February 22, early morning.

In the South China Sea, a large fleet is moving rapidly south along the coastline of the territory of the Quang Nam General's Palace.

2 Canton-class third-class sail battleships with 72 cannons, 2 Quanzhou-class third-class sail battleships with 64 cannons, 8 Nanchang-class fourth-class sail battleships with 50 cannons, 8 Songjiang-class fourth-class sail battleships with 52 cannons, 8 Ningbo-class fourth-class sail battleships with 54 cannons, 12 Xiangshan county-level fifth-class cruisers with 32 cannons, 12 Baoshan county-level sixth-class gunboats with 20 cannons, and 10 fast-crab patrol gunboats.

There were 62 ships, and the sails embroidered with the golden sun and moon almost obscured the sky, such a spectacular sight that made the sailors on the deck excited. Together with the more than 70 battleships, armed Galen ships and fast crab ships (including the ships in Hoi Ninh Town) that have arrived in Da Nang Bay, the total number of warships, armed merchant ships and gunboats that the Ming Navy is about to put into battle has exceeded 130!

And these warships, cruisers, gunboats, gunboats and armed merchant ships are only part of the achievements of the dumplings made by the four major shipyards of the Ming Dynasty in recent years. The total number of ships waiting to be completed in the dry docks, slipways and outfitting docks of the four major shipyards alone is now higher than 130!

This is the power of dumplings under the overproduction capacity of the world's first industrial powerhouse with a population of nearly 100 million!

None of the Netherlands, England, Spain, and Portugal have more than 10 million, and the four countries together are only 189 million, which is not as many as Japan, which has always been regarded as a small country by the Ming Dynasty.

With such a small population, he actually wants to argue with the Great Tomorrow Dynasty, this is not death, what is death?

Many officers and men of the Nanyang Fleet have begun to look forward to the early arrival of the decisive battle, and they must let these Western devils who don't know the height of the sky know what the Celestial Empire is!

On the aft deck of the Guangfu, the flagship of the Nanyang Fleet, Chen Shangchuan and Ke Tangtan were equally eager to fight! So much so that the two of them couldn't stay in the command cabin, and they all went to the stern deck, one for each of them, and kept looking at the coastline to the west.

They were looking for the flames and black smoke from the beacon towers along the coast of Quang Nam!

When Cotentan left Huining, Yu Qilin made an agreement with him that once the Spanish Armada broke into Da Nang in a big way, Da Nang would ignite the beacon fire on the beacon tower, and when the Nanyang Fleet saw it, it had to rush to the periphery of Da Nang to seek fighters.

That being said, the speed of a sailboat is limited after all, and even if it is smooth, it is generally only eight or nine knots, and it is only a few tens of miles in an hour. If the Nanyang Fleet is too far away from Da Nang, I'm afraid that by the time the Spanish Armada finishes fighting, they won't have arrived!

If it gets too close, it will be spotted by the warships of the Spanish Armada patrolling the perimeter.

Therefore, the Nanyang Fleet could only take a compromise, wandered for two days in the sea area three or four hundred miles away from Da Nang, and waited until the northeast wind rose last night before quickly puffing up its sails to the south - if the Spanish Armada wanted to rush Da Nang, there must be an east wind or a northeast wind!

But now that the Nanyang Fleet has been sailing for half a night, and the sky is already a little bright, why haven't you seen the fire on the beacon? Could it be that the Spaniards' reconnaissance ship had spotted the ambushed South Sea Fleet and slipped away?

It's a shame. The current Spanish Armada is a combined fleet that has joined the main ships of the Dutch and English naval forces! If we can really cripple them, the impact will not be limited to the East, but the whole world!

The Kingdom of Spain, on the other hand, may face a collapse situation on the battlefield of New Spain because the sea power in the Pacific Ocean has completely fallen into the hands of the Ming Dynasty! And the collapse of New Spain will inevitably lead to the complete collapse of the finances of the Kingdom of Spain!

And the Kingdom of Spain, which had lost the wealth of the New World, did not have the financial resources to hire German mercenaries. This meant that the Kingdom of Spain had to kneel and beg for mercy from the Kingdom of France. King Louis XIV of France himself even became the heir to the throne of Spain. Both France and Spain have the potential to become a unified country!

If this is the case, France and Louis XIV will simply lie down and win!

Cotentin was a little impatient at the thought that the destruction of the Spanish Armada would make it possible for France and Louis XIV to lie down and win!

At this moment, Cotentan suddenly heard a Cantonese accent shouting: "The beacon is lit!" ”

Ke Tang Tan followed the sound and saw that Chen Shangchuan was excitedly raising his arm to the southwest, and he hurriedly raised the telescope in the southwest direction along that arm.

Really! In the distance in the dim light, a faint black smoke rose into the sky! After a while, another cloud of black smoke appeared on the coastline closer to the Guangfu. Subsequently, a third and fourth streams of black smoke appeared on the coastline of General Quang Nam!

That's right, the beacon fire is lit, and the Da Nang side must have started!

Ke Tangtan hurriedly put away the binoculars, and then said to Chen Shangchuan beside him excitedly: "Chen Jun, the opportunity has come!" ”

Chen Shangchuan was also eager.

This is an opportunity for meritorious service! Although he is an old qualification in the anti-Qing and Ming restoration camp, because he only has hard work and no merit, his title is just a marquis. Now that the troubled times are coming to an end, there will only be fewer and fewer opportunities to make meritorious contributions in the future. It's hard for him to get a higher knighthood!

So this time, he learned that Da Nang had the opportunity to make great contributions, so he took the Nanyang Fleet out without saying a word. However, he was still self-aware, and knew that he could not command the Armageddon of the Sail Battleship, so he was happy to bring someone on board to help—he was satisfied as long as he could be a prince, and he didn't care who commanded him.

Anyway, he is the admiral of the fleet, as long as the fleet wins a big victory, even if he doesn't say a word in the audience, the credit is still great.

"Are you sure, Kôtels?" Chen Shangchuan looked at Ke Tang Tan and asked.

"Yes!" Cotentan looked down.

"Good!" Chen Shangchuan said, "Then you come and help me command, give an order in my name, let go of the fight!" If we win the battle, we will win half of the credit, and we can't win. Count me in! ”

"Don't worry, you're sure to win!" Codontan laughed, "In history, any naval fleet called the Spanish Armada has never won a victory!" ”

"Breakthrough, finally breakthrough"

When the sky was completely bright, on the battleship "Our Lady of Concepción" of the first class, the Spanish admiral Zabala finally lowered his binoculars and had a smile on his face that only the victors have.

After nearly two hours of fire attack and bombardment, the assault formation composed of 20 arsonist ships, 20 fourth-class ships and 11 gunboats sent by him finally tore through the first "ship wall" of the Ming Navy after paying the price of 11 fourth-class ships with varying degrees of damage to their sails or masts, the masts of the three gunboats were all broken, and the sails of the two gunboats were seriously damaged!

Several extremely brave Dutch fourth-class battleships crashed headlong into the "ship wall" that had been ignited by fireships and arson bombs, and bravely took the lead and began to pounce on the second "ship wall" of the Ming army.

And the other fourth-class warships and gunboats of the assault formation that could still move also rushed in through the torn opening. In the first detachment, except for the flagship "Our Lady of Concepción", the other warships also puffed up their sails and rushed towards the second "ship wall" of the Ming army like a tide.

Commander of the Navy of the Dutch East India Company, Konstantin. Nobel also put down the telescope and shook his head slightly: "The defense capability of the Ming army's 'ship wall' is stronger than imagined. There were a lot of artillery, and all of them were over 12 pounders. The gunnery was also quite excellent, and the sails and masts of the ships were specially picked to fight the arsonists, and a total of seventeen ships had damaged masts and sails, which had to be repaired urgently after the battle, otherwise it was likely that even Batavia would not be able to return. Excellency. It seems that the losses in this battle will not be too small! ”

Admiral Sabala smiled slightly: "It's worth it!" Now is the critical moment of the war of New Spain. The Aztec Republic is attacking the Mexica Valley, and once the Mexica Valley is captured, then the whole of New Spain may be swept away by the Republican Revolution! This will be devastating to the Kingdom of Spain!

Therefore, now the supremacy of the Pacific Ocean must be fought for, and no matter what."

He and Konstantin. As Nobel spoke, the warships and gunboats of Spain, the Netherlands, and England, which were in a chaotic formation, had already pounced on the second "ship wall" of the Ming army. The second "ship wall" of the Ming army was a straight line centered on the Liaodong and spread out in the northeast and southwest directions, and all the warships met the enemy on the starboard side, while the guns on the port side were unloaded and ambushed near the mouth of the Khan River, hiding in a meadow on the shore.

And when the ships of Spain, the Netherlands, and England rushed up, they all turned their bows towards the flanks of the Ming army's "ship wall", which means that they gave the Ming army's "ship wall" a comfortable T-shaped position.

The gunners on these Ming ships that formed the "ship wall" that occupied the T-shaped position were all crazy at this time, and they were loading and aiming and firing, and the shells rained down on the ships of Spain, the Netherlands, and England that met the enemy. It was the kind of two small iron balls that were tied to an iron chain, and after the gas released by the gunpowder burst out of the barrel, they flew in circles towards the sails and masts of the ships of Spain, the Netherlands, and England!

Targets the size of sails and masts are not far away now, and of course they can be hit with their eyes closed, and for a while, the ships that rushed to the front were full of terrible "clicks" and "hisses" one after another, either the mast was discounted, or the sails were punched a big hole.

However, the momentum of these ships of Spain, the Netherlands, and England is huge, and even if the mast is broken, they have already rushed up to the "ship wall" of the Ming army with huge inertia!

The Ming army's naval guns still fired non-stop, and the targets were still sails and masts, as if they were determined to leave these Western invaders in Da Nang.

The tall masts kept falling, the huge sails were torn apart, and some chain bullets swept over the decks of battleships or gunboats, and the scene was bloody to the extreme! The chain bullet rotates and sweeps over the human body, and a bad one can cut the human body off the middle. The decks of several fourth-tier ships of the Netherlands and England rushing in front were blurred with flesh and blood, and the screams were so loud that they couldn't bear to witness!

However, the price paid on this Western warship seems to be worth it! Because they had already anchored at sea and were connected end to end with ropes, the Ming warships that formed the ship wall could not maneuver at all, so they could only be hit by it!

With a loud "click", the "ship wall" began to collide. The bows of the fourth-class ships of the Dutch, English, and Spaniards collided with the ship wall one after another, and under the huge impact force, the officers and men on the "ship wall" of the Ming army could not stabilize themselves and fell on the deck one after another.

More and more Dutch, English, and Spanish ships rushed up, and soon they were mixed up with the Ming ships that formed the ship wall!

Gang-hopping battles ensued, and naval battles soon turned into "ship battles" and hand-to-hand combat. Bullets flew sideways, grenades exploded, crashing into the decks of ships on both sides, and short-barreled guns specializing in shotguns were fired one after another, as if there was no time to pause.

On the surface of the sea, all kinds of shouts and roars were mixed together, and the mountains were like a tsunami. A large number of Spanish, Dutch, and English "deck infantry" armed with flintlock pistols and various cold weapons continued to pour into the ships of the Ming army.

A decisive battle between "tall" sail battleships at the end of the good end is just like this, and a meat grinding battle is fought in this way!

Seeing that the ships of both sides on the sea collided and mixed together like this, Zhu Qicannon, who was standing on the fortress at the mouth of the Khan River, couldn't wait to raise his knife and go into battle to cut people!

However, Yu Qilin was calm, as if everything was expected by him. I saw him turn around and order to a gunners who had come down from the Liaodong: "Open the cannon, shoot the arson!" ”

"Yes!"

The gunnery raised a red flag and waved it vigorously.

On the shore below the fortress, in the tall grass, on the various hidden gun emplacements, more than a hundred (there are dozens of guns on the Chashan Peninsula opposite) 18 and 28 kg cannons moved down from the battleship spat out fire almost simultaneously!

These cannons fired hot arson-fired bombs - solid iron balls were burned hot, then padded with a wooden plank, stuffed into the barrels, and then blasted into the Spanish, Dutch, and English warships crowded on the sea!

The guns placed on the shore were not far from the battleships crowded on the sea, and the accuracy of the shore guns was not comparable to that of naval guns.

Thus, after a few volleys, there was already a crimson fire on the surface of the sea on two Dutch and English fourth-rank battleships.

Admiral Zabala saw this scene from afar, and the telescope in his hand was about to be shocked!

"Arson!" Admiral Zabala said incredulously, "They actually huddled together despite the warships of both sides...... How could someone use an arson bomb in such a situation?

Could it be that the Chinese admirals want to burn all the ships on the sea indiscriminately?

But there's also a first-class battleship! ”

It's unthinkable! The Spaniards tossed for more than ten years in order to build a first-class battleship!

The first-class battleship built is like a treasure, and under normal circumstances, it is reluctant to take it out and use it.

And Chinese don't seem to value their first class battleships...... It doesn't matter if you burn it!

What kind of national strength is this? How could the Kingdom of Spain defeat such an enemy?

"Admiral," the naval commander of the Dutch East India Company reminded bitterly, "I don't think they really care about a first-class battleship!"

They have a full 40 large dry docks...... Much more than the number of large dry docks owned by the whole of Europe! They're so rich! ”

"So, what do we do?" Admiral Zabala didn't even know what to think.

By the time he joined the Spanish Navy, the Kingdom of Spain had already gone bankrupt several times. Therefore, the funds allocated to the navy are all searched and picked, and I never dared to imagine the good things that the first-class, second-class, and third-class warships could build casually......

And now, he actually met such an enemy with "money ability"!

"I don't know......" Konstantin. It was also the first time that Nobel had encountered such a tactic, "They had just deliberately hit our sails and masts, and they calculated that we would get mixed up with their walls...... After all, it is more cost-effective to capture a battleship than to sink one!

Obviously, they deliberately wanted to use their fleet and ours to doom together......"

Where is this war, it's just burning money!

Admiral Sabala was a little desperate...... The Kingdom of Spain owes so many debts, and they are all foreign debts!

How is it possible to defeat an enemy who is not afraid to burn money?

Just as he watched his and his opponent's warships fall into flames one by one, he was helpless. Worse news is coming!

"Admiral...... Rocket! The second detachment hit a rocket for help! ”

Hearing the shouts of the staff officer, Admiral Sabala turned his head to look at the eastern sky, and sure enough, there were clumps of fire from rockets!

(End of chapter)