Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 45 Spanish Supply Ship

late at night.The summer sea breeze was unusually fresh. Shay was wearing a sky-blue navy uniform and strolling on the deck. Soon the "Eagle of the East Coast" was about to set sail secretly.This time their target was a place marked as "Horse Island" on the sea chart. As for why it is called "Horse Island", this is unknown. Maybe there are many horses on that island?

"Captain, food, fresh water, gunpowder, artillery shells, building materials and other supplies are all ready, please sign for them." Not far away, the voice of an official stationed at the dock from the Ministry of Supplies sounded.

"Well, the number is correct. Thank you for your hard work." After checking some numbers, Lu Ming signed his name and thanked the dock officials.

"Hehe, I wish you all the best of luck. Come on, we can count on you to beat the Spaniards down." The dock official encouraged with a smile.

"Then there will be a period later." Lu Ming bid farewell to the port officials, and took the last batch of sailing school students to line up to board the "Eagle of the East Coast".

Ji Wen quickly stood at attention, his eyes following Lu Ming's movements.All the crew members were assembled on the pier at this time. Lu Ming walked over and shook everyone's hands. This voyage to the Falkland Islands has unpredictable risks. Everyone is in the same boat, and everything is said.

15分钟后，载着18名船员、30名航海学校学生、90名炮手、47名陆军兄弟和50名查鲁亚建筑工人的“东岸之鹰”号在一片静默中驶出了港口，航向南偏西。

……

A bitter sea breeze blew the deck of the "East Coast Eagle".

Fabian Klingemann was patrolling the deck with his 32-B flintlock rifle, and with him was his neighbor Hans.This time, in order to accompany the navy's attack, the five production teams of the development brigade mobilized a group of militiamen to form the temporary first platoon, which was under the command of Lu Ming, the captain of the "Eagle of the East Coast".He and his neighbor Hans were in the same shed, and Fabian was even the head of the shed because of his excellent performance in training.

The wind and waves on the South Atlantic Ocean were a bit strong, Fabian tried to stabilize his body while chatting with Hans: "I just bought 10 mu of land before I came out, and the land is only 5 yuan per mu. It is all the ripe fields we have plowed. .Wait another month or so before planting, and this time I will plant five acres of wheat, and the rest will be potatoes. God, it will cost a lot of money to buy wheat seeds."

"Did you spend all your enlistment money to buy fields?" Hans glanced at Fabian in surprise, and then laughed at himself, "I bought a few bottles of wine and a piece of English woolen cloth. Mostly."

"You are so extravagant. British wool is so expensive, why don't you buy the machine-made cloth produced by the East Coast Company? The price is only half of the British product." Fabian said, knowing that the neighbor was still single and was spending a lot of money, so he tried advise him.

Hans waved his hand: "East Bank's machine-made cloth is a blend of cotton and woolen cloth, and the quality is not very good. The British woolen cloth is beautiful. You know, I just like to pursue beautiful things."

The two chatted a few more casual words, and when they were about to turn around and start the next patrol, the watchman shouted from the mainmast: "Front right, a three-masted sailing ship was found! Attention, an unknown identity was found in the front right." Ship!" And with that, he yanked a rope that ran to the top of the mast where a bell hung.

As the bell rang, the sailors immediately became tense, shouting one after another.

Lu Ming raised his binoculars and looked forward from the bridge.I saw a tall mast appearing at the end of the sea level in front of the right, followed by the second, and the third...

"Spanish!" First mate Julien D'Eblol held up his binoculars, and saw the identity of the opponent from the flags of lions, castles and crowns flying on the opponent's mainmast.

"Enemy! Come over and prepare to fight! Julien, command the sailors!" Lu Ming calmed down a little and ordered.

Julien walked out of the bridge, observed the other party's position on the wooden corridor again, and then ordered loudly: "Raise the auxiliary sail!"

"Understood! Raise the auxiliary sail!"

"Gunner! Charge the bow gun!" Lu Ming ordered after repeatedly confirming the distance between the two sides through the telescope.

"Understood, the bow gun is charged!"

"Observatory, raise the navy flag!"

"Understood! Hoist the navy flag!" A triangular double-sword goshawk flag was slowly raised from the main mast tower.

"The other party seems to be a supply ship." Lu Ming smiled at Captain John Stone beside him, "We are lucky."

"Yes. Poor Spaniard." Captain Johnston was also watching through the binoculars. "Maybe it is a ship carrying munitions from Lima or Santiago."

"Boom!" A 12-pound cannon on the bow started firing after entering the maximum range. Of course, it was inaccurate at this distance, and the projectile splashed a jet of water about 200 meters away from the opponent's bow.However, this cannon obviously frightened the opponent. The distance between the two ships was more than 1600 meters, and the opponent actually fired a cannon to attack. The range is too far.

The Spanish ships began to turn against the wind, preparing to flee.It is obviously extremely unwise to confront a supply ship equipped with only a small number of small-caliber artillery against a battleship that obviously has a large number of long-barreled heavy artillery.

Taking advantage of the opponent's opportunity to turn around, the "Eagle of the East Coast" narrowed the distance by several hundred meters again.The two 12-pound guns on the bow fired continuously, and after several rounds of shooting, one shell actually hit the opponent's ship, but apparently did not cause any major damage.

"Lean over and shoot with the broadside artillery." Lu Ming ordered while observing. The speed of the opponent's supply ship was slow, obviously far inferior to the speed of the "Eagle of the East Coast" with a downwind of 8 knots.The excessively large cargo capacity and ship shape severely limited its escape speed, and it only took a while for the "Eagle of the East Coast" to catch up.

"Gunner, 1-8 gun crews are ready." At this time, the distance between the two ships was only a few hundred meters, and the panicked sailors on the deck of the opposing ship could already be vaguely seen.

"Fire!" Lu Ming ordered.

"Fire!" Gunner Chen Tumu ordered loudly standing on the port gun deck.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The eight artillery pieces fired at almost the same time, large and small projectiles flew over a short distance of 8 meters and caused a lot of wounds on the opponent's ships. Some unlucky sailors screamed and fell on the ground. deck.

"Cannon reset! Clear, charge, reload!" The opponent's three-pound and four-pound guns fired some sparse projectiles towards the "Eagle of the East Coast". Chen Tumu was unmoved and ordered to continue charge.

"Fire!" The 8 artillery fired another salvo!The bitter sea breeze blew away the gunpowder smoke, and Chen Tumu raised his binoculars, and he found that the bombardment seemed to have achieved good results.The poop at the stern of the opposing ship was hit by two 24-pound shells, and the luxuriously decorated windows of the captain's cabin were shattered, and the internal casualties were unknown.In addition, a cannon on the opponent's deck was hit tragically, and the cannon body fell from the disintegrated sports car, rolling away for a long distance, and some sailors who couldn't dodge were crushed by the heavy cannon body. The bloody scene was appalling.

"Change the chain ammunition!" Lu Ming ordered, he was going to destroy the sail of the Spaniard, causing the opponent's ship to lose power and force it to surrender.But in many cases, things obviously don't need to be so troublesome, because the next moment the opponent suddenly lowered the mainsail, and a white flag was raised on the mast.

The Spaniards have surrendered!

"Wansheng!" The sailors gave a burst of enthusiastic cheers.Although it was a supply ship with poor firepower that was bullied, it was also a victory.Soon, the army in the two sheds rowed their boats towards the opposing ship, ready to receive the spoils.

Fabian Klingemann struggled up a rope ladder to the deck of the Spanish ship, where a dozen or so Spanish sailors had gathered to watch the conqueror's arrival uneasily.They could not resist, because the enemy's muzzle was still facing here.

"Stay there quietly, don't try to resist." Fabian took the rifle from his back, loaded it and said casually.Soon, all 30 Army soldiers were on board the ship.After they searched the Spaniards and checked them, they tied them up and threw them into the bilge, and then sent a shed of armed soldiers to guard them.

Julien rushed over from the "Eagle of the East Coast" with 15 students from the nautical school.The next Spanish supply ship will be manned by them.

"Ha! Get rich!" Ji Wen exclaimed, looking at the piles of matchlock guns, spears, daggers, breastplates, matchlocks, gunpowder, buckshot and shells in the warehouse, "I wish the Spaniards' supply ships would be more than this." One, or they're in big trouble."

"Given, don't be dazed! Hurry up and hoist the mainsail, we are leaving!" Julien ordered on the deck.

"Understood, Captain Julien!" Ji Wen loudly agreed, climbed onto the deck slowly, and then called the students to help raise the mainsail.

Half an hour later, the "Eagle of the East Coast" and the captured Spanish supply ship disappeared on the distant sea level.The surging waves swept away the floating corpses, leaving only a pile of foam on the sea surface, as if nothing had happened here.

(End of this chapter)