Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 186 Liu Xiang

The two burning Dafu ships had completely lost control and were just drifting on the sea.

However, both ships are more than ten feet long and three feet wide, which can still greatly affect the Dingyuan's course choice.

If the Dingyuan cannot turn right, there will be a great risk of entering shallow water, and its final fate may be to be stranded or run aground on the rocks.

There is a certain chance that the left full rudder can pass by the east side of the two burning Daifuku ships, but if you are not careful, you may hit the enemy ship that was heading northwest.

To ensure that you don't collide with these two large ships, it is safest to pass between the two ships. There, a firewood boat with four oars was charging desperately towards the Dingyuan.

Their purpose is definitely not to start a gang war, but to set the ship on fire in the end.

Miguel ordered the slewing aircraft on both sides to spray at the four firewood boats. At the same time, the sailors on the boat who were capable of using cannons also fired at the enemy ships.

The distance between the two sides was still far, and the hit rate was terrible. Those brave pirates were still rowing hard despite the rain of bullets.

Amid the waves, a man with a short build and about thirty years old was standing on the bow of one of the firewood boats. He had no shoes on his feet in the winter, and his ten toes, which were red from the cold in the sea breeze, were clenched tightly. The ship's plank stood firm as if it had taken root.

The north wind howled, making the short-fighting suit on his body rustle, and lead bullets, iron pot fragments, rotten iron nails, etc. flew past his body, but this man just ignored them, his figure was floating in the sea breeze. Not moving at all.

"Liu Xiang..." On the open deck of the Dingyuan, Shi Bi looked at this man with a monocular and murmured.

"Huh? Do you recognize this person?" Lin Hai was a little surprised when he heard this. Shi Bi had long known that Zheng Zhilong had a big leader named Liu Xiang, but he had never heard him talk about knowing this person.

"More than just recognition? This guy is also from Xin'an County. His family lives on Lamma Island. He was originally Li Zhongguo's subordinate. A few years ago, he called me brother. After the battle in Dianbai Overseas in the first year of Tianqi, the four of us brothers went I moved to Guangxi, and I haven’t seen him since then. I didn’t expect that he would actually be a bit of a person in Fujian now.”

Shi Bi also didn't expect that Liu Xiang, the big boss of Zheng Zhilong, was his old acquaintance. The former brothers had now become life-or-death enemies, and for a moment, he felt a little like he was separated from the world.

At this time, the distance between the Dingyuan and the Dingyuan was getting closer and closer, and the hit rate of the French guns and cannons on the ship was getting higher and higher. The four firewood boats gradually became unbearable. Coupled with the fact that we are getting closer to Dongshan Island, many people begin to jump into the sea regardless.

Liu Xiang knew that the tactical goal of connecting the ship first and then setting fire was impossible to achieve, so he immediately ordered in a deep voice: "Jump into the sea and light the fire."

The younger brothers who were still alive jumped into the sea one after another. One of them was lighting the tinder on the boat. Liu Xiang waited until the fire started on the boat before jumping in. Seeing this, the other three boats also followed suit.

This place is not too far from Dongshan Island. The pirates who jumped into the sea swam hard towards the shore. Due to the strong wind and waves, it would be a blessing if half of them returned alive.

Four more burning living coffins suddenly appeared in front of the Dingyuan. Although they were just drifting with the tide, it would take a certain amount of luck to avoid them all.

Fortunately, the artillery on the ship could fire again at this time. The two 9-pound guns on the bow and the seven guns on the left and right sides began to fire solid shells at the four firewood boats. The Franco machine cannons on the bulwarks Also started loading solid bullets for shooting.

Cannonballs of different sizes roared towards the four firewood boats, eventually overturning the two in the middle. The raging waves instantly extinguished the flames.

A thunderous cheer erupted from the Dingyuan, and Miguel quickly ordered to turn the sails and rudder, and headed straight for the two stalled firewood boats.

After a few breaths, the Dingyuan hit the wreckage of one of the firewood boats like a mountain, instantly smashing it to pieces. The ship was too small and did not cause any harm to the Dingyuan.

"Damn it, Liu Xiang is such a ruthless person. If we are lucky, we might actually fall into his trap." Seeing that the Dingyuan was out of danger, Shi Bi finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"Since you recognize this person, if he is not dead this time, you can go back and try to see if you can recruit him." Lin Hai said on the side. Liu Xiang had obviously got rid of the pursuit and could have fled to the sea, but he chose to circle back. He quite appreciated the fierceness of his head-to-head confrontation.

"I guess that's enough. Seeing how hard he has worked for the man named Zheng, how could he easily turn to us?" Shi Bi shook his head after hearing this. He felt that it was not feasible.

"I don't think so. Liu Xiang fought so fiercely without fear of death, maybe not to sacrifice his life for Zheng Zhilong, maybe just for his own reputation." Lin Hai's view was different from Shi Bi. After all, he knew Liu Xiang in history. There is no loyalty to Zheng Zhilong at all.

What's more, from Shi Bi's words, we can know that Liu Xiang was only a young man at least in the first year of Tianqi, but this person was able to gather thousands of young men in just a few years. This is probably because of his bravery and fearlessness. given by the reputation.

So sometimes people are burdened by fame. For people like Liu Xiang, if they lose their younger brother, they can still make up for it. But if they lose their reputation, they really have nothing.

On the east side of Dongshan Island, Liu Xiang had swam to a sandbar on the shore. While twisting his soaked clothes, he panted and looked back at the Dingyuan.

"Damn it, what is the origin of these murderers? No wonder that pretty boy named Zheng is hiding in Dongshan Bay. I and Zhong Liu have been betrayed this time."

Liu Xiang secretly thought in his heart that Zheng Zhilong's information was not shared with him, so he knew nothing about Lin Hai's fleet, otherwise he and Zhong Bin would not have been led out of Dongshan Bay so easily.

In fact, he had seen the power of the Portuguese plywood boats as early as five years ago in the Battle of Dianbai. Although Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin had never fought against foreigners, they were both elder brothers after all, even if they had never eaten pork. I have also seen pigs walking, and I more or less know how powerful a side cannon can be.

However, many of Liu Xiang and Zhong Bin’s younger brothers had little knowledge, so few chose to escape at first.

The two people's big ship was behind them, and they didn't have binoculars. They didn't see clearly the Huiyou Company's fleet at first. After the other side opened fire, Zhong Bin immediately chose to run away.

But he, Liu Xiang, was not good at it. Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin were both older than him. Their reputations at sea had long been established, far beyond those of his elder brother who had only been an eldest brother for a few years.

So after seeing Huiyou Company's fleet clearly, Liu Xiang chose to continue heading north. He wanted to bet on whether the enemy ships on the opposite side really had so many artillery pieces, or whether there were only a few ships.

When the battlefield where the first cluster was located started firing artillery, Liu Xiang knew that he had lost the bet and started to run to the sea. But in the end he decided to come back and fight again, either to die or to keep his reputation of being brave and not afraid of death.

At this time, one of Liu Xiang's trusted subordinates also swam up the sandbank. He stretched out his hand to pull the young man up, and laughed loudly: "Chen San, you are not dead, are you? Wasn't the battle painful just now?" "Happy?" "Thanks to my master's Hongfu, I came back with my life." The man named Chen San climbed onto the shore and continued, "My master, let's swim back to Dongshan Island quickly."

"Why are you in a hurry? It's not too late to take a break." Liu Xiang said and looked at the Dingyuan that was turning around. "It's a pity that we couldn't burn the bird plywood boat in the end."

He looked at the Dingyuan in trance, and thought to himself: I wish I could have such a large Western plywood ship sometime...

After a while, Liu Xiang turned back to his younger brother Chen San and said, "Let's go back to Tongshan City."

After saying that, he came to the west side of the sandbar, took off his short-guessing clothes, and was completely naked, not even his shorts. Then he plunged into the sea and swam towards Dongshan Island.

Chen San also imitated Liu Xiang and stripped naked, then jumped into the sea. After swimming for two cups of tea, the two naked men finally climbed up to the coast of Dongshan Island and sat on the shore, breathing heavily. Sighing.

The winter sea breeze bit into the bones. After Liu Xiang rested for a while, he couldn't help but sneeze: "Aqie... Damn it, it's so damn cold!"

"Brother, let's go back to the city quickly." Chen San was also very cold. Although he was exhausted, he didn't want to stay in the wild for a second.

"Why are you in a hurry? Let's get some clothes to wear first. We're freezing to death." Liu Xiang stood up and pointed to a small wooden house not far from the shore.

There lived a fisherman couple who were so poor that they had only the clothes they had on them. Liu Xiang didn't care so much, just picked up a harpoon and stabbed the couple to death, and then took off their clothes.

Liu Xiang was small, so he wore the woman's clothes, gave up her husband's clothes to Chen San, and walked to Tongshan City in a swaggering way.

When they arrived at the city gate, the pirates guarding the gate didn't recognize Liu Xiang at first. After seeing his appearance clearly, one of them laughed loudly and said: "Leader Liu, why are you pretending to be a woman? Are you trying to be a rabbit?" ?”

"Get your ass off, I'm not interested." Liu Xiang saw clearly that the person who spoke was Zhong Bin's subordinate, so he said, "If I hadn't risked my life to fight hard, how could you, the head of the house, come back with your eggs in your arms?" ?”

"Leader Liu, our leader has died in the battle." The man realized that it was inappropriate to laugh at this time and quickly suppressed his smile.

"Huh? What's going on? I clearly saw Zhong Liu's ship running back." Liu Xiang saw it clearly outside Dongshan Bay at that time. Two of Zhong Bin's three 800-ton Dafu ships were hit and then rammed. When he arrived at the shore, he was shot to pieces. The boat that successfully escaped was Zhong Bin's boat.

"The boat is back, but the people are dead." The man explained. It turned out that Zhong Bin's boat was also hit by a shot. This guy was hit in the vital part by a piece of wood and died on the spot.

"Then who is in charge of you now?" Liu Xiang asked quickly. Most of his people are probably dead now. If Zhong Bin's remnants can be swallowed up, the number of personnel can still be restored to 70-80%. .

After all, these two people also had some men in the city, and they also had some boats, so they did not pursue them out of Dongshan Bay. As for the loss of the ship, there is nothing we can do except to buy it in the future. Fortunately, we have been following Zheng Zhilong a lot this year.

"We haven't said it yet. Anyway, we are still under the control of Huang Tou'er. As for who will be in charge of Huang Tou'er in the future, that depends on the wishes of Master Zheng."

"Where is the head of the family now?" Liu Xiang asked again after hearing this.

Zheng Zhilong was currently in the detention room of the Deputy General Soldier on Fujian South Road, interrogating Zhang Daniu, Shibi's cronies, with a gloomy expression.

He was in a very bad mood today. After returning from the Bell and Drum Tower, Mrs. Wen, whom he left in the room, had hanged herself from the beam. Mrs. Wen's father was originally a civil servant, but later her family fell into decline, so she married Tongshan Commander Wen Zuoming, a martial artist.

Zheng Zhilong felt extremely insulted. This bitch would rather die than serve me! For a moment, he thought again of Qiu Maowei, who pointed at his nose and cursed at his mother half a year ago while being forced by a knife and a gun.

He has dreamed of becoming a human master since he was a child, but even now that he has become the largest pirate leader on the vast seas of the Ming Dynasty, these officials are still unwilling to take him seriously. This is the main reason why he has been working hard to recruit him.

Zheng Zhilong wanted his younger brother to drag Mrs. Wen out to feed the dogs, but in the end he was worried that doing so would be detrimental to his reputation. In the end, he just told his younger brother: "Find a place where no one is around and bury her secretly."

That afternoon, Zheng Zhilong kept receiving battle reports from the front line. The more he listened, the more frightened he became. That stupid Lin Hai actually had so many cannons. Fortunately, he did not rush to fight with him in the open sea...

Zheng Zhilong quickly sent someone to tell Zheng Zhipeng and Zeng Wulao to prevent Lin Hai's men from landing on Dongshan Island. After giving the order, he still felt uneasy and his whole body was shrouded in fear.

For a moment, Zheng Zhilong wanted to take his men to escape by land, and then grab a boat back to Dongfan after arriving in Chaozhou. But soon he realized that Lin Hai did not dare to enter Dongshan Bay at all. He could escape at any time, and then he finally calmed down.

Soon after, Zheng Zhiwan from Ximen Macao delivered a group of prisoners from Huiyou Company, Xu Letian and others to Tongshan City. Zheng Zhilong quickly began to interrogate the prisoners.

Not many of these sailors were strong-willed, and they told them everything they knew as if they were pouring beans out of a bamboo tube. Only then did Zheng Zhilong know that Lin Hai had an organization called Huiyou Company, which had its own territories in Tamsui and Keelung, and had recruited many immigrants.

However, due to professional habits, Lin Hai has always attached great importance to confidentiality. Ordinary sailors, including captains, do not have access to most of the core secrets.

The only one who really had more crucial information here was Zhang Daniu. After all, this man was raised as a son by Shi Bi. Zheng Zhilong also learned from other prisoners that he was the second-in-command of Huiyou Company and a confidant of Lin Hai's brother-in-law.

But Zhang Daniu was very tough. When facing Zheng Zhilong, he just yelled and cursed, with an attitude of killing or beheading him, and refused to reveal any valuable information.

"Brother, let's go to the prison and wait for him. Let's see how long this guy can keep his stubbornness." Zheng Zhilong's confidant said from the side.

Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong's face was filled with uncertainty. After being silent for a long time, he said: "Forget it, this man is also a good man. Let's take him down. Don't humiliate him."

(End of this chapter)