In the bridge of the Makino, Jiao Qiang, the captain and commander of the fleet, looked at the bay with a high-powered telescope. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"It seems that the Spaniards are not completely ignorant of our arrival, and the fleet has unmoored and is ready to enter the battle." Jiao Qiang's face has always been full of calmness, and he will never change because of the strength of the enemy or the criticality of the situation.

In fact, since the Tang Army captured Zamboanga, the Spanish fleet in Manila has entered a relatively high state of alert, and when the Tang Navy fleet appeared in the area of Subic Bay, it was discovered by the Spaniards near the shore and quickly reported to the Spanish Navy. However, the speed of the Tang army was also very fast, and they drove into the sea, and after entering Manila Bay, the ships of the Spanish Navy caught up.

Mendoza, the commander of the Spanish Navy on the other side, was far less calm than Jiao Qiang. He kept asking his sailors and officers if they were ready, revealing the nervousness in his heart at this time. The Spanish naval fleet is on the side of the overall disadvantage, in terms of numbers, the Spanish navy has only 6 steam ironclads; In terms of tonnage, except for one ship, the 4,000-ton cruiser San Lyonda, which was later built by Spain, the remaining five are modified steam ironclad frigates of varying sizes and tonnage; The gap in firepower is even more obvious, except for the San Lyon, which has two 180 mm naval rifled guns cast by Spain itself, the naval guns equipped on the rest of the ships are all foreign trade versions of 76 mm and 130 mm naval guns imported from Datang, as well as the same type of naval guns imitated and cast by Spain itself.

The overall technical level of the artillery on Spanish ships is equivalent to that of the artillery of the sixties and seventies of the nineteenth century in another dimension, and the operation is not only somewhat cumbersome. And the rate of fire is slower. Neither the power nor the range is sufficient. On the other hand, the artillery equipped by Datang here. Although it is still inferior to the naval guns of World War II, it is far superior to the guns of the Spanish Navy in all parameters.

This is a completely unfair and asymmetrical showdown.

The specific parameters of the Datang Navy's ships, Mendoza and his Spanish naval colleagues are not very clear, although Datang has some military magazines that publish news, but when it comes to how far the artillery can hit and how thick the armor is, these things are still hidden. What Mendoza is lacking is that the Datang Navy ships can now run at a speed of 16 knots in formation. And the maximum speed of his fleet is now about 12 knots, and if it really starts, the difference in speed alone is a big trouble.

Jiao Qiang looked at the Spanish ship formation over there, still expressionless, and said lightly: "Keep the column formation, the right rudder is full, and seize the T-shape." ”

The Datang Navy, which has been in dreadnought mode since its birth, has all the main guns located on the centerline of the ship's deck, which allows them to turn the turret and output maximum firepower on the broadside. There are no missiles in this. Navy ships on the sea are the days of knights who are close and face-to-face with courage, and the T-position is for any fleet hungry for victory. are all extremely important.

On this battlefield, the Spanish naval fleet in Manila Bay could not catch up with the Datang naval fleet in terms of overall speed, which made them have a congenital disadvantage when seizing the T-shaped position, and the Datang naval ships were not only fast, even if their tonnage was larger, but they were more dexterous than the Spanish ships in operation, which allowed Jiao Qiang to lead the fleet to quickly appear in the T-shaped position of the Spanish fleet's column.

Manila Bay is very wide, the sea conditions are relatively good, and under the calm wind, it is the right time for the Tang Navy to display its superb gunnery skills. The Spaniards did not fail to try to avoid being in a disadvantageous position by turning and dodging, but due to their haste to meet the battle, in fact the formation of the fleet was not complete, and it was a somewhat distorted one-line. The very confident Datang Navy was almost like bullying the Spaniards, and threw its side directly at the Spanish Navy fleet with a very sharp right full rudder, and when the Spaniards tried to evade it by turning, the Datang Navy had completed an angle of approximately 90 degrees with the Spanish fleet.

"Full main gun, free fire!" Jiao Qiang didn't have much thought about this, because the firepower on just one battleship Makino had already surpassed the entire Spanish fleet.

At a distance of about 10,000 yards, the 305 mm heavy guns of the Makino's main gun could easily bombard the opponent's battleship, and what was even more terrifying was that as long as it was hit by such a large shell, it would immediately tear out a huge hole in the hull of the opponent's armor that was not thick and the body was still wood. Even if it hits a small ship of more than a thousand tons, it can directly blow off half of the bow.

The other 12 130mm secondary guns are also the level of the main naval guns on the Spanish side, and the technical level is completely different. Datang's 130-mm naval guns were also capable of firing at a position of 10,000 yards, while the Spaniards' 130-mm naval guns would never have a range of more than 5,000 yards.

So in this position, the main and secondary guns of the Makino can launch an artillery attack, and the shells began to fall, and fell on the sea around the San Liandroid, smashing out columns of water.

Mendoza immediately tensed. Although he had also thought that the main guns of the Tang Navy would have a long range, he did not expect that they would dare to shoot at 10,000 yards. According to the experience of the Spaniards and the British in the battle of the Atlantic, although their new guns had increased the range and power of the old smoothbore guns, the combat distance was generally two or three thousand yards, and it would not continue to increase. In the past, when the Datang Navy dealt with the British Royal Navy, the combat distance was basically two or three thousand yards. Mendoza thought that the ships of the new generation of the Don could attack at a distance of five or six thousand yards, but he did not expect that the Don would take the initiative to shoot at ten thousand yards.

What made him even more uneasy was that because the Datang Navy already had some fire control equipment, the accuracy of the Datang Navy's artillery bombardment was greatly improved. This is also the reason why the Tang army dared to attack from a relatively long distance, because they had this ability.

Even though they had a higher percentage of hits at closer distances, Jiao Qiang hoped that by shelling at this distance, the Spaniards would be completely intimidated and let them know that there was no chance of victory.

Mendoza did feel the same way, at a distance of 10,000 yards, even if the Spanish ships tried to close the distance with the Tang ships, they couldn't catch up with the speed difference of 4 knots, coupled with the effective shelling of the Tang Navy, Mendoza thought that they could completely destroy their fleet at such a distance. (To be continued.) )