In this way, Lin Chong and the others did succeed in attracting the attention of the Eight-Nation Combined Fleet, so that the Eight-Nation Combined Fleet did not continue to bombard the Daming County on the coast of both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and many innocent people in the county escaped the catastrophe.

The distance between the two sides was originally a full five thousand meters, but as Lin Chong and the other three Ming warships took the initiative to meet them, the eight-nation combined fleet also sailed head-on, and the distance between the two sides became closer and closer.

Five thousand meters, four thousand meters

The Shenwei cannons on the Ming warships had already begun to adjust their muzzles, and the shells were loaded, and as soon as they entered the range of 3,000 meters, they opened fire to bombard the combined fleets of the eight European countries.

However, before the Ming warships could rush into the range of 3,000 meters, almost just after they had rushed into 4,000 meters, some of the Dutch warships in the Eight-Nation Combined Fleet opened fire first.

"Boom Boom"

Hundreds of shells weighing more than twenty-two pounds flew towards the three Ming warships.

Lin Chong's eyes widened instantly, he was really shocked, in his impression, the range of European warships was generally around two thousand meters, and now it had reached four thousand meters all at once, which was even farther than the range of three thousand meters of their Ming Shenwei-class warships.

Just as Lin Chong was shocked by the Ming soldiers on the three Ming battleships, the cannonballs fell.

"Bang! Boom! Bang" Hundreds of shells exploded hundreds of water columns directly on the sea around the three Ming battleships.

"Boom!" Two of the Ming warships were each hit by a solid bullet, after the hull shook violently, it was instantly smashed into a big hole, sawdust flew out, one was Lin Chong's command ship, the two battleships totaled about eight Ming naval soldiers were killed and wounded, and a cannon was shot into the sea.

Impossible! When did the European battleship become so powerful! The range is so far?

"Nope! Not right either! After Lin Chong finished speaking, he immediately came back to consciousness.

"Quick, all forward, rush forward!" Lin Chong ordered the three Ming warships to rush forward quickly, rushing into a distance of three thousand meters as fast as possible to return fire.

At the same time, Lin Chong also used a telescope to observe the warships of the eight-nation European combined fleet that had just fired their guns, and when he saw the Dutch flags on the battleships that fired their guns, Lin Chong understood everything at once.

It's Dutch!

Daming had two naval battles with the Netherlands, and even used a 5,000-meter-level Weiyuan cannon to participate in the war, plus some 3,000-meter-class Shenwei-class warships that appeared later, many warships of the Dutch Far East Fleet were almost destroyed by Daming warships outside the firing range, and when attacking India, their Duke of Havelan and several undestroyed warships escaped, plus there were prisoners of war who were redeemed by them at a high price, and the situation of the Ming Navy was naturally known to the Dutch a lot.

The Dutch learned from the pain, in order to defeat the Ming Dynasty, most of the warships built by the Dutch behind were cannons with a range of about 4,000 meters.

Although with Dutch technology, if the cannon wants to reach a range of 4,000 meters, it must weigh more than 8,000 catties, which is extremely bulky, and there are many defects and the accuracy is too low, but even so, the Dutch have built a full 70 of the 4,000-meter range-level battleships, and the one who fired at the three Ming warships just now is part of these 70 Dutch-class battleships that have reached the 4,000-meter range.

In general, the current combined fleet of eight European countries is divided into two types in total.

One type is a mix of eight- to sixteen-pounder guns for short- and medium-range warships, with a range of about 1,000 to 2,000 meters. The other type is the Dutchman's 4,000-meter-range battleship, which is equipped with 22-pound cannons, and the whole cannon is more than 8,000 pounds.

However, although the Dutch 22-pounder cannon was very heavy, the Dutch-class battleship was also not small, even the 22-pounder cannon with a weight of 8,000 catties was equipped with a full 38 guns, and 70 ships were 2,660 of these 4,000-meter cannons.

If we elaborate on it, the combined fleet of the entire European eight-nation fleet can be distinguished in this way.

The eight-pounder and ten-pounder guns with a close range of about a kilometer were about 12,000 guns in total.

The twelve-pounder, fourteen-pounder, and sixteen-pounder guns with a range of about two thousand meters were about 17,000 guns.

Plus 2,660 Dutch 4,000-meter cannons.

The 641 warships of the eight-nation combined fleet in Europe have nearly 32,000 cannons, an average of nearly 50 cannons per warship.

Thirty-two thousand cannons! Such a huge scale is unprecedented! This is almost the result of exhausting the power of the top five sea powers in Europe.

When Lin Chong and the other three Ming battleships rushed to a range of 3,400 meters, the 22-pounder guns on the Dutch-class battleships opened fire again.

"Boom, boom, boom", this time it was seventy Dutch-class battleships firing at the same time.

At least 1,300 22-pound shells flew like locusts, obscuring the clouds and the sun, and it was terrifying!

"Bang! Boom! "Even if it doesn't hit the hull directly, the sea water that blows up is enough to drown the three Ming warships."

Even if the accuracy of the Dutch-class cannons is so poor that it is impossible to talk about it, but these 1,300 shells hit, and nine of them hit the three Ming warships, one of which was hit by five, and the other two were each hit by two.

The Daming battleship that was hit by five shells, plus the first shelling was also hit by one, and it suffered six twenty-two-pound shells one after another, although they were all solid shells, but it was enough for this Daming battleship to be severely damaged, and the degree of advance was reduced all of a sudden.

Lin Chong had just fallen on the deck when he had just been hit by a huge bullet in the hull.

"Go all ahead!" After holding on to the mast, Lin Chong gritted his teeth and ordered.

The three Ming warships continued to rush forward, striving to rush into their own 3,000-meter range as quickly as possible to return fire.

"Turn!" On the side of the Eight-Nation Combined Fleet, after the cannons of the 70 Dutch warships on one side of the hull were fired, the Dutch sailors at the helm immediately began to rotate the hull, rotated the cannons on the other side of the hull that had not yet been fired, and continued to fire at the three Ming warships. And the cannon on the side of the hull that had just been fired urgently replaced with shells.

This is also the traditional method of warfare of European warships.

Because their cannons are all bulky pound guns, and they have to control the strong recoil, most of the cannon body is fixed on the hull, and they can only move the muzzle slightly in place in a small range and small scale, and the degree of the shell is also very slow, almost sixty breaths to replace the shell again, so the cannon of their entire battleship is distributed on both sides of the hull, after one side has finished firing, it is stepped up to load, and the other side rotates the hull over and continues to fire, and so on.

Because one of the Daming battleships was heavily damaged, the degree of advance was greatly reduced, so soon the other two Daming battleships opened up the distance.