Chapter 507: The First Naval Battle Between East and West
The few people who were conversing in the hall were suddenly disturbed by the arrival, and saw Earl Sivens and others showing displeasure on their faces.
Scarlett glanced at the man and said, "Why are you so worried?"
Count Sivens heard clearly what the man had just called, but he also frowned and looked at the other person and said: "What Ming people? Apart from a group of Ming businessmen in Manlajia, how can there be a Ming fleet?"
A few eyes fell on this man, who was stared at by everyone. The man said quickly: "Your Majesty, it's true. David George and the others who went on patrol at sea just came back and brought back news that they were in the port of Manlajia.
A Ming fleet was discovered ten miles away, and it is heading towards the port of Manlajia!"
Earl Sivens couldn't help but straighten his face, and said immediately: "Bring me David George, I have something to ask him!"
Soon I saw a young man dressed as a sailor being brought over. This man was none other than David George.
Seeing David George walking into the hall, with a somewhat nervous expression, Earl Sivens glanced at him and said: "David George, you said you discovered the Ming Dynasty fleet during patrol, is there such a thing?
?"
David George immediately said: "Your Majesty, not only me, but also the crew members patrolling with me have discovered the Ming Dynasty fleet. If the earl doesn't believe it, he can call Apollo and the others together!"
Hearing what David George said, Earl Xivens nodded slightly. He had already believed David George's words on this matter. If he had not really invented the Ming Dynasty's fleet, David George would never be so sure.
.
Waving his hand to signal David George to go down, Earl Sivens looked at the people in the hall with a straight face and said, "Everyone, it seems that the Ming people were unwilling to let go of our previous robbery of the Ming Dynasty's royal caravan!"
When the one-eyed man heard this, he said with a bit of disdain: "So what, if people from the Ming Dynasty dare to come, then let them know that we, Portugal, are invincible on this sea."
As he spoke, the one-eyed man looked at Colonel Solo with a bit of a smile and said: "Besides, this time we have the help of the troops brought by Colonel Solo. Even if the Ming fleet comes, we will still annihilate them all!"
Several people were smiling. If it were before, they might still be worried. After all, the fleet sent by the Ming Dynasty would definitely not be so easy to deal with. But now with the reinforcements sent by the Indian Governor brought by Solo,
Together with them, they are absolutely invincible in this southern realm. Even if the Ming people invade in large numbers, they will definitely not be their opponents.
It's not that Count Sivens and others underestimated the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the number of naval ships they can assemble in the Manlajia area can reach at least nearly a hundred. Such a number is absolutely amazing. They really
I don’t believe that the Ming Dynasty could send hundreds of ships across thousands of miles.
Colonel Solo put down the wine glass in his hand, and said with a bit of excitement and cruelty in his eyes: "Okay, originally I thought I could only vent my anger on the natives this time. Since the Ming people dare to come, let them see me.
The Kingdom of Portugal is powerful.”
While speaking, Colonel Solo said to Count Xivens and others: "Everyone, let's assemble the ships and go meet the Ming people for a while."
Colonel Solo does not intend to wait for the Ming people to come over on his own, but to gather his troops to fight proactively.
Upon hearing this, Earl Sivens and others did not refuse, but nodded in agreement.
In less than an hour, the large and small ships that were originally moored in the port hoisted their sails and sailed out of the port, gathering at least nearly a hundred ships at one place.
At a glance, the sea outside the port is densely packed with ships, large and small. These ships can be said to account for 90% of the naval power that the Portuguese country in the South Seas can muster, and there are very few left.
Some ships stayed at the port to prevent the natives of Manchuria from causing any trouble.
At this time, on a ship that was obviously much larger, Soro, who was the official captain of the Portuguese Navy, was ordering his soldiers to sail the ship into the distance, followed closely behind the ship.
They are the men, horses and ships of Earl Sivens, Scarlett and others.
On the sea, an extremely huge fleet was heading towards the Strait of Malacca in a mighty manner.
I saw the extremely eye-catching Ming Dynasty dragon flag on the ship fluttering in the wind, making a hunting sound.
Li Huan, wearing a large cloak, stood on the bow of the treasure ship, looking at the sea in the distance with his hands behind his back.
At this moment, on the mast erected high on the big ship, a flexible captain in royal robes was holding a telescope to observe the distant scene.
Suddenly, he saw the royal guard sliding down the mast, and said to Li Huan with a somewhat solemn look on his face: "General, there are ships vaguely visible in the distance approaching us. The number of ships cannot be determined for the time being."
Li Huan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard this. From leaving Tianjin Port, the speed of the fleet along the way was not slow at all. After entering the Nanyang boundary, Li Huan had no intention of stopping on the other islands. Instead, he rushed all the way to Manchuria.
Come from where Lajia is.
After all, according to the information, the Portuguese troops and forces are concentrated in the important port of Malacca. If you want to annihilate the Portuguese power in Malacca, the best option is to force the Portuguese to fight with the Ming Dynasty near the Strait of Malacca.
war.
The scale of the fleet brought by Li Huan is absolutely rare in Southeast Asia. Even the fleet led by Zheng He may not be able to match it in scale.
After all, the fleet led by Li Huan this time included dozens of treasure ship-level ships alone, plus hundreds of large and small ships such as troop transports.
You must know that Li Huan brought tens of thousands of infantry troops this time. If naval officers and soldiers are included, the total number would be thirty to forty thousand people.
Even at the peak of Zheng He's fleet, the number of men and horses was less than 30,000, and not all of them were ordinary sailors who accompanied the ship.
But this time it was different. Li Huan brought all the navy troops of the Ming Dynasty, all of them were regular soldiers. Except for the transport and supply ships, all the ships could be put into the battlefield.
Such a huge fleet obviously cannot be hidden. It can be said that it was discovered after entering the Nanyang. However, in order to seize and occupy the Strait of Malacca, the Portuguese gathered all their troops in the Strait of Malacca during this period, so although
It is said that the Ming Dynasty fleet was so large that it was discovered by many Southeast Asian indigenous people, but not by the Portuguese.
So along the way, the Ming Dynasty Navy fleet successfully arrived at the Strait of Malacca. It was only dozens of miles away from the Strait of Malacca before it was discovered by a Portuguese patrol ship.
However, the Portuguese's reaction was not slow. In a short period of time, they assembled a fleet and left the port to meet them.
Originally, Li Huan wanted to launch a surprise attack for the Portuguese and easily annihilate the Portuguese fleet in the port. However, as luck would have it, the fleet was still discovered by the Portuguese.
Of course, what's more important is that Colonel Solo was very decisive and made a prompt decision to gather troops and leave the harbor to fight. Although Colonel Solo believed from the bottom of his heart that the strength of the Ming fleet was just that, there was no need to pay so much attention to it.
But Colonel Solo planned to show off his skills in front of local snakes like Count Sivens, so he was so proactive in gathering all the troops to leave the port. What he wanted was to open the eyes of Count Sivens and his pirate-turned-crew members.
See how powerful the Portuguese Navy is.
Standing on a large ship on the sea, Colonel Solo held a telescope in his hand and looked at the densely packed ships emerging from the sea in the distance.
Through the telescope, Colonel Solo had already discovered the Ming Navy's naval fleet.
When he saw the entire Ming Dynasty fleet clearly, Colonel Solo couldn't help but shake his hands, with a look of astonishment and disbelief on his face.
The scene that Colonel Solo saw was really unbelievable. The dense and dark area on the sea was actually the Ming Dynasty's fleet. This was a sight that Colonel Solo never dared to dream about.
From Colonel Solo's point of view, it was already a huge force for Ming Dynasty to send dozens of large and small ships, but he never expected that Ming Dynasty's naval fleet would be so large.
Count Xivensi and others on the side were also watching from a distance with telescopes. Their reactions were not much better than those of Colonel Solo. When they saw the size of the Ming Navy fleet through the telescopes one by one, they were all like
He opened his eyes wide and made a meaningless sound in his throat.
With a grunt, Count Xivens swallowed his saliva, looked at Colonel Solo with a trembling voice and said: "Colonel Solo, what should we do, what should we do, there are so many Ming ships, we..."
Obviously Count Sivens was a little panicked. After all, Count Sivens had seen the world. So many ships made him feel a mountain-like pressure.
All eyes fell on Colonel Solo.
Colonel Soro took a deep breath and gritted his teeth and said: "What are you afraid of? Our Portuguese navy has always been invincible. We have never encountered an opponent. Even if it is as strong as the Spanish fleet, it can't help us. It's just a Ming Dynasty ship.
No matter how many there are, they are just living targets."
Hearing what Colonel Soro said, a few people felt a little more at ease. Just as Colonel Soro said, the Portuguese navy is invincible and rarely suffers defeats. From this point of view, although the size of the Ming fleet is huge, it is not
It means that we will definitely be able to defeat them.
Count Xivensi looked at Colonel Solo who remained calm and said: "Colonel Solo, all our men will be put under your command. I hope that this time the colonel can command the fleet to defeat the Ming people."
Colonel Solo nodded solemnly, glanced at everyone and said, "Don't worry, everyone."
Here, Li Huan and other generals of the fleet also saw the Portuguese fleet on the sea in the distance. As the distance between the two sides gradually got closer, they could roughly see the distance between the two sides even without a telescope.
The size of the fleet.
Jiang Bin, who was following Li Huan on the expedition, could not help but raise his eyebrows when he looked at the Portuguese fleet coming with sails in the distance, and then said with a bit of surprise: "Hey, why do these Portuguese fleets look so big?
Quite a few.”
You must know that Jiang Bin led his men to fight against Count Sivens and his men before and was chased by the Portuguese fleet for hundreds of miles. Naturally, he had some understanding of the size of the Portuguese fleet.
But now Jiang Bin discovered that something was very wrong with the Portuguese fleet, which had increased in size by at least 30 to 40%.
Jiang Bin immediately informed Li Huan of his discovery, but Li Huan just nodded indifferently.
The size of the Portuguese fleet had increased a lot compared to before, but Li Huan didn't take it to heart. To be honest, in Li Huan's view, dozens more ships or dozens less ships didn't mean anything at all.
With the size of the Ming Dynasty navy he brought this time, the number of the opponent's ships doubled, and Li Huan was fearless.
Looking at the Portuguese fleet that was approaching their fleet at a very fast speed, Zhang Huai couldn't help the excitement in his heart and laughed: "Did you see it, did you see these barbarians coming to your door on your own initiative?"
!”
Originally, Zhang Huai was a little worried that if the Portuguese saw the size of their fleet, they would be so frightened that they would lose the courage to fight and run away with them.
If the Portuguese really escaped, it would not be easy to find him in this vast sea.
A smile appeared on Li Huan's lips, and he said calmly: "Since the other party is seeking death, we will help them later. Send an order to annihilate the Portuguese ships as much as possible later. We must take this opportunity to fight
To inflict heavy damage is to annihilate the opponent."
Li Huan also knew that if the opponent was allowed to escape, it would definitely take more than ten times or even more energy to destroy the opponent. It would be better to take advantage of the opponent not knowing the details of the Ming fleet and severely damage the opponent in one battle.
After entering the sight range, the soldiers on the ships of both sides were all ready. They raised their sails one by one and accelerated towards the other side.
As the two sides gradually approached, they had already entered the range of the bombardment. In an instant, a roar broke out from the Portuguese fleet. With the smoke filling the air, a solid bullet slid through a beautiful arc and hit from the air.
It hit a treasure ship more than ten feet in front of it, causing a splash of water several feet high.
With the power of the artillery currently forged by the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese fleet had actually already entered the range of the artillery, but neither Li Huan nor Zhang Huai had the intention to order the artillery fire.
On the one hand, only a handful of artillery on the ship can shoot that far. Even if they fire early, they may not be able to achieve any results. More importantly, Li Huan wanted to severely damage the Portuguese in the first battle, so in order to avoid alarming the opponent, he scared them away.
On the other side, Li Huan and Zhang Huai chose to get closer before starting the war. In this way, even if the Portuguese sensed something was wrong and wanted to run away, it would be too late.
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