What determines the outcome of a war?

There is so much debate about this, and no one denies the role of will and courage, but on the sea, when two armies "fight" from a distance, the superiority of technology often plays a decisive role.

The rumbling sound of cannon echoed across the sea, the smoke of gunpowder covered the strait, and the shells of the six-inch cannons dragged and whistled in the air, constantly smashing into the Dutch battleships, which symbolized the country's maritime strength and pride, twisted and shattered under the gunfire.

"Putting ......"

When the Dutch sailors behind the gun window shouted for a round of shells, they saw in despair a row of black dots flying straight towards them, and in the next moment, the heavy gangway was shattered, and in the fragmentation of the sawdust, many sailors were injured, some of them were pierced by the sawdust carotid artery, and the blood sprayed out like a spray, and they clutched their necks in despair, lying there waiting for death to come.

The cannonball that burrowed into the cabin, hit the bulwark on the other side, and bounced back and forth in the cabin, like the marble of a pachinko machine, and those who stood in its way were often smashed into a blur of flesh and blood.

As the spherical cannonball bounced, it spewed white smoke from time to time, which was the time-delay fuse burning, and although it was only set for two or three seconds, it still gave the Dutch time to panic after breaking through the bulkhead, and they screamed and roared in terror and tried to escape the cabin.

In the next moment, the shell exploded, and when the shell weighing dozens of catties exploded in the cabin, the shrapnel and gunpowder smoke instantly swallowed the entire cabin, and the cabin of the battleship was a through cabin, without the slightest cover, when the steel fragments flying horizontally in the cabin, those sailors could only watch in despair as their bodies were torn to pieces, and what was more deadly was that in the rear of the gun emplacement, the exposed gunpowder bag could be detonated by the flames of the explosion at any time. However, this seems to be an accident, after all, not every time, the shell exploded near the powder box, and not every time it ignited the thick linen bag on the powder pack.

But even if the powder box was not detonated, the Dutch were still fully aware of the despair of the Dutch, who were caught in a hail of bullets. In the naval warfare of this era, although the appearance of artillery changed the situation of naval warfare, in naval warfare, the losing side was often because a large number of sailors were killed and injured in the shelling, resulting in its inability to fight the war, not because the warship sank into the sea. However, this scene often takes a long time to shell, but now, more than an hour after the start of the naval battle, all the Dutch warships have suffered heavy losses, and the explosive shells that penetrate the ship's board and explode directly into the cabin have taken the lives of most of the sailors, and the rate of fire of the guns on the Dutch warships is getting slower and slower, not because the guns are damaged, but because too many sailors are injured or killed, and there are not enough people to operate the guns, which directly leads to the Dutch fighting back more and more powerless.

When the Dutch's combo was becoming more and more weak, and seeing the heavy losses of the fleet sailors, before Iverson could order the withdrawal of the battleship, as the warship sailed out of control towards the Ming army, as a respect for the opponent, the Ming army responded with more fierce artillery fire.

This round of artillery fire was fierce, and dozens of times more explosive shells penetrated into the already devastated hull of the ship in an instant. Just as Iverson was about to change course, an explosion in the cabin overturned the deck, and even the guns on the deck were blown away.

On a warship full of gunpowder, the flames are often deadly, although not every time the gunpowder can be ignited, but when the gunpowder box is pierced by iron sheets, the moment the gunpowder flows out, the violent explosion immediately engulfs the entire cabin, one after another gunpowder boxes are ignited, the violent explosion not only shatters the side of the deck, but even the deck is blown into the sky, even the lower deck is also seriously damaged in the explosion, and the heavy artillery smashes through the deck, Burning flames also spread from the middle deck to the upper deck and the lower deck......

The flames rose, and after the violent explosion, Iverson, who was barely on his feet, looked in horror at the already burning warship, and he saw that the navy was constantly pouring into the cabin, many sailors covered in fire jumped into the sea, and more people had begun to abandon the ship.

"My God, has God just forsaken his people?"

As Iverson looked desperately at the burning warship, the sailors around him dragged him toward the rowboat.

"Your Excellency, you have to abandon the ship......

The sailors dragged him onto the ship in complete disregard of his objections, and perhaps a good captain should live and die with the ship, but many times, his subordinates did not necessarily let him get his wish......

"The Dutch are finished......"

Ashby, who was on the USS Sandwich, even closed his eyes in agony after seeing Iverson's flagship being lit into a torch.

As an old admiral, he never thought that naval warfare could be fought like this, and even now, he still does not know what kind of courage it was to let the Ming army use explosive bombs, and it was very dangerous to use this kind of incendiary bombs that needed to ignite the fuse in advance on the main battleship full of gunpowder to meet the enemy's artillery fire. At least in the opinion of all European naval officers, explosive bombs could not be used in naval battles.

But now, the devastating firepower of the Ming army, completely correctly covered Abish's understanding of naval warfare. Unlike Herbert's retreat, Abish fought against the Ming army without hesitation, struggling to assist the Dutch sailors who had been enemies.

"We can use explosive bombs too!"

Faced with the heavy losses of the Dutch, Ashby calmly made a choice, and under his orders, his ship, the 90-gun Sandwich, was first replaced with explosive bombs.

Compared with the Ming army, the only thing that could be used for explosive bombs in Europe was the most primitive time-delay fuse, which required the firing of the cannonball to be ignited before firing. In order to increase safety, the gunners also set up a push partition between the propellant and the shell, a wooden horse, and a moist clay to prevent the shell from being ignited by the propellant in advance.

This is a primitive and dangerous explosive shell, and while the gunners on the Sandwich carefully stuff the shells into the chambers, the gunners wait to ignite the firing hole at the tail of the gun, and also wait for the lead to ignite the muzzle.

With an order, the gunners of the Sandwich, at a distance of less than 400 yards, fired at the battleship Dingxi, a battleship of the same class as the Ganquan, at close range.

Although the Sandwich's guns could not penetrate the thick planks of the "Dingxi" even at close range, some grenades were still hit on the deck of the Dingxi, and the white smoke shells just landed on the deck, startling the Ming sailors on the deck.

"Grenade...... Lie down. ”

Almost as soon as they lay down, the shell exploded, and the black powder shell exploded with little power, but it still caused a lot of losses to the sailors on deck, and when the smoke cleared, wounded or dead sailors could be seen everywhere on the deck.

Even in a landslide victory, death was inevitable, and the blood flowing on the deck could even make the sailors slip and fall, but even so, they fought stubbornly.

In naval warfare, it is important to fix the weapon, but in many cases, the will of the sailors is also extremely important, when the flying shrapnel tears the body of the comrades around them, when the grape bullets from the opposite side crush the heads of the comrades, and the chest is punched out of a fist-sized blood hole, in the face of the gushing blood, the weak-willed people will even collapse immediately, only the strongest willed people can face it calmly in death.

Sometimes, it was not necessarily the will that was needed, but the strict military law, and when the deck became a pool of blood, the officers immediately roared in the face of the pale sailors, and they roared loudly.

"Quick, get back to your gun emplacements, hurry up and ......"

They roared, scolded, and shoved, in short, there was only one thought, which was to let the sailors return to their posts and fight again.

Under the long-term influence of the army class, the sailors obeyed the orders of their commanders almost instinctively, and despite their fear, even if they were trembling, they returned to their gun positions and continued to operate their guns by the blood-soaked guns.

Reloading, firing......

As the movements were repeated, they gradually forgot their fears for a while, and rejoined the fierce naval battles as they had done during training.

With their firing, the British fleet led by Abish also suffered extremely heavy losses, one warship after another was heavily damaged, two warships were set on fire in succession, and it was only a matter of time before they sank into the sea.

For almost all the officers, they knew that it was only a matter of time before the British were defeated. However, what they did not know was that as Abish played a role in the grenade, especially when the capital ships of the Western Fleet successively emitted "billowing black smoke" and began to "burn", the British also believed that it was only a matter of time before the Western Fleet was defeated.

"See? They are not invincible, we can beat them as well, and soon they will burn up......"

As smoke billowed from the chimney of the Dingxi, Abish said excitedly.

"We're going to show these damned Orientals what we've done......"

In the eyes of the veteran, the Royal Navy's high level of professionalism is something to be proud of. It is with this spirit that he will go all out to attack the Ming army at the beginning of the naval battle, cooperate with the Dutch in battle, and even when the Dutch suffered a devastating blow, he still stubbornly commanded the fleet and tried to save everything.

Wish!

For the officers and men of the Western Fleet, of course, they did not know that the billowing smoke coming out of the chimney of the steam engine would bring so many associations to the British, and even let the British see the hope of victory.

"Herbert is back again......"

Zheng Ming's brows jumped, and a hint of joy appeared on his face, which was a good thing for him who was bent on wiping down Britain's sea power.

"Perhaps, the steam engine burns asphalt coal, and it is not so bad......"

Muttering in his heart, the smile on Zheng Ming's face became brighter and brighter.

Victory is within reach.

They won!

Standing on the rowboat, Aveline stood and gazed at the battlefield as the sailors rowed desperately towards the White Cliff, and although the British had not lost a few warships yet, it seemed to him that soon the British would repeat the mistakes of the past.

As he was dragged onto the rowboat, Iverson watched almost as his ship turned into a blazing torch burning on the surface of the sea, his eyes looked a little desperate, and his lips trembled, and despite the flying cannonballs constantly passing over the sea, he just stood there, staring at his warship.

For Iverson, he had too many questions in his mind, he didn't even know why this naval battle, why he lost so easily, but now he knew one thing - the rules of naval warfare had changed.

At least for the Celestial Empire, they have long changed the rules of naval warfare, they have already changed the rules of naval warfare while the countries of Europe were still in the dark, and now his defeat proves it.

"God has never blessed us ......"

Iverson muttered to himself silently in his heart.

At this moment, a violent explosion was heard in the distance, and in the violent explosion, the entire burning warship turned into a huge firework, which was dragged by the object that was blown up into the sky with flames across the sky, and then fell heavily on the sea, and the once burning "torch" quickly sank. The sailors who had come to escape swam around the rapidly sinking warship, desperately clutching a plank and shouting for help. But in this boiling sea, no one paid attention to the people who fell into the water, not even their comrades in the rowboat, who ignored their pleas for help, but quickly rowed the rowboat towards the White Cliff, at least it was relatively safe, at least there were no projectiles flying sideways.

As the sailors rowed their boats towards the White Cliffs, Iverson saw a sunken ship not far away, his mast still half-exposed in the water, and a Dutch flag still fluttering on the burnt black mast, looking at the flag, he commanded the sailors.

"Paddle over and take it off...... At the very least, we have one flag left......"

Perhaps for the Dutch, this was the only thing left of them. Although at this time the Dutch warships were still struggling there. Stubbornly fighting. However, everyone knows that soon, all this will end. When it's all over.

This flag will be the only thing left......