"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, "Are you afraid that 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's not easy to fight there. Not to mention us, even the Netherlands

No one is sure that we 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, you must capture Fort Santiago. You cannot capture the fortress without 20,000 men and a few months. And if you want to transport 20,000 troops to Manila Bay, you must ensure their supplies for several months, and also

To carry a large amount of baggage, two hundred big bird ships will not be enough. Now we are about to reinforce Siam, but we cannot afford 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 and ensure its logistics. Of course, ships can be scraped together, but now they have to transport 20,000 troops across the sea and ensure their logistics.

There were too many people and things. We had to send troops to Siam, transport food back home, and prepare ships to sail to the New World.

The American capital of the New World is 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 and people to transport things, what can we do to attack it?

"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 gunboats 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: "Is it for your Big Bird ship? Do all 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 gun, its heat dissipation performance is relatively poor. The heat conductivity of iron

The thermal conductivity is far inferior to that of copper, and the thermal conductivity is several times worse. Therefore, cast iron cannons dissipate heat slowly, and require a long period of cooling after completion of firing, and the rate of fire is also 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 has been quite mature. Casting 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 cast iron technology has developed relatively slowly.

Early, iron cannons can be cast very early.

However, due to the lack of support from scientific research, handicraft technology could not go very 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, 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. However, the performance of cast iron cannons was still not as good as bronze cannons, and their only advantage was weight.

Light and cheap.

Zheng Sen, the governor of Dongning, took a fancy to these two advantages and purchased hundreds of them to be installed in the Nanyang Fleet's ten thousand stone bird ship in the sixth year of Hongxing Dynasty. A ten thousand stone ship was equipped with four doors, which was very effective against pirates.

It is very useful at this time. Pirates are looking for money. They do not aim to sink the ship, but to seize the Big Bird ship. To seize the ship, you have to get close first. Ordinary pirate ships are not very strong and can survive one or two 24-pounders.

Cannonballs can't stand it anymore.

However, it is not enough to use this kind of 24-pounder cannon to deal with Spanish warships. It is not that the power of the 24-pounder 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: "Just 22 ships are enough! There are also 8 Wanshi Big Bird ships on their way to Xiamen, plus the Henan and the just-delivered Fujian and Jiangnan

, should be enough to raid Manila Bay!”

The Fujian and Jiangnan were also 800-ton warships. Like the Flying, 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 is resting, and people also need to rest and reunite 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, he knew he couldn't be so rash!

No! Zheng Sen, who was born as a Jinshi master, has already made up his mind. He has to give a secret report to Emperor Zhu as soon as possible. He must stop the second brother from giving blind orders!

Zheng Jiangong saw his brother getting angry in a hurry 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, and each by one!

"

Zheng Sen nodded: "Okay, I'll arrange it to your satisfaction!"

While Zheng Sen was anxious, Admiral Garcia on the Spanish side was confident!

At this time, he was leading the "Eastern Armada" consisting 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 Galen ship of 200 tons and fly the Portuguese flag to explore the situation of the anchorage.

Dinghai is actually not suitable to serve as a fleet homeport, because Dinghai is not a bay, but an archipelago. The archipelago forms a sheltered anchorage. The wind shelter effect is not very good. Dinghai is located near the exit of the Taiwan Strait, and it often encounters typhoons.

!And the islands cannot be compared with the bay, the wind leaks everywhere!

But that’s not the worst thing. The worst thing is that the Dinghai anchorage is close to the 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 even more lively than Dinghai, and 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. The hydrological conditions are also complex. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's Eastern Fleet could not find a suitable home port on the southeast coast and had to move

Just use the 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.
Chapter completed!