It was close to noon, and the wind finally blew in the sea's favor for the attackers. Although there is no weather forecast these years www.biquge.info it is not surprising that those veteran sailors who have been at sea for many years can judge the wind trend in the next few days based on the weather conditions, dryness and wetness, and even smells of the previous days.

Zheng Zhilong has been on the sea for many years, and there is naturally no shortage of such talents under his command. The most important thing in naval warfare is to take advantage of the wind, and the reason why he decided to find the traces of the red hair and choose to fight today is precisely because he judged that there would be a suitable sea breeze on this day, which could help him use the fireboat to impact. And at the moment of launching the charge, the opportunity finally came, it was God bless the Zheng family!

Zheng Zhilong stood at the bow of the boat excitedly, and the red Shu brocade robe on his body was swept up by the sea breeze, like a crimson battle flag. He immediately went to order the sailors on the flagship here to blow the horn of attack, and at the same time drew the sword at his waist and rushed at the fleet of red-haired men opposite, and a word burst out of his mouth: "Kill!" ”

Zheng Zhihu, who was already impatient, laughed heartily, grabbed two drumsticks, and personally banged the big drum to boost morale.

The arsonist ships that rushed ahead received the order, and they lit the dry firewood soaked in vegetable oil on the ship, and for a time the fire was in full swing, and a hundred fireboats dragged the flames and smoke, like a fire dragon rushing towards the red-haired fleet.

On the "Fort Middle", Putmans saw the dense arsonist ships, his heart tightened, and he ordered: "Give the order to keep a distance between the ships, not to be attacked by the fireboats, and to fire with cannons, and to reduce the number of fireships as much as possible." Although he didn't understand Chinese culture and didn't know that in the famous Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's warships were fixed with iron cables and burned down by Zhou Yu's fire, but his career as a soldier gave him enough battlefield wisdom to know that weakening the effect of fire attack was first to disperse the formation of the fleet, rather than concentrate in one place.

The Dutch fleet raised its sails, distanced itself from each other, opened the side gun windows, and began a continuous shelling.

"Boom, boom, boom", the cannon roared, and 18-pound shells rained down on the fireship. Although the distance of more than one mile was not the best range of naval guns, and the undulating waves and shaking of the hull could not guarantee the accuracy of shooting, there were still arsonist ships that were concentrated by shells, and the hull was either broken in two or overturned, becoming a fire floating on the sea.

More arsonists rushed forward without hesitation in the face of the cannonballs whistling overhead, and the red-haired cannonballs seemed less terrible under the stimulus of the high prizes. After losing more than 20 ships, finally arsonist ships rushed into the opponent's fleet formation one after another, and after hooking the plywood boats with iron hooks, the Zheng sailors jumped into the water one after another.

After being hooked by the iron hook, no matter how the Dutch battleship maneuvered, it could not shake off these leech-like arsonist boats, under the action of the sea breeze and vegetable oil, the huge hull began to burn, the fire spread quickly, and the thick smoke blocked the view of the naval guns, unable to shoot normally.

The Dutch, though flustered, were not slow to move, and they steered their boats as best they could avoid the arsonists that continued to rush behind, and then the sailors carried barrels and tried to extinguish the flames that had spread to the side of the ship.

At this time, the Zheng family's gunboats, which were parallel on both sides with the arsonist boats, also approached, and Zheng Hongkui, who was in charge of the command, shouted with all his might: "Fire!" It seems that the frustration of being yin twice has to be vented in this command.

"Boom, boom", dozens of big blue-headed warships outflanked from the flank, and attacked the Dutch fleet that was scrambled by the arsonist ships with artillery.

The Dutch obviously did not expect the other party to choose to shell at this time, and for a while the situation was in chaos, so they hurriedly adjusted the direction of the ship, aimed at the Zheng family's fleet from the side, and fired back with artillery.

The Zheng family gunboat with the blessing of the Qiongzhou battalion Caron cannon is no longer the Wuxia Amon in the impression of the Dutch, the close-range shooting does not fall into the wind at all, the dense shotgun sweeps across the deck of the Dutch battleship, the screams are one after another, the sailors who raise the sails and extinguish the fire are bombed and fall, rolling in a pool of blood, and there are few people on the deck who can stand for a while.

Under the cover of their own gunboats, the remaining arsonist ships happily cut through the gradually thinning rain of bullets, firmly biting their targets, and more Dutch battleships were caught in flames.

Having lost the power of the sails and effective fire extinguishing measures, the Dutch were completely disorganized, and the counterattack of the naval guns was out of order. Although the 18-pounder and 24-pounder guns were still able to penetrate the Zheng family's cabin and reap the lives of the Zheng family's sailors, the casualty exchange ratio between the two sides was not much different - and such a battle was very disadvantageous to the Dutch, and the Zheng family had an absolute advantage in numbers, their sailors were more than ants, and the Dutch were less than one-tenth of the opponent's number.

"No!" Putmans threw himself on the bow of the ship and shouted in disbelief, "How can Zheng Yiguan's subordinates have such firepower? Aren't they just old-fashioned half-snake cannons? ”

Van Bommel, the captain of the "Fort Middle", was also alarmed: "Sir, we are in a dangerous situation. If this continues, even if our ship is not completely burned down, there will be no sailors on deck who can raise the sails, so we will have to stop where we are and let them be slaughtered......"

Putmans didn't expect the battle situation to turn out like this, if there was only an attack from fireships, he could still cope with it, pay the price of one or two battleships, and the superior naval guns were enough to repel the Zheng family's fleet - in the past, the Zheng family's naval artillery firepower was negligible, the power was small, the firing range was short, and the rate of fire was extremely slow, as long as they hung a sufficient distance and maneuvered while shooting like a kite, the Zheng family could only be beaten-but the other party suddenly changed its guns, and had large-caliber artillery that he had never seen before, and it could shoot continuously, The two-pronged attack with the fireship attack made him not know how to continue the fight.

He patted his forehead, closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then gave a painful order: "Send someone to inform Liu Xiang, abandon the outer front, and join us." In addition, tell our people, gather together, look for each other's weak points to break through! ”

Van Bommel was a little surprised, is this to give up the rhythm of the decisive battle and escape? He asked hesitantly, "Sir, but we came here to fight Zheng Yiguan, and now the battle has only started for less than an hour......

Putmans opened his eyes and exclaimed, "Damn, I know it's a decisive battle." But can you tell me where the Zheng family got these cannons, and how to deal with these locust-like fireships and raindrop-like shotguns? Captain, you have to be clear about one thing, I am not giving this order to escape, we must get out of the current predicament in order to find a chance to defeat them again, and being trapped here will only lead us to a situation from which they will never recover! ”

Van Bommel was dumbfounded by the question: "Well, I know what to do, sir......" turned to look for the soldier to give the order.