Nelson hurriedly raised his binoculars and looked towards the port side. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoOn the surface of the sea over there, there was a faint hint of smoke rising.

"On my command, let the 'Roar', 'Arrogance,' 'Fury,' and 'Flame,' and the 'Vengeance' form a separate column, and at once turn ninety-two degrees to the left, and approach the enemy ship from the left; The other ships followed our ship and approached the enemy ship from the right side. The whaling ship must be captured alive, and it must not be allowed to escape. Nelson ordered.

Nelson knows that there is some difference between the Zheng family's whaling ship and the general whaling ship, that is, they particularly emphasize speed performance, and some people say that the Zheng family's whaling ship is not slower than the cruiser at all when it is empty. It is precisely because of this speed that the Zheng family's whaling ships can even catch whales that other whaling ships can't catch at all, and they swim very fast. For example, in the square of North Harbor, there is a skeleton of a giant blue whale. And the blue whale, which swims at a speed of about 20 knots, is originally something that no whaling ship can catch. And once the whaling ship escaped, then the Zheng family would naturally know that the Spanish fleet was attacking their ships on this route. As a result, Nielsen will be able to make a significant reduction in what they can gain.

Nelson watched as the Roar turned first and left the formation, followed by the Pride, the Fury, the Flaming, and the Vengeance as well, and then formed a column and headed for the faint plume of smoke.

Nelson noticed the distance between the ships and the formation he was now directly carrying, and when the distance between the two sides had reached about a nautical mile, he gave the order: "Order the formation to follow our ship and turn 92 degrees to the left." ”

Nelson estimated that the Zheng family's whaling ship had two possible options after discovering itself, one was to turn in the opposite direction to itself, try to rush past its own interception in a hedging way, and then rely on the advantage of the schooner to sail against the wind to get rid of its own pursuit; The second is to escape by escaping with the wind.

Nelson didn't know how fast the whaling ship could run in downwind conditions, but his ships were sailing ships, and if the sailing ships couldn't outrun the schooners when the wind was downwind, the people who designed the ship would have gone to hell. If the whaling ship had escaped with the wind, Nelson felt that he should be able to catch up with it.

And if the opponent is sailing head-on, and is going to fight for a round of shells, he will also run to the upwind position. Nielsen's two-column arrangement is not vegetarian either. If the whaling ship sailed against the wind, Nelson was sure to sandwich it between the two formations. In this way, if it wants to escape, it will not only be subjected to a round of shelling, but a salvo of ten warships from two directions. Nelson felt that no whaling ship could withstand such a blow. So, the whaling ship had to escape with the wind, then be caught up by the fleet, and then honestly surrender.

At this time, the formation under the direct command of Nelson also completed the turn, and the two formations killed Li Dazui's whaling ship one left and one right, and Li Dazui didn't know anything about it.

……

Li Dazui's whaling ship is now drifting slowly on the sea. And Li Dazui himself was holding a pipe and standing at the stern of the boat and smoking. Now that his boat is almost full, he can go home if he catches another whale, whether it's a sperm whale or a gray whale.

"Monkey, do you see anything?" Li Dazui shouted at Hou San, the lookout on the mast. On whaling ships, the lookout is a crucial figure, and whether or not you can spot the whale depends on the watchman's eyes in many cases.

"Didn't find out! Slow down...... There is a water column on the starboard side! The lookout shouted.

"What whale is it? Is it a sperm whale? Li Dazui immediately asked.

The lookout didn't answer, but continued to search the surface of the sea with his binoculars. Li Dazui didn't rush him, he knew that when the monkey first saw the water column, he probably didn't see the shape of the water column clearly, so he couldn't tell what kind of whale it was. And to make an accurate judgment, he had to wait patiently for the whale to squirt out the water column for the second time after more than ten minutes, or even dozens of minutes.

After more than ten minutes, the disappointed voice of the lookout came from the mast: "Hell! Captain, it was a blue whale, at least four nautical miles away from us, and it was swimming in a direction far away from us. ”

Li Dazui also sighed, the speed of the blue whale was obviously faster than any ship of this era, and not just a little faster. If the blue whale ran into range of the whaling fork on its own, he had a certain chance of catching it, but if a blue whale was moving away from the whaling ship, then there was nothing the whaling ship could do about it.

However, Li Dazui is not really in a hurry, there are many whales in this sea area, and it won't be long before that monkey will definitely find another whale suitable for hunting.

Hou San also knew that the whale and this whaling ship had no chance in this life, at least this time. So he began to look in other directions again. Li Dazui, on the other hand, planned to go down to the cabin to sleep again, he was busy all night yesterday, and now he was a little sleepy.

"Discover other ships! Three o'clock on the starboard side! Hou San shouted again.

"Where?" Li Dazui immediately rushed to the starboard side, and Huang Yuanqing, the first mate on duty, immediately handed him the binoculars.

Li Dazui raised the binoculars, and then he scolded: "Damn, it's the Spaniards, there are really a lot of them!" ”

Li Dazui immediately realized the danger he was in. The enemy, upwind, was divided into two columns, and the distance between the two columns was also reasonable - apparently, those Spaniards must have discovered themselves long ago, so they discharged such a formation specifically for themselves.

"They're just thinking I'm going to get a headwind and get through them and be broken to pieces by them, right?" Li Dazui thought.

"Ring the alarm bell! Full sails! Li shouted with a big mouth.

The whaling ship immediately got busy, and the sailors ran around the deck, spreading all the sails.

"Throw away all the goods! Be quick! Li shouted with a big mouth.

It's certainly painful to throw away a boatload full of whale oil. However, if the load cannot be reduced and the speed cannot be quickly accelerated, then no amount of whale oil can only be the spoils of the Spaniards.

A large vat of whale oil was lifted out of the cabin and rolled to the side of the ship, where the two sailors grabbed one end of the barrel and shouted, "One, two, three!" Then they lifted up the barrel and threw it down!

A large vat of whale oil was thrown down, and the large wooden barrel smashed from the side of the ship into the sea, stirring up snow-white waves. The barrel sinks into the water by inertia, but both the whale oil and the barrel itself are lighter than the seawater, so after a while, you can see it float up a few dozen meters behind the stern, and then sway on the surface of the sea, drifting farther and farther. Li Dazui's ship was almost full of whale oil, and most of his sailors had been busy all night, and now they were all exhausted, and it didn't take long for the speed of the whale oil barrels to drop significantly.

……

"They can't run away." Colonel Nelson looked at his pocket watch and said with confidence. Just now, he had calculated the distance and speed of the two sides, and the ship was probably much slower than he had expected because it was full of cargo, and he estimated that if the wind did not change at sea, he would be able to catch up with the whaling ship by three o'clock in the afternoon at the most.

"Commander, they are dumping the cargo. Probably whale oil. Are we going to have people scoop it all up? A voice suddenly sounded behind him.

"Ah, Captain Victor, do you think it's appropriate for us to do this in battle?" Nelson said, turning his head.

"If it's a fight, it's certainly not appropriate." "But it's not a fight, it's just a hunt." And we have so many ships, it's more than enough to deal with a whaling ship. I reckon we'll not catch them until after three o'clock in the afternoon, and by that time they've probably thrown away a lot of whale oil. In fact, we could have left a boat dedicated to salvaging these barrels full of whale oil. In this way, we can gain a little more. After all, the brothers of the Navy also need money. ”

Colonel Nelson thought for a moment, and he felt that leaving a boat would not have much of an impact on the overall situation, so he nodded and said, "Okay, let the Gluttony stay and collect the whale oil barrels floating on the sea." ”

……

Li Dazui also calculated that if the wind did not change drastically, his ship would probably be overtaken by the Spanish fleet at about three o'clock in the afternoon.

"What should I do if I get overtaken?" Li Dazui thought. Obviously, a whaling ship, a whaling ship with only four six-pound guns, could not defeat the Spanish warships in any way. What's more, his ship still uses the old-fashioned six-pounder guns that have been eliminated from the "model army", and the training intensity of the model army is high, and the number of shots of these cannons is naturally a lot. So now the state of these cannons is very problematic, Li Dazui estimates that these cannons will definitely not be able to penetrate the hull of the opponent's ship.

"Mazu Niangniang bless, hurry up and change the direction of the wind! If the wind of joy allows the villain to escape this catastrophe, the villain must go to the temple and donate a full barrel of lamp oil, no, no, no, it is full of three barrels of lamp oil! Li Dazui couldn't think of anything to do for a while, so he had to pray to the Chinese goddess of the sea.

However, the direction of the wind on the sea has not changed. Lee walked over again, looking at the Spanish ships. At this time, he heard a new sailor praying: "Heavenly Concubine Niangniang bless ......"

"Smack!" Li, who has always been kind, slapped the sailor's mouth fiercely, and scolded at the same time: "I said why the wind direction is still the same, it turns out that you are harming people!" What do you say, 'Heavenly Princess'! Do you want us all to die? It's going to be called 'Mazu'! You know? It's going to be called 'Mazu'! ”

The sailor covered his face and couldn't speak, Li Dazui ignored him, he first raised his binoculars to look at the Spanish ship over there, and then prayed: "Mazu Niangniang bless ......"

At this time, the boatswain said to the sailor who had been beaten: "Brother, you don't know, only when you go to the temple to pray, you say that it is 'Tianfei Niangniang', and when you go to the sea, you must call it 'Mazu Niangniang'?" Neither are you...... If you call 'Mazu Niangniang' for help, Niangniang will come immediately, and if you call 'Tianfei Niangniang' for help, then Niangniang must first dress up and come again. Brother, you don't have an aunt yet, I don't know how much time it will take for a woman to dress up......"