Chapter 105 Oil

With Yu Xiaotian's order, the sea wolf troops immediately made preparations. According to the arrangement of the logistics department, the ships that returned to Nanri Island were moored near the dock one by one and began to receive supplies in turn.

The sailors on vacation on the island were also ordered to immediately return to the dock to report and return to their respective ships. The sailors of each ship, led by the captain and the first mate, to conduct the final inspection before sailing.

This time, Yu Xiaotian did not send anyone to command the fleet for him, but decided to personally lead the fleet to Chicken Clang Bay to command this battle against the Spaniards.

While others were busy preparing for the voyage, Yu Xiaotian gathered the captains of the fleet in his council room to discuss the battle plan.

Recently, many ships in the fleet have been sent to various seas to strengthen their control over the sea. In addition, many raiders have been sent to operate on the two Guangdong seas. In addition, there are also newly established fishing grounds that require ship patrol protection, so the number of ships that the sea wolf can gather in a short time is not very large. Many.

In three days, the number of ships returned to Nanri Island by each fleet was only 40, including some flying fast ships that had just been entered.

Although these newly launched flying-shaped fastships have been equipped, the sailors on board have not finished their training and have not yet completed their running-in with the ships. However, considering the particularity of this battle, these flying-shaped fastships will play a decisive role in the battle situation, so these ships have also been ordered to participate. This operation.

In order to ensure that the new crew of these ships would not make serious mistakes in wartime, Yu Xiaotian ordered other mature sailors of flying fastboats to allocate part of these new ships to strengthen their strength.

In fact, Yu Xiaotian had already known that sooner or later the sea wolf would have a maritime conflict with Europeans, whether the Spanish or the Dutch, so in the past year, he had discussed with his men many times how to deal with these European fleets or warships.

For this reason, they also took the two-masted sailboat as a hypothetical enemy, conducted many simulated battles at sea, and grouped the flying fast ships as a hypothetical enemy, allowing the sea wolf fleet to simulate fighting with it, so that the sea wolf crew could gain some experience in fighting with a single ship or fleet of Western-style warships.

And according to the results of several simulated battles, they have also formulated some tactics to deal with them, so when they decided to fight this time, they were not in a hurry. After a simple discussion, Yu Xiaotian decided on the battle plan for the Battle of Chickenlong wan this time.

Among the fleet sent by the Spaniards to Jilong Bay this time, there are several large ships that act as the main force. These large splint ships have strong firepower, and are tall and fast. The hulls are strong. With ordinary Chinese ships, even the No. 2 Fu ship, they have become a small witch in comparison, both firepower and the hull. It is an absolute disadvantage.

Therefore, if they want to take a jump battle, the outcome will certainly not be very good and difficult to work. The only thing they can rely on is the advantage of the number of ships. If they concentrate their firepower to hit some of the main ships first, they would rather pay a certain price than sink or injuring them, making them lose their combat ability.

Therefore, if they don't go this time, once they appear on the battlefield, they must give a thunder blow to the Spanish fleet and directly kill several of their main warships to have the possibility of winning.

Fortunately, they now have some flying fastboats, which can be used as a magic weapon to defeat the enemy. These flying fastboats have high flexibility and speed advantages. Although their firepower is not as good as the enemy's main ships, they can easily contain the boats brought by the Spaniards with the team and hit their boats first. Drop.

In this way, as long as these boats are killed first, it is equivalent to stripping off the clothes of the Spanish fleet. Although they seem to be still very powerful, the remaining main warships have clumsy shortcomings. Next, the sea wolves can completely use the advantage of quantity to drown them alive. As long as they are separated, he They are basically like women who have been striped naked, and they can do whatever they want.

For Yu Xiaotian's arrangement, Ma Xiao, Liu Yidao, one-eyed dragon, Luo Xianbin and other generals of a dry water master all agreed on this. This is the best tactic they have come up with after repeated drills. In addition to doing so, they have no better way now.

In addition, Yu Xiaotian also emphasized that the waves will suffer considerable losses in this battle, and the losses will not be too small, whether it is people or ships.

But the sea wolf sailors are really a very valuable property for the sea wolf. Yu Xiaotian never treats his subordinates as items that can be consumed at will, allowing them to be consumed.

So in this battle, he asked the fleet to be accompanied by a considerable number of speedboats, which are mainly human rowing boats such as long dragons and fast pulp.

Although some of these ships have sails, the main power is still human paddle or rowing. Although the firepower is very weak, each boat can only be loaded with a six-pound gun or a 12-pound short cannon at the bow position, but it is quite flexible in the battlefield, which is a good way to restrain large ships.

These boats can suddenly rush out of the fleet in a melee and attack the enemy's big splint ships. Seawolves now have a lot*.

And now*, it is not all about the use of fish oil or whale oil. At the end of last year, a batch of oil ordered by Yu Xiaotian from the Portuguese finally arrived after more than half a year.

The Portuguese don't know why the sea wolf is so interested in this kind of thing. It smells very good and smells bad. It can neither eat nor make anything else. It seems to be of great use except that it can be burned, but the sea wolf asked them to find a way to get some at a high price.

Portuguese are now very satisfied with the sea wolf as a customer. Originally, they didn't sell much things to the Chinese. They had to search for silver everywhere to buy things from the Chinese people. Now the sea wolf does business with them, but is willing to buy their things. Although oil is not easy to deal with and the value is not very high, However, the sea wolf needs it, and they can also make money, so these Portuguese still try their best to get some for the sea wolf.

These sticky things were packed in some large wooden barrels, and this time more than a dozen tons were transported to the sea wolf.

Yu Xiaotian did not use these oil as fire oil immediately after receiving them. After all, this thing is not very easy to ignite if it is not refined, so he got a set of extremely simple equipment on Nanri Island and simply refined it. In the way of distillation, some mixtures of gasoline, kerosene and diesel were refined, leaving a batch of heavy oil.

These refined oil mixtures are much better than whale oil filling*. This thing is extremely flammable and burns very fiercely. As long as it is lit, it is difficult to extinguish with general water. It is a great weapon in naval warfare, but the quantity is too small. This thing is really not easy to deal with, and the price is very high at all. It can fully meet the needs of sea wolves. Although Yu Xiaotian asked the Portuguese to continue to provide them, it is difficult to guarantee a lot of such things.

So these oils are naturally very precious and are carefully stored in glass bottles. This time, part of them were taken out and handed over to the fleet as a sharp weapon against Spanish warships.

When refining this thing, it is very wasteful and dangerous. Yu Xiaotian personally supervised his craftsmen to refine it under normal pressure. If you are not careful, it may cause a fire or explosion. Finally, you can get such an indescribable petroleum product. This thing can be said to be It was obtained at great risk, so it seems precious. Generally speaking, Yu Xiaotian is reluctant to take it out and use it.

As for the remaining heavy oil, although it can also be filled and used, considering that they don't have enough paint to paint the ship at present, and these heavy oil can be applied to the bottom of the ship, which has strong adhesion and can play a good waterproof effect. In addition, it can also reduce the attachment of marine organisms to the bottom of the ship and prolong the clearance of the ship. Time to take care of the bottom of the boat.

In addition, heavy oil is also a good fuel for steelmaking, which has a great calorific value. Considering that he may go to the earth steelmaking furnace for steelmaking in the future, this thing is also a good addition of fuel and can improve the furnace temperature. Therefore, the remaining heavy oil extracted has also been properly stored. On the one hand, it is used to smear the bottom of the ship. It can prevent sea maggots from eroding the hull and reduce the attachment of marine organisms. On the other hand, it can be used as fuel after the horse on the earthmaking steelmaking road.

In short, these things are not something that can be thrown away casually, and they have been completely used by Yu Xiaotian.

Although Yu Xiaotian began to prepare as soon as he heard the news, after all, it is impossible for the fleet to stay on Nanri Island every day, waiting for the Spanish to come to come, so even if he began to gather warships as soon as he got the news, in this time and space, such communication means and navigation speed still need a For a period of time.

From the time he began to gather the fleet and finally made preparations for departure, it took six days to basically complete the assembly and replenishment and be ready to set sail.

Xiaotian is not too worried that Fort Keelung will be captured by the Spaniards, because the overall defense facilities there have been basically been perfected. Although the left-behind ships are certainly not the opponents of the Spaniards, it is unlikely that the Spaniards will want to capture Fort Keelung.

There is not much difference in the quality of firearms. At most, the Spaniards have some advantages in the number and caliber of the fleet's artillery, but in terms of artillery quality, the sea wolf has a lot of advantages. Although the flultry gun is now also in Europe It has appeared, but the tweed device is not perfect, and it is mostly a rotary type with complex structure*, with high price and complex operation, and has not been promoted.

At present, the Spaniards still use the old-fashioned musket, which is a generation behind the sea wolf's floon gun, so it is okay at sea only with the Spanish strength, but if they attack Keelung Fort, they will definitely lose their teeth, so this is also the reason why Yu Xiaotian is not in a hurry to rush to Keelung Fort to support.