The Dutch invading fleet had a total of 101 ships, a four-mass three-layer gun armored one hundred and four-layer gun battleships, ten four-mass double-layer gun deck seventy-four gun battleships, ten fifty-fifth-air merchant ships, twenty-fifth-brid fast sailing ships, and fifty-fifth-bolt sloop sailing ships.∈◆,

The fleet's artillery totaled 2,444 yards, 4,070 seamen, and 1,853 Marines, plus other personnel, a total of 6,193 people.

This is a huge fleet, even compared with the Spanish Invincible Fleet and the British fleet during the Battle of Calais back then. After decades, the maritime power of various countries became stronger and stronger, with warships becoming larger and larger, and artillery becoming stronger. In the Taiwan Strait of East India, the Dutch actually gathered such a huge maritime power.

However, this was indeed a bit surprising. The Ming army captured the chicken cage and the Spanish surrendered. The Dutch, the senior Dutch immediately mobilized. At this time, the combined fleet composed of the Dutch and the British was nearby. They were carrying out the task of blocking the Chinese sea. The Ming army launched a large-scale deployment and was about to attack the Grand Master. They immediately rushed to the Grand Master and formed a powerful fleet with the Grand Master Dutch, coming across the sea.

The Dutch divided the fleet into three squadrons, the Elizabeth Fleet, commanded by Sir George of England, five British four-masted 74-cannon battleships, ten twenty-cannon double-brid sailboats and ten ten-cannon sloops.

The Batavian fleet, commanded by Sir Van Buron, is composed of a three-layer gun deck, four-masted sailing battleship flagship with one hundred and four guns, five seventy-four gun battleships, and ten twenty-bad sailing ships and ten ten-bad sloops.

The Grandmaster Fleet is commanded by Paul Duladnius, consisting of ten fifty-cannon armed merchant ships, ten twenty-cannon double-brid sailboats, and thirty ten-cannon sloop sailboats.

At this time, Liu Jun was surprised that when the Dutch fleet was strong, he was quickly mobilizing his fleet.

After discussing with Zheng Zhilong, he divided the fleet into four squadrons.

The Beiyang Fleet, led by Liu Jun himself, is the flagship of the 84-barrel two-layer gun deck. It has four four-masted armed merchant ships with fifty guns and two eight-barrel three-masted gunboats. In addition to these seven main battleships, the Beiyang Fleet also has ten double-barrel big green-headed bird ships, ten double-barrel rushing boats, and thirty speedboats.

Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhibao each commanded the East China Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet. Both of these fleets each had five three-masted gunboats, each with a green head, and ten were driven away. There were also several tribute gunboats, lucky ships, sand ships, speedboats, etc.

The Yangtze River Fleet has the fewest main battleships. This fleet commanded by Xiong Wencan is actually a supply fleet and a reserve force.

In addition to these four fleets, there are also shore artillery troops and horse-school soldiers on Penghu Island.

A huge naval battle was about to begin, and Zheng Zhilong once again awarded numerous rewards to the fleet, just like before the Battle of Liaoluo Bay.

Each of the participants will give two taels of silver. If the war is extended, an additional five taels will be given. Each fire ship is 16 people. If the Dutch ship is burned, six people will be given two hundred taels of silver, and one Dutch head will be given fifty taels of silver.

As the commander-in-chief of this naval battle, Liu Jun also gave me no hesitation.

He announced to the four fleets and the troops on the shore that he would kill a Red Barbarian soldier to level one level. The warships sank an enemy main ship, and the officers and soldiers were all promoted to level one level and rewarded fifty taels of silver.

On November 9, the 12th year of Chongzhen, Liu Jun led the fleet out of the port.

Xiong Wencan advised Liu Jun not to leave the port, so he stopped in the port. However, Liu Jun and Zheng Zhilong both decided to leave the port to fight. Although the British-Dutch joint fleet was stronger, it was precisely because of their strong warships and had more than 2,000 cannons. If they stayed in the port, the biggest result was that they were blocked and then sunk directly in the port.

After all, the British-Dutch coalition forces were giant ships and cannons, not ordinary Ming navy. If hundreds of Ming army ships were squeezed into the port, they could not use side gun bombardment at all. The enemy ships had a wide sea surface outside that could line up several miles long formations, bombarding the shells into the port. The Ming army had no place to move and dodge.

Especially when Penghu lacks enough shore defense cannons, this is even more so. Staying in the port can only sit and wait for death.

That morning, the British-Dutch joint fleet in the strait was surprised when they heard that the warship had sailed away from Penghu and came towards them. They did not expect that the Ming fleet was not frightened to flee back to the coast of Fujian, but dared to come to fight.

"Download the anchor!"

The commander of the Batavian fleet and the commander of the entire joint fleet, Van Buron, stood on the 104-artillery battleship and issued an order. He ordered the anchor to be immediately placed and the three squadrons were arranged in combat formations.

When they set up the formation, the Ming fleet led by Liu Jun had already appeared.

Then Fan Bron was surprised to find that the Ming fleet had quickly seized the upper hand. His fleet was in a position against the wind, but at this time he could no longer change the formation.

Van Bron's orders to raise the East India Company's red and white orchid flag with the three letters of vo, which is a signal of full preparation for war.

The Ming army's warships took advantage of the Dutch underestimation and successfully grabbed the position of the wind, so that they could go to the wind and the enemy would go to the wind, which would gain the initiative and convenience of maneuvering. Moreover, at the beginning of the artillery battle, the cannon smoke would blow the enemy under the wind, which was enough to block the enemy's sight.

According to the discussion between Liu Jun and Zheng Zhilong before the war, the Ming Dynasty's fleet was lined up in a battle line, which is also the conventional tactics in naval battles today. Only in this way can the guns on the side be fired better at the enemy ships.

The two fleets are only a few miles apart.

They first passed the right wing and the downward side of the British-Dutch fleet, and while driving, they began firing artillery from a long distance.

At this time, the British and Dutch fleet also began to develop formations and fire guns at the Ming fleet.

Hundreds of warships of the two fleets began to fire from afar. The sound of gunfires rumbling, and white waves splashed from time to time on the sea. However, they were far apart and no shells hit the enemy ship at the beginning.

Although the Ming army had many ships, they were generally small and had few artillery fire. The British-Dutch coalition forces had more ships and cannons, and the Ming army did not gain any advantage for a while.

Seeing this, Fan Bron showed joy. The Ming army's ships were too weak and the ships were small. Except for a few of them that were obviously warships and merchant ships from the Spanish, the other ships of the Ming army had not developed much over the years. This time they owned eleven warships and ten armed merchant ships, each of which had dozens of cannons.

"Let them come over and smash them again when they reach 300 yards!" Van Buron laughed. Although the cannons on the ship could shoot several miles away, the hit rate was very low when they were too far away. Relying on the large number of cannons of his ship, he deliberately put the Ming army's fleet closer to attack.

He believed that when the Ming army reached a close distance of three or four hundred yards, a volley of their hundreds of warships on the side of the side would be able to smash all the small wooden ships of the Ming army.

"Be careful of the fire ships that wise people!" someone reminded.

"Don't worry, we brought dozens of fast sailboats this time, and we will definitely be able to intercept their small fireboats as soon as possible. No matter how many of their fireboats come, we can smash them into pieces." Van Bron shouted proudly.

In the Battle of Liaoluo Bay a few years ago, they were under the fire ships of Zheng Zhilong. One hundred fire ships suddenly fell down the wind and burned several of their large warships, causing the naval battle to fail. This time, he was prepared for it. In order to prevent the fire ships, he brought fifty sloop sailboats and thirty sloop sailboats, just to protect the main warships and to make some fire ships in the same way.

These double-brigged and single-maided fast speeds, and all have ten and twenty artillery guns. Even if the Ming army gets a hundred fire ships, they can intercept them.

The huge group of Ming army ships kept approaching with the wind. The artillery fire on both sides became more and more fierce, and ships began to be shot.

The sound of cannons whizzed over the head, and thick smoke rolled. Liu Jun stood on the bow deck of Fu Botou without any wavering.

Naval battles are simply more fierce than land battles, and they test people's courage. A battle is a big battle. Tens of thousands of people strangled on the wide sea, and more than 4,000 cannons on both sides are constantly bombarding each other. It is unimaginable that so many cannons are unimaginable.

Advancing in such artillery fire is as simple and cruel as a battle lined up to kill. No one knows when they are unlucky. Once a warship is shot, they often cannot escape the fate of sinking.

Especially for the Ming army, the British and Dutch warship artillery fire were too strong. They not only had many cannons, but also had a longer range and were more ruthless. The Ming army's artillery was mostly a thousand kilograms of Folang aircraft and a small number of three thousand kilograms of Red and Barbarian cannons, while the British and Dutch coalition forces were much larger, especially the two-four and thirty-two-pound cannons, and one cannon weighed six or seven thousand kilograms.

Moreover, these cannons are installed on the lower gun deck, and these cannons are fired at the ship's waterline. Once shot, the ship often has to be flooded and then sunk.

However, although the artillery fire was fierce, Liu Jun always stood there like a sculpture.

If the Ming army was not prone to attacking unpreparedly and seized the upper hand, it would never be afraid. Facing the tiger, the wolves could only attack in groups.

The two sides were less than a thousand steps apart, but dozens of ships in the Ming army had been sunk, and three of the main three-masted gunboats were shot and sunk.

The fleet kept firing fire while still approaching.

"Arson ship!" Zheng Zhilong shouted loudly.

At such a great price, he had to bring the distance closer so that the fireboat could rush into the enemy fleet. For this reason, he endured huge losses, and now it was finally time.

One after another, speedboats rushed out of the Ming warship group, and there were 300 speedboats loaded with flammable objects such as sulfur, tinder oil, and firewood.

The speedboat quickly drove into the coalition's fleet along the wind.

"Fireship!"

"Mingren's fire ships, these damn guys, why are there so many fire ships?"

Fan Bron was also a little shocked. He was just immersed in the pleasure of constantly smashing Ming army ships. Unexpectedly, so many fire ships suddenly rushed into the Ming army.

It's not one or two, or even one hundred, but a total of hundreds, at least about three hundred.

This number scared him.

"Quickly, intercept these fire ships and sink them!"

"The main ship retreats!"

Dozens of fast sailboats came up against the wind, trying to intercept these dense fireboats, but Liu Jun and Zheng Zhilong followed behind the fireboats with warships, and the artillery fire was aimed at the fast sailboats and fired fiercely.

From time to time, fire boats were sunk by fast sailboats, but the Dutch fast sailboats were hit by fireboats from time to time, or hit by the main Ming army warships behind them.

The sound of cannons at sea rumbling, and the sea was filled with burning debris of ships.

In order to intercept these fire ships, Van Bron had to send all the two-masted and one-masted fast sailboats up, watching the ships being ignited and hit.

Fan Bulong wanted to withdraw, but Zheng Zhilong and Liu Jun refused to let them go.

The British-Dutch coalition ships were fast, but the Ming army was in good luck. The two fleets bit each other tightly and shot fiercely. From time to time, warships were shot, and after most of the Ming army's fire ships were still more than 100, these fire ships charged bravely like suicide squads.

In the evening of the war, the Dutch and British ships with two masts and one mast were almost completely lost, and the armed merchant ships were not flexible enough, and half of the deck ships were burned by fire ships and one was sunk.

Finally, taking advantage of the night, the remaining eight Dutch warships, five armed merchant ships, and six other fast merchant ships were able to escape and sail back to the senior officer.

The four fleets of the Ming army also suffered huge losses. Almost all three hundred fire ships were gone, only more than twenty were left. Six of the three-masted gunboats were also lost. Fifteen Daqingtou were sunk, and many more sanks were sunk.

The huge fleet of more than 500 ships when it was leaving the port, only less than 80 ships were left.

Liu Jun's Beiyang Fleet also suffered heavy losses. The newly established fleet was only one of the Fubo Galen warships, one of the Zhenhai three-masted gunboats, and four Frute merchant ships, although they were all bombed. They suffered varying degrees of damage, but they were not sunk. There were two other ships left. Before Liu Jun's battle, the Beiyang Fleet had fifty-seven large and small ships. After the war, only eight ships were left, and more than 80% of the ships were lost.

However, compared with Zheng Zhilong's fleet, Liu Jun's main ships are still there, which is good news. Especially since the Fubo is well preserved, this makes Liu Jun even happier.

The ships lost hundreds and the soldiers suffered many casualties.

Liu Jun ordered the pursuit to stop. He lit the torch and began to salvage the enemy and our crew members who fell into the water on the sea, and let someone salvage the artillery on the ship.

During the battle, the thirty-two-pound cannons on the Dutch flagship really impressed Liu Jun. The Dutch and the British also sank three main warships and five armed merchant ships here, and the other sank twenty-four twenty-bottle cliffs and fifty ten-bottle single-maid gunships. They sank dozens of ships in this sea area and lost more than 1,500 cannons.

"Can you dive here and fish the cannons from the wreck?" Liu Jun asked Zheng Zhilong. Although he won the victory, Zheng Zhilong was not much happy. In this naval battle, he did not expect the Dutch and the British to unite, nor did he expect that their warships had so many warships and such strong cannons.

"This place is close to the birds in Penghu, with a water depth of about three or four meters. Diving experts can dive."

When Liu Jun heard that he could dive and catch fire cannons, he was very happy, "Okay, hurry up and organize people to catch all the cannons. There are more than a thousand cannons underneath, and dozens of sunken ships. Maybe some warships can be fished and repaired for some repairs."

Zheng Zhilong was a little happy when he heard this.

"When we pick up the cannon, we will be half of it, half of each person, and you won't suffer any losses." Liu Jun said to Zheng Zhilong.

"One person, half." Zheng Zhilong originally wanted to be more interested, but in the end he nodded, "Okay, half of each person."

"Actually, Brother Zheng doesn't have to let go. If the old ones don't go, the new ones don't come, the losses are only small boats."

"My three-masted gunboat and big green head, the driving ship are both main battleships." Zheng Zhilong said with heartache.

Liu Jun comforted him, "Don't you still have many ships in Fujian? Besides, your ships are a bit outdated and outdated. You have also seen how huge and powerful these red barbarian ships are. In the future, we might as well build these ships."

"But we don't have that technology!"

"This is not simple. If you pay for money and hire, you will naturally have skills. And if we go back and capture the seniors, we will definitely catch some craftsmen. I heard that there are Dutch ships there. At that time, we will also build this kind of three-layer gun deck giant ship with hundreds of cannons, and build those large sailing ships and armed merchant ships. They can both fight and trade, kill two birds with one stone."

"I'm worried that the senior officer will not be easy to fight."

Liu Jun waved his hand, "I don't think there is anything to worry about. The Dutch and the British have brought such a large fleet, but you see, they left most of the ships and fled with only nineteen ships and tails.

Next, they will not be able to reinforce the senior officials from Batavia in less than half a year. We will be able to transfer a new fleet from Fujian to come over to the sea, and then we will directly take his castle fortress and land, so we will have more soldiers and generals."

Liu Jun was sure of one thing, that is, the Dutch base camp in East India is in Batavia, which is Jakarta, Java. It is really 108,000 miles away from the Taiwanese officials. How could they come to reinforce if they don’t have a few months to pass on the message back and forth.

"What about the future?"

"What do you have to say to the Dutch? Among the red barbarians, only the Dutch harassed the most of our coastal areas in the Ming Dynasty. They often robbed the coastal areas, robbed the people of slavery, robbed villages and towns, blocked the South China Sea, and robbed our merchant ships. If you don't beat him, it's impossible for you to trade with him. Fight one first and then beat him up, and then we will talk to them about trade and trade. Before that, there was nothing to talk about."

"Besides, if we don't take back the senior officials, how can we monopolize the trade with Japan in the future?"
Chapter completed!