Finally won...
It was early morning on the third day of August in the ninth year of Hongxing.
When Admiral Garcia, the commander of the Spanish Eastern Armada, led his twenty-five Galenic sailing ships out of the Grindstone Islands, there was no joy of victory in his heart, but only frustration, exhaustion, and diffuse.
Although he was clearly the winner, Admiral Garcia's mood was the same as when he commanded the battleship to rush out of the Downs anchorage, or even more depressed.
Because at the end of the Battle of the Downs, the outcome of the Thirty Years War was still undecided, and Spain was still the country favored by God. So Garcia, who was still young at the time, didn't know that he would see Spain fall from the altar!
And now, except for King Philip IV who is not very clear-headed (the disaster of incest marriage), who else doesn't know that the glorious era of the Spanish Empire has passed?
The Battle of the Dons marked the loss of Spanish maritime supremacy! The Battle of Rocroi marked the loss of Spanish land hegemony!
The victory of the Spanish Eastern Armada in the Battle of Dinghai Anchorage meant that Spain's hegemony in the Pacific was on the verge of collapse!
This matter really made Admiral Garcia cry so hard... He obviously won the battle, and he won quite beautifully. He destroyed the Ming Dynasty at the cost of the destruction of four armed Galen ships. About half of the Galenic warships in the Toyo Fleet, the main force of the navy! In other words, all the Ming Dynasty warships staying at Dinghai anchorage were destroyed!
This is obviously a textbook victory of the first-class Western powers over the Eastern empire!
After the victory, the oldest empire in the East should shed tears and sign unequal treaties while paying indemnities...
But the problem now is that even if the Ming Emperor Zhu Cixi wants to sign an unequal treaty, he will not be able to find Garcia as the winner for a while.
Because Admiral Garcia has decided to lead his Armada to "run away from home"... He dare not return to Manila!
After winning the battle and destroying twelve armed Galenic ships of the Ming Dynasty at the cost of losing four armed Galenic ships, the Spanish Eastern Armada did not dare to go home!
How dare he go back? Although his fleet burned twelve armed Galen ships of the Ming Dynasty at the Dinghai anchorage, the Ming Dynasty's coastal defense fort destroyed two Galen ships of the Spanish Navy with explosive shells fired from a mere twelve 24-pound guns. ship, damaging three others - two of which had to be abandoned because they were too badly damaged to evacuate with the main fleet.
In other words, the Ming military used only twelve 24-pound cannons to fire two to three hundred explosive shells, causing the Spaniards to lose four armed galenic ships, and another one was also damaged!
Only twelve cannons were used like this... There are no less than 200 warships in the Ming Army's Eastern and Nanyang fleets that can be equipped with 24-pound or 12-pound cannons, right?
Even if a warship is equipped with five 24-pound guns, there are still 1,000 24-pound guns. How should the Spanish Eastern Armada fight?
Use solid bullets to fight blooming bullets? An armed Galen ship of several hundred tons will not necessarily sink if it is hit by dozens or hundreds of rounds of solid bullets (that is, iron balls). If it were replaced with a 24-pound blooming bullet, it would be unbearable after two or three rounds! It's a wooden boat. Even if it doesn't sink, it will be destroyed!
Heavenly Father! How should this war be fought?
While Garcia was praying to Heavenly Father in his cabin, Colonel Barbosa, the captain of the New Spain, had already knocked on the cabin door.
"Your Excellency, the losses have been calculated!"
"Come in!" Admiral Garcia's voice was a little hoarse when he spoke.
Barbosa pushed open the door and walked in with a solemn expression, looking very worried.
Garcia glanced at him and asked, "How many people were lost?"
He doesn't care about the loss of ships now, because after the Battle of Dinghai Anchorage, the Spanish Eastern Armada will have to go around the main fleet of the Ming Navy for a long time, and it will be impossible to attack the important ports guarded by the Ming Dynasty sea and land.
In fact, the Eastern Armada has been reduced to a diplomatic-breaking fleet rather than a hegemony-fighting fleet!
In this case, there is not much difference between twenty-nine and twenty-five warships. But the number and morale of the sailors on the crew are very important... Long-term tug of war at sea will consume the lives of the crew (scurvy), and excessive casualties and diseases will cause the crew to flee!
"Four hundred and two people were lost...of which all 175 people on the Manila were missing, and all 125 people on the San Diego (the 300-ton galen that rescued the Manila) were also missing. Pacific Star The San Michele lost 33 people, including 11 seriously wounded. The Acapulco (a 500-ton Galen) lost 28 people, including 8 seriously wounded."
Admiral Garcia sighed: "I think those who fall into the hands of the Chinese will be treated humanely, right?"
Colonel Barbossa shook his head and said, "I don't know..."
Admiral Garcia sighed again: "Where are we going now?"
Barbossa said: "Admiral, according to the original plan, we should attack Ryukyu Kingdom... Ryukyu Kingdom's defense is relatively lax, so it will definitely win again!"
"What happens next?" Admiral Garcia asked again.
"After that...shouldn't we return to Manila?"
"Return to Manila?" Admiral Garcia shook his head, "Colonel, do you think they won't load the explosives on the warship?"
"This..." Barbossa thought for a moment, "Is it too dangerous to board the ship with explosive shells?"
Spain also has explosive shells, but they do not have wooden holders and wooden tube fuses, so the shells will roll in the barrel when fired, and are easy to detonate in advance (there is a certain probability of exploding directly in the barrel), and the shooting accuracy is insufficient (although the wooden holders are It is not as good as the tail fin of a cannon shell, but it plays a great role in stabilizing the trajectory and improving accuracy), so putting this thing on the ship is more dangerous to yourself than to the enemy - in the event of an accident, the entire gun deck will become a hell.
Therefore, Western navies in this era do not dare to put explosive bombs on battleships. They are afraid that they will explode first without killing the enemy on the battlefield! Once the wooden ammunition holder and wooden tube fuse appear, it will be a matter of time before the explosive ammunition is put on the ship...
Once the explosive bombs are on board, maritime warfare will enter a new era. Battleships like the New Spain equipped with dozens of cannons will be completely useless.
Because no one dares to equip so many artillery pieces with explosive ammunition. Who dares to imagine that the two or three gun decks are all filled with explosive ammunition waiting to be fired? This is going to explode, and the whole ship will be shattered into pieces!
In contrast, the Ming Dynasty's Wanshi Big Bird Ship was more suitable for installing a small number of 24-pound heavy guns that could fire explosive shells. Because fewer sailors are needed to operate the big bird ship, and the cost of building the bird ship is relatively low, it is most suitable for large-scale equipment and ship-to-sea tactics. Let's build 200 ships, each equipped with five 24-pound cannons, for a total of 1,000 cannons to fire bombs... It's scary to think about it!
"This possibility cannot be ruled out!" Garcia took a breath, "At least until the danger is eliminated, the main force of the fleet cannot return to Manila... Where else can we go?"
"Either go to Guam," Barbossa said, "or go to the coast of Japan."
Garcia thought for a while and said: "Go to the Ryukyu Kingdom first... Don't touch the Japanese when you get to the Ryukyu Kingdom, only detain Chinese officials and businessmen, and use them as hostages to exchange for our people.
By the way, immediately send a ship to Japan to contact Caballero, inform him of the results of the Battle of Dinghai Anchorage, and then ask for his opinion. "
"As you command, Admiral!"
Garcia's decision to lead the Eastern Armada to run away from home and wander was undoubtedly the right one, because at the same time, Admiral Zheng Jiangong of the Ming Dynasty Expeditionary Fleet was leading thirty Big Bird ships and three 800-ton Galen warships. There were 1,000 fusiliers on their way to Manila.
If Garcia returns with the fleet now, he will be able to bump into Zheng Jiangong's fleet. The 30 Big Bird ships have 120 24-pound short-barreled guns that can open shells!
Although the shooting accuracy of naval guns cannot be compared with that of shore guns, as long as these 120 24-pound guns can achieve the record of the 12 24-pound guns in the Battle of Dinghai, the Spanish Oriental Armada will probably have to go back to its hometown in tears!
