Chapter 23: For My Love
"Boom, boom, boom!" With the fierce sound of cannons, the right side of the Spanish galleon flew sawdust, and a row of sparse holes appeared in the hull of the ship in an instant. The lower two artillery decks were in shambles, littered with scattered gun mounts and broken gunners' corpses.
The Spanish galleon swayed like a drunken man, swaying under the onslaught of its opponents, choking white smoke wafting from its broken hull.
"Boom!" The second-tier gun deck of the Spanish galleon erupted a tongue of fire more than a meter long, which was the scattered counterattack of the remaining English gunners after they woke up. However, a look of disappointment soon appeared on their faces, because the range was too long, and the solid shells of the short-barreled curved guns were embedded in the hull of the opponent's ship with steel armor plates, and failed to penetrate the hull and effectively kill the opponent's gunners.
"Hooray!" Even from a distance of hundreds of yards, the sailors on the Spanish galleon could hear the cheers of the gunners on the opposite side. The naval battle could not be won, and the English gunners on the artillery deck involuntarily had a depressing thought in their hearts.
"!" The trench bared his teeth and pulled out a sharp wooden thorn from his thick arm, which was a memento left by the Swedish battleship on the opposite side in the platoon of guns just now.
Taking advantage of the interlude in the artillery fire on the opposite side, the trench poked its head out of the side of the ship and looked at the opposite side. The Swedish admiral on the opposite side was an extremely cautious fellow, and the artillery battle was carried out meticulously, leaving no chance for the English at all.
At the beginning of the war, two rounds of cannon fire from a distance of 200 yards fired direct chain bullets, which turned the sails of the Spanish galleon into a sieve, and the speed plummeted by more than half. At this distance, the Spanish galleon's stubble guns could barely reach the Swedish battleship, but the projectiles were not accurate enough to cause only negligible damage to the opponent's sails.
And the ensuing artillery battle became an artillery show of the opponent, and the Swedes were like a cunning fox. Originally, the guns between the warships needed to be close to within fifty yards in order to give the opponent the maximum damage. However, the Swedish battleship on the opposite side had been hovering around a hundred yards all the time, preferring to drag out the artillery battle rather than approach the Spanish galleon.
If the English were also battleships, then at this distance, I am afraid that this artillery battle would be fought from morning to night and would not have brought devastating results for both sides. However, the battleship at the foot of the trench was not a battleship, but an aging Spanish galleon.
"Could it be that the Swedish Admiral on the other side is the Gerhardt, who is known as the 'Inquisitor'?" A hint of bitterness appeared on the trench's face, and after a month in the English Navy, he had long known a lot about England's competitors in the North Sea. Of course, you know that the Northern Lion has not only swept through Northern Europe on land, defeating Russia, Poland and Denmark in succession, but also has two outstanding naval admirals at sea, the "Silver Eagle of the North Sea" Hudram and the "Inquisitor" Gerhardt.
Gerhardt "The Inquisitor" is known for his rigorous naval warfare, while "Silver Eagle of the North Sea" has unrivalled ship control skills. This meticulous artillery battle is indeed very similar to the style of the "Inquisitor". It's just that in the artillery battle, the Swedish battleship flexibly moved and turned like an antelope, and it seemed to have the style of a "North Sea Silver Eagle".
"Hedram and Gerhardt are on this ship, working together?" An incredible thought flashed through the trench's mind, but he was immediately tossed aside.
After the "North Sea Silver Eagle" and "Inquisitor" became famous in the North Sea Battle, it would be too luxurious to let these two people be in the same boat. Once in a certain naval battle, lose these two people at the same time, Sweden's newly rising maritime hegemony is afraid that it will be destroyed in one fell swoop, and Sweden's "lion of the north", Gustav II can never be so stupid.
Of course, the trench did not know that there was neither Hedram nor Gerhardt on the opposite battleship, but only a young navigator Tie Lilie, who had excellent ship control skills, and another Admiral Alfred, who was afraid that he would make a mistake in the first artillery battle in his life, and was a little timid.
"Henderson, go change into a normal sailor's suit, and I'll leave you a dinghy before we are captured by the Swedes!" The old captain took off his pipe, exhaled a circle of smoke, and said to the young sailor beside him.
"No, Admiral, you're insulting me!" Henderson's neck was red, and the pimples on his face seemed to be glinting, and he said angrily, "I am also a naval officer on this ship, and I will never tarnish the glory of the English Navy and leave my comrades who are still fighting to escape alone!" ”
"You're still young, Henderson, don't rush to death!" The old captain gave him a deep look and nodded to a burly sailor behind the young man, "Take him down, Roland!" ”
"I don't ......," Henderson didn't finish his sentence, when he saw the burly sailor behind him slash at the side of his neck with a knife, and the young English boy rolled his eyes helplessly and fainted into the arms of his companion.
"Huh?" Just as Henderson was being carried down by his companions, the old captain behind them raised his head in amazement, looked at the top of the mast of the Spanish galleon, and snorted softly.
The hull of the Karak ship was massive, and the hull and mast were relatively high, even taller than the Swedish battleships opposite. At this moment, on the top sail of the middle mast, a thin figure was standing on the top of the mast with one foot outstretched.
"Boom!" There was a loud explosion at the base of the middle mast of the Spanish galleon, "Squeak! "Under the horrified gaze of the English sailors, the thick mast fell towards the sea, facing the Swedish battleship.
The emaciated figure at the top of the mast was completely unaffected by the collapse of the mast, and the soles of his feet seemed to be glued to the top of the mast. When the mast slipped halfway sharply, the figure finally made a new movement, only to see his knees bend slightly, slam on the top of the mast, and leap out. With his arms wide open, he pulled out a pair of black wings and glided towards the Swedish battleship opposite.
"Hooray!" The English sailors on the Spanish galleons who saw this shouted and cheered for the heroic deeds of their comrades, and in their eyes the figure was draped in a huge canvas and flew towards the enemy ship like an eagle soaring in the sky.
"Crow, don't!" The trenches swooped down on the side of the ship and screamed in horror.
It's close, it's close! The feminine young man in mid-air stared at the enemy ship with all his body, completely oblivious to the cheers and shouts below. The wind from the sea poured into his ears, filling his mind with an unreal roar.
It should be him! The feminine young man's eyes lit up, and he quickly found the young admiral wearing a commander's uniform and a bare chest on the bridge of the enemy ship. The crow's face showed a hint of cruelty, and with a flick of his arms, he drew a delicate arc in the air and swooped down towards the bridge of the Swedish battleship.
The young admiral on the battleship seemed to sense something, and quickly looked up, and immediately noticed the feminine youth in the air. For a moment, the crow seemed to sense a hint of surprise in his opponent's eyes, but then, a sharp cold light burst out from the young admiral's eyes, like a sharp sword piercing into the crow's heart.
What if you see it! A hint of disdain appeared on the crow's face, and as long as he landed on the bridge, he believed that he would be able to control the Swedish admiral. Even if it can't reverse the outcome of this naval battle, it will at least keep the Swedish warships busy for a while. In this way, the Spanish galleon can be out of the battle, and the trench brother can complete the task assigned by the regimental commander.
It was only in the next moment that a look of shock appeared on the crow's face, and the distance between the two battleships was about a hundred yards. He had approached the Swedish ship within twenty yards of the Swedish battleship by way of the mast and gliding, but at this time there was a group of army uniformed musketeers in red clothes and blue trousers on the Swedish bridge.
The group of Swedish musketeers quickly lined up in three rows, raised their muskets expressionlessly, and aimed them at the feminine youth in the air. In the eyes of the two sides, the feminine youth seemed to see the light of fire in the eyes of these musketeers.
The raven was very familiar with this gaze, and he had it when he first entered the Temple of the Gods. It's a burning desire to prove yourself and be recognized by your peers.
"Bang, bang, bang......" A barrage of gunfire rang out from the Swedish battleship, and the dense fog of bullets covered the youth like a spider's web.
The crow's body shook, and a string of blood foamed from its clenched lips, and several blood flowers bloomed on its black wings and thin body. With a slight lag in the air, a trace of determination appeared on the face of the feminine youth, and his arms shook again, drawing an arc in the air, accelerating towards the bridge.
The Swedish admiral on the other side, who had stopped paying attention to him, suddenly raised his head, and the pupils in his sharp eyes shrank into a small black dot. He then bent down to pick up a long object, leaned back, his shoulders bruised, and threw the spear-shaped object at the crow like a bidding spear.
"Poof!" The spear-like object disappeared into the young admiral's palm, and in the next instant, it appeared in the abdomen of the feminine young man, penetrating his body completely.
"What is this?" The crow opened its mouth and spewed out a bloody arrow, looking down at its abdomen. I saw a thick iron file stuck in his lower abdomen, and the surging blood flowed from his body along the wooden handle of the iron file, as if it was a halter that had opened the gates.
"Brother ...... Trenches" The face of the feminine young man changed for a while, and a sweet female face appeared, and the black hair on the back of his head was scattered in the sea breeze.
"Farewell, my love......" The crow struggled to turn his head to look at the Spanish galleon, leaving a teardrop of unwillingness in his eyes. The bright one-eyed slowly became cloudy, lost its luster of life, and finally fell from the sky like a kite with a broken string.
With a "bang", a small wave stirred up on the sea, and in the rippling ripples, the crow's body disappeared on the sea, leaving only a bright ball of blood.
"No~~~~" A heart-rending roar rang out from the Spanish galleon.