At the beginning of the battle, the Seventh Fleet of the Han Dynasty was already in a favorable position for the wind, and the Spaniards had to attack against the wind.▲∴▲∴, both sides adopted the most popular naval combat tactics, line artillery battles.

But the gap in strength between the two sides was too big. The Spaniards not only went against the wind, but also had far lag behind the Han army in the number of warships, artillery numbers and soldiers.

The Seventh Fleet has more than 100 warships of all sizes. Even if the Marines surrounding Manila on the shore were removed, they still had tens of thousands of navies. In particular, the number of artillery was quite astonishing, with the total number of artillery in the entire fleet reaching more than 4,000. The Spanish warships with more than fifty guns were only more than 30, and the battleships were only ten, and the total number of artillery was only 2,000.

Despite the unfavorable situation, the Spanish still came. They either were trapped in the port and died of starvation, or fought to the death. Castro was strongly committed to the war. He believed that even if the number of warships in the Han army far exceeded theirs, maritime combat was not only based on the number of command, but also on the art of command and the experience of the navy.

Facing the huge Han fleet, Castro instead divided his already weak patchwork fleet into two parts, among which thirty armed merchant ships with more than fifty guns would circle around the outside, detour to the upper level, and launch an attack from the side of the Han fleet.

He himself led ten battleships and the remaining dozen armed merchant ships with less than fifty guns directly fought head-on with the opponent's main force, and then when the wind direction changed or dusk was to be dragged, he used his huge arson fleet composed of hundreds of fast sailboats to launch a fire attack formation.

However, in this way, the mission of the ten battleships led by Castro would be very difficult. They should at least be able to entangle and withstand the attack of the Han fleet for a long time, and they should not be defeated by the Han army in one go. They would have to be dragged to the detoured fleet and dragged until dusk to facilitate the attack of the fire attack fleet.

The ten battleships were all seventy-four guns and twin guns deck warships. This was in Europe and could be regarded as the main warships. But now facing the Han army fleet, Castro was not confident.

There are six giant ships opposite, two 104 guns, three guns, and four 90 guns, three guns, and two 2 guns. These six giant ships are all flagships of the Spanish Navy fleet. Although they do not have the magnificent decorations, lack unique and beautiful bow images, and there are not so many carvings on the stern, they are so concise and clear, with blue as the main color of the red warship paint, and the black muzzles exposed in the cannon windows are full of shock.

The sea snake flag with nine heads fluttering in the wind on the mast made the fleet even more ferocious.

After the Han army fleet fired the first round of cannons more than a thousand yards away, they did not continue firing the cannons, but just pressed them down the wind.

Eight hundred digits, seven hundred digits, six hundred digits.

The Han fleet was still approaching, and this time no Spanish called the Han Empire navy a country bumpkin.

When the two armies were only four hundred yards apart, the Spanish could no longer hold back. In a tense atmosphere, the Spanish fleet flagship St. Augustine took the lead in launching a salvo on the Han fleet with starboard naval guns, opening the prelude to the Manila naval battle.

The shells that splashed like rain did not shake the Seventh Fleet at all.

"Continue to get close"

Fleet Commander Liu Yunwen showed a textbook-like naval fighting spirit. With the huge number of warships and the advantageous number of artillery, Liu Yunwen was preparing to fight bayonets with the Spanish at sea.

According to his requirements, each ship must be within 300 yards of the enemy ship before it can be allowed to fire.

Two first-class ships, four second-class ships, eight third-class ships, and sixteen fourth-class ships. These thirty giant ships with more than seventy-four guns were set a long line at sea and rushed towards the Spanish army with sails. Next to these giant ships were frigates of five and six, as well as smaller communication boats and gunboats.

Most of the first round of artillery shells of Spanish warships fell into nothing and hit the Han warships, splashing countless water columns.

Another round of artillery shells was finally hit by an unlucky Han gunboat.

This unlucky gunboat suffered at least a dozen twenty-four or eighteen-pound shells. Although they were all solid shells, the gunboat was originally a double-brig sailboat, with only dozens of crew members and only more than twenty artillery guns. No matter how flexible and maneuverable it was, it would be immediately finished after such a saturated attack.

Not only were the two masts broken, but the waterline was also penetrated several large holes, and the gunboat quickly entered water, and there was no need to rescue them. There was even a shell that detonated the powder barrel on the ship, causing the powder barrel to explode, the cabin caught fire, and countless smoke rose.

The gunboat captain broke his hand by the wooden thorns that were exploded by the shells, and endured the pain and shouted and abandoned the ship and jumped into the sea.

The Spanish cheered for their good start, but the Han generals showed hideous smiles on the Han army's battleship. The two sides had approached a distance of 300 yards, which was the best attack range, but the stupid Spanish were wasting this precious shooting opportunity on a small gunboat.

Next, at least a few minutes later, the Spanish cannons will be in a state of reloading, while the Han warships are always on standby for cannons.

Liu Yunwen frowned and pondered with the officer's sword of the navy general.

"Prepare the flag, don't fire the gun for the time being, keep getting close to the enemy ship and fire it after getting close to two hundred yards."

With a distance of 300 yards, the accuracy of the naval gun can be much higher, but if it is close to 200 yards, of course, the accuracy will be higher.

"After getting close, prepare for bombs"

The battleship sailed through the wind and waves and approached another hundred yards.

At this time, the Spaniard finally completed the loading and launched another round of volleys.

The thirty-two-pound cannons on the bottom of the ten Spanish warships mixed with more eighteen-pound twelve-pound cannons fired a very powerful round of volleys, with more than three hundred cannons firing at the same time, and at a distance of two hundred yards.

Many of the shells hit the Han army warships, and even the side of the flagship Flying General Li Guang suffered considerable damage.

But that's all, solid shells did not cause any greater damage.

The ship of the Flying General Li Guang was very thick, and even if it was a thirty-two-pound shell, it was impossible to sink a battleship with one shell. Due to the artillery technology of this era, although the naval naval guns were generally equipped with thirty-two-pound cannons on the deck of the lower layer of the battleship, they could fire thirty-two-pound solid bombs. However, because the pressure of the artillery barrel was too high and the fuze technology of the explosive bombs was not enough, the naval guns on the warship were very capable of firing explosive bombs. The solid bombs were heavy or large. If they hit the wooden sail battleship, they would be fine unless they were lucky to directly smash the mast, or if they were better luck, they would hit below the waterline directly. Otherwise, even if they hit a dozen or twenty or even a hundred enemy ships, they would still be fine.

During naval battles, you often have to get closer. You use the 32-pound cannon at the bottom, but you hope to hit the enemy ship under the waterline and let the enemy ships sink in and out of water. Or you use chain bombs to cut off the opponent's masts and make the enemy ships lose speed. Or you can only use grape bombs to fire a bunch of shells at one time and bombard them intensively.

If it is closer, it can also use larger caliber but shorter range to bombard soldiers on enemy ships.

The naval battles in this era are actually quite ferocious, and sometimes even more cruel than the army. When a naval battle ends, the warships may endure hundreds of shells, enter many places, and damage countless places. Most of the people on the ship are killed or injured, and many people are even more lucky. They sank along with the ship and feed the fish.

Solid shells, broken chains, grape shells, and various shells roared. One cannon on the opposite side lit up one after another, roaring.

The broken hull and armor splashed with sharp wood chips, which are the most lethal thing in naval battles, are much more lethal than the scorching solid shells. A solid shell hits at most one or two people, but a splash of wood thorns may kill dozens of sailors at one time.

The sailor canvas hammock tied to the ship's side armor before the war played a lot at this time, successfully reducing the number of wood thorns.

However, many soldiers on the Han army warship were still injured or even killed, with broken limbs and broken arms, and blood splattered. The young man from the medical team on the ship quickly carried buckets of sand to the deck. The sand could cover up the blood and prevent the deck from slipping due to blood.

Several sails were destroyed by chain bombs. The strangled sail rigging collapsed and the ship slowed down.

At this time, the thirty main warships of the Han army were less than 200 yards from the enemy ships.

Liu Yunwen finally did not change the commands and no longer asked to get closer.

The signal flag of shelling had risen from the flagship, and the captains immediately issued shelling orders, and the gunmen commanded the gunners in the cabin to fire.

On the upper deck, each ship also had a lot of cannons. In addition to the orbital heavy artillery at the bow, there were also many cannons. Although these cannons were not as far as the cannons below, they were the killer weapon of the Han Empire Navy. These cannons were specially used to fire explosive bombs.

The pressure of ordinary ship guns is too high and the bomb cannot bear it, and there will be explosions in the chamber. However, if you switch to a canon dungeon, this kind of canon dungeon was originally equipped with the army and was equipped with howitzers that solved the problem of delayed leading, that is, the bomb, with amazing lethality.

The Navy used this kind of artillery and shells to fight against wooden warships, and the effect was far better than that of ordinary cannons. However, this cannon also has a disadvantage, its range is short. However, if it is too close to the enemy ship, it may be hit by the enemy cannon. If the bomb explodes on its own ship, it will have a very lethality.

If the explosion bombs equipped by the Seventh Fleet are compared with traditional naval guns, traditional naval guns are like bullets with 38 large covers, with amazing penetration. One shot hits may cause two eyes to enter and exit. The explosion bombs are strong, but they will not penetrate with one shot hit, but they will explode.

The two types of shells have their own characteristics, but for sail warships that are still mainly made of wood, the bombs are undoubtedly more lethal.

Generally speaking, as long as you don’t hit the waterline, the sailing warship can still jump around even if it hits a hundred cannons, but if it is hit by a few explosive bombs, it may not be possible. In particular, the explosive bombs not only have an astonishing explosion lethality, but this kind of explosive bomb can also easily cause the ship to catch fire, powder barrel explosion, etc.

In history, it was precisely because the navy later equipped with mature bombs that eventually made wooden warships extremely fragile, leading to the emergence of ironclad ships.

"Fire the fire and fuck him to death"

Within two hundred yards, the overwhelming volley of naval guns was fired, and the first round of volleys broke into a fifty-cannon armed merchant ship covering the flagship of the St. Augustine.

Especially the explosion bombs in it exploded one after another on the ship. The fire caused by it instantly ignited the masts and sails on the ship. What's even more unlucky is that the fire ignited the powder barrels on the gun deck.

A wave of fierce flames that were even better than others rolled, and the shock wave rushed out one after another from the cannon window on the side of the ship, and the violent explosion directly tore open the hull.

"Blast the dog down, gather the fire to the boat, sink it first"

Although the fifty-cannon armed merchant ship had not sunk, it was not much better. The ship had become hell. The explosion made the gun deck even more a slaughterhouse. The ship had lost its ability to fight back, and the sails were on fire, which also made the ship lose its power. It completely became a slaughterer. The Seventh Fleet beat the dogs in the water and shot several times, directly sank the armed merchant ship into the sea.

The Han army took advantage of the victory and attacked fiercely, and the more they fought, the more they fought, the more fierce they became.

At the beginning, the Spaniards could still shoot at each other in a row, but not long after, the Spanish formation could not be maintained and began to disperse the enemy.

Finally, it turned into a melee.

It is better to say that it is a melee, the Spanish fleet has been chased and beaten by the Han army.

During the fierce battle, the Spanish flagship St. Augustine also suffered the same ending as the merchant ship that had escorted him before. The warship was hit by a bomb and fired into the ammunition depot.

Fleet Commander Castro was killed directly.

The warship then entered the water and began to sink.

The Han army then cut off the masts of two Spanish battleships, and then the two ships were surrounded by Han army speedboats. They had to face the attack of the Han army's jump gang, and were eventually captured.

The other Spanish warships had no fighting spirit at this time and began to flee one after another.

In the end, only two battleships were fled by the main fleet led by Castro. The other eight battleships were sunk three, including the flagship, five were injured and captured, three other armed merchant ships were sunk, and seven were captured.

Those small fire attack boats were even swept away by the Han army.

When the battle here ended, the thirty armed merchant ships that Castro had sent out to detour had just taken a big circle to grab the upper hand.

As a result, the Spanish merchant fleet arrived was completely shocked. It was originally going to attack on both sides, but now the main fleet has been destroyed, but they have been cut off from their way back to port.

After the Han army launched a volley, the merchant fleet wanted to escape to the sea, but it took only half a day to chase. In the end, these 30 merchant ships were surrounded. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Spanish merchant ship owners finally chose to raise the white flag and surrender.

It was almost dusk and the Battle of Manila Bay ended.

The Philippine Manila fleet was almost wiped out, three battleships and three armed merchant ships were sunk, five battleships were captured, and only two injured battleships fled back, and all of the small fire attack ships were sunk. Five naval generals, including Admiral Castro, and more than 3,000 soldiers were killed or captured.

The Seventh Fleet lost only three gunboats, two communication boats and a sixth-class warship, and only more than 500 soldiers were killed.
Chapter completed!