Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 323, Battle of the West Bay

Aside from these, there's nothing else.

Next year, there will be another round of imperial examinations as usual, and Fang Yong plans to proceed as planned.

There is not much else to say.

Thus, the time came to the sixth day.

This day is not a special holiday, and there's nothing particularly special to do.

Fang Yong spent the morning with the pregnant Jin Chuan'er and the afternoon with Ke Qing.

Jin Chuan'er's belly was already quite large, and Fang Yong could already feel the baby moving around.

Meanwhile, Qin Keqing was also showing signs of pregnancy. (Qin Keqing's pregnancy is mentioned in chapter 306, which many people seem to have missed.)
Many people say that becoming a father is the beginning of a man's growth.

However, Fang Yong did not experience any particularly special feelings.

I can only say I'm slightly delighted.

It comes from one's own child.

However, some people don't feel a strong sense of mission.

Perhaps he doesn't have that much love for children.

His harem has more than a dozen women, and there will be more in the future, as well as more children.

In a sense, kinship can be diluted by quantity.

He admitted that he was incompetent in his role as a father.

But children have their own paths to walk, good or bad. At most, all he can do is conquer a few more countries and appoint his children as insignificant kings...

Perhaps in the future, children will criticize his incompetence, stand in front of him, and say:

"I don't care about being a king, I just want to be an ordinary person and live a simple, ordinary life..."

However, these are things that Fang Yong can't consider right now.

That evening, the Imperial Guards delivered an urgent military intelligence report: the Prince of Nan'an had suffered a major defeat.

Fang Yong originally ordered the Prince of Nan'an to blockade the sea area and forbid him from going to war.

However, the small kingdom of Siam was extremely arrogant and actually took the initiative to land and invade the territory of China.

The Prince of Nan'an then led his troops to fight back.

At first, the Prince of Nan'an was very cautious.

He ordered several units to ambush the fishing villages along the coast, luring the Siamese soldiers to attack.

The Siamese soldiers who had secretly landed were completely unaware of this and were ambushed by the Prince of Nan'an's men, suffering hundreds of casualties.

This victory greatly reduced the vigilance in the mind of the Prince of Nan'an.

Of course, he wasn't particularly wary to begin with.

Since only a few hundred people were killed, it wasn't a significant achievement, so the Prince of Nan'an didn't report such a minor matter.

He was looking for an opportunity to win a major victory, partly to retaliate against the harassment from Siam, and partly to prove his own abilities.

As a result, the previously blocked sea area was gradually opened.

The Prince of Nan'an gradually dispatched warships out of port to actively search for Siamese ships.

During this period, although no major battles occurred between the two sides, several conflicts did take place.

The Siamese were a small and weak nation, and their ships were nowhere near as powerful as those of the Central Plains.

Even though the officials in the capital embezzled 99% of the money for shipbuilding, the little they managed to squeeze out was still far better than what Siam could achieve.

In all the naval battles they encountered, the Prince of Nan'an's side emerged victorious.

Then, the tragedy began.

On September 25th, General Wu Liuqi of Guangxi found the Prince of Nan'an.

He has a maritime trade association under him, which is basically his money bag.

Merchants in this era had a very low social status and usually relied on local officials and their families for support. General Wu Liuqi of Guangxi had such a maritime merchant guild.

The head of this chamber of commerce was surnamed Yang. They mainly traded silk, porcelain, and tea with Southeast Asian countries by sea, and then brought back spices, exotic Southeast Asian treasures, and young female slaves.

This back-and-forth generates huge profits.

Moreover, they could bribe officials at all levels and avoid paying taxes. However, Fang Yong suddenly ordered the sea area to be blocked, which prevented the fleet from going to sea. The orders were all agreed upon in previous years, and if the breach of contract was prolonged, they would suffer huge losses.

Thus, Wu Liuqi's visit came about.

With Wu Liuqi's intervention and the Yang family offering ample benefits, the Prince of Nan'an naturally allowed him to pass.

Not only did they allow passage, they also dispatched two ships to escort it.

Then, the fleet was hijacked by the Siamese as soon as it left Wan Chai.

One of the two escort ships was sunk, and only one managed to escape.

General Wu Liuqi of Guangxi hadn't even had time to leave when his ship was hijacked.

The Prince of Nan'an turned green with anger.

This is practically like taking a dump on his neck.

It's the kind of thing that falls right into his mouth after he's finished pooping.

The Prince of Nan'an was immediately enraged.

They were preparing to destroy Siam.

Wu Liuqi quickly tried to dissuade him.

"Your Highness, no, no, no, if it's not possible, then forget it."

Upon hearing this, the Prince of Nan'an immediately led more than half of his warships out of the port and invited Wu Liuqi to board the ship to watch.

Wu Liuqi also gladly went. Although he was stirring things up, he never thought that the Prince of Nan'an would lose.

The Prince of Nan'an took more than half of the ships with him this time, including ten large warships, each over ten zhang long and over two zhang wide, equipped with twelve cannons and carrying more than three hundred people, all of whom were skilled seamen.

In addition, there were thirty or forty medium-sized ships, sailboats, small escort boats, and Fujian-style ships specifically for transporting supplies, etc.

With a lineup like that, they could wipe out a small country; there's no way they could possibly lose!
And then lost.

The Prince of Nan'an pursued the Siamese fleet all the way.

The Siamese fleet fled all the way.

He appeared to dare not contend with the Prince of Nan'an, but in reality, he was luring him into a trap.

The two sides eventually met in the western bay of the South China Sea.

The West Bay mentioned here does not refer to the West Sea, but rather to the name of an archipelago in the South China Sea. The waters near these islands are called the West Sea.

The two fleets met here.

The war broke out instantly.

Just when the Prince of Nan'an was confident of victory, iron-hulled ships appeared to sail out from the islands.

……

On the vast sea, hundreds of ships were engaged in rapid combat.

Naval battles lack the dazzling spectacle of artillery fire found in land battles.

Often, a single cannonball can sink a large ship.

Without ships to rely on, soldiers on the vast ocean have no hope of survival.

The appearance of those iron-hulled ships was completely unexpected by the Prince of Nan'an.

The enemy ships were significantly more maneuverable than the Daehee warships. Although they were smaller and less powerful than the Daehee warships, their speed made up for the difference.

The Prince of Nan'an was actually quite familiar with these kinds of ships; Westerners often used them to trade with Da Xi. He just didn't know why such ships were in the Siamese fleet.

boom!
A burst of fire erupted as the bow of a wooden sailboat was shattered by a cannonball. The boat rocked twice before sinking into the water.

"No, Your Highness, we can't hit them! Those iron ships are too fast! And their range is much greater than ours!"

The subordinate reported in a panic.

After a brief exchange, the skill gap between the two sides became obvious.

Those iron-hulled ships did not need to rely on sails to move, and were extremely agile in short-distance turning and acceleration operations, making it difficult for the Prince of Nan'an's fleet to hit these high-speed iron-hulled ships.

Moreover, the cannons on these iron-hulled ships had a longer range than those on the Dae Hee ships, and their shells were more powerful, causing far greater damage to the hulls.

(End of this chapter)