Leaving the Leeward Islands, the Ming fleet had two options, one was to head northwest, directly into the Atlantic, detour through the Bahamas, and enter the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida Strait north of Cuba, and the other was to go directly west, continuing along the naval battle of the Americas, into the Caribbean, and then heading north through the Yucatan Strait between Cuba and Mexico. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Needless to say, the first is the Florida Strait, which is naturally close to the United States, and the second is close to Mexico. It is not that the commander of the Daming fleet is afraid of the American army, but as a commander, he must look for the direction that is most beneficial to him. The officers and men of the Navy who have had enough of the hardships of the long journey are obviously unable to compare with the US military in terms of mental and physical condition, so the second way is the best choice to extend the range of the US fleet as far as possible so that the state of the two armies is close.

The Ming Dynasty went north through the Caribbean, and even if the US military set off from New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, it was more than 1,000 kilometers away from Panama in the Caribbean, which also gave the US military a taste of the hardships of the long journey. And if the first route is chosen, so that the Americans can wait for the Ming Navy to come to the door in warm Florida with peace of mind, it will be relatively unfavorable to the Ming Navy.

The Americans probably guessed this, and with their tight control here, they quickly grasped the news of the Ming navy's entry into the Caribbean. Spain opened Cuba to the United States because of the Ming Dynasty's forced entry into its territory, or because they did not dare to refuse the United States, and the United States could use Cuba and other Spanish colonies, such as Puerto Rico, as a base to monitor the movements of the Ming navy at all times.

The Ming Navy sailed from the Caribbean side, which could not help but make the US military have another concern, that is, the secret exchanges between the Ming and Mexico, they were worried that the Ming Navy was likely to have some support from Mexico, so they chose this road, so once the Ming Navy entered the Gulf of Mexico, they were likely to enter the nearby Mexican seaport, and then have a good rest, and then fight a decisive battle with the US military, so that the advantage of the US military will be lost.

So the Americans decided to fight a decisive battle with the Ming fleet before the Ming entered the Mexican waters, and they either went south to the Caribbean Sea, or blocked in the strait between the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Americans chose the latter, because the farther south, the farther away from the United States mainland, in the Yucatan Strait, they could also use Cuba as a base nearby.

When the Daming fleet departed, the Americans were the most nervous, they were even more nervous than the Ming army, although they had an advantage, or it was precisely because of this advantage that in turn made them nervous, because they thought they had an advantage, so they had to use their advantage to attack this way, so they had to be nervous, nervous what to do if the Chinese did not give them a chance to attack, nervous what to do if they failed to block the Chinese and caused them to cross the Yucatan Strait.

This strait is more than 200 kilometers, with the level of communication in this era, it is possible to turn a blind eye and pass by forty or fifty miles apart, how can they guarantee that they will intercept the Ming fleet before it enters the Mexican waters, so as to annihilate the Ming navy when they have the greatest advantage.

It is as if in the Russo-Japanese naval war, Japan, which was obviously always seeking to take the initiative to attack, was more nervous than the Russians, not only because they had the psychological pressure to fight the strong with the weak, but also because they thought that they had an advantage when the Russians came from afar, and they wanted to turn this advantage into a victory, but they were worried that they would miss the opportunity, so they suffered from gains and losses.

On the contrary, the Ming fleet is much easier, not because the quality of the Ming officers and soldiers is higher than that of the US army, but because most of the pressure is borne by the veteran Chen Ada alone.

He did not tell the officers and men what they had to do, and he never gave the fleet a goal that it had to do.

Although this will make the officers and soldiers relax a little before the war, it will not let them fall into a psychological "what must be" dilemma, Chen Ada told them that if they encounter the US Navy, then a big battle, if not, then go to the Gulf of Mexico to rest.

If Zhu Jinglun was here, he would feel that Chen Ada had gone against his original intention, what Zhu Jinglun wanted was to treat the entire expeditionary fleet like mortal enemies, expecting them to die and come back to life, and not giving himself a way out, so that he could desperately fight his way forward.

Chen Ada didn't do this, he went all the way, and he never even conveyed Zhu Jinglun's resolute imperial order to the officers and soldiers, until the last rest of the Leeward Islands, he took out the "Chengren" flag given by Zhu Jinglun, but he still didn't convey the imperial order, only told everyone what the emperor expected from them.

At that time, all the officers and men had already traveled more than 30,000 kilometers, and everyone was physically and mentally exhausted, full of complaints, and anti-war sentiments were pervasive; if Chen Ada used the emperor's order to force the officers and soldiers at this time, even if they did not dare to rebel, they would not have taken the initiative in starting a war.

So Chen Ada didn't say the imperial order, he just asked all the officers and soldiers to come to pay homage to this flag, and then told everyone that he had the courage to ask the emperor for this flag, and the silk on the flag was woven by the imperial concubine herself, Chen Ada told everyone that he wanted this flag because he planned to kill himself at any time, and he also hoped that all the officers and men of the navy would have this courage and determination, and he told the officers and soldiers that once the war started, if there was a slight disadvantage, he would raise this flag, and then stand on the deck with everyone and never dodge a step, life and death are all determined by heaven.

Every officer was persuading the general soldiers not to be like this, and to persuade the general soldiers that they should not risk their lives, but at the same time they were assured that they would fight to the death.

Chen Ada then agreed with the officers and soldiers that once he raised the flag, he asked everyone to muster up courage, not be afraid of sacrifice, and have the belief that sacrifice will become benevolent, and make a desperate bet, he asked the officers and soldiers if they knew about the bayonet charge of the infantry? The officers and soldiers drank wine and happily said that they knew that it was too simple, and they were not desperate. Chen Ada said yes and told everyone that once he raised the flag, it meant that the navy was also on the bayonet, and it was time to fight hard.

Chen Ada said that when the time comes, everyone should not think about anything, and everyone will rush wherever his flagship rushes.

After the agreement was made, everyone set anchor and set sail into the Caribbean.

After a night of sailing, they finally arrived in the Yucatan Strait in the early morning, and the first thing they saw was the patrol fleet of the American army, facing the rising sun, the stars and stripes fluttering.

At this time, they had not yet sailed into the Yucatan Strait, they had already been discovered by the US military, and Chen Ada Qiyu ordered the whole army, saying that they were not very lucky, and they were targeted by devils, so that everyone was ready for battle.

The US patrol ships quickly retreated, these are several thousand-ton destroyers, since yesterday, they have been in the strait area, relay cruises, closely watching all the suspicious ships that appear on the sea, they cannot let the Ming army pass. As for whether the Ming army wants to go over, only the commander Chen Ada knows.

Chen Ada didn't tell others about the imperial order, but that imperial order was always in his heart, he knew that Zhu Jinglun did what he said, once there were really naval officers and soldiers who absconded in fear of crime, even if they returned to China alive in the end, Zhu Jinglun would not hesitate to kill these people.

But as a veteran of the battlefield, he knew that what he had to do before the war was not to exert tremendous pressure on the officers and soldiers, but what he should do before the war was to scold his mother with them, to consider the problem from their point of view, and to say anything loyalty, honor or other things at this time, it was only from the position of senior officers, the court and the emperor, not the position of officers and soldiers. Is it fair that you don't stand by them, but you want them to fight for you with their lives?

So Chen Ada didn't say anything about the imperial order, he buried everything deep in his heart, but the imperial order pressed his heart very heavy, he took all the revenge on his back, and then scolded his mother with the soldiers, drank together, slept with women, and finally asked the soldiers to work hard with him.

Now everything is about to begin, the Americans have discovered the Ming fleet, and soon their main fleet, which is hiding nearby, will receive the news, and then light a fire and anchor, feeling the predetermined location to block and intercept the Ming fleet.

This location is in the middle of the Yucatan Strait, and the Americans lined up early, a standard one-line horizontal line.

Twenty kilometers away, Chen Ada ordered to slow down, and then the Ming fleet also began to line up, and the Ming army discharged two horizontal columns, the front column was fifty ironclad ships, and the rear column was twenty armored cruisers, all of which were forward, not facing the enemy on the side like the American army.

This formation is actually similar to the formation of the Qing fleet and the Japanese fleet in the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, one is the bow against the enemy, and the other is on the side of the enemy.

After entering the era of ironclad ships, no major naval battles have broken out in the world, so the naval formation is still in the process of exploration, and there are all kinds of strange theories. However, the side side that the British insisted on against the enemy was still quite mainstream, because the design of the ironclad ship was still influenced by the previous sail battleships, and the side side was equipped with quite a lot of small-caliber guns, and the side side was still the most effective formation for the enemy.

The U.S. Navy was a fledgling navy, and everything imitated the British army, just like the Japanese fleet later, so it is not surprising that they put on a horizontal formation.

The Ming warship was the first to face the enemy, so it did not delay its advance, and was still moving slowly, and soon entered within 20 kilometers, and within this distance, it had already entered the range of the current main guns.

But neither side has opened fire, because this range is only a theoretical range, the hit rate of the artillery is too low, the first shell fell at 18 kilometers, it was the US army that fired first, it was not hit, and only one warship fired, I don't know if they were correcting the artillery fire, or because they were nervous.

But this shell meant that the Battle of Yucatan had officially begun.

After that, the U.S. troops finally began to fire a salvo, and Chen Ada did not give the order to fire, but kept advancing, knowing that after the U.S. troops fired the third shell, it was already 15 kilometers away at this time, and Chen Ada finally gave the order to fire.

At this time, near the overseas warring between the two sides, there was already a group of unknown guests who came, observers from various powers, they all came to observe this large-scale naval battle, and after entering the era of ironclad ships, everyone was too lacking in the experience of ironclad duels.

When these observers saw the formation set up by the Ming army, many of them did not agree with it, believing that the formation of the Ming army could not exert its maximum firepower at all.

Because with the popular design promoted by the Ming army, or the British, this formation of the bow against the enemy is bound to cause at least one tail gun to never be able to exert firepower, at least reducing the attack power by more than a quarter.

Everyone is very puzzled, thinking that this kind of mistake should not happen to the Ming army, whether they can afford to look at the combat effectiveness of the Ming Navy or not, everyone knows that this is a fleet that has severely damaged the French Navy in the waters of Singapore only a few years ago, how can it make such a low-level mistake?

Just as they sighed, the Ming and the U.S. fleet had been bombarding each other for an hour, and the distance between the two sides had also been shortened to ten kilometers, and the accuracy of the hit had been greatly improved.

At this time, observers found that the Ming army suddenly changed formation, during which they kept transmitting orders, and then saw that the twenty cruisers behind the capital ship suddenly turned around, circled an arc from the rear, and flanked the American flank in the strait.

Everyone was very interested in this change of formation, wondering if this was a new tactic of the Ming army, and even more wondering what this tactic would do.

The U.S. flagship was also giving orders, and soon ten U.S. ironclads also left the U.S. fleet sequence and drove towards their left side, apparently intending to block the threat of the Ming army's cruisers to their flanks.

At this time, the ships of the Ming army suddenly discovered that on the flagship Guangdong, the flag with red characters on a white background was angry, and it was the "Chengren" flag, two big characters in blood red, in the strong wind of the Caribbean Sea, hunting and hunting!