After the setback of the first concentrated attack and the failure of the combined Spanish fleet, the Spanish Combined Fleet abandoned its previous tactics, and after still suffering considerable losses in the subsequent attacks, it abandoned the plan to engage the opponent's armoured ships head-on during the day.

"It looks like it's time for us to follow their tactics in Calais after dark... One officer said this after seeing this.

However, at this time, an obvious question was also on the table, that is, according to the fact that the battlefield of the battle was not too far from Manila Bay, should the night attack be launched after nightfall, or should the night battle and explosion attack be launched after the enemy fleet entered Manila Bay?

The Spanish admirals, who were not short of experience in naval encounters, eventually chose to take advantage of the location in the Manila Bay area to attack the enemy's fleet, preferably when the enemy had just landed and was concerned.

"The enemy's main fleet looks very solid, and the power of the firepower is not great but very sharp, and it is not something that can be easily shaken by the strength of our army now, and it is only possible to finally defeat the opponent under the most favorable combat conditions for us. . . ." Unlike Britain, the Netherlands, and other countries, the Spanish generals in charge of commanding the fleet at this time certainly understood that there was a certain probability that they would encounter the possibility of post-war punishment if they did so, but although they were not very proficient in land warfare, the Spanish generals at this time could also roughly determine that it was impossible to achieve any breakthrough results on the prepared land in less than one night with only a ground force of only a few thousand men on these seventy ships after excluding the necessary crews.

In this way, it seems that the Spanish Combined Fleet did not seek to take the initiative to engage after feeling that it was difficult to shake the other side's fleet in the initial confrontation, and retreated in the direction of Manila Bay.

In this fierce encounter, the casualties and losses were not very large, only fifty-four people were killed, and about one hundred and seventy were killed, mainly the helmsmen and gunners of the twelve ships in the southwest, and even the proportion of casualties among the troops engaged with the enemy ships in the southwest was barely bearable. Because the core battle was not long, it gave the enemy considerable losses and repelled the opponent, so the consumption of ammunition was not much, and after learning this, Wang Yuan's heart relaxed and ordered the fleet to continue to sail according to the normal state.

As night fell, the fleet was as concentrated as possible and away from the shore, and after the side of the ship was re-armoured, many small ships responsible for guarding were deployed in all directions for the secret realm, and all lights were extinguished in the cabins of each ship, and the personnel began to prepare for battle, and everything entered into a tight guard.

The night seemed to be so long, but after all, it did not wait for the expected night attack, and when the sky gradually brightened, even from the height of the mast, it seemed that there was no distant enemy in sight. The little girl on the hot air balloon who was in charge of the guard also said when she came down skillfully with a sling: "There doesn't seem to be any trace of the mast of the enemy ship around, even if you observe it with a ten-fold telescope... ”

Seeing this situation, Wang Yuan also had some guesses in his heart. The confrontational deduction and the study of combat plans on a daily basis still showed a lot of benefits at this time. Although the confrontation plan between the two sides in the virtual exercise may not necessarily be selected by the real enemy, preparing for the worst-case scenario can always avoid unnecessary casualties and losses to the greatest extent.

"It seems that the enemy fleet has given up on the intention of blocking our troops at sea, and if I am the commander of the enemy fleet, I will not do any more unnecessary damage, but will carry out the final contingency preparations near the port of Manila, it is better to wait not far from the entrance, the sky is gradually ending, or our troops will come to reinforcements with all their strength after landing... Wang Yuan roughly estimated at this time.

"Then should our army launch a round of search in the vicinity of Manila Bay, so as not to let the enemy run too far?" The captain of the flagship said suddenly at this time.

Wang Yuan finally gave up this plan, the reason is also that there are gains and losses, and the price of the hull of the main ship group generally has excellent protection is that even with the bonus of manpower propellers, it is impossible to compete with the opponent for speed. Therefore, it did not waver in its intention to attract the main force of the enemy's ship regiment to the decisive battle by attacking the enemy's land ports directly. In this way, the flotilla continued to move forward.

The speed and rhythm of navigation at sea were indeed different from those on land, and even if the speed of the ship group led by Wang Yuan was not very outstanding, and many times it had to sail not far from the coast, but it still sailed into the exit of Manila Bay before the end of the day after the first encounter with the enemy fleet. After a night of danger, the fleet continued to move forward, approaching the other side's harbor by less than noon.

Heavy artillery batteries were deployed in many places near the harbor, and although there were not many sea ships and capital ships in the vicinity of the harbor to guard the duty, this showed that the enemy was prepared to defend this time, and the fleet could approach from behind at any time.

In this case, Wang Yuan did not hesitate any longer, and the reconnaissance hot air balloon in the air once again came from high in the sky, and after not finding the enemy's mast between the sky and the sea, he quickly ordered the ships to start releasing the small boats used for landing, carrying the first batch of marines, and striving to get all ashore before dusk.

The place of the landing, of course, was not under the guns not far from the area of the enemy fortress, but it took some more time. However, it is obviously much more convenient for the infantry to land in small boats, especially when the size of the army is not to carry out a landing of tens of thousands of people, but only to carry out a landing of about 2,000 troops, and there is not too much burden of carriages and horses.

The rickshaw boats on the small boats gave full play to the advantage of speed, and in a very short time carried 2,000 people to carry out a frightening landing in a place where the enemy's garrison was relatively vacant.

At this time, the enemy batteries in the distance began to launch a fierce artillery bombardment, trying to fire the shells to a greater distance, but at a distance of at least fifteen miles from the enemy's core position, even if there were scattered heavy artillery shells that made a huge splash at a distance of more than a mile, it would not pose much threat to the landing troops.

(End of chapter)