"Damn it! Where did these bastards come from? God will beat them to death." As the other party got closer, Zhang Tianshui could see through the telescope that they were a group of Westerners, but he didn't know which country they were from.
Tang Tong also looked at the situation through the telescope. This time, Tang Tong's trip to India was not very secretive. Because the power in Tang Tong's hands has grown greater recently, in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, no country's fleet dared to provoke them, so they were a little careless. When Tang Tong saw this situation, he realized that his group's itinerary had been leaked. Judging from the situation, the person who was secretly plotting against him wanted to destroy him in one fell swoop on the sea and divide his forces into four parts.
In fact, although Tang Tong had signed peace treaties with Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal, there were some conflicts of interest. As Tang Tong's power grew stronger and stronger, it was inevitable that it would expand its colonization outward, thus causing more conflicts with these Western colonial countries.
Tang Tong didn't care much about these Westerners, but from this situation, he figured out that there was a traitor in his sphere of influence who was colluding with the Westerners. This kind of traitor was something Tang Tong could not tolerate.
Zhang Tianshui was issuing orders on another warship. Since they were not far away, Tang Tong's ship could also hear the command. Bilian saw that all the crew members on the ship were busy and realized that something was wrong. She quietly approached Tang Tong and asked, "Master, is there something wrong?"
"Don't be afraid, they are just a group of pirates. Although they have many ships, they are far inferior to our warships. You should go back to the cabin first. It won't be long before Major Zhang will send these guys to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish." Tang Tong smiled and patted Bilian's shoulder, comforting her a few words. Faced with this situation, Tang Tong was not anxious at all.
Although the military factories under Tang Tong did not produce steam engines and generators that could be used for production, they had made many breakthroughs in weapons. Three months ago, they had produced a new generation of breech-loading guns with a range of nine kilometers, more than twice that of Western guns. With this advantage, the enemy fleet could only be beaten. Although only less than three hundred breech-loading guns had been produced so far, this time Tang Tong's flagship and Zhang Tianshui's fleet were all equipped with this new gun. Only then did Tang Tong dare to go to sea with only such a small number of people.
This was a top secret matter and not many people knew about it. Tang Tong estimated that the traitor was also unaware of this situation, otherwise the Westerners would not have dispatched only more than twenty warships this time.
Zhang Tianshui once again sent out flag signals to the enemy, but still received no response. At this time, they had entered a distance of more than a kilometer, and there were still a thousand guns away from the maximum range of the Westerners' artillery. Zhang Tianshui clearly saw through the telescope that the other side was also preparing to fire artillery shells. He laughed grimly and cursed: "This group of Western dogs who don't know how to live or die!"
Since you want to die, I will grant your wish and see if I can do it."
Tang Tong raised the telescope and scanned around, and found that there were actually Indian ships in it. He thought that it seemed that this time the Westerners had allied with the people of the Mughal Empire in India, but he didn't know which Western country was targeting him.
Seeing that the enemy still had no response, Zhang Tianshui finally ordered his men to fire. The accuracy of this breech-loading cannon was much greater than that of the Western cannon. In the first round of test firing, several shells landed on the enemy's shipboard. Dozens of corpses were blown up and fell into the sea, causing panic on the warships that were hit.
The second round of shells hit many more, with more than a dozen shells hitting one of the enemy ships. Several large holes were blown in succession, and as seawater poured in, the warship slowly sank. After the third round of shells, another damaged enemy ship was sunk. At this time, the enemy ship was only 4,000 meters away. Zhang Tianshui shouted: "Turn to the southeast."
Tang Tong's flagship had already retreated a distance when Zhang Tianshui ordered it to turn. Although this 900-ton battleship was large, its gun barrel was light, which did not affect its speed very much. It was even slightly faster than those Western warships, so it was not difficult to shake off the enemy. After Tang Tong's ship retreated to a safer distance, the artillery on the battleship began to fire at the enemy.
After three rounds of artillery fire, Tang Tong's flagship also sank an enemy warship, and then turned and sailed in the southeast direction. The six warships were always sailing outside the enemy's range, continuously pouring shells on the enemy's warships. After more than ten rounds of artillery fire, half of the enemy's warships had been lost. The enemy couldn't wait to fire several rounds of artillery shells, but they could only fall far into the sea. No shell could fall within a hundred meters of Zhang Tianshui and his warships.
Seeing that they could only take the beating, the first to flee were the Indian warships. Their ships were small and they had few cannons, and those cannons were very backward, even worse than the small copper cannons of the Ming Dynasty. They had long been frightened by the powerful breech-loading cannons of Zhang Tianshui and his men, and regretted coming to this troubled water. After losing six or seven warships on their side, several Indian small boats turned around and fled, which made the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Charleston, so angry that he wanted to turn the cannons around and shoot all the Indians.
Rear Admiral Charleson was the commander of the British fleet in India. Because Tang Tong's rapid expansion in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean had seriously infringed on the interests of the British, he joined forces with the Dutch and the Mughal Empire in India to attack Tang Tong's army stationed in India, preparing to launch a surprise attack on Zheng He's Xinzhou City, but unexpectedly encountered Tang Tong's troops.
In this era, there was no communication equipment, so it was difficult to ambush a fleet in the vast ocean. What's more, it was not easy for the news of Tang Tong's decision to send troops to India to be transmitted from Southeast Asia to India. If anyone wanted to ambush Tang Tong, there was no time for communication and preparation. Therefore, Tang Tong's initial idea was wrong, and this encounter was indeed accidental.
Britain originally wanted to join forces with Spain, Portugal and France to launch a surprise attack on Zheng He's Xinzhou City. However, Spain had a colony in Southeast Asia and was considered an old neighbor of Tang Tong. It was very clear about Tang Tong's strength and was also afraid of revenge from Tang Tong's subordinates. If that happened, the first to suffer would be the Spaniards.
Therefore, the Spaniards did not agree to cooperate with the British. In addition, the previous conflicts between the Spanish and the British were too deep, and they could not let go of this grudge for a while. The French only had three warships left, which they kept for escape. How could they dare to provoke Tang Tong and his men easily? The Portuguese were even smaller. They had been doing business with Tang Tong and his men honestly in the past few months, and they knew Tang Tong and his men very well. In the eyes of the Portuguese, the strength of Tang Tong's subordinates was simply a behemoth on the sea. Maybe the overall strength was much worse than that of Britain, but in this sea, it was the overlord. The Portuguese were unwilling to provoke the anger of Tang Tong and his men. That was not something their small Portugal could afford to provoke.
The Dutch team was led by veteran General Rejoice this time. If he had not met Tang Tong, he would have been a famous figure in history. In history, it was Rejoice who drove the Spaniards and the British out of Southeast Asia, allowing the Netherlands to almost dominate the interests of Southeast Asia for a period of time in the 17th century, and control the maritime foreign trade of Ming Dynasty, Japan, and later Qing Dynasty. His hands were stained with the blood of not only the people of Southeast Asia and Japan, but also the blood of many Han people. He was considered a heinous criminal among the colonists in history, but for the Dutch, he was a famous figure in history.
The Dutch colonial fleet in the Indian Ocean, led by Rejoice, had always had a deep hatred for Tang Tong. Although the Dutch signed a peace treaty with Tang Tong under pressure at one point, it was only to find an opportunity. Originally, the Dutch and the British were enemies on opposite sides, but because of the rise of Tang Tong, the British and the Dutch became sympathetic to each other. The colonial interests of both countries were severely infringed by Tang Tong, so it was natural for them to put aside their previous prejudices and join hands for the common interests at this time, and even bring the Mughal Empire of India into it.
This time, Leioz was determined to strike back hard at Tang Tong and his men. He mobilized ten warships and three thousand troops, and joined forces with the British's eleven warships and more than three thousand troops to launch a surprise attack on Zheng He's Xinzhou City. As for the tens of thousands of Mughal troops, the main force advanced by land, and only a small number of navy followed the British from the sea.
Leioz never dreamed that he would meet Tang Tong and his men at sea, and he never dreamed that Tang Tong and his men's artillery were so powerful that the Dutch and British could only be beaten. After losing four Dutch warships, Leioz's last courage disappeared. He had fought with Tang Tong and his men many times, and every time he was defeated miserably. He had long had a fear of Tang Tong and his men in his heart, and it finally broke out at this moment.
Leioz roared and ordered his men to withdraw from the battlefield, swearing in his heart that he would never fight with this group of Ming people again. This was not a battle, but being slaughtered by the enemy, a naked massacre.
Zhang Tianshui looked through his telescope and saw a second group of fleeing troops appearing in the enemy fleet. A hint of sneer flashed in his eyes. He put down the telescope and issued new orders to his men. (To be continued. If you want to know what happened next, please log in. There are more chapters. Support the author, support!)
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