No one in the Central Committee misunderstood the phrase "once the Spaniards could not give China a satisfactory answer, they would immediately declare war on Spain." From the General Staff to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the propaganda departments, they immediately began to build momentum.

"The first step of the propaganda trilogy is that it is necessary to emphasize China's right of residence in the South China Sea since ancient times, as well as its legitimacy. The second step is China's historical response to foreign invasions of Southeast Asia. The third step is the attitude and stance of the new government. ”

Even with Weizer's personal instructions, the Propaganda Department still didn't figure out what was going on. They came out with a lot of evidence, and even had to use the guys from the translation department of the Museum of Culture and History, which was set up to appease people's hearts.

Wei Ze was furious after reading the report, he called the guy from the propaganda department to the office and criticized it violently, Wei Ze glared and said angrily: "Who are you writing this for?" ”

"For foreigners, of course." The guys in the propaganda department didn't know why Weezer was angry, and they replied a little confused.

Wei Ze was happy to recite this, and he hated iron and steel: "Negotiating with foreigners relies on artillery warships, and the propaganda makes them look good!" I asked you to engage in propaganda for the Chinese. ”

Without saying a word, Wei Ze recommended Zuo Zongtang to the Propaganda Department. It is only right that educated soldiers are in charge of this kind of propaganda, and Wei Ze forgot that the guys in the Propaganda Department were too far away from the war.

After Zuo Zongtang took over the work, he did not hesitate to start working, first of all, he began to carry out propaganda in the liberated areas, especially in Guangdong and other provinces with large populations in the South China Sea. Second, Zuo Zongtang completely understood Wei Ze's thoughts, and this propaganda contained the attitude of the Wanli period and the attitude of Qianlong when the Dutch slaughtered Chinese on their territory.

is also using the pedants of the translation department of the Museum of Culture and History, which is mainly to appease people's hearts, and cultural people like Zuo Zongtang are different. Even when the Ming Dynasty was unable to defeat Luzon because of its lack of strength, and Qianlong, who regarded overseas Chinese as traitors during the Manchu Qing Dynasty, this contrast immediately demonstrated the orthodox sense of China.

Especially in Guangdong, Fujian and other places, among the Chinese killed by the Spaniards, they were basically the people of these two provinces. Some countries have come out to support the Nanyang Chinese, and this stance has indeed greatly increased the trust of the people of the two provinces in the new government. Regarding the attitude of the Manchus to ignore the people, the people of the two provinces naturally will not have a good evaluation.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was a different tactic, and they wrote a very bureaucratic letter. Explanations were demanded from the Spanish authorities in Luzon. This bureaucratic stance made the Spanish Governor's Office feel that this was just a façade on the part of the Chinese side. They also wrote a bureaucratic palindrome in which they simply said, "Nothing happens."

This is the kind of letter that the Chinese side is waiting for, and if the Spaniards say in a very prevaricating way, "Let's take a good look," it will make it more difficult for China. Since the Spaniards said so, the Chinese side gave a new text to the Spanish Governor's Palace without saying a word. On September 1, 1866, "in order to protect the safety of its expatriates and in the face of the atrocities committed by the Spanish Viceroyalty, China officially declared war on Spain. The declaration of war was sent to the Spanish Doge's Palace in Luzon.

The Spanish Governor's Office was completely dumbfounded, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry's understatement of a letter made the Spaniards think that this was something that could be dismissed with just a reply. I didn't expect a letter in exchange for a full-scale war. In addition to immediately starting to call up troops to prepare for war, the Spanish Viceroyalty ordered the dispatch of personnel to negotiate with the Chinese side on the same day. They must stabilize the situation no matter what, and delay the Chinese first.

On 2 September, less than half a day after the ship of the Emissary of the Spanish Viceroyalty sailed out of Manila, a large fleet was met on the waterway. The messenger watched the approaching fleet from the bow of the ship, and the whole person was stupid. Even after receiving China's declaration of war, the personnel of the Spanish Governor's Office did not forget to laugh at the Chinese. In short, the Spanish governor thinks that "the Chinese learn from Europe to declare war, do they really know what will happen after the election?" Other countries will either get involved in the war or engage in neutrality and cut off trade with China. Can these Chinese stand this? ”

It turns out that not only can the Chinese stand it, but China simply longs for this war.

"My lord, what should I do?" The captain ran to the stunned messenger and asked.

"Run! Hurry back and report it! The messenger gave the order in shock.

The Ryukyus, which was the lead among the Chinese warships, saw the Spanish-flagged ship trying to run away, and the captain gave the order, "Catch up and sink it!" ”

"That's a merchant ship, right?" There was a staff officer who asked.

"Let the merchant ship run back to report the news? How did we educate before the war? Did you attend the class? The captain asked rhetorically.

Before the war, there were explanations of various situations, but the fleet was busy preparing for battle, where can I remember so much. The staff officer listened to the captain's criticism, and was not convinced, but he was also a little relieved. No wonder the captain can be the captain of the ship, he also pays attention to this kind of detail work.

Many people have the misconception that a small boat runs faster than a big boat, and in fact a big ship will always run faster than a small boat at sea. The ship is not big enough to carry more powertrains. Even in the age of sails, too many sails would only guide the ship to swing at a distance, and eventually lead the ship to capsize.

The tonnage of the Spanish ship was only more than 2,000 tons, and the tonnage of the Ryukyu was 5,100 tons.

"My lord, what should I do?" The captain of the Spanish ship asked anxiously.

"How far will this distance be shortened before we reach the port?" As a member of the Spanish Doge's Palace, there is always a bit of maritime knowledge. The guns of warships in this era were mounted on both sides, so if Chinese warships wanted to fire at Spanish ships, they had to at least chase them to parallel positions. The messenger is ready to trade space for time.

The captain looked at the distance between the two ships, and replied with trepidation: "I can probably get to the area close to the port." ”

"When we get to the vicinity of the port, our fleet will come to the rescue, so what is there to be afraid of. Run. The messenger commanded.

When the captain heard this, he gritted his teeth, turned his head and shouted: "Throw some cargo into the sea!" ”

Observers from Chinese warships soon spotted the movement of the Spanish ships, and they were throwing something out into the sea. After listening to the report, the captain took a sip, "Cut!" Learn how to survive with a broken tail of a gecko? They had a good idea. The foredeck gun emplacements are ready to fire. ”

After chasing for nearly two hours, the distance between the two sides has reached about a kilometer, the guns on the foredeck of the Ryukyu took off their gun jackets, and the observers began to measure the distance, relative speed, after the tense calculation was over, the artillery firing Zhu Yuan was set, the wheel room got the news, and the speed was reduced a little, and with a loud bang, the first gun of the Chinese Navy's real naval battle finally started.

A tremor could be felt throughout the ship, and damage crews and technicians watched the hull movement from the cabin. Because of the huge reaction force, the wooden pedestals squeaked. The Ryukyu hull is mainly divided into five layers. The two huge cannons in the bow of the ship could not be fully considered the main combat power, and the real combat part was the layer of the shelling. On the rails in the shelling compartment with compartments, the fixed latch valves of all cannons were tightly locked. The staff had checked it beforehand, and at this time they came to check it out.

Naval combat does require extraordinary courage, but it is only a matter of overcoming fear and using normal combat skills. The real battle depends on skillful operation and careful preparation. The Liberation Army lacked experience in naval warfare, and it was all the more necessary to make material preparations as perfect as possible before the war tested the courage of the naval personnel.

The inspection of the inspection, the finishing of the arrangement, the observation of the observation, the shelling are also shelling. Although the landing point of the cannonballs was getting closer and closer to the Spanish ships, the Spanish ships seemed to have some blessing, and there were cannonballs in the front and right sides that stirred up huge columns of water, and the ships were also tossed on the sea. But it just didn't get shot. Moreover, the Spanish ships did not care whether they could see it from the coast or not, and they fired salutes into the sky in an attempt to use the smoke rising in the sky to alert the Spanish fleet to come to the rescue.

"Grandma's! When Lao Tzu catches you, he must dismantle you into eight pieces, and cut you with a thousand knives! Seeing that they could not hit the enemy's ships, the bombardment officer was furious and scolded. If the warship could be easily sunk, the suddenness of the attack on Manila would have increased. Even if the troops don't think they're really capable of completing a surprise attack, a little advantage can add up and eventually turn into a terrible advantage in decisive places.

A hand was pressed on the shoulder of the shelling officer, and the shelling officer turned his head to see that it was Liu Sha, the commander of the detachment. "I really think it's good to hit this distance of one kilometer. In the past, it was the kind of ship target that sailed in a straight line. The first time I hit this kind of boat, it is normal to miss. ”

"Commander Liu......" the shelling officer's throat squirmed dryly, "I really want to hit." ”

"Then relax and take a deep breath. Then concentrate on doing your job. You can only hit if you do your job well. Liu Sha calmly calmed the mood of his subordinates.

The bombardier took a deep breath, the smoke of the air causing a thrill in his lungs. Slowly exhaling the breath, the whole person felt a lot more relaxed. Even the mouth that was dry because of anxiety had saliva in it.

Just as he was about to take another deep breath, a sky-shattering cheer suddenly rang out on the deck. The bombardier opened his eyes in surprise, only to see that on the deck of the Spanish ship in the distance, a mast was slowly tilting, then breaking in two, and the upper half of the ship had fallen into the sea with a large number of sails.

When a mast is broken, the most direct effect is the loss of part of the power. The Ryukyu itself was faster than the Spanish ships, and now it is more comfortable to catch up. When the distance was reduced to 500 meters, the shelling officer was confident that he would sink the ship in one fell swoop.

Things turned out to be much better than expected, and just as the Ryukyu was speeding up in pursuit, the Spanish ship suddenly lowered its sails and raised the white flag high on the mainmast. Everyone knew what this meant, and the Spanish ship surrendered. R1058