1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 840

Song Qing also panicked when he saw more than a dozen Haihan warships approaching.He was worried that if the Haihan people hurriedly failed to recognize the identity of the ship and fired a few shots at the ship, he would be in a very dangerous situation.But at this time, he saw that some sailors had replaced the red flag on the mast, and raised it instead with a red and blue flag, which was obviously used for identification on the battlefield.Seeing the flag, the Haihan warship coming from the opposite side sailed past both sides and rushed straight at the pirate fleet behind. Only then did Song Qing heave a sigh of relief, knowing that his life must be saved.

Song Qing looked back at the sailing boats of the Yueqing Ship Gang. They had already started to meet the Haihan fleet, but only the Haihan warships were firing. Although there were some firearms on the Yueqing Ship Gang's ships, they had not yet entered the range. The people on board were killed. The artillery shells from the air-breaking attack screamed, but they were unable to carry out an effective counterattack.

It was only at this time that Song Qing realized that when they were captured the day before yesterday, the Haihan people didn't show their true skills at all. They only sent a few small warships, and they were defeated by two rounds of bombardment.Recently, Haihan's main force has been exhausted, and the density of artillery fire is not comparable to that of the day. After a few pirate ships in front were bombarded by a round, the hulls of the ships began to flood with water, and they immediately fell into a mess.

"Nantie, what a good thing you did!" Zheng Ping yelled angrily, "You actually collude with outsiders and plot against your brother!"

Nantie was also in a daze at this time, how could he have expected that this big deal delivered to his door turned out to be a death trap.He also noticed just now that Song Qing's leading ship passed through the enemy fleet after changing its flag, which was obviously premeditated.Naturally, there will be no more transactions of 10 taels of silver in this place. This matter has been set up by others from the beginning to the end.

Nantie said angrily: "I've been fooled too! When I turn around and grab that Song Qing, I'm sure to cut him into pieces!"

Zheng Pingda refused to believe him, and drew out his waist knife and said, "If you hadn't come forward to guarantee that Song Qing, saying that there was some huge deal, how could my brothers in the boat gang have fallen into the current situation? It's a pity that you colluded with this enemy, although it is very powerful , but I can't save your life!"

When Zheng Pingda made a move, Zheng Pinger and his subordinates immediately tore their faces apart and drew their swords at each other.This boat was the Zheng brothers' boat, not the Nantie's boat. He only brought a few personal guards with him, and he was immediately at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.

Nan Tiexin knew that there was going to be a fight right now, and he would definitely not be able to fight against the Zheng brothers, so he could only hope that he could persuade them: "This enemy is clearly setting up an ambush to wipe out our ship gang. The two masters must not be fooled. Command the fleet to break through!"

"I can't kill you traitor, how can I break through with peace of mind!" But the more Zheng Pingda looked at it, the more he felt that Nantie seemed to be an internal response, and his murderous intentions became more serious.

Nan Tie shouted: "If I were a traitor, why would I be on the same boat as you brothers!"

"Know people, know faces, but don't know hearts, maybe what you're planning is to capture my two brothers alive!" The Zheng brothers have become a single-minded person at this time, no matter how Nantie argues, they don't want to believe it anymore.

"Take Nantie, or use his life to exchange our lives!" Zheng Ping Erhong gave the order with eyes, and the people on the deck immediately surrounded Nantie and others with weapons.

Seeing that the situation was irreversible, Nantie could only sigh in his heart and shouted, "Jump off the boat and swim to the shore with me!"

After saying that, he put his hands on the side of the boat, and turned overboard, and several other relatives jumped out of the sea immediately when they saw this.It is not too far away from the islands on both sides, so it is not too difficult to swim to the islands.Of course, at this time, ships were coming and going in this strait, and the scene was extremely chaotic. Going into the sea was definitely more dangerous than staying on board.

"Let this traitor escape!" The Zheng brothers rushed to the side of the boat, seeing the Nantie bobbing and sinking on the sea, and had already swam four or five zhang away.They were not good at bows and arrows, so they could only grab spears from other people's hands and throw them, but their feet were also ups and downs, where there was no accuracy at all, the spears missed a lot when they fell into the water, and they didn't hurt Nantie at all.

"Leave this place quickly!" As a shell passed over the deck of the ship, the Zheng brothers came back to their senses, and yelled at the sailors to quickly adjust their direction and rush to the west exit of the strait.

However, the west exit is not a good place. The Haihan Navy has deployed six expedition-class warships and two exploration-class warships here. To withstand at least one round of close-range shelling.The largest of these ships of the Yueqing Ship Gang is only about 50 materials, and there is still a gap between the expedition-class warships with the smallest tonnage in the Haihan Navy. shock.The first few ships rolled over after being hit by the water, and blocked the navigable water surface which was not too wide. It was very difficult for the Zheng brothers' ship to go around and break through.

Song Qing's boat reached the periphery, and immediately a small boat approached and took him to Shi Diwen's command boat.Song Qing climbed up the ship's side along the rope ladder and immediately shouted in a hurry: "Hit that ship with the Zheng Ziqi flag on the bow! The three leaders of the Yueqing Ship Gang are all on that ship!"

Shi Diwen immediately ordered to adjust the attack direction, and the three Haihan warships sandwiched from west to east, completely blocking the direction of the Zheng brothers' ship.The officers and soldiers on the warship had already received orders before the battle started, so they didn't have to persuade them to surrender before the battle, just follow the normal combat steps.After the three warships entered the range, they immediately hit the target with a burst of artillery fire.

The Zheng Brothers' ship also had four earthen cannons, but the pirates on the ship did not wait for the opportunity to counterattack, and the shells flying from the Hai Han warship swept away the deck.The four earthen cannons were also shot to pieces, and one of the cannons flew out and hit several pirates, leaving a large piece of blurred flesh and blood on the deck.

The ensuing second round of shelling opened a row of washbasin-sized holes on the side of the ship, and seawater immediately poured into several places near the waterline.Some of the people on board rushed to the cabin to try to plug the leak, while others grabbed their weapons and began to gather to fight.

However, Haihan didn't even plan to give them the opportunity to fight hand-to-hand. When there was still a distance of about ten meters, Haihan's warship adjusted its direction slightly and passed by the pirate ship.This distance allowed the sailors on the Haihan warship to hit the enemy on the opposite deck with their muskets without special aiming. A volley of guns shot over, causing the pirate ship to lie down again.

The entire battle only lasted for more than half an hour, and there was no pirate ship on the sea that was still resisting. The first few ships that were recruited had already sunk slowly due to too much water, and the other ships were basically affected. varying degrees of trauma.Only two ships saw the opportunity early and lowered their sails and surrendered as soon as the battle started.

The Haihan warships began to withdraw their troops, and several logistics ships disguised as merchant ships shuttled back and forth in the strait, searching for the pirate prisoners on board and in the water.Although the time of this battle was short, the momentum was not small. When the battle started, there were still a few fishing boats on the sea in the distance, but at this time, there were no other ships in sight.Before the start of the war, Haihan had already sent people to Xiaomen Island and controlled the few dozen fishermen on the island. At this time, the army also came to the coast and began to search for the captured pirates who swam to the shore.

This is much easier than searching for captives on those half-sinkable sailboats at sea. Even the pirates who managed to swim to the island by chance were basically exhausted. There is no other way.

Song Qing was also performing his last task at this time, identifying the three bandit leaders of the Yueqing Ship Gang from among the many captives and dead bodies.Although Song Qing had previously pointed out that the Zheng brothers' ship allowed Haihan to focus their fire and attack, the three Haihan warships that rushed forward to attack fought so much that they almost tore the ship into pieces. There are unrecognizable mutilated corpses everywhere, and it is indeed a troublesome thing to confirm their identities after the war.

Song Qing is not very familiar with the Zheng brothers and Nantie, so rely on him to identify it. If it is a living person, it is okay, but if it is a dead body or even a dismembered body, then I am afraid it may not be accurate.But Song Qing was not stupid, and immediately recognized some of the guards around the Zheng brothers from among the captives captured on the ship, and immediately asked the Haihan people to interrogate them.Only then did I learn that Zheng Pingda, the bandit leader, was hit by artillery fire during the chaotic battle just now, and was killed on the spot. Hai escaped.

Soon Zheng Pingda's body was recognized by his subordinates. This guy's upper body was bloody and bloody, and his face could not be distinguished. Fortunately, he had a shark tattoo on his shoulder blade, and his identity was identified only by this mark.

Not long after, another bandit leader, Nantie, was also identified among the captives captured on Damen Island.This guy was lucky, after jumping off the boat, he swam ashore without incident, but he didn't expect that his opponent had already made arrangements on this island, and he was discovered by a group of Haihan soldiers before he could breathe evenly.Nantie tried to resist, but was stabbed in the leg by a Haihan soldier's rifle bayonet, and was finally shackled and chained back.

It took a long time to find the last bandit leader Zheng Ping'er. It was two hours after the battle that Zheng Ping'er's body was found on a secluded beach on Xiaomen Island.This guy had several wounds on his back. It seemed that he lost too much blood and died from exhaustion while swimming to the pirates.

So far, two of the three bandit leaders of the Yueqing Ship Gang were killed and one was injured, and all were brought to justice. The most basic goal of action has been achieved.After receiving the notification, Xu Yuzhuo came to the "Enterprise" and confirmed the identities of the three bandit leaders.

Xu Yuzhuo thanked Shi Diwen first, and then gave the order: "Chop off the head of the Zheng brothers and keep it safe, and return to Fujian with the captured bandit leader!"

Nan Tie still refused to accept it, and asked loudly: "What enmity does my Yueqing Ship Gang have against you? You actually mobilized people from Fujian to set up this ambush!"

"Slap the mouth!" Xu Yuzhuo ordered lightly after listening to it, and immediately his subordinates went over, pressed Nantie's head and slapped Nantie's head more than a dozen times, and his cheeks swelled up immediately.

"I will tell you to understand!" Xu Yuzhuo said unhurriedly: "Last year you intercepted two Fujian merchant ships in Wenzhou Bay and injured the lives of two people on board. Later, Fujian sent an official document to Yueqing to investigate the matter. , you've probably heard of it, right?"

These words have undoubtedly shown Xu Yuzhuo's official status, Nantie sighed and said: "I didn't expect it to start from this! It was Zheng Pingda who wanted to kill people to gain power, so he hurt the lives of two passengers on the ship. At that time, although I Tried to dissuade him, but in the end he did something stupid!"

Xu Yuzhuo snorted coldly and said: "You don't need to shirk your responsibility, the Zheng brothers have already done so, and this public trial will fall on you! You are lucky, you can live for a few more months!"

Xu Xinsu had a lot of resentment towards the Yueqing Ship Gang robbing the ship and hurting people last year. Although he had nothing to do with the Yueqing government, he must get rid of the gang of pirates who did it.Perhaps it was not a bad thing for the Zheng brothers to die on the battlefield. After Nantie was escorted back to Fujian, he would have to spend a long time in a prison for interrogation, and then wait for his death. Also uncomfortable.None of the three bosses escaped, so Xu Yuzhuo had made a contribution.

Of course, this matter does not end here. The coalition forces are almost all out to encircle and suppress this group of pirates. The combat expenses of 3000 people are not a small amount. In any case, they have to find a way to capture some to offset it.

Xu Yuzhuo immediately interrogated Nantie and other core members again, asking where the treasure of the Yueqing Ship Gang was hidden.There are hundreds of people on and off the Yueqing ship gang, so it is impossible to say that there is no reserve.After spending a few hours figuring this out, Xu Yuzhuo immediately dispatched two boats and escorted a few insiders to Yandang Town at the northern end of Yueqing Bay, preparing to take out the old cellar of the Yueqing Ship Gang overnight.Although the Yueqing Ship Gang still has a few remnants in the local area, the people under Xu Yuzhuo are not vegetarians. If there is no accident, they should be able to complete this task smoothly.

However, the captured gangsters are quite a problem for the coalition forces.Xu Yuzhuo didn't intend to hand over these people to the Wenzhou government, because it would expose the true identity of the coalition forces, and the Fujian navy's activities in the Zhejiang waters were illegal in itself, and if it was exposed, the Zhejiang government would take it Xu Xinsu will inevitably be made passive if he sues the court.

It must be very inconvenient for the coalition forces to continue northward after taking care of the affairs of Wenzhou.For the present plan, the only way is to use ships to send this group of people back to Fujian together with Nantie.Xu Yuzhuo edited a book, recording the battle in detail, and prepared to send it back to his father Xu Xinsu for reference.

(End of this chapter)