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"Wait, I don't know if there's any of us over there in Batavia. If there are still a lot of people over there, we will fight this time, and our people on the Batavia side will be in danger. In this way, it is only two hours away from Manila, and we will quickly send people to find out the situation, and if our men are in Batavia, we will immediately send clippers to Batavia to let them retreat, and if they have already returned, do not go to Batavia again. No, there must be a lot of our people left behind over there, so let the port of Manila send ships familiar with the route to quickly pick people back, and we can't harm the lives of our own people because of what happened on our side. ”

"Yes!" Ning Wu gave a military salute and quickly ran to the side to give the order.

There were a total of 34 naval warships escorting Geng Jingzhong to Luzon this time. The 3rd Squadron had 20 ships plus 12 ships of the Yuanzi formation, plus two supply ships. The twelve warships of the Yuanzi formation are the most special and noble in the Mawei Navy, after all, the Zhenyuan is the ship of the naval commander. Under normal circumstances, it is Wang Zhenbang's ship, of course, when Geng Jingzhong goes to sea, this is Geng Jingzhong's ship. The Yuanzi formation included four Yuanzi third-class battleships plus eight fourth-class battleships, and there were no fifth-level battleships in it. After all, the Zhenyuan is the commander of the ship, and it is basically to give orders, and the other warships are the commander of the Gongwei. The naval fighters on the Yuanzi formation are also the most powerful in the entire navy.

Not far away, the British Navy still had fifteen warships left, and three fourth-class warships were still there, but the hull of the battleships had many obvious scars. The two fifth-tier battleships that fell behind had already stopped. It's not that I don't want to go. It's that I can't go. The sails of the two ships had been completely destroyed. In less than a few minutes, the Dutch battleships behind will catch up. But at this moment, the Dutch fleet also stopped pursuing, and they all saw the horsetail navy emerging not far away.

As for the Mawei Navy, the Dutch Navy has only heard of it, but has never seen it. At this moment, I just saw the Mawei naval battleship, and at first glance, the style of the battleship is not different from the Mawei battleship and the British battleship, but the color of the hull is different. Therefore, the first reaction of the Dutch was. The British also hid their army, and the previous defeat was to deliberately retreat in this direction in order to find help. Now that the Dutch Navy had taken the Mawei Navy as reinforcements from the British, paused and began to reorganize the formation, while waiting for the formation behind to follow and destroy the enemy in front of them together.

"Hey, we haven't done it yet, but they've set up the formation first!" Geng Jingzhong saw this scene through the binoculars. He said with a sneer.

"That's because they can't do it!" Ning Wu said on the side.

"Don't be careless! The combat power of the Dutch is not weak, but it is not comparable to the Japanese naval division. Our Navy has no experience in fighting Western warships. Last time, the Spaniards were forced to surrender by ships four times their size. Now the Dutch navy on the opposite side is equal to our number, don't underestimate the enemy! Geng Jingzhong emphasized in a deep voice. Although there was not a single third-class battleship in the formation of the Dutch Navy opposite, it could be seen from the telescope that the Dutch battleships were significantly different in style and type from the British ships.

Although the main battleship of the Dutch on the opposite side was a little smaller than the third-class battleship on their side, it was obviously larger than their fourth-class battleship. Although they have divided the specifications of the first, second, and even fifth, and sixth class warships, there is no detailed division in Europe now, and there are some differences between countries, that is, in the United Kingdom, that is, in recent years, they have slowly had a clear concept. In fact, in history, after the seventies of the seventeenth century, Britain was the first to formally divide the standard of warships.

-- class battleship, serving as the flagship of the fleet, with three gun decks, one hundred and six or one hundred and twenty-two guns, a capacity of eight hundred and seventy-five men, and a displacement of at least two thousand five hundred tons, the largest not exceeding three thousand five hundred tons. The most representative first-class warship in Britain is the "Sea Monarch" that was launched 34 years ago and is still in service, and the cost of each of these warships is as high as 100,000 pounds, that is, more than 300,000 taels of silver, so there are only 12 ships in the current British Navy in active service.

Ships of the second rank are slightly smaller than ships of the first rank. The three-story gun deck has 98 guns, a capacity of about 750 people, and a displacement of more than 2,000 tons. One of their shortcomings, which was also common to battleships, was that the gun doors of the lower gun decks of the battleship could not be opened in stormy weather.

The third class of battleships was divided into several types, with two to three gun decks, and the number of guns was divided into three types: sixty-four, seventy-four, and eighty, with a capacity of between 490 and 720 men, and a displacement of 1,300 to 2,000 tons. It is also the largest number of capital ships in the British Navy today. During the famous Battle of Trafalgar, the British Navy had 117 third-class warships out of 175 capital ships. At present, there are a total of 68 third-class warships in the Mawei Navy, and in a few years, the Mawei Navy will be able to catch up with Britain in terms of the number of third-class warships.

The fourth-class warships all had two gun decks, 50 guns, a crew of about 350 people, and a displacement of more than 1,000 tons and less than 1,300 tons. The warships of this class were cheaper, about 30,000 pounds each, almost 100,000 taels of silver, and their crew was smaller, and they generally served mainly as the flagship of overseas cruising fleets.

The fifth-class battleship is basically used as a cruiser, with a total length of 40 meters and a crew of 250 people. They are mainly used to attack merchant ships at sea. Because there was money to be gained from the capture on such ships, the crews of these British ships were enthusiastic volunteers. None of the Horsetail Navy's Rank 6 ships were equipped or built in shipyards, and were agile sloops that were often used by the Royal Navy to deliver messages and escort ships. But such a warship such as China's Cangshan ship can be used, and the cost is cheaper, and the performance is not bad.

"They've already set up a formation, and we can't show weakness." Geng Jingzhong shouted loudly to Ning Wu, who ran to the foredeck to direct the battle. "Don't worry about doing it boldly, I think it won't be long before Xu Yingyuan should lead the team to arrive!"

"Mission Guaranteed Completion! I will not disappoint the prince! Ning Wu was also confident at the moment. Its own fleet was in no way inferior to the Dutch fleet opposite. Our own naval officers and men are also well-trained. And it has also gone through several naval battles. Although the Dutch Navy on the opposite side is an old and strong army at sea, the Mawei Navy does not instigate him! Geng Jingzhong was right what he shouted just now, this is already the open sea of Manila Bay, and if you turn to the east and sail for an hour, you can see Correcidor Island at the entrance of Manila Bay.

The remaining dozen or so British battleships immediately cheered as if they had found a savior when they saw the Mawei naval battleship in front. But James didn't get dizzy, and immediately ordered to adjust the direction and rushed directly to Geng Jingzhong's location. When the British battleship ran not far from the Mawei battleship, it made another big turn. It seems that he is going to fight with the Mawei Navy against the Dutch. This action also won the favor of the officers and men of the Mawei Navy. It's okay, they can still know how to fight together, and it's not in vain that their Mawei fleet set up a position to save them.

Geng Jingzhong is indeed preparing to deal with the Dutch at this moment, the most important of which is that the Dutch rely on the strength of their sea power, and their actions in the East Asian sea are very aggressive. The Dutch had established a strong foothold in Taiwan that year, stationed a large number of defenders, and a large number of warships. If it weren't for Zheng Chenggong. Now it is not Zheng Jing who occupies the island of Taiwan. In the past, many Chinese people along the coast were also injured by the Dutch, and they were similar to the Spanish massacres on Luzon. Not a good thing anyway.

Now, for Geng, the Spaniards are out of the way, and the Portuguese in Macau are nothing to worry about. If the Mawei Navy wants to break out of Asia, it needs the Dutch. Of course, Geng Jingzhong also had reason to be dissatisfied with the British. Although comparatively speaking, at least in this era, at this time, the British were relatively clean, and the Chinese people were relatively harmless. Even in later generations, the British knocked on the door of China, but in this era they have not. In the future, the British will not have a chance, and it will not be too long before Geng Jingzhong will show them all the methods used by the European powers in his memory to treat the Chinese. Because of the arrival of his own traverser, Britain will no longer have a chance to rise. If you can't curb the rise of the British by taking advantage of the crossing, it will really be too embarrassing for the traverser.

Think about it, it's not the first time the British have come to Southeast Asia, or it's not the first time they've traveled to China. By the beginning of the century, the commercial hegemony of the Portuguese in the Far East had declined. Their merchant ships were repeatedly plundered by Dutch fleets in the Far East, and they also wanted to unite the forces of the British to contain the Dutch. Thirty-six years ago, the British East India Company reached an agreement with the Portuguese Governor of Goa, allowing British merchants to enter and leave Macao freely for trade. On December 12 of the same year, King Charles I of England issued a decree appointing Captain Weddell as commander and leading six ships to China.

Weddell's fleet set sail from London on 14 April 1636 and arrived in Goa on 7 November to negotiate with the Governor of Goa on trade with Macao. By the end of January of the following year, the fleet left Goa and established a merchant house in Bertkar Cochin and then in Aceh. At the end of June, the fleet reached anchorage outside the Cross Gate, south of Macau. The arrival of British merchant ships made the Portuguese feel embarrassed, because at this time the trade routes between Macao and Goa and Lisbon had been blocked by the Dutch fleet, and the navigation was very difficult, and the Portuguese in Macao could only maintain the trade routes between Nagasaki and Manila, and the trade with Nagasaki would also be forced to stop due to the Japanese decree of the lockdown, so that only Manila was left to maintain close trade relations, but the trade volume still amounted to 6 million taels per year.

If the British were allowed to open up the Chinese market and break their monopoly on foreign trade with China, the little remaining trade benefit of the Portuguese would also be lost. As a result, the Portuguese refused to follow the instructions of the Governor of Goa and did not allow the British to share in Macao's trading privileges. The Portuguese tried their best to slander the British in front of the Chinese officials, saying that they were the Dutch, and that they were trying to cause trouble and should be expelled. The Portuguese also sent patrol boats from Macao to patrol near the British ships to prevent the British from trading. Weddell saw that there was no hope for trade in Macao, so he set sail for Guangzhou at the end of July.

At the beginning of August, six British ships arrived at Humen Yaniang Shoes and anchored, and the defenders of Humen Fort fired warning shots. Weddell deliberately provoked the incident, ordered the trade flag of St. George to be torn down, the military flag of the King of England was raised, and he put on a posture ready for battle, and then commanded the fleet to bombard the Humen Battery. After capturing the fort, the British tore down the Chinese flag, hung the British flag, and dismantled thirty-five cannons, which were carried to the ship as trophies. The Canton authorities sent the Portuguese Noretti to intervene, and Weddell returned the cannon, and at the same time sent two merchants to accompany Noretti to Canton. They carried 22,000 Spanish silver coins and two small boxes of Japanese silver coins for purchase.

However, the British ships continued to penetrate deep into the river of Guangzhou, and this violation of China's sovereignty aroused the anger of the Guangzhou authorities. On September 10, 1637, the Guangdong coastal defense authorities sent three warships to rush at the British convoy, firing artillery and rockets, forcing the British ships to slip away in a hurry. But Weddell not only had no remorse for violating the river, but instead intensified his abusive abuse. On 19 September, they set fire to three Chinese sailing boats, burned down a town, and looted 30 pigs in the Humen area. Two days later, on the 21st, they captured and blew up the Humen Yaniang Shoe Fort, and burned a galleon. When he had committed such a crime in Humen, he also felt that it was difficult to deal with China, so he sailed his fleet to Macau and asked the Portuguese to intervene and turn around.

On 22 November, the British merchant ships agreed to China's demands in Canton for 2,800 taels of silver. On the 30th, Weddell submitted a letter of guarantee to Chinese officials apologizing for the Humen incident and promising to leave as soon as the trade was completed. Accordingly, the Guangzhou officials decided not to pursue him and ordered him to leave the country after trading. On 29 December, Weddell's fleet left Macao and set sail for China. This was the end of the first exchange between China and Britain, which was full of gunpowder.

No matter how bad the British are, they still have the value of use at the moment, and they can't just be killed. If that is the case, it will not be conducive to the future development of the Mawei Group. Seeing that both sides were already in position, they were ready to go to war, but the Dutch fleet on the opposite side had changed. Thirty-eight Dutch ships turned left in unison and headed southwest, no longer engaging the Mawei fleet. Not even a single cannon was heard during the whole process. Ning Wu was also dumbfounded, what's wrong with this Dutchman, he hasn't ordered an attack yet! Are they fleeing without a fight? Is this a victory without a fight? (To be continued......)