"Your Excellency, Lieutenant General, the enemy has divided his forces!"

on board the New Spain.

Captain Silva had been observing the enemy's movements with a telescope.

"Is that the Steam Ironclad? It is also not known whether the Madrid side has plans to start building such ships. ”

Silva said.

The shape of the six iron ships that catches your eye is really a bit strange.

There are no sails.

Only chimneys.

Black smoke is being spewed.

"It doesn't seem like there are a lot of cannons, and the caliber is not large?"

"It's supposed to be an auxiliary ship, right? Those twelve hybrid ships are the main force? ”

On board, several Spanish officers were talking.

"Their hybrid ship is heading for the Ryukyus, so it looks like it's going to land, right?" Valeriano said. "Ignore them, pass the order, if the victory is not decided before dark, the formation will be disbanded and retreated, and we will go to Hawaii to rendezvous!"

Boom Boom!

The first to fire the cannon was the fleet of the Spaniards.

They lined up in a straight line, turning the ship sideways, and hundreds of huge cannons blasted out a horrific barrage.

The Spanish fleet fired solid shells first.

Because the wooden bullet cannot withstand much bore pressure, the range is not as far as that of a solid bullet.

But actually.

The purpose of firing shells in this way is only to harass and control the course of the opponent, and it is impossible for their artillery to hit such a long distance.

What these Spaniards don't know is,.

The six ironclads were simply not capable of dealing with their old smoothbore guns.

The Ming fleet was in fact invincible.

"They have fewer cannons, no more than a hundred, and we have more than a thousand cannons, and the number is ten to one!" Maloska said.

According to his experience in naval warfare, the ultimate competition in naval warfare is artillery.

Number, range.

This is the most important thing.

Numerically, the Spanish fleet had an absolute advantage.

At range.

Until now, the Ming fleet had not yet begun to open fire, indicating that the range of their small-caliber guns was far inferior to that of the Spanish 32-pounder naval guns.

These two facts gave the old-school admiral Maloska some confidence.

Not to mention.

The Ming army also divided its troops without numerical superiority.

Now it was twenty-four Spanish battleships against six Ming ironclads.

24:6

The advantage is in me.

"We can destroy them!" Valeriano said, "As long as we can win a naval battle, we can negotiate terms with the Chinese, they are a land people after all, and the sea will not belong to them!" ”

"Muto blossom bomb ready!!"

Vice Admiral Maloska, who was in charge, suddenly raised his voice.

His eyes looked at the approaching Ming fleet.

The palms of the hands began to sweat.

It was a battle against an enemy and a warship that had never been fought before, and the fear of this strangeness made the Spanish admiral a little nervous.

We're the top of the pack every way!

Maloska said this sentence almost through gritted teeth in her heart.

What he didn't know was.

The British Eastern Fleet had been completely destroyed, and the Britons did not tell their allies the real reason for the demise of the British Eastern Fleet.

Therefore.

The Spaniards had absolutely no idea how powerful the ironclad was!

By this time, the wind on the sea had almost stopped.

For the Spanish fleet, which relied on sails for power, they also had to fight - or they would not be able to run.

As the sun gradually recedes to the west.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon.

The fleets of both sides encountered thirty nautical miles northwest of the island of Ryukyu Oshima.

The two sides were moving in the opposite direction, the Spanish fleet was lined up in a neat column, the waterproof doors of the gun compartments on both sides of the ship had been opened, and a large cannon was pushed out, and the muzzles of the black hole pointed at the six Ming ironclad ships.

"We have 708 guns on our side, and the guns they can point at us are only thirty-six turrets, 108 guns!!"

at this distance.

Maloska clearly saw the six rotating turrets on the foredeck of the Ming ironclad two nautical miles away.

The gun was made into a turret and mounted on the foredeck, and the firing range was wider, but what was the point? Artillery still depends on quantity!

Maloska thought.

"Herald, turret aiming! The enemy ship is two nautical miles away! Cai Lian's voice was transmitted to every warship through the command system.

"Songjiang and Hangzhou attacked the left of the enemy column, Xuzhou and Jinan attacked the right of the enemy column, and Dalian and Qingdao aimed at the belly of the enemy column! Ben is going to give them a head and a tail, and the middle blooms!! ”

Cai Lian's heart is hot.

This is a great achievement delivered to the door.

These Spaniards are so stupid that they dare to really face the ironclad head-on!

"General, in this formation of the Spanish fleet, all the pressure will be on the Matsue, do you need to let the Matsue maneuver to dodge?"

Wei Licheng, the captain of the Xuzhou on the side, said loudly.

"Not necessarily! Now the Songjiang is going to make a great contribution! Cai said, "With the firepower of the Songjiang, it is enough to sink these more than 20 wooden-hulled ships!" ”

"Send an order to the Songjiang, the Ming Navy, I am invincible!"

The first to lead the attack on the Songjiang and Hangzhou was Zheng Xiaoyi, the first mate of the fleet.

He now operates the ship himself!

Excitement on his face.

Now the opponent's fleet is in front of him, and this credit is almost picked up!

"Closer, closer!"

Zheng Xiaoyi muttered.

He knew the protective power of the ironclad.

With steel armor of this thickness, it is simply impossible for the opponent to penetrate it.

So. At this distance, it is already impossible for the other party to run.

But he still wanted to be able to fire again when he got closer.

Because the closer the distance, the greater the advantage of the ironclad.

The sturdy bow can even break the opponent's wooden-hulled battleship!

On the Spanish fleet.

The hymn of Catholicism sounded.

These Catholics sang the praises of God and the King of Spain.

Military music sang in unison.

The soldiers saluted with their guns raised.

The signal for an all-out war is officially launched.

The sailors of the New Spanish fleet, who had been hiding in the western Pacific for more than a year, had been looking forward to this battle for a long time.

Unlike high-level leaders like Maloska.

On the one hand, these Spanish sailors did not know what happened to the British.

On the other hand, they are full of confidence in defeating the Chinese on the ocean.

The sea once belonged to Spain.

They were the first countries to colonize the world.

When the military music is gone.

Maloska found that the Ming Dynasty's ironclad ship was still bowed to meet the enemy.

"The benefits of installing a gun in the bow also include the ability to reduce the bombing surface."

Maloska thought.

But by this time he was already confident in this battle, because the Spanish fleet had already seized advantageous firing positions.

Four of the Chinese's ironclad ships were blocked behind the other two, and the firepower could not be carried out for the time being. In front of the enemy, there are only two ironclad ships!

(End of chapter)