1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 655 Dilemma
Judging from the process of the fight and the current situation of the battle, Zheng Zhihu realized that this was obviously not the battle of revenge he expected, but that the opponent had set up a trap early on, waiting for his team to step in on their own.How many troops the opponent has stationed in Nanri Village is still unclear for the time being, but judging from the deployment of troops at sea, the opponent has obviously made preparations early, and even the Dutch who assisted in the battle have also been calculated.

Zheng Zhihu thought that when Haihan took the lead to attack Nanri Island last time, only three warships were dispatched, and this time there were obviously more than this number of Haihan warships at sea-this did not include the large ship. Including the frightening giant ship, maybe it is lying in ambush somewhere in the waters around Nanri Island, quietly waiting for a suitable time to attack.Of course, judging from the current situation, Haihan no longer needs to sacrifice this big weapon to control the situation of the battle.

After the Dutch retreated, they probably would not come back to rescue the people on the island.And the small number of ships that escaped in the morning obviously did not have enough strength to kill a carbine.At most, they would go directly to Penghu and inform Zheng Zhilong of the battle here.With the current situation in Penghu, it is probably impossible to send another support soldier to rescue the predicament on Nanri Island in a short time.

After a while of chaos, the statistics of the leaders' teams were finally fed back to Zheng Zhihu.At present, there are more than 100 members of Shibazhi on the island, including more than 73 wounded who are unable to continue fighting.There are 60 sea-going ships remaining, eleven of which were seriously damaged in the morning battle, and it will be difficult to persist in the long-distance voyage without maintenance.Of course, with the loading capacity of the remaining [-]-odd ships, we can squeeze all the people away, but whether we can leave here safely is another matter.

In terms of supplies, the food and grass they have brought is quite sufficient. Because there were hundreds of people who died in battle and escaped before, the remaining food can be consumed by the troops on the island for at least half a month.But there is not so much time left for them to stay, because it will take about two days on the way back.If you are pursued by the enemy, you may need to circle the sea to get rid of it, and the required sailing time will be multiplied.

As for morale, this is what Zheng Zhihu really needs to worry about. After being frustrated several times in a row, the morale of this team has been obviously unstable, especially in the naval battle this morning, which Shibazhi regards as relying on The defeat of the Dutch fleet dealt a considerable psychological blow to the pirates.If he wants to continue fighting with Haihan and the Ming army now, then Zheng Zhihu must think carefully about how to revive his morale, and the sooner the better, the situation will drag on, and it will only hurt the ten trapped on the island. Bazhi is getting more and more unfavorable.

"After lunch, they must start to attack, right?" Zheng Zhihu couldn't help but think of such a possibility.Since the opponent had won very smoothly in the previous few encounters, the possibility of chasing after the victory would be quite high.

"Come here!" Zheng Zhihu called his soldiers in, and then sent an order: "Bring the brothers a meal early at noon, and let the cook kill a few pigs, and each brother must have a share! Take me The silver box on the boat was brought out, and each person was given two taels of silver. Tell everyone, starting today, each person’s daily salary will be increased by two taels until we return to Penghu safely!"

In fact, Zheng Zhihu has no idea how much morale these measures can increase, but in terms of the current environment, there are indeed not many measures he can take.Zheng Zhihu can only hope to give his opponent a certain blow in the next match, and then look for an opportunity to leave the island.

During the lunch, Zheng Zhihu also let go of his airs and asked his soldiers to follow behind with a jar of wine. He patrolled around the camp, seeing the leader of the army, he went up to toast a bowl of wine and exchanged a few words of encouragement.For those men who were injured and unable to move, Zheng Zhihu even knelt down and personally fed two pieces of pork to the wounded with chopsticks to show his concern.Although this kind of temporary cramming seems too blunt, it can more or less play a role in buying people's hearts.

However, after noon, there was no movement in the direction of Nanri Village. The garrison there did not seem to plan to take the initiative to attack, and the enemy ships at sea showed no signs of trying to enter the harbor for an assault.The terrible thing is that there is not much vegetation on Nanri Island, and there are not even tall trees near the port. Under the direct sunlight of the dog days, Shibazhi's camp is like a steamer, bare The ground is literally hot.And under the scorching heat, Shibazhi's men and horses had to prepare for battle on the ground with full armor to guard against the opponent's surprise attack.

However, this kind of waiting is doomed to be in vain. Qian Tiandun in Nanri Village has already made up his mind to drag Shibazhi to death, and Xu Jiaqi doesn't want to come forward to take the credit—in fact, Xu Xinsu arranged for him to be with him on the island. The Haihan militia was stationed together, and the relevant credit was already given to him in advance.Even if the Ming army only did a little layman's work, the credit for defeating the pirates after the war would still be credited to him, the general who led the troops.There will be no second person to compete with him for this credit, so why take the risk to attack Shibazhi's camp again?
The pirates waited like this from noon until the sun set, sweating profusely, and did not wait for the opponent's initiative to attack.Zheng Zhihu had to throw out some remarks such as "the Haihan people are afraid of our army's bravery and dare not invite war" to appease the restless military spirit.However, people with a discerning eye have actually discovered that Shibazhi's current situation is a dilemma, and he can't attack or leave if he wants to.

However, after the sun goes down, it doesn't mean that Shibazhi will be able to relax. The Haihan people's night attacks are so powerful. They have already tasted it on the first day of landing on the island, so naturally they dare not be careless now.

Zheng Zhihu didn't get a good night's sleep that night, he was woken up by the soldiers three times just because of the alarm.The pirates on duty at night heard various noises coming from the night outside the camp, and suspected that an enemy was about to launch a night attack, so they activated the alarm.But when Zheng Zhihu rushed to the front line in a hurry, the outside became silent again.

Zheng Zhihu did not blame the sentinel for this, after all, this was his duty, and he returned to the camp to rest after making sure that nothing happened.Unexpectedly, before he fell asleep, he was awakened by the police again. When he rushed to the gate of the camp, he found out that someone fired guns at the camp outside, but luckily no one was injured.Judging from the intensity of gunfire, at least dozens of enemy gunmen were lurking in the night outside the camp.

"If someone shoots again, you will fight back!" Zheng Zhihu didn't have any good solutions to this kind of harassment, and he didn't dare to send people out of the camp to clean up the nearby area.Although he didn't know what tricks his opponent had, it was obvious that his opponent was superior in fighting in the dark, and sending people out would probably be death in vain.

When Zheng Zhihu went back to lie down again, he was awakened by the sound of the police gong outside just as he was drowsy.This time Zheng Zhihu couldn't hold back any longer, and walked out with his clothes on, muttering, "If the Haihan people didn't launch an offensive this time, I'll kill this idiot who gave the warning!"

But without his hands, the idiot who gave the warning would have died.When Zheng Zhihu rushed to the gate of the camp, he saw several pirates carrying the unlucky ghost's body down from the sentry post on the wall.

"What happened?" Zheng Zhihu hurriedly asked, "Have the Haihan people started fighting?"

"Report to the head of the family, the Haihan people shot our people with crossbow arrows. Before this brother died, he sent out a warning." A small leader immediately reported to him.

Zheng Zhihu squatted down to look at the man's body. A crossbow arrow thinner than a little finger pierced through the left chest and exited the back, piercing the heart.Judging from the injury, it should be a fatal blow, and the warning signal was issued before dying, most likely it was also made up by this little boss.

Zheng Zhihu stretched out his hand to hold the arrow tail of the crossbow arrow, and slowly pulled it out from the corpse.This crossbow arrow is the same as the weapon used by Hai Han in the night attack two days ago. It is also made of some kind of metal. It feels relatively cold to start with. The arrow does not have the barbs that appear on ordinary bows and arrows. It seems that the user should be very lethal to it. With confidence, there is no need for arrow barbs, which increase the damage of the structural design.

What made Zheng Zhihu feel chilling was not only that the crossbow arrow hit the sentry's heart accurately, but also penetrated the front and back two layers of cowhide breastplate in one fell swoop, nailing the man in half. This kind of lethality is really terrible.And Shibazhi specially set up a number of fires outside the camp, and the sentinel's visible field of vision could be kept at least about five feet.If the opponent shoots the sentry from this distance, the accuracy and power of this weapon will be terrible.In Zheng Zhihu's perception, the military crossbows of the Ming army did not seem to be able to achieve such strength.

Everyone is dead, and there is no point in pursuing who sent the warning.Zheng Zhihu took a deep breath, stood up and ordered: "Strengthen your guard before dawn, but don't panic, the Haihan people have nothing to do with us, they can only engage in this sneaky way to interfere with us. Today's revenge, in the Retribution will be doubled on the battlefield!"

However, it seems that the Haihan people don't even intend to leave the chance of revenge to Shibazhi. This day is still peaceful. The Nanri Village has not even opened the gate of the village, and the sailors and Haihan warships outside the harbor He still maintained restraint, and had no intention of rushing into the harbor to fight Shibazhi.

With the development of the situation to the current situation, as long as you are not a fool, you can figure out what the opponent is up to.Zheng Zhihu really wanted to send people to Nanri Village to yell and invite to fight, but he also knew that such a move would probably be futile—if someone went outside to yell and yell, the most likely possibility would be not the Haihan people to fight, but to call for battle People were beaten into sieves by Haihan guns protruding from the wall.

Now that the Haihan people have made up their minds to prolong the war, it is not a situation that can be resolved by sending people to scold them.Although Zheng Zhihu has no military talent, he will not naively think that his opponent will be easily provoked.Obviously, the opponent wants to continue to procrastinate until Shibazhi runs out of ammunition and food and is unable to fight. At that time, the group of people trapped on the island can be easily captured.

"How can I let you get what you want!" Zheng Zhihu was angry, but he was not willing to let him go.He is not afraid of death. He has been in the sea for so many years, fought on the battlefield so many times, and experienced more than one or two near-death experiences. He has already seen through life and death. He will never choose to give in.

But Zheng Zhihu didn't want to die too aggrieved, and didn't want to become a prisoner of war of the Haihan people in the end, and die in a dark prison.Before the situation deteriorates to the worst, he must fight again, and let the Haihan people know that Shibazhi's heroes are not so easy to subdue.Of course, he didn't intend to insist on confronting the Haihan people head-on on Nanri Island under the obvious lack of strength in front of him. He still has his own ideas about when to make a move and when to endure. trade-off.

"Pass my order, each battalion starts to pack up, and after nightfall, all personnel board the ship in batches, and when midnight arrives, the brothers rush out of the port by boat and leave this ghost place!" Zheng Zhihu finally issued the preparations Order to retreat.The pirates who brought Nanri Island this time were all the elite of the Eighteen Zhi. It would be a pity that they were all lost on this uninhabited island. Zheng Zhihu still planned to bring them back to Penghu as much as possible.If you keep the green hills, you don’t have to worry about running out of firewood. Next time, just find a chance to compete with the Haihan people.

As long as the fleet rushed to the sea, no matter how hard the Haihan people could fight, their limited warships would not be able to surround dozens of sailing ships fleeing for their lives.On this point, Zheng Zhihu can be said to be quite sure.

However, it was hard for him to imagine what was going on in his camp. In fact, he was under Haihan's surveillance all the time.On the sea surface not far from Nanri Island Harbor, there is a small uninhabited island with an area of ​​less than 0 square kilometers. The island is empty except for hills more than 1 meters above sea level.And after the Haihan Navy took control of this place a day ago, a wooden watchtower more than ten meters high was added to the top of the hill on the island. Standing on this watchtower, you can basically have a panoramic view of the entire harbor. .If you add advanced military binoculars, you can clearly see the movements in the Shibazhi camp next to the port.

"The pirates started to pack up their things and move them to the ship?" Xie Li couldn't help smiling after hearing the report: "It seems that Zheng Zhihu can't stay any longer, and he's planning to run away! We also rested all day Alright, notify all units, immediately cancel the rotation status, and all the staff will enter the combat position. Two hours later, we will enter the port to give them a surprise."

(End of this chapter)