The San Juan was not in the military port, which was much beyond Li Mingxun's expectations. He suddenly felt like he had a punch on the cotton. He planned for a month, used so much manpower, and spent so much effort to deceive Baron and used the Huweilong Society. The purpose was to seize this warship and put his career on track, but the San Juan left. Is fate teasing him?

"We're not going to be late, maybe the San Juan has returned to Manila." Gao Feng said from the side. He stretched his neck and did not see the San Juan. There were only two spinning boats in the military port.

Just when Li Mingxun was disappointed, Ah Hai gave a completely different answer. He climbed up the pine tree beside him, pointed to the foot of the mountain and said, "Master, there is a sail there, a huge rectangular sail, which may be the San Juan."

Following the direction pointed by Ah Hai, Li Mingxun looked at it, but there were only green mountains and forests and no sailboats at all. However, Ah Hai was not an illiterate fool. He would definitely not be aimless. When Li Mingxun hesitated whether to climb the pine trees to see clearly, he suddenly saw a faint smoke column floating in that direction. He recalled the memories of investigating Jilong Port that day, and suddenly remembered that this location was the Shanggang of Jilong Port.

He could no longer hesitate, and Li Mingxun immediately went down the mountain with his scouts and quietly lurked into the jungle not far from Shanggang. The scene in front of him shocked him. The San Juan was in Shanggang, but it was not anchored on the sea, but lying in the dock, with all the underwater parts exposed to the air, and hundreds of people were busy around it, and the largest number was in the stern.

Li Mingxun took out the telescope and observed carefully. He found that they were hoisting a huge rudder leaf with a winch. The clear wood grain of the rudder leaf showed that it was a newly made. Obviously, a month ago, the Flang machine cannon on the Yongjin did destroy the rudder structure of the San Juan.

In addition to installing rudder leaves, sailors are also cleaning aquatic animals and plants under the water of San Juan. These aquatic animals and plants not only reduce the degree of the ship, but also the liquid they secrete also seriously corrodes the ship's wooden boards, so that Europeans have learned to avoid it by nailing copper boards below the waterline, while more sailors hang on the bulwarks, apply paint, and repair leaks.

Around San Juan is a simple campground, with some piles of wood around it, and large groups of irregular buildings, pergolas made of canvas and wood, stoves for boiling water and cooking, and huts for processing wood. Many sailors shuttle here, while the facilities of the campground are not good, the fences and earthen walls are mostly tilted, the trenches outside are dry, there are no bamboo sticks, and only the shooting buildings arranged on both sides are barely useful.

In fact, the Spaniards once carefully planned the Jilong Port, hoping to turn it into a base to conquer the entire island of Taiwan, but the low investment and financial difficulties that followed made it mostly stay on paper. There were few ships from the merchant port, and the originally planned shipyard had not even launched a sampan. If there was not a dock here, perhaps the San Juan would have to wait to be dragged to Manila.

However, the San Juan, located in the Shanggang, is easier to seize than planned, at least you don’t have to take the risk of boarding the Sixth Sheliao Island.

Li Mingxun and Ah Hai lurked in the jungle south of Shanggang for two days, observing the movements of one Spanish man. Gao Feng returned the same way and crossed the Jilong River to meet the team. When everyone arrived, Li Mingxun had already determined the plan for the action.

Li Mingxun built the deck of San Juan with wooden boards and a few stones, and the basic structure of the upper gun deck, lower gun deck and bottom pole, and then said: "We will launch an operation tonight, with the purpose of seizing control of San Juan. What we have to do first is to cross the sea and burn down the spinning boats in the military port of San Salvador. As long as we do this, the enemies there will be unable to support San Juan. This mission will be given to you, Song Laoqi, and I will give you twenty sailors."

Song Laoqi pointed to the narrow Bachimen waterway in the distance and said, "This is very simple. I will bring a few man-made rafts over and use a fish oil can to ignite the fire. According to the shopkeeper, Spain... Oh, there will be no more than twenty people in the enemy's military port. We will retreat after the burning."

Li Mingxun nodded and said, "What you said is that preserving strength is the best, and the capture of the San Juan is the subject of Baron and I. Gao Feng commanded the gun team to ambush the east side of the San Juan, and Ah Hai commanded the spear throwing team to the west side, and he had to kill the post on the shooting tower in advance.

Baron pointed to the messy camp in the distance and asked, "There is no one in their camp?"

Li Mingxun nodded slightly. He believed that the San Juan might have been attacked a month ago, so the San Juan was on alert. Before nightfall, everyone except the posts would be allowed to board the ship, and the schedule was no different from that at sea. Although there were many buildings in the camp, there were no tents for people to rest at night.

"Master, how are you going to attack the San Juan? It seems that there are probably three or four hundred people coming and going in the past two days." Ah Hai said with some concern.

Li Mingxun clapped his hands, Gao Feng and a subordinate brought two ladders, one long and one short, two zhang high, and the one short is more than three zhang long. They were made of bamboo, and there were two curved iron hooks at the front end. Li Mingxun said: "I have observed that the sailors on the San Juan sleep with gun doors open every day. The square gun door is more than two zhang wide, and the one on the lower level is less than two zhang high, and the one on the upper level is about three zhang, and people and rattan can enter. I will lead a team to attack the lower level artillery deck, while Baron leads a team to attack the upper and lower levels. Remember, killing is not the main thing, but controlling the situation is the main thing. You want to find ways to guard the stairs connecting the upper and lower levels. If you have the spare energy, come down to help me!"

Baron was slightly stunned. He placed a stone on the wooden board and said, "Didn't you say that the enemy's lords are all in the stern of the boat? Shouldn't I enter there to capture the enemy's lords?"

Li Mingxun waved his hand and said, "The enemy's leadership is there, but the enemy's most elite musketeers are there. They are well-trained warriors. We should not fight head-on. Our most important task is to occupy the bottom cabin at the bottom, which is also an ammunition cabin. As long as we control this place, we will completely control the situation. We can use bomb ships to threaten them to surrender. We can retreat and blow up the ship after retreating, kill everyone above, instead of fighting with the enemy. Do you understand?"

Everyone bowed their heads and said that, Li Mingxun took advantage of the dawn and quickly ordered everyone to help the craftsmen build bamboo rafts and hook ladders, and then put the food and water down. Although the plan was very clear, Li Mingxun didn't know whether it could be successful, and he didn't know how many of these soldiers who followed him could survive.

In the evening, Baron came with two natives. The two of them grabbed a gagged man and threw it on the ground. Baron said, "This was caught by my hunter. He couldn't understand our words. I listened to him and said that he was similar to you Han people, but it was different, so I brought them here."

Li Mingxun glanced at the prisoner. He turned out to be a child similar to Ah Hai. Looking at his face without tattoos and ears without holes, he seemed not to be the natives around him. Li Mingxun asked, "Are you a Han person?"

The captive's face changed slightly, and he focused his head. Li Mingxun was about to pull off the cloth from his mouth, but his hands stopped because Li Mingxun found that the child's clothes were made of linen and the style was similar to those of the Thais. Thinking that there were no Han villages nearby, they could only be people from San Juan.

"I'll ask something later, what do you answer? If you dare to scream and move, this dagger will pierce your heart!" Li Mingxun shook the dagger in his hand and said coldly.

After taking off the rag, the child said repeatedly: "Good man, please spare me, please spare me, don't let these barbarians eat me!"

Li Mingxun was stunned. After traveling through time for so long, it was the first time that he had heard the authentic Shandong accent in his hometown. No wonder Baron couldn't understand it. This Shandong dialect is indeed different from Minnan dialect. Li Mingxun wanted to speak Shandong dialect, but realized that he had long forgotten the accent of his hometown since he was a novel. He had to ask in authentic Mandarin: "Are you from Shandong? What's your name?"

"The villain is from Shandong, named Ma Donglai, please spare your life." Ma Donglai quickly kowtowed and said.

Li Mingxun asked him to get up and brought drinking water and dry cakes from Ah Hai. After Ma Donglai took it, he ate it in big mouthfuls. It seemed that he hadn't eaten for a long time. After the meal and drink, Ma Donglai brought it truthfully according to Li Mingxun's request.

Ma Donglai was originally a descendant of Dengzhou fishermen. His father was captured by the Denglai Navy and died at the hands of the Donglu. Ma Donglai had no food and clothing, so he could only go out to sea with people and wandered to Manila. Two years ago, he was hired by the Spaniards on board and became a gunpowder monkey (because the gunpowder was too dangerous, so there were only shells on the artillery deck, and most of the gunpowder had to be transported from the ammunition compartment. The cabin door was compact and only children could work flexibly, so it was called the gunpowder monkey.), but he accidentally broke the sailors' wine-dividing instrument two days ago, and was killed by the sailors, so he escaped.

"These people are really cruel. They just broke things and are going to be killed?" Ah Hai said unhappily.

Li Mingxun smiled slightly, not struggling with this matter, but he knew in his heart how important it is to divide the wine. In the boring and painful sailing life, cheap wine is the only fun for sailors, and the daily ration is limited. In order to get their own ration, the wine dispenser is the life of the sailors.

"Tell me everything you know!" Li Mingxun asked Ma Donglai to sit down and asked seriously. After all, this is Ma Donglai's greatest value.

From Ma Donglai's mouth, Li Mingxun learned a lot of unknown information. It turned out that the San Juan chased the Yongjin River and was just a matter of pushing the boat. Their original task was to go north to Jilong Port, send some supplies and firearms to San Salvador City, and took away some of the goods that had been hoarded for two years in San Salvador City, and took away some soldiers. The reason for this was that the goods were raw silk and porcelain purchased from the Ming Dynasty. The Philippine Governor was planning a Manila sailboat to Mexico, which was particularly important.

Because the Philippines' Governor Coquilla tried to reduce fiscal expenditure in Taiwan, it was necessary to withdraw seventy soldiers, leaving only one hundred and thirty people for the city of San Salvador, but there were differences on whoever evacuated and who left behind. In addition to the monsoon issue, the San Juan should return to Manila around October this year.

Although the garrison power of San Salvador is surprisingly weak, the San Juan is stronger than expected. In Li Mingxun's original estimate, the San Juan's displacement was about 400 tons, forty-four main guns and two-layer artillery decks. In fact, the San Juan's displacement exceeded 600 tons. In addition to the forty-four guns, four rear-loaded cyclone guns were also arranged on the deck and the stern of the ship. It also has a large and amazing cargo hold. The problem arises that when the length of the San Juan is determined, Li Mingxun miscalculated its displacement. Then the draft of San Juan must have exceeded his estimate. The result is that the length of the hook ladder made by him is not enough.

Li Mingxun had to sigh in secret that fortunately he caught Ma Donglai, otherwise this attack would have been ruined.

The greater value of Ma Donglai lies in his understanding of the internal structure and personnel composition of the San Juan. There are 420 people on the San Juan, which is at least fifty more than the Thai ships of the same level. The reason is very simple. The ratio of soldiers and sailors on board in major European maritime powers will be around 1 to 4, especially the Dutch, but there are many more Spanish ships. The reason for this is that the Spanish have the largest colonies in the Americas, but they do not have enough maritime power, which has led to many official pirates and private pirates holding private certificates plundering their return treasure ships. In order to obtain cargo, the pirates naturally will not sink the warships and can only engage in sideline battles. At this time, the more elite soldiers on board, the better.

Ma Donglai lived in San Juan for more than two years and clearly knew the location and composition of each cabin. After introducing the structure on the San Juan to Li Mingxun in detail, Li Mingxun invited Baron and others to modify and improve the plan.

As the sailors led by Song Laoqi went into the sea on a raft filled with fish oil tanks, Baron and Gao Feng also sneaked into the Spanish camp and killed two drunken sentries on the tower. Taking advantage of the moonlight, Li Mingxun led his men to quietly follow the waterless trench.

He bent over, holding a rattan card in one hand and a shining knife in the other hand, and two short flint guns were inserted between his waist. The sea breeze blew over him, and behind him was the sound of chaotic footsteps. Thirty sailors and fifty native soldiers were following him quietly. Although this was not the first time Li Mingxun had experienced a battle, it was the first time under the gaze and pursuit of everyone. He felt that his blood was boiling and his breathing was rapid.

Baron's voice rang behind his back: "Shopkeeper Li, if you feel scared, put this on!"

(Generally speaking, when a warship is moored, the gun doors on the ship will be closed, which is safe and harmless. But there is another reason that after the warship enters the port, most sailors will disembark. But this time, all sailors rest on the ship. If they are not ventilated, it will be too sour and refreshing.)
Chapter completed!