From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 830

Yoshida Kamehide's dozens of wooden boats are not without influence. Zhou Yuan could not have imagined that they would rather sacrifice their lives to block the muzzles of the guns with their hulls to buy time for McPherson's evacuation.

It is clearly a loose alliance that may part ways at any time due to interests, but at this moment, they are united in hatred of the enemy at the critical moment of life and death, which is incredible.

McPherson must have promised something! Otherwise, Yoshida Kamehide would not have put all his assets into it.

Yes! It is the technology of ship artillery manufacturing!

The island pirates have been coveting this for a long time!

These dozens of small wooden boats are indeed worth sacrificing.

Zhou Yuan figured out everything, but he could not deal with the dilemma for the time being. These dozens of small wooden boats blocked the front, and the six battleships had to knock them away, but after knocking them away, they would come again, and it would take time to fire the shells, which was really not worth delaying.

"Don't worry about it! The Leiden Navy is also buying time for us! All of you board and kill the island pirates!"

Zhou Yuan roared, and the Hengshi ship raised the general flag and sent out a flag signal.

Six battleships and two cruisers quickly boarded, and the soldiers of the Guangdong Navy rushed onto the wooden boats and fought with the island pirates.

The other side also had muskets, although they were old-fashioned, but they could kill people at such a close distance.

In theory, Zhou Yuan would never be able to board with them. He only needed to pull away and fire, or simply ram them, and he could also smash the other side.

But time is running out!

We must not let McPherson escape, otherwise everything will be in vain.

So they boarded, so the soldiers of the Guangdong Navy even ignored the other side's muskets, and took the casualties, and they had to solve the island pirates as quickly as possible.

Zhou Yuan did not board the ship to fight, he just stared at the burning sea.

Ding Yuan did come with ten large wooden boats, but the Dutch actually sent six cruisers, which was beyond Zhou Yuan's expectation again.

The Dutch did not want Dajin to have an easy life. This was a matter of position, which was within Zhou Yuan's expectation.

But Zhou Yuan could not have guessed that when sending four battleships to attack Zhangzhou, the Dutch could even send six cruisers to join the battle here. They were the largest combat power group on this ocean.

"Send flags!"

Zhou Yuan took a deep breath and said, "Tell the Dutch that Dajin and them have nothing to do with each other. Please don't interfere in this battle and make a fortune together in the future."

He stared at the six battleships coming at a rapid speed and saw that the other side also sent flags in response.

But Zhou Yuan could not understand, so he could only listen to his subordinates' reports.

"Marshal, the Dutch said they came only for peace, and they hope we will stop fighting and make peace, and jointly maintain the order of the sea."

Hearing this, Zhou Yuan was furious: "Fuck you! Our territorial waters, is it their turn to uphold justice and maintain order?"

"These Western beasts have been doing this kind of shit for generations, and they still have the nerve to talk about peace."

Zhou Yuan took a deep breath and said: "Send flags and tell the guinea pigs that we are willing to negotiate with McPherson on the Bozhou Island, and ask them to arrange it."

At this moment, the most important thing is to delay time, so that the soldiers of the Guangdong Navy can quickly clear the island pirates' wooden boats. As long as the battleships are free, they will not be afraid of the Dutch.

What's more, McPherson is not so easy to escape, and the Leiden Navy has been prepared.

Ten large wooden boats, six of which are almost empty, and even the small boats are put down, and they are heading towards McPherson's two battleships at full speed.

The Dutch had already seen that the situation was not right, and immediately launched a fierce attack on the Leiden Navy. For a time, the artillery fire was shocking.

How could the wooden boats withstand such a beating? After a round of artillery fire, the Leiden Navy was severely damaged.

Zhou Yuan gritted his teeth and watched all this, and his heart became more and more anxious.

The wooden boats of the Leiden Navy were loaded with a lot of gunpowder! If they were detonated, it would be over.

"Stop! Two large ships go to the east to cover and block the Dutch artillery fire!"

As the admiral of the Leiden Navy, Ding Yuan had rich experience in naval warfare. He immediately made a desperate decision to use the cost of two large ships to buy time for the six wooden boats carrying explosives.

The two large ships blocked the east side of the six wooden ships, and the hulls took the shells. After a round of bombardment, the two large ships were no longer wrapped in iron sheets and could no longer hold on, and slowly sank.

The soldiers on the ship immediately boarded the boat and prepared to escape, but they were hit by several shells. Dozens of people died or fell into the water.

"Go and save..."

Ding Yuan just spoke, but paused. He couldn't save them at this moment, otherwise he would pay a greater price.

He looked at this scene with red eyes and couldn't help but yelled: "Dutch! I will fight you sooner or later!"

Six large wooden boats carrying gunpowder also took advantage of this time to rush towards McPherson's warship.

McPherson had no way to avoid it, and knew something was wrong, so he immediatelyImmediately sent another two battleships to fire, actively meeting the large wooden ships of the Leiden Navy.

The artillery fire was dense, and the six large ships were forced to separate, but two of them still could not withstand the bombardment of the artillery fire. The explosives on the ship were directly detonated, and the entire ship was blown up. The people on the ship had no time to escape and all died.

McPherson was frightened and his face turned pale. With such a big explosion, how dare they let them get close!

But it was too late. The remaining four large ships finally collided with them, and the iron spikes on the side of the hull deeply penetrated into the iron sheets of the two battleships.

No matter how the battleships collided, they could not get rid of the wooden boats.

The soldiers on the ship ignited the explosives, jumped into the small boat and rowed away immediately.

A moment later, four earth-shaking loud noises spread all over the world.

The terrifying flames submerged the two battleships, blew up and ignited the entire battleship. Hundreds of people on the ship screamed and roared, but eventually sank to the bottom of the sea.

Seeing this scene, McPherson's eyes were bloodshot and he couldn't help but yelled: "Zhou Yuan! You will die! God will not spare a sinner like you!"

Two battleships! There are hundreds of people on each ship!

Countless supplies!

All gone! All dead!

McPherson's heart was broken, and he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Go! There is no time! Zhou Yuan has to free up his hands!"

He only knew to escape and that this was not the time for revenge.

But at the same time, the Dutch also responded. Their artillery fire was very dense. Not only did they destroy the two large wooden ships of the Leiden Navy, but they also aimed their guns at the navy soldiers who were returning in small boats.

Hundreds of guns fired at the same time!

Dozens of soldiers were buried in the ocean in the dense artillery bombardment.

Zhou Yuan clenched his fists, his eyes were red, and his face was distorted as he said, "Not yet! Haven't we killed all the island pirates yet!"

Dozens of island pirates' wooden boats had actually been almost cleared. The soldiers of the major ships killed all the island pirates on the wooden boats in a short period of time regardless of casualties.

The battleships were finally able to move, easily knocking the wooden boats away and heading straight for McPherson's last battleship.

But at the same time, the six Dutch cruisers also quickly approached.

They had just joined the battle not long ago, and they had sufficient ammunition reserves, the gun barrels were in good condition, and the hulls were not damaged. They were in a state of complete victory.

And Zhou Yuan's six battleships had already fired most of their ammunition reserves, the gun barrels were hot and smoking, the hulls were also damaged, and the sails had been replaced three or four times.

So even if there were six battleships, they would not have an advantage against the opponent's six cruisers.

And the Confidence Ship and the Self-reliance Ship had to stare at McPherson and did not dare to relax at all.

Xie Shidun and Ouyang Gong knew clearly that the ultimate goal of this battle was to completely annihilate McPherson.

Now McPherson only had one cruiser and one battleship left. Victory was at hand and must not be let go!

"No! Marshal!"

Nie Zairong was anxious and could not help but said, "The Hengyong ship can't hold on any longer. Marshal, order the Hengyong ship to withdraw!"

Zhou Yuan saw that the Hengyong ship was hit by the island pirates' wooden boat, which triggered the explosion of the gunpowder in the gun barrel in the cabin, so that the entire side was almost broken.

Although the carpenters were stepping up to repair it, this repair was of no use under such high-intensity combat.

If the Hengyong ship did not withdraw, it would probably sink.

The situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The suicide attacks of the island pirates and the sudden appearance of the Dutch put great pressure on the Guangdong Navy.

It was too difficult to eat the hard bone of McPherson.

Zhou Yuan gritted his teeth and said, "Send a signal to the Hengyong ship and ask them to temporarily withdraw to the Xiangshan County dock for repairs."