Disheveled!

A cannonball landed on the front right side of Kaohsiung No. 8, a little close, and the splash happened to meet the wind direction, drenching a group of officers in the stern from head to toe, giving a sour Songkran sour feeling.

"Special M's!"

The officers cursed together about the logistics of the Southeast Fleet, and they discovered a fatal fact: Kaohsiung 8 had neither stern guns nor bow guns, only side guns, in other words, it could not fire artillery to hit the rear and front when it was advancing in a straight line.

The problem is that now there are four dogs chasing behind the Kaohsiung 8, all of which are clippers, although the Kaohsiung 8 is a streamlined hull that makes it faster, but the Dutch captains on the chasing ship eat more bread----- they are older, and they have enough experience in sailing at sea, so that the wind is exhausted, so they make up for the disadvantages of the ship, and they are still reluctant to bite the Kaohsiung 8.

Kaohsiung No. 8 only used sideboard guns to return fire when taking advantage of the diagonal line, but the effect was not good.

Damn it, they all have bow guns, although there are not many, only 2 guns for each ship, but they hit Kaohsiung No. 8 with a head rat, and the officers on the ship hated it so much that they scolded the garbage of the logistics department.

"Stop scolding!" Yan Zhang said listlessly: "I (Yan) Donglai brother went to ask logistics, do you guess what the logistics bastards said?" ”

"How?" Everyone asked hurriedly.

"They say that you go into battle to fight, and if you meet the enemy, you can use the side guns, and don't waste the bow guns and stern guns you want!" Yan Zhang said as he learned the words of logistics.

Everyone was on fire when they heard it, yes, everyone didn't run away, no stern guns, okay, no problem! But the enemy will flee, so what will be used to strike at the enemy who flees in front?

All kinds of foul words actively greeted the logistics and shipyards----- and Yan Changwu, the overseer on the flagship of Nanhai No. 1, chirped directly, and he said suspiciously: "Could it be a cold?" ”

The initiator of this matter is Yan Dashao, this guy advocates the attack, and when he meets the enemy ship, he comes to greet the side guns, but he is afraid that the firepower is not enough, who cares about the stern guns and bow guns, and does not make a budget!

Let's say that the officers of Kaohsiung No. 8 scolded and scolded, but the other party bombarded with a cannon, dangerous!

With a bang, the starboard side hit a shot!

Smashed a hole in the bulwark, which startled the officers.

Then a cannonball flew less than a meter above everyone's heads, and two cannonballs once again let everyone try the baptism of the sea.

That's it! Hong Xiguan was ruthless and ordered the stern wall of the ship to be demolished and the gun door dug out!

The captain dismantled a large section of the captain's main cabin, carried sandbags as a barrier wall, and pushed two 18-pounder guns over.

During this time, a bullet was hit in the aft compartment, and the shell that pierced the bulkhead broke the right leg of a sailor!

Now the men stepped up their movements, it was difficult to build the ship, it was easy to dismantle, and soon, the captain's main cabin was connected with the outer corridor to facilitate the recoiling of the guns.

Temporary refit, fortunately, the hull of Kaohsiung 8 is streamlined, and there is no problem with the cannon mount firing in the aft compartment, if it is like the towering stern of the Galen ship, it will be a trouble.

The artillery was in place, loaded, an old gunner took aim, lit the fuse, and hit with one shot!

In the sound of everyone's "Mazu bless", the enemy ship was shot, and it was so horizontal at once!

The officers holding the binoculars on the stern were silent, and the cannon broke the bow mast of the enemy ship's pestle in front!

Although it was a solid bullet, it hit the opponent's mast and broke it anyway.

"Brother Hong, I really think you are Mazu's son-in-law, I went back to see my sister-in-law, I have to be polite to her!" Yan Zhang said to Hong Xiguan seriously.

"Don't talk nonsense!" Hong Xiguan hurriedly said.

The next two 18-pounder guns were fired by you and me, and it was the turn of the Dutch to be depressed, their 12-pounder guns were the opponents of the 18-pounder guns, and they were hit one after another, knocking down the bow of the ship and wounding the personnel, and this cannon was super accurate, almost hitting the cannon, it was like a divine blessing, which made the Dutch begin to wonder if it was a good thing to follow?

Since it's not a good thing, stop the pursuit.

Seeing that the four Dutch warships behind them were no longer advancing, Kaohsiung No. 8 gradually widened the distance between them and everyone, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Without their pursuit, the journey home would have been smooth.

But what they didn't expect was that even bigger surprises awaited them.

……

"What did you say?" Hong Xiguan was eating lunch and was gritting his teeth against hard biscuits and jerky when a sudden piece of good news came.

"We found a Dutch merchant ship, unflagged, heading for us!"

"There is such a good thing!" Hong Xiguan was in good spirits, chewing something in his mouth, and immediately left his messy cabin (with an 18-pounder gun next to the bed, plus other "ancillary" things) and went up to the open deck.

"Great, kill it!" Hong Xiguan was overjoyed.

Sure enough, it was a Dutch merchant ship, and the reason why it did not avoid it was because the Kaohsiung 8 flew the British flag.

The credit of Kaohsiung No. 8 is great enough, in order to avoid trouble and return home safely to receive the reward, Hong Xiguan came to the soldier and did not get tired of deceit, and ordered the ship to fly the British flag (the flag was given by logistics before sailing, and the original intention was that it might be used in case of escape).

The relationship between the Netherlands and Britain was neither good nor bad, and there was nothing wrong with each other at the moment, so the Dutch merchant ships did not notice, and the quality of the telescopes at that time was average, and they did not see much clearly, and when they saw clearly, the distance between the two ships was quite close.

"16 guns on one side, a total of 32 guns, all over 12 pounds! But it doesn't have to be 32 guns, after all, this is supposed to be a merchant ship. Yan Zhang's telescope saw that in fact, what they saw was the Dutch merchant ship "Holland Province" that had returned from an order for spices in Manila, and its tan hull was bright and dazzling in the sun.

The poor relations between Spain and the Netherlands are well known to the world, but it does not affect the two sides to make money, this Dutch ship is a beautiful three-masted Galen ship, its length is 56 meters, the width of the amidship is 10 meters, the draft is 5 meters, the light displacement is 650 tons, the heavy displacement reaches 1200 tons, it is a large ship, because of its good practicality, Speke is reluctant to let it go to war, but use it to transport goods.

However, the governor's painstaking rival was none other than the Kaohsiung No. 8, which was blessed by Mazu, and the "Dutch Province" actually met in the vast sea area.

The "Dutch Province" saw the strangely shaped "British ship" and suddenly raised a skull flag.

International signal, I'm a pirate!

The Dutch were so enraged that they immediately engaged such a shameless man when they saw the English ship firing at it!