open sea

Chapter 406 Rudder
Mendoza loosened the lavender around his neck.

He counted himself as if four boats were missing.

The formation was spread out so that he could not accurately observe the results of the battle on the two wings. He only saw that two armed merchant ships sank somehow, and two galleons seemed to be hit by enemy ships and their sails were retracted.

If you don't take it in, the seawater fills the bottom warehouse quickly along the gap, and if you don't take in the sail, it will sink in front of the enemy ship for a while, and the sailors will have nowhere to run.

The most frightening thing on the battlefield is the captain and their sailors chasing Deng Zilong in a Galen ship. They really saw that a Galen ship was no match for a salvo of the enemy ship, and it took less than a minute. Forty or fifty shells hit the ship, and the continuous and orderly firepower made the two captains on Galen's ship terrified.

Regular Spanish warships have always had two commanders. One is the nominal commander of land and sea, but in fact he is selected by the army to lead the soldiers on board and does not know how to fight at sea; the other is the captain of the navy. Ships listen to him when they are at sea.

Looking at the distrustful eyes of the army captain, the ship nodded helplessly and said, "They are indeed better at fighting than us."

The Galen ship didn't dare to pursue it anymore. A large ship of the same size had already been knocked out of combat power by a round of salvos during the pursuit. They followed up with nothing more than repeating the same mistakes. They wanted to rescue the sailors on that ship first.

Not to mention, right under their noses, an armed merchant ship was blown out of a big hole with a bang, and then it was hit in two by the black enemy ship equipped with nine broadside guns.

The collision was not over yet, several bursts of flames exploded on the wreckage of the merchant ship that was broken in two, and there was no one on the deck until it sank into the sea.

Deng Zilong's Xiaozong Banner weighed five or six catties of explosives in his hand, looked back at the merchant ship sinking into the sea, and grinned loudly: "It's easy to use! It's easy to use—General, are they going to stop chasing it?"

The artillerymen on the port side of the ironclad ship reloaded in an orderly manner, and a basin of sea water was sprinkled on the pile of gunpowder that had been shaken off the deck. A gunner accidentally tore open the gunpowder bag in the impact just now, and more than half of the ten catties of gunpowder was scattered all over the floor.

Deng Zilong waved his hand to signal to the helmsman, the ship drew an arc in the sea, turned around and set off to pursue the Galen ship on the starboard side.

Feng Shui took turns, and Galen, who was lowering the sail rope to rescue the sailors on another sailing ship that was gradually sinking, saw the Ming army's large ship turning around, and suddenly lost the courage to pursue it before, and even ignored the comrades who fell into the sea.

A few short drums sounded on Galen's ship, and the surrounding small boats and boats received a retreat signal. Many sailors who rescued the wounded and rescued the wounded raised their heads at this time, only to find that the terrifying big black ship turned around and rushed towards it. Boat.

The big boats and small paddle boats fled towards the commander like a group of unleashed tortoises.

Deng Zilong laughed when he saw them fleeing in a hurry, instead of chasing them, he commanded the ships to keep a safe distance from the enemy, and carried the inaccurate long-distance shelling of the enemy ships to find loopholes in the formation, and carefully selected the next prey.

Even Mendoza did not dare to send a fleet to touch Deng Zilong's fleet of three huge ships led by an ironclad ship. The short-term engagement made the Spanish commanders realize that although their enemy had fewer ships, they had superior artillery and tactics. .

The tactics of the Ming army are very similar to the tactics used by the Spanish genius commander in the Lepando naval battle three years ago. Philip II’s half-brother John was the admiral of the Christian United Fleet and commanded the Pope’s coalition forces to defeat the Ottoman fleet.

In fact, that was also the beginning of battle-line naval warfare in the world.

Mendoza was not a legendary commander. He had only seen reports on the naval battle of Lepando on paper, and that alone was enough to make him feel alarmed. Destroy the five smaller clipper gunboats on the right flank.

In other words, Shi Qi led five shark ships with five hundred materials.

The huge Guam fleet only maneuvered at sea for a short time, which doubled the pressure in Shi Qi's heart. It seemed that all the enemy ships, regardless of size, turned around and attacked him in the tea room, so that the fan-shaped outflank he was about to complete had to be dispersed. Quickly bypass the turbulence and board the enemy ship, looking for a more suitable breakthrough point.

This also made him farther away from Deng Zilong's fleet.

In just a short moment, the situation in the waters west of Guam changed drastically. The huge and slow New Spain Navy formation was stretched. Except for three ships and a small number of small boats as delays, the rest of the ships rushed towards the Shiqi fleet, leaving almost no room for outflanking. He couldn't get a good position.

On the other side, Deng Zilong took advantage of the victory to pursue and sank an armed merchant ship with a boat cannon again, but he couldn't take care of Shi Qi because of the distance.

The Spanish gunners seemed to have drunk too much rum, each of them threw shells with heavy artillery, regardless of accuracy, and smashed waves around Deng Zilong's fleet on the sea surface. No ship can resist their short, dense and accurate broadside salvo.

Mendoza gradually discovered the reason why Ming warships’ artillery was far more accurate than theirs—Ming ships never fired within half a mile.

The two fleets of the Ming army had different fates. Deng Zilong was brave everywhere, and Shi Qi was fleeing everywhere. Fortunately, the Spanish ships were much heavier than them, not to mention that they were not equipped with oars, so even the fastest armed merchant ships could only be driven far away. Hanging behind, it was the small paddle boats carrying seven or eight soldiers who were hit and sunk by the enemy ships themselves from time to time during the voyage.

Even though he didn't have the ability to turn around and fight, Shi Qi felt a little relieved to see this scene carefully with a telescope.

During the long stalemate pursuit, Shi Qi finally threw the last enemy ship a thousand steps away, and suddenly ordered to turn the rudder.

The five shark ships quickly turned around and leveled out on the sea, just covering the two fastest pursuing armed merchant ships within the range of their own artillery fire. The watchman on the low poop with a telescope shouted: "Four hundred paces!"

The flags were waved, the guns of the three ships adjusted their positions, but the last two ships did not see the order flags, and the side strings of the five fast boats blasted out at the same time. frightened.

When the captain's helmsman was tested, God was on Shi Qi's side. The captain of the enemy ship made the worst choice, and he turned around.

Shi Qi continued to sail forward, always enveloping the enemy ship in a fan shape. The port side gunner who fired earlier loaded the ammunition under the call of Xiaoqi General Banner. The armed merchant ship turned around hastily. Retreating, the five shark boats roared again on the port side.

This time, all muzzles were adjusted to their proper positions.

More than 20 large and small shells bombarded the stern hull, but did not cause a devastating blow to the merchant ship, but through the telescope, Shi Qi clearly saw a large board that looked like a stern rudder floating in the sea.

He grinned and ordered the helmsman to turn to port... What was the consequence of an armed merchant ship that couldn't turn and was heading towards their own ships in the long pursuit line of New Spain?
confusion!

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)