"Major General, two Spanish warships are approaching! Maybe it's time for us to get home. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info" Old Jack reminded.

Zheng Sen turned his head to look at the situation around him and said, "Captain Jack, I think we can play one more round and then go." This will help our other warships to get out of the melee and form a group. ”

Although Zheng Sen had beaten the Spanish flagship in front of him badly, the other ships in his fleet were not necessarily in the same good condition as him. In Zheng Sen's hands, the ship that can be regarded as thick-skinned and thick-skinned, that is, the "Endeavour" and the other four cruisers, and several other armed whaling ships, are inferior to the Spanish fleet in terms of close-range firepower and anti-strike ability. It's easy to lose a lot in such a close-quarters melee.

At the same time, Zheng Sen also believes that the advantage of his fleet lies in speed and long-range firepower. The double-layered wire-tightening guns on the Zheng family's warships were significantly superior to the Spanish warships in range, and the slowest ships in the Zheng family's fleet were also significantly faster than the slowest Spanish warships, and it was not the fastest ship but the slowest ship that determined the speed of a fleet. Therefore, Zheng Sen felt that for the Zheng family's fleet, the best way to fight was not to fight such a melee, but to open the distance, take advantage of speed and range, and fly the Spanish kites.

It is dangerous to simply withdraw the fleet from the melee, and it is easy to be hit hard by your opponent in the process. Therefore, Zheng Sen felt that the "Endeavour" had to beat the Spanish flagship a little harder, so as to attract more Spanish warships to come to the rescue, so as to cover the other ships to withdraw from the melee.

Old Jack also knew that Zheng Sen's decision was indeed justified. He nodded and said, "Major General, you should also give the order to prepare the guns on both sides for firing." We fired one more shot from the bow gun, and then turned our rudder to the right and reached a position parallel to the enemy's flagship—I don't think the Spaniards had many more guns on their gun decks that could be fired. If we do this, we can let the enemy's flagship act as our screen, blocking the enemy ships that come by, and then use our eighteen broadside guns to give the enemy's flagship a hard blow to ensure that it is completely incapacitated. ”

"You're quite right." Zheng Sen nodded, and then ordered: "The guns on both sides are ready, the lower layer is loaded with incendiary bombs, and the upper layer is loaded with chain shells!" ”

At this time, the bow gun fired a shell again, and this shell was no longer aimed at the lower gun deck, but at the upper deck of the "Glutton".

The shell first broke several cables, and smashed the bucket that had been placed on the upper deck to extinguish the fire, and then slammed a cannon, overturning the twelve-pounder gun directly onto the deck, and then leaping to the right, making a bloody alley out of several soldiers, and then smashing the ship's plank on the port side, and plunging headlong into the sea.

Colonel Nelson got up from the deck, feeling nothing but a buzzing in his ears, and nothing else could be heard. He saw his lieutenant shouting at him, but he couldn't hear it clearly. It took a while for his hearing to regain and he could hear what the adjutant was saying.

"Colonel, don't worry, I'll have someone bandage you." The adjutant shouted, and Matthews, the ship's doctor, also ran over with a medicine box.

"I'm fine." Nielsen said.

"Colonel, you're bleeding, your ears are hurting." Dr. Matthews said.

At this time, Nelson felt that the right side of his face was burning with pain. He reached out and touched it, only to find that his right ear was missing, and his hands were covered in blood. Just now, a piece of wood stirred up by a cannonball struck the right side of his face, tearing off his right ear.

Dr. Matthews had opened the medicine box and pulled out some gauze, intending to use it to bandage Nelson's wounds. Nelson, on the other hand, saw that the huge ship that had been firing behind the "Glutton" suddenly headed to the right, and it was gradually going to be parallel to the "Glutton", and its gun doors were also opened.

"Get down!" Nelson yelled and pulled the lieutenant and Matthews to the deck while he lay on his stomach.

A series of cannon sounds rang out, and Nelson only felt that the "gluttony" was trembling violently, as if it was about to fall apart in the next second. He looked up and saw the mainmast and foremast clattering and falling towards the sea. The giant ship on the opposite side was slowly moving away, and in the sun, at its stern, a huge white painted letter "E" was shining.

……

Having washed the "Glutton" with shells, and even broke its two masts, the "Endeavour" began to accelerate away from the melee battlefield and return to the formation of its own ships.

"Brother, that round of shelling just now was really enjoyable." Zheng Du said to Zheng Sen with an obsessive face, "The 'Endeavour' is really amazing! Brother, when I grow up, can you send me a battleship like the Endeavour? ”

"Third brother, you also want to be the commander of the fleet?" Zheng Sen asked.

"Of course, Daddy said, brother, you will do great things in the future. Let me learn from you and help you in the future. All of us in the Zheng family should be generals. Zheng Du puffed up his chest and replied.

"Alright, then follow me and see how we beat these Spaniards." Zheng Sen replied.

After saying this, Zheng Sen began to observe the situation of the ships on his side:

Two of the four cruisers received some damage, and traces of shelling can be seen on the hull; As for the other two, they are largely intact. The other six armed whaling ships were not in particularly good shape, two of them seemed to have been hit by several shots, and one was on fire, and of course it seemed that the fire had been contained. Instead, a few of the communication boats were running fast and didn't seem to be hurt.

"Give an order to the 'Fubo' to take back command and have all ships report the damage." Zheng Sen ordered.

Soon after, Zheng Sen received news through the flag that a total of five sailors had been killed and twelve wounded in the two shelled cruisers. Eleven and 12 people, respectively, were killed and 23 and 26 wounded, respectively, of the two armed whaling vessels that were shelled repeatedly. As for the armed whaling ship that caught fire, two people were also killed and seven wounded.

"There weren't many people on the armed whaling ship, and almost half of the guy's crew was incapacitated. The rest of the people are okay to maintain normal sailing, but I am afraid that the battle will not be taken care of. Zheng Sen thought for a moment, then gave an order: "Let the 'minke whale' and 'beluga whale' withdraw from the battle line." The other ships, following our ships, formed a battle line. Now let's assign the target ......"

……

By this time, Nelson had already moved to the cruiser "Fury", and the "Gluttony" had suffered more than 100 casualties, 16 cannons, and, worse, two broken masts. Now that the ship is even having difficulty navigating, it is naturally impossible to continue to serve as the flagship.

The process of transferring the flagship took more time, so when Nelson hoisted the command flag on the Fury and ordered the other warships to line up, he noticed that the Zheng family's fleet had distanced itself from them.

"Are they going to retreat? What a coward! Nelson thought. There are still eight warships in his fleet that are all in good condition, and although the opponent has nine warships, and one of them is obviously very large, Nelson also noticed that in the Zheng family's fleet, there are still four armed whaling ships with significantly worse performance, especially strike resistance. Therefore, Nelson feels that he should have more advantages by opening up the formation and playing openly. Nelson wanted to catch up, but among the eight warships that still have relatively complete combat effectiveness, there are only three cruisers that can keep up with the Zheng family's fleet, and the other warships, although they are good in terms of firepower and anti-strike ability, but the speed is too slow, and the fastest is only six to eight knots, which will definitely not be able to catch up.

However, the Zheng family's fleet did not go too far, and after increasing the distance between the two sides beyond the effective range of the usual artillery, they changed formation again, forming a state of sailing parallel to the Spanish fleet.

"It's a little too far, we can't fight enough." Nelson made this judgment by estimating the distance.

At this time, he saw a string of fires in the opposite fleet, and Nelson knew that it was his opponent who was firing a salvo at it.

"Is it interesting to fire at such a distance? Who to scare? Nelson smiled contemptuously, and he was tempted to jump onto the warship on the opposite side and ask their commander, "Do you know how to fight a naval battle?" Fire so far away! ”

However, after only a few seconds, Nelson couldn't laugh anymore because the shells fell, not far from his new flagship......

……

A ship slowly approached Manila, a cruiser, she had apparently just passed through a great war, and the hull was littered with all kinds of marks left by the shelling, and only one of her three masts was original, and the other two were apparently only made by cutting down two trees from some island temporarily.

Manila's pilots boarded the boat and sailed into the port of Manila with it.

"Captain Franco, are you saying that the Zheng family's fleet actually suffered very little losses in the battle? And their cannons have a surprisingly long range? ”

"Yes, Mr. Governor." Captain Franco replied.

"But our ...... Forget it, this is mostly the result of those damned Chinese playing to deceive intelligence officers. Damn, our fleet may encounter the Zheng family's fleet. Governor Aquila thought.