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In the forty-second year of the Ming Yongli calendar, on May 14, at the beginning of noon, the sea off Cam Ranh Bay. (The fastest update speed is on the Aishang Novel Network biquge.info)

Six Zheng Army's 4,000 gunboats flying the red and blue flags were lined up in a neat line, approaching the harbor at high speed under the propulsion of the sea breeze, and the masts of two smaller bulletin ships appeared and disappeared in the waves a little further away from this column.

Although the load is larger than the 3,000-material double-sailing gunboats that are currently widely deployed in the Zheng Army's naval division, perhaps because they are transitional products, the number of guns attached to the [Shanzi-class] has not increased much compared with the 3,000-material gunboats. Among them, the brig type was equipped with eight four-inch (28-pound) short guns and ten three-and-a-half-inch (12-pound) long guns, while the up-sail brig schooner type was equipped with sixteen four-inch short guns.

Perhaps sensing the movements of the Zheng fleet, two Dutch three-masted warships flying the Red, White and Blue flags of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) and a small announcement ship rushed out of their anchorage south of Cambinh.

It seems that seeing that Zheng Jun had a large number of gunboats, the three Dutch ships immediately turned northeast. Since the southwest wind was blowing at this time, the gunboats of the Zheng army, which were entering the harbor from the southeast, were forced to turn as well, and the two sides immediately approached at a small angle.

Shortly after mid-afternoon, the Dutch warship Banten opened fire at a distance of 500 paces (note: about 275 yards), and the rumbling sound of the cannon shattered the calm of the ocean, heralding the arrival of a bloody storm.

The Dutch battleships "Banten" and "Cape Town" were both 450-ton military Galen type, with two gun decks, and although they were equipped with only 24-pound snake guns and 9-pound half-snake guns, both of which were smaller than the guns of the Zheng gunboats, they had a total of eight snake guns and 14 half-snake guns on their single side -- according to the statistics of the British Navy at the end of the 18th century, the combat power of a single ship with 20 guns was equivalent to that of three 10-gun warships, and even after the opponent was wiped out, it would retain a certain amount of combat effectiveness - Moreover, the high speed of the military Galen ships and the fact that the two ships escorted each other made it impossible for the Zheng army to use the usual tactics of fighting more and fighting less, and was forced to carry out face-to-face bombardment, so that the losses of the Zheng army rose rapidly.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, although Zheng Jun forced the Dutch [Gazelle] notification ship to withdraw from the battle, his own ships [Taishan] and [Yushan] also ignited fire one after another, and the battle turned in a direction unfavorable to Zheng's army.

"Bump into it, engage in broadside combat." Looking at the enemy who was already spewing fireballs and poisonous gases everywhere like a volcano, Chen Baoshun, who had taken over Tang Shenzhi's command of the battle, had to give such an order. "The Huashan and Gushan will deal with the second enemy ship, and the Qinshan will follow the ship to deal with the first enemy ship, and Hongyi must be left behind at any cost!"

With this order, four Zheng gunboats began to approach quickly under the shelling of the Dutch. However, it was not easy to carry out the ramming under the shelling of the other side, and the Dutch were constantly mediating the course, so Zheng Jun's several attempts were only in exchange for a river of blood on the upper deck.

At the beginning of the day, a huge explosion resounded through the sea, and the [Huashan] was hit by an opponent in the process of approaching the [Cape Town], and then the gunpowder in the cabin was detonated, and then the [Huashan] collapsed on the surface of the sea like a dead fish.

Of course, Zheng Jun's side was not without good news, the chain bullets fired by the three-and-a-half-inch guns on the [Gushan] destroyed one of the backmasts of the [Cape Town], and the four-inch guns on the [Qinshan] also tore through the hull of the [Banten], causing the opponent's hull to enter the water, and the red-hot bombs fired by the ships caused fires on enemy ships occurred from time to time.

However, the slight commendable results could not save the fate of Zheng's defeat, and the [Huashan], which had been paralyzed on the sea, was once again bombarded by the Dutch warships, and the [Huashan], which was damaged in many places below the waterline, could no longer support it and sank headlong to the bottom of the sea, and only a very few of the 144 officers and men on board escaped by jumping into the sea, and the rest were either killed in battle and died with the ship on the spot.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Dutch beat the water dogs, the [Qinshan] and the [Jinshan] approached the [Banten], and the three hulls were immediately staggered and entangled, and Chen Baoshun, who had been prepared for a long time, climbed onto the opponent's ship with his men with the smoothbore guns fired by the Dutch, and soon, a broadside battle that was tried to avoid in the training regulations of Zheng Jun's sailors was finally launched by Zheng Jun himself.

At the same time that more than 170 surviving officers and men of the two ships of the [Qinshan] and the [Jinshan] rushed onto the [Banten] and fought with the Dutch in front of the gongs and drums, in order to attract the [Cape Town], the [Gushan] ignored the fierce artillery fire of the opponent and approached one after another, and at the same time, the gunners of the [Gushan], who had been killed and wounded, tried their best to fire as many shells as possible.

When the [Banten] hull fire was finally triggered again, the [Taniyama] suffered the heaviest blow since the start of the war, and the two masts were destroyed by the chain bullets fired by the opponent at the same time, and the [Taniyama] that lost power was paralyzed on the sea like the [Hanayama].

At the critical moment when the situation of the [Gushan] was critical, the [Taishan] and [Yushan], which had already extinguished the fire on the ship, returned to the battlefield and approached the [Cape Town] from the other side.

At this moment, the sailors of the Zheng army who boarded the [Banten] were facing the resistance of the Dutch sailors who outnumbered them, but fortunately the number of German mercenaries who were strong and powerful was not much, and the number of Malay and Javanese soldiers with slender bodies exceeded the number of Tessie sailors by a lot, thus narrowing the difference in combat strength between the two sides in a certain way.

"Kill!" Chen Baoshun, who emptied the three-eyed gun in his hand and picked it up as a bone, slammed open the opponent's skull, and then reflexively stabbed the cone tail, and immediately made a Dutch who was ready to sneak attack hold his stomach and scream, but he was not satisfied with killing the two opponents, so he picked up the scimitar dropped by the Dutch with his hand, and then slashed again.

After slashing for a while, Chen Baoshun, who was quite exhausted, found that the number of Dutch sailors had not decreased, and he looked around vigilantly, only to find that the opponent was constantly rushing up from the lower deck. So he beckoned several Zheng officers and soldiers around him, and after dropping a small-caliber Franc cannon, Chen Baoshun, who gritted his teeth, ignored the fact that his own people were still fighting there, and his heart was crossed, and he closed his eyes and ignited the primer of the cannon door.

In a short distance, the shotgun that swept through the qiē indiscriminately swept away the crowd in front of him. Chen Baoshun, who was dripping blood from his heart, beckoned his dumbfounded subordinates to rush straight to the mouth of the deck, first smashed the miscellaneous weapons and corpses on the lower deck, and then pushed the powder keg to ignite and throw it down.

With a dull explosion, Chen Baoshun ordered: "Retreat, go back and bombard them with artillery!" ”

Taking advantage of the passage to the lower deck being temporarily closed, Zheng Jun, who was dragging his wounded, ran back desperately, regardless of the height difference between each other's hulls, jumped directly, and with the help of the resistance and blocking of the sails, he returned to his own ship smoothly, but there were also a few unlucky ghosts who fell and broke their leg bones.

After escaping back to their own ships, the [Qinshan] and the [Jinshan] cut off the iron claws that hooked the [Banten], and the three boats just began to separate in a leisurely manner, and the Zheng gunners who returned to their posts opened fire at a very close distance. Although only seven of the twelve four-inch guns of the Qinshan and Jinshan were fired, the close proximity of the heavy shells fired by the Zheng army pierced the hull of the Dutch ship as lightly as shredding paper. Then, in less than a dozen breaths, several successive explosions erupted from the body of the [Banten], and frightening flames erupted from the open cannon door

"Let's go!" Chen Baoshun eagerly ordered that if the [Banten] exploded, the shock wave it set off would be enough to cause damage to the [Qinshan] and [Jinshan], and if the [Bandan] sank quickly, the whirlpool caused by it could also have a devastating effect on the two ships. "I'm leaving."

However, Chen Baoshun seems to have miscalculated, although the second gun deck erupted with terrifying flames, and even the hull of the ship showed huge and terrifying holes, but the [Banten] showed no signs of sinking, and there were even people on the first gun deck who fired at the two ships, of course, the power of this kind of artillery bombardment has been greatly weakened.

However, Chen Baoshun didn't have time to make amends, and the [Cape Town], which was circling with the [Taishan] and [Yushan], rushed over as a rescuer, and the artillery fire from the left and right bows forced the [Qinshan] and [Jinshan] to temporarily avoid its edge, and then under the wing guard of the [Cape Town], the seriously injured [Bandan] slowly retreated to the depths of the ocean.

To chase or not to chase? The problem was placed in front of Tang Shenzhi. Although the opponent only had half of his combat strength left, he looked around, and Zheng Jun was also full of grief. The [Huashan] sank, and only a very small number of the 150 officers and soldiers under the captain Zheng Liupin Chengxin Feng Longchen (recommended by book friend Manson 2003) were still floating on the sea waiting for help; Although the Gushan did not suffer much damage to its hull, the brig was broken and it was no longer able to sail alone; As for the other four ships, although most of them were unharmed, a third or even more than half of the sailors were either killed or wounded in battle; It can be said that the Quang Nam detachment is now half-crippled. Of course, the Dutch will never be better, not to mention that the [Gazelle] is still floating on the sea surface of the war zone, even the retreating [Banten] is estimated to have no less than half of the crew left, and there is basically no possibility of another attack.

It was precisely in view of the situation that the two sides were afraid of the wolf with a hemp pole, Tang Shenzhi thought twice and was forced to order: "Salvage the surviving officers and soldiers of this domain, drag them on the enemy ship destroyed in battle, and let's go back." ”

"What about Cai Dudu?" In the early years, Chen Benxing, the first captain of the ship who followed the elders of the same village to Dongning because of the Qing court's ban on the sea, asked in a strange voice. "And Dongning"

"Cai Dudu, that official has his own explanation." Tang Shenzhi responded with a broken spine tone. "As for the Lord in it, I will also write to him for sin."

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