Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 23: Bloody Battle
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he reached out to move the engine bell on the side. The engine bell was connected to the engine cabin and was an important tool for transmitting the captain's instructions to the engine cabin. Lin Fei used the engine bell to transmit the instructions to reverse the propeller and reverse at full speed to the engine cabin.
Yu Xier immediately moved the transmission to reverse the propeller, and the Pangu gradually slowed down. Lin Fei shouted, "Drop anchor!"
Lin Fei was afraid that if he stopped the ship too slowly, the enemy ship would turn before rushing to him, so he used the method of "dropping anchor to assist stopping". Sun Yong at the bow immediately started the anchor machine and dropped the steel anchor. The anchor fell to the bottom of the water. The huge anchor teeth bit into the bottom of the water and gradually pulled the boat.
Under the combined effect of the reversed propeller and the anchor, the Pangu was like a frightened horse that was suddenly pulled, and its speed dropped sharply , while the cruiser behind it maintained a speed of about thirteen knots and quickly rushed over.
Lin Fei pulled out the "Saladin Blade" from his waist, gritted his teeth, and thought that the moment of risking his life had come! Lin Fei stepped out of the cockpit and saw the cruiser in the distance rushing towards the starboard side of the Pangu. The main guns, soldiers, and clothes drying on the deck were all clearly visible!
Lin Fei yelled to Liu Daming, "Give me the rope, I'll jump first!" Everyone had already prepared the rope that Lin Fei needed, and when they heard Lin Fei's words, they handed it to Lin Fei. Lin Fei hung the rope on his shoulder, but suddenly found that the cruiser was 15 meters away from the Pangu! Lin Fei's heart "skipped", thinking that 15 meters was too far, how could I possibly jump over?
Lin Fei glanced at the main mast and thought to himself: "Can I jump over from the mast? No! The distance is still too far, and I can't run from the mast. The distance I jump must be shorter!"
At this time, the Spaniards on the cruiser had realized that they were too close to the Pangu, so they began to turn the rudder to another direction. At this time, the two cannons on the side were also aimed at the Pangu. Lin Fei also saw the gunners busy around the cannons, pointing the muzzles at the Pangu, and they could fire at any time.
Lin Fei's sweat was almost pouring down like water. He thought that at such a close distance, the Pangu was a wooden-hulled whaling ship, and one shell was enough to penetrate the entire hull. After being bombarded by two cannons for a while, the ship would definitely not be able to be saved, and he and everyone else would be buried in the sea.
At this critical moment, Lin Fei saw the whale-hunting cannon on the bow. He rushed to the cannon and asked Sun Yong, "Is the whale-hunting cannon in firing mode?"
Sun Yong hurriedly said: "According to your order, all the equipment on the ship is in usable condition, including the whaling gun!"
Lin Fei said: "Well, use the whale gun to aim at the enemy's warship and shoot the harpoon!"
Sun Yong did not ask any further questions. He rotated the whaling gun and aimed the harpoon at the Cuba cruiser. He pressed the ignition button and the propellant was ignited. The propellant was black powder, and the explosion would produce a large amount of gas, which pushed the harpoon towards the Cuba cruiser.
The harpoon is forged from pure steel, and is sharp and strong. With the barb in front, it will hook the cruiser's deck tightly once it pierces it. There is a steel cable behind the harpoon, and the steel cable is fixed on the whaling turret. After the harpoon pierces the whale's body, the whale can be caught by pulling the steel cable. At this time, the steel cable will build a cable bridge between the Pangu and the Cuba.
Lin Fei shouted loudly: "Brothers, either live or die, follow me!" After Lin Fei finished speaking, he held the Saladin Blade in his mouth, grabbed the rope with both hands and put it on the steel cable, and slid onto the cruiser along the steel cable. The Spanish sailors on the cruiser were stunned, thinking: "My God, are there still people who fight like this?"
As soon as Lin Fei's feet touched the ground, the Spanish gunners at the nearby gun position rushed up, but unfortunately they had no weapons at all. After all, it was the late 19th century and boarding had long been in the naval museum, so no one thought of equipping the gunners with melee weapons.
So these gunners could only attack Lin Fei with a barrel cleaning stick, a wooden stick with a cloth wrapped in front, which was used to reach into the barrel and clean the remaining gunpowder inside. The propellant used by the Spanish Navy was black powder, which did not burn completely, so the remaining gunpowder had to be cleaned.
Lin Fei looked at the gunners surrounding him, gritted his teeth and made up his mind, thinking to himself that today it's either you or me, let's fight! Lin Fei reached out and took off the rope on his shoulder, and threw it to the gunner closest to him. The gunner dodged, and Lin Fei rushed to him in one step, swung the Saladin Blade and chopped at his neck.
The knife hit the bone with a "click" sound, and Lin Fei felt his arm shake instantly. Then the Spanish gunner's head flew up, and blood spurted out like an arrow.
Not only were the other Spanish soldiers not frightened by this scene, but they were aroused. A Spanish gunner swung the rifle in his hand and hit Lin Fei. In close combat, it all comes down to who has greater strength and who is faster. Lin Fei has been trained for a long time, so his strength and speed are naturally beyond that of ordinary people. He aimed at the gunner and chopped him on the shoulder.
The Spanish gunner screamed, threw away his rifle and fell backwards. Lin Fei tried to pull out the Saladin Blade, but the blade didn't move at all. Lin Fei was also dragged by the Spanish gunner and staggered. He was shocked and thought to himself: "I was too impatient. I didn't chop in the right place just now. The knife must have been embedded in the shoulder blade and can't be pulled out!"
At this moment, Lin Fei suddenly felt a strong wind coming from behind him, and there was a pain in the back of his head. Then he heard the sound of a wooden stick breaking, and everything went black. Lin Fei rolled forward with the force, and his mind became clearer. Although Lin Fei was a special forces soldier, he was still a man, not a god. Two fists could not beat four hands, and he was distracted by not being able to pull out his knife, so he was hit on the back of his head with a stick.
At this time, Lin Fei saw several gunners coming towards him with long iron rods for repairing artillery. His heart tightened involuntarily. How could he fight with his bare hands?
At this moment, they heard gunshots from behind, and several gunners fell down screaming. Liu Daming, Sun Yong and other brothers, each holding a rifle, appeared on the deck. Liu Daming laughed loudly: "Guns are still useful, take it." Liu Daming threw a rifle to Lin Fei. Lin Fei reached out to catch it, pointed to the cab and said, "Old Liu, occupy the cab first! We can't let it turn any further!" Then he pointed to the bow and said, "Sun Yong, take people to drop anchor."
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he grabbed the handle of the Saladin Blade, stepped on the gunner, pulled the knife out with a sudden pull, and led Liu Daming to rush to the cab. Several sailors were blocking the door of the cab, holding long iron bars, wrenches and other things as weapons in their hands.
Lin Fei didn't need a knife anymore. He just picked up his gun and pulled the trigger. A sailor fell down with a scream. The other soldiers knew they were no match for him, so they dropped their "weapons" and ran away. Lin Fei came to the door of the cab and kicked it open. The captain was in the cab. Several sailors in the room rushed forward. Lin Fei, Liu Daming and others used knives and guns to kill them all.
The captain was a man in his fifties and was no match for Lin Fei. He was subdued by Lin Fei in just a few moves. Lin Fei pointed at the captain and said to his subordinates, "Keep an eye on him first!" Liu Daming went up and held the captain down. In order to prevent the steel cable from being broken by the cruiser, Lin Fei reached out and turned the steering wheel, returned the rudder to the normal position, and then issued an order to move forward at a slight speed to the engine room through the car bell.
"Slight advance" is the minimum speed at which a ship can produce a steering effect. During the ship's navigation, this speed is the slowest. The engine room was unaware of what was happening in the cockpit at this time and thought that "Slight advance" was an order from the captain, so it immediately adjusted the propeller speed to slow down the cruiser.
The steel cable behind the harpoon was about to be broken. The cruiser adjusted the rudder angle and slowed down to loosen the steel cable. Several sailors rushed onto the cruiser with guns. Lin Fei shouted, "Everyone, guard the cab!"
Everyone agreed in unison and came outside the cab with their guns. The Spanish soldiers didn't have guns and didn't dare to come out, so they could only watch them from a distance.
Seeing that the situation had calmed down, Lin Fei turned to the captain and said, "Do you speak English?"
The Spanish captain shouted angrily in English: "Who are you?"
Lin Fei ignored the captain's words. At this moment, the boat was pulled hard and stopped. Lin Fei knew that Sun Yong had already dropped the anchor. He felt more confident and said to Liu Daming, "Go and ask Yu Xier and the others to come on board!"
As soon as Liu Daming left, the Spanish captain shouted angrily: "What on earth are you going to do?"
Lin Fei said loudly: "Captain, if you don't want to die, please let your men give up resistance!"
The captain shook his head viciously and said, "You want to take our battleship? Don't dream on. I won't agree to that!"
Lin Fei swung the long knife in his hand, slapped the captain's shoulder with the back of the knife, and shouted: "Do you agree or not?"
The captain raised his head, looked directly into Lin Fei's eyes, and said righteously: "Never!"
Lin Fei thought to himself: "There are more than a hundred people on this ship, and we only have more than twenty people. Moreover, the cabins inside the ship are complicated. If we fight hard, we may not be the opponent. We must find a way to force the captain to surrender! But this captain is so tough, how can I make him surrender?"
Just as Lin Fei was thinking about countermeasures, he saw the captain suddenly lowered his head and hit Lin Fei's blade with his neck. Lin Fei was startled and hurriedly moved his knife away, but Lin Fei was distracted and withdrew his knife slowly, and the captain's neck hit the blade. Saladin's Blade is a precious sword that can cut gold and jade. Lin Fei just used it to chop down two people and the blade didn't even break. How could it not cut the soft neck?
