However, after a while, both Max and Anthony quickly came back to their senses, and they couldn't help but complain.

The reason why this is so has to talk about the topography of the Hormuci Strait.

Located between the Arabian Peninsula and the southern part of the Persian Empire, the Strait of Hormuz resembles a herringbone shape and is the only outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. It is about 150 kilometers long from east to west, 97 kilometers at its widest point, and only about 38 kilometers at its narrowest point.

In addition, the strait has many islands, reefs and shoals, and the safe passage is only a few kilometers wide. If that's it, it's nothing, and the most important thing is where Gombullon is located.

In this strait, there is one of the largest islands called Qeshm Island, which is long and narrow in shape, stretching parallel to the coast of the mainland, and separated by the Hulan Strait. The coastline is twisty. It is 112 kilometers long and between 11 and 32 kilometers wide, with an area of about 1,336 square kilometers.

On this island of Qeshm, there is a military castle built by the Portuguese. But in the time of Abbas I, he turned to the British and Dutch fleets and drove the Portuguese away.

Originally, the British and Dutch fleets were docked on this island. However, when Abbas II came to Kambulon to build a new capital, the two of them stopped their fleet and guarded the seaward side of Kambrunn, seeking future benefits with Abbas II's heart and favorability.

So, the key question comes.

This Kambrunn, later known as Bandar Abbas, is northeast of the island of Qeshm. Now that the Ming army is pushing sideways from the outside, the British and Dutch fleets can only retreat into the Hulan Strait if they cannot break through the Ming army on the opposite side. Not to mention that the Hulan Strait is too narrow, there is even a maritime forest called "Hara" with more than 100,000 hectares.

That is to say, the combined fleet of Great Britain and the Netherlands will basically not work if it wants to run backwards.

At this time, Max and Anthony are experienced after all, and they know that they can't fight each other anymore, so they must immediately adjust their formation and break through, otherwise, they will really be wiped out.

However, there is another feature of the Hormuci Strait.

Since the amount of evaporation is much greater than the amount of precipitation, the salinity of the sea in the strait is increased. The salinity of the strait and the Persian Gulf is greater than that of the Gulf of Oman, creating a gradient in the density of seawater. Causes the less salinated waters of the Gulf of Oman to flow through the surface of the strait to the Persian Gulf, while the salinity waters of the Persian Gulf flow through the bottom of the strait to the Gulf of Oman.

In other words, it is the sea area, where the surface of the sea flows from east to west, and the bottom of the sea flows from west to east.

In this way, the Ming navy from the east completely occupied the geographical advantage. The speed of the fleet was very fast, and before the combined fleet of Britain and the Netherlands could be adjusted, the Ming Navy warships had already rushed over.

There was no way, Max and Anthony had to rush to face each other, fight first and then speak.

But at this time, the two of them discovered something new.

I saw the battleship rushing to the front of the Ming fleet, and the hull shell reflected the sunlight. There is no doubt that it is metal!

Also, the battleship at the front actually had a large barrel on its hull, and it was smoking, what was the situation? Is it on fire? Still rushing over, or is it an arson boat? But why is the hull metal, which can burn enemy ships?

A series of doubts popped up in the minds of every Dutch and Englishman. It's really strange that there are so many things every year, why are there so many of them this year?

Before they could figure it out, they suddenly heard a loud bang.

"Boom ......"

Firing at such a distance, are the sailors on the Ming warships novices?

As soon as the idea came to mind, Max saw that the mast of one of the ships in the Dutch fleet had been broken by a chain bullet. The huge mast fell with the sails on it, and there was a great sound.

Seeing this, he was immediately dumbfounded, can he hit it so far? This is simply favored by Lady Luck, right? But the goddess of luck is not from the Ming Kingdom!

Naturally, he didn't know that the guns on this steam-ironclad battleship were not only large in caliber, but also engraved with rifles, and on the premise of ensuring power, the accuracy and range were much higher than those of ordinary guns.

At this time, although it was the Dutch battleship that was hit, Max did not have a sense of schadenfreude.

"Boom ......"

The Ming artillery that rushed over first opened fire again, and without incident, another Dutch battleship was hit on the side of the ship, sawdust and wood pieces flew around, and there were screams of sailors. Of course, far away, that is inaudible.

This time, everyone knew that it was not Lady Luck who betrayed them, but the artillery of the Ming army was too powerful!

Realizing this, both the British and Dutch sailors panicked and their morale dropped a point.

Just when they were panicking, the first warships of the Ming army had already entered the range of the guns of some of their warships, so of course they would not be polite, and immediately opened fire, vowing revenge.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

In the continuous sound of artillery, iron bullets, chain bullets, etc., roared out, and nearly half of them smashed on the Ming warship. It has to be said that the level of their artillery is still not to be said.

The mast of the Ming battleship was not made of iron, and it was hit by a chain bullet, and of course it was broken. And the collapse of the mast with the sail is also the most striking.

However, before the Dutch sailors could cheer, they saw that the ones that had been shot in the hull of the Ming warship were at most a pit, not a single hole.

“……”

At this moment, they were all dumbfounded. This fucking Ming Kingdom battleship is really made of iron?

This iron is made of iron, and it can float to figure it out, but why can it run so fast?

Just when they were stupid, the guns on the Ming battleship also opened fire.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

At this time, the distance was already close, and the rifled artillery was even more powerful. smashed into the hull of the Dutch battleship, directly smashed a large hole, and it was still a penetrating wound, and incidentally caused damage to the Dutch battleship behind. Although this damage is not large, it is true.

The Dutch sailors who saw this scene in the "......", at least the sailor on the battleship that was hit in the back, were dumbfounded again.

This time the battle with the Ming fleet is really too unexpected!

The captains of the Dutch fleet were all experienced in combat. At this time, he couldn't care about these things, and was shouting loudly, "turn the rudder, turn the rudder", because the ironclad battleship of the Ming Kingdom was about to collide. Anyway, can wood collide with iron armor?

What's more, the Ming army occupies a geographical advantage, and with the help of the flow of seawater, the speed is faster. And the Dutch battleships, because they had to open fire, were all sideways.

However, at this time, under the deliberate intention of the ironclad battleship, they had no time to avoid it, and they didn't even have time to adjust the direction of the battleship.

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

The bow of the ironclad battleship, like a sharp broadsword, split the Dutch battleship in front of it in half at once. Smoke then rose even more, and the battleship continued on its way, ramming into the next one.

And behind this steam-ironclad battleship, there were twenty modified battleships, specially modified for impact, and the hull was wrapped in iron sheets. The impact that followed suddenly knocked the formation of the Dutch fleet, which was not very good, into a rug.

Anthony's flagship was in the back and was not affected, but when he saw the situation in front, he suddenly felt a chill in his back. He knew, not to mention the thousands of Ming warships behind, just the hundreds of battleships that rushed to the front pressed over, it would be ironclad!

He was in a daze, when he heard someone on the ship shouting hysterically: "The ironclad battleship is coming, coming, it's coming to hit us, turn the rudder quickly, avoid ...... quickly."

Summoned back to his senses by the voice, Anthony saw a huge battleship approaching majestically. It wasn't until recently that he discovered that this ironclad battleship was so huge.

Anthony didn't panic, didn't shout, because he knew that no matter what he did, it was useless. Only with a bitter smile in his heart, he looked at the ironclad battleship that collided with him, and muttered to himself: "I have finally witnessed the rise of the sea overlord of the Ming Kingdom!" ”

With a loud bang, the flagship of the Dutch fleet was smashed in two by the steam ironclad battleship.

Max in the back saw the Dutch fleet in front of them, facing the twenty or so battleships of the Ming army, and he had no power to fight back at all. Seeing these battleships rushing towards them again, and the Dutch fleet, seven and eight landed, will soon be drowned in the sea of Ming warships. He was desperate, he didn't command, and directly let the flagship flee back, as far as he could.

Unlike him, Yan Yingyuan, who was on the flagship of the Ming Navy, looked at his forehead and long beard, and his face was full of smiles.

Originally, according to Zheng Chenggong's meaning, it was a fleet operation.

However, Yan Yingyuan finally ordered the army's transport ships to follow behind the fleet. Anyway, the enemy doesn't know the truth and reality, and he doesn't know that the current Ming Navy has all used the original Fu ships as transport ships, not warships.

Actually, if you really want to fight, you can fight. There are no flowering shells, high explosives, and in order to completely defeat the enemy, it is ultimately necessary to rely on broadside battles. And the sailors on the transport ship, there is no problem with this.

Of course, the premise of this is that it can be shipped. If it was a previous era, it would have been difficult. It is also for this reason that more than a dozen Dutch sail warships dared to be arrogant along the coast of Daming. In the end, although he was defeated by Zheng Zhilong in the Battle of Liuluo Bay, he escaped most of the warships.

This is no longer the case. The Ming Dynasty not only had a sail fleet, but also steam-powered propeller-propelled ironclad warships.

"Your Excellency the Governor, this European fleet is nothing more than that!" One of the guards was excited, so he said to Yan Yingyuan, "It's not as powerful as the legend is at all!" ”

"Hehe, they're scared." Yan Yingyuan listened and replied with a smile.