Although the quality of the main force of the Spanish maritime power was not as strong as that of the British, the development of the Age of Discovery in the first or two hundred years and the experience of confrontation with the Ottomans also accumulated a wealth of practice, and after several adjustments when the limit distance from the coast was found at the approximate horizon, the exact reservation position was found before nightfall the next day.

This gives the entire large naval fleet the ability to quietly reorganize its ranks and gradually approach the coast of the correct destination under the cover of night. When the sun was setting again, the massive naval battle line advanced at the fastest speed, stretching for a distance of about twenty miles, and many columns approached only about two miles from the coast.

The guns of each ship were not fierce at first, and most of them were close to missing, but with the constant adjustment under the command of the lookout, the shells fired by the ship's guns became as accurate as possible.

In fact, when this operation had just begun to be accurate and planned, the navy had long been prepared to sacrifice those remnants of forces on land. In the opinion of Philip IV, who personally led the fleet at this time. If the main forces of the strong enemy in the east had been fully prepared before the expedition, and the participating troops had sufficient vehicle shields and shield protection, then it might have been possible to resist the attack of the strong enemy.

However, in the case of the great defeat of that year, even if the remnants of the forces used the equipment and supplies smuggled in the New World for a year or two to retrain and arm. Under the threat of the enemy's tough archers and gunners, sooner or later it was the result of annihilation. The only thing that can be left to chance is to use the surprise deterrence and strikes of the Navy to deal a heavy blow to the land forces of the opposing side. It would be even better if this opportunity could be taken to re-establish a few strongholds within the range that the navy could cover.

At this time, Philip IV did not know that the elite archers he had encountered had already withdrawn to the country, and that the garrisons on the European continent were now inhabited by the general strength of the resistance forces that were not particularly outstanding in combat but were sufficient to suppress the resistance forces in various places. Having recently learned this, the confidence of many army generals who had retreated to the New World was also strengthened.

After about a quarter of an hour or so of the test firing, the artillery fire began to become noticeably accurate, and in the previous year or two, the all-round combat readiness carried out by using some newly discovered resources in the New World made the whole fleet more adequate in terms of gunpowder resources, and made the whole fleet determined to fire at least 500,000 rounds of naval shells of about six to eighteen pounds within a range of more than 10 miles during the artillery preparation stage.

Just as Philip IV had predicted, only an hour or so after the heavy artillery fire began, a number of small boats from the shore began to approach with the help of the fire of the artillery, and suddenly appeared very close to the large ship under the cover of night and launched a blasting attack.

At this time, many crew members discovered that compared with the situation during the exercise, actual combat is a completely different matter, and under normal circumstances, at night, it is necessary to reach a distance of about fifty or sixty yards to find those approaching demolition boats, and the time for effectively opening the firing window is actually very limited, and usually only four heavy grenade mortars in one direction can effectively fire.

Moreover, in the case of panic in actual combat, the error caused by the estimation of the distance also reduces the accuracy of the hit a lot. But even so, when grenades of more than 300 pounds and containing more than 100 pounds of black powder exploded one after another at a distance of tens to hundreds of yards, the huge flames often responded to the figure of the boat. The heavy arquebuses and leather cannons of the army on board also opened fire fiercely at this time, and in a short time there were four earth-shattering explosions in succession, and at least one sail warship was severely damaged in the violent explosion, but more than half of the crew on board finally came to their senses and jumped into the sea before the ship sank.

In addition, although the violent explosions in four places also brought sporadic casualties and the temporary loss of combat effectiveness of a large number of crew members, because the power of even thousands of catties of black powder was still limited, and it usually only played a role at a close distance of more than ten meters, so it did not bring much harm.

After successive losses or heavy damage to three sail battleships, the fleet's defenses began to become calm and steady after retreating a considerable distance. Many large ships will take advantage of the wind direction to retreat backwards and drop some sampan-like incendiary materials that can float on the water, illuminating the direction within a certain distance of the side when there is a threat. When a definite threat is detected, the fire from the explosion of a heavy grenade at a distance of 100 yards illuminates more places, which also calms down the subsequent defenses and attacks.

Although it did not achieve the previous effect, in general, in the next nearly an hour of confrontation, the loss of a total of more than fifty demolition ships brought the opponent the loss or heavy damage of seven sail ships, and the later it was, the closer the ratio of losses was ten to one. The entire fleet also began to gradually react from the initial panic.

In this way, the confrontation between the Spanish expeditionary fleet and the shore forces led by Chen Xinzhou Dayong on land and at sea gradually came to an end. At this time, Chen Xin couldn't help but sigh: "If it weren't for the children on the reconnaissance balloon who discovered the clues in advance, even if we were prepared this time, maybe we would have suffered a lot of casualties." This time, we were finally able to launch a strong attack in advance at any cost, and first annihilated most of the remnants of the enemy on land, so that we could have the initiative as we have now. ”

At this time, Zhou Dayong fell into silence, not knowing how to write the relevant combat report. But in the end, I made up my mind to answer on time. It's just that at this time, there is still no decent news coming from the British Isles, which makes people feel uneasy.

And it was evident that compared to the battle at sea during the expedition, it would have become extremely difficult for the opponents to gain control of the offshore waters by the usual means when they had made special preparations for the demolition ships, and if that were the case, the troops remaining in the British Isles would have faced even greater danger.

In this way, on the one hand, Zhou Dayong began to reinforce troops in the direction of Xindu after eliminating the remnants of the enemy in the Iberian Peninsula, and on the other hand, he wrote the relevant battle reports of this battle with many staff officers around him. Although the distance is far away, it is thought that through a smoother relay communication, it should be possible to get the news in the southeast center 20,000 or 30,000 miles away in less than a month.

(End of chapter)