The formation discipline of the Spanish fleet was very good, and even in Europe they were known for their strict formation.

On Spanish warships there were usually two commanders, one naval commander and one army commander. And in many cases, the commander of the army is the one with the highest position, and even the captain of many warships is an army officer. This cannot be said to be wrong, the Spanish fleet is most proud of the world's unparalleled gang jumping record, as long as the Spanish Navy is close to the success of the gang jumping, the brave Spanish maritime infantry is almost invincible.

Unlike the new navies of the Netherlands, Great Britain and France, Spain's naval tactics were always a central option. This has also created the characteristics of the Spanish Navy that pays attention to formation, strong cohesion, and attaches importance to discipline.

The seafaring capabilities of the Spanish fleet were excellent, and more than an hour had passed, and the fleet was nearing the end of its turn. The ships, which had already completed their turn, were being regrouped and prepared to form two columns. Three battleships and two frigates landed downwind of the merchant fleet, ready to escort the merchant ships between the coastline and the warships.

Chen Shouxu has always believed that the magnificent and rigorous queue created by human beings is the most beautiful thing in the world. The army marched in and sailed in formation, just like in front of them, dozens of warships broke through the churning waves, drew a white track, turned en masse on the sea, and re-lined up, the Spaniards' ship operation was simply art.

A fully equipped sailing ship like the Grand Galen has a terrible complexity of sail booms and rigging, and a simple steering action requires more than 100 sailors to cooperate with each other and control more than a dozen sails on the rudder, nose mast, foremast, mainmast, and aftermast. If one of the links falls off the chain, it will be very ugly.

Chen Shouxu was admiring the change of queue of the Spaniards, and slowly he noticed that the weather seemed to have changed, the wind speed had a tendency to increase, and the wind direction was a little more northerly than before.

"The Spaniard's turning point has receded." Chen Shouxu reminded the enemy on the deck of the change.

The sailing ships were too affected by the wind to achieve the level of the Battle of Tsushima at which the entire fleet was basically at a fixed turning point.

Captain Grover stood at the bow of the ship and watched carefully, "The course corrects a compass point to the right. ”

The increased wind speed caused a little trouble for the Spaniards, delaying their turn. However, from the beginning of visual contact between the two sides to the present, the fleet is still close to completing the regrouping.

Chen Shouxu noticed that as the wind speed increased, it may be because the tall stern of the Great Galen played a role similar to that of a syloner, eating the wind at the stern, and the stern of the subsequent Spanish ships was more southerly.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was very close, and Chen Shouxu could clearly see the large portrait of a religious figure on the stern of the large Galen at the end of the Spanish team, surrounded by religious reliefs of different shapes and intricate decorative patterns. Under the portrait is the verandah protruding from the stern, and inside is the most luxuriously decorated aft tower of the whole ship, which is used by the ship's officers to live.

Compared to the Blue Banshee, the Galen in front of him was simply a behemoth. The Blue Banshee has a displacement of about 160 tons, and Chen Shouxu estimates that this Galend has 800 tons.

As the distance continued to close, the Blue Banshee lowered its top sail and reduced its speed. Chen Shouxu looked through the telescope in his hand, and an officer was also standing at the signal light on the stern of the Spanish ship looking over with a telescope.

The officer turned his head and shouted a loud order for something, and the Spaniards opened fire. Chen Shouxu counted it, and the ship had 16 gun doors on one side. The lowest level of the ship was a continuous gun deck with 9 guns, the largest of the ship's 9 heavy guns, and even merchant ships generally had two 16-pounder Kofilin cannons in the middle of the ship's side, and the rest were 9 to 12-pounder cannons and semi-cannons. On the upper deck and aft are seven lighter semi-cannon and falcon guns.

When the distance between the two ships was close to 400 meters, the Spanish ship began to fire a broadside salvo, starting from the bow of the ship, a cannon on the two decks fired one after another, the sound of the cannon was shocking, and the heavy guns in the lower gun deck were loud, and soon the side of the Spanish ship was filled with white gunpowder smoke, and then it was blown away by the wind.

At this time, the Blue Banshee approached upwind of the starboard side of the Spanish ship, which was facing the wind, and the center of buoyancy of the ship was tilted sideways to the port side, and the sails and center of buoyancy swung rhythmically under the lever of the center of gravity of the sails and buoyancy. The muzzle of the gun is always inclined upwards.

Captain Grover always stood at the bow of the ship, and Chen Shouxu looked over, and the captain's figure did not change in the slightest with the sound of the cannon. The Spaniards fired two salvos, but missed, and Chen Shouxu could see the shells fired by the enemy ships grazing the side of the Blue Banshee and into the sea. Charging forward in the face of 16 cannons at a distance of several hundred meters, Chen Shouxu felt the rapid secretion of adrenaline that made him excited.

Everyone was watching the captain's movements, and the distance continued to close, but the Spanish ship could no longer fire a salvo, and the Blue Banshee was beyond the range of most of its guns, only the two guns near the stern were still firing.

Captain Grover raised his left hand waved to the left, and the first mate at the helm waited for this action, and the Blue Banshee adjusted its course one last time, and the bow was inserted into the stern of the Spanish ship at a perpendicular angle to the Spanish ship.

The distance between the two boats is less than 50 meters, and it is almost like passing by. The heavy guns on the side of the Spanish ship had completely lost their firing range, and on the lower deck of the stern, they actually had two heavy guns, but now the ship had just finished turning, and it was leaning to the left side more violently, and the roll amplitude was a bit large, and the cannons could not fire on the transverse inclined platform.

The Blue Banshee was passing sideways downwind of the stern of the Spanish ship, and this was the moment that the whole ship was waiting for.

"Open fire." The captain commanded loudly.

Unlike the Spanish ships, the Blue Banshee had no lower gun deck, and the 10 8-pounder cannons of uniform caliber were all lined up on the open deck, and the downwind sloping hull raised the muzzle of the ship on the side of the enemy, and the salvo of cannonballs went upward, and a cannonball entered the cabin through the aft window, bouncing all the way, shattering everything in its path before running out of kinetic energy.

The most feared thing about Western-style plywood ships is that the stern of the ship will be penetrated by cannonballs, and there is no load-bearing wall in the longitudinal direction of the ship, and if a heavy cannonball hits it all the way through, it will cause amazing damage.

Another cannonball grazed the Spanish captain in the stern and hit the stern spinnaker, breaking a large hole in the sail.

A burst of cheers erupted on the ship, shouts of various languages and dialects emerged one after another, and Chen Shouxu also shouted loudly on the mast, and the battle was really exciting.

When the salvo was over, the two ships staggered by, and the captain turned around and continued to command loudly, "The left rudder is full, and we will change sides with the wind." ”

The first mate repeated the captain's command loudly in the stern, "Yes, full rudder left." ”

Downwind shifting means going around a larger angle, and generally if the wind speed is too high, a merchant ship with a very deep draft cannot make a maneuver to change its side to the wind, so it can only turn downwind. Of course, this problem does not exist for the Blue Banshee, but if you turn to starboard, you will have to face a broadside salvo on the leeward side of the enemy ship that is pressed down by the wind, and at close range, the enemy ship's hit rate will be greatly improved than just now.

At the same time as the ship turned, the gunners of each gun fixed the cannons on the starboard side and immediately rushed to the port side to prepare for the port shelling.