1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 621 The Decisive Battle in Ambon ([-])

As night fell, the short and fierce sea battle at the entrance of Ambon Bay also temporarily stopped.The four Hanzhou warships broke away from the Dutch support fleet one after another, sailed eastward, and disappeared into the dark night.

After a long silence, the support fleet of the Dutch East India Company confirmed that the Hanzhou warship had completely left, turned on the signal lights one after another, slowly gathered together, and then anchored on the coast.

"Are you sure that the Hanzhou warship is heading deep into the bay?" Colonel Carsten Kuritz, commander of the support fleet, asked in surprise.

"Yes, Colonel." Major Edmund Ross said, "Our lookouts saw Hanzhou's warships heading eastward very clearly. I suspect that their other four warships may be hiding Somewhere deep in the bay, they must have gone there by night to join him."

"Although this bay is four to five leagues long (1 league is approximately equal to 3.18 nautical miles, equivalent to 5.556 kilometers), if you search along the coast, it is not impossible to find Hanzhou's warships. Do they still want to continue to hide in the bay Are you trying to attack us?" Colonel Carsten Kuritz asked a little puzzled.

"Perhaps, the Hanzhou people thought they could escape to the depths of the bay and avoid our search. Of course, it is also possible that they are not familiar with the terrain and sea conditions here."

"No matter what, we will find them tomorrow and try to sink or capture them all!"

The next day, with the light of dawn, the support fleet of the Dutch East India Company pulled anchor and sailed towards the depths of Ambon Bay to search for the location of the Hanzhou warship.

At ten o'clock in the morning, two Dutch armed merchant ships spotted the Hanzhou warship on the coast opposite Ambon Port, and a fierce battle broke out immediately.

When more than ten armed merchant ships from the Netherlands arrived after hearing the news, they saw two of their own armed merchant ships parked miserably on the coast, both of which seemed to have been damaged to varying degrees.

After inquiring, I learned that there were still only four Hanzhou warships, but the opponent's fighting style was extremely fierce. Although they were not as skilled and flexible as the Dutch armed merchant ships in gaining the upper hand and maneuvering, their artillery firing speed was extremely fast, almost more than a minute. , you can shoot a salvo.Facing the siege of these four Hanzhou warships, the Dutch armed merchant ships inevitably suffered a lot.If the rescue fleet hadn't arrived quickly, maybe it would have been sunk opposite Ambon Port.

"The Hanzhou warship still fled to the east?" Colonel Carsten Kuritz showed a puzzled look on his face.

Shouldn't they have fled west?

The east side is a dead end!

"Colonel, the enemy has fled far away." An officer reminded in a low voice.

Colonel Kuritz turned his head and looked towards the east. The four Hanzhou warships had sailed several miles away, and a few sails could still be seen vaguely.

"Catch up!" Colonel Kuritz's eyes flashed a stern look. Even if the other party really had four other warships ambushing in the depths of the bay, how could they still encircle all the dozen or so warships of their own side!
The warships of the Han and Dutch sides were several miles apart, and they sailed towards the east of Ambon Bay one after the other.

And just behind the Dutch support fleet, in the northwest direction of the entrance of the bay, a huge fleet sailed meanderingly, heading straight for the port of Ambon.

Qi Dajiang stood at the bow of the ship, holding binoculars in both hands, constantly observing the sea ahead, trying to find the four warships led by Luo Rucheng, or the traces of the Dutch ships.

Last night, a flying fish clipper sailed to the fleet anchorage to inform him that the Dutch support fleet had arrived.And Luo Rucheng will take four warships and try his best to drag the Dutch to the depths of Ambon Bay, so as to create favorable conditions for the special attack fleet to encircle and annihilate the opponent.

After hearing the news, Qi Dajiang immediately led more than [-] warships towards Ambon overnight without any delay.After the sky brightened, twelve professional warships took the lead, with the battleships "Han Ping" and "Han He" in the middle, and nine armed merchant ships dragged behind them, entering the long and narrow Ambon Bay.

Regarding the topography of Ambon Bay, the Qi State Navy has basically mastered it a few years ago. About four kilometers east of Ambon Port, there is a section of the bay that will become extremely narrow, and the narrowest point is less than 500 meters.If Luo Rucheng can lure all the Dutch warships to the depths of the bay, then the Qi fleet only needs to block that narrow passage to catch the turtles in the urn and annihilate them all in it.

"Governor, there are flying fish ships returning ahead!" The fleet combat staff officer suddenly pointed forward, with an expectant look on his face.

Hearing this, Qi Dajiang looked up and saw a brisk flying fish boat heading towards the fleet in a zigzag against the wind direction.

Two quarters of an hour later, the flying fish boat slowly approached the "Han Ping". After the sailors on board lowered the rope ladder, an officer quickly climbed up from the flying fish boat.

"Governor, there is only one Dutch armed merchant ship found in the port of Ambon."

"But look carefully?"

"Beizhi drove the boat 300 meters into the Ambon Port and carefully observed the moorings in the port. There was indeed only one armed merchant ship."

"Enough!" Qi Dajiang praised.

Going 300 meters deep into the port, if you are not careful, you will be hit by the opponent's coastal defense turret.With the small body of the flying fish boat, it is estimated that it only needs five or six shells to sink it.

"Where is the leading fleet now?"

"When I return, the leading fleet will arrive at Ambon Port."

"What time is it now?" Qi Dajiang turned his head and asked.

"12:30 noon." The combat staff replied: "If the leading fleet is fast enough, it should arrive at the promontory of the bay between 01:30 and [-] o'clock, blocking the fleet supported by the Netherlands." Deep in the bay."

"What I'm afraid of is that the Dutch fleet has neither stopped in the port of Ambon, nor entered the depths of the bay. ... That is extremely bad." Qi Dajiang felt a little uneasy.

Since the fleet entered the bay, they did not search carefully the sea area along the way at all, but sailed straight to the depths of the bay, just betting that the Dutch fleet would be lured here by Luo Rucheng.

However, if the Dutch fleet did not pursue Luo Rucheng's four warships at all, but stopped temporarily somewhere in the bay, wouldn't it be a futile attack by the Qi State Special Attack Fleet? It is also possible to startle the Dutch fleet away, and eventually expose one's own strategic goals.

Therefore, at this time, Qi Dajiang felt a little worried about gains and losses.
-
"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

The twelve Dutch armed merchant ships were like a pack of wolves on the grassland, cooperating with each other tacitly, constantly biting each other's flesh and blood.

The four Hanzhou warships under siege continued to toss and turn, trying to avoid the siege of the Dutch ships as much as possible, but in the depths of the bay, the width was less than three miles, and the wind was extremely weak, so they could not escape the siege from all sides.Fleet commander Luo Rucheng was hit on the head by sawdust splashed after the shell hit the cabin less than half an hour after the battle started. He bled profusely and fell into a coma. The command of the fleet had to be handed over to "Qiming". In the hands of Captain Wan Changshu.

Although the gunners on the Hanzhou warship were in very good combat condition, firing a salvo at a high rate of nearly one round per minute, the fleet was gradually feeling overwhelmed by the siege of many Dutch ships, and each ship was shot in multiple places.The most pitiful thing is the armed merchant ship "Yangwei", whose mizzen mast was hit by the opponent's chain bomb, broke in two, and fell obliquely on the stern deck, which has seriously affected its maneuverability.

However, the Dutch ships who fought with these four Hanzhou ships were very surprised deep in their hearts.Those two armed merchant ships are nothing more than that, although the artillery fires fast, they are small in number after all.However, the other two warships, which looked like professional battleships, were extremely fierce. The ships with a displacement of [-] to [-] tons were equipped with no less than [-] cannons.Each round of salvo will cause a certain amount of damage to the Dutch ships passing by.

And these two professional warships not only have fierce firepower, but also have rough skin and thick flesh. The opponent was obviously hit by at least 20 shells, but it seems that they did not cause fatal damage to them at all. Leaning their mighty fire.

Fortunately, the Hanzhou people only had four warships, and what's even more rare is that they ran to this Jedi by themselves, which happened to allow the Dutch to make meritorious deeds here.

"Let's rush over, try our best to separate the two professional warships, create opportunities for our main fleet, and annihilate the two armed merchant ships first." Major Edmondo Ross ordered loudly.

An armed merchant ship in Hanzhou was obviously seriously damaged, and a mizzen mast was broken, and was besieged by several Dutch warships.But the two professional warships with fierce firepower were constantly approaching it, bombarding the Dutch warships in front, trying to fight a bloody path and rescue it.

But in the eyes of the Dutch, all the resistance of the four Hanzhou warships seemed to be futile.Not to mention that the number of ships of one's own side is several times that of the opponent's, even the terrain of this narrow bay greatly limits their mobility, making it difficult for them to escape.

In this battle, these four Hanzhou ships must be completely wiped out, and they will be taught a profound lesson.

"Colonel, the Stag is coming from the west!" A Dutch naval officer shouted loudly.

"Stag?... Shouldn't it be guarding the promontory together with Groningen?" Fleet Commander Colonel Carsten Kuritz couldn't help but frowned. Could it be that they couldn't bear their temper and wanted to rush to separate the ship? Run a little bit of victory?
"Colonel, there are several warships behind the Stag..." The officer exclaimed, "Oh, God, they are chasing the Stag!...that is the warship of Hanzhou!"

"...We seem to have fallen into a trap." Colonel Carsten Kuritz murmured, holding up the binoculars: "This is the truth that the four Hanzhou warships wanted to escape here." Purpose."

"Send a signal to all the ships to stop besieging the Hanzhou warships. Let's... rush out!"

(End of this chapter)