open sea

Chapter 173 Steering
When the wind blows, the tall and soft reeds by the river sway like waves.

In the evening, the crimson clouds shone on the surface of the river, and the sky in the distance was covered with dark clouds. Sitting awake on the boat bed, Chen Mu looked up at the deck of the boat angrily. On the high bow, the war drum was beating.

"Master Chen, wipe your face."

Qi Zhengyan brought a copper basin with his family soldiers, put the towel in the water twice and offered it to Chen Mu, turned his head and looked out of the cabin door, and said with a light smile: "The third old Zeng is quite leisurely, and he burned it again this day. There are several villages, and there is a lot of black smoke in Xin'an."

"Before he entered Lingdingyang, the common people all ran to Guangcheng. What kind of belongings can be left in the family? It's fine if they don't get anything. They have to burn the house... What the hell!"

When he woke up, his injured left arm hurt even more. Chen Mu wiped his face awkwardly with a wet towel in his right hand, raised his eyes and looked at Qi Zhengyan with a teasing look. This didn’t sound like what an old pirate said, and asked: "Are you asleep?"

"I've slept all morning, Junxiong just woke up, he's on the mast."

Chen Mu nodded, yawned, put a towel on the copper basin, and his own servant took it out. He also took Qi Zhengyan out of the cabin, glanced at Jiangkou to the east, and said with a cold face: "He burned the village when For beacon fire, Japanese pirates are the same as us, everyone has to sleep."

"Go, let the Banner Army inspect the weapons, charge the guns, and the Fran's machine guns are close to the ship's side. Everyone must hang their sabers. It's raining in the south."

This is not Chen Qianhu's nonsense, the sea to the south is covered with dark clouds, and it won't be long before there will be thunder and lightning. gosh.

After boarding the forecastle, Chen Mu greeted Shi Qi, leaned on the bow and looked at the fleet sailing out of Jiangkou, two short pistols were loaded with ammunition one after another.

The fleet is owned by Chen Lin, with Chen Lin's fast boat, a lucky boat and a lucky boat from Balang at the front. A dozen fire boats and thunder boats are in the middle, and then the two centipede boats of Xiangshan Institute are at the end successively, forming a fleet. A squadron that is separated from Chen Lin's fleet at any time.

Chen Lin is a veteran in naval battles. In Chen Mu's view, the order of the fleet is completely out of respect. In terms of the speed of the ships alone, the centipede ships can surpass the Fu Ship fleet at full speed, and it does not affect their combat after seeing the enemy. .

The only thing Chen Mu worried about was the weather.

Rain, rain is not a good sign.

Although they do not have the advantage in the number of ships and guns, Chen Mu also hopes to fight Zeng Yiben's fleet in the rain, but he is more afraid that because of the weather in the south, Zeng Yiben will change course and not head towards Tuen Mun. The plans were disrupted.

"Thousands, Japanese pirate fleet!"

Not long after, the sunset was getting darker, and Long Junxiong ran down the sail rope quickly, handed over the binoculars and pointed to the left, and said, "Fu Chuan Guang Chuan, there are many!"

After receiving the binoculars, the shallow shadows on the sea surface under the dark clouds in the distance appeared in the lens. I couldn't see how many guns were on the ship, but I could barely see the shape of the ship. Naturally, I could see the approximate number of ships... Chen Mu held up the binoculars and kept counting the numbers silently.

"There are at least ten Fuzhou boats, at least ten Guangzhou boats, and a few fast boats. He should have scuttled the boats on the shore—a semaphore, and told Deng Qianhu to know, let the boats tell Chen Shoubei, See you soon!"

As he said that, Chen Mu put down the binoculars and turned his head to wait for the flag army helmsman who ordered: "Turn left, the artillery is ready!"

In the sky and on the earth, Mr. Chen is the largest in Xiangshan.

This principle also applies to the centipede ship. When Jinkou Yuyan first opened, the sail control rope creaked and was tightened, the hard sails were raised against the wind, and the two war drums at the stern and bow were beating, and they left the fleet and yawed away. Deng Zilong's centipede ship also followed closely behind, leaving only Wei Balang's blessing boat and a small boat carrying two flag troops dangling to chase Chen Lin's fleet with Chen Mu's order.

The lucky boat was moving too slowly, especially for Wei Balang. His mission in this battle was nothing more than transporting troops and adding some troops for the decisive battle. They were useless in the current raid.

Earlier when Chen Mu was still on the shore, Chen Mu communicated with Chen Lin through sea battles. Because the ships and drills were different, Chen Mu's navy had only practiced in line formation, and was not familiar with the tactics of serious officers and soldiers. They fought together. [-]% will be chaotic, so each has a division of labor.

Chen Lin's fleet is huge, with [-] to [-] large and small warships, responsible for flank blocking and small-scale artillery attacks; Chen Mu's fleet is small, but fast, with many soldiers and artillery, so he is responsible for chasing and driving from the rear. When Zeng Yiben attacked Chen Lin's fleet, he restrained it, so as to drive Zeng Yiben's fleet to Tuen Mun for a decisive battle.

It is very difficult to operate.

"Catch up from behind, but don't chase too close. If you catch up, you only use two side cannons to fire, so that the flag soldiers are hidden behind the ship's side, and they can't show up without orders!"

From the very beginning, Chen Mu had no intention of fighting a frontal naval battle with Zeng Yiben during the harassment. He just wanted to harass Zeng Yiben so that he could feel the pressure from Lord Chen, especially not to attract Zeng Yiben's hatred. Let the pirate leader beat him back with the thought of killing him.

To put it simply, it is playing with fire, either burning Zeng Yiben's tail, or setting fire to burn himself.

About the moment the centipede ship left the fleet, Chen Lin's fleet didn't intend to follow Chen Mu to harass them, but just moved their course slightly closer to the left wing. This movement was small but warming—it was for easy rescue in case of an accident.

But Chen Mu felt that he would be fine. Below the waterline of the centipede ship, the wood of the ship was very strong and could not be broken. It also focuses on being lighter and can't defend against cannons, but this is for the Fran cannons that are common on the seas of East Asia.

The only thing to worry about is luck, Master Chen's luck has never been very good.

The long chase on the sea lasted for half an hour, and the wind was against the wind, so no one's boat could go fast.

Two centipede boats were hanging behind Zeng Yiben's fleet. Although Chen Mu discovered Zeng Yiben earlier, as the distance gradually approached, Zeng Yiben must have spotted him too, but neither side fired shots, not even The meaning of narrowing the distance to less than four hundred steps, it looks like the centipede ship is a member of the huge fleet of pirates, sailing peacefully towards the south.

If it wasn't for Chen Mu who couldn't bear the loneliness, he would use the first gun of the boat to shoot at the buttocks of the front boat after a while.

Across a thousand or eight hundred steps across the sea, Mr. Chen staggered and fired more than a dozen cannonballs. The hit rate was very low, but at least he hit it—accurately hit a small boat that was not aimed at the target, and went up with a big shot. It's a dead ship.

Master Chen Jun was complacent at the bow of the ship, when he suddenly heard the surprised shouts from the left and right bannermen, followed his gaze and looked forward, then hurriedly threw away the binoculars and put it on his face.

"What the hell is that?"

In the field of vision, four eight-foot-long white boats a thousand steps away slowly turned, from headwind to tailwind, their speed suddenly increased, and they lined up and headed straight towards his centipede boat without any intention of avoiding it.

Through the binoculars, Chen Mu clearly saw that the four white boats were hung with iron locks, like a wall.

They're going to hit him, the son of a bitch Zeng San wants to hit him and sink him!
"Turn the rudder!"

Chen Mu's hoarse shout was louder than the drumbeat.

　Sorry, I got up a little late today
　　
　
(End of this chapter)