The artillery battle continues.

The various gun emplacements on the starboard side of the battleship "Common Market" were already playing in rhythm. Under the command of the gunner, they quickly reset the gun, cleaned the chamber, charged, loaded, and fired, and the whole process was extremely skillful. Even a few panicked recruits gradually calmed down under the infection of veterans.

"Liaison officer, tell the gunner, the 12-pounder cannons should be replaced with red-hot rounds. Aim at the canvas of the enemy ship and shoot them in turn! Yasushi stood at the bridge fence with his hands behind his back, pretending to look at the British battleship calmly. His throat was dry and his body was shaking slightly, but he managed to stand up straight, and from time to time he gave some orders based on the situation of the battle.

After receiving the order, the gunners immediately rushed to the various gun emplacements and ordered the gunners to change their hot shells one by one.

The so-called red-hot single is actually a red-hot lead bullet. Next to the gun emplacement, there was a partition made of bricks, and in it there was a small burning stove, in which buckshot was usually heated. At this time, when the gunners heard the order, they immediately took the red-hot lead bullet out of the furnace with a special clamp, then coated the surface of the bullet body with a layer of tin skin for heat insulation (to prevent the premature detonation of the propellant in the barrel), and then quickly stuffed it into the barrel of the gun that had been loaded with the propellant pack and tamped it.

"Launch!" The gunner inserted the red-hot iron chisel into the cannon door, only to hear a "boom", and the red-hot lead bullet whistled out of the barrel. Due to the extremely high muzzle velocity of the disemboweling shells, the tin skin quickly heated and melted in the high-speed friction with the air, and then the red shells smashed into the cotton canvas on the mast of the enemy ship.

Buckshot easily pierced the cotton canvas. Then the kinetic energy was exhausted and it fell into the sea. But where it had pierced, several flames had begun to ignite at the moment. Flammable cotton provides a breeding ground for flames. Soon. With the firing of a total of more than a dozen red-hot bombs, the two canvases in the middle and upper masts of the enemy ship began to catch fire in many places. The fire took advantage of the wind, and in a short time, the two canvases burned in a large area.

The first mate of the British "Darcy", who took over the wounded captain to command the battle, looked at the flaming mid-mast sail and mid-sail in amazement, and then suddenly woke up and shouted: "Boatswain, lower the sail!" Quick, lower the sails! Damn, the sails are on fire! Second mate. Whatever you're doing, stop me and put out the fire right away! ”

The sailors of the British ship were suddenly in disarray, and they rushed out of their hiding places at the urging of the officers and walked around the deck in a mess. The sailor roared and organized them to untie the ropes and lower the sails, which were already on fire; The second officer, on the other hand, rushed over with a group of soldiers carrying wooden barrels filled with water, ready to extinguish the fire at any moment.

How could the "Common Market" give up such a golden opportunity, the gunners stuffed the 18-pounder cannon with grapeshells on the orders of Asu, and then fired the cannon with a sinister smile.

The grapeshot bullets fired in a dense manner caused tragic casualties in the dense crowd on the deck of the British ship. The demonic little lead ball was aimed at the chaotic midmast deck, sweeping through the British sailors and soldiers who were lowering the sails and fighting the fire. At least 30 of its sailors, soldiers and officers were killed or wounded.

The lethality of the grapeshot deterred the British efforts to salvage the burning canvas, and they had no choice but to cut the sail rope that held the lower edge of the canvas in place. Then let the canvas, which had become a ball of fire, flutter in the wind. From time to time, a burning canvas fell from the sky, and the sky above the deck was like a rain of fire.

After the "Common Market" used the red-hot bombs, the two frigates behind followed suit, and hit the small red lead balls on the decks and canvases of the British ships. For a time, the British sailors were exhausted, and smoke billowed from their warships. Fortunately, however, with the Darcy in front of them, the British quickly lowered their mainsails and poured water on them to cope with the "despicable" tactics of the East Coasters.

Moreover, they are not to be outdone. A number of chain shells were fired from the muzzles of the guns and hit the canvases and masts of the East Coaster warships to hit the mobility of their ships.

The two sides continued miserably.

After more than half an hour of fighting, the three-masted sail Galen battleship "Dacy" with thick smoke billowing from the battle was the first to withdraw from the battle. Her mid-mast sail was completely burned and her mast was greatly damaged; The foremast, too, was unlucky, and was torn off by a lucky chain bullet fired by the easterners, and the whole thing collapsed; At present, only the jib of the trailmast is still working normally, but it is also damaged in many places, and the efficiency is greatly reduced. It can be said that at the moment the ship has lost its combat effectiveness.

In addition to the "Dacy", the flagship of the British, the "Sir Daley", was the second most damaged ship. She was like a cannonball magnet that attracted almost most of the East Coast artillery, and in half an hour she received almost two or three hundred shells, and almost not a single part of the entire ship was intact. The fact that she was still floating on the surface of the sea was strange to both the East Coasters and the British.

The remaining British battleships, the "Mermaid" and the "Albatross", suffered only a small amount of canvas damage, and the loss of personnel and artillery was also very limited, which can be regarded as basically retaining combat effectiveness; The "Knight", which was lined up behind the "Darcy", lost three guns and more than 40 crew members, the bow mast was broken, the retromast spinnaker was burned, and its captain and other officers were killed or wounded, but it finally retained a certain combat effectiveness.

As for the 2nd Escort Squadron of the Republic of the Eastern Coast, the flagship "Common Market" also suffered nearly 200 shells. Among them, the bulkhead of the stern was hit by British artillery, and the captain's cabin on the second floor of the stern and the bridge on the third floor were also seriously damaged, and the captain was seriously injured. Three guns were destroyed on the upper deck on the starboard side, and the gunners were killed and wounded eight; An 8-pounder gun crew on the second deck was more unlucky, as the gunner carrying the ammunition was hit by a British shell, the cartridge was unfortunately ignited, and a small explosion occurred. The explosion not only resulted in the death of three gunners of the entire crew, but also caused injuries to several gunners of two adjacent crews.

Although it withstood such and such blows, the battleship "Common Market" was worthy of its strong survivability and still maintained a strong combat capability. Her 32-pounder and 24-pounder long-barreled heavy guns have always been a nightmare for the British.

The situation with the Red Trout is much the same. The former Spanish-Peruvian fleet cruiser did not hit many shots. The casualties were not large, and in addition to the serious damage to the sails, the entire ship has maintained seventy or eighty percent of its combat strength at present.

In contrast, the situation with the "Sea Writer" is somewhat unpleasant. Although the corsair-converted frigate gunboat did not get many bullets, her waterline was unlucky enough to be pierced by a 24-pound shell fired from the "Sir Daley", breaking a large hole. At present, the sailors on board are trying to repair the breach while blocking it with a large amount of canvas. However, it doesn't seem that the situation is very good, and even the captain Han Dezhi is not lacking in confidence in successfully blocking the breach.

As for the Pasquier family's armed merchant ship "Nightingale", as well as two transport ships of the South China Sea Transport Company. The situation is relatively good. The "Nightingale" was hit by only a dozen shells, which injured several sailors, and can be said to be largely intact. However, the Frutt transport ships "Penglai" and "Yingzhou" were only hit by some unlucky stray bullets because they were hiding on the other side of the battleship, and the hull was basically not damaged, and there was no loss of personnel.

At this point in the fierce battle, both sides were a little unable to fight.

On the one hand, the British suffered serious losses in personnel and ships; On the other hand, the situation of the frigate "Sea Writer" of the East Coast is very bad, the cabin has already entered a lot of water, and the sailors are struggling to close the hole in the ankle-length water.

Both sides underestimated the strength of the other and at the same time overestimated their own. The British, in particular, made serious mistakes in this regard.

Another ten minutes passed, and several warships on both sides fired several salvos again. Finally, the British, unable to hold on, took advantage of the upper hand to turn around and disengage from contact with the convoy of the Republic of the East Coast. Retreat towards the north. Before that, the remaining British officers and sailors on the battleship "Darcy" had retreated to other British ships in a transport boat, and the "Darcy" was abandoned in the raging flames.

The most severely damaged, Sir Daley, was at the front, followed by the Mermaid and Albatross, and the Knight had to be reared by its position. Ansu commanded the "Common Market" to go after him, and gave the "Knight" a dozen heavy shells as a parting gift before returning.

At this point, the battle that took place off the coast of Portugal was finally over. The British fought with the convoy on the east coast, and then retreated separately, and the battle happened abruptly and ended abruptly.

After the British withdrew, Wang Tiehammer, who had a bandage on his head, slowly walked to the bridge fence and gently patted An's shoulder. Unexpectedly, he stumbled and almost fell to the ground. His entire body was completely stiff, and his military uniform was soaked with sweat.

"Go to the officer's lounge to change into dry clothes and drink a few sips of strong liquor to ward off the cold." Wang Tiezhu looked at An Ji and said, "It's winter, it's very cold, don't freeze out." ”

Anji nodded, and then walked downstairs.

Wang Tiezhu looked at his back and took out a blank piece of paper from his pocket. On the white piece of paper was written in large letters, "Application for the Transfer of the First Officer of the battleship USS Asu, Second Lieutenant 'Common Market,'" and in the first line of the paper, negative comments such as "Ensign Azuri is looking ahead and looking backward in battle" appeared. Wang Tie looked at it for a long time, then smiled, then tore the entire white paper to shreds and threw it into the sea.

In the end, the "Sea Writer" failed to close the hole in the bilge. In desperation, Wang Tiehammer transferred all his officers and sailors to the flagship, and then ordered the ship to be abandoned. In this battle, six ships of the Second Escort Squadron were sunk and three were wounded, and it was the heaviest loss since the formation of the Navy of the Republic of the Eastern Coast.

And the losses of their opponents, the British, were not small. The "Dacy" burned down and sank, the "Sir Daley" (abandoned and sunk on the way home) and the "Knight" were basically scrapped with serious injuries, and the "Mermaid" and "Albatross" also needed to be returned to the factory for overhaul.

On 30 January, the Second Convoy finally entered the port of Bordeaux. (To be continued......)