Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 355: Cannon Rain
"175 guns! Not counting the Ahat ship that entered the port earlier, the Red Hair's main fleet has 175 heavy guns on one side!" Miguel counted it twice to confirm that the number was correct.

"Pass on my order. All gunners must not leave the firing line even if they are slightly injured. Unless the gun carriage is destroyed or more than half of the gun crew members are lost and can no longer fire, they are not allowed to leave their positions without permission under any circumstances. Violators will be shot on the spot! Anyone who dies in battle or is injured while defending the artillery will be compensated ten times the standard..."

Lin Hai knew that the moment of life and death had come, and the VOC fleet was fully capable of destroying all the simple artillery forts in the open sea. Once they chose to do so, it would be an extremely difficult and tragic battle, even more so than the attack on the trenches by the Vanguard Division in Xiamen.

"Commander, I will go down the mountain and command in person!" Peter Kinnear, the director of the Artillery Department of the Navy Ministry, requested loudly. The artillery position at the foot of the mountain was undoubtedly much more dangerous than the round fort on the mountain, but most of the gunners of the Navy Ministry were trained by him personally, and he wanted to fight together with his students.

"Director Jin, you are the best gunner in the company. I need you to stick to your post." Lin Hai rejected the suggestion outright. He thought that the temporary artillery fort at the foot of the mountain would not be able to hold out. The last hope might only be in Zhenhai Fort...

The garrison officer of Zhenhai Fort was concurrently served by Jin Lu, and since Keelung Fort was the location of the Army Department's barracks, the garrison officer was Jiang Yu, an artillery sentry directly under the Army Department's Central Army.

Jiang Yu's troops did not participate in the garrison of the Army Department in Yilan this time. After all, the Army Department had delegated the field artillery to various bureaus. The artillery post directly under the Central Army was mainly responsible for sieges, and there was nothing to do in Yilan.

Lin Hai said to Viper again: "You go to Keelung Fort in person and pass the order, asking Jiang Yu to lead all the soldiers of the artillery post here immediately."

Jiang Yu's troops were originally selected from the navy gunners, and they had also been through the harsh military law of the Army Department. So Lin Hai planned to use them as reserve gunners for the artillery fort at the foot of the mountain, ready to replace the artillery group that could not continue firing due to heavy casualties.

Shibi heard this and said, "Boss, doesn't Keelung Castle need artillery? What if the enemy fleet rushes in directly?"

"They absolutely dare not come in!" Lin Hai replied flatly. He did not think that the VOC would have the courage to break in directly after learning the firepower intelligence in the port.

Moreover, even if they came in, they would not be able to form a parallel formation with the Laozha fleet in the waterway and could only be subjected to T-shaped concentrated fire. At the same time, they would have to face the crossfire of Tongpan Island like the Lioness.

In this way, although the VOC fleet has stronger firepower, it is still difficult to break the situation in a short period of time. At this time, the Navy Department can send fire ships to attack, not to mention annihilating the enemy fleet, at least half of the enemy ships can be left.

Therefore, the artillery of Keelung Fort remaining in the port is just icing on the cake, and now the artillery forts in the open sea need timely assistance...

Off the coast of Keelung Harbor, the VOC main fleet sailed from west to east. The senior officers of the fleet personally saw the deployment of the Huiyou Company. Carpentier asked William Janssen, "William, what do you think?"

"Yoris's opinion is indeed feasible. The enemy's artillery positions are distributed on two small islands, so we can defeat them one by one, or just attack one of the islands. In this way, the fleet will face much less firepower at the same time..." Yang Sen's words drew unanimous agreement from everyone. Part of Huiyou Company's artillery positions are on Sheliao Island, and the other part is on Tongpan Island. There is also a small Jilong Island between the two islands.

Moreover, the coastlines of Sheliao Island and Tongpan Island facing overseas are not parallel, but there is a certain angle between them, which means that when the fleet engages in artillery battle with one of the islands, it can avoid the firepower of the other island.

When Captain Joris of the Hendrick heard that Jansen also agreed with his opinion, he immediately urged Carpentier, "Commander, give the order quickly."

"I haven't finished yet..." Yang Sen continued, "It shouldn't be a problem for us to clear the enemy's artillery, but I'm afraid we will have to pay a lot of casualties. Using the fleet and shore-based firepower to fight an artillery battle is always a bit uneconomical. In order to minimize casualties, we can also choose to blockade Keelung Port and launch an attack from Tamsui after our allies arrive. It's up to you, the commander, to decide."

"The attack from Tamsui is mainly based on land warfare. The fleet has come all the way here, but in the end, I'm afraid there will be no chance to fight the enemy... Therefore, I decided to take Keelung Port first!"

Carpentier felt that Janssen was too conservative, so he immediately decided on a general strategy and then asked, "So, which island should we attack?" "Attack the big island in the east, as the commanding heights on the island are higher." Anduan Anthony proposed to attack Sheliao Island, and this opinion was undoubtedly correct.

In the Battle of Keelung between the Dutch and the French in 1642 and the Battle of Keelung between the Qing and the French in 1884, the attacking side first captured Sheliao Island, and then entered garbage time after occupying the commanding heights.

In 1666, Zheng Jing sent troops to attack Keelung, but the Zheng army chose to attack Tongpan Island first. After taking it, they had to engage in a firefight with the commanding heights on Sheliao Island, and ultimately failed to achieve victory...

After the VOC's attack direction was determined, Carpentier ordered the fleet to turn around. The vanguard fleet led by Li Kuiqi was divided into two teams, guarding the periphery of the waterways on both sides of Keelung Port to prevent the other side from sending fireboats to launch a surprise attack during the artillery battle.

The nine main battleships were lined up in a column, with only sails on the foremast and mainmast of each ship, and sailed towards the sea outside Keelung Port again with the crosswind. But this time they were closer, only about a mile from the coastline of Sheliao Island, and both sides were within each other's effective range.

"Open fire!" Behind the easternmost artillery position on the northern shore of Sheliao Island, the artillery commander took the lead in giving the order to open fire. The Sheliao Island artillery position, which had been silent until then, spewed out the first tongue of fire of the day. The Keelung artillery battle officially started at this moment, which happened to be noon of that day.

As the VOC fleet continued to move forward, the rumbling sound of artillery continued to ring out, and gunners on both sides fired their first shots one after another, and thick smoke filled the sea.

In this round of fire, the Friends Company had an absolute advantage. Although the number of artillery was seriously inferior, the land base provided good aiming conditions. On the other hand, the VOC ship was not only shaking but also moving forward, so the hit rate was horribly low.

However, this round of VOC's shooting was mainly for covering purposes, and they didn't expect to cause much damage at all. Many experienced gun crews simply didn't open fire...

A small number of the nine main battleships of the VOC were damaged, especially the leading flagship Hendrix, which received the most shots and was hit hard by two shells, killing six or seven sailors on the open deck.

Carpentier remained unmoved. A 1400-ton double-deck ship like the Hendrix would have to be hit by at least several hundred solid bullets before it would be completely paralyzed.

He was standing on the poop deck in his brightly coloured outfit, the highest point on the ship besides the mast, and the main attraction was an eye-catcher.

Even after the perfect flag language was developed in later generations, it was still difficult to conduct efficient on-the-spot command in naval operations, and each ship mainly acted according to pre-war instructions. Therefore, there was not much the fleet commander could do after the battle started. His main job was to serve as a morale-boosting flag so that as many of his own soldiers as possible could see him.

Because of this, the mortality rate of senior naval officers was often very high, and many of them died from enemy musket attacks because artillery could not aim at individuals.

The VOC fleet was one mile away from the artillery forts on She Lao Island, almost twice the distance of later sailing warships' firing, and far beyond the effective range of muskets, so the danger faced by Carpentier at this time was no greater than that faced by anyone else in the fleet.

He stood motionless on the poop deck of the flagship, watching without saying a word as the fleet dropped anchor and furled sails in accordance with pre-war training, and then began a new round of salvos.

This time, almost all the heavy guns on the port side of the nine warships of the fleet opened fire. The dense gunfire was like a plate of firecrackers, and the shells flew towards Sheliao Island like raindrops...

(End of this chapter)