As soon as Li gave the battle order, a large rocket was shot into the sky, and it exploded in the night sky, emitting bright emerald green fireworks, dyeing the thick clouds green. Rockets of this color were only sent out when the Ming army began a general offensive carried only a few by the flagships of the Ming army, and now that the flagships had joined the battle, it was time to launch it.

At the same time as the rocket lifted off, several soldiers in the bow and stern of the ship turned on the switchlight at the same time, and with a few loud bangs, several pillars of light suddenly pierced the dark night sky and shot straight out from the hull of the Ming army. Although the mirrors of these lamps were all facing the outside of the boat, Deng Ming, who was standing behind the lights, still felt as if his eyes had suddenly spent. The sudden appearance of light made Deng Ming's eyes squint suddenly, and he subconsciously raised his arm to cover it in front of him. It seems that after a long time, Deng Ming felt a little used to the brightness in front of him.

Behind each searchlight was a cable with rubber insulation. Deng Ming tried his best to import rubber, because of the stimulation of China's continuous purchases, and the Spanish governor in South America also mobilized more people to find it, but it was never able to meet Deng Ming's needs. Deng Ming plans to use rubber to make boots, tires, seals, gloves and waterproof equipment, but now the import volume is pitiful, and can only be used in electricity-related aspects, and even the insulators needed for electrical wires are not enough.

Deng Ming knew that the Spaniards were trying to grow rubber in the Philippines, but if they wanted to form a scale, I am afraid it would be more than ten years later, during which Deng Ming still needed the Spanish governor of South America to provide rubber raw materials for the Ming army.

"When we occupy the Philippines, we must immediately cease war with Spain, and I hope they will soon realize that they cannot compete with us in the South Seas." Now that the battle had begun, the officers and men of the entire battleship and even the entire fleet had forgotten about other things and were engrossed in the war, only Deng Ming was still thinking about the post-war problems - the Spanish fleet was in front of him, Manila was not occupied, and the capture of the whole of the Philippines was a matter of much later, but Deng Ming could not help but care about how this war should end. If there is no plan for how to end the war, then it should not be provoked. Deng Ming had been planning the war against Spain for several years, and every general of the expeditionary force had been told that the war against Spain had to end after the capture of the Philippines, and therefore any unnecessary violence was to be avoided - the Spanish prisoners of war should be treated as well as possible, so as not to provoke unnecessary hatred, and even if they were victorious, they should not show the arrogance of humiliating the defeated side, let alone try to demand any reparations. On the contrary, as long as the Spaniards were willing to recognize the facts and cede the Philippines to China, then China should even consider giving some compensation - whether it could be a compensation to be paid gradually over a hundred years, or some preferential terms for maritime trade, or the national treatment of Spanish merchant ships in some Chinese ports.

……

On the opposite side of the Ming flagship, General Mario had also rushed out of his bedroom at this time. Although his hair has turned gray, his years of military service still give him a body that is as flexible as that of a young man. When he heard the battle siren ring, Mario jumped out of bed, put on his military uniform, and ran briskly to the door.

Despite the darkness in the cabin, Mario would not foolishly light a candle, but instead ran to the bridge on the deck in the dark with his extreme familiarity with his ship.

In night battles, both sides will fire rockets non-stop, but the light is probably only enough for observers to catch a glimpse of nearby enemy ships and facilitate the helmsman's steering. For most of the combatants who were located next to the artillery, the fleeting light of fireworks did not help them much, most of them could not see anything, and the few crew members who were able to glimpse the figure of the enemy ship could not determine whether they were friend or foe, and even if they did, they could not locate them in such a short time, and it was even more difficult to judge the speed and direction of the opponent's ship. In night battles, enemy ships seem to teleport, and when the previous fireworks are lit, they seem to be stationary somewhere, and when the next fireworks are lit, there is nothing left in that place, and the enemy ships seem to have suddenly jumped to other positions.

At this point, it is up to the captain to make judgments and estimates based on this flash, and to guess whether the enemy ship is an experienced zigzag or a stupid straight line. If the word "zhi" is taken, the captain still has to guess how big the corner of the enemy ship is; This, together with some intuition about the enemy's intentions, constitutes a speculation about the course of the enemy ship. According to the captain's guess, the gunners on the gun deck would fire blindly in an attempt to hit the enemy ship. However, the chances of hitting are not high, and even the most experienced captain is likely to guess the intentions of the enemy captain wrongly; It is very likely that the hit was due to bad luck, and even the most experienced captain in night combat could be vaguely blinded by a rookie opponent in his position in the next moment.

But whether it's a good judgment or a lucky blow, such blows tend to be less fatal, and are more difficult to continue as consistently as they are during the day. Because when the artillery is carried out, the battleship that fires also reveals its own position, so in the next second of the shelling, the battleship will often maneuver at a large angle to avoid the fire of the enemy ship hidden in the surrounding darkness - throughout the night battle, the captain and observer will be highly nervous, quickly identify (guess) friend or foe according to the fireworks and the fire emitted by the surrounding guns, assess the threat of many targets to the ship, and command counterattack and evasion - especially in today's night encounter, due to the lack of unity of command, The battlefield will be even more chaotic.

Mario's responsibility is to let the surrounding friendly ships identify him while ensuring the safety of the flagship, and under the same premise, to include the other ships in the fleet as much as possible in his control and command, to judge the size and operational intentions of the enemy, and to make appropriate countermeasures.

Just as Mario was holding on to the railing and rushing to his bridge post in the dark, there was a sudden bright light around him, and in the blink of an eye, General Mario felt that his eyes were white, and his head seemed to suddenly spin around.

As General Mario covered his eyes with his hands over and stumbled into the guardrail beside him, the whistling of cannonballs rang in his ears. After the Ming army turned on the searchlights, one of them quickly searched for the bridge of the Spanish battleship and the position of the helmsman, and when it finally settled on the vital position where the rudder was, the fierce light made the Spanish helmsman lose his usual calm—when he let go of the hand that should have been firmly grasping the rudder to block the bright light, several shells came in the direction indicated by the searchlight.

Another searchlight dangled between the observation basket on the mast and the bridge, and Captain Leonardo, who hurried to his post before General Julio, as well as the second mate on duty and several officers, were so shaken that they could not give any orders. A burst of shells came at him, and one of the officers on duty was hit by flying sawdust and fell out with a scream. A moment later, another explosion rang out, and the second mate and several other officers fell on the deck with their wounds in their hands and groaned loudly, while Captain Leonardo, though fortunate not to be seriously injured, was so hit by the continuous explosions that he rolled off the bridge, and until now he was still dazed and could not see anything.

There was also a column of searchlight patrolling the gun deck on the side of the Spanish battleship, and the gunners inside were equally panicked when they first encountered the bright light, and almost all the people gathered on the gun deck forgot about the battle, but just stared blankly at the bright lights. Every time a pillar of light entered the cabin through the cannon window, it caused a loud exclamation from the surrounding Spaniards.

The Ming army's shelling was non-stop, whether it was General Mario, who was hiding by the stairs and felt that his eyes had become a little adjusted, or Captain Leonardo on the deck, or the senior gunners in the cabin, they should have been able to easily distinguish between the eighteen-pounder and twelve-pounder eagles fired at them, the number should sound like about ten, and the position was quite close. But now none of them had the heart to distinguish the sound of the cannon in their ears, and their minds were full of speculation about what was going on with this sudden bright light.

"We're shrouded in lightning?" General Mario is completely confused.

"Sea monster, this must be a sea monster, right?" Captain Leonardo screamed in horror. Although he had never seen it with his own eyes, over the years, stories of various sea monsters were widely circulated among sailors. So far, no one dares to admit that they are witnesses to the sea monster, and that is because very few people have escaped from the various evil sea monsters.

"Mary, is this the opening of the gates of hell?" A gunner in the cabin completely forgot to urge the soldiers to fight, but sweated profusely and pulled out the statue of the Virgin around his neck, muttering to himself.

Behind the Spanish flagship there were several Spanish battleships, and there were no Chinese battleships that were too close around, nor were they immediately fixed by the Chinese searchlights. But the captains and officers of these ships who hurried to their posts did not give any orders, and their gunners did not prepare for battle in an orderly manner, but looked to the east with the officers in a daze.

In the direction of the Ming fleet to the east, a huge kite was being lifted high into the air by the Ming army. This kite was specially made by the Ming army, and it was painted with a smiling devil. The kite was in charge of a battleship, unarmed, but with a lot of searchlights, and when it saw the green rocket, the boat released the balloon, dragged the kite higher and fully deployed, and then used the searchlight to shine on the grimace from the bottom up.

There are also two searchlights installed on the devil's eyes, and as the balloons are blown by the wind, the pillars of light that shoot out of the devil's eyes sweep across the sea.

The quality of the Ming army's searchlights was not very good, although it had only been turned on for a short time, and several lights had already failed, and although the two lights hanging on the big kite had been very carefully checked, one of them seemed to have a problem with poor contact due to the violent swing. The lights flickered and flickered, turning on and off.

But in the eyes of the Spaniards, this one-eyed devil seemed even more strange and terrifying, with one eye shining brightly, while the other eye flickered, and every time that blind eye suddenly shone up, it might be another poor soul who had fallen into the devil's grasp.

"Jesus Christ, save us." Many officers and soldiers kissed the cross, knelt on the deck, and prayed desperately.