This volley was the last straw that overwhelmed the sailors, the commander fell, and there was no one to stop the rupture, and the men dropped their weapons and trampled the corpses and fled backwards, ignoring their wounded comrades who were lying on the ground screaming and pleading, but they quickly fell back, dropped their weapons, and fell to their knees and begged for mercy—and the cavalry turned their horses' heads back like a huge bag, carrying both the living and the dead.

"Master Qian, this should be the thief leader, I just saw that he was directing the thieves to set up the formation!" A cavalryman pointed to the boatswain who was lying on the ground and had no breath and said to Wang Xingguo, Wang Xingguo jumped off his horse and looked up and down, his originally dark face had become pale due to excessive blood loss, the corners of his mouth were full of blackened blood foam, his breathing was rapid and disordered, and it was obvious that death was not far from this person. Wang Xingguo sighed in disappointment: "Dig a pit and bury it!" Bring an interpreter and find someone who can understand what we're asking! “

"Lord Toji, we are in the trap of thieves!" A few minutes later, Wang Xingguo said to Ke Congwen with an angry face: "These are just sailors, the thief leader has already run away from another road with his soldiers, and now I'm afraid that he has returned to the camp, damn, no wonder it is so easy to win!" ”

Ke Congwen looked relaxed: "Wang Qian is always angry, it's a victory anyway, so don't be harsh on the soldiers!" “

"My lord, if you don't die if you fight a snake, you will suffer from it, we didn't take the thief head in this battle, let him enter the camp, there are cannons, there are fortifications, and it will be difficult to catch it again!"

As he was talking, a column of smoke suddenly rose in the distance, soaring into the sky, and those sailors who had been honestly squatting on the ground suddenly jumped up and shouted loudly, and some of them fled outside despite the swords and guns in the hands of the guards, and were immediately knocked to the ground. Ate a lot of punches and kicks. Wang Xingguo turned around in annoyance and scolded: "On the contrary, grab me and whip me twenty lashes fiercely, kill the prestige!" ”

The soldiers answered, and immediately lifted the man up, tied his hands to the saddle, and twitched violently. But the sailor shouted the same few words while crying out in pain, as if he was going to say something, which attracted Wang Xingguo's attention: "Interpreter, you go over and ask." What the hell is he shouting? It's like a soul! ”

The interpreter answered, asked a few words, and came back to say: "Mr. Qian, the guy shouted the name of his hometown, and he said that the direction of the fireworks was the camp, and it must be the thieves who broke anchor and fled, leaving them alone!" ”

"Ran away?" When Wang Xingguo and Ke Congwen heard the unexpected news, their expressions were different, and Wang Xingguo was stunned. Rather disappointed; And Ke Congwen is happy, as if he has been amnesty.

"Mr. Wang Qian, quickly send someone to find out, whether the thief is really gone!" Heard that the thief may have run away. Ke Congwen's voice suddenly rose by three points.

"Yes, Toji-sama!"

Seaside.

Silva stood on the side of the ship, looking blank as the last soldiers on the shore were using torches to light the huts and unused timber in the camp. The timber was originally used to repair the broken parts of the Queen Mary. But now there is no time to finish the job. At the stern, several sailors were turning the axles vigorously, and the rusty anchor chains were slowly rising from the water. Silva turned around and saw the priest standing in front of him, looking worried.

"Mr. Major, why don't you wait, maybe Paul will come back!"

"Father, Paul they can't come back!" Silva hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to tell the priest all the truth: "Paul, they took a short route, and we took a long detour, and if everything was right, they should have arrived before me!" ”

"Well, so Paul can't come back?" The priest's face was full of pain.

"Yes, we can't come back, the army of the Ming Kingdom has surrounded us, and we have to break through separately, otherwise everyone will die!" Silva's voice was hurried, as if he was defending himself. The priest shook his head and sighed, "I don't mean to accuse you, Mr. Major, but now that we don't have Paul, and we have lost half of our sailors, only one mast, and the ship's damage has not been completely repaired, don't you think it's too risky to do so?" ”

"Let the soldiers fill the vacancies! Anyway, we're sailing along the coast, so we shouldn't have that much trouble! Silva replied: "As for the adventure, Father Juan, we have no choice now, time is short, the Dutch are approaching Manila step by step, we have to do something." “

Father Juan, who was at the heart of the story, was convinced, and he sighed and said: "In that case, all I can do is pray to God and Our Lady!" “

"Good!" Silva looked up at the gray sky to the south and said with a wry smile: "Father Juan, I think we really need a little luck!" ”

As if to confirm Silva's foreboding, the wind and waves on the sea were getting stronger and stronger, and it was raining in the sky, and the raindrops the size of soybeans were swept by the wind, and they hit people in the face, and he tried to raise his voice so that his men could hear him, but the wind soon drowned it out, and the sailors on the deck were like headless flies, many of whom had only put on their sailors' hats two hours before, and did not know how to distinguish the use of the different ropes on board.

A fierce crosswind blew, the hull of the ship suddenly tilted, the unsecured things on the deck sliding, and a soldier could not dodge, was hit by a box, and flew off the side of the ship, his desperate screams echoed in the air, making people shudder, but even more terrifying was the tooth-aching creak of the tail mast, which indicated that the only power plant of the ship could break at any moment. The sail has been blown into a huge round bag by the fierce crosswind, as if there is an invisible hand pulling the sail, because there is only one mast, the power to push the hull is not in the proper part of the ship, under the fierce crosswind, the displacement of nearly 400 tons "Queen Mary" is like a toy ship, spinning on the sea.

"Get off the sails, get off the sails!" Silva's throat was already a little hoarse, as an iron man who had been rolling on the sea for almost twenty years, his dark face had become pale, his lips trembled slightly, he was afraid, but what he was afraid of was not to die at the bottom of the sea, Our Lady can testify, since Don. Gonzalez. From the day Silva stepped onto the deck of his galleon, he knew the sea was his destination. Whether he died from a Dutch shell, an indigenous bow or a blowpipe, an Ottoman pagan musket, or a storm on the sea, he would eventually sink to the bottom of the sea, the difference being whether he was dressed in uniform or wrapped in a shroud with a solid cannonball tied to his foot. It doesn't matter, when life ends and the soul ascends to heaven under the guidance of the angels, leaving behind a shell that is nothing more than a few bones wrapped in a skin. But for a nobleman, honor is higher than life, and in order to complete the task of the governor, his original flawless honor has been tarnished, and if he can complete the task, it will be fine. If you don't complete your mission and die at the bottom of the sea, what kind of face will you have to meet the boatswain who was sacrificed by yourself?

At Silva's orders, the sailors rushed to the wreck, they cut the rope and pulled it hard, but under the strong crosswind, the sail could not be lowered at all, the wind was getting stronger, and the mast could break at any moment. At that time, the "Queen Mary" will become a dead fish floating on the surface of the sea, ready to be slaughtered.

"Anyone? Climb the mast, cut off the crossbar, and untie the canvas! Silva shouted. But no one answered, and everyone knew how dangerous it was to climb a violently shaking mast and cut off the side pole of a ship's sails under a fierce crosswind. Misses, ropes, and all sorts of unexpected situations can kill you, even if a good man with the blessing of Our Lady completes the task. In the next moment, he is likely to be swept up in a ball by the sails that have lost their skeleton support, fall to his death, or be carried into the sea.

"Come a good man, save a boatload of people, and earn a hundred pistor (Spanish gold coins, a hundred pistor can probably buy a high-quality, prosperous military horse, and a soldier's monthly salary is about two pistors)." Seeing that no one agreed, Silva raised the bounty, and he held out two fingers: "Two hundred, two hundred Pistol, whether it is successful or not, I swear in the name of family honor, as long as I can return to Manila alive, I will pay two hundred Pistol, to this warrior himself or his family!" “

"Okay, I'll go!" Silva's bounty was finally answered, and a dark, skinny man stepped out of the crowd. Silva excitedly took out the tin wine jug on his waist and stuffed it into the other party's hand: "Come, drink and move!" ”

The man answered, drank two sips of rum, walked to the mast, kicked off his shoes, spat twice into his palm, jumped on the mast, like a nimble gecko, and climbed upward. The sea breeze mixed with the rain kept the eyes open, and it took Silva a lot of effort to see the figure at the top of the mast. Seeing that he had his legs tightly wrapped around the mast, he reached out to draw his sword at his waist, when a gust of wind blew, and the ship tilted sharply to the right, and the man on the mast was caught off guard, and the saber in his hand fell from his hand, and Silva was quick to leap to the side, and only heard a sound that the scimitar used by sailors pierced the deck with a buzzing sound.

"It's dangerous!" Silva looked at the knife that was so close to him, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead, if he was half a step slower, he was afraid that he would have been nailed to the deck like a frog. He stretched out his hand and pulled the scimitar out of the deck, looked up at the top of the mast, and saw that the man was laboriously cutting the sail rope on the mast with the dagger on his waist, but the ropes on the galleon were all kneaded with fine jute, the forearm was thick and thin, and it was extremely tough, and after entering the water, it was even more slippery and tough. But an inch above the mast can't allow several people to operate at the same time, and I'm afraid I won't find such a bold man. Silva had to watch and pray silently in his heart.

Suddenly, there was a click in Silva's ears, and when he looked down, he was horrified to find that several cracks had appeared on the mast more than two meters from the deck, and the cracks were still growing and widening, and it was obvious that the tail mast would not last long, unless the sail could be lowered to relieve the pressure on the mast.

"Someone, bring ropes and timber and reinforce the mast!" Silva roared loudly, and the fierce wind mixed with the rain rushed into his throat, and immediately poured his voice into his throat, turning into a violent cough, and in the fierce wind, he could not even stand upright, but could only kneel on the ground, so as not to be blown into the sea by the wind. Suddenly, there was a loud cracking sound, and Silva looked up, desperate to see the mast slowly but resolutely tilt to his side, and then smash down.

There was a tingling in his eyes and forehead, and he licked the corners of his mouth, it was salty and bitter, I don't know if it was blood or tears, and his ears were buzzing, as if there was a bell in his head, and someone was beating hard. Silva only felt that there was nothing in his body that did not hurt, but the pain was a good thing, at least it meant that he was still alive. He groaned, feeling that it was difficult to breathe, as if he was wrapped in a huge blanket, making it impossible for him to breathe, Silva pulled the dagger from his waist with difficulty, and made a cut in this blanket, and the fresh air came in, and he immediately began to breathe greedily.

Along with the fresh air came the sounds, and by this time his ears were better, and he could hear the sound of the sea breeze, the cries of the wounded, the cries of despair, and a voice calling his own name, the voice was familiar, but Silva could no longer remember who it was. He answered weakly twice, and after a moment he heard the sound of a dagger cutting through the canvas, and then the voice just now shouted: "God forbid, Mr. Major, you are still alive!" ”

"Yes, alive!" Silva replied vaguely, and then he felt himself lifted, and then someone poured some liquid into his mouth, sweet and spicy, and he coughed violently, but with strength, he opened his eyes and saw Father Juan standing in front of him, holding a leather wine bag.

"What did you give me a drink, priest?"

"Rum, I also added some honey."

"Thank you, Priest, give me some more!" Silva took the leather wine bag and poured himself two more sips, and gradually he gained strength in his limbs and stood up with the help of the priest. The stern mast had been broken in two, and the fallen mast and sail had almost obscured the entire stern, and the sailors and soldiers were cutting the sails to find the survivors underneath, but few were as lucky as Silva, and most of them were bloody corpses and wounded men who had lost limbs, and the sailors carried the bodies and wounded to Silva's side, lined up in a neat row, as if he were one of them. (To be continued.) )

PS: I want to reward the ticket, I have a beard, my grades are bad, I was despised by a few friends, and I was depressed!