Wanli Xinming

Chapter 385 Misjudgment
The Ming Dynasty officially called the Nanyang the South China Sea, while the coastal merchants called it Wanli Shitang.From the aerial view of the west side of Wanli Shitang, Luzon is like a broken jade pendant, occupying the core of the Western Pacific Ocean.Before entering Manila Bay, Xiao Chongye and Xie Jie kept admiring the big map. This place is truly an excellent barrier to the southeastern hinterland of the Ming Dynasty.

Xie Jie slid his finger under the big map, pointed to Manlajia and said, "My lord Liu Shouyou once conveyed the emperor's strategy, and the saying is that there is a battle between the world and the sea. Now that the imperial court has returned to Annan, if Lu Song belongs to me , then all the stone ponds in the thousands of miles will be Daming Inner Lake, and if Manlajia is taken down, China will never be in danger from the sea.”

Xiao Chongye looked around on the map and nodded in admiration.Then he pointed to the waterway marked "Xuchen Strait" in the north and asked: "This gorge seems to be closer to the capital than Manlajia."[Note 1]
Xie Jie said with a smile: "This gorge, together with the North Sea, is frozen all year round. Even when it is not frozen, there are many pieces of broken ice and icebergs, which cannot be navigated." Seeing Xiao Chongye nod in admiration, Xie Jie said with envy: "People from the west of this gorge have not yet arrived. The cartographers speculated that there must be a strait in this place, and it was once called the Yani' Gorge. The year before last, Xu Chen, who was a member of the Department of Maps of the Military Intelligence Bureau, explored and verified it. The name is also a rare honor for the Xu family—the two Beijing newspapers have reported it, and Sir Xiao may not have noticed."

Xiao Chongye shook his head with a smile and said, "I can't envy this. In such a dangerous place, this honor is at the expense of life. Having said that, "What does 'everything happened' mean? "

Xie Jie smiled wryly and said: "This Xu Chen's ancestor is like Xie Dunqi, a master boatman. He once followed the Sanbao eunuch to explore the west, and there are rumors that his family has a sea map made by his ancestors. A few years ago, he resigned from office and entered the Jin Palace. Mu, led the fleet to travel north and south, helping the princes to explore the geography, it is said that the annuity is 1 taels of silver, but I don't know if it is true or not."

When Xiao Chongye heard the words, he took a breath of the salty and wet sea breeze and looked at Xie Jie. Thousands of words seemed to burst out at the intersection of their eyes, but they fell into a strange silence.

Immediately, Xiao Chongye changed the subject and said, "The westerner's map maker's guess was quite accurate. How could he guess that there is a strait there?"

Xie Jie nodded and said yes and smiled: "It is estimated that it is based on the analysis of the ocean currents. The name of the Asian Nimon Gorge is because the people in the West call Zhongzhou Asia. Listening to Xu Yan's story, this side of the strait is leaning against me. Facing the north mountain, you can see Kuwu in the distance; on the other side of the strait, although it is icy and snowy, it does not look like a big island. "

Xiao Chongye looked at the huge sea chart, stared at it for a while, and then said: "So it seems that this universe is not very big. From the west of Daming to New Spain, it is all the sea?"

Xie Jie smiled wryly and said: "This is beyond our knowledge. Take Xu Chen as an example, if there is no other way to go north, who would know that there is a mainland on the other side of Beishan? Now there is a vast ocean, and there may be a mainland or a big island in it." , but it has not been discovered by anyone—although what Xu Chen discovered is a bitter cold place, the princes who sponsored him have already owned the right to develop mines for 70 years, and if there are gold mines and silver mines, they can still make a fortune."

The topic strangely returned to the point of "making a fortune" again. The two angels quickly talked very little, and the captain's room fell into silence.At this moment, Xie Sanmou's voice came: "Two adults, Manila Bay is here."

If Greater Luzon is like a broken jade pendant, Manila Bay is shaped like a north-facing spoon.Before Daming closed the fleet to enter Manila Bay, the general direction was southward, taking advantage of the monsoon.After entering the bell mouth of Manila Bay, the general direction turned to the north, and the speed of the ship suddenly dropped.

On both sides of that bell mouth there are lookouts from the Manila authorities.Seeing that the closed-ship fleet entered the inland waters of Manila Bay, they urgently sent a fast ship back to report.At the same time, a fast boat Zhang Fan sailed out from the pier on the shore, facing the closed ship fleet.

This time, the ship was blocked to send the envoy to Ryukyu, and it was only two days and nights voyage, so no supply ships were brought.

Therefore, there was no hostility. The four ships were blocked at the head. The other warships were all Fubo-class ships. Two were protected on the wings and one was behind.

Seeing the opposite clipper facing the closure, the fleet commander Qi Zuoguo standing on the command platform of the closure hurriedly signaled a semaphore, and the warship Shandong on the right sped forward to stop the closure - this is also what it should mean, although the closure of the ship The combat power is the strongest, but the envoy and commander are all on this ship, so they cannot face the incoming ship directly.

Shandong went out forward, the bow of the ship was facing the approaching ship, and did not show hostility towards it with its broadside - the bow gun jacket was not unbuttoned, and the broadside gun windows were not lowered.

However, Qi Zuoguo, who was dealing with foreign navies for the first time, ignored one point: the naval warfare method with broadside as the main firepower output has not been combated, and it is not the mainstream of naval warfare at this time.The main combat method of the Spanish Navy is still ramming attacks and jumping gangs. Artillery is not the main weapon, so the way to show that there is no hostility on the side is still the rule handed down from the "Lord Law" in the ninth century AD: drive to the right side of the incoming ship. , that is, the bow points to the left-hand side of the oncoming person.

What is even more speechless is that the semaphore soldiers on the Shandong Observatory still waved the flag to the opponent according to the number of domestic exercises, and played a series of semaphores-this thing was "invented" by the French more than 70 years after the original time and space. The Spaniards basically rely on roaring for sea communication unless a simple flag code is agreed in advance.

And China has long had a semaphore, "Sun Tzu's Art of War. Military and Political Chapter": "You don't hear each other, so you make a golden drum, and you don't see each other, so you make a flag." It's the Golden Drum Banner Teaching - you can't train without knowing the Golden Drum Banner.

Since the "Nanjing Daily" published the phonetic method, all Chinese characters can be expressed in 63 tones and finals. Therefore, the semaphore on the Daming Sea has evolved to express a very complete and accurate meaning, which has greatly strengthened the fleet command ability and mutual cooperation. s level.

It's a pity that the semaphore soldiers on the Fubo ship danced in a convulsive manner, all of which were made to wink for the blind.The ship on the opposite side saw that the ship from Daming had no intention of avoiding to the left side of the side, and concluded that it must be hostile.

Later historians have repeatedly studied the motivation for the Spanish ship to fire the first shot - it is impossible to verify whether it was due to the arrogance of the commander or the nervousness of the gunner.

Anyway, Qi Zuoguo at that time first saw a white smoke coming out of the other party's boat, and then heard a thunderous explosion, a black iron ball with a strange whistle, and landed in the sea in front of the Shandong.

(End of this chapter)