1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 656 Rout
The various supplies that were laboriously transported from Penghu were piled up on the wharf of Nanri Island for a few days, but they had not had time to be used, and now they had to be reloaded.Of course, not all the luggage has to be shipped back to Penghu again, and some of the supplies can only be thrown here in order to reduce the burden.Zheng Zhihu ordered that only necessary supplies such as ammunition, weapons, food, grass, and fresh water be loaded on board, and all others were given up, so that the load on the ship would be less, and the sailing speed could be faster, which was also the hope of escaping from the encirclement.

Although Zheng Zhihu had retreated when he was unable to fight his opponent in the past, it was the first time in his memory that he retreated so weakly and passively.To the outside world, he is just a pirate leader, but within Shibazhi, he is a general with military power in his hands, and such a failure is a shame for a senior general-he did not achieve the goal of the battle, and did not create a war for the enemy. Enough troubles, the battle has already ended at the stage that just started, although it can continue to hold on, but in fact the victory and defeat have been decided.

Zheng Zhihu's mood now is even worse than that day when he lost the artillery battle. He can tolerate the gap in weapons and combat level with his opponent, but this time the defeat in Nanri Island can be said to be a complete loss, from the beginning to the end. There was not even a chance of winning.For a general leading troops, this is a great blow to his self-confidence.Even if he can return to Penghu safely this time, Zheng Zhihu also understands that he will probably never have the opportunity to lead troops to fight the Haihan people in the future.

When Zheng Zhihu was sitting in the tent thinking about life, suddenly a soldier entered the account in a panic and reported: "Master, the enemy ships outside the harbor are moving!"

Zheng Zhihu immediately came back to his senses, grabbed the waist knife and walked out: "Hurry up and send an order to inform the gunner!"

Shibazhi was blocked in the harbor by the joint fleet of Fujian Navy and Haihan Navy, but he did not sit still.In order to prevent the opponent's warship from breaking in from the sea, Zheng Zhihu arranged all the remaining artillery on the dock, and the muzzle was facing the direction of the entrance of the harbor.However, Zheng Zhihu was not sure whether the remaining dozen or so cannons could block this hole, and he knew very well that once the opponent really launched an offensive, it would probably be thunderous and hit without any room left. Don't even think about getting lucky.

When Zheng Zhihu hurried to the pier, he could already see the opponent's warships appearing one after another on the sea at the entrance of the harbor, only about two miles away from the pier.At this distance, Shibazhi's artillery could not exert its power for the time being, so Zheng Zhihu could only watch helplessly as the opponent's ships approached the port bit by bit.

"Stop at about the same distance, we don't need to stick too close." At the same time, Xie Li also issued an order on his own boat: "No ship is allowed to enter rashly, only allowed to fire at a safe distance!"

Xie Li didn't really plan to rush into the harbor to kill the pirates' sailing ships. This harbor is less than 1500 meters from east to west, and less than 1000 meters from north to south. The area is too small. Mixing with Shibazhi's ship, if you want to use heavy weapons such as artillery, you will be cautious, and you will easily hurt your own people.Therefore, Xie Li's tactics were relatively conservative, that is, let the Haihan warships equipped with heavy artillery directly bombard the pirate ships in the harbor from a safe distance.

The bombardment at this distance is actually very difficult to achieve the effect of sinking. The main purpose is to use this to create panic on the Shibazhi on the shore.After all, the last hope for these pirates to leave Nanri Island is these ships. If the ships are destroyed, they will completely lose the possibility of escape.

And not all the artillery on the Haihan battleship can exert its power at this distance. The design of the naval gun is to pursue short-range lethality. The range of the artillery of the same caliber is almost half.Only about one-third of the artillery on the warship can cover the pirate ships in the harbor.

But even so, when the Haihan warship started shelling, chaos still appeared in Shibazhi's camp as expected.Some pirates who were unwilling to sit still rushed to board the ship, trying to escape from this passive environment.However, there are also a few people who have maintained their rationality and think that it is not the best time to flee, and even if they want to run, they should wait and see the situation.

Zheng Zhihu was one of the few people who still kept his senses. The reason why he didn't organize the escape in a panic was because he saw that the area of ​​the bay was too small, and the Ming army and Haihan's fleet didn't dare rush in to meet them. Side battle.But now the firing distance of the Haihan battleship is too far away, so that it is difficult to cause substantial damage to the Shibazhi fleet in the harbor. If you drive the ship to rush outside, it will give the opponent a chance to shell at close range. The chances of a ship being hit by a bomb will be greatly increased.

However, the pirates under him were not in the mood to calmly analyze the situation. After two days of calm, almost all the pirates' nerves were already highly tense, and everyone was waiting for the final battle to erupt.Haihan took the initiative to launch an offensive from the sea at this time. In the eyes of most people, it was interpreted as Haihan's general attack. If they are not fleeing by boat at this time, do they have to wait until the Haihan people sink all their ships? Is it in port?
Leaving Nanri Island alive is the only hope left for every pirate, but Zheng Zhihu's previous command obviously did not get the approval of his subordinates. On Nanri Island, Zheng Zhihu didn't even take advantage of the slightest advantage, and all tactics were restrained by the opponent. How can people willingly obey his command and dispatch?Therefore, not everyone is willing to follow Zheng Zhihu's order to guard the port. Some small bosses who have long been dissatisfied would rather lead the crowd to escape under the bombardment than continue to stay on the island and wait for an unclear situation. ending.

And the escape of these people has led to more people who were originally holding a wait-and-see attitude—others have fled, so should I stay and wait to die?When there are too many people and boats, they might just take advantage of the chaos and get out.

Zheng Zhihu looked at the chaotic situation in the port, the expression on his face was full of despair.He didn't expect to spend so much manpower, material and financial resources to organize the attack on Nanri Island this time. In the end, he didn't even have the opportunity to confront his opponent on the frontal battlefield, and his side was already defeated.

Seeing hundreds of people swarming to board the boat on the pier, Zheng Zhihu knew that he could no longer stop these irrational crowds.Even if he wants to pursue responsibility, he probably has to wait until he returns to Penghu alive.

"Pack up your bags and prepare to board the ship and go to sea!" Zheng Zhihu gave the order helplessly.Even if he stays now, he will definitely not be able to gather the morale of the army again and organize a decisive battle with the opponent.The current plan can only be to follow the trend and escape from Nanri Island first.

However, this was not the worst situation. Just a moment later, someone reported that the defenders of Nanri Village had been dispatched, and it was less than two miles away from the pirate camp.Moreover, there were quite a few mules, horses and carts in the team, and it was suspected that they were pulling several Haihan cannons.

The house leak happened to be raining all night, and Zheng Zhihu didn't even bother to think about why the two enemy forces, land and sea, were able to move so synchronously. The only remaining chance is to get out of this predicament as soon as possible.

Zheng Zhihu's run directly led to the complete collapse of the Eighteen Zhi camp. No one was willing to stay behind to face the wolf-like Haihan militia.When Gao Qiaonan led the leading troops to arrive outside the Shibazhi camp, it was already quiet here, and there were no people on the wall who were in charge of keeping an eye on the enemy.

"Fire the cannon, open the gate!" Takahashi Nan didn't rush to charge, but asked someone to set up the two three-pound small-caliber cannons that arrived at the same time with the vanguard, and while blasting the gate, he also took a look at the opponent. Do you still want to lay an ambush?

With the sound of two cannons, the wooden gate of the pirate camp trembled and fell into the dust, and after that, not to mention the figure, there was not even the slightest movement, and the sound of shelling from the distant sea could be faintly heard.

Gao Qiaonan pulled out the command knife at his waist and pointed forward: "Follow me! If you encounter resistance, kill them all!"

The situation at sea was not much better than on land. Although the warships of the Haihan Navy were not enough to block the entire sea, Xie Li came up with a way to make up for it according to the battlefield situation.He concentrated Haihan's warships on the east side of the harbor exit and lined them up in a battle formation, leaving about a third of the gap on the west side.In this way, the pirate ships escaping from the harbor will definitely not choose to head-on to the array of Haihan warships, but will bypass this dangerous area and grab the safe channel that is one-third of the width.

However, since the pier in the harbor is on the east side, these pirate ships will also be exposed to the artillery fire of the Haihan warship when they circumnavigate this dangerous water area.Even if they were lucky enough to escape from the artillery fire and enter the safe channel, it does not mean that it is already safe, because outside this safe channel, more than 40 warships of the Fujian Navy lined up densely in two groups. The arc-shaped encirclement of the first floor, waiting for the pirate ship to rush out, throws itself into the trap.

Compared with attacking targets thousands of meters away, the hit rate of naval guns shooting close-range targets is obviously much higher, and these live targets are still lined up one after another, so that the gunners on the Haihan battleship will be able to attack them in the next step. Very busy for a period of time.In order to maintain the continuity of firepower output, naval officers had to order only half of the ship's broadside guns to attack, and use the other half of the guns to replace them when the gun body overheated and needed to cool down.

Although the density of artillery fire is difficult to guarantee that the target will be sunk within the short distance of [-] kilometers from the harbor mouth, it is difficult for most pirate ships to avoid being shot. The speed will be significantly affected immediately, and at the same time, it will block the narrow channel and implicate the fleeing pirate ships behind.

Zheng Zhihu's boat did not choose to take the shortest escape route to compete with other pirate ships for better luck, but chose the near-shore route, making a big circle in the harbor and then sailing to the escape channel on the west side.The sight of the Haihan battleship in the distance is blocked, and it is difficult to aim at this ship for shooting.

Zheng Zhihu looked back at the pier, the last batch of pirates were still hurriedly boarding the ship, while the Haihan militiamen had already entered the camp, only about a hundred feet away from the pier.Most of the last batch of pirates who boarded the ship were wounded from previous battles. Obviously, these people would not have much chance to escape from Nanri Island.Zheng Zhihu clenched his fists tightly, his eyes almost burst into flames.He really wanted to fight the Haihan militia, but he also knew that even if he stayed on the island, it would not change the outcome of the battle.

Shibazhi lost, and it was a miserable loss. What he lost was not only Nanri Island and the elite troops he brought this time, but also his belief in a decisive battle with the Haihan people in the future.Abandoning Nanri Island and fleeing back to Penghu might be able to keep Shibazhi safe for a while, but Zheng Zhihu had a strong feeling in his heart that the Haihan people would not let it go. Suppress Shibazhi.And this opponent is no longer as easy to deal with as the Ming army in the past. Not only are they good at fighting, but they also seem to be unable to buy them with benefits—the whole southeast coast has only heard of so and so being secretly bought by the Haihan people, but never heard of such a thing. Who ever bribed the Haihan people.

"After I go back, I have to suggest to my elder brother to find another way. It's really not a way to fight the Haihan people like this!" Zheng Zhihu now recalled that before the battle, a counselor suggested temporarily avoiding his edge, but he rejected it, and he felt a little regretful.If Fujian really can't stay any longer, you can go north to the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to find a big island to settle down, or go south to Luzon Island is also a good choice, why bother to fight to the death with Haihan, the evil star?Although it is a troublesome thing to move, it is better than the current situation of being beaten passively.

Before Zheng Zhihu could recover from his contemplation, a shell passed over his ship, breaking the main mast in the middle, and the deck suddenly became a riot of yelling and shouting.This cannonball came from the Haihan warship farthest to the west, and it came from the bow of the ship. The gunner also saw that the pirate ship was about to enter the escape route, so he fired a cannon to try his luck. It was also Zheng Zhihu's fate to break his main mast.

"Don't panic! Push the mast into the sea and move on!" Zheng Zhihu saw that the fallen mast had pushed the ship to a side, so he quickly organized the sailors to help themselves.His ship is a three-masted ship. Even if he loses the main mast and main sail, he still has the power to move forward, but the speed is much slower.

(End of this chapter)