Although they eliminated Zheng Zhi's sneak attack fleet and eliminated the port ships of the Nanyang Kingdom that stubbornly resisted in the port, in the face of the destruction of the port facilities, countless ships sunk inside, and the port wharf that could no longer be used, the Spaniards chose to retreat to Leyte Island to rest, while the Dutch put down their rowing boats and made several attempts, they no longer landed, and also withdrew to Leyte Island to rest.

Although Zheng Zhi did not destroy the enemy's fleet, he achieved his goal and repelled the enemy, so that the enemy would no longer try to land from this side, and could concentrate on dealing with the British on the other side.

However, Zheng Zhi didn't know that he rushed to Manila Island with thirty fleeing warships, but halfway through, he changed his mind, Manila Island is now an outsider after all, although Gegong Island is ready to be returned to the Chinese Empire, but now it is still his own, and the third batch of people, supplies, and escorted thirty ships are still on the way, if he encounters the Spanish fleet halfway, then his last bit of strength will also be lost, and he will have nowhere to stay, He did not know now that the enemy did not land on Cebu, at least not from that direction.

So he turned to Koh Kong with the remnants of his defeated army, met his own fleet on the way, ordered them to turn back to Koh Kong, and then he considered his future on Koh Kong Island.

In the other direction, Hong Tiancannon, who received his distress letter, drove out of the port of Manila Island with four hundred combat ships, and did not know that when he was halfway out of the port, Zheng Zhi and the others had actually been almost wiped out, and Zheng Zhi did not send anyone to inform him to return.

When the morning light sprinkled ten thousand golden rays on the sea, a flag suddenly sounded in front, and the British fleet was found, Hong Tiancang was shocked, there were actually British interceptors, didn't Zheng Zhi say that the British were on the side of Leyte Island?

As the fleet advanced, on the sea, two huge fleets came face to face, twenty nautical miles, at the distance of the telescope, the British flag loomed, when the sky was bright, fifteen nautical miles, without the telescope, you could already see the British flag fluttering, and the huge warships of the British fleet, thirty silver-white hulls with red cross paint, particularly conspicuous.

Hong Tianpao put down his binoculars and asked the people around him, "What kind of ship are those ships with silver-white hulls and huge red cross paints?" Why haven't I seen it? ”

A military general on one side said: "Your Highness, that is the new ship of the British, similar to the ironclad ships of the Chinese Empire, those huge battleships behind them are the battleships mentioned by the Chinese Empire in the west, the smallest is a third-class battleship, two to three decks, equipped with 60 to 80 guns, there are at least twenty-eight guns on one side, and they are all heavy guns, with a range of about five nautical miles, and a direct firing range of about 500 meters, compared with our current warships, the largest warship has an effective direct firing range of 420 meters and is 80 meters more."

For this reason, Wechen once found someone to go to the British East Indies to buy a British sailor, found an outdated picture book of their ships, studied it carefully, and remembered the appearance of these enemy warships.

In the rear, it was the enemy's first-class sail battleship, with a displacement of about 2,000 to 3,000 tons, and the ship was generally three to five decks, equipped with one hundred and twenty-two to more than thirty guns, and there were more than fifty guns on one side, but looking at the enemy queue, it seemed that there was only one first-class sail battleship, two second-class sail battleships, and the others were all third-class sail battleships, with a total of about forty-eight.

Obediently, forty-eight sail battleships, thirty new warships of 1,200 tons of new Chinese Empire style, plus their fifty warships on our side from the sixth to the fourth rank that we often see, and thirty armed merchant ships, oh my God, how are we going to fight? ”

Hong Tianpao chuckled, this is exactly what Hong Tiancang was worried about.

"Order turn, let's go back to Manila, quick, quick," Hong Tiancang hesitated for a few seconds, and then decisively ordered to escape.

At this time, his fleet was already close to the enemy ten nautical miles, and the military general said: "Your Highness, the turning of such a huge fleet cannot be completed in a while and a half, we have to send someone to stop them, we have to change the rear team into the front team, let the armed merchant ships and warships of the rear team turn first, and then we turn again, part of the front team turns, and part of it has to catch up and drag the enemy, otherwise we will all be hit by our own people, if it becomes a pot of porridge, we may not be able to run away." Four hundred warships and warships were all outflanked by the enemy. ”

Hong Tiancang is a little painful, in the previous battle to raid the Spaniards, he has lost a hundred merchant ships and fifty armed merchant ships, fifty-six warships, this time depending on the situation, it is impossible to escape without losing hundreds of ships, the enemy is too strong, nearly a hundred warships, are much higher than the tonnage and firepower of his warships other than battleships, this battle can not be fought.

They have always had little contact with the British, and they don't know the British very well, but they didn't expect the British to go out and intercept them halfway this time.

It depends on the situation, Zheng Zhi is more auspicious and less auspicious, forget it, anyway, he has already got benefits, it doesn't matter what Zheng Zhi is, he died a Zheng Zhi, and he fulfilled his Hongtian Cannon, which is not bad.

So he said to the general: "Under your full command, go to the Manila, raise the flagship flag, and leave it to you here." ”

"Ah, Wu's so-called eyes widened, I didn't expect that my foresight and hard work would be exchanged for the Hongtian cannon to resist the enemy, this is obviously a mission to die, relying on a hundred armed merchant ships and forty-eight warships of six hundred tons and below, to intercept the enemy's nearly two hundred tons of tonnage, firepower, and speed, are far superior to their British fleet, this is not death?"

Wu so-called was forcibly sent by Hong Tiancang's personal guards to send 1,300 tons of former Zhao Hui's flagship from the First Fleet of the Chinese Empire, the First Fleet No. 001 battleship, but at this moment Hong Tiancang has changed the name of this battleship to Manila, whether Wu so-called willing or not, the personal guards who took care of him ordered people to raise the flagship and take over the command of the forward fleet, and then Wu so-called saw the Chinese fleet on both wings and the rear army behind turn away, the scene was a little chaotic.

But it succeeded in causing a riot in the front fleet, and there were actually two six-hundred-ton warships that thought they could break away, and they saw that there were many huge two or three thousand ton enemy sail battleships floating on the sea in front of them, and their hearts trembled, and they turned around without waiting for orders, so they collided together, and the angry Wu so-called groove scolded, what kind of fleet is this.

Cowardice before fighting, self-chaos.

However, hundreds of warships and warships, armed merchant ships, if they want to leave, they are not able to leave for a while, they are all sailing in battle formation, and the fleet turns, even if it is a ship, it depends on how the wind blows, at the moment they are downwind, if they want to rush to the British and fast, it is smooth, if they want to turn, then it is too difficult.

Seeing this situation, Wu knew that there was not an hour not to think about turning, if he wanted to sail against the headwind and throw off the enemy, he had to hold on for at least four hours, he had already discovered that the British ships were extremely fast, and in the face of the fleet composed of old-fashioned Chinese imperial ships, their speed was at least two to three times, that is, after four hours, the fleet of the Ryukyu Kingdom could sail about fifty nautical miles, the average speed of ships was four to five knots, and the enemy's slowest speed was also six to eight knots, which was still a headwind, If the tailwind is estimated to reach ten and twelve knots, the speed of this voyage is not much of an advantage even for the new warships of the Huaxia Army.

(End of chapter)