lcionline Chapter 298 The final madness
Chapter 298 The final madness
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Frustrated and brooding in the cabin, Zheng Zhibao leaped out, brandishing his tiger-headed saber and shouting, "Brothers, this is it! Charge!"
The expected scene of immediate response did not materialize. Only a handful of people emerged from the lower deck, peering out cautiously, seemingly hesitant about obeying the third leader's call. Most others remained hidden in the lower decks, too afraid to come out. The corpses on the deck, however, were piled high, creating an eerie scene alongside the few hesitant survivors.
Zheng Zhibao's heart sank. His men were terrified and had lost the will to attack. He took a deep breath and said loudly, "At this point, anyone who cowers will face undeserved disaster for their family!"
Hearing that the third leader was threatening them with his family, the pirates had no choice but to climb from the hold to the deck one after another, preparing to board the ship and fight hand-to-hand. Because the deck was covered in blood, many of them lost their footing, slipped, and fell flat on their faces.
By this time, the Caron cannons had ceased firing. The enemy ship had closed in and was now in a blind spot for the cannons; firing again was pointless. On the gun deck, the gunners were gathered together and each issued a Type 5 Qionghai pistol or a Type 3 Qionghai rifle. The first mate and the gunnery officer gave an urgent pep talk: "The enemy is about to board. If you don't want to die by the sword, grab your guns, go up to the deck, and fight them off!"
Both the Yongle-class and Wuyi-class warships were purely gunboats. In ordinary battles, their powerful firepower was sufficient to handle threats, so they weren't equipped with many dedicated combat personnel. But today's battle was unconventional, completely overturning the normal pattern of naval warfare. The Zheng family deployed hand-to-hand combat forces regardless of casualties, far exceeding expectations, to the point that even the frenzied bombardment of nearly a hundred Caron cannons couldn't completely eliminate them. To ensure that the remaining pirates didn't board the ships and rewrite the outcome of the battle, both the gunners responsible for lighting the fires and the sailors raising and lowering the sails had to take up arms and fight in ways they weren't usually familiar with.
Although Gao Jie appeared calm on the surface, he was somewhat nervous inside, his biggest fear being that Liu Ye's safety might be compromised. While his observations suggested that the Zheng family's pirate-turned-soldier soldiers were showing signs of hesitation, their numbers were simply too overwhelming. Besides the ten soldiers drawn from Liu Ye's guard unit, the "Guangdong" had no other regular infantry; the guard unit had been deployed to attack Anping Town with the special forces and was no longer on the flagship. To ensure absolute safety, he instructed Captain Van Bommel to organize the sailors to resist on the spot, while simultaneously ordering the messengers to signal the Wuxiang-class ships on both sides to immediately converge on the flagship.
Zheng Zhibao spent some extra effort coercing and enticing his subordinates to board the ship, even having to threaten his family members in order to organize a proper boarding operation. This bought time for the people on the warship. The sailors came down from the lookout tower and masts, and the gunners crawled up from the lower gun decks, gathered together, picked up their guns, and prepared for battle.
The final battle began. Under Zheng Zhibao's command, the surviving pirates howled to bolster their spirits, throwing grappling hooks to grab the ship's sides and climbing up ropes. The sailors on the warship raised their guns and fired downwards to halt the enemy's advance. The gunshots mingled with the pirates' shouts, creating a deafening cacophony.
Unlike the Dutch matchlock muskets, the flintlock muskets of the Qiongzhou camp not only had a faster rate of fire due to their different ignition method, but also used paper-filled bullets, which had greater friction than the smooth lead bullets. Even when the muzzle was tilted downwards, the bullets would not easily fall off. As a result, the pirates who thought they were in the blind spot of the muskets while hanging on the ropes encountered fierce musket fire and were hit and fell off one after another.
Even though the sailors had only received basic shooting training and their marksmanship couldn't compare to that of army soldiers, their superior weaponry and higher ground advantage, coupled with the pirates' lack of effective means of resistance during the climb, tipped the scales of the boarding and anti-boarding battle in favor of the Qiongzhou camp. The occasional cutting of grappling hooks, causing strings of pirates to fall into the sea, only compounded their woes.
Zheng Zhibao felt a wave of despair. This damned Qiongzhou camp was far more formidable than the red-haired barbarians, whether it was cannons or muskets. The Zheng family was at a disadvantage in both long-range and close-range combat. Why didn't they strangle them before they were fully developed?
Just then, a familiar face peeked out from the ship's side, seemingly observing the battle, but was immediately pulled inside by someone nearby. Zheng Zhibao, with his sharp eyes, recognized him as Liu Ye, the military commander of Qiongzhou, the mastermind behind this naval battle. It turned out that his ship had just collided with Liu Ye's flagship, the "Guangdong."
Zheng Zhibao's blood was boiling. With the battle situation so unfavorable, if he could kill the enemy chieftain, he would not only have a chance to turn the tide of the battle, but he would also make a great contribution. God had presented him with a golden opportunity!
He raised his tiger-headed saber and shouted, "Brothers, gather your forces and attack this big ship! There's a big fish on board. Whoever can board will be rewarded with two hundred taels of silver!"
The bounty of two hundred taels of silver offered simply for boarding the ship was unprecedented in Zheng Jiaci's bounty offerings. Spurred by the reward, the pirates mustered the last bit of courage within them and surged towards the "Guangdong," struggling to climb aboard.
Given the height of the Yongle-class ships, boarding them was no less difficult than an ant swarm attacking a city. The pirates, fueled by a burst of enthusiasm, struggled to climb, but despite the barrage of musket fire, none of them were able to reach the deck.
Enraged, Zheng Zhibao shoved the tiger-head knife behind his back, pushed aside his men, grabbed the rope, and boarded the ship himself.
Lead bullets occasionally swept overhead. Zheng Zhibao clung tightly to the hull, using the pirates in front as cover to avoid the fire. Because the ship wasn't vertical, but rather wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, and with a string of pirates hanging from ropes, it was difficult for those on board to hit those hiding below. Zheng Zhibao, experienced as he was, made full use of the ship's structure and the human sandbags for cover, successfully climbing to within ten meters of the ship's edge, almost reaching the deck.
At this moment, after successfully destroying more than a dozen troop transport ships attempting to outflank the rear from both sides, the 16 Wuxiang-class patrol ships received orders from the flagship and quickly converged. Faced with the densely packed climbing crowd, they knew what to do.
All the Caron guns on the Wuxiang-class patrol vessels lowered their muzzles slightly and fired at the waterline of warships such as the "Guangdong".
"Boom boom boom," the shrapnel rained down. The warship's hull was thick enough that the shrapnel only left dents and did not cause any real damage. The pirates waiting to board and those hanging on the grappling hooks were just flesh and blood, screaming as they fell into the sea.