Whether it is an enemy attacking from the front or from behind, there is no combat effectiveness.

Even if the enemy suddenly appeared from behind, it didn't actually confuse the ship's defenses, because the other party had already been discovered. This is a group of fishing boats, detouring from the sea to the other side, outflanking from the south side of the merchant ships, and flanking the enemy from the south and the north from the pier.

But they had already been spotted while they were still at sea, and Colin's mercenaries had been drawn to the enemy on the pier in front of them, but Harald had always set up lookout posts, and they had already spotted the fishing boats and warned them.

Therefore, it can be said that the enemy from the sea has always been under the surveillance of the Eastern Dawn. But the raid of these people still makes people very nervous. Because everyone is worried that this is the enemy's two-pronged tactic, just now they have already attacked from the north once, and now they are starting to attack from the south again, what if they attack at the same time?

In order to prevent a sudden attack by the enemy in the north, the mercenaries had to be distracted, especially when everyone found out that there was also an enemy in the north, Colin immediately ordered half of the soldiers to go to the north side of the ship to defend, although the enemy in the south was attacking, but he still let the north prepare early. Perhaps it was because of the nature of the British, who always felt that an enemy from the mainland was more dangerous than an enemy from the sea. After all, enemies on the sea are always limited, while enemies from land can be endless. Based on his own experience, Colin believed that the enemy from the north was still the main attack, and that the attack from the sea was nothing more than a feint.

But the attack from the fishing boats was more resolute, which Colin thought was a feint. But it would be inappropriate to suddenly transfer half of the defensive forces. As a result, several of the fishermen who were more resolute in the assault managed to break under the boat, this kind of seafaring merchant ship, often with a big belly, a semi-circular cross-section, and although the pointed bottom of the boat sat in a bunker, the belly itself was bent inward at the bottom, and as a result, these fishermen hid here, let alone hit them, even if they couldn't see it.

At this time, everyone made another mistake, Colin thought that even if these people reached the bottom of the boat, there was no threat, because the ship was nearly fifty meters high, and it was not so easy for the other party to climb up, not to mention that they might not dare to climb up with a few people, the biggest possibility was that the other party would climb up after gathering enough people, and at that time, it was enough to pay attention to the hook claws they were still coming up to repel them.

In short, Colin has always despised these enemies.

After the battle began, Zhou Lang was in his usual style, not affecting Colin to command the battle, he just watched, and he really felt that he had a reasonable suggestion before he said it, and until now, he really didn't put forward any valuable suggestions, because he hadn't experienced this kind of thing himself, and he was already mentally strong if he didn't panic.

Soon the enemy from the north was easily repulsed, and Colin still did not mobilize the soldiers from the north, believing that the north would still attack. The situation in the south was much better by this time, as ten of Harald's sailors rose to the top, and the soldiers gradually made up for the sudden removal of the gaps left by the battle, and once again made it impossible for the enemy on the fishing boats to get close.

But at this moment, suddenly they found that the south side of the ship was on fire, and the flames were climbing up the hull, and then everyone realized that they were despising these enemies, and they did not break into the bottom of the ship to wait for their partners to climb the boat together, they never intended to engage in gang jumping, their initial plan was to rush to the bottom of the ship and set it on fire.

What to do when there is a fire in the south and the enemy in the north may attack at any time?

The situation is really urgent, Zhou Lang does not blame Colin's command, on the contrary, he is extremely annoyed by his conservatism at this time, because Colin suggested sending soldiers off the ship, but he refused, he also regarded the tall hull as an advantage, but forgot that this is a wooden ship, is afraid of fire, and the Chinese, whether official or pirates, the most common method used to deal with the strong sea ships of foreigners in history is fire attack, such as the Battle of Liuluo Bay between the Zheng Zhilong group and the Dutch for sea power in East Asia at the end of the Ming Dynasty, In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao's serial warships were also attacked by fire.

But Zhou Lang ignored it, he really didn't expect it, because although he was not panicked, his brain was not sober, and he couldn't think at high speed. Colin was generally an army officer and was not so clear about naval warfare. Harald's main opponents were the Western maritime powers, whether it was the British and Dutch navies, or stateless pirates, and the Westerners rarely used fire. Especially for Harald's longest rivals, the pirates, whose aim was to rob ships and plunder, was not willing to burn enemy ships.

How this mistake was made was not important at this time, when the fire was discovered, several people knew that they had made a mistake, and Colin, a regular officer, felt that the situation was serious, and immediately asked Zhou Lang and Harald to meet.

Colin suggested that his men disembark, but only ten men could be sent down, he was very worried that the enemy would suddenly attack from the north, and hoped that Harald's men would strengthen the defense in the north, and he would send ten men from the north to disembark, and then detour from the north to the south to sweep away the remnants of the enemy who had set fire to the bottom of the ship, and then return to the north to line up, in the process, if the enemy continued to break through to the bottom of the ship, or if the enemy from the north attacked in a big way, it would be very dangerous.

Zhou Lang had no choice, he had no experience and no manpower.

"Let me go!"

Harald took a stand.

Harald continued: "Your men are better able to play if they stay on the ship. Let me take someone down. ”

Colin said, "Can your men end the fight as soon as possible?" ”

Harald said: "It should be okay to engage in hand-to-hand combat. ”

Time is pressing, Colin is indeed short of manpower, and after suffering a loss, he no longer dares to underestimate any enemy, and now it is indeed safer for his people to stay on the ship, so he nodded.

Harald didn't say much, and was about to act.

"Be careful!"

Before leaving, Zhou Lang admonished.

I saw that Haralmashan went out and commanded, and he gathered ten of his men, plus him a total of eleven men, all of them took out scimitars, this kind of naval saber, similar to the saber, inverted curved arc, but shorter, very convenient for fighting in a small space, so not only the navy but also the pirates liked it.

Zhou Lang looked at this group of Nordic men from Norway, with a short knife in his mouth, just like their ancestors Vikings, slipping down from the hemp rope tied to the side of the ship, and in a trance, he actually had a sense of immediacy of a Caribbean pirate.

The gunfire on the ship had stopped, but the hearts of the people had not slackened, and everyone was worried about another enemy attack. Colin's military experience determined that this was a good time for the enemy to attack, taking advantage of the fire on the ship, if the enemy attacked from the north and south, it would really be a big trouble, he was especially worried about the north, he always insisted that the land direction in the north was the enemy's main direction of attack.

Zhou Lang was more worried about the fire, after all, this is a wooden boat, and he has not seen water for several days, only the bottom of the boat can soak in seawater between the ebb and flow of the tide, and the upper hull is basically dry. Although the sea boat has been immersed in the sea for many years and cannot be completely dry, once a fire breaks out, the wet wood will still burn, let alone a half-dry wooden boat. The most worrying thing is that this is an armed merchant ship, and the fire can be controlled in the end, but if you are not careful in the process, a single spark may let the gunpowder explode and destroy the entire ship.

Harald's arrangements were in place, and the other sailors, under the command of the first mate and boatswain, carried all the gunpowder to the north of the ship, as far away from the flames as possible, and threw them off the ship as soon as the flames reached the deck. Fire extinguishing measures were also prepared, buckets of fresh water were brought out, and fuel oil was poured down the side of the burning ship.

These are just remedial measures, and the most important thing is to see if Harald can eliminate the people who are fighting the fire as soon as possible, otherwise if the other party is allowed to destroy, the ship will not be able to be saved, and everyone may not survive.

Because he paid more attention to the situation in the south, Zhou Lang had been observing the side of the ship in the south, and he found that the fire was not as big as he imagined, and it did not spread so fast, and the flames could lick as far as the eye could see from time to time, most of the time only red light was seen, and it was only limited to about ten meters in the middle of the boat, and there was no call for fire elsewhere.

Zhou Lang couldn't see the situation at the bottom of the boat, but soon he heard the sound, it was the sound of fighting, there were the roars of Harald and others, their roars were very distinctive, they were simply angry shouts, and the roars of the other side were more chaotic, there were roars, screams, curses, etc.

But the murmur quickly subsided, and it was clear that Harald had won. Harald's men were not vegetarians, most of them came out of the barren Norwegian coast with Harald, and the Vikings roamed Europe in history, not because of quality, but because of poverty. They are all close to the Arctic Circle, and no matter whether the land is fertile or not, the amount of solar radiation alone is not enough, and they can plant one crop a year, and the land is still barren, and they can't support many people at all, so after the population grows, they have only one way, and that is to go out and grab it.

The land cannot support people, but they have a unique advantage, Sweden, Norway is rich in high-quality iron ore, so they are almost lagging behind Western Europe in all technical fields, but the technology gap in forging weapons is not large. The animals in the alpine zone were larger than those in the warm zone, and only the strongest people could survive in the harsh environment, so the Vikings at that time were all tall and large, and the legend of giants was once rife in Western Europe.

Norwegians in this era are no longer pirates, but they are still not a rich country, so there are not a few people who go to sea to make a living, it can be said that sailing and fishing, and eating are Norway's first occupations. This is how Harald went to the sea, at first he served the British, and then at one point accumulated capital to buy a ship of his own, but unfortunately a few years ago he was caught in a storm, and he went bankrupt and had to continue to serve the East India Company.

The ship sank, but his sailors were still there, and they were all old brothers who had followed him for many years, their combat literacy was not very high, but their combat experience was quite rich, not even less than the mercenaries under Colin, because they were good men who made a living on a sea surrounded by wolves, and their opponents who fought the most were of course pirates, and even three of them used to be pirates, wanted by various countries, and couldn't stay in Europe, so they made a living on Harald's ship and followed Harald to the East.

Such a group of sailors who have fought with pirates for many years, used for regular combat, is certainly not as good as those mercenaries, but it is more than enough to clean up a few fishermen, although their weapons are not dominant, but the fishermen also have a single knife in their hands at most, and the two sides are half a pound and eight taels, and they still have a numerical advantage, and the fishermen who broke into the boat, there are only four or five, and they have as many as eleven people.

However, Harald did not kill them all, he left a living man, who was forced to the bottom of the ship.

What a terrible picture this is, an Oriental fisherman who lives by fishing on weekdays, lives an extremely difficult life, and is malnourished all the year round, but meets a group of big men from the Nordic region with the highest average stature in the world, and these eleven big men are still in Norway.

Just now, the dozen or so people suddenly roared, and hacked their companions to death one by one with knives, and now they forced themselves into a corner, and each of them was holding a knife, and there was blood on the knife, and they all wanted to mumble nonsense that they didn't understand.

The fishermen were so frightened that they suddenly had a nervous breakdown and shouted: Lao Tzu will pull you on your back if you want to die!

Harald wanted to catch him alive, but he didn't know Chinese, and his men took knives to force the last fisherman into a corner, and kept telling him to lay down his arms, but the more he pacified him, the more panicked he became, and the more he squeezed into the corner.

Suddenly the other party shouted, ran to the depths of the corner, and finally even crawled in on his stomach, at first Harald and the others thought that the other party was trying to escape, and wanted to escape with the help of their petite figure, and when they also tiptoed, bent over and followed the cat's back, suddenly Harald shouted: Run!

Harald saw the fisherman lying on a burden at the bottom of the boat, and he was blowing the velvet with a fire fold in his hand, and the spark was already burning.

Eleven Norwegians ran desperately out, but as soon as they ran out of the bottom of the boat, suddenly there was a loud bang, which shook them all to the ground, and the mud and sand sprayed out from the bottom of the boat, covering them, and all of them lay on the ground, and most of them were stunned, and there were two closest to the bottom of the boat, and their noses and eyes were bleeding, and they were actually shocked.

Harald did not care to look after the two who had fallen to the ground, and immediately got up and beckoned the others to run away, for he heard a creaking sound.

The people on the boat were shocked, although they were not shocked to death, and there were few shock injuries, but they were also shocked, dizzy and dizzy for a while, many people fell to the ground, and the most important thing is that everyone was frightened.

Zhou Lang was also startled, he had been paying attention to the situation, and what he was most worried about was the spread of the flames, but the flames had not spread, which made him a little strange, and at the same time a little lucky, and then he heard the sound of the fight below, and was wondering why the fighting stopped Harald and didn't hurry up to prepare to extinguish the fire, suddenly the whole ship seemed to shake, and he obviously felt that he was thrown off and almost fell under the boat.

Just after the shaking ended, and everyone's hearts were still beating wildly, they suddenly felt the boat moving. Zhou Lang stood on the south side of the ship, this feeling was not strong, and the soldiers who were leaning on the north side of the ship already felt that the boat was tilting to the south, because they were a little unstable.

When Zhou Lang found out about the situation, it was accompanied by a crackling sound at the bottom of the boat, and at this time the boat had tilted at an angle, so that Zhou Lang could really see that it was the sound of the wooden rafters used to support the bottom of the boat being crushed. It's just a little strange why those rafters broke at this time, you must know that these rafters are inserted very deeply, and they are all relatively thick rafters.

Others don't know, but Harald knows. Because there are some rafters, when they exploded, they were directly washed away, and even if they were not washed away, the sand and soil in the ground had been loosened, and a few of them were not strong because they had just burned, and they broke when they were slightly squeezed.

The first of them to break was the five or six rafters that had been burning in the middle of the bottom of the ship, and it was the rafters, not the hull, that Harald had only discovered after he had come down, and the hull had strangely not really burned. This principle is actually very simple, just like lighting a piece of paper, if you point from the edge, it is very easy to ignite, and if you go from the middle of the paper, it is not so easy to ignite, only use the fire for a period of time, and wait for the temperature of the paper to really reach the high temperature of burning, it will be ignited. This belongs to the category of chemistry, and Harald does not understand this.

It was also because he saw that the hull of the ship was not burning, and it was not easy to burn in a short time, that Harald did not rush to put out the fire when the rafters were burning, but went to catch the live mouth first, who would have thought that the live mouth ignited the gunpowder bag.

Harald was lucky enough to run out, only five of them ran out with him, two of them died immediately, one was hit by a broken rafter, one injured his leg in the previous explosion, and another ran a few steps slower for some unknown reason and failed to dodge the overturned boat on the muddy sand.

Harald's heart was filled with sorrow, and those people were his friends. He thought they could all get out, if they didn't get hurt, if the beach wasn't muddy, they would be able to get out. Harald lifted his foot, not knowing when the sea had covered his feet and the tide was rising.

The tide was unfortunate for Harald, but lucky for Zhou Lang, because half of the ship's side fell on the damp sand, completely extinguishing the flames, and the fire that he feared most did not happen.

He was also glad that there were almost no casualties on board, because although the ship tilted, it did not completely collapse in the end, and the side of the ship he was on was still more than ten meters above the ground, which was the fattest part of the hull, and now it was on the beach surface, supporting the entire hull.

Therefore, although the whole hull of the ship tilted badly, there was no situation of throwing people out, let alone the tragedy of the whole ship turning over and crushing people underneath. It's just that in the process of tilting the ship, the people on the north side of the ship slipped to the south, and some piled powder kegs and other things slipped over, because the tilting process was not violent, so the final impact was not serious, only a few unlucky people either slipped or were hit by heavy objects and suffered some minor injuries.

But Zhou Lang's rejoicing did not last long, because Colin warned and shouted at all the soldiers to prepare for battle, and the enemy actually attacked from the north and south at the same time.