On the third day of December, it was summer in the Strait of Malacca. The scorching sun shone nakedly on the three steamships, making the sailors from Tianjin miserable.
These three steamships belonged to the First Fleet, and the commander on board at this time was Captain Shi Dingping.
This is a thin Tianjin man with bright little eyes. When he talks, his mustache twitches, and he looks like a master.
The first mate on the ship, Ma Zhiqiang, wiped his sweat and said to Shi Dingping: "Captain, this time we successfully purchased three shiploads of rubber tree gum from the natives of Brazil. We have made a great contribution. I don't know how the commander will reward us."
us?"
Shi Dingping tilted his head back, looked at the first officer with squinted eyes, and spat: "How to reward us? You are just a kid, can you still want to be a general soldier?"
Ma Zuqiang laughed loudly.
"You really have to wait if you want to be promoted." Shi Dingping sneered and spat: "To tell you the truth, this time the prince made six counts, but none of them got the turn of our navy commander Lu Hu."
Ma Zuiqiang was stunned and said: "Our navy has not been assigned a single earl title?"
Shi Dingping stroked his mustache helplessly and said, "Our navy has only fought a few battles and made few achievements."
Ma Zeqiang sighed, seeming to feel deeply helpless for Navy Commander Lu Huming.
But think about it, it is true that the Navy has fought less wars. The Army has fought many tough battles in the past years, and the four divisions are all iron troops that have experienced countless wars. In comparison, the Navy has only fought
Two or three battles are completely incomparable.
Being granted the title of earl depends on merit. Although the navy has a size of 20,000 people, under the light of the army, the navy's military exploits can only be said to be not dazzling enough.
The two were talking there when they suddenly heard a loud roar from the mast: "There is a battleship ahead!"
Shi Dingping was stunned for a moment, then raised his telescope and looked ahead.
On the left is the Malay Peninsula, and on the right is Sumatra. There are several tall European warships lying across the dozens of kilometers wide waterway in the middle of the Strait of Malacca.
One, two, three, three battleships in total.
Shi Dingping was carefully observing the battleship with a telescope when he heard the lookout on the mast shout loudly: "It's the Dutch!"
When Shi Dingping heard this, he smiled.
After hearing the lookout's report, the sailors and soldiers on the ship became a little nervous.
The task of the fleet to go to Brazil this time was to transport rubber, so they used unarmored steamers. On the opposite side were three European battleships, and here were three unarmored ships. I don’t know if they could win this fight. Ma Zhiqiang’s expression
He solemnly said to Shi Dingping: "Captain, let's withdraw. We won't go through the Strait of Malacca!"
Shi Dingping looked at Ma Cuiqiang and sneered. "Why don't you go to Malacca? It will take a ten-day detour!"
Ma Zuqiang was stunned and asked: "Are we going to fight a steamship against a battleship?"
Shi Dingping said coldly: "What our navy lacks is military exploits. Now that the military exploits are delivered to our door, you are trying to escape!"
Waving his sleeves, Shi Dingping shouted loudly: "Come forward, Hongyi's entire fleet was wiped out last time. It wasn't painful enough. This time, he will sink three of his battleships. Only then will he know how powerful our Tianjin King's artillery is."
Three steamers came up to meet the Dutch battleships.
The so-called enemies are extremely jealous when they meet. They don't need to say hello at all, and the two sides just open fire.
Each ship on the Dutch battleship has more than forty heavy guns, and the three ships have 67 heavy guns on the sides. The firepower is very fierce. At this time, the distance between the two sides is about 600 meters, and the Dutch can fire almost fifteen rounds.
Hit the steamer Shi Dingping once.
There was no iron armor on the outside of the steamship, and the hull was not thick. A Dutch cannonball would make a hole in it.
However, the Dutch used old-fashioned solid bullets. The destructive power of the solid bullets was limited. Although they punched a few holes in the ship, they did not cause decisive damage to the ship.
However, the rifled guns on steamships were completely different.
At this time, all steamships were equipped with twenty-four-pound front-loading rifled guns, which used conical shells with lead shells and steel cores. The rotating shells could easily tear through the dozens of centimeters thick hull of the battleship and destroy the battleship.
The twenty-pound warhead was sent into the interior of the battleship.
Every time the steamer fired a round of cannon fire, several sparks burst out from the battleship.
The battle quickly became "who can hold on first".
Shi Dingping stood at the highest point of the poop, looking at the battleships opposite with a sneer, and at the huge sparks blooming on the large European ships.
The battle was soon decided. The Dutch battleships were obviously more severely damaged by explosive bombs. After five or six rounds of shooting, the Dutch no longer dared to cross the Strait of Malacca, but headed towards their military port of Malacca.
Escape.
Shi Dingping laughed loudly, commanded three steamships to chase the Dutch, and fired the cannonballs at the stern of the Dutch ship one by one.
After chasing for seven or eight miles, when the Dutch were almost within range of the coastal defense artillery in Malacca Port, Shi Dingping's steamer actually sank the last Dutch battleship.
The battleship was hit by more than a dozen shells, a large hole was blasted below the waterline, and it gradually sank in the channel of Malacca Port.
The red hairs on the boat jumped into the water one after another, grabbing driftwood to escape the whirlpool of the sinking ship.
When the sailors on the steamer saw the enemy ship sinking, they were all excited and raised their fists and shouted "Wan Sheng".
Ma Zhiqiang made a rough count of the casualties and came up and said: "Captain, our casualties are very small. Only thirteen people were slightly injured, six were seriously injured, and two were shot dead."
Shi Dingping touched the mustache on his lips and laughed. He exhaled and said: "In this way, when the prince calls Commander Lu, he will also look high on our navy."
…
After finally escaping into the port, the Dutch captain looked ashen at the Ming Dynasty steamship showing off its power outside the Malacca port.
Unexpectedly, the Tianjin people equipped with new artillery were so powerful that steamships without iron armor could defeat the battleships of the Republic.
Suddenly the first mate on the ship ran up and said: "Captain, there is an unexploded cannonball in the cabin."
Cannonballs that didn’t explode? Ming people’s cannonballs!
The captain's eyes lit up, he pushed away the sailor in front and rushed into the cabin.
The cabin was hit by several explosive shells from the Ming Dynasty, and it was a mess. In the middle of the cabin, the gunners stood far away on the outside. The gunner on the ship squatted in the middle with a gunner, carefully observing a cannonball on the ground.
The Dutch captain walked up to the cannonball and squatted down.
"Captain, these are explosive bombs!"
After looking at it for a long time, the captain bravely stretched out his hand and touched the rifling scratches on the cannonball.
"The lead shell steel core turns out to be the same as the Formosa rifle bullet!"
