It can be said that when they heard the order to retreat, this small fleet broke out at least twice as fast as when they came, and left this area at a speed that they themselves could not imagine.
sea area.
As expected, people can only burst out of strength in difficult situations! The laziness of the past half month was squandered in these two short hours. Everyone was eager to leave here. In such a high-intensity voyage, they actually never
From top to bottom, no officers or soldiers had any complaints. This was really not a common thing among the arrogant Spanish expeditionary fleet.
The Spanish's arrogance also depends on the target. Their enemy, the Ming Dynasty's naval fleet, had already left a deep impression on them in the last war. Basically, the fleet brought out by Lyon was
They participated in the last battle of Quanzhou. They knew clearly that after being discovered by the enemy's main ships, if they did not get out of the opponent's sight while they still had the distance and speed advantage, they would wait until the opponent
When stuck with the endless small boats in their fleet, they would never have a chance to leave here.
Of course, due to the asymmetry of information, this is still a story about fighting a wolf with two sides. What the Sihai Fleet is afraid of is the Spanish fleet coming in full force, and the Spanish fleet will obviously defeat the Sihai Fleet and the Fujian Navy during the Quanzhou War.
They saw the same thing. Although the strength of the Sihai Fleet's ships and powerful guns left a deep impression on them, they were also deeply impressed by the Fujian Navy's suicide boats that were not afraid of death.
A lesson. What's more terrible is that according to common sense, it is impossible for such a main fleet to be without other escorting ships. They firmly believe that if they retreat a little later, the next moment, their sight will be blocked by those densely packed ships.
The boat is full!
Therefore, Lyon immediately chose to retreat.
The momentary victory or defeat is not important at all! Leon told himself in his heart, thinking that the distant and faintly visible city still had that port, he was convinced that he had found the main port of the Ming Navy, and then the next thing would be very good
Done, those Ming ships that harassed the expedition fleet were nothing to worry about and destroyed their main port. These seemingly powerful Ming battleships were just like eagles without their nests. They no longer
No matter how long it hovers in the sky, sooner or later it will leave the sky and fall to the ground. And at that time, it doesn't take a very shrewd hunter to treat this former king of the sky as a plate of dinner.
"Return, Colonel!"
"Yes, have you marked the return voyage on the chart??" Leon nodded and asked his adjutant. Seeing that the adjutant gave him a positive reply, he slightly nodded: "From now on, your responsibilities are
Just protect this chart until it is delivered to the Commander!"
"I understand the importance of my responsibilities!" The adjutant said very solemnly, with a solemn look on his young face.
"Let's go to Luzon first to avoid the elusive harassing fleet. I don't want the fleet to get this important news delayed because of our encounter with them!"
After a while, Leon determined his route and issued a new order. It's funny to say that for more than half a month, he had been trying to find the harassing fleet and eliminate them, but at this moment, he actually wanted to issue such an order.
This made him lament that things on this battlefield were really unpredictable, and no one knew where the situation would develop until he was right in front of him.
This fleet maintained a high speed until it left the main port of the Ming Navy, which was a full day's voyage away. Moreover, the lookout on the mast made his eyes sore and did not notice that the Ming Navy was pursuing them.
, the entire fleet finally relaxed, and the fleet soldiers and officers who had been in a state of tension finally had laughter on their faces. Everyone thought that this mission was completed.
Next, what awaits them is to return to the port and spend a comfortable vacation.
On warships, drinking is generally prohibited. Unless it is a major festival or victory, fine wine will be taken out to drink. This night, many people took out the fine wine they had secretly hidden and treated it as a gift.
They suppressed their shock and the officers pretended not to have seen it. In fact, when they returned to the officer's cabin, they would just relax like these soldiers.
That night, the atmosphere in the fleet was very peaceful.
However, the good times did not last long. From early the next morning, the fleet seemed to be cursed.
First, a few soldiers lost their footing and fell into the water. Before the companions who rescued them could react, these soldiers disappeared into the bottom of the boat, and then they never appeared again. After this incident spread,
, which made many people in the fleet feel a little depressed. Those guys were really unlucky. Is there any navy in the world that was drowned by seawater while sailing?
Then, at noon, the fleet suddenly discovered that all the compasses in the fleet had lost their function. The needles of the compasses seemed to be spinning wildly and just refused to stop. Of course, they wanted to learn from this crazy compass.
To determine the direction, that is wishful thinking.
However, although there was a slight panic about this matter, it was quickly suppressed. It does not matter if the compass fails. The fleet can still rely on the sun to determine the direction. By referring to the sun during the day and the stars at night, the general direction should not be
mistake.
However, when the sky began to become overcast in the afternoon and a storm seemed to be coming, the commanders of the fleet, including Lyon, began to become a little uneasy and lost their way in the storm. For a group of ships sailing at sea,
All of them knew what the fleet meant, not to mention that it was not surprising that the storm in this season would really last for a day or two.
It was already too late to find a safe haven. Lyon quickly ordered to greatly reduce the distance between the fleets and gather them as much as possible so that no ship in the fleet would be left behind.
At this time, the worst news finally came. On the increasingly rough waves, the lookouts saw what they least wanted to see at this time.
"The enemy fleet was discovered. There are five enemy ships right in front! All of them are main warships!"
"Four fingers to the right, another enemy fleet appears, four enemy main warships! Sir, our fleet is surrounded!"