Fortunately for Wang Yuan, the main Spanish fleet seemed to be more experienced than the opponents in Batavia or Manila, and seemed to have a more contemptuous attitude towards the Oriental ships they led, which were obviously inferior in size. Therefore, the posture of approaching to seek a decisive battle is obviously more sufficient.

Not only that, but when the opponent's fleet approached a distance of about twenty or thirty miles, the general lineup of these attacking enemy ships could be better determined through a telescope of decent quality, and indeed as estimated by an experienced hot air balloon lookout, there were about thirty capital ships and even more than seventy large armed merchant ships accompanying it, except that the size of the small and medium-sized ships seemed to be less, and the size of the lineup was similar to that of the enemy's main fleet near Batavia.

If it was half a year ago, although the fleet was sure to deliver a annihilating blow to a fleet of this size, it still had to risk some casualties and spend some effort, then now encountering such an opponent made Wang Yuan have full confidence that he would inflict a heavy blow on the opponent in one round of blows.

Moreover, seeing that this fleet seemed to be fierce and would not be easily frightened, Wang Yuan also ordered the fleet to take the initiative to fight in a battle formation, instead of waiting for the rabbit in a circular formation, and the lookout who was responsible for directing the centralized fire of the mortar artillery was also raised to the mast in this case, instead of minimizing the possible threat to the superstructure as before.

At the same time, within about an hour or so of the approach of the two sides from the water antennas, the more than 9,000 marines and men on the auxiliary ships with heavy guns could begin to move to the sixty main ships, and the auxiliary flotilla in this case, in order to avoid the risk of encountering the remaining fleets that had been left near Batavia, sailed as fast as possible to avoid the danger of the remaining fleets that had been left near Batavia. In this way, although the strength of the enemy army was reduced to about 21,000 men, it was more substantial and capable.

Soon, the distance between the two sides gradually narrowed to a distance that could be threatened by the artillery of the sea for about two miles, and this time it was still the naval guns of the Spanish fleet that opened fire with heavy fire with the battle line spread.

Perhaps because of the proximity to the tropical windless zone, the wind and waves at sea at this time were still not very large, but even so, most of the artillery fire spread out at a distance of two miles was still impossible to hit the target. About 100 Spanish main warships and large armed forces fired nearly 10,000 shells with 2,000 guns in a few minutes, and only about 200 shells hit the hanging armor, which did not bring much threat. Other shells, however, set off many columns of water near or far away from the flotilla.

Of course, despite the low hit rate, the flotilla still encountered dozens of casualties in such an artillery battle, which were casualties caused by sporadic shells that crossed the armor and hit the deck and penetrated into the cabin.

Wang Yuan still did not give the order to fire back under this circumstance, but when the enemy approached a distance of about a mile and began to deploy a certain threat of firepower, he did not hesitate to issue an order to launch a full-scale attack.

At this time, the number of rifled light guns on the ship was obviously less, and the 60 ships of the Baotou steel light guns were only able to concentrate 900 light guns to launch firepower, but the hit rate was significantly higher without sparing a hand, and more than 800 shells of the enemy ship were hit in just about a minute, penetrating and killing many people.

Of course, this firepower only made the Spaniards in the battle line feel a trace of pressure, and the timing and even accuracy of most enemy artillery fire seemed to have decreased a lot under this pressure, but they were still firing continuously, and the sixty main warships led by Wang Yuan suddenly turned their bows and approached the other side at the fastest speed without any scruples, and in just about two minutes, the distance between the two sides was shortened from one to half a mile. The shells that hit the armor also began to become dense at this time.

At this time, clouds of white smoke continued to spit out from sixty armored ships, and even half of the Spanish officers and soldiers who were not particularly experienced at this time could be roughly determined: this was not an accident at all, and it was impossible for the accident to suddenly come out of so many enemy ships at the same time, but the enemy's firepower, so many people subconsciously lowered their heads under the cannon window.

However, this did not seem to have much effect, and 780 300-jin or 500-pound explosive shells were projectile like a row of dense meteorite rain at the limit distance of the maximum projectile range of half a mile. The successive explosions instantly plunged the entire Spanish battle line for miles into a column of water and a smoke screen.

When all this began to dissipate, almost a round of blows caused thirty-four of the enemy's main ships to sink significantly, and some of the other nearby ships almost lost the reaction to continue firing and suppressing in a short time, and it took about half a minute or so for the enemy to react, and tried their best to turn the bow of the ship and flee from the terrifying opponent.

However, in just half a minute or so, many human propeller propellers also devoted themselves to the task of assisting in reloading and cleaning the chamber, and completed the preparation for re-firing almost as quickly as possible, and launched it with a slight lateral adjustment according to the original direction.

It was another tsunami-like vibration and even a column that continued to blow up after a few seconds, and when everything gradually came to an end, the results of the bombardment were also shown at this time, under the fierce firepower, another twenty-one enemy capital ships were sunk, and the opponent who had obviously had an advantage in the number of ships before was barely able to fight was significantly less than the main fleet led by Wang Yuan.

When the lookouts, gunners, and other personnel of the expeditionary fleet saw all this, they seemed to forget that it was a battlefield, and cheers began to ring out on the ships, which also instantly encouraged the officers and men who boarded the longitudinal oars in the cabins.

People were not lacking in confidence in the victory of this battle before, but they did not expect the victory to come so quickly and at such a light cost.

At this time, Wang Yuan did not hesitate to continue to order the fleet to move forward and attack the opponent with the highest efficiency, it was obvious that the explosive shells consumed in the previous two rounds of fire were not a negligible proportion.

(End of chapter)