Dragon Sea Empire

The 24 warships of the Fujian Navy approached Penghu Bay with difficulty in the increasingly fierce northwest wind.

"Mother Mazu!" An old helmsman stared blankly at the sky in the northwest and exclaimed loudly.Shen Yourong turned his head to look, and saw that the sky in the northwest was covered with dark clouds, and the dark clouds were rushing towards the direction of the fleet.Shen Yourong's heart tightened violently: Before leaving, a ship's helmsman warned him that when going out to sea in this weather, it is easy to encounter black clouds from the north, and once encountering black clouds, it means the most violent storm is coming.

The weather was not good, and the dark storm caught up with them before the fleet had time to enter Magong Harbor in Penghu Bay for shelter.It was dark for a while, and people couldn't see each other's eyebrows clearly.The fleet suddenly drifted apart, and the space between the ships was completely filled with storm and darkness, and they lost contact with each other.

Before going out to sea, Shen Yourong personally rushed to Lianjiang City Pass under the Dragon Bridge to visit the home of Chen Di, a retired veteran who had followed Qi Jiguang to fight Japanese pirates and learned the art of war from Yu Dayou.

Although Chen Di was over sixty years old, but when he heard that he was going to fight Japanese pirates, the old man chatted with him like a teenager, so he agreed without hesitation.This is a capable man with both civil and military skills. The famous general Yu Dayou once praised him personally: "You should be a famous general, not a scholar!" Shen Yourong invited him out of the mountain because he wanted to make use of his sea combat experience. At this moment, Chen Di's experience has been brought into play. effect.

He immediately calmly asked Shen Yourong to order the boat to approach the shore immediately, and ordered people to beat gongs and drums, ordering the boats that could hear the sound of gongs and drums to approach him by boat.In fact, this is also very dangerous, and the two ships may collide in the dark.

The storm came and went quickly, and after a long time, the rain stopped and the wind stopped.Only then did Shen Yourong realize that there were only 5 boats following him to take shelter here.And his shelter is a narrow bay, the terrain is steep, and even two ships cannot go side by side at the exit.

After waiting for three days, only three ships came to join.Shen Yourong really ran out of patience, gathered 8 boats and drove out of this narrow bay.He was pleased to find that six warships were cruising the open sea, looking for him.The other ships may never come to rendezvous.

Now he has 14 warships and 400 soldiers on hand.Shen Yourong did not hesitate to continue the expedition to Dongfan, and his group of soldiers would quit.Shen Yourong talked all kinds of things, threatened and lured, and the northwest wind was still blowing, making it difficult for the ships to retreat to the mainland, so his expedition fleet finally continued to set off.

One day later, the fleet finally saw Taiwan Island covered with emerald green vegetation.When approaching the Demon Harbor—the sea area of ​​Beigang, Shen Yourong shouted orders, ordering the fleet to line up in two columns, and slowly sail towards Demon Harbor.However, when the fleet just entered the inland sea, they heard a loud noise in the port: "Boom!"

"It's a cannon!" a soldier shouted.

"Could it be that the pirates already knew about our arrival?" Shen Yourong frowned and said.

"No, listen to the sound of the cannons. This is at least the sound that can only be made by several heavy cannons fired at the same time. There are no cannons on the Japanese pirates' boat!" Veteran Chen Di said: "The Japanese pirates must be fighting other people, no matter what. , General Shen, this is our chance!"

There was another sound of firearms firing from the direction of the harbor.

Shen Yourong immediately issued an order, the whole team was ready to fight, and the fleet kept in formation and slowly entered the port.

A battle scene that made them unable to believe their eyes was presented in front of the navy officers and soldiers.

Shen Yourong was even more surprised. He saw the strange ship that he had desperately chased half a year ago, slowly circling in the harbor, fighting lively with the 7 Japanese pirate ships surrounding it.

The strange ship was like thorns all over its body, and many portholes were opened on the hull, and musket bullets and shotgun shells from Franco machine guns were continuously fired from various parts of the hull, and arrows continued to fly out amidst the smoke.The Hachiman boats surrounding the surrounding area are much shorter than the strange boats, so it is very difficult to jump onto the boats, you have to lean on the opponent's hull and climb up.However, the strange ship kept turning in place and kept shooting with muskets and cannons. The Japanese pirates were suppressed by the opponent's firepower.

That's right, this is the second time Yin Feng was attacked by authentic Japanese pirates in Yaogang.

He originally wanted to stop in Taiwan and contact Li Dan who came back from Luzon.However, he did not expect that the Chinese pirates and private businessmen had already received the warning that the officers and soldiers were coming, and they all went to the coastal islands to hide from the limelight.Only the Japanese pirates and Japanese businessmen who spent the winter were left here, as well as about a hundred homeless Han refugees.The Japanese were already domineering and domineering in the area of ​​Hong Kong, and had constant conflicts with the Han Chinese. Suddenly, the Chinese pirates and private businessmen left together. The Japanese pirates suddenly had no opponents to check and balance, and they violated all the rules of the pirate port without any scruples. , not only massacred the native Pingpu people everywhere, but also ate the grass on the side of the nest several times in a row, and robbed the merchant ships that came to Hong Kong for supplies or shelter.

Yin Feng's Xinxing number is just an extra-large nest edge grass.

Originally also to avoid the wind, Xinxing sailed into the inland sea of ​​Yaogang.Fortunately, this time we were not too close to the beach, so the boat disembarked.When suddenly attacked by Japanese pirates, helmsman Mai Dahai cut off the anchoring cable with an axe, quickly turned the rudder and turned the bow of the ship.Major Kuteri, an old mercenary, fired a shot at the stern of the ship. The 12-pound iron bullet fired by the huge [-]-jin-class heavy gun passed over the mast of the leading Japanese pirate Hachiman ship, and fell into the sea water by the beach, stirring up waves several meters high. splashes.Because it was too close to the Japanese pirate ship, the heavy guns at the stern could not adjust the pitching angle. The firing at this distance was just to deter the opponent.

The Japanese pirates were indeed stunned for a while, but they immediately understood the limitations of this kind of heavy artillery. The Japanese pirate oarsmen rowed desperately, and all the Japanese pirate ships tried their best to get close to the Xinxing, the closer the closer the safer.

When Yin Feng designed this ship, it was originally designed as a dual-use ship for military and civilian use. Fifteen portholes were opened on the left and right hulls for firing cannons.Although he only had four 4-pound bronze cannons, there were eight Franc cannons from Macau.These are all retired and scrapped weapons from the Macau Municipal Guard, and Yin Fengquan bought them over.

When the Japanese pirates tried to get close to the starboard side of the Xinxing hull, a dozen portholes suddenly appeared on the lower part of the hull, and four black hole muzzles protruded from the open windows, as well as countless small French cannons and matchlock guns. .The Japanese pirates were waving their knives and guns in excitement, only a few clever guys immediately lay down on the deck of the ship.

Four 6-pound guns fired at the same time, with a loud "boom", the hull of the Xinxing ship shook, and seemed to move a few inches to the left.Countless iron sand and stones shot out in a fan shape, gunpowder smoke mixed with howls, and there was a sudden burst of screams, and a large number of Japanese pirates were swept down by the rain of bullets.The Hachiman ship closest to Xinxing suffered the most damage. The dozens of Japanese pirates gathered on the deck were wiped out and fell into the water like dumplings.

On the 7 Japanese pirate Hachiman boats, the people standing on the bow were killed almost at the same time. The rest of the lucky ones were only a little bruised. Call.A Japanese pirate leader in armor had his left arm broken. Kneeling on the deck and supporting himself with his right Japanese sword, he raised his bloody head and looked at the tall hull of the Xinxing with absent-minded eyes. "Boom!", with a gunshot, blood burst out of his Tianling Gai, his forehead was hit by an arquebus bullet, his body tilted, and he fell on the deck.

On the bow of Xinxing, Yin Feng patted Lin Xiao on the shoulder: "Brother Guangguang, not bad, your marksmanship is getting better and better."

Lin Xiao put down the musket, loaded the ammunition nimbly, and said with a smile, "What is this? It's so close, it's no wonder you can't hit it."

Not everyone is as brave as Lin Xiao and has seen blood since childhood. Although the Danmin sailors have undergone Yin Feng's hell-like training, they have never seen such a bloody scene.In the past two years, although the Portuguese veteran Coutere was in charge of training every day and trained them to death like sailors, ordinary pirates did not dare to mess with their strange ship with cannons.

The sailors forgot to fire their muskets and bows for a while, and they all stood there watching blankly.

"After all, it's the first time!" Yin Feng muttered, and said loudly to Lin Xiao: "Go and command the blunderbuss team to fire, and the pirates can't be relieved!"

It was still too late, those ronin samurai who had been fighting in Japan for a long time responded quickly; the uninjured iron gunners and archers gathered one after another and fired at the Shining; In an arc, trying to outflank Yin Feng's Xinxing, so that his artillery could not be fired in a concentrated manner.

Yin Feng asked Mai Dahai to steer the boat in a continuous circle, and slowly moved towards the open sea.

Major Coutere commanded the artillery team in the cabin below the deck, and divided the Francois cannons to four on the left and right sides; on the deck, Yin Feng ordered 4 arquebus gunners to gather in the center of the ship and stand in a small square formation of 50X6 , another 6 matchlocks went to the stern to protect the helmsman.He was going to repeat the old trick he had used on the Goa, put the Japanese pirates on board, and then deal with them with muskets.In addition, there were more than 14 archers swimming and shooting at the side of the ship.Archers cannot be cultivated in a short period of time. The bow and arrow skills of these Dan people's sailors are not flattering, but it is still useful to harass them.

Due to the small opening of the portholes, the ships on both sides were in constant motion. The Japanese pirates fired iron cannons to suppress the artillery. The attempt to suppress the artillery was unsuccessful. The guns hit the ship's side with sparks and wood residues, but only a few sailors of the Xinxing were slightly injured.And once a Hachiman ship approached, it would either be knocked away by the hull of the Xinxing ship that suddenly turned sideways, or it would be severely injured by the shotguns of the Fran's machine gun, making it impossible to launch a jump-off offensive.

Moreover, the Japanese pirate ships dispersed and outflanked, causing their firepower to be dispersed.The firepower of the Japanese pirates was not superior to deal with Xinxing, and now the situation is even more serious.Moreover, the dispersion of the fleet also made it impossible to concentrate their forces. Only a few scattered Japanese pirates resignedly landed on the deck of the Xinxing, and were immediately shot to death with matchlock guns by the sailors who were waiting in line.

Seeing that his side had the upper hand, Yin Feng became more and more excited, brandishing the revolver, and despite the repeated persuasion of the black Magaro, he always wanted to stand on the side of the ship.Unfortunately, an iron cannon bullet happened to hit him in the shoulder, and he rolled over and fell to the ground.

"The owner is injured!", the sailors exclaimed.

At this time, the morale cannot be shaken. Yin Feng gritted his teeth, stood up with Magaro's support, and shouted: "I'm fine, brothers, go to the side of the boat and fire in small groups!"

The moment Yin Feng was hit by the bullet, he suddenly understood a problem: this time the Japanese pirates did not have the firepower to suppress their own side, so they had to change their style of play.Therefore, in the usual training, there are 10 people in a small team, and the triple shooting tactics played a role.Yin Feng's musketeers came to the side of the ship one after another, braving Japanese pirates' guns and actively shooting the enemy.Continuous arquebus shooting quickly suppressed the Japanese pirates, and the Japanese pirates were shot down on the deck or fell into the sea amidst the smoke.