The docks of Zhenyuan Harbor were also busy, and the fireships began to raise their sails and set sail to deal with the Spanish warships that might brave the artillery fire. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 In addition to the three batteries at the exit, there was a slightly smaller battery near the pier, which was armed with two 18-pounder guns and two 12-pounder guns that had been withdrawn from the Endeavour, as well as four smaller six-pounder guns. These guns, combined with the fireship, would have been enough to deal with any enemy ship that had intruded into the port area.

The marines stationed on the docks were ready to fight the Spaniards. Although it is unlikely that the Spanish infantry will appear near the dock area before they have solved the three batteries in front of them, (the dock area is surrounded by dense primeval jungle, which is not so easy to come by, and even if they did, they would not have any heavy weapons.) Such light infantry was almost helpless against the walls of the docks), but the soldiers were ready to defend.

Yang Chaodong had also walked to the highest lookout near the port at this time, from here, when the weather was good, he could use a telescope to see the flags of the defenders on the central fort opposite. There was some fog this morning, but as the sun rose higher and higher, the visibility got better and better, and you can already see the flag here. Naturally, this is much more efficient than sending a transport boat from there.

Yang Chaodong looked at the recorded flag handed over by the model soldier next to him, and said, "What do these Spaniards want to do?" ”

"Commander, you said that these Spaniards are just blocking the port and wandering around, neither rushing over nor leaving, what are they trying to do?" In the central battery, Mo Huaiyuan, commander of the 18-pounder artillery battalion, said to the regiment commander Zhang Haogu.

"I'm not a Spaniard, so how do I know, maybe I'm testing the range of our artillery?" Zhang Hao Ancient Road.

Zhang Haogu was the first batch of students to graduate from the factory protection team school. After serving in the last war against the Spaniards, he was promoted to the commander of the garrison of Zhenyuan Port, while Mo Huaiyuan was two terms later than Zhang Haogu, and when he left the school, the school had been renamed the Beigang Military Academy.

"Commander, you see that the group of Spanish merchant ships behind there seems to be very strange." Mo Huaiyuan held the binoculars and looked at them, put down the binoculars and said, "Commander, look, those merchant ships have a deep draft, as if they are full of things. They did not come to us to trade, but what could the ships be filled with? Most likely, it's the soldiers. But the regimental commander, so many ships, all so full, how can they have so many soldiers there? ”

The fleet of merchant ships that Mo Huaiyuan mentioned was indeed strange, it was a fleet of more than forty merchant ships, some of which were Western-style sailing ships, but more of them were Chinese-style lucky ships. So many ships, all loaded with things, if they were all loaded, no, if half of them were loaded with people, it would be an army of more than a thousand people. If such a large number of land forces were used, the Spaniards would have had only one goal - to capture Zhenyuangang. However, the other Spanish fleet, consisting of warships, was relatively weak, with only four cruisers, none of which came. Such a sea force could not be an opponent of either the central battery or the two wing batteries.

Zhang Haogu still remembers what the major general said to himself and other students in school: "A well-designed turret with only one gun is enough to fight a warship with even a hundred guns." ”

This phrase was plagiarized by Zheng Sen from the later Lord Nelson. When Zhang Haogu first heard this, he thought it was a bit exaggerated, but with the increase of experience, he felt more and more that it was indeed reasonable. For example, the central battery where he is now located. The emplacements of the tallest cannons were about 200 feet above the sea, which greatly increased the range of the cannons. And the battery is stable and immovable, no more than a warship that shakes because of the waves. In addition, for the nearby sea area, the artillery has long conducted test firing, and the accuracy of the shooting is far from being comparable to those warships. In addition, the difference between the anti-strike ability of the battery and the warship is even more heaven and earth. For example, the main structure of the central battery is made of solid volcanic rock, and then glutinous rice and lime are bonded, not to mention the 12-pounder guns on the Spanish corvettes, which are the largest guns on their battleships, and even the strongest artillery of the Zheng family themselves. In order to take out the battery's artillery in an artillery battle, the warship must let its shells accurately hit the opponent's cannons. On the other hand, the battery only needs to be able to hit the warship. Because if the warship sinks, no matter how intact the cannon on it is, it is useless. The accuracy of the cannons on warships is far inferior to that of the batteries, and the batteries are high, so the guns need to shoot from the back, and the firing range is greatly reduced, and long-distance shooting is definitely a dead end. If you are not afraid of death, you can rush forward and shoot at close range, which can improve the accuracy, but there will be a problem of insufficient elevation angle. So in Zhang Haogu's opinion, these warships are not enough to see at all.

If the warship could not suppress the battery, then the cost of attacking the battery by light infantry alone would be very high. Zhang Haogu knew that Spain itself was thousands of miles away, and the troops that could be supported by Luzon were very limited, and they could not afford to die. So as long as the Spanish commander still had a little brain, he would not have done it. And it is impossible for the Spaniards to be ignorant of the defense of Zhenyuan Port, which was an important struvite trading port, and the Spaniards also traded here, and several batteries were placed in the open, and it was impossible for them not to see them. Therefore, this kind of situation of bringing a large number of infantry and supporting the operation of the fleet is so weak is very abnormal.

At this time, as the height of the sun changes, the direction of the wind begins to change. From the harbor blowing to the sea to the sea blowing from the sea to the harbor. Generally speaking, at night, the ocean cools slowly and the land cools faster, with hotter air rising and cooler air flowing over to replenish. So at night, generally speaking, the wind always blows from the land to the ocean. But during the day, the land heats up faster, the ocean heats up more slowly, the hot air on the land rises, and the cooler air over the ocean flows to replenish it, so the wind direction changes from the sea to the land.

At this time, as the wind changed, both Spanish fleets began to move, and the four cruisers formed a column and approached the battery, making it look like they were going to shell the battery.

"Don't move the other artillery, Battalion Commander Li, your 12-pounder gun battalion is responsible for striking these enemy ships, and the other artillery is on standby!" Zhang Haogu ordered.

On the central battery there was an 18-pounder gun battalion, a 12-pounder gun battalion, and a six-pounder gun battalion, each with six guns, which would have been more appropriate to be counted as a company, but in consideration of the needs of future expansion, it was given the title of a battalion.

"Give orders to the two flank batteries to keep their 18-pounder guns open fire for the time being, and to keep an eye out for the movements of the enemy's merchant fleet." Zhang Haogu commanded again.

By this time the Spanish corvettes had come within range of the 12-pounder guns of the Central Battery, which began to fire at the Spanish warships. Because the nearby sea area had been painted in advance and test-fired, the effect of the shelling of the central battery was quite good, and the first shelling formed a straddle fire on the leading Spanish cruiser. And at this distance, the Spanish warships were not yet completely able to fire at the batteries.

However, the Spaniards were not deterred by this round of shelling, and they continued to approach.

The second round of shelling from the central battery was lucky, two shells hit the Spanish battleship. The shells destroyed a cannon in the gun compartment of the leading Spanish cruiser and caused a bloody storm. However, luck also has to abide by the basic law, that is, the law of conservation of character, so none of the third round of shelling of the battery hit.

After withstanding three shellings, the Spaniards finally returned fire. However, the accuracy of the shells they fired was so poor that most of the shells did not know where they had hit, and the occasional excited shells that hit the granite walls of the fort also bounced back, causing almost negligible damage.

"No, the fleet of the Spaniards did not slow down even when shelling us, and they certainly could not guarantee the accuracy of their fire in doing so. They certainly do it to get our attention. There must be ghosts in those merchant ships! Zhang Haogu thought.

At this time, the merchant ships also divided into two groups and sailed into the inbound and outbound channels respectively.

"You go and inform the battalion commander Mo to shoot at the enemy's transport fleet with 18-pounder guns! Inform Battalion Commander Li to leave the Spanish warships alone and concentrate fire on their transports! Zhang Haogu said to the herald, and after saying that, he raised his binoculars and looked at the convoy of transports, and then he found a detail that he hadn't noticed before—there seemed to be more masts on those merchant ships, and those Tessie merchant ships that were supposed to have only three masts now have five masts. And the hard sails were originally used, because the hard sails were too heavy to hang too high (hanging high would seriously affect the center of gravity and stability of the ship), so the masts on the Chinese sailing ships that were not too tall were actually much longer, and like those Tessie boats, they had several more masts on their decks.

"Boom!" The 18-pounder guns began to fire, and shells rained down on the merchant ships. Suddenly a boat stopped in the channel, and several sailors jumped out of the boat, and then the boat suddenly began to sink