Daming pirates

After listening to the opinions of his captains, Waite finally compromised, because the ideas of his captains were also very reasonable. The main fleet of Sea Wolf is now missing. If they delay here longer, then the main ship of Sea Wolf will

The team is more likely to come back.

Although he is very confident in the fleet he leads, he still understands the principle of ants killing the elephant. Even if he can finally defeat Sea Wolf's main fleet, it will be impossible without paying a small price.

, what's more, he also saw that there were many Western-style cannons in Sea Wolf's fort, and Sea Wolf was not as easy to deal with as he thought.

Therefore, what he wants is limited punishment to the Sea Wolf, rather than a decisive battle with the Sea Wolf here. If he can complete the bombardment of Tamsui City as soon as possible, it is better to complete it as soon as possible. As long as he returns to DaYuan, he will rely on DaYuan Port to support him.

, even if the Sea Wolf wants to retaliate against them, they can still rely on Damuan Port to defeat the Sea Wolf.

So in the end he agreed with the opinions of these captains and ordered immediate action, sending three gunboats into the Tamsui River, approaching Tamsui City in the Tamsui River, and launching a punitive bombardment of Tamsui City.

The remaining four Dutch gunboats, under the command of Waite, fanned out outside the estuary, controlling a considerable area of ​​​​sea outside the estuary. As long as the Sea Wolf fleet appeared, no matter where they came from, they would

It was immediately discovered by the Dutch.

Three Dutch gunboats carefully sailed into the Tamsui River. They also untied the three large sampans towed behind their boats in advance and let the three rowing boats go ahead. While observing the situation on both sides of the bank, they kept lowering the lead bobs.

The waterways were explored to prevent their ships from running aground.

These three Dutch warships, led by rowing boats, slowly sailed into the river mouth. The two banks were quiet, but you could see thick smoke rising along the river bank and spreading into the distance. It should be sea wolves.

On the other side of Tamsui City, which informed them, the Dutch had already entered the river.

After entering the Tamsui River, the three Dutch warships were never blocked, and they did not observe any forts or forts on the shore.

Wherever they looked, there were lush shrubs or woods everywhere, and in some places there were deep thatches, so they were somewhat relieved. They felt that although the Sea Wolf had set up a strong fort outside the river mouth, they were probably too young.

Although they were overconfident, they did not set up a fort in the river mouth.

Therefore, after entering the river, it was safer on the contrary, so the three boats speeded up and headed towards Tamsui City.

However, after they sailed about four or five miles into the mouth of the Tamsui River, they were still blocked by Sea Wolf. Some Sea Wolf personnel appeared on the shore, set up some light artillery, and fired at them.

These Sea Wolf cannons are not big. Although they are quite accurate, they do not pose much threat to the Dutch ships. The cannonballs hit the Dutch warships and many of them fell into the water. Few of the cannonballs were directly fired.

Penetrating the hull only created some holes in their sails.

The Dutch also reacted quickly and immediately launched a counterattack. The artillery fire on both sides was fully opened and they immediately began to fire volleys at the Sea Wolf tribe on the shore.

A large number of artillery shells roared and landed on the shore. These Sea Wolf tribes did not build a strong artillery fort, so after being bombarded by the Dutch, they immediately collapsed and escaped not long after. Several light artillery pieces

They were also overturned on the shore, causing the Dutch on board to laugh wildly, thinking that these Chinese pirates were nothing more than that.

Several groups of Sea Wolf tribes tried to block the Dutch fleet, but all failed and were defeated by the Dutch. So the Sea Wolf changed their tactics and simply started to launch fireships or rafts from upstream.

These fireboats were small boats, piled with firewood and doused with kerosene. After being lowered from the upstream, and approaching the Dutch ships, they were immediately ignited by the sailors and floated down the river towards the Dutch ships.

Come.

The same goes for some rafts, with many large iron nails nailed on the front end. The rafts were piled with firewood and filled with kerosene. After being lowered down the river, they were lit and floated towards the Dutch ships, trying to nail them.

The Dutch ships burned their ships.

This approach made the Dutch start to get nervous, because this is a river after all. Although the Tamsui River is very wide, it is still very cramped for these large ships and there is not enough room to maneuver.

If they were accidentally nailed by the fire rafts of these fire ships, their ships would probably be burned, so the Dutch did not dare to neglect and quickly ordered the three rowing boats in front to block these fire ships and prop them open.

The naval guns on the bow were also at full fire, firing fiercely at the approaching fireship.

These fireships and fire platoons were blocked by the Dutch. They were either pushed away and left the channel of the Dutch ships, or they were directly destroyed by the Dutch naval guns and became fragments floating on the river.

Fortunately for the Dutch, the Sea Wolves did not seem to be fully prepared for their attack. Although they carried out various blockades, they were not too violent. Whether it was the shelling on the shore or the fired fireboats, the number was not very large.

There are no obstacles to prevent their movement.

Therefore, the Dutch who invaded Tamsui River believed that their arrival should have exceeded the sea wolves' expectations, thus achieving the effect of a surprise attack.

As their fleet got closer to Tamsui City, the sea wolf's resistance became stronger and stronger. At this time, more sea wolf tribesmen began to appear on the shore, opening fire at the Dutch in the river, and the firepower also changed.

It was much stronger, and occasionally large-caliber artillery began to appear, firing at the Dutch ships.

Moreover, the number of fire ships going down the river also began to increase, which made the Dutch become nervous again. While they had to constantly fight back against the Sea Wolf tribe on the shore, they also had to be careful of the fire ships floating down the upstream.

, so the traveling speed is getting slower and slower.

The total distance from the mouth of Tamsui River to Tamsui City is only more than ten miles, but due to the constant blocking of sea wolves, the Dutch moved very slowly.

They walked for more than three hours on this journey and had not yet reached Tamsui City, but at this time the sky was getting darker and darker.

The Dutch watched the sky get darker and became more nervous. They knew that the night would provide better protection for the sea wolves, and the enemy would probably use night attacks to deal with them.

But they didn't dare to stop, because once they stopped in the narrow river, they would be a living target, and they would lose their mobility. Once a large number of fire ships were launched upstream, it would be difficult for them to deal with them, so they could only hold on.

Scalp, continue to move forward, and at the same time lowered several small rowing boats from the ship, and ordered the sailors to row the rowing boats and walk in front to prevent fire ships from attacking.

But after it got dark, the number of Sea Wolf's fireboats became less and less. This made the Dutch heave a long sigh of relief. After calculation, Sea Wolf had put down dozens of fireboats since they entered the estuary.

The fire boats and dozens of fire platoons were either destroyed by them, or they deviated from the waterway, lost control, floated towards the mouth of the river or the shore, and eventually burned on the river.

superior.

Now Sea Wolf probably does not have enough boats or rafts to serve as fire ships, which makes the Dutch on these Dutch ships heave a huge sigh of relief.

What they were most afraid of was not Sea Wolf's cannons, because in their opinion, Sea Wolf was not fully prepared. Except for a few heavy cannons from the fort outside the river mouth, after entering the river mouth, they were not attacked by heavy artillery. Occasionally, there were one or two

Larger artillery is not a big threat to them. Their ships are strong and their guns are powerful, and they can easily deal with the artillery attacks of these sea wolves.

What they fear most is the fire boats. Once they are attacked by a large number of fire boats in the river, they will be very dangerous. If the sea wolf had not put down these fire boats in batches just like refueling, but had put them down all at once.

If there are dozens or even hundreds of fire boats, it will be difficult for them to deal with them. Otherwise, they will be set on fire by the fire boats.

However, Sea Wolf seemed to be ill-prepared and only set fire to the ships in batches. This allowed them to respond more calmly and did not suffer a fatal blow.

Nowadays, Sea Wolf's fire boats are being lowered less and less, and sometimes only one or two fire boats are being lowered, which no longer poses any threat to them. This also makes the Dutch self-righteously judge that Sea Wolf no longer has a sufficient number of small boats.

It can be used as a fire ship, so they have nothing to worry about now.

Therefore, the three Dutch warships did not take the initiative to retreat after the sky gradually darkened. On the contrary, they accelerated towards Tamsui City.

But soon after it got dark, the situation seemed to begin to change. More and more people began to move around on the dark sides of the river bank.

These people did not pay attention to these Dutch warships, but were operating something unknown on the shore. They made a squeaking sound at night. From time to time, the sound of light artillery would be heard from the shore, and clouds of clouds would rise.

The muzzle flash hit the Dutch ship traveling in the river.

However, these artillery did not pose a great threat to the Dutch, and the shooting accuracy at night was not high. Most of the artillery shells fell on the river. Even if they hit the Dutch warships, they would not cause enough damage to the Dutch warships.

However, the sound of these cannons effectively covered up the squeaking sounds on the shore. The Dutch could not see at all. On the river behind them, several thick lines began to slowly rise from the river at this time.

If the Dutch saw the iron chains, they would immediately recognize them as river-sealing iron ropes, specially used to intercept ships on rivers and rivers.

But what is puzzling is that they were not raised by Sea Wolf before the Dutch sailed by, but they were raised after the Dutch sailed by. If they raised these river-sealing iron cables in advance, the Dutch's

These three boats can't get close to Tamsui City at all.

However, after these iron cables blocking the river were raised, they still blocked the Dutch's retreat from the river.