Several other people did the same, and after Zhang Xuwen put down the binoculars, he took several deep breaths in a row to calm his tension...... He was never so nervous even in a duel with the Russian Cossacks in Tomsk.

Zhang Han's painstaking layout, Chang Wei and other Taiwanese people's hard work, several years of work, all the hard work and millions of taels of silver, everything is just looking at the present.

It is these more than 20 ships, 3,000 soldiers, including the officers, sailors, and marines of the merchant army on board, all the past investment and hope for the future are on these 3,000 people!

This is an out-and-out gamble, once it wins, Taiwan's rising momentum will no longer be hindered by any forces, the Dutch are not good, the Spaniards are not good, the Portuguese are too far behind, even if it is the Ming Fujian Sailor who once defeated the Dutch, and then the momentum, Taiwan will be like a dragon out of the water, soaring into the sky!

Although there are still large areas of reclamation, although there is still a preliminary military industrial system and a strong army, once the coast is blocked, with Taiwan's current ability to only defend this family business, there is no future without the sea, of course, there is no trade and all the benefits, it can only become weaker and weaker, until there is no power to fight back, it is destroyed by the enemy, or surrenders, pulls out the flag, destroys the village, and leaves.

Only Li Pingzhi's personality is still so strong, staring at the situation on the sea with a telescope, and his eyes don't blink.

A large number of soldiers were also gathered in the coastal defense area by the sea, and many officers also looked at the sea with binoculars, including the port area and storage area above the trestle area.

This naval battle can be said to have touched the hearts of all the people on the Taiwan side, and the disparity between victory and defeat is really too great, and the soldiers are just standing and watching, and the people are not so particular about it, and many people point to the Dutch ships and halberds and curse...... Of course, it can't be heard, but more people just pray with their palms together, hoping that the ethereal God can bless the sailor to defeat Hongyi, many people are very pious, many people in Taiwan believe in Mazu, most people pray to Mazu, Liao people and the rest of the northerners also have their own beliefs, there are prayers for Sanqing or Haotian God, but also about the Holy Emperor, the Ming people believe in Guan Sheng, and there are also prayers to the Buddha and Bodhisattva in the sky, for a time there are various accents on the beach, and the sound of prayer is endless......

No matter how much they prayed or hoped, the two fleets at sea were still within range of each other.

As if agreed, the Dutch ship and the Hutchison sailor's ship began to slow down together, which also required a process, adjusting the sails and starting the hull turning, at which point there was no way to fire the cannon, and both sides tried to speed up the process as much as possible.

At this time, the sailors can be seen busy like ants, the masts are full of sailors jumping up and down, and the sides of the ship are ready gunners and marines.

On the Dutchman's side, the ships on the opposite side were all gray and blue, and the quality of the sailors did not look bad, and the movements of the hands were quite fast, and when Song Ke put down the binoculars, the look on his face was not too good.

He is the governor, not the commander of the fleet, the commander of the fleet is Gao Wenlu, this former defeated general is actually a very experienced naval officer, the old qualifications plus the level is not weak, plus the Dutch are not so particular, and the talent reserve of the East India Company cannot be compared with the domestic one, so the fleet command is still Gao Wenlu.

The opposite Hutchison sailors were commanded by Dezhnev, and strictly speaking it was a naval battle in which the Dutch commander was facing the Russian commander.

There is no way to do this, China's shipbuilding industry has lagged behind for more than a hundred years, and it is impossible to keep up with large-scale naval warfare, especially the new form of naval warfare dominated by naval artillery.

Gao Wenlu's formation was like a swarm of bees, with the merchant ships in front of the arrows, surrounded by more than a dozen armed merchant ships of different sizes, and behind the arrows, eight warships were swinging out, each not far apart.

After a while, merchant ships and warships will adjust their sail lines, open their sides horizontally, and lower their anchors, and the fleet will be in front and behind, staggered and fired at the opposite side.

The Hutchison fleet on the opposite side is a mixture of merchant ships and warships, consistent with each other, and only the four sail warships below are in separate formations, which happens to be in two or two formations.

Song Ke, the governor of Taiwan, could not have been on board, but compared to Hutchison's understanding of the importance of this naval battle, the Dutch side also attached great importance to this naval battle.

If they win, not only will they have no opponents in the Taiwan Strait, but they will be able to monopolize trade with Japan, Fujian's raw silk will all fall into the hands of the East India Company, and a large number of goods sold to Japan will also be exclusively operated by the East India Company, and the maritime merchants of Fujian and the Ming Dynasty will need to pay taxes to them, and the whole island of Taiwan will sooner or later become a Dutch colony, and the vast wealth contained in its land will of course also belong to the Dutch.

After recuperating for a few years, it may not be impossible to take advantage of the opportunity of the Ming Kingdom to restart the war against the northern barbarians and take Penghu Xiao into his arms.

In this case, all the trade profits, the vast wealth, the unimaginable wealth of the South China Sea would be owned by the East India Company, and at such a point that the thirteen shareholders in the upper echelons of the company would have a greater say in the country, more interests and autonomy for the company, an increase in the size of the company's fleet, and a large number of people moving from Europe to the Asian part, while the old men of the company could choose a beautiful place in these colonies to build a large estate, and become a lord of the estate with shares in the company......

Not only did Song Ke think so, but Gao Wenlu, and even Cohen, the governor of the East India Company, had about the same idea.

This was the way it was, pioneering and enterprising, and people in Europe also took pride in leaving their homeland to open up new lands and estates.

Just as the Mayflower brought the colonies of North America, a large number of English Puritans embarked on the journey of colonization and exploration in North America, and the Han people in the south also continued to leave their hometowns and go to the Nanyang countries to make a living.

Even with the connivance and massacre of the Spaniards and the Dutch several times, the Chinese still established several Chinese-dominated countries in the next hundred years, but unfortunately they were all exterminated by the colonists. But even so, until the next few hundred years, the Chinese still controlled the economic lifeline of the Nanyang countries, and in this regard, the natives had no choice, and the colonists were equally helpless.

Song Ke hoped to defeat the Hutchison sailors and dominate the vast chain of interests in Taiwan and the South China Sea, as did Governor Cohen, as did the executives of the Dutch East India Company.

Cohen did not get on the ship, his status was too high, and it was related to the stability of the entire Dutch East India Company, and it was impossible for Song Ke to agree to Cohen on the ship.

Gao Wenlu was on the flagship Batavia, and Song Ke was on the Hector, which was also a large Galen ship, with two decks, the top one plus a protective plate, and also eight gun emplacements, on which the crew members were on standby.

Song Ke is not a professional naval officer, but he has seen a lot of naval battles at sea all the year round, although most of the battles on this side of East Asia are small-scale battles between warships and pirate ships, and the biggest battle is the battle of Penghu between the Dutch and the Ming naval division, but it is also the Ming army's naval division that uses ants to bite the elephant to fight, and the two sides do not officially start a war at sea, but a one-sided siege war.

There were also small battles against the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Dutch, all of which were far inferior in scale to the naval battles in front of them.

Even in Europe, this kind of naval battle on the scale of dozens of warships and armed merchant ships on both sides is quite rare, and the scale of the naval battle between Britain and the Spanish Armada is of course very large, but there are also remnants of the cold weapons of the battleships of the Cape of Attack, unlike now, it is completely a duel between battleships with sails and guns.

Yes, this is the duel of sail battleships, from the early sail battleships at this time to serious giant guns with 100 guns on three decks, and then to ironclad ships, dreadnoughts, and battleships, this naval battle is absolutely unprecedented, enough to go down in history.

Song Ke certainly didn't have the consciousness of a historical figure at this time, even if someone told him the meaning of this naval battle, it was estimated that this middle-aged Dutchman would not care, at this moment, his gray-blue eyes were full of coldness, no matter what, the insecurity that the opposite fleet gave him was too strong.

On his side, the formation began in a staggered formation, in case all the battleships were shot down by the enemy in one round and suffered heavy casualties, which was the experience gained in the previous naval battles, which was quite useful.

The Hutchison Sailor battleships came in a neat column, but in three rows, and when they stopped, they were also in one line, like an open mouth, enclosing the entire Dutch fleet in their pockets.

In the column, there were two ships and one team, and the distance between the two ships was quite close, and the two ships were almost connected when they crossed the ship.

This tactic can make the one-column be divided into two horizontal formations, and carry out horizontal strikes with the guns on both sides, so as to expand the striking area to the greatest extent, which is suitable for fighting more and less.

Although Hutchison's merchant ships are small, but the guns are not too few, how to take advantage of the numerical advantage is also the top priority that Dezhnev has considered a lot recently, Zhang Han's suggestion gave him quite inspiration, it can be said that although the array in front of him was trained by the Russians and was responsible for commanding, the soul still belonged to Zhang Han...... Of course, Zhang Han doesn't have to take credit, he just took the memory in his mind, in fact, it is still the wisdom of Europeans within a hundred years of this era, and the people of China should be ashamed to think about it.