Zhu Youxiao stood at the bow of the flagship, wearing gold armor that had been strengthened to the limit, and the crimson cloak was hunting under the sea breeze.

Zhong Jixiang and Wu Xilin, two young generals of the Royal Guard, stood straight like two pine trees, standing motionless behind Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao's eyes were like an eagle flying in the sky, with the taste of looking down, looking ahead domineeringly.

It was a long island, with a twisted and slender coastline that made it very difficult to defend the island.

At the northern end of the island, a small fortress can be faintly seen.

This is the West Island of the Penghu Islands.

The small fort had been built by the Dutch in the last year or two to blockade and protect the northwestern waterway between the island and White Sands.

The Grand Fleet set out at the first hour of the day three days ago, and after spending two days and two nights, it arrived at Yuegang in Fujian.

In the newly renovated and huge Moon Harbor, the officers and men of the Royal East China Sea Fleet, after replenishing fresh water, vegetables and fruits, immediately began to cross the sea and speed towards the Penghu Islands opposite.

According to the timely weather forecast provided by Xiaohong, the latest tropical storm will strike in seven days, and now is the best time to cross the strait in a race against time.

If only the Royal East China Sea Fleet had attacked fast enough to occupy the Penghu Islands and wipe out the Dutch entrenched in Tainan before this wave of tropical storms arrived.

In this way, the losses of the Grand Fleet's cross-sea expedition can be minimized, or even negligible.

Therefore, under Zhu Youxiao's strict order, the officers and men of the Royal East China Sea Fleet did not delay even a quarter of an hour, and kept moving forward at full speed in accordance with the route designated by Zhu Youxiao.

One day later, he had successfully crossed the strait and arrived at the big island west of the Penghu Islands: Xiyu.

The first target to be captured was close at hand, and when the large fleet got closer, Zhu Youxiao picked up the telescope, adjusted the focus and began to check, the appearance of the small fortress immediately showed his eyes clearly.

It is a typical western colonial castle, with a triangular design, although limiting the face value of the habitation, so that the turrets located on the three corners can theoretically be supported by two turrets on either side.

The wooden wall was not straight, but had a certain slope, which was naturally not to make it easier for the enemy to climb up, but to make it easier for the soldiers to find the angle of fire.

After all, if it is a straight city wall and the enemy is under the city, you have to lean out half of your body outside the city to be able to shoot at the enemy.

Doing this on the battlefield is not an ordinary dangerous thing.

At the same time, the sloping city walls, the rolling wood and stones, also made the agile enemies afraid when climbing.

And this wall is not very oblique, but relatively oblique, and it is very difficult for people to climb.

Like most Western colonial forts, this fort was made of wood, except for the mixed earth-made forts, and the wooden walls were at most covered with a layer of earth to prevent the enemy from setting fire.

"Let the officers and men of the Marine Corps immediately send three thousand troops to capture it!"

Seeing that the enemy did not have any psychological preparations and operational preparations for being attacked, Zhu Youxiao slightly despised those Westerners, put down the binoculars, and said to Zhong Jixiang behind him.

These Westerners are too arrogant and arrogant, and they don't even routinely send out the guard sentry ships, as if they think that no one dares to provoke them.

Nima's!

This is the Penghu Islands of the Ming Empire, and these Westerners who have only occupied the Penghu Islands for a short time are too arrogant and arrogant!

"I will clean up all the Westerners on the islands of the Penghu Islands."

An inexplicable anger rose up in Zhu Youxiao's heart, and he added in an unkind tone, "In this battle, we, the Royal Navy, don't want any Westerners to take prisoners!" ”

There are two meanings to not leaving prisoners: one is that in six days, a round of tropical storms is coming, where is the time to grind with the Western captives who like to twitter the most?

Another reason is Zhu Youxiao's preference.

Grass Nima, most of these Westerners in this era do not bathe, all of them are stinky and smelly, even if they are coated with various spices and juices one by one, it is the same, which makes people nauseate when they get close.

After His Majesty the Emperor's repeated emphasis, Zhong Jixiang understood Zhu Youxiao's meaning very well, and immediately ordered the officers and men of the Marine Corps to launch a landing attack.

After receiving the order, the Leopard cruisers were quickly put down one by one by the soldiers.

These speedboats are bamboo-shaped, and the bottom of the boat is not U-shaped, but flat-bottomed.

As a result, the speedboat has less contact with seawater, and the friction is naturally less, and the speed will become faster. Book Bar

At the same time, there is a spinnaker on the speedboat, although the area of the spinnaker in contact with the sea breeze is less than that of a square canvas, but the adjustment angle is very flexible.

In addition to the canvas, these small boats specially used for landing, with eight oars on the left and right, are not usually fast.

On each speedboat, there were twenty-four marines, and as soon as they got out into the sea, the speedboat was like an arrow from a string, drawing a series of snow-white waves and rushing to the beach.

The Marines had just launched an attack here, and the Dutch on Xiyu Island had already spotted the arrival of the Grand Fleet, and a thick black smoke rushed out from all sides of the castle, acting as a beacon to inform them that the enemy was coming.

However, no Dutch left the fort and came to the sea to stop the Royal Navy marines.

In fact, the best effect is to block the enemy on the seashore, the enemy has just landed, there is no queue, the foothold is not stable, and at the same time with his back to the sea, it is easy to be completely annihilated.

However, the coastline of Xiyu is too long, and the Dutch fortress on Xiyu is too small, with a total of more than 100 soldiers stationed.

These Westerner soldiers, seeing such a large enemy fleet attacking, did not retreat without authorization, and they were already worthy of the identity of this soldier.

The officers and men of the Marine Corps, who drove the speedboat very quickly, rushed to the beach by the sea very calmly, calmly reorganized the queue on the beach, and soon three battle phalanxes were formed.

There were only 3,000 officers and men in charge of this landing operation, and they did not land completely at once, but only about half of them, that is, 1,500 people.

The remaining half of the soldiers, armed with new firearms with an effective range of 500 meters, were responsible for cover, lest a surprise attack by a cunning enemy would be terrible.

During the formation of the army, another 500-man marine, carrying several Kamui cannons and dozens of flowering shells, was carried to the beach, which were used to break through the gates and walls of the enemy's fortress.

In addition, they are also used to bombard enemy towers.

Although only a few Kamui general cannons were brought ashore, it was more than enough to deal with a small fortress of Westerners.

At this time, Zhong Jixiang's order came again, and the fifty-two Leopard cruisers were divided into two sub-fleets, and Wu Xilin, as the right army, led twenty-six warships to cruise on the nearby sea to prevent a surprise attack by an unknown enemy.

Zhong Jixiang, who led the left army, led 26 battleships in battle formation and advanced towards the small fortress.

The gun jackets of the great warships have been lifted, and the gun windows in the cabin have been propped up, revealing a dark and hideous gun.

Before the Marines who have landed on the ground launch an attack, of course, they must use large ships to carry out several rounds of bombardment on the enemy, in line with the usual style of the Royal Family:

Lao Tzu is going to bully you with advanced weapons, what's wrong?

With the order of Zhong Jixiang, the soldiers took the lead in launching an attack and test firing with the ship's large-caliber main ship guns, and 26 shells fell near the small fortress, although they did not directly hit the enemy's fortress, but their power was very terrifying.

I saw a few shells fall on a small forest on the edge of the fortress, and immediately exploded, stirring up a cloud of smoke and dust, and dozens of large and small trees collapsed.

Just imagine, if this test launch had landed in the fortress or on the wooden wall, the lethality would not have been an ordinary horror!

"Boom!" ……

Twenty-six Leopard cruisers fired a salvo of their main guns, a total of three shells, causing a section of the enemy's wall in front of it to completely collapse, and a nearby wall was recessed.

Outside this city wall, the layer of soil smeared was shattered by the shock, revealing the gray and black wooden stakes inside, and the dust that was still shaking off from time to time gave people a crumbling feeling.

In addition, on the beach, the Royal Marines who came like a black tide made the Dutch defenders feel desperate, screaming, running, and shouting, and they became a pot of porridge.

Just a moment later, suddenly, a series of explosions suddenly occurred in the direction of the Dutch battery!

"Huh? The officers and men of the Marine Corps have not yet started to attack, and the fleet has not continued to open fire? ”

Zhu Youxiao was still wondering what was going on, and it didn't take long for a team of scouts to send someone to report.

It turned out that the Dutch saw that the situation was not good, and they found that the enemy was too strong to hold on, so they blew up the artillery, and the soldiers retreated to Penghu Island in small boats.

Zhu Youxiao didn't bother to order the pursuit, anyway, these islands where the Dutch were entrenched now knew that there was an enemy attack, and there was no need to keep it secret.

As long as they don't evacuate the Penghu Islands immediately, all the Westerners in this sea area will die.

He immediately asked the officers to occupy the fort, and then ordered the officers and men of the Royal Navy to camp in Xiyu and overhaul the temporary advance base.

During this period, several reconnaissance speedboats of the Dutch came to the open sea of Xiyu several times, and I don't know whether they wanted to inquire about intelligence or to harass the royal fleet with a few cannons.

But whatever the idea, they had not yet come within five miles of Xiyu, and were either sunk or driven away by the patrolling clippers of the East China Sea Fleet.