Port of Chiraza. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"Those damn bastards!"

Admiral Bing looked sadly at the sea in the distance.

There, six evil Ming steamships spewed black smoke at high speed, and at the same time, twelve huge cannons continued to spew flames one after another, and the terrifying hundred-pound cannonballs roared across the sky, and suddenly smashed into the harbor full of ships of all kinds. Although the distance was so far away that it actually had no accuracy to speak of, it still smashed next to an armed merchant ship, and the huge force of the explosion caused a huge wave, throwing the hundred-ton merchant ship upward. Although it would not destroy it, such a close explosion would certainly cause damage to the hull structure, especially if there were still people on board, and it was estimated that a third would have died in one fell at a time.

And the twelve battleships patrolling outside the harbor were desperately rushing towards the enemy with their sails outstretched, and before they could even enter the effective firing range, the guns of one of the battleships could not wait to let out a roar.

It's been a month.

It's been a whole month.

These bastards came every day to disturb the British army day and night, and sometimes they would come and walk in the middle of the night, and with the advantage of speed and artillery range, they would float like ghosts, rushing at the harbor or outside to patrol the warships, pouring shells as fast as they could, and then drifting away like ghosts when the British battleship shells could hit them, and disappearing into the vast sea, leaving only wisps of choking soot and clumps of burning flames in the air.

And this time it's the same.

As soon as the British shells had fallen and a few columns of water had been stirred up at least two hundred yards from one of the steam ships, the six steam ships had accelerated their retreat without honor.

Before leaving, I didn't forget to fire another round of shells.

In other words, Admiral Bin now wants to shout at the commander of the Ming army, can you be shameless anymore?

"Order the fleet to stop the pursuit!"

He looked at the pursuing battleships and said with a blank face.

He didn't dare to chase.

Because he didn't know if the main fleet of the Ming army was waiting in the distance.

The main fleet of the Ming army has always been in Makassar, and normally it only takes ten days to get here, even if you add the time for information transmission, it should have arrived a long time ago, but these six steam battleships were cruising outside, making it impossible for him to send reconnaissance ships, although it was only six battleships, but there were no more than twice as many battleships, and it was still difficult to fight them.

But if twelve battleships are used as reconnaissance ships, then it is equivalent to sending food to the main fleet of the Ming army.

Similarly, if he rashly ordered this small fleet to pursue it, it was very likely that he would be ambushed by the Ming army and be eaten in one bite, he knew very well that these bastards had such a purpose, although his strength was absolutely superior, but it was only the sum of all the battleships, and although the strength of the main fleet of the Ming army was not as good as him, the gap was not big enough that he could still crush it after dividing his troops, especially when he had only seventy battleships left, he needed to be more cautious.

The purpose of the Ming army's persistent provocation is to lure him into dividing his forces, and then set up an ambush to eat his pursuing fleet, further weakening his strength, and when his strength is weakened to the point that he no longer has an advantage, then the final decisive battle can be launched.

Unless he kills all the battleships now, he will never be able to pursue them.

But in this case, it will be troublesome for the main fleet of the Ming army to raid the house, you must know that there are more than 100 merchant ships, more than 20,000 crew members and landed soldiers in the port of Cilaza, they will not be able to stop the main fleet of the Ming army in any way, and there are also four second-class battleships and more than 20 third-class battleships. Without the protection of the battlefleet, these small ships would have been bombarded to the slag by the Ming army, so what he could do at this time was to hold on here and wait for the Matarans on land to seize Batavia, Semarang and Surabaya, and then he could sail out all the battleships and merchant ships.

Of course, he didn't know it, and his enemies hoped for it too.

"Subordinates, see Luo Hou!"

On the battleship Hongwu, which was more than a hundred miles away from the port of Ciraza, a colonel saluted Luo Zhang with a fist.

And on the same sea, the main fleet of the Ming army, which Admiral Bin had been waiting for, was quietly drifting with the setting sun, twenty-seven battleships and forty cruisers formed a continuous forest of sails and masts, but in addition to these pure sail battleships, there were also more than thirty smaller paddle steamships, which were not armed except for a small naval gun, but there was a complex set of special devices in the stern.

"How many mines did you bring?"

Luo Zhang asked the colonel.

He was one of the first marquis titles after Emperor Yang ascended the throne.

"Yuluohou, a total of three thousand!"

The colonel said.

"Let's get started!"

Luo Zhang said with a smile.

Well, 3,000 mines are indeed not enough for a big thunder curtain in the North Sea, but it is enough for a big thunder curtain in the Chilaza.

This insidious guy was not prepared to play battle line with the British, he had a more cost-effective battle plan, and his plan was very simple, which was to use a high-density mine belt to block the entire port of Chiraza.

After learning that the British fleet had entered this port, he held back this plan, including the raid of the high-speed cruiser fleet was also for this plan, he had to lay mines without the British noticing, although the minelayers could work exclusively at night, but there must also be a safe enough sea area, and the raid of the high-speed cruiser fleet was to force the British fleet into the port, forcing them to patrol even if they would not go to the sea far away from the port, so that they could clear a safe gap for the Ming army to lay mines.

Then, at the fastest speed, at a distance of up to 50 miles from the port, a dense mine belt of 100 miles long was laid.

Thirty zhang horizontally, one hundred and fifty zhang longitudinally as the interval.

With 3,000 mines, he can lay a full line of six mines.

These six mine lines form a line of five miles deep and 100 miles long, hugging the shallow waters of the coast at both ends, blocking all the death zones in the sea area with a water depth of more than five meters.

Once this mine belt was completed, it would be possible to block the entire British fleet of seventy battleships, one hundred and fifty armed merchant ships and cruisers in the port of Chiraza, and then his main fleet would be blocked from the mine belt, bombarding the British who wanted to break through through the mine belt. Then, when the Eighth Army on land had dealt with the Javanese monkeys, it would immediately encircle the port of Ciraza, a huge British fleet with tens of thousands of sailors and sailors, and the army soldiers could only be trapped in this port, watching the Ming army swarming on land surround them.

After the Ming army set up artillery and rockets on the shore, would they have any other choice?

What is better than sinking a huge fleet equivalent to half the British Navy to the bottom of the sea?

Well, this is also the reason why Emperor Yang fully supported Luo Zhang.

But it's not that simple.

You must know that this is a big project, of course, it doesn't matter if you lay mines, it's just a small thing, but how to keep it secret requires a little brain, especially since this mine belt must also have a part close to the coast, so you need to be even more cautious.

Immediately after that, Luo Zhang even transferred small patrol ships, and these patrol ships were responsible for clearing the entire sea area, not to mention those merchant ships, and the small fishing boats rowed out of the shore were all sunk with cannons, completely emptying the entire outer waters of the port of Chilaza, and cutting off all sources of intelligence for the British fleet. At the same time, the fast cruiser fleet continued to block the provocation outside the port of Chiraza, and through the traitors among the Javanese, the news that the main fleet of the Ming army had already sailed out of the Lombok Strait was disseminated, confirming the judgment of the British that the fast cruiser fleet was here to deliberately lure.

In fact, Luo Zhang is indeed ready to do this.

Although the main task of the fast cruiser fleet was to cover the minelayers, if the British were really stupid enough to divide a small fleet to chase them out of Chiraza, then he really wouldn't mind giving them a bite to swallow.

Of course, Admiral Bing would not be so stupid.

Admiral Bin is not in a hurry now, this kind of sea veteran is usually very patient, he only needs to wait for the result of the battle on land in Zhilaza, there is no need to take risks at all, anyway, the provocation of the Ming cruiser fleet is like that, although it has caused some losses, but it is not a big deal to really calculate it, it is just an annoying point, he has fought a lifetime of naval battles, and he will not be carried away by anger.

Well, if he was impulsive, maybe it would be better.

In this way, in the cautious and certainly mainly ignorant of mine warfare, he and his huge British fleet continued to retreat into the harbor, allowing the Ming minelayers to drop one chain after another of anchor mines thirty kilometers away from him, completing the cage in which they were imprisoned.

In fact, there are not only British battleships, but also eight battleships of the Spaniards and a group of Dutch, but the latter flew the British flag and participated in the war as a British battleship, I have to say that the Netherlands are a lot smarter this time, they are actually maintaining peace talks with Yang Feng at present, theoretically only waiting for the domestic approval of the original negotiation results, but if this time and the British join forces to win, then the negotiation results will of course be null and void, if this time it still fails, then they will honestly accept their fate

At this time, the Javanese had also begun to attack Batavia, and another Javanese army led by Sulabati was also attacking Surabaya, and one was attacking Semarang, and the three routes together actually exceeded 250,000 Javanese troops. Basically, it can be said that on the island of Java, all men with a little courage have joined this great sheng battle, which is why Admiral Bin is full of confidence, in his opinion, the Ming army is nothing more than three cities, and there is also a fortress in the Sunda Strait, a full 250,000 soldiers full of hatred, how can they not be defeated.

However, he was wrong.

Poor Admiral Bing will soon have to face a very depressing reality.

An army of 250,000 doesn't seem to be of much use.

In fact, it seems to be just a euphemism, and the real situation is that his allies are being shot like dogs, by Ming soldiers. (To be continued.) )