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The sky is dotted with stars, and a waning moon is hanging in the west, with dim light.
There was no sound of seabirds singing during the day; only the endless sound of waves echoed on the dark sea.
More than ten miles south of Huangyan Reef, an eagle boat responsible for patrol and surveillance was sailing with a sidewind, lightly passing through the faint light cast by the crescent moon.
Ning Xiaobao sat alone on the tall mast beam with a rope tied around his waist to ensure that he would not fall off the beam due to the violent shaking.
Captain Ye Fei looked up on the deck and shouted, "Xiaobao, don't be lazy, keep an eye on it."
"Captain, the sea is calm, not even a bird."
"Xiaobao, hold on a little longer. I'll let Hua Lao San go up and replace you."
"Captain, I can't hold on any longer..."
"Don't be sneaky. How long have you been up there?"
"No, Captain, you misunderstood. I just want to pee."
"You..." Captain Ye Fei ran away with his head in his hands, cursing, "Damn it, Ning Xiaobao, just wait. I'll have Hua Lao San go up and replace you in two hours."
"No, no, no... Captain, I'm holding it in. Is it okay if I don't pee?"
Suddenly, bursts of strange laughter were heard on the ship, like the howling of ghosts and wolves. Perhaps this was the only way to pass the long night.
Seeing the captain running into the cabin with his head in his hands, Ning Xiaobao chuckled twice and habitually picked up the telescope hanging in front of his chest to look around.
"Hey! The stars... No, they're too low." Ning Xiaobao muttered to himself, put down the telescope, wiped his eyes, and continued to look. Suddenly, he screamed like a pig being slaughtered, "Captain! Captain! There's something going on, there are ships coming from the south... No. There are ships coming from the southeast and southwest..."
Amid Ning Xiaobao's shouting, Ye Fei, who had just rushed into the cabin with his head in his hands, rushed out and shouted, "Xiaobao, this is not something you can joke about. Do you see clearly?"
"Captain, there is no mistake. There is indeed a ship approaching, about six miles away."
"Liuli? Damn Ning Xiaobao, what were you doing just now? What do you do for a living? Quick. Send a warning signal, quick! Three red signals."
A man named Hua Laosan rushed out of the cabin, holding a torch in one hand and a handful of fireworks in the other, which he quickly lit.
The main force of the South China Sea Fleet anchored around the Huangyan Reef suddenly saw three red fireworks exploding in the air more than ten miles to the south. The blood-red color was extremely dazzling. This was the highest level of warning.
Zheng Sihai and his men were still discussing matters. Everyone rushed out of the cabin, and the alert ship in the south was afraid that the main fleet had not seen it, so every moment, three more red fireworks were shot into the sky.
"Quick. Everyone return to your ships immediately to respond." Zheng Sihai shouted.
Tong Haifeng, Chen Hui, Lin Youmei, Zhang Yao and others jumped into the boat one after another. The soldiers on the boat immediately rowed hard and flew towards their warship.
“Drum roll!”
On the flagship, the cowhide drum rumbled. The originally silent sea surface was suddenly broken by the heavy drum, and all the Qin soldiers on the warships rushed out of the cabins and rushed to their posts as they usually did in training.
The people at the helm steer, those who raise the anchor raise the anchor, those who raise the sails raise the sails, those who load the ammunition load the ammunition, and most importantly the signalmen, they have to climb up the tall masts as agilely as possible and pay close attention to the orders coming from the flagship.
Amidst the chaos, the Qin army quickly raised the sails and weighed anchor at an astonishing speed. At this time, everyone was waiting for the order from the fleet commander-in-chief.
At this critical moment of life and death, Zheng Sihai's order may lead to the destruction of the entire fleet, or it may save everyone.
For Zheng Sihai, this was a difficult decision. Apart from the highest-level warning message sent from ten miles to the south, the rest of the enemy situation was unclear.
But he had to make this decision immediately without any hesitation.
"Orders, head south, all hawk ships and bluff ships turn off their lights and lead the way, all gunboats follow the flagship and form a battle line."
The messenger quickly conveyed Zheng Sihai's order. All warships, you can doubt the correctness of this order, or even be dissatisfied, but you must immediately execute it without any compromise.
All the small and medium-sized eagle ships and bluff ships began to slowly disperse, and then the lights on the ships were all on, while the gunboats behind were brightly lit. This contrast between light and dark made the small and medium-sized warships in front quickly disappear from sight;
In the dark night, they were like a group of wolves hidden in the darkness, rushing towards the south at full speed.
Of course, in order to prevent collisions in the dark, these eagle ships and bluff ships would light up their anti-collision lights every once in a while, but these anti-collision lights were only visible to the left, right and rear, and the front was deliberately blocked. This was the experience summarized by the Qin Royal Navy during its usual night assault training.
At this time, lights were lit on the Dutch warships in the south. This was necessary as no one could operate the artillery in the dark.
Seeing the large group of lights moving quickly southward, the Dutch fleet commander-in-chief, Calant, was beyond his expectation. He ordered the warships in the south to advance first. According to common sense, the Qin army should flee to the north or other directions when the situation was unclear.
But now the Qin army did the opposite. There was an enemy in the south, so they rushed south instead, as if they had been waiting for a naval battle.
Calant had no choice but to quickly order the fleets in the east and west to attack as soon as possible.
The two sides were heading towards each other at a distance of about ten miles and soon met each other. The lights and shadowy sails on the sea were like the wings of the devil, blocking the starry sky.
Before the two sides engaged in battle, a fierce murderous aura had already filled the entire sea.
It’s getting closer and closer.
"Turn left forty-five degrees!" Kaband gave the order calmly, and fifteen giant warships began to turn. The guns on the starboard side slowly turned, and the muzzles of the black hole guns were raised little by little.
At this moment, Karant noticed something unusual. About 300 yards ahead, there was a faint light flashing occasionally. "It's an enemy ship! It's an enemy ship hiding in the darkness. Quick, shoot!"
This time, Calant was not mistaken. It was indeed the Qin army's small and medium-sized warships, which were approaching in the dark. If anyone was careless, they would not be able to detect them at all.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The Dutch warships opened fire first. Tongues of fire burst out in the night, and the deafening roar sounded like thunder, continuous and endless.
In the first round of salvos, a full 300 shells streaked across the night sky, raining down like raindrops. At such a close distance, three Qin ships were immediately hit. Bang, bang, bang! The tragic shadow could not be seen in the darkness, but the loud noise made by the solid bullets hitting the ship was thrilling.
After one round of salvos, the second round came soon. This time there were more loud noises, and even screams could be heard, but no matter how many warships were hit, those bluff ships and eagle ships still rushed out of the darkness and kept approaching.
Thinking of Qin Jun's terrifying rockets, Calant was alerted and ordered all the artillery to replace the cannons with shotgun shells. Boom! Boom! Fifteen warships and three hundred cannons, one after another terrifying barrage of bullets spewed out with tongues of fire, thousands of marbles like a downpour, shooting at Qin Jun's warships. In the darkness, there were bursts of crackling sounds and bursts of screams echoing.
On the Qin army warships, almost none of the sailors who were manning the sails survived the intensive bombardment of shotgun shells. In the darkness, the deck was filled with blood and wind, and even the hard sails on the masts were almost beaten into sieves.
The dead are gone, and the living have no room to retreat. A Qin soldier rushed out of the cabin from the darkness and took over the control of the warship from his sacrificed comrade.
Calculating the intervals between the enemy's artillery fire, they hid under the side of the ship and waited for the second round of enemy artillery fire before rushing out. However, the enemy did not fire all their artillery at the same time, but in a sequence. Some Qin soldiers rushed out as soon as the enemy's marbles stopped firing, and as a result, another round of marbles was fired in the dark... ... ...
This type of shotgun shell did not cause much damage to the hull, but caused huge casualties to the soldiers on board.
This is a war, and there will always be casualties in war. At this moment, no matter how heavy the casualties are, we can only move forward and keep moving forward.
It was getting closer, two hundred steps, one hundred and fifty steps, and amid the Qin army's roar of revenge, rockets with long tails of flame whizzed away.
Boom! Boom!
The two giant Dutch ships were hit in succession. The yellow explosives loaded in the rockets exploded violently, forming two huge fireballs. The fierce shock wave instantly swept away half of the enemy ship's cabin. In the light of the fireballs, one could see the bodies of the Dutch people being torn into pieces by an invisible force in the air and falling like rain.
"Come again! Blast him!"
"Quick! Sink them!"
Roars and roars echo endlessly...
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ps: This is the third update. There will be a fourth update soon. Please give me your monthly votes!
.(To be continued..)
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