It was indeed Sun Jiaji's fleet that arrived.

When it comes to this current situation, no matter where the Hanhai Fleet exists, there will be a consensus.

That is, when patrolling the sea near the harbor, you should never hope to surpass the Hanhai Army, because the Hanhai Army warships are all-weather ships, and the most advanced ships of any force except the Hanhai Army are nothing more than strengthening the design of the hull material and ship shape. Generally speaking, their ships can only move freely for half of the year.

That's because the changes of the four seasons will alternate between the mainland and the ocean. It is more obvious in summer and winter, but in these two seasons, there is often only one season to choose. In addition, there is a weak wind season in spring and autumn, and the most suitable voyage is three months to half a year.

Of course, unless it is the equatorial windless zone, there is basically wind on any other sea surface, but the wind will not be so obvious. It is needless to say that it is too difficult to capture this wind direction at any time.

In addition to the wind direction, there are naturally ocean currents that can be used on the sea, but this kind of ocean current is the best to use with the wind direction. Ships that rely solely on ocean currents for long-distance navigation cannot be said to be none, but they are also extremely rare.

In the Strait of Gibraltar, the ocean currents on the sea flow from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean. With the influence of the westerly wind belt, it is very convenient to enter the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean, but it is not easy to drive from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean smoothly, which requires superb sailing skills.

But all this does not exist at all for the Hanhai Army warships, and the ocean currents about four kilometers per hour are almost unaware of under the influence of steam power.

Therefore, whether it was Spain, Portugal, or the Moroccan fleet, they all gave up their plans to control the Strait of Gibraltar. In this way, starting from Tangier to Ceuta, the Strait of Gibraltar, which was about a hundred miles long and about thirty miles wide, was almost completely in the hands of the Hanhai Army.

So, when Sun Jiaji led half of the new Intercontinental fleet to the Bay of Gibraltar, the rumbling sounds of twenty-three warships woke the Spaniards up.

As mentioned earlier, the Spanish gathered a large number of ships in the Bay of Gibraltar. The so-called large number represents two meanings.

First, they gathered most of the ships that could be used for combat here in the ports on the western coast of the Mediterranean.

Secondly, in Europe at this time, if you want to fight smoothly in the Mediterranean, you must cooperate with a large number of gallops, or if you fight in the Mediterranean, large gallops can play a major role, because the westerly wind belt is only effective for some seas in the western section of the Mediterranean, and the wind direction on the sea changes after this area.

At present, in addition to Barcelona, ​​the Spaniards also retained a small number of gallops. From Valencia to the west, all the gallops on the coastline of thousands of miles to Gibraltar gathered here. In addition, fifty sailing warships including battleships and armed merchant ships, a total of 150 ships. The main maritime forces on the Mediterranean side of the Spaniard are gathered here!

When the rumbling sound of the Hanhai Army's steam fleet sounded, Jose quickly issued an order to allow the sailboat that could maneuver quickly to move.

The loud bells and bronze horns soon appeared in the bay.

When Sun Jiaji's fleet entered the bay about ten miles away, a large number of gallops drove from the Port of Gibraltar to the east and the Port of Algeciras to the west!

At this time, Spain had many colonies, so it could use a large number of slaves to row the sailboat. These people were not allowed to go ashore at ordinary times and could only move on the boat during the specified time. When they were in a state of combat readiness, they could only sleep on the oars and stand by twenty-four hours.

Of course, in order to make these slave paddlers from different places work honestly and not make trouble easily, they also have practices such as "five years" and "ten years" you will become "free people". The so-called five years are naturally targeting European "pagans" sentenced to the Inquisition. More than ten years are definitely targeting blacks and Indians. For the Spanish, these two types of populations coming to Europe are actually animals.

If you are still lucky enough to survive for ten years, you can only say that you are gifted.

In any case, there were about fifty large galleys sailing from the east and west sides!

The squadron led by Sun Jiaji had a total of twenty-three warships. According to the length of the medium-sized Peregrine Falcon, if it comes in a long snake formation, it will be one thousand meters. If the distance between the ships is added, it will be at most two thousand meters, and the large galleys are basically more than fifty meters, and fifty ships are more than two thousand meters. If the distance between them is added, it will be about three thousand meters.

As mentioned earlier, the opening of Gibraltar Bay was about ten kilometers deep. When Sun Jiaji's fleet drove in and a large number of sailboats appeared from both sides, although they did not go hand in hand, they occupied almost half of the sea!

This scene was all under Sun Jiaji's calculations. When the sailboats on both sides were about one thousand meters away from his fleet, his fleet was divided into two again.

As mentioned above, the configuration of a new intercontinental fleet is:

Two Dapengs;

Four Golden Eagles;

Sixteen Peregrine Falcons;

Twelve Swifts;

Twelve Albatrosses.

Half of the configuration is one Dapeng, two Golden Eagle, eight Peregrine Falcons, six Swifts, and albatrosses.

When the enemy ship approached, one Golden Eagle, four Peregrine Falcon, three Swifts, and eight warships on each side, while the flagship Dapeng continued to sail north with six albatrosses.

After driving north for a while, the Dapeng was a little far away from the battlefield where he was trapped in battle, he split into two. The Dapeng took two albatrosses to the east and headed straight to the east coast of Gibraltar Bay, while the remaining four albatrosses sailed to the west coast!

Let’s not talk about what these seemingly clumsy big ships are sailing towards the coast, and in the middle, eight warships on both sides face the sailboats that the enemy has rushed over. At this time, the Mediterranean sailboats are generally two layers, and during combat, both layers of paddlers are rowing with all their strength. Because the sailboats are huge and the paddlers are very long, and with hundreds of paddlers on each side, they will naturally cause surges on the sea surface. Therefore, the distance between the paddlers is at least more than 30 meters, which provides great convenience for the tactics commonly used by the Hanhai warships - the middle crossing technique.

Since there were a large number of paddlers placed on the middle deck, the Spaniards' firepower could only be concentrated on the first deck. The sailboats were originally thin-skinned and stuffed ships. In addition, the first deck was located at the highest point, so they could only place small and medium-sized short-barrel cannons.

For the Hanhai Army warships, they naturally equipped small cannons on the first deck at this time, which was prepared for possible enemy jumping gang combat. They were usually covered with thick oil cloth and almost never used.

Even the smallest Swift, they arranged ten twelve-pound Nibchu bronze cannons on each side on the middle deck!

At this moment, the Hanhai Army has not made any major progress in artillery production and artillery operation technology compared with previous years. Howitzers and rear-mounted rifled guns have not appeared, and it is still the old-fashioned smoothbore gun regulations. However, compared with the enemies at this time, their investment in artillery quality, gun mirrors/rulers and other configurations, training time, and training. If the Europeans were only able to conduct live-fire training in one month of the year at this time, the Hanhai Army could reach four months!

The comparison between four months and one month seems to be similar, but if you look closely, it is that in a year, the Hanhai Army can operate it once every three days, while the Europeans can practice it once every ten days. The different effects of this are self-evident.

"boom……"

The cannons with a strong skin and a tall and strong height. The cannons on the middle and lower decks looked extremely tall, but in fact they had thin skin and large fillings, and only had small cannons on the upper layer. The result was also obvious. In fact, the only chance for the Europeans to win at this time was to take advantage of the number of ships to rush up to jump to the jump to the gang operation. Moreover, the jump to the gang operation was a tactic that the Spaniards were very good at.

But the love for ships, confidence in their own ships, and the difference in maneuver power. Until now, none of the opponents encountered by the Hanhai Navy can successfully use this tactic.

It’s still the same thing. It didn’t take long for the Hanhai Army to pass through the gap between the enemy ships. After passing through it, the sea surface was in a mess!

At this time, in the harbor on the coast, the second row of gallops also began to move. It seemed that this was their tactic. They used the first row of gallops to entangle the enemy ship, and then the subsequent gallops rushed up to surround them, and finally took the jump to help the work depending on the situation.

The ideal is full, but the reality is extremely skinny. When the enemy drove a large number of sailboats from both sides, the Hanhai Army warships began a new round of crossings!

This time I encountered some trouble when crossing, because some sailboats realized that their tactics were not very effective, so they turned the bow of the ship to get close to the enemy ship for jumping.

But the Hanhai Army was still not afraid and continued to pass through the increasingly narrow gaps in the enemy ship!

"boom……"

"Click..."

The rumbling sound of artillery mixed with the sound of the hull disintegration caused by the collision of a large number of ships. When all the Hanhai warships passed through almost intact again, the scene was even more messy!

On the periphery of the battlefield, the Dapeng and many albatrosses drove the speed of the two steam engines to the maximum. When approaching the enemy's sailing warships and armed merchant ships, they used their same tricks again, and a thick black rubber tube stretched out from the side of the ship!

The air was filled with the smell of tinder oil. Whenever an enemy ship was sprayed, a hot bullet would be emitted on the side!

"boom……"

This time it was not the sound of artillery bombardment, but the sound of fire burning. In the Bay of Gibraltar, although it was separated by the entire Iberian Peninsula, it was not far from the west wind belt, and the fire gradually became stronger with the wind. When the Dapeng and the twelve albatrosses converged again in the north of the bay, a surging line of fire, with a circumference of about twenty miles, emerged abnormally, mixed with various heart-wrenching sounds produced by the burning of shipboards and the ignition of gunpowder.

Of course, when the Dapeng and the albatross approached, the enemy's side or bow position could also fire artillery. Although it was not enough to sink the Hanhai warships in a short period of time, it also caused many casualties of the Hanhai sailors, especially those who were deploying tinder oil.

But all this is not worth mentioning compared to annihilation of the Spanish Gibraltar fleet.

When Ceuta's Hanhai warship saw that Sun Jiaji's fleet sailed into Gibraltar Bay, it sent half of the ships out. So, the enemy ship that escaped from the messy bay was caught by Hanhai warship guarding outside.

...

The battle went on all day.

When the sun sets in the sky, the battle is almost over. At this time, under the cover of warship artillery, Sun Jiaji put a brigade of Marines on the Port of Algeciras without stopping.

Under the attack of naval guns, a wall collapsed in one night. Inside Jose and Alvarez had already run away with a few cavalry.

When the first ray of sunshine in the East was respread on Gibraltar Bay, the Marines had completely occupied the Port of Algeciras!
Chapter completed!