Dragon Sea Empire

The two ships of Yuan Jin and Li Zhong rushed into Penghu Bay first.Most of the other Jinghai Gang ships rushed in after hesitating for a while.Only two ships did not move, only anchored at the mouth of Penghu Bay.

In addition to the blue painting on the bow, one of them also has the words "Flying Tiger" written in red paint.Originally, the Flying Tiger was the ship of Li San, a pirate in Hui'an County, Quanzhou. After being hunted down by the government and aristocratic families for many years, he finally found an organization.

Pirate Li San was originally a fisherman. He was over 40 years old and wanted to quit.Unfortunately, the pirate market in China's coastal areas is not good these years, and they haven't made enough money to buy land and settle down.His son, Li Kuiqi, is 12 years old this year, and he lived at sea early. He followed Li San on a pirate ship at such a young age.

At this time, the young Li Kuiqi slid down from the mast, came to his father and asked anxiously, "Father, why don't we follow?"

Li San angrily gave his son a shudder, and scolded: "No brains, didn't you hear the order from the big boss? You are not allowed to enter Penghu Bay to fight with the Hong Maoyi. Uncle Lu said that the big boss has strict orders, and we are now in the His subordinates are begging for food, and following his orders will never go wrong."

Unconvinced, Li Kuiqi pointed forward and said, "So, they all violated the order? Brother Yuan and the others went too!"

Li San shook his head: "We can't compare with them; they used to be the subordinates of Uncle Li Dan in Quanzhou, and now Uncle Li's sister is also one of the owners of the company. Someone is covering them!"

Li San kept shaking his head; "These people don't know how powerful Hongmaoyi is, hehe..."

The Dutch battleship "Orange" is moored in Magong Harbor on Penghu Bay, and the anchoring position is about 3 miles from the coast.Dutch sailors and soldiers are preparing for the landing and have already put down 5 small boats on the sea.At this moment, the sailors on the top of the mainmast, who were watching, rang the alarm bell.

"What's the situation?" Admiral Wei Malang walked out of the hatch, frowning and asked an officer, "What's going on?"

"There are ships entering the mouth of the bay. Some Junk ships are approaching us. The number is about a dozen, and the weapons and equipment are unknown. The fleet is approaching in horizontal formation, and it seems to be hostile."

"Junk ship? Is there any mark?" Admiral Wei Malang asked.

"The bow of the blue ship has a flag with a circle pattern on the blue background. I don't know where the ship is from." The sailor on the lookout replied.

Another sailor slid down the cable from the watchtower, ran to attention before the admiral, and then reported: "Just found that two of the 12 junks have bow guns. According to the current wind Depending on the direction of the wind, it will approach our vessel in about an hour."

Wei Malang looked at Li Jin, Li Jin said with a bitter face: "It should not be a warship of officers and soldiers, they will not play this kind of banner, and they will not catch up with us so quickly."

Wei Malang nodded: "Then, they are local pirates? I really don't know how to live or die. I ordered: Everyone prepare to fight!"

The Dutch sailors still boarded the small boats, as if preparing to land in Magong Harbor while fighting against the pirates.In fact, Wei Malang really looked down on the dozen or so junk ships, and didn't think they would pose any threat to the Orange.

The other two auxiliary ships of the Dutch fleet, the Junker, carried more than 100 sailors and a large amount of supplies, and were scheduled to be used to build the base.They sailed to the harbor beach, preparing to cover the landing of the small boat.

The Orange moved towards the mouth of the bay, but Yuan Jin and others began to regret it.About 3 miles away, in the harbor where the sea breeze was blowing, a huge three-masted ship like a hill was slowly moving.The mast is covered with white canvas, and the sea breeze blows the canvas. This ship has a load of 900 tons, has 6 24-pounder guns, 18 9-pounder guns, and 36 4-pounder guns. The boat is [-] feet long and [-] feet wide. Driven by the sails, the giant ship greeted Yuan Jin and others' ships.

Yuan Jin had a lot of dealings with Folang Jiren at sea, but this was the first time he had encountered Hongmaoyi head-on. "Damn it, Hong Mao's boat is so big!" Yuan Jin gasped.

Yin Feng's Xinxing was the largest ship Yuan Jin had ever seen, but this Dutch battleship was really too big, Xinxing was only two-thirds of its size at most.Moreover, as the distance gradually narrowed, it could already be seen that there were countless gun ports densely distributed on both sides of the Dutch battleship.

Yuan Jin was taken aback immediately: "Damn it, how many cannons are there!" He looked at the only 500-jin Frang cannon on the bow of his ship, which is not enough for others to put between teeth!

What Yuan Jin saw was the gap between the Chinese and Western navies at that time. Taking the Qi Jiguang navy recorded in "Ji Xiao New Book? Governing the Navy" as an example, there were 4 Fuzhou ships, 2 Haicang ships and 4 Cangshan ships in a whole sailor battalion. The main weapons equipped on the ship together only have 40-70 cannons, barely comparable to an ordinary western warship.Moreover, many of the cannons used by the Fuchuan recorded by Qi Jiguang are separate rear-loading cannons of the Furang model, which have poor air-holding performance and a range far inferior to the front-mounted naval guns of the same period in the West.

One of Yuan Jin's subordinates said cautiously: "Mynah, there are too many red-haired cannons, what should we do?"

Yuan Jin said angrily: "Damn, I'm afraid of death! Let's go around in circles with him, just don't confront him head-on..."

The roar of the "boom" cannon reverberated around the bay, and the Dutch battleship fired.A huge water column rose into the sky, only a few feet away from Yuan Jin's boat, and the water sprayed Yuan Jin's whole body.

At a distance of 2 miles, the Dutch warship fired continuously, bombarding the Chinese pirate ship with 12 heavy cannons on the left side of the ship, then turned around, and fired a volley again with the cannon on the right side.As if to show off their force, the Dutch also fired the 4-pound cannons on the right side, causing the smoke to fill the entire battleship, and water columns shot up into the sky one after another around the Chinese pirate ship.

But at this distance, the pirate ship's Fran cannon could not hit the Dutch battleship at all, and it was completely in a passive position where it could not fight back after being hit.

Yuan Jin directed his ship through the water, trying to get close to the enemy in order to fire a cannonball, but at a distance of 600 meters from the Dutch battleship - about 400 steps away, a 9-pound iron shell hit Yuan Jin's stern In the rudder cabin, the huge rudder lost control, and the ship slid straight ahead, unable to make evasive actions.

Yuan Jin turned pale with shock: "Brothers, paddle quickly, turn around quickly!" His boat was in the shape of a bird boat with 4 pairs of paddles.But it was too late, because his ship rushed forward, which aroused the idea of ​​the Dutch; 1 minute later, the Dutch concentrated 20 guns on the port side and fired a salvo at Yuan Jin's ship.Water jets rose everywhere on the sea surface, immediately surrounding Yuan Jin's boat.A chain bomb hit the mast of Yuan Jin's ship spinning; two semicircular shells connected by a 1-meter-long iron chain centered on each other and spun across the sea, entangled the pirate ship's mast, and immediately The mast canvas and crossbar were entangled, torn, broken, and scattered, and the mast was broken in two and fell down.Yuan Jin's boat lost power and became a living target for slaughter.

The other pirate ships of the Jinghai Gang lost the courage to fight when the Dutch fired their first volley and turned around one after another.

After Yuan Jin's ship was hit, only Li Zhong's boat turned the rudder forward in an attempt to rescue Yuan Jin; the rest of the boats turned around and fled towards the mouth of Penghu Bay.

On the bow of the Dutch warship, Wei Malang put down his binoculars, not interested in this kind of suspenseless and boring battle.He asked his colleague Li Jin: "These junk ships are very good merchant ships, but they are not qualified as warships. Then, Uncle Jin, what are the naval warships of the Ming Empire like?"

According to the pronunciation of Fujian dialect, the Dutch call Li Jin "Jin Bo".Looking at the Chinese pirate ships with their masts down on the sea in the distance, Li Jin sighed and said, "Actually, most warships of the Ming Empire are also this kind of lucky ship, and these pirate ships are almost the same as civilian ships. structure."

Wei Malang nodded: "Really. Then, when will your court nobleman get news?"

Li Jin thought for a while and said: "According to the efficiency of the court bureaucrats, I am afraid it will not be very fast. I have already asked Pan Xiu and Guo Zhen as envoys to submit your request for trade to the Fujian government. At this time It should already be on the way to be sent to His Majesty the Emperor for review."

At this time, Li Jin didn't know that Pan Xiu had been arrested by Fujian officials on charges of being a traitor.And Guo Zhen, another businessman who delivered diplomatic documents for the Dutch, did not dare to enter Fuzhou City at all, nor did he dare to report to the government.Right now, Guo Zhenzheng hired a small fishing boat and hurried to Penghu.

At this time, the huge Orange shook, and a loud rumbling noise rolled past my ears.Li Jin looked up, and saw that the two Chinese pirate ships were lying to and fro, dying.The rest of the pirate ships had already fled, and the Orange had no intention of pursuing it, and turned around and headed towards the coast.On the coast, five small boats carrying 60 sailors are about to land on the beach.

……

In Quanzhou Port, Shen Yourong's boat had just landed, and the Deputy Envoy of Fujian Xunhai Road and an official of Xingquan Military Road were already waiting there.Although Shen Yourong is nothing more than the title of General Commander, there are two types of General Commander: Beiwo General and General General, and Beiwo General always acts in the command system, with heavier powers and more troops under his command, and the next-level commanders It is called the chief sentry officer, and the general sentry officer is called the chief sentry officer. This kind of general is generally the general who is in charge of the general.The other kind of Bazong, also known as Sebazong, has fewer soldiers under its jurisdiction, about 500 people, that is, the commander of the small battalion.

Shen Yourong is the general manager of Qinyi in Wuyu Water Village, which is equivalent to the third rank, so Haidao Deputy Envoy Zheng Junlan is very polite to him even though he is his nominal boss.

Zheng Junlan greeted him first, and after saluting, he said straight to the point: "General Shen, Lord Xu, the governor, ordered you and me to go to Fuzhou to discuss the matter of Hongmaoyi. It is not too late, and there is no need to make other arrangements. Let's go on your boat?"

Shen Yourong was startled, and hurriedly asked, "Master Zheng, what happened?"

"The Hongmaoyi demanded to occupy Penghu, and opened up the sea for business in accordance with the old practice of Folangji living in Macau. According to news from Xunhai Road, the Hongmaoyi have already gone to Penghu."

"Sure enough, it really is Penghu!" Shen Yourong immediately connected the movements of the fishing boats along the coast, and while letting Deputy Envoy Haidao board the boat, he said: "The troubles right now are not only the red-haired barbarians, but also those thugs and bandits along the coast, I'm afraid They will help the Hongmaoyi, and when the officers and soldiers go to encircle and suppress the Hongmaoyi, they will respond internally to the Hongmaoyi." Immediately, he told Zheng Junlan what his patrol ship had discovered.

Zheng Junlan was also taken aback: "There is such a thing? You have to guard against it."