Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 630 The Swan Song of the Peruvian Fleet ([-])

It was already the morning of November 11th.

Today is another cloudy day, and the sun is firmly behind the thick clouds, so the fog that has filled the sea for most of the night still shows no sign of dissipating at this time.Even at this time, even the sea breeze was fighting against the people on the east coast. The weak sea breeze was not enough to blow away the sea fog and gunpowder smoke that filled the battlefield, which further reduced visibility.

After six o'clock in the morning, the battleship "Cadiz Rock" came back after going around somewhere, and came back with her was a medium-sized Spanish transport ship with a tonnage of one or two hundred tons-of course at this time. The two-sword goshawk flag of the East Coast Navy has been hoisted on this ship—the goods loaded on this ship have also been roughly counted: cocoa, cinchona bark, vicuna plush that almost filled most of the ship, and Some gemstones that seem to have been carried by the local Spanish colonists to the mainland, God bless, all the commodities needed on the east coast.

After the battleship "Rock of Cadiz" returned, it saw that there were no other Spanish ships swaying nearby. In addition, the fog on the sea was still lingering. Chasing it at this moment might be like finding a needle in a haystack. Together with the battleship "Sun", launched the final onslaught against the flagship "San Lorenzo" of the Spanish Navy's Peruvian fleet.

The "San Lorenzo" took the initiative to meet the "August 66th" battleship with [-] guns in order to block the main battleship on the east coast. The hull was bruised and bruised, unsightly.

In particular, the bow of the ship was almost completely smashed: the bowsprit was completely blown into the sea; the kitchen, storage room, and sailor cabin above the deck were also smashed into a hornet's nest, and the gun deck on the top floor was completely overturned In addition, the foremast of the ship was completely broken, and the topsail of the second mast was damaged in a large area. The topsail and topsail were burning at this time, obviously ignited by being hit by a hot bomb.

In addition to these places, the poop of the ship has also been taken care of. The bridge on the top floor was hit by no less than fifty shells during the entire battle. Most of the officers involved in the command suffered heavy casualties; , The walls of the officer's lounge are also full of bullet holes and broken ship boards. It can be seen that the damage is quite heavy, but it is miraculous that the steering wheel cabin was not damaged, which makes the ship still able to change its course freely at this moment .

After the "Rock of Cadiz" joined the battle, the pressure on the "San Lorenzo" suddenly doubled.At this time, the people on the east coast are no longer pursuing to capture this powerful warship—after fighting in the middle of the night, Lu Ming has already understood that this is a delusion, and their current thinking is very clear, that is, to rely on it and use the most violent artillery fire to attack it. Its waterline attacked, trying to quickly solve this warship, which is a symbol of the Spanish Peruvian fleet, and then continued to search for Spanish transport ships to attack, in order to maximize the Spanish losses.

When the battle continued until nine o'clock in the morning, a large hole was finally opened on the port side of the "San Lorenzo", and the frantic influx of sea water made the whole ship begin to tilt slightly.The Spanish sailors who were manipulating the cannon, adjusting the yard, and fetching water to fight the fire suddenly became a mess. Under the hysterical roar of the officers, many people began to take large pieces of canvas to try to seal the irregular hole.At the same time, some human-driven water pumping machines were also transported above the deck, and the sailors were busy on the deck, constantly pumping out the seawater pouring in.

However, such a chaotic and dense crowd is indeed the favorite of the naval commanders on the east coast. They ordered the soldiers to stuff explosive bombs into the artillery barrels, and then took the opportunity to shoot on the deck of the "San Lorenzo".The shells with an explosion rate of nearly 10% exploded on or above the deck, and the flying shrapnel killed a large number of Spanish crew members, causing blood to flow on the deck.Especially those crew members who were fighting fires or pumping water, their large area of ​​casualties caused the canvas to continue to burn, and the fire even began to gradually spread to the densely packed cables above the deck; The temperature is a little higher, and it seems to have exceeded [-] degrees at this time.

Meanwhile, Lu Ming, the captain of the "August [-]th", felt that the "San Lorenzo" was basically finished, and was going to give up the chance of beating the dog to the "Rock of Cadiz", and he was going to find Spain. When the transport fleet was making a fortune, a large three-masted warship suddenly appeared diagonally behind. It was the "Countess Alfonso" of the Spanish Navy who was rid of after a short battle with the "Easternism" last night. battleship.

As soon as this battleship appeared on the battlefield, it attracted everyone's attention. The "San Lorenzo", which had stalled and stopped in the center of the battlefield, even hoisted a series of signal flags, which seemed to want her to hurry up. retreat.But now that it has appeared here, how can the east coast ships, which have a maneuverability higher than that of Spanish ships, allow them to leave smoothly?Following Lu Ming's order, the "August [-]th" gave up on the opponent it was ravaging, and then made a shocking turn in a small radius against the wind, heading straight for the "Countess Alfonso".As for the "Cadiz Rock" under the command of Lieutenant John Ston, it is still biting the "San Lorenzo" whose slope is gradually increasing, as if vowing to beat the flagship of the Spanish Navy's Peruvian fleet. sink to the bottom of the sea.

The "August 10" engaged the "Countess Alfonso" [-] minutes later.The two ships are not at the same level in terms of tonnage, speed, or firepower. Even though the "August [-]" has been fighting for several hours before, and its hull is also heavily scarred, it is not the "Countess Alfonso" A ship like the No. [-] can easily deal with it, so she was at a disadvantage from the beginning.

At 09:30 in the morning, when the captain of the "San Lorenzo" had ordered to abandon the ship, another main battleship of the East Coast Navy, the "East Coast Principle", finally arrived at both sides with a captured transport ship. Warring waters.The arrival of this double-decker battleship made the battleship "Countess Alfonso" lose its last vitality. At this time, she will face the siege of three powerful ships on the east coast, and her fate can be imagined.

Two hours later, as a fiery bullet fired from the second deck of the battleship "East Coast Doctrine" hit the ammunition compartment of the enemy ship, the violent gunpowder exploded immediately from the ship "Countesa Alfonso". The interior of the bow spread out, and a large cloud of smoke rose with the orange flames. The deafening explosion sounded continuously, and the violent shock wave even shattered the glass of the captain's cabin of the "Rock of Cadiz", which was close at hand. , and then some sundries that rose with the explosion flew over a distance of 200 meters and landed on the decks of several warships on the east coast.

At this time, everyone on the three warships on the east coast stopped shooting, and everyone watched the battleship "Countesa Alfonso" which was gradually being engulfed by raging flames with complicated eyes. It was completely blown off, sea water was rushing in from the broken gap, and the hull was sinking rapidly. The poor Spanish naval officers and soldiers didn't even have time to abandon the ship at this time.People with clear minds simply grabbed the wooden boards, barrels, etc. around them and jumped into the sea, while those who were knocked out by the ammunition explosion wounds could only sink miserably with the ship.

Before the "Alfonso Countess" sank, the Spaniard's flagship "San Lorenzo" also turned over like a dead fish because of too much water on the left side of the ship. It sank into the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean and became the common home of a large number of local fish.

After destroying these two Spanish warships, Lu Ming sent people to order the other two: leave the "Cadiz Rock" battleship to continue patrolling outside the port of Callao, and the other two battleships will split up and search and pursue northward. , and meet at San Cristobal Island on the evening of November 11 at the latest, and then make the next step; as for the two captured Spanish transport ships, they will continue to stay where they are, waiting for the return of the main fleet .

On the morning of November 11, the battleship "August 11" dragged its heavy body and slowly drove into the port of Bakeriso.At this time, there were indeed six ships on the east coast moored here, and the army soldiers also set up a temporary camp on the shore and lived a leisurely life.The climate on the island is relatively cool in this season. In addition, there are few people here, and there is no malaria that is common in tropical areas on the mainland. Duandi is a good place to rest.

After the "August 13th" sailed into the harbor, the craftsmen on board the "Sea Engineer" immediately repaired the scarred hull of the ship.The ship fought fiercely for almost 50 hours in the battle a few days ago. Not only did more than [-] naval officers and soldiers be killed or injured, but even the hull was damaged. Repairs were urgently needed to restore combat effectiveness, and some wounded and sick people on board urgently needed to disembark For treatment and nursing, the few military doctors and nurses who went out with the army are ready at this time.

In addition to these, the "August [-]th" was really lucky. It captured a medium-sized Spanish transport ship in the waters near the port of Telusillo in northern Peru. Ten tons of sucrose, one hundred tons of wheat, and minted silver coins worth more than [-] yuan—this seems to be remittances from Spanish merchants in Peru to the old continent.

Later that afternoon, the battleship "East Coast Doctrine" also returned to the port. Her luck was worse. She searched at sea for several days but found nothing, and finally had to come to Baquerizo Harbor in desperation to meet up.

In general, the results of the naval battle caused by the sudden breakout of the Spaniards are not bad: only one injured brigantine is left in the Spanish Navy's Peruvian fleet, and the remaining four ships including the flagship have all sunk , basically it can be considered that this fleet has been wiped out.In addition, the warships of the East Coast Navy sank two small and medium-sized Spanish transport ships and captured three ships in the melee. These three ships were loaded with about 150 tons of copper, 100 tons of wheat, 50 tons of cocoa, 50 tons of sugar, 50 tons Vicuna hair, 1.5 pieces of leather, gold and silver coins worth more than [-] yuan, and a large number of valuable goods such as gems, artworks, cinchona bark, etc., can be said to be full of rewards.

Especially those vicuña hairs, which are high-grade textiles. If they are used to make woolen wool, the price is very high. Now they are very popular in the Baltic region of northern Europe.There are also those cinchona bark, which is a treasure. The people from the east bank failed to introduce them in Ping'an County before, and later they introduced them to Xinhua Island. It is not known whether they will be successful or not.The existing cinchona bark powder in the hands of the people on the east coast is firstly smuggled, and secondly purchased at high prices who do not know how many times they have been transferred.Now that there are so many at once, it is enough for the East Coast Republic to use for a long time, and the value in it cannot be measured by money alone.

It's just that when he heard his adjutant Jiang Yaohui report the summary of the spoils in a slightly excited voice, Lu Ming, the commander of the East Coast Navy's Pacific Task Force and Navy Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ming, ruthlessly slammed in front of many naval and army officers. He patted the table angrily, and said angrily: "The interrogation result has come out, damn it, I was tricked by the Spaniards! That night they dispatched 5 warships and 15 transport ships just north of Callao Port, attracting caught our attention, and then 4 transport ships full of precious metals sneaked around San Lorenzo Island and ran away from the open sea! Fuck, more than 700 million pesos worth of gold and silver are all on these ships, that's all Run away from us!"

"We fought all day and killed and injured more than 120 naval officers and soldiers to grab such a small amount. We thought we had gained a lot, but in the end we found out that we had picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelon. It's so fucking fucked up!" Lu Ming, who has always been good-tempered, couldn't help scolding his mother at this time, "The sea is vast, where can I find these silver ships?"

"They should be going to Panama, can we block there?" someone asked.

"It's over. We have been delayed at sea for the past few days. They should have crossed Guayaquil, and now they are not far from the Panama Prosecution Court area. Besides, they may not necessarily go to Panama to call at the port now. There Maybe there are still some Spanish warships to respond, and it is basically useless to go now. However, let’s try our luck, Captain Huang Yang, I order your ship to carry forward the spirit of continuous combat, and go to patrol the outer waters of Panama to see if you can gain anything However, the situation there is complicated. You must first pay attention to your own safety. The 'August [-]th' is currently in urgent need of repairs and maintenance, so it will not be able to attack again. As for this incident, let us take it as a lesson. It is solid. You really got tricked by someone, damn it!" Lu Ming vented his anger for a while, and the meeting had gradually calmed down, so he waved his hands weakly and said.

Hearing what Lu Ming said, everyone couldn't help but look at each other in blank dismay: That's right, I was tricked by the Spaniards this time, so do I want to get back on the field?Huang Yang glanced at the crowd and said nothing. After straightening his clothes and hats, he hurriedly headed out. He wanted to get on the boat quickly and continue to search for traces of the enemy transport ship.

(End of this chapter)