prosperous age

Chapter 517 Chapter 516

"Would you like to go to Penghu or Hong Kong?"

A Japanese chieftain asked.

"Penghu, I've been watching the sky for the past few days. The wind has picked up, but it's a little bit weaker. It should be fine to go to Penghu."

After the Japanese pirate boss made a decision, he said fiercely to the others: "We will go to sea tonight, and before we break through the Ming army navy, our destination is not allowed to tell the subordinates, so keep your mouth tight."

The news that the Japanese pirate leader only planned to escape with some of his subordinates, of course Yu Dayou and the others didn't know about it.

In fact, the Japanese pirates staying behind in Xucuo Wochao didn't know that they had been abandoned by their leader.

Although Yu Dayou has strictly ordered the sailors to be on guard to prevent the Japanese pirates from escaping, the navy of the Ming army has already relaxed because of no war in the past two years. It is no longer the navy that Yu Dayou once commanded and dared to fight the Japanese pirates at sea fleet.

The destination of the Japanese pirates' escape - Penghu, is naturally the Penghu Islands, but it has now become a nest of Japanese pirates.

On the Penghu Islands, the Penghu Inspection Department was established during the Yuan Dynasty. Unlike most people imagined, the purpose of setting up the Inspection Department was not to ensure the tranquility of this sea area.

According to the research of later generations, the reason is that the ancestors of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty failed in their expedition to Japan due to wind, so they detoured to Taiwan, passed through Penghu and set up Penghu, in an attempt to enter Taiwan, as a preparation for conquering Japan.

The division of the Penghu Inspection Department is affiliated to Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province, and the chief officer is the Penghu Village Inspection.

The Penghu Inspection Department is not only the first administrative division of the Penghu Islands, but also the first official office in Taiwan. However, Taiwan's main island is not included. The Ming Dynasty, which defeated the Yuan Dynasty and gained power, still followed the previous example to set up the official office in Penghu.

However, due to the infestation of Japanese pirates, Taiwan and Penghu were located in the corner of the sea, and they were often attacked by Japanese pirates, and the cargo ships transporting luggage were often robbed. The Ming government adopted the policy of strengthening the walls and clearing the wilderness, and implemented the policy of sealing off the sea in 1384 and abolished it.

The inspection department is a grassroots organization under the county-level yamen during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in China. When the organization was created in the Yuan Dynasty, it was usually a non-permanent organization that governed sparsely populated areas. Apart from having no administrative discretion, there was no permanent supervisor. There is no military power.

The Ming Dynasty followed its example, but with administrative power.

However, because of the establishment of the Inspection Department to manage the islands and surrounding waters, the Penghu Islands were included in China's territory.

Nearly [-] Japanese pirates fled the mainland on a large number of Japanese ships. The navy of the Ming army was aware of the situation, but the sky was dark at this time, and the powerful firearms carried by the navy of the Ming army could not exert enough power. Although they successfully intercepted some of the Japanese ships However, there were still a large number of Japanese pirates rushing out of the encirclement of the Ming army navy in disorder, and then sailed away.

In the early morning, the news of the navy's encounter with the enemy last night spread to the Ming army barracks. Yu Dayou was shocked when he learned that a Japanese ship escaped last night.

I have indeed been negligent in the past few days, forgetting that the wind direction has changed in the past two days.

If in the previous two days, the Japanese pirate fleet disappeared, it would be impossible to rush to the open sea, and there was a mistake in the formation of my own troops.

But fortunately, the generals in the battalion really didn't see it.

Even though Qi Jiguang is the hereditary commander of Shandong Dengzhou Guard, Dengzhou Guard is not the Denglai Navy, but also a guard that focuses on land warfare. There are only a few fishing boats in the sky, and naturally they have no understanding of water warfare.

This is even more so for Liu Xian, who is also a general who has never been in contact with water warfare.

It can only be said that the Japanese pirates fled desperately, and fled in the dark at night, so it is understandable that the navy could not stop them.

In fact, even if it was encountered in broad daylight, it would be very difficult for the navy of the Ming army to intercept all the Japanese ships. There will always be fish that slip through the net, but this time they missed a little more.

Yu Dayou sent people to inform Liu Xian and Qi Jiguang, the other two Ming army generals. Even if he temporarily suppressed this matter, it is still impossible to hide it from everyone afterwards.

Soon after hearing the news, Liu Xian and Qi Jiguang rushed to Yu Dayou's place to learn about the situation of the naval battle.

Because it was night, the navy of the Ming army couldn't tell how many Japanese ships escaped, so the report was naturally very subtle.

Yu Dayou directly handed over the navy report to the two of them for them to read by themselves.

The military newspaper only said that the Japanese pirates fled desperately, but the navy was unable to intercept them, and a Japanese ship broke through to intercept them.

"Hey, the Japanese pirates have escaped, how can I explain this to the court?"

After reading the military newspaper, Liu Xian sighed.

Qi Jiguang didn't speak, but he had already looked outside the camp door, obviously thinking of the Japanese pirates in Xu Cuo's Japanese nest outside.

When he got up this morning, he didn't hear any movement from Wochao.

In the Japanese pirate camp, there are many patrolling Japanese pirates, which means that there are still many Japanese pirates in the Japanese nest who have not escaped, and these people are obviously cannon fodder abandoned by the pirate leaders.

Now that the leader of the Japanese pirates has run away, the rest of them can't be allowed to slip away. They must all be wiped out, otherwise there is really no way to explain.

Thinking of this, Qi Jiguang opened his mouth and said to Liu Xian and Yu Dayou: "Liu Dudu, Yu Zongbing, now we can only wipe out the Japanese pirates in the Japanese nest, and we must not let anyone go."

Qi Jiguang's words also reminded Yu Dayou and Liu Xian that they knew what he meant.

Only by killing all the Japanese pirates can it be possible to suppress the news that some Japanese pirates have escaped. Naturally, the navy also knows how to write a battle report.

After all, most of the so-called total annihilation of the Japanese pirates reported by the Ming army was actually the main force or most of them were wiped out, and there were very few battles in which not a single one was really killed.

Don't Japanese pirates understand that when they are invincible, they don't want to run away with oil on their feet?
That's impossible. For most of the Japanese pirates, it's already an instinct to escape while taking advantage of the chaos of the war.

"I'll go back to the camp immediately and prepare. Even if we fight at night today, we must take down Pinghai Weicheng."

Liu Xian whispered to Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang.

Now, only a quick fix can suppress the news.

After killing all the Japanese pirates, he insisted that there are only so many, who can come up with evidence to make a case?

If they really have evidence, they might as well bite back and sue the other party.

Qi Jiguang nodded, this time he was going to force them to kill. Only by killing all the remaining Japanese pirates can the news of the Japanese chieftain's escape be blocked.

"Then do it."

Yu Dayou also nodded in agreement.

At this time, he was not in the mood to track down the traces of the Japanese pirates. The sea was vast, and it was already difficult to determine the direction in which the Japanese pirates escaped.

With the departure of Liu and Qi, Yu Dayou also issued an order that he would only eat with the army, and planned to take down Xu Cuo Wochao in one go, and then recover Pinghaiwei City.

Even if he had already guessed, there might be no one in Pinghaiwei City now.

After breakfast, Yu Dayou walked out of the camp, felt the slight westerly wind, passed through his soldiers, and looked at the Japanese pirate camp in the distance. Seeing the simple fences built by demolishing the houses of the common people and taking out the beams of the wooden houses, Yu Dayou had already thought about it. What to do in a while.

After the three-way army finished fighting, each soldier distributed some dry food. Today, the Ming army intends to wipe out the Japanese pirates remaining on the mainland with all their might.

With the sound of rumbling war drums from Qi Jiguang's camp on the middle road, the gate of the camp opened, and a row of soldiers came out of the camp in neat formation, heading towards Xu Cuo's nest.

Accompanied by the sound of the drum, the two camps of the Ming army on the left and right also beat the drum, and the soldiers went out of the camp in full gear.

The Ming army approached the Wochao in three ways, which naturally aroused a fierce reaction from the Japanese pirates.

In fact, when the war drums sounded, the small leaders of the Japanese pirates in the Japanese nest had gathered together very worriedly.

Yesterday, the leaders of the camp said they would go back to discuss how to deal with Qi Huhu, but they didn't come back all night, and they were still worried about what to do when the Ming army attacked the camp early this morning.

Some of the small leaders left behind have good relations on weekdays, while some are enemies, and only the leaders can suppress them.

Now that the leader is not here, naturally everyone is dissatisfied with each other and unwilling to accept the command of the other party.

Several waves of people were sent to deliver letters to Pinghai Weicheng, and the other side could only organize defenses according to their own defensive positions to resist the attack of the Ming army.

Inside the Wachao, more than a hundred Japanese pirate cavalry were there with their horses. They wondered if they should take advantage of the opportunity of the Ming army approaching the front of the formation to launch a surprise attack on the Ming army formation.

Most of these war horses were found in the city of Xinghua Prefecture. The Japanese pirates did not prepare horse boats, so they ran to Daming with their war horses to plunder.

And this Japanese pirate cavalry is also a surprising way to win that the Japanese pirate leader thought of.

I want to use this cavalry unit to attack when the Ming army is not gaining a stable foothold.

However, by now, this team has no command.

In the gang of Japanese pirates, they are still very obedient to orders, at least no one dares to disrespect military orders until their defeat is revealed.

It's just that, seeing the Ming army approaching the formation and starting to fiddle with the artillery, there has been no order for them to go to the battle for a long time.

According to the original plan, these more than a hundred Japanese pirate cavalry were used as arrows, followed by more than 2000 Japanese pirates to charge the Ming army's central army.

These more than 2000 people are all the Japanese pirates who were originally stationed in Xu Cuo.

The attack of Liu Xian and Yu Dayou's troops was relatively simple. Liu Xian's army did not have many firearms. Although Yu Dayou paid attention to firearms, he rushed to Nangan temporarily to wipe out Zhang Lian and other rebels. When the troops search for firearms, they can only use the weapons in their hands to strictly practice emergency response. Breaking the sky is to use the firearms in the camp intensively.

Now Yu Dayou has realized the benefits of concentrated use of firearms. Under the intensive firepower attack, there are really not many troops who can withstand it.

The Ming troops on the left and right had already prepared their postures before the formation, but Qi Jiguang's troops in the middle took a little longer to prepare.

More than a dozen Franco cannons and more than a hundred tiger squatting cannons were divided into several clusters to form artillery positions in front of the Ming army formation.

Behind the Franco cannon, several soldiers of the Ming army were making the final preparations to fire the cannon, while the tiger crouching cannon was relatively simple, with only two people squatting behind the cannon.

That is to say, the Japanese pirates did not rush out. If the Japanese nest camp was opened, there would only be one gunner behind the tiger crouching, and he would return to the rear after the battle.

If any generals from the West came here at this time, they would naturally be able to see that the training and formation of Qi Jiguang's troops were actually on par with the level of the Western troops at this time.

The so-called difference is just a difference caused by different tactics and equipment.

Yu Dayou rode on the horse, observing the changes in the nest.

On the opposite side of the Ming army on the right, behind the fence, several Japanese pirates have assembled, but I can't tell what weapons they are using, but it should be those things.

Although the Japanese pirates robbed the goods, most of them would trade with the Yi people in the ports of nearby islands, but they could only exchange for gold, silver and other property, as well as a small amount of firearms such as bird guns.

Large-scale arms transactions have never occurred in East Asia, and neither the Spaniards nor the Portuguese will sell weapons to pirates on a large scale.

After all, at sea, it doesn't matter who you are, because there is no order at all here.

The Japanese pirates are well equipped, and it is also a disaster for their ships that have been sailing in East Asia and Southeast Asia for a long time.

Moreover, selling firearms in small quantities can also allow them to sell them at higher prices.

Relatively speaking, they would rather sell firearms to the Japanese than to pirates.

After Qi Jiguang's department completed the pre-war preparations, there was still no change in the Japanese pirate camp, but there were many more Japanese pirates behind the camp.

As the firearms of Qi Jiguang's Ministry began to explode, countless solid bullets spewed out from the muzzle and rushed towards the Japanese nest. The Ming army's campaign to exterminate the Japanese pirates who committed atrocities in Xinghua Prefecture began.

Including the tiger squatting cannon, they all raised the muzzle at a certain angle to attack the Japanese pirates in the Japanese nest, while the left and right Ming troops maintained their formation and slowly approached the Japanese pirate fence.

Both Liu Xian and Yu Dayou thought of the same tactic. After approaching the place where the Japanese nest was shot, the archers in the camp lit their bows and arrows one after another. Following the order, the rockets flew into the Japanese nest from the left and right sides, and many rockets also shot to the fence of the camp. up, causing a raging fire.

At this time, the wind direction was west wind, and the flames and smoke drifted into the Japanese pirate formation with the wind, forcing the Japanese pirates to keep retreating.

The Japanese pirates in the middle retreated even more fiercely.

How can the body resist the stone bullets falling from the sky? Once it falls into the crowd of Japanese pirates, it will be a bloody alley.

Seeing the Japanese pirates being attacked, he didn't choose to go out to fight. Although Qi Jiguang was also very surprised, he quickly figured out the situation of the Japanese pirates in front of him-a group of poor people who didn't know they were abandoned.

A section of the fence in the middle road could not withstand the damage of the stone bullets first, and fell down first. The fences on the left and right sides also broke and fell in the fire. At this time, the camp wall built outside the Japanese nest was riddled with holes.

Neither Yu Dayou nor Liu Xian expected that today's battle would be so easy, with smiles on the corners of their mouths, they calmly dispatched troops, and the Ming army entered the Wochao, followed by Qi Jiguang's central army.

The Japanese pirates in the Japanese Nest did not have a unified command, and they all fought on their own. At this time, it was not looking good, and the little leader had no idea of ​​continuing to fight to the death here. run away.

The hundred or so Japanese pirate cavalry were naturally the best among them, and they ran very refreshingly.

The Ming army took advantage of the situation to attack the Japanese nest, one began to clean up and rescued the trapped people, and the other followed closely, chasing down the fleeing Japanese pirates.

At this time, in the Ming army, the cavalry forces of Liu Xian's department and Yu Dayou's department also played a role. The two cavalry had a total of more than a thousand cavalry, serving as arrows to chase the Ming army, and quickly harvested the heads of Japanese pirates.

He rushed forward, swung his knife, and a head flew into the air.

In the middle of the night, after the Ming army killed the last Japanese pirate in Pinghai Weicheng, Liu Xian, Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang jointly sent a good news to Tan Lun who was still stationed outside Xinghuafu City.

"The Japanese pirates were wiped out, and they won a complete victory. In this battle, 3451 Japanese were killed, 3761 weapons were seized, and more than 3000 civilians, men and women, were rescued in Putian and Pinghai."

(End of this chapter)