The situation of the eight Spanish galleons targeted by the cruisers was not much better. Although the cruisers had eight fewer guns on their broadsides than the battleships, it had little impact on the battle, because the battleships had an obvious excess of firepower against the Spanish galleons.

Even the cruiser had more guns than any Spanish galleon. Round after round of salvos, they still caused tons of damage. Half of the guns of the eight galleons were destroyed, and the starboard firepower was the most seriously damaged, so it was no longer possible to launch threatening bombardments.

In addition, most of the masts of the eight large sailing ships were broken, and the soldiers preparing to board the ships suffered heavy casualties, and they were no longer able to engage in boarding battles...

As for destroyers and frigates, their results were much less impressive.

The destroyer had only 10 guns on one side of the ship, and the frigate had only 6. Although the number of guns was not at a disadvantage against the Spanish warship of about 600 tons, the damage caused was limited.

Moreover, destroyers and frigates were equipped with side armor, and the first round of shooting by the Spanish warships caused certain casualties among the Coast Guard officers and soldiers...

Although in the next ten minutes of unilateral shelling, the coast guard soldiers inflicted ten times the casualties on the enemy.

But the Spanish ships were much larger and carried many more soldiers, and they fired at the smaller Ming ships with muskets and swivel guns under fire.

Especially the Spanish heavy gunners on the forecastle and poop were in a commanding position, with a clear view, causing continuous casualties to the marine officers and soldiers.

The officers and men on the destroyers and frigates will bear the vast majority of their own casualties in this battle. This was repeatedly rehearsed in the pre-war war games.

However, they were the key to victory in this battle - because it was impossible to keep the entire Spanish fleet at bay with only 36 battleships and destroyers.

But the Spanish would not wait for the Ming to build more battleships and cruisers.

Therefore, if the Spanish fleet is to be completely wiped out in this battle, the destroyers and frigates must undertake the same mission as the battleships - at least they must hold on to the enemy ships until the battleships are free.

If they didn't take over, the Spaniards would definitely escape when they saw that they could not compete with the coast guard's main battleships.

In this battle, the marine officers and soldiers on the destroyer and frigate showed a fearless spirit of not fearing sacrifice. When the gun position on the starboard side was hit, they immediately carried the injured comrades to the infirmary, and the officers and soldiers on the port side immediately took over as backup to maintain maximum firepower output.

If it is impossible to cover the area with artillery fire at once, then destroy the Spanish warships’ gun positions and firing points one by one!

The marines on the destroyers and frigates also fought back with their swivel guns and Gatmu guns, relying on their continuous firepower to suppress the enemy who was in a commanding position.

At the same time, they took advantage of their small and flexible ships and tried to keep a distance of about 100 meters from the enemy ships to avoid boarding battles. In this way, as time went on, they could rely on their long-term firepower advantage to defeat larger enemy ships.

The problem is that the Spaniards also knew this, so they tried their best to maneuver their ships close to them and engage in boarding battle.

The Spanish Navy was born for boarding battles, and they were not only experienced, but also had very reliable equipment - such as giant arrows fired from crossbows. They specifically shot these large iron rods with cables at the lower part of the side of the Ming warships, so that once they were hit, it would be difficult for the enemy ships to escape.

Fortunately, the cast iron rod was already very heavy, and there was a cable as thick as an arm at the back. Even if it was fired from a large crossbow, it could only shoot 60 to 70 meters...

So after the Spaniards fired in vain, the Ming ships dodged one after another and most of them moved to a safe distance in time.

However, several destroyers and frigates were unfortunately hit because they were too absorbed in the combat and too close to the enemy ships.

When the giant arrows hit the Ming warship, the Spaniards excitedly worked together to turn the capstan and pull the enemy ship towards them.

The coast guard officers and soldiers naturally tried their best to break free, but they were in the upper hand and there was not much they could do.

The 3102 frigate "Sea Wolf" was one of the victims. Captain Cai Yilin decided to tie the rope himself and see if he could use an axe to cut the cable behind the giant ship!

"If anyone is going to go down, it should be me. You are the captain and you have to command the battle!" His partner, police instructor Shen Jiang, as well as the deputy captain, navigator and others all tried to dissuade him.

"That's it, Captain! Let us down!"

"Don't argue. Even if I'm gone, we still have the deputy captain!" Cai Yilin said without hesitation, and tied the rope around himself, "But I failed in command. I can't let others die for me!"

As he said this, he nimbly flipped over the railing under the worried gazes of his subordinates.

The officers and soldiers had no choice but to drop the rope and send their captain over the side of the ship.

The reason why Cai Yilin became the first police academy student of the same period to become a captain was because of his courage to lead by example!

He graduated from the police academy in the first year of the Wanli reign. Because of his excellent grades, he was assigned to a frigate as a trainee navigator.

In the second year of Wanli, during the Luzon Liberation War, he actively signed up to join the inland support boat team and became a speedboat captain. He was awarded the third-class merit in the war and was promoted to junior superintendent ahead of schedule.

In the following five years, Cai Yilin continued to work hard and made many achievements. He was finally promoted to senior superintendent this year and successfully became a frigate captain.

Although he has been a coast guard for many years, he is actually only in his early twenties and has no idea how to command his subordinates. He has only relied on the principles he learned in the police academy to be strict in rewards and punishments, lead by example, and love his soldiers like his own sons to get to where he is today.

So he followed the path formed in his brain and jumped down without thinking -

How could the Spaniards let him succeed? They immediately shot at him with their muskets, and Cai Yilin could only hear the sound of lead bullets hitting the hull.

The hard hull is naturally not afraid of bullets, but his flesh and blood body is afraid!

Cai Yilin desperately shook his body in an irregular pendulum motion to avoid the incoming bullets.

The men on the Sea Wolf also immediately opened fire, using all their weapons to suppress the Spaniards who were shooting at him.

The person pulling the rope above also increased the speed of releasing the rope, bringing him to the edge of the giant arrow in a dangerous manner.

At this time, the two sides were only 20 meters apart...

The sun was setting, and the long shadow of the 600-ton Spanish galleon 'Assumption' was cast on the side of the Sea Wolf.

Cai Yilin happened to be shrouded in shadow, making it impossible for the enemies on high ground to see his position clearly, so they could only shoot randomly into the shadows.

He couldn't help but secretly exclaimed, "God has given me this!"

He quickly took advantage of this godsend opportunity, pulled out the axe stuck in his lower back, swung it with both hands and started chopping.

Cai Yilin was able to get the first place in the Coast Guard School, so he must be very smart. At this time, his extraordinary ability was also revealed. His axe did not fall on the rope as thick as his arm, but chopped towards the hull along the arrow head.

After less than two minutes of chopping, a crack was cut into one side of the arrow.

The huge arrow could no longer be firmly nailed to the hull, and the Spaniard pulled hard again, and with a bang, the arrowhead broke away from the hull, brushed against Cai Yilin's nose, and then fell into the sea.

At this time, the two ships were less than five meters apart...

The hull of the Sea Wolf shook suddenly, and everyone felt that the force pulling them disappeared.

"Captain, you are mighty!" The officers and soldiers cheered immediately.

"Hurry, pull him up!" Instructor Shen Jiang urged hurriedly.

Several crew members who were pulling the rope exerted all their strength to quickly pull the captain up.

With a bang, Cai Yilin fell heavily on the deck.

"Captain, are you okay?" Everyone rushed to help him up.

"Damn it, I was fine, but you guys almost killed me!" Cai Yilin covered his broken head and cursed, "Why are you surrounding me? Navigator, quickly keep your distance! Gunner, change the grapeshot for me, damn it!"

"Understood!" The morale of the officers and soldiers was greatly boosted, and they quickly performed their duties and distanced themselves from the Assumption again. At the same time, they used grapeshot to destroy everything on the deck of the enemy ship!

At such a close distance, even grapeshot can have the power of a normal cannonball, enough to send the entire ship of red-haired ghosts to heaven!

Cai Yilin was in the middle of a killing spree when Shen Jiang beside him suddenly reminded him: "At nine o'clock, the Seahorse is in danger!"

He hurriedly looked towards the southwest, only to see that two hundred meters away, the Seahorse, which had also been hit by a giant arrow, did not have the good fortune of the Seawolf to break free at the last moment, and had been put on a hooked pedal by the enemy.

The Spanish soldiers rushed onto the gangplank, howling, and swarmed onto the Seahorse with hull number 3111.

Fortunately, the General Staff took into account the Spanish's obsession with hand-to-hand combat and over-equipped the destroyers and frigates with marines.

There were 40 Marines on the Seahorse, twice the normal number, and most of them were experienced veterans. Six had been killed or wounded in the previous exchange of fire, and there were still 34 to meet the enemy.

Although the 600-ton Naples had been severely damaged, there were still more than 200 Spanish soldiers on board.

The Spanish soldiers, who had been frustrated for most of the day, rushed towards the Seahorse frantically. With great brutality, they wanted to kill all the Ming people on the ship to vent their hatred!

However, the experienced Marines demonstrated superb tactical coordination.

They formed a strange formation, pushing the Spaniards into the sea with their spears, stabbing the enemies who rushed to them with their bayonets, and blocking the Spaniards' spears with their shields.

Although the Spanish infantry had a large number of troops, they were unable to reach the Seahorse.

On the stern and mast of the Seahorse, sailors used swivel cannons and gatwood to blast rows of Spaniards into the sea.

The Spaniards retaliated by shooting at the Ming people who blocked their way with muskets and bows and arrows on their ships.

The Marine who was defending against the bullet was shot and fell to the ground, and the team member behind him immediately took his place.

Another team member was shot and killed, and someone else took his place in the blink of an eye.

The captain of the Naples was watching the bloody battle in front of him without blinking. He never expected that a hand-to-hand fight with a large number of people would turn out like this.

There is no other way now, I can only bite the bullet and bite the bone...