In the past, the warships of the Ming army sailors operated in the area north of Luzon.

Few Ming warships operated in the waters south of Luzon.

This seems to have become an unwritten rule of the Manila authorities and the Luzon court.

As early as two years ago, when Manila learned that the Luzon Ming army relied on the Four Seas Merchant House to obtain a large amount of foreign exchange and silver taels through sea trade.

Governor Juan ordered the privateer fleet under Manila's command and the affiliated pirate forces to plunder the ships of Chinese merchants from all over the world in the South Seas, thus cutting off the Luzon Ming court's access to foreign exchange and silver through the South Seas.

The Spanish merchant clearly remembered that when he was in the House of Elders, Governor Juan also swore to the House of Elders that the Ming court naval warships were only small gunboats near the sea, and they could not go out to the far sea.

Therefore, there was no need to worry about the Ming navy plundering the Spanish merchant fleet in retaliation against the Manila authorities.

But now, in the frightened eyes of the Spaniard, the Ming warships flying the battle flag of the Great Ming Navy Division rushed towards Ahha's fleet one after another.

"Damn it." Aha looked at the Ming army sailor in front of him with a solemn face.

When he saw the size and size of these sailors' warships, Aha knew that he had kicked the iron plate this time.

He hurriedly ordered his men to raise battle flags, signaling the pirate warships besieging the merchant ships in the open sea to join him immediately.

"To fight, or not to fight." Seeing that the Ming army's sailors were getting closer and closer to his warship, Aha hesitated.

can run rampant in the South Seas for more than ten years without being exterminated, in addition to excellent skills and hard enough backstage, it is more dependent on Aha to know how to make trade-offs.

That is, as soon as he saw that the situation was not right, he immediately turned the bow of the ship and ran.

With this method of running away if he can't fight, Aha has escaped the encirclement and suppression of the Dutch Navy many times.

Just as Aha was about to give the order to retreat, a Spanish mercenary hurriedly stopped him.

"Boss, the Manila authorities have ordered us to plunder Chinese merchant ships, if we see the Ming warship and flee without a fight, the news will reach Manila, I'm afraid Governor Juan will not let us go." The Spanish mercenary glanced meaningfully at the wealthy Spanish merchant on the side.

The Spanish businessman's face turned pale.

"Deal with the Ming warship, and explain it to Manila." The Spanish mercenary whispered something to Aha.

Aha nodded, and ordered the sailors to fire at the oncoming Ming naval warships.

Soon, the arquebuses of more than a dozen guns on the main ship of the pirates were ignited by the mercenaries.

"Bang bang bang!"

A thick burst of black smoke rose up, and with a loud bang and firelight, lead bullets crossed the sea level and headed towards the Ming warship.

"Damn, how can these pirates be so skilled?" On the Tiger Ben warship, Qin Yu looked at the lead bullets flying towards his warship, and broke out in a cold sweat in fright.

After only a few breaths, several Ming warships were hit by four or five bullets.

When facing pirates, the warships of the Ming army's sailors usually rushed to a distance of half a mile from the pirate's gunboats in the face of the fire of the pirates' gunboats.

Because most of the pirates in the South Seas were scattered and unorganized, and the gunners had no artillery skills.

Often when facing the Ming army, they only surrounded and drove the ship's artillery to bombard, without any tactics at all.

In addition, most of the pirate artillery is second-hand or even third-hand artillery purchased from various sources, and the pirates do not repair and maintain it at all, so the quality of the pirate artillery is worrying.

Therefore, in the face of pirates, the Ming army would not be the first to fire, but rushed straight forward.

When pirates saw the Ming warships rushing towards here, they often fired in a panic, and the result was that the shells did not know where to fly.

The Ming army only needed to enter the optimal range of artillery, lined up, the ships lined up horizontally, and aimed the muzzles of the guns at the pirates, and only one salvo was needed, which often broke the pirates.

This time, the Ming army naturally used the methods used to deal with pirates in the past, intending to enter the best artillery range, but the pirates fired a salvo, and four or five bullets hit the Ming warship, which made the Ming generals present stunned.

"These South Sea pirates are much more fierce than the pirates we have encountered in Luzon." The lieutenant general also swallowed and looked at the position where the ship was shot.

Fortunately, it was only a six- or seven-pound buckshot bullet, which did not cause much damage to the sturdy hull.

"Nimum, is this really a pirate, this artillery skill level is worthy of the Spanish Navy." An artilleryman scolded as he looked at the pirate warship in the distance.

"Let the nearby Eagle Ship Bird Ship immediately break away from the entanglement with the pirates and go to protect the merchant ships in the open sea." The adjutant general saw that the pirate had superb gunnonship and fierce firepower.

He hurriedly ordered the small and medium-sized warships on the side to retreat to protect the ships in the open sea, while the two Tiger warships and several large bird ships led by him went to meet the enemy.

"Order, heavy artillery group fires." Qin Yu looked at the pirate ship not far away and said coldly.

When the herald on the side heard this, he hurriedly waved the signal flag.

The gunnery chief on the deck said excitedly when he saw the signal flag on the ship's floor.

"Brothers, it's finally our turn to perform, so that we can serve these brutes, and the general can watch from the ship's tower."

Seven or eight gunners pushed a bronze cannon and aimed the eerie muzzle at the pirate warship not far away.

"Put." With the order of the gunner, an arquebus was ignited.

"Bang!" A loud thunderous bang rang out over the sea level, accompanied by puffs of smoke rising up.

A 12-pound buckshot slammed straight into the pirate warship not far away.

The 12-pound buckshot slammed into the pirate's cabin, and the huge hull trembled.

The heavy planks of the cabin did not block the buckshot, and the heavy plank hull was smashed by the buckshot, and the sawdust flew and there was a slight stain of blood.

"Hooray." Seeing that the first cannon actually hit the enemy ship, the Ming officers and soldiers on board shouted long live.

At this moment, the sailors on the warships of the Ming army felt that they were very gentlemen.

Soon, the other three Zhennan general guns also opened fire.

But it didn't have the luck of the previous shot.

Only one twelve-pound shell grazed the sail of a battleship.

"Damn, there are 12-and-a-half-pounder cannons on the Amento warship." After hearing the movement of General Zhennan's cannon, the Spanish mercenaries on the pirate warship immediately noticed it.

"Don't worry, it's just a red-coated cannon copied by the Ming people and the Dutch."

"The quality of their artillery is very poor, it is not accurate at all, and the few dangerous redcoat cannons are second-hand artillery purchased from the East India Company, which has long passed its service life, so there is no need to worry."

A Spanish mercenary captain who had dealt with the Ming army smiled and said comforting his companions around him.

After hearing the words of the Spanish mercenary chief, the Spanish gunners present also nodded and forcibly calmed themselves.

However, the gunners on the Ming warships did not care about the nonsense of the Spaniards.

As the distance approached, all kinds of artillery on the Ming warships also opened fire.

The Tiger Warrior Ship, as the main warship of the Ming Army's naval division, has an amazing artillery configuration.

It is equipped with two 12-pounder General Zhennan guns, four 10-pounder Tiger cannons, and ten six-pounder Hayabusa cannons.

In other words, a Tiger Warrior ship has 16 guns of six pounds and above, and two Tiger Warrior ships have 32 guns.

And that's not counting the artillery on the seven Great Bird ships that followed.

The shells fired by so many artillery pieces formed a barrage and smashed directly into the pirate warship, and for a while, four or five pirate warships were shot.

There was even a pirate warship whose powder compartment was hit by a ten-pound cannonball, and the thin layer of wooden-hulled planks did not block the ten-pound buckshot.

Han does not extinguish