"Oh my god, Hans, hurry up and save the Blues Paradise, our poor boys are dying."
Wooden sailboats are no barrier to fire.
The fire had already engulfed the Bruce Paradise, and the Dutch sailors on board could only howl in despair and then jump into the water.
But there is no doubt that such a Dutch sailor will only die.
But Anthony van Diemen's wails only made Hans Putmans frown.
"Damn Anthony, I am the commander of the fleet. I will not allow you to disturb my command at this time!"
Hans Putmans's roar finally calmed Anthony van Diemen down a bit.
"What are you going to do?"
Hans Putmans quickly scanned the battlefield.
The war has developed to this point, which is already very disadvantageous for the Dutch fleet.
The Blues Paradise caught fire and was obviously hopeless.
Because the Willingen was at the forefront, it had been surrounded by Zheng's gunboats. Countless cannonballs were being fired from all directions, and only the smoke filling the Willingen could be seen.
The Snothendieck was very brave and was approaching the Willingen, hoping to carry out rescue.
As a result, this warship was also bombarded by Zheng's fleet, and the bombardment from both sides was very fierce.
The rest of the Dutch warships had no time to think about anything else, and could only continue to bombard the approaching fireships wildly.
Obviously no one wanted to let Zheng's fireship get close.
Although it only took one cannonball to sink a Zheng's fireship. However, the accuracy of naval guns in this era was really impressive, so the results of Dutch warships were very average.
They had to speed up to escape while bombarding them with artillery. They were completely unable to form a formation.
"Issue an order to have all the warships move closer to me and move toward the southwest together."
Anthony van Diemen was shocked to hear Hans Putmans' order.
"Hans, are you going to abandon them?"
Hans Putmans looked very cold.
"I have to keep more people safe."
A qualified general will definitely make this choice.
It is impossible to send the entire fleet in to rescue a few warships in trouble.
After the order was issued, the Dutch warships that were struggling with the Zheng's fireships fled towards the west as if they had been granted amnesty.
With everyone following the wind, it was obvious that the Dutch warship was faster.
Even if Zheng's fireship tried its best, it could only watch the main force of the Dutch fleet heading into the distance.
Seeing the main force of the Dutch fleet flying away, Zheng Zhilong's expression did not change.
He asked Zheng Zhibao to lead eight warships to cruise outside, alerting the main force of the Dutch fleet to outflank them, and then concentrated all warships to begin besieging the remaining three Dutch warships.
The Blues Paradise has completely burned, and its sinking is inevitable.
The main targets of the siege by Zheng's fleet were Willingen and Snowthendieck.
Among them, Willingen suffered the most damage.
Although the Dutch on the ship fought back desperately, Zheng's warships kept firing at them from all directions.
The firepower of the steamship is mainly deployed on both sides. Although the muzzle can be moved, the range that can be hit is still very limited.
Zheng's fleet has a clear division of labor.
The boats on both sides were far away, but they kept harassing me.
The remaining ships moved to the bow and stern of the Willingen, and after approaching from these two directions, they poured shells desperately.
Although the Willingen also had cannons at the bow and stern, they were too few in number and their performance was not as good as Zheng's bronze cannons.
The two sides fought for an hour, and the Willingen was riddled with holes, including several holes below the waterline.
The seawater poured in wildly, causing the Willingen to tilt.
This scene greatly boosted the morale of Zheng's family, and they attacked even more fiercely.
Seeing that Willingen was in danger and the main fleet was nowhere to be found, the Snoutendick knew that there was nothing she could do and began to turn around and break out.
The ship Zuo Hua was on was in the queue to attack the Snoutendick.
Seeing the Snoutendik trying to escape, the other Zheng warships opened fire one after another.
Unfortunately, their gunnery skills were so poor that after fighting for a long time, they only hit three out of fifty shells, which did not cause fatal damage to the Snoutendick.
"Minister, Zheng's naval warfare technology is too primitive, and the opportunity to expand their results was wasted."
The staff officer's assertion was recognized by Zuo Hua.
"The Zheng family is not a regular army after all. Not only can they not enforce orders and prohibitions, but they also have no professional and scientific maritime technology. Look, in order to besiege a Dutch warship, they actually dispatched their entire main force. They might even let the others escape.
Dutch."
Another staff officer also said: "Zheng's artillery technology is not organized at all. Each warship fires randomly based on its own experience. Not only cannot it calibrate its fire, but it cannot form an effective salvo."
Zuo Hua pointed at the chaotic battlefield and said with a smile: "Look, the Dutch warship has been besieged and is about to sink, but Zheng's fireship still rushed forward. Well, it has become a target for our own people."
During his instructions, he saw a fireship rushing towards the Willingen bravely, but it happened to be hit by its own artillery shells. It immediately fell apart on the sea, and it was unknown how many people were killed.
Zheng's naval battle was so chaotic.
The soldiers of the Zheng family who drove the fireship had a very high reward, so everyone was vying to be the first to take credit for burning the Willingen.
However, in the intensive artillery battle between the two sides, and the artillery skills of both sides were not very good, these fireships became unlucky cannon fodder.
Through this battle, Zuo Hua completed a thorough investigation of the Zheng family.
He already had a good idea of Zheng's naval combat skills.
On the other side, I saw the Snoutendik running faster and faster, and was about to run out of the encirclement.
Zuo Hua shouted: "Let's take action and teach Zheng's people a lesson and tell them how to fire artillery."
The staff members responded loudly and drove the ship around from the flank to a position abreast of the Snoutendick.
At this time, the distance between the two sides was about one thousand meters.
The Snoutendick also discovered Zuo Hua's ship and started shooting in this direction.
There is no doubt that dozens of shells fell into the water.
The staff here are not in a hurry.
"The enemy ship's speed is five and a half knots, and its distance is 1,131 meters."
The observer reported the data, and the commander immediately called out the parameters.
"Coordinates 271.4, 13.5, up and down 10, one shot calibrated."
A bronze cannon fired alone.
The shell flew far away and passed over the Snoutendick.
The observer saw it clearly and made corrections immediately.
"Up and down six, volley."
Two in the front and two in the back of the ship, a total of four bronze cannons roared together after adjusting the parameters.
I saw four dark cannonballs carrying turbulent air waves directly into the Snoutendick.
One of the shells hit the target directly and directly broke the Snoutendick's main mast.
The originally towering sails instantly slipped down, and the originally speeding hull of the Snoutendick suddenly stopped and started spinning on the spot.
Seeing this scene from far away, Hong Xu couldn't help but vomit acid water.
"Why does this bastard's luck get better every time?"