As the former headquarters of the Dutch, the Spice Island, a source of wealth, the Dutch installed heavy artillery there.

Due to the long sea journey, the intelligence of the southeastern province is inaccurate, and it is believed that the Ambons do not know how to use artillery, but they did not expect that they know how to hire the Dutch to fight artillery and heavy artillery.

Chen Yuxue, the female captain of the Southeast Fleet, is a militant who always rushes to the front, and if she encounters an accident from the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment, it will be everyone's trouble.

Luckily, Hong Xiguan ordered her to cover the landing transport ship before this battle, and did not participate in the battle.

Officer Hong Xi ordered the cruisers to withdraw from the battle, and then the officers on the flagship saw that the two cruisers, Kaohsiung No. 42 and No. 50, could not bear the shells and raced for their lives, and the two ships collided together!

This collision was more than a thousand pounds, and at least a dozen people fell into the sea.

The officers watching the battle unanimously said: "What a shame! ”

Under the violent collision, the bow compartment of the Kaohsiung No. 50 was completely destroyed where it had been hit by a bullet near the waterline, and the sea water rushed in.

Fortunately, the southeast warship uses a watertight cabin, and one cabin is flooded, which can still be maintained, and the port number of the Kaohsiung No. 50 ship is far behind, and the watertight cabin is standard.

But the bow of the ship was flooded, and it was struggling, and the ship's damage management troops desperately pumped water through the artificial pumping machine connected to the first cabin, but the crack was too big to do anything.

The Kaohsiung No. 42 ship had no choice but to throw off the rope and drag it forward.

Ambon Cannon took the opportunity to shoot Kaohsiung No. 50's ass!

Under the heavy artillery bombardment, the rear mast of Kaohsiung No. 50 was actually blown off!

It fell with a bang, but fortunately, the crew was concentrated in the bow of the ship and did not incur losses.

The aft tower was blown apart and torn apart, as miserable as if it had been blown up*.

After the battle, Kaohsiung No. 50 was injured in the keel, which was a major damage and had no repair value.

As for the other five cruisers, they were scarred, and some of the cruisers' bulwarks had collapsed in large areas.

The opponent's heavy artillery hit hard enough, accurate enough!

……

"12 24-pounder guns, 12 18-pounder guns!"

"Three of our six cruisers were seriously damaged by the enemy, three were lightly damaged, 24 killed and 105 wounded.

The ship's staff officers reported the situation to Chen De and Hong Xuguan, and both commanders exclaimed!

It is rare to encounter such losses.

Fortunately, the soldiers of the battleship were strictly armored and the medical care was sufficient, so they did not suffer greater losses.

"I'll take the battleship up and fight!" Hong Xuguan asked for battle.

"Go ahead!" Chen De agreed.

Officer Hong took a small boat to the side of the Nanhai No. 7 battleship, where he hoisted his flag, and he was given the rank of general in the course of the war.

Three battleships, under his command, approached the Ambon battery and opened fire to bombard the battery.

The sound of artillery was deafening, and the heavy guns of the battleship pursued the opponent's heavy guns and launched a fierce attack.

Nanhai No. 7 rushed diagonally towards the Ambon Battery, and the artillery on both sides fired in unison.

They had more or less equal chances, and the batteries were easier to aim at the target, because the battleships were moving and the batteries were stationary, but because the batteries were stationary, they were more likely to be hit.

However, the battleship was three-dimensional, the battery was almost flat, the battleship was more prone to bullets, and the battery had an advantage.

The gunners on both sides were about the same in skill, but the fort's defenses prevailed, and the Dutch used boulder parapets to withstand the 24-pounder guns.

The cannonball hit the parapet, causing it to shake and at best bounce up a single piece of debris, failing to damage the gunner inside.

Ambon, which was the former headquarters of the Dutch in Southeast Asia, made great efforts to ensure its safety, and they drove the natives to bring in large stones, chisel them into strips of stone one meter wide and half a meter high and thirty centimeters high, stack them one by one, and then glue them together with glutinous rice juice and lime paste mixture, which is extremely strong.

Glutinous rice juice?!

Yes, the backward natives did not have the ability to chisel and glue stones, and the Dutch hired Chinese craftsmen to do the work.

At that time, in order to build the Ambon Fort, hundreds of Chinese craftsmen were specially invited.

Hongmaofan knew very well what ethnic groups could work, and as a result, the fort wall built by the Chinese withstood the attack of the Chinese heavy artillery.

At the same time, the heavy artillery of the Dutch inflicted great damage on the battleship.

Officer Hong Xiguan was directing the battle on the open deck, when suddenly the soldiers beside him who were closely watching the enemy's movements shouted: "General be careful. ”

The two of them pounced on each other and pressed Hong Xiguan under them.

Before Hong Xiguan could pass his senses, a strong wind flew overhead.

With a bang, a 24-pound solid iron ball slammed into the stern behind him, knocking a big gap in the wall of the building, and sawdust and wood spikes shot indiscriminately, hitting several surrounding naval officers and men until they all rolled on the deck with their heads covered and screamed.

This cannonball is powerful enough to even shatter the gangway on one side!

"Is the general alright?"

The two soldiers who were covering Hong Xiguan hurriedly got up, helped Hong Xiguan up, and asked nervously.

"It's okay, I'm fine......" Hong Xiguan looked at the stern behind him, and secretly shouted in his heart that it was dangerous. But he didn't show it at all, dusted off the pieces of his body, and shouted at the sailors to open fire.

The battle was extremely fierce, and the resistance of the Ambon battery was extremely steady, and even if the three battleships used all their martial arts, and even stopped the ship and fought with the battery, they still could not destroy the battery, and had to regretfully withdraw from the battle.

……

In the afternoon, the other three battleships of the same company, under the personal command of Chen De, attacked the Ambon Fort!

Unlike Hong Xiguan's hard work, Chen De was single-handed, and one battleship after another drove over to shoot artillery.

The battleship "Nanhai No. 2" led by him went up first, "grab the wind!" Chen De ordered, and the battleship quickly sailed into the wind, and when they approached the shore, they lowered most of their sails.

The sailors, who had been trained for a long time and were very skilled, drove the battleship smoothly without firing a gun.

The opponent's batteries flew one after another, Chen De immediately gave the order to "turn", the battleship turned sharply, and the officers and men on the ship stood unsteadily and staggered like puppets, but they took a lightning-like action, so that the six shells flying from the opponent hit the sea, splashing a large wave.

Nanhai No. 2 opened fire, and in each rumble, the sailors could be seen working intensely in their respective directions, and throughout the whole process, they were always engrossed and emotionally high, unaffected by the adverse effects of the previous battle.

After fighting for an hour to their contentment, they went into battle with a second battleship, followed by a third.

When the sun set west, the Southeast Fleet left two cruisers to control the port, and the main fleet set sail and left the port of Ambon.

In the battle that day, the battleship suffered a total of 58 dead and nearly 200 wounded, and the port of Ambon did not move at all, and even when the count was made, it was found that only 2 people were killed and several wounded, and the casualties were negligible.

The Dutch and the natives laughed and laughed at the fort, and Sudan Abdullah Harrig came to the fort to celebrate the victory, but when he looked at him on the seashore, Haimer admonished Harrig: "Today is just a warm-up, tomorrow the battle will be more fierce!" ”