Chinese sails can withstand winds from all directions. As long as the angle is adjusted properly and coordinated with the ocean currents and wind direction, capsizing is not a big deal.

When you are sailing against the current, if you don't move forward, you will move backward.

Wang Rulong predicted the Marquis of Santa Cruz’s prediction, chose the right angle and waited for the opponent, then suddenly reversed the ship before the San Felipe hit him.

As a result, the Kaiyuan was inserted again between the Isabella and the San Felipe, parallel to the former and staggered with the latter in a "亻" shape.

"fire!"

Both sides of the Kaiyuan opened fire at full power, and bullets flew everywhere, crippling Isabella.

The Felipe was also badly damaged, with the foremast and the mid-mainmast smashed to pieces. Sails, rigging, lifeboats, crossbars, everything that had been on the main deck, were all destroyed by the shells.

All the Spanish soldiers lay on the deck, covering their heads with shields or wooden boards, praying that they would not be smashed into pieces by the fallen masts.

On the command platform, the Marquis of Santa Cruz and his soldiers tried hard to recover everything from the chaos. Suddenly, an unexpected situation made the Marquis overjoyed, and he immediately beat the drum himself, urging the soldiers to charge!

'The Marquis of Santa Cruz didn't care. He braved the flying shells and wood chips and took the helm himself, steering the San Felipe straight towards the enemy's flagship!'

Cervantes, beside the Marquis, wrote down without hesitation:

'Just as he did at the Battle of Lepanto. God bless us that time and we were lucky to turn defeat into victory. This time, at least for now, we are still lucky. Just as the enemy flagship accelerated its retreat and was about to pass us, the collapsed foremast of the San Felipe hit the foremast of the enemy ship, and the two masts were immediately hung together, and the sails, ropes and rigging were tangled in a ball.'

'The Marquis and his soldiers were greatly encouraged, and they shouted "God bless you!" They immediately hooked the enemy ship with spears, set up pedals, and started a crazy boarding battle. Many sailors even rushed directly to the enemy ship from the collapsed foremast! At least at this moment, I saw the bravery and fearlessness of Lepanto again! '

~~

On the Kaiyuan, Wang Rulong looked normal and even lit a cigar for the first time.

Although it was quite strange that he was caught by the mast that he had broken, it was not uncommon for accidents to happen on the battlefield.

The key is whether you have absolute strength! In the face of absolute strength, any accident will be strangled!

The Kaiyuan is not a small ship like the Seahorse. It has sufficient manpower and firepower to resist the enemy's boarding battle!

Sure enough, the Spaniards were happy too early. Even with God's help, they found it very difficult to even attack the Kaiyuan due to the overwhelming firepower gap.

Twenty swivel guns installed on the starboard side began to fire intensively, and there were even more intensive volleys of gatwood fire, weaving a firepower network, knocking down the Spaniards who rushed onto the pedals like cutting wheat, and then falling into the sea like dumplings.

The Marines also immediately assembled and lined up on the starboard deck, but not in a mandarin duck formation, but in a double-line shooting formation.

The Marine captain drew his command knife, the drummer beat the drum, and the Marines loaded, compacted, aimed, and pulled the trigger slowly to the beat of the drum.

The bullets fired from the volleys completely blocked the mesh of the fire net, knocking down all the fish that had escaped the net and rushed to the front.

This is not the end...

The Marines behind the line opened boxes of Cha-Cha grenades, lit them with the fuse wrapped around their wrists, and threw them to the opposite side using standard grenade-throwing movements.

One after another, the round grenades flew over the heads of the line infantrymen and headed for the San Felipe. Some exploded only after landing on the deck, while others exploded in midair. The shock waves of the explosions carried broken porcelain pieces and iron nails, blasting the Spaniards who were gathered there and preparing to rush over the pedals into pieces of blood.

"It's so brutal..." On the command deck of the San Felipe, Cervantes wrote with trembling hands:

"In my more than ten years of military service, I have never seen such a highly efficient massacre. In just a few minutes, hundreds of fully armed soldiers were killed or wounded by the terrifying firepower of the Ming army."

Having written this, Cervantes glanced at the Marquis of Santa Cruz. He saw that this commander who could remain calm in the midst of a sea of ​​blood and corpses, and who could remain composed at the most critical moments, now looked ashen, with red eyes and his face was covered with tiny beads of water, not sure whether they were cold sweat or tears.

After recording the events truthfully, the clerk also wrote down his thoughts at the time: "This is different from any previous battle. The bloody fight for life in Lepanto can inspire people's courage and sense of honor. But this battle will only completely break people down, and they will never be able to get rid of this fear for the rest of their lives."

After seeing hundreds of casualties, the soldiers' courage quickly faded and they hesitated to move forward.

The Marquis of Santa Cruz knew that his plan to seize the enemy ship by hand-to-hand combat had failed again. The enemy's terrible three-dimensional firepower was more than enough to block several boarding passages, and it would be in vain to sacrifice more lives.

In fact, it is not true. The whirling cannon and Gatwood, which play the most critical role in the firepower network, have the problem of not being able to last long. If the Marquis can charge a few more times, he will find that the pressure will be much less.

But the Marquis of Santa Cruz had no idea about this and greatly overestimated the endurance of the Ming people's firearms...

On the other side, on the Kaiyuan, Wang Rulong thought that the fire suppression was about to fail, so he held the copper trumpet and shouted loudly: "Boys, go ahead, seize the enemy's flagship, and let the red-haired devils see that we can also defeat them in hand-to-hand combat!"

In the age of sailing warships, it was almost impossible to completely sink a real warship, and naturally it was impossible to eliminate the enemies inside with guns and cannons.

To completely defeat the enemy and seize the enemy ships, we ultimately have to rely on boarding and hand-to-hand combat!

"Tick-t ...

The marines, with high morale, rushed towards the enemy ships shouting. They were born for this moment!

The previous fire suppression had already crippled the Spanish swivel guns. The Spanish were also defeated, and the marines rushed onto the deck of the San Felipe without encountering any obstacles.

"They can't shoot anymore!" The Marquis of Santa Cruz roared, drew his sword, jumped off the command platform, and rushed towards the Marines.

The Spanish soldiers finally woke up from their dream and quickly raised their spears and swords to follow the Marquis to meet the enemy.

The two sides started a brutal hand-to-hand fight on the deck and mast of the San Felipe. The silent drums kept beating, people were hitting each other, hacking and slashing, or shooting at each other with short guns. In the narrow space, the wounded had no place to lie down. Those who lay down were trampled to death by the soldiers of both armies.

However, the fierce battle did not last long, as the Marines' momentum overwhelmed the Spaniards.

The Three Talents Formation, which was derived from the Mandarin Duck Formation, was very suitable for this kind of melee in a small space. The Marines had trained for many years and had completely mastered its secrets, so the more chaotic the battle, the greater the advantage.

Although the Spaniards had more combat experience, they had come from a long distance, their food was rotten and they were often hungry. Although they fought hard and wielded their weapons, their speed and pace were not as good as their best. How could they be a match for the Marines who had been resting and eating canned meat and high-calorie staple food this morning?

Soon, the Ming people took control of the deck, divided and surrounded the Spanish, and then annihilated them one by one!

The sounds of resistance and shouts of killing on the San Felipe became increasingly faint, but the screams of the Spaniards became louder and louder.

Even being slaughtered with cold weapons made people even more desperate... Cervantes on the podium could no longer write, but his writer's instinct made him hold the quill pen and write crookedly and with difficulty:

'At that moment I completely understood that we had really provoked an opponent that we should never provoke... Your Majesty, it's time to wake up from the dream of being the king of the world.'

By the time he finished writing this line, the resistance on the open deck was about to end, with only the Governor's guards still struggling to hold on.

These veteran soldiers with superb martial arts skills, wearing well-made full body armor, stood in a circle with their backs against their backs, brandishing their heavy weapons desperately, protecting the white-haired Marquis in the middle. The Marines were unable to do anything to them for a while.

"Why bother with all that? Just give them a volley of gunfire and they'll be quiet!" Marine deputy captain Pan Qiaoyun raised his pistol.

"Don't worry." Macron rolled his eyes at him and said, "The other party is a marshal, you should give him basic respect. Control other places first and wait for the commander-in-chief to decide what to do."

"Oh." Pan Qiaoyun had no choice but to put down his gun, shouting and commanding his team members to occupy various important positions and seal all the hatches to prevent people inside from coming up.

The command platform had the best view on the entire ship, so the Marines would not let it go, and they also captured Cervantes. Guoer did not use his Desolate Palm, but surrendered obediently.

At this time, one of the Marquis's personal guards shouted loudly, and everyone looked at Macron and the others, asking him to translate for everyone.

Unfortunately, Macron's Spanish was not very good, but he could still understand a few words. He was about to force himself to do it, but Cervantes spoke in Chinese first: "Our Marquis said that this battle was full of unfairness from beginning to end."

The coast guard officers and soldiers immediately booed.

"Let me tell you, Marshal, war is all about deception. There is only justice and injustice in war, not fairness and unfairness!" This was the voice of Wang Rulong.

"Our Marquis is not complaining, he just hopes that at the end of the war, there will be a fair knight duel!" Cervantes said, "He wants to challenge your commander according to European tradition!"

"Bullshit! Why should our commander-in-chief duel with a defeated general!" The Marines were immediately furious, and Pan Qiaoyun and others raised their rifles again.

"As long as your commander is willing to fight, no matter who wins or loses, our Marquis will order everyone to surrender!" Cervantes shouted: "What do you think? You still don't dare to fight under such conditions?"

P.S. Sorry, I didn't mean to drag the story out. But there is still one volume left in this book, it really isn't the end yet...