The brave "Old Iron Armor" suddenly turned the rudder and almost hit the "Free Trade", the distance between the two sides quickly approached.

"Let's go. Bump them close to your face!" Captain Hull shouted loudly, boosting the morale of the soldiers under him.

Americans in this era are also properly a fighting nation. Basically, the whole people have a red neck. They generally believe in the creed not to be counseled, which is reckless. Although the French's first round of shelling caused them heavy losses, it did not dampen their morale, but seemed to stimulate their anger.

The distance between the two warships quickly approached, from about 100 meters to 80 meters...60 meters...40 meters...

Captain Hull was thinking about the distance and was about to issue an order for a salvo, but the Frenchman on the opposite side shot another salvo first.

The rate of fire advantage of the rear-mounted guns is undoubtedly revealed. In fact, if the gunners weren't proficient enough, they would have been able to shoot this round of salvo faster.

Now the distance between the two sides is less than forty meters, even if they use old-fashioned artillery, they will not miss it. So in this round of salvo, all nine cannons of the "Free Trade" hit the target.

Different from the last round of shelling, during the last round of shelling, the French were not sure how high the defense against American "super frigates" were, so they used special armor-piercing shells. As a result, some armor-piercing projectiles obviously had the problem of overpower, but they failed to achieve the maximum killing effect.

Therefore, during this round of shooting, Captain Zola ordered the shells to be replaced with armor-piercing personnel.

This kind of shell is still a solid shell, because the reliable high-explosive shell fuze used for the shell has not been able to get out, until today, the reliability of this thing has never been reliable, and even more than once in the experiment when the fuze was launched. It was triggered, and then the shell exploded the barrel.

The armor-piercing personnel anti-personnel bomb is actually a long cylinder of pig iron, but there are several deep grooves in the front of the cylinder, and the whole body is also full of deep grooves. In the process of penetrating the ship's plate, this kind of projectile will generate a large number of stress concentration points due to the existence of these grooves, and therefore fracture and break. Although it is still not comparable in power to a high-explosive bomb, it can cause much more damage once it penetrates the opponent's ship board than an armor-piercing bomb that is prone to one shot and two holes.

So this round of volleys caused even greater losses to the Americans. This round of shelling almost reduced the number of gunners on the lower gun deck of the Constitution by a third.

However, the morale of the Americans has not been beaten by this round of artillery. The USS Constitution continued to approach, approaching about 30 meters.

"Fire!" Captain Hull shouted.

Many of the cannons on the two decks of the Constitution have been damaged in the first two rounds of shelling. More importantly, the crew suffered heavy losses, which made many cannons no longer controlled. Of the 23 cannons, only 18 were fired.

But Captain Hull believed that even with only eighteen guns, this round of shelling could give the French a heavy blow. Because at this distance, it is almost impossible for them to empty.

But reality gave them a heavy stick. Although no American was killed, this stick immediately knocked down the morale of the Americans. The shells fired by the Americans were all attached to the "Free Trade". The steel plate bounced back. Flopped and fell into the sea.

At such a close distance, it is impossible to penetrate the hull of a French warship. This is basically an announcement of shelling. It is useless. Their artillery can no longer penetrate the hull of a French warship.

"Look in! Come in! Get ready to jump ship!" Captain Hull shouted. Since the artillery battle can't prevail, the hopping battle is the only hope of turning over. Now the smoke from the chimneys of French warships is getting thicker and thicker, and their steam engines will soon be used, and escape must be Can't jump. Now, rush over, wind the cable on the foremast and the opponent's foremast, and then use close combat to fight to death. This is indeed at this time, the "Constitution" has the only chance to win.

In the ideal combat mode envisaged by the "Free Trade", it is necessary to avoid hand-to-hand combat as much as possible. This is also normal. If you can win by walking your dog and flying a kite, why do you have to fight on the side?

But this does not mean that the "Free Trade" can not engage in battle. Even in response to the battle, "Free Trade" also made some special preparations.

At first, someone suggested that it should be equipped with "Greek fire" in the bow and stern just like the flying shears. But everyone soon discovered that the Greek fire on a battleship would be very dangerous in many cases. For example, when it was shot by the opponent's warship, those "Greek fires" might ignite their own ships.

So the proposal to equip the battleship with "Greek Fire" was rejected. But another proposal has been applied, and that is to equip the warship with a "broad sword" to deal with the enemy who jumped to help.

Therefore, in many places of the Free Trade Ship, such as the mast and the like, small squares "this facing the enemy" were hung, and the entire deck was covered by these "broad swords".

The "Constitution" approached, and the US troops on the "Constitution", led by the sword-wielding Captain Hull, rushed onto the deck of the "Free Trade".

No Frenchman on the deck could see it. This makes Captain Hull feel bad instinctively. But today's situation is already overwhelming. Is it possible to retreat like Sima Yi? Now he can only go one way to the dark, all the way to the end.

"Follow me!" Captain Hull yelled while brandishing a sharp sword, and led the soldiers toward the **** tower while rushing toward the **** tower. Some people shot randomly toward the **** tower.

Just as Captain Hull and the people almost rushed to the **** tower, an explosion sounded on the deck of the "Free Trade". Countless iron beads swept across the entire deck like a storm. All the American soldiers who rushed on the deck of the "Free Trade" were knocked over.

The "Constitution" had a total of four hundred crew members. In the previous artillery battle, they had already paid hundreds of casualties. At this time, on the deck of the Free Trade, nearly a hundred people fell all at once.

What's more terrible is that these nearly 100 people are almost the most combative personnel on the entire "Constitution". And the captain and chief mate are among these people. Today, the "Constitution" has nearly half of its casualties, and it has also lost its command. It can be said that it has been completely chaotic.

At this time, soldiers from the brigade burst out from the hatches on the deck. They were armed with the latest revolvers or double-barreled shotguns and killed the USS Constitution.

Now the remaining power on the "Constitution" is no longer enough to resist these French attacks. Soon, several of the most critical positions on the "Constitution" have been controlled.

The Americans all retreated below the deck, while the French threw small melons directly from the hatch.

After a while of the cantaloupe, an American shout came from below: "Don't lose it, we surrender!"

After the combatants controlled all the key positions on the entire ship, the numbers of battle losses on both sides were also counted. In this battle, the French army killed 11 people, all of them died in the battle after boarding the USS Constitution. Twenty-six people were injured. Most of them were injured in the battle after boarding the USS Constitution. Only one guy fell on the deck on his side and then his palm was dropped on the ground. Scratched by an American bayonet.

The US military killed 222 people in the battle, and most of the remaining more than 100 people were also injured to varying degrees. Only two people were truly intact.

"Hey, Captain, win beautiful." After seeing this number, Victor congratulated Captain Zola.

"The main reason is that they misjudged our power. Once this misjudgement occurs, they will not be able to look back later. In fact, I was thinking that the command of the American captain just now did not actually have a big problem. And his decisiveness and determination is also very admirable. If it were not for us, even if it was for a battleship like the Victory, his performance would be much better." Zola started to die at this time. The American captain sang a hymn.

But this is also normal~lightnovelpub.net~ Generally speaking, it is always good to praise the enemy. If I lose the battle, it is of course not because I am incompetent, but because the enemy is too powerful; if I win, then we have to brag about how tough the enemy is. Otherwise, it takes a lot of effort to win a group of s13, then What is honorable?

"Is this boat all right?" Victor asked, looking at the captured "Constitution".

"This boat is very good. Although it has suffered some damage in the battle, it is a good boat after repairs. Well, we are not far from Santo Domingo. We can drive this boat to Santo. Domingo go.” Captain Zola said, “but we were attacked by American warships here. I think the situation in Santo Domingo may have changed a little. Mr. Treville, I don’t know. Will these changes cause trouble to your mission."

"Ah," Victor said, "Thank you for your concern. You are right. Santo Domingo has probably undergone some unfavorable changes. However, the reason why I am here is not to deal with this. Is it the situation? In addition, your victory today is really helpful to my mission. I believe that with your victory today and the sincerity of peace and development from France, Toussaint-Louvi Governor Tours should be able to make sensible choices."

:. :