Cornelis van Tropp is the second son of the Dutch naval star Marton Tropp. His father, Marton Tropp, is a naval commander who can be described as "great". The Battle of Downs Anchorage, which took place in 1639, was Marton Tropp's masterpiece.
After ruining Spain's maritime hegemony, Martontrop launched a desperate battle with the powerful British navy in the First Anglo-Dutch War.
At the beginning, Marton Tropp also performed well, defeating the British naval star Robert Blake twice. But when the two met for the third time, Black used the battle line tactic he invented, thus ending Marton Tropp's era. This battle took place in February 1653 and is known in history as the Battle of Portland or the Three-Day Battle. Six months after this naval battle, Martentrops was killed in the Battle of Heveningen.
However, the Tropp family's naval journey did not end with Marton Tropp's death. Marton's second son, Cornelis van Trop, was promoted from captain to rear admiral shortly after his father's death. He later went to the Baltic Sea and participated in the naval battle of the First Northern War between Poland and Sweden.
When the Dutch East India Company asked for help from the mainland because of the Ming Empire's pressing advances in the Southeast Asia, the first thing that came to the mind of the ruling Chancellor De Wit was this "second-generation famous general" of the navy who was always known for his love for fierce battles. , so he was appointed commander of the East India Fleet and unified command of all Dutch maritime forces in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean.
In addition, Speaker De Wit also handed over three of the world's most powerful battleships (the Dutch would not admit that the British Protectorate class was more powerful), the Seventh Provincial Council, the Dutch Provincial Council, and the Zealand Provincial Council. Nellis Van Trop asked the rear admiral to take them to deal with the naval fleet of the Chinese empire in the east.
Cornelis van Trop was still very confident when he left the Dutch mainland on the Seven Provincial Council.
After all, the Chinese Empire in the East was just a student of the Dutch in terms of navy - their ability to operate soft sailing ships for long distances was taught step by step by Dutch naval officers!
However, when Tropp met Captain David Jones, the captain of the Sealand Provincial Council (this battleship was originally deployed in the Mediterranean, so it did not set out with Tropp) in Batavia, he must My confidence in winning began to waver.
According to Davy Jones, if there were no bombardment of gunboats, the Dutch Navy's advantage over the Ming Navy would indeed be unshakable.
However, with the variable of bombarding gunboats, the Dutch Navy's leading position is not so reliable.
Because the "Bombardment Artillery Revolution" actually happened in the Ming Dynasty Navy!
It was the Ming Navy that first used explosive bombs on battleships, and it was also the Ming shipyard that first started designing bombardment battleships.
Although due to the relatively backward shipbuilding technology of the Ming Dynasty, the bombardment gunboats of the Ming Navy were lighter in tonnage and slower in speed. However, the bombardment guns equipped on these gunboats and the explosive shells used by the bombardment guns were no worse than those used by the Dutch fleet!
Therefore, Ming's bombardment battleships are also deadly weapons, and there are so many of them.
It was after considering Davy Jones's opinion that Major General Tropp gave up the idea of relying on inferior troops to fight the enemy in a grand battle, and instead sought opportunities for surprise attacks.
Just after he led his fleet to hide at the mouth of the Klang River for nearly a month, a brisk Dutch warship finally brought him good news.
The Dashun Empire and the Kingdom of Arakan finally reached an alliance. The latter had sent 300 galleys to carry 15,000 Dashun troops to land on Penang Island and the nearby territory belonging to the Sultan of Kedah.
In the commander's cabin of the Seventh Provincial Council, Tropp once again took out Bruce Van Diemen's personal letter and looked at the date on it - it was sent 6 days ago.
In the letter, Bruce told Tropp that 300 galleys from Arakan had arrived at Salim Port, and that all 15,000 Grand Shun officers and soldiers would be able to board the ships in at most two days.
In other words, the troop transport fleet should have set off four days ago. If everything goes well, it should have arrived in Penang by now.
As long as they can attract the Ming army in the northern part of the Malacca Peninsula, the situation should be relatively favorable for the Netherlands!
Just as he was thinking of this, the voice of one of his adjutants suddenly came from outside the door, "Rear Admiral, Colonel Jones has just boarded the ship and brought an urgent military report!"
"What?" Tropp was stunned, what's going on? The Sealand Provincial Council on which Davy Jones was aboard was anchored at the anchorage in the mouth of the Klang River. Even if a communication ship came over, it would be impossible to run past the Seven Provincial Council and report to the Sealand Provincial Council!
"Rear Admiral! I'm David!" Davy Jones's voice has come in, "I just got an urgent report from Johor City that a huge Ming Dynasty fleet is heading south along the eastern coastline of the Malacca Peninsula, and is likely to enter the strait! "
Tropp couldn't sit still anymore. He quickly got up and opened the hatch, and saw Davy Jones standing outside with sweat on his face.
"Come in!" Tropp invited Davy Jones into the cabin. "How did you get the news?"
"It was the news sent by cavalry from our advisor in Johor, so it was sent to the Sealand Provincial Assembly first!" As he spoke, David Jones handed the letter to the rear admiral.
Tropp quickly opened the letter, first reading it ten lines at a time, and then reading it carefully again, with a puzzled expression on his face.
"What is a bird boat?" Tropp asked.
"A kind of Ming Dynasty-style hard sailing ship," Davy Jones said. "The largest bird ship is five to six hundred tons in deadweight. Because it uses hard sails, the sail area is limited and the speed is very slow. This kind of ship usually They are for civilian use, but there are also military models, most of which are transport ships, and some are equipped with bombardment guns, which can be used for naval battles."
"Do you know how big a bombardment gun this bird ship will be equipped with?" Tropp asked.
"The largest bombardment gun installed was about 28 pounds (24 pounds)," Davy Jones replied, "but then the Chinese had the Yingtianfu class, and they no longer needed the Big Bird ship to act as the main force in naval battles, and the 28-pounder bombardment The recoil generated was too great, which would cause certain damage to the hull of the Big Bird ship. So they replaced the 28-pounder gun with an 18-pounder gun, and also redesigned the gun cabin, making a 'Wanshi' type The Big Bird ship could carry 1,214 18-pound bombardment guns."
"It shouldn't be easy for 18-pounders to penetrate the gun bays of the Seven Provincial Councils!" Tropp said, "At least before we use 40-pounders or 36-pounders to smash this big bird ship, their 18-pounders It’s impossible to penetrate the seven provincial council-level gun cabins!”
If the barrel lengths are similar, then the penetration ability of the 18-pound cannon shell should be inferior to that of the 36-pound or 40-pound cannon!
The destructive power of the bombardment cannon has been taken into consideration when designing the Seven Provincial Council-class, so the armor of the gun cabin has been strengthened so that 18-pound shells cannot penetrate the parliament-class gun cabin at a longer distance.
"Major General," Davy Jones already understood Tropp's thoughts, "If there is no Yingtianfu class, then we will definitely win!"
"It's impossible," Tropp said. "The question is just how many ships there are? If I guessed correctly, they should want to land somewhere in the Strait of Malacca! Those bird ships must be carrying many soldiers, how could there be no Yingtianfu?" Level protection?"
"Major General, should we attack as soon as possible to prevent the Chinese from landing?" David Jones said, "Their army strength is far superior to that of the Sudanese army!"
"No" Tropp shook his head, "Let's see if it is really a landing, then we should attack after the landing battle has started. Because the fleet that is performing a landing mission cannot effectively maneuver.
In addition, we must also find out how many Yingtianfu-class ships there are? If there are too many, there is no guarantee of victory! "
