Bringing the Railway to Daming

This time, only about ten iron shells hit the English warship. The Sea King was also unlucky enough to be hit by one shell, but fortunately it hit the deck. Apart from hitting a hole in the deck and injuring three soldiers, it was not seriously damaged.

However, the entire fleet was one step closer to destruction, as the Ming army's light warships were less than three hundred paces away and were expected to engage them soon.

If the Ming army were to engage in a guerrilla-style battle, Taylor wouldn't be so desperate, because he believed that if they fought a guerrilla-style battle, they might still have a chance to escape.

But reason told him that as long as the Ming army commanders weren't stupid, they would definitely use the advantage of long-range weapons to inflict the greatest blow on them before engaging in the main battle, and then reap the rewards in the end.

Sure enough, when the English fleet was hit by the third round of bombardment and four warships had sunk or were sinking, the dozens of light warships caught up, but did not get too close. Instead, they surrounded them from a distance of two or three hundred paces.

Then came a barrage of artillery fire.

There were cannons similar to those tall warships, as well as Ming Dynasty general cannons that they imitated, and tiger-squatting cannons.

These light cannons were less destructive to warships than the larger cannons, but they were more lethal to English soldiers.

Before long, one after another, the English soldiers on the warships could not hold out and raised white flags to surrender. On this vast ocean, even the best swimmers dared not jump into the sea to escape, because it was a true matter of life and death.

On the contrary, becoming a prisoner of the Ming army, even if the outcome was bad, would give them a greater chance of survival.

The soldiers on the flagship Neptune also suffered dozens of casualties in a short time due to the Ming army's long-range attacks.

Don't underestimate this number. The Neptune only had fewer than 300 English soldiers, and now more than one-fifth of them have been killed or wounded. If they weren't on the ship, the soldiers would have deserted long ago.

Although the soldiers haven't fled yet, they don't have much courage left to fight.

Seeing this, his adjutant Smith, despite his injuries, came over and said, "Commander, this battle is hopeless. Why don't we surrender as well? You are a nobleman, and even as a prisoner, you can receive preferential treatment. Your family will also pay to ransom you."

Taylor, with his full beard, twitched his facial muscles slightly, clearly making some difficult decision in his mind.

Then, he gritted his teeth and said, "You're right. I am a Lord of England, a Rear Admiral, and the pillar of my family. If I become a prisoner, I will most likely be ransomed and sent back to England."

"But what you don't know is that the ransom demanded by these Ming people is ten times that of the usual European custom! And even if the families of ordinary soldiers can come up with such a large ransom, the Ming people may not necessarily release them."

"According to what I've heard, the Ming people have been selling prisoners of war in Europe to Africa and even the far East—clearly, for them, selling prisoners as commodities is more profitable than collecting ransom!"

"Such a thing is true?" Smith was shocked and couldn't believe it for a moment, even suspecting that Taylor had lied to him.

Taylor saw through his thoughts and shouted, "Would I lie to you? Go tell all the soldiers on the Sea King that if they become prisoners, they will be sold to the far East as slaves, and even after death they will not be able to enter heaven, but will become lonely ghosts in a foreign land. That will be more miserable than dying in battle now!"

"If they don't want to end up like that, they should obey my command now and sail at full speed toward that tallest Ming warship!"

"As long as we can take over the ship and rejoin the bow, we still have a glimmer of hope! Even if we fail, they will go to heaven after they die and return to the embrace of the Lord!"

Seeing the resolute look in Taylor's eyes, Smith knew there was no way to refute his order, so he said, "Alright, I'll go and relay your order right away!"

Before long, amidst the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army, the flagship of the English fleet, HMS Neptune, suddenly accelerated in the opposite direction and headed towards the dozen or so main Ming warships to the east.

Because of the westerly winds at that moment, the Neptune's speed was surprisingly fast!
On board the Jin Yang, fleet commander Lin Kui exclaimed in surprise upon seeing this, "Is this English flagship trying to link up with us and fight for survival? I never expected that there would be such brave men in the English navy."

A nearby commander laughed, “Those Englishmen don’t even know what kind of ship we are. By rushing up to take over the gunnery, they’re just throwing their lives away. No, they can’t even do that. Instead, they’re offering themselves up as prisoners.”

As the two were talking, the Neptune had already approached the Jin Yang.

Only then did Lin Kui give the order, "Pass down the order: do not let the enemy ships actually engage in combat. Although the Jin Yang is sturdy, if the enemy ships are prepared to perish together and detonate the explosives on their ships, it may damage the Jin Yang."

The messenger immediately went to relay the order, while the ruler beside him said, "Commander, you are overthinking it. I'm afraid the English don't have that kind of courage. Even if they do, the gunpowder on their ships may not be very powerful."

Lin Kui said, "It's never too much to be cautious."

So when the Sea King approached the Jin Yang by a few dozen paces, a row of musketeers suddenly appeared on the deck of the Jin Yang and fired a volley that killed more than a dozen soldiers on the Sea King, scaring the other English soldiers into shrinking back.

When the Neptune got within a dozen steps, strange, long steel rods extended from the Jin Yang and attached themselves to the Neptune, preventing it from getting any closer or moving away.

Upon seeing this, Taylor immediately shouted, "Quick! Prepare to swing onto the enemy ship!"

At this time, there were only about a hundred uninjured soldiers on the Neptune, and of them, only about a dozen were willing to fight. Even though they moved according to Taylor's orders, their efficiency was quite low.

Seeing this, Taylor personally pushed the long plank, preparing to lead the way onto the Jin Yang. However, something unexpected happened during this time: the Ming army actually set up a plank bridge, and some Ming soldiers even jumped directly from the Jin Yang onto the Hai Wang using ropes!
The Ming army on the Jinyang ship actually took the initiative to launch a battle!

These Ming soldiers were dressed in strange half-body rattan armor and helmets. Although they were not as tall as other Ming soldiers, they were all brave and fierce. After jumping onto the Sea King, they rolled on the spot and reached the nearby English soldiers, using their short swords and small rattan shields to slash and kill with great agility.

Caught off guard by the surprise attack, the English soldiers were almost all killed one by one.

"The glory of England must not be desecrated!" Taylor roared, charging forward with a greatsword in hand.

Born into nobility, he had better genes and nutrition than others, so he was quite tall, nearly 1.8 meters. He was also wearing fine armor and had excellent skills. After charging forward, he killed three Ming soldiers in succession.

But his display of power ended there.

The other Ming soldiers quickly noticed the jumper and immediately surrounded him. They worked together seamlessly and had considerable experience dealing with heavily armored soldiers. In just a few rounds, they managed to wound Taylor's legs and right hand through the gaps in his armor, and then threw out a net to capture him alive.

Taylor struggled violently in the net but could not break free.

He was furious; with red eyes, he took off his helmet and was about to commit suicide with his sword.

But how could those few scavengers, who had finally managed to capture this guy who was clearly a high-ranking local general, allow him to commit suicide? You should know that capturing a high-ranking local general, whether for ransom or to sell him as a laborer, would fetch a much higher price than capturing an ordinary prisoner.

Immediately, one of them knocked Taylor's greatsword away and, seeing that it was decorated with gold and silver and inlaid with a gemstone, happily seized it.

"Roar!" Taylor roared like a wild beast, shouting in English, "Let me go! I want to fight you all one by one!"

The Ming soldiers completely ignored him.

With Commander Taylor captured alive, the remaining English soldiers on the Sea King naturally offered no further resistance and surrendered one after another.

As for the other warships in the English fleet, those that were still afloat at this point had all surrendered.

Before long, the battlefield statistics were sent to the Jin Yang.

Fleet Commander Lin Kui immediately went to see it with Li Yousheng, the commander of the Ning-Dai allied forces on the ship.

"In this battle, we captured a total of 34 English warships of various sizes and took 2348 English soldiers prisoner. Most importantly, not a single ship from this main English fleet escaped. It can barely be considered a great victory. Commander Lin truly deserves to be a famous general of the Jin naval forces!" Li Yousheng said with a smile.

Lin Kui humbly replied, "What kind of famous general am I? My cousin Lin Feng is the real naval general."

Li Yousheng: "Brother Lin, are you referring to Lin Feng, the current Lieutenant General of the South China Sea Fleet?"

"good."

Li Yousheng said, "General Lin is indeed a famous naval commander, but he is from the South China Sea Navy. We generals from vassal states cannot compare to him."

After the two talked for a while, Lin Kui gave the order for the fleet to continue westward.

Their fleet and the combined forces of the Jin, Ning, and Dai tribes on board could only lose the vanguard of the three feudatories' joint attack on England. The main force, as well as Prince Zhu Gui, who personally led the troops, were still in the combined fleet behind.

The next day.

The vanguard fleet of the Jinning-led coalition arrived at Bournemouth, the port where the previously annihilated English fleet had been based.

And in less than an hour, they easily captured this small seaside town in southern England.

This time, however, the allied forces found it difficult to completely block the news, and information about the Ming army's attack reached London within a day...

London is a city founded by the Normans on the site of the ancient Roman city. It is mainly divided into two parts: the eastern part, the Old City, was mostly inhabited by nobles, merchants, and some ordinary citizens; the western part was dominated by palaces, monasteries, and churches, and was the true political center of the Plantagenet dynasty.

In the royal palace, on the Iron Throne, which represents the supreme power in the south of Great Britain and is inlaid with many jewels and gold, the nearly forty-year-old King Henry IV of England sat in an unnatural posture, wearing a hooded cloak that covered most of his face.

The guards in the palace and the ministers who were reporting on state affairs were not surprised by this, because they all knew that Henry IV had been suffering from a strange illness since the last rebellion was quelled and Richard Scroop, the Archbishop of York, was executed last year.

Light or pale red spots began to appear on his face and body, his skin became insensitive to hot and cold, and his body gradually weakened.

However, Henry IV had now established sufficient authority through victory after victory, and even with his strange illness, no one dared to challenge his authority. (End of Chapter)