"Look, the Spanish ship is approaching!" Gu Jiang suddenly noticed that another Spanish ship was approaching, so he hurriedly said to Zheng Sen. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Zheng Sen turned his head and glanced over there, and said disapprehantly: "The Spanish boats are much slower than ours, they can't be relied on, don't worry." Then he turned his head again to observe the effect of the strike on the Spanish cruiser at the front.

During this time, the "Endeavour" fired five more volleys, and four more shells hit the poor cruiser. Four large holes were punched in the starboard side of that cruiser and at least three guns were destroyed. Zheng Sen estimated that if there were a few more rounds of such shelling, the starboard side of the cruiser would not be able to exert even one-tenth of the firepower. At that time, it will really ravage it as much as it wants, and it will have to take whatever posture it wants.

"Big Wood, the boat is closer." Gu Jiang shouted again.

Zheng Sen turned his gaze to the other Spanish warship again, and saw that she was much closer than before.

"There's no reason to let her come so close." Zheng Sen thought.

"Shall we find a way to remind Captain Jack?" Gu Jiang said.

"No, Captain Jack has a much better vision than we do, he can see everything we can see, and he's more experienced in that area than we are. I think he must have had his idea in mind when he brought the Spanish ship up. Zheng Sen said.

"What do you think Captain Jack is doing this for?" Gu Jiang asked again.

"Perhaps, Captain Jack wants to rely on our ship to be strong, and wants to keep both Spanish warships at once." Zheng Sen thought about it and replied.

……

"After this round, let the 18-pounder gun on the upper deck change the chain shell, and prepare to shell the Spanish warship that has followed, and aim at the mast, we must cripple the Spanish ship this time, and then rush over and leave the guy who is already dying!" Old Jack looked at the approaching Spanish warship and gave such an order.

Old Jack knew that if he kept a safe distance from the two Spanish warships, whoever came closer would be the first to strike. Then he would certainly be able to beat the two ships to the point of ineffectiveness without any danger. But that's the limit of what can be done with solid shells alone. It would have been impossible to sink the two cruisers with solid shells, and it was unlikely that they would even lose their ability to sail, and by that time the Spaniards would have turned in. If they split up and escaped, then the Endeavour would be left with only one of the warships at most. What's more, the Spaniards had arrived later than expected, and it was already afternoon, and if the battle had lasted until sunset, many Spanish ships would have escaped under the cover of night. Those ships were full of white silver dollars, and robbing them was almost a lifelong dream of old Jack. For more victory, for glory and dreams, Old Jack needs to fight quickly.

The ten 18-pounder guns on the upper deck soon fired another salvo. The gunners then quickly began to clean the chambers and began to reload the cannons with chain shells. Old Jack did not raise his binoculars to check the results of the salvo just now, but stared at the other Spanish cruiser that was continuing to approach, which was approaching the tail of the "Endeavour", as if trying to insert it behind her and form a T-head with her stern.

"The first artillery group is ready!"

"The third artillery group is ready!"

The ten cannons on the port side of the upper deck had finished loading, and the Spanish warship began to make a sharp turn to the left, trying to aim its side at the stern of the Endeavour.

"Drop anchor on the left, make a sharp turn to the left!" Old Jack ordered.

The anchor chain was thrown down, and the rudder wheel was full to the left. Endeavour made a turn to the left at breakneck speed.

"Cut the anchor chain! Shoot! Old Jack shouted.

However, this no longer needs him to command, and all the soldiers have understood his intentions in the turn just now. At this time, the "Endeavour", which had completed a sharp turn to the left, and the Spanish cruiser, which had made a sharp turn to the right, happened to form a situation in which the sides were opposite, and the distance between the two sides was only less than 50 meters. Due to the downwind position and the tilt of the hull caused by the steering, the port side of the Endeavour was raised, which also gave the guns on the deck of the Endeavour a greater elevation angle.

"Boom!"

Ten 18-pounder guns were fired one after the other, and at such a close distance the shells achieved a very good hit rate, and the mainmast and foremast of the Spanish cruiser were broken on the spot, and the aft mast was also broken by the upper third.

At this time, the 15 cannons of the Spaniards also fired, and they originally planned to fire at the tail of the "Endeavour", which would not normally have any too thick hull, so they were also loaded with solid shells, and these 12-pound and 8-pound iron balls smashed on the hull of the "Endeavour" like a torrential rain, making a dull crashing sound.

However, to the surprise of the Spaniards, even at such a distance, not even a single shell could penetrate the hull of the Endeavour. Some of the 12-pound shells even fell directly from the hard hull of the Endeavour into the sea, so much so that some Spaniards could not help but exclaim: "Oh my God, the hull of this ship must not be iron, right?" It was also because of this sentence that the "Endeavour" received her first nickname: "Old Ironclad".

The Spaniards did not have time to marvel at the fortification of the Endeavour, because at this moment the gun window on the second deck of the Endeavour was opened, and ten 24-pounder guns fired a fatal blow at the Spanish ship.

At such a distance, the gunner barely had to aim, and ten 24-pound iron balls smashed the Spaniard's warship, easily tearing open her fragile hull, and ten bloody alleys were dripping from the gun deck of the Spanish warship, and then slammed into the hull on the right side of the Spanish warship, and was violently bounced back...... This round of shelling alone, the "Endeavour" brought more than 100 casualties to the Spanish warship.

"The boat can't run. Leave them alone, let's go kill that warship! Old Jack shouted excitedly, took out the flask inserted in his waist, and took a big sip: "Full speed ahead!" We got close and smashed that Spanish ship with such a volley! ”

Then the old pirate simply sang on the back deck: "We are pirates, fierce pirates, with bottles in our left hands and treasures in our right hands......"

Of course, the Spanish ship also noticed the change here, and also saw that their friendly ship was paralyzed by just one round of fire, and the terrible blow of the "Endeavour" made all the Spaniards gasp. So the cruiser, called "Resolve", began to try to accelerate away from the battlefield. But the astonishing speed of the "Endeavour" quickly made them understand that there was no possibility of them escaping.

"Shouted to them and asked them to cut off the mast and drop anchor in surrender. I think they should already know that they can't be our opponents, and that it's easier for us to destroy them than it is for Don Juan to trick an ignorant little girl into bed. The old pirate laughed, the gold teeth in his mouth glistening in the sunlight.

The old pirate had been a teacher to almost all the sailors on the ship, and in addition to teaching them seamanship, he also taught them English and Spanish. When old pirates teach these foreign languages, they usually use stories with a certain color. Of course, the old pirate also learned some Chinese by the way, and the textbook used was naturally one of the most outstanding novels in the writing of the Ming Dynasty - "The Golden Vase Plum".

So when the old pirate spoke of Don Juan, the European playboy who had to change a woman to his bed every night, all the sailors who heard it laughed along with the old pirate. Taking advantage of the tailwind, when the "Endeavour" approached a certain distance, several sailors with loud voices began to shout at the Spaniards to persuade them to surrender.

However, the Spaniards did not immediately cut down the mast, not even put away the sails, they just raised a blood-red triangular flag on the top of the mast. This flag has only one meaning, and that is: fight to the last man, and would rather die than give in!

"St. George's flag, the courage and despair of the battleship! I really didn't expect to see such a flag in such a battle. The old pirate couldn't help but put away the smile on his face as he looked at the flag fluttering in the sea breeze. He stood upright, and then said to the sailors: "First of all, let us fire a salute and pay tribute to these opponents with unyielding faith and courage." ”

All forty-two cannons were fired in turn as a salute. When the final salute fell silent, Old Jack pulled out his command knife from his waist and pointed at the Spanish warship in front of him, and said, "Boys, now let us complete our mission - destroy them!" ”

"Endeavour" continued from the port side, that is, the starboard direction of the Spaniards, after all, the opponent. In previous battles, the Resolve had been hit on the starboard side several times, losing several cannons, and the soldiers had many casualties, which greatly weakened their self-defense firepower on the starboard side. In addition, the previous battle had proved that the Spaniards' 12-pounder and 18-pounder guns were not enough to threaten the "Endeavour", so the old pirate simply withstood the shelling of the decisive signal, narrowed the distance between the two sides to less than 100 meters, and then fired five consecutive salvos at the "Resolve" with twenty cannons on the port side.

After five volleys, all the artillery fire on the "Resolve" was mute.

"Keep getting closer, and sweep their deck with grapeshot. Then get the Marines guys ready to board. Captain Jack said.