Ruke didn't expect Sigael to make up an explanation by himself, so he didn't have to deceive himself. But then he thought that Sigael's words were not unreasonable. If he didn't know everything General Russell told him, he might also think so. After all, it's normal for China to form an alliance with France and a great alliance. However, the fact that the current situation is that he only declares war on Britain with France, which seems a bit less realistic.

No wonder Russell chose Segel to command this Dutch fleet and be his own deputy. It turned out that Segel had been determined to be brave but not resourceful in the morning.

"Yes, the future of the Great Alliance is what the king considers. We must do what we are right in front of us." Luke looked agreed, and then took a move to retreat and advance: "But now we don't know whether France is really an alliance with China. If not, our attack would be considered a crime.

So now there are two ways to choose. First, we will launch an attack immediately, raid the Bantry Bay, and destroy the Chinese fleet. Second, we will hide for the time being, send a communication ship to London, and ask His Majesty the King to find out what happened......"

"I think we must attack immediately!" Before Ruke finished speaking, Sgael had already expressed his attitude. He enthusiastically grabbed Ruke's hand and said in a very sincere tone: "Dear Ruke, my comrades-in-arms who fight side by side, we are not vocal insects, we cannot wait for London's orders in a pedantic way. If we wait, everything will be too late. Now is the opportunity given by God. We must seize it. You and I are patriots, and we must do what patriots do!"

Ruk looked embarrassed, but Sgael said: "Rook, do it! Even if my guess is wrong, so what? In the past few decades, the East India Company of you and me has been defeated by the Yellow-Skinned Monkeys in the Eastern Waters, giving those savages the power we have never had. This is a shame for the English Navy and a shame for the Netherlands Navy. Now a chance to wash the yellow-Skinned Monkeys is right in front of you. As a noble naval general, how can you and I give up?"

"Well, okay, my close comrade. I agree with your opinion, it's time to wash away the shame, and God will bless us."

"It will definitely do it, it will definitely do it!"

The bells, sails, and rudders were ringing, thousands of sailors were busy, maintaining an orderly formation in the sea breeze, the St. George's flag and Orange flags were flying high, and the ships slashed the waves. Luke set a new route. Instead of rushing directly to Bantry Bay, he sailed directly westward and then to the north. His goal was to the southwest of the entrance to Bantry Bay, so that the expeditionary fleet could be directly blocked in the bay, at least it could occupy the upper wind direction, and he would not encounter Chinese ships as he approached.

But Ruke missed a little bit. The British had their own Matthew Gilmore, which gained the upper hand, but the Expeditionary Fleet also had their own Matthew Gilmore. When Matthew Gilmore made a statement to Major General Ruke, a fishing boat named Big Fish was also nearby. This ocean-going fishing boat with a displacement of more than 90 tons was captured by the Expeditionary Fleet like Matthew's merchant ship. The fresh fish on the ship was bought by the Expeditionary Fleet. The captain of Big Fish Bayford received compensation of 140 taels of imperial silver dollars.

Bayford did not return directly to his hometown. He believed that God was favoring himself, so he was preparing to go to England. Because Scotland was an English colony, the fish of Scottish fishermen could only be sold to Britain. He planned to fish all the way and make another money, and by the way, exchange these eye-catching Chinese silver dollars for local coins in the UK.

In order to inform the news, Gilmore shelled Britannia, which implicated the Big Fish and was also controlled by the British Navy. However, the Scots were second-class citizens in front of the British. The silver dollars obtained by Berford was stolen. Before leaving, the British and Dutch fleet gave him a few shots. Fortunately, Berford and his fellow countrymen repaired the Big Fish. After more than a dozen sailors discussed, they decided to go to Bantry Bay to inform the British and Dutch fleet of the situation, which might be exchanged for part of the reward.

"......... They had eight battleships, three of which had three-layer artillery decks, the other five two-layer artillery decks, the least had at least sixty heavy artillery, and several cruise ships, three or four. The Englishman had many ships, and the Dutchman had only four battleships. They went west, and I don't know where I went, nor what to do. In fact, they beat me with a whip, snatched the silver coins you gave me, and my Big Fish was also hit by two shells.

The noble Chinese General, you said that you are fighting for justice and freedom, and you are the friend of His Majesty the King. Please punish those......" At the port of Bantry Town, Berford begged at the top of his lungs, but in such an emergency, how could he hear this guy say it, and immediately ordered: "Sent all the troops, the fleet will enter the first-level combat readiness state, and order the armored detachment to go out to sea. All ships must set sail within three hours..."

In fact, Bayford only bought less than two hours in advance for the Expeditionary Fleet, because most of the Expeditionary Fleet was in a state of rest and the crew rested on the shore. The bars, brothels and commercial streets in Bantry Town were filled with Chinese crew members. It took more than three hours to gather these people, and leaving the port was even more troublesome, because Bantry Bay is a bay with an opening to the southwest, and it is mainly southwest wind.

The ships of the Expeditionary Fleet went to sea to face the wind and needed to drag small boats. Fortunately, nine steam-powered ships in the fleet were in the fleet. But the problem was that Bayford arrived in the town of Bantry, which was at dawn. His Big Fish had leaked and drained all the way and arrived in a difficult time. It was seven o'clock in the morning when Zhaolong City issued a combat order. It was not dawn at this time and the sea fog was very thick. The result was that the armored mobile fleet that had left the bay discovered the approaching British-Dutch fleet before the warning ship. The main ships of the Expeditionary Fleet were still in the harbor and had not yet completed assembly.

If slackness is the first mistake Zhao Longcheng made, then the second mistake is that the iron armored mobile fleet was not dismantled.

Because of the Detective World War, Su Jing was promoted to brigade general of the Navy and commanded the Iron Armored Mobile Fleet. There were six ships in this fleet, only two of which were the Iron Armored Iron Wall and Panshi, and the other four were all motor sail merchant ships. These four ships were called Dayuan, Dali, Tycoon, and Datong, respectively, and were also produced by Nanyang United Shipyard. They were 2,000-ton machine sails and merchant ships. Even the steam engines equipped were the same as the Iron Armored Class.

The four merchant ships belong to a large private shipping company in Cape Town. The company's main business is to trade freight between Cape Town, South Africa and Dragon City, Australia. The four sailing ships are specially customized and are very suitable for this trade route.

The common point of the four ships is that they have a coal load of up to 450 tons, which is specially designed for the Cape Town-Longcheng route. Merchant ships set off from Cape Town and carry industrial products mainly textiles and consumer products produced in tropical areas, such as sugar, spices and tobacco, use steam power to cross the more dangerous Cape of Good Hope sea, then close the steam engine, rub the northern edge of the west wind belt, use sails as power, and head all the way to Western Australia, Longcheng.

When he returned to Longcheng, the warehouse carried wool, cotton and grain produced in Australia, and the coal cabinet was filled with up to 450 tons of coal. This coal burning amount was enough for merchant ships to consume from Longcheng to Cape Town, and from Cape Town to Cape Town and provide winch and anchor power on the way. In other words, a round trip only requires adding coal to Longcheng once, and Longcheng has coal mines. Relatively speaking, there are no decent coal mines in South Africa (mainly proven coal mines in the sparsely populated eastern region).

Compared with the three sailing ships provided by Xijin, the four Yuanlihentong ships are more suitable for joining the iron armored motor fleet. They have the same power as the iron armored ships and are iron-hulled ships. More importantly, Yuanlihentong's design is also suitable. They are merchant ships that require large cargo space to meet the transportation of wool and cotton, and also require large coal loads. In order to maintain balance and plug enough coal, the designer of this ship type took advantage of the situation and designed a large amount of coal cabinets in the outer cabin near the waterline, which invisibly provided a layer of "coal armor".

Yuanlihengtong mainly serves as a material transport ship, carrying spare coal for ironclad ships and other steam-powered ships. The battleship was also modified and placed eight 24-pound short-heavy artillery on the open-air deck. Of course, its mission is not to go to the battle line, but to use its mobility and the Marines placed on the ship to launch a platoon battle.

If four steam-powered merchant ships assisted the expeditionary fleet in the sea, when the British and Dutch fleet appeared, the expeditionary fleet would not have been the only armored mobile fleet in the battle. However, no one knew when the British and Dutch fleet arrived. Luke's final luck was that he arrived at the battlefield when the main force of the expeditionary fleet was still trapped in the bay, which gave him a possibility of complete victory, that is, quickly defeating the armored mobile fleet outside the bay, and then suffocating the expeditionary fleet in the bay and annihilated it in one fell swoop.

But Ruke's bad luck is that among the enemies he is facing, there are two ironclad ships that he has never seen before.

"Visual contact, the enemy fleet has eight battleships, four battle patrols, four Dutch warships in front, and the rest in back..." On the Iron Wall, Su Jing received the latest announcement from the Lookout. The way to judge the identity of the British-Dutch fleet is very simple, and you don't have to look at the national flag.

The Dutch sail battleships without a hundred guns, and perhaps not in the future (historically, the Netherlands had only two first-class battleships with more than one hundred guns in the entire sailing era). This is related to the reality of the Netherlands Navy, because Union Province is a low-country country, with silted dunes and beams everywhere in the sea, and the water depths of the inlet and exit are limited. Therefore, for a long time, Union Province did not allow warships to draft more than five meters. Even if the warships are lengthened, this draft will limit the tonnage to 1,400 tons. Although this restriction has gradually been relaxed, Union Province is still conservative and has not built battleships with tonnage of more than two thousand tons to date.

Another problem is that the bureaucrats of the United Provinces, especially those from merchants, show their clichés. They just unify the naval departments of four or five provinces into one naval department. In terms of naval expenses, the naval military expenditure is not a fixed fiscal expenditure, but a special expenditure determined by the third-level parliament. The current Navy of the United Provinces is not a good idea, because it has fought with Britain and France for half a century and maintained a considerable fleet. If the United Provinces are given 20 years of peace, they can reduce the naval battleships by two.

Su Jing opened the window and looked at the Bantry Bay with a telescope. It was still shrouded in the morning sea fog. You could occasionally see some black smoke rising, and it was obvious that the steam-powered ship left inside was starting. Bantry Bay was like a slightly opened scissors, with a depth of more than 20 kilometers. The town of Bantry, where the Expeditionary Fleet was stationed, is located at the deepest part of the bay. In the middle, there is an island called Huidi. If you occupy this island, you can block the entire bay.

Like the lookout hand standing on the mast plate, Su Jing could not see the town of Bantry at all, so naturally he could not receive the combat orders from Zhao Longcheng, the commander of the Expeditionary Fleet. He could only act according to the plan formulated before the war. The armored mobile fleet was in a third-level combat readiness state, and the crew lived on the ship. When encountering the enemy situation, the steam engine could be activated immediately to leave Bantry Bay against the wind. Therefore, two and a half hours after the Bayford reported the news, the mobile fleet originally in Huidi Island arrived outside the sea.

The combat readiness plan is that in the face of enemy attacks, the mobile fleet must entangle the enemy and wait for the main force to join forces to accept the command of the flagship.

This is a very rough plan, because Zhao Longcheng never expected that the British-Dutch fleet would come up so quickly.

Under Su Jing's order, the Tiebi issued a signal, requiring the guard ships stationed in the offshore to join the mobile fleet and follow them to join the battle line. And the four armed merchant ships, Xiang Yuan, Li, Heng and Tong, issued the order of "camera connection".

The four ships of Yuan, Li, Heng and Tong, facing the British and Dutch fleet, European country bumpkins who had never seen ironclad ships could almost perfectly pretend to be ironclad ships. They not only have chimneys and three masts like ironclad ships, but also iron-shelled ships. The surface is also riveted with pieces of wrought iron plates like ironclad ships, but ironclad ships are the real iron plates. Compared with this, this type of civilian ship can at most be called iron sheets.

Not only that, in addition to the short heavy artillery temporarily installed on the open-air deck, the four armed ships also brushed gun doors on both sides of the ship's side, but they were very unprofessional. The iron wall-class side had six gun doors, and the four ships imitated sail battleships and brushed fifteen in one go. But this unprofessional faced the ignorance of the British and Dutch fleet. In the eyes of Ruke and others, Yuan, Li, Heng and Tong were ironclad ships that were stronger than the previous two.
Chapter completed!