Chapter 1000: Our Western Pacific, Part I (Please Subscribe)

"Admiral, look!"

Captain Barbosa of the New Spain had already spotted the fireballs rising from the sea — not one, but two, or perhaps three fireballs bursting up at the same time!

"Is that... is that one of our ships?" Admiral Garcia's voice had gone hoarse as he asked, for he already had a most ominous — and familiar — premonition!

Something was about to go terribly wrong!

"Yes, the San Sebastian. It should be the San Sebastian." By the light of the burning hull, Captain Barbosa quickly recognized that the ship ablaze was the San Sebastian, one of the medium armed galleons that had come with Admiral Garcia from the Americas. That was a "new ship" launched less than ten years ago, the fastest vessel in the New Spain fleet, extremely useful when hunting pirates — and now it was finished, just like that?

"Boom — boom—"

Before Garcia and Barbosa had time to shed tears for the San Sebastian, two more fireballs rose from the sea! They were at the spot where the "Ibusuki turn" had taken place, very close to the beach of the Satsuma Peninsula.

Barbosa narrowed his eyes and watched for a moment. "It's the San Pedro. She's still charging toward the beach of the Satsuma Peninsula — probably trying to run herself aground there."

This San Pedro was the little 200-plus-ton vessel that had just shelled the Flying with 6-pounder guns. Its 6-pound shot could not hurt the Flying at all, while the 24-jin explosive shells the Flying fired back had blasted it into a wreck.

Still, Garcia's earlier order for every ship to offload excess gunpowder and keep only enough for one battle had clearly paid off.

Although the San Pedro, hit by two 24-jin explosive shells (three had struck home), had two masses of flame blazing fiercely from her hull, there was no terrifying magazine explosion — and she kept herself going, driving on to beach herself on the shore of the Satsuma Peninsula.

But the Spanish fleet's disaster did not end there. After only the time it takes half a stick of incense to burn, a third Spanish warship was swallowed up by two or three great fires.

This was an armed merchantman of three or four hundred tons, originally belonging to the Pacific Trade Company and requisitioned by the Spanish Eastern Invincible Fleet. She was of no small tonnage, but she carried only 6-pounders, and her hull was not sturdy. Now she was being attacked by two Dutch East India Company warships and had taken five 24-pound explosive shells, three of which had detonated. This armed merchantman was finished as well!

"Admiral, what do we do?" Barbosa was already somewhat at a loss. "We've lost three ships already. Should we break out of Kagoshima Bay?"

He was talking about running away.

But no sooner had he spoken than the hull of the New Spain shuddered — not from being hit, but from firing chain shot at the Jiangnan.

The artillery duel between the New Spain and the Jiangnan was still going on. Both warships had taken plenty of the other's chain shot; both had sails riddled with holes, and the decks were strewn with mangled, blood-soaked corpses.

With things already this bad, how could they disengage? How could they break out of Kagoshima Bay?

Just as Garcia and Barbosa were looking at each other, neither knowing what to do, a rumble suddenly sounded ahead of them. Both looked up and saw firelight flaring up ahead, roughly at the Sakurajima Strait — and not just one or two blazes, but fire after fire in an unbroken chain.

"That's..." Garcia was a little dazed, and for a moment could not work out what had happened.

It was Captain Barbosa of the New Spain who reacted faster and had already figured it out. He said to Garcia, "Admiral, it must be those bird ships of the Eight-Nation Fleet forcing their way through the Sakurajima Strait."

"What? Forcing the Sakurajima Strait? What are the Chinese trying to do?" Garcia was still somewhat confused.

"They... they're probably afraid of being attacked by us, and want to rush into the inner Kagoshima Bay to take shelter."

Barbosa had actually guessed right! Although Garcia and Barbosa had never even considered attacking those dozens of great bird ships — those bird ships also carried bombards and were not easy to deal with — Zheng Jiangong and Shi Lang did not dare think that way. Because those great bird ships were also loaded with many army troops and army equipment and supplies; losing even one would make them cough up blood in grief.

Barbosa spoke again: "Admiral, why don't we also charge into the Sakurajima Strait and attack those Chinese bird ships in the inner Kagoshima Bay?"

"No, no." Garcia watched the fireballs rising ceaselessly on both sides of the Sakurajima Strait and shook his head repeatedly. "Those bird ships have ferocious firepower!"

"Then what do we do?" Barbosa looked back again and found that the firelight at the entrance of Kagoshima Bay was growing more and more numerous — at least seven or eight blazes were burning!

That meant seven or eight Spanish warships had already been set alight! Although those warships did not carry much gunpowder to explode, they still could not withstand round after round of explosive shells from the Eight-Nation Fleet's warships!

As for the remaining warships, they had either already fled, or sooner or later would become floating torches!

And now what about the New Spain and the seven galleons still following her? Where could they go to hide? If there was nowhere to hide... once the Eight-Nation Fleet finished off the Spanish ships at the entrance of Kagoshima Bay, it would be time to deal with these eight armed galleons inside the bay, wouldn't it?

"We... we'll go to the Sakurajima Strait!" Garcia thought for a long while, and at last came up with a place where they could stay alive for the time being!

"You mean charge into the strait?" Barbosa still had not caught on.

"No, no, we can't charge in." Garcia said, "We'll block the middle of the strait, drop anchor in the waters near the port of Kagoshima Castle, and face the channel of the strait with our broadsides."

"Admiral, you mean to seal off the strait?"

Garcia nodded. "Yes! That is the safest place. Because the strait is too narrow, ships there find it very hard to turn or come about, and so it is very difficult to maneuver in a bombardment formation. Moreover, outside Sakurajima and Kagoshima Castle there are still Japanese-held batteries. At night, with poor visibility and the enemy's situation unclear, the Eight-Nation Fleet will not dare rush the strait recklessly." His voice suddenly dropped very low. "And it is very close to Kagoshima Castle — one could easily swim over!"

What? They could even swim over... Hearing this, Barbosa was truly and sincerely full of admiration!

To have thought of such an excellent plan — he really was one of Spain's seven great captains!

"Marquis of Xiamen, we've broken through the strait!"

Shi Lang stood on the sterncastle of the Fuqing, watching the strings of lanterns hanging from the mainmast of the great bird ship behind him swaying in the wind through the dark night, slowly drawing away from the burning Kagoshima port town — the Kagoshima port town was the castle town of Kagoshima Castle, the economic center of the Satsuma Domain, built with many flammable wooden structures. The battery used to blockade the Sakurajima Strait was built right beside the Kagoshima port town, and in the artillery duel just now, quite a few explosive shells had fallen among the town's wooden buildings, and the explosions had started a great fire.

Zheng Jiangong was also craning his neck to look, and asked Shi Lang, "Our losses — are all our ships still here?"

"Let me count." Shi Lang was silent for a moment, then added, "Thank heaven and earth, they're all here! And not one is on fire!"

"Then how is the main fleet's decisive battle going? Who won?"

"Let me look!" As he spoke, Shi Lang pulled off his own boots and, barefoot, climbed the stern mast, looking just like a chimpanzee. Once he had climbed high enough, he saw the firelight in the distance.

"What a great blaze!" Coming down from the mast, Shi Lang had no time to put his shoes back on before he said excitedly to Zheng Jiangong, "It must be the Spanish warships burning.

My Lord Marquis, it seems we've won! The Spanish fleet is defeated. This time the Western Pacific... is going to belong to our Great Ming!"

At that same moment, aboard the Jiangnan, which had already broken contact with the New Spain, Chen Shangchuan was also craning his neck to look at the firelight at the exit of Kagoshima Bay. His position was closer to the exit of Kagoshima Bay, so he could see more clearly.

The fighting there was still continuing, but victory and defeat had already been decided. The main force of the Spanish fleet had been shattered; no fewer than ten warships were burning, all of them Spanish, and together with the eight warships bottled up inside Kagoshima Bay, their Eastern Invincible Fleet had probably been utterly destroyed!

(End of Chapter)