The battle horn has sounded!

With the world watching, on July 4, the Western Fleet sailed through Cape Lands and sailed from the Celtic Sea to the English Channel.

Subsequently, the British at Cape Liser and Cape Stat, as well as nearby fishermen, immediately reported the movements of the Western Fleet to the authorities as soon as possible. Similarly, the French fishermen were destined for this fleet, and their course was also reported to the authorities.

The Western fleet on the expedition to England was completely exposed to the eyes of the Europeans.

The officers and men of the Western Fleet did not seem to care much about their own exposure, and they were like tourists, admiring the scenery of the English Channel.

"Look, it's White Cliff!"

Zheng Ming and Wu Minghui stood on the stern of the "Ganquan", looking into the distance energetically, and through the mist they saw the morning light beginning to reveal on the white cliffs of Beach Point. Its snow-white cliffs perpendicular to the sea level are spectacular in the sunlight, awe-inspiring and even more awe-inspiring in its beauty.

"It's spectacular! I finally know why, in every travelogue about England, the White Cliffs are mentioned......"

When he put down the binoculars, Zheng Ming couldn't help but sigh at the magnificence and beauty of the White Cliff.

Wu Minghui on the side said with a smile.

"It's just that there are a few flies flying next to it, which is a bit of a disappointment."

The so-called flies were actually several British fishing boats, which had been being tracked by them since the fleet sailed into the English Channel, and it was not very pleasant to be stared at.

At this moment, an officer came to report to them.

"Sir, a British fishing boat has left."

"It's time to collect the silver."

Zheng Ming smiled, and then said to Wu Minghui.

"Can you guess what they reported?"

"It's supposed to be some heading and location report."

"That's for sure."

Zheng Ming said to Wu Minghui, and then asked.

"What about the others?"

"He'll probably tell Herbert about how many cannons we have."

Because the number of enemy guns can be obtained by counting the cannon windows, this must be within the range of the British fishermen's report.

"Well, those details don't matter, though. What else? ”

"If I'm not bad, Herbert will surely be waiting for us somewhere ahead, after all, on the surface, he is far superior to us."

The corners of Wu Minghui's lips were slightly raised, and his expression looked a little playful.

"By this time he had gathered the most powerful fleet in Europe, and the British and the Dutch had formed an alliance, and confidence must have been high......"

"That's a good thing."

For Zheng Ming, this is exactly the decisive battle he has been waiting for, and of course it is a good thing.

"Is there any indication of where they are now?"

"We don't have any further information yet, except for the one we got before, after all, at sea, many times, it depends on luck."

When entering the English Channel, they unexpectedly encountered a small schooner of the Ming Dynasty, which brought information sent by the military forces stationed in Europe, in which it was pointed out that Britain and the Netherlands had gathered almost all the sea forces of the two countries and were waiting for a decisive battle with the Ming Western Fleet.

And this information made Zheng Ming, who couldn't eat and sleep well, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and even drank two glasses that night.

"Hey, luck?"

Zheng Ming said helplessly.

"This luck is unreliable...... But what else? ”

When the fleet arrived at sea, it was blind, except for a few dozen miles nearby, it was not seen at all, let alone understood, just like now, although it was known that the Anglo-Dutch combined fleet had gathered a huge fleet, but other than that, there was no information about them at all.

"I heard that China has now developed a high-magnification telescope, at least more than 20 times, maybe in the future, it can be applied in the fleet, and when the time comes, the 8-magnification telescope can be eliminated."

The 8x telescope is the standard telescope of the Navy, although it is more effective than the European 2-3x telescope, and can search a wider range of oceans, but the Navy is still not very satisfied with it, so the Navy has always been a supporter of the development of high-power telescopes.

Nodding silently, Zheng Ming turned to Wu Minghui and said.

"This is the inevitable result of technological development, and the bonus set up by the navy is 30,000 taels, which is enough to attract any academy to engage in research in this area. However, we also have to see that now Europe is also learning rapidly in this area, many of our research materials are public, and there are a large number of Westerners studying in our academy, living in the Ming Dynasty, they can bring these materials back to China through various channels, so, to a certain extent, the only thing that can threaten us is Europe, because they are the only region that actively learns the science of the Ming Dynasty, as for the Tianzhu people, Persians, Ottomans, It's just a group of semi-civilized guys who don't take the initiative to learn at all, even if it is another five hundred years, they will only shout "** great", as for science, they don't care about ...... at all"

Europe, especially Western Europe, is likely to challenge the Ming Dynasty in the future, and there is no consensus in the country, but Wu Minghui knows that this point of view has formed a consensus among the nobles, because it is influenced by His Majesty the Emperor, but many people obviously do not believe in this point of view, in their opinion, European countries are too small. So what about a group of small countries that could threaten the Ming Dynasty?

Even in the eyes of many people, the only one who can threaten the Ming Dynasty in the future is Zhuxia, because Zhuxia is the only region in the world that can keep pace with the development of the Ming Dynasty.

"Not everybody, though, agrees."

Zheng Ming smiled slightly, and then said.

"But now, none of this is important, the important thing is that after this naval battle, we are an existence in the Atlantic that no one can challenge, and the threat to the Western Ocean will also be reduced to the bottom, they are open to us, and the threat will never exist again."

Staring at the sea, Zheng Ming said smugly.

"Of course, we will still face up to their threat, but we will keep an eye on them, we will keep an eye on Europe, and this naval battle will change everything."

At this moment, suddenly, the lookout hand at the top of the mast shouted loudly.

"A mast sail has been found in front of you!"

The lookout hand then shouted again.

"A large number of mast sails have been found in the front right!"

Discover a large number of mast sails!

While everyone was watching, the top lookout continued to report loudly.

"A large number of mast sails have been spotted in front of you! A number of warships were spotted in the front right, rapidly approaching us! ”

As he shouted, more than a dozen pairs of binoculars on the ship looked in that direction. However, because of the height, it was still difficult to see clearly, and several officers immediately stepped on the climbing net and quickly stood on the mast, and then took binoculars to observe the front.

"Enemy ships were found, at least thirty warships ......"

"Raise the battle alarm!"

Zheng Ming immediately ordered.

All the crew ran to their positions in the rush of the ship's bell, they squatted next to the gun emplacement, first opened the gun window, and then struggled to push the heavy large-caliber naval guns out of the gun position.

Unlike the continuous accumulation of naval guns in European countries, the Ming Dynasty chose another path - to reduce the number of guns on the ship by building large-caliber naval guns.

"Is it the Combined Fleet?"

Zheng Ming shouted at the officer on the mast.

"Sir, I can't see the flag clearly."

"Who else could it be but them?"

Wu Minghui replied.

"Now the French will certainly stay in the port, and they will certainly not want to cause misunderstandings at sea."

"Those Frenchmen want to take advantage of the fire, but this time they are going to miscalculate......"

As they spoke, they both held up their binoculars and observed, and from time to time turned their faces to talk to each other, but not far away in the telescopes, they still could not see the trace of the enemy fleet. But even so, the lookouts and officers at the top of the mast continued to inform the enemy fleet of its location.

"The fleet adjusts the course to the battle line, maintains the course, the starboard side is ready to meet the enemy, the flag bearer ascends to the top, and the whole fleet obeys the flag bearer's orders......"

With Zheng Ming's order, the fleet, which was originally advancing in unison, changed, and slowly adjusted to a single column-type route.

In the past few decades, although the navy of the Ming Dynasty has not conducted large-scale naval battles, under the guidance of Zhu Mingzhong and a large number of exercises and practice, the navy of the Ming Dynasty has long developed into the most professional fleet of this era. The content is simple and easy to understand, but the tactical actions are unified and standardized, and the corresponding flag signals are matched with them. It will be possible to increase the efficiency of fleet operations. According to the practical results of the exercise, even a huge fleet of 100 warships should be able to quickly carry out the corresponding actions after the flag is sounded, and this is the ideal goal pursued by Zhu Mingzhong. With these efforts, the combat effectiveness of the Ming fleet as a whole has been greatly improved, from an individual to a whole, thus ensuring the overall superiority in naval warfare.

Of course, the change in artillery technology has also further improved the combat effectiveness of naval warfare. This is also the fundamental reason why Zheng Ming has no fear and dares to challenge Britain and the Netherlands with dozens of warships.

But even so, while waiting for the enemy ship to appear in sight, he still seemed a little nervous, so that sweat broke out in his palms, and he stood quietly, standing there, gazing at the sea with the position reported by the looker, waiting for the appearance of the enemy.

Finally, the shadow of the enemy appeared in the telescope, the first thing that came into view was the mast, and then slowly, the enemy ship completely appeared in his sight. Through the binoculars, the outline of a sail became clearer and clearer in the mist.

"Send a signal to keep the ships in position."

Zheng Ming shouted sharply.

"Attention all ships, the first gun will not be fired by me, as soon as the enemy ship fires, immediately open fire and return fire!"

The reason why this order was given was only because Zheng Ming knew very well that he had to make the British bear the reputation of "going to war", and as for him, he was only forced to fight back.

With such a reason, it is better to explain to the imperial court when the time comes, it is not that he wants to fight, but that the British are "provoking the war first", and they are forced to return fire in order to "protect themselves". Even if it is written into the history books in the future, the Ming Dynasty is also above board, the Ming Dynasty did not bully the weak, but the British and Dutch "planned for a long time", and the Ming Dynasty was forced to fight......

Of course, Zheng Ming's mind was unknown to Herbert, the commander of the Anglo-Dutch Combined Fleet, and he didn't even know that when he vaguely discovered the Western Fleet of the Ming Dynasty with a pitiful three-fold telescope in his lookout hand, the other party had already discovered them and was even ready for battle.

"Your Excellency, discover the Celestial Fleet!"

There is no doubt, after receiving the report from the lookout, Herbert immediately gave an order, his expression also seemed a little excited, standing at the stern of the ship, his eyes stared ahead, he held a beautiful telescope in his hand, if the person next to him looked closely, he could clearly see the Chinese characters on the telescope, that was the telescope of the Ming Dynasty - the six-fold telescope, the entire Anglo-Dutch fleet only had a six-fold telescope produced by the Ming Dynasty, but this was Herbert's personal belongings, He certainly wouldn't give the binoculars to the lowly sailors, he stood high in the stern, staring ahead through the binoculars, and could faintly see a white sail, unlike his fleet, the Ming fleet in his line of sight was lined up in columns. Just swaggering towards himself.

"These arrogant guys!"

Herbert muttered in his heart that the reason why he felt this way was because in his opinion, the Celestial Empire Navy was not prepared for war at all, and as early as the Anglo-Spanish naval battle, this kind of column battle line had been proven to be a useless and easy to break front.

Now the fleet of the Celestial Empire maintains such a front, apparently out of contempt for him. This contempt provoked in Herbert's heart the resentment of the Celestial Empire.

"To Corellis?? Iverson signaled that they would take up a good position up front. ”

Herbert's voice was tense and majestic.

"Pass everyone, fire as soon as you get to range! God is watching us! ”

After giving this order, Herbert drew another cross on his chest and prayed softly there.

"God willing!"

For Herbert, even now that he was leading the most powerful fleet in history, there was still some apprehension in his heart, even some apprehension, because he knew better than anyone what this huge fleet meant for Britain, and even for Europe as a whole.

God's gaze is on us all, on whether we can stop the pagans!

At this moment, even as a Protestant, Herbert's heart was filled with a strong sense of mission, and it seemed that at this moment, he understood why the admirals of Christendom, who were holding back the Turks in the Mediterranean, always mentioned mission—mission, and they were the warriors of Christ, for Christ to stop the invasion of the infidels!

God willing!