Battle of the 562nd Estuary (Part I)

The wind is blowing on the sea.

It was close to noon, and the wind finally blew in the sea's favor for the attackers. Although there is no weather forecast this year, it is not surprising that those veteran sailors who have been at sea for many years can judge the wind direction in the next few days based on the weather conditions, dryness and wetness, and even smells of the previous days.

Zheng Zhilong has been on the sea for many years, and there is naturally no shortage of such talents under his command. The most important thing in naval warfare is to take advantage of the wind, and the reason why he decided to fight a decisive battle today is precisely to judge that there will be a suitable sea breeze on this day, which can help him use the fireship to attack. I've been waiting for the morning until now, and the opportunity has finally arrived!

"The hour has come...... Why don't you do it on the shorthair side? ”

Zheng Zhihu next to him said a little anxiously, he had already changed his clothes and came back, covered in heavy armor inlaid with leather and metal sheets, and walked with a clanging sound, even with spikes embedded in his boots, firmly grasping the deck wood, so that he would not slip during the battle - then the deck would be full of blood and human oil, but it would be much more slippery than usual.

"Don't worry, their sailboats don't need manpower, they rely on the wind, and they rely on the wind more than ours...... They moved! ”

Although Zheng Zhilong said that he was not in a hurry, he kept holding a telescope to observe the direction of Qiong's naval fleet, because the distance between the two sides was too far and there was a lack of reference on the sea, even in the high-powered telescope, he could only vaguely see that the top of the sail over there had moved slightly.

But the telescope soon increased the range of movement of the target, and the narrow crimson ribbon on the top of the sail was stretched into a straight line, hunting and fluttering in the wind.

"Haha, it's finally done! Master Pang, they really count! ”

Zheng Zhihu next to him also clapped his hands and laughed, and he could see that the other party's five sailboats were lined up, but the formation was very sparse, and the distance between them was very large. All the sails were raised and the wind was sufficient, and the bow of the ship was raised high, and the bow of the ship, sharp as a knife, cut through the waves, like flying fish, almost gliding on the water......

"Clippers...... Sure enough, it's a shear wave, no wonder it's called that. Hu, do you think our family can build this kind of boat? ”

As a tycoon on the sea, Zheng Zhilong's obsession with boats is no less than that of those enthusiasts in later generations, although he has seen one or two short-haired fast ships galloping on the sea before, but they are not as exciting as this time when all five clippers get together and go to the battlefield together. At this moment, Zheng Zhilong even forgot about the battle situation for a while, thinking about whether he should imitate this kind of clipper?

However, Zheng Zhihu had obviously used his brain in this area earlier than him, and he was also disappointed.

"No, big brother. Their ship looks similar to ours, but there are a lot of strange things in it, especially the connection is made of steel. The younger brother estimated that even if we mobilized the best craftsmen, we could only make a few parts separately, but the whole could not be put together. And even if it could be built, it would cost more silver than the first two giant boats. ”

Zheng Zhilong sighed slightly and said no more. He is also an expert, of course he knows that this is difficult to do - not to mention anything else, just looking at the thin and narrow hull of the fast spaceship, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty will definitely not dare to do this, they just barely make it, and it will break if they hit the waves. Qiongzhen craftsmen dare to play like this, they must have mastered the keel splicing technology that is far stronger than that of Daming, otherwise the strength of the hull will definitely not be able to withstand it.

The two sides have communicated so far, Zheng Zhilong can be regarded as watching the Qiong Navy develop step by step, especially their sea power, except for a big iron ship, completely started from scratch, and has become the largest force in the South China Sea in just a few years, which is really amazing and amazing. However, if you look closely, you can see that there are only five or six boats built by Shorthair himself, which shows that this ship is not easy to build.

Let's focus on the galleon, although the clipper is good, it is not as useful as the giant sailing ship with a large load capacity for the Zheng family at the moment, which can be used for both loading and naval warfare...... Even in the Qiong Navy, galleons are still the main force.

Of course, almost all of the short-haired big guy sailboats were snatched from the Western Yiren, which really made Zheng Zhilong deeply admire. He also had a lot of dealings with the red-haired people, and knew very well how fierce and cunning the Xiyi people who could cross the ocean and come from thousands of miles away. Yet in front of Shorthair, they all seem to have become treasure boys—sailboats, turf, and even skilled seamen...... As long as the shorthair wants, he can always get his hands on it.

Think about it, the sea power of Qiongzhen can develop so fast, and it is really inseparable from the "great help" of the Xiyi people, but those Xiyi people are not voluntary. Each of their attacks eventually seemed to evolve into a stupid act of sending ships and guns to Shorthair, so much so that they didn't dare to trouble Shorthair now...... Think our Zheng family is a soft persimmon?

Thinking of this, Zheng Zhilong squinted his eyes and stared at the enemy formation opposite, and his mind returned to the current battle formation again.

-- This time. I must capture a few Hongyi gunboats, so that those Westerners know that not only is the short hair not easy to mess with, but the fate of daring to hit their Zheng family is the same!

…………

The wind is getting stronger and stronger, and the speed of the clippers of the Qiong Navy is also increasing with the help of the wind. They did not rush directly to this side of the battlefield, but drew a large arc outside, as if they were going to circle around the port.

But this time, even Zheng Zhihu was no longer in a hurry, the brothers were both veterans of naval warfare, and they had already seen each other's intentions - they were accelerating, as if a person had to run to help before throwing a javelin, and the sailors of the Joan Navy clearly wanted to make the most of the speed advantage of the clippers they used.

Therefore, although envoys were sent many times from several other ships, including Zheng Zhibao's side, to ask when the battle would be? The two brothers of the Zheng family on the main ship here patiently asked their subordinates to wait. The banner of the lantern ball, which ordered the whole army to attack, had already been hung under the mast, but it was motionless until the order was given.

"Let's see what kind of situation shorthair opens up for us! If you can ......"

Zheng Zhilong clutched the telescope tightly, and a certain expectation appeared in his heart.

The Joan navy acted decisively, and after accelerating to a certain distance, the fleet, which was small but attracted the attention of everyone on both sides of the battlefield, rushed towards the mouth of the Tamsui River like an arrow from the string, where the two sides were facing each other. The Zheng family's fleet immediately erupted in cheers. On the other side, there was also a commotion in the combined forces of the Dutch and Liu Xiang - the captains and captains shouted at the top of their voices, asking the sailors to prepare for defense.

Of course, it was impossible for the ships of the Joan navy to plunge headlong into the enemy line, and they were still a hundred paces away from the enemy line when they were deflected, and this distance was obviously carefully set - just outside the range of the Dutch artillery, but within their own range of attack.

When the arc of the clipper fleet reached the closest position to the Dutch fleet, they formed a parallel situation with each other, and at this very point, only two explosions were heard from Ponpong, and on both sides of the bow and stern of the foremost and largest Qionghai clipper, two clouds of smoke rose at the same time, and there was a faint fire rising in the smoke.

"The short-haired boat is burning on its own!"

A few of the unseen novices in the Zheng family's fleet shouted, but more remained silent—they had seen this scene about two years ago. The impression left by them will never be forgotten for the rest of their lives.

--I saw two bright arrows of light fly out of the smoke, dragging long black smoke and red flames, and flying towards the enemy formation on the opposite side like a roaring dragon.

"It's a fire dragon again...... No, rockets! ”

Zheng Zhilong muttered to himself, his eyes shining with excitement. When he first saw Joan's naval rocket salvo two years ago, he was almost frightened by the overwhelming noise. And at that time he was on the hostile side of the Joan navy, and he was not sure that this terrible weapon would fly over his head. However, this time, the two sides were allies, and they had already been mentally prepared, so Zheng Zhilong could look at the attack of this terrible weapon with a rather relaxed and even smug mood.

Compared with the spectacular scene of the last salvo of dozens of rockets, the number of rockets launched this time is somewhat thin, and the accuracy of launching on a high-speed clipper is difficult to guarantee. However, the rockets of the Joan Navy never relied on the target to win, and when this weapon was designed, its dominant idea was to cover the surface - or, use a large number of rockets to form a surface to cover a certain target point; Either that, with one or two rockets, they attack a large area of the target without requiring point-to-point accuracy.

At this time, in the opposing enemy formation, the ships were all lined up, and although there was still some distance between the hulls below, far from the point of covering the sea, the erected masts and the sails above, the flags and the like were overlapped, and the rockets crossed them, and they would crash into these obstacles anyway. And the result of the collision is a loud bang...... A large mass of real flames exploded, and countless flames flew everywhere, and all the places licked by the flames would burn, and it would be difficult to extinguish them when splashed with water.

This time it really burned, but it was the enemy's ship - the rocket carried an incendiary warhead, and it was filled with the best accelerant that could be made with the current technology of the Qionghai Navy, not like ordinary artillery incendiary bombs, which were only made from the scraps of the by-product of refining fuel for the Qionghai, but directly using the refined highly fuelable fuel materials, which was quite expensive. However, the effect is also very good, its performance is close to the napalm of later generations, and it can be burned wherever it is touched, even if it falls into the sea, it can float on the water and burn for a while, and it will not be extinguished immediately. RO