Tromp knew that if he chased him like this, he would be led by the nose by the Ming fleet, and they could calmly choose the time and sea area to intercept him.

However, if they do not go north to rescue, the ports of the French will suffer heavy losses, and perhaps the peace and French alliances will be over.

Seeing that he was still hesitating, Nero urged loudly: "Our fleet has absolute superiority, and it can defeat the Orientals in any situation, as long as a decisive battle is enough!"

"Your Excellency, with all due respect, the enemy fleet can go to the port of La Rochelle, but it can also continue to attack the port of Rotterdam to the north!"

"No," Tromp subconsciously, "Rotterdam has the strongest battery ......"

In the middle of his speech, he suddenly remembered the information sent back from the Far East before, that the Ming people had relied on a suicide attack by arson ships to burn down the fleet of the East India Company, and if they launched a similar attack on Rotterdam......

His mind immediately conjured up the thousands of merchant ships outside the port of Rotterdam, crowded more densely packed than sardines.

"Leut," he said to his lieutenant without hesitation, "give the order, and the fleet will turn due north at once, and rush at full speed to the Bay of Biscay!" ”

For several days, there was no news of La Rochelle being attacked, which made Tromp more and more anxious, if the Ming Kingdom did not attack Bordeaux, then their target was probably really Helan!

After another three days, the Combined Fleet finally sailed into the Bay of Biscay. Historically, there have been many large-scale naval battles in this water, and it is a veritable maritime battlefield.

With less than eighty nautical miles left to La Rochelle, it was light and Tromp got up in his suits and urged the full sails to go, for he had been tormented by the recent days of not knowing the intentions of the enemy fleet.

Immediately, violent drumming sounded simultaneously on the decks of the Bradrod. Tromp is an agitator instantly, which means that there is an enemy attack!

He hurried to the bow deck, and Reutt handed him the binoculars, "Commander, the enemy ship is coming rapidly from the northeast, and the distance is about eight nautical miles. ”

"Damn, it's so close! What about our vigilance ship?! ”

"Commander, it's foggy in the early hours of the morning, and the enemy's ability to grasp the fighters is extremely strong." Leut hesitated, "Look...... Do you want to retreat? ”

Tromp glanced around, and the Combined Fleet was still in formation for the night. In particular, there were several French warships that had suddenly moved a nautical mile and a half in front of them, and if they had turned around and evacuated at this time, they would probably have been entangled in the enemy's high-speed and nimble boats, and then they would have been encircled.

These arrogant Frenchmen!

These cunning Orientals! Step by step, they lured the Combined Fleet to the battlefield they were satisfied with, and waited patiently for the fighters, and finally made them wait until the foggy day.

It was only at this time that the people of Helan deeply realized that they had encountered a very powerful opponent.

Suddenly, his eyebrows twitched slightly, his eyes widened, he turned around, put his fingers in his mouth and pouted hard, and then raised them high.

The back of the finger is slightly cool, it is a southwest wind!

The wind has changed!

“Gdzegene！” Tromp shouted excitedly, then turned to Leut and said, "Order, battle line!" Quick, turn to the battle line and prepare for the decisive battle! ”

"Yes!" The latter replied, and said cautiously, "Your Excellency, although we are now in the upper hand, the ocean current is still not good for us. ”

"Don't be verbose, we can't afford to lose those three battleships." Tromp waved his hand vigorously, "We have a numerical advantage, we can fight!" ”

"Yes!" Leut turned away, gave a few words to the herald, and then shouted to the deck, "Let the enemy see the mastery of the Dutch sailors!" ”

It is no fluke that the name of the coachman on the Lanhai Sea has been obtained, and the Ming Pacific Fleet has only advanced five nautical miles, and a total of 34 battleships above the third rank have already formed a battle line, aiming at the Orientals who are rushing over with their side sides.

Other, smaller ships skillfully spread out in all directions, ready to come up at any moment to "mend the wounded enemy ships".

Only the four French 3rd Battleships, which were too far away at first, were still in a slightly out of position because they needed to turn around, but they also barely sailed to the west side of the battle line, and were laboriously turning their sides.

Nero glanced at the foredeck of the Bradrod, raised his binoculars to take a closer look, but suddenly burst out laughing, "Haha, they're finished!" Dead! ”

In fact, the Helan people had already discovered the strangeness of the enemy fleet, but they had not made a noise. At this time, Reut couldn't help but nod and said: "They are probably afraid that we will retreat, so they rushed desperately, but they are so close and still maintain the column, I am afraid it will be too late to turn into a battle line." We had the opportunity to hit the T-shaped cross. ”

The French shouted excitedly, "These Orientals do not understand naval warfare at all, although they have heavy warships, but their tactics are still stuck more than a hundred years ago."

"Soon, they will be subjected to concentrated shelling of the battle line!"

Only Tromp still frowned suspiciously, and kept repeating a question in his heart, why did the Orientals, who had used these extremely sophisticated strategies and tactics, make such a major mistake at the last moment?

Is it really your luck?

Soon, the Daming Pacific Fleet gave him the answer. The rapid attack of the single column gradually divided, becoming two parallel columns, maintaining an angle nearly perpendicular to the battle line of the Peace and French fleets, and "piercing" straight to the front and rear thirds.

It is very similar to the scene that appeared in the Taiwan Strait a few years ago. Led by the two strongest first-class battleships of the Ming army, "Hangzhou" and "Jinan", each of them rushed into the enemy's battle line with twelve or thirteen battleships behind them.

Suddenly, there was a loud burst of artillery on both sides.

On the side of the Hangzhou, the battleships Texel and Curacao of the third-class battleships were in full swing, and nearly 30 cannons on the side of the ship poured shells on the hull of the Eastern battleship at the fastest speed.

The pressure on the Jinan was even greater, and the position he chose to break through was a French second-class battleship, fully equipped with eighty cannons, and the density of fire was extremely high, especially the thirty-two-pounder guns on the lowest gun deck, which was extremely terrifying.

However, the Ming fleet, which adopted Nelson's method of warfare, was almost unable to make any return fire because the bow of the ship was pointed to the enemy's side.

What they were waiting for was the moment when they cut into the line of battle of the Combined Fleet. At that time, it will become the bow or stern of the enemy ship facing the side of the Ming battleship, and the enemy ship will be blocked by its own ships in front of and behind the battle line, and it will be extremely difficult to turn around or sail away.

In the end, Tromp was the best naval commander in Helan, and he was a few grades better than his counterparts in the Far East, and at this time, he actually understood the intentions of the Ming army, and he couldn't help but gasp.