My British Empire

  Chapter 573 Battle at Sea

  The Armada has great confidence in its own advantages, so they are clearly exposed in front of the Anglo-Portuguese coalition forces, without any intention of covering up.

  So, when James arrived with the army, he saw an invisible black line appearing in front of his eyes, as if the entire sea was cut by this black line, which was extremely conspicuous.

As the distance approached, the black line slowly revealed its real body. There were more than a hundred ships of the Spanish navy spread across the entire sea, and ships, large or small, were swaying on the sea surface, covering the entire sea. blue sea.

  The sea breeze blew the sails. It seemed that the wind speed was so strong that it made a whirring sound, and the sails stretched into a crescent shape.

  Especially, the black heavy cannon at the front and stern of the ship, from a distance, James could feel its heart-piercing icy temperature through the binoculars.

  Compared with England, the artillery fire equipped by the Spaniards has not decreased much, and they are all heavy cannons. If they are hit, for these small ships, they will sink to the bottom of the sea in a blink of an eye.

  Turning his eyes to the deck of the ship, there were densely packed soldiers standing on the deck, staring at them, as if they hated England especially.

   "Notify everyone, follow the established strategy, the Portuguese focus on notification!"

  James just looked at a corner of the Armada, and he paid more attention to the Spaniards again, and the fear in his eyes became more and more intense.

   "Yes, my lord!" Sitting on the flagship "Henry VII Sovereign", the orderly agreed very simply, and then several flag bearers waved their flags and ruled over the surrounding ships.

   It seems that he is still not at ease, and another small boat shuttles between the major ships to confirm the delivery of the news.

  At this moment, on the Armada flagship "St. Martin" not far from England, Admiral Sidoni was also staring at the menacing Portuguese-British coalition forces in front of him, with deep eyes and no words.

  He did not expect that the Portuguese and England would piece together a large combined fleet, and the Spanish navy would encounter unprecedented challenges.

  From the very beginning, the Armada was troubled.

  Different from the Mediterranean Sea, the wind direction of the Atlantic Ocean is erratic. It blows wind for a while, and then turns to the westerly wind for a while, teasing the fleet back and forth. From time to time there was a violent head wind, which blew the fleet southward.

   Helpless, the fleet can only be repaired in Coruña Bay.

   And the key is that they suffered a huge loss before they played against the English.

  Sidoni held his head in discomfort. So far, he still finds it unacceptable. As a devout believer, he thinks this is God’s warning to him.

  Seeing the huge Anglo-Portuguese coalition forces, he felt his head hurt a little, and a bad premonition came again.

  I still remember: that night, the breeze was blowing, and it was very hot. He felt a little peeing, and wanted to go down by the window, and when he ran to the sea, he suddenly felt something was wrong, it was too quiet.

   Late at night, a strong southwest wind suddenly blew in the bay. Even a galleon sheltered in the bay of A Coruña was blown from her mooring, and another, towing anchor, collided with a Garrion and was badly damaged.

  The other ships that stayed on the ocean drifted far away from the leeward land to avoid the danger of being blown away and tentacles.

  For the sake of insurance, the ships all went their own way, drifting with the wind, scattered and out of formation.

   By the third day, 30 ships were still missing.

  The key point is that these ships carried about 6,000 sailors and soldiers, 10,000 elite troops, and lost less than half of them overnight.

  Besides, on many ships that can withstand the storm, some crew members suffer from dysentery and typhoid fever due to eating spoiled food.

  And most of the ships have suffered damage to varying degrees. Masts and yards have been blown off, anchor loss, water leakage, etc. are common.

  So, when they encountered Port of Calais, the Spaniards didn't care so much, they just occupied it and repaired it.

  Of course, when the news was learned, the Anglo-Portuguese coalition forces had already set off. This is rare good news!

   "Everyone, press up. Speed ​​up, approach the group of Englishmen, use our advantage, and teach those barbaric England a lesson. God bless my king and bless us!"

The signal from the huge "Santa Ding" reached the ears of the Spanish navy who had just finished praying in an instant. In less than ten minutes, all the Spanish ships moved forward at a faster speed as if they were convulsed. March.

If the small and exquisite Portuguese-British coalition army is a boy, then the huge Spanish navy is a giant, condescending, arrogant, rampant with an indomitable attitude, it seems that with its huge size, it can easily crush the weak Portuguese-British navy .

  So, when James ordered to prepare, he suddenly saw that the Spanish navy broke through huge waves with an indomitable momentum, as if to swallow the small British-Portuguese coalition forces.

  Four huge ships of more than a thousand tons rushed straight at them. The British fleet in front seemed to be frightened. It took a while to react, and eagerly began to turn the rudder and speed up, barely avoiding their approach.

"Scared me to death!" Sir Charles, the commander of the English Channel Fleet in command, patted his chest, staring at the back of the turbulent waves, and the ship moving forward, the sharp angle of impact, the black and cold muzzle, made him afraid endlessly.

   "Damn, speed up, hang far away, fire—"

Charles was riding on the "Sea Princess!" which was second only to James. Dozens of long cannons aimed at the fast-moving ship and fired a round of cannons neatly. The huge recoil made the ship retreat more than ten feet. The sailors on board suddenly staggered.

  However, this round of shooting did not have any good effect, except that the huge splashes wet the Spanish sailors, and gave them a refreshing shower, fearing that they would get angry and hurt their bodies.

  In any case, since this history, the largest naval fleet and the second largest naval fleet in history have never had such a combat experience, so they started a chaotic battle.

For example, Charles led the "Sea Princess", and was 300 yards (about 270 meters) away from the thousand-ton giant ship "San Lorenzo" of the Western Army. Started to attack one after another.

  Even if the cannons on the "San Lorenzo" ship fought vigorously, the distance factor made it difficult for the shells to approach the "Sea Princess", so they could only scream angrily.

  So, he simply gave up the shelling, tried to approach with speed, and then used skilled crowd tactics to defeat them in one fell swoop.

  Seeing that the Spaniards had given up their shelling, Charles couldn't help but become mischievous.

  He ordered the sailors to speed up a little and enter the enemy's range, which made the "San Lorenzo" a little hopeful, and started shelling again.

   At this time, Charles ordered the ship to retreat quickly, out of the effective range, and let the "San Lorenzo" squeal angrily after wasting a few shells.

  The same is true for the rest of the English ships, within effective range, molesting the Spanish navy.

  (end of this chapter)