The Countess Scarborough had been moving next to the high corner, and it was slowly moving down the tide into the bay, and at the same time it continued to fire cannonballs, and those white beams of light were always shining on the ship, and the Orientals on the shore had obviously taken his ship as the main target, and the shells kept flying towards him, but fortunately the enemy had no heavy artillery, and the sturdy oak hull of the Spanish galleon withstood most of the shells, and only a few shells pierced the ship's plank. But the shells killed and wounded many sailors, and the deck was littered with severed hands and heads and bleeding in the drains. Aragonés couldn't stand it anymore: if he didn't replenish the Chinese sailors on the spot, he would probably have to go back to Manila.

"This devil's pillar of light!" Aragonés looked at the cursed voice, "Haven't you done it yet?" He asked Li Siya again. Her usually calm face was also a little spasmodic. In addition to the artillery fire of the Spaniards, Liu Xiang invested a lot of money this time, and all the people and horses who landed were old bandits, many of whom were outlaws and deserters of the official army and sailors. In her experience, the firepower of the Countess Scarborough is unparalleled along the coast of China, although in a naval battle it may not be as he boasted that Liu Xiang can be extinguished, but it is not a problem to suppress the coastal firepower, and with this group of capable pirates, the ship is nine out of ten things - I did not expect that the well-planned Jihua is not much better than the fate of Zhu Cailao.

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched whistling sound in the air. The two men were startled, and a pointed bullet pierced through the side solidly, and wood chips, blood, and corpse pieces flew out of the gap, and their ears were filled with wails.

"Fire!"

With Bai Yu's command, another 70mm pointed bullet whistled out of the muzzle, and the four 70mm rifled guns on the two fishing boats that had been modified stared at the Countess Scarborough and fired in turn, and the pointed armor-piercing bullets fired by the rifled guns were several times more powerful than round bullets, and no matter how thick the oak planks were, they couldn't stop it.

The Countess Scarborough was finally unable to resist it, and the sudden appearance of the shell destroyed almost the entire bulwark of the Spanish galleon, 9 of the 16 cannons were completely unable to fire, and more than half of the gunners below deck were killed or wounded.

"Signal fireworks, retreat." Aragonés finally gave the order to retreat, although the tide had not yet begun to ebb, and it was not easy to withdraw from the harbor, but if he did not retreat at this time, he was afraid that he would never be able to withdraw again. The alliance with Liu Xiang will let it see the devil for the time being. Aragonés, who had lost his ship and had put his family on it, was penniless, and what awaited him was the wrath of the governor of Manila and the prison that his creditors had prepared for him.

"Captain, we still have a few rowboats that haven't returned—"

"Leave those filthy natives alone, turn the rudder!"

"There aren't enough sailors on the rowboat."

"Give me all the people who can move and go rowing!" Aragonés became furious, "Go! ”

Dozens of sailors slid down the cable onto the rowboat, and the Spanish galleon, propelled by the long pulp, turned the rudder with difficulty and began to retreat. Aragonés ordered the cannons that could be fired to continue firing, to suppress the enemy to some extent, and to consume more ammunition - the lighter the ship as possible when fleeing for his life.

"Devil!" He gritted his teeth and said to the huge shadow of the ship in the depths of the harbor, feeling a huge chill in his heart.

Li Siya stood beside him, she had tried to stop Aragones' retreat - as soon as he ran away, a few cannons on the five-brig ship of the Liu gang leader could not suppress the enemy, and even the ship and people had to be buried here. But now was not the time to be angry, so she grabbed the hood of her cloak and retreated unobtrusively.

The retreat of the Spaniards completely demoralized the pirates in the harbor, two of the five brigs had already been sunk by the harbor guns in the battle, and the other three saw the Spaniards fleeing and followed suit. A ship suddenly exploded as it fled, sending fireworks into the sky. The pirates on the shore were in confusion, many of them dropped their weapons and rushed to the rowing boat sampan on the beach, and at one time there was a fierce fight next to the few sampans, many people were killed, and the dinghy full of fugitives was already difficult to control in the confusion and turbulence, and when the rifles of the crossing army pursued to the sea continued to shoot, some of the dinghys capsized, and the sea was full of floating and struggling human heads. Some of the remaining people saw that the situation was not good, and fled into the nearby mangrove forests to survive.

With the gradual integration of people from all walks of life, the liaison command also became smooth, and a platoon of emergency reinforcements from Bairen City also arrived, Xi Yaya took the soldiers all the way to Bopu, and his heart was up and down, and he didn't know what was going on in the port, and he heard the sound of guns and cannons on the road, and saw searchlights dancing wildly, which was very terrifying. I'm afraid that the crossing crowd has already suffered heavy casualties.

When I arrived at the camp, although there was a mess all around, when I saw Wu De, I realized that there were twenty or thirty people injured, most of them lightly, and there were many casualties among the native laborers and soldiers.

Because the sky is not clear, the enemy and us have just been in a scuffle, and after the arrival of the men and horses from all walks of life, they are only stationed at various intersections and key points, preventing the enemy from escaping or attacking again, and waiting until the sky is bright before making a decision. Li Haiping suggested that the fishing boat should be launched, chased out of the port, and sink or simply capture the foreign boat, but everyone felt that the current situation was unclear, so they still remained on the defensive for the time being.

While they were discussing their next move, cleaning up the battlefield and treating the wounded, they suddenly heard a commotion, followed by the sound of artillery, gunfire and shouts, and after more than ten minutes, the sound stopped completely, and occasionally one or two screams were heard.

The pirates who had gathered in the mangrove forest saw that the situation was not good, and tried to rush out to escape the way, but they were slaughtered by the sailors and cannons who were waiting around them, and all of them were killed, and the wounded were also replenished with bayonets.

After one hour of fierce fighting, the fire in Bopu Harbor gradually extinguished, and only one brig that exploded was still burning and floating on the water, and various wrecks and corpses were floating on the water. More than half of the approximately 400 pirates who landed will never see the sun again. The wounded were everywhere, wailing and screaming. The medical team and the nurses from the health school were busy with the medical team and the nurses from the health school.

While sending people to extinguish the fire, Wu De also dispatched civilian workers and necessary materials from Bairen City to clean up the battlefield. He also personally went to the quarantine camp, where hundreds of men, women, and children migrated from Baitu were held, and some shells were also hit here in the round of fierce fighting just now, and the building was partially destroyed, and more than 10 people were killed or wounded. There was panic in the camp. Wu De comforted everyone, told them that it was a pirate attack, and they had repelled it, and asked the stretcher team to carry the wounded out for treatment.

After dawn, the men and horses of all walks of life began to carry out a large-scale clearance of the surrounding area, but there were not many living people left, less than fifty prisoners, and the seriously wounded did not work to fight the conscience of the crossers, and the soldiers of the new army were solved with bayonets one by one, and only those who could go to the bandaging house themselves could survive.

The members of the executive committee patrolled the beach under the escort of the navy, and everyone fought fiercely all night, and they all felt that they would not die, and many of them turned pale. On the whole, there were many fewer people vomiting as they had after the first time they had repelled the encirclement and suppression in the county, and it seemed that everyone had gradually become accustomed to the bloody scenes, but the soldiers of the New Army, although most of them were also fighting for the first time, were just as familiar with the bloody scenes—the people of this time and space had seen too many scenes of death, and they had long been accustomed to them.

Ma Qianzhuan also talked to people while walking, encouraging everyone's morale. In his opinion, a battle of this intensity is just the beginning, and there will be more severe tests waiting for them in the future.

"Commissar Ma, the battle statistics are out." The work of the Planning Commission has always been known for its precision, efficiency, and ruthlessness.

Ma Qianzhu looked at it and said to everyone: "In this battle, we have suffered serious losses." ”

The crowd fell.

"Don't be funny." Ma Qianzhuo patted the folder in his hand angrily, "If you think that the hundreds of iron knives, a few arquebuses, and a dozen leaky sampans that have been seized can be worth the 1,900 rounds of ammunition, 214 shells and hundreds of kilograms of fire we consumed?" He added, "20 soldiers of the New Army were killed, 15 laborers were killed, and 10 were seriously injured and disabled." ”

The number of casualties in Zuihou is indeed a bit shocking, the soldiers of the New Army are the seeds of their carefully trained future army, and it is really distressing to lose them like this, and the laborers can at least speak a few words of Mandarin, and they have also adapted to the way they work here, and have established a minimum of trust.

"These plagued pirates!" Li Haiping was distressed because of the heavy losses of the navy in the battle.

"You have to train some sailors yourself, are you undertrained? You have to rely on fighting a war on land—"

Before Wei Aiwen's words were finished, he saw the navy glaring at him angrily, looking like they wanted to eat him alive.

Xi Yaya saw that a fight would soon start, so he hurriedly interjected: "What are you doing now, let's review the battle well, make up for the loopholes, and see what to do in the future." ”

"The navy should be expanded to at least two companies," Li Haiping immediately proposed, "the garrison of Bopu is too heavy, the duty points are too scattered, and the batteries must be managed." ”

Ma Qianzhu stopped Wei Aiwen, who was about to speak again, and said: "The shortage of personnel in the navy must be filled immediately, and the issue of army expansion must be comprehensively considered." Let's first talk about the fortification of Bopu. ”

Bopu's defense was still weak, the number of batteries was small, and the heavy artillery was insufficient. Lingao beacon embodies its great value in the battle, not only condescendingly monitors the entire battlefield, can report the battlefield movement anytime and anywhere, and the searchlight also plays a very role in battlefield lighting. In contrast, the 12-pounder gun was much more effective. The artillery team believed that the cannon on the turret should ideally be larger than 24 pounds, and that several heavy guns cast by the traverser were limited to hoisting capacity, and could not be transported to the beacon tower, but were instead erected on the temporary artillery barrier next to the trestle, which proved to be too poor in the defensive level of the hastily built fort itself, and did not have enough infantry cover, and was quickly captured by the enemy in the battle, and more than a dozen sailors were all killed, causing the greatest casualties in this battle.

Once again, the 12-pounder mountain howitzer showed its great value. The mobility of being able to run with three or four people makes it the most reliable face-to-face weapon for traversers. Lin Shenhe pointed out that if 1~2 mountain grenades could be equipped next to the two temporary artillery forts, the forts might not be captured so quickly.

Li Di, Bai Yu and some other gunners also pointed out that there were too few types of shells, solid shells could only cause limited damage to enemy ships, and shotguns could only exert their lethality when the enemy was very close to them.

"If you don't have grenades, at least you have to have incendiary bombs, oh yes, chain bombs."

"Well, if you have a chain bomb, you can knock off the mast of the Spanish galleon this time - it can't run!"

"I don't think it's hard to remember the original incendiary bombs, right? It's just a red-hot iron ball, and it's not bad to have this, at least it can make the boat burn. ”

"In addition to the artillery, the port itself has to be fortified with some other fortifications." Li Haiping suggested, "Can we build some mines?" I know it's a bit difficult to trigger mines, but how about a visual mine? This jishu is not difficult, right? ”

"It's not small." Lin Shenhe shook his head, "Sight mine should be detonated by electricity - this is good to say, replace it with electric beads, we have enough inventory, but there are too many wires needed, relatively speaking, it is still easy to trigger thunder." Let's focus on tackling the problem. ”

After discussion, it was decided to build two additional three-story forts of masonry and cement next to the trestle. The tall body of the Fengcheng ship can also play a role similar to the Bopu beacon tower in the port, and the executive committee decided to add 1~2 rotatable heavy guns on it. Then consider setting up some blockades at the entrance to the harbor.