"Slow down, go forward."

"Commander-in-chief's order, advance one!"

"Report, car into one."

Because of the large number of ships and the fact that they were about to enter the estuary, in order to avoid collisions and accidents, and in order to have enough reaction time after the discovery of mines, the Ming landing fleet at this moment was maintaining a low speed of 7 knots.

Because the faint light reflected by the waning moon made the visibility not high, Huang Simin, the captain of the Wuyishan heavy cruiser and the chief officer of the landing fleet, did not plan to take the risk and wanted to wait until after dawn to enter the estuary.

Li Yuanhai, who had a relationship with Zhou at the time, is still serving as the captain of the Fuqing at the moment, and although he has been promoted to lieutenant colonel, he lost the competition for the captain of the light cruiser Xiangjiang last year.

However, the dark-skinned, medium-sized old navy did not want to sit in an office at the base, so he continued to serve as the captain of the destroyer - maybe he could make a contribution to the sea frontier?

The Fuqing under his command was an ordinary Dinghai-class destroyer, which entered service in the 25th year of Zhichang, and there were as many as 43 sister ships of the same class.

The standard displacement of this ordinary fleet destroyer is more than 1,400 tons, and its armament includes four single-mounted 128mm naval guns, three triple 512mm torpedo launchers, six single-mounted 20.8mm anti-aircraft guns, and six 12.8mm anti-aircraft machine guns.

According to the draft air defense renovation draft drawn up by the Navy Department of the Ministry of War, some anti-aircraft machine guns should be removed from this class of destroyers and 38.4mm anti-aircraft guns with excellent performance should be added.

A few minutes later, at 5:16 a.m., the Fuqing's lookout post also spotted the shadow of a ship speeding from the south.

After preliminary analysis, the lookout post raised an alarm, claiming to have spotted one enemy light patrol and four destroyers.

Subsequently, however, the somewhat uncertain lookout post erroneously revised the report just now, assuming that the enemy was one heavy and one light patrol, and three destroyers.

At this moment, the two sides are less than seven kilometers apart, and the enemy ships are likely to rush at high speed to launch torpedoes!

"Herald! Deploy the whole team for battle! The whole team picks up speed and prepares to avoid torpedoes; The ship's flare support, turn on the searchlight, advance three, turn to 260; Fourth, sixth, and seventh ships are intercepted head-on! ”

"Order!"

The sound of a rapid battle siren rang throughout the ship, and all the sailors left what they were doing and went straight to their respective positions.

The helmsman at the helm slowed the rudder to the right, while the other helmsman reached out and pushed the lever to set the clock to forward three.

"Rook into three!"

Over the course of tens of seconds, electromagnetic waves and light signals transmitted commands to every ship in the fleet.

The huge Wuyishan began to turn slowly, and the underwater propeller under the stern of the ship was also spinning at an accelerated pace, and the pillars of light from several searchlights instantly pierced the night and hit the Java light cruiser, illuminating it brightly.

"Boom! Boom! ”

The triple main gun spat out dazzling flames, and two 208mm large cannon firing flares flew out of the muzzle one after another.

After the two flew over the Dutch fleet, they disintegrated, and the parachute suspended the light canister and slowly descended, and the huge amount of light emitted when the aluminum and magnesium powder burned illuminated the sea area within a radius of several thousand meters as bright as day!

The Ming fleet quickly realized that it was not a heavy cruiser at the beginning, but a Javanese-class light cruiser.

"I'll go! How the hell did these guys get here? ”

"I'm afraid I went to sea at night and came all the way at full speed."

"It's really lifeless, there is no return here, you will definitely die at dawn!"

The destroyer Fuqing, located on the flank of the fleet, was the first to complete the preparations for speeding up and turning, and took the lead in meeting the sudden enemy fleet.

Li Yuanhai calmly ordered: "Prepare mines, and prepare salvos for each artillery." ”

At this time, the Java in the distance was the first to open fire, and then two more destroyers followed suit.

Six rounds of 150mm ordinary shells and more than a dozen rounds of 120mm usual rounds fell into the sea one after another near the Fuqing, and some exploded and some sank silently.

At this point, the Fuqing also completed the range, and the four 128mm naval guns soon opened fire in unison under the coordination of the main gun firing commander.

"Gun Officer's Order, disperse the enemy fleet, prepare for lightning strike!"

"Lightning strikes at one hundred and five, wide fan!"

"Put!"

One torpedo after another was pushed out of the triple torpedo launcher by compressed air, and six torpedoes fell into the water one after another, and the coaxial reversal propeller rotated at high speed and drove quickly into the distance.

The immediate priority of the Ming fleet was to block and disperse the incoming Dutch fleet, because it was impossible to expect to annihilate it all at once.

Just seconds after the Fuqing fired all the torpedoes, a fourth salvo from the destroyer Van Gant hit.

A 120mm shot usually bounced into the middle of the first chimney of the Fuqing, and after drilling through, it exploded in the middle, tearing a large hole in the chimney at once, and half of the chimney was twisted and deformed and skewed to the side.

However, the Ming destroyers were targeting the Java, and at least four warships were patrolling the Java at the same time, which was lit by searchlights.

Because the distance was not too far, the destroyers Fuqing and Longquan also hit the target quickly - three 128mm anti-explosive bombs exploded in the bow and amidship of the Java, and some fragments could be seen flying into the sea in the flickering firelight.

The main armor belt of the Javanese-class light patrol is 75mm thick, which is relatively solid, and the 128mm naval guns are naturally powerless in the event of a medium and long-range firefight, and can only bombard the superstructure with grenades.

Karel Dorman responded calmly, and when he noticed that the Ming fleet reacted quickly, he realized that this surprise attack might not be very effective.

In the past few years, he has learned a lot of Chinese sayings, such as "If you don't hit the south wall, you won't look back, and if you hit the south wall, you will have to hit your head and break the blood", obviously Karel doesn't want to be a guy who does it to the end.

"Abort the assault, fire a torpedo, release a smoke curtain and retreat." He commanded.

The four Dutch destroyers stopped charging and turned one after another at a high speed of 26 knots, firing a wave of torpedoes.

"Poof! Burst! Burst! Burst! ”

The Pitt-Hine and De Witt successfully launched all six torpedoes.

Van Gantt fired only three launchers due to a malfunction in the rotation mechanism of one launcher; The Cotton Ayre was not well prepared for the torpedoes, which led to a compressed air leak, and four of the six torpedoes fired sank directly to the bottom of the sea.

More than a dozen tracks appeared in the strait at once, but visibility was low at night, and the white glow of flares and flickering explosive fires greatly disturbed the sailors' vision.

"I'm fucking! Torpedo! Eight o'clock, nine o'clock! ”

"Don't babble! One, two, three...... Report! Six torpedoes headed three-two-five. ”

On the flickering sea, the tracks of those torpedoes loomed.

Almost simultaneously, the Ming destroyers began to maneuver to evade, facing head-on in the direction of the torpedo attack, and then adjusted slightly.

One torpedo after another missed from the left and right, and the nimble destroyers easily dodged all of them.

The relieved Ming sailors saw clouds of gray-white smoke emerging on the sea in the distance, and the shadows of the enemy warships quickly disappeared into them.

But at this time, after three consecutive school shots, the Wuyishan made a hit in the second salvo against the Java.

A 208mm anti-explosive bomb accurately hit the seaplane parking between two chimneys in the middle of the hull.

"Boom !!"

The violent explosion made the Dutch sailors tremble, swaying left and right, and the shattered crane booms, railings, lifebuoys and other things were lifted into the sky by the shock wave.

The two Fokker C11W seaplanes were restored to factory condition on the spot, and the leaked aviation gasoline turned the entire middle deck into a raging sea of fire.

In the bridge of the Wuyishan heavy cruise, the officers and men of the navy were overjoyed and applauded when they saw this.

"Well played!"

"Good !!"

Zhou Changfeng, who was watching the excitement here, also secretly applauded, and he witnessed the whole process - the fire burst out, a small fireball mushroom cloud was short-lived, and then he could see that the middle of the battleship was full of fire points.

He felt that the fragile light cruiser would definitely be unable to escape after receiving such a heavy blow, and the Ming army's Wuyishan-class heavy cruiser was a special case in the treaty-type heavy cruise, and the 208mm naval guns it was equipped with were significantly more powerful than the eight-inch naval guns of other powers.

For example, the weight of the Type 30 208mm armor-piercing projectile reached 137kg, which was almost 10kg heavier than the regular eight-inch naval gun armor-piercing projectile.

Zhou Changfeng saw that the officers and soldiers in the bridge were quite excited, and he was eager to try to kill them all, so he asked the side starter: "Do you want to pursue?" ”

Huang Simin shook his head and said, "No, that shot just now was not an armor-piercing bullet, and it didn't hurt the vital point." Alright, pass my orders and collect the troops! ”

The night pursuit was too dangerous, and if it broke out of the smoke released by the Dutch destroyer, it was likely that it would suddenly encounter a torpedo, and it would be worth more than it would lose if it was too late to avoid it.

The task entrusted to the convoy this time was to escort the landing force ashore, and the work of intercepting and killing the Dutch fleet would not belong to them.

The sudden encounter here and the whereabouts of the Dutch fleet had been sent to the command, and by daybreak the air force and the fleet cruising the Java Sea would be able to kill the Dutch who had failed in their sneak attack.

But at this time, the Pearl River Light Patrol unexpectedly achieved results-

In her final salvo, a 144mm armor-piercing shell landed five metres behind the USS Cotton-Ayre, and the shell traveled several metres underwater before crashing into the stern and detonating.

The rudder and left propeller of the Cotton Ayre were destroyed, and the right propeller was damaged, and she slowed down as she turned, reaching only 8 knots, and then kept this low speed and circled in a large radius.

She was soon surrounded, and shells of different calibers were fired at the destroyer.

As if to prove that the remnants of the Dutch glory were just as beautiful, the Dutch sailors bravely fought the battle.

At first, they were able to fire threatening salvos, but as more and more shells hit the Cotton Ayre and the fire commander was blown up, they were left to their own devices.

The sailors of the Cotton Ayre were typical of their courage but quality, as four of the six torpedoes they fired were sunk, while the remaining two sailed normally but were set incorrectly in a low speed gear.

When the torpedoes fired by the other destroyers ran out of fuel and sank, the two torpedoes continued to sail north for seven kilometers.

The two of them passed through the Ming convoy and then headed straight for the convoy.

When the destroyer USS Cotton-Ayre was smashed into a slowly sinking sea bonfire by a cannonball, one of the 533mm torpedoes crashed straight into the front of the hull of the passenger liner Changhong.

"Knock !!"

The deafening roar made the soldiers of the Ming army in the entire sea area look at it together, and everyone saw the rapid dimming firelight and the falling water columns and waves.

"What's the situation?!"

"Inexplicable, what's going on?"

"I'm afraid it's not a torpedo."

After being surprised, Zhou Changfeng urged eagerly: "Go to the rescue, there are all oil workers up there!" ”

The Ming Dynasty was fully prepared for the old port and the Balikpaban oil field, although the military department was full of confidence and said that it was 90% sure, but the imperial court still organized a response team.

The National Oil and Gas Company and the Chongsheng Petroleum Company dispatched capable engineers and workers to repair and take over the seized oil production wells and refineries, and the personnel and equipment were carried by the Changhong passenger and cargo ships.

How can a mere 4,000-ton civilian ship withstand a naval torpedo?

The Changhong soon had a visible tilt due to a large amount of water, but fortunately, the power and power supply were quite stable, and the captain personally drove the ship to the coast while organizing the drainage.

At 6:11 a.m., the Changhong, which had already rolled 30 degrees, touched the shore, slowly stopped to a sound of metal twisting, and successfully ran aground on the beach before it capsized.

After dawn, everything was calm, except for a layer of heavy oil and scattered debris floating on the surface of the sea.

The Fuqing salvaged the Dutch sailors of the Cotton-Ayre onto the ship, and the transport ships in the fleet began to release small boats to bring the troops ashore.

Zhou Changfeng was worried that the tricky Dutch would place mines in the river's waterways, so he rejected the offer to go upstream, and instead landed directly at the mouth of the river.

It took too long for the large army to completely go ashore, so he repeated his old tricks, transferred the first battalion and the second battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment, as well as some artillery and engineers, and personally led this advance force of more than 1,800 people all the way south to the old port.

Two battalions of the 9th Regiment of the Dutch-Indian 3rd Infantry Division, which was at the head of the defensive line, were demoralized because they had heard that "elite Chinese paratroopers" had appeared on the outskirts of the old port.

“…… First smash the outer resistance with a side-by-side assault, then go a few miles deeper on both sides, and then carry out an assault on the opposite side, and simply settle the battle neatly! ”

In the face of the multi-pronged attack personally commanded by Zhou Changfeng, the Dutch and Indian armies were crushed, and from the time the sun set to the time the sun set, they had already lost most of their positions.

And Zhou did not intend to delay until the next day, so these terrified Dutch and Indian troops soon fell apart, and the officers and soldiers captured 500 prisoners alone.

In fact, many of the indigenous soldiers took the initiative to surrender, lined up and carried guns to walk neatly, but after being captured by the Ming army, it can be seen that their expressions are relieved, as if they have been reborn.

In fact, at this time, dozens of kilometers away in the old port, the office building of Shell's BPM refinery had already fluttered the Ming military flag.

The Dutch-Indian 8th Infantry Regiment and the British 13th Infantry Brigade made three counterattack attempts, leaving more than a hundred corpses in front of the positions of the 1st Paratrooper Regiment in vain.

Upon learning that the reinforcements of the Ming army had landed at the mouth of the river, Major General Dominic sighed and said helplessly: "Now I have to admit that we have failed. ”

(End of chapter)