Chapter 980: Boarding Action!
Behind the broadside, the Gao Family Village sailors paused for a moment, then burst into cheers. "Hahaha, we're on a divine vessel! Bestowed by the Heavenly Lord from the heavens, mundane cannons can't even scratch it!"
"What's there to be afraid of?"
"I'm ashamed of my brief cowardice just now."
"You're just a common soldier, don't talk like a scholar."
"I'm studying liberal arts to apply for officer training, what do you know?"
"Open fire! Shoot!"
The morale of the Gao Family Village militia surged.
On the other side, the Lai Dao Pirates were completely dumbfounded.
They had witnessed with their own eyes their cannonballs striking the enemy ship's broadside and simply bouncing off. This terrifying spectacle temporarily robbed their brains of the ability to think clearly.
Lai Dao Hengjiu shrieked, "What happened just now? What was that? I saw the cannonball bounce off their broadside. Tell me I saw wrong! Quickly, tell me I saw wrong!"
His subordinates stared blankly. "Lord Lai Dao, it seems you did not see wrong."
"Fool! It must have been a mistake!" Lai Dao Hengjiu roared in fury. "Charge! Boarding action! As long as we grapple one of their ships, they won't be able to fire their cannons."
The Lai Dao Pirates began to charge through the cannon fire...
The Gao Family Village cannons continued to thunder, alternating between solid shot and explosive shells in a chaotic barrage.
Solid shot tore through the Red Seal ships' hulls and decks, riddling their vessels with gaping holes, while explosive shells swept across the pirates on board, turning them into piles of corpses.
However, cannons of this era were indeed limited in power. Even explosive shells relied on shrapnel to injure, incapable of inflicting devastating explosive damage to a ship's hull. They couldn't, like later artillery, blast an enemy vessel in half with a single massive explosion.
The Lai Dao Pirates endured the cannon fire, their warships riddled with holes, yet they continued to advance, lurching unsteadily towards the Gao Family Village fleet.
"They're trying to board us!" Jiang Cheng shouted. "Don't let them get close; Japanese samurai are incredibly skilled in close-quarters combat!"
The order was relayed, but the Gao Family Village helmsmen were all desperately inexperienced. During a maneuvering battle, where ships spun to bombard each other, adjusting the vessel's posture was a true art—a skill not learned on the Yangtze or Yellow Rivers.
Despite sailing twice as fast as their adversaries, they somehow managed to get their courses intercepted head-on.
Shi Lang was furious. "Aiya! How are you even steering? A fourteen-year-old like me could do better! When we get back, you'll all have to learn how to helm from me!"
He fumed, but Li Daoxuan wasn't worried. These errors were well within his expectations. Besides, Gao Family Village wasn't particularly afraid of close-quarters engagements... as long as they got close enough... *Heh heh!*
Sure enough, once they reached a certain proximity, the Gao Family Village firearms roared to life. "Bang bang bang" went the shots, a dense volley of bullets raining down on the Lai Dao Pirates.
Those Lai Dao Pirates preparing to board instantly fell in swathes.
They also had firearms, drawing their Japanese-made Tanegashima arquebuses to return fire at the Gao Family Village ships. But this exchange immediately revealed the superior and inferior.
Gao Family Village's rifled guns had longer range and higher accuracy. They were already tearing through the Lai Dao Pirates, while the pirates' Tanegashima arquebuses hadn't even reached firing range.
They could only passively endure the assault!
After taking a beating, they closed the distance slightly, and their Tanegashima arquebuses could finally open fire. But they lacked any real precision; their accuracy was vastly inferior to the rifled guns. Most bullets flew off into who knew where, and the few that struck the Gao Family Village warships' composite hulls only managed to leave small dents.
The range at which their smoothbore guns could fire was also the range from which hand grenades could be thrown.
With a flick of their wrists, Gao Family Village sailors hurled black hand grenades through the air. They landed on the Red Seal ships, and a series of explosions erupted, disorienting the Lai Dao Pirates once again.
They simply couldn't comprehend why these people from the Great Ming possessed so many chaotic explosive devices. First cannons exploded, then hand grenades; with all this blasting, no one could stand on the Red Seal ships' decks.
How could they board when they couldn't even stand on the decks?
As they drew close to the Gao Family Village ships, the Red Seal vessels became like ghost ships, not a soul visible on deck; everyone had been forced to hide in the cabins.
The idea of "boarding" naturally became impossible.
Seeing this, the Gao Family Village forces ceased fire, no longer wasting bullets and hand grenades. They stared at the Red Seal ships, which now floated stiffly beside them like dumbfounded ghost vessels, unsure what to do next.
"Our firearms can't hit them anymore; they're all hiding in the cabins."
"Should we throw grenades into their cabins?"
"No, they've even shut their hatch covers. They're turtling up."
"How about we board them instead?"
"Well..."
The sailors felt a little awkward. How had the battle devolved into this situation?
"We don't really have any experience with boarding actions!"
Li Daoxuan also didn't want his little people to engage in boarding combat. Once they entered the enemy ship's cabins, it would become close-quarters melee, where firearms and hand grenades might not be effective, and there would surely be heavy casualties among his little people.
Casualties were what Li Daoxuan disliked seeing most.
He began to ponder: *Should I personally lead the charge?*
Just as this thought crossed his mind, a strange roaring sound came from behind them. Over a dozen battered, small pirate ships were charging forward—it was the group of pirate guides they'd captured from the Zhoushan archipelago.
Their ships were slow, and they'd been rowing furiously behind. They rowed and rowed, and by the time the naval battle ahead had concluded, they finally caught up.
Such "guides" primarily sought to prove their worth, atone for their sins, and demonstrate their loyalty to their new masters. So, as soon as this group of pirates arrived, they immediately joined the fray without hesitation, charging towards the Lai Dao Pirates.
They couldn't understand Gao Family Village's self-developed flag signals and thus couldn't receive orders. For them, it was just one word: charge, and finish the job.
Seeing these men charge forward, Li Daoxuan dismissed the thought of intervening himself. *Fine, let them charge.*
And so, the Gao Family Village sailors temporarily put away their weapons and settled in to watch a brutal boarding battle unfold.
After the Zhoushan pirates swarmed aboard, the Japanese pirates who had been cowering in their cabins also dared to emerge, and a melee began on the deck.
Japanese katana against Ming broadswords!
The Japanese warriors were clearly superior in martial arts, but they had just been utterly outclassed by the Gao Family Village sailors, suffering heavy casualties and losing all morale, like startled birds. The Zhoushan pirates, however, now fought with the backing of a powerful force, their morale soaring.
Under such circumstances, the outcome was self-evident.
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