On the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, about a hundred miles away from Macau, two huge fleets were heading towards each other and constantly approaching.

The Dutch thought their fleet was huge enough, and more than 200 warships gathered together to fight, which was quite rare in continental Europe.

How could they imagine that the fleet of the Ming Empire was more than ten times larger than them!

The commander of the Dutch Expeditionary Fleet Putmans is now standing on the flagship watchtower with great enthusiasm and dreaming.

He was the first to command such a huge fleet. Although most of the fleet were small sailboats of pirate Liu Xiang, there were as many as thirty tower ships and gunboats.

With so many building ships and gunboats, it is enough to destroy the navies of a country in the continent!

The Ming Empire is actually not strong, at least in his eyes, and even a pirate cannot be wiped out. How strong can the indigenous empire that has to rely on other pirates to help?

However, the pirate Zheng Zhilong was a little strong. This guy actually sneaked into the trap and took down their station in Formosa, and snatched away seven of their tower ships and gunboats. They really didn't expect this.

However, no matter how strong a pirate is, it is not much stronger. This guy only has seven tower ships and gunboats and more than twenty larger armed merchant ships. The others are small sampans, which are not worth mentioning at all.

As long as he defeated the pirate Zheng Zhilong, he could slowly force the Ming Empire to open coastal ports or even go ashore to grab the colonies directly. By then, he would make a fortune. You should know that the Ming Empire is a rich place full of gold. Not to mention how much gold is, just silk, porcelain, tea, etc., and he would just take a few ships to transport it to the continent. He would have endless wealth in his life!

He was dreaming that time, suddenly, a sharp whistle came from the mast.

Is this the enemy's fleet discovered?

He looked up and saw that the sentry on the mast was pointing in front of him and whistling hard.

Zheng Zhilong's fleet is right ahead?

He quickly raised his telescope and saw that there were indeed dense black dots on the sea in front of him.

However, the number of black spots is only two or three hundred.

Humph, even this amount of people dares to rush up to die!

He subconsciously snorted coldly with disdain.

However, when the black dots on the front gradually became clear, the disdain on his face instantly turned into a shock.

How is that possible?

There were more than fifty tower ship gunboats opposite, and there was a super giant in the middle that he had never seen before!

How could Zheng Zhilong have so many building ships and gunboats?

He was really shocked, and even he ignored the gunboats on the opposite side without sails.

However, at such a long distance, he could see a rough outline. It was really hard to see whether there was a sail or not.

Zhu Qizhe was also holding a telescope to observe the Dutch fleet.

However, there was no shock on his face, because the sentry he sent had already determined the location of the Dutch fleet, and he had already known the size and configuration of the Dutch fleet.

At this moment, the distance between the two sides was less than ten miles, and he could see clearly the figures on the local warship.

It's time to act.

He ordered without hesitation: "I ordered Qi Yuanfu and Qi Yuanbi to lead twenty-five tower ships to spread out from left to right and left and right for six miles, and lined up a long snake formation, and all the flagships and other wheel boats and warships stopped moving forward."

A wave of order flags, fifty tower ships and gunboats lined up in an instant, scattering from left to right, while the flagships and other wheel boats slowly stopped on the sea.

The twenty-five tower ships on both sides must be about six miles away from the middle, which is very important because this is a tactic he decided in advance.

Zhu Qizhuo personally raised the telescope with scales and Qi Yuanfu. Qi Yuanbi gestured and constantly determined the distance between the two sides.

At this time, the advantages of dedicated telescopes are reflected.

In fact, it is difficult to determine the distance between the two sides on the vast sea, at least at this time.

Because there is no satellite navigation and no radar ranging at this moment, everyone can basically rely on their naked eyes and experience to determine the distance between the two sides, and the error is generally more than 100 meters.

However, the telescope he invented can accurately measure the distance between the two parties.

The principle of telescope ranging is actually very simple. Just find a benchmark.

For example, the benchmark used for red vessels is the floor of the tower ship gunboat. The height of each floor of the tower ship gunboat is about eight feet. At the same magnification, if a floor occupies ten scales in the telescope and is one mile, then when the height of the floor is only five scales, it is five miles, and only one scale is ten miles.

Of course, the magnification of the telescope needs to be continuously adjusted, otherwise you will not be able to see what is far away. In this case, you have to compare the scales on the two barrels and the scales on the mirror to accurately judge the distance between the two parties.

In short, this method has a very high distance measurement accuracy, and the error generally does not exceed ten meters.

After Zhu Qizhuo, Qi Yuanfu and Qi Yuanbi determined the distance, he decisively ordered the two rows of ships and gunboats to maintain a straight line and attack forward!

When Putmans saw the enemy's actions, he immediately understood that he was about to rush up to the side and shoot volleys.

He quickly ordered, and sent an order to arrange all the building ships and gunboats, and all the other warships slowed down and stood on standby in the rear.

In the naval battles these days, the tower ship gunboats are invincible. Other warships are targets in front of the tower ship gunboats. Unless they have an absolute advantage in quantity, other warships will be bombarded into pieces if they rush to the tower ship gunboat range!

At this moment, the other warships under him had less than 200, and there was obviously no absolute numerical advantage in front of more than 50 tower ship gunboats. If you rushed forward, it was very likely that you could not withstand a round of side volleys.

Now, he can only hope for the thirty tower ship gunboats in his hand. In the next fight, as long as he can repel the opponent's fifty tower ship gunboats, he will definitely win this battle.

Originally, it was unlikely that thirty tower ship gunboats would repel fifty tower ship gunboats. After all, the tower ship gunboats were almost twice theirs. At this order of magnitude, it would be difficult to get a tie.

However, the commander on the opposite side seemed to have no cleverness and actually divided more than fifty tower ships and gunboats into two rows. This was a chance for him!

You should know that if the enemy surrounds the two sides, they can only volley the boats on one side, but they can volley the boats on both sides.

In other words, the current quantity comparison is about thirty to twenty-five!

It is really a bit unexpected that the commander on the opposite side would use such a stupid tactic.

A hint of surprise had just appeared on his face. The warships in front of both sides had already entered the range of the other side, and the enemy had already fired the fire first.

"Boom boom boom", a continuous loud noise suddenly echoed throughout the sea.

At this time, there was nothing to hesitate, just fire the gun and bomb.

Putmans ordered without hesitation: "Send the order, all the gunboats of the building ships fire in turn, with all firepower on both sides, and fire as long as the enemy enters the range!"
Chapter completed!