open sea

Chapter 1506 Happy
The sea breeze from the North Sea mixed with the sea water hit the face, which was salty and greasy.

A battle has quietly started on the sea far from the island.

On the one hand of the battle is the fleet under Yang Ce's command. It is the beggars at sea in the past who are attacking him, and today's United Fleet of the Six Provinces of the Netherlands.

But the reason was not that Tang Xianzu, who was far away in London, imagined the Netherlands declaring war on Ming Dynasty, but because of Yang Ce's flagship, the Parachutist, floating off the coast of England.

The Parachutist is a good ship, the best ship that Yang Ce has snatched in his nearly ten-year pirate career. It was formerly the main battleship of the Spanish Gibraltar Fleet, and it was a standard Spanish galleon.

Huge in size, slow in movement, low in deck, wide in body and big in belly, only Spain has this kind of ship in Europe.

A fleet composed of the Admiral as the flagship, more than ten capital ships of similar bloodlines, and more than twenty armed merchant ships is swimming in the waters between England, France, and the Low Countries. Worry.

No one can recognize what the huge inscription on the sail is, not to mention that this fleet often has another fleet that actually flies the Spanish cross flag to go to sea to defend the offshore and plunder the merchant ships of all countries indiscriminately.

Among them, the one who is most worried about this is naturally the Union of the Six Northern Provinces of the Netherlands, that is, the Netherlands.

In order to confront them, the Netherlands also sent a fleet to protect the offshore and investigate the situation. The distance between the two sides is very close, and friction is inevitable, especially after the assassination of William the Silent.

Once a gun went off, several armed merchant ships from the Netherlands encountered a small Han fleet. They fought several times in three days. Finally, a lucky boat broke away from the team due to its mast being broken and was finally sunk.

The news was sent back to the port of Dover, and the furious Yang Ce assembled the Han army under his command and dispatched warships to pull up the troops.

Due to the fact that the port has not yet been assembled, it is impossible to launch an expedition with the whole army. More than [-] people were assembled, and seven large Galen, including the parachutist, and sixteen warships of various types roared into the rough North Sea, chasing after the nemesis. The Land Fleet.

His target is not only the Netherlands fleet, but also all merchant ships flying the Dutch tricolor flag. If he sees one, he will grab one, and if he can't grab it, he will sink and destroy it. In short, he will make the enemy pay the price.

They floated at sea for more than half a month, fighting every day, robbing and destroying ships, and never found any trace of the Dutch navy fleet.

Yang Ce once thought about going directly to the port of Amsterdam, but when he approached, he saw that the port was heavily guarded. After thinking about it, he thought it was difficult to get any benefits, so he only sent three boats ashore to ransack two fishing villages near the beach, and continued to make waves at sea.

He has only one purpose, to destroy the enemy fleet at sea.

Otherwise, once the attack on Hong Kong begins, the enemy's overseas fleet will return, and his men will be locked inside and outside the port to attack.

Things turned around in the early morning of No. 18 when Yang Ce went to sea.

It was just dawn, and on the route from the Netherlands to Denmark, Yang Ce, who was bumpy on the sea and half asleep in the middle of the night, received a report from the lookout that they encountered the Dutch navy escorting the merchant ship.

Those returning merchant ships carried huge timbers that could be seen at a glance, which was obviously extremely important to the Netherlands. Their escort fleet formed a battle formation as soon as they spotted Yang Ce's fleet, trying to intercept this unknown fleet in a mighty manner.

It is true that a battle formation has been formed, but this battle formation is more funny to Yang Ce.

At a rough glance, there are forty or fifty ships, even if Yang Ce climbed to the mast and held a telescope, he couldn't count how many enemies there are... Some ships are too small, and they may not even have guns; The formation is a two-column horizontal array.

Being blocked behind, he couldn't see clearly.

All I know is that this is the fleet of the Netherlands.

The Hanxi mixed fleet has only 23 warships, which are not dominant in terms of strength and numbers, and there is still time to avoid them.

However, the enemy's horizontal team gave Yang Ce a lot of confidence and the confidence to win.

The 23 warships were gradually divided into two columns on the sea, with full sails catching the wind and heading towards the Netherlands fleet at a faster speed.

At this time, even a fool could see that the people were not doing well, and the Dutch fleet that was approaching by the big horizontal team also adjusted their sails, and opened the bow guns of the horizontal team before the fleet of Yang Ce's fleet entered the range for the first time.

It looked scary.

But the practical effect... To be honest, Yang Ce knew why the Netherlands fought against Spain, 12 against [-], [-] killed and [-] enemies killed.

The stone-shooting cannon fired huge stone bullets, which landed between the two fleets, and the shells fired by the forged steel cannon hit the direction of the Hanxi United Fleet with great dispersion, and splashed energy when it fell into the sea. The spray as high as the figure of a ship.

They got nothing but the ridicule of Han pirates who manipulated the languages ​​of various countries.

The distance between the two sides is getting closer and closer, and the formation of the enemy fleet is becoming more and more clear to Yang Ce, who is standing on the top of the parachutist's mast and is holding the sail rope. There are few large enemy ships and many small ones. Come over and jump to help decide the victory.

This tactic is old Spain.

The sail rope was wrapped around Yang Ce's arm twice. Yang Ce, who was wearing a high-topped helmet, put away the binoculars, untied the wine bag from his waist and took two mouthfuls. He lowered his head and called to the sailors he knew on the deck, He threw the jug down, drew his waist knife and pointed it obliquely to the right.

The subordinate's wine bag missed the deck and fell to the deck, but the military order was very clear. For a while, the barefoot men with bare backs on the deck waved the flag and shouted one after another: "Turn right!"

With the strong wine in his mouth like a knife scratching his throat, Yang Ce let out a long breath as he faced the enemy fleet slowly approaching on the sea.

This battle happened at the right time. The merchant ships he discovered were obviously ships returning from importing timber from the northern islands. The Spanish Legion had told him that the Netherlands had a strong handicraft industry and could make everything, except for the lack of raw material.

As long as they can block them, nothing can be done in the Netherlands.

If the timber is transported back to Amsterdam, perhaps in a few months, there will be batches of small fleets appearing.

But if he intercepted those logs, it might be in Puzhou in Yigelan...Yang Ce knew that there was a shipyard in Puzhou, which used to belong to the Tudor royal navy, but now belongs to the Ming army.

Maybe in Puzhou, a shipbuilder can build him a big boat or two.

Even if it takes a year or two to build, he needs a big ship, bigger than a parachutist.

But today——Yang Ce turned his gaze to the bow of his ship, the four heavy and huge stone-shooting cannons.

They have been installed on the Parachutist for a long time, and they have never been opened. In order to be symmetrical with them, the stern of the Parachutist's ship is specially used for luggage.

Maybe today, when there are many enemy ships and they are lined up in a dense formation, four stone-shooting cannons can give him four times the happiness!

(End of this chapter)