1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 708 Blocking Failure
Among the Eighteen Zhilong, Zheng Zhilong is the leader, and the other seventeen have their seats arranged in order according to their strength.He Bin and Guo Huaiyi, who defected to Dayuangang, were the last two in the ranking, while Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi were also relatively low in the seats, and they didn't have much right to speak in Shibazhi .Li Kuiqi knew that he could not resist the mission assigned by Zheng Zhilong, but he still tried his best to win some benefits for himself at this juncture.

The two took orders to leave, but when they parted, Liu Xiang pulled Li Kuiqi and said in a low voice: "If the battle situation is unfavorable, evacuate as soon as possible, life-saving is the most important thing!"

Li Kuiqi looked at Liu Xiang and nodded slowly.He also understands why Liu Xiang made such a reminder. After all, the two will join hands to meet the enemy next time. If they don't keep pace, there may be troubles.Even if you can't fight and want to escape, you have to be as synchronized as possible, otherwise your companions may be trapped in the battlefield and it is difficult to escape.

The two returned to the camp and ordered soldiers and generals each.However, Penghu Island and Magong Port were in chaos at this time, and the process of gathering their troops was not smooth. Half an hour later, they boarded the ship and went to sea, and the two of them failed to assemble the [-]-ship fleet requested by Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong watched the fleet of two people sailing slowly away from the shore on the pier, and said with a blank expression: "Let the boarding team speed up, and individuals are not allowed to bring large items, and don't move things on board the boat." !"

When the relocation plan was initially made, Zheng Zhilong still hoped to scrape the ground and take away all the things that Penghu could take away, so that he could settle down faster when he arrived in the new place.But the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse, and the entire relocation plan had to be advanced several days, and the time available for boarding and departure was also greatly shortened.In order to ensure that the evacuation of large troops is completed before the arrival of the enemy fleet, Zheng Zhilong can only order to abandon part of the luggage, targeting those guys who even have to ship away all the wardrobe, rice, box, bed, board and toilet.If these people were allowed to slowly move the bulky things to the ship, it might not be enough for another three days.

Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi hurried to meet the vanguard fleet of the coalition forces about [-] nautical miles west of Magong Port.The vanguard fleet composed of four hundred-material fast boats did not undertake the task of sea combat, so they slowed down quickly after discovering the pirate fleet leaving the port to meet them, and at the same time issued a fire alarm to inform the large troops behind.

"It seems that Shibazhi haven't had time to evacuate all of them."

After getting the reward from the front, Wang Tom said to Yan Chujie and Qian Tiandun who were also on the flagship: "They actually sent a fleet to meet us. There are only two possibilities. Their retreat buys time."

Judging from the one-sided record of the Haihan militia in the past, Shibazhi's courage to confront Haihan head-on at sea should have disappeared long ago.After the two battles on Nanri Island last year, Shibazhi had clearly realized how big the gap between the two sides was in terms of maritime armed forces, so they never sent a fleet to fight along the coast of Fujian.As long as Zheng Zhilong didn't go crazy, he should be well aware of how slim the possibility of defeating the Haihan fleet at sea is.

"It's good to warm us up. How many boats have come from Shibazhi?" Not only did Yan Chujie not feel nervous at all when he heard the news, he was a little more excited on the contrary.

"Hundreds of them. However, a large ship with more than [-] materials is at most one-tenth, and it will not pose too much threat to us." Wang Tom said easily: "If everything goes well, the battle can be resolved in about an hour. .”

Wang Tom's tone is very relaxed, but he will not slack off when commanding the battle.He asked the sailors to hang the flag on the main mast of the "Majesty", slowed down the speed of the troop carrier and the supply ship, and put his own fleet in the center, and the other two fleets led by Shi Diwen and Roger were on the left and right The two wings are wrapped in an arc to the direction of the Shibazhi fleet.The warships of the Ming army followed closely behind, responsible for checking for omissions and filling vacancies on the battlefield, and helping to clean up the fish that slipped through the net.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the fleets of the two sides encountered each other at sea.Although Shibazhi has a large number of ships in battle, in terms of displacement, there is a big gap compared with the Haihan fleet.Especially compared with the big size of the "majestic class" warship, the so-called big ship on Shibazhi's side also looks very small.The battle hadn't even started yet, but Shibazhi had already lost a head in terms of momentum alone.

The Haihan Fleet skillfully seized the T-head to expand the formation, and then used the sideboard guns to give the Shibazhi Fleet a fierce bombardment.At a distance of 200 meters, Shibazhi was basically powerless to fight back, and could only passively withstand Haihan's artillery fire.Some sailing ships with smaller hulls were severely damaged after withstood this round of shelling, and have lost the ability to continue fighting.

The communication between Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi before the battle obviously did not play a very good role. After the first round of confrontation, some damaged ships tried to turn around and leave the battlefield.However, this attempt seemed a bit futile in front of the Haihan fleet, which was obviously superior in speed. The three Haihan fleets began to separate and cut Shibazhi's fleet in a line formation, and the priority was to attack those pirate ships trying to leave the battlefield. .

Although some pirate ships bravely rushed towards the Haihan warship, trying to complete the attack by jumping gangs or setting fire after getting close, but under the fierce naval artillery strikes, such attempts were basically impossible to succeed. sex.Occasionally, one or two ships could approach, and before the sailors climbed up to the high side of the ship, a row of gun barrels protruded from it, condescendingly shooting at the targets on the deck of the pirate ship.Pirate sailors who don't even have leather armor have basically zero resistance to this kind of attack. Those who respond quickly may be able to crawl into the cabin to avoid it. Others can only serve as living targets for Haihan sailors to practice shooting up.

Only half an hour after the war started, Shibazhi's side had basically lost the will to fight.Although only about a quarter of the ships lost the ability to continue fighting, Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi felt that it was pointless to continue fighting and ordered a retreat.

However, the flagship they were on had been identified by Hai Han, and it was not so easy to leave the battlefield. "Wei Signal" and "Wei Feng" respectively fixed on a target, and chased after them with full horsepower.In this era, sailing ships that can rely on speed to get rid of the pursuit of Haihan steam warships do not exist, so Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi soon discovered that their plans were far from keeping up with the changes on the battlefield. Can't escape.

The ship Liu Xiang was on was intercepted first after two masts were broken, but the people on board obviously did not intend to be caught without a fight, and were still trying to attack the approaching "prestige signal" with weapons such as earthen cannons, bows and arrows, and bird guns. resistance.However, after two grape bullets swept across the deck, the surviving people on the ship chose to surrender. After all, watching their companions being torn to pieces by the flying grape bullets, the impact was enough to make people lose the courage to continue fighting.

Then the sailors who boarded the ship found the pale Liu Xiang in the cabin. This guy was not injured, but the shock and despair made his mood a little unstable.

Li Kuiqi, the other leader of the Eighteen Zhis who played in the battle, was obviously out of luck. After catching up, the "Prestige" fired a 48-pound cannon from the bow at its tail. The original goal was to destroy its tail rudder. In order to make it lose its sailing ability, but the gun directly penetrated the stern of the ship and blasted into the cabin, blasting Li Kuiqi into a ball of blood and flesh.The sailors who boarded the ship to search afterward could only confirm the identity of this unlucky ghost from the waist badge found on the body fragments.

The two flagships leading the team were captured, and the remaining ships had no intention of fighting and scattered for their lives.But Wang Tom was thinking about the business of Penghu, and he didn't let his troops continue to chase the fleeing pirate ship.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Zheng Zhilong had already received the battle report of the failure of the blocking.This news did not exceed his expectations, but what disappointed him was that Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi not only failed to effectively stop the advance of the enemy fleet, but they even failed to escape.In this way, apart from Zheng Zhihu who died in battle, He Bin and Guo Huaiyi who defected, Shibazhi has lost five leaders. Even if this group can be kept, it will probably only be renamed "Thirteen Zhi" in the future.

With the approach of the enemy fleet, the time left for Shibazhi to evacuate Penghu has also entered a countdown state.However, from the time when Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi led the attack to the news of the defeat, the number of people who boarded the ship and left Magong Port was only a few thousand people, and there was still a big gap from the goal of evacuating all the people.

"Pass my order, the team originally arranged to stay on the island, board the ship and leave the port immediately, and intercept the enemy!" Zheng Zhilong had no choice but to move out the death squad at the bottom of the box.

According to the plan in advance, Shibazhi will leave an armed force of 2000 people on the island to deal with the enemy, buying more time for the large troops to flee.Half of the 2000 people were Zheng Zhilong's private army, and the other half were selected by a lottery.Since this army wants to stay and fight the enemy to the end, it naturally has to be prepared to die in battle.But in order to be able to block the menacing enemy fleet, Zheng Zhilong can only use this force in advance.

Before the troop set off, Zheng Zhilong asked people to put out a silver box, and gave each participant five taels of silver. If he could come back alive, he could get the other half of the reward.However, most of the pirates who received the money did not have any relaxed expressions, because they also knew that the chances of returning alive after this trip were slim.

The second blocking fleet met the coalition fleet ten nautical miles west of Magong Port.Different from the first blocking fleet that was quickly destroyed, this fleet has almost dispatched all the existing warships of Shibazhi, and Zheng Zhilong's clansman Zheng Zhiwan is in command of this fleet. The will to fight is far stronger than the first fleet forced to go into battle.

Under the artillery fire from the Haihan warships, this fleet did not collapse once again, but rushed up against the artillery fire, and fought with ten or more warships attacking one target at a time.

It has to be said that although such tactics are costly, they still have certain effects.Not long after the war started, an "expedition-class" warship "Portunus" was directly attached by five pirate ships because it failed to turn around in time.Although the deck of one of the ships was quickly emptied with grapeshot, the other pirate ships managed to engage in a boarding battle.

The yelling pirates brandished steel knives and harpoons, stepped on the side of the ship and jumped to the deck of the "Portunus".However, only three out of ten pirates were able to successfully cross the distance between the two sides under the volley of guns, and the other unlucky ghosts were basically shot and fell into the sea.

To the dismay of the pirates, even if they successfully boarded the deck of the enemy's warship, they still failed to gain any advantage in hand-to-hand combat.These dark-skinned Haihan sailors in indigo blouses are actually all equipped with a firecracker with a shiny spear tip on the front. In the battle with the firecrackers like short spears.Although a few pirates with outstanding martial arts can also injure their opponents with the weapons in their hands, they will often be attacked by three or four short spears immediately.And the power of this thing is no less than that of a firecracker, and if it is stabbed, it will often fall to the ground immediately.

The muskets currently used by the Haihan Navy are actually the same model as the Annan Militia. They are short-barreled large-caliber flintlock guns equipped with a one-foot-two-inch bayonet.The original intention of this short-barreled musket is to be suitable for a relatively narrow combat space, and to cover close-range areas by firing shotguns with large calibers. , the firepower can almost cover one side of the ship's side.

Although the pirates jumped on board the "Portunus" one after another, they achieved very limited results. More than [-]% of the fallen bodies on the deck were Shibazhi's people.

And the time left for the pirates was not long. After only a moment, the other two "Explorer-class" warships serving as frigates quickly approached the "Portunus". Several pirate ships carried out the bombardment.

The fate of the other pirate ships that tried to intercept the "Majestic-class" battleships was even more tragic, because the artillery decks of the "Majestic-class" warships were arranged with a small-caliber upper deck and a larger-caliber lower deck. The sides of the ships were much higher than the pirate ships After the warships of both sides approached, the lower artillery deck was just facing the deck of the pirate ship. A shell passed by like a wind and cloud, tearing the ship plank and the pirates into pieces, and forcibly tore a large line across the ship's hull on the pirate ship. mouth.

(End of this chapter)