As for the wishful thinking of the Spaniards to rely on Tadpole Island to defend and counterattack, under the planning of Hu Zhen, the staff team of the General Staff of the Huaxia Army formulated an offensive plan to break the defense of the Spaniards and lure the Luzon fleet to rush out of Manila Bay for a decisive battle at sea.

The offensive plan of the Huaxia Army was to ignore the Manila Bay defensive position of the Western Army at all, but to divide the troops into two ways at the beginning:

All the way to land on the Pitas Isthmus on the north side of the channel into Manila Bay, advance forward, capture Mariveles, go straight to Bajak, Balanga, Moron, and Hermosa, and outflank Subic Bay on land; All the way to the south of the channel landed, captured Ternat, and then swept east through Maragon East, Byron, Naik, Trese Matires and other places, and smashed Krabi to threaten Manila.

If the Spanish fleet does not go to war, they will land directly on Luzon, and if they fight with the Luzon fleet, they will have a naval battle with them and annihilate the Luzon fleet in one fell swoop!

The Chinese Army's fleet and the black-pressed landing fleet appeared off the coast of Manila Bay, and before the landing operation began, it put a strong pressure on the Spanish defenders along the coast.

At this time, a Spanish clipper ship came speeding up and issued a universal flag, saying that it was Viceroy Valeriano. The envoy sent by Velaire wanted to meet with the Supreme Commander of the Huaxia Army for negotiations.

Hu Zhencai was too lazy to waste time to meet this thunderous diplomatic envoy, but ordered someone to throw him a piece of "Notice on Landing on Luzon Island to Protect the Chinese People" and sent it back.

The Huaxia Army used high-speed warships as a battle fleet to drive 6,000 meters away from Tadpole Island and fiercely bombarded the defensive positions on Tadpole Island with its main guns, and at the same time shelled the Spanish defensive positions near the landing site with a cruiser fleet with low speed.

Sure enough, the Chinese army only put up a position to resist the landing on both flanks in the middle. General Velaire was in a hurry and ordered Pascual. Severa. Toppet. Rear Admiral Severa immediately led the Luzon fleet to attack and defeat the Huaxia fleet and completely sabotage the landing operation attempt of the Huaxia Army.

Hu Zhen saw the Luzon fleet heading for the mouth of Manila Bay. Immediately notify all convoys to retreat and wait for Armageddon at sea before a real landing operation.

April 25, 1889, the first day of the fourth month of the 15th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, 8 o'clock in the morning.

It was a sunny morning. The sea and sky were so blue that no one could have imagined that a decisive battle of steam engines and steel warships at sea, which would determine the future fate of Luzon Islands and even the entire South Seas, kicked off outside the mouth of Manila Bay.

After receiving the order of the Governor of Velaire that the Chinese fleet must be defeated, Rear Admiral Severa commanded the fleet of the Kingdom of Spain in Luzon and rushed towards the mouth of Manila Bay at an economic speed of ten knots.

At this time, the sea outside the mouth of Manila. Countless pillars of smoke have risen from the sky, like a black black forest, which is the steam engine smoke column of the Huaxia Army fleet and the transport fleet.

When the Luzon fleet crossed Tadpole Island to drive away the Chinese fleet, the defenders on the island let out bursts of enthusiastic cheers, so that the officers and men on the battleships of the Luzon fleet also let out bursts of cheers in response, and they were unaware that many of them would never see the sun tomorrow after today.

The commander of the Luzon fleet, Severa, who had always been known for his seriousness, stood in the bridge command tower of the battleship Pelayo, but when he saw this today, he smiled softly.

The Spaniards have a tradition of pioneering the world with a great navy for more than 400 years and building the first empire on which the sun never sets, although it has declined in the last century. But the glory and pride of the world's navy for 400 years is still stirring in the blood of everyone in the Luzon fleet, which makes the commander of the fleet, Severa, feel very gratified.

One of the young staff officers of the commander tower, who did not know whether he was really infected by the high morale of the fleet commander in order to pat the captain of the fleet, shouted loudly regardless of his dignity: "Today, we must let these barbarians in the Far East know the power of our Great Spanish Navy!" ”

Another staff officer also echoed and shouted: "Yes, we will definitely inherit the glory of the Invincible Armada and completely defeat these yellow people who do not know the height of the sky." ”

"The world's oceans will always be the seas of white Europeans, and the waters of Luzon will always be the waters of Spain. People of color still have to nest in their kennel and never come out! ”

Someone shouted even more arrogantly: "Today, we will not only defeat these barbarians, but tomorrow we will land in Borneo and put the whole East Indies and the Hawaiian Islands into our pocket!" ”

Severa listened quietly. did not reprimand the rudeness of the little staff officers, but smiled and said: "The morale of the young men is not bad!" ”

There was a loud bang.

In the happy command tower, there was a panic: "What's going on?" ”

The sentry at the lookout post immediately reported a surprising news: "The fleet of the Huaxia Army has opened fire!" ”

Severa looked up, and the clock hand in the command tower pointed exactly to 8:34, and he picked up the telescope and glanced at the Huaxia military fleet for a while, with his decades of experience in naval service. Quickly visually detected that the distance of the Huaxia Army fleet was at least more than 10,000 meters: "What? How could this Huaxia man fire so far away! ”

The shell exploded seven or eight hundred meters in front of the Luzon fleet, setting off a column of water more than ten meters high.

Then more than a dozen shells flew and smashed into the water at a distance of five or six hundred meters in front of the Luzon fleet, and the explosion set off a large column of water.

Although the range of battleship heavy artillery in this era can reach more than 10,000 meters, in fact, due to the backwardness of the observation and sighting fire control system, it can only enter a distance of two or three thousand meters to carry out accurate bombardment, and those who open artillery at a distance of 10,000 meters basically use their fists to hit mosquitoes, and the commander who orders the artillery is either an idiot or a fool.

Severa seemed to self-righteously figure out what was going on: it must have been that the artillery of the Huaxia battleship was overly nervous or the commander did not understand naval warfare at all, and fired the cannon in advance!

But soon I didn't understand: how could the Huaxia Army fleet, which had such a bad performance in front of it, defeat the two Dutch fleets and the powerful Mi fleet? Could it be that they only won the Dutch and the Mi by sneak attack?

The more Severa thought about it, the more he was full of doubts and lingered, but in order to boost his morale, he smiled at the officers in the command tower: "Hmph, these barbarians are not barbarians at all, they are obviously afraid that we civilized people will teach them how to wear pants!" ”

There was a burst of laughter in the Commander Tower.

At this time, he pretended to shoot with a bold appearance, of course Hu Zhen knew that this could not make the veteran Severa, who had been at sea for decades, immediately confused, but it could make a considerable part of the officers and sailors of the entire Luzon fleet begin to despise the Huaxia fleet, and a few shells would be worth it.

After firing a few shells, the Huaxia fleet began to turn around and withdraw westward.

While Severa was still a little hesitant, an arrogant staff officer suggested: "Your Excellency, commander, shall we pursue?" ”

Severa looked up at the personnel in the command tower, and saw that almost everyone was looking at them expectantly, so she had to give a loud order: "All ships of the fleet pursue the enemy at maximum speed!" ”

In fact, Severa was wondering what kind of trick the Huaxia army was playing with such an abnormal performance, but he couldn't let the morale of all the personnel be hit at the moment, and Governor Velier's order was to defeat the Huaxia army fleet to ensure the safety of the Luzon Islands, so he had to order a pursuit, but he planned to catch up with a certain distance, and then collect his troops and go back.

But the officers and men of the entire Luzon fleet did not see it this way, they were all thinking about how to annihilate the Chinese fleet and land on Borneo.

The Luzon fleet pursued it with the highest speed of battle, and saw that it quickly left the Tadpole Island battery and rushed towards the depths of the sea.

When the Luzon fleet was pursuing, the Huaxia army fired artillery bombardment one after another, but the accuracy was almost negligible, which made the Spaniards on the Luzon fleet even more demoralized to chase after it.

The high spirits of all the officers and men made the scheming Severa have to temporarily put aside his caution and indulge the high spirits of his subordinates, which made the Luzon fleet chase away from the Tadpole Island defensive battery, and was virtually cracked by the Huaxia Army its battle plan of relying on strong batteries to defend and counterattack.

(I haven't asked for a ticket for a month, please be great, if you have a monthly pass, give a monthly pass, if you don't have a monthly pass, please give a recommended ticket!) Thanks! (To be continued.) )