"Boss, they're catching up!"

Just as Yang Feng was leading the fleet in the southwest of Zhoushan to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army, a Ming army sloop patrol ship on the Dahuang Ocean in the north was sailing at full speed, and Han Zhao, a sailor on the deck, looked behind him and said in a little panic.

As soon as he finished saying this, a piercing whistling whistle suddenly swept through, and then a column of water stirred up by the cannonballs rose in front of him.

"Ma, fight with them, and death can't fall into the hands of the red-haired ghost."

Beside him, Yang Zhong, captain of the Jiashen patrol ship, said hatefully.

In Yang Feng's reformed navy, all the warships that can be equipped with side guns are incorporated into the main fleet, and those that are too small to be equipped with side guns are organized as shore defense fleets, mainly performing maritime patrol and vigilance tasks, Jiashen is one of them, originally this is a small sand ship, Zheng Jian's pirate ship, Yang Zhong is also the old department of the Zheng family who fled to Guangdong after the fall of Taiwan.

"Yes, death can't fall into the hands of red-haired ghosts."

Several other sailors have taken a stand.

"Okay, raise the white flag."

The captain looked behind him and said.

More than a mile behind them, a large three-masted galleon was riding the waves, and at the twelve gun doors on the starboard side, the flames of the cannonballs were constantly spewing out, and at the top of the main mast of this sailing ship a red, white and blue tricolor flag fluttered, and in the center of the flag a diamond composed of letters represented its special status.

Dutch East India Company.

And behind this ship, eleven identical sailing ships lined up in a long column on the surface of the sea, pushing the waves forward by the strong wind.

"Captain, they're flying the white flag!"

On the armed merchant ship Tulip owned by the Dutch East India Company, First Officer Philip said to Captain Barr.

"Stop shooting, we need Zhoushan's defenses, and no one will tell us about it."

Captain Barr said casually.

The Tatar governor of Fuzhou personally went to visit them, hoping that they would send troops to help the country's navy attack Zhoushan, as they had done when they had joined forces in the attack on Kinmen, and eliminate a group of rebels who had been entrenched there like Zheng Chenggong.

In return, the Tatars not only generously allowed them to set up trading companies in Kinmen, but also gained more trading privileges in the future, and even allowed the Dutch to live in Kinmen, similar to the Portuguese in Macau.

Of course, there is a direct remuneration of a full 300,000 taels of silver.

This kind of good thing is completely like pie in the sky, it can be said that every one of them is their dream, and of course they will not refuse.

The thought of a future in which they could have a real stronghold next to this vast empire, like the Portuguese, gave the fellows an urge to cheer, and although it was too late to report to the board of directors in Batavia, the fleet commander and a group of captains consulted and made a decision very unanimous.

Cooperate.

Anyway, the Ming army in Zhoushan seized the Haiyan merchant ship, and the Dutch East India Company had enough reason to retaliate, even if the board of directors opposed cooperation with the Tatars, and those captains could enter the war on that ground.

"What's that?"

Philip said as he looked suspiciously at the little sailing ship that was getting closer and closer.

At this time, several Chinese dressed in red clothes and without braids were waving all the white strips of cloth they could find on the deck, looking very frightened.

And at the top of the helm of this small ship, which is estimated to have a displacement of more than a dozen tons, there is a strange thing, a thin iron pipe of huge caliber, with an inclined mouth facing the Tulip, which looks like a huge chimney sticking out of it.

"Maybe it's a chimney, go and get that General Bao here, this kind of capturing prisoners should be done by him."

Captain Barr said.

The task of their trip is to open the shore defense batteries in Zhoushan, and then escort the infantry to land, of course, not the Dutch infantry, in fact, these twelve are armed merchant ships that are doing business in various places, and they are temporarily put together after being notified, and the farthest one is even from Haiphong, they are not real warships, it is impossible to carry infantry on them, and at this time, what is waiting in the cabin are the soldiers of the Eight Banners garrison in Fuzhou, and a total of 1,500 elite soldiers of the Eight Banners on the twelve armed merchant ships, waiting to set foot on the land of Zhoushan at any time, Like their ancestors, kill everyone on this island.

Soon, one of the staff leaders of the Eight Banners walked out of the cabin with a waist knife and a translator.

"Mah, there are still Tartars?"

In the helm of the Jiashen training ship, Yang Zhong was lying on the window and looked at the opposite side in some amazement, looking at the suddenly extra cotton-armored officers on the deck, the lightning rod-like hat was extremely eye-catching.

"Get ready, wait for my orders!"

He lowered his voice and said to Han Zhao.

The latter was holding a box of matches newly invented by Yang Dashuai, and was standing next to the large iron pipe, but this iron pipe was far longer than what could be seen outside, and even stretched all the way to the outside of the other side, supported by an adjustable upper and lower support, and tilted across the cabin, and a medicine twist protruded from a small hole in the tube.

Well, this is actually a rocket launch tube, inside is a latest rocket, the caliber is huge, 203 mm, the same level as the main gun of a heavy cruiser, with three spin stabilizers in the tail, in fact, it is similar to the Hale rocket of the nineteenth century, and the parts used are partly self-made and some are made by Lin Qian, so it should be regarded as a semi-black technology level.

This is the latest development of Yang Dashuai for siege, because the patrol ship is too small to fit a cannon, so I have to make do with this thing, but it is actually a comfort, because the accuracy of this thing is too poor, on the undulating battleship, even if you want to hit a target like a large battleship, you have to get closer to a distance of tens of meters, and in the real battle, this is tantamount to suicide.

In fact, even if it successfully hits the target, it is equivalent to suicide, because it is equipped with a trigger fuse, which will explode immediately after hitting the enemy ship, and the warhead is loaded with more than 100 catties of gunpowder and aluminum powder, and there will be no survivors within a few tens of meters of the explosion, but fortunately, for the Ming sailors who are ready to fight hard, this little thing is not worth mentioning at all.

Unbelievable Captain Barr, a terrifying weapon was aimed at him.

"Your Excellency General, I will put down the dinghy, how about you send troops to board the ship and arrest it?"

He asked Bao Shenling beside him.

"No, just let the thief climb up by himself."

After listening to the translation, Bao Shenling waved his hand and said with nausea.

Although he has lived in Fuzhou for many years, he is not a stranger to life on the ship, but from Fuzhou all the way to the thousands of miles, the taste is not as good as death, looking at the thin dinghy, and then looking at the terrifying waves below, he still decided to be considerate of his soldiers, because he is very worried that those Eight Banners elite soldiers will accidentally fall into the sea after getting on the boat.

"Well, whatever you want!"

Captain Barr did not insist, and he did not think that the small ship would pose any threat to him, but the necessary preparations should have been made, and a large number of crew members and Qing soldiers rushed to the deck and aimed their muskets at the small boat less than fifty meters away.

The distance between the two sides continued to close, and it was less than thirty meters closer.

The towering body of the Tulip made Yang Zhong nod with satisfaction, now there is no need to worry about the impact of the ship's rocking, and it is impossible to deviate from the deck no matter how much it rocks.

"Ignition!"

He whispered.

Han Zhao quickly struck the match and reached the root of the medicine twist without hesitation.

"Jump!"

Looking at the medicine twist that disappeared in an instant, Yang Zhong roared, and then slammed his head open the window and threw himself into the sea, almost at the same time, a total of six sailors, including Han Zhao, also jumped up, and at the moment when they fell into the sea, blazing flames suddenly erupted from the tail of the iron launch tube, and the huge rocket flew out of the launch tube at once.

Because the height difference between the two sides is too large, there is no need to aim now, and before Captain Barr on the deck of the Tulip can react, a rocket weighing hundreds of pounds hit his starboard side like a fire-breathing dragon, and more than 100 catties of black powder inside were instantly detonated, and the terrifying explosion force was like a giant hammer of 10 million catties, smashing the starboard hull of this 800-ton merchant ship at once, and the flames pushed the fragments of oak and swept across the entire cabin like a scattered bomb.

There was an instant hell in the cabin.

Those Dutch sailors guarding the gun emplacement, those elite soldiers of the Eight Banners waiting for the landing, everyone was engulfed by this terrifying flame at this moment.

The deck was equally miserable.

Almost at the moment of the explosion, the nearest Captain Barr was swept away by the terrifying air waves, and the Bao Shen Ling was even more unlucky, he was directly slapped into a pulp by a flying cannon, and what was even more terrifying was the bright sparks scattered in the explosion, which quickly ignited the sails of the full ship, and then the three-masted galleon turned into a blazing torch.

"Bastard, can anyone tell me what the hell is going on?"

On the flagship behind, Fleet Commander Mock suddenly pounced on the guardrail, his eyes were about to pop out, staring at the Tulip in front of him, and let out an incredulous roar.

However, it didn't matter anymore, what mattered was that the tulip's billowing smoke reaching into the sky had completed the task that Yang Zhong and his sailors had failed to accomplish.

On the fort in the north of Zhoushan, the alarm bell rang immediately, and the defenders who were still in the barracks all rushed to the fort, and at the same time, the beacon fire on the beacon tower was also ignited, and the soldiers who reported the news also jumped on the war horse, and the old Chen and Yinian monks who stayed in Zhoushan City immediately issued an order for the army to urgently assemble at the moment when they saw the beacon fire, and at the same time, the beacon fire on the battery outside Zhoushan City was also ignited.

More than ten miles away on the Qitou Ocean, Yang Feng, who had just destroyed a Qing warship, was stunned when he looked at the wolf smoke in the distance.