Chapter 165: Defeat and surrender

"Look, Commander! The Dutchman's flagship has shifted!"

Looking at the naval flag symbolizing the flagship that had been raised on the cruiser Amsterdam! Lu Han was happy and at the same time couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart! Using a destroyer of more than 2,000 tons and a main gun caliber of only 130 mm to deal with the enemy's ironclad battleship with thick armor and a displacement of more than 6,000 tons was really not an easy job!

Of course, he also understood that if it weren't for the protection of the 50,000 two land forces behind him, and the slow speed of the ship, I am afraid that these two big guys would have rushed over a long time ago! At that time, it would probably take longer for them to paralyze the combat effectiveness of these two warships!

Now he also understands that if he wants to deal with these large-tonnage ironclad battleships, he may still need a warship of the same class! In the future, he really doesn't want to go through a sea war like this after fighting for more than half an hour, hitting hundreds of enemy ships, and not sinking the opponent!

"What about the loss of the Haixun No. 3 ship?" After fighting for more than half an hour, while sinking the enemy ship many times, Huo Jiajun also paid a lot of casualties!

"A big hole was torn open by the 150mm secondary gun of the Monarch near the waterline on the port side, and the water in the cabin was serious, and although the breach was blocked in time, the speed of the Haixun No. 3, which had accumulated a large amount of seawater, had fallen below five knots! Moreover, with the loss of two main guns, it could no longer participate in the next battle with more than 30 officers and men!"

Hearing the words of the fleet staff, Lu Han nodded silently, in a sea battle of this scale, it is inevitable that there will be casualties, but as the commander of the naval fleet of the Huo family, he is still a little difficult to accept in his heart!

"Are the Haixun 1 and Haixun 2 badly damaged?"

"Haixun No. 1 was hit by the enemy's 76mm guns, and one of the stern guns was damaged and could no longer be used! The starboard side of Haixun No. 2 was torn open by the Breda 180mm guns, a large hole nearly two meters wide, but this wound was above the waterline, and fortunately, the enemy ship used black powder, and the explosive power of the shells was limited! The boiler and steam engine were not damaged! However, the crews of the two ships have now lost nearly 30 people! However, the Dutch were not at ease, for of their nine warships, only the Sovereign and four gunboats with a slightly faster speed remained! Now that our third fleet had the upper hand! I believe that they will soon win this local war!"

"Well, I see! Now disarm the formation, hunt and kill all ships, and strive to defeat the Dutch and Portuguese convoys in one fell swoop within half an hour!

"Yes, Commander!"

As the flagship's order was issued, the nine destroyers, which had been waiting for a long time, seemed to have broken free from the reins and galloped toward the target they had been eyeing for a long time! Now that the war has reached this point, it has reached the most critical moment, and the fleets of the two countries, which have been tied up by the 50,000 army forces behind them, can only exert 50 percent of their strength, and can only watch their own warships explode and catch fire from the Chinese warships, or sink them, or lose their combat effectiveness and withdraw from the battle circle! The reason why this is all because of the eight high-speed warships that circled around them!

However, Chen Jin didn't know what these Dutch and Portuguese people were thinking, and when the Dutchman's flagship had just been transferred to the Amsterdam, he had his eyes on it! When the Dutchman's flagship was the Seven Provinces Alliance, the two 130mm naval guns on his Seahawk-class frigate couldn't bite them at all! But now that it has been transferred to this less than 3,000-ton Iron Cruiser, the new armor-piercing projectiles that have just been installed on his battleship for a short time can tear a big hole in its fragile hull with just one hit!

So the Sea Hawk I abandoned the Portuguese gunboat, which had already been hit by a high-explosive bomb, and turned around and pounced in the direction where the battleship Amsterdam was!

At this time, after more than half an hour of sea battle, because of the large number of losses of warships, the protective circles of the Netherlands and Portugal have been much sparse, and they can't resist the Seahawk-class battleships that are attacking at high speed!

Seeing that the Chinese warships sped up and rushed into the Dutch and Portuguese warship groups, Tirpitz couldn't help frowning and put down the binoculars in his hand! Now in this three-way sea war, the Chinese are not far from victory!

"I really didn't expect that there was such a powerful naval guy in the Far East and in the East Indies, why had I never heard of them before?" Touching his bearded jaw, Tirpitz couldn't help but think with some confusion in his heart!

Judging from their naval strength, he absolutely did not believe that this group of forces calling themselves the Chinese People's Army had really only risen for two years! This was really too insulting to the intelligence of various naval powers! As an old navy, he understood that it would take at least five years or even longer to come up with these excellent warships! However, the appearance of such a good second-class cruiser combining speed, firepower, and protection in the Far East, a backward region known as a scientific and technological desert, was much beyond his expectations!

However, he no longer wanted to care about the reasons for this, and now he only wanted to send a telegram to the country immediately after the war, saying that the technology of building this new type of warship must be in the hands of the Reich no matter what, and that Germany should catch up in the navy, instead of the tepid and slow development as it is now, in exchange for Britain's support for the Reich's European policy! In Tirpitz's view, Germany's position needed to be won by his own soldiers and warships, not by compromise! Moreover, the empire needs more colonies to support its development, and if you want to master more colonies overseas, you need a strong navy!

Looking at the battlefield in the distance, Tirpitz's eyes were much firmer! After the end of this war, I believe that the situation of the Chinese people's army occupying the East Indies is irreversible, even the powerful British Empire! And the empire handed him the task of fishing in troubled waters and taking the opportunity to occupy a German colony in the Far East will definitely not be completed! Although this seems to be a bit regrettable, Tirpitz is not sad about it! Being able to witness this once-in-a-decade naval battle with his own eyes already made him feel that the trip was worthwhile!

"Boom......!"

In the midst of the violent explosions, Welbeck staggered and almost turned over! Since the flagships of the Dutch fleet began to move, almost all the Chinese warships around him have surrounded them, and the continuous shelling has completely destroyed the cruisers Amsterdam and The Hague! This is the fourth time he has changed flagships! But he still cannot stop the ferocious shelling of the Chinese warships!

Looking at the crack in the foredeck of the Almere! Verbeck couldn't help but shake his head, he was ready to change the flagship again!

"Don't fight any more!" At this moment, Blake, who had been silent, suddenly stood up!

"General, ...... you?"

Looking at the somewhat incredulous expression on his face, Blake couldn't help but sigh gloomily: "Weil, the Portuguese have surrendered! And our soldiers don't want to fight any more! We have lost this war!"

Hearing his words, Verbeck realized that he didn't know when, and the dazzling white flag had been raised on the rails of all Portuguese warships!

They surrendered!

Looking around at the whitened corpses of the soldiers floating on the sea, the broken flags, the wreckage of the ships, and the pale and numb expressions on the faces of the burning battleships and the surrounding Dutch soldiers, Welbeck couldn't help but feel sad!

Looking at the commander's constantly trembling shoulders and the slowly lowering of the battle flag, the low sobs rang out among the soldiers gathered in the Netherlands! They failed! The Netherlands lost the East Indies forever! The honor of the Royal Netherlands Navy was trampled under the feet of the enemy!