"How so?!" The three of them looked at the miserable scene in front of them in disbelief, it turned out that their judgment was wrong, the Ming army did not sleep at all, but had been waiting for them!

But at this time, they didn't have to think about it, they didn't deal with the Ming army for a day or two, and they knew that if they didn't take advantage of the other party's reloading to approach, they would suffer like this again!

Fortunately, the Ming army needed to reload and shoot, and as long as they approached quickly, they didn't have to take a second hit.

The three of them unanimously beat the war drums to continue advancing, and the leaders of each boat also knew that at this time, they would take another shot when they turned around, but instead advanced as soon as possible and rushed to the front of the Ming army to be safe.

They urged the sailors to row with all their might, and the Japanese archers and throwers were once again in their poses, waiting to come into range.

However, when they were twenty feet away from the Ming army, they were subjected to another round of shelling.

In the firelight spray, the earth-shattering sound of platoon artillery exploded again in the bay, and this time the Ming army fired grapes and shotguns, each cannon sprayed dozens or hundreds of projectiles as large as eggs and as small as grapes, and smashed into the Japanese army that was already close in front of them like hail.

The damage caused by this round was ten times greater than that of the previous one, and the rows of Japanese warships rushing ahead were directly beaten into a sieve, and there was almost no one standing on it. The Japanese soldiers who were holding bows and arrows and carrying sulfur jars were directly wiped out, leaving only a corpse full of holes, which fell into the water like dumplings.

The sailors rowing in the bilge, unaware of what was happening above, continued to row the small morning boat, which was no longer full of officers and soldiers......

Together with the first round of shelling, the Kyushu naval forces have already lost more than two hundred ships.

But don't be too surprised, because there are more than 200 Japanese ships, most of which are small ships, and the so-called "small morning" is an abbreviation for small ships, and the word "early" means fast in Japan, so "small morning" is called the characteristics of this kind of ship, small and fast.

Moreover, Japan lacked hardwood, so it could only build ships with cork such as pine and cedar, and it was habitually cutting corners, and the thickness of the planks was not one-third of that of the Ming warships.

Under such a close range of fire, the hull of the Kyushu sailors was like papier-mâché and could not provide any protection at all. To make matters worse, their shipbuilding technology is still in antiquity, and they are all primitive wooden nailing, with no keel, no watertight cabin, and no structural strength to speak of.

Of course, there are also advantages, such as the rapid maneuverability brought by extreme lightweight. Of course, not only does it open fast, but it also sinks quickly......

Then the cost is low, and you can build a lot. Therefore, even if 200 ships were sunk, they were still overwhelming, and they swooped up like a swarm of bees, and a dozen or so surrounded a Ming warship, throwing clay pots filled with sulfur at the Ming army from all directions, and firing rockets at the same time.

The light of the locust-like fire, illuminating the sea and the sky was orange and red.

At the same time, the death squads standing on the 'illegal buildings', carrying escalators with iron hooks, are ready for broadside battles.

However, the first axe of the Japanese army, the fire attack, was of little use.

Because the Ming army also knew their tactics, they had already done enough to protect themselves. Each battleship had four layers of outer protection. A layer of broken nets, a layer of raw cowhide, a layer of wet quilts, and finally a circle of water urns. Arrows cannot enter, and fire cannot burn.

The deck of the ship was sprinkled with sand, all the buildings on the ship were covered with soaked cotton quilts, and there was a special fire brigade, carrying a water hose to wipe it, waiting on the deck to extinguish it as soon as it broke out. Not at all afraid of Japanese fire attacks.

This is a major matter related to their own lives, no one dares to slack off, under the protection of the officers and men of the Ming army, not a single battleship caught fire......

The Japanese troops who were preparing to engage in the broadside battle were also in trouble, even if their ships were covered with 'illegal buildings', they were still more than a foot shorter than the Ming warships.

The Ming army attacked from above, just like defending the city, and naturally had the advantage. They frantically exported firearms, guns, and crossbows to the Japanese troops on the bow and stern towers, inflicting continuous casualties on the Japanese sailors on the surrounding warships.

The Japanese were also in a hurry, they had no time to take care of anything else, so they had an idea in their minds, hurry up and attack the Ming warships and start a white-knuckle battle!

The broken net around the side of the ship with the Ming military struts caused them a great obstacle. Don't look at the tattered net ropes, but the Japanese army couldn't put the ladder on the side of the Ming army's ship.

When a Japanese soldier saw the hook hooking the net rope, he was anxious to climb up, and with a snort, he fell into the sea with a rope and a ladder. Naturally, the people above also made dumplings......

They had no choice but to use the hooks on the ladder to pull down the broken net ropes and clear a place to build the ladder. But those broken web ropes are like spider silk, tearing one piece after another, and it is not so easy to clean.

But the tenacious Japanese soldiers fought against this thing, and after great sacrifices, they cleared a piece of the ship's side where they could build a ladder.

As soon as he began to climb, he saw that a row of small windows suddenly opened in the belly of the Ming warship, and one by one the thick cannon muzzles poked out.

The two sides were close at hand, and the officers and men of the Japanese army could clearly see the hideous expressions of the Ming gunners from between the muzzles and the gun windows, as well as their movements of lighting the artillery fuses with the fire rope.

With the sound of sparks, time seemed to freeze.

The Japanese watched in despair as the fuse burned out, and the cannon spewed out a fiery snake and fired the shotgun close to its face.

Before they could even feel fear, their bodies were torn to shreds, and shredded flesh and debris rained down into the sea.

The Ming army's round of close-to-face shooting instantly emptied the Japanese troops around the ship, and their obsession with boarding the ship for hand-to-hand combat could only be postponed a little longer......

What about boarding a boat? There were so many Japanese troops that there were always many lucky ones who built ladders or hung hooks, did not suffer shelling, and climbed onto the Ming warships.

However, the soldiers of the Ming army, who had been waiting for a long time, guarded all the key passages on the ship, and used spears and shields to form formations to resist the Japanese troops on the ship.

The gunners also carried spears and even cannon sticks to assist their comrades in driving the Japanese troops back into the sea.

Although the Japanese navy was brave and far superior in number to the Ming army, the number of people who could get on board was always limited, and the number of people on the deck was at an absolute disadvantage. I have never been able to gain a foothold......

When the lower guns of the Ming warships roared again, the surrounding Japanese warships were emptied again. The Japanese troops on the ship lost the support of the follow-up troops, and could not escape the fate of annihilation. Some people even took the initiative to jump into the sea to survive, but they forgot that this is the first lunar month......

(End of chapter)