Struggle in the Steam Age

From the beginning to the end of the battle, Lawrence and the others only spent a little over three hours. But it took a whole day to repair the ship afterwards. During this process, another fifty or sixty pirates ran to the beach to surrender to Lawrence and the others, and were screened and imprisoned.

A day later, Lawrence and the others finally repaired the two captured ships temporarily and began to return home. Only a squad of more than a dozen people was left guarding the island with two small-caliber artillery fished out of the sunken ship.

Anyway, after the two boats on the beach were completely burnt down, Lawrence and the others took some time to install all the cannons on the two boats that seemed to be working, and they only relied on the guns carried by ordinary pirates. There is no way to pose any security threat to this small team.

On the way back, Lawrence began to discuss the gains and losses of the battle in the captain's cabin of the Enterprise. On the whole, this battle was considered very good for Lawrence and his crew, who were mostly novice crew members. But still caused some losses because of the novice.

And now Lawrence is discussing the experience and lessons of this war with the commanders who participated in the war, because he thinks that fighting is something that has never been done before, both for himself and for so many people here. It can be experienced, so only by learning wars in wars can we grow in this respect.

"Let's talk about the deficiencies you found during this battle." As the chairperson of the meeting, Lawrence was the first to speak. "Let me talk about myself first. I divided the crew into two teams during the jumping gang, but I didn't consider that after boarding the enemy ship, the two teams could only fight on their own. Effect."

"But fortunately, this time the opponent has no superhumans other than the captain, so the two commandos can defeat those pirates with the superhumans taking the lead."

This problem was only discovered during the actual operation, because Lawrence ignored the huge difference in communication between this era and the previous life when considering the mission, so it is difficult to communicate with each other even on a boat that is only tens of meters long.

After Lawrence finished speaking, everyone present felt a little surprised. Because according to the habit, most nobles often don't directly admit their mistakes but let their subordinates take the blame. Nobles like him who directly admit their own shortcomings can be said to be rare, and even give people a very unexpected feeling.

After a few seconds of silence, Safir said: "You are right, but how can everything go according to plan during a war. Even the priests of the Church of God of War repeatedly said in their sermons that War has great uncertainty, and even the gods cannot plan perfectly every time."

"But the problem you mentioned just now does exist. I think we must consider what we thought of and make up for it before the next battle. For example, we can attack with a whole team next time, or buy something that allows everyone to fight in real time." Something to keep in touch."

After Safiel finished speaking, everyone nodded in agreement. At the same time, because the two of them sang together, the others began to slowly raise their hands to speak. For example, the first person to raise his hand is Mr. Gunner. "My lord, I found some problems, can I say it now?"

"Of course, of course." Lawrence nodded with a smile on his face. "This summary meeting is to summarize these deficiencies. Only in this way can we win again in the next battle. By the way, you are Owens. If I remember correctly, you were originally a member of the family guard."

"Yes, I am Your Excellency's retainer." The gunner named Owens nodded. "I used to be a gunner on an inland gunboat on the southern front of the Holy Visby Empire. After retiring, I joined the family guard. After I came to the New World, because I was the only commander who had experience in commanding naval guns, I was appointed For the gunner aboard the Enterprise."

"Following me across the vast ocean, giving up the superior life in the past and coming to the New World is really hard for you." Lawrence asked after sighing. "Owens, tell me what's your opinion?"

"That's right, Your Excellency. In this naval battle, each artillery position basically fired on its own, so the distribution of the artillery's weaknesses is very messy. The most important thing is that although these shells hit the opponent's hull, although it looks Created a large number of wounds on the opponent's hull, but did not hit the vital point."

"I thought about it afterwards, and felt that this time it was purely because we were lucky. The opponent's ship did not have enough manpower to manipulate the artillery because most of the pirates went ashore, so we did not encounter the opponent's artillery counterattack. But if we face that Such an enemy with powerful firepower will definitely suffer.”

"That's right." Lawrence said loudly. "It's very good to give opinions like Owens. This straight-talking style is the purpose of our discussion. As he said, if the enemy is not paralyzed this time, this issue is likely to Will cost us the battle. Even cost us great sacrifices."

After the praise, Lawrence turned to look at Gunner Owens and asked. "Because I don't know much about the Navy, I would like to ask what you think is the cause of this problem. Is it lack of training, because everyone is new, or something else?"

"The lads on the ship have been training very seriously." Gunner Owens said a fair word. "I think the problem is mainly in the drill code. After all, our drill code is a direct copy of the drill code of the Holy Visby Empire Navy."

"Is there any problem?" Lawrence asked after a moment of stupefaction. "If I remember correctly, these drills are the active-duty drills of the Imperial Navy, and the drills of other naval powers are similar to the contents of this book."

"You're right." Gunner Owens nodded. "But the problem is that these exercises are all thirty or forty years ago, and they simply cannot keep up with the times."

Looking at the bewildered faces of most people sitting around, Owens also knew that many people were a little unclear about the navy. So further explained. "In the past, it was entirely reasonable to change the naval code every half century or so, because the ships of that age and even centuries changed very little, so there was not much change in the technology of handling ships."

"However, with the development of science and technology in the last half century, the navy's weaponry has undergone tremendous changes. From the front-mounted smoothbore gun sail warship using spherical shells, it has suddenly evolved to the rear-loading rifled gun using conical shells, and even more Not to mention that the power of the artillery and the power of the ship have changed greatly from decades ago."

"So the rules made according to the old-style ships are no longer suitable for these new-style ships." Gunner Owens concluded, "For example, each gun position is fighting independently, which is a habit left over from the era of smoothbore guns, because at that time The accuracy of the artillery was so low that it was basically impossible to shoot uniformly, and now that the artillery can meet the requirements of uniform shooting, it seems very inappropriate to follow those ancient codes."

"You're right." Lawrence decided, "After we go back, we can modify these things according to the actual situation. After all, the manual should help users, not hinder them like it is now."

After Gunner Owens made a speech and accepted it, everyone's enthusiasm was also mobilized. Then he raised more than a dozen problems found in the current battle and the previous training. All of these issues have been documented and will be improved in the days to come.