"The Dutch Navy is coming?" After listening to Jiang Tianyi's report, Chongzhen was overjoyed, "Spread my will, the main forces of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fleets of the Navy will attack on all fronts!" ”

"Yes!" Lu Jiude immediately conveyed the order.

Soon, the three major fleets of the Navy came out of the Moon Harbor.

Not far from Moon Harbor, the three fleets lined up.

Although the warships of the Ming Navy have evolved into ironclad ships, they are only wooden-hulled ironclad ships, and there is still a big gap between them and ironclad ships that are directly welded with steel plates, and the naval guns are mainly sideboard naval guns.

Therefore, when fighting, it is necessary to turn the hull of the warship sideways.

In modern times, the triple main gun mounted on the rotating turret is still too technically difficult, and Zhang Jimeng's firearms department has been working on research and development, but it is still impossible to manufacture it in a short time.

But even the broadside naval guns have enough firepower.

Because no matter the range, rate of fire, type of ammunition and lethality, they have already crushed the European artillery of this period.

The Netherlands is known as the coachman of the sea, and the Dutch Navy is undoubtedly the strongest navy in this era except for the Ming Navy, but their naval guns are still breech guns, and the shells are still black powder, or solid shells, which are not at the same level as the naval guns of the Ming Navy.

……

The Dutch Navy had already bitten Shi Lang's naval detachment to the waters near Penghu.

Because they couldn't catch up with the Ming navy for a long time, Trop and Leut were also a little breathless, and climbed to the lookout post on the battle shed successively, standing on the lookout post with the help of a telescope, you can see the Ming fleet very clearly.

I saw six Daming warships with black bodies, forming a triangular formation, and were heading north at full speed.

These six Ming warships were not equipped with masts or sails, but there was a castle-like building that raised upwards in the middle of the deck, and a large black chimney on the top of the building.

I saw that this big black chimney was smoking.

Looking at this big chimney, Trop was a little distracted.

"Is it really by burning coal to drive warships forward? How did the people of the Ming Dynasty do it? ”

"Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, according to the information provided by the merchants, the warships of the Ming Dynasty should have been able to move forward through a kind of machinery called the steam engine."

"Steam engines? What kind of machine is this? ”

"I don't know about that, but this machine only needs to burn coal to produce power."

"God, the science and technology of the Ming Dynasty people are really advanced, if the Ming Dynasty people are allowed to continue to develop, the gap between us in the Netherlands and even the whole of Europe and them will only get bigger and bigger, and then we can only be slaughtered by others."

"Yes, that's why I advocate destroying the Ming Dynasty before it becomes truly powerful."

While the two were talking, a sharp whistle suddenly came from the mast, and when they looked up, they saw that the lookout post on the upper part of the mast was continuously signing towards them.

Trop and Leut's faces sank.

A huge fleet has been found in the north of the Penghu Sea!

"Looks like it's a trap!" Trop said in a deep voice.

"Even if it's a trap, there's nothing." Reut snorted coldly and said, "The sea is no better than the land, and many tricks can be used on the land, but on the sea, you can only rely on real strength. ”

As he spoke, the six Ming warships that fled in front of them suddenly accelerated and fled, and soon distanced themselves.

"Damn it!" Trop's face became even more ugly, because it was a good proof that it was really a trap, and the six warships were the bait to lure them in.

However, Trop fully agrees with Reuter.

Naval warfare is fought by virtue of the hard power of the navies of both sides.

The warships of the Ming Dynasty Navy may have been faster, but so what?

The Dutch Navy has more warships, the quality of sailors is also better, and more importantly, the sailors of the Dutch Navy have rich experience in naval warfare, which is by no means comparable to the sailors of the Ming Dynasty.

So Trop and Leut were convinced that victory would belong to the Dutch navy.

In view of this, the Dutch naval fleet did not abandon the pursuit, but accelerated its northward movement.

After driving a few nautical miles, a large Ming fleet appeared in the ocean ahead.

Trop and Leut raised their monoculars at the same time, and they could see clearly through the field of view of the telescope, only to see that the size of the Ming fleet was divided into two gears, and the size of a dozen warships was obviously larger, and the warships in the back were slightly smaller, but they were much larger than the battleships in the Netherlands.

Seeing this, the two of them felt a little heavy.

But fortunately, the Dutch Navy has absolute numerical superiority.

Otherwise, the outcome of this naval battle would be really unpredictable.

Leut asked Troppe: "Your Excellency, commander-in-chief, what tactics are used?" ”

Trop was a little undecided, and immediately asked Leut: "What is your opinion?" ”

Leut said without hesitation: "At the moment, the sea conditions are good, and we have an absolute numerical superiority, and the two-ship tactic is obviously superior to the T-type tactic?" Not to mention ......"

After a pause, Leut said: "I have a gut feeling that the Ming Dynasty Navy will choose to fight with us!" ”

"Okay." Trop immediately made up his mind and said, "Signal the order to advance in a double column." ”

The so-called two-ship tactic, in fact, is that the two warships of the side from the left and right sides of the enemy warship to carry out a flanking attack, which not only requires the number of warships of the side to be larger, but also requires the captain and sailors to have superb navigation skills.

Since it is a left-right flanking attack, the number of queues depends on the number of queues of the enemy.

At present, the Ming navy is lined up in a column, so the Dutch navy must be arranged in two columns, and it is necessary to ensure that the column of the Ming navy is in the middle of the two columns of the Dutch navy.

Trop and Leut actually had some worries, worried that the Ming Dynasty navy would suddenly change from a column to a horizontal line.

If the Ming Dynasty Navy changed from a horizontal column to a horizontal formation, it would be basically impossible for the Dutch Navy to fight a two-ship tactic, so it could only follow the change to a horizontal formation and exchange fire with the Ming army with one side gun.

As a result, the Dutch Navy could not even give full play to the numerical superiority of warships.

However, in the end, it turned out that Reut's intuition was right, and the naval fleet of the Ming Dynasty did not change the horizontal column, but inserted it straight into the middle of the two one-line columns of the Dutch navy.

"Haha, these Ming Dynasty people are really arrogant." Trop was overjoyed, "Leut, do you want to fire now?" ”

"There's no hurry." Reut shook his head and said, "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, don't worry, it's not too late to wait for the Ming Dynasty Navy's column to completely enter the middle of our two columns before firing." ”

"But......" Trop frowned, "the Ming army will not wait and not fire like we do, and if the Ming army opens fire and destroys one of our two columns, there is a risk of chaos." ”

"No, it won't." "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, I am now almost certain that the Ming navy has a foolish self-confidence that their warships can overwhelm us in firepower, so they will not rush to open fire, and they are equally inclined to wait until the two columns are completely converged before opening fire. ”

"Okay." Trop eventually took Reuter's advice.

As a result, a magical scene appeared on the sea surface of the sea near Penghu.

The 48 cruisers of the three major fleets of the Ming Navy lined up in a column and headed south against the wind.

The 50 sail battleships and more than 200 armed merchant ships of the Dutch Navy lined up in two columns, heading north downwind from the left and right sides of the Ming Navy.

The three major fleets of the Ming Navy were like a sharp sword, inserted into the middle of the two columns of the Dutch Navy.

The straight-line distance between the two fleets is only 500 meters, and the guns on the other side's side can be seen without the help of telescopes.

However, both the Ming Navy and the Dutch Navy were very tacitly agreed that they did not rush to fire, and were waiting for the opposing warships to completely enter the strike range.

The Ming navy continued to move south.

The Dutch Navy continued to move north.

Finally, the fleets of both sides completely converged.

In other words, all 48 warships of the Ming Navy have entered the middle of the two one-line columns of the Dutch Navy and have been flanked by at least two Dutch warships.

However, the two sides opened fire in unison.

The red light shone, the smoke billowed and the cannon rumbled.

The inward side of the Dutch naval battleship was soon enveloped in gunsmoke, which was also the fatal flaw of black powder, which produced a very thick smoke after firing the gun, completely obscuring the view.

In contrast, the Ming Navy does not have this drawback.

Because the shells of the Ming Navy used smokeless gunpowder.

So the vision of the Ming Navy is very good and there is no obstacle.

And more importantly, the rate of fire of the naval guns of the Ming Navy was also much faster.

After the use of breech gun technology and metal shell fixed ammunition, the fastest rate of fire of the naval guns of the Ming Navy can reach 20 or even 30 rounds per minute!

With the skillful operation of the naval officers, rows of flowering bombs rained down on the battleships of the Dutch Navy, and then exploded violently, blowing up holes in the side of the Dutch Navy battleships, and also blowing up the masts and sails of the Dutch Navy battleships.

Brittle defeat! With just one face, the Dutch Navy was defeated by the Ming Navy!

However, it is not over yet, the Ming naval fleet is still continuing to move south, and it is still continuing to fire artillery.

And the Dutch navy, which was lined up in two columns, was still heading northward with the wind and continued to enter under the guns of the Ming Navy, because they did not receive orders from Trop, because they could not see what was happening in front of them because their vision was blocked, so they were like moths fighting fire and entering the guns of the Ming Navy one after another......

(End of chapter)