If the previous one was a melee, a close battle, then the rest of the time was the rhythm of the British, the battle of the real giant ship cannon age, the remaining six warships of more than two thousand tons of the British, opened the distance, at a distance of 1,200 to 1,500 meters, and the most recent was a distance of 800 meters, fighting with the Spaniards, who still had fourteen warships.

Holding the railing of the bow of the ship with one hand and the telescope in the other, Portman raised his hand and shouted to the first mate behind him when the flagship made a rapid turn at a speed of ten knots and drew a circle of arc-shaped waves and waves on the sea surface for a mile and a half: "At this time, the left artillery fired in turn, and the ironclad battleship with the enemy's tail hanging was fired. ”

The fierce muzzle storm almost overturned Portman, Portman lay on the deck of the ship, staring at the 3,000-ton ironclad battleship that the enemy was chasing, the guns fired in turn made the battleship tremble, the heavy guns at the bottom of the cabin, the solid shell artillery smashed the enemy's hull unevenly, and even cracked in some places, the rolled iron sheets, the bloody limbs and broken arms inside, and the scene of the inner warehouse that was smashed into a mess were all exposed to Portman's eyes.

The modern guns on the deck, a dozen large and small guns loaded with flowering shells and copper shells, washed the enemy's deck and bow, but unfortunately, did not smash the thirty-two-pounder gun turret in the bow of the enemy's ship, and after a period of panic, the enemy's bow gun slowly turned around, and Portman saw that the enemy lowered his muzzle and pointed at them, and immediately shouted, "Enemy shelling, prepare for the impact." ”

The steam engine of the British flagship coughed and gasped violently, and then let out a dull whimper, a puff of black smoke came out of the chimney, and it suddenly began to accelerate, and the sails with thousands of holes quickly rose up, and the irregular wind on the sea blew around, pulling the canvas from side to side, which did not play the role of the previous advance, but disturbed the advancing air flow, so that the work of the steam engine was not exhausted, and after the fire flashed from the enemy's muzzle, the British flagship, which was dodging at high speed, shook violently, and then raised its back, Time stopped for half a second, and then slammed into the water.

Checking the servo, Portman shouted loudly, the first mate who shook and stood up repeated his order loudly, after his order was transmitted, it was transmitted back, and the helmsman loudly transmitted the servo status back, "The servo is intact, the power loss is thirty percent, our speed has dropped to seven knots, the sail helps two knots, and our speed can still reach nine knots." ”

"The main gun fires,"

An artillery captain shouted, Portman and they immediately lay down, the eighteen-pound muzzle of the main gun burst out of a burst of fire, a copper flowering shell flew out violently, and got into the cabin of the Spanish three-thousand-ton battleship that was chasing, and then exploded in the cabin, the enemy ship was stunned, and then continued to sail for more than a hundred meters, stopped, and then began to explode violently, from the place where it was blown up, then the stern, the aft turret exploded, then the aft stern, and the bow was raised high by the explosion waveUnder Portman's watchful eye, the enemy's battleship sank into the water, and countless Spanish soldiers jumped into the water and began to swim hard away from the battleship.

Portman looked at the sinking battleship, and said in his heart that it was a pity, he still liked the Spanish battleship, thick-skinned, iron-clad battleships, and in some places thickened ships were perverted, and the sails were pushed, if they were replaced by their sails and steam engines, they would be an excellent battleship.

In a battle far away, although the caliber of the artillery is small, the British artillery is still very good in terms of rate of fire and armor piercing, and power, although the defense is not good, but the distance is widened, and the enemy's heavy artillery is slow, and the enemy ships have only two and five long-barreled guns like theirs, while the British flagships and large battleships are all such guns, eighteen of these guns with sharp attack power, which suppressed the Spanish fleet and could not raise its head, although it was impossible to hit the vital parts, But the superstructure was blown up by the artillery of the British, the mast collapsed, dragged into the sea, not only the power dropped, but also prevented their artillery from firing, and the rest was beaten.

Five Spanish warships had already lost power and were floating on the sponge, and the men on them descended to the lifeboats, rowed far away, and fled to the shore.

Although the British only had two completely steam-powered warships, and the remaining four were also sail warships, but with the addition of a steam engine sample, even if all the sails were lost, there was still a steam engine to provide power, even if it was a speed of one or two knots, it was better than stopping and not being able to move.

The Spaniards struggled to get closer, and set fire to a British battleship, which was dizzy when it turned, and actually went at the enemy, so after being set on fire by six enemy battleships, the weakness of the thin pie was exposed, and two Spanish heavy artillery shots hit the two-thousand-ton battleship, which immediately caught fire and exploded, and the shells pierced the hull, and the battleship quickly sank.

The other British warships surrounded from both sides, and the Spaniards scattered in three or three, and drove over, and the British knew their weakness and did not dare to resist hard, so they had to go around, and when the battle between the two sides was close to the fiercest time, Portman stood up and organized an attack.

Then he saw that the five battleships in the rear were leaning on the Spanish battleships that had lost power, and after a meal of cleanup, they removed important things of value or need, two of them were blown up, three were towed, the five battleships in front covered the three battleships and dragged back those battleships that had lost power, Portman sent two two-thousand-ton battleships to harass, and the remaining three were circling with the Spanish battleships, and after damaging one of the enemy's warships, one of the largest steam warships on this side suddenly stopped suddenly, and black smoke came out of the chimney, Then there was a flash of fire, then a sudden explosion, and the rest of the British sailors and crew fled the ship.

The signal from the signalman said: "The steam engine compartment was hit by the enemy, caught fire, exploded, abandoned ship." ”

Phillips, covered in blood, came in a transport boat, and Portman had to give up the pursuit, and he was left with only four ships, the others were either sunk, destroyed, or captured, and the Spaniards, although defeated, still had six ships, and three were towed. A staggering evacuation from the battlefield.

The British and the Spaniards actually did not win this battle, and both sides lost most of their warships and combat strength, and were no longer able to fight again.

But on the whole, the British lost the Indian campaign, they were beaten by the Spaniards twice in a row, and if they won two games in three games, they were already defeated, and the defeat was the control of the Indian colonies.

Maybe they can organize countless Indians to attack the Spaniards on land again, but the latest news that the person who commanded the spaniards and the tribal armies in Bengal is the Celestial Shadow General of the Chinese Empire, which makes people intriguing, is it that the Spaniards have the support of the Chinese Empire?

If this is the case, no matter how many Indians go, the Chinese Empire can fight for consumption with a larger population than India, not to mention that the army of the Chinese Empire is already powerful.

In retrospect, even without the support of the Chinese, the Spaniards and the British would not be able to fight any longer, and both sides suffered heavy losses, and it was time to seek a peaceful solution.

A few days later, Portman and Phillips, who was bandaged like an Indian Asan, with suspenders on his arms and plaster casts on his feet, were supported by several British soldiers in red shirts and bears, and met at the official office of the commander of the Fleet at Montrow, where they exchanged friendly greetings several times.

The two sides began to sit down to negotiate, at first it was a tentative explanation, followed by a heated argument, and after a few days, they sat down again to negotiate, and half a month later, the British governor Matra personally negotiated, and finally the boundary was demarcated, and the Spaniards obtained the concession rights of the British colony with a length of 300 kilometers and a width of 50 kilometers, and the colonial rights of the port with a radius of 10 kilometers and 100 square kilometers.

The Spaniards freed all the regular and mercenary prisoners of the British, half of the Indians, and compensated the British for the cost of the war of a million pounds, which was equivalent to the cost of buying a colonial port, and the British released all the Spanish captives, excluding of course the captives of the small Bengali tribes or the tribes that had been exterminated.

On the ships, the Spaniards did not agree to return the steam warships to the British, and the British released all the ships that captured them, and the Spaniards finally paid 100,000 Spanish gold coins to get a sample of the steam engine, and then released all the captured ships as well.

The colonial governments of the two countries finally reached a peaceful breakup agreement after their heavy losses, which was equivalent to an armistice, because Britain had a home advantage here after all, and although Spain used the manpower and material resources of the Chinese Empire, the military power and other virtual things as a threat, it was tantamount to a fox and a fake tiger and hard work, and exchanged its own losses for a foothold in the Far East.

These British will never tolerate it, they have lost the Naga region, they have lost the barrier of Southeast Asia, they have lost Afghanistan, they have lost Burma, they have lost Siam, Pakistan these territories, it is equivalent to that on land they are short of all communication with the West, although the sea is closed and then opened, but the Chinese Empire has cut off their land communication, forcing them to shrink their territory and not be able to resist, and at the same time shaking their rule in India.

The British had arrived in a precarious situation in India.

They needed to temporarily hold their only foothold in the Far East before they reached a point where they could compete with the Chinese Empire.

Through the battle with the Spaniards, they clearly saw that the Spaniards were still not as powerful as them, and their warships were still much behind them, or decades, not to mention, at least twenty years, their steam engine warships had achieved initial results, although their ironclad ships were not as powerful as the Spaniards, but they were victorious in terms of speed and sharp artillery.

At the same time, they knew that the sail era was outdated, and they fought with the Spaniards, and knew that the sail warships were vulnerable in front of the steam warships, and all the warships lost were sail warships, and the sail warships of the Spaniards were still ironclad warships, but they were still beaten by their remaining four steam warships, and if they did not take the initiative to retreat, the Spaniards would have died together with the British warships.

(End of chapter)