Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 58 Decisive Battle: Development

This chapter is released regularly, because it is estimated to take a day or two because of a business trip.I'll update that chapter on Monday when I come back.

Lieutenant Falcao, who took a transportation boat from the "Rock of Cadiz" to the "Bishop of Lima", looked with horror at the water columns splashing around the boat from time to time, which were shells that fell into the water.In his heart, he kept praying to God to bless the Tartan shells from falling on his small transportation boat.

Another round of artillery shells struck, and more than 20 large and small iron projectiles flew over the sea and fell with the shriek of death.These artillery pieces have been calibrated in advance, and each artillery piece has a shooting table accumulated from a large amount of live ammunition shooting data. Even the wind speed is taken into account when formulating the shooting table, so the accuracy of these artillery pieces is relatively high. It's scary.

The poor "Bishop of Lima" was shot again in a large area, this time near the stern of the ship was the hardest hit area.The gun deck of the poop was hit by two shells, one of the stern guns was hit and fell apart, and the army soldiers on board the ship also suffered heavy casualties. Six or seven people were killed by shells and splinters; It was hit again, and the sail surface was so tattered that it was completely unusable; the stern balcony was hit a second time, the control bar of the steering wheel cabin was damaged, and two helmsmen were injured...

All in all, the Bishop of Lima is doomed.When Lieutenant Falcao finally boarded the deck of the "Bishop of Lima" after untold hardships, the captain told him so.Now immobilized, the 500-ton warship has become a veritable target ship.The bosun commanded the sailors who were still able to move to put down the lifeboat and began to prepare for abandoning the ship.The gunners also had no intention of shooting, and all of them were crowded on the deck, and the dedicated priest on board was praying for the dying soldiers, and there was an atmosphere of panic and anxiety everywhere.

Diego Garcia's face was a little livid, and his hands holding the binoculars trembled slightly. I don't know if it was because of holding the binoculars for a long time or because of violent mood swings, maybe it was both.Originally, I just wanted to test the firepower of the Tartans' turrets, but I didn't expect to pay such a high price. The frigate "Bishop of Lima" was severely damaged, no, it was more than just being severely damaged.The battleship is now completely inoperable, and even if the Tartans no longer try to attack her, Diego Garcia will order the sinking of the battleship, lest she become a spoil of the Tartans and bring shame to the kingdom.

Damn Captain Torres!How the hell did he come to the shitty conclusion that the Tartans only have 18-24 guns?Did he get it from some rambling drunk in a bar?This is malfeasance!Diego Garcia cursed in his heart, these damn Tartans actually have 32-pound cannons that are rarely equipped by the Royal Navy, and they are obviously long-barreled heavy cannons!This heart-rending fact made the fleet commander almost unable to contain himself.It looks like it's time to end it, and no more warships can be lost.Diego Garcia once again recruited an officer to deliver orders, and the high-spirited action ended in such an anticlimactic manner that the Tartans saw a big joke, which is really tangled!

Major Carlos looked at the scene in front of him with mixed emotions. He was not only happy that Diego Garcia, a descendant of the pig herder, was deflated, but also shocked by the superior performance of the Tartan artillery.Those 32-pound, 24-pound, and 18-pound guns are generally much stronger than the Spanish Navy's current artillery in terms of range. The shells still have such a strong penetrating kinetic energy after flying over a distance of one thousand meters, which shows that the ratio of the barrel to the diameter of the opponent's artillery A staggering number has been reached.

How do they do it?When did the Tatans have such superior cannon-casting technology?With such a long barrel, how can it withstand the high chamber pressure generated when the gunpowder burns in the explosion chamber?Major Carlos is not an ignorant person. On the contrary, he spent his youth in Italy and received a good education.He didn't think that the Tatans who occupied the vast area from Ukraine to the East had such excellent casting technology. Could it be the technology of the Turks?

But this is also difficult to explain, because the Turks will never spread the world-leading technology they have mastered to the Tatans.Then, there is only one explanation, that is, the so-called "Tatan people" occupying this land are not real Tatan people at all, they must come from a country or region with fairly advanced technology.So where is this country and region?Is it the East?It doesn't make sense, the Kingdom's fleet travels throughout the world, and the technology of those Easterners is not as good as the Kingdom's. Are there still unexplored continents or new worlds?Major Carlos, who had no idea after much deliberation, simply stopped entangled with this issue, because he was about to face a more entangled fact.That is, since the naval guns of these "Tatans" are so good, their field army guns must be equally good, and it will be themselves who will bear the bombardment of these army guns.It's really confusing!

"Boom! Boom!" The Tatan's fourth round of shells came so quickly.The crew who were crowded on the deck of the "Bishop of Lima" preparing to abandon the ship and board the ship had bad luck. Two 18-pound shells made a bloody path through the dense crowd, and then hit the deck headlong. kinetic energy.More shells hit the superstructure and side deck, and the hard and thick ship plank at the waterline on the starboard side finally cracked a big hole under the ravages of 32-pound shells. With the crazy influx of sea water, "Lee The "Bishop Ma" began to lean slightly to the right, which exacerbated the confusion among the crew and sailors on the deck.Some people began to fight each other in order to fight for the chance of escape, and even the officers could not stop them.As more and more sea water poured into the bilge, the trend of the ship leaning to the right became more and more obvious. Many desperate sailors jumped into the sea without hesitation. At least in the sea, they did not have to endure the raindrops of shells from the Tartans.

The battleship "Prosecutor" in the north had already pulled anchor and hoisted its sails, preparing to withdraw.However, after seeing the tragedy that the "Bishop of Lima" was about to capsize and sink, the captain refused the fleet commander's request to retreat immediately. The crew who fell into the water would not die in vain in the cold sea. The heroic actions of the battleship "Judge" saved the lives of dozens of Spanish naval servicemen, but of course it also put themselves in a dangerous situation.

The 24 guns on the main turret turned to bombard the battleship "Judge".In a short period of time, this cutting-edge warship, which had been in the water for less than ten years, was hit by more than ten shells, and the crew on the deck were quite dead or injured.At the critical moment, the god of luck favored them. The eight 8-pound cannons on the main turret needed to be cooled down due to the long continuous shooting time. Taking advantage of this short gap, the warship "Prosecutor" quickly turned around and left the battlefield with its scarred hull.

Due to an intelligence error, the six main warships of the Royal Navy confronted the Tartan fort.The ratio of the number of artillery is 174:32. In fact, since only one side of the artillery can fire at the same time, the ratio of the number of artillery is about 2.5:1, and the caliber is not as good as that of the opponent. I was surprised.Diego Garcia quickly adjusted his mood, and the remaining six main warships gathered outside the range of the Tartan fort artillery, and then sailed south with a large number of transport ships and armed merchant ships, leaving only a few An offshore small warship is on guard patrol.

"Run away?" Seeing from the telescope that the "Bishop of Lima" with only a small mast remaining on the sea at this time sank slowly, Li Yi, who was blushing with excitement, asked in surprise.

"It probably didn't run away." Wang Qinian pondered, "I'm afraid they went south to find a landing place, and this time they are going to come for real. Looking at the posture of so many transport ships, it is estimated that nearly 2000 people have come. Hehe, Two thousand soldiers is not considered a large scale in Europe at this time, but it is a huge force in the New World, especially in such a remote and desolate La Plata area, the Spaniards really think highly of us, crazy It's crazy!" At the end, Wang Qinian had a wry smile on his face.

The latest movement of the Spaniards was sent back to the Executive Committee and the Ministry of War immediately.The Ministry of War immediately sent a large number of cavalry along the coast to try to track down the Spanish fleet, but the Spanish fleet turned and disappeared on the sea level after sailing along the coast for a while.Peng Zhicheng speculated that the Spaniards deliberately stayed away from the coast in order to avoid being controlled by the crossing people. They must still be wandering on the nearby sea and waiting for an opportunity to land.

Based on this judgment, Peng Zhicheng scattered all the cavalry units that had been expanded to three outposts, and expanded the search area, trying to find the Spaniards as soon as possible.Two days later, Leonid Fyodorovich of the first cavalry post finally spotted a large number of Spanish army troops landing near Rocha.

The Spaniards who were landing were in disarray.Artillery, cavalry, spearmen, musketeers, etc., more than 1000 people gathered near the desolate Rocha Beach at this time, people screaming, and the chaos became a mess.Of course, the Spaniards were not unprepared. Some cavalry and gauchos were scattered around the perimeter to prevent sudden attacks during the landing process, causing heavy casualties to the troops.

(End of this chapter)