The land wind blew off the sea outside the port of Dunkirk, which was a headwind for the East Coast people who were sailing eastward. Therefore, the entire fleet immediately began to snatch the wind and turn, separating several French cruisers from the sea outside.

The tonnage of several French ships was not large, but it was obviously also the so-called "heavy ships" in the maritime statistics conducted by Colbert in 1664, that is, ships with tonnage of more than 100 tons. However, a 100-ton ship is still somewhat invisible compared to the 1,000-ton "August 10" class battleship. Therefore, after seeing the large fleet of the East Coast people, these ships immediately turned their rudders and sailed to the outside seas, trying to escape from the tracking of the East Coast people, but how could this be possible?

The East Coast fleet still turned slowly, with speeds only a little faster than the French, and seemed to be in a hurry. They even had the energy to look at the Dunkirk Fortress on the shore to see if there were any French warships that were not afraid of death rushed out to rescue their comrades, but unfortunately they did not - at least so far.

Major Jiang Yaohui is a person who likes to command battles on the front line, which has been reflected in many previous battles, and this time is no exception. The battleship "National Will" he was in charge will take the lead and complete the turn first. Then the sailors can pull up as much sail as they can. The whole ship sailed west with high speed in the strong wind, directly into the flank of the French.

The fleet flagships are like this, so the others naturally cannot fall behind. Except for some warships and auxiliary ships gathered on the coast of Dunkirk Harbor, cruising closely at the French in the port, the remaining nearly ten warships were divided into two groups, using their speed advantage to catch up with the French cruise ships, and successfully intercepted them on the coast one hour later.

"Boom! Boom!" The two bow cannons that chased the most advanced battleship "National Will" fired together. The two shells almost partially brushed over the deck of the last French cruiser, and then fell into the sea.

As the flagship fired its first gun today, many other ships were not willing to fall behind. They used their speed to chase them up, then lined up, and used side guns to ravage the stern and bow of the enemy ship. Even some impatient guys went around and directly bombarded the enemy's side guns with side guns, and then used powerful firepower - only more than ten guns of the French cruise ships - to smash the decks of the enemy ships one by one. While causing a large number of casualties, they also caused serious damage to the hull, which further reduced the possibility of the enemy's escape.

More than two hours later, a total of three French cruisers were destroyed and sunk one by one after being ravaged by many "strong men" of different levels. In fact, if these French ships were determined to fight against the East Coast people, although they would eventually be a word of death, they could also cause greater damage to the East Coast Navy. Unfortunately, these people were only concerned about escaping and could not escape before turning back to fight to the death, but lacked cooperation, and finally could only sank on the northern ocean in a depressed manner.

This performance of the French Navy also surprised Major Jiang Yaohui, who commanded the entire battle throughout the whole process. He felt that if the French Navy had this kind of quality and level, it would be really not very hard to fight and could go down. The only thing I worry about now is that the French always stayed in the Dunkirk Fortress and refused to fight, then the East Coast people would have no choice. After all, the East Coast people did not have the ability to fight Dunkirk, which had been built with huge sums of money for millions of Liver, and there was no need for the East Coast people to fulfill their obligation to send troops to Spain, rather than to fight for the Hidalgos, so it would be better to be at ease.

The demise of the three French cruisers caused a burst of exclamation from the French military and civilians watching the battle on the shore. The superb mobility, fierce firepower and excellent qualities of the warships on the east coast all surprised the French naval officers and soldiers who were staying in the Dunkirk Harbor. This was a combat power that was cultivated by years of training - well, at least a few serious drills every month - to cultivate. How could they be willing to spend so much money on the navy? Is this really worth it?

In the eyes of some senior French naval officers, the most precious wealth of the East Coast fleet is not those arrogant warships, but those officers and soldiers who are extremely skilled in manipulating sail cables, controlling navigation, and shooting cannons. These people should be professional soldiers, after years of training, can implement the will of the superiors well without distortion. They should also have been educated in other aspects, have a low level of knowledge, and are not afraid of death. When fighting, they can naturally squeeze the French Navy, which has evolved from fishermen for a short time, although the gap between their ships is also very big.

After witnessing this straightforward naval battle, the French Navy was even more determined to hide in its lair and serve as a fleet of existence. The envoy of King Louis XIV of France seemed to have conveyed the same order: On June 15, Louis Yan, who was marching from Lille to Brussels, ordered the navy not to go to war, and to preserve its strength. He might have considered not only the East Coast people, but also the Spain, the Netherlands, England and other countries, worried that once his naval seeds were all completed, who would rely on to drive the 65 heavy warships being built? Will it be too expensive to start training? That would be too high and the cycle would be too long, and Louis could not afford to wait, so it would be natural for this order to appear.

The French Navy was in a full disadvantage in this war due to the intervention of the East Coast people - for this reason they even had to give up the plan to transport supplies from sea to the South Netherlands, because they obviously lost control of the sea - but the French Army was really unstoppable and extremely relaxed in terms of the current situation.

It is said that since Louis personally led 35,000 people into the Southern Netherlands, the Kingdom of France has successively increased its troops here, and it has reached 55,000. As their opponent, the Kingdom of Spain, there are only 8,000 soldiers, and all of their defeated generals, and their morale is very low. Since the outbreak of the war, the French have easily occupied a series of towns such as Charleroy, Tournai, Kurtre, Duai, and Lille. Among them, Lille, a city that is said to have strong city defense, has only lasted for nine days under the siege of the French army. It makes people feel that this does not seem to be a war that is evenly matched, but an extremely comfortable spring outing.

The experienced general Vaubon was responsible for defending the occupied towns. His ability was unparalleled in this war. Louis's army could have sufficient supplies at every stop, and even the silverware for officers to eat. Artuva, Eno, Wallon, and Flanders were all controlled by the French army. The remaining troops of the Spaniards hid in the cities of Brussels and Mons and did not dare to attack, and almost gave up their control over other vast southern Netherlands regions.

Basically, it can be said that Louis's attack on the South Netherlands was almost over on the military level. What should he do next depends on Louis's own determination! It is said that Louis XIV was excited about easily occupying the South Netherlands, but was not satisfied because he felt that the Kingdom of Spain was too weak, so weak that he could take it at any time. Therefore, he was considering whether to expand the invasion of the Kingdom of Spain to seize more land and make his reputation more noble and arrogant among the courts of various countries.

The East Coast people were powerless to defeat the French army's victory on land. Their huge and elite fleet could not drive to the shore to attack the enemy's shelling. The Spanish had to take the blame on the land. Unless they could find allies, such as United Provinces, Austria, Sweden, England and other countries, but it seems that no one is available to help them at the moment, and Austria seems to have an ulterior motive for dividing the land of the Kingdom of Spain. This situation is simply terrible.

Major Jiang Yaohui has no time to pay attention to the troubles of the Spanish. What he is most concerned about now is how to mobilize the French fleet from the port of Dunkirk and then destroy it annihilatedly, breaking the backbone of the French navy in one battle, delaying their rise by ten or twenty years. Therefore, after seeing the French navy unable to stand, the East Coast fleet was struggling on the outer sea for a long time before, after demonstratively bombarding a few times, sailing westward along the land wind to Calais, an important commercial port on the northern coast of France, a wool distribution center, a textile input and output port, and a seafood input port.

The East Coast fleet moved to Calais was basically completed under the noses of the French. It was close to Dunkirk and could sail in a few hours with its wind. The French used their toes to guess what the East Coast people were going to do. Therefore, they were extremely anxious, but they could not do anything, because the king's order had just arrived, and they did not dare to attack against the order. Moreover, the tragic incident of the three cruise ships being quickly sunk by the East Coast people was still vivid in my mind, so they could only watch the East Coast fleet going west to ravage their coast.

Of course, the East Coast fleet did not foolishly attack Calais Port. The French were no longer able to do so, but the artillery of the coastal defense artillery was not vegetarian, which was enough to cause enough damage to the warships of the East Coast people. The strategy they implemented was as they did to the Portuguese, that is, to send faster and more flexible "Star" class light cruisers to plunder French merchant ships, fishing boats, "Solar" class, "Chara Island" class, "August 10" class and auxiliary ships formed the main artillery fleet to avoid France.

The main port with strict defenses was carried out on large-scale artillery bombardment of adjacent fishing villages, docks, and towns, focusing on destroying enemy buildings and killing people. Major Jiang Yaohui did not believe that under such a heavy slap in the face, the French could still bear it and continue to hide in Dunkirk Harbor to watch the show. Of course, if the French could really do this, then he could only say some admiration, and then sincerely "wish" these French cowards were torn apart by the angry people. The French had this tradition.

The Spanish temporary task force on the east coast blocked the Port of Calais and its surrounding areas. The shelling lasted for three days. After capturing four small French merchant ships and fishing boats, they also destroyed a large number of French coastal fishing villages and docks. The casualties were quite large, and the hatred was extremely serious.

On June 20, the East Coast Fleet continued to sail westward to the two large merchant ports of Dieppe and Le Havre, and broke into Dieppe, a port with weak defense in a sudden attack. Just as the British fleet led by Black had shelled the Port of Santa Cruz in Spain and the home port of the Barbary Pirates' nest, the East Coast Fleet aimed at several isolated small cannons inside and outside the Port of Dieppe, and after suffering a certain degree of damage, they all turned into silence.

After the fort was knocked off, Dieppe, a commercial port with ships traveling to and from the Caribbean for many years, became a peeled egg and could be eaten by the East Coast people at any time! In fact, they did not waste too much time. A large number of ships in Dieppe Port were devastatingly bombarded by the East Coast fleet. Unless the ship owner hung a white flag to express his surrender at the first time, he would have to be sunk.

In addition to ships, the warships on the east coast also baptized the dock with fierce artillery fire, destroying a French barracks, several cargo warehouses, and countless marina facilities. They even relied on their fierce artillery fire to send many naval officers and soldiers to the dock and moved some tobacco, sugar, dyes, wine, textiles, weapons and other goods stored there by the French. The rest was not left to the French, but burned directly with a fire.

The fire that soared into the sky was visible from a distance. Then, the angry French military and civilians rushed to the dock at the risk of being bombarded by the East Coast guns. After driving away the East Coast people who were still damaging fire, they hurriedly rescued the fire. Seeing this, the East Coast ships anchored in the port turned the bow and bombarded the city of Dieppe with fierce side guns. After leaving many bodies, the French military and civilians who came to put out the fire had to avoid them again.

After ravaging the port of Diep, on June 23, the Spanish temporary task force led by Major Jiang Yaohui rushed to the port of Le Havre again. Two French naval cruisers and a slightly larger heavy warship (the frigate of Boulogne) bravely met and had a heroic artillery battle with the main force of the East Coast Fleet. Unfortunately, they were all shot and sunk, which was the most popular French navy encountered by the East Coast people in recent times.

The port of Le Havre is similar to Dieppe. It is a big port on the northern coast of France. However, it is not mainly aimed at colonial trade, but involves more trade against the United Provinces and England, because it has a hinterland rich in resources and is known for exporting agricultural products all year round. Of course, as an excellent port and a city where merchants gather, Le Havre inevitably involves overseas colonial trade, but it is not as distinctive as Saint-Malo and Dieppe.

The East Coast fleet failed to break into the port of Le Havre. They were stubbornly blocked by the clearly-historical coastal defense fort near the estuary of the Seine River.

At the same time, the French in the upper reaches also prepared some fire attack ships, which made Major Jiang Yaohui give up his idea of ​​breaking into the port. However, they did not gain any gains. Three merchant ships that returned from overseas trade were captured by the East Coast fleet at the mouth of the Seine River. Then they slowly left with the entire fleet and sailed to the Port of Dover in the UK for supplies, and also dealt with the spoils. Of course, they had the intention of closely observing the French reactions.
Chapter completed!