"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Another round of shells was fired from the side of the pier, two of which hit the starboard side of the forward-most "Competition". Several nearby sailors fell on the deck in pain.

On the "Pioneer" that was about to catch up, Cao Xiong and Second Lieutenant Andrew Florent were stunned. The enemy actually hid the 18-pound heavy artillery in the first moment of the fleet attack, and only used some 12-pounders and

The 14-pound cannon faced off, causing the Dutch to slowly move forward. As a result, the other side gave everyone a surprise.

"We need to retreat,... no, we need to stay back!" Second Lieutenant Andrew Florent suggested. Now we must leave the range of the 18-pound heavy artillery, and then use the 18-pound and 20-pound heavy artillery on the ship to bombard those enemies.

fort.

At this time, the three Dutch warships in front began to adjust their sails and prepare to retreat. The enemy fort would not let go of the opportunity when the fleet was in chaos. All the artillery was aimed at the warships that were trying to adjust their direction, and their shells were fired.

It came like raindrops.

In addition to the "Amusement", the "Warrior" was also hit. Three shells hit its amidships, knocking off a corner of the slipway. Seven or eight sailors lay on the deck wailing.

"No, let's rush forward!" Cao Xiong said decisively: "We rush to the side of the pier and kill the opponent's hidden heavy artillery first. We have many ships, so they will certainly not be able to attack all the ships. At this time, whoever retreats will lose.

Be more energetic!" After saying that, he loudly ordered the helmsman and sail handler to adjust the direction and move towards the flank of the enemy dock.

Second Lieutenant Andrew Florent stayed for a moment. Although he didn't quite understand what "vigor" meant, he understood that Cao Xiong wanted to take advantage of the enemy's concentration on attacking the Dutch warships, quickly approach the flanks of the pier, and kill those with power.

Threatening heavy artillery removed.

Qi Dajiang watched the "Pioneer" rush forward bravely, and quickly followed behind without hesitation.

"Oh, God! What are those two pirate ships doing?" Lieutenant Colonel Jiminy Bacona was a little surprised when he saw the two ships in Hanzhou advancing instead of retreating.

When it was only more than 700 meters away from the pier fort, the "Pioneer" slowed down and turned the ship sideways. The enemy fort also discovered the closer warship, and shells began to fall on the "pioneer" one after another.

"Pioneer" all around.

"Fire!" On the second deck, the gunner gave an order, and sixteen large and small artillery roared in unison, and the projectiles fell straight towards the enemy cannon. After firing a salvo, the "Pioneer" slowed down again.

Start slowly, adjust the direction, and prepare for the next salvo.

The "Xinghan" also bravely rushed to a place of more than 600 meters, and under the command of the gunner who looked unlucky, he also fired a salvo. Maybe the "Xinghan" just used all the bad luck.

It was over, but Fouji was lucky. In this salvo, six or seven projectiles accurately hit the enemy's fort, instantly silencing an 18-pounder gun.

What comes, must come. After three rounds of salvos, the "Xinghan" was hit first. The stern of the ship was hit by an 8-pound cannon, causing splinters of wood to fly and knocking three nearby sailors to the deck.

.

However, as the "Pioneer" and "Xingye" gradually established their rhythm, and the distance was so close, at least four gun positions were knocked out of the Jieshuiwan Wharf fort, including two 18-pound guns. But two

The ship was also hit by at least eight cannonballs, and several large holes were opened in the hull and sides of the ship.

The three Dutch warships that were retreating stopped retreating when they saw the opportunity. The cannons on the ships fired one after another to attract more enemy fire and create opportunities for the two brave pirate ships.

The artillery battle with the enemy fort lasted for more than an hour, more Dutch warships joined in, and the counterattack from the fort at Rapid Water Bay became weaker and weaker. The fall of the dock was a high probability event.

At around four o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of artillery fire at the Rapid Water Bay Port stopped. Most of the artillery and personnel in the fort suffered casualties, and the rest fled into the city.

Li Fade led more than 20 Marines to the dock first, lined up in three thin rows, held muskets, and guarded and covered the town in the direction of Jishui Bay.

Later, more than twenty spearmen also boarded the dock and stood with spears in front of the musketeers. There was no trace of the Acehnese on the dock. There was a mess everywhere, and discarded goods could be seen everywhere.

Because they were the first to enter the dock, the "Kaifeng" and "Xingye" captured several merchant ships docked at the dock. Seeing Dutch armed merchant ships approaching the dock one after another, they began to unload armed personnel and take control of the dock. Cao Xiong then

Let Niuhu take a dozen Marines to board the captured merchant ships and see what advantages they can take advantage of.

"There are women on those two ships!" After a while, a Marine soldier ran back and said with a happy face.

"Woman? What woman?" Cao Xiong was stunned, how could he be so excited to see a woman?

The Marines certainly have reason to be excited, because of the latest regulations of Hanzhou, if women are transported back to Hanzhou in the future, they, the soldiers, will have the same priority in allocating wives to their wives as officials, craftsmen, artists, and educated people.

"She's not a native, nor a Westerner! ... Anyway, she's just a woman who looks a little different from us Mingren!" the Marine soldier said in embarrassment.

"How many?"

"A few hundred people..."

"How many hundred exactly?"

"I didn't count..."

"I hope the women are gone, right?" Cao Xiong said happily, "Let your captain send a few people to guard them. We Hanzhou want these women and these two ships!"

Second Lieutenant Andrew Florent originally wanted to stop it. All the spoils of war needed to be distributed uniformly after the war. But when he saw Cao Xiong directly ordering people to take over and take care of the two ships, he kept his mouth shut and said no more.

Having said that, for some women, the East India Company may not be interested in them, or may just accept them.

The successive landing operations continued until the evening. During this period, the Han-Dutch allied forces repelled a force sent from Jishuiwan City at the dock. Under several rows of musket fire, the opponent left twenty or thirty corpses and retreated hastily.

Enter the city, close the gates tightly, and never come out again.

"Hey, look at those guys in black leather (the navy blue military uniforms are a bit like black). Are you ready to dig a hole for the night?" After the Dutch Army set up a night defense camp, some naughty Dutch officers saw the Hanzhou Marines soldiers.

Dig a trench outside the camp and surround yourself in it.

"Lieutenant Murphy, maybe he has been holding back for a long time on the ship and has nowhere to vent his energy! Haha..."

"However, they seem to be building a new line of defense."

"Just those local monkeys who came just now? I think we don't even need to set up a cordon to lure them out to attack us. It's much better to eliminate them all in the wild than to attack the city!"

"..."

"Huzi, what are those barbarians talking about? They are pointing at us." Li Fade stood on the outside of the trench and turned to ask Niuhu.

"How did I know?" Niuhu glanced at the Dutch army officers, "Maybe he wants to learn how to dig trenches like us?"

"That's right! They just carried a few logs and placed them around the camp. How could they stop the enemy?"

"Don't worry about them, let's do our own thing. At night, I will be on duty for the first half of the night, and you will be on duty for the second half of the night."

Li Fade nodded, no longer paying attention to the discussions of the Dutch officers, and began to carefully check whether the trenches dug by the Marines were up to standard. Everything was carried out meticulously in accordance with the Hanzhou training procedures.

It was night, and many torches were lit outside the camp of the Han-Dutch Allied Forces, illuminating the outside of the camp. The sentries on duty, holding muskets, stared vigilantly in the direction of Jishuiwan City.

Perhaps they were frightened by the artillery bombardment of the coalition forces during the day, or perhaps they felt that they could not defeat the coalition forces armed with large numbers of muskets in the wild. The area around the camp seemed unusually quiet throughout the night.

Looking at the gray sky, it must be dawn in a while. Li Fade yawned loudly and prepared to inspect the outer sentries again. After the inspection, he might go back to the camp to take a nap to rest his mind.

.

Hey, what's the noise? Li Fade walked a few steps when he suddenly felt a heavy shaking sound coming from outside the ground.

Cavalry charge? This was the first thought in Li Fade's mind. Because in Dengzhou, when Kong Youde's rebels were confronting the approaching government troops outside the city, they saw an assault launched by thousands of cavalry, and the whole ground was shaking like this.

.

"Du! Du! Du!" Li Fade grabbed the bronze whistle of the sentry who was still in a daze, blew it hard, and shouted: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" Then, he pulled out the long knife from his waist and shouted loudly.

The sentry soldiers nearby raised their weapons and prepared to face the enemy.

Niuhu was suddenly awakened by the sharp sound of a copper whistle, jumped up, grabbed a musket, and rushed out of the tent.

Less than three minutes later, in Li Fade's sight, several tall and mighty war elephants appeared, marching heavily towards the coalition camp step by step.

After the sentries from the Dutch military camp sounded a sharp alarm on Hanzhou, they also discovered a large group of war elephants and began to shout for help in a panic.

"Bang! Bump! Bump!..." More than a dozen muskets were fired at the charging war elephants, but it seemed to have no effect. The war elephants still rushed towards them fearlessly.

"You idiot, can't you kill him?" Li Fade was a little panicked. The war elephant opposite seemed to be covered with several layers of linoleum cloth. Although the war elephant was hit by projectiles, it seemed to have suffered very little damage to its huge body.

"Push the artillery out and blast them!" Niuhu had already arrived at the edge of the camp and said calmly across the mounds of soil dug out of the trench.

Before setting off, Qi Tian once said that war elephants are generally used by the feudal states in Southeast Asia to attack the enemy, and he also proposed many ways to deal with them. One of them is to use artillery, with huge noise and powerful kinetic energy shells, which will definitely kill them.

War elephants. Moreover, the two-meter-wide trench outside the camp made it impossible for war elephants to cross it in one step.
Chapter completed!