Chapter 1507: I Surrender, I Am Glorious

To be fair, Zheng Jing's performance in the great naval battle of Jinmen Bay was basically a blind cat stumbling onto a dead rat. If he hadn't had several times the enemy's strength in hand, plus eight clipper fast-sail ships as such chaos-fighting weapons, this sea battle would most likely have been the end of his career!

But Zheng Jing's performance in the great naval battle of Jinmen Bay was not entirely worthless — he made exactly one right decision: "Shut the door and strike the ships," closing off the Jinmen Strait, the only way out!

Right now the ratio of forces inside Jinmen Bay was roughly three hundred-odd to fifty-odd. Zheng Jing's side held an overwhelming advantage, and the bay had already become a complete mess, with no real battle formation to speak of — it was just a chaotic melee. So the problem of the Eastern Ocean Fleet's confused command no longer existed either. It was simply many against few, six or seven ships surrounding and pounding one.

There was no real generational gap between the two sides' ships — the Ming ships might even have been a bit stronger and newer! The training levels on both sides were also about the same; the Ming navy's standard was basically a little inferior, but with the advantage in numbers, they could still wipe the enemy out to the last ship.

With such a huge advantage in hand, of course he was going to shut the door and strike the ships. As the nephew of the Great Ming's most favored Noble Consort Zheng, Zheng Jing understood all too well how the history books of the Great Ming were written these days — as long as he could win a great victory annihilating the enemy, from then on he would be the Great Ming's "Xu Wuning of the Seas," the "Chang Zhongwu of the Seas." After that, who would dare say he was inferior to Chen Shangchuan, inferior to Shi Lang, inferior to Liu Guoxuan!

"Turn right!"

Just as Zheng Jing was cheerfully deciding to shut the door and beat the dogs, Abraham Duquesne also made the most important decision of his life.

"Admiral, we should hold course and break through the Jinmen Strait!" Tourville beside him shouted in warning.

"We can't break out!" Abraham Duquesne shook his head again and again. "The Chinese clippers have already gotten ahead of us — their speed is too great, and they will certainly form a bombardment column before we can break out of the strait. That way, they'll occupy the T-position. Then we'll be sitting targets!

And the Jinmen fortress still has plenty of 12-pounder guns! The fire on the Lorraine can't be put out now — even if we could charge into the strait, we'd just become sitting targets all over again!"

The guns on the Jinmen fortress were shore batteries, and their accuracy was not something shipboard guns could match. Moreover, the strait they guarded was very narrow — less than one nautical mile wide. If the Lorraine passed through the middle of the strait, it would be less than 1,000 meters from the fortress battery — one could say right under the muzzles of their guns.

If the Lorraine hadn't been set alight, it wouldn't matter, but right now the Lorraine was a floating torch! If they still couldn't hit it, then the United Provinces' gunners would have to be blind.

The tycoon king's management ability was still very strong, and he himself was a professional military officer. Under his management, the ability of the United Provinces' army artillery was not weak at all! The dozen-plus 12-pounder cannons on the Jinmen fortress firing together, a few salvos, would surely land two or three hits on the Lorraine. Add to that those clippers blocking the door — even if the Lorraine wasn't sunk, it would be severely damaged, and it certainly couldn't escape.

Even more troublesome was that the Lorraine, in its exchange of fire with the "clipper wolf pack," had taken several more 12-pounder hits!

One of them had struck the gun deck again, and moreover set off two explosive shells and a good deal of propellant, turning gun bay No. 16 into a furnace. Jean Bart led the damage-control team in several charges but couldn't get in, and now they had no choice but to urgently evacuate the five gun bays around gun bay No. 16, throwing all the ammunition inside into the sea, and they had also sealed off several passageways near gun bay No. 16 with sandbags.

In other words, a massive explosion could happen at any moment!

Although the French warship designers had long considered this problem and limited the amount of ammunition and powder stored in each gun bay, so that a massive explosion in a single gun bay would not cripple the entire ship of the line,

a ship of the line would still be severely damaged by a massive magazine explosion, and it would also cause an even greater fire.

After this analysis, the experienced Abraham Duquesne had concluded that the Lorraine could not break out. The only way to hold on a little longer was to charge into Jinmen North Bay and link up with the Dutch fleet.

As Abraham Duquesne steered the Lorraine toward the entrance of Jinmen North Bay, the four Dutch provincial-class ships of the line and four Hague-class clipper warships he had earlier sent in were running out toward the northern outer entrance!

They had chased the United Provinces' eight "fu"-class ships of the line into Jinmen North Bay. After entering the north bay, the eight Dutch warships had become locked in combat with the eight "fu"-class ships of the line.

Although the United Provinces' "fu" class was slightly weaker than the Dutch provincial class, their firepower was far stronger than the Hague-class clippers!

So the two sides traded blows back and forth, and the fighting was quite lively. Before the Dutch discovered they had "fallen into the trap," the eight Dutch warships still held a slight upper hand — three "fu"-class ships had been turned into "fire ships," while on the Dutch side only one provincial-class and one Hague-class were burning bright red, looking thoroughly "ablaze" at a glance.

Just as the Dutch were preparing to go all out and avenge the Battle of Malacca, a great swarm of Ming warships suddenly surged out from behind them!

These Dutchmen all wondered whether they had come to the wrong place. Was this not Jinmen Bay, but Guangzhou Bay or Sasebo?

But why was the entire Ming navy here!

Knowing they couldn't win, the Dutch had no choice but to flee in a hurry. But the United Provinces' ships of the line that had just been pounded by them weren't having it — five not-too-badly-damaged ships of the line chased after the Dutch and hammered them hard from behind. But the Dutch ships were fast, and they gradually pulled away from their pursuers.

By the time the sky was beginning to lighten, the Dutch fleet had finally shaken off the pursuers to some distance, and they were almost slipping out of the bay's exit (the junction of the north bay and middle bay), when the Dutch saw the Lorraine, wreathed in flames, coming straight at them!

The Lorraine was the flagship, and a ship of the line belonging to their French big brothers. When the commander of the Dutch naval expeditionary fleet, David Jones, saw the Lorraine looking like it was done for, he hurriedly steered the Holland closer to attempt a rescue. But while they were still over a hundred yards away, the Lorraine let out a thunderous roar, and a colossal fireball suddenly erupted from the port side near the ship's waist!

It gave David Jones a terrible fright — thank God they were far enough away, otherwise the Holland would have been caught in the Lorraine's great explosion too!

Drenched in cold sweat, David Jones immediately shouted: "Quick, quick, quick — hard to starboard! We have to get farther from the Lorraine, it could explode again!"

But his chief of staff suddenly yelled: "General, the Lorraine is signaling us to come closer... the commander wants to transfer his flag!"

What? Such a huge explosion and it still didn't kill Admiral Duquesne? His luck really is incredible!

"Th-then, move in a little closer... and send a small boat over to bring the admiral across!"

Since Admiral Duquesne was still alive, David Jones couldn't just watch him die! After all, the man was a fleet commander... and from the look of things, he was soon going to sacrifice himself for God's cause — he ought at least to be given a chance to write a will or something.

Of course, David Jones had no intention of dying at his post like the French naval commander. He didn't really believe in God, and he was quite familiar with the people on the Ming side — even if he became a prisoner, he could continue to serve the interests of the Republic of the United Netherlands.

About half an hour later, Abraham Duquesne, utterly dejected, came aboard the Holland. Seeing David Jones, his first words were: "David, how are things on your end? Were you ambushed by those damned Chinese?"

"No... fortunately not. Only eight ships of the line — three of them heavily damaged, and the remaining five just following at a distance, not daring to close in."

"Good!" Admiral Duquesne breathed a sigh of relief, then turned his head to look back at Jinmen Middle Bay, where the fighting was still going on. The rumbling of cannon fire still came in waves, and in the distance one could see clusters of smoke columns rising straight into the clouds.

"Commander, what do we do now?" David Jones looked at Duquesne. "We can't break out, can we?"

"No!" Duquesne appeared very calm. "The strait is blockaded — they are too many, and we cannot break out. However, this combined fleet of ours has done its duty. We have fought for the glory of France, Holland, and Spain, and let the enemy know our resolve! Now..."

He suddenly paused, his expression extraordinarily solemn and tragic.

David Jones was getting scared just looking at him, his heart in his throat. Please don't say anything about fighting to the death!

Duquesne spoke slowly, one word at a time: "Now we will destroy the ships, and then surrender to them — honorably, and with dignity!"

(End of Chapter)