When Wang Xinyu's ship was closest to the Drake, the distance between the two sides was only one hundred and fifty or sixty meters! You can clearly see the open gun doors on this giant ship, and the exposed gun muzzles. But the speed of both sides was very fast, the two ships passed by, and in the blink of an eye, Wang Xinyu's ship had reached the stern of the Drake.

Looking at the huge tail of the foreigner giant ship, Wang Xinyu said regretfully: "If there is a left full rudder at this time, it will be perfect!" ”

If you can have a left full rudder at this time, then your own ship will form a T-shaped angle with the foreigner giant ship, and you just happened to seize the T-shaped head! It was the most advantageous position in naval battles. It's a pity that my ship has just had a full right rudder, only a sharp turn, and I want a left full rudder, and I want to turn to the left immediately? Is this possible? If the behemoth wants to walk in an S shape in a short period of time, it is simply impossible to do.

But Wang Xinyu reacted quickly, and immediately ordered the two small cannons in the tail to fire chain shells to attack the sails of the pirate ship.

Two chain bullets flew out of the stern, one of which missed, and the other hit the sail, tearing a large piece of the sail.

Seeing that the sails of the pirate ship were knocked down again, Wang Xinyu had a plan: "If you attack the rudder, the hit rate is too low!" We might as well hit his upper deck with flowering shells! Blow their masts off, and we'll be successful! ”

As soon as this method came out, it was approved by everyone.

After all, they had also seen with their own eyes that the penetration of the flowering cannons fired by the gunners on the side of the other warships was too low to penetrate the large ship, so that the flowering cannonballs would not be effective at all against the hull of the corsair, and it was better to attack the upper part and target the mast and sails.

You must know that the airtightness of the original Franc machine gun is not good, there will be a gas leak between the gun and the barrel, and when firing a flowering shell, it is necessary to reduce the amount of gunpowder, so as not to cause the shell to break in the barrel and cause an explosion, which will hurt yourself. Therefore, the flowering shells fired by the thousand-pound Franc cannon could not penetrate such an oak structure of the battleship at all, and it was difficult to cause damage. Solid shells fired from the Jack Franc can pierce through oak wood, but they don't do much damage to the hull.

Chen Lei issued a banner and ordered the other four warships to all come up and besiege the pirate ship, using chain bombs at a distance and blossom bombs at a close distance, targeting the sails and masts.

On the Drake, Albert was frightened by the flowering cannonballs, but he still felt confident: "These Orientals, although they have such powerful weapons, they are just a group of farmers who drive boats!" They actually wanted to grab the T-shaped position, but unfortunately their boat driving level was too lame. ”

As an official fourth-class cruiser, it was chased and beaten by two fourth-class cruisers converted from merchant ships by the Dutch, and if even a group of oriental peasants driving merchant ships could not be defeated, it would really be too embarrassing for the Royal Navy of the British Empire. These Oriental peasants were not sailing merchant ships converted into cruisers, but merchant ships worthy of the name. In Albert's eyes, these Ming warships were all merchant ships, and they were the lowest-level armed merchant ships, with weak firepower, small tonnage, and poor defense.

But at this moment, the four small boats surrounded again, and chain bombs kept flying, specifically calling for the sails of the Drake.

"Stick it up! Sink one! Albert shouted.

I think back then, it was a battleship of his own level, in the hands of General Drake, a 500-ton fourth-class cruiser of the USS Revenge, which sank four eight-hundred-ton third-class frigates of the Spaniards in a naval battle! These Ming ships are much worse than the third-class frigates, and their level of ship control is far inferior to that of the Spaniards.

The level of operation of the battleship by the British was indeed excellent, and the Drake braved the artillery fire of the Ming army, and quickly pressed up, walking side by side with a medium-sized battleship, the fire on the side of the ship flickered, and the rows of shells flew towards the medium-sized warships of the Ming army four hundred meters away. At the same time, the medium-sized warships of the Ming army also fired three salvos, and three chain bullets flew out at the same time.

On 400 meters, the hit rate was not too high, but the British salvo also hit three shells, which made the Ming warship a mess.

"Fifth degree on the right rudder! Press it up! Albert yelled.

The Drake traveled side by side with the Ming warships at a slight angle, and the distance was shortening.

The Ming army's thousand-pound Franc machine guns opened fire at a much faster rate, and before the British could complete the next salvo, the Ming army fired three more chain shells, one of which hit the sail, knocked off three soft sails, and twisted a rope.

The British, taking advantage of inertia, continued to approach the Ming battleships.

"Reload the flowering bombs! Get ready to fire! "The commander on the Ming warship gave the order.

When the distance between the two sides was still three hundred meters, the two ships erupted in flames almost simultaneously.

The massive British battleship fired a powerful salvo of nine 24-pounder shells, eight 12-pounder shells, two 32-pounder mortars, and six 6-pounder cannons on the upper light deck. From the Ming warship, you can only see the dazzling fire of the big ship on the opposite side, the calm sea is reflected in red, and white smoke rises, and it looks like the other ship is sailing out of a fairyland.

However, this round of salvo brought this Ming warship a hellish scene.

Six large and small shells hit the Ming warship, the planks were shattered, the broken wooden planks were splashed everywhere, even the mast was broken, and a thousand catties of Franc cannon were directly hit by the shells, jumped up, and flew into the sea. On board, the Ming army sailors suffered heavy casualties.

However, one of the three flowering shells fired by the Ming army also hit the target, and this shell exploded just under the front mast of the Drake, and although it did not blow up the mast, it tore many pieces of the sail and broke two ropes.

Three Ming warships that arrived from a distance opened fire on the British with their red-coated cannons on the bow, and the red-hot solid cannonballs swept through the air, one of which just pierced a sail, scalding a large hole in the soft sail, and the white sail immediately turned a large area black.

Wang Xinyu's ship caught up from behind, staring at the stern of the British ship, and when it was four hundred meters away, the red-coated cannon on the bow opened fire, and a chain bullet flew past the right side of the bulging sail.

"Then the damn Ming flagship's tail is biting us again!" Albert was also afraid of being spanked with a flowering bullet by the two-thousand-pound franc machine on the side of the flagship, and if the flowering bullet penetrated the tail and blew up the rudder, they would have to wait for death.

In desperation, the Drake had no choice but to abandon the already scarred Ming warship, with a left full rudder, adjust its position, and aim at the Ming army ship that came up behind.

"Not good!" Wang Xinyu exclaimed.

At this time, the opponent's ship had completely crossed and stopped in front of him, forming a T-shape, and the British just occupied the T-shape, which could give full play to the broadside firepower. However, Wang Xinyu's ship was head-headed at the Drake, and only one bow gun could play a role.

Before Wang Xinyu's ship could turn, the Drake spewed out a row of fire, the port side was full of fire, the shells were whistling, and the head was smashed. Although most of the shells fell in the sea, three shells still hit Wang Xinyu's ship, shattering the wooden planks on the deck, flying sawdust, and killing many soldiers.

At this time, two warships had approached four hundred meters from the Drake, and the ships turned, and the gunners on the side of the ship fired continuously at the fastest speed, constantly firing chain catapults at the British ship. In a stormy attack, the Drake's sails dropped several times.

At this time, Albert had a feeling that he was being bullied by dogs in Pingyang, and the small merchant ship driven by the Orientals, relying on the advantage of the small and flexible ship, constantly greeted himself with chain bombs and flowering bombs, and specially hit his own sails, so that his ship would lose its mobility.

The chain bomb fired by the British also knocked out the foremast sail on Wang Xinyu's ship, but soon someone pulled up the sail again, and the battleship continued to bite the stern of the British.

This time the British did not have time to turn, for their sails were smashed, several ropes were broken, two more flowering shells fell on the ship, and then three chain shells hit the sails at the same time, sweeping the ship into a mess.

Wang Xinyu's ship avoided the powerful side of the Drake, and had already gone around to the back, and the port side was aimed at the stern of the British ship, and the four 2,000-pound Franc machine guns spit out fire one after another.

"Boom" Drake's mid-mast breaks.

Then three more shells hit the deck, and the aft mast was blown off.

The Drake, which had lost power, was floating on the surface of the sea, unable to move at all. It takes quite a long time to connect the mast. At this time, all the Ming warships sailed towards the defenseless tail of the Drake.

Although there were mortars on the upper deck of the Drake, and a few small cannons that could be turned over to fire at the back, mortars were artillery for attacking the shore and could not hit targets at sea at all; And those six-pounder guns, the power is too small. There wasn't enough space in the stern, and it was impossible to have too many six-pounder guns that could be transferred. As long as the Ming warships assembled at the tail of the Drake, basically this big ship was waiting to be beaten in vain.

"Let's surrender!" Albert reluctantly made a decision.

The adjutant was shocked: "We are flying the pirate flag, if we surrender, they will hang us!" ”

"It seems that these Ming people are also pirates, I have heard people say that Zheng Zhilong was originally the biggest pirate in the East. For the sake of all pirates, they should let us go. Albert said comfortingly.

The adjutant sighed helplessly: "That's right, if we don't surrender, our ship will already be like this, and sooner or later it will be hit by the Dutch." If we fall into their hands, we will surely die. It's better to surrender to these Orientals, maybe they will let us go. ”

On Wang Xinyu's ship, someone shouted: "Look! The pirate ship has flown the white flag! ”

"Great! We're ready to board! But remember, don't hurt the lives of these pirates! We need their help! Wang Xinyu said.

Chen Lei asked a little unwillingly: "My lord, we have at least killed and injured more than 100 brothers in this battle, should we just let them go?" ”

Wang Xinyu was full of smiles, feeling that he was sleepy and met the pillow: "General Ben wants to form a soft sail fleet, which needs the help of Yiren!" Originally, I wanted to go to Manila to see if I could recruit a group of sailors. It's good now, even the boat and people have been sent to General Ben! How can you throw away this gift that was sent to your door? Hahaha! ”

Subsequently, Wang Xinyu asked people to raise flags to the four warships and asked them to send someone to take over the warship.

Wang Xinyu ordered his big ship to come up and approach the Drake.

The two ships were leaning side by side, and it was obvious that the Drake was much taller than Wang Xinyu's big ship, and the Drake had to lower the rope ladder before it could climb up.

On Wang Xinyu's ship, all the archers, bird gunners and knife men boarded the pirate ship. The other four Ming warships also sent small boats, each carrying thirty people to board the ship. More than 170 people boarded the Drake.

As soon as he boarded the Drake, Albert presented Wang Xinyu with his flintlock pistol and saber to show his sincerity.

The two sides did not understand each other's language, so the British had to use gestures to show their sincerity and hope to get food.

Looking at the captives in front of him, he glanced down at the flintlock pistol and saber again, and suddenly Wang Xinyu found that these weapons were engraved with words that he was once familiar with, but had not seen for a long time!

"You're British?" Wang Xinyu suddenly asked in English.