100 European warships were divided into five detachments, departing from the Dutch base in Sumatra and approaching Luzon in a mighty manner. In order to avoid being wiped out one by one by the Ming fleet, the five detachments did not adopt the method of advancing in separate ways, but only each other.
The distance is one or two nautical miles, so that once the sound of cannons is heard, everyone can gather on the battlefield and use wolf pack tactics to completely kill the Ming fleet.
Of course, this kind of combat deployment also has flaws, that is, if the Ming fleet feels inadequate, it may escape from the sea, leaving the combined fleet to miss.
"I guess the Chinese will definitely escape." Waldo, who was in charge of the first detachment, said to Kevin on his flagship San Marion.
Waldo's original ship was the San Martin. It was hit many times in the last naval battle. Although he escaped from the battlefield, it disintegrated and sank halfway. Now he has commandeered Kevin's flagship, and Kevin can only feel aggrieved.
He acted as a deputy next to him.
"If they were smart, they would have escaped." Kevin said, "The last time they fought against 20 of our ships, they only had a slight advantage. Now we have 100 ships. If they dare to fight us, they will definitely
completely annihilated."
Waldo said: "Dick and I have discussed it. If the Chinese escape, we will first recover Luzon and drive the Chinese army on the island into the sea. Then the joint fleet will march towards China and block the Chinese fleet in the port.
Eliminate it."
"Will Joel and the others agree?" Kevin asked.
Waldo looked sulky and said: "This son of a bitch Joel, he insisted on us transferring 30% of our interests in Southeast Asia to them before he would fight with us. If it weren't for the fact that we didn't have enough ships, I really wouldn't want to
Let this bastard join the Combined Fleet."
"This can only be blamed on our Armada's failure in the naval battle, otherwise it would be the British's turn to make irresponsible remarks." Kevin sighed.
"Okay, let's not consider this issue now. After we drive the Chinese away, let's think about how to expand our power in Southeast Asia." Waldo said. He lowered his head to look at the chart and said: "This is about 10 kilometers away from the Chinese fleet.
Is the port not far away? Is there any news about the escape of the Chinese fleet? "
The United Fleet also has reconnaissance ships, which are small, brisk sampans that can travel quickly on the sea and are used to detect the enemy's situation and transmit information. A small sampan happened to dock with the St. Mary's at this time, and a messenger
Boarded the ship and reported to Waldo:
"Report, according to the results of reconnaissance, there is no sign of the Chinese fleet leaving the sea. In addition, at least as of last night, the Chinese fleet is still in the port."
"Are these Chinese crazy?" Waldo muttered, "I don't believe they don't know the news about our huge fleet coming. Are they so confident that they think they can compete with us?"
Kevin said: "Maybe it's because they didn't receive the order from their emperor. I heard that the Chinese people are very dull. They don't dare to evacuate without the emperor's order."
"I hope this is true. God bless, I don't want to chase them to the coast of China to fight with them." Waldo made a cross on his chest and then ordered: "Speed up. Block the Chinese at the port.
Here, don't let them escape."
The warships of the five detachments connected with each other, increased their speed at the same time, and sailed forward. Each detachment spread out slightly, forming a siege of the port of the Ming fleet.
"Look, there's a Chinese ship ahead!" The observer on the mast was the first to see the shadow of the sail on the sea in the distance. "My God, what a big ship!"
"Let me take a look!" Kevin climbed up the mast quickly with his hands and feet and looked far into the distance.
I saw a few behemoths faintly appearing on the horizon. If there hadn't been a chart indicating that there was a vast sea. Kevin would have thought they were several islands, because he had never seen such a big ship.
"God, this is a 5,000-ton ship!" Kevin cried out.
"Did the Chinese build a 5,000-ton warship?" As the distance between the two sides became closer, Waldo stood on the ship deck and saw it.
Inspired by Deng Zilong, Su Hao not only changed the 2,000-material transport ship into a gunboat, but also installed a 6,000-material treasure ship and sailed out. This huge treasure ship sailed on the sea like a hill, and it looked real
It's scary. When designing a treasure ship, it pursues smooth travel on the sea. Its speed and maneuverability are not as good as that of a small ship, and it is not conducive to close combat. But when equipped with long-range artillery, it can be used as a sea fortress.
"Discover the Hongyi fleet, prepare to fire!"
Firearms General Xiong Minyang was in command on the treasure ship. As early as when the combined fleet was still a few thousand steps away from the treasure ship, he had already locked the target firmly with his telescope. He saw that the opponent was gradually approaching the target, which was only 1,500 steps away from him.
At that time, Xiong Minyang gave the order to prepare for firing.
The gunners on several large ships were busy, some measured the shooting elements, and some filled the gun barrels with propellant packets. This time, the Ming army no longer needed to hide their strength.
It has a long range and maximum lethality charge, and its purpose is to kill the European warships with one shot before they get close.
"Ready, let go!"
When the forward of the combined fleet reached a distance of 1,000 steps from the treasure ship, the Xiong people waved the red flag, and 50 artillery pieces roared at the same time.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The sound of the cannon was deafening. Affected by the recoil, the large ship with thousands of materials rocked on the sea, causing waves. Through the smoke of gunpowder in the sky, dozens of projectiles shot out of the air and flew towards the European Combined Fleet.
"Boom!" A projectile fell into the sea only a few steps away from the San Marion. The huge explosion set off huge waves, and the sea water rushed in, soaking Waldo who was standing on the bridge.
"What's going on!" Waldo was shocked. From such a long distance, he couldn't even see clearly the appearance of the Ming army's warships. How come the opponent's cannons had already hit him?
"How far away is the Chinese fleet from us?" Waldo asked Kevin.
"Big, big... about 1,000 steps..." Kevin was also frightened. The artillery on their ship could also reach a range of 1,000 steps, but the projectiles fired were weak and could not even be counted as scratching an itch. But
, but the Ming army was able to cause effective damage at this distance. Judging from the waves caused by the cannonball that fell into the sea just now, the power of this cannonball was at least twice that of the last naval battle. If this kind of cannonball
If it lands on a ship, it only takes one shot to render a four-masted sailboat incapable of combat.
Kevin's guess was not unfounded. Just next to their warship, a British four-masted ship was sadly hit by a cannonball. The cannonball fell on the deck and immediately tore off all the equipment on the deck.
Three of the four masts of this building were blown off, and the sails and cables fell down to one deck. The shock wave of the explosion caused obvious cracks on the sides of the four-masted sailboat, and seawater seeped into the cabin from all directions.
"The Chinese have concealed their strength!" No matter how stupid Waldo is, he knows that he has been fooled. The Ming army has such long-range weapons, but in the last naval battle, they did not hesitate to pay casualties and engage in close combat with them. It was obvious that they wanted to show weakness and lure the enemy. He
He enlisted other countries to form a coalition to seek revenge from the Ming army, but little did he know that this played into the Ming army's plans.
"Mr. Waldo, what should I do?" Kevin asked in panic.
"Give an order, rush forward, and force the Chinese to fight us in close combat!" Waldo made up his mind in an instant. Maybe turning around and running away is a better choice, but it took a lot of effort to bring other countries in. If we don't fight this time
If we retreat, the Chinese will really bully us in the next step.
Your own warship can effectively destroy the opponent's warship within 300 steps. If you want to rush up to melee, it means you have to rush forward 700 steps. If you also consider the speed of the opponent's retreat, you may need to chase thousands of steps.
Only in this way can we catch up to the opponent. And in a voyage of several thousand steps, how many cannons can the opponent fire? Can our fleet be able to sustain it until that time?
"Go ahead at full speed!" Waldo shouted in a desperate attempt to win or die. If he couldn't win this battle, he would be buried in the sea of Asia.
In this detachment led by Waldo, only the flagship St. Mary's participated in the last naval battle. The other ships were sent by navies from other countries. It was the first time for the captains on those ships to see the Ming army's artillery. Although they were shocked
, but thought that this was the case during the last naval battle between the Spaniards and the Chinese, and did not realize that they had fallen into the trap of the Ming army. I saw the flag of charge issued from the flagship, and each ship was full of sails, heading towards
Rush forward.
"Well done, give me a good beating!" Xiong Minyang became excited and roared loudly.
"Boom! Boom!"
The artillery kept roaring. The previous round of shelling was just a test. The observers saw the impact point of the shells through the telescope and promptly informed the gunners to correct the coordinates. In the second round of shelling, the hit rate of the shells was greatly improved. Three European ships
The warships were directly hit. One of them was hit on the bow, and the sudden influx of seawater caused the warship to disintegrate in an instant. The other two were hit on the deck and lost their mobility and combat capabilities on the spot.
Some shells also fell into the water and exploded near the enemy ships, and the shock wave also had varying degrees of impact on the warships. The warships swayed left and right in the huge waves set off by the explosions, shaking some sailors from the ships into the sea.
"Mr. Waldo, we can't rush forward any further, the Ming army's artillery shells are too powerful!"
The captain of the San Marion begged Waldo. He had watched with his own eyes how a ship next to him was instantly killed by the Ming army. He could not imagine what he would become if a shell fell on his command position.
Look.
"Asshole, how can we retreat now? We must move forward!" Waldo roared, "Several other detachments will rush over immediately when they hear the sound of cannons. The Chinese warships are limited, and they cannot stop them at the same time.
We have so many ships!" (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!