open sea

Chapter 318
The San Pablo is a large ship built by the Habsburg royal family in the shape of a Galen ship. To be precise, the owner of this ship is the king of Spain and the Netherlands, Philip II.

The cannons rang out one after another, but the huge warship with a stable center of gravity would not be attacked at all due to the escort of the outer fleet, and continued to counterattack with the long cannons on board. Of course, due to the long distance, it also had little effect.

What is out of tune with the outside battlefield is the bow cabin. This ship carries several nobles, so the captain's room in the poop is not actually the head of the ship, and the passengers here have the absolute right to speak.

But now, a violent row is breaking out in the extravagantly furnished guest room.

"The Chinese, with more than a dozen ships, attacked in an orderly manner and bombarded our cargo ships with artillery. Our huge warships are like a few turtles, they will only go around in circles at sea and be beaten, and will not bump into them to kill them. These Fools are going to break my glass!"

The speaker was Fidel, from a family of naval officers, and his father's surname was Alvaro, a surname that gave him an extraordinary status on this ship.His distant elder brother, Bazin, is the commander of the Naples navy and the Marquis of Santa Cruz in Spain. He is being ordered to join the Holy League and fight against the Ottoman Empire.

Fidel had also been a conquistador, and had made his mark in the siege of Algerian pirates, but this did not prevent years of turning to the court to help the emperor with his affairs of state, rendering his theories of naval warfare obsolete.

Shoot, ram, throw soap at the opponent's deck, and rely on unrivaled boarding battles to win.

In this he was like many Spanish captains of the era who were not like matadors.

like a cow.

"We should not continue to fight them now. Their flexible ships prevent us from winning quickly. We have to retreat to Manila."

Fidel said so convincingly, pressing his fists on the corner of the table, and said: "This fleet is pitifully weak at sea, but they have five to six hundred people, a considerable number of artillery and guns, and sank two ships. Communication boats and heavy damage to gunboats."

Fidel's words made many people in the room agree, and someone held a glass and said, "That's right, there are less than [-] Spaniards in the entire Philippine Islands, and there are even fewer fighters among them. What's more, they are fighting with the Luzon people. If they are allowed to land on the island, they will loot us." The plantations and mines, and even destroy the shipyards to take away those Han boatmen, which is not good for the next war.”

"After occupying Cebu, we discussed whether to go north to attack the Ming Dynasty or go south to compete with Portugal for the Spice Islands. Now spices are not valuable in the Old World, not to mention that Luzon Island also has spices. If we don't provoke Portugal, we will fight against the Ming Dynasty. We are ready Tens of thousands of servants have been recruited, and the commander of Manila is rushing to build ships and artillery day and night, and arrange fortifications to prevent attacks after October of the Ming Dynasty."

Hearing this, Fidel smiled and said: "That Chen Mu, maybe he is also preparing, worried that the fleet will encounter a storm when crossing the ocean. I heard that Ming Dynasty people are not keen on sailing, and Han people in Luzon can't go back. , the best sailors and shipwrights are traitors in their country, and will be killed on the coast."

"I'll tell the captain that we should return to Manila after destroying their fleet." Fidel smiled and walked towards the hatch, "Manila needs hundreds of our soldiers!"

"No." Fidel was about to leave when he was grabbed by another person and said, "The treasure ship cannot dock in Manila in summer. If a storm comes, the ship will be damaged."

"Whether the storm will come or not, we said no... What is that?"

Fidel looked out through the window in the middle of his speech, turned his head and ran out of the cabin after only one glance.The people around didn't understand what happened, seeing Fidel rushing out like a gust of wind, the people next to the window all exclaimed.

Two behemoths on the sea were leading their fleets to outflank them. When they saw them, the sound of war drums gradually reached their ears.

Upstairs in the general’s room on the poop of the Chihai Ship, four huge war drums on the left and right were beaten by naked warriors. Through the binoculars, Chen Mu looked at the Spanish Galen ship with a huge relief on its prow that looked like a fortress, showing covetousness—he wanted this ship , he wants this ship!

Chen Mu didn't know how to describe this huge Spanish ship. It was more geometric than the Chi Hai ship. It was also wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, making its center of gravity very stable.However, although there are twelve portholes on one side of the two artillery decks, it seems that the artillery positions have not been fully fired, and the exposed barrel diameter does not look exaggerated.

There are four tall masts, the front two masts are hung with railing sails, and the rear two masts are hung with jib sails.

In fact, the length of this ship is about the same as that of the Red Sea Ship, but it is a little taller. The reason why it is visually taller than the Red Sea Ship is that there is a [-]-[-]-meter-high knight relief on the bow of the San Pablo. The gun is the bow mast, and each piece of the huge canvas is painted with the Burgundian cross symbolizing Habsburg.

Obviously, its cargo capacity is much stronger than that of Chihai, and there are many more sailors on board, as well as those complicated sails.

Chen Mu reckoned in his heart that the non-combat boatmen on this ship may need to be in the early 200s, but there are more than 300 people on the upper deck alone. Spanish warrior.

Although the staff on the Chihai ship and the northern generals who had not fought at sea had been transferred to other ships before the war, Chen Mu still did not intend to join the Spanish. He only had more than 200 people on the Chihai ship, not to mention Both the forecastle and stern buildings are one or two floors lower than the opponent, and they are completely bullied when they fight.

But in terms of the number and speed of artillery, the Red Sea ship can be stronger than the San Pablo, and the Spanish sea fortress is too slow.

Looking away from the opponent's main ship, Chen Mu ordered to the left and right bannermen: "Let the two fleets go up to fight, clean up the small boat first, ignore the big ship, and stay away from him."

After all, Chen Mu shouted to the helmsman: "Go around and stay two miles away from it, so we can support it in case of an accident."

The opponent of the San Pablo is not the Red Sea, but General Deng's iron-clad ship like a turtle on the sea.

During the process of the Red Sea ship approaching the San Pablo, two small shark ships were sunk, a large shark ship was knocked down by Clark, and a hook was thrown from the Clark ship by the Spaniards. The cable was hooked and gradually pulled in and forced to sink into the side.

The two Clarks of the Spaniards played their due role, but in contrast, the two caravel ships they served as escorts were sunk, one was broken, the mast deck was gone, and one The stern of the large houseboat was hit and ignited by a torch, and it was trying to escape with smoke rising into the sky, but was soon overtaken by several small shark boats.

It is only a matter of time before it sinks.

Like a thunderbolt coming from the sky, Deng Zilong's iron-clad ship led a large shark ship to slant towards the San Pablo. It did not fire until 500 meters away, and then gradually adjusted its direction after nearly 300 meters, turning the ship sideways to face the Spanish treasure ship.

The first to fire was the San Pablo. The two huge cannons at the bow bombarded Deng Zilong when he turned his direction. One missed, and the other smashed heavily through the mizzen sail of the ironclad ship. The top of the dragon's head tore open the canvas and tore off the batten, and everyone was so startled that they all got low when they heard the sound of the cannon.

Deng Zilong looked up at the broken sail on the rudder tower with resentment, and pointed his knife at the enemy ship.

"fire!"
-
Throwing soap in sea battles, from the "Seafarer's Treasure Book" written by the Spaniard Aranzo de Chavez in 1530

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)