Chivalry is sometimes very funny, and this era is a period when European chivalry has turned from prosperity to decline, but is far from over. Captain Collina will blurt out and scold Takagi San who has never met him before.
Chivalry, this is not surprising.
However, the reason why the Spanish were furious was not limited to this - it was not that Captain Collina failed to see the combat intention of the opposite Jinghua fleet, on the contrary, it was precisely because he saw it that he became extremely angry.
Because he found that the opponent's tactics were very similar to those of "English pirates who died ten thousand times", especially the famous English pirate Drake who had a confrontation with him.
At that time, Collina was serving in North America and was a first mate. Drake was plundering more than 20,000 pounds of Spanish gold and silver near Noble de Diez on the Isthmus of Panama. Collina's fleet was ordered to pursue him.
suppress.
During the pursuit, they encountered one encounter. Judging from the hard power of both sides, it was obvious that the Spanish fleet was enough to crush Drake's "little broken ship".
However, the fact is that the Spanish fleet was hit by dozens of bullets, and many warships were damaged. Although none of them were sunk, they did look like they had been beaten. On the other hand, Drake's small fleet of broken ships was almost completely injured.
retreat.
What Captain Collina remembers most is Drake's tactics and the long guns equipped on the ship.
At this time, the main operational thinking of the Spanish Navy is "big ships, many soldiers, and engage in boarding battles." There is no need to explain the large number of ships and soldiers, but I want to talk about why Spain is obsessed with engaging in boarding battles - because Spain is not only the maritime hegemon at the moment, but
On land, Spain is also at its peak moment, and Gonzalo's Spanish Grand Formation is more famous than the Swiss mercenaries.
The usual style of the Europeans is to be unreasonable and unforgiving. Since the Spaniards are so good at close combat, they naturally have to maintain this advantage in naval battles, so they are keen to get close and cut directly - of course, this tactic is also easier.
Capture enemy ships and obtain more "fruits of victory".
Drake was obviously well aware of the Spanish's advantages, and the English were not known for their ability to fight hand-to-hand combat, so his privateer fleet was equipped with a particularly large number of long and heavy artillery, and the ratio far exceeded the long and heavy artillery in the Spanish fleet.
With this advantage, the tactics are easier to guess - yes, it is the classic term used by later generations when playing games: kite flying.
Although the ships of your Spanish fleet are big, the bigger they are, the less maneuverable they are. I will let you go around in circles. When I find an opportunity, I will use my range advantage to shoot you a few times. If you want to get closer to me, just keep running.
All in all, in one word, wear yourself down and bleed slowly.
But why is the Spanish fleet obviously much larger in size but disadvantaged in terms of long and heavy artillery? Because at this time the Spaniards have not yet encountered a truly evenly matched opponent, so how to use the newly invented artillery in Europe? They themselves
Their minds were full of confusion. So, the Spaniards decided to give it a try.
As a result, the Spanish ship-borne artillery has become diverse and varied. Whether it is a front-loading heavy main battle artillery aimed at destroying ships, or a breech-loading small artillery aimed at killing people,
The Spaniards piled all the artillery they could find on the ship, quite like "a group of wives and concubines, all wet with rain and dew".
However, they have at least dozens of models of various types of artillery. If you have to classify them, it is not impossible. These artillery, whether heavy or light, can be divided into three main types:
The first is the pot gun, which is an extremely stubby gun, somewhat similar to the perrier, and can be regarded as the predecessor of the mortar, which was originally just some of the guns.
The name of the type;
The second type is the cannon. The cannon family are thick, medium-range artillery pieces. The primary type is the half-cannon. They look like crouching monsters, with a 9-foot-long barrel and a 6-inch gun.
The wide bore can directly fire 32-pound solid bullets. The range varies according to the weight of the shells. It can be regarded as the ancestor of the mortar (carronade) in the 18th century;
The third type is the long gun family, which are the ancestors of the long-range artillery (long gun) in the 18th century.
The Spaniards fully equipped these three types of artillery, but there was obviously something wrong with the matching ratio.
Since the Spanish Navy actually has no national-level military as an opponent, the only threats they face, in addition to the dangers of the ocean itself, are pirates. And early pirates were not all as popularly equipped as Drake's fleet.
Long heavy artillery, usually there are not even a few artillery pieces, and even if they are, they are only some light artillery pieces.
As a result, the Spaniards simply do not have the motivation to equip too many long and heavy guns. Therefore, most of the Spanish fleets are currently only equipped with long and heavy guns on the bow and stern of the ship. The side of the ship, as the part with the largest gun load, is instead equipped with medium-sized guns and
Light cannon - used to flexibly counterattack even when being besieged by pirates.
Putting it this way, Captain Collina's anger is easy to understand at the moment - it's not that he is really stubborn and refuses to engage in a broadside battle with the Jinghua forward fleet without asking any questions, but that he knows how to engage in a broadside battle.
You definitely can't win an artillery battle.
The opponent's fleet has made it clear that almost all of its flanks are long and heavy artillery (actually, not all of them), and the effective range of the artillery has reached an astonishing distance. If he engages in a broadside artillery battle with Jinghua, it would be equivalent to arranging his own posture and waiting for others to ravage him.
In fact, when Collina fired first, he did not expect to achieve any results, but planned to scare the opponent away, thus completing the task assigned by Sir Diego. However, he did not expect that the opponent would obviously occupy the tonnage.
After the artillery attack by our own expulsion formation, which was excellent and had a large fleet behind it that could support it at any time, it not only refused to leave, but actually engaged with itself, and immediately retaliated and started an artillery battle.
Captain Collina didn't know why the other party appeared here, and why he showed such strong aggression. Like some hot-tempered cats, their fur would explode if touched.
But he knew his own situation very well - all the ships were full of goods, and everyone didn't want to fight at all. They just wanted to quickly bring the goods back to the mainland and make a big profit for everyone. Then, whether they were going to the tavern
It is better to go to the J courtyard. In short, we can go wild for a while, until the wind direction changes and we set sail again.
"Damn it, every time we fire a shot, the other side can give us at least five shots in return!" Captain Collina cursed loudly: "Some damn arrogant man should be stuffed into the barrel of a cannon and then 'bang'
Launch it with one blast!"
Everyone around Captain Collina also looked extremely ugly. Only the first mate insisted on his responsibility as the captain's mate and reminded him: "Mr. Captain, after all, the person you mentioned is the secretary of His Majesty the King and the Governor of the Philippines."
Brother, we should maintain due respect for him..."
"Ha, respect?" Captain Corina raised his chin and said proudly: "I am also a knight, my dear first mate. And I am different from him. I am not an illegitimate child. I am born with honorable blood and
Why should I respect an illegitimate child who has become a captain after years of outstanding performance?"
The first mate sighed and smiled bitterly: "Captain, I am just out of professionalism...Okay, Captain, I suggest that we focus on the current battle situation first."
"The current battle situation is clear at a glance." Captain Collina shouted loudly: "The opponent has more long and heavy artillery than we do. If we can't catch up with them and join the battle as soon as possible, we will have no choice but to be beaten! But, gentlemen,
I hope you will observe more carefully - the other party's hard sails may not be strong enough in the stormy Atlantic Ocean, but they are obviously more useful than our sails here!"
Captain Collina put his left hand on his hips and pointed with his right hand at the Jinghua forward fleet that was out of reach. Without any chivalry, he cursed and expressed his point of view: "Gentlemen, you should take a closer look. Now we are vertical.
Downwind, they are transverse and crosswind, and in this case their sails can actually effectively catch the wind!
After fighting for so long, and with continuous shelling from both sides, we are still almost 0.7 nautical miles (about 2.6 miles) away from them! Gentlemen, what does this mean? Let me tell you, this means that if they turn around and escape, we will not be able to escape at all.
I can’t catch up!”
Everyone was stunned, and the first officer thought deeply: "I always feel like I have seen their tactics before..."
"Nonsense, of course you have seen it before. When you were a lookout on the St. Vincent, you saw that damn English bastard Drake using similar tactics!"
The clear-thinking but grumpy Captain Collina said unceremoniously: "And these Ming people's ships have greater advantages than that bastard Drake's ship, and the tactics they implement are more sophisticated and perfect - damn, Casti
There are still people in the country who think that the Ming people are no different from the Aztecs and Incas, and these people should all come to take a beating!"
The first mate smiled bitterly and said: "Captain, it's useless to talk about this now. The current question is: what should we do?"
Collina sneered and said: "The best way is for us to go back and rendezvous with the Grand Fleet. If the opponent wants to fight again, the Grand Fleet will form a ring shape and use all its heavy artillery to attack the enemy. But if we go back now, that bastard will definitely
Put the responsibility on me..."
Before Captain Collina finished speaking, a child who was about 12-13 years old stumbled to the door and loudly reported: "Captain, our mainmast rigging has been chipped by pieces of wood, and it's damaged."
Although Mr. Alcides said that temporary repairs cannot be made, please order it!"
It is not uncommon for half-year-old children to go on ships in Europe. The age of 12-14 is the age that Europeans believe is most suitable for cultivating future naval talents. This training method later became popular in the British Royal Navy.
What's more, some officers were "trained" on ships before they were 12 years old, and there were many powerful figures among them. In the later classic naval battle movie "The Fight", there was a young officer who was much featured, and he also caused some Chinese movie fans didn’t understand and asked, “Why did a child at such a young age become an officer on a ship?”
In fact, the child's official position should be called "cadet midshipman", which translates to "cadet midshipman" or "naval midshipman".
But candidates are candidates, and an officer is an officer. His status is higher than that of the top soldiers. This rank difference will not be smoothed out by age.
The young man who came to report to Captain Collina at this moment is of the same nature, and his background is even more unusual: his father is a count. However, he is the fourth child in the family and cannot inherit the title. You can work in the Navy, but even so, you start as an officer cadet. The starting point is much higher than that of ordinary sailors, and the "upper limit" in the future is also much higher.
Collina actually likes this child, because this child always reminds him of himself more than twenty years ago. However, he seemed to have better luck than this child back then. At least during his teenage years, the Spanish Navy did not seem to appear. A situation where you are hit until you are almost unable to fight back.
"Order: Notify all ships in the formation that the mainmast of the flagship is damaged and cannot maintain speed. In view of the strong firepower of the opponent, continuing to pursue may cause serious damage to the cargo carried by the ships in this formation. Therefore, I will exercise command authority as the formation commander Nominal order: Each ship's original mission of driving away the other's fleet has been completed and will be canceled immediately. From now on, cover the flagship and return to the Grand Fleet."
After hearing this order, everyone else remained silent. Only the first mate hesitated and said: "Captain, if you do this, you may face charges later..."
"Then let them accuse." Captain Corina replied calmly: "I, Carres de Corina, have been in the Navy of the Kingdom of Castile for thirty-one years and have experienced many times. Even I can't remember the small battles clearly. In these thirty-one years of naval career, I have never been afraid of fighting. God can prove my loyalty to His Majesty Charles V and Philip II.
But as a captain, I cannot watch the lives of my boys die in vain, nor can I watch the wealth belonging to His Majesty the King on the ship be buried at the bottom of the sea due to some people's stupidity... I am responsible for my crew and the King's wealth. It's my duty."
The first mate also fell silent.
But the young man couldn't help but ask: "But Captain, what about the glory of Castile?"
Collina looked at the boy who was covered in sea water and oil, walked forward, helped him straighten the crooked hat on his head, and replied calmly: "Perhaps we have won so many victories that everyone has forgotten, The original Castile also failed many times... Teodoro, maybe in the future you will help me restore the glory that Castile has lost today?"
The young man named Teodoro looked into Collina's eyes, nodded vigorously and said: "Yes, Captain, I will."
"Very good, I'm looking forward to that day." Corina exhaled a breath and said loudly again: "Gentlemen, don't be in a daze anymore, immediately convey the order I just gave you!"
As the flagship of the Spanish expulsion formation played a new semaphore, it was announced that this confrontation, which only lasted for about an hour, was coming to an end.
Takagizo on the "Trichogramma" also quickly discovered the changes in the Spanish fleet. He hesitated for a moment and ordered: "Stop the bombardment of each ship, speed up to break away, maintain the distance from the enemy fleet before this battle, and then
Count the losses, step up repairs, and wait for the arrival of the commander's main force."
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