It was already completely dark.

Wang Qinian sat in the underground bunker of the No. 1 Fort in the port and looked at the documents, the light of the candle was a little dim, but he still watched it with relish. This is a new shipbuilding plan proposed by a shipbuilder from Europe to the Admiralty, in which he proposed a new type of battle line gunboat design idea, which made Wang Qinian look at it with admiration.

"Well, it looks like we can get the shipyard to tilt some resources towards him and see what he can come up with." Wang Qinian looked at the document and muttered to himself. Maybe it was because he had been sitting for a long time, Wang Qinian stood up and was about to stretch when he heard the rumbling sound of cannons faintly on the sea in the distance, which made him almost dodge.

"Where are the guns fired?" Wang Qinian climbed up to the fort for the first time, found Li Yi, the person in charge of the main fort, and asked. Li Yi pointed to the fires that flashed on the sea in the distance from time to time, and said, "Cannons are being fired on the sea." It should have been the Spaniards' ships and who did it, but unfortunately it was not clear at night. ”

Wang Qinian observed the faint light of the fire on the sea, frowned, and said: "It depends on the situation that a ship is bombarding several ships of the Spaniards, this ship is not small, and the deck of the ship is also high. Looking at the muzzle flame, the caliber of this cannon is not small, the rate of fire is not slow, and the cannon seems to be mostly installed at both ends of the ship. This... Is it ......?"

Speaking of this, Wang Qinian couldn't help but look at Li Yi: "This can't be Yunsheng No. 1, right?" ”

They guessed right. In the naval battle five days earlier, the Yunsheng 1 had escaped the Spaniards' main fleet with superior speed, and then took advantage of the darkness of night to turn east and then north, and secretly sailed back.

On the night of May 15, after five days of sailing, Yunsheng No. 1 arrived off the coast of the Dayu River. At this time, several small-tonnage warships of the Spaniard La Plata fleet were still anchored in the open sea, carrying out the blockade mission of the crossing crowd. Since the only two warships had gone to sea to fight guerrillas, and the tugboats and barges had also sailed into the Big Fish River to hide, the Spaniards seemed to be very lax, and the four ships were anchored in the calm sea.

How could Xiao Bailang, Wang Tiehammer and others give up such an opportunity to send to the door, Yunsheng No. 1 took advantage of the cover of night to sail close to the outermost enemy ship, and the eight broadside guns opened fire in turn, ravaging the enemy ship inside and out at a very close distance. First there is the lavishly decorated aft officer's room and the captain's quarters, then the four-wheeled gun carriage parked on the deck, and then the sailor's lounge in the forecastle......

Heavy artillery fire completely destroyed the ship's superstructure, the sailors who had suffered heavy casualties were rolling and wailing, the officers were stumbling into the captain's quarters in search of their commanders, and the army and midshipmen on board were firing indiscriminately with arquebuses. After pouring dozens of projectiles, the Yunsheng No. 1 finally used two 24-pound heavy iron bullets to break two large holes in its waterline deck, and turned around in search of the next target under the terrified eyes of the Spanish sailors.

The remaining three Spanish ships had already pulled anchor by this time, and the sailors were raising their sails in a panic, ready to maneuver. However, their movements were still a little slow, and after handling the outermost ship, the Yunsheng 1 then turned the rudder to the left, baring its fangs at a Spanish ship in front of the left. The Spanish officers left the card and wine tables in the bilge and poured to the deck to take command of the battle. Several 4-pounder and 6-pounder guns, which were the first to be prepared, fired a few shells in the direction of the fire in the night.

However, Yunsheng No. 1's counterattack soon came. The Yunsheng No. 1 in the steering first fired a salvo from four bow guns at the forward target, and after the turn was completed, eight starboard guns also fired the first salvo of the night. Under the reflection of the long tail flame of the gun, 8 iron projectiles flew over a short distance of more than 500 meters and plunged into the enemy's wooden deck, and the powerful kinetic energy broke the deck apart, and the flying deck fragments caused a lot of secondary damage to the sailors.

The Spaniards knew that there was no way out, and the officers kicked the buttocks of the soldiers who were lying on the deck to avoid the artillery fire, and loudly ordered them to return to their gun positions and return fire on the enemy.

Their efforts have yielded certain results, and a large number of small-caliber iron projectiles hit the iron-hulled hull of the Yunsheng No. 1, making a muffled sound of dong dong. However, he was not worried about these small-caliber iron bullets at all, the shells from these short-barreled small cannons could knock off a layer of paint from the hull shell of the Yunsheng No. 1 ship, and at most create some dents, which was harmless at all.

At this time, the eight gun crews on the starboard side of Yunsheng No. 1 had already entered a state of free fire, and the two sides fired at each other in the air at a distance of several hundred meters, and the scene was extremely spectacular. It is a pity that the heroic actions of these Spanish naval officers did not have much impact on the situation of the war, after all, the gap between the 6-pounder guns and the 8-pounder guns and the 18-pounder guns and 24-pounder guns was too large to be made up by manpower. Their only success was when an 8-pounder luck shell hit a 12-pounder gun crew on the Yunsheng One, killing and wounding three gunners. But that was the end of their good fortune, and ten minutes later, the Spanish ships began to roll slowly over with a large hole in the waterline, and the desperate sailors jumped into the icy waters, scrambling for some small boats or broken planks, and shouting for their comrades on the other two boats for help.

But reality was doomed to disappoint them, and the two remaining Spanish battleships had already raised their sails and scattered in both directions to escape some distance. One of them was too far to be seen, and the other was only a vague shadow. Wang Tiehammer on the Yunsheng No. 1 did not dare to hesitate, and followed the Spanish ship that could still be faintly seen. The Yunsheng No. 1, which reached a speed of 10 knots, only chased for a few minutes before rushing to the front of this small warship off the coast of Spain. The Spaniards knew that they could not be spared, so they simply stopped fleeing, and operated the ship's small-caliber guns to fire at the Yunsheng No. 1. The unequal artillery battle lasted fifteen minutes, and the Yunsheng 1 again ended with two 24-pound shells, sending the Spanish ship to the bottom of the South Atlantic.

Wang Tiehammer took the Yunsheng No. 1 around the nearby waters again, but found no trace of the last Spanish ship left, so he returned to the port after rescuing some Spanish sailors who had fallen overboard. The commander of the No. 3 battery on the alluvial island outside the harbor shouted to the sea with a simple iron horn to confirm that it was Yunsheng No. 1 and then let it into the harbor.

Wang Qinian and others, who witnessed the entire raid on the fort, rushed to the dock to greet them as soon as possible, and Li Yi patted Wang Tiehammer's shoulder excitedly, shouting vigorously in his mouth, "My grass!" I grass". This time, Yunsheng No. 1 went to sea for more than a month, but he didn't expect to come back so quickly, and he also performed such a good show at his doorstep, which made the navy people present boil for a while.

"How's the East Coast Falcon?" Only Wang Qinian, a member of the Navy Commission, still retained a trace of calm at this time, he dragged Xiao Bailang and Wang Tiezhu's arms, and said, "Let's go, go back to the Admiralty first, and talk about what happens when we go back." ”

At this time, Yunsheng No. 1 had anchored in the harbor, and several injured gunners on board were immediately sent to the hospital for medical treatment, and the rest of the crew also temporarily went ashore to rest on the dock. The Chaluya laborers on the dock were carrying shells, gunpowder and daily necessities to the ship under the command of the traverser, and it was impossible for Yunsheng No. 1 to stay at anchor for too long when he came back this time, and these logistical supplies must be properly prepared in the first time.

"Old Xiao, the 'East Coast Eagle' is fine, right?" As soon as Wang Qinian entered the Admiralty, he asked, the current capital of crossing the navy is small, and it can't afford any losses.

Wang Tiehammer glanced at Xiao Bailang, and then said: "On the afternoon of May 10, we encountered the main fleet of the Spaniards off the coast of the Strait of Magellan, when the 'East Coast Eagle' immediately broke away from the battlefield and retreated to the southwest, and the Spaniards' attention was always on Yunsheng No. 1, and until it was dark, I didn't see the Spaniards sending ships to search southwest. The 'East Coast Eagle' must have escaped without incident, and in the evening they will make a circle back to the Falklands, and the Spaniards will not be able to find them for a while and a half. ”

"Well, that's fine." Wang Qinian breathed a sigh of relief, and there was a smile on his face: "Every strength of our navy is precious. Okay, what's next for you? Or go out of the army to be a broken fleet? ”

"Hmm." Wang Tiehammer nodded without hesitation: "Thanks to the sail modification we made for Yunsheng No. 1 before, we can do without oil most of the time." It has been more than a month since it went to sea, and it has only consumed about 90 tons of diesel fuel so far. In that case, let's just move on. Staying at home and being present in the fleet was a dead end, and the sea route that threatened the Spaniards at all times was far less of a headache for them. Without further ado, hurry up and get the supplies on board tonight and set off early tomorrow morning. By the way, can you give us some more manpower, preferably trained army soldiers. I've heard that some of the Spanish towns are still very wealthy, and we don't mind going ashore to make a cameo as a pirate. ”

"This needs to be negotiated with the Executive Committee tomorrow and see what Peng Zhicheng's black charcoal head has to say." Wang Qinian said, "What is your next goal? ”

"No matter how fast the main fleet of the Spaniards is, it will take seven or eight days to return, and since I have this time, I would like to go to Buenos Aires to have a look." Xiao Bailang said with a smile.

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