Isaac Françan van Pitt was a Dutch naval lieutenant commander. The Dutch navy began to decline seventy or eighty years ago, and has become a fish belly in the navies of European countries.

But even if it is a fish belly, it does not mean that the Dutch are backward in seafaring skills and degenerate in naval training. The reason why the Dutch were reduced to the belly of the fish was only because of the change in the national policy of the Netherlands, only because of the decline of the Dutch naval power.

In terms of quality, the Dutch are still among the best in Europe.

Ten days earlier, he had been lucky enough to find a British merchant ship that had escaped under the Spanish Capelle, and that there was another British merchant ship with the cruiser Lairdán. Pitt abandoned the damaged Augustus and pursued the intact British merchant ship—he did not think that the Augustus would have escaped life, it had already been so badly damaged. There was no way to run, and the Lairdan could have eaten the intact British merchant ship and then turned around to eat the injured Augustus.

As a result, the Lairdan captured the fleeing British merchant ship, but when he turned around, the Augustus was gone.

Pete knew of course that the badly wounded Augustus was most likely to go there, and he did command the Lairdan to the south. But the Augustus was not found along the way, but when he was less than a hundred nautical miles from Cape Town, he chose to avoid the risk - he left the port of Puton and went north to the port of Walvis Bay, relying on the previous capture to catch it fiercely. Although the price of the same merchant ship in Walvis Bay is far less than that of Amsterdam.

But for the officers and crew of the Lairdane, it was a big bonus.

As a result, only two days after leaving the port, he met two Swordfish-class flying shear bow warships of Chen Han Sailor from Cape Town.

However, the outcome of the naval battle was very satisfactory to Pete, except for part of the damaged sails and the broken mast. The damage to his men was very light, and more importantly, he relied on the darkness and the strong wind and waves to successfully shake off the two Chinese warships that were in the way. However, Pete did not dare to wander the sea with the Lairdan anymore, and he wanted to return to Walvis Bay Harbor immediately.

The Chinese warships were equipped with hexagonal guns, which were very sharp, but they were smaller in number and had a slower rate of fire.

As long as you don't fight with them for a long time, and run away as soon as you find out, you can still withstand the blow of the hexagonal cannon.

There are also such flying shear bow warships in the combined fleet of the three countries, and they are larger than the Chinese warships and equipped with more hexagonal guns. There are also sail battleships, which are also equipped with hexagonal guns. As long as the United Navy moves a little, the Chinese will not be able to eat and walk around.

However, since dawn today, the dark clouds that filled the sky at dusk yesterday have completely dissipated, and Pete has always had a bad feeling, and this bad premonition has always forced him to involuntarily keep looking back at the south and southwest, and the shadows of the two Chinese sailors have always appeared in his mind again and again.

But he had fled north for at least 12 hours since the battle began yesterday afternoon, at full speed on a windy and rough day. Now that he is only 100 nautical miles away from Walvis Bay Harbor at most, do the Chinese have the courage to chase after him?

Alas, just a few days ago he was happily returning to the harbor of Walvis Bay with a happy face with the captured British merchant ships on the same route. In just a few days, he became a lost dog and fled.

Pete felt a sense of shame in his heart, which annoyed him. As a result, Pete was feverish all over, like a cooked lobster, and this extreme sense of shame temporarily made him leave aside the unease that had been bringing fear to his heart.

Until an urgent alarm bell rang in his ears.

"Report, 5 nautical miles to the southwest, two small and medium-sized sailing ships were spotted at a speed of more than 10 knots!" The voice of the lookout of the Lairdan was mixed with great fear, for in an era when there was no other ship capable of sailing at speeds of more than 10 knots, except for the Flying Shear Bow.

- Along with the current, the speed of the flying shear bow warship can definitely exceed 10 knots.

At this time, there were still two flying shear bow ships that appeared in the southwest, and nine out of ten were the two Chinese warships they encountered yesterday afternoon.

The lookout on the mainmast exclaimed. Pete's whole body was also drenched with ice water, completely liberated from anger, and his face turned pale. It's just that Pete is an officer in the end, and he still has a little pride in his heart, so he returned to normal in an instant, and pulled out the saber on his waist.

"Prepare for battle! Send these shit-like Chinese to the bottom of the sea! Although the two Chinese sailors' warships really came after him, which surprised Pete, he would not just admit defeat.

After a night of intense pursuit, Swordfish Twenty-Two and Swordfish Twenty-Eight adjusted their direction several times, searched along the left and right waters of the route, and finally caught the Dutchman's tail. Although it was only 100 nautical miles away from Walvis Bay Harbor, the two warships were not at all afraid.

When they're done, they'll run! It's a safari on the sea.

When he found the Lairdane, he pounced on it like a hungry wolf hunting for food.

Pete looked viciously at the Chinese warships a thousand meters away, these two fast Chinese naval warships, the last time they set the distance at 800 meters, and now the shelling has started at a distance of 1,000 meters.

Seriously, this makes Pete very unaccustomed.

When he first joined the Dutch Navy, the distance of naval battles was still within 300 meters.

In naval artillery battles, in order to exert the power of naval guns, the distance between the two sides is basically not higher than 300 yards, and the British Royal Navy usually chooses to fire within 200 yards.

But by the time Pitt had mixed the rank of captain in the Dutch navy, the distance between the two warships had been stretched to 500 meters away. And now? With the hexagonal cannon, the range can be extended to 1,000 meters. But Pete himself was very dismissive of this.

- This is a cowardice, a coward's choice.

Although he knew very well that the hexagonal gun was not the front-loading smoothbore gun he was familiar with, and the latter's range would be sufficient if it was stretched out by 500 meters, but whether it could hit only God knows. The range of the former is much farther than the latter, and the accuracy is much higher.

Of course, this is also because the Lairdan he is on only two hexagonal guns in the bow and stern.

Many sail warships now have their hexagonal guns pressed to the bow and stern with a good view. As for the placement of one or two, or even more hexagonal guns, it depends on the size of the specific ship.

After a two-hour chase, Swordfish 22 circled the front of the Lairdan from the side and began to turn against the wind, sailing against the current, quickly reducing its speed to 5 knots, but it also blocked the Leirdan in its path. A hexagonal gun was aimed at the Lairdan at a distance of 1,000 meters, and at this distance, all 75 caliber hexagonal guns could be aimed and fired with direct fire.

The Swordfish 28 in the rear fired first, and the muzzle of the gun spewed out hot flames, and the roar rolled like thunder. The alternate firing of the ship's guns made the hull of the warship shake slightly, and all the officers and men of the artillery crew nervously loaded and fired according to the artillery drill, and then adjusted the angle of artillery firing.

The corners of Pete's eyes twitched fiercely. As the captain of a cruiser, he was well aware of the power and accuracy of the hexagonal gun. The reason why I was able to escape smoothly last time was due to the credit of the time, and the second was that a strong wind blew on the sea and set off a big wave. And the level of Chinese sailboat handling needs to be improved......

But today, he doesn't seem to have such good luck.

Soon, Swordfish 22 also opened fire.

Two Swordfish-class small flying shear bow ships, the tonnage is not large, and the gun positions are not much, but the threat is really big. Because there has been no peak wave at dusk yesterday for a few days, on the calm sea, the hexagonal cannon can give full play to its accuracy.

In this way, the two warships of the Chen Han Naval Division were extremely 'afraid of death' at a distance of 1,000 meters from the Lairdan, and they vented a large number of shells at it. The Laerdam was also desperately fighting back, the two hexagonal guns it had stood at the stern of the ship.

"Bang!"

On the Swordfish 28, the bow gun barrel was hit again, and a large ball of flame erupted from the gun port, and then, under the traction of ropes, the huge force of retreat was unloaded, and the two officers and men were easily pushed back to the gun position. The rope, the rope that shuttles through the eyes of the gun body and the gun car, this is the brake of this era.

The Europeans discovered this a hundred or two hundred years ago, but there has been no such invention in China's history.

The officers and men of the artillery crews on the two battleships frantically carried out the same steps such as cleaning the shells, filling the cartridges, and loading the shells, and one after another the long-column shells bombarded towards the Lairdane.

Half an hour later.

A cloud of red and black flames rose aboard the Lairdán, and a shell appeared to hit some flammable material, causing a large fire.

At the same time, the shells that hit the Lairdan also exploded more than one huge hole on both sides of the Lairdan.

The two Chen Han Naval Division's warships cheered, and the sound could even be heard on the Lairdan from a distance of 1,000 meters.

Captain Pete was on the verge of crying at this point, his Lairdan was in tatters and on fire. At this time, the sailors were making a mess on the deck like ants on the verge of disaster, but they had no practical effect at all.

The enemy shelling was still going on relentlessly, and the Lardan returned fire like a candle lit in a gale, the slightest flash of fire that could be extinguished at any moment. The sails were lowered again because the hull had suffered severe damage. This time it was not as good as before, only part of the sail was damaged and the aftermast was damaged and broken, and now the Lairdan was in big trouble.

A minute later, another shell hit the bow of the Lairdane, breaking the headlash of the Lairdan and sweeping the hexagonal gun in the bow into the sea. Without the spherical sails in the bow, the Leirdán's speed began to slow down to less than three knots.

It's over!

After another ten minutes of shelling, the Lairdan could no longer hear the sound of the counterattack, and all of them had collapsed, leaving their gun positions and scurrying into their holds.

The hexagonal cannons on the two Swordfish-class ships continued to fire alternately at breakneck speed, and three more hits hit the Lairdan within ten minutes. The cylindrical shells penetrated the oak hull and into the interior of the Laildan......

At the same time, another explosion occurred on the deck of the Lairdane. I don't know what caused it, but the flames and heat waves that swelled were like an invisible broom, sweeping the deck from beginning to end like a large bunk, igniting multiple powder kegs in the process.

An explosion that was even crazier than the previous one unfolded on the Leirdán, and the mainmast snapped as if it had been lifted by a tremendous force and thrown off the deck.

The Lairdan was on fire, and pieces of wood were flying. Dutch sailors screamed and jumped from the deck into the sea, and it was really finished.