1850 American Gold Tycoon.

"The Dutch are gaining the upper hand."

shouted the crew on the Daring.

This was Liang Yao's first serious naval battle.

He had no relevant combat experience in naval warfare before, and his understanding of the Dutch's maritime strength and combat habits was still limited to the intelligence he had collected.

Liang Yao didn't know whether his crew preferred to fight upwind or downwind.

But he knows one thing, that is, the Dutch cannot be allowed to grab the position they like, and let the Dutch fight in the wind they are better at.

"Get the upper hand with the Dutch!"

Liang Yao gave the order to seize the upper hand with the Dutch.

Liang Yao's four capital ships and 11 Loach-class ships are all steam ships. His fleet has a relatively high steam rate, and the wind direction has relatively little influence on them.

But there are still 16 clipper ships and the Guangdong Navy. The pirate ships of the pirates are sailing ships, and these ships still rely heavily on the direction of the wind to fight.

Liang Yao's purpose is very simple. Except for the four main warships in his own fleet, the rest of the ships are all amateur navies.

The level of training is relatively low, and the degree of running-in is not satisfactory.

Liang Yao's biggest advantage lies in his superiority in ship technology, to put it bluntly, his superiority in naval guns.

Liang Yao hoped that his own fleet could maintain the simplest one-line formation, use the advantage of naval guns to shoot at the opponent, and fight line battles at sea.Don't play those fancy tactics.

The sailors of the Dutch have good sailing skills, and they skillfully manipulate the sails to make the most of the wind for their own use.

Liang Yao's fleet was lined up. Although they were supported by steamships, they could barely keep up with the Dutch boats and competed with them for the upper hand.

Obviously, the sailing skills of Liang Yao's recruited merchant mariners cannot be compared with the skilled sailors of the Dutch.

Seeing that the Dutch exposed themselves to the shooting range of Liang Yao's fleet in order to maneuver to an effective position.

At this time, the Dutchman's bow was facing the side of Liang Yao's fleet, which was an excellent opening for Liang Yao's fleet to fire.

"Fire!" Liang Yao gave the command to fire without hesitation.

The naval guns on the Audacious are pre-loaded with solid ammunition.

After receiving Liang Yao's order, the two 127mm (5-inch) main guns on the bow and stern of the Boldness, and the three 76mm (3-inch) secondary guns on one side aimed at a double-gun that was turning and maneuvering. The four-tier sailing battleship on the first deck poured out the pre-loaded solid bullets.

Accompanied by the sound of the guns that came to the ears one by one, five solid bullets flew through the air and flew towards the enemy ship.

Except for one secondary gun that was emptied because the gunner was too nervous, the other two main guns and two secondary guns hit the fourth-tier ship.

For a moment, sawdust flew across the hit fourth-tier ship.

"The enemy opened fire on our Agamemnon! General! Please give the order!"

Officers aboard the Dutch flagship Rotterdam asked Cruzan for orders.

"Scheduled location for Ann's planned maneuver."

Krewson just replied lightly.

He has confidence in his crew, and he believes that not only the battleship Agamemnon, but other warships can also withstand two to three rounds of enemy bombardment.

As long as they have survived two to three rounds of shelling from the opponent, they can maneuver to a downwind position, and use the advantage of the wind to directly attack the opponent's formation and disperse the opponent's formation.

Through the competition for the windward direction, Krewson has been keenly aware that the quality of the opponent's crew is not as good as his own.

As long as the opponent's formation is dispersed, he is sure to take advantage of the higher quality of his own crew to defeat the opponent one by one.

The family background of the Dutch East India Fleet is not strong, Kreutsen has no intention of shooting at sea with Liang Yao, and the competition is exhausting.

Their wealth cannot withstand such consumption.

After the Audacity fired, the other ships also fired at the maneuvering Dutch warship in turn.

It's just that Liang Yao's fleet is mostly small boats, and the small boats are basically equipped with 6-pound guns. Due to the small guns, even if the solid bullets hit the target, the damage to the hull of the ship is very limited.

Only the naval guns on the four main warships caused considerable damage to the opponent's ships.

The Roland under Sven's command only used two rounds of shelling to penetrate a five-tier double-deck sailing warship below the waterline.

Seawater quickly poured into the fifth-tier sailing warship. The Dutch crew on board were busy draining water and blocked the water inlet.

This was already the biggest result achieved by Liang Yao's fleet in the first two rounds of bombardment.

Holland's composure and endurance made Liang Yao uneasy. Liang Yao's fleet had completed at least two rounds of shelling.

The Dutch seem to be very calm and have not yet started to fire back.

"Change explosive bombs! Wash their decks!"

Seeing that the small-caliber solid bullets caused very limited damage to the enemy ship's hull, and hitting the opponent's ship was like scraping, Liang Yao then ordered to change to explosive bombs, and instead focused on killing the opponent's vital force.

Krewson was very surprised by the performance of the crew of Liang Yao's fleet.

Crewson originally thought that his own ships would need to withstand two or three rounds of salvos from the opponent.

Unexpectedly, the opponent has already started the sixth round of shelling.

what is happening?
The level of the opponent's rigging, helmsman and gunner is obviously not in the same order of magnitude.

The skills of the rigger and helmsman are very poor, and even a small boat of the same level can barely keep up with his maneuvers.

On the other hand, the gunner's loading speed is astonishing, and the shooting accuracy is also very high.

This was the first time Krusan encountered such a situation.

The rate of fire of the opponent's naval gun is too fast, so fast that it is outrageous.

After withstood seven rounds of bombardment by Liang Yao's fleet, the East Indies Fleet finally seized the downwind position and used the wind advantage to attack Liang Yao's fleet, trying to break up the formation of Liang Yao's fleet.

"After all, it was once a maritime power. The Dutch sailors' tactical skills are really high!"

Fremont, who watched the battle with Liang Yao on board the Bold, couldn't help sighing.

The quality of the Dutch crew can be seen by being able to complete maneuvers in a coordinated and orderly manner under the bombardment of one's own artillery and seize a favorable position.

Fremont subconsciously compared these Dutch sailors with those of the American Navy, imagining whether the American Navy could perform as well as the Dutch under such circumstances.

The answer Fremont gave was no. The crew of the American Navy did not have as high a tactical quality as the Dutch crew.

Obtain a tailwind state by maneuvering in the upwind position, and then use the maneuver advantage to break up the formation of the enemy fleet. This is a common trick used by the Dutch Navy in the Anglo-Dutch War.

Although Liang Yao saw the trick of the Dutchman, he was helpless against the oncoming attack of the Dutchman.

The fleet organized by Liang Yao is not a professional navy after all. Except for the quality of the crew on the four main warships, the quality of the crew on the rest of the ships, especially the clipper ship, is very average.

At least the quality of the crew is a bit lower than that of the opponent.

Seeing the Dutch ships rushing up from the side, the clippers, the small sampans of the Guangdong Navy and the pirates subconsciously moved away to avoid the collision of the Dutch ships.

Soon, the Dutch ships and planes disrupted the formation of Liang Yao's fleet.

Liang Yao tried to take advantage of the technical advantages of his own naval guns to maintain the simplest one-line formation, connected end to end, and his plan to shoot each other with the ships of the Dutch East India Fleet fell through.

Liang Yao's sea power is no better than a well-trained land force. Once the formation is dispersed, they can only fight on their own.

With the level of his maritime strength training and running-in, and the crude communication methods in the world, it is impossible to reassemble the formation in battle.