Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 600: Battle of Batavia (Part )

The Dutch Governor of Batavia, Ruhansug, knew that the Zheng family was very powerful. Therefore, since the loss of his important officials, Ruhansug was worried that Batavia would be threatened. So, whenever he had the chance, he sought help from his homeland.

However, the Netherlands did not take this too seriously, or perhaps at that time, the Netherlands was already powerless to do anything about the distant Batavia.

More than 20 years ago, the Netherlands successfully gained independence from Spain and established the Dutch Republic. With its advanced navigation technology and powerful merchant fleet, the Netherlands quickly rose to become one of the most powerful maritime powers in Europe.

But at the same time, Britain had begun to strengthen its naval power in the late 16th century, which led to a fierce conflict between Britain's commercial interests and the interests of the Netherlands, especially in the competition for emerging markets. As Britain's maritime power grew, the competition between Britain and the Netherlands became increasingly fierce.

The Netherlands and Britain formed an irreconcilable contradiction in the competition for global trade, colonies and marine resources. The Netherlands occupied many important commercial routes with its powerful maritime trade network, while Britain hoped to challenge the hegemony of the Netherlands by establishing its own trade empire.

Therefore, only a few years after the First Anglo-Dutch War ended, the Netherlands had already had a premonition that the Second Anglo-Dutch War was not far away. At this critical moment, although Batavia was important, the Netherlands could no longer provide more help to Ruhansug.

Ruhansuige has just received a letter from a close friend in the country, asking him to stop asking for help from the country, because Ruhansuige's continuous request for help has made the Dutch Parliament think that he is incompetent. His close friend is worried that if he continues like this, it will only embarrass the bigwigs above, which will not be of any substantial help to Ruhansuige, but will damage his reputation.

Ru Hansuige felt helpless about this. The country had no idea about the situation in the East. They might still think that the Zheng family was just a group of pirates, and the Qian Dynasty was still a traditional land power that did not attach importance to the sea at all.

But at this point, Ru Hansuige could only hold on with all his might. After spending a large sum of money, Ru Hansuige recruited more than a hundred pirate ships. The number increased, but the discipline of these pirates was really poor. In just a few days, the crime rate in the port of Batavia and the city kept rising.

At this time, Ru Hansuige had a headache. He was listening to the sheriff's report that another robbery had occurred somewhere, and Ru Hansuige was about to say something.

At this moment, the alarm bell at the port rang, which made Ru Han Shuige shudder. He stood up quickly and hurried to the window. At the end of the foggy sea, there seemed to be a sail coming from north to south.

Ru Han Shuaige hurriedly pulled out the Qianji mirror from the table. He opened it and looked. What was displayed in the lens was a densely packed warship with masts like a forest and flags fluttering. A large number of ships had large flags with the word "Qian" hung on them.

Ru Hansuige's heart trembled, and his hands trembled as well. He shouted loudly: "It must be the Zheng family's ship. Everyone, set sail! Under the cover of the artillery, stop the Zheng family!"

The bells rang more and more rapidly, and one Dutch warship after another untied the ropes, hoisted the sails, and prepared to meet the enemy. The two sides were about to engage in a fierce naval battle in the waters outside the port of Batavia.

The Qian Dynasty's navy was powerful mainly because of the number of ships. Even the 32 newly built ships of the court were still inferior to the Dutch galleons in terms of naval quality.

Of course, the warships of the Qian Dynasty at this time were much stronger than those of the Ming Dynasty during the Battle of Liaoluo Bay decades ago.

Zheng Chenggong looked at the Dutch fleet with its sails raised through the telescope. The intelligence was accurate. The main fleet of the Dutch was indeed only these seventeen galleons. As for the more than one hundred pirate ships, Zheng Chenggong believed that they were just a mob and not worth mentioning.

The fact was just as Zheng Chenggong had expected. When Hansui ordered the fleet to resist the Qian Dynasty's navy under the cover of the coastal defense artillery, the main Dutch fleet naturally acted strictly in accordance with the governor's orders.

But it was different for that group of pirates. Seeing such a huge fleet of the Qian Dynasty, some pirates thought they could not defeat it, while others thought they could fight it. But almost most of the pirates believed that if they stubbornly defended the port they would be surrounded and beaten by the Qian Dynasty’s navy. They had to rush out. Only in this way, if they failed, they could still escape.

So, this group of pirates ignored Ru Hansui's strict orders and rushed towards the Qian Dynasty navy in their boats. In an instant, the sea was in chaos.

The pirates' ships rushed towards the Qian Dynasty navy in a disorderly manner. Some ships were extremely fast and took the lead, while others were old and had a hard time catching up from behind.

Zheng Chenggong laughed loudly when he saw this. Following the flag signals from the flagship, all the ships quickly adjusted their formations, turned their hulls sideways, and pointed their guns at the pirates.

Some of these pirate ships are equipped with more cannons, while others are equipped with fewer cannons, but the main method of combat of these pirate ships is still boarding, which is related to the needs of pirates.

After all, if they sank merchant ships with cannons, then all their efforts would be in vain. Pirates are after money, not necessarily to sink merchant ships.

Just as the pirates approached the artillery range, the artillery of the Qian Dynasty navy began to roar, and shells whizzed towards the pirate fleet.

For a moment, the sound of cannons was heard and the air was filled with smoke. Some pirate ships were directly hit, splashing a lot of wood chips. The pirates' artillery also fired one after another. The two sides fired back and forth, but the scale of the pirates' artillery was completely not on the same level as that of the Qian army.

Ru Hansuige was on a high place in the port, watching this scene and was so angry that he almost vomited blood. These pirates were indeed extremely undisciplined. They were quite powerful in one-on-one combat, but once a large-scale naval battle broke out, their lack of discipline would be greatly magnified.

The pirates who originally thought that they could break into the Qian army navy's defense line by relying on the chaos of the battle, only now realized the powerful firepower of the Qian army navy. However, they were already in a dilemma and could only continue the attack.

Some pirate ships tried to outflank the enemy, but the Qian army's warships were too large and covered too far on the sea, so some ships were hit by the Qian army's artillery while trying to outflank them.

After several rounds of bombardment, the pirates finally approached the Qian army warships. A larger pirate ship first rammed a medium-sized warship of the Qian Dynasty navy. The two ships collided with a loud dull noise, and the wooden planks of the hull broke and splashed.

The pirates shouted, threw ropes over, and then tried to jump onto the Qian Dynasty warship with sharp blades in hand to engage in close combat.

The naval soldiers of the Qian Dynasty held muskets in their hands and fired at the pirates who were climbing up the ship. The crackling sound of the muskets shot the pirates who were trying to board the ship into the sea one after another.