Lin Heshui was thinking about whether to stand up first, but he didn't want to show weakness in front of Silva. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info had a strange thought in his heart: this surprise attack depended largely on the protection of the gods, whether it was Mazu or the god in the mouth of the red haired Yi, both of them were indispensable. And Lin Heshui knew how much he had invested for this surprise attack, and he couldn't believe how he should face failure.

"Firelight, you see it's firelight!" A sailor's voice woke Lin Heshui from his reverie, he staggered up, looked at the sea, the sea level in the distance rose a point of light, this should not be a fishing fire, as the point of light continued to get closer, Lin Heshui could finally determine that this was one of the sampans that had been put down earlier, he turned his head in ecstasy, and found that Silva's face was also full of ecstasy.

"Mr. Lin!"

With the help of the firelight, Lin Heshui could clearly see that standing on the bow of the boat was the Japanese boy Yuji Yamada, and the young samurai who had just experienced his first battle was full of excitement and joy: "We have taken down the artillery fort on the sandbank at the end of the northern line, and Mr. Yoshida is preparing a buoy, please enter the port!" ”

At the front was the Queen Mary, a huge plywood ship with all the gun doors open, and although it was unlikely that it would meet the Dutch resistance, it was necessary to be prepared. Soon, the flotilla approached Luermen. As the Japanese boy said, Yamada Okiji had led his men to mark a simple channel—a dozen small sampans were fastened to the water with ropes and stone locks, and marked by torches, so that the ship's helmsman could clearly see a waterway between the two rows of fires, leading directly into Oyuan Bay.

"What time is it?" Lin Heshui asked in a low voice.

"In about half an hour, or a quarter of an hour, the climax will be reached!" With the help of the firelight, Silva looked at the mechanical clock, which was an essential piece of equipment for Western navigators at the time.

He walked to the side of the boat, poked his head out to listen, and after a while he heard the sound of a raging tide, and at the same time felt a great force pushing the Queen Mary to the north.

"It's starting to rise in the tide!" Lin Heshui straightened up excitedly, Silva looked at the mechanical clock, and then poked his head out to look at the sea, he could clearly see that the black water was rushing towards the narrow waterway. Silva walked back to the mainmast and ordered the first mate: "Let's go!" ”

At the same time as the trumpet sounded, the lantern on the mast of "Queen Mary" issued an order to the flotilla behind to enter the harbor through the flag, and one by one the sand boats began to fish into the Luermen, compared with the "Queen Mary" and the "Santiago", these sand boats that usually sail in rivers and offshore waters have a shallower draft, and the possibility of running aground is also lower, and after the twelve sand boats have entered Dayuan Bay, the "Queen Mary" also begins to enter the waterway, and the huge bow of the galleon sailing ship breaks the waves, Sailing slowly on the narrow Luermen waterway, all the sails have been lowered, and the full tide of water pushes the boat forward slowly. Silva poked her head out, looked at the dark sea, and prayed to Our Lady in her heart: "Do not run aground here, may you give me the strength and courage to punish the damned heretics and traitors who have betrayed their king, who are their masters according to the law of God, and may they fall into Hell when they die, and forgive their sins for their disgusting!" “”

Perhaps Our Lady really heard Silva's prayer, and "Queen Mary" passed through the Deer Ear Gate and entered Dayuan Bay. After confirming that the "Queen Mary" had successfully passed through the Luermen, the "Santiago", after transporting thirty soldiers and two twelve-pounder guns on a sampan to the tail sandbar of the northern line, turned the bow of the ship and headed northwest, and she informed the follow-up troops remaining in the city of Santiago that the raid had been successful and was ready to depart.

When the Queen Mary passed through the narrow waterways of the Luermen Gate and entered the wide waters of Oyuan Bay, Silva finally breathed a sigh of relief and knelt down to thank Our Lady for her apparent protection. After promising to celebrate three solemn Masses in the cathedral upon his return to Manila to thank the Virgin for her protection, Silva stood up and began to take in his surroundings. As a good Spanish officer, he had learned about this important stronghold of the Dutch from the map countless times, but this was the first time he had seen it in person. The wide, tranquil waters, the trestle over the sea, the harbor and the Dutch Lower Town, which have been gradually revealed by the sandbar, and finally the fortified city of Geranza. When he saw the unsuspecting ships beside the pier, Silva's face showed a satisfied smile, like a tiger about to pounce on its prey.

"Give the order, raise the flag, light the stove, and prepare the incendiary bombs! Turn the rudder and turn the course to the southeast forty degrees! All enter the post and get ready for battle! “

Like most colonial strongholds, the Dutch "Lower Town" was almost close to the sea, and a row of houses near the sea simply built a few wooden huts on the sea as toilets, and the excretions only had to climb the wooden buildings and point their butts in the direction of the sea, and the waves below would naturally wash away their excrement. The only drawback of this invention was that some drunkards would accidentally fall from a wooden hut to the sea, but the governor here refused to improve it - the devout Puritans believed that drunkards were no different from sinners, and that falling into the sea was just the right thing to wake up these hopeless sinners.

Of course, Horn would not approve of the Governor, and like most sailors at the time, he was a hopelessly drunkard, and rum and prostitutes were his favorites, and if he had to choose between the two, Horn would still choose the former - Rum would not ask him for maintenance with a nursing child. When the drunken man clumsily washed his buttocks with the water from the bucket, and before he could lift his trousers, he was surprised to find a galleon sliding out from behind the cape in front of him, which was only three hundred meters away from him in a straight line.

Horn rubbed his eyes, and opened them again, this time he made sure that he was not dazzled, and in the moonlight he could clearly see the bow smats, foremasts, mainmasts, and aftermasts, and the bow masts, foremasts, and mainmasts were hung with square sails, and the multi-layered hull gun doors were opened, and the fire light from the inside showed that the comer was not good, and the moonlight was shining just right, and a huge spinnaker hung on the backmast, and the two Heratrean stone pillars on it could be clearly identified.

The rum that Horn drank suddenly came out of his forehead, and his wine immediately woke up. He turned around and ran, but he fell and almost fell into the sea, only to realize that his pants had not been lifted. Horn hurriedly lifted his pants and shouted as he climbed down, "Spaniards, Spaniards are coming!" ”

On the stove, the twelve-pound solid iron ball had been burned red, and the gunner carefully picked up the round iron ring with a long handle, took the cannonball from the stove, and then put it into the muzzle, and the hot iron ball slid down the slightly smooth inner wall of the barrel into the bottom, where there was a wet mud cake, which separated the hot cannonball from the ****** behind it, so as not to detonate. Several gunners pushed the loaded twelve-pounder gun to the gun door and aimed it at the enemy ship about a hundred meters away.

"Fire!" The gunner gave the order, and with his command, the gunner lit the fuse with a spear wrapped around the arquebus, and a moment later, the muzzle of the gun spewed fire and white smoke, and with a huge roar, the heavy gun carriage jerked back, and loaded a triangular piece of sliding wood, and the huge impulse made the hull deck made of hard oak creak as if it were about to disintegrate in the next second.

Lin Heshui on the deck felt a vibration under his feet, and then he saw the gun window directly below spew fire, and before he could react to what was going on, the second gun window not far away also spewed fire. It was the first time he felt the shelling at such a close distance, and he was dumbfounded. I saw a cloud of fire coming from the side of the three-masted galleon not far away, and the first unlucky was the stern, and usually the rest room below the aft building to the waist was reserved for the ship's senior officers, and the rudder and powder magazine were also there. As the smoke and flames rose, the screams of the personnel were heard, but there were far fewer people on board than they should be, and the sailors should have mostly gone to the brothels and taverns on the shore, and soon there was an explosion in the bilge of the stern, and a huge flame arose, tearing a large hole in the bilge of the ship, and the ship began to sink at a speed that could be felt by the naked eye.

The Queen Mary abandoned her dying prey and began shelling another ship next to the three-masted fast sailer, a pot-bellied cargo ship, which sailed much slower than the one in front of her, but was loaded with more cargo and more resistant to wind and waves. The Dutch often used these ships to transport heavy goods such as grain, timber, ironware, etc., which were not time-critical. Perhaps because it was to set sail tomorrow morning, there were far more sailors on this cargo ship than on the previous one, and the men awakened by the sound of the cannon panicked to pull up the anchors, cut the cables, and hoist the sails in order to escape the fate of destruction. But this was nothing more than a futile effort, and the experienced Silva ordered to strafe the sailors on the deck with shotguns, and not with solid ones, which in his opinion were good trophies. Under the dense strafing of shotguns, the deck of the cargo ship immediately turned into a slaughterhouse, with bloody corpses covering the deck, and blood flowing down the side of the ship into the sea, attracting sharks to stop.

At this time, there was a burst of gunfire from the southeast, Silva turned his head to look at the source of the sound, and said with a smile: "It seems that General Du is in some trouble, it doesn't matter, I will solve the problem here, just go and help him!" ”

"Master Du's side shouldn't be a big problem!" Lin Heshui's tone was a little uncertain, according to the previous plan, Du Gu would command the infantry on the sand boat to land, and then take the Dutch stronghold on the mainland, Prominsha Street, in order to avoid being attacked by the local natives and Fujian immigrants, except for his own people and mercenaries, the Dutch colonists did not let anyone climb the sandbank. So they built a number of warehouses and shops on the land, which were used to buy local products and sell goods to them. These shops and storehouses, though also walled, were far less fortified than the city of Geranza. Gold, silver and most of the valuable goods were in the city of Gerancha, which was located on the sandbank, but large goods such as grain and deerskin were still stored in the warehouse there, and there was a wharf near the warehouse, where many small boats and short-distance cargo ships along the coast of Fujian were moored, and a large number of Han traders, peasants and natives lived near the street of Puluominsha, which was an extremely important resource for the expeditionary force, and according to the plan, it must be controlled at the first time.

"Really?" Silva sneered: "General Du is so good at sneak attacks, why was he discovered by those Dutch?" ”

"Major Silva, you're laughing!" Lin Heshui couldn't help but smile bitterly, Silva said this kind of thing at this juncture, obviously because he hated the big loss he suffered at the hands of Du Gu: "Our two families are now two benefits if they are together, and two injuries when they are divided." Major, have you forgotten that you are also a major shareholder? ”

Silva snorted coldly and didn't speak, he naturally wouldn't forget this, it was just that he wanted to take advantage of it. At this time, two spinnaker dhows rushed in front of them, and the Dutch often used these light and fast boats to sweep the pirates near the port of Dayuan, and by the way to collect the catch from the fishermen. Since these clippers required very few sailors, only seven or eight sailors, they were the quickest to react after a surprise attack and leave their berths to prepare for the enemy.

"Marines with arquebuses and ready to fight!" Seeing the new enemy, Silva paused his verbal battle, picked up a helmet from the side and stuffed it to Lin Heshui: "Mr. Lin, if you put this on, you may have to fight a broadside battle!" ”

"Broadside?" Lin Heshui swallowed his saliva, but he only felt that his throat was surprisingly dry, and he couldn't speak for a while. Seeing the embarrassment of the other party, Silva rarely did not say a word of ridicule: "Mr. Lin, why don't you go to the stern to hide for a while, it should be the safest place over there!" ”

"No need!" Lin Heshui smiled and said, "Lin is here, watching Major Silva kill the thief!" ”

"It's good!" A smile appeared on Silva's face, and then he shouted: "Full rudder on the right, volley on the left!" ”

Because of its position, the "Queen Mary" could only fire with the guns on the right side and the bow and stern of the ship, while the guns on the left could not fire and could only be filled. Silva gave the order to rotate to the right, and at once the runners on the left showed their hideous faces, and the distance between the two sides was only fifty or sixty paces, and at this distance the twelve-pounder smoothbore gun could be said to be nine out of ten to shoot the boat. Lin Heshui only felt a shock to the hull under his feet, and even heard a continuous cannon fire (in order to reduce the recoil of the hull during artillery fire, warships generally did not fire salvos at the same time, but only fired one by one), and the two spinnaker clippers that were rushing towards this side suddenly burst into flames and flesh and blood, and the twelve-pound solid cannonballs fired at close range easily pierced the thin planks, tearing apart the flesh and bones behind, and the sea water poured into the hull through the gap, drowning the hellish scene of Ah Bi. (To be continued.) )