The Friesland.

Cornelis observed that the Taiwan Island was gradually distancing itself from his ship, and his face became more and more gloomy, and he said angrily: "Damn, those yellow-skinned monkeys dare to play tricks on me." ”

The Combined Fleet had the advantage of numbers, but it had one less than the Spanish fleet on the vital capital ships, and the rest of the ships were armed merchant ships or schooners of the Yahat, and neither the number of guns nor the intensity of fire were eligible to enter the battle line.

What's more, because of the previous search for the Spanish fleet, a large number of auxiliary ships were scattered in the surrounding waters and did not gather.

Now, for Cornelis, there are two options.

First, slow down. Maintain a dense formation with the Taiwan Island and Jeju Island, which will vacate the Spanish Virgin Mary. But the problem is that the Virgin Mary will turn right and directly grab the T-prefix of the Combined Fleet, forming a two-to-one superiority.

Second, instead of sticking to the dense formation, the Friesland continued to advance and engaged in an artillery battle with the Virgin Mary, the Spanish lead fleet. But this meant that there would be a gap between it and the Taiwan Island, and the San Jose would cut through it, cutting off the Combined Fleet's battle line.

This would have very serious consequences, and if San Jose had only cut to the right and had joined forces with the Virgin Mary against the Friesland, it would have been disastrous for the Friesland.

Once the battle line was disbanded, the two cruisers of the Eastern Trading Company could pull away with speed, but what about the Friesland? The best result was also to be flanked by the Manila and Cebu, and the worst result was to be surrounded by four battleships.

Cornelis regretted it very much at this time, he regretted that he should not have had the careful idea of harming the Oriental Trading Company.

As soon as the two fleets established visual contact, the Spanish fleet's lead ship, the Cebu, immediately turned to the end of the fleet and became the rearguard. This change of formation is to give full play to the strength advantage of the fleet.

In four against three, there is always a warship of the combined fleet to be flanked, although theoretically, two galleons have the greatest advantage in flanking one warship, but the galleons are not easy to turn and maneuver, so it is not easy to form a flanking attack.

Therefore, the cruiser is arranged as a rearguard, and after the start of the battleline bombardment, the cruiser has a better chance of occupying an advantageous position.

And for the combined fleet, the best response is for the Friesland to act as a guard ship and withstand the flanking attack, so as to minimize the disadvantage, but Cornelis forcibly stuffed this drudgery to the Jeju Island, fortunately, Guo Xu got all the authorization from Li Zhaoji from the beginning, and the hot potato connection was not answered, and it was thrown back, putting Friesland in danger.

"Send a signal to order the warship of the yellow-skinned monkey to follow." Cornelius yelled.

Immediately, the flag-whisperers gave the signal, but the result was a rumbling cannon, and the thirty-two-pounder Caron gun on the open deck of the Taiwan Island let out a roar, forming a cloud of smoke that enveloped most of the ship's hull.

The distance between the two sides was still thousands of meters, far beyond the 600-meter limit range of the Caron cannon, Guo Xu ordered the artillery to be fired, that is, in the future, on the grounds that the smoke of gunpowder covered the flag, and the Dutch would fight.

Cornelis had no choice but to continue to accelerate, reaching the front and occupying a position opposite the Virgin Mary, leaving the Spanish flagship San Jose empty.

"Turn, cut into the enemy battleship, defend the Friesland." The commander of the Spanish fleet, Sebastian, gave the order in an icy voice.

Obviously, he did not choose the best option of directly cutting off the battle line of the Combined Fleet, but there was no doubt about him, this commander has always been bloody and cold.

Sebastian chose to flank the Friesland rather than directly disrupt the battle line because he knew the two galleons in his fleet.

The Virgin Mary and the San Jose are both large ships with a displacement of more than 1,500 tons, because of the tense situation in the Philippines, which caused a large number of Spaniards to choose to leave, these people all have backgrounds, they boarded the ship, bringing not only themselves and their family wealth, but also servants, family members and even some goods, which made both ships in an overweight state.

The two ships were too tall, and the tall and wide sides were the sails that could not be retracted, and the steering was very inflexible in the complicated navigation state.

It can be said that in terms of maneuverability, the two galleons are not even comparable to the Friesland, let alone two cruisers.

Therefore, his first target chose the Friesland.

At eleven a.m., the Friesland took the lead in firing a salvo at the Virgin Mary, and then accelerated closer to the Virgin Mary.

This is Cornelius's helpless choice, speeding up can delay the time for the two galleons to form a flank, and getting close can improve the hit rate, in order to get a ship in the shortest time.

Cornelis took the Friesland's abilities to the extreme, lunging and striking. This makes the situation on the battlefield extremely strange.

Generally speaking, in naval battles, large-tonnage capital ships often fight with a clear eye, like a turn-based game, and auxiliary warships such as cruisers and frigates often charge into battle, and it is difficult to distinguish between them.

And this naval battle was completely reversed, the two cruisers commanded by Guo Xu and the two cruisers of the Spaniards fought from a distance of 400 meters to about 200 meters, and they fought with a clear eye, because they controlled the speed, but gradually distanced themselves from the avant-garde fleet.

This is the common appeal of both sides, and the Spanish cruiser was ordered to contain the two Chinese warships, while Guo Xu was waiting and observing.

San Jose's cross-cutting line was very resolute, but it was slow due to the direction of the wind and the bloated hull. Guo Xu didn't know what the battleship would do after cutting into the other side of the battle line, so it was just enough to go to flank the Friesland, if it slowed down or turned to flank the two battleships of the trading company, Guo Xu would have to deal with it.

It's not that Guo Xu is afraid of the Spanish battleship, on the contrary, he is more afraid of the people on the Spanish battleship, that group of religious maniacs, like pirates, like to fight broadside battles, while cruisers have fewer people on board, and they are shorter than enemy ships, and fighting broadside battles is inherently disadvantaged.

It wasn't until 12:10 a.m., when San Jose had crossed the battle line and began to speed up the Friesland, that Guo Xu gave further orders.

"The artillery deck is replaced with iron watermelons, after a salvo, double ammunition, we directly deal with the enemy." Guo Xu said lightly.

Immediately, there was a rush on the artillery deck.

"The iron-smelting furnace group is ready, the fire brigade is in place, ready to replace the special ammunition!" The voice of the fire controller resounded throughout the artillery deck.

On the deck between the foremast and the backmast of the Taiwan Island, a cloud of black smoke suddenly erupted, and then disappeared, followed by a spark seed, which turned into a thin cloud of smoke.

And in the middle of the artillery deck, two iron-smelting furnaces burned violently, and the officer in charge of the iron-smelting furnace had already been blackened by the smoke, and when he heard the order, he grinned and showed a mouthful of big white teeth.

"The opportunity is just like this, the next time you have to wait for three hours, seize the opportunity!" The officer instructed the gunners who had come to fill the shells.

Each of these soldiers pulled a small cart, and on each cart was a shell from the Hongguang II naval gun, which had an eye on it, which seemed to be a flowering shell, but it was not.

The shells were filled with gunpowder and had wooden tubes stuffed into the bullet holes, but the shells were nothing.

A cannonball was stopped in front of each iron-smelting furnace, and as the furnace chief opened a seal, the red molten iron rolled out, and it was filled with this cannonball in a short time, and as the bullet hole cooled and solidified, the molten iron was fixed inside.

This is the secret weapon prepared by Li Zhaoji for the navy, which is called the No. A special bomb in the navy's equipment table, but the navy that has actually operated it likes to call it an iron watermelon.

The two iron-smelting furnaces are the Martin furnaces, which melt the molten iron and pour it into hollow shells, but only once at a time.

This cannonball, known as the Iron Watermelon, which shattered after concentrating on the enemy's hull, was the original invention of the British, but before it could exert its power, it entered the era of ironclads, so few people know about it.

"Get closer, fire a hundred meters." The captain of the ship, Zhang Ping, also gave the order.

And the gun deck has entered a tense reloading link, and now the Taiwan Island is closing in on the enemy, and the closer it gets, the more dangerous it becomes, and the Spaniard's sixteen-pounder gun may penetrate the hull of the Taiwan Island. The solid shells hit the hull with a dull thud that was chilling.

"Be smart, reload quickly, you're going to overturn the Spaniards in one round." The fire controller said viciously.

His name is Zhang Boqian, he is from Nanyang, he is a survivor of the massacre in Manila, and he has an unforgettable hatred for the Spaniards.

The gunners, on the other hand, were meticulous workers, first loading thirteen pounds of firing gunpowder, then a ten-centimeter-thick cork disc, a piece of wet mud, and then a shell filled with molten iron.

"Two hundred meters ......."

"One hundred and fifty meters ........"

"One hundred and twenty meters ........."

"One hundred meters, fire!"

The gunners lit the primer one after another, and then, the gunpowder burned rapidly in the barrel, bursting out with devastating energy, pushing the iron watermelon cannonball forward, and in a cloud of gunsmoke, the cannon was ejected, drawing a trail of water in the humid air, and then sent the earth-destroying energy to the Manila.

The USS Manila is a quality cruiser built locally, but its hull is no different from a paper hull in the face of a ninety-pound shell.

The shells touched the hull and broke in one fell swoop, and the weak shells were also shattered by the violent impact, and the shells that had not yet solidified inside and outside the hull were splashed inside and outside, and the molten iron burst out, causing a bloody storm on the gun deck.

The molten iron burned like magma in all parts of the ship's hull, the hull and rigging soaked in tung oil and asphalt, the sun-dried sails, and the deadly gunpowder......

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