In order to win, both sides of the war are coming up with their own tricks.

When Zhou Qingfeng only left artillery to hold the fortress and sent surprise troops to raid the enemy's rear, the Portuguese army not only used surface ships to attack, but also tried to secretly use the numerical advantage of their artillery to launch a forced attack on the fortress at night.

Portugal has been running Goa for more than 100 years, and although its troops have not been large, it has accumulated a lot of artillery. Lord Costa ordered four twenty-two-pounder cannons to attack during the day, and by night he had brought in more than a dozen lighter twelve-pounder and even six-pounder cannons to join the artillery formation.

Lord Costa was most heartened by the fact that the priests of Goa had finally done a great thing. After learning that the soldiers needed heavy artillery to boost their morale and confidence, the priests in the city enthusiastically offered their part.

At the behest of Archbishop Xavier, they have been able to fortify the lowly indigenous pariahs for the first time. Two port fortress guns, which had taken at least a day or two to be in place, were brought up, and it only took half a day. The Portuguese are all in awe of this miracle given by God.

When these two extremely heavy forty-eight-pounder cannons ran over the ground, everyone could feel their powerful deterrent power through the slight vibration coming from under their feet. Indigenous slaves worked desperately to fortify the road, and even came up with a good way to pave the land with precious teak trees as a road. Through the back-and-forth splicing of tough teak, these two big guys appeared on the front line as quickly as possible.

Banzai......!

When these two heavy cannons carried the blood and sweat of the slaves and advanced in the direction of the fortress with high spirits, the morale of the Portuguese army was instantly full. They didn't even care about the shouting they all frook, excited that they had such powerful equipment.

As soon as the artillery battle on the surface of the water began, the artillery on the land of the Portuguese army immediately advanced in the direction of the fortress under the protection of infantry and cavalry. Although the forty-eight-pounder cannon could hit a maximum range of three thousand meters. But at this distance, the projectile is not very powerful.

When the Hezhuo and Wu Gates forcibly tore apart the Portuguese defense line in the south and attacked in depth, Lord Costa decided to move the heavy artillery forward in the north and fire again at about two thousand meters. If his opponent doesn't react much, he hopes to continue to advance to within 1,500 meters and use the full power of the artillery fire.

"Forward, forward!" The Portuguese artillerymen used whips to beat the native slaves who carried the teak paving, so that these black and thin men could work faster. The artillery battle on the water surface became more and more intense, and the sound of artillery was quite intensive. The two armed merchant ships with twelve guns on the side failed to suppress the three guns on the fortress, and the two sides fought back and forth, and it was difficult to distinguish the winner from the loser.

The scorching artillery battle made the Portuguese army quite uneasy, which meant that the enemy was strong. The only thing they could do was to push the artillery forward as best they could. The cannon could be towed by horses, and the speed at which it could travel depended on the speed at which the slaves lay teak.

The slaves gritted their teeth and endured severe pain as they ran back and forth on both sides of the artillery. The teak wood they carry is very heavy and physically exertional. Some slaves would fall to the ground as they ran, along with other carrying slaves. The irascible Portuguese soldiers would drag them directly to the side of the road and execute them on the spot, and naturally more slaves were driven up to work.

When the Portuguese artillery pushed two kilometers from the fortress, the direction of the fortress was still firing at the armed merchant ships on the water. Lord Costa gritted his teeth and demanded to continue five hundred meters. After all, in addition to the two 48-pounder guns, there are also a bunch of small and medium-caliber guns that have not yet entered the effective firing range.

Regarding the actions of the Portuguese army, Zhou Qingfeng, who had already lowered the hot air balloon, really didn't notice much. Only the militia was left in his fortress, and the soldiers were sent out to carry out night raids, and the 'dog meat' was not around. He was even more bent on sinking the two armed merchant ships that were shooting at him in the northern river, because those two ships had brought him out of the fire.

In the case of blind fire in the black light, the shelling depends entirely on the probability. The advantages of the high accuracy of the artillery of the 'revolutionary army' were not fully exploited. The current situation was that the defense of the fortified side was strong, and the rate of fire of the three guns firing at the same time was high. On the side of the armed merchant ships, there was a lot of artillery, and from time to time there was a ceasefire and a change of position.

The two sides had fought more than 10 rounds of artillery battles, and the fortress had suffered more than 100 shells, with few casualties, but the walls and internal buildings were badly damaged. The northern side of the garrison, which was facing the fire of merchant ships, was badly damaged, and the fortified high wall had been broken by more than 20 shells in a row. Wen Ruolan had to hurriedly pull up several temporary stone walls in the interior to repair them, barely maintaining.

In the turret where Zhou Qingfeng was located, he was also hit head-on by several shells. The strong impact caused a huge earthquake, which made the artillery in the turret dizzy, and it was all restored by Zhou Qingfeng's light spiritual power, and he continued to grit his teeth and insist on reloading.

In the continuous explosion of shelling, Zhou Qingfeng has been sitting firmly in the observation window of the turret. The people around him kept reporting all kinds of battle damages, and even Wen Ruolan couldn't make him twist his head when he was on the front line. He stared at the constant flickering artillery fire of the enemy on the opposite side, and each flash meant that a hot iron ball flew towards him.

"Why can't these two ships sink?" Zhou Qingfeng felt inexplicable, if it weren't for the enemy in the water, he would have released 'Tianqing' and ran over to dismantle the opponent's boat. But now he can only strengthen all the artillery with the military formation, thinking about how to deal a more deadly blow to the opponent.

And about 1,200 meters away, the decks of the two Portuguese merchant ships were in disarray. The sweeping shells had completely destroyed several gun emplacements, and the hull of a ship had been repeatedly set on fire, and several large holes had been broken in the hull. It's just that ships of several hundred tons have their natural sturdiness and have not yet been completely broken up.

On deck, the captain lay dying under the mast, his thigh pierced by a burst of log, and he was bleeding profusely. Father Merlot was trying to save the captain's life, but one of the crew members hurriedly ran up and shouted: "Captain, a few shells have hit us below the waterline, the cabin is already full of water, and we are stranded and unable to move." ”

Shot below the waterline, this is one of the worst scenarios for the ship. This means that at least tens or hundreds of tons of water are poured into the ship. Worse still, the grounding, which meant that the ship could no longer move and had to stay where it was to be targeted.

...... boom, another shell came from the direction of the fortress, directly hitting a powder jar on the deck of the ship, and the explosive gunpowder completely lifted the already broken deck of the ship, and caused a fire. The blazing light completely disallowed the dark shadow that had obscured the ship. It's really hopeless now.

"Captain, we must leave." The crew anxiously waited for the captain's order. In these years, the captain's authority was very great, and if he did not say that if he abandoned the ship, the crew would have to fight to the death. "The enemy's fire was so fierce that four of the six gun emplacements on our side had already been lost. The cabin was full of wounded, and we couldn't hold out any longer. ”

Large ships of several hundred tons have suffered heavy losses one after another, and it is indeed difficult to continue fighting. The wounded Portuguese captain could only nod and whispered weakly: "Abandon ship, we did our best." The fortress of the Orientals is too strong for us to move. ”

In the dark, the Portuguese couldn't figure out how they were fighting. They only knew that there were three guns on the opposite side from beginning to end, and they had been firing very smoothly. No matter how hard they tried, it seemed that they couldn't do anything about each other - as everyone knows, Uncle Zhou on the other side is also gritting his teeth and insisting.

The order to abandon ship was given, and the sailors on a merchant ship fled. Father Merlot's robes were windless, and he picked up the badly wounded captain and flew away with several other priests to return to Goa City. But as soon as they moved, there was a rattling of laughter in the darkness. An eerie voice said, "I thought you wouldn't be able to run if you died." ”

Father Merlot couldn't understand Chinese, but he knew it must be the devil's challenge. Several priests hurriedly chanted the holy name and released the holy light to adjudicate against the devil. But just as they were paying attention to the direction of the cold voice, someone suddenly swung their two-handed swords and swooped down from the overhead.

The sharp sword light broke through Father Merlot's defenses with a single blow, and the high-ranking priest of the Goa Inquisition gritted his teeth and shouted, "Please have mercy on the Lord and protect me against ......." Before he finished speaking, another sword light directly pierced his vest, and even his holding the captain was directly pierced.

The other priests immediately took care of each other, and when they were about to turn back against Ye Na, who was holding a big sword, Jia Gang, who was hiding in the dark, immediately looked for an opportunity. The ghost cultivator, who had turned into a skeleton, had always existed as a spellcaster, but this time he flung the hooded robe that wrapped him, and with a swift gesture, he stretched out his sharp bone claws, and stabbed a priest through the chest with a single blow, pulling out his beating heart.

One armed merchant ship was destroyed and sunk, while the other, which was lightly damaged, hurriedly died down and did not dare to attract any more firepower, and retreated in a hurry. After confirming that there was no sound of an explosion in the direction of the water surface, Zhou Qingfeng breathed a sigh of relief. But he had just relaxed and had time to make some exclamations, when he immediately felt a vibration that was even more violent than just now coming from the wall.

Don't think about it, this is the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment again, or the kind with a particularly large caliber.

"Damn, where are you going to hit us again?" Zhou Qingfeng fought an artillery battle in the middle of the night, and he was already a little angry. He has a limited view inside the turret and cannot see the location of the enemy's shelling. When he came out of the turret, he found that the enemy was coming from the land direction to the east.

"Are these Portuguese stupid?" Zhou Qingfeng laughed angrily, "The artillery battle on the water was so fierce just now, they didn't cooperate on land, and now that they have retreated on the water, they actually started to attack on land." ”

The eastern fortress wall had been strengthened to a thickness of three meters during the day, and Zhou Qingfeng had no fear of the artillery bombardment from the east after surviving the artillery battle just to the north. Just as he steadied his pace and hurried to the turret to the east, Lord Costa, who was 1,500 meters away, was also full of confidence.

The Portuguese army was limited by battlefield communications, and the attacks in both surface and land directions were not synchronized. But the two forty-eight-pounder guns in place still gave them extremely strong confidence. When the two big guys sat back violently in the loud noise, the Portuguese soldiers who watched the shelling let out a loud cheer - if they were not forced to hurry, the Portuguese would not easily use these two town house gadgets.

After firing, the heavy cannon body suddenly fell backwards, and the earth on the ground was stirred up by the gun carriage. Dozens of artillerymen had to be pulled by horses to reset them. In the vicinity of these two heavy guns, a large number of lighter guns were also firing continuously, raining projectiles on the fortress of the Easterners.

At this front, Lord Costa is in full swing. Suddenly, however, he heard the sound of artillery bombardment behind him, and the sound of this shelling was particularly dense, firing one cannon after another, and it sounded as if there was also a group of artillery behind him making a fuss. He couldn't help but turn his head and asked puzzledly, "Who opened fire in our camp?" ”