Lin Shuisheng, the deputy commander of the Sailor Musketeers, led the main force towards Cirebon to rescue the Chinese trapped there. At this time, the personnel of the Chinese Navy Fleet did not know the whereabouts of Li Lihua. The Dutch escaped from the Semarang Fortress. The people fled westward along the coastline, intending to meet up with the Dutch army in Batavia. The Cirebon area blocked their way.
After Ye Hua, Lin Shuisheng, and intelligence chief An Xiaosi discussed, the Nanyang Task Force sent ten fast ships to search for the main force of the Dutch fleet in all directions, southeast and northwest; the Chinese fleet's goal was still to find the main force of the Dutch fleet and seek a decisive battle.
The remaining Dutch soldiers in Semarang met up with the Madalan rebels midway. The third brother of the current king Pakubwono is the leader of the rebels. His troops include more than 100 Dutch artillerymen and a team of horses. There are about 3,000 Dula soldiers - this is the reward the third prince received for ceding land to the Dutch East India Company and the Madura Kingdom.
The Madalan rebels, the Dutch, and the Madura coalition forces, with a total number of more than 20,000, are approaching the Chinese Company's sugar cane estate in Cirebon.
When the 200 Dutch defenders of Semarang retreated to Cirebon, only more than 150 people were left. They happened to encounter the tripartite coalition launching an attack on Cirebon.
The chasing Chinese sailor musketeers did not go to rescue Cirebon. Instead, they headed for the Chinese sugar cane estate west of Cirebon. The morning before they arrived in the Cirebon area, the main force of the Chinese and Dutch navies was off the coast of Cirebon. meet by chance.
So, in this era, in this region, the two most powerful navies in the east and west broke out in the Java Sea Battle.
At the beach, Li Lihua and her party, who originally planned to leave Java Island on the Starfish, witnessed this naval battle. The Starfish was unable to sneak into the Dutch warship array and had to cruise in the open sea.
Ye Hua's fleet originally set out from Semarang and headed west to search for the Dutch fleet. They met the main force of the Dutch fleet off the coast of Cirebon. They also felt that it was sudden. But more than anything, they were overjoyed: what the Chinese wanted most at the moment was a decisive battle. Finish your fight and return to Manila early. The Spaniards are coming soon.
Admiral Joris Spielbergen's fleet, including ships from Europe and the original Batavia fleet, originally had five main battleships, eleven clippers, and eight auxiliary ships. There are about 3,000 sailors and soldiers, and hundreds of local Javanese auxiliaries.
When the Chinese Company's Nanyang Task Force attacked Batavia, the battleship Rotterdam was turned into rubbish. Another Dutch battleship went to Malacca. Therefore, the two armies have lost balance in the number of main battleships. The Chinese Army Fei No. 5 Three main warships appeared on the sea almost unscathed, while the Dutch fleet only had three battleships. They were at a disadvantage in terms of the number of other warships. However, the number of cannons equipped by the Dutch's medium-sized warships, such as the Clippers, was It exceeds the same type of gunboats of the Chinese fleet. Dutch Admiral Joris Spielberg, who originally planned to attack Cirebon, did not know the strength of the Chinese fleet. As for Spain, the Portuguese's Far East Travels said about Chinese naval ships .He believed it very much.
Therefore, Admiral Joris Spielbergen also hopes to have a decisive battle to completely solve the problem of the Chinese Company.
The two armies quickly formed an array. The Dutch fleet moved from west to east, and the Chinese fleet maneuvered from east to west. Both sides faced each other with one side of the ship's hull, and prepared to bombard the opponent with the cannons in the neatly arranged gun windows on the ship's side. This is The standard line bombardment tactic of the sail battleship era. The wind direction at this time is blowing to the north, which is slightly more beneficial to the Dutch fleet arrayed near the coastline.
In the early days of the formation of the Chinese company's fleet, the Dutch military instructors' office made great efforts. Therefore, the sailors and gunners of the two fleets were equally well-trained and disciplined. And the basic tactical movements were the same.
The two fleets were about a mile apart and used array lines to bombard each other. The Thunderbolt rockets owned by the Chinese army had an advantage in range, but their accuracy was very poor. Therefore, the two armies mainly relied on the cannons on the sides of the ships to bombard each other.
Thousands of cannons of the two fleets roared. Smoke filled the air. The sea water boiled. Countless cannonballs came and went in front of the two armies. Countless Chinese and Dutch sailors and gunners used their professionalism, warrior courage and wisdom to fight against the flying shrapnel. They were busy on the upper deck, firing cannons amidst the choking smoke in the gun cabins.
The two fleets were evenly matched for a while. Li Lihua and others who were watching the battle almost thought that the two armies would continue to fight like this forever. There would be no end.
From morning to noon, a Fuzhou gunboat in the Chinese company's fleet was sunk and several small auxiliary ships were destroyed. While the war forged the enthusiasm and dedication of life and death, it also forged indifference, cruelty and wildness. The two are unified. Unified with the goal of defeating the enemy, the Nanyang Task Force led by Ye Hua fired real fire. Taking advantage of the wind direction turning to the north at noon, the entire group began to charge. The originally neatly arranged array lines suddenly became chaotic.
However, although the Chinese fleet gave up the array line tactics, it did not fall into chaos. Instead, it used one capital ship to bring five Chinese sailing ships. They used the semaphore on the top of the main mast and the golden drum on the stern as communication tools. They were divided into five teams. Brave the enemy's intensive artillery fire charge.
Soon, the Chinese fleet approached the Dutch fleet's formation and began to release Thunderbolt rockets at a distance of two hundred steps.
In order to avoid those rockets flying in the sky, the Dutch had to break up the array line. Just like that, two hours after the war started, no important warships on both sides were seriously damaged. However, the entire line was disrupted almost at the same time, and a melee began.
At this time, Yin Feng's "invented" squad naval combat tactics and stern firing tactics can finally come into play.
The Dutch are very unaccustomed to the Chinese's close combat tactics: on the one hand, this is a reflection of the level of training. It is also the result of the two navies' different understanding of naval warfare tactics. Yin Feng taught his fleet to focus on attacking the hull of the battleship. The purpose is Destroy the navigation ability of the enemy ship and eventually damage the hull and sink it. The Dutch Navy focuses on attacking the enemy ship's sails and masts. The purpose is to kill the opponent's deck personnel and reduce its maneuverability, and then eventually sink or join forces to seize the opponent. Battleship.
After the Chinese array line dispersed, a large number of small ships came into play. A roundabout and outflanking operation began from both wings of the Dutch fleet. The balance of the battle was tilted in the direction of the Chinese.
Each Chinese company's fleet is equipped with a heavy cannon called a "crusher" on the bow. It is specially designed to destroy the ship's planks. It is extremely powerful. The largest Feihu has three decks and is densely covered with gun windows; Dozens of Folang machines are used to resist the enemy's close-range jumping attack.
The Dutch battleships are divided into one, two, three and even four tiers according to their size. On both sides of each tier are corridor-like artillery decks, which house cannons arranged in long rows. In the middle is a traffic channel. On both sides of the battleship. The side is made of ten to dozens of inches of wooden ship planking. It is difficult to penetrate when the two sides are fighting side by side. Even if it is penetrated, a solid cannonball can only penetrate a hole. The lethality is limited.
The most vulnerable part of the battleship's armor is the bow and stern. Because when forming a battle line, the bow and stern face all friendly ships. There is no need for special protection. Unfortunately, God's calculations are not as good as those of the Dutch battleships. The designer did not expect that Yin Feng would come up with this kind of stern-shooting tactic: actively disrupting his own side's formation and breaking into the opponent's formation to attack.
The Chinese warship circled behind the stern of the enemy ship and blasted the opponent's fragile poop with bow armor-piercing shells. Then it aimed at the blasted hole and fired jet-type shotgun shells into the enemy ship. Because at that time, the European sailing warships had no partitions from beginning to end. Plate. The shotgun fired in this way can hit the ship from the stern to the bow, causing a massacre-like killing effect on the entire deck.
As a result, the personnel losses of the Dutch army skyrocketed. The gunners suffered extremely heavy casualties. The battleship Hector, which had escaped the pursuit of the Chinese company's fleet, was besieged head and tail by two Fei Zi. After two rounds of mutual fire, the battleship Hector The number of casualties in the cabin reached a staggering 600. Eighty percent of the gunners were either dead or injured and had basically lost their combat capability.
During the fierce battle, Ye Hua's flagship Flying Tiger has been looking for the flagship of the Dutch fleet.
One of the three Dutch battleships has been disabled, and three of the remaining medium-sized battleships have been sunk. However, the Dutch fleet is still resisting tenaciously and can support each other. This shows that their command system is still intact.
Now, the only problem is that the Dutch flagship cannot be found. This allows the Dutch army to not collapse despite heavy losses. The organized resistance lasted for a long time. The Dutch captains and generals can also be called He did his duty. General Alfa, the commander of the rearguard formation of the Dutch fleet, was seriously wounded in the battle.
Finally, it was the lookout on the mainmast of Ye Hua's flagship Feihu who used his binoculars to discover Admiral Joris Spielbergen's flag on the Agthios.
Ye Hua immediately ordered a rocket signal to be sent out and concentrated three main warships to besiege the Agthios. At the same time, numerous small Chinese ships swarmed up like ants and used cannons to besiege the surrounding Dutch warships. The Leos was isolated.
The naval battle off Cirebon is coming to an end. Dutch Admiral Joris Spielbergen's flagship Argyleus fought fiercely for an hour with one enemy against three. There were more than 500 casualties on the ship. They were lying in piles in the cabin. Most of the gunners' corpses were headless. The red blood flowed into a river, flowing into the sea from various breaches in the ship's side. Facing the consequences of the terrible "stern shot" tactic, Admiral Spielbergen had completely lost his fighting spirit.
Under the setting sun in the evening, the last Dutch battleship that persisted in resisting lowered the Dutch flag of the House of Orange and hoisted the white flag. Two of the three Dutch battleships were sunk. Admiral Joris Spielbergen The flagship Argyleus surrendered and was captured. Except for three clippers and escaped towards Batavia, the rest of the Dutch warships either sank or sank.
Of Ye Hua's Feizi battleships, only the Feibao was seriously damaged. In addition, eight Fuchuan-type gunboats and small clippers were sunk. A total of more than 600 casualties were lost.
The Chinese fleet basically won this naval battle and completed the task of destroying the Dutch fleet before the end of the year.