The Sun and the Lion

"Your Excellency, these heretics are resisting extremely fiercely. We have sacrificed many sailors but have not been able to break through the enemy's defenses. The battle situation has reached a stalemate..." The herald responsible for conveying the battle situation on the front line to Albuquerque was very pessimistic.

"Okay, what do you look like? It's just a small setback. An officer who shows fear on the battlefield is not a qualified officer." The chief captain was very dissatisfied with the pessimistic attitude of his subordinates. After a brief reprimand, he said Thoughts on the current war situation.

The herald was right. The battle situation at the Aden Fort was indeed in a stalemate. At the moment, he had two choices, either to increase his efforts to attack the fort, or to declare the raid a failure and withdraw his troops back to Socotra.

The current war situation still seems to be leaning towards the Portuguese side. The reinforcement fleet to rescue Aden does not seem to arrive in the short term. The forts on the island have been cut off from the city and have been isolated by the Portuguese army. Neither soldiers nor military supplies can be replenished. .

But even so, time is still not on Portugal's side. The fortress can store much more supplies than ships, and no fort has been shut down due to the attack of the sailors, let alone possible reinforcements.

"Pass my order to send more sailors to attack the enemy fortress. This must not become a burial place for everyone." Albuquerque categorically ordered more sailors to be filled into the battlefield and mince meat with the defenders.

The small boats carried Portuguese sailors between Karak and the fort. However, the garrison of the fortress was not as weak as the chief captain imagined. The limited delivery capability failed to improve the battle situation. The Portuguese sailors could only use refueling tactics. It only increases casualties and wastes blood.

And as time went by, the coastal defense artillery gained the advantage in the artillery battle. The hull of a Portuguese Karak had been seriously damaged. Almost all the sailors left behind were put into damage control work, and water pumps continued to pour into the cabin. The seawater inside was sent back to the sea, and the ship's craftsmen were busy sealing all the gaps below the waterline. The hulls of other ships were also hit to varying degrees.

Fortunately, the coastal defense artillery did not cause further damage to the Karak ship. With the concerted efforts of all sailors, its buoyancy was slowly restored. The captain took the opportunity to ask Albuquerque to withdraw from the battle.

The battle continued into the evening, and as dusk approached, both sides planned to take advantage of the cover of darkness to rest their exhausted troops and count the losses from the day's battles. The fort defenders rowed small boats in the dark to communicate with the city. The herald who came to report the news relieved the governor of Yemen.

The battle during the day seemed very fierce. The casualties of the 500-man team stationed on the fort totaled one-fifth of the number. However, the garrison commander reported that he could continue to hold on to the fort. He just hoped that the governor could stay moored in the harbor and did not show up all day. The Karak ships and forts were mobilized to attack the enemy fleet.

The governor of Yemen was very hesitant about this request. There were not many warships assigned to Yemen by Ehsan. This Karak was the core combat force in his hands. The rest were small ships, but there were six or seven Karaks on the opposite side. , even with the cover of coastal defense artillery, he was still very worried about the safety of his own warships.

But take a step back and think about it, if the fort falls - with Huda's blessing, I hope this will not happen - then it is just a matter of time before all the ships in the port are lost. The renovation of the city's fortifications in Aden has not yet been completed, and artillery cannot be deployed to protect the port. .

The governor of Yemen decided to take a chance and planned to launch a sneak attack while the fierce fighting was raging tomorrow. In order to ensure the maneuverability of the Karak ship in the port area, the lowest gun windows were all used to accommodate long oars. The work of disassembling the naval guns, assembling the oars, and deploying the oarsmen were all completed that night.

In addition to the Karak ship, there are two galleys parked in the port. The governor of Yemen assigned the naval infantry stranded in the city and unable to participate in the battle to three ships for possible gang-hopping battles.

In the early morning of the next day, the Portuguese sailors took advantage of the dawn to launch another round of raids on the forts. The lookouts at the port recorded the approximate number and number of Portuguese boats in the distance. When the governor of Yemen thought that the enemy ships were empty of manpower, he ordered Send a signal to the fleet.

The sound of trumpets and drums urged the oarsmen in the bottom cabin to provide power for the warship. Driven by the wind and the efforts of the oarsmen, the Safavid warship rushed towards the Portuguese fleet quickly, catching Albuquerque off guard.

The bow gun took the lead in firing at the enemy ship. The two galleys quickly approached the side of the Portuguese flagship and used grappling hooks and ropes to build an attack channel. The matchlock guns and breech-mounted revolving guns were responsible for cleaning the Portuguese sailors on the deck.

The Safavid sailors who climbed along the rope to the flagship made the surrounding Portuguese warships very nervous. The Portuguese fleet no longer maintained the previous formation of exchanging fire with the coastal defense artillery. The captains gave orders to deal with the unexpected enemy ships.

"Drive all these Muslims into the sea!" The officers of the flagship immediately organized the sailors to resist the enemy troops who climbed onto the deck, looking for Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com. Several arquebusiers quickly climbed to the mast platform along the rope net and fired from a high position. Safavid breech gunners and musketeers.

Due to the height difference between the decks of the two ships and the desperate resistance of the Portuguese, the two galleys that attacked the Portuguese flagship failed to achieve any results, and were even severely damaged and sunk by the Portuguese warships that came to the rescue. But in the midst of this chaos, coastal defense artillery successfully sank a Portuguese carrack. The water around the sunken ship was filled with Portuguese sailors who bravely swam out and small boats that came to rescue their comrades. The Safawi Qaraq ship planned to insert into the vacancy caused by the sinking of the enemy ship to cut off and divide the enemy fleet formation.

After repelling the Safavid sailors who tried to join the gang and behead them, Albuquerque was forced to re-examine the current battle situation - two days of fighting resulted in heavy damage to one ship, the sinking of another ship, minor damage to five other ships, and more than 300 sailors. The loss of casualties is unacceptable to his current fleet, especially since he has no supplementary capabilities at all.

After paying such a price, the Portuguese army still did not have an advantage in the current war situation. He believed that he could not continue to hold on like this and could only admit that the raid had failed.

Albuquerque, who had already made a decision, coordinated the remaining ships to restore order, tried to reorganize the formation, and asked the small boats to pick up all the sailors ashore in order to prepare for the evacuation of Aden.

Since the governor of Yemen lacked warships, he was unable to stop the Portuguese fleet trying to evacuate. The gunners of the coastal defense artillery were also unable to keep all enemy ships trying to escape on the seabed due to limited skill levels.

The governor of Yemen quickly took stock of the existing troops, results and losses after the war. However, when he was about to write a letter to Ahsan to report what had happened in Aden and worry about his safety before reinforcements arrived, an army unexpectedly The foreign fleet arrived in Aden the next day.