Lu Ming

Chapter 193 Mosquito Bites Elephant

After more than an hour, the Yuandou, which was maneuvering on the sea surface, could already see the European-style ship opposite through the telescope.

When the golden and red background, depicting the lion and the castle's Spanish king's flag, jumped into the camera, Pan Mingzhong immediately shouted to Lei Jian on duty in the stern cabin: "Send the report, send it quickly, let them come."

Pan Mingzhong, wearing a white shirt, blue jacket, wide-brimmed hat and rolled-up sleeves studded with brass buttons, stands on the forecastle of the Alicante while observing his opponents on the Yuandou Second Lieutenant Sandoval, at the moment, is also using a classic brass single-tube telescope to observe the small black spot on the sea.

The Alicante was a galleon with a displacement of only 180 tons.As a supply ship dedicated to running between Taipei and the Philippines, the Alicante departed from Taipei's Jilong Bay empty ship.

Apart from a meager amount of brimstone and cloth and china, Galen had nothing on board.

During this time period in 1628, life was difficult for the Spaniards in Taipei.Whether it is the city of San Salvador built on Jilong Heping Island (Sheliao Island) or the recently built city of Santo Domingo in Tamsui, they are all surrounded by hostile indigenous tribes.

The Spaniards could not get supplies, and the impact of the early robbery of the indigenous land and villages was very bad-then the indigenous refused to sell food to the big pie faces.Due to the delay of the supply ship, the soldiers in the castle even had to rely on dogs and rats to feed their hunger.

All the supplies that Taipei needs today still need to be shipped from the Philippines.Moreover, due to pirates and the lack of trade goods, the number of Fujian merchants who come to Jilong Bay for trade is also gradually declining.

Therefore, the captain of the Alicante, Second Lieutenant Diego Sandoval, did not want to deal with the other party after seeing the flat-bottomed junk boat approaching from the opposite side.

Whether the junk ship is a merchant ship going to Japan for trade or a pirate ship going to Japan for robbery, Sandoval is ready to brush shoulders with the other side. Alicante's mission is to get to the Philippines in time and bring the supplies back to the chicken coop. , the rest of the options are not considered by the second lieutenant.

However, God does not follow people's wishes. God will probably go to Tik Tok at this time, and has no time to bless his people.So, 20 minutes later, Sandoval knew he was in trouble when he saw the junk start making odd maneuvers — coming straight up against the wind.

"I need the gunners to get ready! You, go and kick the bastards in the cabin onto the deck, and three men on the mainmast stand by at all times, and everyone else takes up arms, and the helmsman takes care to keep the course !"

Under the command of the experienced Lieutenant Sandoval, the Alicante quickly completed its combat readiness deployment.And at the same moment, the strange Junk ship on the opposite side had already entered within 500 meters in front of Galen's ship to the left from an oblique angle.

The Spanish ship is now heading straight south along the coastline of Taiwan Island on the right hand side.

Although all the crew, including the second lieutenant, felt strange about the Junk ship rushing against the wind, and some even raised their heads to look at the weathervane, the second lieutenant still ordered the ship to keep its course—no matter what the opponent wanted to do, it was in the middle of the sea. The Galen ship with full sail and wind is in top condition at the moment, and is fully capable of meeting the challenge.

When the two sides meet each other, the distance shortens very quickly.A few more minutes later, when the junk approached to a distance of 300 meters ahead to the left, it finally turned: it began to level its course with the Alicante.

Seeing the current passing situation, Second Lieutenant Sandoval naturally wouldn't think that the other party was just here to have fun.Sure enough, soon, the Galen ship received the semaphore from the other side.

"Stop the ship. Accept inspection.".

The second lieutenant was in a daze.

At a distance of 300 meters, it can already be seen clearly with a telescope.Although Sandoval couldn't understand the unique hand-woven brocade art style Chinese character surname banner on the Junker ship, it was not important. The important thing was that he could clearly see whether the weapons on the ship were armed or not.

There is only one row, about 10 sailors standing behind the bulwark with something similar to a bird gun, showing their upper body, and nothing else.

Sandoval couldn't make out the machine gun nest on the top of the poop of the sandship, and the M2HB heavy machine gun with only a section of the barrel exposed.So, the second lieutenant has now been identified: apart from their amazing sailing skills, this is a damn pirate ship.

The displacement of the Alicante is not high, only 180 tons, which is slightly higher than the Junk ship opposite.However, the armament on the Alicante has four and a half snake guns.

Two 8-pounder guns and two 6-pounder guns are already in place on the left side of the ship's side, and the solid-core ammunition and shotgun shells are also ready. The gunners will teach these East Asian guys a lesson when the second lieutenant gives an order.

The distance of 300 meters was an embarrassing distance in the early 17th century.

Due to the craftsmanship of cast iron quality, gunpowder ingredients, and bore accuracy, Western-style artillery in the early 17th century was far inferior to naval artillery during the Opium War in terms of range and accuracy.

Although the range of these guns on the Alicante generally exceeds 500 meters, that is the maximum range where the shells cannot be found.On the ups and downs of the sea, if you want to hit the iron ball with an acceptable hit rate, then the enemy ship must be at least 150-200 meters away.

So Lieutenant Sandoval did not order the shelling at this time.He is a professional soldier, and completing the return mission is the most important thing. He can completely accept the ending of the two sides passing each other—as long as the lunatic pirates on this ship no longer try to approach.

Junk seemed to know what the second lieutenant was thinking, and did not make any other actions except for sending out brief semaphore.The two sides just kept a distance of 300 meters and passed each other.

There is a saying that a cake always falls on the side with the cream first
Just after the second lieutenant heaved a sigh of relief watching the Junk ship go away, the ship came back after making a smooth turning radius.

All the people on the Alicante were dumbfounded.

They watched as the junk performed a tight turn and then watched as it caught up. Well, now that everyone is downwind, the comical scene reappears: two ships 300 meters apart The ships are advancing in parallel.

Lieutenant Sandoval hadn't guessed his opponent's intentions until now, which was frustrating.

What are they waiting for?Is it reinforcements ahead, or a surprise attack after nightfall?You know, it is not yet noon, and it is still early before nightfall.

Apart from making sure that the opponent will not rush up to melee, the Alicante now knows nothing about this familiar neighbor 300 meters away, and is helpless.
And the ongoing semaphore exchange between the two sides is not enough for the Spaniards to understand the identity of the other party: because the simple semaphore cannot express the concept of the exploration team, including the crossing forces on Dayuan Island, the same cannot be explained by the semaphore.

This kind of self-expression confusion has actually existed here for a long time.There is no way, everything is developing too fast, causing the whole group to always be unable to keep up with the situation in philosophical questions such as "Who am I? Where do I come from? Where are I going?"

To put it simply, the regime lacks a mature theoretical system to support it, and when it is reflected in reality, it is institutional chaos.

Walking on the streets in the period of the Republic of China, people can see businessmen in long gowns and jackets, elites in suits and leather shoes, old and young with braids, and oriental students in school uniforms with stand-up collars. such a situation.

It only took one year from the first batch of time-traversing people to haunt Hangzhou City to the day when the first wings of Dayuan Island took shape.

The traversing crowd was also overwhelmed.

No matter in terms of ideology or system, with the rapid expansion of power, everyone can only use some temporary identities as a cover in confusion while desperately adapting to the reality.In fact, until the great discussion on the constitutional monarchy, the people across the world did not have a unified statement to the outside world.

From the initial unknown merchant gangs to the pirates who robbed officials, after that came the immortal soldiers and generals who descended from West Kunlun, and then the exiled nobles who appeared from the remote areas of the Ming Dynasty, and recently added the coastal defense guerrilla Cao Chuan. Subordinates, in addition to the identity and system of the Emperor Xianhou
To Daming, to the Europeans, to his subordinates, and to the internal explanations of the people passing through, these chaotic masks inside and outside are intertwined, and the result is chaos.Departments like the Exploration Team couldn't even tell the outside world where they came from or what power they belonged to.

As for the solution, at least today, when the Yuan Dou intercepted the Galen ship, there is no news yet.

——The Rules Committee, which is controlled by the emperors and is responsible for solving these tactical issues, has recently been busy fighting with the Conservative Party Constitution Committee on the constitution, the national flag, including the country name that has been decided in the early stage, and has no time to care about these trivial matters.

Therefore, the signalmen on the poor Yuandou can only signal to the Galen ship to stop the ship over and over again today, until the ships of both sides arrive in Kenting at noon.

It took the Yuandou to run against the wind in one night, and it took less than half a day this morning to return to the original point: Kenting, the southernmost tip of Taiwan.

But at this time, Pan Mingzhong and the others would naturally not let the Galen ship continue southward.Their purpose is to hijack the Galen ship and go to Dazuo, everyone should turn a corner and go north now.

Therefore, the Yuandou finally changed the semaphore at the next moment: stop the ship, or start a war!
Lieutenant Sandoval was unmoved, and Galen continued to sail directly.

Not long after, the Junk boat moved further away, and now the distance between the two ships is 400 meters.

The next moment, a row of white smoke billowed out neatly from the side of the Junk ship.

"Hahaha". Seeing these stupid pirates of the Ming Dynasty actually firing bird guns on the 400-meter sea surface, the sailors collectively burst out laughing.

The bird gun really didn't work.When the white smoke passed, the sea was calm and nothing happened.

However, in the next short time, another row of white smoke sprayed out from the muzzle of the sailor on the opposite side.

"These bastards have spare guns!" a big-nosed Catalan named Puyol yelled.

Before the words fell, a "whoosh" sound suddenly passed over everyone's heads.

Just as the piefaces were puzzled and looked at each other, another row of white smoke spewed out from the junk boat.This time, Puyol's big nose was shattered by a buckshot, and blood spattered his big pie face.

(End of this chapter)