Dragon Sea Empire

The strong wind blew across the sea, and the huge waves mixed with the rain violently attacked the beaches and reefs by the sea.The sea seemed to turn its bottom up, and countless big waves rolled onto the beach.

General Shen Yourong of Wuyu Shuizhai, which belongs to the Fujian Capital Division, and General Zhang Wanji of Tongshan, led more than 20 warships of the Fujian Navy to take shelter in the Penghu Islands.This is Magong Harbor located between Penghu Island, Baisha Island and Xiyu Island. It is the best natural harbor in the Penghu Islands.Shen Yourong and his subordinates ate dry food together in the Xunbing barracks of Mazu Palace on Penghu Island, and prepared to sail when the wind calmed down.

They have been waiting here for two full days, and the summer typhoon has been blowing endlessly for two days, and the wind began to slowly weaken this morning.

In order to pursue a group of Japanese pirates who were surreptitious in their whereabouts, they set off from Wuyu Water Village in Fuzhou and traveled across the Taiwan Strait for 10 days.The barracks is surrounded by the sound of wind and rain, Zhang Wanji, the general manager of Tongshan, who is in his 30s, looks depressedly at the distant bay.There is the famous Penghu Bay in later generations.

He approached Shen Yourong, who was in his 40s, looked at this brave general with strict military discipline, hesitated and said, "Brother Shihong, with such a strong wind, those Japanese pirates should have gone to Guangdong long ago?"

Shen Yourong, courtesy name Shihong, was born in martial arts. He once served as a small officer under Qi Jiguang in Jizhen. Later, in Liujiakou, he used 29 troops to fight against 3000 cavalrymen from Duoyan tribe. , Fight to Fame.It's a pity that he was too upright, and even wrote a letter to discuss state affairs and side affairs. Although he had made outstanding military achievements, he was never promoted, and finally had to resign and return to his hometown. Four years ago, Jin Xue, the governor of Fujian, had sincerely invited him to come to Fujian again and again, so he became the general in charge of Wuyu Shuizhai.

He has been fighting on the front line at the northern border for many years, and he is used to infantry combat, but he is not used to suddenly becoming an officer in charge of the navy.Moreover, the predecessor of Wuyu Water Village was notorious for always being short-paid, and the so-called warships in the Water Village were only one-fifth of the stipulated amount.Shen Yourong made great efforts to rectify, which was quite effective.But soldiers can be recruited, but warships cannot be obtained from other places.Therefore, more than half of the warships on this voyage to pursue the Japanese pirates were bought merchant ships.

Hearing the question from his colleagues, Shen Yourong frowned and said, "It shouldn't be far away. The eight-flank boat of the Japanese pirates can't stand the wind, so they must be sheltering on some island right now. When the wind dies down, my boat will keep chasing south, brother Zhang The warships can be searched nearby."

Zhang Wanji took a breath and retreated without a word.There's nothing to say, Shen Yourong's implication is: he must pursue him to the end, you, Mr. Zhang, can figure it out on your own.Zhang Wanji thought to himself: He is really a stubborn person who never turns back. No wonder he has been in the army in the north for more than 20 years, and he is still a general.

The wind blew all day and finally died down in the evening.The next day, when the sun rose, the air was particularly refreshing.The sailors boarded the ship one after another, unmoored and raised the mast, ready to sail out to sea and continue to chase the Japanese pirates.

As the vanguard, the No. [-] blessing ship was personally commanded by Shen Yourong, and it first left Magong Port. The current wind direction is southwest, and if the warship wanted to go south out of Penghu Bay, it had to sail against the wind.Suddenly, one of Shen Yourong's personal soldiers shouted from the bow: "My lord, my lord, a boat, a boat!"

Shen Yourong strode to the bow of the boat, and immediately saw a large boat about 3 or [-] meters long moored in a small bay on the southeast side of Penghu Bay, about [-] miles away from the navy fleet.He hurriedly asked the guide on the side, the fisherman Guo Yi: "What kind of boat is this?"

Guo Yi, a fisherman, did not answer right away. He looked at it for a while and said, "My lord, it doesn't look like a Japanese pirate's Hachiman boat."

"This ship is at least two thousand pieces of material, and it seems to be a merchant ship of Westerners." A soldier said hesitantly.

"The masts on their boats haven't been erected yet, ah!" He called out, Shen Yourong looked at him suspiciously, Guo Yi nervously lay down on the ship's side, and said in a surprised tone: "Their masts have been erected, the masts are erected. Soon. They must have found us too."

Shen Yourong turned to look at the strange ship, but saw that the ship had quickly erected its mast and was rapidly spreading its sails.Guo Yi said in amazement: "This ship is very strange. It raises the mast very fast and spreads the sails so fast. Even the best sailors I know can't do it! Oh! Their sails are like our bird boats. Clipper!"

Shen Yourong looked around for a long time, and felt that this ship was really weird. After noticing the appearance of a navy ship, he quickly lifted the anchor and set sail, and sailed to the open sea, making it clear that he didn't want to say hello to Daming Navy.This ship should have sheltered from the wind in Penghu Bay at the same time as the Fujian Navy ship, and the distance between the two sides is no more than five or six miles.

"Order, catch up and patrol!"

The flag soldiers notified all the ships of the navy fleet with flags, and even Tongshan turned the boat of Chief Zhang Wanji in line.

Since it was necessary to sail south out of Penghu Bay, both the pursuer and the pursued were facing crosswinds and had to ride against the wind—a zigzag movement.But on that weird big ship, the three masts have both horizontal and vertical sails, which greatly simplifies the work of mobilizing the sails to face the wind. Therefore, although this ship is larger than any ship in the navy fleet, it is in the Surprisingly nimble on the move.

At the mouth of Penghu Bay, the strange big ship has slowly distanced itself from the naval fleet.As soon as it reached the open sea, because the range of motion could be expanded, the ship suddenly pulled a triangle sail on the top of the mainmast, and accelerated its speed, trying to throw off the pursuers with a larger zigzag course.

On the boundless sea, the chasing game between ships can be protracted, lasting for several days or even dozens of days.

Therefore, the stubborn Shen Yourong was determined to catch up with this strange ship, and the entire fleet had to follow the commander in pursuit.

On the strange big ship that is not in the middle of the ocean, the owner Yin Feng is standing on the bow, and his captain - the former second officer of the Portuguese Tomar merchant ship - the crew member who was kidnapped by him in Danmin Fishing Village, Yazhou, Barre Captain Tuo's nephew, Barreto Jr.—watched the sea ahead together.Lin Xiao, the director of the Xinxing ship, ran from the stern and said cheerfully, "Those navy ships are useless, and we are throwing them farther and farther away."

At that time, the ranks of Chinese crew members were different from those of Western countries; every ship below the owner had a financial officer, who was the owner's deputy, clerk, and commercial financial controller;

Then there is one person in charge, who is in charge of shipping affairs, which is equivalent to the position of captain or first mate.In addition, Zhiku is the person who manages the weapons and equipment and combat training on the ship, Aban is the person who puts the mast on the wall, the head anchor and the second anchor are the ones who manage the lower anchor anchors, Daling and Erliao are the ones who manage the cables and canvas, and the helmsman As the helmsman, the two bosses are on duty at any time.

The most important thing is the guide who manages the compass. The so-called "needler" is called the chief of fire, and of course he is an important person with privileges on board.

Right now, the captain in charge is Barreto Jr., who is also responsible for training all sailors; Zhiku is Lin Xiao, who is also responsible for organizing sailors to fight in wartime.In addition, in order to train gunners, Bernardo, through his own network, hired a Portuguese mercenary; Jacques van der Couture when he bought firearms in Siam.

Yin Feng didn't know that in Portuguese history, this was a legendary figure among Portuguese mercenaries.Starting from Lisbon, he reached Goa in September 1592 and then Malacca.Kutray stayed in Malacca for nearly ten years and did not return to Goa until 9. In his autobiography, he said that he visited many trading centers in Malaya, starting from Pahang, then Johor, Ayutthaya He went to almost all important seaports in Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Manila, and Sumatra, and fought various enemies along the way.Originally, he was going back to China to write his memoirs, but now he was hired by Bernardo and came to Yin Feng's ship as a firearms instructor.

Yin Feng’s ship is equipped with a winch. He installed the winch device, which was only popularized in Europe in the late 17th century, on his ship nearly a hundred years in advance, so the speed of erecting the mast and pulling up the cable of the Xinxing Ship is very fast.

He walked to the stern, where the mercenary Jacques was watching the sea from the stern 12-pound copper gun.

"Major Kutre, can our guns hit their ship?" Yin Feng asked him in Portuguese.

Jacques had to keep a full set of officer uniform at all times. He nodded to his employer as a sign of respect, and said slowly: "With the range of this gun, it should be able to hit the leading Junkers. However, the distance is too far away. They are still far away, and the wind and waves are still too big, so it is impossible to aim at such a long distance, unless the Almighty God himself fires the cannon, it will probably hit them."

Yin Feng looked at Lin Xiao and Mai Dahai beside him, and smiled bitterly: "Our ship is full of Japanese silver, Japanese swords, sulfur and so on. When the officers and soldiers board the ship and search, they will find that we have committed the crime of "communication." Japanese "big crime."

"Then what to do!" Someone interjected, and Yin Feng saw that it was Zhang Yuyu, the head of the Hangzhou Silk Guild, Yang Caipu, a Fujian businessman who was doing business in Hangzhou, and several shippers who took a boat to Japan for business.As early as a year ago, they were encouraged by Yin Feng and joined the ranks of "Tongwa".

Yin Feng shook his head: "It's okay, our ship is fast, and the officers and soldiers can't catch up with us. What I'm worried about is that my Xinxing may be noticed by the Fujian navy."

……

As Yin Feng said, the speed of the Xinxing ship was faster than that of the Fujian navy fleet. The result of two days of intense pursuit was that Shen Yourong could hardly see the sails of the strange ship.He was so angry that he slammed on the side of the ship, but to no avail, the ship went further and further away.

By the morning of the third day, when the wind on the sea changed to the northwest, Yin Feng's boat had completely disappeared from the sight of the officers and soldiers.

Yin Feng's boat returned to Macau 10 days later, everyone made a fortune, and the first "passing through the Japanese" was a complete success.

When entering the port of Macau, Captain Barreto Jr. said to the owner Yin Feng: "Your ship is the best ship I have seen in China. The winch design and the mixed Chinese and Western sails are all made by yourself. Thoughts?"

Yin Feng, whose vanity was soaring, blushed a little, and hurriedly said: "Where is it, this is the result of my joint efforts with our country's shipbuilding engineers..."

Shen Yourong's warship also encountered the Japanese pirate fleet by chance in the waters bordering Fujian and Guangdong.The officers and soldiers of the navy, who were full of anger, took the initiative to attack the Hachiman ships of the Japanese pirates, sinking several ships, and the rest of the Japanese pirate ships scattered with a blast, and fled to Dongfan in the northeast direction.