New Ming Empire mixed in America

(two chapters in one)

Soon, the captured prisoner was brought up.

"The nearest port is Bandar Seri Begawan, where our camphor is sent..."

Listening to the foreign captain's story, Zhu Zhiwen had a general impression of the trading points here in Borneo.

Borneo is located on the trade route between Europe and the Far East, so there are many large and small ports along the way.

European immigrants established small towns along the routes, similar to the pattern on the west coast of America.

After leaving Manila, the Pacific Fleet headed straight to Borneo without even passing by the narrow island of Palawan.

The closest large bay to Manila in Borneo is Bandar Seri Begawan, which is not only a foreign trade port, but also a Dutch military port in the Far East.

Zhu Zhiwen's eyes lit up when he heard about the military port.

He brought the vanguard fleet out this time because he wanted to make some big splash and prove his ability.

Now how could he not be moved when he heard about the military port?

After asking some more detailed questions about the military port, Zhu Zhiwen finally made up his mind to raid the Dutch military port.

Because from the mouth of this foreign prisoner, he learned the general strength of the Dutch.

According to the prisoners' accounts, there are two fourth-level warships parked in Bandar Seri Bega Bay all year round, and they are warships with pitifully weak armor.

Well, this is thin for the current Xin Ming Empire's naval guns.

In addition to the two fourth-level ships, there are also two gunboat formations cruising in the sea area, each formation has six gunboats.

These gunboats are actually similar to armed merchant ships, except that they belong to the Dutch themselves.

Nowadays, most of the armed merchant ships encountered by reconnaissance ships are formed voluntarily by merchants who have received bounties.

In addition to the two patrol formations with a total of twelve gunboats, there is also a mini-fleet consisting of fifteen gunboats and a fourth-class ship dedicated to carrying out blockade missions in the waters of Lanfang Republic.

The maritime power of the Dutch was well known to even some officials of the Puppet Qing Dynasty, not to mention that this foreign prisoner was well aware of it.

These are the muscles deliberately displayed by the Dutch in order to deter the Puppet Qing from intervening in their battle against the Lan Fong Republic.

Because they still think that the Lanfang Republic is a vassal state of the Puppet Qing Dynasty.

If they knew that the Puppet Qing Dynasty did not recognize the Lanfang Republic at all, their attacks would not be as 'mild' as they are now.

Showing muscles is also a diplomatic method for them, not only against the puppet Qing Dynasty, but also to demonstrate to the Spanish navy in Manila.

Because the two colonies are so close, some friction will inevitably occur.

These two outdated ‘sea powers’ have actually never been easy to deal with in the Far East.

But after Dai Ying and Na San intervened in the Far East, the friction between them became much smaller.

In the past few years, several Spanish warships were decommissioned and returned to China, which gave the Dutch navy a sigh of relief.

Otherwise, they would not have launched an offensive against Lanfang Republic now.

Before Spain's two old warships left the Far East, they were always overwhelmed by the Spanish navy.

If they had a conflict with the Lanfang Republic at that time, it was very likely that the Spaniards would come out and take advantage.

Later, I became less afraid because the Spanish royal family had semi-abandoned the Luzon colony.

Otherwise they would not have opened Manila's port to the world.

After Birmingham served as the Spanish governor of Luzon last year, the Dutch became nervous again because they found that the new governor of Luzon had "ambitions."

Not only did he have ambitions for colonial rights, but he also had ambitions for this route in the Far East.

Therefore, the Dutch tried their best to show their muscles to the outside world, and also transferred a fourth-class ship and several gunboats from the Netherlands to begin to strengthen the maritime power here in Borneo.

So now Zhu Zhiwen can easily figure out the Dutch naval intelligence in the Far East.

"Get ready. Now I will commandeer you as the reconnaissance ship of the vanguard fleet to investigate the situation in Bandar Seri Bega Bay for the vanguard fleet!"

Zhu Zhiwen issued an order to the captain of the reconnaissance ship. He had the right to make decisions before battle and had the right to commandeer a reconnaissance ship.

However, considering the damage to the reconnaissance ship, he transferred the captain to a merchant ship.

After waiting on the spot for several hours, the following gunboats merged, and Zhu Zhiwen gave the order to set sail.

Immediately, a third-class iron-clad battleship, along with twenty gunboats and some supply ships, began to move towards Bandar Seri Bega Bay.

During the subsequent voyage, we did not encounter more than two armed merchant ships.

Because most of the merchant ships that received the plundering license stayed near Ryukyu, where there were more Chinese merchant ships.

And they couldn't compete with the Dutch gunboats in the waters here in Borneo, so they could only focus on the Chinese merchant ships in Ryukyu.

Although you may encounter Oriental pirates from time to time, overall the benefits are still considerable.

Without the presence of these troublemakers, the vanguard fleet finally approached Bandar Seri Bega Bay after sinking several Dutch armed merchant ships along the way.

At this time, they finally met the Dutch navy. These gunboats had their own ship names in the Dutch military system. After seeing the vanguard fleet led by Zhu Zhiwen, they behaved quite toughly.

They started firing warning cannons from a distance, and saw that the leading fleet had no intention of stopping.

The patrol formation began to form a battle formation, and at the same time, the clipper ships in the formation began to turn around and leave, heading towards Bandar Seri Bega Bay.

This clipper ship will go back and notify the Dutch warships there to prepare.

"We can't retreat. Now we have to buy the fleet time to react. You must know that the second formation has just withdrawn to the bay for repairs!"

On a Dutch gunboat, Norman Bloomer, the formation commander, said seriously to all the officers on his gunboat:

"Inform the other gunboats in the formation to come out with the courage of our 'Sea Coachmen'!"

"If anyone in the battle dares to surrender before the battle reaches the final moment, I will personally go over and twist off his head and throw it to the seabirds..."

Norman Bloomer just heard his Dafu say the words to evacuate, and he was almost furious.

Soldiers should fulfill their duties, and the duty of their gunboat formation is to protect the security of Borneo waters.

Now the enemy who disrupted the order here has appeared, and this guy has turned into a coward. This is a shame!

So the first mate, who represented shame, was arrested on the spot and sent to the cabin to be imprisoned.

Be prepared to send the other party to a military court as soon as they return to the port.

Soon, Norman Bloomer's tough tactics shocked everyone on his gunboat, and the flag bearer also began to raise the flag for battle.

"Hey, these Dutch people are much better than those idiots in Spain who only know how to fight among themselves!"

Seeing the gunboat formation in battle formation, Zhu Zhiwen left in front of the ship's telescope.

"Fortunately, the Spaniards are fighting among themselves, otherwise we would have to spend a lot of time to capture the Manila port."

The captain of the third-level armored battleship that was regarded as the flagship followed Zhu Zhiwen. After listening to Zhu Zhiwen's muttering, he smiled and continued:

"Actually, we were able to capture Manila thanks to those European capitalists."

"They each roped in some Spanish officials in Manila, causing the hills of the Governor's Palace in Manila to be covered with trees. Otherwise, the unlucky governor would not have appeared on the battlefield in person."

After saying this, the captain laughed.

What's interesting about these Spaniards is that their great enemy is still fighting among themselves.

He shook his head, he really didn't understand political things. As a soldier, you just need to obey orders and fight your own battle.

"No matter what those Spaniards thought, now they have become Jingguan."

Zhu Zhiwen walked back to the captain's cabin with the captain of his flagship. After finding his position on the chart, he called the correspondent and said:

"Let the gunboats be prepared and immediately launch an attack on the enemy after receiving orders from the flagship."

After watching the correspondent begin to contact the gunboat in the corner of the captain's cabin, Zhu Zhiwen ordered the captain of the flagship:

"Let the soldiers prepare for battle. After the battle begins, we must quickly defeat the opponent and then go straight into Bandar Seri Begawan!"

As the distance between the two sides got closer and closer, the Dutch formation of six gunboats finally saw clearly the size of the vanguard fleet led by Zhu Zhiwen.

Just now, I just saw the thick smoke rising from the fleet sailing on the sea and two reconnaissance ships.

Now when the entire vanguard fleet appeared in front of Norman Bloomer, he couldn't help but open his eyes wide.

The size of the opponent's navy gave this old-fashioned Dutch soldier the slightest thought of escaping.

But after thinking about what he just said and his mission, he suppressed the cowardice in his heart and asked the flagman to send a message to other gunboats in his formation.

‘Try to maneuver as much as possible, mainly to preserve yourself. The current military purpose is to delay the opponent’s speed...'

At the same time, the last contact ship in the formation also began to leave the formation and sail quickly towards Bandar Seri Bega Bay.

It was to bring the latest news back to Bandar Seri Begawan and notify Dutch officials there to pay attention to this huge fleet.

The Dutch gunboat formation also began to raise its full sail. Since the tactical purpose had changed, it could not stay where it was to fight.

Regarding naval battles, Norman Bloomer was confident in the command capabilities of his gunboat captains.

The gunboat slowly started to move, and at the same time, the naval soldiers on board began to fix all the items that needed to be fixed.

Because of the ensuing battle, they will definitely be hit, but the Dutch naval soldiers have rich experience in preventing shelling.

Ten minutes later, Norman Bloomer could no longer see the blurry appearance of the huge fleet without the help of a telescope.

Especially the third-level iron-clad battleship sailing at the front.

Looking at the Three-Chen Flag flying above, Norman Bloomer spit out the name of a country: "Xinming Empire...Orientals..."

His eyebrows knitted together as he recalled this Eastern empire that had only emerged in recent years.

Merchant ships recently coming from Europe also brought newspapers from a few months ago.

It writes about the Eastern Empire's navy defeating the British expeditionary fleet, with emphasis on the opponent's new warships.

In addition to the new ironclad ships, the power of the naval guns of the New Ming Empire Navy was also written.

The shocking range of the naval guns and the power of the shells above were something he had only seen as a joke before.

But now after facing the navy of the Eastern Empire, he recalled the contents of the newspaper again.

Because he clearly knew that although the newspapers would exaggerate the facts, the fact that the other party's naval guns were very advanced should not be wrong.

And the power of the new type of explosive bullets also made him a little worried.

Ever since Tsarist Russia relied on explosive bombs to destroy the Ottoman Empire's navy and occupied the Black Sea, the name of explosive bombs has spread.

As a country with a glorious naval history, the Netherlands is also very concerned about explosive ammunition.

So their battleships are also equipped with some explosive bombs.

However, this kind of artillery shell is very powerful, but its range is much lower than that of solid shells.

Moreover, explosive shells are a fatal threat to wooden battleships, but for battleships protected by thick steel plates, the threat may sometimes not be as high as solid shells.

When the two sides reached a distance of two thousand meters, Norman Bloomer's eyes narrowed.

Seeing the reflection on the enemy warship, which was obviously different from the wooden hull, he knew the worst was coming.

"Everyone pay attention and try to fire at the opponent's sails. Their warship looks like a turtle huddled in its shell. We can only slow down the opponent's hands and feet by breaking them. And their hands and feet are the sails on each side.

!”

He walked past all the gun emplacements on the deck and conveyed his orders to the gunners one by one.

He waited for the distance between the two sides to be within 1,500 meters, preferably within 1,000 meters or 800 meters.

But he didn't know that Zhu Zhiwen had already given the order to fire at this time.

He did not observe the use of balloons during this trip, so now he can only rely on the 10-meter rangefinder on the battleship for observation.

The farthest observation distance of this rangefinder can barely observe scenes 15 nautical miles away, and theoretically it can shoot up to 10 nautical miles away.

But the current Xinming Empire Navy obviously does not need to start bombardment from such a distance. As long as it can start bombardment from two thousand meters away, it can make the navies of all countries become living targets.

Zhu Zhiwen's flagship began to turn its rudder sideways, aiming the naval guns on the ship's side in the direction of the Dutch gunboat formation.

As the order to fire reached the ears of all gunners, a large plume of white smoke rose from the side of the flagship.

One shell after another drew an arc in the air and landed on the route of the gunboat formation.

An unlucky Dutch gunboat was hit by two shells. The gunboat covered with thin steel plates could not stop the shells at all.

It directly opened a hole on the deck, and then two violent explosions sounded in the cabin of the gunboat.

The part where the main mast extended to the keel of the cabin was unfortunately at the center of the explosion, followed by a teeth-breaking crunching sound.

PS: I’m going to watch the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics today, but don’t worry, I’ll stay up late to catch up.