1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 632 Fighting ([-])

"When I get back here, I must catch this damn guy and hang him on the pier!" Spikes was still full of resentment after boarding the ship, but due to the schedule, he couldn't talk to the island right now. These natives took revenge and could only vent their anger by swearing a few words.

Just before boarding and leaving, his men reported to him that two tents had been lost in the morning—there were fewer tents camped on the shore last night after the crew had packed up and returned to the ship for breakfast. two tops.There are only a group of aborigines on the island. There is no doubt that this is a good thing they did, but it is unlikely that the fleet that is eager to set off will stop for two tents to find out the truth.No matter how angry Spikes is, he can only take care of the overall situation and leave the island with a stomach full of displeasure.

"Okay, Mr. Spikes, these monkeys are not the goal of our trip, let's focus on our mission!" Brower's tone was still cold and emotionless, but from his frowning It can still be seen from the frown that he is also dissatisfied with the state of the island.If he hadn't been on a mission, perhaps his outbursts would have been scarier than Spikes' methods.

Only Van Longen felt a little relaxed. He just wanted to leave this place quickly and go to the Natuna Islands. At least there were taverns opened by the Dutch on that island, and there was a basic social order. The society is similar, chaotic and disorderly, without organization.

About 200 nautical miles north from the Tamilan Islands is the only port on the main island of Ambuna.There are also many islands on both sides of this route, and there have been signs of pirates in previous years. The crew must cheer up, because no one knows if something happened to the missing Dutch merchant ships in this sea area.

After an uneasy three-day voyage, the outline of the Abunar Islands finally appeared in the fleet's field of vision, which made every member of the fleet secretly heave a sigh of relief.Arriving here means that nearly half of the mission has been completed.Although from the perspective of the voyage, it is only about one-third of the journey from Batavia to Dayuan Port, but there is almost no chance to see the existence of a large piece of land during the next two-thirds of the voyage. Resupply will probably have to wait until about 20 days later.

However, thinking that Captain Jonker of Belitung Island mentioned that a coastal defense fort was being built here before, the commanders still did not dare to take it lightly before sailing into the port.Maybe there are really pirates nearby, which can force the old Jansen, who has never been active in infrastructure construction, to organize the construction of fortifications on the island.

About ten nautical miles away from the port, the crew found two fishing boats on the sea, but the two boats quickly turned around after seeing the fleet and sailed towards the port quickly.

"Those seem to be two Ming-style sailboats." This discovery made Van Longen a little confused: "Could it be that old Jansen recruited a group of fishermen from the Ming Dynasty to settle here? It hasn't been seen in the recent report!"

Spikes and Brower also noticed the sailboats leaving quickly in the distance on their respective boats, but they were also not alert to this, thinking that this should be just the normal reaction of the immigrants from the Ming Dynasty who had just arrived here when they saw a large fleet That's all, after all, these immigrants probably rarely had the opportunity to see this kind of western-style sailing fleet on the coast of Daming.

The port on Ambuna Island does not have the kind of semi-enclosed harbor that goes deep into the land, it is just a bay that is slightly sunken to the land, so you can see the situation in the port at a place several nautical miles away from the port There is nothing left.

The first thing Van Longen noticed was that there were three sailing ships docked side by side on the wharf on the south side of the port. Even though they were far apart, he recognized at a glance that they were three merchant ships belonging to the East India Company——the representative company on the side of the ship. The VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) symbol is easily visible from a distance.This made him greatly relieved. Who said the merchant ship was missing?Wouldn't it be nice to stop here?Maybe it was just a stormy weather on the way, and the ship was damaged, so it was stranded here for repairs.Of course, based on local conditions, it may be difficult to provide perfect repair conditions for these merchant ships, but this can also explain why these ships disappeared for so long on the way.

"Old Jansen is probably going to be in trouble." Van Longen's thoughts quickly drifted away.According to the procedures of the East India Company, such a situation should have been notified to the company's headquarters as early as a month ago, and since the merchant ship returning from Dayuan Port did not arrive on schedule, Batavia has not received it so far. According to the news from Natuna Island, this dereliction of duty is obviously the responsibility of the old Jansen.Van Longen had even imagined the scene of Brower scolding Old Jansen with a stern face after landing. After all, it took a lot of money for the military to dispatch personnel to go to sea to carry out this search and rescue mission, and this labor-intensive operation and corresponding expenses It was all unnecessary.

"However, the turrets in this port are well-built..." Van Longen also quickly noticed more than a dozen coastal defense turrets standing around the port. These turrets blocked all the docking points and landings in the port The area, obviously, has been carefully designed.When he passed by here last time, there must have been no such fortifications on the shore. This was obviously a newly built project in recent months, which also confirmed that the information provided by Jonker was indeed true—perhaps it was indeed Something happened that old Jansen had to pull himself together to organize and strengthen the defense of the island.

In addition to the three merchant ships of the East India Company, Van Longen also noticed several pointed and narrow-bodied Cantonese sailing ships docked at the port.And these ships are not equipped with the large hard sails that the Ming Dynasty sailing ships usually use, but a fabric soft sail similar to Western-style soft sails.Van Longen knew that this new type of soft sail was invented and popularized by Haihan people. It is said that this type of sail is more flexible than Chinese hard sails and easier to maneuver than Western soft sails, and the speed of ships equipped with this type of soft sails has been greatly improved.This is the first time he has seen this kind of sail system, and he plans to see what is unique about this so-called Haihan sail after he gets off the boat.

After all, Van Longen was just a businessman, and his attention was almost all on the various sailing ships docked in the port, but he didn't notice the strange atmosphere here.But Spikes and Brower were semi-professional soldiers, and their vigilance was obviously much higher than that of Van Longen, and they discovered something wrong here on their respective ships when they approached the port.

First of all, there is not even a single offshore boat in the harbor during the daytime. All the boats in sight are on the shore, and there is not even a small fishing sampan on the sea. This is a small port town. It's a little strange.Secondly, no matter whether it was on the shore or on the boat parked at the dock, they didn't even see a single person. There were no handymen carrying goods on the dock, no drunk sailors shouting, and not even a wandering wild dog.

"Sign the flag, let the fleet stop, and don't approach the pier again!" Brower immediately issued an order.

At the same time, Spikes on another troop carrier was also ordering the soldiers on board: "Put down your luggage, pick up your weapons, and prepare to fight!"

"What happened?" Van Longen saw the semaphore displayed on the two troop carriers, and hadn't recovered for a while.

At the same time, in a fort on the shore, Mu Xiabo held up his binoculars to observe the situation at sea, and murmured: "They still found it!"

Due to the relatively flat local terrain, it is difficult to establish an effective early warning observation point near the port. In order to conceal one's identity, one cannot send fast Haihan warships to patrol the nearby waters. The early warning posts disguised as fishing boats have already It was the ultimate method that Mu Xiabo could take.And when he received the warning, Mu Xiabo also knew that the moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived—the Dutch finally found out that something was wrong, and sent a fleet to find this place along the way.

It was an hour and a half before the garrison stationed on the island received the warning. During this period of time, all Mu Xiabo could do was to organize the combatants to take their positions on the front line, and then emptied the personnel near the pier.It's not that Mu Xiabai didn't think that doing so might arouse the other party's vigilance, but it might be okay for the Portuguese on the island to deceive the Daming maritime merchants, but it's too difficult to deceive the eyes of the Dutch.Instead of letting them be spotted by the Dutch, it would be better to clear the dock area and have a good fight with the Dutch.

"It's time to show your real fighting power!" Mu Xiabo gave an order: "Raise the flag, all the forts are ready to fire!" He said
Of course, they also noticed that the opponent's fleet played a semaphore, and then the two armed ships immediately slowed down and opened the gun ports on the side of the ship.Obviously, the other party has noticed the strange situation on the pier and has already started to be on guard.The matter has come to this point, the battle is already on the line, and it has to be waged.

At this time, Van Longen had sensed that the situation on the shore was not right, and ordered to stop docking and prepare to turn around. At this time, he saw a flag raised on the top of the warehouse on the dock.This flag is not the tricolor flag of the East India Company, but a gray flag with a large white Chinese character embroidered on it.

"What the hell is that?" Van Longen hurriedly asked a Chinese steward on board to identify it.

"Captain, that's a word for 'Ruan'." After the Chinese steward finished speaking, Fan Longen still looked confused, knowing that he still didn't understand, so he further explained: "It's a surname, but Daming doesn't It's more common, but it's more common in Annan Country."

"An Nanguo?" Fan Longen came back to his senses - the Annan Southern regime that was wiped out two years ago, wasn't it the Ruan family who held the power?Among the various pirate rumors that have been circulated before, one is that the Ruan clan who escaped from Annan gathered and organized an armed force in the South China Sea, and started piracy.Judging from the situation on the pier, this organization under the banner of "Ruan" should have taken control of the port. Could it be that they are the legendary remnants of the Southern Communist Party?

"All personnel enter the combat position!" Van Longen shivered, and immediately ordered the whole ship to prepare for battle after regaining consciousness - since the opponent can take this port silently, it is obviously not a good thing.And his own fleet broke in so recklessly, it was tantamount to throwing themselves into a trap.At this time, looking at the forts on the shore, Van Longen felt that there seemed to be many black muzzles aimed at him.

However, his premonition was not an illusion. Before the Dutch fleet had figured out how to deal with the strange situation on the shore, the fort on the shore opened fire first.Their targets were the two Dutch troop carriers that responded first, and more than a dozen coastal defense guns first focused their fire on the "Victor" where Spikes was located.At a distance of less than 300 meters, the ship was no different from a motionless target. At least half of the shells hit the 27-meter-long sailing ship in the first round of concentrated fire, and immediately caused double-digit damage. of crew casualties.

"These bastards! Fire, all fire!" Brower, who narrowly escaped the first round of shelling, issued an order in shock.However, at this distance, the naval guns equipped on his "Otter" can play a very limited role, because the flat firing range of these artillery is generally about 200 meters, not to mention hitting the target, even hitting the shore. It is a luxury.After all, these artillery were originally designed to be used in naval battles, not to launch shelling from sea to land, and to compete with coastal defense artillery with long range and high precision. Unsurprisingly, all the shells fired by the "Otter" were emptied, and only caused a splash of water on the sea.

Van Longen also ordered his ships to fire at this time, but similar to the "Otter", the artillery equipped by his ships was not much better.After all, these are only armed merchant ships, not professional warships. It is enough to deal with pirates who do not have hot weapons at sea, but the performance of this kind of amphibious assault is indeed a lot worse.

Therefore, this battle also formed a spectacle. The Dutch had much more artillery, and the fight was lively but had no effect at all.But the turret on the shore aimed and fired calmly, and began to roll their names one by one at the two nearest Dutch troop carriers.During the third round of shelling, a shell directly cut off the mainmast of the "Victor", which almost announced the loss of its ability to act.

Mu Xiabo noticed this detail, and immediately turned all the turrets to focus on the other "Otter" - he didn't need to sink these Dutch warships immediately, as long as he could make the other party lose their ability to move, then he would be able to do so later. Slowly clean up the mess in the time.

Of course, Brower on the "Otter" also noticed the fatal blow suffered by his colleagues. At the same time, he also realized that his warship was at a disadvantage in terms of artillery range. Either he got closer to the opponent, or he had to retreat quickly to protect himself. , there is no third option.

(End of this chapter)