Chapter 501

The thought of turning back and fighting the Great Ming fleet to the death completely vanished.

His only option now was to try his best to escape, flee to Taiwan and Kinmen, and then rely on the fortifications and cannons built on Taiwan to hold off the pursuing Great Ming fleet.

Only in this way could he have a sliver of a chance at survival!

Of course, the premise was that he could escape!

It must be known that the main warships of the Great Ming Navy were now several degrees faster than the Dutch warships.

They were currently not very close to Taiwan, nor were they very far.

The only thing worrying them now was that with the Great Ming Navy pursuing so closely, how could they escape?

"General, the Great Ming people are pursuing too closely, and their ship speed is much faster than ours. If this continues, I estimate we will be caught before we even reach Taiwan!"

The first mate on the ship rushed in very anxiously and said.

Putmans naturally understood; what he worried about was the issue of ship speed.

Now it seemed the time had come to solve this problem!

With a heavy expression, Putmans said to the first mate: "Let everyone scatter and break out on their own!"

"Ah?"

The first mate was stunned for a moment.

He really found it hard to accept.

The Netherlands had already stood up in the Age of Great Navigation; in the past, although there were setbacks, or suppression by Spain and Portugal.

But there had never been such a crushing defeat, where being chased made one worry about not being able to run away.

The gap with what was in his heart was simply too great!

"What, do you have any other ideas?"

Putmans looked up and asked the first mate.

The first mate: "Uh... no, I will have them convey the order immediately."

"Go then; at that time, we will just leave it to fate!"

Putmans' current thought was to quickly run back to Taiwan, and then directly take a ship back to the Netherlands.

As for the war between the Dutch East India Company and the Great Ming people, he did not want to get involved.

He would rather be a wealthy recluse, or change locations and become a Viceroy, that would work too.

He was very clear-headed, knowing that for the Dutch to engage the Great Ming people was not that easy.

After the messenger conveyed the order using flag signals.

The remaining ships of the Dutch fleet immediately scattered in all directions to flee.

Zheng Zhilong also received the news immediately.

He did not waste time, directly ordering each warship to pursue freely.

Relying on the current advantage of the Great Ming warships, there was no need to worry about engaging the Dutch one-on-one.

All would be certain victories!

As for ambushes and such, there was even less need to worry.

After all, they were already very close to Taiwan; it could be said they would arrive in Taiwan within one or two hours.

It was simply right before their eyes!

Within such a distance, even if the Dutch wanted to set up some kind of ambush, it would not be easy.

By the time dusk was approaching, the Dutch fleet finally ran back to Taiwan.

However, only a dozen or so warships remained.

The others had been sunk by the Great Ming ships, or damaged and captured.

Conversely, the casualties of the Great Ming warships were not large; only seven warships were injured.

It could be said that this battle not only made the Dutch tremble with fear, but also decided that the ruler of the Far East Asian region belonged to the Great Ming.

It laid the foundation for the Great Ming's status as the absolute hegemon!

Although pirate gangs like Liu Xiang and Li Guozhu had fled, and the Dutch had temporarily retreated into Taiwan.

Zheng Zhilong did not intend to let them go.

He sent people back to report the victory on one hand, and on the other gathered the main force of the Navy, preparing to next recover Taiwan, encircle and annihilate the main force of the Dutch fleet, and rescue the captured Great Ming people.

Putmans escaping made him very unhappy.

Originally, he was very close to intercepting the flagship where Putmans was located.

Who knew that suddenly an obstacle appeared, with other Dutch ships appearing out of nowhere to save Putmans.

Otherwise, he absolutely could have captured the opponent!

"Everyone rest for one day, then attack Kinmen together; we must not let the Dutch red-haired devils escape!"

"General, rest assured, we subordinates will surely sweep away the enemy!"

"That's right, they definitely cannot escape!"

Su Qiao and the officials of Quanzhou Prefecture had not received any news these past two days.

War requires time, and transmitting battle reports at sea also requires time.

Even if one wanted to be fast, one could not speed it up!

Fortunately, everyone was full of confidence; let us just wait patiently.

Logistics and scheduling and such, Su Qiao had thrown to the Prefect Zhou Xun and others.

Aside from handling some trivial trifles each morning,

he spent the rest of the time resting inside the post station.

On this morning, the third day since Zheng Zhilong formally engaged the Dutch at sea, a fast rider finally brought news of victory.

"Mr. Su, there is news!"

"What news?"

Seeing the suppressed excitement on Ma Kui's face as he walked in quickly, Su Qiao had a vague guess in his heart.

"It is news of victory; we have won!"

Ma Kui said to Su Qiao, unable to wait.

Hearing this, Su Qiao finally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling very happy in his heart.

"Where is the battle report?"

"Here!"

"Where is the person who delivered the battle report?"

Su Qiao took the battle report, glanced at it first to confirm it was news of victory, then asked without raising his head.

Ma Kui hurriedly explained: "I already let him take the reward money and rest; he ran to several places in a row and was too tired."

"Good."

355, news of victory!

Now that everything was arranged, Su Qiao did not concern himself with it further.

He eagerly began to read the battle report.

The content on the battle report was substantial, after all, this was merit that would affect military rank and promotion later.

Naturally, it had to be written in more detail.

Furthermore, it had to be cross-checked with the subsequent military movement documents and the like.

Not a single point could be careless.

Su Qiao read the content on the battle report; first, Great Ming had won, and it was a thorough, satisfying great victory.

It was not the kind of victory from before where they inflicted slight losses on the enemy and the enemy fled, ending the matter.

Rather, it was a victory that directly annihilated the enemy's main force!

This absolutely met the expectations of both Su Qiao and Great Ming.

Because only by completely leveling the Dutch power in Asia could Great Ming's interests be guaranteed.

Su Qiao also roughly understood the specific details of the battle.