After listening to the advice of his captains, Waite finally compromised, because his captains' ideas were also very reasonable, the main fleet of the Sea Wolves was now missing, and if they dragged on here, the more likely it would be for the main fleet of the Sea Wolves to rush back.

Although he is very confident in the fleet he brings, he still understands the truth that ants bite the elephant to death, even if he can finally defeat the main fleet of the sea wolf, it is impossible not to pay a little price, not to mention that he has also seen that there are many Western-style cannons in the sea wolf's battery, and the sea wolf is not as easy to deal with as he thought.

So what he wants is a limited punishment of the sea wolf, instead of fighting the sea wolf here to the death, if he can complete the operation of shelling Tamsui City, it is better to do his best, as long as he returns to Dayuan, when the time comes, he will rely on Dayuan Port behind him, even if the sea wolf wants to retaliate against them at that time, they can also rely on Dayuan Port to defeat the sea wolf.

In the end, he agreed with the captains and ordered an immediate operation, sending three gunboats into the Tamsui River to attack the city of Tamsui in the river, and launch a punitive artillery bombardment of the city.

The other four Dutch gunboats, under the command of Waite, fanned out outside the estuary, controlling a considerable area of sea outside the estuary, and as soon as the fleet of sea wolves appeared, no matter where they came from, they would be immediately discovered by the Dutch.

The three Dutch gunboats cautiously sailed into the Tamsui River, and they untied the three large sampans that were dragging behind their boats in advance, allowing the three rowboats to go ahead, observing the situation on both sides of the river, and constantly lowering their plumb weights to probe the waterways to prevent their ships from running aground.

The three Dutch warships, led by rowboats, slowly sailed into the mouth of the river, and the banks were quiet, but it could be seen that along the riverbank, smoke continued to rise, and it was said that the sea wolves were informing them that the Dutch had entered the river.

After entering the Tamsui River, the three Dutch ships were never stopped, and they did not observe any artillery forts or batteries on the shore.

As far as the eye could see, there were lush bushes and woods, and in some places deep thatch, so they were somewhat relieved, feeling that although the sea wolves had set up a strong artillery fort outside the estuary, they were probably too confident to set up a fort inside the estuary.

So after entering the river, it was safer on the contrary, so all three boats sped up a little and headed in the direction of Tamsuida.

However, after they had sailed into the mouth of the Tamsui River for about four or five miles, they were still blocked by the sea wolves, and some of the sea wolves appeared on the shore, set up some light artillery, and opened fire on them.

The guns of these sea wolves were not very large, although they were accurate, but they did not pose much threat to the Dutch ships, and most of the shells hit the Dutch ships, and most of them fell into the water, and few of the shells directly penetrated the hull, but only created some holes in their sails.

The Dutch were quick to react and immediately launched a counterattack, with their guns firing at full speed, and immediately began to fire a salvo at the Sea Wolves on the shore.

A large number of shells whizzed down on the shore, and these sea wolf troops did not build a strong artillery fortress, so after being shelled by the Dutch, they immediately broke up, and soon escaped, and several light guns were also overturned on the shore, which made the Dutch on the ship laugh wildly, thinking that these Chinese pirates were nothing more than that.

Several groups of sea wolves who tried to stop the Dutch fleet returned in vain and were defeated by the Dutch, so the sea wolves changed their tactics and simply began to set up fireboats or rafts from the upper reaches downstream.

These fireboats, all small boats, laden with firewood and doused with oil, were lowered from the upper reaches of the river, and as soon as they approached the Dutch ships, they were set ablaze by the sailors and drifted down the river towards the Dutch ships.

And some of the rafts were the same, with a number of large iron nails nailed to the front, piled with firewood and doused with oil, and after being lowered downstream, they lit and floated towards the Dutch ships, trying to nail them to the Dutch ships and burn their ships.

This made the Dutch nervous, because this was a river after all, and although the Tamsui River was wide, it still seemed very cramped for these large boats, and there was not enough room for maneuvering.

If they were not caught by these fireboats, their ships would probably be burned, so the Dutch did not dare to slack off, and quickly ordered the three rowing boats in front of them to block the fireboats and prop them up, and the guns in the bow of the ships were also firing with full firepower, and fiercely opened fire on the floating fireboats.

The fireships and platoons were either propped up and left the channel of the Dutch ships under the Dutch resistance, or they were simply destroyed by the Dutch guns and became debris floating on the surface of the river.

Fortunately for the Dutch, the sea wolves did not seem to be fully prepared for their attack, and although they made various blockades, they were not violent, neither the shelling on the shore nor the fireboats laid down were numerous, and there were no obstacles on the river to prevent them from moving.

So the Dutch, who attacked the Tamsui River, thought that their arrival should have exceeded the expectations of the sea wolves, and this was the effect of a surprise attack.

As their fleet got closer and closer to Freshwater City, the sea wolf's resistance became stronger and stronger, and at this time more sea wolf troops began to fire on the shore, firing at the Dutch in the river, and the fire became much stronger, and occasionally large-caliber artillery began to appear and fire at the Dutch ships.

Moreover, the number of fireships going down the river also began to increase, which made the Dutch feel nervous again, and they had to constantly counterattack the sea wolf troops on the shore, and on the other hand, they had to be careful about the fireships floating downstream, so the speed of travel became slower and slower.

From the mouth of the Tamsui River to Tamsui City, the total distance was only more than ten miles, but because of the continuous resistance of the sea wolves, the speed of the Dutch was very slow.

They had walked for more than three hours on this road, and they had not yet reached Tamsui City, but by this time the sky was getting darker and darker.

The Dutch also became more nervous as they watched the darkness get older, knowing that the night would provide better protection for the sea wolves, and that the enemy would likely attack them at night.

But they did not dare to stop, because if they stopped in the narrow river, they would be a live target, and they would lose their ability to maneuver, and once a large number of fireboats were laid down upstream, they would not be able to deal with them, so they could only bite the bullet and continue to move forward, while lowering a few small rowing boats from the boats, and letting the sailors row the rowing boats and walk in front to prevent the fireboats from attacking.

But as it got dark, the number of fireboats of the seawolves became smaller and smaller, which made the Dutch breathe a long sigh of relief, and after they entered the estuary, the seawolves had laid down dozens of fireboats, and there were dozens of fireboats, which were either destroyed by them, or deviated from the course, lost control, and drifted towards the mouth or bank, and finally gradually burned down on the river.

It is likely that the sea wolves did not have enough boats or rafts to serve as fireboats, much to the great relief of the Dutch on the Dutch ships.

What they are most afraid of is not the cannons of the sea wolves, because in their opinion, the sea wolves are not fully prepared, except for a few heavy guns in the batteries outside the estuary, after entering the estuary, they are not attacked by heavy artillery, occasionally there are one or two larger guns, and they are not a big threat to them, they are strong and can easily deal with the artillery attacks of these sea wolves.

What they are most afraid of is the fireboat, once they are attacked by a large number of fireboats in the river, they are very dangerous, if the sea wolves just now are not like adding fuel, batch after batch of these fireboats, but put down dozens of fireboats or even hundreds of fireboats at a time, they are really difficult to deal with, if they do not get it right, they will be ignited by the fireboats.

However, the sea wolves seemed to be unprepared, and only set fire to the ships in batches, so that they could deal with it more calmly and not suffer a fatal blow.

Now the seawolves' fireships are laid down less and less, sometimes only one or two fireboats are down, and they no longer pose any threat to them, which also makes the Dutch self-righteous judgment that the seawolves no longer have a sufficient number of small boats to use as fireships, and they have nothing to worry about at this time.

So the three Dutch warships, after it was getting dark, did not take the initiative to retreat, but instead accelerated towards Tamsui City.

But soon after dark, the situation seemed to begin to change, and more and more people began to move on both sides of the dark shore.

These men did not care about these Dutch ships, but did not know what was being operated on the shore, and there was a creaking sound at night, and from time to time the sound of some light artillery could be heard on the shore, and a ball of muzzle flame was raised, and the cannonballs were fired at the Dutch ships moving in the river.

And these guns did not pose a great threat to the Dutch, and the accuracy of night shooting was not high, and most of the shells fell on the river, even if they hit the Dutch warships, they could not cause enough damage to the Dutch warships.

But these cannon sounds, but effectively covered the shore of those squeaking sounds, the Dutch could not see at all, on the river behind them, at this time in the river began to slowly rise in the river several thick iron chains, if the Dutch saw it, they could immediately recognize, these are several river sealing cables, specially used to intercept ships in the river and on the river.

But what is puzzling is that they were not raised by the sea wolves before the Dutch sailed over, but after the Dutch sailed, they were raised, and if they had raised these iron cables in advance, the three Dutch boats would not have been able to get close to Tamsui City.

However, after these barrages were raised, they cut off the Dutch's retreat from the river.