The idea of increasing the space under the waterline was due to the fact that the maritime powers such as Spain and Denmark at that time levied navigation taxes according to the width of merchant ships. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Through these extreme designs, the Dutch merchant ship has achieved the goals of high speed, light weight, low cost, and high cargo capacity, and combined with the Dutch company's unique corporate contracting system and standardized shipbuilding, the wood required for the construction and maintenance of ships has already been cut and stored in the port warehouse, so it takes less than 2 years to build a Dutch ship from scratch, and the low price is only 50% of that of a Spanish ship.

This soon caused the number of ships owned by the Netherlands to swell like balloons, and within half a century the Netherlands became the largest maritime empire on the planet in terms of total tonnage.

The 17 armed merchant ships assembled by Peter Noiz were Dutch merchant ships of this type.

But this Dutch merchant ship also had innumerable fatal shortcomings, her draft was deep, and her hull was thin; As a result, the Dutch ship soon became the protagonist of shipwreck stories or ghost ship legends around the world, such as Wagner's opera "The Wandering Dutchman", or "The Netherlander Ship" in the Ghost Voyage, all of which are the protagonists of the story.

Due to the reduced space on the waterline, the number of guns on the Dutch merchant ships was limited, and they could usually only carry about 12~40 guns at most, which was far inferior to the large Spanish galleons that could carry up to 60 guns.

During the Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch navy and armed militia operated the Dutch ships, which were agile but lacking in bullet resistance and firepower, and rushed to the wooden wall of the British Navy's heavy battleships, only to be hit with heavy losses by cannons.

Lacking self-preservation, the Dutch ship relied on speed and skilled seafarers as its greatest weapons, and the Navy of the Republic of the Netherlands built a fleet of small, heavily armed 40-gun frigates to protect the sea trade routes from blockade after the Anglo-Dutch War.

Of course, at this point in time, the Anglo-Dutch war had not yet broken out, so it was impossible for Peter Noyz to get his hands on a Dutch frigate. That's going to be a few decades away.

One of the three ships he had brought belonged to the Dutch Navy, and the other two were ships from other countries that he had summoned at great expense and an unequal dirt-sharing agreement.

The first Dutch frigate carried 38 guns, the second Spanish ship carried 60 guns, and the third British ship carried 40 guns.

Together with the 350 guns on 17 armed merchant ships, the total is nearly 500 guns.

In this era, artillery is a high-tech product, and every artillery, no matter how big or small, represents money, and the bigger the artillery, the more money it costs.

Moreover, the firing of cannons also requires a large amount of gunpowder and iron and stone bullets.

The most important thing is that the artillery has a firing life, and the cost is higher.

This time, Peter Noiz really emptied his family.

When Peter Noiz's fleet had just gathered in the city of Geranza, the captain's observation post stationed near the Diaoyu Islands and Chiwei Reef had already discovered it.

After receiving the information, the captain asked the observation post to continue to monitor and began to deploy the coast guard in the Kyushu area, and at the same time, he reported the incident to Chen Shin and hoped to get support from the navy.

At that time, Chen Xin was confronting the Houjin army on the front line, and he had no time to take care of anything else, so he left the affairs here to the captain.

Because the Dutch brought all the large ships with a load of more than 600 tons, the Kyushu Coast Guard only had a full load displacement of 200 tons of fast crabs.

The difference in the size of the ships on both sides was too great, and the captain did not dare to act rashly, so he decided to carry forward the characteristics of his own ship's fast speed and use attack tactics to attack the enemy in the early stage.

The attack tactic is to constantly harass the enemy fleet with fast crabs on the scale of small teams, and play a role in slowing down the enemy's troops.

During this period, you can rely on a lot of experience to find out the number of guns in the enemy fleet, the size of the caliber, the thickness of the hull, the speed of each ship, and so on.

As long as there are detailed data, the Xuan Army, which has preliminarily completed the construction of the staff system, will certainly be able to achieve the goal of ultimate victory with the lowest casualties.

With the captain's order, the 5 squads of the 7th Squadron of the Coast Guard, a total of 10 fast crabs, immediately formed a squad and scattered to attack.

In this era, searching for a fleet of ships on the vast sea is a great test of experience and luck.

The test of experience is because the captains of this era will always look for suitable ocean currents and monsoon belts, and rely on these external forces to achieve the purpose of rapid sailing.

A test of luck, that's because not every captain has this kind of experience.

Most of the time, people encounter captains who are not skilled in two knives, or captains who have been hidden by their masters, or captains who are simply born in the wilderness.

Because these captains only know a general direction, as long as the direction is not too off, they will go down.

If you want to intercept such a ship under the command of the captain, then you can only rely on luck.

The navigators of Peter Noiz's fleet are certainly not two knives, on the contrary, they have been on the route of the Japanese for decades, and under their leadership, the fleet can accurately reach the destination of the Japanese country.

However, Peter Noiz was very uncomfortable and asked the navigator to change course and make a detour to the Wa Kingdom, because he wanted to make a surprise attack on the Xuan army.

The United East India Company was a joint-stock company, and making money was his main purpose, and if he could quickly decide the outcome of the first battle and restart trade, then he would definitely be the hero.

But if the war is bogged down in a long tug-of-war and the company loses money, then he himself will definitely be used as a punching bag.

Therefore, in order to achieve the purpose of the raid, he forcefully asked the navigator to change course and use an arc to bypass the Xuan army patrol ships that might exist between Taiwan and the Japanese state.

If it were any other force, Peter Noiz's trick would have worked, but unfortunately, he was met by Xuanjun.

Although the number of Eagle Falcon in the Xuan Army is not too many, the fleet that comes out on duty must have Eagle Falcon.

The 7th Coast Guard Squadron sent out by the captain has two falcons in each squad, and the previous observation posts on the Diaoyu Islands and Chiwei Reef have also sent falcons to monitor this fleet on a rotating basis.

So, less than two days after the enemy sailed out of Taiwan's waters, they encountered their first surprise attack.