New Ming Empire mixed in America

The sail on the main mast was blown by the sea wind, and the huge reaction force broke the half-broken main mast.

In a chain reaction, after the main mast broke, the two auxiliary masts were also dragged by the cables and began to tilt.

The deck on the bow of the ship was broken off from the cabin because of the mast, and the bottom of the raised mast tore open the deck, and the flying splinters were no less than a shotgun attack.

The soldiers on the bow gun position were caught off guard and more than a dozen were knocked down by wooden spikes.

Then came the sweeping cables. Several cables with huge inertia swept across the deck, cutting several naval soldiers who were carrying cannonballs into two pieces.

The front half of the captain's cabin was also attacked by the cable. After the cable was pulled, the wooden door broke into several pieces and fell into the captain's cabin.

"F...K, the Eastern naval guns can really hit us from such a distance!"

Norman Bloomer stared dumbfounded at the water jets splashed around his gunboat after the shells exploded, and couldn't help but curse.

When the water column fell, he also saw the gunboat that was hit behind him, which made him curse another five or six exclamations starting with F.

Seeing the gunboat begin to tilt and sink very quickly, Norman Bloomer swallowed the order to save people.

His move saved his own life, because less than half a minute passed before Zhu Zhiwen's flagship launched another attack.

Before the ripples of water jets caused by the last shell explosion around Norman Bloomer's gunboat had dissipated, several water jets rose again.

Then came the third, fourth, and fifth times.

Five consecutive bombardments successfully reduced the gunboat formation led by Norman Bloomer to two.

There were 37 naval guns on one side, and the five-round rapid fire of these naval guns caught the gunboat formation by surprise.

After reacting, Norman Bloomer quickly ordered the cancellation of the delaying plan and prepared to disperse and evacuate.

Just one turn reduced his formation by one-third, and this was such a waste of time.

At this time, this somewhat old-fashioned Dutch officer finally let go of the persistence in his heart.

Being old-fashioned doesn't mean there's something wrong with his head. It's definitely not worthwhile to fight hard when it's obvious that he can't beat him.

What's more, even if they desperately rush forward to fight in close combat, it's probably a question of whether they can block the opponent for half an hour.

In fact, without his order, the remaining gunboats in the formation had already begun to disperse. As he said, the gunboat captains under his command were all experienced veterans.

When Zhu Zhiwen's flagship stopped attacking, they had already started running for their lives.

However, although their reaction speed was very fast, the speed of the ship slowed them down.

After the entire vanguard fleet began to accelerate, the distance between them was still getting closer and closer.

The purpose of sailing at the speed of wooden warships of this period was to confuse the Dutch. Now that the prey has entered the trap, speeding up is inevitable.

As thicker black smoke appeared from the sky above the vanguard fleet, the gunboats of the vanguard fleet and Zhu Zhiwen's flagship, whose speed had greatly increased, quickly caught up to within 1,300 meters.

After continuing to chase for another ten minutes, the distance between the two sides finally entered the attack range of 800 meters.

But the current layout of battleship artillery is placed on the side of the ship, so if you want to attack, you have to turn the battleship sideways.

This is the T-prefixed attack method, but how could the Dutch gunboat formation dare to waste precious escape time to cross the hull at this time?

They could only watch as Zhu Zhiwen's leading fleet began to turn its rudder as a whole, and then dense shells covered the area where they were located.

After several rounds of shooting, the only Dutch gunboat that could still move on the sea was Norman Bloomer's gunboat, which was running at the front.

You have to ask, when the gunboat he was on was at the front when it first faced Zhu Zhiwen's vanguard fleet, why was it at the front again when it was evacuating?

This must be blamed on the communication methods at this time.

From Norman Bloomer's initial order to change tactics to the flagman waving the flag to convey orders to other gunboats.

During this time, Norman Bloomer's gunboat had already begun to turn. When the other gunboats received the order to start turning around, he had already reoccupied the front.

At this time, his gunboat was not very optimistic. It seemed that he was the only one to survive the artillery coverage just now.

But the rear of his gunboat was also bombarded by a shell, although it only exploded a large piece of the stern deck.

But his captain's cabin was also affected, and a piece of deck debris hit it diagonally from the side of the captain's cabin.

Half of the head of the messenger was cut off, and an arm of the newly appointed chief officer was also taken away.

And Norman Bloomer, who had only scratched his skin, stood there and didn't know what he was thinking as he listened to the first mate's screams.

After a few minutes, Norman Bloomer, who ended his daze, walked to his desk and found a bottle of wine made from grapes from his own farm from the drawer.

Without using a cup, he just opened the cork and drank heavily into his mouth.

Soon, his surviving gunboat received another bombardment.

"Stop firing, don't you pay for the shells?"

Zhu Zhiwen was a little annoyed and shouted at the artillerymen on the flagship on the intercom.

It was just a gunboat and it was enough for others to deal with it, but they still fired a volley.

You must know that one of their volleys refers to more than thirty guns firing at the same time.

What a loser!

The cannonballs hit a lot, and the effect is very obvious.

Norman Bloomer's gunboat was torn into several pieces directly on the sea, and then quickly disappeared on the sea.

After exhaling, Zhu Zhiwen looked at the military judge next to him, trying to see something from his face.

But the military judge recorded the results of the vanguard fleet expressionlessly:

"Six Dutch gunboats were sunk, consuming 422 shells..."

'The flagship sank two ships and damaged three ships...no prisoners were taken...'

After staying for a while for repairs, the leading fleet headed towards Bandar Seri Bega Bay again.

By now it was getting dark, and the fleet's speed inevitably began to slow down.

Even with the presence of pilot lights, it is still very easy to fall behind when sailing in the dark.

Who knows that there are still transport ships in the fleet? These ships loaded with supplies are slower than gunboats and battleships.

In Bandar Seri Begawan, a clipper ship passed by a merchant ship that was about to dock and squeezed into the pier.

The sailors on the merchant ship were immediately annoyed. Seizing a berth on the dock was much more serious than seizing a parking space in later generations.

Several grumpy sailors had already taken out their pistols and fired at the sea near the clipper ship.

But the people on the clipper boat did not respond to the provocation of these sailors. Before setting up the gangplank, a few hurried guys jumped onto the pier.

After boarding a carriage soliciting business at the dock, we headed directly to the Dutch embassy in the local area.

At this time, the Netherlands had already established a foothold in Java, so it set its sights on Borneo (now Kalimantan) and had already occupied the Banja Kingdom in South Kalimantan in 1860.

The Dutch who occupied the Kingdom of Marchen were not satisfied and are now slowly invading the territory of Lanfang Republic.

At this time, because of the plunder certificate issued by the Dutch, almost all merchant ships in Borneo participated in the blockade of Lanfang Republic.

The reason why there are so many armed merchant ships flying the Dutch flag here in Borneo is because as long as they participate, they can legally attack non-European merchant ships.

In other words, legal robbery, certified pirates!