Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 311 Manila Bay
The Spanish ships in the port of Manila started to move. In order not to attract the excessive attention of the Ming Navy, the Spaniards cleverly sent the sailors to different ships in batches at night.At dawn, the Spanish fleet readied and began to unmoor.

After receiving the report from the sailors on the watchtower, Commander Meng Hui said, "Finally ready to fight."

Zhang Fengming said with a smile: "It seems that the scale is larger than ours, but the largest ship is about the same tonnage as our frigate."

After all, this is not the mainland of Europe. There are almost no European countries that put their most important battleships above the third level in the colonies. The scale of naval battles that broke out in the colonies is relatively small. Wars are actually armed merchant ships with a few guns, and there are very few very professional warships.

The Spaniards have a total of 18 combat ships. The flagship is a full-sail battleship named Prince of Asturias.The rest of the warships were mostly armed merchant ships equipped with a dozen guns.

The commander of the Spanish Navy is named Thiago Sergio. He participated in the 30 Years War when he was young. This is something he has always praised. Like Salcedo, Sergio’s time in the Philippines Not long.

The first officer next to him was covered in cold sweat, and his whole body began to wobble. The first officer said faithfully to the commander: "Colonel, please stop this military operation immediately! The enemies we are dealing with are not those in Europe. A second-rate navy, they may be the most powerful navy in the world—the Ming Navy! We can't win."

Sergio slapped the first officer angrily, and shouted: "Mr. First Officer, I didn't ask you to come here to listen to you say such bastard words that disturb the morale of the army. I need your experience."

The chief mate was very awkward, and said directly: "My experience is not to fight against the Ming Dynasty Navy. It is unwise and stupid. Oh God, why do you want me to go through this kind of thing again!"

This first mate was the man who worked for the Cuban captain who refused to be inspected by the Ming Navy in the Fujian waters.He personally experienced what it was like to be bombarded by warships of the Ming Navy, and also witnessed the panicked sailors killing the Cuban captain in order to survive.Since then, the first mate has been firm on the basic fact that he must not fight the Ming Navy on the sea.

Sergio kicked the first mate aside and decided to fight in his own familiar way.

The Ming warships in the port, which looked much larger than the Spanish warships, looked like a majestic army under the sun, while the Spanish ships were not even hounds.

Because of Bai Mingxiu's antiquity, the Ming Dynasty Navy began to paint its ships with a layer of light gray since the 17th century to reduce their recognizability.The Ming battleships with gray and white hulls look like they have a different kind of beauty of power. They are arranged in a column, as if they are waiting for Sergio to come to their door.

"Obviously, this group of Chinese is familiar with our European naval tactics, and they also use a single-column formation, but fortunately, the wind is on our side." Sergio felt a little relieved.

Pointing to several warships lined up at the head of the single column, he asked, "Why is the Chinese ship smoking black and on fire?"

This time it was the captain of the Prince Asturia who answered: "Colonel, that's the smoke from the chimney of the steam engine, not a fire. The Chinese have created a wonderful machine that replaces human power." and animal power, and loaded it into the ships, so that the ships could go faster without being restrained by the wind. Our merchants had hoped to obtain this powerful machine from the Chinese, but the Chinese refused."

"That's for sure. If it were me, I wouldn't sell it." Sergio said.

He quickly asked again: "How fast can those ships go?"

"The Fourteenth Five-Year Festival is not a problem."

Sergio suddenly felt that he was at a very big disadvantage.

But at this moment, the three dome-armored cruisers of the Ming Navy opened fire first.As the main battleship that did its part, Zhiyuan and other warships turned the semi-closed turrets on the bow and stern of the ship and aimed at the Spanish Navy warship.

This is a 210mm Krupp cannon with a 30-diameter cannon has a range of more than 8000 meters, and it is also the highest-level artillery of the Ming army at this stage.

Several shells were fired one after another, but none of them hit, but this shot made Sergio feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

"How can this artillery have such a long range?"

Although a few shells failed to hit, there were fronts and backs, including several Spanish warships. If the gunners of the Ming Navy had good skills, then they would definitely be able to adjust their landing points until they hit the target. Spanish battleship.

At the same time, the Ming Navy fleet was still approaching, and more artillery began to roar.At a distance of almost 4000 yards, nearly a hundred guns on seven warships were already firing.

"Set to shoot the elements, the azimuth angle is 95-00, the shooting angle is 06-80, let it go!"

After the school firing, the gunners of the Ming army quickly adjusted their shelling. At this time, it was obvious that the gunners of the Ming army were very powerful.It's impossible if they aren't powerful, many of them are system mercenaries with skills, even if they join later, they are all artillery skills fed by shells, and more importantly - they are good at mathematics.

This is definitely not a joke, artillery has always been a technical arm.In the 17th century, many artillerymen in Europe may not be very literate, and their calculation skills are even worse.In the Ming Dynasty, regardless of the army or navy, the gunners had to learn mathematics and undergo a lot of training.Not only do they have more accurate gun watches, but their computing power is far superior to that of their peers.

The first shell to hit was a 155mm near-miss shell, which fell directly below the waterline. The shell that exploded in the water was more destructive to the ship, not to mention that the army no longer used solid shells. The resulting debris directly blasted the hull of the Spanish Navy San Felipe below the waterline, creating a large hole.

That basically heralds the end of the ship.

Seeing that the San Felipe was tilting and sinking at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even the sailors on the ship had begun to jump crazily into the water with buckets and other things, Sergio felt that his three views were affected. A huge challenge.

"Are you kidding me? Did you sink the St. Philip with one shot? What kind of shell did the Chinese use and why is it so powerful?"

The first mate flashed out at this time and shouted: "Colonel, I have warned you, fighting the Ming Navy is the stupidest thing! You will kill us all! You must surrender, surrender to them , otherwise you will see the Spanish warships sinking to the bottom of the sea one by one."

(End of this chapter)