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Hai Rufeng's actions may seem reckless, but what Westerners admire and fear the most is his determination to die, which is similar to the spirit of chivalry.
From a practical point of view, what the Dutch fear most now is boarding battle. They have few ships and few people. Once a boarding battle breaks out, it will be their biggest nightmare!
Hai Rufeng's flagship had been hit by seven or eight bullets, the upper deck was completely destroyed, and the front deck was also a mess, but it did not take in water, its sails and rudder were still there, and that was enough.
It is like a wounded knight, roaring and pouring shells at the enemy, while charging forward in a rain of bullets that is several times more powerful than the enemy's. Layers of white waves are plowed out on the sea surface, and the black sail is like a dark cloud flying close to the sea surface.
Bang! There was another loud noise, and the warship in front was hit at the bow waterline. The entire warship was knocked sideways by the huge impact force, and the bow was completely destroyed. The rapidly rushing sea made it almost impossible for the warship to move.
They were getting closer and closer. The distance between us and the enemy was less than a hundred steps. The fierce artillery fire from the enemy's six giant ships made Hai Rufeng and his men pay the price in blood every time they got closer.
The water columns stirred up by the shells on all sides were like forests growing out of the sea. The thick smoke made them appear hazy, and they charged forward risking their lives between the water columns.
Zhang Jie and his men desperately fired two more rockets, but still failed to hit the enemy ship.
Just as he was cursing at the sky, the enemy fired another volley of bullets, which cut through the sky and whistled down. Bang! There were several loud noises in succession, and wooden boards flew everywhere. The last two eagle ships were also blown to pieces, looking extremely tragic, and there was no chance to rush up again.
Hai Rufeng was furious. The 9th Battalion had ten warships, and only two gunboats remained after the bloody battle. Because of their large and strong hulls, they withstood round after round of attacks. Although they were completely destroyed, they were still able to rush towards the enemy.
Such a tragic scene made Hai Rufeng unable to help but roar to the sky, then he took his command knife, pointed at the tall mast and yelled.
"Raise the Golden Dragon Flag!"
When all the soldiers heard this order, their expressions became extremely solemn and serious.
A battle flag embroidered with a golden dragon slowly rose on the mainmast. The golden dragon with bared fangs and claws was tumbling in the sea breeze. The fierce cannon fire sounded like a dragon's roar, and the smoke was as thick as sea clouds and waves.
Every soldier knew what it meant to raise the golden dragon flag, which represented the highest glory of the Qin Royal Navy, during the battle.
It means the giant dragon from the East soaring out of the sea, it means never retreating, it means a heroic decisive battle, it means either the enemy dies or I die!
The enemy's artillery fire was still raging, the sea was surging, the white waves were rolling, and the rain of shells broke through the air. The momentum was thrilling.
The two scarred gunboats rushed forward under the enemy's fierce artillery fire, advancing with an indomitable and fearless spirit. Forward... ... ..
The Dutch soldiers on Austin's flagship began to shout in panic.
"Oh my God, the enemy is coming!"
"Get out of the way! Turn the rudder!"
"It's too late, get down! Get down!"
But in the thick smoke, two ships with destroyed towers and scarred warships were like the devil's mount. With the side wind, the front ship broke through the thick smoke and crashed into Austin's flagship amid the screams of Dutch soldiers.
Bang!
With a thrilling roar, the two ships collided violently. Commander Austin and everyone else were thrown into a heap by the violent impact. The warships made a loud creaking sound and tilted to one side. Screams and howls filled the air.
The splashes from the hull flew nearly ten feet high and were extremely turbulent. Since the widespread use of artillery, the Dutch had not experienced such a brutal close combat for a long time.
The Dutch on the five warships behind were all stunned, "Oh my God! The barbaric Qin people..." "Turn the rudder quickly! God, turn the rudder quickly..." If they didn't turn the rudder, and the five giant ships behind also collided with them, it would be even more tragic.
Austin, whose face was red and swollen, hurriedly climbed up on the flagship. The Qin army had already begun to throw out the grappling hook to connect the two ships together. "Quick! Cut the grappling hook!" Austin was still in shock and shouted desperately.
Now that the two ships collided, all the artillery became useless. The Dutch rushed onto the deck with muskets, axes and other weapons, ready to engage in the bloodiest boarding battle.
Hai Rufeng wore a black eye mask and his face was covered in blood, making him look like a scary demon. He laughed proudly and shouted, "Thunder!"
The so-called thunder bombs of the Qin army were actually hand grenades, but they were detonated with fuses;
While the Dutch were preparing their muskets, swords and axes, Hai Rufeng gave an order and Sun Shisan, Wu Sanpei and others had already carried out wooden boxes and lit torches.
Chi! Chi! Chi! ...
Amidst a series of snake-like noises, a string of thunder bombs rose into the sky and rained down on the enemy ships.
“Oh my God, what is this?”
Boom! Boom boom boom... Boom boom boom...
In an instant, seventy or eighty thunder bombs exploded one after another, and the flying shrapnel and fierce shock waves swept the entire enemy ship like a hurricane, and wooden boards flew all over the sky;
Before the Dutch soldiers could figure out what was going on, they received God's call and flew into the air. They were torn apart in the fire and smoke, and their limbs and arms fell like rain.
The rumbling sound of the explosion covered all the screams. After the explosion, the upper deck of the enemy ship was completely flattened, charred wooden boards floated all over the sea, and the air was filled with the smell of burnt meat...
This thrilling scene made the Dutch on the five enemy ships behind tremble with fear.
"Oh my God, how is this possible... What is going on..."
"Oh, poor General Austin, it's all over now!"
"Turn the rudder quickly and leave. Don't let the damn Qin people get close..."
Amidst the chaotic shouting, the Dutch third warship raised the command flag, and Captain Wilson replaced Austin as the fleet commander.
After Wilson automatically became the commander of the Dutch fleet, the first order he gave was to disband the fleet and have each ship break out separately.
To put it bluntly, it means everyone scatters like birds and beasts and escapes for their lives.
From this we can see what a shocking effect the scene of Austin's flagship being flattened by dozens or nearly a hundred bombs in an instant had on the Dutch.
At this time, the front track was blocked, and on the right rear, Wang Guichen's Tenth Battalion was desperately approaching. At this critical juncture of life and death, if they continued to maintain the battle line, it would be difficult to dodge flexibly. Once the Qin warships approached, Austin's tragedy would be repeated.
So although Wilson seemed to have given a cowardly order, it was definitely a wise decision.
As soon as Wilson gave the order, the five Dutch warships scattered like birds and beasts, each pulling sails into the wind and trying to escape desperately. Hai Rufeng's fearless chivalrous spirit had frightened them so much that they dared not engage in close combat again.
Western warships mostly use soft sails. The biggest disadvantage of soft sails is that the overall efficiency of the sail surface is low, so the masts have to be built very high.
The mast being too high immediately brings up the problem of mast strength. In order to increase the strength of the mast, many ropes must be tied to the mast to strengthen it.
In this way, the sail cannot rotate around the mast like a Chinese hard sail, and it cannot utilize part of the wind. Even if it can be utilized, the efficiency is relatively low because it is a soft sail.
Therefore, the most efficient time for a soft sail is when there is a tailwind. At this time, its efficiency per unit area is comparable to that of a hard sail.
However, since soft sails are light in weight and can be made very large in area, they can obtain much more thrust than hard sails when there is a tailwind. In other words, their speed is much faster than that of hard sails when there is a tailwind.
Now the Dutch were escaping with the wind, and Zheng Sihai and his men could only sigh in despair as they saw that they could not catch up with them.
At this time, the Spaniards, hoping to take advantage of the situation, sailed out of the Manila Harbor again, and the battle horns once again resounded across the blue sea and sky.
Due to the smoke from the sea that blocked their view, the Spaniards had not yet noticed that the Dutch had started to "run away". They were just surprised that the sound of artillery suddenly died down.
The East China Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet turned and attacked them like hungry wolves. A more massive bloody battle was about to begin...
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ps: My ranking keeps dropping, it's so sad, please give me some monthly tickets! I look forward to it, I look forward to some monthly tickets... ...
.(To be continued..)
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