"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 engulfed the Bruce Paradise, and the Dutch sailors on board could only howl in despair, and then jumped 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 made Anthony van Diemen calm down a bit.
"What are you going to do?"
Hans Putmans quickly scanned the battlefield.
The development of the war to this point has been very disadvantageous for the Dutch fleet.
The Blues Paradise was in flames and it was clear that there was no way to save it.
Because the Willingen was at the forefront, it was already surrounded by Zheng's gunboats. Countless shells were being fired from all directions, and only the smoke filling the Willingen could be seen.
The Snothendieck was very heroic and was approaching the Willingen in order to rescue her.
As a result, this warship was also bombarded by Zheng's fleet, and the bombardment on 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 fire ship get close.
Although it only takes 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 grim.
"I have to keep more people safe."
A qualified general will definitely make this choice.
You can't put 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 having a tailwind, 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, and then concentrated all the warships to begin besieging the remaining three Dutch warships.
The Blues Paradise was all ablaze and sinking was 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 ship's firepower is mainly deployed on both sides. Although the muzzle can be moved, the range that it can hit is still very limited.
Zheng's fleet has a clear division of labor.
The ships on both sides were far away, and they just kept harassing.
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 crazily, 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 that the main fleet had gone nowhere, the Snoutendick knew that it was impossible to do anything and began to turn around and break out.
The ship Zuo Hua was on was in the queue to attack the Snoutendick.
Seeing the Snoutendick 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 the entire main force. Maybe they will 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, 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."
Under his guidance, he saw a fireship rushing towards the Willingen bravely, but it happened to be hit by its own cannonball. They immediately fell apart on the sea, and no one knew how many people were killed.
Zheng's naval battle was so chaotic.
Those Zheng soldiers who drove the fireship had extremely high rewards, 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 Snoutendick 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. 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 was no doubt that dozens of shells fell into the water.
The staff here were not in a hurry.
"The enemy ship is sailing at five and a half knots and is 1,131 meters away."
The observer reported the data and the commander immediately called out the parameters.
"Coordinates 271.4, 13.5, up and down 10, calibrate one shot."
A bronze cannon fired alone.
The shell flew far away and passed over the Snoutendick.
The observer saw it clearly and immediately made changes.
"Up and down six, volley."
There were two bronze cannons in the front and two in the back of the ship, a total of four bronze cannons, after adjusting the parameters, they roared together.
I saw four dark cannonballs carrying turbulent air waves directly into the Snoutendick.
One of the shells hit the Snothendieck's main mast without missing a beat.
The originally towering sails instantly slipped down, and the originally speeding hull of the Snoutendick suddenly stopped and started spinning on the spot.
From afar, Hong Xu couldn't help but vomit acid when he saw this scene.
"Why does this bastard's luck get better every time?"
