"Boom! Boom! ”

Two Spanish light clippers opened fire first, and 10 Kophilin guns dropped five-pound iron projectiles at the leading Ming ships.

"Slam! Slam! ”

The iron projectile slammed into the side and deck of the Ming warship, making a loud noise. The Ming ship was swayed slightly by the impact of the projectile, although such a small projectile would not bring any obvious damage to the Ming boat, but the sound of the impact one after another still made the sailors on the ship feel terrified.

"Mother, sell forks, these red guys are really accurate." The sailors muttered quietly.

"Xiaoqi, it's time to fight back, right?" The gunners began to shout loudly, and the feeling of not fighting back was too uncomfortable.

"What's the hurry, how many steps are there now." The little flag officer yelled at the observers.

The observer rubbed his eyes vigorously, looked at them carefully, and then reported: "Report Xiaoqi, it's about 550 steps now." ”

"Alright, start aiming!" The little flag officer gave the order, in fact, he was also suffocated like the gunners, and it would be a shame if he had advanced artillery and was sunk first.

The gunners had already aimed their guns at the Spanish light express ship on the opposite side dozens of times, and when they heard the order, they were still very excited to re-aim again, and then held the fire rope and waited for the order of the little flag officer.

"Ready, fire!" The little flag officer waited for a moment, estimated that the distance was about the same, and waved his arm downwards fiercely.

"Boom! Boom! ”

The Ming warships also roared, and the solid shells and flowering shells with halved charges flew towards the Spanish light clippers.

For a time, the sea was filled with gunsmoke and projectiles flew sideways. In order to disguise their strength, the Ming army deliberately reduced the amount of cannon propellant and the amount of explosives in the solid bullet, and the distance of the projectile was only five or six hundred steps.

Rao is so. The explosion on board still alarmed the captain of the Spanish light express ship, and while steering the ship, he shouted to the sailors: "The Chinese projectile will explode, put out the fire!" Don't let the fire burn to the powder keg! ”

Since they had heard in advance that the Chinese fleet was equipped with explosive shells, the Spaniards prepared wet sand and wet quilts for extinguishing fires on board. Seeing a fire somewhere, the sailors rushed forward desperately and fought to extinguish the fire. At that time, the ships were all made of wood, and things such as canvas were also flammable, and the powder keg was an object that could not be close to fire, with a little spark. It was enough to ignite the powder keg. Sweep the whole ship away.

"Boom!"

A flowering shell hit the side of the Spanish ship "Tovey". With a loud bang, the ship's side exploded, and the sea water poured into the cabin with a clatter. In the past, such injuries were only within a distance of two or three hundred paces. It can only be inflicted using a cannon's 50-pound iron bullet. However, the Ming army used flowering shells to achieve the goal of destroying the ship at a distance of 500 paces.

"Plug the gap! Damn, turn the sails sideways, get out of here, get out of here! ”

The captain felt that the ship was already slightly tilted, and he couldn't care about fighting the Ming army anymore. He ordered the sailors to hurry up and pull the sails and prepare to get out of battle.

"Boom!"

The Ming warships behind had also followed, and another flowering bomb hit the Tovey. The cracked side of the ship collapsed in an instant, and the sea water engulfed the entire cabin in an instant. The ship sank at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.

"Damn! The flowering shells of the Chinese are really terrifying! In fact, a light express ship was sunk with two guns, and a four-masted ship like ours would not have been finished with four or five shells! Kevin watched from his flagship as the Tovey sank to the top of the mast in a matter of minutes, and he couldn't help but shudder.

Raphael, standing by Kevin's side, saw it all as well. His feeling was a little more optimistic than Kevin's: "Mr. Kevin, such a light clipper, if it is hit by two cannons, will also sink." We only need to think of the flowering shells of the Chinese as cannon shells at long distances. ”

"However, no cannon can form such a powerful damage at such a distance, and this alone will cost us a lot of additional losses in fighting the Chinese." Kevin said with a dark face.

Raphael said: "Mr. Kevin, now is not the time to be afraid, we should immediately put it on and engage in close combat with the Chinese, otherwise we will suffer a lot." ”

Kevin nodded, and gave the order to the standard-bearer, allowing all the ships under his command to speed up and engage the Ming army in close combat. Behind him, the fleet commander Waldo also saw the problem and ordered the whole fleet to follow Kevin's ships to press up and approach the Ming army.

"Hongyi is coming, they want to fight with us." On the flagship of the Ming army, military advisor Tu Wenhuan observed the situation on the sea with a telescope and reminded Hao Tong.

"It's up to them." Hao Tong sneered, "Come on, order to change formation, keep a distance from the Hongyi fleet, and concentrate firepower to kill them one by one." ”

The herald waved his hand flag and gave orders to the Ming warships. The 10 warships quickly changed formations according to the pre-battle arrangement and were divided into three squads. The middle squad is 2 1000-material warships and 2 400-material warships, including Hao Tong's flagship; The two squads on each side are 1 1000 material warship and 2 400 material warships.

The ships of each squad covered each other, and the three squads formed a horn momentum. As the Spanish fleet advanced, the Ming slowly retreated, concentrating their firepower on the enemy ships that rushed at the front.

The superiority of the Ming artillery in the killing distance was manifested in such a chase battle. The Spanish fleet struggled to get within 300 paces of the Ming army in order to destroy the Ming ships with cannons. The Ming army, on the other hand, always kept a distance of 500 paces from the Spaniards and hit the Spanish ships with flowering shells.

Hao Tong had his men tie themselves to a mast on the roof of the ship's building in order to maintain balance on the constantly jolting warship. He calmly observed the battle situation on the sea, and issued orders one after another:

"Right ahead, concentrate on the four-masted ship that rushed to the front!"

"Attention, Hongyi has two boats detouring from the left, catch up and kill one first!"

"Tell Li Shoubei that they are too far ahead, be careful to let Hongyi's light speedboat stick to the ......"

In the chaos, of course, the ships could not fully act according to Hao Tong's command, and the captains on each boat were also looking at the situation at sea, adjusting their course, speed and attack targets in time.

The Ming army had at least two advantages that the Spaniards did not have. One is that all ships of the Ming army are equipped with high-powered telescopes, which can see the situation on a wider battlefield. The second is that the artillery of the Ming army is hidden in strength, if it is really critical, the ships want to show the real killer weapon, they can turn the situation around in a short time. Because of the means of self-preservation, the ships could fight with great ease, and would not be panicked by the fierce attack of the Spaniards.

In contrast, the situation for the Spaniards was far from good. Their long-range artillery could not achieve effective damage to the Ming ships, and they could only try to fight close to each other. On the sea, it is not easy to close the distance of a few hundred paces, and they have to pay the price of blood for almost every step they take.

"Mr. Kevin, it's not good!" Raphael saw a subtle change in the situation, "We have lost three boats, Mr. Waldo's side has also lost three boats, and the Chinese have not had a single boat completely damaged so far, and still maintain the combat effectiveness of ten boats." ”

Kevin didn't know this, he yelled like a gambler with a red eye, "But what else can I do now? We are only one step away from the Chinese, and if we chase 100 steps further, we will enter the killing range of our cannon. When the time comes, I will give them a taste of the power of our Armada. ”

Raphael said, "Mr. Kevin, I don't think it's that simple. If you chase a little closer, the Chinese will also increase the rate of artillery fire. Even if we were able to sink a few of their ships, we would pay the same price. Now that we have about the same number of ships on both sides, it will be a lose-lose situation for both sides. What's more, we are now at the forefront of the entire fleet, and if we want to exchange with the Chinese, we will be the first to lose. ”

Kevin looked up to the left and right and asked, "What should you do?" ”

Raphael said, "Why don't we find a way to slow down a little and let Waldo and their ship rush to the front." ”

"Okay...... Don't be too obvious, though. Kevin agreed.

Raphael ran to the stern of the boat and muttered a few words to the sailor who was manoeuvring the ship. As if it had been struck by something, the St. Mary's suddenly changed direction and thrust into the spur. Immediately afterwards, the sailors on deck scrambled and pulled their sails, and the St. Marien whirled on the surface of the sea, unable to sail forward.

"What the hell is Kevin doing!" Waldo saw this scene on his flagship and couldn't help but shout in annoyance.

"It looks like the rudder of the St. Marian has been broken, and they're trying to control the course." The staff officer next to him guessed. If the rudder breaks, the ship will deviate, and the only way at this time is to stop first, repair the rudder and then move forward, otherwise the ship will not know where to run and will not be able to participate in the battle at all.

"Well, I think so, too." Valdo nodded, in his impression, Kevin was a brave commander, so Waldo didn't think about it in the direction of passive avoidance.

After paying the price of sinking eight ships, the Spanish fleet finally approached only 300 paces from the Ming fleet, and the cannons used to fire 50-pound iron bullets began to wield.