The time for the decisive battle has come.

100 European warships divided into five detachments, set off from the Dutch base in Sumatra, and pressed towards Luzon. In order to avoid being wiped out by the Ming fleet one by one, the five detachments did not adopt the method of advancing by separate routes, but only separated from each other by one or two nautical miles, so that once the sound of artillery was heard, everyone could gather on the battlefield and use the tactics of wolves to completely kill the Ming fleet.

Of course, this kind of operational deployment also has flaws, that is, if the Ming fleet feels that it is not caught, it may escape from the sea and let the combined fleet pounce.

"I suspect that the Chinese will definitely escape." Waldo, who was in charge of the command of the first detachment, told Kevin on his flagship, the St. Marian.

Valdo's original ship, the Saint-Martin, had been shot in several places during the last naval battle, and although it escaped from the battlefield, it disintegrated and sank halfway through. He has now requisitioned Kevin's flagship, and Kevin can only be very aggrieved to be a deputy next to him.

"If they were smart, they would have run away." "The last time they faced 20 of our ships, they only had a slight advantage. Now we have 100 ships, and if they dare to fight us, they will surely be wiped out. ”

Waldo said: "I discussed with Dick, if the Chinese escaped, we would first recover Luzon and drive the Chinese army on the island into the sea." Then the combined fleet marched towards China and blocked the Chinese fleet in the port and wiped it out. ”

"Joel, do they promise?" Kevin asked.

Waldo looked stunned and said: "Joel, this son of a bitch, he insists that we transfer 30% of our interests in Southeast Asia to them before he is willing to fight with us." If it weren't for the fact that there weren't enough of our ships, I really wouldn't want this bastard to go to the combined fleet. ”

"This can only be blamed for the defeat of our Armada in the naval battle, otherwise when will it be the turn of the British to make irresponsible remarks." Kevin sighed.

"Well, let's not think about this issue for now, and when we drive the Chinese away, let's think about how to expand our influence in Southeast Asia." Valdo said, looking down at the charts. Said: "It's not far from the port of the Chinese fleet, right? Is there any news about the escape of the Chinese fleet? ”

The Combined Fleet also has reconnaissance vessels, which are small and brisk sampans that can travel quickly at sea and are used to reconnoiter the enemy and relay information. A small sampan happened to be on board the St. Marian, and a herald boarded the ship and reported to Waldo:

"It was reported that, according to the results of reconnaissance, no signs of the departure of the Chinese fleet were found at sea. In addition, at least until last night, the Chinese fleet was still in the port. ”

"Are these Chinese crazy?" Waldo muttered, "I don't believe they wouldn't know the news of our massive fleet coming." Are they confident enough to think they can compete with us? ”

Kevin said, "Maybe it's because they didn't receive orders from their emperor. I've heard that Chinese are very dull. Without an order from the emperor, they did not dare to evacuate without permission. ”

"I hope that's the case, God forbid, I don't want to chase them to the coast of China to fight them again." Waldo made a cross on his chest. Then he ordered: "Speed up, block the Chinese in the port, don't let them run." ”

The warships of the five detachments had the same mind, and at the same time increased their speed and sailed forward. The detachments spread out a little bit and formed an encirclement of the port of the Ming fleet.

"Look, there are Chinese ships ahead!" The observer on the mast was the first to see the shadow of the sail on the sea in the distance, "My God, what a big boat!" ”

"Let me see!" Kevin climbed the mast with his hands and feet. Far into the distance.

I saw that on the horizon, there were several behemoths faintly appeared, and if it weren't for the charts indicating that there was a vast sea, Kevin would have thought that they were islands, because he had never seen such a large ship.

"Oh God. It's a 5,000-ton ship! Kevin cried out.

"Did the Chinese build a 5,000-ton warship?" As the two sides grew closer, Waldo stood on the deck of the ship and saw it.

Inspired by Deng Zilong, Su Hao not only changed the 2,000-material transport ship into a gunboat, but even the 6,000-material treasure ship was loaded with artillery and driven out. This huge treasure ship sails like a hill on the sea, and it looks really scary. When the treasure ship was designed, it pursued a smooth ride on the sea, and the speed and maneuverability were not as good as that of a small boat, which was not conducive to close combat. But with long-range artillery equipped, it can be used as a sea fortress.

"Discover the Hongyi fleet and prepare to open fire!"

The firearms general Xiong Min was in charge of the treasure ship in the middle, and he had already used his telescope to firmly lock on to the target when the combined fleet was still thousands of steps away from the treasure ship. Seeing that the other party was gradually driving to a distance of only 1,500 paces away from him, Xiong Minyang gave the order to prepare to open fire.

The gunners on several large ships were busy, some measuring the firing yuan, and some stuffing the gun chamber with the firing cartridge. This time, the Ming army no longer needed to hide its strength, and the firing kits and projectiles were charged according to the longest range and maximum lethality, with the aim of killing the opponent with one shot when the European warships were not close.

"Ready, put!"

When the advance of the combined fleet reached a distance of 1,000 paces from the treasure ship, Xiong Min waved his red flag and 50 guns roared at the same time.

"Boom! Boom! Boom Boom! ”

The sound of the cannon was deafening, and the large ship of several thousand materials, affected by the recoil, shook up the sea, bringing up waves of waves. Through the smoke of gunpowder, dozens of projectiles burst out of the air and flew towards the European Combined Fleet.

"Boom!" A projectile landed only a few paces away from the St. Marian, and the huge explosion sent a huge wave into the sky, and the sea rushed in his face, drenching Waldo, who was standing on the bridge.

"What's going on!" Waldo was shocked, at such a distance, he couldn't even see the appearance of the warship of the Qing army, how could the opponent's cannon have already hit in front of him?

"How far is the Chinese fleet from us?" Waldo asked Kevin.

"Big big ...... About 1000 paces ......" Kevin was also scared silly, 1000 paces away, the guns on their ship could also reach it, but the projectiles fired were all strong crossbows, not even tickling. However, the Ming army was able to create effective damage at this distance. Judging from the waves stirred up by the shell that fell into the sea just now, the power of this shell is at least twice as strong as in the last naval battle, and if this kind of shell falls on the ship, it only takes one shot to make a four-masted galleon ineffective.

Kevin's speculation was not unfounded, and right next to their warship, a British four-masted ship was tragically hit by a cannonball. The shells fell on the deck and at once tore off all sorts of buildings on the deck, three of the four masts were blown off, and the sails and cables toppled one deck. The shock wave of the explosion caused visible cracks in the side of the galleon, and seawater seeped into the ship's hold from all sides.

"The Chinese have concealed their strength!" No matter how stupid Waldo is, he knows that he has been deceived, the Ming army has such a long-range weapon, but in the last naval battle, he did not hesitate to pay casualties and fight with himself in close combat, which is obviously a sign of weakness to lure the enemy. He pulled other countries to form a coalition to seek revenge from the Ming army, but he didn't know that this was in the hands of the Ming army.

"Mr. Waldo, what should I do?" Kevin asked in horror.

"Give the order, rush up and force the Chinese to fight with us in close quarters!" Valdo made up his mind in an instant. Maybe turning around and running away is a better option, but it is difficult to pull other countries in, if this time without a fight, the next step is that the Chinese will really bully their own door.

Your own ship can only effectively destroy the opponent's ship within 300 paces, and rushing to melee combat means rushing forward 700 paces. If you consider the speed of the opponent's retreat, you may need to chase thousands of steps before you can catch up with the opponent. And in a range of thousands of steps, how many cannons can the other side fire? Will your own fleet be able to sustain it until that time?

"Full speed ahead!" Valdo cried out in desperation, if he didn't succeed, he would be a benevolent, and if he couldn't win this battle, he would let himself be buried on the Asian sea.

Of the detachment led by Waldo, only the flagship St. Marien had participated in the last naval battle, and the other ships were sent by the navies of other countries. The captains of those ships saw the Ming artillery for the first time, and although they were shocked, they thought that this was the case in the last naval battle between the Spaniards and the Chinese, and did not realize that they had fallen into the trap of the Ming army. Seeing the flags of the charge sounding from the flagship, the ships were hoisted with their sails full and rushed forward.

"It's a good time, give Lao Tzu a hard beating!" Xiong Minyang became excited and roared loudly.

"Boom! Rumble! ”

The artillery roared incessantly. The previous round of shelling was just a test of artillery, and the observer saw the landing point of the shell from the telescope and promptly notified the gunner to correct the coordinates. In the second round of shelling, the hit rate of the shells increased significantly, and three European warships were directly hit. One of them was hit in the bow, and the sudden flooding of the sea caused the ship to disintegrate in an instant. The other two ships were hit on the deck and were also incapacitated on the spot.

There were also shells that exploded in the water near the enemy ship, and the shock wave also had varying degrees of effect on the warship. The ship swayed from side to side in the waves of the explosion, shaking some of the sailors out of the boat and into the sea.

"Mr. Waldo, you can't rush any further, the artillery shells of the Ming army are too powerful!"

The captain of the St. Marien pleaded with Valdo that he had seen how a ship next to him had been killed by the Ming army, and he could not imagine what would have happened to him if a single shell had landed on his command.

"Bastard, how can you retreat now, you must move forward!" Waldo roared, "Several other detachments will rush over immediately when they hear the sound of artillery, the Chinese warships are limited, and it is impossible for them to stop so many of our ships at the same time!" ”