About 1 a.m. after the Chou Time, two Kongming lanterns finally rose near the Deepwater Bay Pier. On the temporary dock of Deepwater Bay, the Portuguese sailors on the night were shocked to see the two Kongming lanterns that suddenly rose...
"Oh, God! What is that? What lamp can fly?" The Portuguese had never seen Kongming lanterns, so they were naturally a little confused.
However, they were stunned, but the Ming army was not confused. On the side of the Yanbozhou, after seeing the Kongming lanterns two miles away, the navy commander Lin Tianhai ordered the commander of the emperor:
"Beat the drum, raise the sail! Fireboat attack!"
Then, the war drums on the flagship sounded. At this time, on Taiping Mountain several miles west of Hong Kong Island, Wang Wei was also standing on the mountain and looking southeastward under the escort of guards.
Suddenly, I heard a faint sound of drums coming from the quiet night. Wang Yu knew that the decisive battle had begun...
Amid the sound of war drums, accompanied by the drum beats, the fire boats raised their sails in sequence, took turns to pass through the waterway west of the Yanbozhou to enter the deep water bay, and then quickly lined up and rushed into the bay along the southwest wind...
Because the attack had been launched, the Ming army no longer remained silent, but instead heard a series of shouts of killing. The Portuguese sailor on the dock finally felt something was wrong and began to shout:
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
The light-sleeping grape soldiers were awakened and stood up to check the situation. Many Portuguese sailors on the rice wine were still sleeping soundly.
The rice wine is not high in the form of high quality, but it is really easy to get into trouble. Many Portuguese sailors don’t think anything is there when they drink it. After falling asleep, they sleep very heavily...
Hong Hengjiu didn't drink much, and he was awakened by hearing the old noise.
When he hurriedly put on his clothes, the Ming army's fire fleet had already formed a formation and began to rush towards the dock. Among them, some of the fire ships rushing in the front row had already begun to ignite, and the flames on the ship had risen...
"No, 'burn the Red Cliff'!" Hong Hengjiu had also heard of the storytelling of the Three Kingdoms, so he naturally knew the classic Battle of Red Cliff. Therefore, when he saw the fire rising one mile from the sea, he knew that something was wrong.
So he rushed towards the house where Dagama lived and shouted:
"Governor General, send someone to do a boat to avoid it! Send someone to do a boat to avoid it!"
Dagama had just put on his clothes and came out, and before he could figure out what was going on, he heard Hong Hengjiu's terrified shouts.
"What's going on? Benardo, ask Hong, what is he calling?"
Benardo immediately started communicating with Hong Hengjiu, and then the cold sweat from Benardo's head fell...
After understanding Hong Hengjiu's meaning, Benardo immediately ran to Gama and said:
"Governor General, Hong said that the enemy is rushing over with a row of fire ships. There are flammable things such as oil and sulfur on the fire ships. Once they stick to our warships, our warships will be burned!"
"I x!" Dagama couldn't help but swear, so he shouted in horror:
"Everyone, get on the boat quickly, control the sailboat to leave the mooring and hide from both sides!"
"Everyone, get on the boat quickly, control the sailboat to leave the mooring and hide from both sides!"
"Everyone, get on the boat quickly, control the sailboat to leave the mooring and hide from both sides!"
Dagama shouted three times in a row, and many Portuguese sailors who woke up rushed to board the ship, preparing to raise their sails, and drove the ship away from the dock.
However, many Portuguese sailors who were drunk were still sleeping...
Dagama shouted in anger:
"Don't worry about those drunks for now. Everyone, who can board the ship should get on board! Hurry up and avoid the enemy's fired ships!"
At this time, the front row of fire ships was only about 300 meters away from the outermost warships of the dock. At this time, the speed of the fire ship was about 5 knots, which is more than 2.5 meters per second. A distance of 300 meters can be reached in about two minutes.
Even though some Portuguese sailors were moving very quickly, the outermost Portuguese warships had been stuck on the Ming munitions and began to burn.
Seeing this situation, Dagama was so angry that he jumped straight. However, many people in the Portuguese sailor camp were frightened and ran around like headless flies, with signs of explosion of the camp.
Hong Hengjiu gritted his teeth and suggested:
"No matter what, Governor General, take the still sober soldiers to board the boat that is leaning against the side, and you can run away one by one!"
Dagama felt distressed for a moment, but he also knew that Hong Hengjiu's suggestion was correct. Therefore, he could only bear the pain and take the first group of Portuguese sailors to board the group of warships that were leaning behind the back. Regardless of whether the people were enough, he directly raised the anchor and dropped the sails and started running away...
However, when we first controlled the ship, everyone realized that something was wrong. Because the rudder could not be pried...
"Oh no, it must be the Ming army that destroyed the rudder..." Hong Hengjiu was sweating profusely. But he knew that if he was caught, his national traitor would undoubtedly die and would also affect the whole family.
In desperation, he could only suggest Dagama:
"Governor General, send someone to go into the water to check the tail rudder!"
Then, some Portuguese sailors jumped into the water and began to check the tail rudder. At this time, several Portuguese warships on the outermost layer had already ignited a raging fire. Moreover, the powder barrels on the ship also triggered a death explosion, accelerating the burning of the warships.
The more than 10 Portuguese warships that forced anchor to set sail on the inside, the two leading ones crashed directly into the coastline because they could not turn the rudder...
Finally, an experienced diving sailor found the culprit for the failure of the rudder and shouted:
"Draw the dagger inserted into the rudder plate!"
"Draw the dagger inserted into the rudder plate!"
...
After hearing his words, more than 10 launched Portuguese warships jumped out of the sea to inspect the sailors, one after another, began to look for daggers on the rudder sheet. Then, before the fire ship arrived, a total of 7 warships successfully restored the function of the rudder.
"Shoot out of the cracks in that small island!" Seeing that the exit of the deep water bay west of Yanbozhou was blocked by Ming munitions, Dagama had to take the risk and rushed to the narrow shallow waterway between the east of Yanbozhou and Hong Kong Island, which was easily stranded.
Fortunately, the tonnage of the Portuguese warships in this era was not large, only two or three hundred tons. Therefore, several ships successfully passed. However, the flagship "Prince Enrique" that Dagama was riding on was unfortunately stranded on this narrow waterway because of the largest tonnage...
"Abandon the ship! Let's go to the Leria!" Seeing that the unlucky Portuguese warships behind him had already ignited a raging fire in the fire ship formation. Because they were afraid of being bitten by the Ming navy, Dagama had to order the flagship to abandon the ship. The "Prince Enria" with a displacement of 450 tons and the crew took a boat to the Leria.
Seeing this, the warships behind the Ming army immediately came to pursue. However, the stranded "Prince Enrique" happened to block the Ming army's naval warship and gave the previous Portuguese ships a chance to escape...
Finally, the remaining six ships entered the Repulse Bay and fled in a hurry to the center of the sea.
Moreover, unfortunately, the crew members of the six escaped ships were seriously insufficient. Often, there were only about 50 sailors on each ship with a size of 150 warships. In other words, the Portuguese fleet of about 3,750 sailors only escaped about 300 people, less than one tenth... Moreover, most of the escaped were pure sailors and few gunners. Even if there were many artillery on the ship, most of them lost their place to use their weapons...
Chapter completed!