Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 469 The Pirate's Killing Battle

Zheng Wenxian took hundreds of people to Siam to pick up the boat, so it is impossible not to spread such a big news.Mo Guanfu had inquired about the boat that Zheng Wenxian and the others were on in advance, and asked his subordinates to pretend to be fishermen to monitor the Qizhou Islands, Damen, Xiaomen, Fuguo and other islands.

Hundreds of people took two boats from the Pearl River Estuary to Siam. They must need supplies on the way, and considering the route, Zheng Wenxian and the others must go close to Huangsha and Wanli Changsha, so news came back to Chen In the ears of Tianbao and Mo Guanfu.

Since the collapse of the Zheng Group in the Qing Dynasty, piracy activities along the coast of China have not been scaled up. Generally, the most common method they use is "stepping and fighting", which is what Xu Dayong and Wang Changsheng did before.

The specific method is to gather three to five people, at most seven or eight people, to lurk in the port. When they see a small boat docking, they will suddenly launch, armed and forcibly board the boat, threatening the sailors to go to sea.When they encountered a large fishing boat, they pretended to buy fish, and when the two boats met, they climbed up to grab the boat and seize the goods.As for the people on the fishing boat, they will also be coerced into joining the gang, and the situation will get bigger and bigger.

This method is to bully those fishing boats, and it is difficult for large merchant ships to rob.And the patrol boats that encountered officers and soldiers were basically killed.

Speaking of it, the Xishan Ruan Dynasty was the main culprit for the rampant pirates along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong after the middle of the Qing Dynasty.In addition to lure, coercion, and titles, the pirates also learned sea warfare and organizational methods from the Xishan Army, and obtained cannons and other weapons.In history, it was not the encirclement and suppression policy of the Qing Dynasty that finally changed the fate of Fujian and Guangdong pirates, but the military defeat of the Xishan regime.

At this time, the safe haven provided by the Xishan regime for pirates was located in Jiangping, Wanning Prefecture, Quang Ngai Province. The waterways here are narrow and far away from Hue, the capital of Annan. Since the Ming Dynasty, it has been a paradise for pirate activities.

After careful consideration, after discussing with Chen Tianbao, Mo Guanfu and Chen Tianbao led more than 2000 pirates with more than 50 large and small ships. They set off from Jiangping and arrived near Dazhan Island, east of Dazhanxunkou, Yanfu County, Guangnan. .The location he chose to do it was Ganquan Island in the Xisha Islands to the west.

Since it is called Ganquan, as the name suggests, there is fresh water on the island, and passing ships usually resupply here.

On the official map of the Qing court, whether it is the Xisha, Zhongsha or Nansha Islands, they are all called "Qizhou Ocean"; while on the official map of Annan, they are called Huangsha and Wanli Changsha.

Mo Guanfu chose to act here after careful consideration.

First of all, Qizhou Ocean is located at the hub of the North-South Channel, and all ships going north must pass through here.This year's tea trade season has not yet started, and merchant ships from various countries in Nanyang will pass by in about two or three months. Therefore, there are very few merchant ships passing by on Qizhou Ocean, and their actions are not attracting attention.

The second reason is that it is more than 500 miles away from the Yazhou Xie Navy Camp. With their few broken ships, even if something happens, they will not be able to react in time.Even if they collide, the Qing army may not be able to take care of pirates fighting pirates.

The last one is that he feels that he has the support of the Xishan court, even if he bumps into the legendary big iron boat.

Therefore, vision and knowledge determine a person's pattern, and for Mo Guanfu and his pirates, it is also a "poor man becomes rich" mentality.

"Brother Mo, Zheng Yi and his fleet have just passed the gate, and they will arrive at Ganquan Island in about four days."

"Wen Geng," Mo Guanfu looked at the young man in front of him who reported to him, and said in a deep voice, "Did they recruit people from Siam?"

"No! I have been sending people to watch at the pier before, and I have inquired about it. There are 500 people in total."

Mo Guanfu nodded, recruiting people is not something that can be done in a day or two, since Zheng Yi and the others didn't recruit people after they landed, it means that they have no such plan.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work. Reward!" As soon as he finished his sentence, a guy who looked like a teacher next to him handed the young man two ten taels of silver ingots.

The young man showed excitement, and just as he put the silver ingot into his bosom, Mo Guanfu said again: "Wen Geng, after this battle, I will report to Brother Chen and divide you into two black scorpions for you to buy." An official position of a thousand generals."

"Thank you, Brother Mo, no, Zongbing Mo!"

"Alright." Mo Guanfu smiled and stepped forward to help the young man up.Then he turned around and said to Wu Shida, Wushi Er, Da Pao Belly and others beside him: "Brothers, remember, our goal this time is to capture those ten red-headed boats. Let the little thief Zheng go."

The leader, Wushi Daman, replied indifferently: "Brother Mo, don't worry. We have a lot of people and boats, and that boy Zheng Yi can't escape our Wuzhi Mountain..."

Mo Guanfu nodded in praise and said: "Brother Mai's words are good! Everyone must remember that when the beacon fire of Qiancai Island was ignited, they saw my flag and acted. Although they are new ships and their speed is faster than ours, we just need to block them If they take the route of fleeing north and seize the upper wind, and destroy their sails with cannons, things will be easy. After their speed slows down, they will help them seize the ship."

"I will follow Brother Mo's orders!"

"That's the case, then please go back to the boat and prepare separately, and set off tomorrow!"

Four days later in the morning, a fleet of ten Guangzhou boats and two black boats sailed towards Ganquan Island. It was the fleet led by Zheng Wenxian.

On the leading Guangzhou boat, Lin Daosheng looked at Ganquan Island in front of him, and said excitedly: "Brother Yi, I'm finally back. After passing here, we should go home."

Zheng Wenxian laughed and said, "I still have to go home to pick up your sister-in-law. I'm really worried about leaving her here alone."

"Is the old gang leader going too?"

"My father," Zheng Wenxian shook his head and smiled wryly.His father, Zheng Lianchang, had given up the idea of ​​going north with his son since he heard that there was no brothel in Beihai Town.How nice Guangzhou is, he hasn't had enough of the flower boats outside the Youlan Gate.

During the chat, the fleet sailed past the west side of Qiancai Island, and saw two small fishing boats parked on the shore of Qiancai Island.Zheng Yi raised his binoculars and saw someone bowing his head to salvage seafood on the reef.Because there are often fishermen fishing in small boats nearby, the people on each boat don't care.

Ganquan Island is not big, with a length of 700 meters from north to south and only 500 meters from east to west. However, among the many islands in Xisha, only the water in the well here is sweet, which lasts all year round and has no bitter taste.Therefore, in addition to a few wooden houses built by fishermen for shelter from the wind, there are also a few dilapidated small temples built with coral stones.

The sun in the South China Sea is really harsh. If you stay in the sun for a long time, your skin will burn and you will have to replenish a lot of fresh water.

After the fleet anchored outside the reef area, a dozen short mooring boats were lowered from the deck and sailed to the island with sailors and empty wooden barrels filled with water.Because of the hot weather, there were not many people on the decks of the ships, and many people took advantage of this gap to take a nap in the shade, even Zheng Yi and Lin Daosheng were no exception.

At this moment, the sea breeze was gentle and the blue waves were thousands of miles away. The mast swayed slightly with the waves, making a soft creaking sound.

Suddenly, on the sea reef of Facai Island in the south, someone raised a bonfire. After the fire grew stronger, the person piled a large pile of Artemisia argyi on the fire, and the smoke billowed straight into the sky. .

The sailors sitting in the watchtower of the Guangzhou ship built a tent with their hands. After seeing the situation in the south, they hurriedly rang the gong in their hands.Everyone on board was awakened immediately.Zheng Wenxian looked through the binoculars, knowing that the situation was not good, thinking that those people on the reef of Facai Island just now were not fishermen at all.

He immediately shouted to the sailors in the watchtower: "Hang up the red flag, and call back the person who fetched the water!"

The sailor listened, and quickly took out a red pennant from his arms, and tied it to the top of the mast in the lookout.As the red flag was hoisted, all the ships in the fleet understood that this was an alarm signal, so all the red pennants were hoisted.

At this time, the sailors on the shore of Ganquan Island saw the warning and ran towards the well to call for someone.

The thick smoke in the south rose higher and higher, and before the sailors fetching water came out of the woods, Zheng Wenxian heard the sailors in the battle shout: "There are sails in the north!"

With a huff, everyone on the deck rushed to the bow of the ship, and under the sunlight above their heads, they saw a group of black spots suddenly appearing on the sea ten miles to the north.Zheng Wenxian hastily raised the binoculars in his hand to look, and the black dots in his field of vision could already be seen to be dozens of ships of all sizes, all sailing towards him at full speed with full sails.

"Oops! There's an ambush!" Shocked in his heart, he turned his head to look at Ganquan Island, only to see dozens of sailors rushing out of the woods and rushing towards the boat, and everyone on the deck clasped their hands towards the sailors. call out.

"Hurry up! Hurry up!"

The black spot was getting closer and closer, and after a while, the shape of the hull was already clearly discernible in the telescope.In the field of vision of the binoculars, I saw a red flag waving in the wind on the top of the mainmast of the leading ship, with the words "Mo, Commander-in-Chief of the Shandao Way" written on it.

"Fuck your old mother! It's Mo Guanfu!" Zheng Wenxian gritted his teeth in hatred, knowing that he was careless.He hurriedly said to Lin Daosheng: "Notify all ships to raise anchor!"

At this time, the sailors who fetched water had just pushed the short mooring boat into the sea, and were paddling desperately.Lin Daosheng didn't care about them at all, and shouted: "Raise the anchor quickly! Hoist the sail!"

Except for a few guns on the two black boats built when they went to Siam, the other ships did not have cannons installed.When he was in Siam before, the other party asked Zheng Wenxian if he wanted to buy it; it can be seen that he has seen the weapons of the Beihai Navy, so he would not like those broken iron cannons of hundreds of catties and thousands of catties.

This is troublesome, Mo Guanfu is obviously aiming at himself and the boat.At this time, the red flag gang members on the two black boats of our side sent a semaphore signal to Zheng Wenxian's side, which meant that they went up to block and let the ten Guangzhou boats quickly retreat to the northeast.

Zheng Wenxian made some calculations in his mind. At this time, the southwest wind was blowing. If his side retreated to the northeast, he would definitely collide head-on with the opponent.I can't fight again and again, so the only way is to run east first, relying on the speed of my own ship, crossing Bison Island (Xishadong Island) and running north by east. Not far away.

At this time, there was constant shouting on the deck, and Zheng Wenxian yelled "Quiet", and when everyone stopped talking, he gave an order to the sailors in Wangdou, asking him to use semaphore to notify the ships.

The sailors in the fleet responsible for sending and receiving the semaphore are all members of the Red Flag Gang. Zheng Wenxian and Lin Daosheng have specially recruited more than 26 people for training in the past few months, so that the fleet can be coordinated when returning to the voyage.The two of them had learned this set of semaphores for three months before they could memorize them.The main reason is that it takes a lot of effort to remember the [-] English letters.

The semaphore of Beihai Town is derived from the nautical semaphore of another time and space, that is, the flag bearer holds a square flag with both hands, and the flag is divided into red and yellow colors along the diagonal (red and white on land), and represents the different letters and numbers, in addition to some phrases.

This method was not invented by the French until 1793 using the left and right wooden arms of the cross, so so far, except for the sailors in Beihai Town, outsiders can't understand it at all.

Zheng Wenxian's order was: All the ships followed him to the east, and the two black boats with guns were in charge of the rear.

At this time, no one on the ships could care about the sailors who were rowing desperately. With a turn of the huge rudder, all the sails were fully pumped and turned south. Mo Guanfu's fleet was only five or six miles away from Zheng Wenxian and the others.The sailors on the short mooring boat kept shouting, but the fleet was getting farther and farther away from them.Everyone had no choice but to turn around and go back to the island.

"Hmph, want to run?" Mo Guanfu sneered, put away the binoculars, and said to the left and right: "Beat the drum! Fire two cannonballs first to scare them. Let Liang Wengeng and the others send people to the island to arrest those sailors Already!"

It is said that after Guo Xuexian arrived at Shizimen on the Beihai No. [-], because he was from Panyu and was a member of the Hongqi Gang, the next day he contacted the members of the Hongqi Gang through fishermen who sold vegetables and supplies, and only then did he know that Zheng Yi was going Pick up the boat from Siam.

On the third day, Guo Xuexian went to Lei Yue Mun to meet Zheng Lianchang in a watermelon boat.Zheng Lianchang was very happy to see him, and immediately hosted a banquet for him.

Although Zheng Lianchang knew that his son was valued by Zhao Xin, Guo Xuexian was now the captain of the Wanshi battleship (one stone is one material, equal to 92.5 kilograms), and he was higher than his son's acting captain, so he was very enthusiastic and even asked his daughter-in-law to come out. Meet each other like family members.

During the meeting, Zheng Lianchang listened to Guo Xuexian's description of the situation in the past few years. When he heard about the naval battle on Changxing Island and the arrival of soldiers at Dagukou, he couldn't help being shocked. He didn't expect that the Northern Navy could threaten the capital. A few points less.

Afterwards, Zheng Lianchang talked about the fact that Mo Guanfu came to recruit him years ago, saying that Zheng Yi was too impulsive and shouldn't let Mo Guanfu down from the stage.Afterwards, he talked about the situation along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong in the past few months. After hearing this, Guo Xuexian's expression changed immediately.

Compared with Zheng Wenxian, Guo Xuexian, who loves to read, actually likes to use his brain more. He immediately asked Zheng Lianchang about Zheng Yi's back and forth route.Zheng Lianchang only knew a rough idea, so he asked his men to find an old boat head who used to travel to Nanyang.

Guo Xuexian compared the chart at hand, and when he heard what the old ship said, he immediately felt bad.Zheng Lianchang saw something was wrong, so he hurriedly asked, but he was shocked when he heard it.This guy is not really stupid, he just has mediocre intelligence and likes to go to flower boats.

When he heard that Guo Xuexian was about to go back to the boat to pick up Zheng Yi, he decided to go with him, and even called the old bow aboard.He is just a son like Zheng Yi, if something happens to him, what will he do in the future?Although she already has a daughter-in-law, no one knows whether it is a man or a woman!
In this way, Beihai No. [-] set sail for the south in the early morning of the fourth day after its arrival.After sailing, Guo Xuexian asked Zheng Lianchang and the old boat head, if they were Mo Guanfu, where would they do it?Without even thinking about it, Lao Chuantou just mentioned Ganquan Island and explained why.Guo Xuexian understood as soon as he heard it, and immediately ordered to head towards Ganquan Island at full speed.

Beihai No. 11 is a three-class sailing ship. Although it has been modified, its speed is between 12 and 300 knots.From Shizimen to Ganquan Island, the straight-line distance has to be more than 24 nautical miles, and it takes more than a day to run around in [-] hours.

Fortunately, Guo Xuexian has a well-made South China Sea chart here, so he will not get lost on the vast ocean.After they ran around for a day, the watchman on the mast finally saw a thick smoke on the sea in the distance.

When Guo Xuexian received the report, his heart skipped a beat.The chief engineer came over and reported that there was not much diesel on board, but Guo Xuexian still ordered to go forward with full horsepower.When Beihai No. 15 continued to advance [-] degrees west by south for two nautical miles, it finally saw the red-headed Cantonese boat being chased by a group of black boats.He immediately issued a combat preparation.

At this time, Zheng Wenxian and the others were already in a panic after being chased by Mo Guanfu. The opponent was biting tightly behind him for a nautical mile or two away. He tried to surround them several times, but he narrowly avoided them.After chasing for a day and a night, Mo Guanfu could also tell that Zheng Wenxian must be on the big ships ahead.So he ignored those small Guangzhou boats at all, and chased the big boats at full speed.

The problem is that he doesn't want the Canton boats with [-] fuel, but others want them. Even [-] fuel is much better than the pirates' black boats with [-] or [-] fuel.When it comes to chasing and killing at sea, the pirates' minds are not so unified.

The two black boats in charge of the rear were surrounded by the fleet of Wushi Da and Wushi Er before. After a few shots, the two sides entered the battle on board.Although the members of the Hongqi Gang fought bravely, but Wushida and the others had enough firearms and a large number of people, and soon they were killed and blood flowed like rivers.Those who survived by luck were also locked up and kept as meat tickets.

Among the ten Cantonese ships, the rudder stock of one ship was damaged by the opponent's bow gun, and it could only spin around in place in the end; the other ships were also scarred and about to be captured.

At this time, the watchman on the warship Mo Guanfu was on reported that a sail was found in the northeast, which looked like a foreign merchant ship.

"Yangyi? Let's not mess with them, don't worry about it, just keep chasing them!" Mo Guanfu was already chasing red eyes at this time, loving whoever he was.At most half a day later, Zheng Yi could not escape.

But when the foreigner's merchant ship was still seven or eight miles away from them, there was a "boom", and a jet of water jumped up in Mo Guanfu's fleet, and everyone was stunned.

who hit it?
　Looking up maps of eighteenth-century Vietnam is a real pain.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)