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Chapter 1012 Intermission
In the era of sailing warships, two ships chased each other in the sea. There is a folk proverb to describe the process: it is like an old lady's foot binding, long and smelly.

Since the guns were installed on the side and had almost no left and right firing range, it was not enough to just aim and catch up, but they had to sail roughly side by side. Then once the other party turned, the gunners only had two or three rounds of firing, and in order not to widen the distance, the chasing ship had to turn and continue chasing.

When sailing at full speed, the hull rises and falls greatly. If the sea conditions are not very calm, the probability of hitting the ship that is also traveling at a high speed and rising and falling several hundred meters away is in the single digits at most.

Often, you may not be able to hit a few shells even after chasing for several hours. If you don't hit the sail ropes and the parts close to the waterline, it will not have any impact on the navigation of the ship, which is equivalent to working in vain. When it gets dark, the enemy can easily change the course and get away.

Did Hong Tao give the wrong order? No, he made the decision after comprehensive consideration. Now the British fleet has lost its combat effectiveness and is fleeing in all directions.

If the main fleet turned south and joined the squadron to attack the Spanish fleet, the remaining ships of the British fleet would be left unattended and most of them would be able to return to Europe safely.

On the other hand, the Spanish fleet was almost twice the size of the British fleet, and they still could not destroy many ships in an afternoon. If they were to flee in all directions after the explosion like the British fleet, they would also be unable to effectively pursue them once dark.

Rather than being unable to defeat both sides, it is better to attack the British fleet first and sink as many ships as possible. As the ancients said, it is better to break one finger than to hurt ten fingers. As long as nothing unexpected happens, this battle will greatly weaken the British's maritime strength, which will be heartbreaking and have a sufficient deterrent effect.

As for the Spaniards, before the war, Yan Bushi had made it clear that they should try to lead them to the sea area south of 40 degrees south latitude. If the Spaniards were caught by mistake, it would be considered lucky. Even if the Spaniards were not fooled, there would be no loss.

Taking advantage of the night, the main fleet and the squadron will head towards the rendezvous point further north, and will continue to search the nearby waters after daybreak. They may be able to find traces of the Spanish fleet heading north, and there is still a chance that they can continue to engage the Spanish fleet for a whole day.

This is the difference between a general and a commander. A general will only focus on the current battle situation and make choices, while a commander must have a comprehensive grasp of the situation and analyze the gains and losses. Sometimes he even has to combine different battlefields together to think about the results.

The ship being chased by the flagship was a three-masted queen ship with a displacement of about 400 tons and two gun decks. It had received almost no damage in the previous naval battle and was probably built relatively recently, so its performance was still good, so it was not easy to catch up with it.

However, the captain of this ship made an empirical mistake. He judged from the sail type that the Qin-class battleship was not good at sailing against the wind, so he chose to flee westward. As a result, he was soon caught up and was hit by at least two shells at a distance of less than 300 meters.

At this time, its captain made a second mistake, completely overturning his previous judgment and thinking that he could win with a tailwind. He then began to turn against the wind and lowered more than half of the sails.

Taking advantage of the enemy's stall, Settle commanded the flagship to approach from the stern, approaching to about 200 meters and firing three rounds of artillery fire. The effect... was really not good, only one shell hit.

But it was this cannonball that determined the fate of hundreds of sailors. The rudder of the large sailing ship was damaged by the cannonball, making it unable to adjust its direction, and it could only rely on the sails to move forward.

After several struggles and being hit by several shells, the British captain saw no hope of escape and could only order all sails to be lowered and surrender. At this time, according to European custom, the winner would send sailors to board the ship and lock all the enemies in the bottom cabin. However, the Qin-class battleships did not have enough redundancy in personnel configuration, and could not allocate enough manpower to operate a large sailing ship that was not familiar and damaged.

Should we abandon the ship? The answer from the admiral was no! Regardless of whether the enemy ship could be used as a warship, as long as we could get it back, repair it and sell it to merchants, it would be a huge income.

So they summed up a set of methods to capture enemy ships through long-term exploration, which was also very simple to implement. They asked the surrendered sailors to cut all the sails on the front and rear masts, leaving only the sails on the main mast as the power, and then return to the port together.

In this way, although two-thirds of the sails were lost, the ship could still sail, but the speed was relatively slow and the turning was not very flexible, so there was basically no possibility of escape.

If the enemy still has naval guns, it would be even easier to deal with. Just dump all the propellant on the ship into the sea, leaving behind a pile of shells and gun barrels. You can just watch without firing a single shot and there is no danger at all.

"Your Majesty, how did I perform today?"

After all this and repairing the rudder transmission system damaged by the shells, it was already dark. Looking at the starry sky, Setel knew that he would not be able to attack the Spanish fleet before dawn, so he stopped complaining and began to care about the emperor's opinion.

"The tactics are great, but whoever is on the same ship with you will have a much greater chance of getting into trouble. Remember that you are not a cavalryman, and you are not fighting alone. You have to consider the feelings of others to some extent, and don't take risks with a whole ship just to gain merit.

The fleet will still be under your command tomorrow. Think about what I said before you go to sleep at night. If you think it makes sense, make corresponding changes tomorrow. If you can overcome this hurdle, you will achieve greater success in the future. If you can't, you may just be a captain for the rest of your life."

How to answer this question? To be honest, Hong Tao doesn't like Setel's fighting style. Why fight desperately when you can crush with weapons? Even taking a little more risk is a blasphemy against technology.

But you can't ask every general to agree with your own preferences. It's not necessarily a good thing if everyone agrees with you. So in addition to speaking directly, I also gave two suggestions, or two options. You can decide which one to go with.

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"…Then I'd better be the captain! Your Majesty, will the navy build a bigger warship, like the British flagship that was damaged? If there is an 800-ton big guy with 50 guns installed, it doesn't matter if it runs slower."

Setel was obviously not the type of person who could toss and turn and think carefully. He was silent for only a few seconds before making his choice. He didn't want to change his fighting style.

However, it is not that they do not want to rely on advanced weapons to crush the enemy. On the contrary, it is more urgent. Especially after seeing that the British and Spanish have warships larger than the Han class, the demand has become more specific.

(End of this chapter)