Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 21: Whalers vs. Cruisers
Rachno was startled and asked, "There are artillery now? Where are they?"
The staff officer said: "Our Cuba cruiser has six 120mm naval guns! How could you forget it?"
Lacheno smiled disdainfully and said, "Can't you come up with some smart ideas? The naval guns firing from the sea are definitely not accurate. If the winery and sugar factory are blown up, Fernando, the greedy old fox, will definitely say bad things about me in front of the governor again!"
The staff officer said, "General, what should we do?"
Lacheno frowned and said nothing. At this time, Denison said, "General, there are only more than 10,000 bullets in the ammunition depot. If we attack them with all our might, they will run out of bullets! Then we will be able to destroy them!"
Lacheno said without thinking: "Bullshit! If I fight as you said, how many of my men will die? I will lose so many people fighting these people. Do I still have the face to save? Also, can you guarantee that the people inside haven't made new bullets? They even made cannons!"
At this time, the staff officer also said: "Mr. Dennison, don't forget that you were one of us! Now that you have become Boss Fernande's man, can you bear to watch us use our blood and lives to exchange for your boss's money?"
Denison was scolded by everyone and dared not speak again. Lacheno thought for a moment and said, "Order the troops to rest for half an hour!"
The Spanish troops began to rest, and Lin Fei began to count the number of people and check their equipment. He found that twenty natives were killed and fifteen were injured. Li Mingbai and his infantry suffered no casualties, and there were still a lot of bullets and explosives left. Lin Fei wanted to encourage the natives, so he looked for Chen Jingui, but there was no trace of Chen Jingui in the crowd.
Lin Fei hurriedly sent someone to look for Chen Jingui, and found him on the bottom floor of the ammunition depot. He was hiding behind a large box, shaking with fear. Lin Fei had no choice but to ask him to encourage the natives. Chen Jingui gritted his teeth and walked up to the natives, chattering away with some encouraging words.
At this moment, Niu Dahu jumped down from the lookout and said to Lin Fei: "Report to Captain Lin, the Spaniards are withdrawing!"
Lin Fei was startled, and he climbed up to the lookout in a few steps and looked into the distance. He saw that the Spaniards who were originally at the edge of the woods had all gone into the woods, and no trace of them could be seen.
Lin Fei jumped down from the lookout and said, "They really retreated." Everyone cheered. Lin Fei looked solemn, without a trace of joy. Chen Jingui came over and said with a flattering smile, "Captain Lin's might scared away the Spanish. Why are you still so unhappy?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "The Spaniards definitely didn't escape." After saying that, Lin Fei raised his head and shouted to the crowd, "Everyone wait a minute!" Everyone quieted down after hearing what Lin Fei said, staring at him blankly. Lin Fei said loudly, "Although we defeated the Spaniards, the Spanish army's vitality was not damaged! If the intelligence is accurate, Spain sent out 2,000 people, but how many have we killed now? About a hundred! If they withdraw now, they must have a powerful trick up their sleeve."
Everyone finally understood what Lin Fei said, and they all looked worried. Li Mingbai walked up to Lin Fei and asked in a low voice: "Captain Lin, do you think they have any powerful tricks up their sleeve?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "I don't know about that either, but no matter what powerful tricks they have, we can handle them under my leadership!"
When everyone saw Lin Fei's confident look, they were cheered up and became more energized. But at this moment, they heard a shrill scream from the sky. Lin Fei was too familiar with this sound. He had heard it countless times in his era and in this era. This sound was the sound of a shell falling!
Lin Fei shouted at the top of his voice: "Get down!" Everyone fell to the ground one after another, and then they heard a "boom" from outside the concrete wall. Ten seconds later, another boom came from outside the concrete wall, and this time the explosion was closer to everyone.
Lin Fei's heart was beating wildly. Li understood that the people and the natives had probably never experienced an artillery battle. If they were scared away, there would be no need to defend this place.
When Lin Fei thought of this, he looked up and saw Li Mingbai leading everyone hiding behind the concrete wall without fear. It turned out that they had experienced the Battle of Fengdao and witnessed the power of artillery shells, so they were not afraid. But the natives were not like that. They were scared to the point that their legs were shaking and cold sweats were pouring down. Lin Fei's face changed drastically. He thought that if these natives looked like this, we would definitely not be able to defend ourselves if the Spanish army attacked!
Lin Fei pulled Chen Jingui over and said, "Go tell those natives, I will save them, tell them not to be afraid!"
Chen Jingui stammered, "I can't... I can't. My legs... my legs are weak. I can't stand up."
Lin Fei said angrily: "Then tell me what to say!"
Chen Jingui taught Lin Fei a sentence in a trembling voice. Lin Fei crawled in front of the crowd and said that sentence. The natives heard that their god would save them, and then they regained their peace.
At this time, a shell landed at the entrance of the ammunition depot. The huge impact force directly blew away the original door of the ammunition depot. Lin Fei's mind raced: "The shells are getting more and more accurate. If I don't find a way to stop these shells, they will blow up everything I have. But what can I do?"
Lin Fei frowned, and turned over all his military knowledge in his mind, but he had no idea. The cruiser was on the sea, how could he stop it? At this time, the shells were still falling towards the ammunition depot. A shell exploded directly on the top of the ammunition depot, and an iron barrel was blown away by the shock wave and fell into the yard with a "clang".
Suddenly, a name flashed in Lin Fei's mind - Pangu Whaler! Now it was the only thing that could fight at sea, but Pangu was just a whaling ship. Could it fight against a cruiser?
Lin Fei quickly came up with a plan and shouted loudly into the distance: "Sun Yong! Sun Yong!"
Sun Yong heard Lin Fei's words and ran over and said, "Captain, what's the matter?"
Lin Fei said: "You, follow me to Pangu!"
Sun Yong hurriedly asked: "Captain, are we going to abandon these people and escape? "
Lin Fei cursed: "What do you mean by running away? I'm going to lead you to fight the cruiser!"
Sun Yong's eyes almost popped out when he heard this. He said, "Captain, what are you talking about? Attacking a cruiser? The Pangu is just a whaling ship! Attacking a cruiser is like courting death, isn't it?"
Lin Fei said firmly: "Stop talking nonsense and follow me."
Sun Yong nodded in agreement. Lin Fei rushed to Li Mingbai and said to him, "Old Li, I'm going to take care of the Spanish cruiser. Please explain to the brothers clearly that I'm not running away. I won't abandon my brothers!"
Li Mingbai said: "Captain Lin, if you want to abandon your brothers, you won't have gone to so much trouble to bring them out of Japan. Go ahead and leave this to me!"
Lin Fei nodded, pointed at Chen Jingui who was lying on the side in silence, and said, "Tell him to hide on the bottom floor of the ammunition depot. I'm worried that this guy will tell the natives that I escaped. The natives are the main defense force, so we must not let them get in trouble!"
Li Mingbai agreed, and Lin Fei took Sun Yong and ran to the north. Li Mingbai crawled in front of Chen Jingui and said, "Captain Lin told you to hide on the bottom floor of the ammunition depot." When Chen Jingui heard this, his tongue and legs stopped shaking. He said "Okay" quickly and slipped into the ammunition depot.
Lin Fei and Sun Yong came out from the north side of the wall and ran all the way to the beach. According to Lin Fei's request, the whaling ship Pangu stopped not far from the beach. Lin Fei took Sun Yong on the Pangu. Yu Xier and Liu Daming hurriedly gathered around. Liu Daming shouted, "We heard the Spanish firing. What's going on?"
Lin Fei said: "We haven't caused serious damage yet, but if we don't quickly destroy the enemy's cruiser, it's only a matter of time before we lose everything. We must immediately start the whaling ship and destroy the enemy's cruiser."
Liu Daming laughed when he heard this and said, "Old Lin, do you think our Pangu is the Zhiyuan ship? Attacking the enemy's cruiser, isn't this a joke?"
Lin Fei said: "Let's start the Pangu first, and we can talk about other things later! We'll use the sails this time, understand?"
Liu Daming said yes and led the sailors to set sail. Japan learned China, using triangular sails and folding sails. These two types of sails once led the world for a long time. With such sails, they can use the wind from all directions to move forward by changing the angle of the sails, which is what is meant by "the ship uses the wind from all directions."
The Pangu set sail with the help of the wind and headed towards the south of the island. Yu Xier said to Liu Daming at the side: "Mr. Torpedo Officer, nothing in the world is absolute. Our whaler can also hit the cruiser."
Liu Daming said: "Then tell me, how do you play?"
Yu Xier looked embarrassed and said, "I haven't thought about this yet."
Liu Daming laughed and said, "Old Foreign Fish, doesn't your master have an 'Ark'? Can you talk to him and see if you can borrow it for use?"
Liu Daming often made fun of Yu Xier's Catholicism. Yu Xier was angry with him at first, but after going through life and death together, he could no longer be angry. Yu Xier glared at Liu Daming and said nothing. At this time, Lin Fei said, "Listen to me, Old Yu is right. There is nothing absolute in the world, no absolute strength, and no absolute weakness. Everything is constantly transforming between strength and weakness due to various factors. We are a whaling ship. This is both our weakness and our strength!"
Liu Daming stamped his feet fiercely and said angrily, "Old Lin, it's already this time and you're still showing off your knowledge. If you have any good ideas, please let them out like a loud fart."
Lin Fei said: "I have a way, but this method requires risking one's life. Do you dare to do it?"
