Chapter 649 What is the price? Is it worth it? (please book, please vote)

"The whole ship's right steer is fifteen!" Chen Yongsheng shouted at the brass soundtrack. The paddle wheel of the "Shunchang" made a harsh friction sound, and the hull drew a turbid arc on the tip of the waves. The seventeen-year-old lookout hand A Shui hugged the mast tightly, but his eyes were staring at the Dutch flagship. He saw the fire on the "Seven Provinces" gun window lit up one after another - that meant that the 68-pound gun had been loaded and was about to be launched.

"The distance is 2,200 meters!" A Shui's Minnan accent burst out his voice.

Chen Yongsheng was congested, and his Minnan accents made everyone's eardrums buzz: "Grandpa and grandma are watching in the sky! Loading bitter sour bombs! Killing the red-haired ghost's cannon cabin!"

Eight 70mm Armstrong rear-loaded guns and roared at the same time. The pointed 70mm shell flew towards the solid oak board of the Seven Provinces like a spear thrown by the God of Death. The oak board of the Oak board of the Seven Provinces was fragile in front of the two picy sour pointed bullets. If it weren't for the lack of delayed fuses and the picy sour was too sensitive, it exploded immediately when the shell hit the Seven Provinces board of the Seven Provinces. Let the two shells drill into the cannon cabin and then explode, then the Seven Provinces would have a fatal "indestruction"! But now, two large holes are indispensable.

The shock caused by the explosion of the two picy acid shells interfered with the aiming and shooting in the "Seven Provinces" gun cabin, and all the eight 68-pound cannons were silenced for a moment!

Lieutenant General Deville wanted to go to the power cabin to see the situation. When he staggered down the bridge, he saw the stained engineer climbing up from the bottom cabin: "General! The engine cabin lost pressure! The bitter acid burned through the steam pipe."

"Go and repair it!"

"Boom boom boom"

The lieutenant general's roar was flooded by a new round of artillery. Four Jianghai-class ships had seized the T-shaped position, and only 2,000 meters away from the "Seven Provinces", the 24-pound rifled gun began to join the chorus. The Dutch flagship, whose steam pipeline was damaged, became a living target at this moment, and one or two picy acid bombs drilled into the hull in each round of volleys. A Shui, who was standing at a high place, saw a shell hit the bridge of the "Seven Provinces", and the Dutch officers on the bridge were instantly engulfed by green fire.

"The distance is 1,800 meters!" A Shui, who could tell the distance by visual inspection, was trembling with excitement. At this distance, he could even see the sailor running in a panic on the deck of the Seven Provinces Soyuz - a blonde boy was cutting off the burning cable with a fire axe, crying while chopping, his face full of despair.

"Armstrong gun." Chen Yongsheng suddenly changed his order, "Aim at the deck personnel!"

The gunners were stunned for a moment. According to the regulations, expensive chorionic shells should be used to destroy enemy ships first. But soon they understood the general's intention - the 70mm cannon is not strong enough to hit the hull, so it's better to kill more Dutch people! The two Armstrong cannons on the "Shunchang" immediately changed the shooting angle, and the open-air deck of the Dutch flagship suddenly turned into a hell on earth. The blonde boy was penetrated by several pieces. While blood was sprinkled, the fire axe in his hand fell to the ground.

Lieutenant General Deville was also injured. He struggled to climb back to the bridge, but the burnt smell on the bridge made him almost disgusted. Through the toxic smoke, he saw four Chinese armed merchant ships lined up in a column, heading the shells fired by the seven Dutch warships on the other side, and smashed the bitter sour shells on his flagship "Seven Provinces".

"It must be, it must be hit!"

Lieutenant General's nails were cut into the oak floor, and he prayed silently to God in his heart.

The side of Prince William was finally loaded, and sixty-eight-pound shells rushed towards Shunchang with a scream.

"boom!"

The 68-pound pico acid bomb hit the foremast of Shunchang. Ah Shui was overturned by the air waves on the deck, and the scorching canvas fragments fell like rain. He struggled to get up and saw the first mate Hong Amao's one-eye turned into a bloody hole - half of the wood was inserted into the blind eye.

"Ashui." Hong Amao's hand tightly clamped the young man's clothes, "Tell the general." The Minnan dialect suddenly turned into blood foam overflowing from the corner of his mouth. This man from Borneo pirate kept charging until his death.

Chen Yongsheng struggled to get up from the back deck, and the burning sails roasted half of his face black. "Continue to load!" He pulled the stuck bolt with his bare hands, "After this round, we will abandon the ship, one ship will be replaced."

The earth-shaking explosion drowned the second half of the sentence. The ammunition depot of the Seven Provinces Soyuz was finally ignited, and three hundred picy acid shells tore the 2,000-ton wooden-shelled beast into pieces. Lieutenant General Deville's last memory was that he flew into the sky in the yellow-green fire.

"Hang the flagship flag!" Li Guofu's Hakka accent resounded throughout the Da Sanyuan. He saw the "Seven Provinces" being blown up, and also saw the "Shunchang" being engulfed by the fire. The crew jumped into the sea one after another. There were also many bitter sour shells stored on the "Shunchang". Such a big fire would be like an explosion sooner or later!

This Guangdong Hakka man was naked, and the wound on his chest was still bleeding. "The whole ship was full of rudder, breaking a bloody path for me!"

The three "Jianghai" class ships that could still fight on the sea were more or less damaged. Now, led by the "Big Sanyuan", they launched a desperate charge against the Netherlands' artillery fire. When the twenty-four-pound shells hit the stern of the ship, Li Guofu was personally directing two Armstrong guns to bombard the "Nedland". The huge air waves lifted him off the bulkhead, and the broken ribs pierced the lung lobes.

"A A Chang" he groped and grabbed the trouser legs of the first mate Chen Yongchang. The left arm of this brother of Chen Yongsheng's ancestral family had been cut off by the air waves, and he was now biting the tourniquet with his teeth and tied it to his remaining limbs.

"Take your brothers and go home." Li Guofu's pupils began to dissipate, and the palm garden of Borneo appeared before his eyes - the place where he grew up. Five years ago, he joined the Taiping Army of Luo Dagang in Borneo, vowing to exchange his life for his life and drive the Dutch out of Southeast Asia. Today he has fulfilled his vow.

Chen Yongchang spit out the blood foam from his mouth and raised the blood flag with his remaining right hand. Behind him, Lao Zhou, a cook soldier who was burned all over, rushed to the deck with a kitchen knife - the Dutch's 68-pound shells were chiseling through the hull, but every living Taiping army charged with the blood flag.

Major General Van Heimer stood on the bridge of the Netherlands, and the telescope in his hand trembled slightly. Three orange-red signal flares exploded in the sky in the northwest, which was a signal for help from the Van Howen fleet to encounter a strong enemy. His eyes wandered back and forth between the burning remains of the Seven-provincial Soyuz and the signal flares in the distance, and fine beads of sweat oozed out of his forehead.

"General, we" the adjutant's voice was hesitant.

Major General Heimer did not answer immediately, and his thoughts drifted back to the Waterloo battlefield forty years ago. At that time, he was a young lieutenant, serving in the British army as a volunteer soldier, and witnessed the destruction of the Napoleon Guards with his own eyes. Those veterans who had been fighting fell in pieces under the British artillery fire, and blood stained the wheat fields in Belgium red. That scene was deeply imprinted in his mind, making him understand the cruelty of war - life is not a number, but a living life.

"There are only three and two million people in the Netherlands." He murmured to himself, "There are only one and six million men, and there are nearly two thousand in Lieutenant General Huo Wen's formation."

The adjutant was stunned for a moment, and then understood the general's meaning. Losing two thousand people means losing one-two-five-thousand men in the country. This number is insignificant in front of China, which has a population of 450 million. But for the Netherlands, it is an unbearable price.

"Sentence," Major General Heimer finally made up his mind, "The whole fleet turns to rescue the sail fleet!"

"But general," the artillery chief could not help but interrupt, "the three Chinese armed merchant ships have been severely damaged."

"Let them go." Major General Heimer waved his hand tiredly, "I can't exchange the lives of two thousand Dutch people with the lives of two thousand Chinese people."

When the Netherlands began to turn, Major General Heimer took a last look at the blood flag rising from the Big Three Yuan. The scarlet flag roared in the sun, as if mocking his retreat. A terrible thought suddenly appeared in his mind: The Netherlands can no longer bear the price of maintaining the East Indies colony! Because the price of maintaining this rich colony will be the lives of countless Dutch people!

Sultan Agon XVII of Vandan stood on the top of the cliff, aiming the acrys sword in his hand at the direction of the Dutch fortress for the first time. Behind him, hundreds of indigenous warriors held their breath and watched the shocking changes on the Java Sea.

"His Majesty Sultan," the young prince Nara's voice trembled, "Is that the Dutch's ship burning?"

Agon XVII did not answer, his eyes stared at the huge fireball on the sea. The Soyuz of the Seven Provinces was slowly sinking, and the burning hull seemed to boil the surrounding sea water. The rising steam and black smoke intertwine into a picture of doomsday.

"Chiang Dynasty." An elderly warrior suddenly fell to his knees and shouted in a trembling voice, "It's the fleet of the Chiang Dynasty!"

More indigenous warriors knelt down, and they saw a scene that they would never forget for life: three burning Chinese armed merchant ships were chasing the Dutch steam fleet, and the scarlet battle flag was particularly eye-catching in the morning light.

"Free!" Agon XVII suddenly raised the Crystal Sword and shouted with all his strength.

"Free!" Hundreds of sounds responded at the same time, and the sound waves shocked the birds in the rain forest.

On the other side of the cliff, several Dutch colonial officials looked like earth. They had never seen the indigenous people so enthusiastic, and they did not expect that the Dutch fleet, known as the "sea coachman", would be so vulnerable to the Chinese.

"Hurry, go back to the fortress!" The head of the official trembled and ordered, "We must."

Before he could finish his words, a feather arrow penetrated his throat. Agon XVII put down his longbow and his eyes were as sharp as a torch: "Today, we are going to take back our land!"
Chapter completed!