At the end of March in the forty-seventh year of Wanli, the night fog on the sea from Xiamen to Kinmen became thicker and thicker day by day.
The navy, maritime merchants and fishermen in the Zhangquan and Xiajin areas have long been accustomed to such weather.
Every year from late autumn to early summer of the following year, starting from the turn of Xuhai, no matter how strong the northwest or southeast wind is, it cannot blow away the vast fog.
Kinmen, Liaoluowan.
Under the guardhouse bunker, the door of a cell was opened.
Gullit instinctively raised his hands to cover his eyes before the torch light suddenly shone into the dark world.
Two Ming army guards came in, untied his anklets, pointed knives at him and said, "Go out yourself."
Gullit suddenly felt horrified: "What are you going to do? You can't massacre civilians! This will cause a war between the two countries!"
"Stop talking nonsense, get up and follow us. I won't kill you. You are such a cowardly foreign monkey." A Ming army guard dragged Gulit up.
The other guard was a little gentler and pointed outside: "You won't lose your head. The boss asked us to take you to Miss Zheng's place."
When Gulit heard this, his panic turned into burning anger.
He shook off the guard, swore a Dutch curse word, and then seamlessly switched to a Chinese metaphor he had learned recently.
"I'm going to question this femme fatale!"
When a foreign monkey thinks of a femme fatale woman, the monkey nature seems to transform into the power of a tiger.
Gullit took big steps and walked quickly with the two guards with his head held high.
When he felt the chill break through the already dirty woolen coat on his body, he realized that he had reached the top of the mountain.
Zheng Haizhu and Xu Xinsu were chatting while drinking tea around the small red clay stove.
Turning around to see Gullit, Zheng Haizhu stopped talking about future cooperation with Xu Xinsu, poured a cup of hot tea, walked over and handed it to the Dutchman.
"Please come and watch the war. You must wait until dawn. Warm your hands. It's cold on the mountain."
The curse words that Gulit had been holding back all the way were blocked by the words "come to watch the fight" before he could say them out.
Seeing Gullit staring at those Persian cat-like eyes, Zheng Haizhu added calmly: "Your company has given up on you. Let's attack directly tonight."
Gulit felt something strange in his heart.
Ruffin was really a belligerent coachman, and he obviously didn't care about the lives of his company's senior advisor and the lives of more than a dozen outstanding sailors.
But he is still a man after all, and he cannot survive crying in front of a woman, especially when there are many men from the Ming Dynasty watching around.
Gulit then held on to his pride and said with a straight face: "Zheng, it was you who set up the insidious trap first. Ah, this trap must have been approved by your government. It is you Ming people who have no credibility. Our generals , I’m right not to negotiate with you!”
Zheng Haizhu responded tit-for-tat: "Gulit, let me give you an idiom. Thieves are called "catches of thieves." They are talking about you Dutch people. What we Ming people call thieves are robbers. You wanted to occupy Penghu Island in our Ming Dynasty more than ten years ago. At that time, there was no Seize it, and now you come to seize it again, what are you not robbers? If you don’t go through the Ming Dynasty officials, you collect a large number of slave laborers from people like me who pretend to be black market businessmen, and transport them to your construction sites and plantations. What are you not robbers? Ours The navy seized the slave ship and handed it to Ruffin with the seal of the commander-in-chief, ordering your ship to leave our country within a time limit and come to sign the agreement. You pretended to delay, but actually mobilized more troops from Batavia. Attacking our guardhouse, what are they but robbers? Shouldn't the hunter set a trap for robber-like hungry wolves like you?"
This Mingguo dialect was not difficult, and Gulit understood it. He choked for a moment and just stared at Zheng Haizhu breathlessly.
Xu Xinsu laughed at the side and said: "There is no trap. You are already shit. Do you blame others for taking off your pants to make you look ugly? Okay, Dutch gentleman, sit here and watch the show. Miss Zheng said, you are a Businessman, he is not too stupid. He bought a lot of goods from our Ming Dynasty in Yuegang. Now that the war is over, I will leave a seat for you at the negotiation table."
…
About half an hour later, we were due south of Liaoluo Bay.
"Lower the sail!"
"All ships line up, port side facing twelve o'clock!"
"Load gunpowder!"
"Groningen gunners in position!"
"Victoria's gunners are in position!"
"The gunners of Meade are in position!"
"Orange gunners in position!"
"Delft's gunners are in position!"
Behind the fog barrier, the Dutch of the messenger kept coming and going, reaching the ears of Ruffin standing in the middle of the port side of the Groningen.
Ruffin looked to the left and right, and saw five large Galenic battleships lined up horizontally, and seven or eight three-masted Yahat assault ships with a displacement of one to two hundred tons scattered nearby, forming the most beautiful naval battle in the eyes of the Dutch. formation.
At this moment, the Dutch cannon's adjusted elevation angle is ten degrees, which can form effective lethality within a range of two kilometers.
Their current mission is to bombard the Ming warships in the bay first.
When approaching Liao Lo Wan Beach, the elevation angle of the cannon gradually decreased until it was adjusted to a horizontal level to bombard military facilities on the shore.
Lu Fen was very satisfied with the thick fog on the sea surface of Xiajin and the strengthening southeast wind at night.
The harbor is fixed, and the ships sleeping soundly in the harbor are also fixed. For the Dutch who take the initiative to attack fixed targets at night, the fog barrier is not only not a problem, but also helps to hide their traces. The strong southeastern night wind blowing from Penghu Island to Kinmen made the Dutch ship much faster than usual.
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Ruffin picked up the binoculars. In the chaos caused by the sea fog, it takes a lot of effort for the human eye to distinguish the general outline of Kinmen Island.
There was no light that shone across the sky, earth, mountains and seas, piercing the chaos and entering Lu Fen's eyes.
"The warriors of the Ming Dynasty are sleeping." Rufin pursed his lips and teased the captain of the Groningen, Byrne.
Bourne responded with a smile: "Then use our artillery fire to wake them up!"
"Fire!"
"boom--"
With a loud noise, a forty-eight-pound heavy artillery shell on the Groningen tore through the foggy night and headed straight for Liaoluo Bay.
The other four gunboats in the line opened fire, and the sea surface of Liaoluo Bay, which had been quiet and silent a moment ago, suddenly became rumbled with gunfire and dazzling fire.
The ear-splitting noise, orange flames, pungent smell of sulfur, and high-pitched cheers instantly stimulated the adrenaline of the male beasts on the sea, making their desire to kill and destroy stronger than the raging waves. .
After a burst of bombardment, there was an interval between the ships firing the second round. Ruffin and the captains keenly noticed that the southeast wind seemed to have changed direction, which restricted the speed of the Dutch fleet in sailing toward the northwest.
But the invaders are not too worried about this. The fleet is already so close to Liaoluo Bay. Will the heavy and powerful artillery shells with amazing range be blown away by the southwest wind?
In fact, from the telescopes, the officers were proud to see the vague but growing orange-red fireballs behind the fog curtain, indicating that the ships of the Ming army had become the first victims.
(Second update later)
