In order to release his superior military strength, the captain of the Naples ordered his men to build another step leading to the Seahorse with wooden planks.
When the fully armed Spanish soldiers began to board from the other end with strange cries, the marines on the Seahorse hurried to fill in. However, the distance between the two sides was too close, and the well-trained Spanish soldiers were swooping down from a high position, so the marines had no time to set up their formation.
Under the crazy attack, the Spaniards finally broke through the hastily arranged defense line of the Marines and took the opportunity to attack the Seahorse.
The sailors on the Seahorse were afraid to use their muskets to shoot at the Spaniards, and the muskets and revolving cannons had lost their firing angles. The sailors could only drop their firearms, put bayonets on their rifles, and engage in the ancient and brutal hand-to-hand combat with the Spaniards.
To the great surprise of the Spaniards, although these Ming soldiers were unwilling to engage in boarding battle, they had the courage and martial arts to fight for their lives.
Even if the coast guard soldiers are injured and fall to the ground, they will carry the enemy and roll off the boat, fighting to the death together!
In such a small space, the bravest of the two will win, and great strength will bring about miracles. The strong physique and fearless bravery of the coast guard officers and soldiers made up for their lack of actual combat experience.
But the Spanish were no pushovers, they were the strongest army of the era! With full body armor, superb skills and equally fearless bravery, they fought selflessly with the Ming soldiers on the Seahorse.
The soldiers on both sides were completely blood-thirsty. The deck was littered with casualties and blood. If sand had not been sprinkled on it in advance, it would have been impossible to stand steadily.
The number of casualties on both sides rose sharply, but on the Naples, which had the numerical advantage, there was still a steady stream of soldiers rushing to the Seahorse via pedals to reinforce it.
The captain of the Seahorse, Zhuo Li, had been wounded several times. After being rescued by his subordinates, he bandaged his wounds while saying to the instructor: "Arrange people to go to the gunpowder depot. Once the whole army is wiped out, set it on fire. We can't let the red-haired devils take over the Seahorse..."
"Don't worry, everything has been arranged." The instructor put his cigarette in his mouth, drew his sword and said, "You take a break first, I will also kill enough..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the captain opened his mouth wide and didn't even notice that the cigarette had fallen into his arms.
"What's wrong?" The instructor looked back and saw that the 3102 ship, the Seawolf, had hoisted full sails and was rushing straight towards the Seahorse from the side and rear, and was about to collide with it.
"Be careful, we're going to collide with a ship!" The instructor hurriedly reminded his subordinates loudly, while grabbing his assistant on the bulkhead, and at the same time, he and the medical officer held tightly to Zhuo Li who was slumped on the deck.
Before he finished his words, there was a loud bang, and the Sea Wolf crashed headfirst into the Seahorse's firm butt.
The Seahorse was immediately knocked forward, and the soldiers of both armies were caught off guard and fell to the deck in a panic. Some unlucky ones even fell off the ship...
Even more unfortunate were the Spanish soldiers who were crowded on the two side pedals, preparing to rush from the Naples to the Seahorse. Both side pedals flipped over under the impact, and the Spanish soldiers on top fell into the sea like dumplings.
The Seahorse still slid forward for several dozen meters without slowing down. Apparently the huge arrow holding it had also fallen off during the collision.
The Sea Wolf took the place of the Sea Horse and sailed side by side with the Naples. The two sides were less than ten feet apart...
"Fire!" Cai Yilin, with a bandage on his head, pulled the gun rope hard. The Hongxi cannon mounted on the stern roared and fired a red shell at the Naples which was close at hand!
On the way to reinforce the Seahorse, Cai Yilin ordered the preparation of the long-lost red fire bomb.
Although this type of shell is extremely powerful, it takes too long to prepare and is prone to danger, so the General Staff Office no longer encourages its use in principle.
Just because it still has an irreplaceable role, all ships still have blast furnaces to heat the shells. Cai Yilin deliberately wanted to give the Spaniards a surprise, so he ordered the preparation of six such shells.
Before the impact, the gunners loaded red-hot bullets into all six port guns.
After the collision, they followed the captain and fired another five red-hot shells into the Naples's riddled hull.
After firing a shot, the gunners quickly used coolant to cool the gun inside and out. The Sea Wolf was immediately filled with a vinegary smell, which made the officers and soldiers, who were thirsty, drool.
Because the main component of the coolant is white vinegar, its boiling point is extremely low, which is much better than using water to cool down. Of course, the cost is also very high, but this is nothing for the wealthy Coast Guard.
The Seawolf was busy preparing for another shot, but over there, an orange light suddenly flashed on the Naples, followed by an earth-shattering roar!
The 600-ton Naples was also broken in two by this horrific explosion. The flames of the explosion shot up more than ten meters into the sky. All the people and objects on the ship were thrown into the sky like debris...
The huge shock wave pushed the Sea Wolf far away and almost capsized. Cai Yilin and his men were all thrown to the ground, and more than a dozen coast guards fell into the water. Fortunately, they were all wearing life jackets, so they were not seriously injured...
The Seahorse in the distance was less affected. Zhuoli, who had just lit another cigarette, opened his mouth again and dropped the cigarette into his arms...
This little Cai is not only powerful, but also very lucky, right? He was able to set fire to the explosives magazine of the Spanish ship.
In the age of sailing warships, it was difficult to destroy an oak warship with solid shells. Most warships were destroyed because the fire was not put out in time.
The thick oak hull of the battleship could withstand hundreds of cannonballs without falling apart, and prevent the battleship from being sunk. Unless the cannonballs were unlucky enough to rip open the part below the waterline...
But there are carpenters on the ship, and most sailors know how to plug leaks, so if there are enough people, it is still very likely to plug the breach and drain the water.
Another possibility was to ignite the gunpowder magazine, which could destroy a ship in one blow. But the gunpowder magazines were all inside the battleships, and a solid shell would not ignite the gunpowder even if it was lucky enough to get in.
But the red fire bomb can be lit...
~~
Just like the Sea Wolf and the Sea Horse.
The officers and soldiers on the destroyers and frigates of the upper fleet fought bravely in the absence of support, holding back the enemy with superior forces and blocking the escape route of the Spanish follow-up fleet, creating the prerequisite for the assault fleet and the reserve fleet to fight an annihilation war!
At the same time as the Upper Wind Fleet began fighting, the assault fleet led by Lin Feng also joined the battle!
Unlike the former who were scattered one-on-one, the assault fleet always maintained an irregular formation.
Lin Feng personally boarded his flagship ship 09 "Chengsheng Wanli" and led another five battleships, the 10th ship Zhenyue, the 11th ship Kunwu, the 12th ship Jingwei, the 13th ship Feixing, the 14th ship Qingming, as well as another 10 cruisers, 12 destroyers, and 18 frigates, and penetrated into the center of the Spanish fleet like a school of fish.
The reserve fleet led by Wang Rulong fought with the Spanish rearguard fleet, preventing them from supporting the center and breaking the local advantage created by the assault fleet.
Lin Feng certainly would not let the windward fleet and the reserve fleet down. She led the assault fleet into the center of the Spanish fleet.
The Spanish fleet had no habit of maintaining a battle line, even though they had previously formed a nearly straight line due to their scramble to escape. However, their deep-rooted melee mentality still made them regard the middle as the center of the army, gathering the most and strongest warships there, in order to protect their flagship and to provide reinforcements in all directions at any time.
Because the assault fleet was heading towards the Spanish fleet, it engaged enemy ships earlier than the windward fleet.
In the process of crossing the enemy's formation, both sides fired fiercely at the nearest enemy ship with their naval guns. The smoke quickly filled the battlefield, making it difficult to tell the direction. Some warships even collided head-on, and sailors fell into the water with a splash.
But the risk was worth it. When the smoke cleared, the commanders of each ship saw that they had successfully split the Spanish center in two, and a large number of enemy ships were surrounded by them.
Of course, the reverse statement was also true, because within a radius of less than ten miles, there were seventy or eighty enemy and friendly warships, and they were all in a complete mess.
But the raiding fleet insisted that it had surrounded the Spanish.
Their tactics were also different from those of the upper-wind fleet. Except for the battleships that had an absolute advantage and still chose to fight alone, the other warships, even the cruisers with high attack and high HP, tried their best to cooperate with each other and attack the enemy ships from a safe distance to avoid accidental injuries.
As for the destroyers and frigates, they were randomly organized into several three-ship battle groups, with three ships against one, striving to paralyze the enemy ships as quickly as possible with superior forces.
Unlike the windward fleet and the reserve fleet, the assault fleet is here to engage in melee combat. They fight in formation and look after each other, so they are not afraid of getting too close. Instead, they seek to deliver as close output as possible.
Moreover, in order to avoid accidentally injuring friendly forces in the melee, it is obviously safer to use the Hongxi cannon with a shorter range.
Therefore, under Lin Feng's suggestion, the proportion of Hongxi cannons installed on the main battleships of the assault fleet was greatly increased.
Destroyers and frigates even removed all their long-barreled guns and replaced them with short heavy guns. The caliber of the short heavy guns was very large, and they could even be loaded with double rounds. An oversized solid bullet at the front broke through the hull of the enemy ship, and a shotgun followed in to harvest it. How could that be more exciting than that?
Moreover, the number of grapeshot fired by the short heavy cannon is several times that of the long-barreled cannon. One shot can clear a large area and even cut off the mast.
In this way, the close-range lethality of the warship's salvo instantly increased several times. Of course, this was at the cost of completely abandoning long-range attacks.
But this is the most powerful method of using a small force to defeat a large one. Therefore, the destroyers and frigates of the assault fleet performed much better than the same type of ships of the upper wind fleet.
They wreaked havoc on the center of the Spanish fleet, using their superior numbers and short heavy guns to the point where a group could disable an enemy ship in about ten minutes.
Then they quickly searched for the next enemy ship, either attacking from the left and right, or attacking from the front and back, or even attacking with multiple ships, turning one Spanish sailing ship after another into a living coffin floating on the sea...
ps. It’s gone tonight.