Chapter 53: The Robbery of a Dutch Ship
After the two ships took turns to strike, the Dutch flagship Hector was left with more than a dozen holes, and the Dutch soldiers on board were killed and wounded, and blood flowed on the deck. Even the commander of the Dutch fleet, Admiral Van der Lang, was hit in the arm by a piece of wood splattered by a cannonball, and he was bleeding profusely.
At the same time, the Dutchman Graffran was also shipwrecked: three Nanyang Navy ships lined up in a line and passed by the Graffran. The poor Dutchmen had only time to fire a single volley of untidy shells, while the Ming army dumped three rows of shells onto the Graflan in a row.
Three successive rows, each row of fourteen shells fired continuously, and three battleships threw forty-two shells at the Dutch in one attack.
Except for the first Nanyang Company battleship to attack, which was a little further away from the Graffran, the other two battleships were too late to reload after bullying the Dutch for firing a salvo, and almost brushed against the side of the Graffland, aimed at the Dutch battleship, and smashed it like a sea of cannonballs. In this round of attack, most of the shells hit the target, the Grafland was beaten like a sieve, the ship's planks were shattered innumerable, the Dutch in the cabin and on the deck suffered heavy casualties, mutilated limbs were scattered everywhere, and brain and internal organs were coated all over the deck. Two more shells hit the gun deck, sending two guns flying away, one of which exploded under the collision.
"Boom" A fireball erupted from the upper gun deck of the Gravelan, and countless pieces of wood and human debris erupted from the hole.
And those little wolf cub-like privateers, taking advantage of their own big ships to entangle the main Dutch warships, to hunt down those Dutch merchant ships that fled in confusion.
The privateer ignored the slowed down Oak and pursued the three merchant ships, the Egret, the White Swan and the Maria. Although the firepower of each armed merchant ship was much fiercer than that of any privateer, the privateer was like a wolf attacking a bison, specifically targeting the butt bite of the merchant ship, and did not give the merchant ship a chance to turn around and attack itself with broadside gunfire.
The Maria was attacked by three privateers in turn, and the sails were knocked down again and again. Not to mention turning to counterattack with broadside guns, you can't even run away.
The three privateers took turns striking their opponents with chain and solid bullets, and after smashing the stern of the Maria to shreds, they aimed at the large hole in the Dutch ship's butt and bombarded it mercilessly with shotguns.
At this time, the Maria was like a bison whose butt had been bitten by a wolf and was bloodied, and her sensitive nerves were exposed, but at this time, the wolf grinned its sharp teeth.
The muzzle of the "boom" gun flashed, and the shotgun drilled through the hole in Maria's buttocks, and a large number of iron balls penetrated the captain's room and the officer's quarters, and drilled into the gun deck, hitting the Dutch gunners inside with blood and flesh flying, and screaming again and again.
The Egret and the White Swan were each attacked by five privateers.
The large and clumsy merchant ship was inconvenient to turn, and even if it was easy to turn around and aim its broadside guns at the privateer, it would be difficult to hit the privateer, which was slippery than a loach.
The bow guns of the privateers, on the other hand, were constantly bombarding, firing chain shells against the sails of merchant ships.
To tell the truth, the reason why the small privateers of the British have been rampaging across the ocean for two centuries is not only because of the high level of British naval officers and men, but also because of the reasonable design, speed, and agility of this small boat, which can fight the Spanish galleons and the large Galen ships of the Dutch, which are much larger and more powerful than themselves. If it is said that the guns of privateers are small and difficult to sink merchant ships, in fact, this is not a disadvantage, and privateers do not seek to sink merchant ships, but mainly to defeat merchant ships and make them surrender.
If a merchant ship is sunk, then what else will the British royal pirates rob?
The Egret and the White Swan were beaten to the point that they could not move an inch, and in the face of a pack of vicious wolves, they could not fight, they could not run away, and they could only hope that two large ships would save themselves.
However, the two Dutch ships were chased and killed by the big ships of the Navy of the Wuluo Nanyang Company at this time, and it was difficult to protect themselves, so how could they save those merchant ships?
The Grafland had already come under a second attack, and three British-built Rank 5 cruisers passed in a long line in front of the Dutch Rank 5, and took turns firing in a row. In the second round of shelling, the Ming gunners on the first two battleships fired with red-hot solid shells, which caused the Grafflan to burst into flames, while the last battleship sailed almost close to the Graffran, all the guns were aimed at the dilapidated Grafflan, and mercilessly spilled shotguns through the holes and gun doors.
The shotgun attack made the already badly damaged Graveland even worse, and more than half of the Dutch soldiers on board were killed or wounded.
The Hector was not much better, although Admiral Van Derang responded calmly and commanded his warships to seize the advantage with the British. But Albert was also a master, taking advantage of his large number of ships, always holding down the Dutch, and not allowing the Dutch to seize the advantageous T-head position. The two battleships, taking turns sticking to them, fired a salvo of broadside guns, and the solid shells that burned red again and again caused smoke to rise from the Dutch battleships.
At this time, the sails of the Oak were repaired, and the Dutch pulled up the sails and tried to escape while the British were not noticing.
But immediately two privateers pounced, biting the Erke's ass and beating them all the way.
The Dutch Graflan was attacked by a third round of attacks by three naval ships of the Nanyang Company, and this round of attack was fatal, with at least a dozen solid shells piercing the waterline, causing the Dutch battleship to leak badly and its hull to tilt.
Seeing that the situation was not good, General Van Delang immediately ordered the Hector to raise its full sails, leaving behind the smoke and flames of the Graflan and four merchant ships, and fled the battlefield in disarray.
Albert did not give the order to pursue the Hector, but sent three Rank 5 cruisers to the privateer, and himself took the Drake and her sister ship to attack the dying Grafran.
The Drake and her sister ships passed a hundred meters in front of the Graffland, and two rounds of artillery salvos hit the Graffland, with more than sixty shells hitting the Graffland, of which more than twenty of the twenty-pound solid shells accurately hit the Graffland's waterline, tilting the already battered Dutch Rank 5 cruiser. The rest of the shells hit the two gun decks and the upper light deck of the Dutch battleship. One of the red-hot solid shells ignited the powder keg, and the Graflan burst into flames.
The mast of the Graflan broke, and all the sails caught fire, and began to sink slowly. About ten minutes later, with an earth-shattering explosion, the powder magazine of the Graflan exploded violently, and the wounded soldiers and corpses on board were torn apart and flew into the sky in the light of the fire. The Dutch battleship broke in two and was quickly pulled to the bottom of the sea by the sea.
The four Dutch merchant ships had been beaten to the ground, and the wolf-like privateers pestered the Dutch merchant ships to prevent them from leaving the battlefield. At this time, the three fifth-class cruisers approached the immobile Dutch merchant ships, and waved the flag, ordering the Dutch to surrender.
The Urke tried to escape, but a fifth-class cruiser immediately taught it a lesson, smashing a volley of chain bullets and smashing the upper deck into a mess.
"Stop fighting! We surrender! "The Dutch captain ordered the white flag to be hoisted. It was impossible to run, the most capable Hector was defeated, and another escort battleship, the Graflan, was sunk, and it was very far away from both Taiwan and Java, so don't expect a Dutch warship to come to the rescue. If they don't surrender, then those pirates will probably die as long as they play with chain bullets and shotguns!
All four Dutch merchant ships flew their white flags and surrendered to what they saw as British pirates.
Albert ordered thirteen small privateers to dock with Dutch merchant ships and accept their surrender.
Seeing the British sailors and the Ming sailors on the small boat boarding the Dutch merchant ship together, and the sailors of both countries wearing the same white naval uniforms, the Dutch on board were stunned: "Oh my God! How did these Zheng pirates of the Ming Kingdom get with the British? ”
One of the Dutch sailors asked a British soldier in stiff English, "Why did you England cooperate with the Zheng pirates of the Ming Kingdom?" ”
"Shut up! Don't ask what you shouldn't! The butt of the British soldier slammed the butt of the Dutch sailor's shoulder, knocking him down.
The Dutch were very nervous, because if Britain cooperated with the Ming Zheng family, it would be a big deal! It's a big deal that is very bad for the Dutch! The two joined forces, not to mention that the Dutch were in Taiwan, it is estimated that the whole of Southeast Asia will not be able to stay any longer, so they can only honestly go back to India. However, it was clear that the British were still fighting with the Dutch for Indian territory, and the Dutch were no match for the British, and sooner or later the coastal areas of India would be lost. Now the Dutch feel that the more stable territory is Taiwan and Java.
In real history, the British waged a total of three Javanese wars, and fought with the Dutch in the Strait of Malacca for 45 years, until 1749, when they finally reached into the South Sea and the South China Sea.
Abel asked Wang Xinyu's opinion: "What about these captives? Send them to a small sampan and let them drift on the sea on their own, as was the old practice? ”
Generally, pirates deal with captives by letting the captives put on a sampan, then letting the captives go, and letting the captives drift on the seas themselves, as for whether the captives can survive or not, it depends on luck.
But Wang Xinyu did not agree to let the Dutch captives go: "We can't let them go!" They have seen it, we have formed an alliance with you Britain! This important information must not be leaked! All of these captives were taken to Yanping Port to work as coolies! ”
Excluding the Dutch, who were killed, a total of 196 Dutch sailors were captured. Wang Xinyu ordered that these captives be taken to the bottom cabin first, and when the fleet returned, the Dutch prisoners would be sent to Yanping City as coolies.
The four surrendered Dutch merchant ships were all large ships of more than 500 tons, and after counting, the four surrendered Dutch merchant ships were loaded with goods shipped back from Japan and Korea, including more than 30,000 catties of Japanese tea, more than 6,000 quintals of Japanese raw silk, more than 10,000 sets of Japanese ceramics, more than 3,000 quintals of Korean raw silk, more than 10,000 horses of Korean silk, more than 50,000 catties of Taiwanese sugar, 120,000 catties of Japanese brass, and more than 300,000 taels of silver produced in Japan.
"Rich! Make a fortune! Albert was overwhelmed with excitement.
Although Japanese ceramics are not as valuable as Jingdezhen ceramics, because of the Qing Dynasty's maritime ban, Westerners cannot obtain Jingdezhen ceramics, and can only buy Japanese ceramics that imitate Jingdezhen ceramics from Japan.
This batch of Japanese set meals imported by the Dutch actually has a lot of high-quality products! There are precious Imari porcelain, Arita celadon, Kutani blue porcelain, and even the Japanese imitation of the Tang Sansai horse!
At that time, Tang Sancai had been lost in China, but the Japanese learned the craft and fired many imitations.
These Japanese porcelains are so delicate that they can fetch a good price if they are shipped to Manila.
As can be seen from the list of goods, the Dutch were not very interested in the goods of the DPRK, and the Koreans did not have anything worth importing except silk.
If this batch of goods is transported to Manila and sold, it can be sold for at least more than one million taels of silver, plus more than 300,000 taels of silver already in the goods, Wang Xinyu has indeed made a fortune this time.
Wang Xinyu sighed and said: "It's better to be a pirate!" If the robbery is successful, you will make a lot of money! ”
"What do we do now? The harvest is so big, do you want to go back to Yanping Port first? Albert asked.
Wang Xinyu made the following arrangements: "You send me to my own Dafu ship, and then you go back to Yanping City." These goods were handed over to the fleet of the Nanyang Company to be sold, and your relationship with the Spaniards was not good, so it was not convenient for you to come forward, so you did not have to go to Manila. As for your fleet, let's go on another trip to Borneo, where we have men, go and pick up a group of sailors!" Otherwise, there will not be enough gunners. Then they were dragged to Yanping City for training. I'll be going to Yanping again in about two months. ”
"Boss, do you need our escort on the way to Macau?" Albert was worried about Wang Xinyu's safety.
Wang Xinyu said with a smile: "The Dutch are scared of our beating, and they will definitely not dare to come out for a period of time!" The South China Sea is absolutely safe now! ”