About 1 o'clock in the morning, two Kong Ming lanterns finally rose near the pier of Deep Water Bay. On the temporary pier of Deep Water Bay, the Portuguese sailors on duty at night were shocked to see the two Kong Ming lanterns that suddenly rose......

"Oh God! What is that? What kind of lights actually fly? "The Portuguese have never seen Kong Ming lanterns, so they are naturally a little confused.

However, they were stunned, but the Ming army was not. On the edge of the ironing island, after seeing the Kong Ming lantern rise into the sky two miles away, the commander of the sailor commanded Tongzhi Lin Tianhai and ordered loudly:

"Beat the drums and raise the sails! Fireship Attack! ”

Then the war drums on the flagship sounded. At this time, on the Taiping Mountain, a few miles west of Hong Kong Island, Wang Hong, also under the escort of the guards, stood on the mountain and looked southeast.

Suddenly, he heard the faint sound of drums in the silent night, and Wang Feng knew that the decisive battle had begun......

To the sound of war drums, accompanied by the beat of the drums, the fireships hoisted their sails in an orderly manner, and took turns to pass through the waterway west of the ironing island, into the deep water bay, and then quickly lined up, and rushed into the bay with the southwesterly wind......

Because the attack had been launched, the Ming army no longer remained silent, but there were bursts of shouts of killing. The Portuguese sailors on night duty on the docks finally felt that something was wrong and began to shout:

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! ”

The light-asleep Grape Soldier was awakened and got up to check the situation with a curse. And many Portuguese sailors on top of the rice wine are still asleep.

Rice wine is not high, but it is really easy to get started. Many Portuguese sailors didn't feel anything when they drank it, and when they fell asleep, they slept very deeply......

Hong Hengjiu didn't drink much, and when he heard the noise, he was already awakened.

When he hurriedly got dressed, the Ming army's fleet of fireships had already lined up and began to rush towards the dock. Among them, some of the fireboats rushing to the front row have already begun to ignite, and the flames on the ships have already risen......

"It's not good, 'burn the red cliff'!" Hong Hengjiu has also listened to the Three Kingdoms Commentary, so he naturally knows the classic Battle of Chibi. So, seeing the fire rising 1 mile away from the sea, he knew that something was wrong.

So he rushed to the house where da Gama lived, and shouted:

"Your Excellency the Governor, send someone to dodge the boat! Send someone to dodge! ”

Da Gama had just dressed and came out, and before he could figure out what was going on, he heard Hong Hengjiu's frightened shouts.

"What's going on? Bernardo, you ask Xiahong, what is he shouting? ”

Bernardo immediately started communicating with Hong Hengjiu, and then, the cold sweat on Benardo's head flowed down......

After understanding what Hong Hengjiu meant, Bernardo immediately ran to Dagama's side and said:

"Lord Governor, Hong said that the enemy is rushing towards him with a line of fireboats. There are flammable things such as oil and sulfur on the fireship, and once it sticks to our warship, our warship will be burned! ”

"I'm X!" Da Gama couldn't help but burst into foul mouth, so he shouted in horror:

"Everyone, get on board, steer the sailboat out of the mooring, and dodge in both directions!"

"Everyone, get on board, steer the sailboat out of the mooring, and dodge in both directions!"

"Everyone, get on board, steer the sailboat out of the mooring, and dodge in both directions!"

Da Gama shouted three times in a row, and many of the Portuguese sailors who had come to their senses hurriedly began to board the ship, ready to hoist the sails, and sail away from the dock.

However, many of the drunken Portuguese sailors were still asleep......

Dagama exclaimed angrily:

"Leave those drunks alone, everyone, get on board soon! Hurry up and dodge the enemy's burning ships! ”

At this time, the fireships in the front row were only about 300 meters away from the outermost warships on the pier. At this time, the speed of the fireship is about 5 knots, which is more than 2.5 meters per second. The distance of 300 meters can be reached in about two minutes.

Even though some Portuguese sailors moved quickly, the outermost Portuguese warships had been glued to the Ming army ships and began to burn.

Seeing this, Da Gama jumped to his feet in anger. In the Portuguese sailor battalion, many people were so frightened that they scurried around like headless flies, and there were signs of bombing the camp.

Hong Heng Jiuyi gritted his teeth and suggested:

"No matter, Lord Governor, take the soldiers who are still awake and board the farthest boat to escape, if you can run one is one!"

Da Gama's heart was distressed for a while, but he also knew that Hong Hengjiu's suggestion was correct. Therefore, he could only endure the pain and take the first group of Portuguese sailors to come to his senses, board the battleships at the very back, and regardless of whether there were enough people, he directly lifted anchor and lowered the sails and began to run......

However, as soon as they started to control the ship, everyone realized that something was wrong. Because, the rudder can't be pried......

"Oops, it must be the Ming army who destroyed the rudder ......" Hong Hengjiu was drenched in a cold sweat. But he knew that if he was caught, his national traitor would definitely die, and his whole family would be affected.

In desperation, he could only advise da Gama:

"Your Excellency the Governor, send someone into the water to check the rudder!"

Then some Portuguese sailors jumped into the water and began to check the tail rudders. At this time, the outermost Portuguese warships had already ignited a raging fire. Moreover, the ship's powder keg also triggered a martyrdom, which accelerated the burning of the warship.

Of the more than 10 Portuguese warships that forcibly pulled anchor and set sail on the inside, the first two crashed directly into the coastline because they could not turn their rudders......

Finally, a seasoned diver found the culprit of the rudder failure, and he shouted:

"Pull out the dagger stuck in the rudder!"

"Pull out the dagger stuck in the rudder!"

……

Listening to his words, more than 10 launched Portuguese warships jumped into the sea at the tail to inspect the sailors, and began to look for daggers on the rudder blades. Then, before the arrival of the fireships, a total of 7 warships managed to restore the function of the rudders.

"Break through the cracks of that island!" Seeing that the exit of the deep water bay on the west side of the ironing island was blocked by the Ming army's warships, Da Gama had to take the risk and rushed to the narrow shallow waterway between the east side of the ironing island and Hong Kong Island, which was easily stranded.

Fortunately, the tonnage of Portuguese warships in this era was not large, only two or three hundred tons. So, several ships successfully passed. However, the flagship of da Gama, the Prince Enrique, was unfortunately stranded in this narrow waterway because of its largest tonnage......

"Abandon ship! Let's go aboard the Leiria! Seeing that the unfortunate Portuguese warships behind him had already ignited a raging fire in the fireship array, for fear of being bitten by the Ming army's sailors, da Gama had to reluctantly order to abandon the flagship, the 450-ton displacement "Prince Enrique", and the crew ran to the Leiria in a small boat.

Seeing this scene, the warships behind the Ming army immediately came to pursue. However, the stranded "Prince Enrique" just blocked the Ming naval division warships and gave the first few Portuguese ships a chance to escape......

Eventually, the remaining 6 ships entered Repulse Bay and fled in a hurry to the middle of the sea.

And, unfortunately, the six ships that escaped were seriously undercrewed. Ships with a size of 150 people often had only about 50 sailors on board. In other words, the Portuguese fleet of about 3,750 sailors escaped only about 300 people, less than a tenth...... Moreover, most of the escapees were pure sailors, and there were very few gunners. Even if there were a lot of guns on board, most of them lost their usefulness......

Seeing this, Da Gama couldn't help but spurt out a mouthful of blood and fainted......