"Tulip"

Captain Marco Van Nistroy watched the other party keep a distance carefully, and his teeth were itchy in his heart.

He is an old sea wolf with extremely rich experience. He is very clear about the advantages and disadvantages of both sides' weapons and knows that the possibility of the Tulip winning is slim, about less than 1/10.

The nine old-fashioned bore guns equipped on the deck of the "Tulip" sailboat are equipped with 60 years old. They can only fire solid bullets and shotguns. They can also fire chain bullets, flowering bullets and other types of bullets in naval battles. The ultimate firing speed is every two minutes.

Although the armored warship on the opposite side only has one German 239mm main gun and four Belgian 70mm secondary guns, at first glance, the number and caliber of the artillery are far inferior to the "Tulip", and the accounts cannot be calculated like this.

This is a product from two eras. The difference between the old-fashioned bore gun and the new-fashioned bore gun is almost the same as one in the world.

The German 239mm screw-type breech gun can fire three shells per minute. The firepower of one breech gun is comparable to that of six old-fashioned bore guns. Moreover, the shells are loaded with yellow gunpowder and explode when they land on the ground. The power is incomparable.

The main guns and secondary guns of the Iron Craft are all located at the bow, which allows the bow to exert the maximum firepower density without facing the enemy on the side of the ship, greatly reducing the area of ​​being bombed.

"May God bless the Netherlands..." Captain Marco Van Nistroy drew a cross on his chest devoutly, opened his eyes and shouted, "The deck cannon fire!"

A command

The eight deck cannons that were already ready roared angrily, and the flames flashed, and smoke rose. The "rumbling" cannons kept firing, shooting 8 black projectiles at the enemy.

Unfortunately, the distance is too far, and it is not possible to be accurate.

The four shells fired on the side of the ship on the upper side of the Tulip fell concentrated on the side of the Bald Head Goose. The closest distance was more than 400 yards, and four tall water columns were sputtered.

The Iron Armored Battleship on the other side is even longer, and the closest shells fired by the Tulip are about 750 yards away, which cannot pose any threat.

The purpose of taking the initiative was not to sink the enemy ship, but tore a hole in the opponent's encirclement and let the Tulip three-masted sailboat make a way out.

The sound of cannons was an order. The main guns of three armored warships roared one after another. Large groups of muzzle flames flashed, and the scorching projectiles came over.

This naval battle with huge power disparity has officially begun.

The shells fired by the Iron Crafts were extremely threatening. The closest one exploded at about 60 yards. The large splash of water poured onto the deck, knocking the two closest sailors to the ground, and pouring them all soaked.

"Rise the sail, steer 12 degrees left, and move forward."

Captain Marco Van Nistroy issued a loud order. Now it is the most dangerous moment for the Tulip. He must rush out of the Iron Craft's fire net and enter the depths of the bay, then turn around and rush out of the bay against the cover of the opponent's fierce artillery fire, escape from the heaven of birth.

The reason for this is that when the sailboat turns around at 180 degrees, it needs to operate the sail cable to turn to the windward direction. There is a process of completely stalling and accelerating, and at this time it will become a living target that moves slowly on the sea.

At this time, the battle flag was raised on the mast of the "Baldheaded Goose".

Four 70mm secondary cannons also roared one after another, "Bangbang..." poured over a large number of hot shells, instantly blew the "Tulip" into pieces, and the wood chips flew. The middle ones broke their bones and tendons and flesh flew everywhere.

The two ships "Haiyan" and "Hai Puffin" were not to be outdone. The main guns and deputy guns all roared, pouring out dense firepower, and using artillery fire to wash the Tulip.

Unlike the old-fashioned bore gun, the range of the Seagull-class frigate has a short range of 8.5 nautical miles and the range of 70 mm secondary gun is as high as 6.2 nautical miles.

Due to the limitations of the times, such a long limit range cannot guarantee the accuracy of shooting. Whether it can hit the target can only be blessed by God.

Generally speaking

The German-made 239mm main gun has a range of 5 nautical miles, and the shooting accuracy has increased sharply. Within the range of 2 to 3 nautical miles, a well-trained gun team can already ensure a very high hit rate, basically no less than 20%.

The "rumble" artillery battle broke the tranquility of the bay. A large number of residents emerged from Chayapura Town. Watching the battle in the bay in the evening at close range reflects the strong sense of participation and onlookers of the Chinese people. People cheered and excited for every hit of the "Tulip", which was like a grand festival.

After a moment of fierce battle

As he stumbled all the way into the depths of the bay, the "tulips" were no longer the same as before. The huge white sails were filled with black gun holes, and some sail tools had already burned, and thick black smoke and firelight came out.

The smooth-lined hull was broken, the deck was corpses in chaos, and blood stained the ship's deck. The tall front mast had been blown off and collapsed obliquely.

This is a unilateral murder. The Tulip's artillery fire cannot cause damage to the Iron Crafts, otherwise, it will not be the case.

Captain Marco Van Nistroy stood on the side of the wheel with red eyes. One of his left hand had been broken by the shells, drooped softly, and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Old Brown, turn, adjust the sails, let's rush out of the bay."

"Captain, surrender!" Old Brown smiled bitterly with difficulty, and vomited a mouthful of red blood in the captain's surprised eyes, and lay weakly on the steering wheel.

Behind him, a piece of sharp broken wood suddenly penetrated, and the blood dyed the entire back red.

"Hey, old guy, can you still hold on?" Marco Van Nistroy shouted.

"Don't struggle, Captain, we don't have enough people to adjust the sails. If you continue to fight, everyone will die here. I have lived enough. The young men are still young. You should take the living people back." Old Brown said this and coughed up a big mouthful of blood staining the wheel under him.

Marco Van Nistroy grabbed Old Brown's shoulder with his right hand and said unwillingly, "I haven't lost all my chips yet, will you help me... yes? Old Brown."

"Recognize the reality. This is already the territory of the British. No one can get it back. Hahaha..." Old Brown smiled twice and swallowed his last breath.

Looking around with a miserable expression

Marco Van Nistroy saw less than half of the sailors who could stand up, and the others were either dead or injured. He saw a look of fear in the sailor's eyes.

Dutch sailors have never been afraid of fighting, but the huge difference in weapons and equipment has formed a one-sided unilateral massacre, which is unacceptable to all sailors.

Marco Van Nistroy watched three armored warships slowly approaching, and the black hole muzzle would tear the Tulip into pieces at any time, leaving only one choice for him.

"Rise the white flag and we surrender."

The "Baldheaded Goose" warship

Seeing the "Tulip" raise the white flag, the officers and soldiers cheered from the bottom of their hearts, and Captain Li Jie couldn't help but smile. This was a victory without any suspense.

From the moment the Tulip entered the bay, it was doomed to fail.

The Dutch's tenacity left an extremely deep impression on Li Jie.

If it weren't for the huge difference in weapons and equipment, the Dutch would never give up easily in this small-scale naval battle and would swear to fight to the end.

If an ordinary civilian ship can do this, then the Dutch East Indies fleet will naturally be stronger and the will to fight is stronger. There is no doubt that it will be.

Today's world

The three-naeve mile territorial waters rule is generally followed, because in the early 19th century the coastal artillery had a relatively close range, only about three-naeve mile.

Entering this range is generally considered to invade territorial waters.

If the Tulip always hovered in the outer sea 8 to 10 nautical miles, Li Jie really couldn't do it.

Once the high-speed patrol ship chases out and both sides chase and flee for dozens of nautical miles, the Shangri-La water police district really has no right to crack down on the Tulip, detain or other actions.

Because it is an absolute high seas, even if the Earl of Queensland claims to have ownership of Shangri-La Island, its fleet cannot extend its law enforcement power to the high seas, which is almost the same as a robber.

If it is sunk, it will be a big trouble even after decades or hundreds of years, and once it breaks out, it will be a scandal.

The Tulip entered the bay differently. This is an invasion of the inner waters. The patrol fleet has the right to conduct temporary inspections, boarding and searching, arresting and sinking operations on it. As long as London recognizes the possession of the Earl of Queensland, all this is legal.

Of course, the Netherlands will protest strongly, but it will not do anything.

On the other hand, it will not work. The British merchant ships invaded the inner water area without authorization, showing strong hostility. No ship of any country can take action against it easily. This is the logic of the maritime overlord.

I can do this, you can't.

Justice and axiom are only within the range of the cannon. If you are weak, you will be bullied. It's that simple.

According to the prior plan;

The Shangri-La Water Police District Fleet boarded the three-masted sailboat "Tulip" caught and inspected it, sent the injured to the hospital, and the rest were detained and reviewed to find out whether it contained hostility.

In fact, this is an excuse to delay time, and you can fight for about 10 days to half a month.

A small battle that took place in the bay was quickly sent back to the Australian continent by telegram.

Red Fort

The short battle that took place on September 11 passed and was immediately transmitted to the Secretariat through a telegram and placed on Li Fushou's desk.

Although he had predicted it in his heart, Li Fushou still looked solemn when things came. This time point was earlier than expected, disrupting the original plan and he needed to make some plans.

Currently, the Shangri-La water police district has seized the Tulip, and the farmer Frank Sneider was found during the review, the father of two brothers, John and Davis, the Dutch white colonists. They died shortly after the review.

This matter ended up being a mess, and the biggest possibility was to be left alone.

Due to the backward transmission of information in today's era, the "Tulip" can be seized to obtain about 10 to 15 days.

Now, in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the UK, the first two of the four Seagull Type 2 ocean-going patrol ships ordered by the Queensland Coast Guard have been installed and delivered to the ship pickup team led by Geng Baogui on September 5. They are currently being tried in the waters near the UK.

According to the original plan, the trial voyage will be completed at the end of the month, and will set off for Australia, and will officially join the Shangri-La Water Police District Fleet at the end of October.

It seems that the plan is to be advanced, and Li Fushou drafted the first telegram order;

Geng Baogui was ordered to complete the trial voyage before September 20, and embark on September 21, and finally arrive at the Port of Chayapura via the Suez Canal and join the Shangri-La Water Police District Fleet Sequence.

The second batch of two ocean-going frigates have been launched and outfitted. According to the production plan, they will be outfitted in mid-October and will be officially delivered to the ship pickup team.

Considering that the British have always had the bad tradition of seizing warships between the two parties in the conflict and they will not return them after detaining them, Li Fushou drafted the second telegram;

The relevant parties were ordered to enter the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard immediately and hand over the ship in advance with huge cash rewards, so as to obtain the two subsequent ocean-going patrol ships before September 25.

After receiving the ship, he immediately left the British waters and went to Germany to complete the subsequent naval trial work at the German shipyard, and set sail and return early.

After review

Li Fushoucao drafted the third telegram, which will be submitted to the Duke of Victor through those who remained in London, and will act in accordance with the prior agreement between the two parties.

It was scheduled to be officially announced by the British Colonial Department on September 26, 1881 that the Earl of Queensland was the first to discover and possess Shangri-La Island (formerly known as Irian Island or Guinea Island) in January 1881 and had relevant rights.

This was something that had been agreed upon a long time. The specific announcement was controlled by the Earl of Queensland, and the consequences were also borne by the Earl of Queensland. The Duke of Victor was happy to see and promote the formation of a resolution that would be beneficial to the existing party.

After this incident, even if the favors accumulated by huge wealth were cleared, it would be difficult to get substantial help from the Duke in the future.

Li Fushou's decision to use the protective umbrella originally used in Australia in the Shangri-La Island incident after careful consideration;

If an internal war in Australia really occurs, the position of Duke Victor is unknown, and it is not uncommon to fight back.

The future is unpredictable, so it is more affordable.

Since you can buy the support of a Duke for 1.5 million pounds, you may not be able to buy the support of the second Duke, as long as you have strong strength and the capital to go to the trading stage.

Then seven telegrams were drafted, including those who urged the delivery of weapons and equipment, those who urged the construction of materials and related facilities, those who issued reserve troops training orders, those who arranged relevant personnel to go to the Kingdom of the Netherlands to collect first-hand information nearby, and those who urged Huitong Bank and major companies to tighten their capital positions...
Chapter completed!