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Ninety thousand miles of mountains and rivers, the smoke of war rises again;
From Yumen Pass in the west, to Yilin in the south of the desert, to Si'en Prefecture in Guangxi and Chuxiong in Yunnan.
Even the South China Sea was no longer calm. The May breeze blew across the sea sultry, the sun was scorching, and the sunlight reflected on the sea surface was dazzling and almost dizzy.
On the ocean west of Palawan Island, there were 48 Dutch warships on the left, and nearly 300 small warships of the Sulu Sultanate on the right. The two fleets formed two columns, sailing north together with two miles between them.
A Qin merchant ship heading to Malacca was hijacked, the sailors were thrown directly into the sea to fend for themselves, and the ship's cargo was taken by the Dutch.
Commander-in-chief of the Netherlands Eastern Fleet, Carlo Calant, was wearing a clean white shirt and looking out to sea with a monocular telescope in front of the command cabin of the flagship.
He looked at the row of small boats from the Sulu Sultanate and the Boni Kingdom on the right and couldn't help revealing a mocking expression.
The reason why he and Batavia Governor John Masuiju were willing to join forces with the Sulu Sultanate was mainly because the Sulu Sultanate could provide a lot of supplies nearby;
Although these small boats are inconspicuous, they are numerous and can be used to entangle the Qin army's small and medium-sized warships.
More importantly, John Massey and Garant were well aware that although the Dutch naval power was strong, it was scattered all over the world;
The Far East is far away from the Dutch mainland. Facing a huge empire like the Qin Dynasty, it would be beneficial for them to unite some small countries in the Far East, and the more such small countries there are, the better.
When passing the capital of Boni Kingdom in northern Borneo, Calant sailed his 48 warships to the mouth of the Boni River.
The capital of the Bonile Kingdom is located on the banks of the Bonile River and is known as the Venice of the East.
When the tide was high, the Bohai River was navigable for giant ships with a draft of seven meters, and the Dutch warships could sail directly to the capital of the Bohai Kingdom.
Under the threat of force from the Calanque warships, envoys from the Sulu Sultanate went ashore to lobby, eventually forcing the Boni Kingdom to send out eight warships.
King Boni even lied to himself that he was only providing supplies and not participating in the war.
Calant laughed secretly, after sending out these eight ships, did he still want to get out of this muddy water
Going northeast from Palawan Island is Mindoro Island. Calant has received news that the Qin Army’s two naval battalions are recruiting the island’s natives to mine gold at Calapan Port in the northeast of Mindoro Island.
Mindoro is a large island, 300 miles long and 200 miles wide, inhabited mainly by Tagalogs.
The island is also home to a large number of small buffaloes, which are said to number about 200,000 to 300,000. These small buffaloes are short in stature and are called dwarf buffaloes.
Unfortunately, the Dutch are not Spanish. They don’t like bullfighting, and the dwarf buffaloes cannot attract them. Calant’s first target is Wang Guichen’s two battalions.
At this time, Wang Guichen was recruiting local natives to dig for gold in the northeast of Mindoro Island. When he came, he intended to make up a gold mine, but he didn't expect that after landing on the island, there really was a gold mine in the area, and some natives were already mining on a small scale.
Needless to say, Wang Guichen immediately took over the mountain and became the king. He buried the gold he brought in the mine and then let the natives dig it out.
The news of the discovery of a ten-kilogram nugget of gold on Mindoro Island spread like wildfire. As soon as the rumor spread, the natives of the island came riding on their dwarf buffaloes, creating a spectacular scene.
Wang Guichen was secretly happy. Suddenly, a merchant ship from Daqin escaped and said that a large number of Dutch warships were heading towards Mindoro Island.
After he carefully questioned the merchant ship owner, he couldn't help but tremble. Damn it, the Dutch have gone crazy this time, with dozens of warships and a large group of shrimp soldiers and crab generals from the Sulu Sultanate.
Wang Guichen's two camps have a lot of people, a full one thousand navy men.
But there were only four gunboats and sixteen small and medium-sized bluff ships and eagle ships. If it was a land battle, they could still fight, but in a naval battle, the strength disparity was too great.
The problem is that there are no artillery batteries on the shore. We can't tow the warships ashore to fight a land battle with the enemy, right
Mo Lianggui asked anxiously: "General, what should we do?"
Deputy General Li Sangui rushed to answer: "What else can we do? The wind is strong, let's go!"
Wang Guichen cursed: "Damn it, that's all you can say. A wise man won't suffer a loss in front of him. Let the brothers quickly replenish food and water and go out to sea first."
Mo Liang looked at the natives all over the mountain unwillingly and asked, "What about these guys?"
"Can they still fly to the sky? Stop talking nonsense and resupply quickly. The red-haired devils want to eat us, so let's knock out a few of their teeth first."
Wang Guichen first sent an eagle ship back to Fusu City to report the news. After the other warships were replenished, they immediately set sail.
The natives all over the mountain looked on stupidly, not knowing what was going on. When they saw the Qin army leaving in a hurry, they couldn't help but cheer and started digging even harder.
The Qin army leader is gone, whoever digs up the nugget gold will own it...
Perhaps the information brought back by the merchant ship was wrong, and the Dutch fleet arrived faster than expected. As soon as Wang Guichen and his two camps sailed out of the Karapan Harbor, they ran into the joint fleet of the Netherlands and the Sulu Sultanate.
The combination of warships of the two countries looked very strange, but they were definitely not to be trifled with, especially the Dutch’s 40-odd warships, all of which were armed with cannons;
Although the warships of Sulu were small and crude, they were numerous. The territory of this country was scattered across various islands, and ships were usually used to travel between the islands. Naturally, there were many ships in the country, and the soldiers were very skilled in sailing and controlling the ships.
As the saying goes, many ants can kill an elephant. Seeing nearly 300 small boats from the Sulu Kingdom attacking first, Wang Guichen couldn't help but feel a little scared. He only had 19 warships left. If he let these hundreds of small boats come up, he would definitely capsize in the ditch.
"Go north with the wind, quickly!" Wang Guichen shouted, and the messenger used flag signals to quickly convey his orders to each warship.
The Dutch warships were lined up in a column, drawing an arc on the sea and pressing towards them. The two sides were getting closer and closer, and were about to enter the range of artillery fire. The atmosphere on the sea suddenly became extremely tense. All the Qin soldiers had taken their positions, their hearts tense;
Before, whether fighting the Dutch or the Spanish, they had an absolute advantage in military strength; now the situation has reversed, the enemy's sails are like clouds and their ships are as numerous as ants, while they are alone and weak. Once they are entangled by the enemy, the consequences will be disastrous.
boom!
The Dutch's front main gun roared first, flames spurted out, and huge projectiles whizzed in. Although they did not hit the Qin warships, they had already gained the upper hand.
The sails on the Qin army's warships had been adjusted to the optimal posture, but Wang Guichen soon discovered that the Dutch warships were getting closer and closer. With a slight turn of the rudder, the cannons on the starboard side of the first few warships would be able to fire at them.
Boom! Boom boom boom!
As flames continued to spew out from the starboard side of several Dutch warships, hundreds of shells cut through the sky and slammed into the sea around the Qin warships. It was like a meteorite shower on the sea, causing columns of water to shoot up into the sky.
One of the solid bullets hit the sea surface and actually jumped on the sea surface, just like a child skipping tiles on the water.
This situation with solid bullets is very rare, but it happened today; after drifting on the water twice, the solid bullet hit the waterline of the side of Wang Guichen's flagship with a bang, and the huge impact force almost pierced the side.
At this time, Wang Guichen and his warship were at the wrong angle, so they could only fire back with their rear guns. The few shells they fired were almost negligible.
Mo Liang looked at the enemy's warship and shouted, "Hurry up, hurry up! The enemy is getting closer and closer..." He really wanted to jump into the sea and push his warship faster.
Wang Guichen realized at this time that he had made a serious mistake. He had just ordered to flee northward towards Fusu City with the wind. There was nothing wrong with this in itself, but the mistake was that he ignored the different characteristics of the enemy and our warships.
The Qin army's warships used traditional Chinese hard sails. When sailing against the wind or with a sidewind, the mast could rotate so that the sail could receive the wind well. At this time, the warships were faster and more flexible than the Western soft sails.
Western soft sails are lighter and usually several times larger than Chinese hard sails. When sailing with the wind, their sails can fully function, so their speed is naturally faster than that of hard-sailed ships.
This is why the Dutch were able to easily catch up with Wang Guichen and his men even though they were running for their lives.
"Turn left, turn left!"
Amid the roar of the Dutch cannons, Wang Guichen corrected his mistake in time and ordered a turn to sail with a side wind...
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