Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 175 The Attacking Fleet ([-])

The naval battle was decided before the sun went down.

The two British warships were battered in just one hour, one sank on the spot, and the other ran aground on the river beach.Naturally, the two soy sauce merchant ships did not escape. The British merchant ship also ran aground and sank in the shallow water of the river. The other Dutch merchant ship wisely chose to surrender after being hit by more than a dozen shells.

After the naval battle, the sky has gradually darkened.However, they still took advantage of the last twilight of the sky to launch a round of shelling towards the wall of the British trading station on the bank of the Gambia River.The dense shells hit the masonry walls, causing considerable damage.Especially where the 32-pound long-barreled heavy artillery bombarded, the bricks were obviously sunken inward, and it seemed that only a few more rounds of shelling could destroy them.

Taking advantage of the naval bombardment of the merchant station and suppressing the British, the army brothers stepped forward one after another to seize the favorable terrain and built simple fortifications to block several roads outside the city wall to prevent the British from escaping at night.

The last ray of light in the sky was also swallowed by darkness. The battleship "August [-]th" lowered its tail anchor and stayed on the river opposite the trading station, firing salvos from its starboard artillery without giving the enemy a chance to breathe.

The bricks and stones on the top of the city collapsed, and no one dared to stand up.The two 18-pound shells hit the area not far away, and the brick wall there had already formed an obvious depression. It seemed that just a few more shells could penetrate the entire place.

The Gambia River is cool at night.Lu Ming, the commander of the Guinea Task Force, was sitting in the captain's cabin of the "August [-]th" reading documents. The orderly took small scissors and cut the candle wick to make it brighter.These high-quality candles imported from Russia have almost no peculiar smell and smoke when burning, which is not a grade better than the products of Guangming Candle Factory.

A short and fierce naval battle on the river during the day was over, and the four ships of the task force completely defeated the desperate counterattack of the two British warships by relying on their powerful firepower, and scored a goal of sinking one and forcing the other. Stranded brilliant results.And the battleship that ran aground on the river bank is currently under the control of the sailors on the east bank.

As for the two British and Dutch merchant ships, the fleet didn't even spend much effort.A British merchant ship that hurriedly fled upstream unfortunately ran aground and is now half sunk and half stranded in shallow water. The frigate "Beagle" has sent personnel to take small boats to the wreck area, while helping the British crew who fell into the water, while organizing salvage Supplies on the wreck.

The Dutch merchant ship returning from Batavia resolutely chose to surrender after recognizing the situation, and their ship is currently under the control of the East Coast Republic Navy.After inspecting the entire cabin, the officers who boarded the ship were pleasantly surprised to find that a large number of processed teak boards were neatly stacked in the cabin of the Dutch flute-shaped ship.This kind of high-quality wood native to Southeast Asia is not deformed under the sun and rain, is fire-resistant, insect-resistant and ant-eaten-resistant, and is also corrosion-resistant. If it is used to make a ship's hull, it is an even better shipbuilding material than Brazilian mahogany. .

The harvest of this batch of high-quality wood alone is already worth the ticket price for this operation.The Dutch and British sailors were captured scattered and scattered. In addition to some sailors captured during the voyage, the 200 sailors are currently tied up firmly and thrown in the bilge. Their next destination will be It is the lime mine by the Dayu River and the iron mine in Changshanbao.

"Commander, the army's artillery has entered the position, and barbed wire fences have been pulled up at important intersections. They are asking for instructions to launch an attack at night." Lu Ming's adjutant, Second Lieutenant San Kai, walked in and whispered in his ear.

"Any active night military operations by the army will not be allowed." Lu Ming said without hesitation, "There are too many unexpected factors in night attacks, and it is difficult for us to grasp. If the attack fails, our losses will be very serious. Now we have limited capital on hand, but we can't afford any loss. Just keep the status quo and guard the main intersections. For the remaining jungle trails, let the British escape if they dare to escape. After all, our purpose is only to Destroying the British trading post here is to deter them, to create favorable conditions for the secret peace talks that the government is holding with them, and other purposes are secondary."

"I understand." San Kai nodded, and then continued to report: "Just now two agents from the National Intelligence Agency carefully interrogated the captured enemy sailors and officers, and learned that the British still have two The small stronghold seems to be used to smelt gold, do you want to send someone to take it?"

"You go to discuss with the army. There should not be too many people guarding these two strongholds. Ask the army to deploy 4 platoons, and the frigate 'Beagle' will cooperate with their actions. Take the prisoners to identify them, and conduct a tentative attack after reaching the ground. If it goes well, take it, if it doesn't go well, don't force it, wait until dawn. Pay attention, let them control the casualties, every soldier is precious!" Lu Ming thought about it and carefully warned.

"Yes..." Sang Kai replied, and then hesitated before saying: "Just now the statistics of each ship have come out. In the naval battle in the evening, the four warships participating in the battle were hit by more than 31 rounds and 58 people were killed. There are 7 people wounded in battle, 19 of whom are military officers; in addition, there are 5 people who are currently sick, [-] of whom are seriously ill and have been recuperated in isolation, but I'm afraid they won't last long."

After San Kai finished speaking, the two were silent for a while.

On the shore at this time, the two main roads around the British commercial station have been tightly sealed by the army soldiers on the east bank. Beside the barbed wire fence with bells hanging, there is a temporary infantry bunker dug.Army riflemen led vigilant wolfhounds and hid in bunkers, waiting for the undead enemy to come and take the bait.

Next to the infantry bunker is the dug artillery bunker, and two artillery pieces have been placed in place.There are a lot of shells next to the bunker: there are solid iron balls, grape shells made of lead, explosive shells made of thin cast iron shells, and of course iron shells filled with iron nails, broken iron pieces, gravel, Shotgun shot of items such as glass shards.

The river wind at night brought cool moisture, and the bells on the barbed wire swayed gently with the river wind.On the river a few hundred meters away, the battleship "August [-]" has already left, and the battleship "Common Market" is now shelling the British trading post.In the night, clusters of orange-red flame flowers blooming one after another in the window of the battleship's gun looked so dazzling and shocking.

"It's really spectacular!" Anda Fifteen looked at the battleship on the river in a daze, and muttered to himself, "Japan doesn't have such a powerful battleship."

The wolfhound patrolling behind the barbed wire suddenly barked heart-piercingly.

"Platoon leader, there is a situation!" The soldier with the wolf dog shouted loudly, and at the same time ran quickly into the infantry trench next to him with the wolf dog, and took off his rifle from his back.

Anda jumped into the infantry trench with fifteen steps, staring carefully at the front with his eyes wide open.There seemed to be many shadows moving fast in the night ahead, but they couldn't be seen clearly for a while due to the factors of too far away and too dark light.

"There are three salvos in the whole platoon!" Anda Fifteen roared loudly, "Lower the gun... load the ammunition... reload... raise the gun... get ready, fire!"

With the sound of the copper whistle from Anda Shiwu's mouth, fifteen muskets fired a round of salvo towards the front left.The soldiers of the public security company who finished the salvo did not wait for the commander's order, and immediately took out a round of paper-shell ammunition from the cowhide ammunition bag hanging on their bodies, bit the bullet body with their teeth, poured the propellant into the barrel, and then poured the ammunition inside The buckshot bullets were taken out, stuffed into the barrel, and pounded hard with a cleaning rod.Having undergone countless trainings, they completed this movement mechanically, as proficiently as they were doing ordinary things like eating and drinking.

After the first salvo, there were several screams from the front left in the darkness.Soon, the soldiers fired a second and third salvo.Their shooting drove the soldiers of several other platoons, and they quickly joined the shooting under the organization of the officer. There were more screams in the darkness, and then there was silence.

The soldiers who finished shooting waited for a long time but did not wait for the attack order from the company commander. On the contrary, the orderlies brought the latest order requiring them to stick to their positions and not to attack without authorization.

The shelling on the river was still going on. At this time, the "Common Market" had already sailed away, and the "Red Trout" continued to move forward, using its starboard artillery to stick close to the enemy's city wall and carry out uninterrupted bombardment.Although he couldn't see clearly in the dark, Anda Fifteen could imagine that the city wall of the British should have been torn to pieces at this time.Perhaps, by tomorrow morning, the city wall facing the river will be overwhelmed and collapse.

In the middle of the night, a gun battle broke out on the other side of the army's regular army company's garrison position.Even, both army artillery fired.The sound of the rumbling guns made Anda Fifteen secretly dumbfounded. The British actually carried out such a large-scale assault?Although the local army company was transferred to two platoons, the remaining more than 2 riflemen with two cannons were still not easily matched by the British.Therefore, the fierce battle lasted only for a short while, and soon there was silence again.

The first rays of sunlight on July 7 rose over the eastern horizon.The army soldiers who stood firm all night in the field suddenly cheered. They clearly saw that a wall of the British along the river had completely collapsed. .

The soldiers had reason to be happy, because they could finally rush into this castle that was said to be stuffed with gold and take everything the enemy had for themselves, instead of lying in the hot and humid outdoors with mosquitoes and reptiles like last night.

PS: I haven't come back from a business trip, so this chapter is time-consuming.Brothers, please subscribe and vote

(End of this chapter)