Daming pirates

Anthony and his captains couldn't figure out where these Chinese pirates got so many Western-style cannons. You must know that there are so many pirates along the coast of China. In order to enhance their strength, these pirates are looking for cannons everywhere.

But because the Spanish iron foundry in Manila produced very little, it could not meet the needs of these pirates.

In addition, considering that these Chinese pirates should not be allowed to have too much strength, whether it is them, the Portuguese, or even the Dutch, they are very cautious when selling artillery. First, they will only sell to some pirates they trust.

artillery, and they will also control the weight of the artillery.

Only the Portuguese two years ago sold the cannons from a British ship salvaged from the sea in Haojingao to the Ming Dynasty government for 30 pieces. They were relatively heavy cannons. It was extremely difficult for other pirates to obtain such heavy cannons.

But this group of Chinese pirates, who call themselves Sea Wolves, don't know where they got so many Western-style cannons, and they actually have such heavy cannons. Now things have become much more difficult.

Anthony felt more and more uneasy. They had seriously underestimated the strength of these Chinese pirates. So, could he still capture Jilong Bay? He had a series of question marks in his mind.

The artillery battle between the two sides was still going on at this time. The sound of artillery on the sea became loud, and clouds of gunpowder smoke continued to rise from the ship or the fort. The flash of the muzzle flame was like streaks of lightning, constantly

flashing.

A large number of artillery shells poured onto Heping Island, scattering on and around the fort, causing gravel to fly in random directions and the ground to vibrate continuously.

At this time, the other two forts at the mouth of Jilong Bay also began to fire. These two forts were also equipped with varying numbers of 24-pound heavy cannons. The range could easily reach one mile. They also constituted a great formation for the Spanish fleet.

The two sides fought for about an hour, and almost every ship in the Spanish fleet was hit by artillery shells.

However, under the Spanish artillery fire, these forts were as solid as rocks and were never destroyed, but some buildings still suffered some damage.

A heavy artillery shell hit a gun window on the Heping Island fort, which happened to be the weakest point in the structure. It collapsed after being hit. The rubble stirred up by the shell scattered around inside the fort, immediately killing several gunners.

A dozen fellow soldiers were killed and wounded, and a twelve-pounder cannon was destroyed on the spot and buried in the rubble.

But relatively speaking, the Spanish suffered greater damage. Several large ships were drilled with holes, and dozens of sailors were injured or killed.

In the midst of the fierce battle, a cannonball fired from the Heping Island fort hit Anthony's ship, nearly dismembering Anthony's body on the spot and killing one of Anthony's guards.

Antony, who was being helped up, saw that they would not get much advantage if they continued to fight like this, so he had to order a temporary ceasefire and retreat.

Seeing the Spanish fleet turning dejectedly to evacuate outside Jilong Bay, the Sea Wolf tribesmen and country warriors in several forts immediately let out a cheer.

Heitou personally took a boat to the Heping Island fort to celebrate Feng Twelve and the others. He sent a large piece of meat and a barrel of wine to the fort as a reward for them. As for the recording of merit, that is a matter for the future. For the time being, it is just a matter of time.

Reward them with wine and meat.

Another group of construction craftsmen were also quickly sent to Heping Island, and immediately began to repair the battle-damaged forts. They used readily available spare stones and gravel to repair the collapsed gaps, and cooked some on the spot.

Glutinous rice and corn slurry are mixed with lime as a binder to bond the stones, and this mixed slurry is poured into some gaps. It will not take long for it to solidify firmly.

Of course, this approach is also a last resort, and it is a common method used by the ancients when building solid buildings. If it is replaced by cement, it will be much simpler and more convenient, and the sturdiness will be better.

As for the casualties in the artillery fort, they were immediately rushed back to Keelung Fort. The injured were immediately treated, and the deceased arranged for someone to clean and wipe his body, and then put it into a coffin.

For this battle, the carpenters of Keelung Fort were very busy. They also had to reinforce various defense facilities, repair the naval ships damaged in the previous two days, and work overtime to build some coffins. According to Yu Xiaotian's instructions

It is customary for Sea Wolf's men to be given a grand burial if they die in battle. At least a strong coffin should be prepared for them so that they can do what they do behind with glory.

These things are all for the living to see. They want the living to know that once they die fighting for the Sea Wolf Group, they will not be hastily discarded or buried in a random hole. The ancients were very superstitious.

He cares about the affairs after his death, so in this regard, Yu Xiaotian has always spared no effort to arrange the affairs of his subordinates who died in battle beautifully.

In addition, during the battle in the morning, each fort consumed a lot of ammunition, and several of the main heavy artillery were so hot that they had to stop and wait for the barrels to cool down. Whether it was the local warriors assisting in the battle or the gunners in the main battle,

Everyone was exhausted. When they saw the Spaniards withdrawing from the battle, as soon as the cheers stopped, many people lay directly on the ground, panting like dogs from exhaustion, and did not even want to move their fingers.

In this era, gunplay is an absolutely heavy physical activity, not to mention that they use long-barreled heavy cannons, which can easily weigh more than 1,000 kilograms. Some twenty-four-pound cannons weigh as much as 4,000 kilograms. It’s not fun to do this.

Strength is absolutely impossible.

This is also the reason why Yu Xiaotian is willing to let his men eat and drink well, that is, to nourish their bodies well on weekdays, provide them with sufficient nutrition, and strengthen their bodies. In addition to improving their resistance, they also

It can increase their stamina so that they have enough energy to fight during the war.

And now it seems that he has been well rewarded for doing so. These gunners all persisted in the high-intensity artillery battle, and their physical strength is much better than that of ordinary country warriors. After taking a short rest,

Then everyone recovered and started eating and drinking in a hurry to replenish their strength and prepare for the next battle.

At this time, under the command of Sun Baoqiang, shiploads of ammunition were shipped from Keelung Fort to various forts, and were replenished into the ammunition depot in the flat fort, so that these gunners could fight again at any time.

The destroyed cannon was also removed from the rubble. After inspection, it was scrapped, so it was shipped back to Keelung Fort Artillery Works, smashed and returned to the furnace, and then continued to be cast into other cannons. A new cannon was shipped

When we arrived at the fort, we used a winch to hoist it into the fort and place it on the fort.

In just half a day, the damaged fort was basically repaired, including the damaged artillery, which was also replaced. In addition, the personnel were also strengthened, and a group of tired and paralyzed warriors were replaced, making each fort more capable.

Before dark, combat capabilities were restored again.

After the first day's attack was thwarted, Anthony took the ships back to their temporary anchorage and ordered the ship's craftsmen to quickly repair the damaged ships and inventory their losses.

The counting results made these Spaniards very discouraged. After only half a day of artillery battle, each of their ships had been hit by a total of thirty or forty times, most of which were heavy artillery shells, which caused a certain amount of damage to the main ships of their fleet.

Although the damage was not too severe and would not cause them to lose their combat effectiveness, it was a huge blow to their morale.

The Spanish sailors and soldiers who came here with them no longer had the relaxed mentality they had before the war. They no longer dared to underestimate the Chinese pirates here. They knew that this time they met a powerful

Their opponents, this group of Chinese pirates are by no means the Chinese pirates they knew before. This group of Chinese pirates who call themselves Sea Wolves are not only equipped with artillery quality that is not inferior to them, but their combat skills are not weaker than them, and even better than them.

Even stronger than their gunners.

This can be seen from their observation of the artillery firing rate of the Sea Wolf fort. The gunners in these Sea Wolf forts can reload the artillery very quickly, even faster than the reloading speed of the gunners on their ships.

Moreover, the accuracy of the opponent's shelling should not be underestimated. These pirate gunners aimed very accurately and hit hard and accurately. If their ships did not start to raise sails and move after the artillery battle began, it is estimated that less than half of their

The losses in Tianxia were more serious.

After this first battle, they suffered casualties of more than thirty sailors and soldiers. Although the blow cannot be said to be very heavy, it still made these arrogant Spaniards frustrated.

"Your Excellency, Commander, these damn Chinese pirates are obviously not as bad as we initially thought. They have a lot of long-range heavy artillery, which none of us thought of at first, and they have built strong fortifications outside Jilong Bay.

The fort makes it difficult for us to break through their defenses and attack their castle!

So I think that if we want to capture Jilong Bay, we can only send infantry to capture their forts, and then we can enter the bay and capture their castle. Otherwise, even if we shoot out all the cannonballs on the ship

, I’m afraid it will be difficult to destroy their forts!”

In the conference room of Anthony's ship, the captains and infantry officers of each ship were sitting at the conference table, discussing how to deal with the sea wolves. A captain stood up and said to Anthony.

"Your Majesty Commander, today we have seen that these damn Chinese pirates have firepower that we did not expect and caused us a lot of losses!

At such a distance, we did not have an advantage in an artillery battle with them. We could not give full play to our firepower advantage, especially some of the light guns on the ship, which could not reach such a far range and were too weak.

If we want to conquer these damn forts, we have to risk getting closer to them and give full play to our fleet's advantage of having more artillery. Only then can we suppress their firepower and completely destroy their forts!" Another captain stood up.

presented his opinion.