Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 499: The Final Chapter of the Sail (Part 2)
The commander of the second-tier battleship line of the Spanish fleet was a Portuguese named Pinto. This was the embodiment of the great European unity that Philip had always advocated in naval personnel.
However, although they are united, the commander's style has changed.
Unlike the Duke of Alva and Viscount Alfonso who liked to lead troops to fight tough battles, although both Portugal and Spain were maritime powers, due to the gap in national strength and population, the Portuguese rarely assembled hundreds of warships when they traveled across the oceans in the 15th and 16th centuries. Most of the time, they were small fleets consisting of several warships, and when they arrived in a backward civilization, they rarely launched large-scale wars. They all tried to get a point in the local area and then built this point into their own transit port and trading place.
Because of this historical heritage, when Pinto was appointed commander of the squadron, he adopted a very safe combat method.
"Very good. The Chinese in the bay must be unloading at this moment, so the warships outside the harbor cannot move. Pass the order, our 60 warships, form a line, advance one by one to bombard the enemy warships. After that, each ship will follow the flagship's turn and continue to fire at the enemy with the other side's guns."
"Your Mightiness?"
"Any questions?"
"The mouth of this bay is very narrow, and thirty warships can basically completely block it. Therefore, should we arrange our sixty warships into two rows of thirty ships each, with the two rows of warships moving closely and parallel to each other, with a staggered position between the two rows. In this way, all our warships can fire at full power. If we line up in a single row, then during the battle, at least twenty or more warships will have their firepower idle."
"Oh, no, this is asking too much of our captain. If we are not careful, it may lead to accidental injuries."
"Your Excellency, His Majesty's soldiers can do this!"
"No, no, no, if we do this, our first row of warships will have to get close to the enemy and shoot, which will allow the enemy's second row of warships to also play a role."
"Sir, as long as we control the distance accurately, the enemy's second row of warships will not be able to hit us."
"..." After thinking carefully for a while, Pinto shook his head and said, "No, the expeditionary fleet is in a very bad situation right now. I can't guarantee that the expeditionary fleet and the Philippine fleet can cooperate so perfectly. I can't take risks with His Majesty the King's precious fleet."
"Your Mightiness!"
"Follow my orders!"
"……yes."
After a brief dispute, the fleet still carried out Pinto's order. In this way, it was equivalent to each Spanish second-class warship passing in front of the thirty second-class warships of Zheng Wei's detachment. In this process, each Spanish warship would be bombarded by the thirty Ming warships in turn.
But on the other hand, for each Ming warship, there were sixty enemy ships passing in front of it in turn, and it had to accept the bombardment of these sixty warships in turn.
The cautious Portuguese accurately set the flagship's route on a parallel line about 500 meters away from the Ming Zheng Wei Detachment. At this distance, the hit rate of the artillery fire from both sides would not be too high, but it would be there. And the Du Youning Detachment behind the Zheng Wei Detachment, no matter how close they were to the Zheng Wei Detachment and how well they were misaligned, in order to avoid accidental injuries, they could only exert 10% of their 100% firepower at most.
So, this was a battle of 60 warships against 30 warships. The only regret was that during the battle, only 30 or 40 of the 60 Spanish warships could play a role, and the firepower of the warships at the head and tail of the team was also idle.
"The bandits are charging towards us. Huh? Why is the commander of this western bandit so timid? I thought they would charge towards us in two lines in order to fully utilize their firepower. Hahaha, it seems that our chances of survival are much greater today. Pass the order, fire!"
At 11:30 a.m. on November 27, the Chongqing, which was guarding the entrance of Manila Bay, fired the first shot, and the battle for the entrance of Manila Bay officially began.
In the first thirty minutes of the battle, the Ming fleet had the upper hand: their warships were anchored, and although they had no mobility, their artillery hit rate was high. After the first round of mutual bombardment, although each of the thirty warships on the Ming side was greeted by sixty warships in turn, after the two sides fought like this, twenty warships on the Ming side were intact! On the Spanish side, although many warships were intact, two warships were seriously injured and withdrew directly from the battle.
However, at twelve o'clock, when the Spanish warships completed their turn and sailed from north to south again, the battle situation between the two sides began to reverse.
There was no other reason. On the one hand, it was thirty to sixty, and because the Ming army was anchored, it could only face the enemy on one side - it was always that side that was hit. But the Spanish could maneuver and turn. Last time they fought on the port side, and the next time they fought on the starboard side. In this way, even if both sides were hit by four or five cannons, the Ming army could only take the hit on one side, while the Spanish could take the hit on both sides.
As the war continued, this situation became more and more obvious. Gradually, more and more Ming warships suffered varying degrees of damage. The worst-hit ships had half of their sides smashed to pieces. Thick smoke billowed from the hulls, and the broken limbs, large amounts of blood, and screams in some corners made the fleet's commander, Zheng Wei, heartbroken.
"Captain, we are exhausted. Why don't we signal Captain Du and his men to come up?"
"Nonsense! How can a man say no?" Zheng Wei's forehead had been scraped off by a piece of wood shavings. Although his right chest was wrapped in thick gauze, the wound under the gauze was still slowly oozing blood. Even so, he still had the leisure to make a joke: "Is this ship damaged in battle?"
"The port side was hit by more than 30 shells in total. Seven of the 20 gun positions have been knocked out, and six of the remaining 13 were actually seriously damaged. Although these six gun positions are gone, the guns are still there, and we can continue to fight. In addition, we were hit by more than 10 shells on the deck. Currently, more than 70 of the 200 brothers on the ship have been killed, and almost everyone else is injured."
"What is the damage in this column?"
"Three ships were completely destroyed, five were on fire and could not be salvaged. The rest of the ships were all damaged."
"Where are the enemy troops?"
"I'm ashamed. I just counted the enemy ships that passed by our ship. There should be more than fifty of them."
"Damn it, ouch!" He slapped the railing hard, causing the wound to tug and he screamed again. Then he raised his left hand and said, "It's 2:30 in the afternoon. We've only been holding on for three hours and this is what's happening?"
"Captain, we are facing the enemy from a single side and cannot maneuver at all! Moreover, the enemy ships outnumber us by a full two times!"
"Well, just be happy. If the enemy ships were arranged in two close rows and kept a good distance between them, we would have all reported to the Martyrs' Shrine by now, and we wouldn't have had the chance to find excuses."
"...Captain, that being said, should we make way and let Captain Du and his men come up? Captain, I am not afraid of death. I want to wait for Captain Du and his men to come up, then we will raise anchor and turn to engage the enemy from the other side."
"..." After thinking for a while, Zheng Wei said, "Send a signal to inform the warships in this column that we can hold out until the next round of the enemy, and then we will go down to rest."
"Captain, this won't work! The ship is damaged in many places, and our Chongqing won't survive the next round!"
"Hey~" Zheng Wei put his hands on the railing and stroked it for a while: "This Chongqing followed me directly to America and sent me back safely. I know her resilience much better than you. Besides, I don't know that taciturn Du Youning. He is not as flexible as me. If he comes up, he will never let us fight again unless he is killed in battle. Well, no more words, just execute the order quickly. At the same time, notify Du Youning in the rear to let his battle line weigh anchor. The Spaniards are fighting from north to south this time. After the last warship of the opponent passes the middle of our battle line, let him enter the battlefield from the north side of our battle line!"
While the Spanish battleships had all passed Chongqing, Zheng Wei arranged the follow-up matters. Shortly after that, the Spanish battleships completed their turn again and approached again.
"Oh, God, are these Chinese stupid or foolish? Why don't they call their friendly forces to replace them when the battle has become so serious? Tsk, never mind. Such a stupid commander just relieves our pressure. Pass the order, the warships in this column continue to follow the flagship and fire one by one."
Following Pinto's order, the Spanish warships took up their battle positions one after another and began to fire at the already damaged Ming warships again.
"Brothers, the thieves are coming again! Hang in there, hold on a little longer. Once this round is over, we can go down and rest."
"Boom boom~" A Spanish warship sailed past the Chongqing, and twenty shells whizzed in unison. Finally, three shells fell on the Chongqing. The already damaged left side of the Chongqing was hit hard again, and another gun position was knocked out.
After the enemy ship passed, another warship came over, and then another, each of which added new wounds to the already wounded Chongqing. The Chongqing had fewer and fewer guns that could fire from the twenty gun positions on its port side.
At 3:05 pm, when the 52nd and last ship in the Spanish battleship passed Chongqing, the completely damaged port side had completely lost all its defense capabilities. The shells fired by the Spanish battleship penetrated the hull of Chongqing without any hindrance and directly hit the Chongqing's ammunition depot!
"Boom~" A violent explosion sounded, and then the entire Chongqing was like being lifted up from the water by a giant hand, and then forcibly pressed back from the air by another giant hand. In the process of being lifted up and falling heavily, the scarred Chongqing could no longer hold on. Amid the huge explosion and the constantly flashing flames, this meritorious ship, which ranked among the top three among the many sailing warships of the Ming army because of its actual voyage to and from the American continent, completely disintegrated!
