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The Spaniards fled to the port from the west gate, and He Qingyuan and his men did not chase them. With twenty warships, just one salvo would be enough to leave a trail of corpses all over the ground.
The frightened Spaniards quickly weighed anchor and hoisted sail, and began to sail out of Manila Bay in the bleak twilight;
Twenty warships were brightly lit, women and children were crying, and the soldiers were preparing nervously because they knew that they were not out of danger yet and there were more terrible enemies waiting for them outside the harbor.
Before Andre had time to wipe the cigarette ash off his face, he reluctantly took a last look at the city of Manila in the twilight.
In 1521, the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, on the orders of King Charles V of Spain, led an expedition to the Sulu Sultanate in search of new colonies. When they set foot on the archipelago, it happened to be a Catholic religious festival, so they gave the archipelago a name with religious significance - the San Laharu Islands.
Later, Magellan was killed by local natives because he interfered in the internal strife on the island, and the name of the island he gave was forgotten.
In 1542, the Spaniard Lopez was the second person to come to the archipelago after Magellan.
In order to show off the "achievements" of the Spanish Empire, the archipelago was named the Philippine Islands after the Spanish Crown Prince Philip.
Since then, Spain has occupied this land for hundreds of years.
A year ago, Andre set out from mainland Spain and came to the most remote colony of the Spanish Empire with great enthusiasm, ready to continue to rule this land in the name of God.
But only half a year had passed and he had to flee in a panic, without even having time to take the city's property.
Looking at the city of Manila in flames, Andre almost shed tears. He realized that the Spanish Empire might lose this colony forever.
Daqin, a huge empire in the East, an empire larger than the entire Europe, has stretched out its sharp dragon claws, rolled up huge waves, and issued a dragon roar that shook the sky.
If this empire goes to the ocean with all its might, even the combined strength of all of Europe would not be able to contend with it; this dragon is simply too huge.
What he saw today, the Qin army's muskets and the incredibly powerful small artillery, were like a nightmare, making him feel frightened.
The Spaniards, who once could defeat an entire country with only one or two hundred men, could not defend the city of Manila for even a single day under the attack of the Qin army.
It will be even more impossible to come back in the future.
With extremely complicated feelings, Andre took a last look at Manila City. He was still quite confident about breaking out. Twenty warships were almost all the strength of Spain in the Far East. Even if they could not defeat the Qin fleet, breaking out in the night should not be a problem.
Under the command of General Pico, all Spanish soldiers were in position, ready to meet the upcoming fierce naval battle. Twenty warships lined up in a column and headed towards the entrance of the harbor.
In the bay, the waves hit the rocks on the shore, and a bright moon was in the sky, shining on the water, sparkling with silver light. Everything was calm.
Six or seven miles from the exit of the bay, Thomas, who was sailing in the front, suddenly found that there were dark shadows ahead. The moonlight reflected on the sea was gone.
"Get ready for battle! Get ready for battle, the enemy is ahead, ahead!" Thomas shouted.
Suddenly, a large fire lit up a mile away. Under the light of the fire, black warships appeared in clear outlines in front like ghosts.
Hundreds of warships, large and small, almost blocked the entire exit of the bay.
"Turn right!" Thomas quickly ordered the battleship to turn and prepare to take a zigzag route so that the broadside guns could be used.
At this time, the earth-shaking sound of golden drums came from the Qin army warships, which made people's scalps numb. The Qin army's large gunboats also moved in a zigzag shape;
The small and medium-sized warships broke away from their main formation and rushed towards the Spanish fleet along both sides of the bay like a pack of wolves in the night. Many small ships did not light torches at all, and were dimly visible in the moonlight, moving at a very fast speed.
As soon as the giant ships of both sides came into range, they opened fire almost simultaneously without any hesitation.
Boom! Boom boom boom!
Loud explosions shook the bay's waves, streaks of fire were particularly dazzling in the night, invisible shells streaked across the sky and slammed heavily into the sea, and white jets of water rushed up, churning in the water like a dragon.
The number of artillery pieces deployed by both sides was close to two hundred. The sound of artillery fire was continuous and the thick smoke soon made the flames on the other side's ships blurred. Only the shells flying across the night sky continued to fall.
Thomas looked stern. Spain could not afford to lose. If it lost these twenty warships, Spain's power east of Africa would be lost by more than half, and it might even be difficult to control the ports along the way.
However, Thomas's fear came true, and during the second salvo, there was a loud "bang!" and his bow was hit by a projectile, which shook the whole ship;
Wooden planks flew all over the bow, the foremast was broken, and the entire triangular sail fell into the sea, dragged by the rope, causing his warship to almost lose its power to move forward.
The affected soldiers fell to the deck, covered in blood, screaming and howling.
"Cut the rope, cut the rope of the triangular sail quickly!" Thomas shouted excitedly, and several soldiers rushed forward with knives and axes and cut the rope that was dragging the triangular sail.
Just losing the triangular sail would make their warships very slow when sailing against the wind. This was not just a problem for his warship. Unless they gave up his warship, the speed of the entire fleet would be dragged down by it.
However, the foremast was broken and could not be repaired quickly. Thomas was filled with despair and could only order the twenty guns on the starboard side to fire desperately, spraying flames continuously with almost no pause.
As the two sides entered the distance of 250 yards, and the waves in the bay were relatively small, the accuracy of the shells became higher and higher. With a "bang", the Qin army's first ship was also hit. The shell first knocked a soldier into the sea, and then hit the mast. Bang, the mast was broken in an instant, and the huge black sail fell down with a crash.
Other ships were also hit one after another. The tragic scenes could not be seen clearly in the darkness, but the loud bangs were enough to shock people.
The Spanish warships were also hit by the Qin army's artillery fire. They were hit one after another, screaming and flying wooden boards on the ship, the momentum was extremely shocking.
This naval battle was particularly brutal because it took place in the bay. One side wanted to rush out, while the other tried desperately to stop them. They met on a narrow road and there was no way to avoid it. It was a life-and-death struggle.
The booming sound of artillery shook the entire bay. The jets of flames burned people like devilish fire. The flying shells shattered the moonlight in the sky. At any moment, a fatal shell could fall from the sky, causing screams and flying blood and flesh.
In order to avoid the artillery fire from both sides, the small and medium-sized warships of the Qin army had to go around from both sides. At this time, they finally arrived;
Especially those small warships, because of their shallow draft, they were not afraid of running aground, so they did not light torches at all. They were like ghost ships, killing the Spanish fleet a few dozen yards away, and the soldiers on the ships took up their rockets and ran away.
Beams of flames appeared out of nowhere and shot towards the Spanish warships like comets.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
There were three loud explosions in succession. Three huge balls of fire lit up the three Spanish warships in the night;
One of the ships was hit on the port side, and the violent explosion instantly blew away a large piece of the port side planking, and at the same time detonated the entire barrel of propellant in the port side gun.
The poor battleship was like a paper ship, with its entire port side almost blown off and the sea water rushing in, causing it to quickly tilt to one side.
The other two missiles hit the upper deck, blowing away a large part of the cabin. Flames rose up and quickly set the battleship on fire, illuminating the sea.
The damage caused by the rockets filled with yellow explosives to the wooden hull was breathtaking.
When Governor Andre saw this horrible weapon again, he was terrified. Under the current circumstances, let alone rushing out, all 20 Spanish warships would be buried in the sea in less than two cups of tea.
The Spanish, who had been rampant on the sea for more than a hundred years, had never encountered such a battle. Looking at the three warships that were on fire, all the Spanish soldiers almost lost the courage to continue fighting.
But Andre and Pique were unwilling to accept defeat, and ordered to continue the breakout, while the ship's guns continued to fire.
Some of the Qin army's small ships were bombarded, bang! bang! The huge noise was deafening.
The bay was already dark at night, and under such fierce artillery fire from both sides, the thick smoke almost blinded people and made it impossible to distinguish anything. The Spaniards could not see the Qin army and fired blindly at the sea.
The Qin army's small warships appeared in the smoke like night wolves. Seeing that the Spaniards were still resisting hysterically, they showed no mercy and fired several rockets.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the vast fog, several huge fireballs appeared again. Three Spanish warships were hit. One of them was hit by three rockets in succession in the middle of the warship. The fierce shock wave flattened the ship's building, and the Spaniards on the ship were blown into the air. The tall mast broke off with a snap and fell on the sea surface.
Then the gunpowder barrels stored on the ship were ignited by the fire, and the entire battleship exploded continuously. Under the raging of explosives, the middle part of the battleship began to crackle continuously and soon broke apart. The surging sea water poured in, and the blazing hull slowly sank.
Even the Spanish military commander Pique had never seen such a tragic scene. In those days, most people used solid bullets. Although such shells could cause serious damage to the hull, it was impossible to blow the entire warship in two.
By this time, six Spanish warships had lost their ability to sail. The Qin army's shouts of surrender rang out throughout the bay, shaking the sky.
The once invincible Spaniards were filled with despair and stopped their bombardment. The sea breeze blew away the smoke, and the countless warships of the Qin army in front of them blocked the exit of the bay like a city wall.
A white flag slowly rose on Andre's flagship. Under the light of the fire, the white flag looked as pale as the faces of the Spaniards!
The Qin army's small and medium-sized warships rushed forward, cheering and taking over the capture of prisoners and control of enemy ships.
After working busy for most of the night, when the sun rose the next day, Hai Rufeng rushed to plant a large flag with the word "Qin" on the top of the city wall of Manila. The flag reflected the rising sun and fluttered in the sea breeze.
Looking back at the bay, the Qin army's warships covered the sea surface for ten miles. In the innermost part were more than a dozen captured Spanish warships. Governor Andre, military commander Pique, Bishop Naren and others had their hands tied with ropes and were connected to a long line with ordinary Spanish soldiers and taken into the city.
Hai Rufeng stood on the top of the city wall facing the rising sun, spreading his arms and shouting with great enthusiasm: "I came, I saw, I conquered!"
His shouts, along with the cheers of the Qin army, resounded throughout the city of Manila.
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ps: Amid the cheers, brothers, what are you waiting for? Cast your monthly tickets and witness our conquest!
Please give me a monthly ticket!
.(To be continued..)
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