"What, hit Manila Bay?" Zheng Sen was taken aback by his brother's words, "Second brother, are you serious? ”

"What's wrong?" Zheng Jiangong looked at the boss Zheng Sen with a surprised look on his face, and laughed, "Afraid that I won't be able to move?" ”

"That's Manila Bay!" Zheng Sen sank his face and looked extremely dignified, "Second brother, the foolish brother has spent a lot of effort exploring the reality of Manila Bay over the years, so he knows that it is not easy to fight there...... Not to mention us, even the Dutch are not sure that they will be able to take Manila Bay! ”

"I know, how could I not know? I'm the Admiral! Zheng Jiangong smiled, "So I don't plan to take Manila Bay, but hit and run."

To take Manila Bay, it is necessary to take the San Diego fort, which cannot be taken in 20,000 men and in a few months. And to transport 20,000 troops to Manila Bay, to ensure their supply for several months, and to carry a large amount of baggage, there is no shortage of 200 large bird ships. Now the reinforcements of Siam are about to be carried out, but there are not so many large bird ships to transport troops. ”

The Santiago fortress was not a problem for the Ming army after the Northern Expedition, the problem was that it was very difficult to send 20,000 troops across the sea at a time and ensure its logistics - of course, ships could be made, but now there were too many people and things to transport, and it was necessary to send troops to Siam, to transport food back to China, and to prepare ships to run to the New World.

The Americas in the New World is even more important! As soon as the Henan brings back good news, the Navy will have to organize ships to transport the second wave of migrants in the shortest possible time!

And to besiege Fort Santiago by digging parallel trenches, it will not work if there are fewer people! If there is no ship to transport people and things, what to fight?

"It's not easy to fight and run," Zheng Sen still shook his head, "The anchorage of the Spanish fleet is under the cover of the Krabi battery, and your gunboat can withstand the heavy guns of Cavite?" ”

"Losses are inevitable," Zheng Jiangong said, "but we have a killer feature!" ”

"Killer? What's the killer feature? ”

Zheng Jiangong smiled: "It's for your big bird boat...... Are there all 24-pounder cannons on the big bird ships in Xiamen Harbor? ”

"Yes, all 22 Wanshi Big Bird ships are equipped with four 24-pounder cannons," Zheng Sen nodded, "But that kind of cannon is not very useful, it can only deal with pirates." ”

The 24-pounder short-barreled gun is actually a kind of army gun, the scientific name is the Hongxing six-year 24-pounder short-barreled cannon, which is a large-caliber cast iron short-barreled smoothbore gun. Because it is a cast iron cannon, the heat dissipation performance is relatively poor - the thermal conductivity of iron is far less than that of copper, and the thermal conductivity is several times worse, so the cast iron cannon dissipates heat slowly, and it needs a long time to cool down after completing the launch, and the rate of fire is slow.

In addition, the technology of cast iron is far less mature than that of bronze casting, the melting point of bronze is only 800 degrees, pure copper is just over 1,000 degrees, and the melting point of iron is as high as 1,500 degrees. Therefore, mankind mastered bronze casting very early, and by the 17th century, bronze casting technology was quite mature. So far, only a few countries in the world, such as England, the Netherlands, Sweden, and China, have mastered the production technology of cast iron cannons. China's iron casting process developed earlier, but it was able to cast iron cannons very early.

However, because of the lack of scientific research support, the handicraft technology is not too far away, so the iron cannons cast in the Ming Dynasty are sometimes good and bad, and because there is no hydraulic drilling machine, the inner chamber is not well processed (iron is harder than copper), so the cast iron cannons of the Ming Dynasty are generally not very mature.

However, by the sixth year of Hongxing, because of the digestion of some technology imported from Europe, several major arsenals in the Ming Dynasty could already cast qualified large-caliber cast iron cannons. It's just that the performance of the cast iron cannon is still inferior to the bronze cannon, and the advantages are only light weight and cheapness.

And Zheng Sen took a fancy to these two advantages, and purchased hundreds of Hongxing for six years and went on the Nanyang Fleet's Wanshi Big Bird Ship. A 10,000-stone ship is equipped with four doors, which is very useful against pirates - pirates are for money, and the goal is not to sink, but to capture the big bird ship, and to take the ship you have to get close first. The average corsair is not very strong, and it will not be able to withstand one or two 24-pound shells.

However, it was not enough to use this 24-pounder gun against the Spanish battleship, not because the 24-pounder gun was not powerful enough, but because the number of equipment was too small, and there were only four guns on a 10,000-pound ship, and it was fired in three directions.

Zheng Jiangong was confident, and said to his brother with a smile: "Just have it...... 22 boats is enough! There are also 8 Wanshi big bird ships are rushing to Xiamen, plus the Henan and the Fujian and Jiangnan that have just been delivered, it should be enough to raid Manila Bay! ”

The Fujian and Jiangnan were also 800-ton warships, and like the Feixiang, they were armed with 40 12-pounder guns, and they were very strong, using a lot of Siamese teak.

The outfitting of these two ships was completed nearly a year later than the Henan, and the sea trials of the installation plan for them would not be completed until the beginning of the tenth year of Hongxing, but now that the situation is urgent, they have been brought in to make up the numbers.

"What? Only three 800-ton sorties? Zheng Sen was stunned, "Two of these three ships have not yet completed sea trials, how much combat power can they have?" ”

Zheng Jiangong smiled: "Enough, enough!" ”

Zheng Sen asked again: "What about the remaining main warships?" ”

"Twelve boats went out to sea, and they couldn't be contacted at all. The rest rested at Dinghai anchorage, and when the troop transports arrived, they were to escort to Siam. ”

"Why don't you pull those twelve boats on first?"

"Most of the officers and sailors are gone!" Zheng Jiangong shook his head, "When the ship rests, the people also have to rest...... Where is it so easy to find them all over the place to reunite with their families? ”

"Can you still fight Manila like this?" Zheng Sen was a little speechless, this brother of his own is too unreliable, right? As a navy layman, he also knows that he can't be so rash!

No! Zheng Sen, who was born in the old man Jinshi, has already made up his mind in his heart, he has to hurry up and give Emperor Zhu a secret recital, and he must stop the second child from blindly commanding!

Zheng Jiangong looked at his brother's anxious appearance, and just smiled: "Big brother, let's go see your big bird boat...... Also inspect and test fire artillery, inspection of one door, test firing of another! ”

Zheng Sen nodded: "Okay, this is the arrangement...... Bag you are satisfied! ”

......

When Zheng Sen was in a hurry, Admiral Garcia on the Spanish side was confident!

At this time, he was leading the "Oriental Invincible Armada" composed of 28 warships to sail on the vast Pacific Ocean!

Before he left Manila Bay with his team, he asked de Velasco to lead a small 200-ton Galen ship with the Portuguese flag to investigate the Dinghai anchorage.

In fact, this place in Dinghai is not suitable for serving as a fleet home port, because Dinghai is not a bay terrain, but an archipelago terrain, and the archipelago is surrounded by a sheltered anchorage. The effect of sheltering from the wind is not very good - Dinghai is located near the exit of the Taiwan Strait, and typhoons are often encountered! And the archipelago can't be compared with the bay, it's leaking everywhere!

But this is not the worst, the worst thing is that the anchorage in Dinghai is close to the Ningbo commercial port, and there are too many merchant ships coming in and out! Put the fleet there for people to visit every day!

However, there is no other way for the Daming Navy Division, the Wusong River in Shanghai is more lively than Dinghai, it is a big road on the water!

The hydrological conditions of the Yangtze River west of Jiangyin are very complex and unsuitable for seagoing vessels, and the river surface to the east of Jiangyin is too open to defend, and the hydrological conditions are equally complex...... Therefore, the Daming Oriental Fleet could not find a suitable home port on the southeast coast, so it had to use the anchorage in Dinghai!

After studying the topography and hydrology of the Dinghai anchorage, Admiral Garcia already had the confidence to win!

It is clear that the Chinese cannot play with the navy, they are too careless to put the fleet in a home port that is so vulnerable to attack.

As long as their fleet is still there, the Spanish Eastern Armada will be able to wipe them all out!