open sea

Chapter 605
"Ming's merchant ship, what is that?"

On the endless sea near the land, two Caravel ships with beige sails and the Flying Shark ship with painted blue forest sails faced each other at a distance of more than [-] steps.

A small paddle boat was lowered from the caravel ship, and two sailors, carrying a junior officer and a priest wearing a breastplate and a plume hat, slowly rowed over, and asked loudly below the ship why the bright ship was coming.

The huge size of the Flying Shark ship made them very cautious. The officer raised his neck and looked at the paintings of the floating waves on the ship with prudent eyes, and only asked a few questions. He replied in Spanish mixed with Chinese: "The merchant ships of the Ming Empire, Mogadishu is protected by the King of Portugal. Any ship that wants to go to the port for trade must check the goods here. Are there any northern pagans on your ship? "

Yang Ce knew what he meant by heretics, and keenly extracted information he didn't know. The Ottoman Empire may have expanded to the Arabian Peninsula on the map, and the nearest territory may be only a few hundred miles away from the Western Great City. separated.

"We sailed westward from the distant Ming Dynasty. We were going to go to Goa for trade. On the way, we encountered heavy rain and deviated to this place. We didn't sail further north. Shouldn't the inspection cargo be at the port?"

Yang Ce shouted loudly on the boat, condescendingly glanced at the military uniforms of several people on the boat, and whispered to Sun Liu who was beside him: "The priest's robe is bulging and wears armor, and there is a gunpowder and pellet barrel on the belt. See where his gun is; the officer wears chain mail under the breastplate, it should be the army, no sailor wears it like that."

"The other two sailors don't wear armor and have serrated knives on their waists. They should also be pirates."

When Yang Ce tilted his head to exchange information with Sun Liu, the priest on the paddle boat was also whispering to the officer. Neither side could hear the other, but Yang Ce could see their expressions. Following the priest, he shouted again: "Friends who came from far away from Ming Dynasty, your ship is too big, and we can't feel at ease when it is close to the port. How many weapons do you have? How many soldiers?"

"Weapons, soldiers? We are merchants issued by the imperial court to the ship. The imperial court is not allowed to carry large weapons. Only some bows and firecrackers are enough for us to repel the pirates. However, we have a lot of people. Such a large ship requires more than 40 people. Let it move."

Yang Ce said to Sun Liudao: "Be safe and don't be impatient, try to trick some of them out of the big ship and let them drown in the sea. This Taoist priest who pretends to be a ghost knows a lot. It is best to capture him."

Sun Liu was ready to kill a long time ago. After nodding his head, his figure shuttled across the ship, gave orders to many sailors, and ordered more than [-] pirates carrying long and short guns to gather at the front of the deck.

"It can be seen that you must have loaded a lot of cargo. Don't worry, we will let you enter the port after we check whether there are any cannons on your ship. Don't try to escape. There are six cannons behind you that are already aimed at you."

Obviously, just relying on Yang Ce's words, the priest planned to let people board the boat to investigate. The sailors on the small oar boat waved the flag, and the two caravel boats approached this side, trying to wrap the flying shark in the middle one after the other.

"I'm afraid they want to see if we have artillery and seize the ship directly. It won't work to trick people out of the ship. Let the sailors prepare for the artillery battle."

At this point, Yang Ce still didn't give up, and shouted to the ship with a little panic: "What are you going to do? If you want to board the ship, I trust the priest more, please go on board, don't bring too many soldiers... ..."

Before Yang Ce finished speaking, the small paddle boat was already slowly moving away. Yang Ce was so angry that he raised his hand and slapped the side of the boat hard: "Why haven't I been trained to lie to others?"

The sailors on the caravel ship, which had sailed to the bow of the Flying Shark after a few hundred steps, were all preparing to hook the rope. The goal of this group of Portuguese could not be clearer, they wanted to jump in and snatch the ship.

"Turn right, full sail, don't get flanked by them!"

The Caravel ship at the stern sailed a little slower, and it was not completely outflanked at this time. Yang Ce strode to the port side of the ship behind the five-jin General Zhenshuo's cannon, pushed the gunner away and ordered loudly: "All the cannons are ready to aim!"

If it is a normal navy, as the captain, he should stand at the bow and give orders to the crew, but they are not. Yang Ce knows that the artillery shooters on his ship are not qualified, let alone everyone listens to Sun Liu, so he immediately asked Sun Liu to command In combat, he acted as the gunner, and only shouted loudly to Sun Liu: "Each enemy ship has more than forty sailors, and if you don't kill more than half of them, you can't go on board!"

As he spoke, he still couldn't forget to look at the small paddle boat gradually fleeing from the battlefield. If the battle went well, he could catch the priest before the paddle boat fled to the big Clark ship. Knowing all the information better, this person is very useful to Lin Feng.

The front and rear Western-style soft sails were quickly opened, and the heavy and huge crane-wing sails were slowly raised by several pirates pushing the winch under the mast. The Caravel ship was the first to fire at the Flying Shark, starting the battle.

The distance was less than a hundred steps, and the artillery was very accurate. As soon as people saw gunpowder smoke rising from the side of the Portuguese boat, three shells came crashing down with a scream. One shell hit the bow head-on, and the other splashed water on the sea surface. The caliber is not large and does not penetrate the ship's plank.

The other one just hit the relatively weak porthole in front of the gun position on the port side, penetrated the wooden board and hit the head of the two-jin General Zhenshuo cannon. The gunslinger's head, the artillery hit by the iron shell also retreated half a step, and the tail of the gun hit the chest of the gunner who was about to aim at it. With a scream, Yang Ce could only see the chest depression of the shirtless gunner.

Not even the best military doctor can save him.

Immediately afterwards, the enemy ship raised a cloud of gunpowder smoke, and a row of lead hit the outside of the ship with a few clicks. It was difficult for the muskets to hit at this distance. The first volley of more than a dozen muskets from the enemy ship failed to fly. sharks causing any casualties.

"Hidden on the starboard side, open the gun port on the port side!"

As soon as Yang Ce's words fell, another enemy ship on the right side of the stern also fired at them, but this time the Portuguese were unlucky. In fact, their artillery can't penetrate the thick plank of the Flying Shark at one time.

With the opening of the portholes, the crane-wing sails slowly raised on the three masts were finally nearly full, and the speed of the ship was increased. The two pirate Franco gunners on the port side eagerly bombarded the enemy ship. The gunner's death had been eliminated, only Yang Ce's tall five-jin Zhenshuo cannon was left.

He slowly adjusted the angle of the artillery, aiming at the person standing at the bow of the enemy ship and giving orders. The hull and artillery fluctuated with the waves, and Yang Ce gritted his teeth slightly.

boom!
General Zhenshuo roared belatedly.

(End of this chapter)