The two Stirling engines suddenly let out a roar, and the air pressure in the high-pressure gas tank increased rapidly until the high-pressure valve made a sharp whistle.

"Forward three! Full! ”

Li Sanduo shouted in the microphone.

Suddenly, the slender hull of the Pride immediately let out a slight tremor and began to slowly accelerate......

"Your Excellency! The four-color flag! She's moving! ”

"Oh my God, I don't rely on sails and oars!"

"Impossible! Do you have a stray eye? If she doesn't rely on sails and oars, does she rely on the waves? ”

In this era, the red, yellow, blue, and black four-color flags were usually the signal for the beginning of naval battles, and Gu Jin once described in great detail the maritime flags and flags of the seventeenth century, as well as various knowledge about navigation, in his navigation lesson.

The four-color flag, also known as the Z-shaped flag, is said to have been first used by Columbus, meaning good luck and victory, at least as the European countries knew, and when this flag was raised, it meant that the battle began.

For most sailors and soldiers of this era, the four-color flag was a battle flag!

In the Old World, Nelson raised the battle flag at the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Z flag was later transmitted to Japan, where it was established as the naval battle flag by Heihachiro Togo, and raised at the Battle of Tsushima, which means:

"The rise and fall of the imperial kingdom is here to fight, and I hope that all the soldiers will fight bravely to kill the enemy!".

Gu Jin was strongly advised by a group of young people and the Huotang Club, and finally decided to use this Z-shaped flag as a combat mobilization signal flag, however, he himself didn't seem to like this kind of overly bloody thing, but considering that young people like it, the people of the Huotang Club like it more, and everyone expected it, so he had to do it.

At this moment, the incoherent words of the crew of the Aurora made Pimont recover a little from his state of despair and collapse, and he looked up and was immediately shocked!

- That's right! Yes, the ship is moving! Wait a minute! This ship did not raise its sails or stretched out the slurry, but it can sail?! And it's in your own direction, and it's surprisingly fast!

Could it be the power of God that keeps this ship moving? Pimont was thinking wildly when the voice of the captain of the Dawn came to his ears:

"Your Excellency! The other party sends out the flag! Grab the beach nearby, I'll cover you! ”

"Huh? Is that so?! ”

Pimont was still stunned when he heard this, and when he finally understood, he suddenly had mixed feelings and actually began to cry.

Apparently Pimont's brain was still in a state of flux, for he had been stunned by the time he saw the great ship, which had not raised any sails or oars, rushing towards him at a rare speed.

Pimont did not respond at all to Captain Phillips's cries, he just looked at the back of the deck of the large ship, where there appeared to be a chimney, and from the chimney rose a thick gray-white smoke, apparently unprepared for such a world-subversive phenomenon in Pimont's life and seafaring experience.

Luckily, Captain Phillips was still relatively conscious, and his decades of sailing life had honed his concentration, even in the face of this unbelievable phenomenon, he still maintained a little sanity.

So the captain of the Aurora turned the steering wheel with all his might, regardless of whether the Governor gave an order or not, yes, the strange ship on the opposite side should be friends, and the Aurora could indeed grab the beach nearby, but in the case of pursuers, their beach-grabbing landing operation would definitely be attacked by the pursuing party's accurate and fierce shelling, so the Aurora wanted to use its flexibility to turn the headland and grab the beach while dodging the shelling.

Although the captain of the Aurora did not know how the other side could cover his beach, because the distance of that strange ship was so far away that even the longest-range coastal defense cannon could not hit it, what cover did you use to cover me to seize the beach?

However, this doubt was only a fleeting thought, and the situation facing the Dawn did not allow Captain Phillips to hesitate at this time.

Forget it, leave it to fate, even if it may just be a consolation, Captain Phillips knows very well that the Dawn, whose hull and mast are badly damaged, can actually no longer support the headland and then grab the beach, if you don't want the ship to sink to the bottom of the sea, the only option is to grab the beach nearby.

Li Sanduo saw in the telescope that the small Caravel sailboat in the distance obediently turned the rudder and grabbed the beach, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, he turned back to Zhu Beiguo beside him and said:

"Okay, Brother Zhu, Caravel has completely relinquished the gun line and told all the gunners that it's time for them to perform!"

"Goal! Galen sailboat! All 75 gun emplacements and machine guns are free to fire! ”

First mate Zhu Beiguo immediately issued an order loudly into the microphone.

Suddenly, on the foredeck and on the roof of the cockpit, various firing commands were issued one after another:

"Ready to shoot!"

"Shoot the Yuan!"

"Thirty-five!"

"**Reloaded!"

"Bearing right zero zero nine!"

"Ruler 293!"

"Adjust the high and low shooting boundary, plus two!"

"Four shots in a hurry!"

"Ready-to-go!"

"Fire!"

Boom!

Two puffs of gray-white smoke erupted from the Pride foredeck almost simultaneously, and a series of crisp crackling sounds echoed across the sea, and the Pride opened fire.

Two three-inch naval guns fired deadly ** at the galleon, which was less than two kilometers away, at a rate of fire of six to seven second rounds.

In the roar, the sailors of the Dawn with good eyes can even see the shining **, drawing a slightly arc-shaped trajectory, flying through the air and heading straight for the Galen sailing ship behind!

God forbid, can the shells really hit the target at this distance?

Then the sailors were even more stunned to see the strange ship spewing smoke at an alarming speed, and just like that, they watched as the cannonballs flew into the distance, the high columns of water stirred up in front and behind the galleon, and the loud explosion shook the eardrums of everyone present.

Obviously, the first four rapid shots on the Pride did not cause much fatal damage to the galleons - according to common sense, at a distance of two to one hundred and a half kilometers, for a three-inch naval gun with a range of eight kilometers, it should not lose its accuracy, and in fact these two guns were also very accurate, except that the ballistic fire was a little higher.

"In the first round, we played a straddle shot, which is still good, and it seems that our usual training results are still good!"

Unlike Hu Xiaolin's chagrin in the turret, Li Sanduo in the cockpit was very satisfied with this shooting result.

You must know that the Pride is currently rushing towards the headland at a speed close to eight knots, and it is really impossible to say that mobile shooting can achieve such a result.

The Pride rushed up in the hope of getting between Caravel and Galen, so that the precarious little wrecked ship would not be shelled again, and everyone present knew that the small Caravel could no longer withstand any blows.

At this time, both Pimont and Captain Phillips could see the purpose of this strange ship, which is usually a common move between close comrades, but the other party is a strange ship......

Although Li Sanduo knew that it was not without danger to him, he did it anyway, not entirely because he had found the flag of the Portuguese East India Company flying on the caravel sailboat.

The Portuguese are the most likely allies of ours, and at the seminar a while ago, this was the consensus of everyone.

However, this is not the main reason, or rather, it is not a subconscious thought in Li Sanduo's mind.

At a critical juncture, Li Sanduo, as an orphan from the old world, thought more of the most unpretentious concept of helping others to the end.

Although the distance between the Pride and the Galen sailboat was close to the longest range of the smoothbore guns of this era, Li Sanduo thought that this risk was worth taking, not to mention that the solid shells of the opponent's smoothbore guns had no effect on the steel hull of the Pride, and there was no one on the deck at present, and the turret was also fully enclosed, so Li Sanduo basically did not have to worry about casualties if he did so.