Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 177 Liu Xiang's Abacus

"Do you still have to wait?" The person who stood aside and was in charge of contacting Liu Xiang spoke, it was a woman's voice.

Aragones cast a dissatisfied glance at the woman beside her. She was wrapped in a black cloak, like a monk, with long curly hair exposed beside the hood.

"Li, I think I am the captain of this ship. You are just a contact person sent by Chief Liu."

"That's right. But in another hour, the tide will change, and then you won't be able to take advantage of the high tide to enter the port, and you won't be able to use the low tide to leave the port."

Aragones knew that the woman was right. For a ship as clumsy as a Spanish galleon, it was not easy to turn and turn. Although it could be pulled by a rowboat, it was still the best choice to go in and out of the bay by tide.

He just doesn't like a woman talking irresponsibly to his conductor.Even though the woman is beautiful and speaks fluent Spanish.

"Let's start." Aragones ordered. After solving this problem, he will continue to go north to find the bad luck of Zheng Yiguan.

The fifty sailors who had been waiting on the deck turned over the side of the ship and climbed onto the two rowboats.Most of these sailors are Southeast Asian natives on the Malay Peninsula, and many of them used to be native pirates who rowed canoes and waited for an opportunity to rob merchant ships.This is an old job, the only Spaniards are gunners, and the rowboats each have a 1-pound light cannon - Chief Liu seems to be very afraid of the enemy's firearms, insisting that the Spaniards take out enough muskets and cannons Come.

On the boat behind them, Liu Xiang's subordinates also changed to sampans. It is said that these small boats are all the best fighters of Gang Leader Liu.Aragones was not interested in this point, anyway, he just cooperated with Chief Liu to capture a few clippers belonging to these people, and captured some prisoners——Boss Liu was afraid of the enemy's firearms.

"Monkeys, work hard for the Catholic king." Aragones made no secret of his contempt for these dark-skinned native sailors. If it weren't for the difficulty of supplementing Europeans in Southeast Asia, how could such behavior be allowed on the ship? The existence of lowly heretics, their crooked yellow eyes always shining with cruelty and cowardice, Aragones knew that he was like a circus animal trainer, and he had to keep whips and candy at all times, otherwise he would be killed. Eat it alive.

When a Spanish galleon wants to enter an estuary port like Bopu, in addition to riding the tide, it must be pulled by a rowboat. The sailors on the rowboat are exposed and are easily injured by artillery fire and muskets on the shore. big.If Aragones faced a well-fortified port in Europe or America, he would not dare to do this.But the native sailors are just cannon fodder, he doesn't care if some die, and this is China. Aragones believes that the Chinese don't understand naval warfare at all, let alone fortify the port.His predecessors had robbed ships in the Pearl River many years ago, and it was like no one's land.

The gunners on the ship were already in their positions at this time, the gun windows on the side had been opened, and the dark muzzles were pointing at several possible targets on the coast.He has full confidence in his artillery superiority.Can those Chinese artillery be considered cannons?They're all poor imitations of cannons from a century ago.

According to the plan, the Countess of Scarborough will use artillery fire to support Liu Xiang's landing operation in the bay. Liu Xiang will use sampans to transport 500 people ashore, with the purpose of capturing the four iron clippers anchored on the shore. Liu Xiang already knew the fighting power of the ship from the people who defected from Mr. Zhu Cai. Obviously, this ship is extremely attractive to any pirate.

The naval battle between Zhu Cailao and the traverser gave Liu Xiang several basic impressions:

Iron clippers are very strong and cannot be pierced by general artillery;

Agile and fast.

The men who piloted these ships had no cannon.The elders of Zhucai said that the ship was equipped with something like a large ballista, and it was impossible to shoot accurately, but they had very powerful bird guns, which could shoot far and accurately.

Based on these impressions, the pirates will mainly rely on the gunfire of the Countess of Scarborough to suppress the enemy. No matter how powerful the bird gun is, it is not an opponent of the cannon.With the support of artillery fire, a group of pirates will pass through the mangrove forest of Bopu, wreak havoc on the enemy camp, attracting the attention of these Orientals, and then another group of pirates will wait for the opportunity to rush into the port and take away at least An iron clipper.Liu Xiang gave instructions to his leader that several "Australians" must be caught.

To this end, the Spaniards sold them 8 rowing boats and special towing equipment.After the pirates succeeded, they would use rowboats to drag the iron ships out of the harbor, with the intended goal of taking at least one.

Aragones had no objection to this plan, but he couldn't quite understand the Chinese pirate leader's obsession with these iron ships.In his opinion, this kind of iron boat is too weird. A boat that can move by itself without sails and oars is either a miracle of God or a creation of the devil—in his opinion, the latter is more likely.

The rowboat began to slowly drag the Countess of Cabolo into the harbor, and the water depth measuring boat led the way.Everything is calm.

"What I want to tell you is," Aragones said to Lisya beside him, "my boat must leave when the tide goes out, regardless of whether you have captured the boat or not."

"One hour is enough." Li Siya smiled lightly.Although she didn't make the plan herself, she still participated in it.Among the pirates, she was the only one who had any direct dealings with the Australians.Last year's attack by the Australians dealt a big blow to her self-esteem, during which even an official had doubts about her.In a fit of anger, she claimed that her ship needed to be repaired and returned to Macau.When she was in Macau, she sent people to inquire about the people in Australia. They left behind houses, goods and servants, but she disappeared like a human evaporated.

It wasn't until not long ago that there was news that a group of people appeared on the coast of Qiongzhou, with shaved hair and short clothes, and a huge iron boat.The feature of the short-haired shorts reminded her of Wen Desi immediately. Wasn't the Australian maritime merchant just wearing short-haired shorts?

In order to find out, she sailed out again. Zheng Zhilong was busy recruiting security in Fujian, so she joined Liu Xiang in Guangdong as a guest——Li Siya was a solo household along the coast, although she sometimes took refuge in a certain Under the big gang, pay the protection fee.But she never took part in the battles between the gangs, only interested in robbery and adventure, and with her superior clippers and cannons, she always lived freely.

"Wen Desi, are you on the shore too?" She whispered, showing a cold smile.

"Captain Lee?"

"?"

"Why does Gang Leader Liu send 400 people ashore during the day?" Aragones has always been puzzled by the fact that Chinese pirates sent 400 people ashore during the day.In his opinion, such an action is pure death.

"Let the Australians win the battle." Li Siya said, "Although they claim to be from Australia, they don't deny that they are of Chinese descent. When the Chinese win a battle, they always drink and have fun."

"And so do we Spaniards."

"After drinking and having fun, you will be less vigilant."

"Sending 400 people to death just to knock them off guard? God!"

"You can get such a result by spending 400 piastres. Do you think it's not worthwhile?" Li Siya glanced at Aragones. Compared with the Chinese, the Spaniards who can only keep cooking human meat are like those in a monastery. like a virgin.Even the lovely Italians know that those who do great things should not be bound by any code of ethics, but only to consider whether the effect is beneficial, not whether the means are harmful.What's more, these cannon fodder actually thought that they were serving Mr. Zhucai. Mr. Zhucai, an idiot, would probably suffer from a headache in the future. Thinking of this, she thought it was wonderful.

Aragones was surprised that the pirate leader could treat his compatriots as expendables without hesitation.And the woman in front of her only counted how much money she spent recruiting them.In his heart he was extremely contemptuous.However, the life and death of the pagans has nothing to do with him, and it is up to the priests to worry about saving souls—and he, Aragones, is the last person to deal with priests.

He suddenly remembered that the woman in front of him was half of Portuguese blood: "Captain Li, are you still the Lamb of Christ?"

"I go to church as often as you do." Li Siya replied with a teasing smile.

"There's a sampan!" The person in charge of the observation gave Xue Ziliang a push.

"Continue to observe!" From the moment the ship started to turn towards Bopu, Xue Ziliang knew that something was wrong, and this sea attack might start soon.

"A lot of sampans!" The observers exclaimed, "There are so many sampans—"

Xue Ziliang snatched the binoculars, and the scene in the camera was really spectacular, no less than thirty sampans were heading towards Bopu on the sea, followed by big ships.

250 meters...

200 meters...

The shirtless pirates with knives in their mouths could already be seen in the camera, Xue Ziliang even felt that he could see their smirks clearly.

"Report to Bopu, hurry up!"

"Report—report—Captain," the team member who was calling suddenly panicked, "The phone is not connected!"

The moon sank, and the water and the sky became pitch black again. Xue Ziliang hadn't heard the siren from Bopu—I don't know if the duty post on the beacon tower saw this situation, and saw the sampan getting closer to the port. , he pulled an SKS and fired a shot at the nearest sampan.

"Bang!" In the silent night, the sound of gunfire was particularly crisp, and a tracer bullet pierced the night sky, as fast as a meteor. At this moment of lightning, it seemed that a figure on the boat shook and fell down.

Li Di, who had been drowsy for a long time, trembled when he heard the gunshot - he almost fell asleep!He quickly grabbed the binoculars and looked in the direction of the gunshots. After adjusting for a while, suddenly the sampans and ships on the sea became clearly identifiable.He was so frightened that he almost sat down on the ground, and ran to the duty room on the beacon tower, where there was a hand-cranked alarm that shook violently.

(End of this chapter)