The Sun and the Lion

After several days of testing, the Calicut Army has basically determined the channels that can be used for the attack. In order to mobilize the small boats of the Cochin garrison as much as possible, Zamorin officially launched a large-scale attack, which was more powerful than the previous tentative attack.

The Cochin archers and Portuguese boats failed to defeat the Calicut army, which was attacking the defense line on a large scale. Pereira immediately decided to reinforce the shoal. More boats carrying Indian archers rowed to the battlefield, while two caravels lowered their ships. sail, with Indian oarsmen in the lowest cabin ready for maneuvering within the lagoon.

Seeing that the number of sampans on the water increased and the stations were densely packed, Zamorin knew that the enemy was acting according to his plan and ordered: "Let the civilians pull the artillery, gunpowder, and stone bullets to the shore, and remove those floating on the water." All the enemy troops on the water should be driven to the bottom to feed the fish."

In order to facilitate the deployment and open up the artillery firing range, these recruited laborers first cleared all kinds of obstacles on the shore one by one. The artillery was pushed to the shore for deployment, and the ammunition was piled haphazardly next to the artillery.

The Indian gunners hurriedly loaded propellants and stone bullets according to the short training. The two consultants on the side shook their heads repeatedly. The weight of propellant and stone bullets loaded in each artillery was either too much or too little.

In the opinion of the advisers, they could do nothing compared to the experienced Ottoman artillery force and the Safavid artillery force that had spent huge sums of money to build up. This temporary army should not go to the battlefield at all, but should stay at the shooting range honestly for a few months.

The sound of cannons from the shore finally alerted the Portuguese. Fortunately, all the stone bullets shot were hit in the water, and none of them hit the boat. The same was true for the second round of shelling. There was also an artillery piece that exploded due to too much charge. The sparks that spattered happened to fall on the gunpowder piled aside and ignited it. The sudden fire made the artillerymen so busy that There was no one left to operate the artillery.

Pereira, who was observing the battle, was first surprised and then relieved. He thought the Calicut gunners would not be a big threat.

However, in order to avoid unnecessary risks, he ordered a Caravel to sail into the lagoon and use naval guns to destroy these Indian stone cannons.

At this time, the fence of the ford had been torn to pieces by the Calicuts, and could no longer stop the advancement of the Nair warriors of Calicut. They stepped forward over the corpses of cannon fodder.

The warriors loyal to the two monarchs fought with their swords in hand. The warriors of Cochin stayed on the shoal to wait for work, and gained the upper hand in the initial battle.

Pereira did not choose to fight against this line of defense. After witnessing Zamorin's continuous increase in troops and the increasing pressure on the defenders, the Cochin soldiers began to retreat and voluntarily gave up their positions.

However, these warriors and cannon fodder were not so well disciplined, and their retreat caused the troops to fall into chaos, but the Calicut Army failed to seize this opportunity to defeat the Cochin Army.

Crossing the shoal is just a matter of boarding the island in the lake. To reach the peninsula where the fort is located, you need to cross another river. On this shoal defense line, Pereira deployed stronger defenses.

The timely cover and response of the troops deployed on the second line of defense allowed the retreating Cochin Army to quickly withdraw to the rear fortifications and reorganize order. They once again waited for the Calicut Army's impact. However, due to the heavy consumption of ammunition and physical strength, the retreating shooters could no longer pour powerful firepower on the Calicut army.

The soldiers from Calicut who rushed to the island in the lake were already at the end of their strength. How could they still have the strength to continue dismantling the fortifications on the shoal with lead bullets and arrows? Zamorin had no choice but to order the vanguard troops to guard the island in the lake and ordered the civilians to defend the island in the lake. A pontoon bridge was built on the shoal that had been conquered.

It happened that the weather was not good at this time, and the heavy rain interrupted the subsequent fighting and work. At this time, only Karavel, who had entered the lagoon, took advantage of the opportunity to shell the Calicut artillery position on the shore.

Several flying artillery shells hit the soil that was soft due to water seepage. Although there were no casualties, the coolies responsible for pulling the artillery were too frightened to move. They fled from the river bank in all directions, ignoring the obstruction of the soldiers on the side.

"What are you doing! Go back and fire cannons!" The samurai in charge of the supervision directly chopped down an untouchable with a knife, hoping that force would deter him from escaping.

In the chaos caused by the suppression of the coolies, all the gunpowder piled next to the artillery was soaked, and stone bullets were rolling everywhere without being picked up. As for the artillery, the Portuguese succeeded in damaging them in the next few bombardments.

For Zamorin, this was not the worst news, because it was not only the artillery positions at the rear that were in chaos, but also the island in the lake that he thought was already within his grasp.

The sudden rainfall caused the water level in the river to gradually rise. Find the book www.zhaoshuyuan.com The Calicut Army, which originally wanted to withdraw, found that they had missed the opportunity to retreat due to the rising water level. In short, these hundreds of people were like this. Trapped on an island in a lake.

There was no food, drink, or shelter from the rain. The few houses on the island had long been destroyed and there was no way for them to rest. The only thing that could be guaranteed was safety. Although they could not withdraw because of the rising water level in the river, it was also difficult for the Cochin Army on the other side to launch an attack. This is the only way the trapped people can masturbate.

Pereira, who looked at the islands in the lake and the shoals of the river in the distance from the fort, felt quite sorry for this. It would be great if this isolated Calicut army could be eliminated. But after the rain stopped, he was unable to unilaterally block the shoal and could only look at the island and sigh.

Neither Caravel nor the sampan paddled into the shoal at the risk of running aground, and the two sides temporarily ceased fighting on this rainy night.

"Your Excellency, our army has lost less than 500 people. The casualties are basically Indian soldiers. Only 11 Portuguese compatriots were injured and no one died..." For Pereira, such casualty data is considered optimistic. Find out the current inventory status from the quartermaster. The supplies are enough for about two months.

The morale of the Portuguese in the fortress was greatly boosted, and Zamorin, who had just learned the statistics of the day's battle, was almost fainted. Counting the troops trapped on the island in the lake and those lost in the previous exploratory attack, he had already Thousands of people and almost all artillery were lost.

The failure of the land battle was not the most irritating thing. He did not know that he had actually lost the battle at sea until the end of the night. He angrily accused the commander of the fleet of cowardly retreat, but the other party argued that the order given to him was only to blockade Cochin Port.

Tragically, Calicut's rigid, uncoordinated attacks would continue to inflict heavy losses during the ensuing siege, until Zamorin could no longer afford to continue the siege.