Putmans' heart was cold, and he managed to turn the situation around, but he was pulled back by the fleet that suddenly came out, and it was worse than before. He slapped his face a few times www.biquge.info trying to calm himself down and think about what to do.

At this moment, the armed merchant ship "Selm" was hit by a shell in an ammunition basket, which caused a gunpowder explosion that detonated the ammunition of the entire gun deck. The mezzanine where the gun deck is located is a near-enclosed space, where an explosion can be fatal to the hull.

With a loud "boom", the entire ship was almost disintegrated by a violent explosion, the gunner's corpse, gun barrel, and broken mast flew in mid-air, a mushroom cloud rushed into the sky, and flying sawdust even fell on the flagship "Fort Middle" a few hundred meters away.

You can't fight like this with the other party. Putmans didn't have time to think about it, and ordered hoarsely: "Turn around, go to the depths of the open sea, and get rid of these devils!" Let Liu Xiang go up and entangle them! ”

The flag was issued, and the Dutch battleships turned their rudders and fled to the rear. Liu Xiang, who served as a loyal junior brother and thug, surrounded him from both sides, trying to change the tide of the battle with a white-knuckle battle on the broadside.

Zheng Zhilong saw all this with a clairvoyant mirror in the rear, and his heart was mixed: it turned out that this was the real strength of the Qiongzhou battalion, and he had always underestimated them, and he couldn't think of this naval battle, and in the end he had to rely on this fleet to turn the tide of the war.

He turned around and ordered: "The red hair wants to run, after Liu Xiang is broken, this is a good opportunity to kill Liu Xiang, everyone give it to me, be sure to take Liu Xiang's head!" ”

The Zheng family's fleet recovered from the chaos and rushed forward in a swarm.

Before the Allies arrived, the Qiongzhou battalion fleet did not mess up in the face of the menacing Liu Xiang, and compared with the Dutch, they were easier to deal with this kind of opponent.

William gave the order in a hurry: "Change the shotgun and help our opponent clean the deck!" ”

"Boom, boom", one after another shotgun barrels left the muzzle and exploded, splitting into countless projectiles and flying to the opposite side with a "whin", and the dense metal rain enveloped the pirates who were crowded on the deck waiting for white-knuckle battles.

Flesh and blood were struck by metal projectiles, blood and flesh scraps flew all over the air, and entire ships of pirates were swept away by the shotguns, leaving only mutilated limbs and pieces of flesh scattered on the deck, and blood flowed into a river.

When Liu Xiang saw this scene, his heart and gall were broken, this kind of result was definitely not what he wanted to see. Originally, he wanted to take advantage of the momentum of killing Zheng Zhihu to give the other party a dismount, but he didn't expect that this group of people was a hundred times more ferocious than the Zheng family. Where is this war, this is the evil spirit of the underworld to ask for his life!

Under Liu Xiang's desperate call, his fleet fled faster than when it came, trying to leave the sea that had been stained red with blood.

But above the sea, where can the speed of turning around and fleeing compare to the speed of pursuit. The Zheng family's fleet quickly caught up and became entangled with Liu Xiang again, and hand-to-hand combat began again. What is different from before is that the death of the second master of the Zheng family and the death order of the big dragon head, coupled with a round of artillery bombardment by the Qiongzhou battalion, knocked out Liu Xiang's momentum, allowing the Zheng family in the posture of mourning soldiers to gain the upper hand.

The Qiongzhou Battalion fleet would not do such hand-to-hand hard work, and they left the entangled sides and pursued the Dutch fleet with full horsepower.

Seeing that the other party was chasing after him, Putmans hurriedly ordered an attack with the pursuit cannon in the stern. However, the meager firepower of one or two small cannons could not stop the momentum of the Qiongzhou battalion's pursuit, and the distance between the two sides was slowly shortening.

William had been observing his surroundings, and the sea area was about ten nautical miles away from Liuluo Bay, and due to the influence of the island's topography, the wind direction was changeable, which was more advantageous for Wuxiang-class patrol ships with hard sails, while it was difficult for Dutch armed merchant ships with complex soft sails to get rid of pursuit in such a direction - the cumbersome steps of retracting the sails made it difficult for the soft sails to effectively use the wind power in the complex winds of the offshore waters.

He gave the order: "You must catch up with each other within five nautical miles, otherwise you will lose the best opportunity." "Once out of the influence of land and into the unobstructed sea, the efficiency of soft sails in using wind power is much higher than that of hard sails, and the most important thing is that soft sails can sail against headwinds, so that the Qiongzhou battalion fleet will not be able to catch up with each other.

Both sides of the chase used the strength of milk, almost reaching the limit of the speed of the sailboat. Unable to extinguish the fire thoroughly after the fire, many armed merchant ships staggered forward with smoke in tow, looking tragic and comical, and when viewed from above, 13 small boats pursued 8 or 9 large ships, the whole scene was like a pack of wolves chasing wounded prey, although this game was larger.

Within five nautical miles of William's estimate, the Qiongzhou battalion finally caught up with the Dutch fleet and paralleled the opposing side.

William knew that this might be his last chance to attack, and how much he could achieve was up to him in this hammer deal. He shouted the order in a loud voice, and his voice was broken with excitement: "All patrol ships volley to the left, fire!" ”

On the "Fort Middle", Putmans also gave the order at the same moment: "Shoot these devils and send them back to hell!" ”

"Boom, boom", the two fleets fired at each other at a distance of about two hundred meters, shells of different calibers passed by, and each flew to the target. The two sides are like boxers in the boxing ring, each swinging his fist and not dodging, just to see who can bear it better.

At such a close distance, the range advantage of the cannon could not be reflected, while the caliber advantage of the Caron gun was magnified, and the Qiongzhou battalion caused much more damage than the opponent.

Of course, the open-air gun emplacements on the Wuxiang-class deck suffered heavy losses, and many gunners were smashed into flesh by shells, and the Dutch were even more upset: the Caron guns still chose very tricky parts, aiming at the gun windows as before, many shells smashed the hull, and even some shells flew directly through the gun windows, and the gunners in the mezzanine were strung with blood gourds. More and more munitions were detonated, explosions were heard one after another, and a raging wave of air threw the gunners and cannons overboard. In a short period of time, two more armed merchant ships were sunk due to the explosion of ammunition.

After experiencing the fire and artillery bombardment of the Zheng family, and being destroyed by the Qiongzhou battalion, the armed merchant ships were already riddled with holes, and they fired at close range again, suffering heavy casualties, and the Dutch were on the verge of collapse. The remaining warships had no intention of fighting, and no longer heeded the orders issued from the flagship, raised their sails and turned around and fled to the east.

Amid the rumbling of the cannons, Van Bommel, the captain of the "Fort Middle", said to Putmans: "Sir, our defeat is inevitable, there is no point in holding on any longer, shall we retreat?"