The Brunei Port is located approximately 3o north latitude 3o east longitude 111o on the sea chart. It was operated and colonized by the Portuguese for many years. It mainly produces cardamom and sugar gum. It is a very important port and trade node on the largest island in the Spice Islands in Portugal.

However, now it is no longer under the jurisdiction of Malay Governor Doyle Ropez Di Preira. It is hung with the banners of the Ming and Li families. Most of the Portuguese officials and some colonists in the port were expelled and replaced by the merchants of the Li family. The locals and the descendants of the Ming Dynasty worked together to manage and guard.

This port city (town) closest to Malacca naturally became the primary target of attack for Malay Governor Preyra and the huge fleet under his command.

Fortunately, such a large fleet of warships and armed merchant ships would definitely not be concealed from Malacca, so early on, Brunei received the news, and then Brunei immediately sent someone to take a speedboat to inform the Li family fleet, which was still in Delnat Port, about the southward sweep of the spicy food islands.

So, on this day, the five giant ships that led the fleet back urgently and supplied the Li family's development fleet once in Brunei finally encountered a large fleet led by Malay Governor Preyra in the South Ocean water east of Brunei in the open waters of about 2o north latitude 2o east longitude 108o east longitude .

Of course, it cannot be said that it was encountered, but was found by the Li family fleet's lookout from afar.

That's right, just look for it!

Anne Hasta, the great admiral of the Li family fleet, came specifically to find the fleet of those bad guys who were aggressively trying to steal her territory! Moreover, she only brought the five super battleships under her command. As for other ships, she did not bring even any of them, including the first-class battleship she collected for free.

She just plans to use only five main battleships to fight against Preyra's super-large fleet alone!

"Report!"

"Great Admiral! Discover the fleet of Malay Governor Preyra!"

"On the west direction!"

"distance……"

"About one hundred miles!"

"From here, it's all about sails and flags, and the specific number of enemy ships is unknown for the time being!"

At this time, in the hanging basket on the high main mast, a lookout hand holding a telescope shouted loudly to a careless little girl on the deck podium below who was bored to feed fish and seagulls with bread crumbs.

"One hundred miles?"

(???.???)??????

"Have they finally appeared?"

?(????)?

Annie picked up her monocular lens. She knew that the other party said that the 100-100 miles was about twenty to thirty nautical miles, which was the farthest distance that could be seen from sea sight.

When sailing on the sea, the length of the sight distance depends entirely on the altitude, the curvature of the earth and the climate. Theoretically, the maximum sight distance is about twenty-five nautical miles, but in fact, due to the height and refraction effect, and the proximity of the South Ocean to the equator, under the current excellent climate conditions, the farthest distance can generally reach thirty nautical miles, which is about one hundred miles of the Ming Dynasty.

"ah!"

!(;?o?)o

"But it seems that they didn't see anything..."

(?￣?￣)

After trying it, Anne gave up soon.

Because at this height, her vision is definitely not as good as the lookout hand on the main mast dozens of meters high, so she only saw the sea level of the sky and the sea. She saw nothing except the blue sky, white clouds and sea level.

"I don't have..."

Song Yifeng also nervously picked up another telescope and looked straight west for a while. Then she quickly said in depressed as Annie.

"Two admirals!"

"The enemy is still a hundred miles away. If we don't change our course, with the current crosswind, the relative speeds of our and theirs will be about ten knots, and it will take at least one and a half hours to enter the artillery distance."

"At that time, as long as our fleet maintains mainly distance, pay attention to the course and wind direction, and take advantage of our ship speed, shelling accuracy and shelling distance, no matter how many enemy ships there are, it is not worth fearing!"

At this time, the first mate next to him spoke proudly.

He knew that in this era, the maximum bombardment distance between Western cannons and heavy long-pipe cannons running at sea was about 400 yards, but when the actual battle was in progress, it was necessary to ensure that it was at least within 200 yards, that is, about 70 feet or even closer, in order to enter the combat distance and ensure the accuracy and lethality of the shelling.

In other words, the effective combat distance of the enemy is about 200 yards (70 yards), but it is also possible to start shelling the Li family's fleet away from 400 yards (150 yards), so they must control their distance at that time and try to eliminate the enemy ships beyond the range of the enemy ships. They also need to pay attention to the course and ensure that they are not surrounded by the enemy ships.

Although the five warships of their Li family fleet are made of steel bones, the keels are made of steel, and other places are still wooden boards, so they will definitely not be able to prevent the enemy from approaching artillery. Once the part below the waterline is approached by the enemy and penetrated with artillery, they will only sink faster than ordinary wooden ships!

"Is there an hour and a half?"

=????(???*)

“…”

(?~?)

Anne picked up the telescope and looked at it. Unfortunately, she still saw nothing. In the distance to the west, there were only blue sky, white clouds and a calm sea.

“So slow!”

ε=(′ο*))) Alas!

"Then you go and ask the sailors and artillerymen to prepare in advance. Now the enemy must have seen us too. They should take a nap first and get up after the shelling is about to start."

(?￣? ￣?)Hehe!

Annie would definitely not do such a stupid thing as waiting like a fool like an hour and a half, which is only three hours, so she threw the telescope in her hand into the arms of the first mate, and she was about to leave her hand alone.

"That's it!"

?(???;)?=З=З=З

A bad little girl left her podium and ran towards her largest captain's room on the lower deck.

"yes!"

"Abide by the order!!"

The first lieutenant bowed, but did not take those enemies seriously, nor did he care about the enemy's presence. His grand admiral was going to run back to take a nap.

"The Second Admiral!"

"It's still early, you can go back and rest for an hour!"

The first mate saw that the sailors and artillerymen were cleaning the gunboat in an order, fetching water from the sea, and carrying shells and powder barrels, preparing for the next battle. The morale was very high. Then after they were ready, there was still a lot of time to eat, drink, defecate and rest together, so there was really nothing he needed to worry about or stare at now.

"I can't sleep..."

"I heard that the Malay Governor Preyra is said to have prepared more than 60 warships, and we only have five here. How can you sleep with me?"

"The other party is not the iron-armored ships and small sampans that come to the island family to jump into the fight, they are dozens of warships..."

"Although it may be a little smaller than ours, the number is too much."

Song Yifeng was indeed very worried because their opponents are not the ones who came to the island family, and their range is pitifully short, so they will only rush to the Japanese pirates. Now their enemies are those Westerners with strong ships and powerful guns. It is very likely that the number of cannons is definitely no less than their five ships!

When they attacked Japan and pacified Laidao family, they had a total of ten ships, but now there are only five left here, while the enemy ships had dozens, and all of them were warships. It was completely different from the big and small broken ships in Laidao family. How could she not worry?

"No!"

"Their warships will not exceed ten, and the others are all armed merchant ships, so there is no need to worry about it!"

The first mate said proudly.

Although there is no obvious boundary between armed merchant ships and warships in this era, and the performance difference between ships is also very small. Any time a ship presses a cannon and opens the cannon door and says it is a warship. However, in order to take care of the second admiral's emotions, the first mate still comforts him with such gentle words.

"Is that true?"

"But I always feel a little scared..."

As she said that, Song Yifeng picked up the monocular lens in her hand and looked towards the end of the sea level. Then, surprisingly, she faintly saw a little bit of the mast.

"one two three……"

"Seventeen, eighteen..."

"ah!"

"I've counted the flags on the top of the masts of more than a dozen ships now!"

As he looked at it, Song Yifeng couldn't help but exclaim, and couldn't help but start to worry.

Now, looking from a distance, there are more than a dozen ships that I have seen. After waiting for an hour or two, there may be many ships coming out of her sight.

“…”

The first mate also looked up at the west side of the fleet, but he could not see anything without using a telescope.

"It's still early, Miss Song, you'd better go and have a rest, right?"

"rest assured!"

"When the battle is about to take place, I will definitely send someone to inform you and the Grand Admiral."

The first lieutenant was a little impatient. He didn't want the second admiral in front of him to sigh and affect his morale.

In his opinion, this is their great admiral who did better?

Their great admiral's aura of ignorance and anger (heartless) and never takes any enemy seriously. Even if he knows that the enemy's fleet is still ready to strike, is the most motivating morale.

"All right……"

"You don't have to call me, I will look at the time myself."

He sighed. Seeing that there was nothing wrong with seeing here, and seeing that he really couldn't help, there was no way, Song Yifeng had to walk down the spiral ladder and prepare to go to their common room and stay quietly in the largest captain's room like Annie.

...

Three hours later, the sixty-seven large and small warships led by Portugal's Malay Governor Doyle Ropez Di Preira finally appeared kilometers away from the Li family's poor five warships.
To be continued...