This Xiou City does not need Kunlun Island, not only has a strong city built according to the coastal mountains, but also has several strong forts. The defenders also had 5,000 people, not including mercenaries, and more than 200 warships, and more than a dozen of them were the first generation of gunboats of the Ming Dynasty. It was by no means an easy task for the English fleet to capture the city of Seagull.

Nelson looked at the harbor city in front of him from afar and said, "I heard that the city is a place where maritime merchants gather and gather endless wealth?" A middle-aged man who looked like a merchant next to him nodded and said, "There is a gathering of the wealth of maritime merchants from all over the world, and in Rome, ten catties of gold and silk are piled up there, and all kinds of gems shine brightly, and gold and silver have become inconspicuous stones there." "This middle-aged man was a veteran of the English maritime merchants, named James, who was originally just a poor young man in an English fishing port.

However, this James was not reconciled to the status quo, and after hearing about the rich legends of the Arab world, he gathered a group of friends to go on an adventure in the Arab world on a stolen fishing boat. It was the time of the First Crusade, and James and his companions took the opportunity to plunder a shipload and return home. Later, James started a maritime business, and by the time he was in his thirties, he became the richest man in his hometown. A few years ago, James met the merchants of the East in the process of trading with the Arab world, and he was amazed by the goods of the East, and the legends of the East also made him yearn for it, so he began the longest trip in his life, leading several merchant ships under his command to form a fleet to the legendary elven land, far east.

Once again, James won again, and the goods he carried made unimaginably high profits in the East, and he also purchased large quantities of porcelain and silk from the East at very low prices, and returned to the West to sell them at high prices. In a flash, one of his gold coins turned into twenty gold coins as if by magic. His success was the envy of his peers, and many English merchants followed suit, with both success and failure, and even worse, they did not reach the East and were drowned in the unpredictable sea. However, the defeat or even death of some people did not deter the enthusiasm of the English to trade with the East, and the Westerners had the advantage of being adventurous.

Actually, this may not be true. In fact, we also have adventure genes in our blood, or we are more adventurous than Westerners. In the far sea trade, speaking of which, the ancestors of China went earlier and farther than the Westerners. It's just that perverted Confucianism and selfish rulers always suppress this spirit. Confucianism says that parents are not far away, God knows what achievements can be achieved in one place, what development can the whole country have, and if children can't make money, how can filial piety be embodied; And the rulers were afraid that the people would have too much contact with outsiders and affect their dominance. Confucianism is just a scholarly view, and the rulers are so stupid that they are afraid of contact with outsiders, and don't they know how much benefit maritime trade can bring? Or it's not that they didn't see this, but they thought that Huaxia was theirs and the people were theirs, and if they wanted to get money, they could just pay taxes and slash the people, and there was no need to contact outsiders.

It's far away, let's get down to business. James had only been to the East once a few years ago. At that time, Zhao Song had just retreated to the south of the Yangtze River, and the atmosphere in the entire Central Plains was very bad. James only went to Zhao Song, and his impression of Zhao Song was that the city there was very beautiful, like the legendary elf country, but the people there were very cowardly, and they were worried that their northern neighbors had crossed the river, and their emperor and many people had fled from the north. Because of the unstable situation, James did not stay long in Zhao Song, and left in a hurry after completing the trade.

After James came to the fleet, he told Nelson and others about his understanding of the East, which made all the English generals who were originally in awe of the Ming Dynasty completely dispelled their doubts, thinking that the Ming army encountered on Kunlun Island was only a very rare elite warrior in the East, and the vast majority of the Orientals were cowardly, unable to fight, and could only flee. Now that their strongest elite has been wiped out, there is nothing left to stop the Heavenly Army from sweeping through the Eastern heresy!

Hood said hurriedly: "Generalissimo, we should take advantage of the arrival of other countries' troops to capture Xiou Island, otherwise we will have to share the interests with other countries, and our England will have a lot less!" The other generals, including Horatio, nodded in agreement, and this may be the first time Horatio agreed with Hood's suggestion. There was greed in everyone's eyes, as if a jackal had seen a sheep, or a pervert had seen a beautiful woman.

Nelson thought the same thing in his heart, and said to Hood: "Hood, you lead your fleet to the east of the island and block the enemy's escape path. Hood was taken aback, and begged, "Generalissimo, please let someone else do this!" As one of the most successful generals in Great England, I want to fight the enemy with real weapons, but I don't want to hide behind and enjoy comfort! ”

Nelson didn't know what Hood was thinking, where he was for what honor, it was clearly for the endless wealth and all kinds of beauties on the island, if he led the army to attack, he could take the opportunity to fill his own pockets, but if he went to cut off the enemy's retreat, I was afraid that there would not be so many benefits. Nelson glared and shouted, "Is my order negotiable?" My order has been given, all you have to do is carry it out! ”

Hood was depressed. The other generals, especially Horatio, gloated.

Hood led the fleet under his command, but he had already made up his mind in his heart, as long as the war began, he would land on the island from the east, and go straight to Xiou City by land, and he couldn't just eat meat and drink soup by himself, and others would just pay it back, if he let himself watch Horatio eat and drink spicy food, but he couldn't bear it anyway.

The scout rushed to Guanshan Guan Ping and reported: "My lord, the enemy has gone around the island to the east. ”

Guan Shan immediately looked at Guan Ping, "They must be trying to cut off our retreat!" Guan Ping sneered: "Do you want to swallow us in one bite?" I'm afraid it's not that easy! Turning his head and asking Guan Shandao, "How many people have not been evacuated?" Zhang Shun said: "Only half of the personnel and materials were evacuated. Zhang Heng frowned and scolded: "Damn! Wouldn't that be the one or two thousand people and countless riches stranded on the island! Guan Shan frowned and said, "The main thing is that time is too tight!" ”

In the middle of the night, as we continued to do the morning, one after another the ships had withdrawn, and they had been about to evacuate, but they had not gone far before they saw the English fleet, and they all hurried back. The people in the city were panicked, and the merchants, tourists, and prostitutes who had not been able to evacuate were at a loss.

The alarm bell rang suddenly, and the people in the streets were startled, and everyone turned into headless flies. Then he saw the soldiers galloping past on horseback, and shouted: "All the people go home at once!" All the people go home at once! ...... "The people were so anxious that they returned to their quarters, closed their doors and windows, and the city became extremely quiet in an instant.

Guan Ping stood on the watchtower and looked out to sea, only to see the enemy's huge fleet slowly approaching. Guan Ping suddenly remembered what the storyteller said: 'Black clouds crush the city and want to destroy it!' Guan Ping couldn't help but laugh dumbly, and muttered: "When will Lao Tzu hang up his schoolbag?" ”

Guan Shan ran to Guan Ping's side, hugged his fists and said, "Big brother, the enemy fleet is approaching, and it seems that we are going to bombard our city fortifications with artillery first. Guan Shan said: "You personally go to the front to command, and give those golden retrievers a little color!" Guan Shan answered, and Ben got off the watchtower and ran forward.

As mentioned above, Xiou City is close to the coast and relies on the mountain, and the mountain extends from both sides of the city to the sea for six or seven hundred meters, and the wall is very steep, just like a pair of arms in Xiou City. When the Ming Dynasty built a city here, it built artillery positions and defensive walls on these two arms, which were called the North and South Acropolis. Each acropolis was equipped with fifty cannons and five hundred sergeants. If the enemy wants to capture the city from the sea, he must first pass the north and south acropolis.

Nelson was a famous admiral in England, and when he saw the situation in the city, he knew that in order to capture the city, he had to break through the two acropolises. Therefore, he planned to take out the secret weapon of the English navy, a giant ship equipped with sea dragon cannons, and bombard the north and south acropolis. The so-called sea dragon cannon is the latest type of cannon made in England. Different from the original history, perhaps because of Yang Peng's butterfly, cannons were already commonly used in the Western world at this time. The Sea Dragon Cannon is a cannon that is much thicker and longer than ordinary cannons, with a much longer range and much more power than ordinary cannons. At present, there are only 20 gunboats in the English navy equipped with sea dragon cannons.

Nelson looked at the two Acropolises, smiling and confident. It turned out that although the Acropolis was dangerous to defend Xiou City, after all, it was only seven or eight meters high, and the place was small, so it was actually difficult to defend it if it was attacked by artillery. Moreover, due to the narrowness of the place, under the concentrated fire of the artillery, the defenders in it must have suffered heavy casualties. Thus, in Nelson's view, the two acropolises were not only not obstacles, but rather graves for the enemy.

The fleet approached and stopped about five or six miles from the coast. Immediately, the horn sounded, and more than 100 gunboats left the ship formation and divided into two groups to approach the north and south acropolis. They stopped two or three miles away, and saw the ten largest ships in each fleet slowly turn sideways, and the three layers of gun doors on the side chord opened at the same time, and the swarthy barrels stretched out.

Guan Shan, who was sitting in the South Acropolis, was surprised to see this scene and muttered, "Are they going to shoot from that position?" It's too far! ”

In an instant, white smoke billowed out, followed by a thunderous roar and a sharp whistling sound of the air being torn apart, followed by countless cannonballs slamming into the city walls, stirring up debris and falling into the sea, making a splash in the sky.

Guan Shan and his officers and men were all taken aback, they didn't expect that the enemy's artillery could hit so far! However, fortunately, the position of the acropolis was seven or eight meters above the sea, and the enemy bombarded from the sea, and the shells did not enter the city, but only smashed on the city walls. The walls were made of bricks and stones, and they were very strong, but the enemy's artillery fire was so powerful that it probably wouldn't last long under such heavy bombardment.

The English Sea Dragon cannon bombarded several rounds in a row, and they only felt that the place where they were was shaking the mountain. Nelson and other England soldiers who watched the game in the back were inexplicably excited.

"My lord, if you go on like this, the city wall will collapse sooner or later!" An officer ran to Guan Shan's side and shouted. At this time, the artillery fire rumbled, and the ears were deaf, so the voice was raised to the maximum unconsciously when speaking.

Guan Shan observed the scene on the sea through the shooting holes in the city wall, and those huge ships were still bombarding, like monsters in the sea, unleashing their obscenity rampantly. Guan Shan frowned, scolded his mother, and then yelled at a few officers beside him: "Show those bastards the color!" Several officers shouted in response to the promise and rushed down to give the order, and the sergeants immediately went into action, pushed twenty slender cannons into the firing position, loaded the gunpowder projectiles, and then stretched the long barrels out of the firing holes.

Get ready! Put!

Boom Boom! A huge roar was also heard in the Acropolis, and in an instant white smoke billowed out, and then the sea where the English fleet was located was a column of water rushing into the sky, and the whistling cannonballs smashed the ship's mast and sawdust flew sideways. The English did not expect that the opponent's artillery would also be so powerful, and they were defenseless and were blinded at once.

Nelson was the first to come to his senses and hurriedly ordered the fleet to retreat. Although the counterattack of the Ming artillery caused some losses to the English fleet, on the whole the English fleet did not have the upper hand, and Nelson was completely worried about the loss of the precious sea dragon ship, so he hurriedly ordered the front fleet to retreat.

The English gunboats lifted anchor and retreated, and the two sides kept bombarding each other, and the stone chips in the city on the shore flew horizontally, and the sea water column below soared into the sky, and the rumbling sound rolled between the heavens and the earth, like a thunderous tsunami, and like a monster in the sea roaring.

After a few moments, the artillery fire on both sides gradually subsided, and the fighting stopped.

Guan Shan looked at the enemy's fleet, snorted, and scolded: "Holy shit, you know it's amazing!" And Guan Ping, who was watching the battle from the observation platform in the city, frowned, surprised in his heart, and muttered: "I didn't expect these Western barbarians to have such powerful cannons!" It's on par with our Monty Python cannon! "Giant Python Cannon, the most powerful artillery in the Ming Dynasty except for the monster cannon, because the barrel is huge, it looks like a giant python, so it was named the Giant Python Cannon by Yang Peng. Since its inception, the enemy has not been swept away by the powerful army, so it has not shown its might a few times. I didn't expect to encounter an enemy who could compete with the giant python cannon on this wild island, which was really unexpected.

Equally astonished were Nelson and other English generals, whose powerful navy had been invincible over the seas over the years, and how many enemies had been wiped out. The Sea Dragon Giant Ship is the most powerful warship they have built recently, and they thought that the Sea Dragon Giant Ship was extremely powerful and no one could resist, so they swaggered to bombard the opponent's fortress, but they did not expect to encounter a cannon with the same power as the Sea Dragon Cannon, and several valuable Sea Dragon Giant Ships were injured without defense.

Nelson quickly adjusted his strategy and ordered the gunboats to continue to attack the Acropolis, but at the same time sent Hood and Horatio to lead 3,000 elites each to land on the coast beyond the power of artillery fire on the north and south sides of Seagull, and directly attack Westgull.

Suddenly drums sounded, artillery fire rumbled, and 6,000 elite England attacked the city from the north and south. Relying on the city wall, the Ming army bombarded with artillery, blocked with bows and crossbows, shells and arrows flew all over the sky, and the elite flesh and blood of England flew sideways. The English had already suffered heavy casualties before they could reach the city walls, and in panic, they hurriedly retreated.

Nelson couldn't help frowning when he saw that the enemy city was well guarded, and for a while, the first general in the Western naval war had no idea.

Nelson ordered Hood's troops, who had landed in the north, to retreat and move to the south, where they joined up with Horatio's landing force, and the two sides formed a camp on the spot, relying on the terrain, preparing the sea route, and advancing to the battalion to crush the opponent. Nelson also knew by this time that the enemy was well guarded, and although his fleet was strong, it was impossible to break through the enemy's defenses in a short time.

The English army suspended the attack, and the main players of the teams gathered on the flagship to discuss strategy. Nelson said: "The enemy is well guarded, and it is not easy to succeed in a strong attack. I'm going to use the method of raiding. Now we have gunboats outside their acropolis, and Hood and Horatio's men and horses to the south of the city. The enemy's attention must be focused on the sea to the west and the land to the south. We took advantage of this and raided their northern city with an elite force. When the generals heard this, their eyes lit up, and they only felt that the generalissimo's strategy was really very clever. This is taking advantage of the enemy's blind spot, and it will definitely catch them off guard! As long as the soldiers and horses attack the northern city, the enemy will be in chaos, and then the army of land and water will pounce on it, and it will surely destroy the withered and swept away the enemy army!

Nelson said to the generals: "Today is the time when the enemy is at its most vigilant, and we are very tired from the long journey. So I've decided that we'll have a good night's rest today and start tomorrow night! The generals agreed in unison.

At the same time, in Xiou City, Zhang Heng was also discussing countermeasures with his subordinates. Just when both the English fleet and the Ming army were preparing for a new big war. The island's original owners, the kings of Sinhala and Tamil, were like ants on a hot pan. How can they not be frightened by the fact that two powerful forces are fighting on their land?

When night fell, the moon rose on the sea, and the cold light sprinkled on the surface of the island, sparkling, like countless broken jade floating in the water. In the midst of this magnificent sea and sky scene, the huge fleet seemed to become many leaves floating on the water, and the large island towering in the sea seemed to become smaller.

In the silence of the night, a fleet of ships was quietly sailing on the water.

Boom Boom! The loud roar woke up the English soldiers in their dreams! The people hurried out of the cabin to look, and were shocked to see the fire on the water, the rumbling artillery fire, the rockets flying in all directions like raindrops, and the sirens sounding as an enemy fleet clashed in the left flank of their own ships. Nelson was shocked at this sight, and immediately calmed down, and ordered the central ship, the forward ship, and the right flank to immediately separate from the left flank to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the situation and causing further confusion, and at the same time signaled to the left flank to fight to the death. Nelson was worthy of being a famous general, and in this chaotic situation, he clearly judged that although the opponent was menacing, in fact, the strength was limited, not to mention that compared with the entire fleet, even a single left wing fleet was far stronger than them.

The disorganized Left Wing Fleet gradually calmed down and began to counterattack, and the chaotic situation slowly calmed down, and the situation became more and more favorable to the side of the English fleet. Seeing that the opportunity had been lost, Guan Shan immediately led the fleet out of the conflict among the enemy groups and retreated towards the harbor. The left flank fleet, which was holding its breath, refused to let the Ming fleet escape like this, and rushed behind. At this moment, the cannons on the north acropolis rang out, and the middle of the left wing fleet of England landed in the middle of the water column into the sky. The left flank of England was attacked head-on, and the feverish head immediately calmed down, quickly stopped the pursuit, and slowly retreated.

The sea gradually calmed down, but the land became noisy again. Nelson and the others saw the flames around their land camps, and the sound of fierce fighting continued to come along the sea breeze. Nelson and the others were shocked, and they couldn't help but be very worried. Nelson hurriedly ordered a 5,000-strong Marine Corps to immediately go for reinforcements.

Reinforcements headed for the shore in boats. By the time they landed on the island, the battle was over. When I came to the middle of the camp, I saw corpses all over the ground, many tents were turned into charred ruins, and the soldiers who had escaped the catastrophe were all discouraged.

Soon after, a report on the situation on land reached Nelson. More than 1,000 men had been lost in the camp on the way, and even more so in the baggage, and the enemy's raiding force had withdrawn before its own reinforcements arrived. However, it was fortunate that the reinforcements arrived in time, otherwise the land camp would have been breached by the opponent.

Nelson and the others were in a solemn mood, feeling that the opponent in front of them was not as vulnerable as they had imagined. What made them even more unbelievable was that judging from the intensity of the enemy's counterattack, the enemy's combat effectiveness seemed to be very strong! It was so unexpected that such an army could send such a swift counterattack! However, everyone is still full of confidence, after all, the huge strength gap between the two sides is here, although the opponent is much more difficult than expected, but the final victory must belong to their side.

It was a long night for the English. The sun finally jumped out of the eastern sea, and the darkness quickly receded, and the sea and sky were bright. The various units of the Ming army and the mercenaries were heavily defended in the sea area to the west and the south, waiting for the enemy's retaliation. However, to everyone's surprise, until the sun set, the enemy did not move at all.

After all, what happens next, let's see how it will be broken down next time.