While they were discussing, the twenty ships of the Zheng family that had escaped in front had already caught up, and the two sides were fighting fiercely.

Twenty ships lined up in a zigzag formation and fled quickly, and thirty Dutch ships chased after them, the Dutch ships attacked the Zheng family sailors with the bow guns, and the Zheng family sailors attacked the Dutch ships with the stern guns.

The topmost guns on Dutch ships were generally small cannons used to sweep the enemy decks. The tonnage of these ships was not large, the largest was no more than 500 tons, and the top bow cannon was no more than a nine-pounder gun. Although there were five or six guns, in the course of this pursuit, the enemy still could not be dealt with, the angle was not right, the enemy did not enter the angle of its frontal attack, and there was no theoretical accuracy at all, and the hit could not be hit.

Moreover, at the beginning, the Dutch ships opened fire at a distance of 600 meters, trying to hit the enemy with long-range projectiles.

It's just a matter of chance.

Three volleys missed, and they fell into the water a hundred meters away.

The Zheng family ship is not fast, the hull is large, the stability is better than the Dutch ship, the stern is equipped with two twelve-pounder guns, twenty ships are forty guns, a row of salvos, because it is a zigzag team, so the shells are parabolic uneven ballistics, but the landing point is very far away, directly behind the Dutch ship, the nearest is only five meters away from the Dutch ship, the twelve pounder cannon solid shells stirred up the waves, so that a Dutch ship behind the operation of the dnapace sailor was hit by the waves, Tumbling down the upper deck and breaking his head.

After several successive volleys, neither side could help the other, but the distance was getting closer and closer, and the Dutch accelerated, rushing towards the end of the line in several longitudinal lines.

The experienced sailors of the Zheng family immediately ordered twenty ships to quickly move closer in a diagonal line, looking from the direction of the mainland, it was like each ship was like each step of a step, and the height of the steps was rapidly decreasing, and the diagonal line was quickly flattened.

The Dutch divided several columns of the fleet and their diagonal line into an irregular T-shaped cross, which vertical pole of the Dutch, so that each Dutch ship, although the lead ship is rapidly approaching the slower opponent, but the opponent is also rapidly increasing its advantage when changing formation, so that the enemy's lead ship has to face at least three Zheng family ships lateral fire.

Four hundred and twenty meters, the Zheng family's ships were enveloped in a dense rain of bullets, and the Dutch ship's platoon immediately attracted a devastating blow, the six ships at the head of the platoon were hit by thirty solid bullets, and the mast was broken immediately, and the crew suffered heavy casualties, the bow of the ship was smashed into a hornet's nest, and the ship lost control and hit the ocean, and the shells on it ignited the falling canvas, igniting a raging fire.

Two ships lost control, two ships suffered heavy losses, the other two ships lost their decks by the fierce waves, and one or two crew members could not grasp the overturning and went into the sea, and now the situation is basically hopeless.

The sailing ships behind quickly changed direction and swept past the four slowing boats in the lead boat, continuing to chase the enemy, shelling the enemy with their bow guns, but their bow guns still did not hit the enemy.

The Dutch are not novices without combat experience, they have also dominated the Atlantic, and immediately maneuvered, scattered, and pursued the whole line, so that there were twenty-six ships facing the Zheng family's ships on the whole line, and at four hundred meters, the Dutch formation spread out, covering the ocean, three hundred and eighty meters, and they rushed to the enemy with their flexibility and speed, and the speed of the full sail was seven or eight knots.

The enemy's full sail speed is only six knots, and the speed of the five fast six-hundred-ton warships is only seven or eight knots, which can just make the enemy unable to catch up, but they can't escape the speed, but for the sake of the whole, they can keep the overall speed of five knots and the whole as a whole, waiting for the entire fleet to quickly flatten down, form a battle line, and then sail diagonally to the open sea, so that they can always maintain a battle line with the enemy to suppress the enemy.

Three hundred and twenty meters, the Dutch caught the Zheng family ship at the end of the diagonal line, which was too heavy, and the captain was not very experienced, so he did not throw away the cargo, so that the whole ship was the slowest and dragged down the brigade.

Boom, boom, the three Dutch ships rushing ahead fired six solid shells with their bow guns, and the diagonal sail of the rear deck of this ship was hit, losing the ability to change direction, and suddenly the bow straightened and rushed forward.

But they were not fast, it was equivalent to standing still, and with the current of the water, about a speed or two, the Dutch ship that was speeding up behind them approached a distance of two hundred meters, which was the distance that the Dutch loved the most, and directly bombarded them with six guns, so the crew died, the mast collapsed, and the whole ship completely lost power and drifted on the sea.

Other ships also fired shells at the last few ships at the end of the platoon, destroying some of the equipment and buildings on the deck, although the Dutch had also been attacked by the stern guns before, but compared to the losses of the Zheng family's fleet, this was negligible, and not a single Dutch ship was depowered by the enemy.

The pursuit at sea had been going on for four hours, with both sides moving at a minimum speed of five knots and a maximum of eight knots, and the fleet behind was also moving at a minimum speed of six knots, keeping a distance of about two nautical miles from the front.

"One more ship was lost, but it did not sink, one enemy ship was sunk, two lost power, and they were still firing back, but they were already within range of the Dutch ships in front and behind, the enemy's line had been leveled, and they were in the direction of the open sea in the formation of the battle line." Ike Road.

Du Ge said with a smile: "The Zheng family is still very powerful, such a critical moment can still damage your four ships, look at the model and age of those ships, it is almost a batch of transitional warships built by the Huaxia Navy Eleven years ago, and it is not a model made by major shipyards, when it first came out, those ships could run at a maximum speed of nine knots, and the lowest was also six knots, and now the lowest is probably four knots, and the highest is only six knots, and it is possible that some of them are well protected, they can run seven knots, your small boats are flexible and fast, The sailors who operate the ship are of high quality and experience, and they can almost run nine knots, but in the face of others, they still suffer a big loss, haha. ”

Ike was very annoyed, but there was nothing he could do, because the facts were in front of him, and this kind of old ship was to beat their warships to the ground, and he gave them a head cannon at the beginning, and destroyed four ships at once, his mouth opened and closed, and finally jumped out of a sentence, "That's their artillery is better than ours, and the artillery of the Huaxia people has always been superior to us in this aspect, but in the end the winner must be ours." ”

The Englishman Tame did not speak, but just watched, and at the same time knew that the victory must be the Dutch, because the Dutch had successfully rushed into the enemy's formation, and the enemy changed formation because some ships did not keep up, or did not cooperate well, and fell behind, so that the Dutch successfully took advantage of the speed advantage, and after a period of pursuit, they caught up with most of the enemy's ships, that is, the fifteen merchant ships.

The Dutch were not the best ships in the battle line, and they would definitely suffer, but as soon as they rushed into the ranks, then the array line collapsed, and the Dutch had more experience than anyone else when they were fighting separately.

The two sides are separated by one or two hundred meters of salvo side-rotating artillery, even if they have a speed advantage in this point, the sailors of the Zheng family cannot play the quality of the Westerners, so they fire a lot slower than the Dutch artillery that can only fire one shot a minute, because after being hit once, it takes a long time for them to organize, or they become messy and unorganized, each thinking about running for their lives, rather than thinking about organizing the gunners to fire again, only some elite gunners and sailors loyal to the Zheng family can stick to their posts and resolutely counterattack, But invisibly weakened the salvo power of artillery.

Fifteen merchant ships were soon either sunk, or were wounded and did not react, and some surrendered, while the Dutch paid the price of three damaged, one sunk, and five casualties to achieve victory, all of which were all settled, and more than a dozen Dutch merchant ships, which were not very badly injured, continued to chase the five 600-ton warships of the Chinese naval division.

The other fifteen ships were leaned in by the enemy and engaged in an hour-long gang jump, completely eliminating the enemy's resisting sailors and taking over eight ships, three of the other seven were sunk, and four had to be set on fire and let it sink on its own, as the damage was too great to repair.

In this way, the Dutch so far seven were wounded, two were sunk, and five suffered heavy casualties, and at the cost of heavy casualties, they obtained eight armed merchant ships of the enemy, captured three hundred remaining sailors and crews, and at the same time captured nearly one thousand five hundred Japanese civilians, nearly one thousand five hundred tons of cargo, two hundred and ten cannons, and several others.

The Dutch lost 750 sailors and crews, 350 tons of cargo, 50 tons of food and fresh water supplies, and 135 artillery pieces.

Ike wanted to die when he heard the report, and it seemed that his capture was much richer, but in comparison, it was the Dutch sailors and Dutch ships that were more useful to him, that is, in his heart, such a victory was worth the loss.

This battle lost nearly half of the Dutch's combat strength, this is still a small fleet with the Zheng family, if you meet the Zheng family's big fleet, then the Dutch are really not enough.

In the afternoon, the rest of the pursuing fleet returned, towing a 600-ton warship of the Chinese Naval Division, capturing two hundred and fifty enemy sailors and crews, two of themselves wounded, one sunk, two of the enemy, one wounded, and the remaining two fled.

Ike looked at Du Ge and Tem, such a loss, the Dutch can no longer follow the fleet to fight, must find a place to rest, thirty Dutch warships, nine are currently wounded, three are sunk, six have suffered heavy losses, and the other ships are also seriously injured and the artillery is badly damaged, all of them are scarred, and it is no longer possible to fight.

Du Ge said: "The nearest distance is the enemy's Gogong Island, I heard that there are not many troops on the island, we can occupy it first, and then set off tomorrow." ”

(End of chapter)