The mere twenty arquebusiers on the deck of the "Warrior" could not withstand the volley of 82 platoon guns of the regular army.

With just one volley, the arquebusiers were scattered in formation; Two rounds of volleys, and they were basically all knocked down. Of course, the army soldiers were not without damage, and an explosive bomb fired by a British 4-pounder iron cannon exploded in front of the army's dense formation, killing and injuring more than a dozen people in an instant.

The fierce fighting continues. Seven or eight soldiers in full armor were in John's Battle. Under the order of the second lieutenant of the navy, he held a few pounds of iron bomb in his hand, lit the fuse, put it in his hand for a few seconds, and then counted the time and threw it vigorously.

The hand-thrown bombs exploded on the deck of the "Warrior", and the large crowd of British sailors who were huddled together to jump into the gang could not dodge, and were hit by broken iron pieces and nails flying in all directions, suffering heavy casualties, and the blood that flowed out stained the deck red.

In addition to the fierce battles between the soldiers, the star was sung by the side guns on both decks.

The two 24-pounder, four 18-pounder, and four 12-pounder guns on the side of the "Beagle" were extremely powerful, and under the loud command of the gunner, the ammunition men rolled up their sleeves and stuffed the net bags full of small lead bullets into the barrels, and then tamped them. After the preparations were ready, the gun commander lit the primer at the fire door, and only heard the sound of "boom", and the small lead bullets that scattered out of the ground caused terrifying casualties in the dense crowd on the opponent's deck.

The enemy's counterattack also came quickly. Grapeblate, fired from the 8-pounder gun, halved half of an Army platoon on the deck of the Beagle, and a 12-pound solid iron bullet hit the command bridge on the top floor of the stern.

The massive iron ball pierced through a bulkhead and shot diagonally out of the window at the right rear of the stern and landed in the sea. Chen Tumu woke up suddenly. One step up to the fence and the battle was observed.

By this time, the first group of sailors on the English merchant ship "Warrior" had completely collapsed under the blows of spears, musket volleys and artillery shots. Not even one of them made it to the deck of the "Beagle" alive. Two of the four guns on the opposing side have already been destroyed. All that remained was two small 8-pounder cannons. None of the 10 guns on the side of the "Beagle" were destroyed, and they still ravaged each other at close range with shells, but it seemed that the gunners suffered a lot of casualties. After all, it was an open-air artillery without cover, and it was a close-range fire, and it was inevitable that the gunner would suffer heavy casualties.

According to Chen Tumu's rough estimates, nearly 40 of the 208 combat officers and men on his ship, including the army, had already suffered casualties. Although they caused almost seventy or eighty casualties to the British, this was already a tragic casualty unprecedented in a single battle of the Navy of the Republic of the Eastern Bank. Moreover, the battle is clearly not over. The three British ships in the rear had already completed their turn and were approaching quickly downwind.

The situation has become too bad to be worse, but at this time, Chen Tumu has calmed down, and his heart is no longer so troubled.

There was no point in staying on the bridge to command, he took a few retinues such as guards and orderlies to put on cuirasses, picked up muskets and sabers, and went to the right side of his ship's deck to direct the battle, and the British behind him were already coming. As for the port side, it was handed over to John. Ston is an Englishman, he commands very well. Very calm and heroic. After returning home, he can request a promotion to the Joint Staff Headquarters.

Due to the heavy casualties of the sailors on the British merchant ship "Warrior" on the port side, they no longer had the spare strength to organize a threatening offensive, so the army commander, Sergeant Hans, transferred 48 flintlock muskeers to the starboard side for reinforcements. Only a dozen musketeers and a handful of sailor spearmen remained on the port side, and on this side they and artillery alone were enough to suppress any ambitions of the England, who suffered heavy casualties.

He was worried that the noise of artillery roar, crisp musket salvos, muffled bomb explosions, and the shouting and fighting of soldiers clearly passed through the sea fog into Guo Zili's ears.

The tall hull of the Beagle loomed in the fog, and the muzzles of the ship's 24-pounder guns were still spewing flames, and it seemed that they were in good shape, at least they were holding off the British's gang attacks. Think about it, there are 96 gunners, 82 army musketeers and a large number of sailors and officers on the "Beagle", how many people can the British have on an armed merchant ship?

An ordinary merchant ship of four or five hundred tons can be easily handled by twenty or thirty sailors, plus some officers, gunners and miscellaneous servants, and a ship can have seventy crew members. These British merchant ships were probably sailing in complicated waters, so each ship was equipped with a number of more fighters, but it was only a little over a hundred, and it was impossible to have more. It is difficult to capture the well-equipped and powerful "Beagle" with this manpower, and the only thing to worry about is not knowing how many ships the British still have nearby, which is the biggest variable in this battle.

The condition of the British merchant ship "Lemon", which was desperately stopped by the "Red Trout", was obviously not optimistic at this time, the five guns on the port side had already been dumbed by one, the sail surface was also hit by chain shells at close range, and a large area was damaged, and the rear mast was even more broken by the waist. Even worse was the loss of personnel, in the confrontation with as many as 12 large-caliber naval guns on the starboard side of the "Red Trout", the gunners and sailors on the deck suffered more than 20 casualties, and the rest were also pressed by the fierce artillery fire and did not dare to raise their heads.

Oh, God! God knows how these devils have so many large-caliber naval guns on their ships! The Englishman cursed through gritted teeth.

Clifford led his ships Lucky Gianny, Asuka and the half-crippled Boom to split through the fog and quickly catch up, their first target being the Beagle, which was entwined with the Warrior. As for the "Red Trout," which was engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the "Lemon," the remaining armed merchant ships in the rear had already caught up one after another.

But after such a long time, even though the sea was foggy, Clifford still found that the fire of these two ships was very dense, both in terms of artillery and personnel, and it seemed that they were completely the configuration of warships. No, maybe there are not so many guns on a British warship of this tonnage!

The merchant ships on their own side, basically two against the previous one may not necessarily have the upper hand. This has been confirmed by previous battles, when the merchant ships "Lemon" and "Prosperity" were damaged and many guns were destroyed; As for the poor "Warrior", Clifford was reluctant to recall the tragic situation when he first saw it. The corpses of the sailors on the deck were lying everywhere, and the guns on the starboard side were almost all destroyed, and most of the combat effectiveness was basically lost at present.

The "Asuka" took the lead and leaned the starboard side of the "Beagle", and some sailors on both decks stood unsteadily, screaming and falling into the sea. John. Hill's sailor roared, taking advantage of the momentary confusion caused by the collision of the two ships, armed with a pistol and a dagger, grabbed the rope net on the outboard side of the Beagle, and jumped onto the deck. Behind him, more than a dozen sturdy old sailors also rushed up.

"Bang! Bang! A platoon of Army soldiers on the gun deck fired a volley of guns and knocked out a few men, but the rest still took out their weapons and rushed forward.

Chen Tumu wore cuirass and gauntlets, held a Type 1633 flintlock pistol, and a saber pinned to his waist. Seeing an English sailor in tattered clothes rushing towards him fiercely, Chen Tumu subconsciously wanted to retreat, but he had experienced several battles and quickly considered that he was on the battlefield and could not make "inappropriate" moves.

Seeing that the enemy's short knife had been delivered to him, Chen Tumu hurriedly raised his gun and aimed it at the incoming person, and was just about to shoot, but unexpectedly, the military boots stepped on the blood on the deck, and he suddenly stumbled.

However, the slip also allowed him to narrowly avoid the Englishman's inevitable sword. The English sailor turned in anger and tried to continue stabbing him, but when he heard a loud "bang", his body suddenly paused, and then a large amount of blood quickly gushed out of his chest.

This is Chen Tumu who reacted quickly and fired the flintlock pistol in his hand, and the English sailor fell down unwillingly. Chen Tumu gasped loudly, as if he had not recovered from the scene of life and death just now.

The enemy is still pouring in, and everyone is fighting. By this time, the musketeers had been organized, and they formed small groups to fire volleys, killing and wounding many enemies. The gunners, having recovered from the initial confusion, stuffed the barrel with strings of small grape-like lead balls bound in nets, and fired them at the deck of the "Asuka". In particular, grapeshothulet shells fired from 24-pounder guns can cause great casualties on the other side every time.

Under the cover of the musketeers, the armoured grenadiers lit bombs made of cast iron and threw them far onto the deck, causing a rain of blood. Of course, the sailors of the opposing side were not to be outdone, and some small hand-thrown bombs were also thrown over, killing and wounding many sailors and army soldiers on the "Beagle".

Fierce fighting continued.

Soon, the "Lucky Gianni" finally approached the stern of the "Beagle", and the English sailors cheered and joined the two ships together with hooks, then put up the gangplanks and net ropes, and rushed over with slogans shouted under the organization of the officers.

A platoon of army soldiers on the gun deck in the stern quickly turned their guns to shoot, but the number was too small, and after knocking down several of the fastest English sailors, they had to abandon their guns and draw their swords and enter a state of hand-to-hand combat. Some of the officers and miscellaneous servants in the stern also took up sabers and muskets to join the battle, but their efforts were so pale before the tide of English sailors that the balance of battle seemed to be tilting in favor of the British.

Chen Tumu was a little desperate, and he was even thinking about whether he would be captured.

At this time, "Boom! Rumble! "The sound of several artillery guns firing came from the fog not far away.

"God! 32-pounder gun! An English officer exclaimed. (To be continued......)