"Turn! Veer! Attack the rebels' soft-sailed warships! ”

The abacus of playing soy sauce in the battle failed, and Commander Koror made a wise choice by rushing the ducks to the shelves. More than 80 years ago, the fleet of the Dutch East India Company suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Liuluo Bay, and in this war history, the Dutch East India Company gave a detailed introduction to each of its captains, and also issued a stern order: Don't entangle with the large group of Junk ships of the Chinese, and make sure that the other party is not here to fight with you, but just to set fire.

More than 80 years have passed, and the Dutch still remember this history of the war and this instruction. Many people have carefully studied ways to crack this sea of fire tactics, but in the end, there are no effective countermeasures. The reason is very simple, the other party is basically a death squad, relying on absolute numerical superiority, just trying to crash into your ship, how do you crack it? Can your cannon sink a ship with one shot? Can you fire ten shots in one minute?

Now it is not in the vast open sea, and he is against the wind, with more than a hundred ships that are considered the largest in China, just to set fire, Koror feels that his eight ships are absolutely doomed. Although he felt that the rebels should not be so magnanimous, he did not dare to take risks.

This is also the consensus of the Dutch, in the face of this kind of sea of fire tactics, thirty-six strategies, go for the best plan!

As a result, Koror turned his attention to the dozen or so soft-sailed warships blocking the eastern seas, which were said to be the main force of the rebels. The avant-garde fleet led by Vince Zhuang dealt with them, and the captain and first mate said that the opponent's navigation skills were ridiculously poor and there was nothing to be afraid of.

As long as the obstacle of the rebels is broken, the fleet will have to fight and leave, and the initiative will be in their own hands.

Koror's command flag was raised on the mainmast, and eight Dutch warships turned their rudders and swooped east.

"Let's also catch ducks on the shelves, raise the flag! Fight to the death! ”

On the Golden Shark, Xiao Sheng's command flag was also raised on the mainmast, and then the Golden Shark also turned its rudder to the east, taking the Silver Shark and four Haiao-class and six Hai Carp-class, circled like a snake, and then turned west, and the fleet gradually stretched into a line.

"Keep up! Set the sails and rudder, don't crash, and don't fall behind! ”

Xiao Sheng repeated the strict orders given before the battle, which was also the formation that the fleet had repeatedly rehearsed before.

The Dutch fleet was in four columns from west to east, and the twelve warships of the Anglo-Chinese Navy were in a column, and the speed of both sides was about six or seven knots.

"Plug in! Punch the ass of that ship! ”

Korrol was originally a Dutch naval officer, and his usual tactic was to cut to the stern of the opponent's ship and bombard it with broadside guns, the stern of which was the key point of any warship, as long as the guns were powerful enough, the shells could penetrate the entire hull from the stern to the bow, and a few shots could paralyze the opponent.

"The rebels are really demented, and they are still stupid and rushing forward."

Approaching six or seven hundred yards, seeing that the other party had not yet turned around and hedged, Captain Klor's contempt for the Anglo-Chinese Navy also rose to the highest level.

The sound of cannon roared, and the two big ships at the forefront of the Anglo-Chinese naval fleet opened fire, and even Wen Sizhuang, who didn't know much about the specific tactics of naval warfare, laughed, who was so far away?

The ship's hull shook, and columns of water rose up in front of and behind the ship, and the smiles on the faces of Koror and Vinstrong froze.

Disheveled...... The hull of the ship shook suddenly, and large pieces of wood chips erupted from the side near the bow, accompanied by a chaotic scream. Krol looked at the two ships in front of him, and a cool air rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Of course, artillery can hit so far, but it can hit so accurately, even in Europe.

"Damn, I just hit two shots! Usually the training is pretending! ”

On the helm platform of the Golden Shark, seeing Xiao Sheng's face uncertain when he was sitting in the main seat, Lu Hanshan, the director of artillery, jumped to his feet and scolded.

"Training is training, actual combat is actual combat, and it would be good to be able to hit two shots."

Xiao Sheng comforted Lu Hanshan instead, he was just nervous. The Macau crew ran away, and against the Dutch fleet, he had no bottom in his heart. While organizing a civilian fleet, he also adjusted his own tactics, and now that a burst of shells went out, the worries in his heart were like cannonballs, and finally came to the bottom. I've done my best, and it's up to God what I can do.

Although the Gold and Silver Shark only had sixteen guns, they were all twenty-pound cannons, which were converted into European naval guns, and their range and power were better than those of the twenty-four-pounder naval guns of the mid-to-late eighteenth century. It could not be compared with the thirty-two-pound or even larger naval guns, but it was a battleship-class gun, and on his small ship of less than 1,000 tons, with sixteen of these cannons, it was already stronger than Koror's flagship "Pegasus".

The Koror fleet is all old Galen ships, which are essentially armed merchant ships. Although there were about twenty guns on the Pegasus, most of them were old bronze cannons, and none of them had shells of more than twenty pounds. This is still the largest one, and the other ships are about the same as the Haiao-class, and although the cannons are all about twenty, the power is still a cut behind the Pegasus.

Stunned by this cannon, the captain of the Pegasus subconsciously turned the rudder, and Captain Koror jumped to his feet in anger and quickly ordered to turn back. At this time, it is necessary to penetrate the gap between the two ships of the other side, and if you want to turn the rudder to avoid it, it will be to shell head-on with the other side, and you will obviously not be able to compare with who is more accurate than the gun.

The Pegasus's column continued to advance forward, but in less than half a minute, the two big ships thundered with another burst of artillery fire, this time the Pegasus suffered two more shots, all smashed on the high stern, the bow of the Pegasus swung its butt and sank, and the crew even had the illusion that the ship was about to capsize.

Avoiding a human body rushing to the angry sea, Koror grabbed the railing, shivered, and finally gave the order: "Turn the rudder!" Turn the rudder to face south! ”

At the speed of the Pegasus, if it rushed towards the two large ships, it would have to be subjected to at least one cannon fire, and then it would be more than two. Koror had to abandon the attack on the two large ships, and turned the rudder to meet the ships behind the other party.

"Is this really the East Indies? How do I feel like I'm in the Europa Sea, against the warships of France and even Britain? ”

Koror felt that the encounter just now was like a dream, not to mention the power and accuracy of the artillery, but to say that the rate of fire of two rounds in this minute had never been seen even in a naval battle in Europe.

On the deck of the Golden Shark, the clanging iron wheels resounded. There were two rails on each gun emplacement, and the left and right gun emplacements were staggered, and the guns that sat and retreated slid all the way to the opposite side, pulled by the retracting cables, stopped on the gradually rising rails, and then held in place by the barricades raised by the rails.

"Quick! Fast! That's six seconds slower than last time! ”

The shouts of the gun commanders resounded throughout the gun deck, and the gunners were frantically busy, wiping the guns, pushing them into the medicine bags, stuffing the shells, and then turning the crank handles, pressing down the barriers, and pushing the guns back into their positions. The heavy artillery rushed to the slide in front of the gun window, and then stepped back and took place accurately.

The fireman reached into the iron hook from the tail of the gun, pierced the medicine bag, and then turned the flintlock to connect closely with the fire door, and in about 20 seconds, the gun was ready to fire again.

"In place—"

Rotate a crank on the gun mount, the gear clangs, the muzzle of the gun is slightly offset to the left, and then shake the other handle, the muzzle is slightly downward, and with a click, it should be lowered to a fixed angle somewhere.

"Shoot in turn!"

The leader of the artillery squad shouted, and the commanders of the gun emplacements on the left shouted again and again.

"Fire on the left!"

Boom...... "Second from the left!" ”

Rumble...... Another cannonball rained out, but instead of the Pegasus, the target was a Dutch battleship behind the Pegasus. By this time the Pegasus had turned south, and was spewing white smoke from the ship's side, and the Dutch were firing their guns.

The Dutch fleet had come in a horizontal formation, trying to cut into a long line of rebel ships, but the encounter with the Pegasus frightened them. Nearly a thousand yards away, the guns of these two ships were so accurate and the rate of fire was so fast that they didn't dare to fight hand-to-hand combat anymore and assault the idea of these two big ships. They turned their rudders and threw themselves at the small and medium-sized warships behind.

With this change of formation, the two warships of the Golden and Silver Shark pasted to the left, stretching the formation of the Anglo-Chinese Navy warships into an arc. The Dutchman's skilful sailing skills were useless, and they could only follow the front ship head and tail, and the cannons fired in unison, and the two sides engaged in a battle of artillery bombardment from a distance of four or five hundred yards.

The rumbling of cannons on the sea, mixed with the dull cracking of cannonballs hitting the hull, sawdust flying with human bodies, and the old warships on the north and south sides lowering their sails, this is a battle where there is no place for them, and they can only watch from afar.

"It's not the naval battle we want, it's just ......"

The hull was in tatters, the guns were half destroyed, the foremast was broken, and the sail rangers were desperately running the sails, trying to catch more wind with the sails of the remaining two masts, so that the ship could run faster, but the Pegasus could no longer fly. Koror's pupils were out of focus, and he muttered to himself.

"It's like being on land, two armies facing each other with muskets."

Vinstrong helped him with a supplement.

Blocked on three sides, the Dutch fleet had no room for maneuver, and was repelled by the sharp artillery of the Anglo-Chinese navy, and did not dare to get too close. The eight warships of the fleet had to learn from the warships of the Anglo-Chinese Navy and form a long line to bombard.

But such a pair of bombardments, the gap between the two sides in the power of artillery, rate of fire and accuracy was exposed at once, the British and Chinese navy continued to maintain two rounds a minute, and on the Dutch ships, the gunners held their strength, at most one shot a minute. In terms of artillery power, the smallest warship of the Anglo-Chinese Navy only carried eight guns, but it could still cause damage to Dutch warships. Of course, the Dutch didn't know that Xiao Sheng urgently replaced the guns of these Sea Carp with twelve-pound guns before the war. However, the Dutch fleet only had cannons on the Pegasus that could barely match the firepower of the Sea Shark, and the guns of other warships could barely compare with the twelve-pound guns of the Anglo-Chinese Navy.

When it comes to the shooting accuracy of artillery, the British and Chinese navy ships mostly rely on foreign aid, but the artillery is tempered by itself, and the gun mount has an adjustment device, and the accuracy is even stronger than that of the Dutch warships.

The two sides formed two fronts to bombard, and the Dutch were clearly at a disadvantage. Half an hour later, the artillery fire on the Dutch ships was basically silent, not because they were paralyzed, but because their bronze cannons could not withstand the continuous high rate of fire bombardment, and had to stop the guns to cool down. At this time, the artillery of the Anglo-Chinese Navy was firing louder, and the flag of retreat had been raised on the Pegasus.

"Okay, yes, we finally played to our advantages."

Xiao Sheng's heart on the Golden Shark was completely relaxed, the battle situation was already clear, and the previous arrangement basically worked.

The Macao crew ran away, and the Anglo-Chinese navy could no longer continue the previous tactics, using two ships as a unit, maneuvering with the enemy to find a gap to break into. Xiao Sheng had no choice but to change his tactics, and he couldn't learn to be flexible, right, so follow the ship in front and keep a certain distance, it will always be no difficulty, right?

Draw all the ships into a long column and bombard the enemy with broadside artillery. This tactic is to make your own fleet abandon maneuvering and form a sea battery. Then use fireships and shallow bays to choke the maneuver space of the Dutch fleet and force the other side to fight a hard-to-head artillery battle with him, so as to avoid his own weakness in the maneuver of warships and carry forward the sharp advantage of the Anglo-Chinese naval artillery.

When Xiao Sheng arranged this tactic, he vaguely remembered that when Li Shi talked to him about military affairs, he also talked about this kind of "battle line", but at that time, he was talking about huge ships carrying dozens or even hundreds of guns.

"Turn the rudder! Keep posting! ”

Seeing that the battle line between himself and the Dutch fleet had been opened, and the other party still had the intention of running away, Xiao Sheng was reluctant to give up, and just gave the order, but saw that the group of big green heads in the distance to the south moved, and Wuwuyang rushed to the Dutch fleet, which was already half slower.

"Grass! Those money-grubbing guys! ”

Xiao Sheng scolded angrily, secretly feeling sorry for his 200,000 taels of silver. Li Shi allocated him an extra 200,000 taels of naval budget, and he spent all of it on this battle. Recruit civilian sailors and ships, and ask them to fill large ships such as Daqingtou with fire oil, and the task is to stick them to the Dutch warships and then set the ships on fire. There were only one or twenty people on the head of each big green ship, and they would get out by the sampan hanging from the tail of the big green head.

If someone comes, they will give money, and if they bring a ship to give money, it will be 10,000 taels if they burn a Dutch warship, and as many fireships are on board, they will be distributed to as many people. With such a high reward, Guangdong sailors came one after another, and even many Fujian locals came.

Originally, Xiao Sheng was still making a small calculation, just wanting to let these people scare the Dutch so that he could use the method of battle line, but he didn't expect that these guys were full of silver, fierce and abnormal, and they would go on when they saw the opportunity. The Dutch fleet, which was half-crippled by the Anglo-Chinese navy, was like a pack of water dogs, how could they not fight?

"That's it, you beat the water dogs, and I'll go clean up my old Shangguan."

Turning his head to look at the north, Xiao Sheng was about to wave his army north, but he saw the sail shadow swaying in the north, Shi Shibiu ...... Ran again!

In the Battle of Guray, the Dutch fleet led by Koror was burned and one captured, and more than 400 Dutch sailors were killed and more than 200 were captured. The Pegasus took another warship, relying on superb piloting skills, turned sail and sailed to the southeast, escaped in the chaos, and retreated to Penghu by luck. When they returned to Batavia, it was the middle of June of the year, and Koror and Vinstrong, who had escaped death, repeated a sentence in their report to the Dutch East India Company.

"History has proven that we Dutch can no longer seek any benefits in China by force, and what happened to us proves this once again."

(To be continued)