he sees an admiral, and the same goes for the navy.

  If you want to be an officer in the Veneta Navy, you must first have a good background, and secondly you must have a guarantee. With these two, you can get on the ship and become an officer candidate. After that, they have to work hard to get their qualifications until the Naval Headquarters approves them as warrant officers. When can you be a captain? That would have to start with a ship without a captain.

   Although the senior officer of Cage is much older than the three Warrant Officers, he never puts on the air of the old-timer. He has a very easy-going personality and tells Winters a lot of knowledge about the ship. In addition, the four of them were of similar age, so they quickly became acquainted and got along very happily.

   "By the way, starting from this anchorage, next time you should have a day off at Lighthouse Harbor. You can also take a rest then." Cage covered his head with a pillow and said listlessly.

   "What?" Winters sat up all of a sudden: "Get off the boat?"

   Life on a boat is like being in jail and getting seasick. But there was no joy in Winters' tone when he heard that he was about to disembark.

   "Yes, disembark and rest, it is estimated that it will be docked for a day or two."

   "Have just set off for two days and are going to rest on the shore?" Bud stuck his head out from the top bunk and asked inexplicably, "Aren't we going to go straight to the Taniria Islands without stopping?"

   Winters also joked: "We landluckers haven't complained yet, how come your navy has to dock to rest first?"

   "Where are you guys living in the officer's cabin suffering?" Cage couldn't sleep either, and sat up laughing and crying: "And you can still eat hot food, is this still suffering?"

   "We didn't take a day off when we took the boat from Guitocheng back to Veneta."

   "What boat are you on?"

   "Well, I don't know what kind of ship it is." Winters asked, thinking back to the Skua and saying, "It's the Skua. It's a small ship with three masts."

   "I see, how many people are on the Skua?"

   "The crew is about 20 people, plus more than 50 of us."

"If there is only one ship, the Glory, the Glory can go straight to the archipelago without a single shore. The galleon can do this, but the galley can't." Cage lay back on the bed weakly: "If you want to know why, When the ships at the back arrive, I will show you a look when I go to deliver the chart, and you will understand."

  —cut—

  The navy's carefully selected anchorage is shaded by an unnamed island, and the ships of the fleet maintain a safe distance and disperse anchors in this natural haven.

   A boat was brought to the surface from the Glory, and Winters followed Cage down the rope ladder to the boat.

  Cage was clutching a wooden box in both hands, which contained the chart and the next destination of the fleet.

   In order to ensure that the fleet's course is not leaked, the captains of other ships, except for the senior officers on the flagship Glory, can only get the location of the next anchorage each time they regroup. This way even if individual ships are captured, the enemy does not know the route of the entire fleet.

  Although the target of the revenge fleet is huge, it is not so easy to accurately intercept this fleet on the vast ocean.

   Four sailors paddle hard, accompanied by the sound of oars slapping the water. The boat turned away from the Glory and slid in the rolling waves towards another galley, the Golden Lion.

   In the afterglow of the setting sun, Winters looked at the galley in front of him.

  The Golden Lion is not a pure paddle boat, nor a pure sailboat, but a product of pragmatism. I want both oars and sails.

  Compared to the "shoulders and big shoulders" Glory, in order to arrange more paddlers, the hull of the Golden Lion is narrower and slender. The whole ship is relatively low, with only one deck, and only one floor at the bow and stern.

   There are no gun ports on the sides of the hull, only dense oars. Recalling the arrangement of the Fortune, Winters speculated that the guns of the Golden Lion should have been arranged in the bow and stern along the hull.

   "Why is this ship's freeboard so low?" Winters patted Cage on the shoulder from behind and asked, "Is it not a loss in war?"

  Although he only had one naval battle experience, Winters also understood a truth: the side with the higher ship naturally has an advantage.

  Because of this, the building of the warship will be built higher and higher, and finally it will look like a castle on a deck.

   Glory not only has a higher freeboard than the Golden Lion, but also has a three-story ship building. The sailors of the Golden Lion are facing the Glory, which is equivalent to facing a city wall. To attack the Glory from the Golden Lion, the Glory must be attacked from the back, but the Glory can easily deal with the Golden Lion.

"Of course it's a disadvantage, so the newly built warships are round ships now, and the Golden Lion is an old ship built more than ten years ago." Cage turned around and explained to Winters patiently: "And the Golden Lion also has My own advantages, although I suffer from a loss in the battle, are not to the point of being unusable. The Golden Lion is very flexible."

   "Indeed, sailboats can only be in a hurry when there is no wind." Winters said, recalling the naval battle he experienced.

"Actually, I think the design of the warships is too extreme now, just like those cavalrymen who wrapped their horses and horses in iron plates in the end." After chatting about his favorite topic, Cage suddenly became interested, and he pointed to The Glory and Winters commented: "The Glory looks mighty, but it is actually very bulky. The ship building is too high, so the center of gravity is unstable, and I dare not place too many artillery pieces in the ship building. Moreover, the ship building is also high. Disadvantages, large windward side, difficult steering..."

   "But the ship is tall, isn't there an advantage in naval battles?" Winters asked weakly. This was a field he didn't understand, so he was very unconvinced.

Cage slapped his thigh: "That's why I say extreme, like those knights with full body plate armor. In hand-to-hand combat, the stronger the armor, the better the advantage, so in the end those nobles wrapped themselves in the iron plate. But if the enemy What about hand-to-hand combat and use of muskets? The same is true for naval battles. In order to have an advantage in the battle, the ship building has been built higher and higher. The Glory is a warship that has reached its extreme level, but what if the enemy doesn't take it? "

   "If you don't fight overboard...how do you fight at sea?"

   never pretends to understand, but asks if he doesn't understand. This is one of the good habits Winters learned from Antonio. Collision tactics have gradually declined. For nearly a thousand years, the way of naval warfare has been that two ships approach each other first, sailors shoot each other with bows and muskets, and finally the jumping gang battle is finalized. Winters really couldn't think of any other way.

   "With artillery." Cage replied firmly: "Sink these bulky ships directly from a long distance."

   Winters chuckled: "Isn't there an artillery on the ship now? And just relying on the accuracy of the artillery, on the bumpy sea, let alone long distances, it would be difficult to hit other ships 50 meters away."

"The artillery on the ship, except for the large-caliber short-barreled gun and the rotating gun, can only be used at close range." Cage explained eagerly: "Think about it, with a nimble and flexible ship carrying a long-barreled gun, it can only be used at a distance. You can't shoot from the side. A big ship like the Glory can't catch up and can't hit it, so it can only be beaten. It's a pity that the navy's bosses are old and stubborn, and they don't want to make progress at all. They just like the mighty big ship like the Glory. , the funds are all used to build this kind of high-rise round boat!"

  Cage punched his thigh angrily.

"I don't know about the naval battle, but there was a similar battle on land. In the Battle of Kalai, the infantry of the ancient empire couldn't catch up with the cavalry of Paraty, and were demoralized by bows and arrows, and finally harvested by heavy cavalry." Winters Jokingly said: "If I become a military governor in the future, I will use all the military expenses of the navy to build you the ship you want."

  Cage was also laughed at, he smiled and said: "If I become a military governor in the future, I will also use your army's military expenses to build ships for our navy."

   Winters laughed: "It's a deal... In fact, I have always admired people with new ideas like you. I can't, I will only learn from you."

Cage shook his head again and again, waved his hand and said, "No, no, I didn't come up with it. These are Captain Speyer's theories, I'm just parroting... Captain Speyer is the captain of the Golden Lion, you come with me this time. Just in time to meet him."

   During the conversation, the boat rowed to the side of the Golden Lion. The rope ladder was dropped from the boat, and Winters followed Cage onto the Golden Lion.

   The chat on the road made him almost forget the purpose of coming here. But after boarding the ship, Winters immediately remembered what he was doing on the Golden Lion.

   He instantly understood why Cage said: "The galley must be docked every two days. You can see it when you go to the boat."

   On the open deck of the Golden Lion in front of him, there were so many people sitting there that there was not even a place to stand.

   The open deck is divided into two layers, roughly convex. In the middle is the upper platform, which is obviously the soldiers of the navy, there is no space for them to lie down, they can only rest on each other.

   The decks on both sides near the ship's sides are the lower layers of the convex structure. The deck here is more than one meter lower than the middle deck. This is where the paddlers sit. This construction allows the rower to be positioned lower than the soldier in the middle so that it does not prevent the soldiers from using ranged weapons.

   The unkempt, sallow-faced oarsmen were chained to the sides of the oars, each driven by three or four oarsmen. The paddlers didn't even have room to move, and they didn't look any different from the slave paddlers on the Luck.

   Even when the deck was open, Winters could still smell a stench. The Golden Lion, which was crowded with people, was like a transport ship that was transporting livestock. People were crowded together like livestock, unable to move. There is no human dignity on this ship.

  Leaving Winters in a place like this, he couldn't last an hour.

   "Why so many people? How many people are in this ship?" Winters asked Cage in shock.

  Cage asked back: "How many people are on the Glory?"

   "About two or three hundred people?" Winters was also not sure.

Cage said with a blank expression: "The Glory originally had more than 500 crew members. In order to make your stay more comfortable, now there are less than 400 people including you. The people on the Golden Lion and the people on the Glory now. It's almost the same, about four hundred people."

"This... This ship is so much smaller than the Glory, and it actually holds four hundred people? How can these people bear it?" Winters was shocked by the harsh living conditions of the crew of the Golden Lion. The Glory is not only larger than the Golden Lion. Large, with multiple decks. The vast majority of people on the Golden Lion were crowded on the open deck.

Cage seemed to have long been accustomed to the cruelty of life at sea, and said indifferently: "They are not people, they are sailors. But even sailors can't last a few days on this kind of boat, so they have to go ashore every two days to rest. The galley is essentially a fortress floating on the sea, and its self-sustaining power is extremely poor. More than half of the warships in our fleet are such galleys. For us, the importance of seizing a transit port is far greater than destroying the enemy's battle. ferry."

   "What if it's raining? There isn't even anything to cover your head."

   "Endure."

   "What about these paddlers? Why lock them up?"

"They are all criminals, and no free man is willing to be a rower." Cage walked in front and replied without turning his head: "There is no need to pity them, they have committed crimes to end up like this. It's better to be pardoned before you die, than to die in prison, right?"

Winters was silent. He followed behind Cage, looking for a place to stay between the oarsmen's limbs, and walked towards the poop, which should be the best place for the ship. The captain always lived in the environment. The best place.

   suddenly hugged Winters' calf with both hands, a rower who seemed to have lost his mind, prayed in a vague voice: "Be kind, give me some water, please."

  Cage, who was walking in front, turned around and saw a oarsman grabbing Winters' leg, and suddenly became furious: "How dare you! You are courting death!"

   said, he pulled out his navy machete and turned back, the rower in front of him desperately avoided him, making a way for Cage to come out.

Others around    were also alerted. The soldiers of the navy stuck their heads out from the high platform in the middle to watch, whispering to each other, but no one came to stop them. Under such poor living conditions, the only reason the people on board did not mutiny was military law. As a prisoner, the paddlers attacked the officer, and Cage could behead him.

   "Don't..." Winters raised his hand to stop Cage, who was carrying a machete to help him clear the siege: "This man... I know him."

  Cage froze in place.

   Winters looked at the oarsman's face and asked uncertainly, "Gold, Good Luck Gold, Captain Luck, is that you?"

  Gold, who was knocked out by Leighton with the hilt of his sword, shuddered when he heard the words "Captain of the Good Luck" and burst into tears.

   Although there have been other new types of ships, the galley was the workhorse of the Mediterranean until the sixteenth century. The main reason is that this inland sea environment is more suitable for the use of galleys, and there is historical inertia. The life of the paddlers was very hard, and all countries except Venice, which were mainly free men, were criminals or slaves. In 1522, the Venetians openly recruited 6,000 oarsmen, and the benefits were: life-long exemption from poll tax, provision of firearms training, permission to carry weapons in Venice, and service on galleys during and after Do not have to be enforced for six months.

   Thanks for the time: Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, thank you. Thanks to the book friend Yuan Hongjian for the recommendation ticket, thanks to the book friend writersblock for the recommendation ticket, thanks to the book friend 161120205836216 for the recommendation ticket, thanks to the book friend Kekkkk for the recommendation ticket, thanks to the book friend for the recommendation ticket that I don't know what it is called, thank you everyone.

   (end of this chapter)

Chapter end