Congratulations to Qiu Zhi Shen Guang for becoming the head of Ming Yang Tian Xia, establishing his own sect and gaining great power!
Thank you for the huge reward. I bow my head in admiration!
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“Have the Qin people gone mad?”
As soon as a total of 20 Spanish warships entered the Manila Harbor, faint gunfire sounds were heard on the sea, which sounded very intense. Andre, Pique and others could not help but be full of questions.
Could it be that the Qin people have begun attacking the forts in Manila Bay
It doesn't look like it. Judging from the direction of the cannon fire, it should be far outside Manila Bay. Is that Qin man... crazy
Throwing shells into the sea for no reason? Even the craziest person probably wouldn't do that, so Andre immediately ordered someone to go out and investigate.
The person who went to inquire about the situation brought back a piece of news that surprised Andre, Pique and others: the Qin people actually fought with the Dutch.
Upon hearing the news, Andre, Pique, Thomas and even Bishop Naren were all excited and delighted.
"Great! That's great. Let those damn guinea pigs and those yellow monkeys fight to the death." Governor Andre laughed.
In the eyes of the Spaniards, the Dutch are more hateful than the Chinese.
The Netherlands was once part of Spain. During the reign of Philip II of Spain, traitors led by William not only betrayed the Vatican, but also wooed radical Calvinists, launched propaganda against Spanish rule in missionary activities, and began to organize armed forces.
In August 1566, an iconoclastic movement against the Catholic Church broke out in various parts of the Netherlands, marking the beginning of the war. In the end, the rebels won and Philip II was deposed. However, they did not give up and formed an alliance with Britain and France to continue fighting against Spain.
In 1609, Spain was forced to conclude an armistice agreement with the United Provinces, in fact recognizing the independence of the Netherlands.
The once British empire was gradually declining, and the root of the trouble could be said to be the Dutch.
If it weren't for their rebellion, the powerful Spanish Empire would not have fallen into its current predicament. Even Portugal followed suit and demanded independence.
Over the past forty years, the Dutch have risen rapidly, replacing Spain as the maritime hegemon, and now own 16,000 merchant ships, which is three-quarters of the total tonnage of merchant ships of France, Britain, Spain and Portugal.
The Dutch monopolized the world's trade. Their merchants traveled to every corner of the five continents and were called the "Coachmen of the Sea".
All of this was difficult for Spain, the former maritime overlord, to accept, and it hated the Netherlands to the core.
Of course, the Qin people came with ill intentions and this time they were obviously planning to attack Luzon Island. In the eyes of the Spaniards, they were not good people either.
Now, Spain’s two great enemies are fighting each other.
Oh my God, this is great! It would be great if the Dutch and the Qin people could meet God together!
"Hallelujah! Let the Lord punish them!" Naren felt that this was really a manifestation of God.
Thomas thought for a moment and said, "Governor, General Pico, I don't think it's the time for us to rejoice over misfortune. We should seize this opportunity. The Qin fleet is too powerful and they are obviously here to attack us. The Dutch only have six warships. From what I know, the Qin are very good at fighting and the Dutch will definitely fail. Once the Qin defeats the Dutch, their morale will be greatly boosted and they will definitely turn around and attack us."
General Pico nodded and said, "What Thomas said makes sense. Your Excellency, the Qin State has a vast territory, a large population, and is not far from Luzon Island. If we don't defeat them first and let them continue to attack, it will be very troublesome for us, and we may even be ambushed by them like the Dutch did in Taiwan. So I think we should first unite with the Dutch to defeat the Qin people, so that we will be the safest."
Indeed, although the Dutch are hateful, at least they will not threaten Luzon Island. But the Qin people are different. They came with such a large fleet, clearly intending to occupy Luzon Island.
Even though the Dutch won, Luzon still belongs to Spain and nothing will change.
But if the Qin people won, they would turn around and launch a fierce attack on Luzon Island. This is a very obvious truth.
For the time being, the threat from the Qin people is more direct, and it can even be said that it is related to everyone's life and death.
Although Andre is quite arrogant, he is still quite sane;
He felt that what Pike and Thomas said made sense, so after some discussion, he immediately ordered the fleet to turn around and leave the port, ready to look for an opportunity to attack the Qin fleet.
***
On the flagship of the 9th Battalion, Sun Shisan's hands were cut by the broken wooden boards. His hands were covered in blood, but he seemed not to feel it and continued to desperately cling to the collapsed command room.
He first pulled off a black eye patch and cried out in grief: "General! You can't die!"
Wu Sanpei, who was standing next to him, scratched a foot and immediately shouted, "Here, the general is here, quickly lift the board, quickly..."
Sun Shisan and others rushed over immediately and moved all the wooden boards away, but they saw that Hai Rufeng was bleeding from his head and they didn't know whether he was dead or alive.
"General! General, wake up! Wake up!"
Sun Shisan cried out loudly and shook Hai Rufeng's shoulders violently, shaking Hai Rufeng's head like a drum.
It was Wu Sanpei who stopped him and sniffed Hai Rufeng's breath, "Ah! He is still breathing. The general is not dead. The general is not dead."
"Quick, call the doctor and carry the general away."
There was a roar of artillery fire at sea and bullets fell like rain. When the eight small and medium-sized warships of the 9th Battalion saw that the command cabin of the flagship was hit, they thought Hai Rufeng was dead. In addition, the enemy's artillery shells were so fierce that four of the ships turned around and fled.
At this moment, another huge projectile whizzed in and hit the sea surface on the right side of the flagship with a narrow escape, splashing water directly onto the deck;
Wu Sanpei and the others were splashed with water. In early February, the sea water was icy cold, and Wu Sanpei shuddered violently. At the same time, he found that Hai Rufeng, who was being carried, suddenly struggled, "General! The general is awake, great, the general is awake, the general is awake..."
Wu Sanpei let go of Hai Rufeng's foot. With a face full of gunpowder, he shouted and jumped in the rain of bullets, extremely excited. Hai Rufeng opened his eyes and saw this and thought it was haunted. He couldn't help but ask, "Where is this?"
"General, are you okay? This is our battleship. General, you are not going crazy, are you? Ah... General, you can't be stupid."
"Stupid, your mother's head!"
The booming sound of artillery all around quickly made Hai Rufeng completely sober. He stood up hurriedly, "Where is my eye patch? Where is my eye patch?" He really didn't change his bad habits. Even at this time, he still remembered to look for his black eye patch, as if he didn't know how to fight without the black eye patch.
"General, here!"
Hai Rufeng took the black eye mask handed over by Sun Shisan, put it on, and immediately shouted murderously: "What are you doing here? Go back to your posts, the artillery can't stop, blast! Blast them back!"
The sea was as violent as a storm and as violent as thunder. Finally, he gave the order to continue turning left. He stood beside the front main gun, holding a command knife in his hand, commanding the warship to rush towards the enemy ship rapidly. The enemy's shells whizzed past, but he didn't even frown.
The artillery on his flagship roared again, tongues of flames spurted out continuously, and cannonballs whistled across the sky, smashing into the enemy ships with a vengeful fury.
Zheng Sihai and his men, who were chasing from behind, were stunned to see Hai Rufeng's two gunboats and three small and medium-sized warships, riding the wind and waves, braving the enemy's fierce artillery fire, and rushing towards the Dutch fleet as if committing suicide.
That’s right, Hai Rufeng really gave it his all this time. His flagship took the lead, like a lone wolf on the sea, moving forward at an “eight” shaped angle.
The two sides were getting closer and closer, and the shells were getting more and more accurate. Bang! Bang! Hai Rufeng's warship was hit continuously, the wooden planks of the ship's tower flew across, and a big hole was hit on the deck again.
Sun Shisan and his men roared, and the artillery roared as well. They immediately responded with two shells hitting Austin's flagship in succession. One of them hit the ship's tower, almost destroying the entire tower of the enemy ship.
One of the missiles hit the starboard side of the enemy ship, creating another large hole, allowing seawater to rush in. Although there was a watertight compartment, Austin's flagship still tilted. The Dutch soldiers were so frightened that they kept screaming and became a mess.
Next, the guns on the six enemy warships all fired at Hai Rufeng's flagship. Amid the roar of the guns, projectiles whistled in, stirring up countless water columns around the warship.
However, this huge danger, which put his life at risk, still failed to make Hai Rufeng change his course. He stood behind the main gun like a statue made of steel, pointing his sword at the enemy ship and roaring continuously.
Both sides fired shells desperately, and the gun barrels turned red.
A miracle happened at this moment. Hai Rufeng seemed to be assisted by God. Under the fierce enemy fire, his flagship actually avoided fatal blows again and again. Although the upper deck of the battleship was bombarded terribly, the power was still there and only one of the ship's guns was silenced.
They did not turn until they were eighty steps away from the enemy ship and could see the enemy's face clearly. If they continued to charge forward, they would risk ramming the ship!
That’s right, Hai Rufeng simply wanted to ram the enemy’s flagship. His actions seemed reckless, but what Westerners admire and fear the most is this kind of chivalrous determination.
From a practical point of view, what the Dutch fear most now is boarding battle. They have few ships and few people. Once a boarding battle breaks out, it will be their biggest nightmare!
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ps: Calling three times:
Please give me a monthly ticket!
Please give me a monthly ticket!
Please give me a monthly ticket!
.(To be continued..)
...