Take the arsenal to Da Ming

Chapter 96

Le Maire slammed his fist on the deck, his teeth clenched.

Suddenly, he only felt heat on the left side of his face, and then a half-missing head rolled in front of him, with only one eye still wide open, staring at him firmly.

It was the lieutenant who reported the news just now and was waiting for his order.

Seeing this horrifying scene, Le Maire backed away in fright, trembling involuntarily.

The anger and fanaticism just now seemed to subside at once, and the fear quickly spread in his heart like a plague.

"Master Governor, please make a decision quickly, their shells will hit us again at any time." The major who persuaded us to surrender crawled over and begged.

Le Maire closed his eyes in pain, and finally squeezed out a sentence, "Surrender."

Hearing these simple words, the major quickly crawled away to convey the order as if he was about to be amnesty.

Not long after, a flag hung with a white cloth carefully stretched out from the stern of the ship, waving it non-stop.

The soldier waving the white flag only dared to bury his head under the side of the ship, for fear of accidentally blowing his head off. Hearing the sound of shells whizzing past, he was also trembling with fright, but he didn't dare to hide behind.

"Surrender, we surrender, don't shoot anymore." The soldier muttered and prayed, tears streaming down his face.

Finally, I don't know how long it took, the whistling sound of the shells stopped, and after waiting for a while, it didn't sound again, and the whole world seemed to be quiet.

Everyone, including Le Maire, heaved a sigh of relief, and the terrifying sense of depression subsided a lot, but everyone was still full of tension, not knowing what the future fate would be, and each of them looked depressed .

Looking at the enemy flagship that had stopped, Ye Dacheng and Huang Hairu looked at each other and smiled, and then burst out laughing.

For the sake of caution, Ye Dacheng did not order the flagship to approach directly, but called two small boats not far away that had no mission to accept the enemy's surrender.

The two small boats approached quickly, and then boarded the enemy ship.

When more than [-] soldiers of the new army went up to the deck, apart from seeing a messy deck, there were Dutchmen sitting on the deck without saying a word.

One by one stared at them with blue eyes, full of fear that had not subsided.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought that there were not many people on this super big ship.

But after a rough count of all the people on board, there were almost 300 people, which is not considered dead in battle.

Le Maire bowed to a squad leader of the new army and offered his sword with both hands, expressing his submission.

The squad leader of the new army took over the slender western sword, very satisfied, and then ordered the soldiers to bind most of the Dutch army's hands.

Some of the remaining people were divided into several groups. One group set sail to lean against their own flagship, one group threw the corpses into the sea, and the other group washed the deck clean.

As the supreme commander, Le Maire received the courtesy he deserved. He was not tied down, and he was arranged to sit in a clean place in the bow.

His bloody face has been simply washed off, and it no longer looks so scary.

However, he didn't know where his hat fell off, his hair was very messy, just like his mood, his blue eyes seemed to have become clouded a lot and lost their brilliance.

He originally had great confidence in this battle, which depended on his extreme confidence in the strength of the Dutch army and his full preparation in the early stage.

The goal of this operation is also very clear, it is not to start a full-scale war with the Ming Dynasty, nor is it to force them to open their trading ports, it is just for a plunder.

If it weren't for knowing that the new army had advanced firearms, none of the Dutch would have thought of launching this battle.

And after knowing that there is such an advanced firearm, and it cannot be obtained through trade, it can only be obtained through war. This is the characteristic of the colonists.

This is true whether it is Spain, Portugal, or the Dutch, unless they have no strength.

In terms of plunder and colonization, they Westerners are the initiators of this world, so they are very good at it.

Even 11 years ago, the Dutch successfully plundered the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian again and again, and the Ming people had nothing to do with them, and suffered heavy losses.

It wasn't until the Ming Dynasty could bear it no longer that the subsequent naval battle of Liuluo Bay broke out, but the main reason was because of the huge gap in numbers between the two sides.

But this time is different, their main target, and the only target, is the new army.

They learned that although the new army had been recruited by the Ming court, it was not in harmony with the surrounding forces, such as Zheng Zhilong, who was the strongest at sea and had commanded and defeated the Dutch.

There was a war between the two sides not long ago, but the final result was that Zheng Zhilong lost to the new army on land.

The Dutch have reason to believe that it is impossible for Zheng Zhilong to have a good impression of the new army. If the Dutch fight with the new army, Zheng Zhilong will definitely not help, and may take the opportunity to attack the new army.

If they didn't want to sneak attack quickly and secretly, and take all the firearms of the new army as their own, the Dutch would want to cooperate with Zheng Zhilong.

As for the Ming court, the Dutch looked down on it a bit, they were just a group of subjugated slaves.

As long as Zheng Zhilong doesn't intervene and runs away after finishing the fight, what else can those people do with him?It is estimated that it is too late to even react.

But these are only prerequisites. Only when these conditions are met, the Dutch dare to launch this war.

So the Dutch made far more preparations. On the one hand, they asked Batavia for reinforcements, and on the other hand, they learned about the various performances of the new army's artillery from Chaozhou Prefecture.

They agreed to Tang Ning's harsh terms and readily lent Tang Ning 200 million taels of silver in order to stabilize and paralyze Tang Ning, giving Tang Ning the illusion that they only wanted to cooperate and a war would never happen.

Those Dutchmen in Chaozhou, under the pretext of not being artillery technicians, could wander around the capital all day without being suspected.

In this way, I learned in detail some details of the battle between the Xin Army and the Zheng Army during the Huanggang battle.

The advanced artillery used by the new army has no advantage over the existing artillery of the Dutch in terms of range. The biggest advantage is its high power and fast rate of fire.

They also knew that the new army had assembled a small fleet of fewer than a thousand men.

Like other Ming armies, the ships of the new army were relatively small, and the number of cannons carried was estimated to be less than ten, or even less.

But no matter what, this small fleet must be eliminated first, otherwise they would not dare to land and attack Fucheng.

If the attack on Fucheng failed in the end, then at least they had eliminated this fleet equipped with advanced artillery, which was half the battle.

After learning the detailed information, Batavia finally decided to give full support and sent almost half of the main force of Batavia's navy, a total of [-] warships.

Including the large personnel, there are a total of 23 warships, and the overall strength is more than three times that of the Liuluowan naval battle.

In order to ensure a higher success rate, Grand Officer Le Maire personally commanded.

Then there was the beginning of the largest naval battle in the Far East.

Le Maire's initial idea was to sneak attack, which can reduce losses and increase the winning rate.

If the sneak attack is successful and the new army in South Australia is wiped out in one fell swoop, then the new army in Fucheng may not be able to get the news in time, which will provide greater convenience for the next operation.

Unexpectedly, the sneak attack failed at the very beginning, and the new army discovered them in advance. Le Maire thought that the new army had gotten lucky.

Le Maire did not give up, and carried out several deceptions, trying to attract the new army's fleet before dawn and the new army's vision was limited.

But the new army was not fooled in the end. After dawn, all the plots were useless, and they had to fight head-on.

It was at that moment that fate seemed sealed.

Because no matter how well prepared they are, as long as they fail to grasp a little important information, they will lose everything.

Now Le Maire knew what this important message was, but it was too late.

(End of this chapter)