Chapter 389: Battle of the South Seas

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Unlike the previous fleet in Manila, perhaps because of the distance, the coalition fleet in Batavia was not sure when the other side would set sail and when it would come, so in most cases the fleet was concentrated near the port and sent some patrol ships a distance of one or two miles. When the Spanish and South Sea pirate fleets retreated, the sea power near the port increased dramatically.

There are as many as 30 capital ships gathered in the harbor, in addition to 60 armed merchant ships of upper and lower tonnage, at least more than 1,000 armed merchant ships, and the scale of ordinary sailing ships that are not too large has also reached more than 200 ships, although they have suffered many casualties and losses in the waters around the Philippines, but after completing the convergence with the Dutch fleet in the Batavia area, the strength of the sea still reaches the scale of about 25,000 people, and has about 70,000 tons of warships and armed merchant ships. In the past, due to the limited intelligence channels, the Dutch governor in Batavia did not know about the possible family background of the Orientals at sea now, and although all ships made a lot of preparations after the Battle of Calais, they still did not have much foundation in their hearts.

The governor of Batavia did not fully believe what the retreating Spaniards said, but judging from the damage on the other side's ships, there was indeed a big problem with the opponent's naval firearms. Even so, the Governor of Batavia decided to focus on a defensive strategy and fight a decisive battle with the enemy fleet when it attacked. After all, in the case of defending their own interests, the crew can always show more performance than active action. After all, the fleets of those strong enemies are not cargo ships carrying a lot of gold and silver cargo.

Fortunately, because of the imminent threat after the retreat of the Spanish fleet, the ship's combat readiness was relatively good, so that within less than half an hour after the enemy ships appeared between the sea and the sky, the ships raised their sails and were ready for battle, and the temporary command of the naval battle was also in charge of the Dutch, who had the home advantage and was stronger.

Although the Protestant and Catholic forces were at odds with each other in the past, they had to gather their forces to fight together in the face of an unprecedentedly strong enemy. The retreating Spanish and South Sea pirates seem to be quite optimistic, and many people are also infected, especially the ships that ship to the other side are indeed as legendally said because of the importance of protection and there are many shortcomings in terms of speed, although the wind direction in Batavia near the summer is not particularly favorable, but for the sea navigation and the organization of operations under the flag, the two fleets still quickly formed an effective coordination and approached the target from multiple directions.

When the distance between the two fleets approached about two miles, it was the coalition fleet that fired first. Although even if the effect of artillery bombardment at this distance is doubtful even when the wind and waves are not too large, there is no doubt that it is very good for the morale of one's own side, and it seems that they are still claiming the initiative in this battle and even who is on the completely passive side.

Drawing lessons from previous battles in the waters near Manila, this time in order to prevent the threat posed by rifled guns, many of the ship's gun emplacements were also bravely supplemented with food bags or sandbags, and when the fire was launched, most of the personnel other than the gunners also curled up to avoid casualties. It is said that although the artillery fire of those strong enemies in the east did not have much lethality to the hull, the most important thing was to kill the personnel.

Although the allied forces' fire at a distance of about two miles splashed a lot of water columns that looked like mines exploding in the front and rear of the main ship regiment led by Wang Yuan, and even in the array, there were very few shells that hit the ships, and there were no weakly protected ships in the fleet at this time, so it basically had no impact.

In the face of the provocation launched by the coalition fleet with superior firepower, Wang Yuan did not give the order to immediately launch a fire return. Many operational plans were also finalized with the captains of the ships during deliberations. Although the speed of the main fleet at this time is completely different from what it used to be, if the enemy intends to desperately escape, the small number of main fleets will still encounter a big problem in trying to annihilate the opponent. Only after giving the opponent a certain amount of attrition in a close-range fierce battle can it be possible to finally break the situation.

In this way, the one-sided shelling also made the Dutch fleet, which had been somewhat cautious at first, more and more daring, and the distance between the two sides seemed to be getting closer and closer in the one-sided shelling.

This time, in the face of the ring formation of those armored ships, the coalition fleet once again surrounded from all directions, and gathered at least 20 capital ships and 30 large armed merchant ships, concentrated nearly 1,000 medium and heavy guns, approached a distance of about one mile, and launched a continuous bombardment against 15 armored ships.

Perhaps because the wind and waves at sea were not too large, at a distance that could not be effectively hit in naval battles in the past, it also showed a hit rate that seemed to be reluctantly acceptable, and under the bombardment of nearly 20,000 shells in the continuous half an hour, as many as 8 or 900 shells hit the hulls of 15 ships in the direction of the concentrated attack of the coalition fleet in the west, and as many as 100 shells were hit on the hulls of individual ships. But even so, it still doesn't seem to pose much of a threat.

The flag ship in charge of commanding the allied fleet issued a determination to suppress the opponent with heavy shotgun firepower, and to sink several of the opponent's warships with heavy mortar fire at a closer range.

When the wind and waves were not very large, about half of the projectiles fired out hit the enemy ship at a distance of more than 200 paces, and the more than 2,000 projectiles deployed by 300 rifled guns in just a few minutes allowed thousands of heavy shells of about two catties to penetrate into the enemy ship.

When approaching a distance of about 100 paces, the fleet began to shrink and retreat slightly, and more and more enemy shells hit the side of the ship, and the heavy shotguns that penetrated the gun windows from time to time also caused many casualties among the officers and men on board, and the battle situation seemed to have developed in favor of the coalition forces.