Beiyang new warlord

His eyes were already red from the loss, Liu Zhenyuan wiped the rainwater from his face heavily, and pulled out the command saber with a bang.

Seeing that the commander-in-chief was so resolute and cursed in a low voice, the bosun had no choice but to run down the bridge in a hurry. However, he had just descended the stairs when suddenly there was a loud sound of breaking wood. In his inconceivable fearful expression, the heavy mainmast unexpectedly broke from the bottom third, tilted and smashed to the port side, and the heavy sail was still blown westward by the strong wind. , The entire sailboat was pulled to the left, and on the deck, sailors, buckets, naval guns and guns fell into the sea crackling.

Suddenly grabbing a bouncing straight cable, while swinging the ax high, Kang Jianguo roared with all his strength.

"Save the ship!!!"

The woman's face is like the sky above the sea, and the clear sky can be turned upside down as soon as it is said, and it lasts for a long time, with great destructive power and a wide range of influence.

The mighty gunboat is like a duck that has been hit by heavy rain. The main mast in the middle is gone, and there is only a solitary pole poking there, with its head down and buttocks up, stranded listlessly on the beach of a deserted island superior.

Although the horrific suffocating storm has passed, the raindrops are still falling down. Fortunately, the rain is a good thing for the sailors at this time. Holding the urgent container, the sailors are on the beach There is a long row on the top to catch the rare fresh water on the sea, and some are carrying spear guns, paddling rafts to hunt sea fish on the nearby sea surface, there is not much food in stock, and the repair of the warship is stranded here, but I don’t know how long it will take If you can save it, you have to save it.

But food and drink were no longer Liu Tuan's worries, he just sat on the stern of the boat looking at the sea in the rain, as if he had lost his soul.

Old Feng Tangyi, Li Guang's unspeakable taste, he can be regarded as fully aware of it!After this trip, the ship was damaged, and more than a dozen sailors under his command were missing. Not to mention the enemy’s supply ship was not caught, and he was separated from the fleet again. Going back may not be as simple as dismissal!Years of hard work were ruined, and Liu Zhenyuan was as unmotivated as an eggplant beaten by Shuang.

But to say that the fate of people is so wonderful, when you feel that you have fallen to the bottom, God will always send you another big wave, let you know that you can continue to fall, and Liu Zhenyuan is heartbroken At that moment, on the surface of the sea, a few small boats quickly rowed towards the beach as if they had burned their buttocks, and the leading sailor was still screaming anxiously and mournfully at the top of his lungs.

"Tuan rate! Boats! Fanzi boats! Lots of boats!"

Hearing these words, Liu Zhenyuan was so excited, full of excitement, he picked up the binoculars on the table in a stride, and looked in the direction where the sailors fled back. However, after only a second, he felt that his junior Instantly drenched in cold sweat!

It is indeed a ship! A lot of ships! Fanzi’s ship! But it is not his hunting target, a Dutch light supply ship with few guns, but a 60-meter-long, two- to three-story gun bay, loaded with hundreds of heavy guns Compared with them, the third-class sailing battleship Lvyou, which I am proud of, has become the battleship in front of the Tibetan Mastiff. Huskies like that.

While Liu Zhenyuan was stunned, this large group of behemoths rushed past in front of him!

Three days later, to the north, Newport, Royal Naval Headquarters.

"What? Run away!!!"

Pang Dahai sprayed out all the hot tea in one gulp, sprinkled all over the unlucky staff on the opposite side, and stood up abruptly from the chart. Under the shocked eyes of a large group of command staff, his fat body jumped like a ball. He jumped to the door, grabbed the collar of the female officer Xia He who was in charge of liaison, and growled anxiously.

"Is this news reliable?"

"Absolutely reliable!"

Not caring about being taken advantage of by his own coach, Xia He also turned pale, pointing anxiously at the foreheads of the panting Liu Zhenyuan and several junior officers, explaining.

"They sailed back from the enemy camp in Manila!"

Chapter 878. The Battle of the Straits

I have to admire the experience and sophistication of Westerners in naval battles, and even more admire the decisiveness of the famous Dutch general Michel, who is not familiar with the huge sea. The ships kept looking around, almost equivalent to under the eyes of the huge sea, the Western United Fleet ran away!

It's no wonder that the frontier scouting fleet didn't notice. Michel threw away the damaged dozen or so main battleships and some small boats. The main battleships that barely blocked the gap were placed in a row at the front, and beside them were old small sailboats dangling , and these days there are continuous heavy rains in Luzon, and there are no aerial photography planes these days. A large group of boats are dangling in the rain in the far observation area. Even experienced scouts are deceived by this tactic.

For no reason, I got fourteen first-class battleships that lost meters, but seeing these ships, Pang Dahai was so depressed that he almost vomited blood! Mao Jue handed over the main force of the empire to himself, not for these few ships, even Mao Jue He would rather not have a single ship, and he hoped that all the western fleets that had managed to travel thousands of miles to pretend to be under his nose would be sunk under Nanyang, so as to relieve the pressure on his allies, the British, and win greater discourse authority for Ming Dynasty.

If the vassal fleet runs away like this, even if Mao Jue is tolerant, he is a hero and veteran, and Pang Hai believes that he will not be able to eat and go around, and he must go to the military court! The empty ship of the employer's battleship was towed away, and he was impatient and held a joint meeting of officers.

More than 200 capital ship captains and 61 squadron commanders were all gathered in the flagship meeting room of Pang Dahai, and sat straight on the stepped chairs like a movie theater.

After all, he is a veteran, although he has suffered a lot, but he has not lost the sail of a veteran. In front of so many officers, Pang Dahai's pre-war mobilization is extremely brief, but it is extremely shocking. Roaring wide open.

"The general will only say two things! First, the vassal fled to the south! Second! The Ming Army has 50 yuan, and its military expenditure is 500 million taels, while the Royal Navy has only 12 yuan, but its military expenditure is 200 million taels! You son of a bitch Ladies and gentlemen, His Majesty is watching us! The Ministry of Finance is also watching us with calculations! What do you say!"

"The final general swears to the death to wipe out the bandits!"

There is nothing more motivating than this! Gritting their teeth and standing up, the naval officers almost spontaneously stood at attention and saluted neatly, then picked up their hats and hurried out the door.

Today's Daming is so efficient, and he didn't say a word, Pang Panghai also grabbed his helmet, and strode towards his bridge with meteoric strides.

A few minutes later, the huge fleet of the Royal Navy of Ming Dynasty stretched out its huge body like a wild monster in Xinwen. The heavy main battleships rounded their sails, and the eyes of the sailors lined up on the deck Also full of murderous intent, the mighty fleet also rushed out of the harbor in the heavy rain.

In fact, the retreat of the Western Fleet is a bit weird. The terrain of the entire Philippines is like a bunch of broken grapes. To the west is a big island called Palawan, and to the east is a series of broken small islands in the Visayas. Michelle did not choose Take a shortcut to the sea and go straight to Borneo along the long and narrow Palawan Island, bypassing Borneo and returning to the Dutch colony of Batavia, which is located in the center of later Indonesia. Haibaohehai, on the journey, it takes three or four days to leave the three islands of Luzon later than Palawan Island.

Although this route can be regarded as the safest, and there are harbors to avoid the storm everywhere, but in the face of the thunder attack of the Ming army, Michelle's actions increased the risk factor of the entire fleet by more than ten percentage points.

It's just that the anxious Pang Dahai didn't think so much. Three days plus the pursuit time of the Ming fleet, even the relatively far south route is enough for these western fleets to escape from the three islands of Luzon. If they are allowed to withdraw to Bada Via, if Da Ming wants to annihilate this western fleet, the price he pays will increase geometrically. Under his anxious urging, the Royal Navy followed Michel's footsteps and chased forward impatiently. .

Chasing all the way south along the Sibuyan Sea, the inland sea of ​​the later generations of the Philippines, it took almost three days. The Ming fleet arrived at the waters near Cebu Island where Zhang Zhenyuan ambushed the Dutch supply fleet and encountered the main force of the Western fleet. Cebu Island and Baohe were ahead. In the narrow Cebu waterway between the islands, the entire fleet was focused on chasing forward, and did not resupply on Cebu Island, and directly drilled into the Cebu waterway.

But here, the formation of the huge Ming army fleet will inevitably be elongated. The narrowest part of the Cebu waterway is only one or two kilometers away. The formation of the previous six squadrons advancing side by side cannot be accommodated in the strait, so it has to be changed to two. The two squadrons moved forward side by side in a long snake formation.

As the mother ship, the Pangu-class treasure ship transport ship in Pang Dahai lagged behind, and it was almost an hour before it was his turn to merge into the queue and move forward slowly.

Standing on the towering rear bridge, looking at his own fleet passing through the strait, Pang Dahai still couldn't hold back the anxiety in his heart. From time to time, he turned around a few times with his hands behind his back, but at this moment, just like Huang Degong, he was also Mao Zedong. Xia He, the female staff officer specially assigned by Jue, suddenly pointed to the west anxiously.

"Army Seat! Look!"

There are also Ming immigrants on Cebu Island. This is the golden port of the Luzon Islands, which is second only to Manila. However, due to the invasion of Western colonists, the manors on Cebu Island have been destroyed a lot. At this time, a large group of Ming The immigrants gathered on the mountains beside the strait, yelling at the advancing fleet, not knowing what to say.

Turning his head to wait and see, Pang Dahai couldn't help shaking his head with emotion and said: "The thieves burned my home and killed my border people! This revenge, I will definitely avenge them!"

"It doesn't seem right! Military seat! Those common people seem to be holding their words!"

The advantages of the female staff officer are radiated here, she is as careful as a hair! Holding the binoculars, she screamed in astonishment.These words finally caught Pang Dahai's attention, and then he picked up the binoculars suddenly, pulled the lens tube to the longest position, and looked at those big ones with difficulty, but because the distance narrowed to the square characters not much bigger than a fly, okay After a while, Pang Dahai raised his brows abruptly.

There are thieves!!!

For a split second, he felt an electric current rushing through his back. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly felt a particularly heavy heart palpitation. Finally, Pang Dahai screamed loudly.

"Order, the fleet stops advancing!"

"Sign up and obey!"

Listen, the semaphore immediately held the flag in both hands, and waved it at the lookout on the bird's nest above the mast.In order to maintain communication at sea, the Royal Navy set up complex semaphore, watching the order, the semaphore hands on the bird's nest also waved quickly.

However, this is an era without telephones after all, especially in this narrow bay, where two ships are advancing side by side, the speed of command transmission is even slower. The latter ship sees it, waves it out, and informs the previous one, and the previous one informs again The previous one, the long queue of more than 50 boats, really takes time.

But on the battlefield, the most lacking thing is time!

The order had just been delivered halfway, but at the other end, the Tainan Base Squadron, which was the vanguard fleet, had already emerged in the Cebu waterway. Bohol Island is in the shape of a peanut kernel, and it has come to an end here. The special landform makes it look like a trumpet mouth sloping eastward.

On the most forward Tai'a, before the commander of the fleet, Xu Liao, had just stepped out of the bay to enjoy the sudden enlightenment, a large dense black thing burst into his telescope at the edge of the sloping coastline in front of him.

They are all ships! Western warships! The expeditionary warships of the Netherlands, Spain and other Western powers are all crouching at the end of the strait, waiting for the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty! Obviously feeling bad, Xu Liao shouted loudly under a shock: "Fight!" Semaphore, SsangYong goes to sea! Fire broadside!"

Amidst his anxious shouts, the two side-by-side battleships of the Ming army quickly separated one by one. Amid the creaking sound, the heavy gun bay was pulled up abruptly, and the entire formation looked like flowers separated. , opened to both sides.

But what Michelle was waiting for was today. Under Xu Liao's restless gaze, the originally calm Western battleship group became restless for a moment. The oarsman shook the centipede-like oars vigorously, and the sails and oars were in use, and the long and narrow western warship rushed towards him like an arrow off the string.

Seeing the enemy ship getting closer and closer, the gunner of Tai'a, who was at the forefront, finally couldn't hold his breath. With his fully opened side, facing the face of the enemy ship to the west, he slammed the flintlock, slightly In the dreary weather, rows of artillery fire exploded violently in the narrow bay like thunder.

The battle of the Cebu Strait, which is enough to affect the history of the oceans of the East and the West in this time and space, was pulled off the prelude!