In the early morning of the second day, the mixed formation composed of the Zheng family, the Fujian Navy Division, and the Qiongzhou Battalion sailed out of the port of Zhongzuosuo and went straight to Liaoluo Bay on Kinmen Island. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 In addition to the 13 Wuxiang-class patrol ships of the Qiongzhou Battalion and more than 30 warships of different sizes of the Fujian Naval Division, the remaining more than 150 ships are of the Zheng family—including more than 40 Daqingtou and more than 10 three-masted warships. Zheng Zhilong didn't plan to hide it, anyway, when he arrived near the Golden Gate, no matter how he hid, he would be discovered by the other party, so it was better to kill the other party by surprise with lightning speed.

A fleet of ships of this size, as soon as they appeared at sea level in the waters of Kinmen, was spotted by Dutch sailors on the lookout. When he saw a black sail appear on the sea level, the sailor who watched hoarsely shouted: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! There is a fleet of ships approaching quickly, there are a lot of them, and the intentions are unknown! ”

At this moment, Putmans had just gotten up and was enjoying his breakfast, when he heard the sailor's warning, cursed, and hurriedly put down his breakfast and ran to the bow of the ship to look. When he saw the huge fleet approaching Liaoluo Bay at high speed, he gasped.

"God, this must be Zheng Yiguan's fleet, did he pull the entire Fujian ship over?"

Van Bommel, the captain of his flagship, Fort Middle, asked, "Sir, should we take the initiative to attack or defend?" ”

Putmans settled down, although Zheng Yiguan came a little suddenly, but this decisive battle was inevitable, and it was the same in the morning and evening, and there was nothing to fear. "They have more than three times as many ships as we do, but most of them are small junks," he says. Send someone to send an order to Liu Xiang to spread out and protect our perimeter, and all our ships will be gathered together to deal with Zheng Yiguan with naval guns and try to avoid a scuffle. ”

"Yes, sir!"

After receiving the order from Putmans, Liu Xiang overturned the table and yelled at the Dutch soldiers who came on board to give the order: "This is to let me be cannon fodder!" I only have 50 boats, and Zheng Zhilong has one or two hundred boats, how can I resist? ”

The Dutch soldier replied with a blank face: "I am only responsible for conveying the orders of the commander, as for how to defend against enemy attacks, that is your business." ”

After the soldiers who gave the order left, Liu Xiang's subordinates surrounded him and said, "Big dragon head, the red hair doesn't treat our brothers as human beings, let's just withdraw?" ”

"Yes, look at this posture, Zheng Zhilong has made a bloody streak, we can't make this cannon fodder for Hongmao. Stay in the green mountains, not afraid of no firewood to burn......"

Liu Xiang's face was ugly, and after being silent for a long time, he sighed and said, "I understand what you said. But now it's easy to get on a thief ship, but it's hard to get off a thief ship. Let's not talk about whether it will be too late to retreat now, even if we can run away, the red hair will collapse, we will be unable to support it alone, and we will be killed by Zheng Zhilong sooner or later. Now there is only one way to go to the black, betting on the red hair. If the red hair wins, it is better than Zheng Zhilong. ”

"What do you mean by the big dragon head?"

Liu Xiang stretched out his hand and slapped the table heavily, and said viciously: "There is no way out, only to do it." Get out all the silver in the ballast and give it to the brothers to boost morale! ”

A mouthful of boxes was lifted out, and then overturned, and the white silver rolled out, shaking the eyes of the people around them, and a pair of greedy eyes stared at the silver on the deck. The voice of a small leader shouted hoarsely: "The big dragon head has an order: this time it is a battle against the water, either Zheng Zhilong dies, or we die, as long as the brothers fight bravely to kill the enemy, this silver is yours!" ”

For pirates, there is no more useful means than real money to boost morale before the battle, and in the eyes of these pirates who live a life of licking blood from the knife all day long, there is no silver to kiss their parents. Looking at the white silver and listening to the promise from above, the greed and cruelty of the pirates were stimulated, and they waved the steel knives in their hands and shouted: "Kill Zheng Zhilong, everyone will share the silver!" ”

Although the Zheng family's fleet had already been discovered by the Dutch and Liu Xiang, the wind direction was not downwind, and when they arrived at the mouth of Liuluo Bay, the other party's fleet had already been arranged and was ready for battle.

Zheng Zhilong saw at the bow of the ship that Liu Xiang's dozens of boats were scattered on the periphery, blocking the dozen or so large plywood boats inside, which was a defensive formation. Such a response was also expected by him, so he ordered: "Inform the other ships, the small boat is entangled with Liu Xiang, and the gunboat and the fireboat will directly rush in to beat the red-haired boat, and give them a two-way outflanking and a black tiger in the middle to dig out their hearts!" ”

Of the nearly 200 ships in this attack on Liuluo Bay, nearly half of them were arsonboats, which were specially used to attack the red hair, and they could not be wasted on Liu Xiang. After his order was issued, thirty warships of the Fujian Navy Division and other small boats of the Zheng family swarmed up and engaged in a struggle with Liu Xiang's boat.

Although the periphery is not the main battlefield, it is almost all a cross-border battle, with swords and swords, and the tragedy is no less than that of artillery battles. The big green head and three-masted gunboats that were lying in ambush behind took the opportunity to break through the outer defense line and go straight to the red-haired fleet, and a hundred fireships also followed behind, and the battle on the inner line was about to begin.

The 13 Wuxiang-class patrol ships of the Qiongzhou battalion adhered to the concept of not betting until the critical moment, and hovered in the outermost part to observe the direction of the battle. Zheng Zhilong's combat mission and combat method arranged for the Qiongzhou battalion were in the middle of the summer, and he really wanted to doze off, so he sent a pillow.

Zheng Zhilong's original intention was to make the fleet of the Qiongzhou battalion the last straw that broke the camel's back when the situation was deadlocked, but Xia Nan's idea was to sit on the wall and wait and see. If the Dutch lose, of course it is no problem to beat the water dogs, but if Zheng Zhilong is not as competitive as in the original history, the Qiongzhou battalion will not stand up and turn the tide. Although the Dutch is one of the opponents that the Qiongzhou battalion can't bypass, but on the premise that their own strength is not dominant, they consume their own strength to make Zheng Zhilong benefit from the fisherman, and this kind of stupid thing Xia Nan will not do.

However, Xia Nan didn't think that this kind of result would happen, since history had come to its original track, and the Battle of Liuluo Bay had happened at the right time and place, then Zheng Zhilong would definitely defeat the Dutch and Liu Xiang's coalition army like the history of another time and space, and all he had to do was to make a splash in the closing stage, give the Dutch a blow, and make them completely desperate.

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Note 1: Chinese warships, which were called "junk" in English at the time, were transliterated as "junk ships". After the improvement of the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, the shipbuilding industry in the late Ming Dynasty changed the style of treasure ships when Zheng He went to the West, and the ships developed to be miniaturized. It is inevitably impossible for such a ship to carry more artillery and soldiers, and the overall combat effectiveness will be relatively weak.