During the day, the wind and waves are a little lighter, but they are far from calm. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info but now at least the eyes can see things, and it is relatively easier to keep the ship. Although the Endeavour was still unable to open the mainsail (otherwise the mast might have snapped), it was already possible to open the smallest jib on the bow mast to control the direction of the ship's bow.

Generally speaking, it is better to let a large wave hit from the bow of the boat than to have it hit from the side, and the shape of the bow of the boat is naturally better at splitting the waves, thus minimizing structural damage to the entire boat.

A large wave hit, and the height of the wave even exceeded the bow of the "Endeavour", and the big wave rushed from the bow side along the upper deck. Zheng Sen turned his face to avoid the direct impact of the huge wave, although the wave rushed from the bow of the ship, and was already weakened a lot by the obstruction of various things on the deck.

When this wave hit Zheng Sen, his strength was already much weaker, but it still made him unstable, if it wasn't for a cable tied to his waist, maybe he would have been washed into the sea.

The storm continued for another whole day, and in the evening the sky suddenly brightened, and the dark clouds began to thin, and a ray of sunlight even shone through the clouds, and the storm was finally over.

The sea breeze began to weaken gradually, and although there was still thunder in the distance, the thunder also grew farther and farther away, and finally only a faint shadow remained. Zheng Sen asked people to climb the mainmast and look into the distance, trying to find more other ships, but the sea and sky were vast, and they only saw the Spanish battleship still floating on the sea a little farther away.

"Get closer to the past first, and let the Marines be ready for repression. Send people on board, control the warships, and then install ......sails for them," Zheng Sen said.

"Major General......" Old Jack spoke again, his hat didn't know where to go in the wind and waves just now, his sparse white hair was wet and sticking to his face, and his bright red military uniform was also wet and wrinkled.

"Captain Jack, what's the problem?" Zheng Sen asked.

"The ship was so badly damaged that it had to be maintained, and we couldn't just drive all the Spaniards into the cabin and lock them up, and give them the sails, and they would have the possibility of rebelling and fleeing. So, we just need to give them a cable and tow them with Endeavour." Captain Jack said.

The sky darkened, one star after another appeared on the gradually darkening sky, the "Endeavour" spread all its sails, dragged the Spanish battleship, slowly headed north, from time to time, from the stern of the "Endeavour", there would be a rocket in the air, and then accompanied by a dull sound, exploded a colorful and brilliant flower. In the dark, this is the easiest way to get in touch.

However, there were no fireworks around, and it seemed that all the ships in the sea had disappeared except for the two ships. Zheng Sen, who was exhausted, waited for more than an hour, and saw that there was no response, and those things on the battleship were basically under control, so he entrusted the command of the battleship to the officer on duty, and prepared to go back to make up for sleep.

Back to his cabin, Zheng Sen found that he didn't know when, this cabin also entered the water, so Zheng Sen's bed was naturally soaked, fortunately, the rope net hammock in the drawer was still dry, now it is early autumn, in the South China Sea, even at night will not be cold, Zheng Sen hung up the rope net hammock, lay down, because he was very tired, so after a while, he fell asleep.

However, just after two snorts, Zheng Sen was called again, but this time it was good news: the salute they had just launched was answered.

Hearing the news, Zheng Sen's exhaustion disappeared immediately. He hurried to the deck, just in time to see a flower blooming in the sky in the distance. As a time-traveler who is accustomed to seeing all kinds of fireworks and fireworks, Zheng Sen can be said to have no feeling for the fireworks that amazed others in this era, but this time, he felt that this was the most beautiful fireworks he had seen in his life and even in his previous life.

"Have you calculated the distance between us and them?" Zheng Sen asked.

The system of the communication ceremonial flowers used on the Zheng family's ships is the same, so the height that most of the ceremonial flowers can reach is basically fixed, (of course, there will be some small deviations) So, according to the height of the ceremonial flowers observed, you can very roughly deduce the distance of the other party.

"Major General, about fifteen nautical miles away. It may deviate by about five or six nautical miles. The officer on duty replied.

At this time, a sallot rocket was also raised on the deck of the "Endeavour", and every quarter of an hour, each side would launch a salute rocket to indicate their own direction so that they could get closer to each other.

If the distance between the two sides is really fifteen nautical miles, considering that the situation of the ships on the other side's side is not necessarily better than that of the "Endeavour", Zheng Sen estimates that it will take another hour or two for the two sides to meet.

"I don't know which boat it is." Zheng Sen thought so.

The meeting of the two ships was much earlier than Zheng Sen estimated, and only an hour later, which ship appeared in Zheng Sen's field of vision, and from the dark silhouette of the ship in the moonlight, Zheng Sen could judge that this was the sister ship of the "Endeavour", the "Brave".

Seeing that the "Brave" was still safe, Zheng Sen couldn't help but breathe a little relieved. In the next two hours, through the flowers, Zheng Sen successively got in touch with some other ships, and by dawn, most of the ships in Zheng Sen's fleet had gathered, and after taking inventory, Zheng Sen found that his fleet was missing two armed whaling ships and a cruiser, as for the captured Spanish warships, except for the one dragged behind the "Endeavour", the others were missing.

Zheng Sen asked Old Jack to stay in this generation for one more day with the "Brave", which was currently in the best condition of the fleet, to search for other ships that might still exist, while he continued to return to Taiwan with the scarred fleet.

"The storm came from the south, and this was the direction in which the Spaniards had fled, so that they would have been struck by the storm before we had encountered it. I don't know if the Spanish battleship will be able to escape back. In addition, the Blue Bird is also in that direction, so they must not have any problems. On the way back, Zheng Sen thought worriedly.

In this battle, although Zheng Sen won a decisive victory, the price paid was unprecedented. On August 10, Zheng Sen's fleet returned to North Harbor for repairs, and two days later, Old Jack returned to North Harbor with the Brave, but he was unable to find any other ships.

……

In a bay only a few dozen miles from the port of Manila, there is a private port controlled by the Chinese, which is a very small port, and in front of the pier is a large tidal flat, where the water is not deep and large boats cannot enter, and usually some small fishing boats enter and exit here. At low tide, even larger fishing boats are in danger of running aground in their waterways. After the outbreak of the war, there were also occasional fast traffic ships of the Zheng family coming in and out of here. The Spaniards knew this, too, but to get to the port by land, they had to pass through most of the Chinese settlements, which is not easy to do in today's situation. As for the blockade of this port from the sea, it is not easy, because the water near this port is very shallow, and even at high tide, warships cannot approach it at all. The Chinese's kind of fast transport ships can enter and exit from the vast tidal flats at high tide.

On this day, a fast transport ship appeared in the open sea of this port, quietly waiting for the tide to rise.

"Second son, there are carrier pigeons in that port, and through them, we can send the news back." Kuroshima Renichiro pointed to the harbor over there, "Our ship really held on in the storm, this is really blessed by Mazu." ”

"I don't know what happened to the other two boats." Zheng Du said, "There are also those Spanish cruisers, and we haven't seen them either." ”

"Yes, but we've seen the battleship with our own eyes." Ryichiro Kuroshima said.

"It's a pity that the ship didn't sink." Zheng Du sighed again.

"Second son, although the ship did not sink, the entire bow, including the bow mast, was knocked off by the waves, and the foremast was also broken in half. There are cuts all over the hull. It will not be easy for the ship to be repaired. I've heard that the Spaniards have a very small shipyard in Manila, and I suspect they won't be able to fix her at all. And even if they can fix her, it's not a matter of a day or two, it takes time, it takes a lot of time, maybe half a year may not be enough. By the time they had fixed her, our fleet would have been blocked outside Manila, well, still with those captured Spanish warships. ”

At this time, the tide began to rise, and the gray tidal flats were gradually submerged by the sea. Renichiro Kuroshima held up his binoculars and looked over the harbor.

"Second son, do you see the black painted wood standing over there? It's the one with white circles painted on it. That's used to mark the water level, and when the water level rises to the third white circle, we can enter the port. It's just that this port doesn't have the capacity to repair our kind of ship, and our ship is so badly damaged that it can't sail long distances anymore. So second son, I'm afraid we're going to have to live here for a while. ”