Panay Island, Iloilo City. Outside of Metro Manila and Cebu City, it is the third largest city in the Philippines.

At dawn, the harbor was still asleep, and the moonlight swayed gently on the waves.

Three days ago, Shou Zhi used a little trick to get Juan. Morality. Thinking that the coalition forces were going to plunder Cebu, Chavis threw off the pursuing fleet in the Sea of Visayas and went south to the island of Benais.

Shou Xiang went ashore with the first wave of landing teams, wading through calf-deep waters and stepping onto a flat beach. Behind the rows of coconut groves are farmland around the city. Shou Xiang bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt, a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago that covered Panay Island with a thick layer of volcanic ash and brought a rich mineral load. The dark soil is shiny with oil, and like the other islands in the Philippines, Panay Island is perfect for farming. The agricultural conditions in the Philippines are very good, and it is also an area without famine, and it is not difficult for the people of the Philippines to meet the standards in terms of food and clothing alone.

The uniformly uniformed marines and the disheveled Sulu marched inland on the side of the orderly. These fierce Sulu people were the most combat-ready soldiers in the entire Southeast Asian islands, and they were only suppressed by the Spaniards because they were poorly equipped, and the addition of the Federation greatly compensated for their shortcomings in equipment.

The East has spit out the white of the fish's belly.

In the distance, the Spanish flag and the Burgundian tenth flag fluttered at the head of Iloilo, and the alarm bell in the city rang rapidly.

Archipelago, Spanish fortress, cloaked fleet. Shou Xiang was in a trance for a while, as if he was back in life in the Caribbean many years ago.

Marine Corps Commander Fraser. Gail asked Order, "Archon, do you want to fight the fortress?" ”

"Try it, don't force it."

"Understood."

Fraser and Alimoud each sent 100 men to launch a tentative assault on the fortress, but were repulsed by the dense fire of the city. Obviously, this is not an easy city to conquer. Orderly stopped the second attack planned by Fraser, and he commanded 180 soldiers and 500 Sulu to set up a cordon on the city of Illan, setting up a black hole Franc machine with the muzzle pointed at the city gate. As in the Americas, the coalition forces blocked the gates of the fortresses, and the rest scattered and plundered the unprotected cities.

……

The coalition swept the Philippine inland seas and captured a number of local vessels, filling the capacity gap caused by the voyage of transport ships to Hainan.

It's the season for Manila's galleons, with two galleons sailing from Acapulco to Asia along the trade winds, passing through the San Bernardino Strait into the Philippine Inland Sea. The Sea of Sibuyan and the Sea of Visayas are the places they must pass through. The Spaniards called it the "Water Passage" or "Acapulco Passage". ”

Even in the narrow inland sea, it is difficult to intercept a small fleet of two sailing ships. Maybe the coalition forces rubbed shoulders with the Manila galleon one night, or maybe the Spaniards parked a big ship full of Mexican silver in a certain port. Shou Zhi sailed in the inland waters of the Philippines for one month, but never found the most desired target.

Like most countries in Asia, the Philippine archipelago lacks hard currency for gold and silver. Although the Philippines was the largest gold producer in Southeast Asia, the inaccessible gold mines had not yet been developed on a large scale. If the Manila galleon is not captured, the only way to get the full benefit is to plunder the shore targets.

The inland shipping lanes of the Philippines are extremely complex, and the Spanish have only understood the waters near a few major islands after nearly 100 years of visiting. They had to wait until the large-scale geological survey of the early 19th century to understand the geography of the Philippine archipelago.

The Sulus used to raid northwards and were no strangers to the central shipping lanes of the archipelago. Piloted by them, the Federation gunboats provided fire support to the Sulus, making up for the Sulus' lack of heavy firepower and lack of offensive capabilities. This sweeping has also yielded a lot of gains.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Spaniards in Asia and the Americas is that they are more eager and motivated to fight. Juan. Morality. Captain Chaves led a fleet of five warships and a number of Bonbanya and Bisayan ships behind the coalition forces to hunt down the orderly raiding fleet.

Unlike in the past, the presence of Union gunboats, even if they were only schooner frigates and notification ships, was enough to force the Spaniards not to dare to disperse their fleets in a wide pursuit. Indigenous ships that appeared alone, and even 1,2 Galen appeared in front of the coalition forces were at risk of annihilation. Juan. Morality. Chaves can only maintain a large formation to ensure that they have the strength to win in the event of an encounter. This narrowed the coverage of his pursuit, and the coalition forces were able to capture a number of fighters.

The Dutch's successive attacks on Manila, although largely unsuccessful, forced the Spaniards to transfer most of their warships and land forces to Luzon, leaving the rest of the Spanish Philippines empty. As long as you avoid the pursuing Spanish fleet, raiding is as easy as a boat outing.

Off the coast of Iloilo, the strait between Guimaras and Panay is 13 nautical miles long and 1.5 to 2 nautical miles wide. The two notification ships are located at the southern opening and the northern bend of the strait, respectively, to provide long-range early warning for the fleet.

Three days later, the Lianjiang fired five nautical miles away, and gunsmoke rose from the deck of the battleship. Shou Xuan opened the binoculars, and the hastily waving signal flag showed that the Lianjiang had seen the enemy fleet.

The plunder had come to an end, and most of the booty and prisoners had been escorted aboard. Shou Zhi and Alimoud decisively abandoned what had not yet been carried on board, and the whole army retreated.

Shou Xiang led the Qingyun, Yuexiu, Lianjiang, and Lingjiang to cover the allies and go first. The four battleships smashed three pisa galleons that were in pursuit with their broadside guns, and withdrew from the battlefield before Galen could reach the battlefield.

Looking at those sea castles with a mighty appearance but slow movements, Shou Xian laughed.

He told Harris: "In the future, a group of schooners will be organized every year to join forces with the Sulu people to invade the Philippine coast." ”

In the unpredictable wind direction of the archipelago, Galen must not be able to go in the direction that the schooner cannot go. Where the schooners could go, Galen might not be able to go.

Harris said, "That might force the Spaniards to build frigates as well." ”

Order: "It doesn't matter, let them make it." We'll be building bigger ships then. ”

It is undeniable that there was a time when Orderly took the initiative to distance itself from the Philippines. The Treaty of Westphalia was imminent, and at most 1649 the Netherlands and Spain would have an armistice in Asia. At that time, the Spanish-Philippine fleet, which had lost the control of the Netherlands, would regain its freedom of movement, and the mainland, Taiwan, Houjiang, Hainan, and Borneo would be seriously threatened by the sea.

Two years is not enough time for the Federation to build a Galen fleet equal to Spain, and it is conceivable that when 6-8 Spanish Galen appear in the Gulf of Siam, it will be a severe blow to the Federation's maritime trade. Until the navy was sufficiently combative, the Confederation could only rely on the army to defend the port batteries, but this could not prevent a possible invasion by the Spaniards. If you can't stop it, you can only respond in reciprocal terms, and now we will send a convoy into the Philippines to familiarize ourselves with the environment here, and then we will bleed each other with the Spaniards.

The Order now had no illusions of expelling the Spaniards from the Philippines, and the hundreds of thousands of native nationalities united by nearly 10,000 European immigrants and Catholics, which was far beyond the military might of the Union. What the Dutch can't do, the Confederation can't do.

The goal of the Federation is only to gain the recognition of the great powers of the South Seas and to keep peace with them. There is so much undeveloped land in Nanyang, everyone can get their own cake, and there is no need to fight a life-and-death battle with the powerful countries. But peace cannot be earned by the gift of God, only with the guns in hand.

The fleet sailed out of the strait and into Panai Bay. Unlike the Philippine Inland Sea, which is separated by the Bisayan Islands, the open Sulu Sea is in front of Panai Bay, where the southwest monsoon regains its strong side.

Against the wind and the water, the bulky Galen no longer wanted to catch up with the raiding fleet. The Sulu continued to attack the coastal towns of Negros on the port side with galleys, and now they moved faster, landing with galleys and soldiers brandishing swords and guns into the towns and villages, taking away young men and women and a small amount of gold and silver.

……

Clouds of gunpowder rose from the shore, and Chen Shangchuan's lesson continued in an orderly manner. For sea navigation, nautical chart recognition is the foundation.

In 1537, Mercator the Flemish drew an atlas with parallel meridians and parallels at right angles to each other, and the Mercator projection was a cartographic method that navigators had to learn.

"The course of a ship is a straight line on the map, and the shortest distance at any two points on the sphere is through the arc on the great circle of those points. But to cross this minimum distance meant that the course had to be changed frequently, which was difficult to achieve in actual navigation. Therefore, as the captain of the ship, you have to divide a long voyage into a series of straight courses along the chord of the great circle, approximating the shortest voyage, so that the helmsman can handle the boat. These straight headings are what we call the constant lines, regardless of the impact of archipelagos and reefs, and in the open sea, we can cut all the meridians of longitude at the same angle, and on the map made according to the Mercator projection, all the constant lines are straight lines, so the ship can generally steer in the direction of the constant line. This is the basis for determining the position of a ship based on chart navigation and the use of the method of trajectory speculation. ”

Shou Xuan tapped on the blackboard and put down the chalk made of chalk, which was considered a high-end item and was currently used only by the military.

Chen Shangchuan's mouth opened slightly, and his face was dazed, as if listening to a book from heaven. Regardless of the order, he is just indoctrination now, opening that door for him. The specific course Chen Shangchuan will study in depth at the Shanghai School.

Charts were followed by latitude measurements, and the Confederation had abandoned the rectangular in favor of a more accurate quadrant. Observe the sun at noon and the North Star at night. Sailing in the South China Sea, the measured latitude is roughly enough for the voyager.

Boating begins with steering, with the tiller of the Qingyun Mountain located below deck, and the helmsman using a vertical steering lever to control the rudder blades from a higher platform. This higher platform allows the helmsman to expose his shoulders through a small compartment that protrudes from the deck, so that he is at least not completely devoid of vision and can communicate with the sailors on deck in a timely manner. The Qingyun is not big, and the steering lever only needs 4 people to operate, and the big Galen needs more people, and those ships have as many as 10 helmsmen alone.

This is followed by a delicate nautical compass suspended in a balance ring that guides the ship's course. The nautical hourglass is used to estimate the time, and the track is calculated with the logmeter. Although it is not precise and does not take into account the influence of ocean currents, this is the only way to use it now. The Federation has roughly figured out the main currents in the South China Sea, and the Orderly also uses the longitude measured by the watch to give the magnetic declination, and the South China Sea is not too difficult for the Federation to navigate accurately.

The final course is the most high-end business among the navigators, using the celestial clock method to calculate longitude.

The Celestial Clock Method relied on astronomy and complex mathematical tables, and in 1252, the European publication of the Alfoncinite table, and in 1614 the publication of the logarithmic table by John Spear, reduced the amount of work required to find the longitude of the Celestial Clock. In astronomy, the Southern Cross constellation table was published in Europe in 1505, and the solar angular distance table was published in 1595. These form the basis for measuring longitude by the Celestial Clock Method. The calculation process is still very complicated, and the order repeatedly emphasizes that the current longitude measurement method can only be used as a reference, and must not be used to guide precise navigation in the sea area covered with islands and reefs, which may cause the tragedy of ship destruction and death.

With the end of the longitude course, the time of separation has also arrived.

Thomas Mello led three warships, including the Yuexiu, to escort 15 warships, and led nearly 2,000 young women to return to Sanya via the North Mindoro Strait on Palawan Island. The order is to take the Qingyun and sail to Taipei.