William held a telescope and observed the battle ahead. www.biquge.info This telescope was not brought by Father George from Europe, but was made by the local craftsmen of Lingao under his guidance, because the local craftsmen were not too skilled, and there were not many in the initial production, which could only be used by senior officers, and it would take a while to use it even for officers above the level.

As he observed, he exclaimed: "God, the broadside battles in the Far East are more ferocious than in Europe, and these hand-to-hand soldiers seem to have come from hell - they don't seem to have any concept of taking prisoners, and they are really ruthless." ”

Xia Nan continued: "That's because there is no practice in the East to exchange prisoners for ransom. These pirates fight, either you die or I live, if there is no need, they generally do not leave a living mouth, and if they catch prisoners, they waste food. ”

William shook his head: "Thankfully, we don't need to fight in such a brutal way - a 12-pounder long-barreled cannon and a 32-pounder Caron cannon are enough to tear all the enemies in the Far East to shreds." The only ones who can pose a real threat to us are the Dutch, and of course, Zheng Yiguan, who uses ship-to-sea tactics, is also difficult to deal with. However, as far as I know, the Dutch naval guns are mainly 18-pounder guns, plus a small number of 24-pounder guns, and the firepower in long-range combat is not much stronger than our 12-pounder guns, and we have an absolute advantage in close combat. ”

Xia Nan asked: "After this battle, there may only be one of the two opponents who can pose a threat to the Qiongzhou battalion, which opponent do you prefer to be left?" ”

William thought for a moment and replied, "Although the number of Zheng Yiguan's ships is so large that it is chilling, as long as I don't get into a close-range melee in the coastal harbor like today, and there is not enough room for detours, I am more confident in defeating him." In comparison, the armed merchant ships of the Dutch will inflict more casualties on our sailors, and I don't want to meet such an adversary......"

Xia Nan smiled and said, "Hehe, if nothing else, you will get a satisfactory answer today." ”

At this moment, on the flagship of the tallest three-masted gunboat in the Zheng family's fleet, Zheng Zhilong was holding a monocular to quietly observe the enemy position in the distance—this telescope was the same as the one Zheng Hongkui used to observe the attack on the Zhongzuo fleet, which had been bought from Macao at a great price.

The battle on the periphery has begun, Liu Xiang's fleet has been entangled, and the main force of the Zheng family's fleet has rushed to the circle, and the distance from the red-haired plywood ship is not far away, and it will soon come into contact.

Although the Zheng family far outnumbered their opponents, not counting the boats of the Fujian Navy Division and the Qiongzhou Battalion, there were one hundred and fifty or sixty boats, but most of them were small rowboats, piled with dry firewood and straw, and sprinkled with grease to set fire to them. Sixteen sturdy men were assigned to each of the fireboats, and after the battle began, they would rush into the enemy's position desperately, and choose a suitable time to light the fire, and then jump into the water and flee for their lives, whether or not they could burn the other side.

There are only about forty ships on the Zheng family's side that really carry elite soldiers and strong generals to fight, of which Daqingtou accounts for most of them, and there are five or six three-masted warships of about 1,000 materials - including the flagship at Zheng Zhilong's feet - as long as he thinks of this, Zheng Zhilong will feel a little distressed, if it is not for the sudden attack by these damn red-haired ghosts, the number of Daqingtou can be increased to sixty, and all of them are equipped with short and heavy guns purchased from the Qiongzhou battalion.

When he was groaning, there was a sound of heavy footsteps from behind him, Zheng Zhihu walked to the bow of the boat, and couldn't wait to ask, "Big brother, when will I get on?" ”

Zheng Zhilong looked at him, he was covered in shark skin, with a water-splitting spur tied to the outside of his thighs, and a dagger sleeve tied around his ankle - this is a typical dress for preparing to dive under the water and seize the enemy ship.

Zheng Zhilong frowned and said, "Second brother, didn't you say a long time ago that you would change your iron armor, why are you still preparing to go into the water to scuttle the boat?" ”

The world thinks that there is no need for heavy iron armor in naval warfare, but in fact, heavy armor is still very useful in naval warfare - it is used to make arrows in broadside warfare. No matter which force is involved in the gang jumping battle, the sailors must be lightly armored cloth clothes, most of them are even shirtless, and the emphasis is on light and flexible, at this time, if there is a fierce man wearing heavy armor and arrows and projectiles that cannot be shot into the front, it can immediately play a decisive role in the first place.

In this battle, the Zheng family's plan was to use the gunboat and the red hair as a cover, and when the red hair had no time to take care of it, they would release the arson boat to rush into the enemy ship and burn the opponent's plywood boat as much as possible. The ships of this era were all wooden structures, and as long as they were approached by an arsonist ship filled with vegetable oil and firewood, they would burn 100% of the time, and there was no manpower to extinguish the fire during the battle, which was basically a dead end. Once you don't get your opponent in one turn, you won't be able to turn around and charge again, and your boat will have burned out.

After the fire was over, the surviving plywood ships relied on hand-to-hand combat in hand-to-hand combat. Although the casualties in the broadside battle were high, it was worth the number of lives to take one or two large plywood ships. In contrast, ship-wreshing tactics were not very suitable for this kind of mobile warfare, and were more suitable for ships anchored in the harbor.

"I know. But now it's a fire attack, and it's not yet time to engage in a broadside battle, so I'm idle and idle, and leading people into the water to scuttle and sink a boat is counted as one! Zheng Zhihu was anxious all of a sudden. The iron armor he wants to wear has a first-class protective effect, but it is also very heavy, and it is very inconvenient to move, let alone go into the water to scuttle the boat, as long as it falls into the water, it is a weighing stone, and the gods can't pick it up. I can't stand it for him to be stupidly dressed in iron armor during the entire fire attack stage.

Zheng Zhilong patiently persuaded: "Second brother, the red-haired ship is a tactic of detouring left and right and seizing the downwind position when firing the cannon, you don't know it, it is difficult to scuttle the boat in this situation, and it is still dangerous to get rid of yourself." After the fireship rushed over, the results of the battle were immediately clear, and the next thing was the broadside battle, if you weren't there, who would lead the brothers to charge into battle, could it be that I would go on it myself? ”

Zheng Zhihu scratched his head and replied in a muffled voice: "Okay, I'll listen to you, I'll go back to the cabin and change into iron armor after a while......"

After persuading this meritorious second brother, Zheng Zhilong breathed a sigh of relief, and finally would not destroy his battle plan because of Zheng Zhihu's personal bravery.

The Zheng family's huge fleet was getting closer and closer to the red-haired fleet, and the fireship at the front was only two miles away from the other party. At this time, the wind began to blow on the sea.