Chapter 1323 Focus of attack

The Haihan fleet, which had the upper hand, did not rush to launch a second wave of offensive, but took advantage of the situation to widen the distance from the Spanish fleet. This made Luis and Pinto breathe a sigh of relief, and could calmly gather the fleet back together and maintain a

A relatively tight formation. The two commanders had a clear understanding of the battlefield situation at this time. The Haihan warships were fast, maneuverable, and powerful. If they used traditional battle line tactics to fight against them, the Spanish fleet ships would not be able to defeat them.

The advantage of having more enemies is almost impossible to exert. Instead, it will give the opponent a situation of having more enemies and less enemies in the battlefield area, cannibalizing the ships of the Spanish fleet bit by bit.

Since the radical method does not work, we can only change to a relatively conservative tactic. Regarding the current situation, the two Spanish commanders unanimously chose to shrink as a group, which not only reduces the defensive area, but also does not leave any space to the opponent.

Opportunity to cut their own formation. Moreover, dusk has arrived at this time, and the sea will soon fall into night. The Spanish fleet must remain highly vigilant to prevent the Haihan fleet, which is eyeing a few nautical miles away, from launching a surprise attack under the cover of darkness.

For the Spaniards, the Haihan Navy was not the primary target of this trip. Their attack target was Sanya or other ports on Hainan Island, and the Haihan Navy was just a stumbling block that hindered their mission. Before that, it was not even

The focus of preparations. After suffering a small loss in the first encounter, the commanders had actually given up the idea of ​​"attacking Sanya and teaching the Haihan Navy a lesson". They realized that the opponent's strength might be much higher.

It is impossible to take away the calculations I made before the war. And if the fight continues at sea, the longer the delay, the more disadvantageous it will be to the Spanish fleet fighting away from home.

In such a situation, it would be unreasonable to continue fighting with the Haihan fleet. The Spanish commander decided to close the formation, temporarily ignore the peripheral Haihan fleet, and continue to march to Sanya. This place is only a few dozen nautical miles away from Sanya.

Well, as long as the fleet can successfully attack the port, the turmoil caused to Haihan society will definitely be greater than the damage and sinking of several Haihan warships. And according to intelligence, there is only a small Victory Fort built in Sanya Port.

The fortifications and large areas of the city are completely undefended, which is simply a sumptuous meal prepared for looters.

Of course, before that, the Spanish fleet must break through Sanya's coastal defenses. This test may be no less difficult than letting them kill the current Haihan fleet. According to the intelligence previously sent back to Manila, Haihan was in Sanya

A large number of forts have been built in the key areas of entry and exit of the two major ports. However, it is said that these forts have never actually performed combat missions after they were built. Whether they are just decorations or real ones has yet to be tested in actual combat. The Spanish fleet is preparing to attack Sanya this time.

, maybe you have to be the first warrior to eat crabs.

Until darkness fell on the sea, both sides had a tacit understanding to maintain a safe distance of about five nautical miles and did not engage in another battle. However, after nightfall, both fleets invariably implemented light control, and dozens of ships were silent together.

The earth sank into darkness.

Hide-and-seek in the dark requires both luck and brainpower. However, the current situation is slightly unfavorable for the Spanish fleet, because Haihan has already made it clear that its destination is Sanya. As long as it holds this sea area and goes there

Sanya's route, there is a high probability of intercepting the opponent on the way. Unless the Spaniards repeat their old tricks and go around in a big circle on the sea, but the meaning of this is not to increase the time in vain, but it does not seem to be

It would have too big an effect, because the Haihan fleet could just ignore everything and just retreat to Sanya and wait for the Spanish fleet to come.

However, Haihan Fleet Commander Tao Donglai did not order the fleet to rush forward to intercept, nor did he choose to rush back to Sanya to defend. The action plan he chose was to slow down and sail slowly towards Sanya to return to defense.

Tao Donglai made such a choice because he was actually a little afraid of the Spanish fleet. If he had an encounter with his opponent in the dark, Tao Donglai did not have much confidence that he could win steadily. The subject of night naval battles is very important to the current naval battle.

For the Han Navy, there are still many technical difficulties that are difficult to overcome, and the combat effectiveness that can be exerted will be greatly reduced. The current situation of the Haihan Navy does not require the fleet led by Tao Donglai to fight desperately against the opponent, and slowly fight against the opponent.

The most advantageous strategy is to grind it out. Moreover, there is another fleet under Johnson's command in Port of Victory waiting for the Spanish to appear. When the time comes, they will intercept them in front and pursue them in the rear. They will sandwich the Spanish fleet at both ends and beat them.

Isn’t that wonderful?

The Spanish commanders were not aware of Haihan's plans. They just subconsciously chose the path most beneficial to completing the mission. However, Luis and Pinto did not know what would be at their upcoming destination.

Such difficulties arise. If they had the foresight, they might choose to temporarily change their attack target.

The Spaniards spent a restless night at sea, but fortunately nothing happened that night. Even the sea conditions were ideal, and they ushered in a new day without any trouble. The fleet commander based on the speed and

Judging from the nautical chart, this sea area should be less than twenty nautical miles away from Sanya. In a broad sense, it can be regarded as the doorstep of the Haihan people.

However, the crew at the lookout position did not see any sail shadow on the sea, but could already see the undulating outline of the land on the distant coastline - if the Spanish fleet did not run in the wrong direction, it should be the coastline of Hainan Island. This trip

The target is just ahead, and the days and nights at sea have finally come to an end.

But faced with such an unusually stable environment, the two commanders of the fleet did not feel relaxed. Instead, they became more and more nervous. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, they encountered sea incidents in two different sea areas farther away from Sanya.

Han's reconnaissance ships and armed fleets, this shows that Haihan has expanded his maritime defense line to a huge range. Since even the periphery has been tightly controlled, could it be said that the Haihan people's control is tight on the outside and loose on the inside, and the entire army

Are they all deployed to the outer waters?

No, the Spanish commander did not believe that the Haihan Navy, which could respond flexibly in naval battles, would make such a low-level mistake. The Haihan Navy's previous performance was obviously at the level of a professional army. Even if its main force was used up, it would still be at a distance.

There should be ships responsible for reconnaissance and warning in waters so close to Sanya.

Besides, Sanya is known as the number one port in the South China Sea. There are at least hundreds of ships entering and leaving the port every day. How is it possible that not even a single fishing boat can be seen in this sea area? The only reasonable explanation is probably that the Haihan people have blocked the port in advance.

, cleared this sea area and prohibited any non-military ships from operating here.

If you think more deeply about why Haihan wanted to clear this sea area at this time, the answer seems terrifying. The two Spanish commanders coincidentally came up with the same answer: Haihan intended to clear this sea area in advance.

They are waiting for the Spanish fleet to appear and use this place as a battlefield for the two sides to decide the outcome.

If it were just the Haihan fleet they encountered yesterday afternoon, Pinto and Luis felt that they could still handle it. Although the Haihan warships did have obvious advantages in performance, the Spanish fleet was not a weak force, as long as it was not

No matter what flaws they were willing to sell, they believed that the Haihan people would not be able to let those dozen ships confront the huge Spanish fleet.

But is the armed strength of the Haihan Navy just the fleet we saw yesterday? No matter how much the Spaniards look down on Haihan, they will never underestimate the strength of the Haihan Navy to this extent. You must know that the Haihan Navy is in the South China Sea.

The coastlines actually controlled by the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea are thousands of miles long. It is conceivable that the scale of its navy is huge, and it is obviously impossible for the naval forces left to guard the capital fortress port to have only a dozen warships.

Since Haihan has sent part of the navy that can fight to the outside to intercept the Spanish fleet, the probability of carrying out an empty city plan at home is naturally extremely low. The most likely situation is that Haihan still hides an unknown scale of weapons in the port of Sanya.

naval fleet. If the Spanish fleet boldly attacks Sanya at this time, it will inevitably run the risk of falling into a trap.

Whether Haihan was setting up a suspicious formation or setting up a battlefield openly and openly, the Spanish commanders thought for a long time but still could not come up with a definite answer. The fleet was getting closer and closer to the coastline, and could even see the entrance to the Port of Victory.

Channel.

"Here we come! A fleet appears ahead!"

The news coming back from the lookout position on the mast finally gave the commanders reassurance. Although this situation is not ideal, it is better for the opponent to actually appear in front of them than to hide somewhere and prepare to sneak attack on them.

The situation is much better. Now that the Haihan fleet has set up a fighting posture at home, it seems that it is about to fight a tough battle with peace of mind.

The fleet that sailed out of the Port of Victory was no larger than the fleet encountered yesterday. It also had more than ten ships. At first glance, it was even possible to identify it as the fleet yesterday. But the Spaniards have been there for a long time.

Having accumulated rich experience in sailing at sea, they have their own way of identifying ships. Even ships with the same specifications, formats and shapes can be identified by the subtle differences in the hulls and sails.

Of course, the details can only be identified if you get close to a certain distance. At present, Spain can identify the difference between this fleet and the fleet yesterday mainly through the appearance statistics of the ships. Although the battle between the two sides yesterday was not too long,

However, the Spanish crew has also made a rough statistics on the ships Haihan fought, which includes the main characteristics of the hull's exterior, such as the estimated hull size. By applying the classification of Haihan battleships in the intelligence, they can generally grasp the various aspects of this fleet.

The configuration of level combat ships.

The fleet currently sailing out of Port of Victory is significantly different from yesterday's fleet in terms of ship configuration. In this fleet, there is no "Exploration Class" warship with the smallest tonnage. Instead, there are the same number of "Exploration Class" warships.

But the hull is nearly twice as big as the "exploration-class" warship. Moreover, in this fleet, there is also a warship whose appearance and tonnage do not match the known data. This black warship is sailing in

Next to the largest flagship, I still couldn’t understand what kind of arrangement this was.

In yesterday's brief battle, the Spanish fleet fought very cowardly. This breath has been held in until today when they face the enemy again. No one needs to be mobilized. The crew also wants to unleash this bad breath on the battlefield. Command

At the official's order, the Spanish fleet faced its opponent in a combative manner.

Pinto and Louis naturally did not forget that the Haihan fleet they met yesterday was in a state of missing at this time, but their current idea is to defeat the fleet guarding the Victory Port as soon as possible, otherwise the fleet will not be able to survive until then.

If we rush back from the open sea, the opponent's number of combat ships will not be at a big disadvantage. By then, the Spanish fleet, which has come all the way, will have no capital to fight with the opponent and can only try to escape from the battlefield.

Only by defeating this fleet can the Spanish fleet go one step further and attack Sanya, which has already entered the field of vision. In other words, this is likely to be the last stumbling block in front of the Spanish fleet. Only by destroying this fleet can we

The hope of completing the mission. And all enemies that block the Spanish fleet's progress will be turned into powder under the attack of powerful ships and cannons - at least the Spanish crew firmly believe this.

However, the Spaniards did not know that their opponents also had similar ideas. Any enemy who dared to challenge Haihan's authority would be completely destroyed by the heavy artillery of Haihan's army. And there were not only those who had such ideas.

The sailors and soldiers on board these dozen battleships also included thousands of people who were watching on the highlands along the coast outside Victory Port.

Liu Shang never thought that when a country faced an invasion from a foreign enemy, the government would actually be in the mood to organize people to watch the battle near the battlefield. Of course, this preset battlefield was relatively safe for land audiences, at least the Spaniards would do it for a while.

It is impossible to attack the land. However, the bold idea of ​​letting the people watch naval battles is probably only the Haihan people who have the courage to turn it into reality.

Of course, not many people who climbed up to these high places to watch the battle were real ordinary people. Most of them were people with a certain social status in Sanya. And there were also some well-known foreigners among them, such as envoys and businessmen from various countries stationed in Sanya.

Representatives, overseas students, observers, etc., almost all received invitations from Haihan officials to participate in this grand viewing event. If Liu Shang had not already understood Haihan’s military strength, Liu Shang would probably think that Haihan’s move was too much.

He was too arrogant, but now he only felt sad for the invading Spaniards. These guys who came from afar had no idea what kind of difficulties they would face.
Chapter completed!