1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 649 Unreasonable Means

All the outposts deployed outside disappeared without a sound. Such a strange situation made Zheng Zhihu, who was already restless, sleepless.Even though he has never studied the art of war systematically, he can still think that this phenomenon may indicate that the enemy will launch a large-scale night attack in the future, so he does not dare to slack off at all, not only strengthening the front-line defense force, I also personally sit in the town, guarding against the opponent's next move.

From time to time, some strange sounds drifted into the ears of the pirates in the sea breeze, some were like the roar of wild beasts, and some were like the groans of people after being injured. What happened in the wilderness.Everyone was extremely anxious, worried that hundreds of thousands of enemies would rush out of the night in the next moment.After a long time, some people even began to claim that they could smell a faint smell of blood in the wind—it might be from the partner who had been killed outside.

By the time of the fifth watch, some small bosses who couldn't hold back had already asked Zheng Zhihu to fight, and wanted to take people out to have a look.Zheng Zhihu thought that sitting and waiting like this was not an option, at least he had to find out whether the opponent was really planning to launch a field battle or just harass him, so he asked the little boss to lead more than ten people and quietly go out through the gate.In order to conceal his whereabouts, he didn't even use lighting tools such as torches and lanterns, so he submerged deeply into the night like this.

However, the luck of this group of people does not seem to be any better than those of the partners who disappeared before, and after going out, it is like a stone sinking into the sea.The people in the camp waited for a long time to burn incense before they heard someone shouting from the wilderness to the east, but it was immediately interrupted abruptly, as if someone had cut their throat.

When the team set off, they specially brought two gongs with them, and agreed that if they ran into a large enemy force and had no time to retreat, they would sound the gongs as a warning.But until an hour passed, the people in the camp neither heard the sound of the gong, nor did the team retreat according to the agreed time, and just disappeared into the night.

Zheng Zhihu didn't dare to continue sending people out anymore. Sending his subordinates to die so worthlessly was not what he wanted to see.Zheng Zhihu decided to wait until dawn no matter what the situation outside was like.

Another hour passed, and the sky was slightly brighter, but at the same time, the morning fog also filled the island, and the field of vision was still greatly restricted, and the visible range was only a dozen meters at most.

It wasn't until the sun rose above the sea level that the fog began to lift.When the sun penetrated the morning fog and hit the ground, the pirates standing on the lookout finally saw the situation outside.

About thirty or forty feet away from the gate of Shibazhiying Village, a row of corpses were neatly placed on the ground, each corpse was spaced one foot apart, and their heads and feet were all facing the same direction.Next to the corpses were the weapons that these people carried, including spears, waist knives, harpoons, axes, etc.—they were the people who disappeared outside the camp last night.Apart from these corpses, there was nothing in the wilderness, and there was no Da Ming or Hai Han's army moving around.

After confirming that the outside environment was safe, Zheng Zhihu ordered people to go out to collect the bodies of these people.There is no doubt that the enemies in Nanri Village must have come out to launch a sneak attack last night, and this sneak attack should have lasted most of the night, so as to have enough time to deal with the two groups of troops sent by Shibazhi successively. And he still has the heart to put their bodies outside to demonstrate.

More than 20 corpses were quickly carried back to the camp. Yi Lao Er arrived at the scene without notice, and began to claim the corpses with trepidation.The results of the statistics came out soon. The first batch of people sent out to watch before dark was missing two people.

"The ones who didn't die should have been caught alive!" Zheng Zhihu quickly guessed the truth of the matter, but this didn't ease his anger at the moment: "Elder Yi, what are you doing for food? This is your flower A scout trained with a lot of money? The skills are not as good as others, and it’s fine to be killed by others, but they didn’t even have time to send out a warning signal, what use are you guys for!”

Yi Laoer stammered and defended: "The head of the family, this...it's not that the brothers are incompetent, it's really...that the enemy is too powerful!"

"You're still quibbling!" Zheng Zhihu scolded with a stare, "Do you think you can excuse your fault by doing this?"

"The villain dare not!" Yi Lao Er knelt down on the ground, and continued: "Master, please take a closer look at the injuries on these brothers, and then you will know that what the villain said is true."

Zheng Zhihu was only concerned about getting angry just now, but before he had time to carefully examine the injuries on these people, his heart moved when he heard this, and he immediately walked quickly to the side of these corpses.Yi Lao Er hurriedly got up and followed, pulled off the wounded man's clothes, and explained to Zheng Zhihu.

"Look, master, this man is called Cao Shanbiao. He used to be a snitch in Fuzhou City. He is very agile and runs fast. His fatal wound is behind him." Yi Lao Er said while turning the body over. , Lifting his shirt, he saw a blood hole the size of a copper coin at the lower end of his left shoulder blade.

"This wound runs through Cao Shanbiao's body. It looks like it was injured by a bow and crossbow weapon. The wound penetrated from behind and forward. It is very likely that Cao Shanbiao was shot when he was about to run back after discovering his opponent's whereabouts. Down." Yi Lao Er calmed down at this time, and finally said: "The villain draws two conclusions from this, first, the injury he suffered directly passed through his body, so it can be seen that the person who killed him The bows and crossbows used by people are very powerful. Second, the night was dark last night, and the moon did not appear much. There is only one possibility that the other party can use weapons such as bows and crossbows to kill people in such a dark night, and that is the distance between them. Cao Shanbiao is so close that you can shoot him without aiming."

"There's some truth to it...continue!" Zheng Zhihu's anger gradually dissipated after hearing what he said clearly.A successful spy leader will do more than just train spies and scouts, intelligence analysis is also one of the important means that must be mastered.Although these people died silently, those who are interested can actually find some useful information from their corpses.

"The head of the family, please look at this corpse. It was cut in the throat and almost cut off the neck." Yi Laoer let go of Cao Shanbiao's body, moved to another corpse next to him and continued to explain: "From the wound From the looks of it, this is not the scar caused by the slashing in the fight, it is more like someone covered his mouth and nose from behind, and then cut his throat with a sharp knife."

Yi Laoer stood up slowly and said: "The villain has seen these more than 20 corpses just now, almost all of them were fatally wounded by one blow, and the knife wounds were mostly concentrated in the throat and chest, and the techniques were quite consistent. And the bow The wounds caused by the crossbow almost all penetrated the chest, and two people were even hit by arrows in the head, but the arrows have been pulled out, so it is impossible to confirm what the opponent's weapon looks like."

"Then what is your final conclusion?" Zheng Zhihu waited patiently for him to finish before asking.

Yi Laoer frowned and said: "The opponent's methods are already very clear, basically they are all fighting after getting close, and our people should not have had time to resist. There is one thing that the villain can't figure out. Last night, in such a dark night where you can't stretch out your hands, How did the opponent find out the exact location of Cao Shanbiao and the others? According to common sense, who would use weapons like bows and crossbows when attacking at night to detect the sentry? The range they can see is only within a radius of one or two feet, so this hit misses It will alarm the target, but they used this method to kill more than ten of us, which is really unreasonable!"

Zheng Zhihu also realized the unreasonableness of this at this time, and he could even make up such a scene in his brain - the opponent approached his subordinates in the dark without any haste, and then used a sharp blade or crossbow to attack them at very close range. The unsuspecting target was assassinated at a distance.And after completing these killings, the opponents even had time to gather their corpses together and display them outside Shibazhi's camp for demonstrations.There is no doubt that it is very difficult to complete the whole process without any mistakes. As long as one misses, someone may issue a warning, but what is frightening is that the opponent actually did it in the dark. How did they do it? of?

Yi Laoer lowered his voice at this time and said: "The villain heard...the Haihan people are proficient in sorcery, and have many methods to confuse the opponent's mind on the battlefield..."

"Ridiculous!" Zheng Zhihu reprimanded before Yi Lao Er could finish speaking, "Don't bring up such remarks that shake the morale of the army!"

Yi's second son didn't dare to defend himself after being scolded, so he could only bow his head in response.Zheng Zhihu said again: "You first collect the bones of these brothers, and after breaking through the Nanri Village, then take the heads of the Haihan people to pay homage to them!"

Although Zheng Zhihu reprimanded Yi Lao Er in public, the other party's statement still lingered in his mind.The legend about the Haihan people's methods is actually not news for a long time. When Liu Xiang came back from a big defeat at the mouth of the Pearl River, he once mentioned all kinds of magical things about the Haihan people.Of course, leaders like Zheng Zhihu, who had never confronted the Haihan militia head-on at that time, didn't believe it at all. They thought it was just Liu Xiang making excuses for his failure.If someone really wants to win on the battlefield by relying on tactics, then why do we need so many young and strong soldiers?Wouldn't it be nice to directly train a group of wizards to fight the enemy?
However, two months ago when the Haihan militia attacked Nanri Island, Zheng Zhihu really felt the strength of his opponent.However, even though he was defeated at that time, he didn't seem to feel what magic the opponent would use in the battle as in the legend—if the violent artillery bombardment was also the spell of the Haihan people, it would be really terrible.

But the weird situation that happened last night can no longer be explained clearly by common sense. There are also many archers in Shibazhi's formation, and there are many outstanding ones who can penetrate Yang with a hundred steps, but Zheng Zhihu will never be so stupid as to let the archers attack in the middle of the night To play the role of vanguard, after all, in the middle of the night, archers with limited vision will not be more useful than ordinary infantry.

However, the arrangement of the Haihan militia was obviously out of the ordinary, and they even sent crossbowmen to fight in the dark. It seems that only Yi Laoer's statement can explain the reason why they are so confident-maybe the Haihan people have some kind of magic, which can Let their soldiers see in the night as in the day.

Although this speculation is actually infinitely close to the truth, the thinking of Zheng Zhilong and his pirates has gone astray.Through these more than 20 lives, Zheng Zhihu has learned at least one lesson, that is, never fight with the Haihan people at night. The difference in combat effectiveness between the two sides at night is really too far, so far that they don't even have a chance to fight back.

Before the corpses of these unlucky ones were all cleaned up, someone came to report that something suspected to be a bow and arrow was picked up outside.Soon the item was presented to Zheng Zhihu, it was an arrow made of metal, with a silvery light, more than one foot long, it looked like a crossbow arrow, but it was very light in weight, and the material was neither iron nor copper, similar to wood.The balance wings at the tail are not feathers, they are very light and thin, and I don't know what material they are made of.Zheng Zhihu tried to bend the arrow with a little force in his hand, but found that it was far harder than wood.There were faintly visible bloodstains on the arrowhead and arrow shaft. It seemed that this was one of the murder weapons that killed his subordinates last night.

In the sweeping operation last night, there were indeed seven or eight arrows that were not retrieved in time after they were shot, and were left in the wilderness. It was one of them that was found by the people who were cleaning the battlefield by Shibazhi.However, it is not that there is no substitute for this kind of arrow. There are several types of tough wood in Southeast Asia that can be used to make this kind of special crossbow. That's why Qian Tiandun boldly used this kind of arrow in night raids. The effect of killing enemies is good. But it is not a weapon that is convenient to recover.

Despite the unfavorable start, after landing on the island, he suffered a dull loss before the official war started, and his morale also suffered a certain setback, but the plan to attack Nanri Village could not be stopped because of this.Zheng Zhihu brought more than 2000 people on this trip, plus the Dutch who were covering the outside, the daily consumption of supplies is not a small number, and the supplies they carry are only enough to last for about ten days. Take Nanri Village as soon as possible, and if you drag it to the end, you will have to retreat on your own—just like the result of the Ming army attacking here before.

After tidying up, Zheng Zhihu still ordered to leave the camp and set out in the direction of Nanri Village, preparing to attack the village.However, if he knew how many troops his opponent had stationed on the island, perhaps he would immediately dispel this unrealistic idea and evacuate Nanri Island as quickly as possible.

"Shibazhi is moving..." Standing on the observation deck, Qian Tiandun saw the movement in the distance through the telescope, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Okay, I didn't get scared away, you guys have the courage!"

(End of this chapter)