I

  Chapter 275 273 [The Naval Battle of Miserable Victory] (addition for the double lord "Walking Beyond the Clouds")

  Zheng Zhilong deceived Zhao Han, this guy is purely bragging, he does not have more than twenty big bird ships.

   He only has two!

  The main reason is that the requirements for wood are too high. There is no oak in Fujian and Guangdong, and the better quality iron pear has been cut down. Hongyi cannons are installed on the bow and stern of the ship, and an improved version of the Franco cannon is installed on the side. If you use fir wood, it is very likely that you will collapse yourself when you fire the cannon.

  Zheng Zhilong's battleship could not defeat the Dutch battleship at all with artillery alone.

   One is that the hull is too brittle, and the other is insufficient firepower.

  First of all, there is the problem of the main structure of the hull. The design of the compartment plate and the bottom plate lacks a large number of rib reinforcements. The second is that the wood cannot keep up, and strong wood such as oak cannot be found. These two reasons made the hull so brittle that even large-caliber artillery dared not be loaded on the ship.

  Because of this situation, Zheng Zhilong later imitated the Western-style hull and built it with a keel and rib structure. It was a very strange kind of boat, which was seen and drawn by the British. Its hull was of Western style and its sails were of Chinese style.

  At this moment, Zheng Zhilong is asking shipbuilders to build this kind of battleship combining Chinese and Western, and it is estimated that it will take a year or two before it can be launched.

   But no matter what, Zheng Zhilong is not afraid of the Dutch, because he can win every naval battle.

  Historically, in half a year, the Dutch will fight Zheng Zhilong again. The nine Dutch warships, including the three-masted battleship, were beaten back to Batavia by Zheng Zhilong and did not dare to come out.

   This was also the last battle between the two sides. From then on, the Dutch paid the protection fee honestly. It was not until Zheng Chenggong attacked Taiwan City that the deadlock was broken.

   Just when the Dutch soldiers landed in Macau, Zheng Zhilong personally led the fleet, which set off from Guanghaiwei and came quickly.

  Through the telescope, the Datong soldiers on the Macau side observed the situation at the watchtower and immediately sent a message to remind them to light the beacon.

  Wan Bangyan's Guangzhou navy was hiding in Tuen Mun. Seeing the beacon smoke from Macau, he quickly led three Xinhui ships and more than a dozen black boats to help in the battle.

  Fifteen Dutch warships and twelve armed merchant ships saw Zheng Zhilong's fleet appear, and immediately chose to stay away from the coast to avoid being bombarded by the Macau Fort and Zheng Zhilong.

  The main battleship of the Netherlands is the "Middle Burke", with a displacement of about 500 tons. It is the only "giant ship" in the Dutch Eastern Fleet.

  This huge ship participated in the battle of Liuluo Bay, but withdrew early before the battle started.

  The reason for the evacuation was that it was too big and cumbersome, and it was too disadvantageous for offshore operations, and it was easy to be attacked by a large number of small boats by the Ming army.

  At this moment, Zheng Zhilong led more than 270 large and small ships, most of which were offshore galleys, and quickly approached the Dutch fleet with the advantage of speed.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The two sides began to shoot at each other, and the intensity of their firepower was completely incomparable with European naval battles.

  The "Middle Burke", the largest and most powerful ship on the battlefield, is only a Galen ship with a displacement of 500 tons. There are 251 soldiers on board, 125 sailors, and more than 30 artillery pieces.

  Most of the warships in the Netherlands have a displacement of about two to three hundred tons. As for Zhao Han's Jiangxi Navy, the largest warships have a displacement of 150 tons.

  Of course, sea warships and inland river warships must not be compared by displacement.

  The improved Frang cannon on Zheng Zhilong's ship, if it is installed on a Jiangxi navy warship, it only takes a few shots to destroy its own hull.

  I saw Zheng Zhilong's fleet coming from the west and south, encircling the Dutch fleet in a fan shape.

  The shells fired by the Zheng family warship crackled and hit the enemy, but it seemed to tickle the Dutch warship. Although the improved Franco cannon has a fast rate of fire and high accuracy, its power is too small, and it can only cause slight damage after a half-day bombardment.

   There are two types of artillery on Dutch warships. One is heavy artillery with a very low hit rate;

   However, the consequences are different.

   Many warships of the Zheng family were smashed into a hole, and the fir hull was too rough.

  During the approach between the two sides, two warships of the Zheng family were sunk, and the other four were seriously flooded.

  As for the Dutch warships, only three were severely damaged, and they had nothing to do with the Zheng family. It was the result of the Macao coastal defense artillery.

  The wind direction is favorable for the Dutch fleet to break through the siege. It is late autumn at this time, and the sudden northwest wind blows the Dutch warship to run southeast quickly, which happens to be the gap in the three-sided encirclement.

   "Boom!"

  Wan Bangyan is leading the Guangzhou navy to besiege from the east. After being hit by only one shell, a black boat was seriously flooded. The sailors hurriedly drove the boat to evacuate the battlefield, and if they slowed down, they might sink.

  Zheng Zhilong and the Guangzhou Navy combined forces, with nearly 300 warships, ambush and attack 27 Dutch warships in advance. After the battle, they did not make any achievements, but were sunk and severely damaged seven ships.

  Finally, more than a dozen warships of the Zheng family caught up with the three Dutch sea ships, which were the three that were hit hard by the coastal defense artillery.

   Surrounded by groups, jumping from side to side, it is only a matter of time before the target is captured.

  The remaining twenty-four Dutch warships, blown by the northwest wind, barely broke out of the encirclement. However, several Galen ships weighing more than 300 tons were stuck tightly because of their slow speed.

   "Boom! Boom! Boom!"

  More than a dozen broadside guns were fired at close range one after another, instantly smashing a Zheng family warship that was chasing up into a sieve.

  More than forty Zheng family warships surrounded the Dutch battleship "Middleburg".

   Then, I couldn’t chew it down.

  The battleships of the Zheng family are too short, and there are only a few of them that can fight. I tried more than ten times to jump to the gang, but I couldn't jump on it at all. Occasionally, sailors who succeeded in jumping to the gang were killed by Dutch muskets.

   "Boom boom boom!"

   Under the close-range bombardment, the Zheng family battleship suffered heavy losses, but the Dutch battleship was only slightly damaged.

  It’s just a three-masted galleon with a displacement of 500 tons. The Netherlands claims to be a third-tier battleship, but it is actually not ranked in Europe. Just this thing has already blinded Zheng Zhilong's warships, so they can only be piled up by numbers and lives.

   "Shhhhhh!"

  Zheng Zhilong's ship rushed up, and the bamboo rocket-propelled incendiary fired towards the Dutch battleship.

   Fired several times in a row, all failed to ignite.

   It must be said that Zheng Zhilong’s warships have improved greatly compared to those during the Luowan naval battle. However, Zheng Zhilong also became more hesitant. He obviously had two big bird ships, but he was unwilling to engage in fierce battles, fearing that his two precious ships would be sunk.

  The reason is simple, Zheng Zhilong is a pirate, there are countless factions inside, and many of them are semi-independent.

  He must keep his two big bird ships, otherwise, he will not be able to suppress the other pirates under his command.

  The two large ships specially built to deal with the Dutch have been delayed in doing so, resulting in the inability to attack the Dutch giant ships ahead for a long time.

   "Boom!"

  The bow heavy cannon of the "Middle Burke" fired six times in a row, and directly sank the Zheng family's battleship that was blocking the front. Seeing their battleship sinking slowly, the other pirates did not dare to block the gap, for fear that they would be the next target of heavy artillery.

  The Dutch battleship rushed out of the siege, and the pirates simply bypassed this big guy and ran to besiege other enemy ships with their speed advantage.

  The two sides fought and ran. The naval battle lasted for three hours. After entering the deep sea area, Zheng Zhilong finally ordered to stop the pursuit.

   "Ouch!"

  Wan Bangyan, the commander of the Guangzhou Navy, started to get seasick and vomit after the naval battle.

Zheng Zhilong was very excited when he came back to check his achievements: "Six pirate ships were captured, one thief ship (exploration ship) was sunk, and another thief ship hit a rock and sank. Our army only damaged 34 large and small warships. Within three to five years , the Hongfan ghosts don’t dare to make trouble anymore.”

  What's there to be happy about?

  Wan Bangyan felt incomprehensible. Our coalition forces had nearly 300 ships and planned to ambush the opponent's 27 ships.

   I damaged more than 30 ships, only captured six enemy ships, and the enemy sank one when it hit a rock. Among them, three captured enemy ships were injured by the Macao coastal defense artillery.

   It's a shame to beat it!

Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "Brother Wan, sea battles are different from inland water battles, and land battles with your Datong army are even more different. The Hongfan ghost's battleships are strong and the artillery is fierce. It is already very good to be able to fight like this. Moreover, Hongfan There are only more than 30 ghost warships in total, and seven of them were lost this time, which is equivalent to a loss of nearly a quarter. Six years ago, the Hongfan ghost lost a third of its warships, but it has not been slowed down until now."

  Wan Bangyan immediately put on a smile, cupped his hands and said, "Thanks to General Zheng for his command!"

   "Haha, after killing the Hongfan ghost, no pirates in Nanyang dare to make trouble. Let's go to Guangzhou for a few drinks, and we can leave it to the subordinates here." Zheng Zhilong said happily.

   After making some arrangements, Wan Bangyan accompanied Zheng Zhilong to drink, and wrote a letter immediately when he returned to his residence at night.

  In his letter, he told Zhao Han that Zheng Zhilong, the overlord of the sea, did not live up to his name at all, and had no ambitions at all.

  In addition, Wan Bangyan asked Zhao Han to order Duoduo to transplant oak trees in Guangdong. He had inquired from the Portuguese that to build warships in Europe, oak trees more than 80 years old were often used, and the wood had to be treated for more than ten years. The warships produced far surpassed the fir warships.

  For a century-old navy, the materials used for shipbuilding will take a hundred years.

  Oak and teak are top shipbuilding materials, but they are rarely seen along the coast of China. It may be very common hundreds of years later, but most of them were introduced from abroad, and it was very difficult to find in China in the late Ming Dynasty.

  Indochina peninsula has a lot of teak, distributed in Burma, Thailand, and Laos in later generations.

   Moreover, using teak to build warships is of higher quality than oak warships.

   This naval battle woke up Wan Bangyan completely. He lost a Xinhui ship and three black boats. Fortunately, he was able to get three captured Dutch warships.

  After Zhao Han received this letter, he immediately ordered the logging of oak oaks, and transported them over mountains and ridges to Guangzhou for shipbuilding.

   This is a Chinese native oak, and the wood is top-notch. However, the trees that can be used for shipbuilding must be at least 70 or 80 years old. Basically, they can only be found in deep mountains and old forests, and the transportation cost will be very high.

  As for the offensive and defensive battle in Macau, there is no suspense.

  As soon as the naval battle started, all the Dutch soldiers who landed and fought were dumbfounded. Their ship is retreating, and they...I'm not on board yet!

  More than a thousand Dutch, Japanese, and Malay soldiers were preparing to attack the fort. Seeing that the naval battle started, and the sound of the artillery was getting farther and farther away, the commander immediately ordered to retreat.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  Under the bombardment of the fort and the pursuit of the defenders, the retreat quickly turned into a rout.

   Don't count on the morale of these people, a group of Dutch army who can't pay enough to support themselves, a group of Japanese ronin who are hired to rob, a group of half-slaved Malay natives. Their combat quality is not much better than that of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty.

  Sixteen years ago, a Dutch soldier who was captured by the Macao defenders pleaded to convert to Catholicism in order to survive.

  Catholicism and Protestantism are regarded as heresies, and they are fighting for their lives. Not only is the combat effectiveness of the Dutch Army worrying, but their beliefs are also very problematic.

   Of course, the Portuguese are not much better.

  Due to the excessive exploitation of the Portuguese king, many Portuguese in India directly converted to Green religion and Hinduism...

   "Here's another one!"

  The discoverer of New Zealand, the surveyor of Australia, 35-year-old Abel Tasman, his expedition ship was sunk. After finally swimming back to the shore, a group of Macau defenders rushed towards us.

  As a Dutch Protestant, Abel Tasman raised his hands very simply and shouted in Portuguese: "I am a Catholic, don't kill me!"

  (end of this chapter)