Chapter 138: Major General Munch

"Captain, look! the Dutch fleet is moving!" said Beck, pointing to the Royal Dutch Fleet, which was escorting the transport ship five nautical miles away, with a look of surprise.

Hearing his words, Henrik said solemnly: "Beck, I have seen it! Judging from their actions, at least the Dutch are not fools, and they have also seen the threat of those more and more ironclad cruisers to the combined fleets of the two countries! Now, I am afraid that they want to go to war directly by dispatching warships!"

The distance of three nautical miles is not too far, and standing in the captain's command room, you can clearly see the Dutch "Jewel", "Grand Duke", "Turquoise", "Prince" and "Orlanch", the battle flags raised by the five ironclad ships!

The battle flag suddenly raised by the Dutch was so conspicuous on the open sea! Looking at the five ironclads that had begun to turn, shed their gun jackets, and separated from the escort fleet, they began to slowly accelerate backwards! Whether it was the Portuguese, who had laughed at their excessive actions, or the French, who were waiting to see the excitement, and even the Germans and British, who were no longer sure of the direction of this war, they could not help but widen their eyes and began to pay close attention to this maritime conflict, which was likely to go down in history! Although both sides had five warships, the scale of the battle was much smaller than the previous naval battles that have been recorded in the history books, and the number of warships was really far behind! However, this was the first large-scale naval engagement since the ironclad ships were designed and built! It had a far-reaching impact on the design of new warships, the strategy and tactics of the navy, and the specific application of ironclad ships!

The British Empire, which has always attached great importance to the navy and built more than 800,000 tons of ironclad ships, is now seriously lacking experience in the use of ironclad ships! Therefore, Henrik immediately raised the monocular in his hand at the moment when the Dutch fleet turned around! Of course, Tirpitz, who was determined to fight for the rise of the German Imperial Navy, made the same move! As well as the French and Portuguese, who also attached great importance to naval warfare!

"Captain, the Dutch have come from the 'Jewel' to tell us who we are! Otherwise, they will automatically regard our actions as a provocation against the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and declare war on us accordingly! Their warship has now reached a distance of twenty-five nautical miles from us, and is approaching us at a speed of 14 knots, and the report is complete!

"Captain, it seems that the Dutch can't bear the loneliness anymore!" Chen Changshan, the first mate of the Sea Eagle No. 1, said with a smile! In the Huo Jiajun Navy, half of the deputy captains have become the first mate!

Putting down the telescope in his hand, Chen Jin's thin face began to show a faint smile, and he said with some excitement in his tone: "We don't want to mess with it, but now they are coming to trouble us! Then it's no wonder I!" Chen Jin was stunned at this point, and then said to the staff officer standing aside: "Order, all the combat personnel are in place, the main gun retreats from the gun jacket, the secondary gun and the machine gun pay attention to the torpedo, we are ready to go to war!"

"Captain, is this good? We are frigates, and only the twin 130mm caliber speed guns in the bow can beat the five ironclad ships of the Dutch with a tonnage far above us?"

"I know, political commissar! Now we have five Sea Eagle warships on our side! Besides, I don't plan to go head-to-head with them!" After a pause, Chen Jin turned his head, looked in the direction where the Dutch battleship was coming, and said confidently: "Our Sea Eagle is now the king of speed!"

"Captain, I received a wireless telegram from the Sea Eagle One!"

Cao Zhijie took it and took a look, only to see that there were only two words on the small telegraph, that is, 'wolf pack'!

"Haha, okay! I didn't expect that we would be able to catch a battle just after we came! Order, the main gun was prepared, the boiler was pressurized, and our speed was raised to 16 knots, and we were in the direction of 3 o'clock!"

Munch held the telescope and looked at the five battleships arranged in a neat diagonal line, and his heart gradually sank, and his flag had been sent out for nearly fifteen minutes, and the distance between the two sides had now been reduced to within ten nautical miles! At this time, if they did not want to go to war with the Netherlands, then they would definitely react under the threat of their own war! Unfortunately, what he had received so far was still silence!

At this time, he knew that his and General Black's guess was really correct, these five warships should be the warships owned by the Chinese People's Army who took away the East Indies colony from them! Of course, this fact is also the last thing he wants, because this will add uncontrollable variables to the military operation of the joint expeditionary force of the two countries to land in Batavia and then occupy Java Island, and it is very willing to directly lead to the defeat of this war!

"I will never allow such a thing to happen again in the Kingdom of the Netherlands!" said Munch, with firm and confident secrets. The reason why he has such self-confidence is because his side has already occupied an advantage in the tonnage of the ironclad ship and the caliber of the main guns, and these indicators are also important aspects to measure the main combat strength of a warship! Undoubtedly, the only two main guns with a caliber of 130mm on the Huo Jiajun Seahawk battleship are really too far behind the Dutch ironclad ships in his eyes!

As the warships of both sides got closer and closer, the atmosphere on the sea gradually became solemn, and the fleets that were originally sailing also stopped, and everyone was looking for binoculars, paying close attention to this sea war that might break out soon!

"General, they're leaving!"

"I know!" Munch looked solemnly at the five warships on the sea that were quickly retreating in all directions like arrows from the mysteries, and a trace of confusion flashed in his eyes!

It was the first time he had seen such a retreat!

"Are they going to retreat like this, aren't they worried that they will get lost?" Munch shook his head, unable to think of the reason! In this era when there was no radio, sailing at sea depended more on the experience of the compass and the navigator! If they ran out of course, the wind and waves at sea would greatly increase the probability of the ship getting lost! Even the Dutch, who had been fighting at sea for hundreds of years, did not dare to rashly throw out of the course!

However, his thoughts were only kept for less than five minutes, and they were dispelled by the anger that surged in his heart! Because the five Chinese People's Army warships stopped again ten nautical miles away from his fleet!

"General, what are we going to do now?" asked the captain of the Jewel, Mundley, frowning, this was the first time he had encountered such a situation!

Hearing his words, Munch's god also became calm! Now the distance between the five warships has been widened to three nautical miles, which means that if they don't want their opponents to divide their forces like that, then they can only choose one warship to deal with now! This is strictly inconsistent with Munch's original idea of destroying the enemy's entire fleet in one fell swoop!

"We also divide our troops, this time the tonnage of each of our warships is above the enemy, we are not afraid that we will not be able to defeat them!" Munch gritted his teeth and finally decided! Of course, his decision also made him regret it incomparably after the war!

"Yes, Commander!"