However, after a while, both Max and Anthony quickly came to their senses and couldn't help but complain.
The reason for this has to do with the topography of the Strait of Hormoci.
The Strait of Hormuz is located between the Arabian Peninsula and the southern part of the Persian Empire. It is shaped like a herringbone and is the only outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. It is about 150 kilometers long from east to west, 97 kilometers at its widest point, and only about 38 kilometers at its narrowest point.
In addition, this strait has many islands, reefs and shoals, and the safe channel is only a few kilometers wide. If that's all, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is Gombrun's location.
In this strait, there is the largest island called Qeshm Island. The island is long and narrow, extending parallel to the mainland coast, separated by the Hulan Strait. The coastline is winding. It is 112 kilometers long, 11 to 32 kilometers wide, and covers an area of about 1,336 square kilometers.
On Qeshm Island, there is a military castle built by the Portuguese. But during the reign of Abbas I, he turned to the British and Dutch fleets to drive the Portuguese away.
Originally, the British and Dutch fleets would have docked on this island. However, when Abbas II came to Gombrun to build a new capital, the two families parked their fleet and guarded the seaside side of Gombrun. subsequent benefits.
So here comes the key question.
This Gombrun, later known as Bandar Abbas, is located in the northeast of Qeshm Island. Now the Ming army is pushing sideways from the outside. Thanks to Qeshm Island, if the British and Dutch fleets cannot break through the Ming army on the opposite side, they will have no choice but to retreat into the Hulan Strait. Not to mention that the Hulan Strait is too narrow, there is even a maritime forest called "Hala" with more than 100,000 hectares.
This means that if the combined fleets of Britain and the Netherlands want to run backward, it is basically impossible.
At this time, after all, Max and Anthony had rich experience and knew that they could no longer fight against each other and had to immediately adjust their formation to break out, otherwise, the entire army would really be annihilated.
However, there is another characteristic in the Strait of Hormoci.
Since the amount of evaporation is much greater than the amount of precipitation, the salinity of the seawater in the strait increases. The strait and Persian Gulf are more salinity than the Gulf of Oman, creating a seawater density gradient. This causes seawater with less salinity in the Gulf of Oman to flow to the Persian Gulf through the surface of the strait, while seawater with greater salinity in the Persian Gulf flows to the Gulf of Oman through the bottom layer of the strait.
In other words, in simple terms, in this sea area, the surface of the sea flows from east to west, and the bottom of the sea flows from west to east.
In this way, the Ming Navy coming from the east completely occupied the geographical advantage. The fleet came very fast. Before the adjustment of the British and Dutch combined fleets was completed, the warships of the Ming Navy had already rushed over.
There was no other way, Max and Anthony had to fight hastily, fight first and then talk.
But at this time, the two of them discovered something new.
I saw the battleship rushing at the front of the Ming Kingdom fleet, and the hull shell actually reflected the sunlight. There is no doubt that it is metal!
Also, the battleship at the front actually has a large barrel on the hull, emitting thick smoke. What is going on? Is there a fire? Still rushing over with all his strength, or setting fire to the ship? But why is the outer shell made of metal, which can burn enemy ships?
A series of doubts emerged in the minds of every Dutch and British person. Weird things happen every year. Why are there so many this year?
Before they could figure it out, they suddenly heard a loud noise.
"Boom boom..."
If they fire cannons from such a long distance, are the sailors on the Ming army's warships novices?
As soon as he had this idea, Max saw the mast of a battleship in the Dutch fleet broken by a chain bomb. The huge mast fell with the sails on it, making a loud noise.
Seeing this, he was immediately dumbfounded. Can he hit it from such a distance? Is this simply blessed by the goddess of luck? But the goddess of luck is not from the Ming Dynasty!
Naturally, he didn't know that the cannons on this steam-armored battleship were not only large in caliber, but also rifled. On the premise of ensuring power, the accuracy and range were much higher than ordinary artillery.
At this time, although the Dutch warship was hit, Max did not feel any sense of schadenfreude.
"Boom boom..."
The Ming army's artillery that was the first to rush over fired again. Without any surprise, another Dutch warship was hit on the side of the ship. Wood chips and pieces of wood flew everywhere, and there were screams from the sailors. Of course, if you are far away, you can't hear it.
At this moment, everyone knew that it was not the goddess of luck who betrayed them, but the Ming army's artillery was so powerful!
Realizing this, both the British and Dutch sailors panicked and their morale dropped even lower.
Just when they were panicking, the first warships of the Ming army had already entered the artillery range of some of their warships. Of course, they would not be polite and opened fire immediately, vowing to take revenge.
"Boom boom boom..."
Amidst the continuous sound of artillery, iron bullets, chain bullets, etc. roared out, and nearly half of them hit the Ming warship. It has to be said that the level of their artillery is still nothing to say.
The masts of Ming warships were not made of iron, and of course they were broken when hit by chain bullets. And the mast collapsed with the sail, which is also the most eye-catching.
But before the Dutch sailors could cheer, they saw that the hulls of Ming warships that had been hit by bullets were only craters at most, not a single hole at all.
"..."
This time, they were all dumbfounded. Is this damn Ming warship really made of iron?
It's made of iron. It's easy to figure out if it can float, but why can it run so fast?
Just when they were stunned, the artillery on the Ming warship also fired.
"Boom boom boom..."
At this time, the distance was very close, and the rifled artillery was more powerful. It hit the hull of the Dutch warship, directly smashing a big hole, and it also caused penetrating damage, and incidentally also caused damage to the Dutch warship behind it. Although the damage is not great, it is indeed there.
"..." The Dutch sailors who saw this scene, at least the sailors on the hit warship behind, were dumbfounded again.
There were really too many unexpected things in this battle with the Ming Kingdom fleet!
The captains on the Dutch fleet all have rich combat experience. At this time, they could no longer care about these things and were shouting "turn the rudder, turn the rudder" because the Ming Dynasty's armored battleship was about to collide. No matter what, can wood collide with iron armor?
What's more, the Ming army took advantage of the geographical advantage and relied on the flow of sea water to move faster. The Dutch warships were all turned sideways because they had to fire.
However, at this time, due to the deliberate action of the armored battleship, they had no time to avoid it, or even adjust the direction of the battleship.
"Bang bang bang..."
The bow of the armored battleship was like a sharp sword, splitting the Dutch battleship in front of it in half. The smoke then increased, and the battleship continued forward, then crashed into the next ship.
Behind this steam-iron armored battleship, there were twenty modified battleships, specially modified for collision, with their hulls covered with iron sheets. The collision that followed immediately shattered the already poor formation of the Dutch fleet.
Anthony's flagship was behind and was not affected, but when he saw the situation in front, he suddenly felt a chill down his back. He knew that not to mention the thousands of Ming warships behind, if only the hundreds of warships at the front came over, it would be doomed!
While he was in a daze, he heard someone on the boat shouting hysterically: "That armored battleship is coming, it's coming, it's coming to hit us, turn the rudder quickly, avoid it..."
Being awakened by this voice, Anthony saw a huge battleship approaching majestically. It wasn't until he got closer that he realized how huge this armored warship was.
Anthony didn't panic or yell, because he knew that no matter what he did, it would be useless. I could only smile bitterly in my heart, looking at the armored battleship that hit me, and murmured to myself: "Finally, I have witnessed the rise of the Ming Dynasty's maritime overlord!"
There was a loud bang, and the flagship of the Dutch fleet was hit in two by the steam ironclad battleship.
Max, who was behind them, saw that the Dutch fleet in front of them had no way to fight back against the twenty or so warships of the Ming army. Watching these warships rushing toward them again, the Dutch fleet was in pieces and would soon be submerged in the sea of Ming warships. He was desperate, and without giving any orders, he simply let the flagship flee as far as he could.
Unlike him, Yan Yingyuan, who was on the Ming Dynasty's flagship, could only see him stroking his long beard with a smile on his face.
Originally, according to Zheng Chenggong's intention, it was a fleet battle.
However, Yan Yingyuan finally ordered the army's transport ships to follow the fleet. Anyway, the enemy doesn't know the truth or the reality. They don't know that in today's Ming Dynasty Navy, all the original Fuchuan ships are used as transport ships instead of warships.
In fact, if you really want to fight, you can fight. There are no explosive bombs or high explosives. If you want to completely defeat the enemy, you have to rely on boarding battle. The sailors on the transport ship had no problem with this.
Of course, the prerequisite for this is that it can be connected to the side. If it was a previous era, that would have been difficult. It is also for this reason that more than a dozen Dutch sail warships dare to act arrogantly along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. In the end, although he was defeated by Zheng Zhilong in the naval battle of Liaoluo Bay, he escaped with most of the warships.
This situation no longer exists today. The Ming Dynasty not only had a sailing fleet, but also steam-powered propeller-propelled ironclad battleships.
"Your Majesty the Governor, this European fleet is nothing more than that!" A guard was excited and said to Yan Yingyuan, "It's not as powerful as the legend says!"
"Haha, they were scared." Yan Yingyuan listened and replied with a smile.
