273 [The tragic naval battle] (for the dual alliance leader, the cloud is swaying
Zheng Zhilong deceived Zhao Han. This guy was just bragging. He didn't have more than twenty big bird ships.
He only has two ships!
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 wood has been cut down. Hongyi cannons are installed on the bow and stern of the ship, and improved Franco cannons are installed on the sides. If fir wood is used,
The wood is very likely to collapse when the cannon is fired.
Zheng Zhilong's warships could not defeat the Dutch warships by relying solely on gunfire.
One is that the hull is too fragile, and the other is that the firepower is insufficient.
The first is a problem with the main structure of the hull. The design of the bulkhead and bottom plate lacks a large number of rib reinforcements. The second is that the wood cannot keep up, and solid wood such as oak cannot be found. These two reasons have caused the hull to be extremely brittle and have a large impact.
Even caliber artillery pieces dare not be installed 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 ship that was seen and painted by the British. The hull was Western-style and the sails were Chinese-style.
At this moment, Zheng Zhilong is asking shipbuilders to build this kind of warship that combines Chinese and Western styles. It is estimated that it will take another 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 another six months, the Dutch would start another war with Zheng Zhilong. Nine Dutch warships, including a three-masted battleship, were driven 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 Chenggong personally led the fleet and came quickly from Guanghaiwei.
Through the telescope, the Datong soldiers in Macau observed the situation in the watchtower and immediately sent a message to remind them to light the beacon fire.
Wan Bangyan's Guangzhou Navy was hiding in Tuen Mun. When they saw the smoke coming from the direction of Macau, they quickly led three Xinhui ships and more than a dozen crow boats to help in the battle.
Fifteen Dutch warships and twelve armed merchant ships saw the appearance of Zheng Zhilong's fleet and immediately chose to stay away from the coast to avoid being bombarded from both sides by the Macau fort and Zheng Zhilong.
The main battleship of the Netherlands is the "Middlebuck", with a displacement of about 500 tons. It is the only "giant ship" in the Dutch Eastern Fleet.
This giant ship participated in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, but evacuated early before the battle began.
The reason for the evacuation was that it was too bulky and too bulky, which made it too disadvantageous for offshore operations, and it was easily attacked by the Ming army using a large number of small boats.
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 his speed advantage.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
The two sides began to shoot at each other, and the intensity of their firepower could not be compared with that of European naval battles.
The Middlebourg, the largest and most powerful ship on the battlefield, was only a Galen ship with a displacement of 500 tons. It carried 251 soldiers, 125 sailors, and more than 30 artillery pieces.
Most of the Dutch warships have a displacement of about two to three hundred tons. As for Zhao Han's Jiangxi Navy, the largest warship has a displacement of 150 tons.
Of course, sea battleships and river battleships cannot be compared in terms of displacement.
If the improved Folan cannon on the Zheng Zhilong ship is installed on a Jiangxi Navy warship, it will only take a few shots to damage its own hull.
Zheng Chenggong's fleet was seen coming from the west and south, encircling the Dutch fleet in a fan shape.
The shells fired by the Zheng family's warships crackled and hit the enemy, but they seemed to tickle the Dutch warships. Although the improved Fran cannon had a fast rate of fire and high accuracy, its power was too small, and a half-day bombardment could only cause minor damage.
.
There are two types of artillery on the Dutch warships, one is a heavy cannon, which has a very low hit rate; the other is a small cannon, which is no different in power from a Franco machine gun.
However, the consequences are different.
Many of the Zheng family's warships had holes in them when hit, and the fir hulls were too fragile to be hit.
As the two sides approached, two of the Zheng family's warships were sunk, and four more were seriously flooded.
As for the Dutch warships, only three were severely damaged, and they had nothing to do with the Zheng family. They were the results of the Macau coastal defense artillery.
The wind direction was favorable for the Dutch fleet to break out of the encirclement. It was late autumn at this time, and the sudden northwest wind blew the Dutch warships quickly to the southeast, just in the gap of the three-sided encirclement.
"boom!"
Wan Bangyan was leading the Guangzhou Navy to encircle it from the east. After being hit by only one cannonball, one of the stern boats was seriously flooded. The sailors hurriedly evacuated the battlefield. If they had been slower, they might have sunk.
Zheng Zhilong and the Guangzhou Navy allied forces, with nearly 300 warships, ambushed and attacked 27 Dutch warships in advance. After the battle, they failed to achieve any success, but were sunk and seven of them were seriously damaged.
Finally, more than a dozen warships from the Zheng family caught up with three Dutch ships. They were the three ships that were severely damaged by coastal defense artillery.
It's only a matter of time before they are surrounded and joined by gangs, and the target is captured sooner or later.
The remaining twenty-four Dutch warships, driven by the northwest wind, managed to break out of the encirclement. However, several Galenic ships weighing more than 300 tons were still stuck because their sailing speed was too slow.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
More than a dozen guns ran sideways and fired one after another at close range, instantly smashing into a sieve a Zheng family warship that was catching up.
More than forty Zheng family warships surrounded the Dutch battleship "Middlebourg".
Then, I couldn't chew it down.
The Zheng family's warships were too small, and there were only a few ships that could engage in battle. I tried to jump aboard more than ten times, but couldn't jump at all. The occasional sailor who succeeded in jumping aboard was killed by Dutch muskets.
"Boom boom boom!"
Under close range bombardment, the Zheng family's battleship suffered heavy losses, but the Dutch battleship was only slightly damaged.
It was just a three-masted galenic ship with a displacement of 500 tons. The Netherlands claimed to be a third-class battleship, but in fact it was not ranked at all in Europe. This thing had blinded Zheng Zhilong's battleships, and they could only rely on numbers and lives to pile them up.
"Boohoo!"
Zheng Zhilong's ship rushed up, and its bamboo rocket-propelled arsonist fired incendiary objects at the Dutch battleship.
After firing several times in succession, all failed to ignite.
It must be said that the quality of Zheng Zhilong's warships has been greatly improved compared to the Battle of Liaoluowan. However, Zheng Zhilong has also become more hesitant. He clearly has two big bird ships, but he is unwilling to engage in fierce battles for fear of his own
Two treasures were sunk.
The reason is very simple. Zheng Zhilong is a pirate with numerous factions within him, many of which 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 built to deal with the Dutch were delayed in taking action, resulting in a long-term attack on the Dutch giant ships ahead.
"boom!"
The heavy cannon on the bow of the "Middle Burke" fired six times in a row, directly sinking the Zheng family warship blocking the front. Seeing that their own warship slowly fell silent, the other pirates did not dare to block the gap, for fear that they would become
The next target hit by heavy artillery.
The Dutch battleship broke out of the encirclement, and the pirates simply bypassed this big guy and used their speed to attack other enemy ships.
The two sides fought and ran, and the naval battle lasted for three hours. After entering the deep sea area, Zheng Zhilong finally ordered to stop the pursuit.
"vomit!"
Wan Bangyan, commander of the Guangzhou Navy, became seasick and vomited after the naval battle.
When he came back to count the results, Zheng Zhilong was very excited: "We captured six pirate ships, sank one pirate ship (exploration ship), and another pirate ship hit the rocks and sank. Our army only destroyed thirty-four large and small warships. Within three to five years.
, even the red-boiled ghosts don’t dare to make trouble anymore.”
What's there to be happy about?
Wan Bangyan found it incomprehensible that our coalition forces, with nearly 300 ships, planned to ambush 27 of the opponent's ships.
He destroyed more than 30 ships and captured only six enemy ships. The enemy hit the rocks and sank one ship. Three of the captured enemy ships were damaged by Macau coastal defense artillery.
What a shame!
Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "Brother Wan, a naval battle is different from a river battle, and a land battle with your Datong Army is even different. The Red Fan Ghost's warships are strong and the artillery is fierce. It is already very good to be able to fight like this. Moreover, Hong Fan Ghost
The ghost's warships totaled only more than thirty, and seven were lost this time, which is equivalent to a loss of nearly a quarter. Six years ago, the Red Bo ghost lost one-third of its warships, but it has not recovered until now."
Wan Bangyan immediately put on a smile, raised his hands and said, "Thanks to General Zheng for his able command!"
"Haha, after defeating the Red Boiled Ghost, no pirates in Southeast Asia will dare to cause trouble. Let's go to Guangzhou for a few drinks and leave this place to my subordinates." Zheng Zhilong said happily.
Wan Bangyan made some arrangements and accompanied Zheng Zhilong for a drink. He returned to his residence in the evening and immediately wrote a letter.
He told Zhao Han in the letter that Zheng Zhilong, the maritime overlord, was simply not worthy of his name and had no ambition at all.
In addition, Wan Bangyan asked Zhao Han to order more oak trees to be transplanted in Guangdong. He asked the Portuguese that when building warships in Europe, oak trees that are more than eighty years old are often used, and the wood needs to be processed for more than ten years.
The warships produced far surpassed the fir warships.
A century-old navy requires a hundred years of shipbuilding materials.
Oak and teak are top-notch shipbuilding materials, but they are rarely seen along the coast of China. They may be common a few hundred years later, but most of them were introduced from abroad, and they were very difficult to find in China in the late Ming Dynasty.
There are a lot of teak trees in Indochina, which were distributed in Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos in later generations.
Moreover, using teak to build warships is of higher quality than oak warships.
This naval battle completely woke Wan Bangyan up. He lost one Xinhui ship and three black stern ships. Fortunately, he was able to capture three Dutch warships.
After Zhao Han received this letter, he immediately ordered that the oak trees be cut down and transported over the mountains and ridges to Guangzhou for shipbuilding.
This is a kind of Chinese native oak, and its wood is of the highest quality. However, the trees that can be used for shipbuilding must be at least seventy or eighty years old. They can basically only be found in deep mountains and old forests, and the transportation cost will be very high.
As for the Macau offensive and defensive battle, there is no suspense.
As soon as the naval battle started, the Dutch soldiers who landed were all dumbfounded. Their ship was retreating, and they... I hadn't even boarded the ship yet!
More than a thousand Dutch, Japanese, and Malay soldiers were preparing to attack the fort. Seeing the naval battle starting and the cannons getting farther and farther away, the commander immediately ordered a retreat.
"Boom boom boom!"
Under bombardment from the forts and pursued by the defenders, the retreat quickly turned into a rout.
Don't count on the morale of these people, a group of Dutch army whose salary is not enough to support themselves, a group of Japanese rogues hired to rob, and a group of semi-slave Malay natives. Their fighting qualities are not much better than those of the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers.
Sixteen years ago, Dutch soldiers who were captured by the Macau garrison actually begged to convert to Catholicism in order to survive.
Catholicism and Protestantism were regarded as heretics, and they were fighting for their lives. Not only was the Dutch Army's combat effectiveness worrying, but their beliefs were also in question.
Of course, the Portuguese are not much better.
Because the Portuguese king exploited so much, many Portuguese people in India directly converted to Green Christianity and Hinduism...
"Here's another one!"
The discoverer of New Zealand and the surveyor of Australia, the 35-year-old Abel Tasman, had his expedition ship sunk. He finally swam back to the shore and was met by a group of Macau defenders.
As a Dutch Protestant, Abel Tasman simply raised his hands and shouted in Portuguese: "I am a Catholic, don't kill me!"