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At this moment, Vernado had only one thought in mind, which was to severely damage Ke Chenshu's two treasure ships and not let them leave. His flagship was several times smaller than the treasure ship, but at this moment he rushed forward without hesitation.
Every country that can become a maritime hegemon has its own reasons, and the Netherlands is no exception. It is precisely because there are many people like Vernado who dare to defend their honor with their lives at critical moments that the Netherlands has maintained its position as a maritime hegemon.
As the commander of the fleet, he wanted to use his flagship to ram the Qin army's treasure ship, just like a martyr. This feat inspired other Dutch warships to rush forward first.
On the frontmost warship, Captain Philip hoisted the flag of dying together with the enemy and commanded the warship with its stern on fire to rush forward. Fifty steps was just a matter of moments for the warship speeding with the wind.
There was continuous artillery fire at sea, the air was filled with smoke, the sea breeze was blowing, and the waves were roaring. Philip used the burning warship in front of him as a cover and commanded the warship to cut through the waves and rush towards Ke Chenshu's flagship.
After he rushed out from behind the burning warship, people on Ke Chenshu's treasure ship saw his warship rushing towards them with flames. At this time, the distance between the two ships was less than thirty steps.
"Quick, sink it, the enemy ship is about to ram us! It's coming!"
Mo Yun pointed at the oncoming enemy ships and roared angrily. At this time, there were roaring cannons on the sea, as if the gods were angry. Tongues of fire kept spurting out in the night, like a horrifying barrage of bullets, sprinkling down in the night sky like a rainstorm, and the deck was crackling continuously.
Liu Jing, his subordinate, had just rushed out of the cabin with a rocket when half of his head was blown off by the rampaging marbles. The bones were white and blood splashed all over Mo Yun's face. Zhang Erxi followed Liu Jing and rolled on the ground, trying to roll over Liu Jing's body, but was still shot through the arm by a shotgun. "Ah!" With a scream, Zhang Erxi fell to the deck and rolled over, with blood pouring from his shoulder... ...
Mo Yun didn't care about Zhang Erxi, and rushed over to pick up the rocket that Liu Jing had dropped. Then he turned around and threw himself on the side of the ship, aiming and shooting... "Red-haired ghost, go to hell!" With a chirp, the rocket flew into the air and hit the bow of Philip fiercely;
Boom! There was a loud explosion, flames surged, and the enemy ship was like being pushed into the sea by an invisible hand. The fierce shock wave swept through, blasting the entire bow to pieces.
Philip only felt his warship sink heavily, and then he was thrown up by the huge inertia and hit the wall with a bang. When he rolled down, his head was covered with blood, and his bones seemed to be broken, and the pain was excruciating.
But he quickly got up and found that although the bow was hit hard, the entire warship was still carried forward by the mast. He shouted excitedly: "Hit it! Hit it!"
Philip's warship was on fire front and back, like a huge fire ship. However, the main mast in the middle was intact, and the huge sails were billowing, carrying the fire ship forward.
Mo Yun and his men shouted like crazy, firing rockets one after another, interweaving in the sky like flowing fire, but the more they rushed, the more chaotic it became. Most of the seven or eight rockets actually flew too high, passing over Philip's warship and plunging into the sea.
But finally three of them hit the port side of the Philip. Boom! Boom! Boom! ... Three huge fireballs blasted the enemy ship into a terrible state. The whole ship began to burn.
But due to the huge inertia, the enemy ship, whose entire deck was burning, continued to ram. The fire on the ship was reflected in the eyes of Mo Yun and others, getting closer and bigger... .... Bang! With a loud bang, the sea waves were enraged and sparks flew.
Philip's fire ship finally crashed into the stern of the treasure ship. The huge impact force caused Mo Yun and others to roll around and scream.
The huge treasure ship was hit by this, and the entire ship drifted sideways for several feet. Not far away, the Dutch cheered like boiling water, and tongues of fire spewed out more and more rapidly...
However, their cheers soon stopped, because the fire ship that had collided with them was already ravaged and riddled with holes, and after such a severe collision, it broke into two parts. The bow and stern quickly lifted up, and then began to sink slowly.
Although the stern of the treasure ship was on fire as it moved sideways, the overall structure did not suffer fatal damage. As long as the fire was put out, its combat effectiveness would not even be affected.
At the same time, the twelve warships in the aftermath, as well as the ten clippers that had been entangled with the Mughal Navy warships, also surrounded them from both sides, spitting out tongues of fire;
Waves of artillery shells streaked across the sky, pouring down on the Dutch like a violent storm. Decks were pierced, masts collapsed, flames were flying in the sky, the sea was churning, people were shouting, ghosts and gods were roaring. The battle had reached its most thrilling moment at this point!
With the suppression of artillery fire from the clipper ships on both sides, the Qin army on the treasure ship also rushed onto the deck. Rockets were fired wildly as if they were free of charge, interweaving an infinitely gorgeous picture on the vast sea at night, and slamming heavily on the approaching enemy ships. Balls of fire rose up in the sea, and fierce explosions broke the sky and struck the raging sea.
If the range of the rockets was not only about 200 steps, the dozens of Dutch warships would have paid a heavier price. Vernado's eyes were burned by the fireballs. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he made a prompt decision and ordered the fleet to turn around, firing back while rushing past the two treasure ships with the wind...
This massive naval battle is far from over here; it can even be said that it is just the beginning.
The artillery of this era still used solid bullets and buckshot, which did not cause as much damage to ships as the grenades of later generations. A solid bullet hitting the deck would usually only leave a hole. Unless it could hit the waterline, the warship would move slowly due to water intake. The most ideal situation would be to hit the main mast, causing the warship to lose power, but the possibility of this was extremely small.
As for shotgun shells, they can hardly cause serious damage to the hull and are only used to kill a large number of enemies on the ship. They also have great destructive power on sails. However, shotgun shells, like rockets, have a fatal flaw, which is that their shooting range is very limited.
Therefore, it was common for a naval battle at this time to last for several days.
Vernado was a veteran with rich naval experience. Although he suffered heavy casualties, he was still able to command calmly. As soon as he rushed past the treasure ship, he immediately used the Mughal Navy's "ghost ships" as cover and turned to the southwest. At this time, he had lost a total of twelve warships, most of which were destroyed by Qin's rockets at close range.
Under the leadership of Ke Chenshu, the Qin army abandoned the "ghost ships" of the Mughal navy and kept attacking Vernado. The clippers of the Qin army, in particular, turned around and used their amazing speed to cut through the waves like flying sharks on the sea, quickly catching up with the Dutch fleet.
Vernado was well aware of the extraordinary speed of these clipper ships, and he knew that if they continued like this, they might not be able to destroy a single ship.
So Vernado made a surprising decision to disband the fleet. As his order was passed on, the remaining fifty or so Dutch warships scattered like birds and beasts, turned off the lights on the ships, and stopped firing.
With their speed, if they were bitten by a clipper, they would have no way to escape.
But in this case, if the Qin army wanted to continue chasing them, they could only take the risk of dispersing their pursuit.
This dispersion would easily lead to another disorderly melee. Secondly, even if the Qin army dared to take the risk, due to the limited number of their warships, in a situation of chasing one Dutch warship at a time, even if all the Dutch warships were sunk, Vernadine could at least escape with most of his warships and avoid being completely wiped out.
Vernado's sudden move really gave Ke Chenshu a headache. Should he let his fleet disband and chase the enemy on their own
If we don't split up and pursue them, are we just going to watch the Dutch disappear in the vast ocean at night
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ps: It thundered and rained heavily. Today... ... ... .(The novel "Ming Yang Tian Xia" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lucky draw gift for everyone! Open WeChat now, click the "+" sign "Add Friends" in the upper right corner, search for the public account "qdread" and follow it, hurry up!) (To be continued..)
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