When the main fleet led by Wang Yuan approached a distance of about 100 paces from the Spanish fleet, it seemed that it was not much use to escape, or perhaps it was to recover some sanity from the previous violent explosion, and many captains began to understand that maybe "in the way of others" there might be some opportunities to get off the line, and they also used the heavy mortar guns prepared on the ship to prepare to throw the blasting projectile as quickly as possible. At least 21 ships fired 200 300-pound explosive projectiles one after another at this time, exploding fireworks in the air, and many of them exploded violently near the waterline.

However, the preparation for such an attack was still too hasty, not only did most of the remaining gunners not have time to reload or respond effectively, but the gunners also obviously had many problems in terms of training level and fuse design. The successive explosions caused only two ships to suffer serious damage to the superstructure, and four capital ships suffered varying degrees of damage, and more than 300 people were killed or injured due to the enemy's blasting attacks at close range, but not a single capital ship was sunk as a result.

At the same time, the main fleet led by Wang Yuan also began to respond effectively, launching attacks at a closer distance. This time, only about half of the heavy mortar guns participated in the attack, and only about 300 explosive projectiles of about 300 catties were fired, but it still brought a decisive effect at a distance of about 100 paces, hundreds of huge water columns almost engulfed the remnants of the enemy ships, and in the end, only two enemy ships survived in the end, and the personnel on it had already suffered serious casualties.

In fact, it was Wang Yuan's intention to capture some Spaniards and understand the general situation in the New World that finally did not concentrate his fire and completely sank the two ships. After the capture of the 200 Spaniards on board, who appeared to be in good sanity and had not been seriously wounded or killed in the previous blasting attack, interrogation was quickly carried out on the ships. At this time, each ship was equipped with several people who were very experienced in this area, and there were also interpreters who could barely communicate. Therefore, it only took a day or so to have a preliminary result when the news was summarized. Although most of the sailors and captured crew members chose to resist, and many attempted to provide obvious false information, a rough comparison of the records of the separate interrogations of the ships, combined with some experience in identifying true and false lies, has made some preliminary information about the New World more or less conclusive. The Spaniards had four viceroyalties in the Americas, but in order to prevent the most critical areas from being breached, at least half of the Spanish forces that escaped from Europe were concentrated in the viceroyalties around Mexico.

At the same time, one of the routes that overseas Chinese in the late Ming Dynasty often had more experience in was also along the equator to Acapulco, and thus further to Mexico City, so Wang Yuan did not hesitate any longer, and immediately ordered the fleet to start northward and advance along the coast towards Acapulco, the important town of the Viceroyalty of Mexico.

Led by the voyagers who had traveled this route, it took the whole fleet about two days to approach the distance of about 100 miles outside the port of Acapulco, where it was slightly adjusted for more than a night, and allowed the ships to move forward near dawn, and to approach the port of Acapulco exactly as it was close to dawn.

Although one of the main Spanish fleets patrolling in this area had been annihilated by his own team, there were still hundreds of small and medium-sized sailing ships and more than 30 decent capital sailing ships along the coast, and these ships were still under the effective cover of heavy artillery on the shore.

Seeing that the scale of the attacking Eastern Fleet was not small, and that there was no trace of their own patrol fleet that had gone out, the Spaniards in the harbor did not underestimate the enemy, but first ordered the large ships that could sail far away to go out for a diversion operation, and the small ships cooperated with the heavy artillery positions that had been built near the port to prepare to meet the approaching enemy.

The results of the Spaniards' fleet were of course obvious, although the main heavy guns of about 1,000 pounds of about 1,000 pounds of about 1,000 pounds were deployed on the shore and fired bursts of shells, and at a distance of about two or three miles, they also made a terrifying column of water in the vicinity of the main fleet, but when the enemy shells that occasionally hit the hulls of the armored ships did not make much real threat, the attack was soon launched. The 60 capital ships, which had approached about 150 paces, once again launched fierce firepower, and with more than 300 explosive bombs weighing 300 pounds, most of the enemy's fleet sank into the water with the stunned crew in one round of attacks.

Of course, as the fleet approached the shore, the massive artillery positions built near Acapkol began to intensify their firepower.

At this point, someone proposed, "Should you send Marines to land farther away and attack from land?" ”

Wang Yuan pondered for a moment, and finally rejected this intention: "The enemy forces around Acapulco seem to be different from those in Manila or Batavia, and the Spaniards clearly understand that if our army goes on an expedition, it will be here that the brunt of the expedition will be, because it can be reached in a relatively short time along the currents and the coast. At the same time, there were many people who walked this part of the route, so in addition to deploying the main force at sea to this area to defend the possible silver capital of Potosi, while having a lot of troops on land, many naval guns were also reinforced to the land defense facilities. If our army attacks on land without relying on the containment and cover of warships, it is obvious that it may encounter a high probability of casualties and losses both day and night... ”

In fact, Wang Yuan had roughly learned it when he was making up classes in the Central Manor Academy before, even if he attacked in a very dispersed formation to the limit, and the attacking team had the top armament and defense, if he attacked the enemy artillery array in the defense, he would suffer at least one casualties on average for each heavy artillery piece in each face.

In other words, if the Marines were allowed to attack without artillery cover, the cost of at least a thousand casualties would be paid for attacking a port near this coast, and the enemy army would have to pay a price of at least about 1,000 casualties, which was obviously beyond the reach of the team at this time. Moreover, it is needless to say that the enemy army on the shore is equipped with heavy artillery of this scale, and the proportion of troops will inevitably not be small, and it is very likely that it will be far more than 10,000 people.

(End of chapter)