Wanli Xinming

Chapter 386 The First Battle
On June 15th of the [-]th year of Wanli, the Spanish authorities in Manila fired the first shot at the Ming Dynasty's sealed fleet entering Manila Bay.

It should be said that from Xiao Chongye and Xie Jie down, including the lowest-level navy soldiers, they were completely unprepared for the fact that Manila's "pilot ship" suddenly fired on them.

After the establishment of the Ming Navy, he and Ling Yunyi went to Japan for an armed parade, and fired two cannons on the small sampan of the Kagawa family in the Bungo waterway. In addition, they have not experienced a real naval battle for many years.Despite doing some pirate clearance and assisting customs enforcement over the years, he has never come face-to-face with an enemy ship—none of the pirates dared to fight the Navy's hard steel.

As for the warships defending the harbour, they did not encounter the situation of warships from other countries rushing in.First, there is no such a strong navy around Daming; secondly, there must be a fort in Daming where the port was built. Before the navy was dispatched, the sound of the gun on the fort was enough to make the most unruly "marine merchants" obedient. follow the guidance of the pilot ship.

From the beginning of the army, this navy had little perceptual understanding of serious naval battles, and almost all of its combat skills came from exercises.

They haven't experienced the baptism of blood and fire, so they can't forge the habit of the nine frontier veterans; at the same time, because the treatment is higher than that of the frontier soldiers, they don't have much desire to fight; what's more, they are in Manila at this time. The wide ocean at the entrance of the bay has neither a military port nor a fort, and the fleet never imagined that they would be attacked by a small "pilot ship".

Yes, that "small boat" of less than [-] pieces was regarded as a pilot ship by the Daming Ship Blocking Fleet.Although they were still close to a day's sea journey from the port of Manila, the "pilot ship" appeared too early.But in the consciousness of the people on and off the fleet, the upper country of China is coming to the lower country, and the barbarians - it is also appropriate to go out to greet and pilot it early.

But a cannon shot from the St. John shattered their self-indulgent dreams and stunned everyone.Although it is unclear why the ship attacked the blocked fleet, years of exercises have not been in vain.With a few sharp shouts, a dull drum sounded from the Shandong, bang!boom!boom!
With the sound of the drums, Captain Rodriguez of the St. John saw hundreds of riggings on the Daming Fubo being pulled by a very complicated operation, and the sails on the huge mast turned slowly. The bow of the huge warship turned to its left, making a "non-hostile" expression.

The beard at the corner of Rodriguez's mouth was upturned, and he saw that, as he expected, the Seris were like sheep.

Their compatriots living on the north bank of the Passi River had long told themselves that the Seris were born with a weak character, and despite having more force than the colonists, a herd of sheep would not dare to rebel against a lone wolf.

The Fubo continued to turn to the left, and the sailors on board jumped on the rope-strewn deck, waving their arms and gesturing.Rodriguez seemed to hear their exasperated cries, and his handsome mustache grew taller.

He raised his arm, held in front of his eyes the monocular that the Sirius merchant sold him at a high price, and looked at the Fubo ship with a smile.Immediately, his smile froze.He took down the binoculars and shook his head, as if to throw the picture he just saw out of his mind.

He let out a long breath, and resolutely placed the telescope on the other eye, holding his breath and looking at it carefully for a while.Well, you can't be wrong, the starboard side of the huge ship is densely packed with square portholes, and each porthole has a thick, black-hole artillery.

"Dios mío! Dios mío!" His voice suddenly rose an octave, as sharp as the castrato of the chant class.After continuously calling out to my God, the cold fear gripped Rodriguez's heart, preventing him from giving any orders to his ship.

Because of the downwind, the St. John was like a moth flying into a fire, slamming into the death barrage.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom boom!" First, the school shot.Then again, it was still a school shot.Then, continuous white smoke rose from the starboard side of Shandong, and a dense sound of thunder sounded on the open ocean.

The St. John is a typical "Karak-type sailboat", and its bow and stern are very high, which is helpful for lookout and jumping; It has a lot of power, allowing it to travel extremely fast when the wind is down.

Now these features have become its nightmare. The huge bow is almost at the same level as the gun muzzle on the third deck of the Shandong, which makes the gunner behind the gun window almost no need to calculate when aiming.At the same time, the extremely fast tailwind speed made the ship rapidly enlarge in the eyes of the gunner, thus saving a lot of shells.

When the St. John was ten feet from the stern of the Shandong, all that was left on the deck were some horrific stumps and broken arms.The huge bow and four masts have completely disappeared, making the Karak look like an enlarged sailless ship.

But the flying iron ball still did not let it go, like a giant's fist continuing to strike on the few remaining hulls, making the sawdust and riddled warship continue to crackle and crack.

In the era of sailing warfare, it was very difficult for an unexploded solid iron ball to sink an enemy ship, because water was 800 times heavier than air, and the kinetic energy of the circular shells attenuated rapidly after flying over a few hundred meters, making it difficult to penetrate the hull below the waterline. make it lose its buoyancy.

But the St. John was fortunate enough to encounter the fleet battle line of this plane for the first time.As the Shandong passed to her left, the huge blockage followed, followed by two other Fubo ships.

They draw a straight track on the left side of the St. John in the direction of about 35 degrees west of due north in Manila Bay, as if they were inspected by Mr. Rodriguez, who was called by the Lord.

As the four giant ships sailed past, the only remaining hull of the St. John was first fragmented and became a pile of broken wood chips floating at sea; as the waves rolled, the pile of wood chips gradually dispersed, and finally disappeared in the white sea surface. in the bubble.

The unknowable St. John disappeared, as if it had never existed in this world without a trace.Except for the few survivors who were floating and sinking on the sea holding wooden boards, and crying heartbroken, no Spaniard knew what had just happened.

The luck of these few guys who survived the bullet rain ended here, because the enraged blocking fleet even forgot to salvage them to ask for confessions.The proud envoy of Ming Dynasty couldn't tolerate the offense just now—under Xiao Chongye's repeated urging, the ship-sealing fleet didn't delay for a minute, directly adjusted the sail and course, and headed straight for Manila City aggressively.

(End of this chapter)