"What, attack Manila Bay?" Zheng Sen was startled by his brother's words, "Second brother, are you serious?"
"What's wrong?" Zheng Jiangong looked at the surprised look on the boss Zheng Sen's face and laughed, "Afraid I can't beat you?"
"That's Manila Bay!" Zheng Sen lowered his face and looked extremely solemn, "Second brother, Brother Yu has spent a lot of time exploring the reality of Manila Bay over the years, so he knows that it is not easy to fight there... Don't Speaking of us, even the Dutch are not sure they can capture Manila Bay!"
"I know, how could I not know? I am the Navy Commander!" Zheng Jiangong said with a smile, "So I don't plan to take Manila Bay, but hit and run.
To capture Manila Bay, the Santiago Fort must be captured. Without 20,000 people and a few months, the fortress cannot be captured no matter what. To transport 20,000 army troops to Manila Bay, we have to ensure their supply for several months and carry a large amount of baggage. Two hundred big bird ships are not enough. Now we are about to reinforce Siam, but there are not that many big bird ships to transport troops. "
The half-finished project of Fort Santiago is not a problem for the Ming army after the Northern Expedition. The problem is that it is very difficult to project 20,000 troops across the sea at one time and ensure its logistics. Of course, ships can be made up, but now There were too many people and things to transport, including sending troops to Siam, transporting food back home, and preparing ships to sail to the New World.
The American Mansion in the New World is even more of a top priority! Once the Henan brings back the good news, the Navy must organize ships to transport the second wave of immigrants in the shortest possible time!
And if you want to besiege Fort Santiago by digging parallel trenches, it won't work even if you have a small number of people! If there are no ships or people to transport things, what can we do to transport them?
"It's not easy to hit and run," Zheng Sen still shook his head, "The Spanish fleet's anchorage is under the cover of the Cavite fort. Can your gunboat withstand Cavite's heavy artillery?"
"Loss is inevitable," Zheng Jiangong said, "but we have a trump card!"
"The trump card? What's the trump card?"
Zheng Jiangong smiled and said: "It's for your Big Bird ship... Do all the Big Bird ships in Xiamen Port have 24-pound short guns?"
"They are all there. Each of the 22 Wanshi Big Bird ships is equipped with four 24-pound cannons," Zheng Sen nodded, "But those cannons are of little use and can only be used against pirates."
The 24-pound short-barreled gun is actually an army gun. Its scientific name is the Hongxing Six-Year Type 24-pound short-barreled gun. It is a large-caliber cast iron short-barreled smoothbore gun. Because it is a cast iron cannon, its heat dissipation performance is relatively poor - the thermal conductivity of iron is far inferior to that of copper, and the thermal conductivity is several times worse. Therefore, the cast iron cannon dissipates heat slowly. It requires a long time to cool down after firing, and the rate of fire is also low. Just slow.
In addition, iron casting technology is far less mature than bronze casting. The melting point of bronze is only 800 degrees, pure copper is just over 1,000 degrees, and the melting point of iron is as high as 1,500 degrees. Therefore, humans have mastered bronze casting very early. By the 17th century, bronze casting technology was quite mature. Cast iron is much more difficult. So far, only a few countries in the world, such as England, the Netherlands, Sweden, and China, have mastered the production technology of cast iron cannons. However, China's iron casting technology developed earlier, and it was possible to cast iron cannons very early.
However, due to the lack of support from scientific research, handicraft technology has never gone far, so the iron cannons cast in the Ming Dynasty were good and bad, and because there was no hydraulic drilling machine, the inner bore was not processed well (iron is harder than copper), so Generally speaking, the cast iron cannons of the Ming Dynasty were not very mature.
However, by the sixth year of Hongxing's reign, several major arsenals in the Ming Dynasty were able to cast qualified large-caliber cast iron cannons due to the digestion of some technologies introduced from Europe. It's just that the performance of cast iron cannons is still not as good as bronze cannons, and the only advantages are light weight and cheap price.
Zheng Sen, the governor of Dongning, took a fancy to these two advantages and purchased hundreds of them to be installed on the Wanshi Big Bird Ship of the Nanyang Fleet in the sixth year of Hongxing's reign. A Ten Thousand Stone Ship is equipped with four doors, which is very useful when dealing with pirates - pirates are looking for money and will not aim to sink the ship, but to seize the Big Bird Ship. To seize the ship, you must get close first. Ordinary pirate ships are not very strong and cannot withstand one or two 24-pound shells.
However, it is not enough to use this kind of 24-pound cannon to deal with the Spanish warships. It is not that the power of the 24-pound cannon is insufficient, but that the number of equipment is too small. There are only four cannons on a ship with ten thousand stones, and they are still facing the enemy. Fired in three directions.
But Zheng Jiangong was confident and said to his brother with a smile: "As long as we have it... 22 ships are enough! There are also 8 Wanshi Big Bird ships on their way to Xiamen, plus the Henan and the just-delivered The Fujian and Jiangnan should be enough to raid Manila Bay!"
The Fujian and Jiangnan were also 800-ton warships. Like the Feixiang, they were equipped with 40 12-pound guns and were very strong and made of a lot of Siamese teak.
The outfitting of these two ships was completed nearly a year later than that of the Henan. The installation plan for their sea trials would not be completed until the beginning of the 10th year of Hongxing. But now that the situation was urgent, they were pulled in to make up the numbers.
"What? Only three 800-ton ships are dispatched?" Zheng Sen was stunned. "Two of these three ships have not completed sea trials. How much combat power can they have?"
Zheng Jiangong smiled: "That's enough, that's enough!"
Zheng Sen asked again: "What about the remaining main warships?"
"Twelve ships have gone to sea and cannot be contacted at all. The rest are resting at Dinghai anchorage. When the troop ship arrives, they will escort them to Siam."
"Why not pull up those twelve boats first?"
"Most of the officers and sailors are not here!" Zheng Jiangong shook his head, "The ship needs to rest, and people also need to rest... They are all reunited with their families in various places. Where can they be found so easily?"
"Can we still fight Manila like this?" Zheng Sen was a little speechless. His brother was too unreliable, right? As a layman in the navy, I also know that I cannot be so rash!
Can not be done! Zheng Sen, who was born as a Jinshi master, had already made up his mind. He had to give a secret report to Emperor Zhu as soon as possible. He had to stop his second son from giving random orders!
Zheng Jiangong looked at his brother's anxious look and just smiled: "Brother, let's go take a look at your Big Bird ship... We also need to inspect and test-fire the artillery, one by one, each by one. Test firing of Menmen!”
Zheng Sen nodded: "Okay, we'll arrange it... I guarantee your satisfaction!"
...
While Zheng Sen was anxious, Admiral Garcia on the Spanish side was confident!
At this time, he was leading the "Eastern Armada" composed of 28 warships to sail in the vast Pacific Ocean!
Before he led his team to leave Manila Bay, he also asked de Velasco to lead a small 200-ton Galen ship to fly the Portuguese flag to explore the situation at the anchorage.
Dinghai is actually not suitable to serve as a fleet homeport, because Dinghai is not a bay, but an archipelago, which forms a sheltered anchorage. The shelter effect is not very good - Dinghai is located near the exit of the Taiwan Strait and is often hit by typhoons! Moreover, the islands cannot be compared with the bay, the wind leaks everywhere!
But that’s not the worst thing. The worst thing is that Dinghai anchorage is close to Ningbo Commercial Port, and there are too many merchant ships coming in and out! The fleet is placed there for people to visit every day!
However, the Navy Department of the Ming Dynasty had no other choice. The Wusong River in Shanghai was more lively than Dinghai. It was just a main road on the water!
The hydrological conditions of the Yangtze River to the west of Jiangyin are very complicated and are not suitable for berthing of sea-going ships. The river to the east of Jiangyin is too open and difficult to defend, and the hydrological conditions are equally complex... Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's Eastern Fleet cannot be found along the southeast coast. For a suitable home port, we have to make do with Dinghai anchorage!
After studying the topography and hydrology of Dinghai anchorage, Admiral Garcia already has confidence in victory!
Obviously, the Chinese cannot play with the navy. They are too careless to put the fleet in a home port that is so vulnerable to attack.
As long as their fleet is still there, the Spanish Eastern Armada can destroy them all!
