Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 541

Early in the morning, the menacing Northern Crusade fleet rolled forward from Rush Island, and 28 Yingtian battleships with a length of 70 to [-] meters cut white waves on the sea with their sharp knife-like bottoms. The Ming Dynasty's red-backed black flag fluttered like a dragon facing the fierce sea wind. The Ming people could not kill and insult casually. With the chill from the north, the main fleet of the begging army was like an arrow that left the string. Fiercely shot at the big island of Luzon.

Luzon and Manila are equally important to the Kingdom of Spain. The main route of Spain is Magellan’s round-the-world route. It departs from Barcelona, ​​crosses the Atlantic Ocean, arrives in South America, and then takes the Strait of Magellan at the southernmost tip of South America. , into the Pacific Ocean, and then follow the ocean currents to the Philippine Islands, then leave Malacca, bypass Africa through the Cape of Good Hope, and return to Spain.

Every year, the Spanish galleons carrying American gold and silver specialties pass through Manila, and board the amazingly exquisite oriental goods, spices, and then return to Spain, bringing amazing wealth to the Spanish kingdom.

In order to defend this place, the governor of Manila, Pedro, even intercepted thirteen treasure transport ships from Spanish warships coming from the Americas, plus the twelve Galen sailing battleships that Manila originally had, and eight large armed merchant ships plus one, formed 33 A huge fleet of battleships gathered in Northern Luzon to resist the attack of the Ming army.

So, looking at the oncoming Ming army fleet, and looking north with a binoculars, Pedro still had veins on his forehead, and the muscles at the corners of his mouth twitched unnaturally. After a long time, he put down the binoculars , a dull curse.

"How could the Eastern pagans who should go to hell have such a magnificent fleet?"

It’s funny to say that 40 years ago, the predecessor of Pedro’s predecessor received an order from the King of Spain to form an expeditionary force of 5000 people, and then went to Japan to recruit about [-] Japanese samurai to conquer the Ming Dynasty. Manila It's the outpost. The governor of Luzon has really been investigating seriously for a long time, but now, the sleeping lion of the East has woken up, not to mention grinning at him, on the contrary, he is going to come and eat you with bones.

But even so, Pedro still has no regrets for the massacre in Manila. In this era, the Spanish conquistadors were considered the most ruthless people in the world. In South America, after they destroyed the Inca Empire and the Aztec Empire For more than 100 years, these arrogant guys have gone through several twists and turns before admitting that the aborigines in North and South America are equal to the Spanish before God. Before that, the aborigines in North and South America were like livestock to them. Similarly, Huang Chinese people with skin are also inferior in their hearts, inferior people, if you kill them, you will kill them.

But no matter how much Pedro looked down on him, the revenge fleet of the Ming army was in front of him. Almost when Shi Lang's fleet charged to a position less than two nautical miles away from the Spanish fleet, the governor of Manila also ordered the fleet to fight.

As expected of an old-fashioned empire, the Spanish warships were fighting in a straight line against the formation of the begging army's arrows. The battleships were neatly arranged, and the angles were constantly adjusted as Shi Lang's fleet advanced, and it was just as Hong Chengchou expected. In that way, they cut obliquely to the northeast, not northwest. Yesterday, they discovered that a fleet of twelve main battleships disappeared westward.

The naval battle was really urgent. At about 09:30, the Ming army launched an attack. It was not until about 400:33, more than an hour, that the naval guns of the two armies exchanged fire. The formation of the Qihuo army was a big loss. Formation, only the fourteen ships on the right can exert firepower, and the one on the left can only watch. At a distance of [-] meters, the Spanish warships that cut obliquely from the side of Shi Lang's fleet like a long snake spit out poisonous snake-like artillery fire. The firepower of [-] battleships crushed the [-] Yingtian battleships.

The two sides were really full of flames, and the corresponding side of the ship was spraying projectiles outward all the time. Thunderous artillery fire hit one after another, and the sea between the two sides was like hail. stop.

In terms of momentum, the Yingtian ship was completely at a disadvantage. It had to be admitted that the professional level of the Spanish gunners was better than that of the artillery gunners. One side was hit like pockmarks, and the sails of several battleships were broken into sieves. After the projectiles scraped through, they were riddled with holes, and there were fires everywhere.

But when Pedro was watching with a binoculars complacently, there was an earth-shattering explosion on the left side of the San Diego in front of his flagship. A hole was torn open, and the 45-meter San Diego immediately tilted to the right.

"Right full rudder!"

Nearly falling off the bridge, the red-bearded 50-something Spanish conquistador squealed like a cat that had stepped on its tail.

The flagship Philip passed by the left side of the San Diego dangerously and dangerously. Seeing the desperate faces of the other party and hearing their angry roars.

Just passing by, the governor of Manila just breathed a sigh of relief. A howling Ming army shell shot straight into the bow gun bay of the Philip as if it had eyes, and a Fran cannon was blown away directly. He got up, knocked the top deck open with a bang, and then ran into the crowd. A dozen Spanish conquistadors were turned into a pulp.

The artillery battle lasted for more than an hour, and the two armies finally staggered, with a distance of four or five nautical miles. On the shore of North Luzon, Shi Lang, who suffered from firepower, ordered the fleet to change formation in a panic, and began to take on the shape of a long snake. To cut back, on the other side, on the Philip, the governor of Manila, Pedro, was also furious and pointed at a shell.

After an artillery battle, should the fourteen Yingtian warships at the firepower point be sailing on the sea or sailing, but three of the 33 Far East Armadas have remained on the battlefield, and two have lost power, and they are full of holes. Waiting to die on the coast, the Santiago, which had just been concentrated in its ammunition depot, had already been burned like a torch.

These days, sea ships are basically equipped with [-] to [-]-jin Fran cannons, so the first firearms imported by the Ming Empire were Fran cannons, and the later Hongyi cannons were coastal defense cannons for Western colonists. It is not suitable for field battles, but it is a pity that the Ming Dynasty, who was rushed to the doctor in a hurry, also learned it, which is cheaper than the old rival Jianzhou Jurchen.

However, after all, warships are still super-imaginative for the development of heavy artillery ships. Warships and merchant ships have gradually begun to completely separate. Song Qingshu left a little earlier than the Spaniards. In his fleet, 26 are full-time battleships that have completely separated from merchant shipping. , all equipped with Hongyi destroying ship guns and more advanced rifled guns imitating Armstrong guns.

Among the fourteen gunships involved in the battle, two were equipped with imitation Armstrong guns. These two rifled gunships left behind the other three ships. Looking at the long strip shape, the soft lead on the outside has been melted by the high-speed friction of the rifled gunships. Fedro kicked the dropped iron cannonballs angrily, and cursed loudly.

"The Devil's Cannonball!"

Immediately, the Spanish sailors saw their captain screaming and falling on the deck holding his instep.

In the unfavorable situation of the battle, suddenly, a sailor from Portugal pointed north in surprise.

"Look, everyone, there!"

There are also two boats staying on the sea near Rush Island, Haidayu No. [-] and Haidayu No. [-].

This time Song Qingshu basically did not bring a functional supply ship. All the supplies and the army were installed on it. The two ships are two huge sea warehouses. However, the significance of the treasure ship is not for combat. , in order to save load, each treasure ship is only symbolically equipped with twenty [-]-jin Fran cannons. It is okay to fight against pirates, but against battleships, the firepower is almost completely abused, and the speed of action of treasure ships is slower than that of Yingtian battleships. It's almost average, and it's almost becoming a big target at sea.

So every time a Haidayu sails, at least two Yingtian battleships serve as escorts, but this time, the Qihuo army made such an astonishing mistake and left Haidayu behind alone.

Perhaps the form of today's battle exceeded expectations.

After holding his feet and standing up again, Fedro waved his command knife at Hai Dayu almost in surprise: "Order, all fleets, attack the barbarian supply ships! Be sure to sink them!"

Thirty Spanish warships that were scarred and bruised once again rallied, roaring like chicken blood, and marched northward again. Behind them, it seemed that they also found a mistake. The sickle formation came back in a hurry to rescue.

The fierce chase started again on the sea.

In terms of speed, the Spanish battleship actually fell behind the Ming warship by a few points. The unequal firepower caused the Yingtian battleship to suffer only a little skin trauma, and the speed did not decrease. Some have missing arms and legs, some have broken masts, some have big holes in the side of the ship, the ships are tilted, and they can't run fast at all. After half an hour of chasing, Shi Lang's sickle is about to cut Fedro's tail.

Seeing this scene, the distraught governor of Manila raised his saber ferociously again.

"For the glory of God, order the Proto, the Tribunal, the Haibiao, and the Holy Angel to fight on the spot!"

The Spanish battleships that have suffered heavy damage are basically certain to die under such firepower. However, the military laws of the Spanish Navy are extremely strict. I greet the generations of women from Federo's ancestors in my heart. In grief and indignation, he ordered to turn around.

The sound of the guns behind was like a landslide and the ground cracked again, but Fedro couldn't care less about it. The two big sea fish seemed to be frightened and moored off the coast of Rush Island. If the supply ship of the Ming army was destroyed, this mighty The fleet will no longer be able to attack Manila, and at least half of the fleet will be wasted in the sea under the torture of hunger.

Maybe you can quietly plan to go to Taiwan!After several 10 minutes of galloping, they approached Haidyu No. 500 at a distance of almost [-] meters. Fedro couldn't wait to get into the best shooting range, so he ordered out suddenly.

"fire!"

Almost at the same time, sitting under the huge sunshade on Hai Dayu's deck, Song Qingshu also picked up his wine glass, holding a goblet of red wine, and happily saluted the oncoming Spanish warship.

Boom~

(End of this chapter)