The Dutch fleet approached the Burmese coast, and the first target they wanted to attack was naturally the city of Hindu, where the Yongli Emperor was located. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoIn the mind of the Dutch admiral Admiral de Knight, attacking an estuary city was a no-brainer. If he can control the mouth of the Dajinsha River, he can not only blackmail Yongli and Li Dingguo, but also cut off the colonial rule of Portugal and Britain in Burma, and threaten the British East India Company in Salian.

"We enter directly from the mouth of the Dajinsha River, and if we can bombard the Xingdu City, we can threaten the Yongli Emperor." De Knight stood on the helm of the battleship Seven Provinces and pointed to the estuary ahead.

Trop agreed: "Before I came to the East, I carefully studied this emperor of the Ming Kingdom. The Tatars of the East made a treaty with us, and in the Tatar population, this Yongli Emperor was a cowardly and runaway emperor! He fled all the way from Guangxi to Yunnan, then to Burma, and finally to the sea! With his character, as long as we can threaten the safety of their capital, he will abandon the capital and flee! ”

De Knighte laughed: "As long as he abandons the city and escapes, we will take control of the city that the Ming people have spent more than two years building with painstaking efforts!" Not only will it become our new supply point, but it will also be able to hold the throat of the English and Portuguese. In addition, the Burmese may see the defeat of the Ming people, and they will seize Yongli again and hand it over to the Tatars! ”

Trop shook his head and said: "It is impossible to count on the Burmese, even if we bombard the capital of the Ming Kingdom, the Burmese still can't beat Li Dingguo." ”

At this time, Li Dingguo was sitting on the Dashatou Fort ten miles south of Hindu. Because Xingdu is a city established on the delta of the Dajinsha River estuary, many place names imitate the ground of Guangzhou in China, named after the sandbar, and build forts on the major sandbanks at the mouth of the river.

Although there are many outlets to the sea at the mouth of the Dajinsha River, there are not many outlets that can really allow large warships to enter, one of which is in Salem, which is controlled by the British and Portuguese, and the other is near the city of Hindu.

Salian is more than a hundred kilometers away from here, and the Dutch will not go to Salian for the time being, but deal with Yongli first.

"The red-haired ghost is here!" Someone shouted.

Li Dingguo strode out of the barracks, climbed the high platform, picked up a monocular, and looked into the distance at the mouth of the river to the south. I saw a black and oppressive fleet appear outside the estuary, and as far as the eye could see, the estuary was filled with huge warships, and the ships that came were very large. The largest warship Li Dingguo had ever seen before was the Drake, but the ships outside were bigger than the Drake, and seemed to be the size of those thousand-ton transport ships.

"Good fellows! There are a lot of giant ships with 2,000 materials! Li Dingguo put down the telescope and said. He is still accustomed to using Chinese terms to describe tonnage, using materials, not tonnage.

"Handsome! Dangerous! Come down! Several pro-soldiers came up to persuade Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo replied with a stern face full of righteousness: "The big war is imminent, how can I be greedy for life and afraid of death and leave the soldiers?" ”

The Dutch fleet had already entered the estuary, and looking at the batteries on both sides of the estuary, the Dutch fleet opened up with six battleships and fourteen cruisers, and headed for the batteries at the mouth of the Ming army.

Li Dingguo, who was standing on the battery, was also shocked by the powerful formation of the Dutch fleet: the Dutch fleet was indeed menacing, and all the battleships had opened their gun doors, and it could be seen that these giant ships had many guns, and there were more than 400 cannons on just six battleships! The side of the battleship was facing its side, that is, there were more than two hundred cannons on the side of the six battleships. Together with fourteen cruisers, its own battery was bombarded with more than four hundred cannons.

Previously, Li Dingguo had also seen 1,000-ton Spanish galleons and 1,500-ton Dutch large transport ships, but how could the firepower of those merchant ships be compared with battleships, and the number of guns equipped on 1,500-ton Dutch large transport ships was only 30 to 40.

And on battleships of more than 800 tons, there were more than 70 cannons.

The fort where Li Dingguo was stationed was equipped with six 32-pounder cannons purchased from Sha Lian, and the rest were 24-pounder guns and 18-pounder cannons cast by the Ming army themselves. On the opposite turret, the same equipment is also used. With the exception of the 32-pounder cannon, which had a range comparable to that of the Dutch ships, the range of the rest of the cannons was comparable to that of the Dutch naval guns.

"Ready!" Li Dingguo gave the order.

The Ming gunners on the fort cleaned the barrels of the cannons, loaded them with gunpowder and shells, adjusted the angle of the cannons, and aimed them at the Dutch warships on the sea.

The six 32-pounder heavy cannons were arranged in the fort, and the concrete-concrete and iron-core forts were unusually strong, with an eight-meter-long firing hole in the front of the fort, from which the heavy guns protruded and the muzzles could be turned back and forth. The British-made heavy cannon was mounted on an iron-wheeled gun mount, which allowed the muzzle to be turned slightly in the turret. After the cannon is fired, the recoil pushes the cannon into the fort, and the gunners reload the cannon and reset it.

In fact, the internal structure of these forts is the same as that of naval guns in the gun deck, with rails and iron wheels, and the recoil force pushes the cannon back, which is just enough for the gunner to load gunpowder. After loading, and pushing the cannon again, it was reset, and the muzzle of the gun again protruded from the gun door.

The cannons cast by the Ming army themselves were placed on the open forts, and the gun carriages of those cannons did not have iron wheels, and the entire gun carriage was placed on the ground, which was not very convenient to rotate, and it was a grade behind the imported cannons.

In the upper reaches of the Dajinsha River, several small boats of Li Dingguo's sailors were busy on the river, dropping mines into the river.

Li Dingguo's sailors used a relatively old-fashioned drifting mine, which was successfully manufactured in the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period, and the thunder shell was a wooden box with a trigger device on the outside, which could trigger the flintlock fuse inside the mine. When the Ming army was supporting Korea, it used this kind of mine to blow up and sink the warships of the Japanese state.

Although it is an old-fashioned mine, it has also been improved and the charge has been increased, with a charge of more than 100 catties, a mine can sink a 500-ton cruiser if it hits. Even a battleship could not withstand the attack of three mines.

"Shall we fire?" Seeing the Dutch's battleship within range of heavy artillery, one of the soldiers asked.

After all, Li Dingguo still has the traditional concept of the Orientals: if the opponent does not make the first move, there is no need for him to make the first move, unless the Dutch fleet crosses the battery cordon and threatens the safety of the Hindu City, Li Dingguo will order a preemptive artillery bombardment.

But the Dutch did not pay attention to these so-called faces, and when the Dutch fleet approached the battery, all the Dutch battleships led by the seven provincial battleships opened their gun doors, and one cannon protruded from the muzzle of the black hole.

"Fire!" De Knight yelled.

The Dutch battleships spat out fire at the same time, and the guns of each battleship spewed tongues of fire from beginning to end, and from a distance it looked like lightning streaked across the sea, and the whistling shells smashed down on the batteries on the shore.

"Fire!" Li Dingguo roared angrily.

The 32-pounder cannon in the main artillery barrier let out an earth-shattering roar, the muzzle of the cannon erupted fire, billowing white smoke rose in the air, and the heavy artillery wagon, weighing more than 8,000 pounds, retreated.

The other guns on the battery also roared, and the shells shot out of the guns and smashed at the Dutch ships on the river.

The cannonballs shot by the Dutch have landed on the Ming army fort, billowing gunpowder smoke filled, the shells smashed on the ground, constantly bouncing, splashing and flying sand and stones, and the Ming soldiers who were hit by the shells weighing about 20 catties turned into blood and rain and minced flesh. Some of the shells hit the battlements of the fort, and the Ming soldiers were hit by shrapnel-like rubble and fell to the ground screaming.

The shells fired from the battery fell on the surface of the river, raising a column of water that soared into the sky.

One of the Dutch battleships was shot, and a twenty-four-pound shell smashed into the thick oak plank, which in one fell swoop and dented a large chunk, and the splinters of wood flew sideways in the cabin, and the sharp and irregular planks pierced the Dutch soldiers, and immediately blood splattered and screamed.

Artillery roared, and a fierce artillery battle was fought on both sides. On the two batteries of the Ming army, there were a total of 12 32-pounder guns, 30 24-pounder guns and 36 18-pounder guns, and the total number of artillery pieces was 72, while the Dutch fleet had more than 800 naval guns firing wildly on the shore, bombarding indiscriminately.

More than 200 people were killed or wounded, and some of the batteries were directly hit by the shells of the Dutch warships, and even the cannons were destroyed.

"Boom" Li Dingguo personally lit the 32-pounder cannon.

The muzzle of the gun spewed fire, and a shell swept across the river and hit the Dutch battleship Tulip.

The shells of the thirty-two-pounder heavy cannon were extremely powerful, even exceeding the power of the short-barreled sixty-four-pounder naval gun. The Dutch battleship hit by this shell immediately broke a large hole, and the cannonball carried the broken wooden planks and iron nails into the gun deck, and penetrated through the gun hold, and a series of screams rang out from the ship, and countless Dutch soldiers were reduced to pieces of flesh and blood. The remaining shells smashed through the floor, landed on the lower heavy gun deck, and then penetrated the floor and burrowed into the lower cabin, and then completely lost kinetic energy.

A number of shells hit other Dutch warships, and even the battleship Seven Provinces, the flagship of the Dutch, was hit by multiple shells, and more than a dozen Dutch soldiers were killed or wounded.

A loud bang suddenly sounded on the river, and the Knight's Fort cruiser burst into flames, a white column of water rose on the river, a big hole was opened in the bottom of the ship, and the 380-ton cruiser began to sink.

"Damn it! There are mines on the river! Avoid them! The observer on another Dutch warship saw the wooden boxes floating down from the upper reaches and immediately understood what they were. The Knight's Fort exploded just now, and it must have been blown up by this kind of thing.

The Dutch cruiser, having spotted the mines, immediately sent a flag signal to warn the other warships behind.

The Dutch battleships quickly changed their formation, and each ship turned on the river, avoiding all floating objects that floated towards them, even a small piece of wood, which would make the Dutch tremble. The Dutch were so preoccupied with avoiding the mines that the battleship's shells were out of sight, and it was often the gunners who aimed at the target, and the battleship suddenly turned around.

Obviously, Li Dingguo saw the changes in the Dutch, and said with great joy: "Great! Mines have drifted down! Hit me hard at the battleship that aimed at the red-haired ghost! ”

The large and small guns on the batteries were aimed at the Dutch ships that had been severely disturbed by the mines, and the gunners ignited the guns, and the muzzles of the guns spewed out balls of fire, and the whistling shells fell on the surface of the river, raising countless columns of water that rose to the sky. During the heavy shelling, the Dutch battleships were constantly hit by shells.

"Oh my God! A lot of wooden boxes have floated down! Someone shouted in terror.

The Dutch sailors took out their muskets one after another, aimed them at the floating box and pulled the trigger, and the ship spewed out tongues of fire, and the bullets hit both sides of the wooden box, causing countless splashes. One of the boxes was heavily shot and exploded in the river, sending a column of water dozens of meters high into the sky, causing the Dutch battleship to shake.

Other boxes were heavily shot, but did not explode, but kept rushing towards the Dutch ship.

It turned out that because the cost of mine manufacturing was not low, Li Dingguo did not let people drop all the mines, but mixed a lot of fake mines into the real mines. A fake mine is a box filled with stones and sand and floats on the surface of the sea, and it looks no different from a real mine.

"Get out of the way!" The Dutch didn't dare to bet on whether the box was an explosive or not, and they had to dodge it when they saw the box drifting in. Although they also know that it is impossible for every box to be a mine, what if it is blown up by a real mine?

The Dutch battleships dodged the mines and fired at the batteries, but because they dodged the mines, the accuracy decreased. And the shells fired from the top of the battery kept hitting the Dutch battleships.

"Damn the people of the Ming Kingdom, they actually put so many mines in their own rivers!" De Knight was so angry that he was vomiting blood.

Trop shrugged his shoulders helplessly and spread his hands: "Let's get out of here!" It's not worth it to use our precious ships to consume a few of the enemy's broken wooden crates! ”

"Shall we just give up?" De Knight asked reluctantly.

The cunning Trop laughed: "They use floating thunder, so they can only go downstream." Now the tide is high, the tide is receding, and the mines will float down. What if we wait a few hours for the tide to rise before we come in? ”

"Good way!" De Knight was overjoyed, "When the tide rises, the wooden crates they put down upstream will not come down, but will float back to blow up their own boat!" ”

On the fort, the Ming soldiers cheered: "The red-haired ghost has run away!" The red-haired ghost was beaten away by us! ”

Li Dingguo did not cheer like everyone else, he always felt that the Dutch, who had just suffered a big loss, would definitely not give up like this.

The Dutch fleet temporarily withdrew from the mouth of the Dajinsha River, and after waiting for a few hours, the tide began to rise, and the sea water poured into the river instead, and at this time the Dutch warships took advantage of the strength of the rising tide to rush into the mouth of the Dajinsha River again.

"The red-haired ghost is in again!" The soldiers reported to Li Dingguo. (To be continued.) )