Putmans stood at the bow of the ship, staring at the occasional fireworks from the Zheng family's fleet—which were produced when the Caron cannons were fired—and it was clear that these cannons had only recently been equipped, and that the Zheng family had no such weapons for naval warfare when they had exterminated Li Kuiqi and other pirate gangs. www.biquge.info If it is said that Zheng Yiguan hid his strength in order to deal with the Dutch, it is impossible to say that the Zheng family suffered heavy casualties when he beat Li Kuiqi, and Zheng Yiguan himself was almost in danger, and he never saw such a cannon appear, so it would be too costly to play such a bitter trick.

After observing for some time, Putmans found that although the new guns of the Zheng fleet were of great caliber and capable of firing continuously—they seemed to slightly surpass the Dutch cannons in rate of fire—but they had always deliberately kept a relatively close distance, as if to keep them out of effective range.

That's right, the range! Putmans' eyes lit up.

The caliber of this cannon seems to be larger than its own 24-pounder gun, and according to common sense, such a cannon should weigh more than 4,000 pounds, and if you count the poor cannon casting technology of the Ming Kingdom, the weight will increase. The Dutch ships had a larger displacement than the Zheng family's ships, and could not bear the weight of more 24-pounder guns, so they could only rely on 18-pounder guns, and how could these small ships of the Zheng family withstand the weight of cannons of more than 30 pounds -- the huge weight, combined with the recoil of the cannons, was enough to overturn these small ships. Combined with the performance of the Zheng family's fleet always pursuing close-range shelling, this kind of cannon must be similar to some kind of howitzer, shortening the barrel and sacrificing the range.

Putmans slammed his fist on the side of the ship: "It must be so!" If we distance ourselves enough, we can regain our strengths. ”

Zheng family fleet.

Zheng Hongkui, who commanded the artillery battle, smiled from ear to ear, and the depression of Kinmen Island being attacked by Liu Xiang's ship robbery and center-left was swept away. For the first time, he had found confidence in an artillery battle, for there was no way to defeat the other side of a large plywood ship like the Dutch, except to charge with fireboats and to pile up with human lives close to the side of the board - so it was necessary to find a suitable battlefield, and in the open sea, whether it was fireships or broadside battles, there was no way to get close to the other side.

He said to his cronies on the side, "Damn, this battle is really too relieved." How have we ever been so head-on with a plywood ship? ”

The subordinate quipped, "That's it." In the past, as soon as the plywood boat was fired, our brothers died in a terrible manner, and they couldn't touch a single cold hair of others. Now this way of playing, of course, we have dead and wounded, but the red hair is no better than us, we die two or three brothers, how can the red hair break a person, desperate for people's lives, who are we afraid of? Three-legged toads are not easy to find, and there are many two-legged people who can go to sea, and there are many on the surface of the Fujian Ocean! ”

Zheng Hongkui smiled and looked at the panicked red hair opposite, thinking that this battle not only made the Zheng family raise their eyebrows, but also cleared their own guilt, and after the war, he was still the fourth master of the Zheng family.

On the Zheng family's flagship in the rear, Zheng Zhilong, who was observing the battle situation with a clairvoyant mirror, couldn't hide the smile on his face. Although in the relatively narrow waters of Liuluo Bay, he had a certain chance of defeating Hongmao and Liu Xiang, but after sacrificing the big killer weapon of short and heavy artillery, the situation was so clear, it was still beyond his expectations, and the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were really worth it. If the fight continues like this, the fleet of the Qiongzhou battalion will not have to play, the Zheng family will be able to solve the battle, and the exploits will be their own, and the people in the Fujian Ocean can only be themselves, and there is nothing to do with the Qiongzhou battalion.

He turned his head to Zheng Zhihu, who was eager to try, and said, "If it goes on like this, the red hair won't last long." Second brother, it's time for you to show off your skills. ”

Zheng Zhihu, who had been waiting for a long time, was overjoyed. After he changed into a thick iron armor, he was sweating profusely after a while, and if he was not allowed to get on and continue to wait stupidly on the ship, the heat would be dead.

"Order! Please big brother look at my python two! ”

After Zheng Zhihu, who was wearing heavy iron armor, kicked and walked away, Zheng Zhilong ordered: "Pass my order, let Hongkui take a break for a while, and make way for the second master." ”

In Zheng Zhilong's view, under the attack of arsonist ships and gunboats, Hongmao has been clumsy and lost, and it is only a matter of time before he is defeated. And now that all the fireships have rushed into the enemy position and successfully completed their mission, then the plywood ship that captured a few red hairs with a broadside battle is the icing on the cake, which can be regarded as a successful end to this battle.

What he never expected was that it was precisely this decision that gave the opponent a chance to breathe, became a failure of the command, and almost buried the victory in hand.

Liu Xiang fought with the Zheng family's "horse boys" on the periphery, and although he had the upper hand, he couldn't win for a while. When he was busy observing the battle on the inside line, he found that the situation was not at all the scene he expected, and his heart was half cold. In his mind, the red-haired gunboats were very powerful, and there was no opponent in the Fujian Sea that could fight at all, and as strong as Zheng Zhilong, he could only rely on the number of ships to barely compete. Unexpectedly, today's battle broke through his glasses.

In the midst of the panic, a small sampan rushed through the fire of the two sides and came to his ship to convey the order of Putmans. Fortunately, his ship was not in the center of the battlefield that was entangled in hand-to-hand combat, and was stopped at the outside to command, otherwise these red-haired sailors would have been killed and overturned by the red-eyed pirates.

Liu Xiang is also an old fighter, who has been crawling and rolling on the sea for so many years, and has rich combat experience, and quickly understood the intention of "converging and breaking through" in Putmans's order - the periphery is entangled, the inner line does not have an advantage, and if he continues to fight, sooner or later he will be consumed to death by as many people and ships as the Zheng family's ants, so he can only move and transfer, leave the semi-enclosed Liuluo Bay, and find a place in the open sea. Even if you still can't beat it, at least it's easier to run. Stay in the green mountains, don't be afraid of no firewood.

He didn't think about leaving the red hair and running away by himself, not because he was angry, but because he was self-aware, he knew that without the protection of the red hair, he couldn't beat Zheng Zhilong's main force at all, if the red hair was completely defeated, he would sooner or later follow in the footsteps of the red hair, and be completely removed from the Fujian ocean, just like Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin and others who had infinite scenery, and became a dry bone that sank to the bottom of the sea.

Liu Xiang called his subordinates and ordered loudly: "Tell the brothers, don't get entangled with these shrimp soldiers and crab generals, let's rush over to the red hair and kill it with the red hair." ”

After the order was passed down, the remaining ships under Liu Xiang slowly broke away from the grudge with their opponents and headed east one after another, leaving only hundreds of corpses floating on the sea.