Traveling through the late Ming Dynasty to promote Chinese civilization

Chapter 240 The War Is Not Over

?

Putmans, having suffered a series of setbacks, knew in his heart that this defeat was enough to cost him his position as a high-ranking administrative official. Nearly ten years of hard work, climbing step by step from a lowly merchant to this position, was about to vanish into thin air. He was extremely unwilling to accept this, and his mentality was already somewhat unbalanced. He waved his fist and shouted loudly, "We can still fight! Fire! Those yellow-skinned monkeys won't last long..."

Van Bommel stared in astonishment at the nearly out-of-control Putmans, taking a few steps back: "Sir, you need to calm down. Our sailors can't hold on any longer; they want to get back to Zeelandia now..."

"No! Fire! Damn it, I'm the commander of this fleet, did you hear my order?" Putmans grabbed Van Bommel by the collar and yelled at him.

Van Bommel was fairly certain that, after such a severe setback, his commander was on the verge of a psychological breakdown, and his orders at this point could essentially be considered incoherent ramblings. He turned to his men and called out, "Guards, take Commander Putmans back to my captain's cabin; he needs to rest..."

Several burly soldiers came over and dragged away the flailing Putmans. Van Bommel straightened his collar and, on behalf of his superior, gave the order: "Abandon the fight, all personnel return to base!"

"Abandon the fight, all personnel return to port." This popular order was relayed to every armed merchant ship. The surviving captains and soldiers felt as if they had been granted a pardon, stopped firing, and fled towards Tainan without regard for anything else.

Despite the Qiongzhou fleet's relentless firing in an attempt to impede the Dutch, they could not stop their advance. Although a shell during the interception broke the mast of the "Baram," rendering the armed merchant ship powerless and captured, the remaining warships managed to break free of the battle and escape successfully.

Gao Jie looked regretfully in the direction the Dutch fleet had fled and shook his head. If the eight Wuyi-class warships had been there, he was very confident that he could have annihilated the enemy—the firepower and long-range capabilities of the Wuxiang-class patrol ships were still insufficient; after all, it was too much of a stretch to expect coastal patrol ships to perform the tasks of main warships.

At this point, the battle between Liu Xiang and the Zheng family also came to a conclusion.

After the Qiongzhou camp took over the battle against the Dutch, the Zheng family only needed to focus their efforts on Liu Xiang's family, and the situation immediately changed. What was initially a closely contested boarding action turned into a one-sided battle because the Zheng family had committed all their reserves, giving them a significant numerical advantage. Liu Xiang's side suffered a series of defeats. When they saw the Dutch fleeing in disarray, Liu Xiang's last remaining psychological support collapsed. "Even the 'big brother' has run away, what's the point of the 'little brother' fighting?"

The hand-to-hand combat quickly escalated into a chase at sea. Liu Xiang's fleet, all of which were still able to move, followed the Dutch, while all of Zheng's ships pursued desperately from behind. Because the head of the Zheng family had given a death order to take Liu Xiang's head, Liu Xiang's flagship, flying the "Liu" flag, became the most conspicuous target, and most of the pursuers kept their eyes fixed on it.

"I'll curse you!" Liu Xiang spat angrily when she saw the Zheng family chasing after her.