[Correction: In the previous chapter, the Spanish flagship Santiago was 1,000 tons. I was too sleepy yesterday and wrote that wrong.]

The Ming fleet that broke into the fjord was naturally the naval fleet led by Wang Rulong.

The Dragon King was indeed worthy of his reputation. Although there were strong winds and rough waves along the way, the entire fleet suffered very little loss, and all thirty warships entered the Manila Bay intact.

Unlike the advance fleet that quietly entered the village without firing a single shot, the naval fleet began to provoke as soon as it arrived at the bay. They bombarded the observation post on Corregidor Island, waking up the Spaniards in the post. They also fired several Oda City rockets and gave them a fireworks display.

Although all the shots missed the target due to darkness, they had successfully made the Spaniards panic-stricken and they sent a small boat to the cape base to report overnight.

This was Wang Rulong’s purpose. He wanted to divert the Spanish fleet’s attention from the advance fleet to the naval fleet.

So why not just attack directly and suffocate the Spanish fleet to death in the cape base? Because according to intelligence, Cape Sangley is a military port with extremely excellent conditions, and it has been fortified by the Spanish. If the fleet attacks rashly, it will definitely die miserably. Besides, there is no time!

~~

The old king’s arrogant provocation was very effective, and the violent Spanish fleet rushed over with the wind.

Compared with the four giant ships with a displacement of thousands of tons, the warships of the Coast Guard fleet are obviously smaller in size. The largest ones are only about 400 tons. They are simply a group of tiny ones. No wonder the Spaniards look down on them so much.

In naval warfare, bigger is stronger!

Of course, being small also has its advantages, for example, a small ship is easier to turn. Moreover, the sails of those Ming warships were very flexible to operate, and they quickly turned and fled to the northwest beyond the range of the Spanish.

And there, deep in the trumpet-shaped fjord! The Bataan Peninsula will block their way!

"Hahaha! They actually ran into a dead end!" On the Santiago, Commander Bamond laughed loudly and said, "Colonel, what else do you have to worry about?"

"Their number doesn't seem right." Colonel Okende frowned. The flashing white light on the sea greatly interfered with his vision, and he even saw double images in front of his eyes. But he still felt something was wrong. "No matter how I counted, there are not 30 ships."

"Who cares? There are at least twenty of them!" Commander Bamende licked his slightly salty upper lip excitedly and said, "Eat them first!"

So he ordered the fleet to move on.

At around 2 p.m., the Ming fleet, which had already penetrated deep into the fjord, seemed to have finally discovered that the coasts on both sides were getting closer and closer, and the sea was only a dozen kilometers wide.

They hurriedly turned west, apparently hoping to escape the fjord along the Bataan Peninsula.

Seeing the foolish behavior of the Ming people in panic, Bamende laughed and said, "Those country bumpkins from Lisbon were defeated by such a bunch of rubbish. It's really a disgrace to God!"

As he spoke, he shouted, "Change to assault formation and prepare for boarding!"

As the Santiago sent out a signal, the Spanish warships began to reorganize their formation, which had been scattered due to the pursuit, into a single column.

But unlike the Portuguese, they faced the enemy with the bow of their ship rather than the side.

This is because in the Spanish Navy, artillery is only in a subordinate position, a weapon to clear obstacles for boarding battles. Therefore, although they also installed a large number of artillery on the side, most of them are light artillery such as swivel guns and eagle guns used to prevent enemy ships from boarding. Only heavy artillery is installed on the front of the bow, and it is also a half-cannon with limited range but amazing power.

This is also the reason why the Spanish pursued for several hours without firing a single shot. Because their guns were too short-range and could not hit!

This situation was determined by the mission of the Spanish Navy. As the undisputed maritime hegemon of this era, they had an absolute advantage in terms of overall naval strength and warship quality. Therefore, the goal of the Spanish Navy was to destroy all enemy warships.

However, the artillery at that time could hardly meet their requirements in terms of power and hit rate. Only boarding battles could quickly and thoroughly destroy the enemy's warships. Therefore, in the eyes of the arrogant Spaniards, only the cowardly Portuguese and the English pirates who would run away if they couldn't win would rely on artillery.

And they, the powerful Spanish Navy, should always get close to enemy ships and fight on board, using the powerful combat effectiveness of their soldiers to destroy enemy ships!

Three years ago, in the Battle of Lepanto, they defeated the arrogant Ottoman Navy with this tactic. Therefore, their belief in boarding battle became even more firm and unshakable!

Therefore, the Spaniards placed all their chips to decide the outcome on the close-range assault of the ship-borne armored infantry, and would never fire a cannon unless they could use a knife!

This time, of course, is no exception! A man should face it head-on!

On the Santiago, the drums were beaten to prepare for battle. On the large sailing ships, the Spanish armored infantry, wearing round helmets, armor on the upper body, knickerbockers and high leather boots on the lower body, rushed to the forecastle fully armed.

As soon as the gunners fired a few rounds and the battleship rammed the ram into the belly of the enemy ship with a bang, they immediately followed the boarding planks and rushed to the enemy ship to kill everyone!

However, before the gunners could fire, the lookout at the stern of a large sailing ship, the Saint Domingo, suddenly cried out, "There's an enemy ship behind us!"

Immediately afterwards, one warship after another sounded the alarm!

Major General Bamende and Colonel Okende were watching the approaching prey in front of them. When they heard what was said, they turned back in surprise and saw several huge warships appearing behind them!

One, two, three, four, five, six, a total of six huge warships, sailing in a straight column towards the northeast, forming two parallel lines with them on the sea!

"How could the Ming people have such a large warship!" Major General Bamende's face turned pale with shock.

"These are the six missing warships..." Colonel Okende said with sweat pouring down his face. "Four of them are the same size as ours, and the other two are much larger than us. These are the real main forces of the Ming people. The previous ones were just baits to lure us here!"

As people from the Ming Dynasty said, the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Now they are the ones who can't escape!

What really made him collapse was that the Ming warship was facing its own stern with its starboard side! The tightly closed gun windows opened almost at the same time, pushing open the dark muzzles!

"Their tactics are indeed the same as the Portuguese, and they have much more artillery..." Okende's heart sank and he almost fell to the ground.

~~

The huge warship with the hull number '01', its bow cut through the sea like a sharp blade, the waves rolled, white foam splashed, and its appearance alone revealed an unrivaled powerful momentum. This is the most powerful warship in the Coast Guard Fleet, and it is also the basis for Jiangnan Group to control the sea power of the Ming Dynasty!

Ship 01 is a full-size new battleship built by Jiangnan Shipyard. The shipyard named it the "Kunpeng Class" battleship. It is also the first ship of this type. It and its sister ship 02 were both designed by Yang Fan, the top ship designer in the Ming Dynasty.

In order to build such a warship, Ainu woodcutters cut down a total of 2,000 large oak trees aged 80 to 120 years. After these precious logs were roughly cut on Ainu Island, they were transported to the timber yard in Tamra by the transport ship of the Tamra Chamber of Commerce. They were dried in the shade for two years under the strong subtropical sea breeze, and then sent to the timber processing plant to be processed into uniform specifications according to the drawings.

The wood was transported back to the Jiangnan Shipyard by royal shipping, and after being finely processed by the shipyard's carpenters, it was finally sent to the slipway and became part of the battleship.

In order to save time, Zhao Hao brazenly ordered the shipyard to start building two Kunpeng ships at the same time. This was extremely risky, because a "Kunpeng-class" ship would consume nearly 100,000 cubic meters of wood and tens of millions of man-hours! If the construction failed, the loss would be hundreds of thousands of taels of silver!

Yang Fan gritted his teeth and accepted this arduous challenge. He lived and ate on the slipway with the technicians and boat workers, worked hard day and night, and finally completed the construction of the two huge ships after three years.

The Kunpeng-class battleship is 52 meters long, 12 meters wide, and has a displacement of approximately 1,300 tons. In the oceans of this era, it is already one of the largest battleships.

Only in the Atlantic Ocean can you see warships of similar size. And those huge ships are the symbol of Spanish royal power! Proof of the Habsburg dynasty's dominance over the world!

However, the Kunpeng battleship does not look that big, because Yang Fan adopted a more streamlined design, boldly canceling the forecastle and greatly reducing the height of the stern.

Because of the addition of watertight compartments, the Kunpeng class only has a double-deck full-length gun deck, with 28 Hongwu cannons installed on the lower deck, 40 Yongle cannons and Hongxi cannons installed on the upper deck, plus the cannons on the bow and poop, a total of 74 main guns were installed! The fierce firepower far exceeds that of the three-deck battleships of this era.

For example, the Santiago only had 24 main guns installed, and the Santo Domingo had only 20 guns...

The combined firepower of four Spanish galleons is equivalent to that of a 01 ship.

In addition to the two Kunpeng-class ships, the battle line also includes four thousand-ton cruisers with 60 guns...

~~

"Hahahaha!" A laughter even more arrogant than that of Major General Bambamende sounded in the wheelhouse of Ship 01.

"When has our Wang ever fought such a prosperous war?!" Wang Rulong, holding his sword in both hands, stood proudly behind the porthole, looking at the gilded and carved butts of the Spanish sailing ships and swallowed his saliva.

"Xiang Xuehai, order the artillery to fire and blow all their ass up!"

"Yes!" Xiang Xuehai quickly prepared to raise the signal flag.

"If one of them escapes, I'll send you back to Tong Zigong for retraining, so that you won't be able to fart loudly in the future!" Wang Rulong glanced at Xiang Xuehai's buttocks with a strange smile.

Xiang Xuehai could not help but clench his buttocks. He knew that Wang Rulong would keep his word. He felt secretly terrified. It seemed that his drunken talk had probably reached Wang's ears...

"Aim at the stern and fire with all your might!" Xiang Xuehai rushed out of the wheelhouse and yelled at the officers and soldiers. "If you don't blow up their stern, you'll be beaten to death by Director Tong!"

This is called pressure transmission downward, and finally reaches the gunner's buttocks. For their own safety, they are very alert, use the sight to adjust the shooting angle, and fire at the stern of the enemy ship!

p.s. I will write one more update.