After a while, a light blue hot air balloon rose from the deck of Kaiyuan, with a big "Kai" character written on it.
The fog on the sea surface is very low, so it does not affect the view from high up to the sea surface, nor does it affect the view from the sea surface to high up.
The rising sun, which had not yet risen above the sea level, shone its rays on the balloon, making it very eye-catching in the sky.
Soon, enemy and friendly warships near and far saw the ball that suddenly appeared in the sky.
"What is that?" The Spaniards looked up.
"The moon?"
"Idiot, don't you see there are words on it?!"
On the San Felipe, looking at the thing that was obviously put into the sky by the enemy, the Marquis of Santa Cruz's face turned very ugly.
Well, he hasn't looked good since the war started.
To be honest, he didn't sleep all night last night, and he kept reviewing the mistakes in this battle. As a commander who shoulders the fate of the empire, he could not forgive himself at all. He lost most of the army before he could figure out the situation.
The result of the review was that I did not make any major mistakes from beginning to end.
But this feeling was even worse. It reminded him of the Aztecs conquered by Cortes, the Mayans conquered by Montejo, and the Incas conquered by Pizarro.
The South American natives did nothing wrong, but they were easily destroyed by them.
When the gap between the two sides is too big, it doesn't matter whether you make mistakes or not. What does it matter to you if I destroy you?
So when I see something that is beyond my understanding appear, this feeling of powerlessness becomes even stronger.
He quickly opened the telescope to observe the flying ball carefully. Suddenly, he thought numbly that this telescope was also one of them...
The way we fought this battle was really wrong. It was a huge mistake!
Governor Francis also heard the noise and went up to the poop.
"Sir, what is that?" Francis asked, his hands on the awning.
"I still want to ask you something." The Marquis handed him the telescope and said, "It seems that there is someone up there."
"Ah?" Francis quickly took a look, and damn, it really was Niu Boyi!
The Marquis was no longer interested in hearing his answer, because it was obvious that he didn't know...
Suddenly catching sight of his well-informed secretary, who looked thoughtful, the Marquis asked, "Cervantes, have you seen that thing?"
Cervantes, the skinny middle-aged man with a goatee and a disabled left hand, bowed and said, "I haven't seen it, but I seem to have heard of it. After I was captured by the Berbers, I was sold to the Ottoman Governor's Palace in Algiers. There I heard that the Ming people had a kind of flying ball on their ships, which could see a hundred leagues away with a telescope. Well, maybe not that far, but it must be very far..."
"Oh my God." The Marquis' face turned pale and he said, "Doesn't that mean we have been discovered?"
"It should be." Cervantes nodded and said, "Did you see it? There is a rope under the flying ball, which is connected to their warship, so the flying ball is the eyes of the commander below."
Francis' heart tightened when he heard this, and he remembered that he had heard of this thing too.
"God, why didn't you tell me such important news earlier?!" Governor Francis quickly complained to Cervantes. He was naturally very skilled in the traditional skill of passing the buck.
"Who would believe such a thing if I told them?" Cervantes scratched his head and said, "You would say I am crazy and take fantasy seriously."
Francis nodded secretly. He finally remembered that he thought the rumor was too ridiculous at the time and did not take it seriously.
"Go ahead and destroy that ship! We can't let the Ming people keep track of the movements of our fleet!" the Marquis ordered in a deep voice.
~~
In the basket of the hot air balloon in the sky, in addition to the two investigators, there was also a Wang Rulong.
Lao Wang ignored all the advice and went up to the sky himself, not just to take a look.
The two Beidou team members in the basket, after observing and recording the current distribution positions of the warships of both sides, compiled the information into the 'Beidou code'.
The other one used a mirror to reflect sunlight and transmitted the code through three different signals: long, short, and interval.
This was not sent to the Kaiyuan. The handwritten information was sent down the rope as soon as possible.
This was transmitted to the Coast Guard warship in the distance.
Most of the coast guard warships that arrived at the entrance of the strait received this signal.
On the Chengsheng Wanli, on the Wanren, on the Yitian, on the Zhanlu, on the Sea Wolf...
Countless mast lookouts stared at the reflection in the sky and took notes on paper with pencils.
Once a piece of paper was filled, it was quickly passed on and translated quickly by the intelligence staff before being sent to the commander on board.
The paper was full of numbers and phonetic symbols, but the coast guard captains could understand them clearly.
For example, '3, 0, 1ㄓ, 2ㄑ, 6ㄉ' on a certain line means - to make a plane rectangular coordinate system with the position of the hot air balloon, or the Kaiyuan as the origin, due south to due north as the vertical axis, and due west to due east as the horizontal axis.
The first two numbers are the coordinates, which can easily locate the specific location. The phonetic symbol ㄓ represents a battleship, ㄑ represents a destroyer, and ㄉ represents an enemy ship.
That is to say, in the sea three kilometers to the east, there is one of our battleships, two destroyers, and six enemy ships.
By sending signals line by line like this, the enemy and friendly forces' distribution situation can be clearly conveyed to each ship.
After checking each one of them, the coast guard commanders in the fog were shocked to find that their side was completely mixed up with the Spaniards, and in a very concentrated manner.
It is really incredible that nearly two hundred ships are gathered in a circular area with a radius of 10 kilometers at the mouth of the strait.
Then something even more awesome came——
The commander-in-chief, Wang Rulong, began to give orders to each ship personally!
'Wanren Sansan!'
After receiving the order, Xiang Xuehai immediately ordered to head towards the coordinate area.
Sure enough, after sailing for less than a kilometer, we unexpectedly encountered a huge ship.
It was unclear which ship it was, but Xiang Xuehai knew it was the target chosen by Lao Wang.
He ordered all ships to remain silent and approach the other ship from the stern.
When the two sides were two hundred meters apart, the lookout had already seen clearly that it was indeed a Spanish galleon!
Xiang Xuehai waited patiently until the Wanren approached another hundred meters before he gave the order to open fire!
The rumbling of the cannon announced the arrival of the final battle. More than thirty orange flames spewed out at the same time, and only one round of salvos severely damaged the thousand-ton galleon "The Great Smile".
Immediately afterwards, the sound of artillery fire rang out throughout the strait. It was the sound of the battleships under the command of Wang Rulong discovering their respective prey and beginning to slaughter at close range.
Then the cannon fire became more frequent, and the frightened Spanish warships also began to fire in the air in panic. As a result, they turned themselves into targets.
~~
This was a trick that Wang Rulong had practiced repeatedly during the combined fleet's training in Yongxia Bay. How could he not use it in his final performance?!
Since being abducted by Zhao Hao to the Coast Guard, Lao Wang's military career has ushered in a magnificent second spring.
However, he still has three unfulfilled wishes that keep him from retiring. One is that he has not waited until the day when the Coast Guard is renamed the Navy; the second is that he has not yet dethroned the world's strongest navy; and the third is that he hopes to be in the sky, commanding the ships to fight a naval battle accurately and have a good time.
The first two are easy to understand, but the third one is because although he served as the commander in every important naval battle, he was limited by the communication conditions at sea and could not adjust the formation and mobilize the troops in time according to the ever-changing battlefield like the commander of the land battle.
In naval battles, unless the battle lines are arranged in a rigid manner, once the battle begins, it is basically up to the captains to play freely. Therefore, it is always impossible to perfectly implement the battle plan and achieve the battle objectives, which makes Lao Wang feel unsatisfied every time.
Therefore, in this final battle, he must put a perfect end to his military career!
“Hahaha, it’s so enjoyable!”
Lao Wang was in the sky, using the Surigao Strait as a chessboard, commanding his battleships like playing chess, while annihilating the blind Spaniards, and arranging the formation to block their escape route.
He looked down at the ships running wildly and crashing into each other under his command, and the effect was surprisingly good. Now when the fog dissipates, the red-haired ghosts will not be able to fly away even if they have wings!
Wang Rulong couldn't help but feel very relieved, feeling that he had finally fulfilled his wish.
"Commander-in-chief, at 4 o'clock!" Suddenly, a scout said in a hurry: "A Spanish galleon is coming towards us!"
"There is also a ship at 6 o'clock!" another investigator also reported.
"Two ships at 8 o'clock!"
"At 11 o'clock, a ship..." The two scouts reported alternately: "Commander-in-chief, five enemy ships are rushing towards us at the same time!"
"Why are you panicking? This is certain." Wang Rulong had expected this and said, "Even a fool can see that we are the ones in charge of this wave."
He smiled slyly and said, "For the Spanish, this is their last chance to save the situation. They will definitely attack the Kaiyuan. If I were their commander, I would not be able to resist going out myself."
"Should we call for backup?" asked a scout.
"No need." Wang Rulong said calmly: "Each ship has its own mission, don't cause trouble for them."
As he stretched his muscles, he said, "What's the big deal about five ships? The Kaiyuan can handle it!"
Then Wang Rulong gave an order in a deep voice: "Inform all ships that the communication has ended."
After a pause, he added: "One more thing, salute the birth of the King of the Seven Seas!"
"Yes!" The investigators were all young men, and their blood immediately boiled with excitement!
"Salute the birth of the King of the Seven Seas!"
By the time this somewhat naive order spread throughout the coast guard fleet, the rumbling sound of artillery became more frequent and intense.
It also sounded the death knell for the fall of the old king...
p.s. I can only finish it tomorrow... I will definitely finish it tomorrow! Yeah, this time I'm sure!