The Zheng family's fleet, one large cruiser, three cruisers, and four armed whaling ships, all lowered their sails and quietly hid behind the islands. Zheng Sen www.biquge.info pen fun pavilion stood on the back deck of the "Endeavour", looking up at the top of the highest hill on the island. On it there was an observation post that monitored the situation at sea and passed down information through flags.

"Big wood, look, the flag is waving on it!" Gu Jiang, who was standing beside Zheng Sen and also looked at the top of the mountain with his head held high, shouted.

Zheng Sen looked at it, shook his head and said, "It's not the Spaniards, it's one of our boats that has returned." ”

In order to increase the combat effectiveness as much as possible, the "Blue Whale", a fast whaling ship in Tangshan, was sent out to find the other three whaling ships on a search mission.

"How many are you back?" Gu Jiang couldn't understand the flag language at all, so he could only continue to ask.

"One." Zheng Sen replied.

In a short time, an armed whaling ship appeared in everyone's field of vision, and the ship skillfully folded its sails and sailed to the tail of the fleet.

After waiting for another half hour, a whaling ship returned, but the Spaniards had not yet appeared. Gu Jiang found that Zheng Sen's brows seemed to be furrowed.

"Oki, isn't it said that the slower the Spaniards come, the more it means that their ships are in bad condition, and the easier it is for us to win?" Gu Jiang asked, "In that case, then what else do we have to worry about?" ”

"I'm not worried about that." Zheng Sen shook his head and said, "I'm worried about time. It was already noon, and if the Spaniards did not come again, the battle would not be finished before dark, and it would be impossible to fight a night battle. Our soldiers did not have much experience in night battles. And if it drags on until the evening, the chances of the enemy breaking through and escaping are even greater. Moreover, it is very common for fog to get up after dark, and if it does get foggy, it is unlikely that they will be caught. ”

Hearing this, Gu Jiang also frowned. At this time, the observation post on the top of the hill suddenly waved the signal flag again.

"The Spanish fleet has been discovered!" Zheng Sen clenched his right hand into a fist and slapped it on the palm of his left hand.

"What else did you say?" Gu Jiang hurriedly asked.

"The Spaniards had four cruisers, the same mainmast of which was broken. Eight merchant ships, one of which had a broken foremast - well, a broken foremast meant that the bowmast was useless, no wonder it was going so slowly - and one mainmast was broken by a third. Other ships were also damaged to varying degrees. ”

"Great!" Gu Jiang said.

At this time, a sailor came over and said to Zheng Sen and Gu Jiang: "Major General, Mr. Gu, I am ordered by the commander of the fleet, Mr. Jack, to convey the commander's battle order to the two of you: 'Order the two of you to leave the deck immediately and go to the battle VIP cabin. 'Please, Major General, Mr. Gu. ”

The Battle VIP Cabin was a very small cabin that had been used as a utility room until Zheng Sen and the others boarded the ship. The chamber had oak walls almost a meter thick, and even the largest 34-pounder cannon could not penetrate such thick walls if it was lucky enough to come in through an open gun window.

Zheng Sen stood there a little hesitantly: "It's still early." ”

"Major General." The sailor said, "Please don't embarrass us. If you hurt even one fingernail in battle, we'll cut ourselves. With these words, several more sailors came over, and judging by the situation, if Zheng Sen continued to insist on standing on the deck, they were probably planning to commit a crime.

As the so-called person who knows the times is Junjie, Zheng Sen hurriedly said to Gu Jiang: "Brother Ningren, let's go down." ”

In order to ensure the integrity of the combat VIP cabin, the door was directly open on the deck, and a sailor opened the hatch at the top and put a ladder down, and Zheng Sen and Gu Jiang went down to the so-called "combat VIP cabin" together.

The cabin was small, with two hammocks on one wall, of course which had been put away by this time, and inside the cabin was against the other wall, and there was a table fixed to the floor, and two chairs fixed to the floor. Two candlesticks were fixed on top of the table - here, oil lamps running on liquid fuel were not very good for fire protection.

A sailor followed and helped Zheng Sen light the candle. The "Battle Cabin" was only four or five inches higher than the deck, so although the windows were opened in the higher part, there was still very little light that could be heard. So in this cabin, even during the day, candles need to be lit.

"Major General, Mr. Gu, there is Go on the table over there, the chessboard inlaid on the table is made of pig iron, and the chess pieces next to it are made of magnets, so that even if there is wind and waves, the chess pieces will not fall out of order. There are also some books in the bookcase over there. I have other tasks, so I'll miss out first. The sailor said. With that, he climbed up the ladder again, and the ladder was taken up and the hatch was covered.

After the sailor left, Zheng Sen walked to the table, sat down on a chair, and said to Gu Jiang: "Ning Ren, how about you come and talk about a game?" ”

Gu Jiang smiled when he heard this: "It's better to be respectful than to obey your fate." Then he also came over and sat down, and the two took out the chess pieces, set up their seats, and began to play.

……

At this time, all the warships spread all their sails, and along the narrow islands, the fleet began to accelerate. It wasn't long before Endeavour was the first to sail out of the sheltered area of the island, and the Spanish flotilla appeared in her starboard direction.

The sudden appearance of the fleet apparently took the Spaniards by surprise. However, the Spaniards reacted quickly, and they began to turn their efforts to form a battle line with the sudden appearance of the fleet. The Spaniards did not misjudge the purpose of this fleet - a fleet of fighting ships suddenly appeared, and what could they do but come to rob?

But the Spaniards did this turn very reluctantly, their speed was too low, only four knots, after discovering the opponent's fleet, although they tried to accelerate, but the acceleration of the sailing ship took a considerable amount of time, and the Spaniards obviously did not have so much time, relying on about 12 knots, almost three times faster than the Spaniards, the Zheng family's fleet used an extremely blunt way to grab the front of the Spanish fleet, forming a more typical T-head advantage.

Most of the guns of European warships were mounted on the sides of the warship, and there were generally only one or two guns in the bow and stern. If, in battle, the enemy ship can be forced to use the bow against its own broadside, it means that a dozen or twenty cannons on the broadside can be used against one or two guns of the opponent in the bow position, so that the warship in the broadside facing the enemy can obtain ten times the opponent's firepower superiority. Therefore, in this era, the various combat maneuvers of the fleet, fundamentally speaking, are aimed at seizing such a position in the range of the artillery, with the broadside facing the bow or stern of the enemy. Because in such a state, the position of the ships on both sides looks like a capital letter "T", so this advantage is called "T-head advantage", and the action to seize the "T-head advantage" position is often called "T-grabbing".

Old Jack believes that the "Endeavour" has the strongest armor and the most powerful firepower. When the opponent's speed has not had time to be raised, the fleet will most likely be able to get a few T-head advantages, and whether or not such a T-head advantage can be used to obtain enough benefits lies in what kind of effect the attack of the "Endeavour" can receive. In order to improve the attack efficiency of the Endeavour, the elder Jack demanded that the Endeavour pass as close as possible to the enemy ship. Doing so, of course, increases the risk that the "Endeavour" will be hit by enemy artillery fire, or even directly hit by the enemy. The former is fine, one or two guns, and one or two guns of no more than 18 pounds on an ordinary cruiser, and such shells, hitting the ridiculously thick hull of the "Endeavour", are almost like tickling. But the latter is really troublesome, and the impact can really bring a lot of damage to the ship. It is necessary to get close enough to ensure a good chance of hitting when firing, and to avoid impacts, especially if the enemy may deliberately create such a collision, which requires very good boat handling skills. The sailors on the "Endeavour" are all selected, but the sailors of the Zheng family's Western-style sailing ships are generally inexperienced, and the helmsman is even more so. So Old Jack simply stood behind the helm knob himself, so that he could take over the helm at any time.

The Endeavour first swept about sixty meters in front of the bow of the enemy-led cruiser "Banshee". The two 12-pounder bow guns on the Banshee fired first at the Endeavour.

Obviously, the Spaniards also realized that if the two small cannons on the bow of the ship fired conventional solid shells, it would not be possible to cause any damage to such a huge ship, so their first round of firing was actually the grapeshot that should have been used before the broadside battle. It seems that the Spaniards had now made it the main purpose of the attack to kill and injure living objects.

However, at this time, most of the personnel were still hiding in the cabin, and there were not many people on the upper deck. Basically only the gunners of the 18-pounder guns on the upper deck, who were also covered by a thick gang of boats. In addition, the distance of 60 meters is still a little far for grape shells, and although many grapeshot bullets hit the "Endeavour" in this round of shooting by the Spaniards, they did not cause any damage to the "Endeavour".

Just a few seconds after the Spaniards opened fire, Endeavour fired its first salvo, ten 18-pounder guns and ten 24-pounder guns in turn, and the cannonballs rained down on the Banshee.