The Ming Dynasty officially called Nanyang the South China Sea in later generations, and coastal merchants called it Wanli Shitang. Looking from the air on the west side of Wanli Shitang, Luzon is like a broken jade pendant, occupying the core of the Western Pacific. Xiao Chongye and Xie Jie
Before entering Manila Bay, I kept admiring it in front of the sea map. It can be said that this place is an excellent barrier to the southeastern hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. If viewed from the perspective of the world, it is truly the foundation of all nations.
Xie Jie slid his finger under the sea map, pointed at Manlajia and said: "My Lord Liu Shouyou once conveyed the emperor's strategy, saying that now the world is fighting, and the great fight is over the sea. Now that the imperial court has restored Annan, if Luzon is mine,
, then all the stone ponds thousands of miles away will become the inner lakes of the Ming Dynasty, and if we capture Manlajia, China will never have any maritime troubles."
Xiao Chongye looked around the map and nodded in admiration. Then he pointed to the waterway marked "Xuchen Strait" in the north and asked: "This gorge seems to be closer to the capital than Manlajia." [Note 1]
Xie Jie smiled and said: "This gorge, together with the North Sea, is frozen all year round. Even when it is not frozen, there is a lot of broken ice, which is like icebergs and cannot be navigable." Seeing Xiao Chongye nodding in praise, Xie Jie showed envy and said:
"People from the west of this gorge have not yet arrived. The cartographer once speculated that there must be a strait in the area, and it was once called Yani'an Gorge. The year before last, Xu Chen, who had worked as a map director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, explored and verified it. The emperor used it
Naming the name is also a rare honor for the Xu family - newspapers in both Beijing and Beijing reported it, but Mr. Xiao may not have noticed."
Xiao Chongye shook his head and said with a smile: "I can't envy you. In such a dangerous place, you have to pay for this honor with your life. Speaking of which, what does 'have done something for you' mean?"
Xie Jie smiled bitterly and said: "This Xu Chen's ancestor was a great craftsman and shipbuilder just like Xie Dunqi. He once followed the Sanbao eunuch to explore the Western Ocean. Rumor has it that his family has a self-made sea map made by his ancestor. A few years ago, he resigned from office and joined the Jin Dynasty.
He led the fleet to travel north and south, helping the princes to explore the geography. It is said that the annuity is 10,000 taels of silver, but I don't know whether it is true or not."
Xiao Chongye took a breath of the salty sea breeze when he heard this, and looked at Xie Jie. Thousands of words seemed to burst out from where their eyes met, but they fell into a strange silence.
Then Xiao Chongye changed the subject and said: "The Western cartographer's guess was quite accurate. How could he guess that there was really a strait there?"
Xie Jie nodded in agreement and said with a smile: "I guess it is based on the analysis of the coldness and warmth of the ocean currents. The reason why the Westerners call Zhongzhou Asia is the reason why the Asian Gorge is named. I heard what Xu Qian said, on this side of the strait, I have my back.
Facing Beishan, you can see Kuwu Island in the distance; on the other side of the strait, although it is a land of ice and snow, it does not look like a big island, but like a continent. However, it is still thousands of miles away from Kuwu Island, and there are many icebergs - it is not easy to reach.
"
Xiao Chongye looked at this huge sea map, stared blankly for a long time, and then said: "From this point of view, this world is not very big. From the west of the Ming Dynasty to New Spain, it is all the sea?"
Xie Jie smiled bitterly and said: "We can't know this. Take Xu Chen as an example. If he hadn't traveled north, who would have known that there was a continent on the other side of Beishan? Now there is a vast ocean, and there may be a continent or a big island in it.
, but it has not been discovered yet - although what Xu Chen discovered is a bitter cold place, the princes who sponsored him already have the right to develop the mineral deposits for seventy years. If there are gold mines and silver mountains, he can still make a fortune."
The topic strangely returned to the point of "making a fortune". The two angels soon stopped talking, and the captain's room fell into silence. At this time, Xie Sanmou's voice came: "Two adults, Manila Bay has arrived."
If Greater Luzon is like a broken jade pendant, the shape of Manila Bay is like a spoon head facing north. Before the Ming Dynasty sealing fleet entered Manila Bay, the general direction was south, taking advantage of the monsoon to enter Manila Bay.
After passing the mouth, the general direction turned to the north, and the ship's speed suddenly slowed down.
There are observation towers of the Manila authorities on both sides of the trumpet. Seeing the blockade fleet entering the inland waters of Manila Bay, a speedboat was sent back to report the news. At the same time, a clipper sailed out from the dock on the shore to meet the blockade ship.
The fleet is coming.
This time the sealing ship was sent to Ryukyu for a voyage of only two days and nights, so it did not bring any supply ships. The voyage from Ryukyu to Luzon was only three days and nights, so all the escorts for the sealing ship were warships.
Therefore, there was no hostility. The sealing ship took the lead among the four ships. The other warships were all Fubo-class warships. Two were protected on the wings and one was behind.
Seeing the clippers on the opposite side facing the sealing ship, the fleet commander Qi Zuoguo, who was standing on the command platform of the sealing ship, hurriedly signaled, and the warship Shandong on the right accelerated forward and blocked the sealing ship - this is what it should be, although the sealing ship
It has the most powerful combat capability, but the envoys and commanders are on this ship, so they cannot face the incoming ship directly.
The Shandong moved forward, facing the incoming ship with its bow, without tilting its sides to show hostility - the bow gun jackets were not untied, and the side gun windows were not lowered.
However, Qi Zuoguo, who was dealing with foreign navies for the first time, overlooked one point: the naval warfare method with broadside as the main firepower output had not been practiced in actual combat, and it was not the mainstream of naval warfare at this time. The main combat method of the Spanish Navy was still the corner attack and jumping gang combat.
Artillery is not the main weapon, so the way to show that one's side is not hostile is still the rule passed down by the "Laws of Rhodes" in the ninth century AD: drive to the right of the incoming ship, that is, the bow of the ship points to the left of the incoming ship's personnel.
What is even more speechless is that the semaphore soldiers on the observation deck of the Shandong still followed the domestic drills, waved their flags at the opponent, and played a series of semaphores - this thing was only "invented" by the French more than 70 years ago in the original time and space.
Nowadays, unless simple flag signals are agreed upon in advance, the Spanish basically rely on shouting for maritime communications.
And China has long had a flag language, "Sun Tzu's Art of War. Military and Political Chapter": "If you don't hear each other, it's a golden drum; if you don't see each other, it's a flag." The first lesson of the ancient Chinese in the army was basically not a queue, but a whole group of people.
It is the teaching of the Golden Drum Flag - there is no way to train without knowing the Golden Drum Flag.
Since the "Nanjing Daily" published the phonetic notation, all Chinese characters can be expressed with 63 sounds and finals. Therefore, the flag language on the Ming Dynasty has evolved to express very complete and accurate meanings, which greatly strengthened fleet command capabilities and mutual cooperation.
s level.
It was a pity that the flag carriers on the Fubo ship danced in a convulsive manner, which was all pretty and charming for the blind man to see. When the ship on the opposite side saw the Ming Dynasty's approaching ship, it had no intention of ducking to its left, so it concluded that it must be hostile.
Later generations of historians have repeatedly studied the Spanish ship's motivation for firing the first shot - whether it was due to the arrogance of the commander or the nervousness of the gunners has been impossible to verify.
Anyway, at that time, Qi Zuoguo first saw a puff of white smoke coming out of the opponent's ship, and then heard a thunderous explosion, and a black iron ball with a strange whistle sound fell into the sea in front of the Shandong.