Commander Silva is worthy of being a commander of the Spanish Navy, and his plan is obviously based on his previous experience in fighting English pirates.
Sailing on the sea is different from human actions. You can advance at will and retreat at will. Especially in the Fengfan era, turning a ship requires a series of extremely complex operations, and the steering angle is so large that it is even more difficult to turn around.
Not only does it require cumbersome operations, but more importantly, it is also quite time-consuming.
Commander Silva judged from observation that the speed of the "Left Cavalry" was faster than his own fleet, so he believed that it was impossible to pursue it. But this situation was not unfamiliar to him. He was in the Caribbean
While serving in the region, he encountered pirate ships running faster than his warship many times, and he gradually learned and figured out some corresponding countermeasures.
As an outstanding nobleman and a dedicated Royal Navy officer, he even put himself in the shoes of the pirates and studied the tactics of the pirates in order to find ways to deal with the pirates' harassment and robbery.
Any campaign to capture prey begins with the discovery of prey. To achieve this goal, pirates mainly use two methods - using confirmed intelligence, or searching freely.
In the first case, after obtaining from their spies the necessary information about the movement of a ship carrying valuables, the pirates go to sea and set up an ambush in a suitable place to intercept it. This method is the most effective
Effective because surprise attacks always demoralize enemy crews.
Silva believes that this is not the reason why the Jinghua battleship appeared here and encountered his own fleet. The reason is not complicated: although the Big Treasure Fleet sails at a relatively consistent time every year (because of the need to consider ocean currents and wind directions), it stands to reason that
As the largest merchant in Manila, the other party must be able to determine the arrival time of the big treasure fleet, but something unexpected happened this year, and his departure time was more than 20 days later than in previous years.
If he said that the Jinghua battleship had been waiting for him at sea for more than 20 days, Silva would never believe it. What's more, he had already judged that there was a "Ming Dynasty fleet" behind this ship. It was impossible for the entire fleet to be there.
Waited at sea for more than twenty days, right? From this point of view, it should not be an ambush in advance.
In addition to relying on intelligence to set up ambushes, pirates also often used the method of "free hunting". The Caribbean was a lively business area in this era, and it was not too difficult to detect traces of merchant fleets or solo ships.
After all, although the sea is vast and boundless, there are actually navigation channels for sailing ships. These channels are all "roads" that have been forged, and they are safe and fast. Regular ships will definitely choose to use navigation channels.
When the pursuit begins, the pirates almost always win in this pursuit because their ships are lighter, more flexible, and faster. Of course, generally speaking, pirates rarely attack large treasure fleets.
Usually we choose ordinary merchant ships or lone treasure ships.
In addition, pirates strictly adhere to a series of rules that can help them succeed in battle.
First, they always managed to approach the pursued ship from upwind, a practice that gave them great maneuverability before the battle began. Once a firefight occurred, the wind would blow the smoke of gunpowder and fire to the enemy's side.
Go, this will cause trouble for the enemy's firing and sailing operations.
Secondly, the pirates try their best to attack the enemy ship from the stern, because in this case, only the stern gun can fire at them. In order to let the ship's broadside gun also engage in the battle, the enemy must turn the ship around, and during this time
, the pirates had time to get close to the enemy ship.
In addition to these main rules, pirates also used many other methods to win naval battles. For example, they always had spare oars on their ships, which allowed them to sail a certain distance away from the enemy in calm weather.
, and within this distance, the enemy's artillery fire will most likely not cause any losses to the pirates - because even for light artillery using grape bullets, the interval between the firing of two shells is very long, so the enemy will
After firing once, there may not be time to reload the gun.
What Commander Silva didn't know was that although Jinghua's high-speed reconnaissance ship did not have a spare propeller, the design concept was the same as the "spare propeller", and it was even a standing, more advanced propeller.
Let’s continue talking about pirates. After catching up with an enemy ship, the pirates use hooks and “cat claws” to hook its stern. The first thing to do is to try their best to jam the rudder of the attacked ship. After losing maneuverability
, it will become an easy trophy for the pirates. They board its deck and inner cabin and start a boarding battle.
Pirates often use various tricks during their operations. For example, before engaging in a boarding battle, that is, when they are only a few meters away from the enemy ship, the pirates who were originally hiding behind the high side of the ship will be more vulnerable.
He shouted and stood up, pretending to attack.
However, they immediately hid again, and the enemy shooters, angered by these actions, had already fired a volley. Due to the reloading time, this was equivalent to self-disarming. The enemy did not have time to reload the muskets.
, the pirates took advantage of this and turned into a real attack.
This is what pirates do when they suddenly encounter other ships at sea: without hesitation, they immediately hoist on the mast the flag of the country to which the encountered ship belongs.
According to the law of the sea, the other side should fire a salute in response to this gesture, so the other side's captain did the same, firing the shells in his own cannon in vain. The pirates assessed the situation and either rushed forward to engage in a boarding battle, or
Continue on the original route.
[Note: The "Law of the Sea" mentioned in this passage is not a specific law, but such as the Italian "Law of the Sea" from the 7th to the 9th century, the "Amalfi Table" from the 10th century, and the "Oni" from the 12th century.
It is a default law that evolved from the "rules" familiar to European navigators such as the "Law of the Sea" in the 14th century and the "Collection of Maritime Laws" in the 14th century. The real "Law of the Sea" should only begin to be determined by international treaties after the 19th century.
]
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! One of the characteristics of a pirate ship is its large crew. This is due to tactical requirements, because Silva has long understood that boarding is the main tactic of pirates. It requires a large number of
soldiers, so although the pirates had to endure all kinds of inconveniences and exercise self-restraint, they still tried their best to bring as many people on board as possible before each expedition.
However, they are never redundant - the losses in boarding battles sometimes amount to almost half of the ship's crew, so the pirates will never be dissatisfied with the number of people.
The above-mentioned characteristics often displayed by pirates also made Silva more convinced that the warship flying the book sword flag in front of him was not a pirate.
It challenged the treasure fleet with a single ship, which was not in line with the habit of pirates to fight with more and less; it did not have the upper hand, and was almost in a headwind. If it were not a Chinese-style hard-sailed warship, it would be considered powerful if it could run 3 knots;
Although it made a move to approach the fleet, it did not continue to approach with all its strength after calibrating the firing. It seemed that it preferred to be at a relatively safe distance and rely on the advantage of its long and heavy artillery to fly a kite; it did not change itself.
Instead of using the flag on the ship, he used a strong semaphore to express his identity without hesitation.
Various performances prove that this is a warship with an official nature. Whether this official represents the Empire is unclear for the time being, but it at least represents the current dominant maritime force in the South China Sea in its tough words against Castile.
The Asian navy said that it even issued a war warning.
Oh, it wasn't just a warning, it even launched a range of artillery fire. For Commander Silva, this was a knife that had been stretched out in front of him.
Silva has both studied and seen the fighting methods of pirates. Regarding the high-speed battleship in front of him, he believes that it is very similar to a pirate ship. Although its combat method seems completely different from that of a pirate ship, one thing is certain.
: When your own side has no speed advantage, if the opponent is determined to escape, then you really have nothing to do.
However, it cannot be said that there is nothing that can be done against such an enemy. When a pirate ship faces a treasure ship, unless it is unable to fight, it will definitely keep a close eye on them until they find a flaw.
The same should be true for the Jinghua battleship in front of me. It will not give up the "search" just because it leads the team to Manila. It will definitely bite hard and not make it easy for itself.
Silva knew the tactics he was going to adopt. When he was pretending to go to Manila, the fleet and the Jinghua battleship behind him should not be in a file, that is, they should not use the stern of the ship to face its bow, but should run in an arc.
, let your fleet be at an angle with them.
When the degree of the oblique angle became smaller and smaller, the treasure fleet, which had been prepared for a long time, suddenly increased its efforts to turn, put up full sail and accelerated, approaching the Jinghua battleship. At this time, the treasure fleet also had to form a group outflanking posture, allowing the enemy ships to ignore it.
No matter which direction you turn, you won't be able to break out of the encirclement in time.
Silva's move was indeed somewhat beyond Luo Yuan's expectations. He discovered through the telescope that the Spanish treasure fleet, which had been approaching menacingly just now, actually turned away without hesitation after a round of calibrated shots by himself.
This action surprised him: Although the Spanish treasure ship was named "Treasure Ship", it sounded like a simple cargo ship, but in fact it was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
That was a 1,200-ton military Galen. In the words of the master, they were "capable of running rampant among hordes of pirate ships" in the distant Americas. They were definitely not helpless transport ships.
More importantly, the Spanish military Galen is no secret to Jinghua. Jinghua and many Daming maritime merchants have seen their fleet in Manila Port and the dozens of cannons on their ships. It can be said that , the firepower of these six large treasure ships is far more powerful than that of his "Light Cavalry", especially the close combat artillery, which is stronger on more than one level.
In this case, the other party actually backed out without saying anything?
Luo Yuan couldn't help but sneered: "I came to lure the enemy, but he also wants to lure me? Huh, it's interesting. It seems that the master is far-sighted. The Spaniards are indeed not comparable to the pirates we faced in the past. I even doubt that, They were even more powerful than the Portuguese during the naval battle off Bondulang."
The naval battle off Bondurang was when Gao Jing was exploring the sea outside Champa in southern Annam. He encountered the Folangji fleet flying the flag of the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar. The other party put up a threatening posture for unknown reasons. , a naval battle broke out to force Gao Jing's fleet away from the sea area where the incident occurred.
In this naval battle, Gao Jing did not gain much advantage. One armed transport ship was sunk, one was severely damaged and abandoned, and many others were damaged. However, the other side did not gain much either. Four warships suffered heavy losses, and one more ship was damaged. The ship surrendered after being surrounded.
Later, the battle report was submitted to Gao Jingshi, who still gave Gao Jing the victory. But in fact, Gao Jingshi tended to think that his fleet performed slightly worse than the Portuguese, just because the fleet led by Gao Jing at that time had a relatively obvious numerical advantage. ——He had more than 20 large and small ships at the time, while the opponent only had seven large ships and no small ships—so in the end it was the Portuguese who took the lead in evacuating the sea area where the incident occurred.
Jinghua, especially within the Liangyang Fleet and the two major shipyards in the north and south, has studied this battle many times. The overall view is that the Portuguese are skilled in naval warfare, and have very sufficient experience in "fighting more with less", and they are also very capable of using it. The advantage of our own battleship is that it is a difficult enemy to deal with.
But now Luo Yuan meets the Spanish treasure fleet, and he can tell from just one encounter that it is more difficult to deal with the fleet than the Portuguese. This difficulty is not only due to the opponent's military Gallen than the Portuguese. The ships at that time were larger, stronger, and more difficult to detect, and the commanders on the other side knew they were quite experienced.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Luo Yuan even thinks that the other party may have seen through his mission to lure the enemy, which is even more powerful. Of course, Luo Yuan does not know that Silva is there When the Atlantic route was messed up, I was used to the tactics of pirates, and I was extremely sensitive to high-speed ships like the "Light Cavalry".
The first mate of the "Light Cavalry" couldn't help but become a little worried when he heard what he said, and asked: "Captain, should we pursue him?"
This time Luo Yuan did not answer immediately, but thought for a moment before saying: "Chase, but don't be in a hurry. Let's chase a little slower. When we get some distance away, our semaphore can be seen on the 'Dengzhou' but not the Spaniards." When the Dengzhou arrives, report the situation to the Dengzhou first, and then catch up."
The first mate asked: "How to report?"
"It's just that the other side is very cautious. I'm afraid they have seen through our strategy of luring the enemy." Luo Yuan said in a deep voice: "My ship recommends that the Dengzhou immediately send a signal to the rest of the formation and ask them to advance at full speed to outflank. Our ship will take the initiative
Step forward and hold your opponent back."
The first mate was stunned for a moment and said hesitantly: "Is it okay for me to go aboard and fight with them?"
"Why, are you scared of six against one?" Luo Yuan squinted his eyes and glanced at the Spanish treasure fleet in the distance, and snorted: "We have to take advantage of our speed and blast around the Spaniards, hitting them.
Although it is good to hit, missing the target may also anger them.
As long as we suddenly slow down for a while during the fight, the Spaniards will definitely think they have an opportunity, and then rush towards us to capture our ship. At that time... it will depend on how good our engineer brothers are.
.
As the old saying goes, wealth can only be gained through risk. Now that the other party is so cautious, how can we succeed if we don't take some risks? I can't bear to let the child trap the wolf. I don't believe that the other party is so angry that I have harassed them like that. Could it be that they
Are you a bastard?"
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