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On the vast sea, the wind rolled up the clouds. There were white waves and black waves, lightning and thunder. The wind blew and stirred up the flying lian, and the waves were angry at the sun.
In the thick smoke, the South China Sea Fleet and the East China Sea Fleet were like wolves on the sea, pouncing on the Spanish fleet from the left and right.
"Where's the guinea pig? Where's the guinea pig?" Andre shouted, feeling something was wrong.
At this time, Pike finally saw vaguely that in the distant sea, the upper deck of the Dutch warships had been blown flat, floating on the sea like a floating platform. "Oh my God, Governor, the Dutch have failed!"
"How is this possible?" Andre asked in disbelief.
Although he hated the Dutch, he did not doubt their fighting ability. The Dutch were defeated so quickly, which undoubtedly caused him great psychological pressure.
The Qin dynasty and Spain, one is a newborn calf that is not afraid of a tiger; the other is a centipede that is dead but still alive. One is like the rising sun, shining brightly, the other is like the setting sun, with its last rays of light. This can be clearly felt from the mentality of both sides.
When the Spanish saw the Dutch being quickly defeated, they immediately became hesitant.
The two fleets of the Qin army did not hesitate at all, and pounced on their prey like hungry tigers.
boom!
With a loud bang, the front main gun of Zheng Sihai's flagship roared first, once again breaking the brief calm on the sea.
The huge projectile ejected by the Red Barbarian Cannon flew across the sky for four or five miles, and with a bang, it hit the sea surface, only twenty feet away from Pieck's flagship. This surprised Pieck.
You have to know that these days, usually no one would fire at a distance of several miles. The British even had a strict standard that prohibited firing unless within 300 yards. Although other Western countries did not have strict standards, they basically followed similar common sense.
Because although the Red Cannon had a range of more than four or five miles, firing at such a long distance, with the ship's hull heaving with the waves, would only waste ammunition, and it was not even certain where the shells would fly.
Of course, the Qin Royal Navy couldn't do that either. Zheng Sihai just wanted to take the initiative. Regardless of whether he could hit the target or not, he would just fire a shot at them first to boost morale.
"Turn right!" Pique, the commander of the Spanish fleet, shouted at the right time.
The two Qin fleets were attacking from two parallel sides. If Pique did not order a turn in time, his fleet would be caught in the middle and attacked from both sides.
After turning, his fleet was expected to pass in front of Zheng Sihai's South China Sea Fleet, forming an irregular "T".
Under normal circumstances, in order to avoid having the "T" head seized by the enemy, Zheng Sihai should also order a turn at this time to keep in the same direction as the enemy, so that he could use the broadside guns to fire at the enemy.
"Admiral, give the order to steer!" When the staff officer beside him urgently reminded him, Zheng Sihai made a surprising decision: "Turn left 30 degrees!"
"Admiral!" All the staff members in the command cabin screamed in surprise, because if they did not turn the rudder, they would only form a "T" with the enemy ship. However, if they turned the rudder 30 degrees to the left according to Zheng Sihai's order, they would just form a perfect "T" with the enemy.
"This is a military order! Deliver it immediately."
“Yes!”
Zheng Haijun's military orders were quickly conveyed to all ships through flag signals. He was truly a newborn calf that was not afraid of a tiger. The South China Sea Fleet's 200 warships, large and small, with full sails, rushed towards the enemy ships like a black cloud;
The war drums on the ships rang out, shouts were like thunder. The Qin soldiers sang the tragic and majestic "No Clothes", the sound shook the sea and sky. The lingering gunpowder smoke and the rolling waves sang along.
When General Pique of Spain saw this scene, he felt inexplicably palpitated, which made him think of a naval battle in the past, a naval battle that caused the Spanish Invincible Armada to lose its maritime hegemony.
It was August 1588, and Spain and Britain fought a fierce and spectacular naval battle in the English Channel that attracted worldwide attention.
Spain was very powerful in this naval battle, with a total of 130 warships, most of which were large sailing ships of 600-1700 tons. With a force of more than 30,000 people, it was known as the "luckiest invincible fleet."
At that time, the British fleet was small, with only 9,000 combatants in the entire fleet. Although the fleet had 197 ships, none of them could reach the tonnage of the Spanish galleons, and most of them were small boats of 200-300 tons.
But in the end, the so-called luckiest Invincible Fleet was defeated.
All this is very similar to the current situation. The Qin army's warships are not as big as those of Spain, but they are numerous, and they are coming with the wind, so they are very fast.
Moreover, the Qin army's spirit of daring to fight to the death was even greater than that of the British at that time, which made people worry that the same thing would happen again. This is why Pique felt palpitations.
But in any case, the Spanish fleet grabbed the "T"-shaped crosshead, or it could be said that Zheng Sihai gave the "T"-shaped crosshead to Pique.
"Fire!" As the distance between the two sides closed to 300 yards, Peake gave an order, and all the starboard guns of the 20 warships, nearly 200 in total, roared one after another, tongues of fire spurted out endlessly, and the huge roar broke the sky.
The rain of shells streaked across the sky like meteorites, whistling towards the South China Sea Fleet. Bang! Bang! Two loud noises were heard. Under the intensive artillery fire of the Spanish, the first round of salvos hit two warships of the South China Sea Fleet. The wooden boards on the ships flew everywhere, which was thrilling.
The Qin army's gunboats could only fire back with their main guns, and their shells were much sparser.
At this time, Zheng Sihai suddenly changed his orders. The small and medium-sized hawk ships and bluff ships immediately turned another 30 degrees and rushed to the front of the Spanish fleet.
They formed a single long line to minimize the area exposed to enemy fire.
At the same time, a large amount of lime was sprinkled on each warship. The white lime powder floated towards the Spanish fleet with the wind, quickly blocking their sight.
In addition, the smoke generated by the Spaniards' own fierce artillery fire was blown back onto their ships by the wind, making it almost impossible for them to see the Qin ships, and they could only fire blindly.
As a general experienced in naval warfare, Pique quickly realized that Zheng Sihai had given him the "T" cross-head Zheng, but he himself had taken the upper hand;
The horizontal "T" is like a bait. Once the Spanish fleet continues on its current course, Zheng Sihai can cut the Spanish fleet in half by paying a certain price. This is one of the reasons.
The second is that the Qin army’s small and medium-sized warships are fast, flexible and maneuverable, and can spread lime with the wind. Once the lime drifts onto the Spanish warships, it will be a disaster.
Pique acted decisively, spit out the bait immediately, and ordered the Spanish fleet to abandon the "T" cross head, turn left again 120 degrees before the Qin army's lime floated over, draw a large arc, and sail towards Manila Bay.
Their soft sails had a huge area, and when they sailed with the wind, their speed was so fast that the Qin army could only sigh in despair.
Zheng Sihai was very upset. This time, even his "T"-shaped attack failed to get the Spaniards to engage in a decisive battle. He also damaged two gunboats in vain. It was really a case of losing the rice while trying to steal the chicken.
The smoke cleared and the sea returned to calm, but Zheng Sihai and the others were in a state of panic. The Spanish slippery loach seemed difficult to deal with!
All of a sudden, they wanted to win the battle quickly, but now the Spaniards have hidden back in the port of Manila, and the Qin Royal Navy is once again in trouble.
The Qin army came from afar, with more than 20,000 troops, and was under heavy logistical pressure. If they could not quickly break through the Port of Manila, they would not be able to hold out for long due to logistical pressure.
There are also five Dutch warships that escaped and their whereabouts are unknown, so we must send ships to track them.
Hai Rufeng was wounded in the head. After Ying Caier carefully bandaged him, he immediately called the four captains of the Ninth Battalion and angrily scolded them. The four captains commanded the Eagle Ship and the Hu Ship, but they actually retreated when he was injured and unconscious.
If the military officer had not stopped him, Hai Rufeng would have been unable to resist drawing his sword and chopping someone.
The 9th Battalion suffered 61 deaths and 123 injuries in this battle, which was a heavy loss of casualties and basically lost its combat effectiveness.
The Dutch lost 96 people on Austin's flagship alone, and nearly 100 were captured. Two of the other five warships that escaped were damaged. The exact number of casualties is unknown.
In a situation where the enemy was strong and we were weak, achieving such a result could have been considered an impressive victory. However, Hai Rufeng felt ashamed because the four captains retreated at the critical moment.
He was cursing when Zheng Sihai sent a flag signal, asking him to hurry over to discuss countermeasures, so he hurried away.
Zheng Sihai asked everyone to discuss how to attack Manila Port. The shore defense of Manila Port is very strict. If we attack by force, we will definitely pay a heavy price. However, if we want to launch a sneak attack, we will not have that opportunity...
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ps: I’m having a little writer’s block today, feeling very worried... .....Please support me with monthly tickets, brothers please give me some encouragement!
.(To be continued..)
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