About a thousand miles southwest of Dazhong, there is an island surrounded by corals.

This island and reef are the only thing that exposes the sea between Luzon, Dongfan and the southeastern coast of Daming. In the era without any navigation, this island and reef became the only reference for determining the location in the vast sea.

Therefore, almost all the waterways along the coast of East Fan, Japan and Daming will pass here.

There is no way, the vast sea is full of water. If you don’t pass through this only reference object that reveals the water surface, who knows whether your course is right?

If the course is slightly off, it will be hundreds or thousands of miles, and the width of the East Ban is only three or four hundred miles. In other words, if you don’t find a reference to determine your direction for a thousand miles, you may miss the East Ban and drive directly into the Pacific Ocean!

These days, the results of trekking at sea can be imagined. Therefore, the Dutch's waterway northward must also pass through this island and reef, which is the starting point of the three branches of the Dutch.

Originally, there were no ships staying in this island. After all, this was a coral reef exposed to the water. There was neither fresh water nor food. Staying here was purely a search for death.

However, it seems that several wheel boats have been staying in this island and reef these days. What's going on?

These wheel boats are sent by Zhu Qizhuo. They are not staying here forever, but are rotating. Every day, they will send two thrust cruise ships to this side, and there are basically no obstacles in the vast sea. The wheel boats can sail at full speed. It is more than a thousand miles away, and there is no problem to arrive within a day.

So, they have been rotating. Although the number of ships staying here every day is the same, they are not the same batch.

The only task of these sentry surveying ships is to determine the whereabouts of the Dutch fleet. Every day, they will send people to climb the highest island and reef, lie on it, and use high-magnitude telescopes to continuously scan the sea in the south.

The so-called hard work pays off. After more than ten days of rotation, the Dutch fleet finally appeared on the sea on the south side of the island and reef. The huge tower ships and gunboats could be distinguished even if they were more than ten miles away.

The Dutch naturally saw this island and reef. Although the area of ​​the coral reef here is not very large, the man-made tower ship gunboats are still incomparable. The largest coral reef here is more than a hundred times larger than the tower ship gunboats. Even if you look at it with your naked eyes, you can see a very big black spot from afar.

Of course, the Dutch also had telescopes, but their telescopes were incomparable to the special telescopes made by Zhuqiuzhuo.

At this moment, the whistleblower used special telescopes with high magnification. Although the clarity was not very high, the general human-shaped outline could be seen from a distance of more than ten miles, and the huge tower ship gunboats were naturally not to mention.

The Dutch's telescopes are not as high as that, so they can vaguely see a huge island and reef. As for the people lying on the island and reef, they cannot tell it.

After seeing the islands and reefs, they turned around and headed westward to the islands near Macau. As for what they were close to the islands and reefs, they had never thought about it. This was just a reference object to determine the direction of the waterway. There was neither food nor fresh water on it, so why did you go up?

The Dutch fleet had turned to the west, and their target was indeed Zhangzhou!

The four mail-sentenced survey ships were quickly divided into two groups and rushed towards the direction of Taishen and Macau.

One day later, the Taijiang Inland Sea was anchored on the flagship of the Dayuan Port, and a wave of order flags were waving. More than ten wheel boats next to them suddenly scattered like flowers of the heavenly girl. Soon, the fifty tower ships and more than two hundred wheel boats that were staying nearby gathered like rivers converging.

Zhu Qizhe raised his telescope and glanced around slightly, then waved without hesitation: "Go!"

The huge fleet quickly gathered into a long dragon, galloping westward.

The officials are more than 1,300 miles away from Macau, but the island is only more than 1,000 miles away from Macau. In addition, the time when the ships return to the port, they set out one day later than the Dutch. Can they still catch up with such a long distance?

If the Dutch fleet went all the way north, they would definitely not be able to catch up, because the sailing ships were not much slower than the most primitive ships under their command.

However, the Dutch turned the rudder and went west and the speed was not fast, because the ocean currents and directions were both north. In order not to deviate from the direction, they even had to deviate a little against the trend, so the speed was naturally much slower.

In less than two days, Zhu Qizhuo had led his fleet to an island near Macau and joined Zheng Zhilong's fleet. At this time, the Dutch fleet was more than 200 miles away from them.

If you fall behind, you will be beaten. This is the unchanging truth forever.

The European powers relied on their strong ships, powerful guns that were ahead of other indigenous countries for many years and bullied others unscrupulously, and opened up colonies all over the world. This time, as the overlord of the sea, the Netherlands seemed to have to taste the taste of being beaten if they were behind.

The weapons and equipment they were actually not much behind that of Zhu Qizhuo, but this gap was enough to affect the entire battle situation.

For example, a telescope.

The Dutch are not without telescopes, but the telescopes they use are not as high as theirs. To put it bluntly, they just see them as far as they can. This gap has left the Dutch still unaware of them.

For example, the tower ship and gunboat.

The Dutch also had tower ship gunboats, and the size and number of cannons were similar to that of thousands of materials. The only difference was that the Dutch were sailboats, while they were steamers.

This gap is actually nothing when it is smooth, because when it is smooth, the speed of the sailing boat is comparable to that of a simple steamer.

Of course, the problem lies in this smooth water. The power of the sailboat mainly comes from ocean currents and airflows, while the power of the steamer comes from steam engines, and there is no need for ocean currents and airflows. This allows the Zhuqiuzhu to quickly identify the exact location of the Dutch and gather superior forces first, waiting for the Dutch to crash into their encirclement.

For example, artillery.

Cannons were made first by the Dutch. Zhuqizi realized the role of this thing in naval warfare after seeing their cannons, and then followed them to build them. Logically speaking, the Dutch artillery should be a little more advanced than their artillery.

The problem is that the Dutch used the bore-loading mode, and gunpowder and shells were still separated, and the speed of loading ammunition could not be compared with them. This difference is enough to make the Dutch suffer a great loss when bombing.

The Dutch thought that the coalition forces of Zheng Zhilong and the Ming Empire were behind, but they didn't know that they were the ones who were really behind!

Therefore, they came over from thousands of miles, not to beat people, but to be beaten.
Chapter completed!