When General Cavis, the commander of the Philippine Fleet, learned from the cavalry that a huge fleet was advancing towards the port of Zamboanga, he immediately issued two orders: one was to raise sails and set sail, leave the port and sail westward into the Sulu Sea, then turn back to the northwest and enter the depths of the Sulu Sea, and the other was to send a notice ship to Hele Port to inform the fleet there to be prepared.

On the last morning of February, the fleet of Cavies was assembled. At this time, the notification ship that contacted the large fleet arrived. Cavies received more detailed information. In addition to the size of the large fleet, the most important thing was that the fleet belonged to the new enemy of the Philippines, the Eastern Federation, rather than the old rival of the Dutch in the Governor's District. He thought it was the Dutch fleet at first.

However, the strength of the enemy fleet has accelerated the departure of Chavez, and even some necessary supplies are not carried. The reason for this is because of the special terrain of the port of Zamboanga.

At this time, important ports generally choose natural bays, one to avoid storms, and the other to set up a fort to block the waterway. When they lose, they can rely on the fort to fight against the enemy's fleet and wait for rescue.

But Zamboanga does not have this condition. This port is located at the end of the peninsula. There was no port originally, but it was just Pilar Fortress. This fortress blocked the northbound waterways of the Sulu and Labradors. The usual fleet was only small in size and was only a supporting defense fortress. However, the Sulu people just defeated the Sulu people last year, but the Labradors often attacked. These pirates often attacked the routes to Manila in the north. Only then did a Zamboanga fleet dominated by two medium-sized Galen ships, San Jose, St. Augustine, and Galicia and Cruise. In addition to these ships, there were two notification ships.

Pilar Fortress now has 400 Spanish soldiers and thousands of indigenous troops. It is as solid as a matter of fact. Cavies is not worried about the safety of the fortress. Cavies judged from the beginning that his fleet was the enemy's target, and the Zamboanga Fleet has an inherent flaw, that is, it is too slow, because the fleet temporarily arranged a Manila Sailor Santa Clara. Although this sailing ship was renovated before fighting against the Dutch fleet last year, it temporarily modified a layer of artillery deck, which made the number of cannons reach the level of 70, and became the strongest existence of the Zamboanga Fleet, but the degree was also slow and terrifying.

The Santa Clara belongs to the Manila fleet. This time, as a troop carrier, it supplemented the Pilar Fortress and accidentally joined the naval battle.

After the Zamboanga fleet left the port, it immediately arranged the battle line with the flagship San Jose, and then headed northwest into the depths of the Sulu Sea. At nine o'clock in the morning, the Grand Fleet of the Society established visual contact with the Zamboanga fleet. However, the course of the Grand Fleet was to the southwest and was preparing to reach the Zamboanga Port. After confirming the identity of the enemy fleet, the White Shark immediately turned and maintained the same course as the Zamboanga fleet.

The course is maintained, and the voyage is confirmed to be four and two-thirds of the voyage, while the Samboyan fleet is barely reaching four quarters, with the two sides being about five nautical miles apart, which means it takes nine hours to enter the battle line to fight. The pace of naval battle in this era is so slow, so every fleet commander is famously patient. Li Mingxun controls the course of the fleet. If he continues like this, nine hours later, the large fleet will appear one nautical mile north of the Samboyan fleet and occupy the upper hand.

But Li Mingxun knew that the course would not be maintained like this. The reason is very simple. Even though the Spanish fleet had one more Manila sailing ship than expected, it was not the opponent of the large fleet. Not to mention that its squadron strength was far inferior to that of the large fleet, even in the main fleet, the two medium-sized Garen ships were huge shortcomings.

Li Mingxun predicted that the commander of the enemy fleet sailed in this way just to delay time. He finally went to Hele Port, met with the fleet there, and fought again. At 2:10 in the afternoon, the flagship White Shark caught up with the enemy fleet defender Santa Clara. The White Shark's artillery deck began to fire, using chain bombs, aiming to destroy the enemy sailing equipment. Because the White Shark is faster, the artillery must be adjusted continuously, and the sailors must use crowbars to adjust the direction of two and a half tons of cannons, so the shooting efficiency is very low, and it can only take one round in five minutes, but the effect is very good. The Santa Clara's rear mast sail was torn apart, and the tall stern tower was beaten into a mess.

At 2:30, Cavius ​​ordered the turn, and the course shifted from three northwest to two southwest to two southwest, pointing directly to Hele Port, the ship

The team gained an advantage.

Since the founding of the Navy of the Society, it has always focused on improving technology. Every time a new ship is launched, it is a fast leap in technology. With the guidance of Li Mingxun, a time traveler, the technology improvement of the Society can always avoid detours. The Society's shipbuilding technology has no technical advantages as that of the current navigator. It is even far inferior to that of the well-known shipyards in Europe in the use of machinery, but it has great advantages in ship design and construction.

Among the main battleships of the society, the Tiger Shark and the Shark were large Garen ships transformed from Spain. The transformation was not thorough. They only removed the hindrance forecastle, sawed off some of the sterns, and canceled some of the bow guns and stern guns, which increased navigation performance. However, in the manufacturing of new ships, it has exceeded this era for at least thirty years. The forecastle was removed, the direct artillery deck was adopted, the gun caliber was standardized, and the aspect ratio of the White Shark, the Bruce Whale and the Orcas had already met the concept of battleships that appeared in the late 17th century. Of course, the gap was still very large compared with the real battleship ships of the eighteenth century, but it can be said that it has entered the era of pre-battleships.

The most commendable transformation among the community ships is sailing equipment. While warships and merchant ships in this era were still exploring the support of sails, all the community ships had been assembled on a large scale, and the area of ​​sailing equipment was much larger than that of the Garen ship. The result was that due to the increase of the "air rudder", the steering performance of the community's main battleship was far better than that of the Spanish warships. The Spanish warships were originally in a poor turn, especially the Santa Clara, which was at the rear guard. The middle and rear masts and rear masts of its four masts were damaged, and the steering was even more clumsy. Therefore, the steering angle of the Zamboanga fleet was extremely large, while the large fleet obtained a smaller steering angle.

The large fleet began to turn with the flagship White Shark. The White Shark first deviated slightly northward, avoiding the Santa Clara on the steering route, and then deflecting south at the maximum steering angle.

Two "mirror Arabic numerals 7" were formed on the sea (that is, the one of 7 is facing the other side). The most unlucky thing to turn in this way is the Santa Clara, the frigate of Zamboanga. Because it wants to turn with the flagship, the track coincides with the flagship. When the ship in front begins to move south, it is still heading west, and the large fleet behind the butt is equivalent to cutting the tail of the Zamboanga fleet. Therefore, the White Shark and Orcas that completed the steering can seize the gap and complete a starboard volley on Santa Clara.

The White Shark performed poorly because the sailors consumed too much physical strength in the front shelling, and the volley was a bit messy. The Orca, which was prepared for a long time, fired a beautiful volley and hit four Santa Clara's shells. Considering that this was a high roll steering, the hit rate was already very high.

At three o'clock, the steering was completed, and the large fleet that successfully cut the inner corner was almost pulled into the distance from the Zamboanga fleet, and successfully occupied the upper hand.

After the steering was completed, the wind blew from the rear port side. After completing the wind swap, the two fleets' utilization of the wind increased a lot, and the degree of the large fleet spent five quarters, thus opening up the relative distance from the Zamboanga fleet. This sailed in order to avoid artillery battles between the two sides before forming a battle line. Li Mingxun chose to be safe because he did not want to lose too much sail, after all, this was in a hostile sea area.

Half an hour later, the White Shark finally moved in unison with the enemy flagship San Jose. The two sides had a sideways apart one kilometer. At this distance, the artillery of any warship had no accurate head and might not be able to penetrate the bulwarks. The next step was to get close to the enemy ship and enter the effective shooting distance (about 400 meters). However, this process was that whoever took the initiative would be unlucky, because getting close to the enemy ship would cause the artillery to lose its shooting angle, while the artillery of the enemy ship could be continuously fired.

Obviously, Chavez, who was determined to escape, would not choose to get close, while Li Mingxun chose to take the initiative. After all, this is Sulu Sea, and Hele Port is only 80 nautical miles away from Zamboanga. It is a one-day voyage, which means that Li Mingxun must defeat the Zamboanga fleet in one day, otherwise he will encounter support from enemy ships.

Li Mingxun did not hesitate and quickly raised the signal flag and chose to approach the enemy fleet in an oblique array, and it was a front oblique array. This array was made from the frigate to the enemy. The last one of the White Shark flagships in the guide ship were to catch the enemy. This is an extremely complex tactic. The club practiced countless times for this. It has many benefits. Even if the frigate Shark is defeated during the sticking process, it will not affect the front ship. If the White Shark is the first one, it will be

Once the enemy ship is destroyed by the volley firepower, the entire battle line will collapse. However, the disadvantage of this tactic is very obvious. In addition to the complexity of the requirements for the crew's quality, the biggest disadvantage is that it consumes time.

After four o'clock, the defender Shark successfully completed the turn after two rounds of vertical shooting, and fired a volley at Santa Clara, followed by the Tiger Shark, followed by the Falcon, Orca, and finally the flagship White Shark.

When the Santa Clara fired the first round of artillery against the defender Shark, Li Mingxun said to the people around him: "The navigation log is as follows: On February 28, 17th year of Chongzhen, at about four o'clock, the large fleet contacted the enemy's firepower. God blessed you, and you will be brave. This will surely be a glorious and great victory!"

At 4:20 pm, the Grand Fleet and the Zamboanga Fleet officially formed a battle line. Both sides had five ships, fighting each other, both of which were flagships in front. The White Sharks were against the San Jose. Both of them were heavy gunboats of 800 tons. The lower gun deck was equipped with 24-pound Kofilin guns, and the upper gun deck was equipped with 18-pound cannons. The firepower level was the same, but the San Jose had more guns, which had fifty-six guns, which were ten more than the White Sharks. But this was not a big deal. The reason was very simple. The number of main gun decks on both sides was the same, and the cannons were on the light deck on the stern of the San Jose ship. The two ships were evenly matched.

The second ship Orca, the third ship, the third ship, and the fourth ship Tiger Shark have an advantage over the enemy ships, especially the third and fourth ships. Orca, more than 300 tons heavier than its opponent, St. Augustine, theoretically, six artillery pieces were produced, but the actual combat power was very different. The reason is very simple. The battle line is 400 meters to fight, and the St. Austin only has twenty-two eighteen-pound and twenty-four-pound cannons that can penetrate the opponent. The bow and stern cannons have no effect at all. The three six-pound cannons on the light deck are just scratching the surface.

The advantages of the Fleece Whale and the Tiger Shark are even greater. Their opponent is the medium-sized Garen battleship. The two ships have a displacement of about 450 tons and have thirty-six guns, of which there are only sixteen side guns, which are far inferior to the twenty-six and twenty-two of the Fleece Whale and the Tiger Shark. Moreover, their guns are a combination of twelve and eight pounds, and even six-pound guns, three-pound guns, and four hundred meters of active shooting. In fact, the guns are 8 to 26 and 8 to 22.

The large fleet is located at a disadvantage in the No. 5 frigate, the Sherlock Shark. This ship has the same firepower as the enemy flagship, but its opponent is a big guy. The Santa Clara Sailing Ship with a displacement of over 1,500 tons. This sailing ship originally had more than 40 artillery pieces. Last year, it happened to be siege of Zamboanga from the Americas. It was transformed in Guam. It temporarily set up a gun deck in the cargo hold, equipped with thirty artillery pieces, and leaped over the Shark. But because it was

The temporary modification, even if the support elbow is reinforced in the later stage, it is difficult to carry heavy artillery under the high center of gravity. The artillery deck uses twelve-pound cannons, eight-pound cannons used for the open air deck and the light deck of the bow and stern of the ship. Although the firepower is not strong, there are thirty-four side guns on the one side, while the Shark is only twenty. The Shark is shot in a mess for a while and there are not many shells penetrated, but the masts, sail ropes, and horizontal Heng are knocked down, and the sailors on the open air deck are seriously injured.

On the vast sea surface of Sulu Sea, two fleets attacked each other. For a moment, gunfire was like a dragon, and gunfire rumbling. Rounds of vertical rays resounded endlessly, igniting countless orange flames on the blue sea.

The battle line of the main warships is not something that frigates can participate. The large fleet also has eight frigates and one Ahat supply ship, while the Zamboanga fleet only has two notification ships. In this way, the battlefield is controlled by the community, four frigates chase the enemy notification ship, and two other ships are pulled apart to guard the battlefield. The squadron commander led the two frigates to advantage in utilization, constantly cutting across the enemy's frigates, and bombarding the stern tower and rudder of the enemy ship with six-pound cannon.

The battle was very enjoyable on the battlefield, only the Gray Whale supply ship was happy. Its firepower was insufficient and it did not enter the battle line. It was too slow to catch up with the notification ship. According to the requirements of the flagship, it maintained visual contact on the port side of its own battle line and controlled the battlefield vision.

The four hundred meters of shooting can reduce the risk of the large fleet as much as possible, because knowing that if you continue to fight like this, you will definitely win, and the possibility of losing the main ship is very low. This is the safest way, but such a long shooting distance makes it difficult to quickly decide the outcome of the battle. Even the two main ships, the Bruce Whale and the Tiger Shark, have an absolute advantage.
Chapter completed!