The soldiers of the Daming Naval Division were brave and fearless, and the Dutch knew this best.

In the Penghu naval battle that year, the Dutch admiral who fled back was dissatisfied with the panic and described the madness of the soldiers of the Daming Naval Division.

These people are crazy, they don't have artillery on their boats, but they just rush up in small boats, and if the cannonballs don't hit their boats, it will be troublesome, they will directly set their boats on fire, crash into them, and burn them against your boat!

These people don't want to die, the artillery of our castle can bombard more than a dozen people with a single shell, but they are not afraid at all, and they directly step on the corpses of their comrades and rush towards us!

You don't know the scene under the castle, the blood is left as a stream, but those soldiers of the Ming Empire are not afraid at all, they are still charging frantically, thinking of the splashed blood and the crazy eyes of those people, they will wake up from a dream!

Naturally, Spex had heard of these mentioned, so he was quite jealous of the Ming Empire, if it wasn't for the way, he definitely didn't want to go to war with the Ming Empire.

However, there was no way, for the sake of interests, had to fight, after more than 20 days of sailing, the fleet he led finally rushed to the southeast coast of the Ming Empire.

How to fight this battle, he naturally had a calculation in his heart.

The method he came up with was somewhat similar to encircling the point to send reinforcements, to put it simply, it was to constantly harass the important cities on the southeast coast of the Ming Empire, such as Yuegang, such as Zhuhai, in order to attract the main force of the southeast navy of the Ming Empire.

As long as the southeast navy of the Ming Empire rushes to support, then they are finished, fifty super battleships and sixty armed merchant ships are enough to intercept the support fleet of the Ming Empire, so that they cannot get close to the fortress, without the support of the fortress, on the sea, the main fleet of the Ming Empire will definitely not be able to defeat fifty super battleships.

Now, the only thing to worry about is their lifeless suicide attack, if there are more than 100 arson ships rushing up at a time, 60 armed merchant ships will not be able to stop it at all, and even if they only burn one or two super battleships, they will lose their own lives.

You must know that a super battleship is hundreds of guns, and the value of a gun is thousands of taels of silver, not counting the hull, just the value of those guns, a super battleship is hundreds of thousands of taels, and the small wooden ship of the Ming Empire can be worth a few dollars, and a small wooden ship can be worth ten taels of silver, and it is not a super battleship to kill 10,000 ships!

No matter how jealous he is, no matter how worried he is, this battle must still be fought, and in front of him is Macao, which is also one of the two major mutual markets in the southeast of the Ming Empire.

This is his first target of harassment, I don't know if the main fleet of the Ming Empire will wait here, if the main fleet of the Ming Empire is here, then it can only harass other places, and fight with them under the fortress, it is really too much of a loss, unless it is absolutely necessary, it must not be fought like this.

Spex pulled out his binoculars and looked to the left to see a huge island, with a low wall and hundreds of low bungalows in the wall.

He knew that this was Macau, the stronghold of the Portuguese.

Lack of tyranny, dare to steal business with our East India Company, let's do you one round first, Spexes gritted his teeth and ordered: "All super battleships, target the Portuguese stronghold in front of the target, and fire a round of salvo on the port side!" ”

At this time, the Portuguese governor of Macao, Luo Bao, was also observing the Dutch fleet with a telescope, and when he saw the fifty battleships slowly approaching in order, he almost threw away the binoculars in his hand.

Buy cakes, so many super battleships, even Goa can't stop it, the Dutch Navy, it's really scary when assembled!

He trembled and said to the Ming army next to him: "Are you sure that you can defeat the Dutch fleet?" ”

This Qianzong, including a thousand men and horses under him, was asked by Luo Bao to beg for life and Cao Wenzhao, no way, the Ming Empire did not let them garrison troops in Macao, at this time he had a team of personal guards under him, and the Dutch were going to fight, and this person was not enough to see, so he looked for Cao Wenzhao for a few days and grinded a thousand Ming troops.

At this time, the Ming troops on the city wall were resting under the arrow stacks, and only he and this Qian Zong stood outside to observe, so Spex did not find anyone on the city wall.

Seeing Luo Bao's appearance, Mr. Qian of the Ming Army couldn't help patting the loyal and brave armor on his chest and said proudly: "See, our Ming army is brave and fearless, what is the red hair, we have been defeated several times." ”

After listening to the translator's retelling, Luo Bao couldn't help but look at the big words on his chest and didn't recognize it.

Immediately after, he touched his hair again, red-haired, this blow is too wide, I'm also red-haired!

He rolled his eyes, and was about to open his mouth to argue a few words, when Mr. Qian suddenly said: "The fleet of the red haired fan has changed formation, they are going to open fire, right?" ”

Luo Bao heard the interpreter's reminder and hurriedly raised his binoculars to look at the Dutch fleet.

Oh, shoot specially, in a single formation, this is a salvo from the side side!

He was so frightened that he sat down under the arrow stack and cursed: "These Dutchmen, crazy, aren't they at war with the Ming Empire, why do you want to bombard us?" ”

After listening to the translator's retelling, Mr. Qian sat down and said indifferently: "Let them bang, there is no one in there anyway." ”

Indeed, at this time, everyone in Macao has taken refuge under the walls on the seaside side, and even if the Dutch's shells rain, they will not be able to hit a single person.

With the opening of the Zhuhai Mutual Market, his business is becoming more and more prosperous, which not only contains the spices, pepper, cotton and other goods they purchased from the Mughal Empire and the Persian Safavid Empire, but also the silk, cloth, porcelain and other things they purchased from the Ming Empire.

This is a random bombardment, the cotton is just that, the shell hits the cotton, just take it away, everything else can't be smashed, a shell is smashed down, the loss is incalculable!

No matter how much he cursed, the Dutch still fired.

"Boom, boom", the cannonballs smashed like raindrops, "crackling", there was a chaotic sound in the city of Macau, and the windows, roofs and even walls were smashed by countless watermelon-sized cannonballs out of countless basin-sized holes, and I don't know what happened to the goods inside.

The bombardment lasted for about half an hour, and the Dutch fleet finally bypassed Macao and sailed away, Luo Bao jumped up and pointed at the Dutch fleet heading north and scolded: "You are sick, there are super battleships amazing!" ”

Of course, Spex's can't hear him cursing, Spex's mood is quite good at this time, a round of shells goes down, Macau is suddenly smashed into thousands of holes, unrecognizable, cool, let you grab business with us, hahahaha.

He laughed as he raised his binoculars and swept towards the Ming army's fortress to the north, which was a three-story fortress with hundreds of artillery pieces, and if there was no fleet support, fifty super battleships would almost be able to blow it up in just about ten rounds.

Is there a Ming fleet nearby?

He swept to the sea below the fortress, no, he swept forward, still no, he swept back, why are there so many small fishing boats, he slowly moved the telescope, slowly swept over, shooting, there are hundreds, where are the small fishing boats, there are obviously piles of firewood!

The Ming army really wanted to use suicide attacks, did they have the guts?

Spex decided to give it a try, after all, in the last Battle of Penghu, there were only more than a dozen armed merchant ships on the side of the East India Company participating in the battle, and they dared to rush up in the face of armed merchant ships, and did they dare in the face of super battleships?

He thought for a while, and then ordered: "All super battleships, target the Ming army fortress in front of the left, and fire another volley on the port side." ”

If he could, he would have wanted to give those small fishing boats a salvo and blow them all into slag, but those small fishing boats were hiding in the harbor behind the fortress, and he wanted the fleet to go over and bombard, and the artillery on the fortress could bombard them several rounds, which was really impossible to row.

He was ready to open fire, and the Ming army's fortress was also ready to fire, Cao Wenzhao saw the Dutch's super battleships lined up and slowly sailed over, and he knew that the Dutch were going to come up and bombard.

Although there are only more than 100 artillery pieces in the fortress, because of the geographical advantage, the firing range is slightly farther than that of the Netherlands, so Cao Wenzhao did not hesitate to order: "The third layer, the second floor, and the first floor, fire the cannons in turn, bombard continuously, and don't stop reloading." ”

With a burst of order flags flying, the Ming army took the lead in firing artillery.

"Boom, boom", the Dutch fleet suddenly splashed a column of water around the sky, of course, there were also cannonballs that directly hit the super battleship, that guy, as soon as it fell down, it was a basin-sized hole, because the super battleship is a multi-layer structure, and I don't know what it looked like inside.

If it just hits the position of the gun door, it will be wonderful, with a "click", flesh and blood flying, I don't know how many gunners were smashed to pieces.

Spex, relying on the large number of artillery on his side, did not give the order to retreat, and the super battleships finally entered the range one after another, and the bombardment between the two sides began.

"Boom, boom, boom", the entire Pearl River estuary is the roar of artillery, the Dutch side is the water column soaring into the sky, sawdust flying, the Ming army side of the fortress is dusty, gravel everywhere.

The bombardment lasted for about half an hour, and the Ming army fired thousands of shells, while the Dutch poured more than 2,000 shells.

Spex was thinking about whether to turn around and do another round when the boat behind the fortress suddenly moved, and more than a hundred small boats scattered in all directions, frantically pounced.

Shoot, this is taking advantage of the fact that the super battleship on his side is turning, and he wants to copy the back!

Spex was frightened and hurriedly ordered: "Hurry, hurry, order all armed merchant ships to intercept it." ”

The flag flew, and sixty armed merchant ships slowly inserted between the fortress and the super battleship, but their interception effect was not very good, because the armed merchant ships were equipped with a few guns at most, and sixty armed merchant ships were at most a hundred guns in one direction, and they had to reload for a few minutes after a round of artillery bombardment.

In this way, more than 100 small boats can come up as long as they have received more than 200 shells, a distance of several miles, a small boat several meters long, and it is also a moving boat, at this time the artillery is not accurate at all, whether it can be hit, purely depends on luck!

It's hard to say about luck, anyway, the armed merchant ships fired two salvos, and they didn't hit a few small ships at all.

At this time, the fast boat was already approaching the armed merchant ship in front, and the Ming army really began to ignite it, but they did not light their own ship at this time, but lit some ceramic jars, and then threw them at the armed merchant ship of the Dutch.

"Poof", as long as it is thrown by the ceramic jar, a pile of fire within a radius of several meters will immediately ignite on the merchant ship, because there is oil in the fire, and it is very troublesome to extinguish it.

Spex's face changed, it can't go on like this, the small boats of the Ming army have not all surrounded the armed merchant ships, and more than ten armed merchant ships have already caught fire, if more than a hundred of them are all surrounded, the consequences are unimaginable!

He thought for a moment, and then hurriedly ordered: "Quick, all super battleships and armed merchant ships, turn the rudder in the direction of the current, turn the sail in the direction of the wind, and quickly break away from the rowing boats behind." ”

Soon, all the super battleships and armed merchant ships slowly drifted out in the direction of the river, and then, all the sails turned in the direction of the wind, and the speed of all the super battleships and armed merchant ships suddenly increased dramatically, and soon the small boats rowed by the Ming army were left far behind.

Zheng Zhihu looked at the Dutch fleet fleeing in embarrassment with a telescope, pouted, and then ordered: "All the warships turn around, go back, and rescue the soldiers on the sunken warships." ”

With a wave of flags, more than a hundred rowing boats began to turn around, and the first battle between the Ming army and the Dutch ended.

It should be said that the losses of both sides of the war were not very large, and the most unfortunate were the Portuguese, who did not participate in the war, and their Macao strongholds were bombed beyond recognition.

On the side of the Ming army, the fortress was only blown off some arrow stacks, and there may be some holes on the city wall, and it will be fine to repair it, and there are not many casualties, after all, there is a city wall to cover it.

Zheng Zhihu's fleet lost a few small boats, but there were no casualties, the cannon was not fast at this time, and he could still see it when he flew from afar, knowing that his ship was about to be hit, and it would be fine if he jumped into the water, so the ship destroyed a few ships, but there were no casualties.

The Dutch side also did not suffer much damage, fifty super battleships were blasted out of hundreds of large holes, but there were very few people hit, and many holes were repaired temporarily.

Sixty armed merchant ships were actually fine, a few oil canisters could be thrown up to ignite a raging fire, but this was not enough to burn the ship, and it could still be extinguished with a little effort.

The loss was not big, but Spex's mood was quite bad, because the Ming army's lifeless style of play was his biggest headache.

With a hundred or so small ships, it would be impossible to defeat his fleet, but to destroy them would require the loss of at least a few armed merchant ships and super battleships.

A few armed merchant ships and super battleships for more than a hundred small fishing boats, a fool will go for them, and he will not fight with these small boats unless he has to.