That night, the escort fleet led by Colonel Tiago arrived at Cape Maisi, the easternmost tip of Cuba.

There is a navigation lighthouse at Cape Maisi, 77 kilometers from Haiti. On a clear night, you can even see the lighthouse at the westernmost corner of Haiti from this lighthouse.

These two lighthouses are the most important marks of the Windward Channel. The escort fleet will sail to the midpoint of the two lighthouses, then turn south and sail south with the wind until it reaches the Strait of Jamaica.

If you turn too early, you will be blown by the northeast wind to the east coast of Cuba, and you will need to work hard to adjust your course. If you turn too late, of course, you will waste time!

Captain Tiago had been on duty in the Caribbean Sea for nearly 20 years and had rich sailing experience, so he certainly would not make such a low-level mistake. At 8 o'clock that night, he gave the flagship's operating captain, Lieutenant Colonel Aguero, an order to maintain a night speed of one league and turn at dawn.

Legua was a unit of length on the Iberian Peninsula during the Age of Discovery, also known as the sili, equivalent to 5572.7 meters.

As for the operating captain, he is usually a civilian and often has to spend his entire service on a ship. He is actually responsible for the navigation, supply and maintenance of the entire ship.

Obviously, the Spanish high-ranking officials also knew that they could not rely on the nobles alone. Sailors often say that we can do without a captain, but we cannot do without a captain of the ship.

They were the nannies and scapegoats of the noble officers, just like poor Colonel Okende to Major General Bamond. So after giving the orders, Colonel Tiago could rest assured and entertain the ship's tax collectors, inspectors and notaries in his luxurious and spacious stern restaurant, and have a good discussion with these ship's bureaucrats who represented the interests of the king on how to smuggle private goods, evade taxes, and fleece the royal family.

Spanish nobles were keen on all-night banquets, and the banquet lasted until about three in the morning. By the time the drunken colonel went to bed with the help of his adjutant, it was already past four o'clock.

Amid the colonel's thunderous snoring, Aguero commanded the huge fleet of forty ships to complete the turn.

Shortly after the fleet entered the Windward Strait, the lookout suddenly blew a whistle, and the lieutenant colonel immediately came out of the wheelhouse and looked out.

"A ship has been spotted at 9 o'clock!" the lookout reported loudly.

"Is it a warship?" The lieutenant colonel immediately looked over there, but only saw thick sea fog.

"It flashed by, I didn't see it clearly." The lookout was uncertain: "Maybe it's a mountain..."

"Bullshit, this place is 12 leagues away from Haiti!" Lieutenant Colonel Aguero's expression became serious. He picked up a hollow copper tube, placed it in front of his eyes and carefully searched the sea surface.

The sea fog was blown by the increasingly strong sea wind, making it very difficult for him to search. For the sake of caution, the lieutenant colonel did not issue the battle order for a long time.

If it was a false alarm, the startled colonel would definitely scold me.

After sailing quietly for another half an hour, the fog was blown away and a huge black shadow suddenly appeared on the left side of the fleet.

"Beat the drum!" Aguero roared like his soul was about to burst into flames.

The battle drummers, who had been prepared for a long time, quickly beat the drums with a distinct rhythm. The gunners and infantrymen sleeping in the cabin heard the drums, hurriedly rolled down their hammocks, hurriedly put on their clothes and armor, and hurriedly prepared for battle.

The colonel was also woken up and came out of the cabin wearing a white lace pajamas. He rubbed his blurry eyes and was stunned to see that a super huge sailboat was almost sticking to his face!

Even when he was hungover, he recognized it at a glance. It was the huge Ming ship he had been looking for.

Fortunately, the huge ship had no intention of opening fire, but turned south.

"What does it mean?" the colonel asked the lieutenant colonel.

"It will sail parallel to us." Aguero said solemnly while helping his adjutant put on his breastplate, "They are likely to believe in broadside firepower determinism like the Portuguese."

"Ridiculous theory, the choice of the weak!" The colonel put on his exquisite silver helmet, took his command sword, and shouted: "Get closer and hit them hard!"

"Colonel, this will lead to disastrous consequences!" The lieutenant colonel had to remind him urgently.

Colonel Tiago was just hungover, not an idiot, and he immediately realized that he had almost made a big mistake.

The current in the bay was too fast and the wind was strong, so the Gallais warships, which were flexible in turning, were not affected. However, the four treasure ships, which had high sterns and poor maneuverability and were loaded with cargo, were extremely heavy. If they made a sharp turn at this time, they would be in danger of capsizing.

What if the four treasure ships did not follow the turn? They would collide with the twelve Galleons that were turning in front of them!

So speed up to distance yourself from the treasure ship and then try to turn? It's impossible! They are an escort fleet, and the most important thing is to protect the safety of the treasure ship, not to annihilate the enemy!

Of course, there is a theoretical solution, which is to let the twelve Gallaeside warships in front of the escort turn due south, and the treasure ship continues to sail southwest. In this way, the two can be safely separated. Let the former entangle with the enemy ship, and the latter, under the protection of the twelve Gallaeside warships behind, quickly leave the battlefield.

However, the Spanish Navy's communication methods were not able to transmit such complex messages. Their flagships could only use various single-sided flags to issue single orders such as "advance", "retreat", "attack", "fight on their own", and "see you in the next life".

Without Zhao Hao, Robert Hooke, more than a century later, would have been able to come up with complex flags for the British Navy that could express rich content. For example, the famous phrase "England expects that every man will do his DUTY" used a total of 31 signal flags.

Therefore, in this era, when large fleets are moving in formation, it is impossible to perform micro-management. When the technology is not up to the standard, no matter how good your ideas are, they cannot be realized.

In desperation, the colonel had to hoist a blue flag, which was the order to advance at full speed.

The main thing was to let the four treasure ships quickly raise their full sails and discard their loads if necessary, in order to quickly shake off the enemy ships.

Just as the signal flag was raised, the colonel saw a flash of fire like lightning behind his left.

A second later, he heard the rumble of cannon fire, followed by the sound of the battleship's hull breaking and the screams of the crew.

Obviously, there were enemy ships following the giant ship. Those nimble warships had already completed their turn and were in firing position.

Soon, orange lightning flashed in the distance, and this time the sound came a second later. Then the sound of artillery fire became one, and it was no longer possible to tell the distance.

At this time, the huge ship finally completed its turn and pointed its side towards the colonel's flagship...

~~

Relying on her genius intuition, Lin Feng correctly determined the route of the Spanish fleet and even guessed their turning point.

But man proposes, God disposes. An unexpected thick fog ruined her plan to wait at the turning point. The fog was so thick that she could not see the enemy ships at all.

The entire fleet was in great disappointment, because normally, this was due to weather reasons that caused the mission to fail, and they should have withdrawn from the battlefield.

But when it comes to Lin Feng, why would he tell you about the "Cao Dian"? Just act rashly and you're done.

Of course, if she succeeded, there would be countless people to defend her, saying that she was not reckless, but believed in her own judgment. Since she had already determined the route of the enemy ship, she should just follow it south and wait for the fog to clear before looking for the enemy! This is genius, blah blah blah...

Lin Feng ordered without hesitation that all lights be turned off and the ship sailed south at a speed of five and a half knots... This was the speed she observed the treasure ship sailing at night.

As a result, no trace of the enemy was found until dawn. Just when Lin Feng was getting anxious and was about to order to speed up and block the exit of the strait in front, he heard a faint whistle from the sea!

Zhang Xiaojing, Ma Yishan and others thought it might be the sound of the wind or birds, but she was sure it was the Spanish fleet she had been looking for. She immediately ordered the ship to turn the rudder and approach. Half an hour later, the Spanish fleet, which was so long in sight, was right in front of her.

She didn't have to worry about the rest. Ma Yishan immediately sent a signal to notify the four warships following behind.

Zhao Hao developed three communication methods: hand flags, flags, and light signals, which are enough to allow his own fleet within visual range to communicate smoothly.

Soon, the warships that received the signal quickly prepared for battle and turned at the same time, moving in parallel with the Spanish fleet in two lines 200 meters apart.

The Coast Guard learned from Portugal and emphasized the broadside firepower of warships. The Spanish still adhered to the outdated boarding warfare, which mainly relied on bow firepower. Moreover, it was impossible to deploy artillery on the broadside of a galley.

The treasure ship was built with the ability to mount broadside guns, but in order to carry more cargo, the Spanish removed most of the gun positions. Each gun weighed one ton, so it would be a shame not to use it to transport cargo!

Anyway, there is a fleet escorting it, so there is no need for the treasure ship to fire its cannons. Why not dismantle the cannons and install the private goods of His Royal Highness the Viceroy, the governors, and the princes and ministers of the country?

Most of the time, this is correct, because after discovering the enemy ship, the escort warships will immediately surround the treasure ship, so you don't need to install guns on the treasure ship. With the accuracy of current artillery, random firing may accidentally injure the escort ship.

But in special circumstances, such as here and now, their hulls were exposed without any protection to the guns of the Ming privateering fleet.

Almost can only passively take the beating.

The reason why I say almost is that there is still a half-cannon on the port side of the circular turret at the bow of the Calais ship that can be used.

This amount of firepower is worse than nothing, and is even far less powerful than the firepower provided by the Lacaville sailing ships responsible for reconnaissance.

The result was a one-sided, close-range beating.

The Spanish were unable to launch any effective counterattack. In order to break away from the contact as soon as possible, they even gave up the idea of ​​turning around and counterattacking, and could only sail east at full speed, hoping to distance themselves from the hateful Ming pirates as soon as possible.

However, his opponent was the hungry and old female pirate Lin Feng, who led a fleet that had been sailing around the world for two years and had already been worn out. No matter how the Spaniards accelerated and changed direction, they could always stick closely to the enemy ships and never leave.

Three hours after the war started, Lin Feng's fleet suffered almost no losses. Four Spanish galleys and two brave caravels had been sunk.

The treasure galleons were intact, showing the love the bandits had for their wife.

ps. Next chapter in ten minutes.