"These petty traders and peddlers have made a big mistake!"

Almost at the moment when the Dutch opened fire, such a thought popped up in Zheng Ming's heart.

When the Dutch fired first, the Dutch fleet was already heading towards the Ming army, and according to the battle sequence of the two armies, Zheng Ming saw that he should be facing the two largest warships in the Dutch army, Fan?? Vice Admiral Kalamberg's 82-gun battleship "West Frisland" with Gilles?? Rear Admiral Schi's 92-gun battleship "Princess Maria". When the Dutch opened fire, Zheng Ming only left a record in the battle report that "the Dutch fired first to attack our ship".

Almost as soon as the Dutch fleet began shelling, the sea was covered in a cloud of white gunsmoke, and when the sound of artillery rang in his ears, Iverson looked towards the Ming fleet. However, the Ming army remained silent; Due to the silence of the commander, the entire Western fleet, which was exposed to enemy fire, remained still.

The Dutch's shells first smashed heavily on the side of their ship, and at the moment of the impact of the shells, before the Dutch could shout for joy, they saw the shells fly!

"How is this possible......"

Iverson's eyes widened, and he simply couldn't believe what he was seeing, the shells couldn't penetrate the ship's planks.

"Damn, they fired! Fight back, fight back......"

The sound of the shells hitting the gunwales was the signal that Zheng Ming had been waiting for for a long time, and the reason why he was waiting for this signal was because of his trust in the quality of his ship, which was two feet thick enough to withstand the fire of the Dutch and bounce off their shells.

At his command, a stack of signal flags was raised on the mast of the "Ganquan". The flag-officers of the ships spread this order throughout the fleet. After seeing the confirmation signal, the captains gave the order to open fire.

"Fire!"

And this signal is the revenge command that the gunners are waiting for.

The gunners of the "Ganquan", which was located in front of the fleet, first pulled the triggering rope, and at the moment when the gunners struggled to pull the triggering rope, a deafening cannon sounded, compared to the 24-pounder guns of the Dutch, the sound of the 6-inch guns was even louder, almost to the point of earth-shattering, and even startled the Dutch who were besieging them, they obviously did not expect to see the cannon flames that could envelop half of the battleship.

"Shelling ......"

As soon as the Dutch officer on board the "West Frisland" shouted this sentence and was ready for the bombardment, a sense of foreboding swelled in the heart of Lieutenant General Karanberg, who was standing on the stern.

The smoke and smoke from the huge gun windows of the enemy ship made him think of the thick gun barrels, and at this moment, with a violent crash, the gunwales were pierced, and in the scattering of wood chips, several guns were even blasted off the gun positions, many gunners were also wounded, and the screams of the wounded were everywhere on the deck

"Don't Stop, Let Them See ......"

Just as the gunners on the deck were roaring, suddenly the frightened shouts of the sailors rang out on the deck.

"It's an explosive bomb!"

The sailors in the cabin pointed to shells that had pierced the gunwales and spewed white smoke on the bulkheads, and as they shouted in horror, the shells exploded.

At the moment when the shells exploded, everyone saw the gunpowder smoke spewing out of the gunsoft windows on the side of the "West Friesland", and the shells that exploded in the cabin set off a bloody storm on the second deck, and the Dutch gunners who were still desperately reloading were immediately swallowed up by the gunpowder smoke, screaming in the steel fragments, and nearly half of the gunners on the second deck were injured and lost their combat effectiveness, almost completely losing their effectiveness.

When more than 10 pounds of gunpowder in the more deadly shells exploded, a huge hole was blown between the second and third decks on the side of the "West Friesland", and seawater immediately poured into the cabin.

"My God......"

The tragic situation of the "West Frisland" stunned everyone, and Vice Admiral Kalamberg even forgot to give the order, just the miserable condition of the battleship.

Despite the fact that the West Frisland was on the verge of extinction, the gunners on the Sweet Springs continued to bombard their opponents. Compared with the 6-inch bombardment gun that exploded in the cabin with the help of kinetic energy to penetrate the deck, the more accurate 24-kilogram rifled gun was also deadly, unlike the ball projectile of the bombardment, the sharp shell of the rifled gun allowed him to use a detonator to detonate, and at the moment when the shell hit the warship, the detonator detonated the gunpowder in the shell, and easily blew the thick bulkhead into a huge opening.

However, after just one round of shelling, the "West Frisland" was already in a desperate situation, and there was no room for even a counterattack, and the huge warship had already become dilapidated and almost sank into the sea.

"My God, how is this possible......"

The ferocity of the Ming army's artillery fire completely subverted everyone's imagination of naval warfare, once upon a time, as far as they understood, it was extremely difficult to sink a warship by artillery in a naval battle, and the wooden warship itself could float on the sea, sometimes the two sides bombarded thousands of cast iron solid bullets, which may not be able to sink the opponent, and in the end it was often necessary to sink the enemy ship by means of arson.

But now, in a matter of minutes, everyone has witnessed the tragic situation of the "West Frisland", which has completely lost its combat effectiveness, burning in the smoke of gunpowder, and the sea water is constantly pouring into the cabin......

"Abandoned ......"

When Vice Admiral Kalamberg gave the order to abandon ship, the sailors on board jumped into the sea, and six other Dutch warships, including the Princess Maria, were caught in a similar desperate situation.

The six battleships, led by the "Ganquan", continued to ravage them with powerful six-inch bombardments. Each time accompanied by a strong impact, the six-inch spherical cannonball pierced the bulkhead of the Dutch warship with a whistling sound, and when it exploded in the cabin, the Dutch sailors in the cabin felt like they were in hell.

For Europeans, their understanding of naval warfare is still stuck in the simple physical collision of solid bullets, of course, they know that explosive shells can destroy wooden ships more, but naval artillery can not safely fire thin-walled grenades, and most of the weapons used to fire explosive grenades in Europe are mortars, howitzers and other curved artillery.

However, they did not know that as early as 20 years ago, on the basis of ensuring a certain degree of safety, the Ming Dynasty Arsenal invented a kind of anti-aircraft artillery with a caliber smaller than the barrel of the cannon chamber and a long-barreled cannon specially for firing explosive bombs, commonly known as "bombardment".

The power of the explosive shell is based on a sufficient charge, which requires that the gun firing this shell must have a large caliber. The 3.4-ton six-inch bombardment gun can fire flowering shells weighing up to 50 kilograms, which is enough to easily destroy any wooden warship.

It is precisely because of the excellent performance of the bombardment gun that the Navy has adhered to the principle of "large caliber, long tube body, high muzzle velocity, which can fire both solid and explosive shells." Although the performance of the bombardment was fully exploited in many conflicts with pirates, this was the first time it was applied in real naval warfare.

"How is this possible......"

Iverson looked horrified at the "Princess Maria" burning in the flames, his sails had completely burned, and the explosion ignited the entire ship, making her look like a candle at sea, when suddenly an even more violent explosion blew the huge candle in two, and she slowly sank into the sea in the flames.

If just ten minutes ago, he was still full of belief in victory, then now the cruel reality has slapped him hard.

"Sir, the artillery fire of the Celestial Empire is too fierce, we must withdraw from the battle line......"

As if to verify this, the next moment, Iverson saw the bow burst into flames, and a cannonball hit his bow, blasting a table-sized hole in the bow.

"How can their artillery fire explosive shells?"

For the Dutch, there was no time to pursue these things anymore, and even now for them, there was no choice but to be sent to the tiger's mouth, the battle line of the Ming army, under the influence of the wind.

For the upwind fleet, under the effect of the wind, not only the damaged battleships were difficult to withdraw from the battle line, even with the intact battleships, they could not withdraw from the battle line, in the face of the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army, the Dutch army formed a dense battle queue, and continued to sail under the impetus of the wind, and they also returned fire to the Ming army with intensive artillery fire. Fortunately, the large Dutch battleships were only equipped with 24-pounder guns as their main guns, and they were simply unable to penetrate the heavy oak bulkheads of the battleship.

For the downwind fleet, it would be quite difficult for them to maneuver to turn upwind, and although their warships could travel against the wind, maneuvering would still be somewhat difficult.

However, now for the Western Fleet, the deterioration of maneuverability is not a big deal, after all, the upper hand is sending the enemy to its own eyes.

"Fire ......"

Although the sea breeze constantly blew back the gunpowder smoke from the muzzle of the gun, enveloping the warship, Li Jie could still clearly see that the Dutch warship was burning.

The shells of rifled guns blasted huge gaps in the bulkheads, and the spherical shells of the bombardment guns burrowed into the cabin and exploded violently, often more deadly, with scorching shrapnel flying sideways and tearing at the bodies of the sailors, and the burning flames could even ignite the gunpowder in the cabin, which was the most fatal blow.

The explosion of gunpowder directly blew the dying warship into two, and the battleship, which was once riddled with holes in a solid bombardment and would still float for a few days, was easily sent to the icy seabed, and even some of the sailors on the "lucky ones" did not even have a chance to escape, so they sank into the sea with the ships, especially those arson ships full of flammable materials, which should play a role in naval warfare, like torches, were easily ignited by explosive bombs. Burning on the sea.

The sea is burning.

Driven by the upper hand, the Dutch fleet almost inevitably fell under the powerful artillery fire of the Western fleet. An hour after the naval battle began, the Dutch fleet, shrouded in smoke and cannon fire, was already in a desperate situation.

"Well played!"

Zheng Ming, who was in the stern of the ship, felt the artillery fire around him, and secretly cheered for the fierce artillery fire of the gunners, and his heart instantly rose to his throat before firing.

Although he had a full understanding of the power of the bombardment, and this was also his biggest reliance on this military adventure, before the war, it was inevitable that he would be a little nervous, but now, looking at the Dutch fleet in a desperate situation, Zheng Ming's whole person relaxed,

"Junmen, the Dutch want to run!"

"They can't escape!"

In the obstruction of the smoke, Zheng Ming noticed that some Dutch warships began to try to withdraw from the battle line, facing the wind blowing from the upwind, he said coldly.

"Hand them over to rifled guns!"

Like the bombardment, the rifled gun is also the killer weapon of the Ming Navy, although its caliber and power are smaller, but with high precision, it is still popular with the army, compared to the accurate range of no more than one mile bombardment, the rifled gun can even accurately hit the enemy ship two miles away, and the trigger shell can also directly destroy the thick board of the enemy ship.

And now those Dutch warships tried to escape from the battle line, in Zheng Ming's opinion, undoubtedly suicide, their broadside was completely exposed, almost equivalent to a target at sea. And what does that mean?

Victory!

"The Dutch are finished!"

Zheng Ming silently pondered in his heart.

The choking smoke enveloped the entire Western Fleet, and for the Western Fleet that was downwind, the biggest enemy was no longer the dying Dutch, but the weather, although the wind blowing from the wind upwind sent the Dutch to them, but it also sent gunsmoke, whether it was the Dutch's artillery fire or the burning warships, the rising smoke was blown by the wind, and these thick smoke blocked the sight of the Ming officers and soldiers, so that it affected their shelling.

After the view was obscured, the once accurate firepower became inaccurate, and many shells fell around the enemy ship, exploding columns of water around the enemy ship, which were not the splashes caused by solid shells, but huge water columns that were vacated when the shells exploded. But even so, there were still some shells that accurately hit the Dutch battleships, and the explosive shells exploded in clusters of sparks on their side armor, accompanied by a violent explosion, and the once seemingly impregnable battleships were torn through huge holes as if they were papier-mâché.

The sound of heavy artillery shook the entire strait!

An hour after the battle began, the entire strait was completely covered in smoke, and the battleships were burning and struggling on the sea, and the battleships, which once symbolized the power of the Dutch sea, turned into torches on the sea, billowing smoke.

"What about the British? They're there......"

Iverson held a telescope and tried to find other people's allies, and until now, the British had not entered the war, and at that moment, his expression changed, and his ship was hit......

"Boom ......"

With a violent shaking, the moment the explosion reached the ears, the cloud of smoke from the explosion spewed out of the deck lattice window......

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