Fox of France

"Look, I have fulfilled all your requests!" Lavoisier said to Joseph, smugly patting a machine beside him.

It's a not too big machine, basically a big cast iron pot with a spout.

"How does this thing work?" Joseph asked.

"Pour fuel through this port." Lavoisier said, "The Greek fire in Eastern Rome is actually just a crude product of petroleum. As long as the petroleum is subjected to simple fractionation, you can get some very flammable products. These things It is lighter than water, so it can float on the surface of water and burn. Well, according to your suggestion, I added some sugar to it, and it really made this thing viscous a lot, so it can stick to the target and burn. If you spray Go to the other party's boat, hahahaha, there is almost no way to extinguish it except to cover it with sand, but on the boat, where did so much sand come from?"

Joseph looked at the thing carefully and asked, "How far can this thing shoot?"

"Under windless conditions, it can have a range of about sixty meters." Lavoisier replied.

"So far? How did you do it?" Joseph was taken aback.

"Of course gunpowder is used," said Lavoisier. "Use gunpowder to generate high pressure, and then use this high pressure to spray the fuel. Otherwise, how could it be so far?"

"Then can this thing be reloaded?" Joseph asked.

"Of course not. It's okay to blow this thing up with gunpowder once. If you blow it up again, you might be the one who dies. Besides, Joseph, let's make it clear that when you made the request, you didn't ask that this thing can't be used once." Sexual." Lavoisier replied without hesitation.

"Damn it! Let this old guy take advantage of me!" Joseph scolded himself in his heart.

"Then can you make a reusable version?" Joseph asked unwillingly.

"Impossible! At least, don't even think about it within the size and weight range you stipulated!" Lavoisier directly refused, "Do you think I use gunpowder as a source of pressure when I have nothing to do? Jet four Ten meters! Damn! With such a small volume, there is no other way except to use gunpowder. However, it is still possible to spray twenty or thirty meters. But if I want to do it, I have to pay more."

"Well, I think this one is not bad. It is still possible to carry two on a boat. With such two, it should be enough for a British guy to drink a pot." Joseph said immediately. Many technical difficulties of this thing have been broken through, and other types of products are left, which can be done by people with cheaper prices.

"Well, can we experiment?" Seeing that Lavoisier seemed to have the intention of continuing to pursue follow-up projects, Joseph quickly changed the subject.

Captain Morrell's clipper ship "Flower Moon" was loaded with various cargoes and was ready to sail for Ireland. Recently, there have been more and more British clipper ships in the sea near Ireland. These treacherous British guys often disguised themselves as French ships, sometimes even pretended that they had just passed through the battle, were wounded by the British, and were in urgent need of help, tricked the French clipper ship into approaching, and then launched an attack.

But Morrell was not too worried about this trick, because since the Dutch one-eyed dragon suffered a loss last time, all the captains of the French clipper ships going to Ireland have a small book in their hands. The small book records the hull numbers of the ships on their side, and the corresponding signal flags they should hoist on the corresponding month and day. Because every ship is different, and the signal flags they should hoist are different every day, which makes the British camouflage almost useless.

Of course, the British can also chase them directly. After all, if you meet them on the way to Ireland, their ships are lighter at this time, and it will not be easy to get rid of them. If it weren't for the fact that the British were not familiar enough with this kind of ship, so that they couldn't give full play to the performance of this kind of ship in many cases, then by now, the French's loss was not just the point of being thrown into the sea to reduce weight The goods are gone.

Just as the Huayue was about to leave the pier, a carriage came beside the ship. The four men showed Morrel a document from the carriage, and then they said something to Morrel, and then the four men carried two bags of solid things from the carriage onto the boat. .

After these people boarded the boat, the Huayue left the pier and sailed to the sea.

The four people got on the boat, took the two things to the bow and stern, and then got busy there. After most of the day, these two strange things were installed.

"What is it?" asked Morrel.

"Greek fire, have you heard of it?" A bearded man replied with a strong accent, and he should be from the Lower Rhine.

"Greek fire? That thing from Byzantium? Isn't this thing already lost?" Morel obviously knew about this period of history.

"It has reappeared in the hands of our people." The bearded man replied quite proudly, "With this, you don't have to be afraid of meeting the British."

"British people, be careful not to run into us," said another man with a missing finger on one hand.

"It's not easy to meet an Englishman," said Morel. "At least, I never did."

Maybe it was the flag raised by Morel that played a role. Well, generally speaking, it is best not to talk nonsense for those who are at sea, otherwise, problems will easily occur. For example, someone says, "Even God couldn't sink this boat," and God sends an iceberg.

On the second day after Morrell finished speaking this sentence, early in the morning, the sun had just risen above the sea, and the lookout post of the Huayue issued an alarm: "Spotted a clipper ship, thirty degrees to starboard!"

Captain Morrell rushed to the deck, raised his binoculars and looked over there, and sure enough, he saw a clipper ship approaching.

"Hull number 15, Edward, check what signal flag this ship should hoist today?" Captain Morrell said to the mate.

"From front to back, it should be yellow, then blue, and the highest point should be green." The first officer replied.

"Oh, the British. They are indeed coming." Captain Morel shook his head.

"Are they British?" At this time, the four people who had just boarded the ship just before departure also climbed from the cabin to the deck.

"Yes, an Englishman," answered Morrel. Although I have a secret weapon on my side, but after all, it is better not to fight if there is no fight.

"Are they approaching us?" said the bearded man.

"Yes, they put up a flag to ask us for help. Hehe, they still want to deceive us." Morel said.

"Come up, keep a distance of about 50 meters, let's send them a guy. Your boat is not as fast as theirs, and you may not be able to escape if you just run. Why don't you just pretend to be fooled, and then take advantage of their unpreparedness and give them a hard blow?" them."

Morel thought for a while, and then asked: "Is your thing reliable?"

"Don't worry, this thing is awesome." The bearded man said, "We have experimented many times."

So Morrell asked Huayue to go up to it, and took the initiative to slow down the speed.

The boat over there also slowed down. The distance between the two boats was getting closer and closer, and soon they were less than a hundred meters away.

"Shout in their direction, ask them what's the matter, numb them," said Morel.

So a sailor shouted over there: "What happened to you?"

"We met the British, the doctor on the ship died, and some people were injured, can your doctor come and help?" The people over there also replied in French.

"It's French, it's quite similar." The man who lost a finger said, "Hadock's accent is more standard."

"Better than my standard accent? Are you complimenting him or mocking him?" The bearded man smiled indifferently.

"Okay, come closer!"

While talking and laughing, the distance between the two boats continued to approach from less than 100 meters to less than 50 meters, and then to less than 40 meters.

At this moment, the bearded man tore off the canvas covering the flamethrower installed on the bow of the ship, revealing the flamethrower, and then with a scream, a long fire dragon crossed the sea, heading towards the The British Clippers swooped in.

In just a blink of an eye, the British ship became a sea of ​​flames.

"Full sail! Steer three!" Morel ordered hastily.

Now that he has ignited the British ship, the most important thing is to quickly keep a distance from the British, so as not to bump into them head-on.

However, this danger is actually not great, first of all because the attack was completely beyond the expectations of the British. Secondly, the effect of this attack is really outstanding. The fire caused by the large amount of viscous oil also ignited the sails of the British ship. It also made it difficult to maneuver the boat.

A little further away, we saw the British trying to put out the fire with buckets of seawater at first. But this effort had the opposite effect. The fuel floated on the water and flowed with it, igniting more places. The fire was out of control in the blink of an eye. The British began to jump from the boats into the sea one by one. When many people jumped into the sea, orange flames were already burning on their bodies.

The fire burned quickly, and after a while, several masts of the ship broke in the fire and fell down. Then came the hull, which soon fell apart in the fire.

"What about the Englishmen?" asked Morrel, pointing to some English sailors struggling hard at sea.

"To hell with them!" said the bearded man.

"It's not good to leave them alone," said Morel. "Anyway, we're going to Ireland soon, and when we get to Ireland, just hand them over to the Irish."

"Ah, that's it." The bearded man said, "Well, I have no objection to this approach. However, I think from humanitarian considerations, you might as well not save them."