The Spaniards were taken aback by the sudden appearance of the Vespa and the Fly Tiger, but they reacted immediately, and the four frigates turned around and began to approach the Wasp and the Fly Tiger in an attempt to dislodge the two patrol boats. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

However, neither the "Vespa" nor the "Fly Tiger" paid much attention to the Spanish corvettes, the Spaniards were still some distance away from them, not enough to threaten them. Instead, they picked up speed as fast as they could, and headed for the other sampans.

The Spanish sampans that were being chased suddenly spread out in all directions like schools of fish being chased by great white sharks. This does not make the Chinese patrol boats unable to catch up with them, but it allows them to make a turn every time they catch up with the next target, so that they slow down and sink these sampans slower, buying time for their warships to rush over.

The Fly Tiger had already sunk three sampans in a row, but the continuous steering slowed down significantly. Of course, even so, she is still far faster than those who rely on human paddling sampans. Just as she turned to the fourth target, a volley of cannons suddenly sounded on the sea.

This round of shooting was fired from the Spanish cruiser "Sid". The distance between the two sides is still far away, and at such a distance, the probability of an artillery hit by the "Sid" is not very good for such a small target as the "Fly Tiger". Captain Trinidad ordered the cannon to be fired, largely in the hope of disrupting the enemy and forcing them to abandon the attack on their sampans.

As expected, those shells landed at a great distance from the Fly. However, this kind of shelling, after all, is a threat. The "Fly Tiger" is a behemoth when facing a sampan, but compared to a cruiser, it is actually a small boat. It also absolutely could not withstand the fire of the 12-pounder guns on the cruiser. As long as you get one or two hits, you will be hit hard. Therefore, even if it is a long-distance shelling with insufficient accuracy, the "Fly Tiger" cannot be completely ignored.

So the "Fly Tiger" began to speed up, and temporarily abandoned some sampans that required a large turn to attack, and at most tried their luck with the ship's small cannons.

After the "Fly Tiger" caught up with a sampan again and knocked it over, the "Sid" began to approach the "Fly Tiger", but by this time, the speed of the "Fly Tiger" had increased, and the two sides were traveling in opposite directions, the "Fly Tiger" only slightly turned the rudder, and the two warships staggered. In the midst of this, the "Sid" fired a salvo, but because the target was small and fast, it naturally missed. As for the salvo of the "Santiago", which followed the "Sid", it also missed, because she was even further away from the "Fly Tiger".

The two frigates began to slow down and turn, and if they went any further, they were about to rush into the shipwreck reef they had just set up. But slowing down and turning in this position is very dangerous, because they are now within the range of the battery's cannons.

Just as the Spaniards' cruisers began to slow down and turn, the central and flank batteries began to fire heavily at them. Just now, the hit rate of the guns on the batteries was not high, but this was mainly due to the long distance between these cruisers and the batteries, and they also maintained a high speed and constantly changed course. But now the distance between them and the battery is much smaller, and in order to turn as quickly as possible, their speed is also seriously reduced, which greatly improves the accuracy of the battery's shooting, and in the first round of shelling alone, two 18-pounder shells hit the "Sid" cruiser.

The first shell hit the port side, and the 18-pound shell easily pierced the oak plank and burrowed headlong into the gun compartment. Then it bounced back on the other side of the board, and back on the other side, and with a crackling jump, killing six or seven gunners and breaking a cannon.

As for the second shell, it was even more deadly. The cannon hit the bow of the ship, knocking not only the statue on the bow flying, but also the bow sprit. The shell grazed through the bow mast, which made a small gap and caused a noticeable crack almost half a meter long.

The Spanish corvettes were all schooners, and when the schooners were sailing against the wind, the sails on the mainmast could not propulsion, or even react. At this time, the ship had to put the sails on the mainmast and sail mainly by the jibs hanging from the bow mast and the foremast. At this time, the propulsion generated by the sails is fully applied to the mainmast and bowsprit. When the bowmast is injured, the propulsion will concentrate on the damage, and then further tear the damage, if this force is large enough, it is likely to cause the bowmast to break from here, and once the bowmast is broken, the battleship can only rely on some small sails between the two mainmasts. The propulsion of these small sails is extremely limited, and with them alone, the warship is afraid that it will not even be able to sail at the speed of a section. In the event of a cross-volley from two batteries, if the bowmast is lost, the warship is really lost.

In order to avoid the bow mast from breaking, the "Sid" had to put away two triangular sails, further reduce the speed, increase the turning radius, and reduce the force on the bow mast. This, of course, made her the best target for the batteries on both sides, and the shells kept falling next to her, splashing huge columns of water. In almost every salvo, one or even several shells hit her, and the sailors and gunners had already run out of the gun bay, and it was obvious that it was much safer to be on the open deck than in the gun bay, because even if a shell hit the upper deck, it was only a jump on the upper deck and flew away, and if you were in the way of its flight, it would of course be dead; But if you're not on this line, at least you don't have to worry about it bounceing back after hitting the opposite board, and you don't have to worry about it killing you on the third or fourth rebound, even though it didn't hit you on the first or second rebound.

Another terrible aspect of the battery compared to the battleship showed itself again. There were also arson bombs on warships. But on the warship, for fear of a fire, the number of stoves is limited, and the size is also limited. However, the fort was different in that it had a large stove with a large blower, and it was possible to prepare many red-hot arson shells at a time (in those days, the so-called arson or incendiary bombs were made by burning solid iron shells in a coal stove and then firing them with cannons, which could cause a fire if they entered the enemy's hold). Therefore, there was no shortage of arson shells on the battery, and the battery had sufficient space and could be equipped with a larger number of gun crews, which alleviated the problem of the reduced rate of fire caused by the use of arson shells, and as a result, when the "Sid" had difficulty turning, a large number of arson shells were fired at her. Soon, smoke rose from the "Sid".

The sailors withstood the artillery fire and desperately fought the fire. The Sid finally turned a corner. But because the turning radius is too large, it is now getting closer and closer to the central battery. As a result, the 12-pounder and 18-pounder guns of the central battery fired another salvo at her, and this round turned out to be a direct hit of four shells. One of the arson shells also hit a powder keg, causing the fire to grow in flames all at once.

"Spread the spinnaker! Open the biggest one! Trinida, the captain of the Sid, ordered that he must take a risk now, or let the opposing batteries go on a few more rounds, and the fire would become uncontrollable as the casualties of the sailors increased.

The spinnakers were all open, and they were swollen in the oncoming sea breeze. The bow mast of the Sid rattled and groaned, and the ship slowly accelerated.

Another salvo was fired from the battery, and again three shells hit the "Sid". One of the shells struck a wooden crate not far from Trinidad, which turned into a large pile of flying debris, one of which stabbed Trinidad in the chest and knocked him to the ground.

"Captain, what's wrong with you, Captain?" Big Frodriguez rushed over, knelt down, picked Trinidad's head in his hand, and pillowed it on his lap.

"I ......" blood poured out of Trinidad's mouth and nose, "I support it...... I can't stop it...... You...... Replace ......" At this, Trinidad fainted.

"Doctor, doctor!" Rodriguez shouted, "Come and see the captain!" ”

On the noisy deck, his voice was not heard by a few people, and he shouted twice, and at last the sailors heard him, and ran down—a little later, maybe only half a minute, maybe ...... Anyway, Rodriguez couldn't figure out the time - he saw Dr. Bran running with blood-stained hands.

"What's wrong with the captain...... Let me ......," he shouted as he ran up the deck, and then he was hit directly by a cannonball, and it turned into a cloud of blood mist.

"Quick, accelerate, open all the spinnakers, quick! Otherwise, we'll all die here! Rodriguez, pale, shouted hysterically.

The last spinnaker is open. The ship began to pick up, and Rodriguez, along with the surviving sailors, stared at the bow mast with wide eyes, praying to God with words in their mouths.

The ship continued to accelerate, and the bow mast continued to rattle. A carpenter was scrambling to put an iron hoop on it, and he suddenly saw that the crack, which was only half a meter long, suddenly came to life, and quickly extended along the lines of the wood.

"Dangerous ......" the carpenter only had time to call out for the first time, and the bow mast broke off at once. The huge bow mast fell into the sea, and the cables on it entangled the carpenter, dragging him under the ship. The whole ship was paralyzed at once.

"What's wrong......" Trinidad woke up again.

"Captain...... Are you awake...... The bow mast is broken......" Rodriguez said intermittently.

"You put me ...... Lift me up a little and let me see ......" Trinidad said in pain, sweat the size of a bean running down his head like a waterfall.

"Okay...... Okay......" Rodriguez replied as he tried to lift Trinidad's head a little. Trinidad looked in all directions, and there were flames everywhere on all sides, and it was clear that the fire was getting a little out of control.

"Abandon ship...... Trinidad's voice was very soft, even if he felt that this voice was as light as a dandelion in the wind.

"Okay, captain, I'll get a stretcher right away......" Rodriguez said.

"No...... No...... Put me flat...... Hold it comfort...... Then you're going to take them all ......," Trinidad murmured, and though a fire had been lit not far away, he felt a chill all over his body, and his life force was flowing from his wounds, and he knew that his time had come.

Rodriguez laid Trinidad flat on the deck, took off his clothes and wrapped them into pillows to pill under his head, then stood up and shouted, "Abandon ship!" Abandon ship! ”