It's already early in the morning of November 6th.

It was a cloudy day again, and the sun was firmly blocked by thick clouds, so the fog that had filled the sea for most of the night showed no sign of dissipating at this time. Even at this time, even the sea breeze was fighting against the people on the east coast, and the weak sea breeze was not enough to blow away the sea fog and gunpowder smoke that filled the sky over the battlefield, which made the visibility even less and less.

At about six o'clock in the morning, the battleship "Rock of Cádiz", which had been circling in an unknown place, returned, and with her came a medium-sized Spanish transport ship of one or two hundred tons of tonnage—of course, this ship had already hoisted the double sword goshawk flag of the East Coast Navy—and the cargo of this ship had been roughly counted: cocoa, cinchona bark, vicuña stuffed horses, and some precious stones that seemed to have been carried by the local Spanish colonists to the mainland, all the commodities needed on the east coast, blessed by God.

After the battleship "Rock of Cádiz" returned, it saw that there were no other Spanish ships swaying nearby, and in addition to the fact that the fog at sea had not dispersed, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to chase it out at this moment, so it simply launched a final onslaught on the "San Lorenzo," the flagship of the Peruvian fleet of the Spanish Navy, together with the battleship "10 August."

In order to block the main battleship on the east coast, the "San Lorenzo" took the initiative to meet the "August 10" battleship with 66 guns, but at this time it had already experienced a fierce battle in the middle of the night, and the hull made of Brazilian mahogany was scarred and unsightly.

In particular, the bow of the ship was almost completely destroyed: the entire bow mast was knocked out into the sea; The galley, storage room, and sailor's cabin above the deck were also turned into a hornet's nest, and the gun deck on the top floor was completely overturned, which was extremely tragic; Other than that. The ship's foremast was also broken entirely. The midsail of the second mast was extensively damaged. The top and top sails were burning brightly at this time, apparently ignited by a blazing bomb.

In addition to these places, the stern of the ship was also taken care of, and the top bridge was hit by no less than fifty shells during the whole battle, and most of the officers involved in the command were killed and wounded; The walls of the captain's cabin and the officer's lounge on the middle and lower floors were also full of bullet holes and broken planks, which showed that they had suffered a lot of damage, but miraculously the steering wheel room was not damaged, which allowed the ship to change course freely at the moment.

After the "Rock of Cádiz" joined the battle. The pressure on the San Lorenzo suddenly doubled. At this time, the people on the east coast no longer pursued the capture of this powerful battleship - after most of the night of fighting, Lu Ming had already understood that this was delusional, and their idea now was very clear, that is, to rely on it and attack its waterline with the most intense artillery fire, and strive to quickly deal with this battleship, which can be called the symbol of the Spanish Peruvian fleet, and then continue to look for Spanish transports to attack, so as to maximize the losses of the Spaniards.

At nine o'clock in the morning, a large hole was finally made in the port side of the San Lorenzo, and the sea water poured in so wildly that the whole ship began to tilt slightly. The Spanish sailors, who were manipulating the artillery, adjusting the booms, and fetching water to fight the fire, were in a state of confusion, and many began to take large pieces of canvas to try to close the irregular hole under the hysterical yelling of the officers. Meanwhile. Some human-powered pumping machinery was also transported above deck, where sailors were busy. The influx of seawater is constantly pumped out.

However, such a chaotic crowd was a favorite of the naval commanders on the east coast, who ordered the soldiers to stuff explosive shells into the barrels of their guns and then take the opportunity to shoot at the deck of the San Lorenzo. The explosion rate reached nearly sixty percent, and the shells exploded on the ground or above the deck, and the scattered shrapnel killed and injured a large number of Spanish sailors, and the deck was immediately covered with blood. Especially the crew members who were fighting fires or pumping water, their extensive casualties caused the canvas to continue to burn, and the fire even began to gradually spread to the dense cables above the deck; And the ineffectiveness of the pumping operation also naturally made the ship tilt a little more, which seemed to be more than 10 degrees at this time.

And just when Lu Ming, the captain of the "10 August," felt that the "San Lorenzo" was basically finished, and was about to give up the opportunity to beat the dog to the "Cadiz Rocks" and was about to go to find the Spanish convoy to make a fortune, a large three-masted battleship suddenly appeared diagonally behind, and it was the battleship "Countess Alfonso" of the Spanish Navy that had been eliminated after a brief encounter with the battleship "Doctrine of the East Coast" last night.

As soon as this battleship appeared on the battlefield, it attracted everyone's attention, and the "San Lorenzo", which had stalled and stopped in the center of the battlefield, hung a series of signal flags, as if it wanted it to retreat quickly. But now that it has already appeared, how could the East Coast ship, which has a higher maneuverability than the Spanish ships, let it go? With Lu Ming's order, the "August 10th" gave up the opponent that was being ravaged, and then directly made a shocking small radius against the wind and swooped straight towards the "Countess Alfonso". As for John. The "Cadiz Rocks", commanded by Lieutenant Ton, still clinging to the "San Lorenzo", which was gradually inclining, seemed to be vowing to sink the flagship of the Peruvian fleet of the Spanish Navy to the bottom of the sea.

The 10th of August was handed over to the Countess Alfonso twenty minutes later. These two ships were not on the same level in terms of tonnage, speed, or firepower, and even though the "10 August" had been fighting for several hours and its own hull was scarred, it was not something that a ship like the "Countess Alfonso" could deal with lightly, so she was at a disadvantage from the beginning.

At half past nine o'clock in the morning, when the captain of the "San Lorenzo" had already ordered the abandonment of ship, the "East Coast Doctrine," another main warship of the East Coast Navy, finally arrived at the area where the two sides were engaged with a captured transport ship. The arrival of this double-deck battleship has lost the last shred of life of the battleship "Countess Alfonso", and she will face the siege of three powerful ships on the east coast, and her fate can be imagined.

Two hours later, as a red-hot bomb fired from the second deck of the battleship "East Coast" hit the ammunition compartment of the enemy ship, a violent explosion of gunpowder suddenly emanated from the bow of the "Countess Alfonso". Large clouds of smoke rose along with orange-red flames. The deafening explosions continued. The violent shock wave even shattered the glass of the captain's cabin of the "Cadiz Rock", which was close at hand, and then some of the debris that was raised with the explosion flew over a distance of two hundred meters and fell on the decks of several warships on the east coast.

At this time, everyone on the three East Coast battleships stopped shooting, and everyone looked at the battleship "Countess Alfonso" that was gradually engulfed in flames with a complicated gaze, the front half of this ship had been completely blown off, the sea water was pouring in rapidly from the broken gap, and the hull was sinking rapidly, and the poor Spanish naval officers and sailors did not even have time to abandon ship at this time. Those who were still in their minds simply grabbed the planks and barrels around them and jumped into the sea, while those who were killed by the ammunition and knocked out were injured. It could only sink miserably with the ship.

Before the sinking of the "Countess Alfonso", the flagship of the Spaniards, the "San Lorenzo", also overturned on its side like a dead fish due to too much water on the left side of the ship, and it did not take long for it to slowly sink to the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean, becoming the common home of a large number of local fish.

After destroying the two Spanish warships, Lu Ming sent people to give orders to the other two: leave the battleship "Cadiz Rock" to continue cruising outside the port of Callao, and the other two battleships will move separately, search and pursue all the way north, and meet on the island of San Cristobal on the evening of November 12 at the latest, and then make the next plan; As for the two captured Spanish transports, they continued to stay where they were. Wait for the return of the main flotilla.

On the morning of November 11, the battleship "August 10" slowly drove into the port of Baquerizo with a heavy body in tow. At this time, there were indeed six ships from the east coast moored here. Army soldiers also set up makeshift camps on the shore and lived a leisurely life. At this time, the climate on the island is still relatively cool, and the inaccessible area is not here, and there is no malaria common in the tropical regions of the mainland, so it is a good place to rest.

As soon as the "10 August" sailed into port, the craftsmen accompanying the "Sea Engineer" immediately began to repair the ship's scarred hull. The ship had been fighting for almost 13 hours in the previous few days, and not only had more than 50 officers and men killed or wounded, but even the hull was damaged and urgently needed to be repaired to restore its combat effectiveness, and some wounded and sick people on board urgently needed to disembark for treatment and nursing.

In addition to these, the 10 of August had good luck in capturing a medium-sized Spanish transport ship off the coast of Porto Truclo in northern Peru, which contained about 15,000 pieces of leather, 50 tons of sugar, 100 tons of wheat, and minted silver coins worth more than 300,000 yuan, which appeared to be remittances from Spanish merchants from the Peruvian region to the Old Continent.

Later that afternoon, the battleship "East Coast" also returned to the harbor, and her luck was worse, and she searched the sea for several days to find nothing, and finally had to meet her at the port of Bacrizo.

On the whole, the results of this naval battle, which were caused by the sudden breakthrough of the Spaniards, were not bad: the Peruvian fleet of the Spanish Navy was currently left with only one wounded brig, and the remaining four ships, including the flagship, had all been sunk, and it was basically assumed that the fleet had been completely destroyed. In addition, the warships of the East Coast Navy also sank two small and medium-sized Spanish transports and captured three in the melee, which were loaded with about 150 tons of copper, 100 tons of wheat, 50 tons of cocoa, 50 tons of cane sugar, 50 tons of vicuña fluff, 15,000 pieces of leather, gold and silver coins worth more than 500,000 yuan, and a large amount of valuable goods such as precious stones, works of art, and cinchona bark.

In particular, vicuña fluff, which is a high-end textile that sells for woolen wool and is now very popular in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. There are also those cinchona bark, this is a treasure, the introduction of the East Coast people in Ping'an County has not been successful, and then it was introduced to Xinhuaxia Island, whether it can succeed is not known for the time being. The existing cinchona bark powder in the hands of the people on the east coast is smuggled on the one hand, and the other is on the purchase of things at high prices that they do not know how many times they have changed hands, and the cost is extremely high. Now that there are so many hugs at once, it is enough for the East Coast Republic to last for a long time, and the value impairment in this cannot be measured by money alone.

It's just that when he heard his adjutant Jiang Yaohui report the spoils in a slightly excited voice, Lu Ming, commander of the Pacific Task Force of the East Coast Navy and lieutenant colonel of the navy, slapped the table fiercely in front of many naval and army generals, and said angrily: "The results of the interrogation have come out, fuck, Lao Tzu was tricked by the Spaniards!" That night they caught our attention with 5 warships and 15 transports directly north of the port of Callao, and then 4 transports loaded with precious metals quietly rounded the island of San Lorenzo and ran away from the open sea! Fuck, seven million pesos worth of gold and silver are all on these ships, and just run away from us right in front of us! ”

"We fought all day and more than 120 officers and men were killed and wounded to grab such a small thing, we thought we had gained a lot, but in the end we found out that we picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelons, what a fucking fuck!" Lu Ming, who has always been good-tempered, couldn't help but scold his mother at this time, "The sea is vast, where can I find these silver ships?" ”

"They're supposed to be heading for Panama, can we go there?" Someone asked.

"No fun, we have been delayed at sea for a few days, they should have crossed Guayaquil, and now they are not far from the Panamanian Court of Justice. Besides, they may not be going to Panama to call at the port now, there may be some Spanish warships there to pick them up, and it is basically useless to go now. But try your luck, Captain Huang Yang, and I order your ship to patrol the coasts around Panama in the spirit of continuous combat, and see if you can make any gains. However, the situation there is complicated, and you must first and foremost take care of your own safety. The 10 of August is in urgent need of repair and maintenance, and it will not be able to strike again. As for this incident, let's take it as a lesson, this is a solid trick by others, I damn it! Lu Ming vented his anger for a while, which had gradually calmed down, so he waved his hand weakly and said.

Hearing Lu Ming say this, everyone couldn't help but look at each other a little: Yes, this time he was tricked by the Spaniards, is that to find a way back? Huang Yang glanced at the crowd, said nothing, and after straightening his clothes and hats, he hurried out, and he was about to hurry on board and continue to search for traces of the enemy's transports. (To be continued......)