"Hey, what kind of bird is that? How come you've never seen it? "The drone was first discovered by people on a Dutch merchant ship.

These were two armed Dutch merchant ships that sold raw silk to Hirado, and belonged to the Dutch East India Company.

Then the sailors watching from the top of the mast warned that a ship was approaching.

"Prepare for battle!" Captain Derant immediately gave the order.

The maritime order of this era was different from that of later generations, and the armed merchant ships of the Dutch sometimes played the role of pirates.

Sure enough, from the two compass points on the port side, three white ships gradually appeared on the sea level.

Captain Derrant held up the monocular and said in surprise, "Where did this ship come from?" ”

From the perspective of this era, the shape of these three ships in the distance is indeed too strange. The ship's side is low, there are no towering masts or sails, and the bridge is extremely low, which is completely different from the shape of the sailing ships of this era. The sides of these ships have a very pronounced fold line, which floats below the fold line to the sea, and above the fold line is tilted inward, which looks a bit like a hexagonal shape from a cross-section.

The commercial representative, Schozin, asked Drante: "Mr. Captain, are these three ships warships?" ”

The highest status on the ships of the armed merchant ships of the Dutch was not the captain, but the representative of commerce.

Derrant looked at it again and said, "Mr. Schozin, these three ships are so strange, they have no sails, but they are faster than our ship, and they are most likely paddle wheels. But for sure, this is not a battleship, because I did not find artillery. ”

The recoilless guns and heavy machine guns fixed on the deck had little to do with running in the eyes of people in this era. The quadruple anti-aircraft guns on the Dingyuan ship were even less like the guns, although they had a range of seventeen kilometers.

Soon the distance between the fleet and the armed merchant ships of the Dutch was reduced to about eight hundred meters. According to Zhang Han, the Dutch's bow guns had a maximum effective range of 400 yards (320 meters), and the side guns had a range of about 250 yards, so Wang Yue ordered the distance to be controlled at a distance of 500 meters.

Wang Yue was also using high-powered telescopes to observe the armed merchant ships of the Dutch, which were the galleons of the Europeans across the seven seas.

Although the tonnage of the maritime surveillance ships was larger, the armed merchant ships of the Dutch were not considered the height of the masts, and the superstructure was also higher than that of the maritime surveillance ships, so that more guns could be installed, but the hull was much shorter than the length of the maritime surveillance ships of more than 80 meters.

This armed merchant ship was a three-masted galleon with a mast covered with white soft sails.

When Wang Yue was looking at him with great interest, Zhang Han suddenly said nervously: "Lord Wang, retreat quickly, the cannon window of Hongmaoyi has been opened, and the sails have turned towards us, I am afraid that the desire will not be good for me." ”

Indeed, the commercial representative Schozin also saw clearly that the three ships on the opposite side did not have artillery and were of strange shapes, so he ordered two armed merchant ships to come up and attempt to hijack them.

Captain Derrant ordered the flag-bearer to wave the flag to the other ship, and said, "Mr. Schozin, their ship is fast, and we may not have a chance." ”

Schozin smiled and said, "How do you know if you don't try?" Can you pass the artillery faster than you can? ”

So the two armed merchant ships opened their side gun windows, adjusted the direction of the sails, and headed for Wang Yue's fleet.

Wang Yue came to visit the galleon, but he didn't expect the Dutch to show their fangs, so there was nothing to say.

He ordered: "Wei Xiaoliang, order the fleet to enter a combat state." Since the Dutch want to play, let's play with them. ”

After receiving the order, the other two maritime surveillance ships adjusted from a longitudinal arrangement to a horizontal arrangement to meet the Dutch.

Although the officers and men of the fleet have been learning to drive modern ships for more than ten days, this is just a matter of moving. On the wide sea, cruising at a constant speed, it is not difficult to fine-tune the course. But it is still difficult to line up a standard line, so I am still a little scrambling for a while.

Wang Yue saw that they were adjusting back and forth, so he did not force them, and met the enemy with an irregular battle line.

Zhang Han saw that Wang Yue was going to face Hongmaoyi, and he couldn't help but tremble with fright, there were nearly a hundred cannons on the opposite side! He thought about it, this ship is made of all-fine iron, and solid bullets are helpless, so I'd better go into the cabin and hide.

"Mr. Captain, do you see that? They're going to fight us. Seeing that the three ships on the opposite side were in such a formation and did not leave, Schozin said excitedly.

The Drarant was also surprised, but he was more cautious, and he commanded the first mate: "All musketeers go to the deck." Although there are no cannons on the opposite side, there may be muskets, so when you get closer, beware of them sneaking up. ”

The two fleets pulled closer by more than two hundred meters and entered about six hundred meters, and Wang Yue ordered recoilless artillery fire.

Immediately, four recoilless shells with long tail flames flew towards one of the galleons.

In the exclamation from the opposite side, one of the four shells hit the upper trestle on the foreside of the sailboat.

A ball of fire rose up, followed by an explosion. Through the binoculars, you can clearly see the fragments of wood and human limbs flying out of the firelight at the same time, the huge wooden hull of the ship shaking violently, and the howl of the Dutch can be faintly heard in the wind.

The other three shells landed in the front and rear positions of the sailboat, each causing three large waves.

"Oh God, damn it, they have cannons!" Drant cursed as he ordered to approach the opposing fleet as soon as possible, as the distance had not yet reached the optimal launch distance.

Wang Yue looked at the effect of the shelling and felt quite satisfied, after all, it was launched from the sea.

Then the recoilless guns of the other two coast surveillance ships were fired, and one after another shells with tail flames flew towards the Dutch galleon. At the same time, Wang Yue ordered the fleet to distance itself from the Dutch galleons and keep it within six hundred to eight hundred meters.

The Dutch were in a tragedy, the sailboat burst into waves, from time to time, and shells were hit, and the power was amazing. This shell turned out to be not a solid shell, but a flowering shell.

Several more shells struck the hull, and a horrific explosion was sent out in the hull, and sparks and iron projectiles swept through the cabin like a storm, blowing the second and third decks to the ground, killing an unknown number of people inside.

The commercial representative Schozin said loudly: "Mr. Captain, fire the cannon quickly, hurry up and fire the cannon." "He couldn't stand the beating just because he didn't fight back.

"Boom", "Boom", "Boom", "Boom...... At Schozin's urging, the Dutch returned fire, though it was still far from the optimal range of their guns—probably never.

Basically, it was a one-sided naval battle. Although the other side has two boats, dozens of cannons.