After the governor of New Spain, Almansa, led his guards to the demarcation peninsula controlled by the Ming army, the Ming fleets patrolling the coast became more and more unscrupulous.

In order to gather enough information, Shao Tingda, who piloted a huge Liujia warship, went as far as the coast and even thousands of miles south to the coast to explore the Spaniards' harbor and shipbuilding facilities off the coast of Mexico City.

The west coast of Asia was the back garden of the Spaniards, where even the three-masted Galen was uncommon, and most of the seaside ships were armed merchant ships of about 150 tons, transporting goods back and forth between the two viceroyalies of Peru and New Spain.

"This is already the third big ship, let me note that the governors of the Spaniards are different from the governors of our Ming Dynasty, their governors have all gone to the camp of the Boundary Peninsula, and the generals of the Westerners are still sending troops."

In the distance, a Galen ship with a similar body shape to the Rokka-ship led two slightly smaller armed merchant ships to the north, allowing Shao Tingda to hurriedly command the fleet to avoid.

The first shark ship that could carry several heavy guns was inspired by the combination of Portuguese armed merchant ships and local ships, and later several large Spanish ships, and finally even a royal treasure ship belonging to Philip II.

The Ming army was very familiar with the shape of the Spanish Great Galen.

Shao Tingda's fleet was lonely, with only one Liujia ship, not even a supply ship, although the ship's firepower was strong and the armor was thick, but there were few sailors, and it was easy to be entangled in the broadside battle with fewer enemies, not to mention that the Spanish big Galen looked bigger than his thousand-material ship.

In fact, the two ships are about the same, and Shao Tingda's ship is even bigger, but it can't stand the Spanish galleon, and the sails of the ship are spread out on the sea, and it looks like a fortress, and the towers everywhere carry countless sailors, which is indeed very deterrent.

Shao Tingda said unwillingly: "This time the Lord is investigating, and the battlefield is really fighting, and then teach him to know that it looks good." ”

Three, this was the third large Galen ship he had seen since occupying the Boundary Peninsula to assemble in the waters near Mexico, and if you count according to the amount of water discharged by the ships, which of these three ships was larger than the Thousand Grain Ships, which cast a haze over his heart.

The superiority of his combined fleet with Fu Yuan in the waters off Mexico was equaled by the Spaniards in less than a month.

This even gave him the idea of leading a fleet in the Viceroyalty of New Spain to intercept these Spanish ships that had arrived from Peru to reinforce the Spanish warships.

But this was destined to be just an idea, and before the declaration of war was passed on, no one could be the first to sound the prelude, especially him.

Chen Mu was never a pure Ming Dynasty soldier, but he had the purest Ming Dynasty soldiers under him, and they followed the generals to cross the ocean not to do business, they came to fight.

In every night of wandering towards the south, Shao Tingda cheered up his spirits, and even stood on the mast for an hour to look at the calm and dark sea.

Like waiting for something.

Until an interesting ship was spotted in the telescope.

On the twenty-seventh night of the sixth year of Wanli, it was drizzling in the sea area three hundred miles south of Mexico, and Shao Tingda on the lookout was dressed in a finely bound robe, repeatedly wiping the agarwood telescope carved and painted by the King of Duowen.

The lanterns on the Rokko ship were not ignited, and the subtropical spring rain penetrated the bone-chilling coldness that even the armor could not resist, making the upper deck guns ineffective, and also trying to hinder the visual distance of people who rose and fell with the waves in the sea.

Shao Tingda thought that in such bad weather, if he encountered a lone Spanish warship, he should stick it and sink it, and he hoped that it would still be this weather when the outcome of the negotiations was known.

Fighting in this weather, the Ming army had a huge advantage over the Western army in battleships.

The Spanish ships remained at sea in vertical and horizontal infantry formations, carrying large numbers of infantry, attacking the enemy ships with their bow guns in pursuit, and then approaching to engage the broadside.

Perhaps their tactics were changed during the Luzon engagement, but the ships built before the establishment of the Nanyang Military Government were not so easy to change.

Shao Tingda was well aware that the Spaniards liked to concentrate heavy artillery on the bow of the ship, and that there were no heavy or even no guns on the side of the ship, and that he had eighteen guns in his cabin.

The sound of rain to hide the light of fire and cannons, the surging waves to carry away every enemy who could not be saved, and the fire to be set on fire with fire oil, while it is a fool's dream to make a ship disappear silently, these are the most likely processes to achieve this goal.

Even if a wreck belonging to a warship is found somewhere on the West Coast a year and a half later, who knows what really happened?

Under the dense rain curtain, the distant mountains near the coast cast sporadic lights in the shadows of the night, they were two lights, although there was only darkness around it that merged with the sea cliff, Shao Tingda could still sketch the general appearance of the ship in his mind through these two lights.

The first light was on the bow near the water, and the dim color was supposed to be reflected through the opaque glass windows outside the bow cabin, which meant that the ship was not a ship of the Spanish royal family or a large aristocratic family, but probably an ordinary armed merchant ship.

The Spanish royal family and the great aristocracy, who had extraordinary wealth, would never use the red and green variegated glass of the indigenous origin for their windows, and would choose the clear glass produced in Murano, Venice.

The second light was a little higher, the chandelier on the mast, which was also supposed to be a candle lamp encased in glass, which were expected to guide bystanders during long voyages and prevent collisions at night.

The reckless insect had always been envious of the two transparent crystal windows in the command room of the nine-headed colt, and just as he watched the armed merchant ship leave, secretly calculating how many enemy ships he would have to deal with after the battle, suddenly a fierce light and deafening cannon sound erupted in the distance.

On the side of the armed merchant ship, there was also a warship, and the gunfire on the ship's side made Shao Tingda suddenly think that his own warship was haunting here.

The target of that ship was not Shao Tingda's warship, but the Spanish armed merchant ship with two lights that was harmless to people and animals.

Shao Tingda, who was still miles away from the warships, did not know what was going on, but he saw in the shadows in the distance, one ship surrounding the armed merchant ship and firing wildly with the guns on the lower deck, while the other Spanish merchant ship could only be beaten with muskets sticking out of its cabin - their bow guns could not be used in the rain.

It was a revelry of broadside naval battles, in which the Spanish merchant ships were completely overwhelmed and their will to fight was so low that they could not withstand four rounds of gunsoft bombardment before surrendering to another ship.

Not long after, two Spanish ships came from the rear to surround the surrendered armed merchant ship, and the cargo on board was looted, leaving only a few small oared boats to let the surrendered merchants return to land.

The four large ships that reassigned the sailors continued to the north.

The corners of Shao Tingda's mouth, who witnessed all this, hooked up, and ordered his subordinates: "Follow them and see what these Spaniards who are fighting in the house want to do!" ”