In later history, the naval battle that broke out in the waters near Batavia was of great significance, although it was not large, only six third-class ships against nine third-class ships, and the other warships were not at all, but the changes brought about by this battle even changed the pattern of naval warfare later.

When the Dingyuan ship, under the command of Qiu Ze, rushed directly into the Dutch battleship, in a sense, it was almost determined to become a benevolent if it did not succeed.

And the situation of the naval battle later did reflect this, only to see a cannonball fired from the Dutch third-class battleship Tulip, obliquely grazing over the helm platform of the Ningyuan ship, and the wood debris splashed up all the way was like a deadly lead bullet, directly sweeping the officers and men of the Da Chu Navy on the entire helm platform to the ground.

I saw that under the violent impact, Qiu Ze was directly thrown to the ground by the other guards, but at this time, Qiu Ze's whole body was already covered in blood, but he didn't know whether it was his own or the guards who pressed on him, and the rich smell of blood accompanied by billowing smoke made the rest of the naval officers and soldiers panic.

Although there is a rule for commanders in the Great Chu Navy, that is, when the admiral dies in battle or cannot assume command responsibility, the deputy admiral can take over the command responsibility, and the deputy admiral dies in battle, the chief of staff of the fleet takes over the command responsibility, and the admiral, deputy admiral and chief of staff cannot command in principle on the same ship, so it can avoid the situation that there is no one to command after the flagship is sunk or the admiral dies in battle.

In this battle, too, if Qiu Ze dies in battle, then Deng Yunfang, the deputy commander of the Zhenyuan ship, will become the new fleet commander.

Of course, no one wants to see this, because Qiu Ze is almost a pillar-like soul figure in the Great Chu Navy, and if he falls, then the combat effectiveness of the entire fleet will be greatly reduced.

However, at this time, the forty-year-old admiral managed to stand up, his body was covered with large pieces of blood, his arms and legs were deeply penetrated by fine wood chips, and his forehead was also scratched by wood chips, and blood was constantly remaining.

"My lord! My lord! ”

The naval officers and sailors on the side hurriedly rushed forward, wanting to lift Qiu Ze off the helm of the command.

Qiu Ze stood panting in front of everyone, and he raised his hand with great effort to stop his subordinates from lifting him off the helm platform.

"This battle ...... I am the commander, and I must not leave the helm! ”

"Come on, tie me to the mast, and I'm going to stand and win this battle!"

The blood on his forehead was like an infusion, and soon Qiu Ze's vision was almost blurred, and he saw that the scene in front of him seemed to be covered with a layer of red cloth, through which he saw the cannonballs that were raining down, the stirring splashes, and the naval soldiers lying everywhere......

But at this time, Qiu Ze's heart was like a calm sea, and there was no slightest emotional fluctuation, he tried hard to think about the situation in front of him, and then spit out the order in a low voice, and let the herald pass the order through the signal flag.

In fact, the development of the battlefield situation into the current state has been completely expected by the Great Chu Navy Staff Office, after all, the gap in strength and command between the warships of the two sides is on the surface, and it is impossible to win by conventional means - the reason why this battle will break out is entirely because the current Great Chu Navy has a real hole card.

With the signal flag on the Dingyuan ship rising, the Dachu warships that were in a state of melee also got the signal, especially the huge Chinese warships located on the flanks of the battlefield, and the huge number of rushing ships also began to raise the signal flags one after another, which seemed to have become a unified signal, with an inexplicable mystery and tragedy.

When the time returned to three days before the start of the war, all the middle-level officers in the Great Chu Navy fleet followed Qiu Ze to have their last meal.

Qiu Ze raised the wine bowl and drank it all in front of everyone, he said loudly: "We were all brothers from the Green Camp back then, but Your Majesty has never been suspicious of us, nor has he carried out a large-scale purge in the navy, and has entrusted us with important tasks, no one here is lower than the rank of major, it can be seen that Your Majesty is generous to us, and he wants to repay us with his life!" ”

"We all know in our hearts that this battle must be fought, if we don't fight, I'm sorry for Your Majesty, we must win, if we don't win, I'm sorry for Your Majesty, if you want to win, you have to dare to die!"

"Once the war starts, I will try my best to lead six sail warships to attack the Dutch fleet first, dragging the opponent's main force, your task is only one, that is, to take the opportunity to rush into the Dutch fleet, divide it, and then use rockets to bombard it at close range!"

"Although the range of the rocket is long, but the accuracy is too poor, you must narrow the distance to within 200 yards, preferably 100 yards, the closer the better, and then concentrate on bombardment, in order to achieve miraculous results! When the time comes, there will be only two results, win or die! ”

"In a word, put it to death and then live, once this battle starts, all the kings will advance and retreat!"

These veterans of the Green Battalion, who were originally from the Fujian Navy Division, raised the wine bowls in their hands one after another and drank them all.

"There is no advance or retreat! There is death and no life! ”

........

"Rocket ready! Raise the flag, lean over! ”

Xu Tonglong, the No. 4 pipe belt of A, roared loudly, and there was also a bloody towel wrapped around his arm at this time, the original white background was already indistinguishable, but the unconsciously trembling arm showed his pain at this time.

The so-called No. 4 is a relatively common ship, it is only a kind of small and medium-sized ship, six feet long, one foot seven feet five inches wide, the number of guns on it is also extremely rare, only two poor two six-pound guns, not that there are not enough guns, but because of the type of ship, there is no way to open a gun position on the side side, so you can only put such a gun in the bow and stern.

However, even such a rushing ship, placed in a large number of traditional warships, can be regarded as the main warship, because the other warships are almost all smaller warships and fast sentry ships, I have to say that in this era, the development of Eastern warships has lagged far behind the West, and the concept of naval warfare is also in a state of decline.

Therefore, even if Qiu Ze had more than a hundred such warships in his hands, he still did not dare to let these warships rely on their numerical superiority to kill elephants, because they were likely to be completely destroyed after sinking a few armed merchant ships, which was by no means what Qiu Ze wanted to see.

Fortunately, there are rockets that can give them a desperate chance.

Of course, it's just a desperate opportunity.

After Xu Tonglong's order was issued, I saw several Dachu Navy soldiers take out many long cylindrical objects from the cabin, and then mounted them on the launch rack fixed on the deck, and then lifted the cloth covering it, revealing a straight and slender bullet body, with a long lead trailing at the bottom.

When all these rockets were installed on the launch racks on the deck, I saw that there were several more columns on the originally flat deck that pointed diagonally to the sky, and the entire hull looked a little weird.

"Launch!"

Xu Tonglong slashed the naval sword in his hand down, and then the soldiers lit the fuse, only to see a thick white smoke suddenly envelop the entire ship, and more than a dozen rockets rushed into the sky with a piercing sound, and then drew an arc and scattered in all directions, which looked very beautiful and spectacular.

"Boom—"

A series of loud roars followed, and I saw that a Dutch armed merchant ship closest to the A-4 was hit by several rockets, and then slowly sank in the explosion, but the speed was beyond everyone's imagination, and in just a moment, only a thick white smoke was left on the sea.

However, this scene is destined to be only the beginning of this naval battle, only to see that other Great Chu warships on the sea also began to set up rockets one after another, bombarding the Dutch warships in front of them, and the rockets that were launched were like scattered flowers in the sky, and the next series of explosions were one after another, adding a lot of cruelty to this scene.

Looking at the great changes that had taken place on the battlefield, not only the ordinary Dutch sailors were surprised, but even De Vries, who was commanding the Batavia, began to be dumbfounded, it was obvious that the admiral had never seen such a weapon at all, and there was no record of such a weapon in his mind.

In particular, in terms of the momentum and power of rocket launches, there is no kind of weapon that can be compared with any weapon in the navies of Western countries, and even De Vries, who has a keen sense of smell, quickly realized the value of this kind of rocket in naval warfare.

It is true that the accuracy of the rocket is extremely poor, and it must be stuck to the opponent's battleship in order to hit the target with multiple shots, but the explosive power it brings itself makes it extremely damaging to the hull, and the ensuing combustion will also make the battleship lose its combat effectiveness, so it is not an exaggeration to say that it can change the pattern of naval warfare.

Qiu Ze, who was tied to the mast and insisted on commanding, also looked at the scene in front of him with an excited face at this time, he quickly realized the preciousness of the fighter at this time, and immediately issued an order, leading the Dingyuan ship and five other third-class sail warships to entangle the Dutch third-class battleships that were fighting.

The reason is very simple, compared with the limited firepower of the Dutch armed merchant ships, the dense gun positions of the third-class battleships are too harmful to the traditional warships, if it chooses to turn back to encircle and suppress the traditional warships, I am afraid that those warships will be difficult to resist, and there is no chance to get closer to the position at all, even if the rocket is fired, it will not play a big role.

Just like the current Dachu third-class battleship, the distance from the Dutch third-class battleship has always been maintained at about three hundred yards, and in this distance, the rocket can only rely on luck if it wants to hit the third-class battleship on the sea - so Qiu Ze does not plan to use it on the third-class battleship, but as a way to let the traditional battleship play a role.

"Boom—"

With the gradual passage of time, the battle on the sea became more and more intense, from time to time there were shells flying through the air, and with the addition of rockets, the situation began to develop in the direction of the Great Chu Navy, more and more Dutch armed merchant ships were sunk, and then the sinking of the Great Chu warships was very few, most of them were some relatively small ships and fast sentry ships.

When he found that the situation was getting more and more unfavorable, De Vries was full of anger, he didn't want to consume time with the third-class battleships of the Great Chu Navy on the sea, because the power of both sides could only rely on the direction of the wind, and the distance could not be shortened, so that the Dutch third-class battleships could not quickly sink the Great Chu battleships.

At this time, De Vries prefers to lead the warships under his command to directly return to engage those large numbers of traditional warships, as long as they are separated from a certain distance and destroy these warships, then at least they can maintain an undefeated result.

However, under Qiu Ze's quiet and persistent command, the six ships of Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jiyuan, Jingyuan, Laiyuan and Zhiyuan have been torn to the six sail battleships of the Netherlands, and only the remaining three third-class battleships have escaped the battlefield, and they are the Held, the Truy and the Tulip began to turn around and head towards the flank battlefield.

Between the rippling blue waves, I saw that a large number of broken wooden planks and the wreckage of warships had floated on the surface of the previously calm sea, and at the same time, there were also many corpses of Dutch naval soldiers who died in battle, outlining a tragic picture on the sea, while the Great Chu Navy, on the other hand, suffered relatively minor losses, and only a dozen small boats were sunk.

When the Dutch battleships Held, Truid and Tulip swooped over, Xu Tonglong was also commanding on the No. 4 at this time, and he naturally saw the movements of the Dutch battleships clearly, and understood that he only had six third-class warships, and there was no way to completely suppress the other party's nine warships, and the rest could only rely on themselves.

"Ordered, the ship formation turned around and launched an attack on the three enemy ships rushing to the right!"

Xu Tonglong's tone was very calm, he himself was also the commander of a detachment group, and immediately let all the warships under his group block in front of the Dutch warships.

"My lord, I'm afraid our ship won't be able to get through......"

The officer on the side cautiously dissuaded, this sentence was actually only half of what was said, and it was only one side that he could not rely on it, and on the other hand, he was afraid that he would be sunk by the three third-class battleships before he could get close to the past, after all, from a long-distance attack, the Dutch battleship had thirty-two guns on the side of the side, and the power of each salvo was too great.

Xu Tonglong snorted coldly and said: "If you can't get over, then block in front of them, even if you sink in front of them, you can block some time, now what we lack most is time!" ”

That's right, for the Dachu Navy and the Dutch Navy, the two sides are competing for time with each other, if the traditional warships that can hold up to the flank of Dachu sink dozens of armed merchant ships in the Netherlands, then the nine lone third-class battleships will naturally not be able to run away, but if the three third-class battleships of the Dutch fleet are allowed to return first, then I am afraid that the outcome is still unknown.