Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

[Obi] is a 450-ton small commercial galleon ship, whose name is taken from the Obi Islands in the Spice Islands. It is one of the very few of the 150 merchant ships under the Dutch United East India Company named after the colony.Although the tonnage of the [Obi] is not large, it is equipped with 4 guns including 12 4-pounders and 9 18-pounders, which is unique among armed merchant ships of the same level or even larger. Therefore, it was taken for granted that the Spice Islands Fleet of the United East India Company was selected as a part of the patrol team to monitor possible Chinese navy in the northern waters.

However, this arrangement put [Obi] in a difficult situation. You must know that no matter how powerful the firepower of [Obi] was, it was just an armed merchant ship, and there was no way to compare it with a regular warship.No, at this moment, two Xia Jun's first-class letter ships were sandwiching it, one left and one right, and the fierce artillery fire was not inferior to the confrontation between capital ships.

Although compared with the "Obi", the Xia Jun's first-class letter ship has a lower freeboard, but the Xia Jun's first-class letter ship is a flying shear ship, which is extremely fast, and the much clumsier "Obi" cannot Get rid of Xia Jun's pursuit, and Xia Jun's first-class letter ship is also equipped with [-] cannons, even with a larger caliber, so the "Obi" fell into a hard fight with one enemy and two times.

Fortunately, this time, the God of the Dutch blessed the [Obi] --- at the critical moment when more than half of the artillery on the [Obi] was destroyed by the Xia army, a chain bomb that seemed to have the help of a god After discounting the main mast of the Xia Jun Xinbao ship on the left, the Xia Jun Xin Bao ship stalled immediately. In the dangerous sea, stalling means becoming a lamb to be slaughtered. In order to ensure the safety of the friendly ship, the Xia Jun Xin Bao ship on the right had no choice but to give up the pursuit. Obi No.] was able to escape by luck.

The fact that the [Obi] was attacked announced the beginning of the Xia-Dutch War. In order to prevent its own side from being blocked in the harbor, the Dutch Spice Islands Fleet sailed out of the port, actively looking for the Xia Army Fleet for a decisive battle.

The Spice Islands fleet of the Dutch army is mainly composed of fourteen warships with more than 40 guns and thirty armed merchant ships, the largest of which are the 60-gun [Veere] and the 52-gun [stadenlande] .Speaking of which, the Spice Islands fleet with a total of more than 1000 artillery pieces is also second to none in Southeast Asia.

The mighty Dutch fleet plans to cross the Maluku Strait and enter the Sulawesi Sea after setting off from Deira (De Nadi).Just when it arrived near the Sanchi Islands, a 50-ton unarmed notification ship brought the news that the Xia army was bombarding Manado.Although knowing that this might be a trick of the Xia army to lure the enemy, the Dutch, who felt that there was no way out, chose to face it head-on.

On April 16th in the 1714th year of Huaxia Wucheng ([-] in the Western calendar), the naval battle in the Sulawesi Sea broke out, and Xiahe officially started the war.

"Send the flag," looking at the white sails in the distance, the founding uncle, doctor Jiayi (the third rank), the inspector prince Shaofu (the fourth rank), the first-class captain (the third rank), and the imperial admiral Sulu Haishui Wei Fang, the Commander-in-Chief of the Marine, Marine and Marine Corps (from the second rank), arrived with a serious expression on his face. "All the fleets follow the officers in turn, and they are not allowed to disturb the formation at will." Don't blame Wei Fang for being cautious. After all, this is the first time that the Huaxia Navy has fought against a European naval power. It can be described as the biggest test for the Huaxia Navy in 30 years. He couldn't help but take it lightly. "I am notifying all the ships that they should be sunk as much as possible, and there must be no possibility of Hongyi making a comeback."

"Your Excellency, the Chinese warships have been lined up in a single file." At the same time Wei Fang gave the order, Captain Ward, the captain of the Dutch flagship [Weir], sent a message to the Dutch Rear Admiral, Baron Constantin de Agurian. reported. "The first few ships should be battle line gunships with more than [-] guns."

"The Chinese have so many gunboats in the battle line," Major General Yagurian sighed, looking at the shadowy ships in the binoculars. "It is indeed the most powerful empire in the East, but are they really capable of manipulating battle line gunships who were still using those slow junk ships decades ago?" the major general ordered coldly. "Tell the Dutch sailors, please use artillery to teach these Chinese a lesson, so that they understand who is the strongest at sea."

Major General Yagurian's self-confidence is justified.First, the Dutch army has a large number, with a total of 44 warships participating in the battle, while the Xia army has only about 36 or seven warships; second and most critical, the Dutch army is currently in a tailwind position, and the Xia army must Only by turning around in front of the formation can we achieve mutual shooting with the Dutch army.Of course, Major General Yagurian also consciously ignored some key issues. For example, although the number of ships of the Xia Army is small, the number of artillery on board is large; Less disciplined armed merchant ships and more

Three quarters of an hour (1.5 hours) later, the two sides were already close to each other. At this time, Major General Yagurian carefully observed the distinctive shape of the Xia Army's battle line gunships---Xia Army's cruisers also used flying scissors. The forecastle and stern, so the hull is longer under the same tonnage, and the length-to-width ratio has reached an astonishing [-]:[-] level. Due to the bow and stern, there are more sails hanging, but it looks like sailing There are not too many sailors, which confuses the general.

However, before the major general came to a conclusion, the hull of the [Virl] shook for a while, and a huge roar sounded immediately, and the first shot of the Sulawesi Sea Battle was fired.Countless flames spewed out from the side of Xia Jun's ship on the opposite side, and immediately, the soaring sea water washed each other like a torrential rain.

Because they were facing each other, after a round of artillery fire, they passed by each other, but the sailors of the two armies did not relax because of this, because the second enemy ship soon appeared in each other's field of vision.

More than forty battleships are connected end to end, a full length of several nautical miles. Even if they travel at four knots relative to each other, it will take nearly half an hour. , the hit rate of each other is not too high, but it is not a big problem for a thick-hulled warship to be hit by many shells, and a thin-hulled merchant ship will suffer from water leakage and many other problems as long as it hits one or two shells.

In fact, this phenomenon is also related to the artillery equipped by both sides.The guns equipped by the warships of the Dutch army are mainly 12-pound long guns and 18-pound short guns. The number of guns above 24-pounds is very small. The third-class and fourth-class cruisers participating in the battle of the Xia Army were equipped with 9-cent (12-pound) long guns and 18-and-a-half-cent (28-pound) short cannons. 32-pound) long guns and 18-point short guns are not of the same order of magnitude as the Dutch army; therefore, after the confrontation, the Dutch should have suffered a big loss. At least 4 armed merchant ships were directly blown up, and others 5 ships were severely damaged, and only 4 cruise ships of the Xia Army were besieged by Dutch artillery fire due to broken masts, but they still relied on the watertight cabin to struggle above the water surface. In this way, the gap in the number of ships between the two sides has been narrowed .

After the Xia army started to turn around, the Dutch armed merchant ship at the rear of the column was attacked from left to right.

At this time, Major General Yagurian discovered that the cruiser of the Xia army was actually faster than all the warships in his fleet, which meant that his fleet could not escape the pursuit of the Xia army at all, and it could not turn around and sail against the wind.

The fact that Major General Yagurian was able to discover was also discovered by some keen-eyed captains of armed merchant ships. These panicked captains immediately left their comrades and began to flee. As a result, the single column of the Dutch army shrank rapidly. Soon there were less than 20 ships left to persist.

However, Wei Fang did not order her side to pursue these fleeing armed merchant ships. Instead, she led the main team to continue to approach quickly under the despairing eyes of Major General Yagurian. Only now did the two sides enter the sea artillery battle in the era of sailing warships in a true sense.Only this time, Xia Jun has taken the absolute initiative

An hour later, another 6 Dutch warships and armed merchant ships sank to the bottom of the sea, and another 5 paralyzed at sea like dead fish.Major General Yagurian was also seriously injured by bullets and was unable to continue commanding. The entire "Ville" was hit by hundreds of bullets and began to roll. As a last resort, the captain, Colonel Ward, had to raise the white flag.

Seeing that the flagship surrendered, those armed merchant ships that could not escape also rose and surrendered one after another. Only a few Dutch warships such as the "City and Countryside" were still resisting, but they capsized one after another under the shelling of the Xia army. So far, Sulawesi The naval battle in the West Sea came to an end.

Of course, the gunfire on the main battlefield is over, but the nightmare of those fleeing Dutch armed merchant ships is not over yet. Xia Jun participated in the battle with a cruiser fleet and two cruiser fleets with 22 first-class and second-class messenger ships. The newspaper ship was cruising outside the main battlefield, and when it saw a number of Dutch armed merchant ships fleeing in all directions, it immediately bit on them like a fat hungry wolf. Only a few were as lucky as the "Obi", In order to escape to Batavia.

"My lord, five ships including [Lijiang], [Xinzhuoshuixi] and [Jiangchuan] were sunk, and four ships including [Xinnanhu] and [Jinghai] were severely damaged." Sima Ning Dakui Report to Wei Fang, who was scratched by the crushed sawdust in the naval battle. "The rest of the ships have suffered losses to varying degrees, but they can be repaired on the spot. As for the number of wounded and dead soldiers, statistics are still being made."

"Immediately order the Fourth Squadron of the Fifth Cruise Fleet to escort the four ships [New Nanhu], [Jinghai] and the injured soldiers back to the Labuan tutelary fort." Wei Fang, who was wearing a bandage, ordered. "In addition, order the third squadron of the second cruise fleet and the third squadron of the eighth cruise fleet to escort the captured Dutch ship back to Pingtung. Then notify the fifth and sixth letter fleets to escort the seventh and second army convoy fleets landed on the Spice Islands."

After Wei Fang's orders were conveyed one by one, Ding Dakui then asked: "My lord, are we going to Batavia now?"

"There are four cruiser fleets with more than 30 cruisers in Changhao'an. How could we expect us to fight for success again?" Wei Fang shook her head. "Stay honestly in the Spice Islands."

"Using our [-]-point guns to deal with the Dutch army fortress is simply killing chickens with a knife."

"Don't you think this little credit is not enough?" Wei Fang raised her eyebrows. "Forget it, isn't the imperial court planning to explore the South China Sea? I'm in charge. You personally lead two teams of letter ships to the south. As long as you find the abbot Dadao that the Holy Majesty said, you will be a Spylord."