Finally won......

Early in the morning of the third day of August in the ninth year of Hongxing.

When Admiral García, the commander of the Spanish Oriental Armada, led his twenty-five galleons out of the Great and Small Millstone Islands, there was no victor's joy in his heart, only frustration, exhaustion, and pervasiveness.

Obviously the victor, Admiral Garcia was in the same mood as when he commanded the battleship to rush out of the Downs anchorage, and even more depressed.

Because at the end of the Battle of the Downs, the Thirty Years' War was undecided, and Spain was still a country of gods. So Garcia, who was young at the time, did not know that he was going to witness Spain fall from the altar!

And now, with the exception of the not-so-sober King Philip IV (woe to consanguineous marriage), who else does not know that the glorious days of the Spanish Empire have passed?

The Battle of the Downs marked the loss of Spanish maritime supremacy! The Battle of Rocroix marked the loss of Spanish land supremacy!

And the victory of the Spanish Eastern Armada in the Battle of Dinghai Anchorage means that Spain's hegemony in the Pacific Ocean is already shaky!

This really made Admiral Garcia cry and couldn't cry...... He obviously won, and he won quite beautifully, at the cost of the damage of four armed Galen ships, he destroyed about half of the Galen-type warships of the Oriental Fleet, the main force of the Ming Navy! In other words, all the warships of the Ming Dynasty that stayed in the Dinghai anchorage were destroyed!

This is obviously a textbook victory of the Western first-class powers over the Eastern Empire!

After the victory, it should be the Eastern Boss Empire that should cede land with tears and pay reparations and sign unequal treaties......

But the problem now is that even if Emperor Zhu Cihong wants to sign an unequal treaty, he will not be able to find Garcia as a victor for a while.

Because Admiral Garcia has already decided to lead his Armada "away from home...... He didn't dare to go back to Manila!

After winning the battle and destroying twelve armed Galen ships of the Ming Dynasty at the cost of losing four armed Galen ships, the Spanish Oriental Armada did not dare to go home!

How dare he go back? Although his fleet burned twelve Ming armed Galen ships in one fell swoop at Dinghai Anchorage, the Ming Dynasty's coastal defense batteries destroyed two Galen ships of the Spanish Navy and damaged three others with a mere twelve 24-pounder guns, two of which had to be abandoned because they were too badly damaged to evacuate with the main fleet.

In other words, the Ming army fired two or three hundred flowering shells from twelve 24-pounder guns, which caused the Spaniards to lose four armed Galen ships, and one more also suffered a medium wound!

Only twelve cannons were fired like this...... How could there be no less than 200 ships in the Ming Army's Oriental and Nanyang fleets that could install 24-pounder or 12-pounder cannons?

Even if a warship is equipped with five 24-pounder guns, there are 1,000 24-pounder guns, how should the Spanish Eastern Armada fight?

Take a solid bullet against a flowering bullet? An armed Galen ship of several hundred tons will not necessarily sink if it is hit by dozens or hundreds of solid bullets (even iron balls). If you change to a 24-pound flowering bullet, you can't stand two or three rounds! Wooden boats, even if they don't sink, they will blow up!

Heavenly Father! How should this war be fought?

While Garcia was praying to his Heavenly Father in his cabin, Captain Barbossa, the captain of the New Spain, knocked on the door.

"Your Excellency, the losses have been calculated!"

"Come in!" Admiral Garcia's voice was a little hoarse.

Barbossa pushed the door open and walked in, his expression solemn and preoccupied.

Garcia looked at him and asked, "How many people have been lost?" ”

He didn't care about the loss of ships now, because after the battle of Dinghai anchorage, the Spanish Oriental Invincible Fleet had to go around the main fleet of the Ming Navy for a long time, and it was impossible to attack the important ports guarded by the Ming Sea and Land.

In fact, the Eastern Armada has been reduced to a broken fleet rather than a contender fleet!

In this case, there is not much difference between twenty-nine and twenty-five warships. But the number and morale of the crew and sailors are very important...... A long tug-of-war at sea can consume the lives of the crew (scurvy), and too many casualties and diseases can cause the crew to flee!

"Four hundred and two people were lost...... All 175 people on board the Manila are missing, and all 125 people on board the San Diego (the 300-ton Galen that rescued the Manila) are also missing. The Pacific Star lost 33 people, of whom 11 were seriously wounded. The Michelle lost 41 people, of whom 15 were seriously wounded. The Acapulco (a 500-ton Galen) lost 28 people and seriously wounded 8. ”

Admiral Garcia sighed: "I think those who fall into the hands of the Chinese will be treated humanely, right?" ”

Colonel Barbossa shook his head and said, "I don't know ......"

Admiral Garcia sighed again: "Where are we going now?" ”

Barbossa said, "Admiral, according to the original plan, we should attack the Ryukyu Kingdom...... The Ryukyu Kingdom is relatively lax, so it will definitely win again! ”

"And after that?" Admiral Garcia asked again.

"After that...... Isn't it time to return to Manila? ”

"Back to Manila?" Admiral Garcia shook his head, "Colonel, do you think they won't load flowering shells on warships?" ”

"This ......," Barbossa thought for a moment, "isn't it too dangerous to get on board with a flowering bomb?" ”

Spain also has flowering shells, but there are no wooden butts and wooden tube fuses, so the shells will roll in the barrel when they occur, which is easy to detonate in advance (there is a certain probability of direct explosion in the barrel), and the shooting accuracy is insufficient (although the wooden butt is not as good as the tail of the shell, it has a great effect on stabilizing the trajectory and improving the accuracy), so it is more dangerous for yourself to get this thing on board than for the enemy - in the event of an accident, the entire gun deck will become a hellfire.

Therefore, the Western navy of this era did not dare to put the flowering bomb on the battleship, because they were afraid that they would not kill the enemy on the battlefield and explode first! And once the wooden butt and woodpipe fuse appeared, it was a matter of time before the flowering bomb came on board......

Once the flowering bombs are on board, the war at sea will enter a new era, and a battleship like the New Spain, equipped with dozens of cannons, will be completely reduced to chicken ribs.

Because no one would dare to equip so many guns with flowering shells, who would dare to imagine that the decks of two or three guns were all piled up with flowering shells waiting to be fired? It's going to be a martyr, and the whole ship will be in pieces!

In contrast, the Ming Dynasty's Wanshi Bird Ship was more suitable for installing a small number of 24-pounder guns that could fire flowering shells. Because there are fewer sailors needed to operate large bird ships, and the cost of bird ships is relatively low, it is most suitable for large quantities of equipment to engage in ship sea tactics. 200 of them, each equipped with five 24-pounder guns, a total of 1,000 cannons for fireworks...... It's scary to think about!

"This possibility cannot be ruled out!" Garcia took a breath, "At least until the danger is ruled out, the main forces of the fleet cannot return to Manila...... Where else can I go? ”

"Either to Guam," Barbossa said, "or to the coast of Japan." ”

Garcia thought for a moment and said, "Let's go to the Ryukyu Kingdom first...... When we arrive in the Ryukyus country, don't touch the Japanese, just detain Chinese officials and merchants, and use them as hostages to exchange our people back.

By the way, immediately send a ship to Japan to contact Caballero, inform him of the results of the battle of Dinghai anchorage, and ask his opinion again. ”

"Yes, Admiral!"

Garcia's decision to lead the Eastern Armada to run away from home and wander was undoubtedly correct, because at the same time, Zheng Jiangong, the admiral of the Ming expeditionary fleet, was leading thirty large bird ships and three eight-hundred-ton Galen warships, as well as 1,000 flintlock muskezeers on the way to Manila.

If Garcia returns with the fleet now, just in time to collide with Zheng Jiangong's fleet, there are 120 24-pounder short-barreled cannons that can open flower shells on 30 big bird ships!

Although the shooting accuracy of the naval guns cannot be compared with the shore guns, as long as these 120 24-pounder guns play the record of 12 24-pounder guns in the Battle of Dinghai, the Spanish Eastern Armada will probably have to go back to their hometown in tears!