[In the last sentence of the previous chapter, I wanted to write carronade, but I wrote cannon. What I meant was that cannons are unreliable and have nothing to do with cannons.]

While Ship 104 and Zhenwo continued their second round of destruction on Duke of Goa, Ships 102 and 103 had already engaged in a firefight with another caravel, the Galilees.

A quarter of an hour had passed since the first shot was fired, and the Gareles was naturally already on full alert.

The three warships opened fire at the same time and a brutal battle broke out!

The starboard battery of the 102 ship and the port battery of the Gareles, and the port battery of the 103 ship and the starboard battery of the Gareles, were no more than 40 meters apart. In this kind of face-to-face, muzzle-to-muzzle battle, the hit rate was directly maximized. As long as they were on the same horizontal line, there was no possibility of missing!

The white smoke soon enveloped all three ships, and all that could be heard was the suffocating continuous cannon fire, the crazy shouts of the soldiers from both armies, the painful howls, the angry curses, the clicks of the cannons in the masts and wooden hulls, the huge metal collisions of the cannons being hit... All these horrible sounds intertwined together to form a symphony of blood and fire!

But gradually, the difference between the two became clear...

The Gareles, which should have been able to hold its own against two opponents, suffered significantly greater losses than the other side.

There were twenty bronze snake cannons on each side of the Gareles, and falcon cannons with a slightly shorter range... that is, the Ming Dynasty called it a great tribute. The original number of cannons was far more than the sum of the two ships.

However, the size of the Gareles was basically the same as that of the Duke of Goa, and the gun barrels were also fixed and could not be adjusted. Therefore, the gun positions on the weather deck could only shoot at the masts and sails of the two enemy ships, and could not cause damage to their hulls.

Therefore, what can really hurt the coast guard officers and soldiers are the twelve guns on the left and right sides of its artillery deck.

Ships 102 and 103 were half-sized galleons. Although they also had double decks, the gun ports on the lower deck were relatively low, and when the wind and waves were strong, it was easy for seawater to pour in when the windows were opened. Therefore, during the initial sea trial, Yang Fan only installed nine guns on the upper deck.

Wang Rulong and other high-ranking marine police officers were very dissatisfied with this firepower and insisted that Yang Fan add guns to the lower deck. Yang Fan had no choice but to add seven guns on each side of the lower deck after they firmly promised that they would never open the lower gun ports when the sea condition exceeded level 5.

Therefore, the two ships each had 16 guns available at this time. 32 versus 24, the Jiangnan Group had eight more guns that could cause damage to the other side's personnel!

This is not the key point. The key point is that the 24 guns of the Portuguese are long-barreled cannons for long-range shooting. At this distance, the long-barreled cannons can easily penetrate two enemy ships. However, their shells are small and have a high initial velocity, often leaving two symmetrical bowl-sized holes on the side walls of the two ships, and the shells fall into the sea...

In addition, the gun decks have been treated with splash-proof treatment, so basically as long as there is no direct hit, there is not much threat to the cannons and gunners.

However, once it hit directly, trouble arose... One of the solid shells directly penetrated the guard plate of the 103 ship, and hit the barrel of a Hongxi cannon heavily, causing a big dent in the cannon and completely scrapping it.

Another shell came in through the gun port and hit the main mast wrapped in blankets. With a loud bang, the main mast still cracked, and the shell bounced back, first grazing the head of a coast guard, then opening a big hole in the chest of the deputy gunner, and finally cutting off the thigh of the main gunner, then rolling quickly on the ground, tripping several coast guards, and finally stopping its journey of eating people.

In fact, the number of coast guards killed by cannons was not as much as the casualties caused by the Portuguese using muskets and large Portuguese guns from a high position.

But the marine police officers showed a fearless fighting spirit. The medical staff quickly carried the dead and wounded to the medical cabin. The marines on the ship all went to the top floor and attacked the Portuguese with muskets, large Portuguese rockets, and cha-cha grenades. With fierce firepower, they suppressed the red-haired devils on the high ground and made them dare not show their heads.

The coast guard gunner whose gun stern was idle on the opposite side immediately filled the vacancy left by his sacrificed comrade and continued to pour firepower at the red-haired devils with the Hongxi cannon.

Under the continuous output of the two Coast Guard battleships, the Portuguese suffered much more losses. Hongxi's cannon fired two shells, attacking Bao Junshuang from both sides...

Moreover, short guns are much easier to load than long guns. Basically, for every shot fired by the enemy, we can fire two! Under such intensive and fierce artillery attacks, the gun positions on the artillery deck of the Gareles were silenced one after another.

In fact, the artillery was fine, not much was scrapped. But the more than 300 Portuguese and Nanyang sailors on the gun positions were all swept away by the rain of shotgun shells...

~~

The captain of the Gareles, Colonel Conde, was in the rudder room in the stern tower at this time, dodging the rockets from Oda City that were flying all over the sky.

Although he was also lying under the table, it was definitely not a sign of cowardice, but to listen to the movements below! Serious face!

When he heard that the gun deck had basically stopped firing, he could not help but say to the first mate beside him: "We can't passively take the beating anymore, we have to leave here!"

"But the Duke of Goa..." The first mate bravely raised his head and glanced at the tattered flagship behind him.

"Don't worry, the Duke of Goa is an unsinkable warship, and the commander is the best commander of the empire in the Far East." Conde said seriously: "We will move to the upwind side and then turn back to rescue it!"

"Yes!" The first mate felt that this statement should be acceptable in the noble court, so he crawled out to pass the order!

In fact, it was mainly because the tide was about to rise. Once the tide rose, the tide would push their boat into the bay, making it more difficult for them to sail out of Shen'ao Bay.

Conde also climbed up and took the helm himself, trying to turn the sailing ship to the northwest.

The first mate was also outside, directing the sailors to operate the sails and rigging, quickly raising the triangular sail and the main sail, and using the slight south wind to help the warship turn around.

Almost at the same time, the Duke of Goa also began to turn around. But it did not raise the anchor normally, but cut the anchor cable and forcibly raised the sail to set sail. A ship that has lost its anchor cannot dock, and if it encounters a storm, it can only leave it to fate.

But Domingo could no longer care about that. The several waves of sailors he sent to collect the anchor cables were killed and injured by the big Portuguese guns and muskets of the Jiangnan Group, and they were unable to complete the mission. Seeing that his flagship had become frozen tofu, if he continued to passively take the beating, he was afraid that it would become the first large sailing ship to be sunk in history. He could only make a heroic move and keep his distance first...

The four warships had put in such a 'niǎo' position with great effort, how could they let the young lady in the middle escape easily? So the four main battleships also turned the rudder and raised the sails, as if you are the wind and I am the sand, entangled to the end of the world.

At this time, the marine officers and soldiers of Ship 102 discovered that they only had two of their four masts left. Ship 103 had only one left...

However, they could not repair it for the time being, because the fierce battle was still going on. They had to deal as much damage as possible to this damned and undead sailing ship before the other side could get away.

But the size advantage of the Gareles was too obvious. Although the two ships tried their best to block it, the Zhenwo on the outside relied on its own strength and directly hit the large sailing ship, trying to force it to stop. However, it completed the turn after a quarter of an hour.

"Raise the mainsail and topsail!" The first mate shouted the order from the poop. At the critical moment of life and death, the sailors of Gareles also burst out with great power. The Portuguese and Nanyang sailors

Work together and spread out all usable sails as quickly as possible.

By this time it was daybreak, and the morning breeze gave the Gareles power, allowing it to squeeze out the much smaller ship 103 and slowly sail northward.

Haierdi and Rongsheng were very anxious when they saw this, and immediately ordered a pursuit. They had agreed to annihilate all of them, so what was the point of one ship running away?

~~

"It's so damn tough!" On the Zhenwo, an anxious Wang Rulong cursed.

The Duke of Goa was first hit hard by the 102nd and 103rd ships, and then the Zhenwo and 104th ships followed suit. They fired for an hour, and the gun barrels were all softened, but they still failed to sink the Portuguese flagship! He was so angry that he kept banging his head against the wall!

He finally believed what the young master said. In the era of sailing naval warfare, it was almost impossible to sink a large oak-hulled sailing ship unless the fire could not be controlled after the hit, or the rare hit caused the ammunition depot to explode.

The humidity was close to saturation at this time, and the Duke of Goa's planks, cables, and sails were all soaked with water. As a result, the effectiveness of Oda City's rockets was greatly reduced. Although it caused a number of fire points, they were all controlled by experienced Portuguese sailors.

In fact, the downward bombardment of the 104th ship and the Zhenwo had opened several holes in the waterline of the Duke of Goa. However, the carpenters on board and the sailors in charge of damage control on the bottom risked their lives to plug most of the holes. In addition, the sea was calm, so there was no risk of the ship sinking for the time being.

"Don't hurt yourself yet." Xiang Xuehai reminded Wang Rulong, "The Duke of Goa is about to turn around!"

"He wishes! Crash into it!" Wang Rulong roared.

"Are you serious?" Xiang Xuehai asked again. "He is as big as two of us!"

"Hit it!" Wang Rulong said viciously, "I don't believe it can be strong with so many holes all over its body!"

"Okay!" Xiang Xuehai gave the anti-collision order to the deputy captain while personally steering the ship and heading straight into the hull of the Duke of Goa.

The Duke of Goa's gun deck was completely deserted, so it was naturally unable to mount a defense and could only watch helplessly as the Wanhu Wuwei ship rammed into it.

With a loud bang, the Duke of Goa, which had finally turned around, had a big hole in the right side of the hull! Many sailors who were mending the leak in the cabin were killed.

Just as Wang Rulong expected, the ship was shot into a sieve, with countless ribs broken, the planks full of holes, and the entire mortise and tenon structure of the ship broken into pieces.

As a result, the square bow of the Zhenwo was deeply inserted into the body of the Duke of Goa and could not be pulled out...

Wang Rulong, the madman, immediately raised the command flag and ordered Ship 104 to fire its broadside guns upwards to clear the upper deck of the enemy ship!

Because the Zhenwo was much shorter and was closely attached to the Duke of Goa, there was no need to worry about it being accidentally hit by the Hongxi cannon of the 104th ship with the protection of this wall.

If the three ships were compared to people, the Duke of Goa in the middle would be like someone having his arms pinned down from behind by one person and being punched in the face by another person.

With just one salvo from the Hongxi cannon of Ship 104, all the Portuguese and Nanyang sailors on the weather deck and forecastle of the Duke of Goa were wiped out.

Only the three-story stern tower was able to withstand the bombardment of Hongxi's cannon.

But no one can guarantee what will happen in the next round of salvos.

"Don't worry about it, just jump!" Lin Daoquan was the first to take the lead and jumped out of the stern deck window.

Zeng Yiben and others also performed high diving and left the huge sailboat which was completely hopeless.