Seeing those fireships coming out from behind the warships, Zheng Sen couldn't help but give his father a thumbs up in his heart, although Zheng Zhilong did not have formal naval training, but from arriving at the battlefield, to analyzing the situation, to seizing the upper hand, and making that weird T-head, it was all done very beautifully, and it was almost the most reasonable measure in this situation. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info But these tricks are not enough, and now his use of fireships can be said to be a stroke of genius. Generally speaking, in such a wide sea, fireships or anything are basically useless. This is because a fireship with only one sail is not faster than a normal sailboat, and the opponent can maneuver to widen the distance between the fireship and the fireship, and then easily wipe out the fireboat with long-range firepower. Therefore, fireships generally have to be used in a closed environment such as a port bay in order to have good results. For example, Zheng Zhilong defeated the Dutch fleet with fireship tactics in Liaoluo Bay before, relying on the fact that Liaoluo Bay was a closed bay, and the Dutch fleet could not maneuver at high speed.

But this time, although it was on the sea, Zheng Zhilong kept the fireships behind the warships, until the distance between the two sides was only more than a hundred steps before letting these fireships come out, at this time, the Spanish warships were sailing against the wind, and the distance between the fireships going downwind was close, the relative speed was fast, the reaction time was short, and it was difficult to make effective dodge actions. At the same time, the Spanish warships were all facing the fireships with their bows, and they were also lined up in a column, which meant that the cannons that the entire Spanish fleet could fire at these fireships, that is, the two 12-pounder guns on the bow of the "Fury" at the front. At such a close distance, facing as many as fifty fireships, not to mention just two front-loading bronze cannons, even if it is two AK176s or two phalanxes, it may not be of much use.

And because of the formation, except for the "Fury" in the front, the view of the Spanish ships in the back was blocked by the warships in front, so they didn't even notice that the fireships of the brigade were rushing towards them. If Nelson knew in advance that Zheng Zhilong would play this trick on him, he was afraid that he would turn desperately, even if he sold the t-head to Zheng Sen's fleet over and over again, because compared to fireships, cannons, even 24-pound cannons can be regarded as limited in power. At least in this era, very few warships were sunk by cannons (after all, the guns of that time were nothing more than solid, non-exploding iron balls), but if a warship was stuck by a fireship, there was a very high chance that it would be burned directly.

But now, looking at the fireboats that pounced on him, Nelson knew that he had no time to do anything but pray to God. The two bow guns of the "Fury" had just fired at Zheng Zhilong's junk ship in front, and now they were loading, so they couldn't even fire two guns to barely intercept it.

Although Nelson's prayers to God had never been so devout as this one, and although he had promised many masses in one breath, a fireboat slammed into the bow of the Fury, and the whole ship shook from the impact. Nelson hurried to look over to the location of the impact. He saw a fireboat nailed to the port side, and the hook in front of the fireboat was digging deep into the furious plank. A Chinese sailor was holding a torch over the pile of things that had been set on fire at the bow of the fireboat, and behind him, two sailors at the helm had jumped into the water and swam off into the distance.

Nelson pulled out his pistol and fired a shot at the Chinese sailor at the risk of igniting the ignition. The range of the pistols of this era was too limited, and the distance between them was a little farther, and this shot had no idea where it was going. "Quick, shoot him!"

But by the time the soldiers on the Fury arrived with muskets, it was too late. The sailor, with a torch in his hand, looked at Nelson and reached out to light the ignition, and the fire was burning at once. The sailor jumped into the sea with a thud and disappeared.

Since the fireship was nailed upwind, the flames were lit with billowing black smoke and immediately rolled towards the Fury.

"Hurry up and put out the fire!" Nelson shouted in despair, and the two sailors carried the fire-fighting sand bucket and tried to rush over, but before they could rush up, they were caught by the rolling heat. Forced back.

"Colonel, the fire is too big to be saved!" A sailor shouted at Nelson.

At this time, the sails of the Fury were also ignited, and the red flames and black smoke rolled up at once. From afar, the Fury has turned into a torch.

"Abandon ship!" Although Nelson was not reconciled, he also knew that the situation was irreparable, and now he had to make a rational decision.

Taking advantage of the fact that the flames had not completely engulfed the entire battleship, the sailors put down the lifeboats in a panic. Nelson and Babbel were the last to get on the lifeboat. By the time they got into the lifeboat, the fire had already ignited the gunpowder, but fortunately the gunpowder was not sealed, so there was no big explosion or anything. Still, the sailors rowed the dinghy farther away from the burning warship as quickly as possible.

Nelson turned his head to look at his fleet, which was completely finished, with at least eight warships burning, and one warship, which had narrowly escaped the attack of the fireships, was already encircled, put away all the sails, lowered the anchor and surrendered to the enemy.

……

After learning that the Zheng family's fleet was actually not damaged much, compared with the information of the merchants who entered and exited the North Harbor, Governor Aquila naturally understood that the Zheng family's fleet deliberately made a "heavy loss" appearance to deceive himself. Therefore, he was also very worried that the Nelson fleet, which had misjudged the strength of his opponent, would be attacked by the enemy and suffer a loss. However, some people comforted him and said that the strength of the Nelson fleet was stronger than that of the Zheng family, even considering the devil-like giant ship. After all, only five of the Zheng family's fleet were real warships, and Nelson's ten warships were all regular warships. Even if it is a sneak attack, as long as it is not blocked in the bay like in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, it should not suffer too much loss.

There was a lot of truth to that, and Aquila felt that Nelson would never make the same mistake as the Dutch, being stuck in a closed bay. So I put my mind at ease. But early that morning, as soon as he had finished breakfast, he saw his squire, Bill, running in in a panic.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency the Governor!"

"Something's wrong! See what you look like! It's like an uneducated village woman! Aquila glared at Bill fiercely.

Bill hurriedly stood upright, stretched out his hand to straighten the hat on his head, and tidied up his clothes.

"Hmm." Aquila nodded and said, "Bill, my father and I are good friends. He was a very good nobleman. As his heir, you must always pay attention to your words and deeds, and even if there are big things, you must appear calm. Otherwise, you're losing face for your last name, you know? ”

"I see, Lord Governor." Bill nodded. In Europe, it was a long tradition for a nobleman to send his son to serve as an attendant to another close nobleman, and it was also a common method for nobles to educate and train the next generation.

"Well, that's good." Aquila nodded. Picking up the teacup in front of him, he took another sip of tea, and then asked slowly, "Bill, did something happen just now?" ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, the Zheng family's fleet appeared outside the port and blocked the entire port." Bill said unhurriedly.

"What?" Aquila was taken aback and jerked to her feet, nearly knocking the table over. The black tea cup on the table overturned over, and the tea flowed all over the table.

"What do you say? They appeared outside the port? Aquila's eyes widened and she asked.

"Yes, sir, you can see it when you open the window over there. They also sent a messenger with a letter. Aguero's reaction clearly startled Bill.

"What about letters? Show me. Aquila said as she walked over to the window, pushing open the window and looking out.

The Doge's Palace is located quite high, just overlooking the entire port. Aguero saw a fleet spread out outside the port, thinking that it should be the Zheng family's fleet.

"They're here, Nelson and their side ......" Aquila barely dared to think any further.

"Your Excellency, this is the letter they sent." Bill handed Aquila a letter.

Aquila took the envelope, opened it and read it. Bill noticed that Aquila's face was depressed at one moment, gloomy at another, and hideous again.

"Damn Nelson, this utter idiot! He actually destroyed the entire fleet, and the entire fleet was all finished! And this damn guy didn't die, and shamelessly became a prisoner! Now he actually wrote to me on behalf of the Chinese, asking me to surrender! God, why don't you send down thunder and lightning and kill this bastard with a single thunder! Aquila scolded:

"My lord, what's wrong? Something happened to Colonel Nelson's fleet? Bill asked.

"That guy...... I don't want to mention this idiot! Well, see for yourself. Aquila handed the letter to Bill and said, "Bill, after reading it, you can also say what you think, of course, not about that idiot, but what do we do now?" ”