Paromino pursed his lips tightly and looked disapprovingly at the soldier in front of him, who had to hang his head under his stern gaze.

In fact, Paromino was feeling very bad, he had been suffering from malaria some time ago, and if it had not been for the Cinchona frost who had saved his life, he would have died in the position of chicken coop chief, and he would not have been able to retire like his predecessor Romero. Now that his condition was improving, he arose to see the progress of the work at Fort Victoria near Fort Blamion, and the results were to his dissatisfaction.

Apparently, his men were lazy when he was sick.

"It took me twenty days to recover, and in those twenty days, your work has only progressed so little." He shouted: "You lazy pigs, you should be locked up with pigs, I would rather catch some natives to replace you, because at least natives will not be lazy like you!" ”

"Your Excellency, we are soldiers of the King of Spain, not craftsmen, and the construction of the fortress should have been done by craftsmen, not more than a hundred of our soldiers."

An officer complained, and Paromino glared at him, but remembering the officer's background, he had to give up the idea of punishing the guy directly.

"I also wish there were more Spaniards in the Alcazar of San Salvador, not that there were more natives than we are now. But what can I do, His Excellency the Governor of Coquela, under pressure from the Dutch, had to withdraw his army to defend Manila, and without sufficient troops to protect it, and our merchants did not want to live here...... God Almighty, the damned Dutch have gathered their strength in Batavia. I hope they have come to attack our castle so that your laziness will be punished......"

"Pavilion...... Excellency! ”

As Paromino chattered and complained to his subordinates, his subordinates' eyes widened and they shook him.

"What's the matter, don't interrupt me!"

"Over there...... There's a ship over there, and I suggest you'd better take a look! ”

Paromino turned his face, and then saw a Ming warship appear in his sight.

This Ming warship is not big. By their standards, only a two-hundred-ton auxiliary warship. But according to Paromino's experience, such a ship was the main battleship of the Ming Kingdom. Except, of course, from the warship of the Nanhai Bo who was in Xinxiang.

"How did the warship of the Ming Kingdom get here?" Paromino said angrily: "This is our place, could it be Nikolai's ship?" ”

Nikolai is Zheng Zhilong's name in the mouth of the Spaniards. His warships are a mix of East and West, and many of them are like this. But the relationship between the Spaniards and Zheng Zhilong was not good, so Paromino immediately became alert: "Order the battery to open fire, don't let it get close!" ”

The Spanish gunners were indeed well trained, and soon after receiving the order, the guns began to test fire, and although the ship was still out of range, the cannon shot slowed the ship down.

At this time, Paromino saw through a telescope. It wasn't just one warship that came, there were three smaller warships behind it.

"The range of the enemy's battery fire is indeed better than that of the twelve-pound guns on our ship." Luo Jiuhe said a little excitedly: "That being the case, act according to the plan!" ”

The warship fired two cannons from a distance, indicating that he had come here with absolutely no good intentions. Then start to turn around and turn east.

Seeing that the four ships, which could already be identified as enemy ships, turned to the east side, Paromino cursed: "What exactly do these barbarians want to do, just to demonstrate to us?" ”

"I'm afraid not, Your Excellency, because the tide and our artillery fire suppress it. This direction is absolutely unsuitable for conducting landing operations. And if the landing cannot be carried out, then the enemy will not be able to break through our batteries. The officer with a background next to him said.

"Domingo, you're right, it looks like our group of uninvited guests are about to land through the Eight Feet Channel." "We have to send someone to support, damn it, if it weren't for Coquela's orders, there would have been a guard fort and dozens of soldiers!" ”

After judging the enemy's intentions, Palomino roared, and then pointed at Domingo and said: "You go there with thirty soldiers, and inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy, don't worry, most of Nikolai's men use bows and arrows and inferior muskets, and we have an advantage in firepower!" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Domingo also didn't think that Zheng Zhilong's subordinates could have much combat effectiveness, and he regarded this order as an opportunity to make meritorious contributions to himself. In a short time, he set out with thirty Spanish soldiers and hurried to the guard fort.

Originally, the Guard Fort was a small fortress that served as a firepower fulcrum outside the city of San Salvador, and was of great importance for the protection of the waterways of the city of San Salvador. Because this is a hill, condescending, overlooking the retreat fort. When Domingo arrived, the four boats had already docked, and a large number of soldiers had jumped out of the boats, and he couldn't help but take a breath when he saw the number of soldiers.

"Oh my God, there were four or five hundred soldiers, and they were all armed with muskets! Do you want us to use thirty men against these four or five hundred soldiers? A Spanish soldier exclaimed.

"Shut up, God will bless us." Domingo said sharply: "We still have an advantage now, as long as we hold here, no matter how many enemy troops there are, it will be useless, San Salvador will send people to support us!" ”

"I hope so, here they come, sir!"

The Spanish soldiers here knew that their total number of troops in Fort Salvador was only one hundred and eighty, and it was impossible to send more soldiers to come!

More and more Ming people came ashore on sampans, and their clothes were varied, and they did not look like regular troops. Domingo noticed that although the Ming people were holding guns, they seemed to be unable to put them away, and they seemed to be arguing with each other.

This is under the muzzle of the battery!

However, the artillery of the fort bombarded several times, and the Ming people hid behind the reef, and they tried to shoot this way, but because the distance was too far, the bullets did not know where to go.

"Tian Boguang's soldiers, acting is very good, and if we change our marines, I'm afraid they don't have this ability." Luo Jiuhe laughed when he saw the chaos on the shore.

"Try not to have casualties, let's just act." The captain next to him muttered.

In order to avoid artillery fire, the ship began to retreat again, out of range of the enemy's artillery, and the Tiger Guards who went ashore were still in disarray. In chaos, they were in a position that happened to be a dead end of the artillery, so they were not afraid of being hit by the artillery on the battery. After a long time, they seemed to have made a decision and began to attack the hillside.

Such a soldier's appearance greatly increased Domingo's confidence: one Spanish soldier is definitely worth ten hundred such natives.

"Oh my God, these natives are stupid, they will trip over their own muskets!"

"But it seems that their morale is good, at least they haven't turned around and fled yet."

"That's why we didn't fire! I know the great Francisco now? How did Pizarro conquer the Inca and know Honam? How did Cortis become a conqueror—perhaps we could conquer the Ming kingdom on the other side of the Ming Sea with more than a hundred men, and let these indigenous barbarians serve as our slaves for generations, unless they accept the dictates of God! ”

The surrounding soldiers began to be optimistic, and one by one they said big words to boost morale. They were highly trained and therefore did not shoot for a long time, but the natives, who seemed to know the range of the Spanish muskets, stopped when they were about a hundred and twenty meters apart, and began to fire their guns indiscriminately.

This position was the place where the artillery on the fort could bombard, so although the soldiers on the hill did not fight back, the artillery on the fort began to roar. As soon as the cannon rang out, the scattered Ming soldiers immediately fell to the ground, looking frightened.

"Haha, they look like turtles!"

"yes, the shells are still a few hundred yards away from them!"

"I dare to say that ten miles of cannon sound can scare them into lying down!"

After a burst of cannons, although there were no casualties, the Ming natives had lost their fighting spirit, they turned around and ran, fleeing at a strange speed, and soon came to the seashore, and then beckoned and jumped, and after a while, the warships that had avoided it reluctantly sailed back and sent sampans to pick up the people.

And the Ming natives on the land swarmed up, and a few officer-like people punched and kicked, so that the team was organized, so that the small sampan would not sink because there were too many people.

The Spaniards laughed when they saw the clumsy performance of the Ming natives, and Domingo's nervous heart relaxed: such an attacker is not to be worried.

But then, four more ships appeared in the distance, and these eight ships did not rush ashore, but found a small island outside and anchored, looking at the situation to prepare for a protracted siege, which made Domingo's brow furrow.

"There is nothing else in the Ming Kingdom, there are too many people." He thought to himself: "We must ask for support, at least for the support of warships, if we can't destroy these warships, the people of the Ming Kingdom will not give up!" ”

Thinking of this, he left twenty soldiers to continue to guard the fort and returned to San Salvador himself.

"You have repelled the enemy attack, Domingo, and I will report your bravery to Governor Aquila." Paromino was quite happy to see him.

"Your Excellency, I think it's best to ask him for help, at least ask him to send a few warships to sink or drive away those Ming people. We have only armed merchant ships here, and we have no warships, so we cannot completely defeat the enemy in naval battles. Domingo said.

"I will, when I see the eight ships of the enemy, my letter will be prepared, and in a little while the messenger will depart by boat, but we must stop the enemy ships at sea and prevent them from intercepting our messenger." Paromino nodded, "Mr. Domingo, do you have any other suggestions?" ”

Domingo couldn't think of any good advice for a while, and after about an hour, the only brig parked in the harbor began to hoist its sails.

This scene fell into Luo Jiuhe's eyes, and he sighed twice: "Report to the official, the enemy has been tricked!" (To be continued)