Chapter 428

"The first strike is stronger, and the second strike suffers."

This is a problem that every Admiral Ning knows, of course, it is also a problem that the Ming Royal Navy and the Royal Army understand, Cheng Shijie will never deal with generals or soldiers because of a light war, but there is no problem with the first shot, if you lose, there will definitely be a big problem, and a large number of people will be dealt with.

After discovering that the battleships of the Dutch fleet lit up their gun jackets, you must know that the distance between the two sides is very close now, the nearest is only more than 300 meters, which is within the effective range of the Dutch naval guns, although the battleships of the Ming Navy are not weak in combat, but the problem is that no matter how weak they are, they are not invulnerable, once they are shot, the battleships will also suffer losses, and there will be casualties.

The bloody battle broke out in an instant, in fact, Ma Zhen, the captain of the Luzon detachment who was fighting, did not know why the Dutch came to the Beibu Gulf, but when he came to the Beibu Gulf, he dared to light up the naval guns at the Ming Royal Navy, this was a provocation, and he had to fight back, and it was the most violent counterattack.

"Boom Boom Boom Boom ......"

"Boom Boom Boom Boom ......"

The warships of both sides opened fire almost at the same time, because the Seawolf battleships equipped by the Luzon detachment were only patrol ships, not the main battleships, and they were flexible and lightweight, but the caliber of the guns was slightly smaller, and the number of guns was far inferior to the third-class battleships of the Dutch, which had sixty or seventy guns, and the firepower of two Seawolf-class ships on top of one battleship.

It's just a pity that the Dutch battleships were not aimed at the Ming warships laterally, which meant that they could not give full play to the advantage of the number of artillery, and both sides adjusted their course while fighting.

Although the number of guns of the Seawolf-class patrol ships is small, the rate of fire is not known how many times faster than those unlucky front-loading rifled guns, as for the lethality...... What is the lethality of a solid artillery shell compared to a high-explosive grenade filled with high explosives?

At the first moment of the exchange of fire, the two large armed merchant ships of the Dutch spearhead were shot one after another, and the shells pierced several decks and exploded inside the armed merchant ship, and the unlucky ones who were closer to the explosion point were immediately blown to pieces.

These two armed merchant ships were hired by the Dutch to mercenaries in Europa, mainly British, because now Great Britain is in a civil war, their king Charles I was forced to sign a shipbuilding tax, without this tax, the Royal Navy was forced to lay off personnel, although some of the layoffs were diverted and resettled, but in most of the pirate-born navy had to fend for itself.

In order to support Zheng Zhu's victory in the war, the Netherlands adjusted 1,200 mercenaries to help Zheng Zhu fight, more than half of these 1,200 mercenaries had served in the British Navy and had high artillery skills, but this time it was miserable, and they didn't even have time to give full play to their technical advantages.

Seeing that a wolf sea ship was beaten to the ground with a broken mast, and more than a dozen soldiers of the Ming Royal Army were killed or injured, Ma Zhen suddenly became anxious: "Damn, Lao Tzu, just launch all the rocket artillery!" ”

"Woo Woo Woo ......"

The biggest disadvantage of rocket artillery is that the accuracy is too great, the biggest advantage is the fast launch speed, with dozens or hundreds of rocket shells fired out, at such a close distance, the hit rate is as high as two-thirds, in the first time the two Dutch armed merchant ships with heavy artillery were devastated.

The hull of the ship was blazing, and the rocket artillery smashed into it, and the two Dutch armed ships, which could accommodate 1,500 sailors, were immediately smashed into flames, and exploded one after another, and many sailors rolled from the deck into the sea with a heavy fire, and the terrible screams made people feel terrible.

The loss of these two armed merchant ships made the Dutch feel like a knife, you must know that the mercenaries are also divided into three, six and nine, and the mercenaries from Europa are the most valuable, although they are not as good as the Dutch, but they cost a lot of money. But before they could show their value, they were sunk by the Ming warships.

Just when the naval battle of Beibu Gulf was earth-shattering, but the Dutch fell into the downwind, Zheng Zhu's fleet joined the battle, of course, the navy under Zheng Zhu's command can only be regarded as a sailor, and the battleship they sent is a small fishing boat level, with two sharp ends, the length is only one zhang, quite narrow.

This is a small warship huhula dozens of hundreds of rushing towards the Ming warship, seeing this kind of small boat appear, Ma Zhen was shocked into a cold sweat, he hurriedly shouted: "It's a suicide ship!" Evacuate! Evacuate! ”

As soon as they heard that it was a suicide ship, the battleships of the Luzon detachment hurriedly retreated, because the cost of the suicide ship was too low, the hull was too small, and it was not easy to hit the rocket artillery or artillery.

In desperation, the two sides distanced themselves, but the monkeys of the Southern Monkey Fleet had real courage, and they were not afraid of death and dared to fight hard, and they had a fight with the little man.

The Battle of the Gulf of Tonkin began hastily and ended very quickly, with neither side suffering too much damage, the Dutch lost two 1,500-ton armed merchant ships, and four were damaged to varying degrees, but they were not sunk.

When the detachment reported the battle report of the Beibu Gulf to the Luzon fleet, Liu Qingsong, as the supreme commander of Luzon, immediately reported to the country, and at the same time began to mobilize the main warships of the Luzon fleet.

At the same time, he immediately sent a detachment, a total of three warships, directly to Batavia, and asked the Dutch East India Company, so that the Dutch East India Company must give an explanation to the Ming Dynasty, why the Dutch East India Company would invade the South China Sea of the Ming Dynasty, if it could not give the Ming an explanation, all the consequences would make the Dutch East India Company bear its own responsibility.

The Dutch East India Company must have made a mistake in this matter, they had no idea, and the Dutch East India Company naturally could not invade the Ming Dynasty, they were part of the civilized world, even if there was really a war, it would be a war letter.

It's a pity that the current Luzon direction, including Sumatra, are all people appointed by Cheng Shijie, these people are not traditional bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty, and they are too influenced by Cheng Shijie.

At the same time that the Luzon side was negotiating diplomatically with the Dutch East India Company, a Luzon detachment encountered armed Dutch merchant ships in the South Seas, and the Luzon detachment waved a flag for the Dutch to be inspected by them.

The Dutch, naturally, would not agree to be inspected, and there was another exchange of fire between the two sides.

The whole detachment knew very well that not a single ship could run away, otherwise he would have waited to wash the deck for three months!

On the armed merchant ship Mariner, Alan Berg, the captain from England, stared at the Daming warship that rushed towards him like a wild boar with an arrow, and he muttered and cursed: "Damn the Chinese, damn it!" ”

His hurried command hurriedly put on the artillery jackets, these merchants, who are both maritime merchants and pirates, lawless, burning, killing and plundering are not less daring, but in the face of a country with strong national strength like the Ming Dynasty, they still dare not be presumptuous.

Everyone knows that there is no benefit in fighting against such a behemoth, and if they still want to do business in China, don't mess with Daming.

"Boom ......"

The sailors on the Golden Tulip felt a thunderbolt fall above their heads, and a fireball burst out in front of them that was more dazzling than the two suns combined, and then everything exploded, and several pieces of equipment were reduced to pieces, mixed with cracked limbs and severed arms flying around, and the watchtower was simply beaten into a torch, and the watchman was covered in fire, and helplessly waved his limbs and fell from above, fell into the sea, and then stopped moving.

Building the watchtower higher can get a wider view, but the disadvantage is that falling from such a high height and falling into the sea is no different from falling directly on the steel plate, and the broken bones are not enough, but it is inevitable to shoot unconscious directly, such as the unlucky lookout who fell to the old guy's house.

No one was in the mood to sympathize with the hapless lookout, those two high-explosive shells were filled with incendiary bombs! Gasoline napalm incendiary bombs not only explode with great power, but also ignite a fire, making it clear that if you can't be blown up, you will be burned to death, and if you can't be burned, you will be disgusted to death!

The English sailors watched the Dutch sailors scream and flutter around, and the fire burned wherever it pounced, and the fire from the explosion spread extremely fast in the wooden hull, and in the blink of an eye they climbed up the canvas, and now the joke became bigger, the canvas was so dry, a little spark could be lit, and now the sea breeze was blowing, and the fire was whirring upward, and the whole ship was caught in the rush to the sky.

The Golden Tulip was finished in just a quarter of an hour, and the British were very glad that they were British, not Dutch, otherwise, it would be them, and the British were honestly inspected.

But the Dutch had a ghost in their hearts, and watched the Ming army fire their guns at the slightest word, turn around and run, while the Ming Luzon detachment launched a pursuit, chasing from the South Seas to the Andaman Sea.

More than a dozen Dutch warships saw the main fleet of the Dutch East India Company, and after the two fleets converged, their number increased to more than thirty, especially because the Netherlands was under too much pressure on the side of the East India Company, the Dutch East India Company urgently purchased a large number of warships from the mainland, and the main fleet alone had more than 50 third-class warships.

Seeing the arrival of support, these Dutch people became emboldened, they thought that it should be the Ming warships that needed to run now, but it was a pity that they thought wrong.

The commander of this Luzon fleet is a sub-fleet level, and it is a very aggressive Yang Honggui, Yang Honggui is a pirate of the Zheng group and is very good at sea raids. Looking at the Dutch fleet, he was not frightened, but faintly excited, you must know that as Cheng Shijie's development focus has shifted back to China in the past two years, they have friction with the Dutch at most, and there has been no substantive battle.

As a naval officer, after the reorganization, Yang Honggui is now a colonel, only one step away from the general, if you want to become a general, you must have good military achievements.

With eight Seawolf-class and six Seashark-class, as well as four Giant Shark-class, especially the Giant Shark-class battleship Huai'an, which was full sailed, continued to rush at high speed.

"A lesson to the Ming people!"

As soon as the commander of the main fleet of the Dutch gave the order, and the Dutch battleships were still more than 3,000 meters away, the Luzon Fourth Squadron began to greet the Dutch, and of course the greeting of these Dutch sailors was naturally a very scientific artillery bombardment.

At this distance, it was obviously impossible to command the target by artillery bombardment, and the Dutch were still equipped with front-loading smoothbore guns, and they simply did not have such a long range, so they could only continue to charge against the naval guns of the Ming Navy.

When the warships of both sides approached a distance of more than 1,600 meters, the naval guns of the Luzon detachment had already fired three rounds, hundreds of shells were fired, and blind cats could hit dead rats.

Yang Honggui saw very clearly that the front two sails of a Dutch third-class battleship were hit by shells, but it was a pity that it was not an incendiary bomb that hit, but an ordinary grenade. Due to the high distance, only the masts and sails of the Dutch were destroyed, but the loss of two sails made their ships slow down rapidly.

The slower the speed of the battleship, the higher the chance of hitting, especially at a distance of 800 paces, when twelve rocket launches were fired, and the hapless Dutch battleship burst into flames, and the fire swept across the deck, and many sailors were jumping into the sea with frightened expressions.

"Replenish the artillery, replenish the cannon!"

Yang Honggui continued to order: "If you can't hit again, sweep the toilet for a month!" ”

Under the pressure of Yang Honggui, the Ming naval gunners finally made up another shot towards the deck substructure, which was fatal for the three Dutch battleships.

The loss of a third-class battleship just after the fight made the Dutch command very worried, they are a company, such a loss, they have to face the accountability of the board of directors, obviously seeing that they can't take advantage, and they still fart?

Seeing that the Dutch fleet was ignoring the battleship that was about to end, and instead intended to leave the battlefield, Yang Honggui immediately understood: "The Dutch want to run away, catch it!" ”

The Luzon squadron pounced on the remaining Dutch battleships, six Sea Shark-class and four Giant Shark-class battleships, with their bow guns firing at full power, smashing their heads and faces!

Two salvos were fired, and another warship caught fire, this time unlucky for an armed Dutch merchant ship, the shell hit the deck, blowing up six sailors on the spot, and the captain was badly burned in the face and let out a howl of pain.

Now these Europeans have reacted, now it's not a question of whether they want to provoke the Ming Navy, but the Ming Navy doesn't plan to let them go at all, if they can't settle the Ming battleship, none of them want to leave alive.

The crux of the problem is that the naval guns of the Dutch are not as long as the breech-loading rifled guns of the Ming Dynasty, the power is even inferior, and the accuracy is far inferior.

The current Daming Sea is no longer the era when they could sail, it is easy to get in, but it is too difficult to leave, Yang Honggui commanded the battleships of the Luzon detachment, quickly outflanked the past, dozens of naval guns opened fire at the same time, the sound of the cannon was like rolling thunder, and the sound was terrifying. The Shark and Sea Shark ships were on full display, with fewer enemies and more enemies, rampage surrounded by Dutch warships, and the bow and port guns were smothered and fierce at a rate of fire of three or four rounds per minute, threatening to kill you and scare you to death.

The bitter Dutch tasted the power of the breech-loading rifled guns again, and they were surprised to find that the Ming naval guns were not only very accurate, but also very fast, and the firepower of a dozen cannons could be basically equal to their dozens of cannons, and as for the lethality, there was basically no comparison.

In the end, seeing the loss of four warships, the Dutch East India warships could only disperse and escape, this is the disadvantage of a small number, Yang Honggui's troops did not disperse again, once they were alone, they might be beaten by the Dutch here, so they could only accept it when they saw it, and sank the eight warships in front and behind the Dutch, which was over.

Of course, this was not the end, and the Luzon Management Committee immediately reported the local conflict in Nanyang to Cheng Shijie, who was far away in Beijing.

"Your Majesty!"

"What's wrong?"

"Luzon has sent an urgent report!"

On the sea, the communication is the navy's newly built clippers, although the speed of this small clipper ship that exists purely for the purpose of sending letters is only fourteen or fifteen knots, but it can be like a post station, taking a relay to transmit information, from what happened in Luzon, at most more than 20 days can be sent to Cheng Shijie, compared with later generations, it is naturally very slow, but in this era, this speed is already very amazing.

After seeing the Luzon fleet engaged in a naval battle with the Dutch in the Gulf of Tonkin , the Luzon Council requested permission for Luzon to launch a full-scale war against the Dutch East India Company.

Cheng Shijie only then knew that the Dutch attached so much importance to the southern monkeys, and the Dutch East Indies belonged to the old opponent of the Ning Navy, although the Dutch did not dare to break out a war with Cheng Shijie on the bright side, but they did not make small moves in secret, such as creating conflicts between the natives and the Ming people, this small action covered almost the entire South Seas, from Luzon to Batavia, Mindanao, Malay and Sumatra, almost everywhere there are Dutch shadows.

Cheng Shijie submitted the matter to the cabinet for discussion.

However, the opinion of the cabinet was basically unanimous, first dealing with the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and then concentrating on dealing with the Dutch after the defeat of Nanjing.

Sun Zhilan said: "Your Majesty, Nanjing has now become a lonely city, we have surrounded Nanjing from the east, west, north and three sides, only Wang Shang needs to transfer the new cannon to Nanjing, and conduct actual combat tests in Nanjing, Nanjing can't even hold on for half a month!" ”

ps: Teammates sacrifice to the sky with boundless mana, recommend a new book from my friends, I am a tyrant in Daming

(End of chapter)