The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 134 Great Victory at Sea
The naval battle took place not far from the bay, so the Dutch military leaders who hurried over stood on the dock and looked through telescopes, feeling extremely anxious.

Especially when the nine sail warships of the Nanyang Navy were lined up and appeared in everyone's sight, it almost shocked Lieutenant General Koch's eyes. He asked in disbelief;
"Oh, God, did I see it wrong? Why do these Easterners have so many battleships?"

The political officer James Loudon, Colonel Claudia and others standing nearby stared at each other, and no one could answer this question.

At this time, who dares to make wild guesses?

The Dutch Royal Fleet used 6 battleships to fight against the enemy's nine ships. This made everyone raise their hearts in their throats and watch the battle on the sea in fear.

The rules of war are generally the same. The army uses more troops to bully those with fewer troops.

The navy uses large ships to bully small ships, and uses many ships to bully small ships.

With a strong lineup of more than a hundred sailing battleships, the British Royal Navy has firmly sat on the throne of the Seven Seas and ruled the world for more than 150 years.

There are only eight sailing battleships of the same level in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, six of which are in the mainland and two in the overseas East Indies colonies, and they are all third-level sailing battleships with the lowest combat effectiveness.

One is the current "Zhenhai" (note; the original "Levinsaugus"), and the other is the "Hohenstaufen". Now each leads a team of warships in a bloody battle.

Unfortunately, the good luck ended here. When the flagship "Hohenstaufen" exchanged fire with the fourth enemy ship, it was obvious that the gunfire on the ship had weakened.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth warships following behind...the bombardment they endured will gradually decrease, and the enemy fleet's gunners will also suffer casualties, and they will also be short of manpower and will not have time to focus their fire for bombardment.

However, the opponent unreasonably used explosive bombs, grape bombs and incendiary bombs. The fire on the "Hohenstaufen" was ignited by incendiary bombs.

It was too cruel, it was such an injustice to lose.

Each warship fired more than a dozen cannonballs, and hundreds of iron nails and pieces of iron whizzed past, leaving no place to hide.

After dozens of rounds of bloody bullets, it has become such a bad situation.

Such a heroic battle drew cheers like a tsunami from the Dutch troops on the dock.

Fortunately, the "Hohenstaufen" lived up to expectations. After experiencing concentrated fire and bombardment from the enemy's first, second, and third sail warships, although a fire broke out at the stern of the ship, it still did not stop. rush forward.

Major General Jule vomited blood and lay limply next to the steering wheel. His chest was deeply dug into by seven or eight iron nails and iron blocks, and he was bleeding gurglingly, staining the entire major general's uniform red.

As for sinking enemy ships, that is basically impossible.

There was also an overwhelming barrage of grape bullets. Every time a round was fired, a large area of ​​the deck was cleared. Hundreds of iron nails, iron blocks, iron balls and steel scraps were thrown at everyone like rain. This was so fucking bullying. People.

Everyone on the shore was stunned. God, can we still fight?

Calculated based on the gun position on one side of the "Hohenstaufen", each round of full-force bombardment can fire 18 shells. If you are lucky, you can kill seven to eight to a dozen enemies, which is basically overwhelming.

Needless to say, the flagship at the front will take the biggest hit.

On board the "Hohenstaufen" at this time

Moreover, the main sail and jib sail on the ship were ignited, and the fire quickly burned due to the wind. Large fireballs floated down from the mast, and ignited a large pile of cables on the deck, and the flames were blazing for a while.

Major General Jule looked up at the sky with helpless eyes, and saw that the sky was a burning flame, and then with a "boom", the fiercely burning main sail slid down, covering the entire rear of the battleship in raging flames.

Because the enemy fleet's long-awaited first bombardment will be completely poured on the flagship, and it is bound to suffer maximum damage.

When their respective flagships passed side by side, the rumbling artillery fire shook the sky. The Dutch troops on the dock shouted cheers in unison, and their nervous breathing stopped.

You know, his flagship ship has a total of 308 sailors. Even if there are a few more people left in the bottom, it has basically lost its combat effectiveness.

He looked at the deck with dull eyes. After rounds of overwhelming blows from shells and grapeshot, the deck was littered with corpses, and no more than 30 people were still able to fight.

When the sailing battleship "Zhenhu", ranked fifth in the Nanyang Fleet, focused its fire on the burning "Hohenstaufen", the other party only fired two shots from the bottom artillery deck in response, and everything else went silent. .

this discovery
The "Zhenhu" immediately jumped for joy. The enemy's bombardment did little damage to the ship. All the gunners acted quickly, preparing to carry out a fatal blow to the sail warship ranked second among the enemy ships.

Grape bullets and explosive bullets were stuffed into the gun barrel one by one, preparing to give the enemy ship a powerful taste.

The rumble of cannons on the sea was endless. After more than half an hour, the battle line battle between the fleets of both sides came to an end.

And at this time

The Dutch officers and soldiers standing on the dock all had heavy faces, and no one was in a cheering mood.

The brutal sea battle took place in the bay. Visible fires engulfed the "Hohenstaufen" and another sailing warship. The common feature of them was that the sails were set alight and there were serious casualties on the ship.

It has completely lost its power and has become two blazing torches on the sea.

The surviving sailors jumped into the sea like dumplings, holding on to planks and wine barrels. The situation was quite miserable.

Although the Nanyang Navy's several sail warships were hit with bumps on their sides, the overall sails were not ignited and the casualties were under control.

It can be seen from the rumbling concentrated fire volleys that the combat effectiveness is not greatly damaged.

Why is this happening?

The Dutch generals on the shore were confused. At this time, a captain who was quite proficient in naval warfare explained;
"My lords, the Royal Navy fleet that rushed to engage in the battle suffered heavy losses and may not be able to fight again.

It can be heard from the sound of the cannons that the cannons emitted by the Royal Navy fleet are dull and powerful. They are all solid iron bullets, and only a small number of them are chain bullets.

But the Eastern fleet was not the same. They had been prepared for a long time and attacked unpreparedly, so the Royal Fleet suffered a big loss.

You can see that the shells they fired all have a red light, that is, red-hot incendiary bombs that have burned for two or three hours, and the sound of the shelling is broken, like a hoarse cough.

This kind of incendiary bomb is very vicious. Its biggest effect is to ignite sails, cables and wooden hulls, causing great damage. At that time, they were shooting explosive shells and grapeshot shells. This kind of shells usually used wooden supports, and in front were iron nails, knives and forks, iron balls and other sundries restrained in cloth bags.

The sound of shelling seemed broken instead of dull and powerful.

These special bombs pose a great threat to the sailors on the deck. One shell can clear an entire area, so our casualties are far greater than those of the enemy.

It seems that the remaining battleships are preparing to escape.

This is the right approach. If the entanglement continues, the Royal Navy fleet may face the terrible situation of annihilation. "

"These despicable Easterners, how dare they?" Lieutenant General Koch shouted with his eyes red and his fists clenched tightly.

The officers around him looked at each other, and no one dared to answer this question.

The experienced captain was indeed right. After the Royal Netherlands Fleet completed the first round of battle line bombardment on the sea, one of the more than 700 tons of "Brumwell" raised the command flag and took the lead to Escape into the distance.

Seeing that nothing could be done, the other three Dutch warships followed and fled the battlefield one after another.

The Nanyang Fleet "Zhenhai" responded quickly and took the lead in turning the ship's bow and began to pursue.

The two sailing battleships "Zhenjiang" and "Zhenhe" were left behind, and they led the remaining seven sailing battleships to pursue them, cutting through the waves and sailing towards the depths of the ocean.

Hu Huadong, who was standing at the helmsman's command position, looked pale. His left arm was broken by a broken wooden stake and had been wrapped up urgently.

At this moment, he was holding the railing with his right hand and asked calmly, "Report the casualties."

"Reporting to your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, our ship has a total of 253 people. In this battle, 37 people were killed and 106 injured. Less than 150 people can still continue to fight."

"Seize the time to bandage the wounds of the brothers, and ask the kitchen to prepare some hot water and food for the brothers to worry about. We must continue to pursue the enemy."

"Clean the surface of the ship, organize a repair team to repair the damaged sails, and take action quickly!"

"Yes, Your Excellency, Commander."

The mood of victory in the first battle infected everyone, and all the wounded who could move also took action, bringing seawater to wash the deck, gathering the fallen soldiers together, and cleaning the splinters of wood and broken railings on the deck.

The Dutch fleet mainly used cast-iron artillery shells. Although they could make craters on the sides of the battleships, they actually did little damage to the entire hull.

The most deadly thing was the flying wood thorns and stubble. Less than half of the officers and soldiers killed and injured were caused by this factor.

The most unlucky thing is to be directly hit by a cannonball, and then the cannonball rolls and bumps on the deck, causing injury upon collision and death upon contact.

Seven artillery pieces were damaged in the battle, mostly casualties caused by direct shell hits during direct bombardment.

On the other hand, the Dutch fleet was much worse. Regardless of whether it was shells or grape bombs, as long as they were fired from the enemy's gun muzzle, they would basically clean up the whole area.

The effect of hitting the deck was even better. The whistling iron nails, iron pieces, and iron blocks greatly increased the casualties of the Dutch soldiers.

The "Hohenstaufen" had a double-layer gun deck, which provided slightly better protection for the gunners in the lower gun positions. Unfortunately, it was hit by dozens of incendiary bombs and was ignited into a large fireball at sea.

Other Dutch sailing warships were limited by tonnage. They are all single-deck, that is, the artillery is installed on the side of the deck, and the sailors on the deck suffered even more casualties.

Hu Huadong estimated that the casualties of Zhenjiang and Zhenhe, which followed closely behind, would also be large. Both ships also had single-decks.

So stay and ensure that the "Hohenstaufen" and another Dutch sailing battleship must be sunk and burned in the fire.

With these two sailing warships hovering for protection, other Dutch cargo ships did not dare to come up to rescue.

The shipboard used in the construction of the "Hohenstaufen" was extremely thick. Even if it burned for a day and night on the sea, it would not be completely burned. At least the part under the sea would be preserved.

When the time comes, just get close and destroy it with artillery.

After chasing for more than two hours, the Zhenhai found that the Dutch sailing fleet ahead was split into two.

The two sail warships with less damage in the front ran faster and faster, while the two warships in the rear had their sails beaten to pieces and leaked wind everywhere.

Under the strong sea breeze, some small holes were torn into large ones, making it look a bit like a beggar's warship.

In this way, the sail cannot hold the wind, and it will naturally slow down.

Hu Huadong had a smile on his face, turned his head and ordered the officers around him to say;

"Send a signal to the brothers on the battleships behind, catch up with them and give them another round of cannon, then move closer and capture these two ships for me."

"Sir, what about the two ships in front?"

"I guess I can't catch up, so just let him go." Hu Huadong took out his pocket watch and looked at the time. It was already around 3 pm.

He estimated that combined with the shelling and the boarding battle, it would take three or four hours to end the battle.

After such a delay, the two Dutch warships in front disappeared without knowing where they were.

The sea is vast, and without advanced communication and navigation facilities, it is easy to lose track of someone once it gets dark, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Fortunately, in today's battle, we were able to sink two ships and capture two ships, which was a great victory.

The next step is to implement the commander-in-chief's strategy of "controlling the land with the sea". It can be said that there will be no future troubles, and there is no need to worry about the two escaped Dutch warships coming to cause trouble.

If he dares to come, Major General Hu Huadong will have full confidence to keep these two sail warships.

(End of this chapter)