nanming man

Chapter 695
Zheng Sen and Gao Yihu hurried out of the cabin and climbed to the top of the ship building. Almost all the soldiers on the ship stood in their respective positions, each holding their weapons, and looked eastward.

During the day, the fleet just witnessed a Dutch merchant ship brazenly robbing a Zhuyin ship, and everyone understood the danger at sea.

The sea at this time is full of dangers. Any sea ship you encounter can turn into a pirate at any time. Even the navy warships in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty may go for a vote when they encounter passing merchant ships.

The sea is a lawless place. Even when the Ming Dynasty was strong, it could not control the affairs of the sea. Therefore, the three lucky ships full of goods from the Weaving Bureau were not safe.

On the sea illuminated by the moonlight, the sailors stretched their necks to look out. Zheng Sen walked to the side of the ship building a few steps, held the waist knife in his hand, and looked to the east. Sure enough, there were more than a dozen black shadows moving on the sea in the distance. , but the sky was dark and the distance was far away, so it was not clear, but it was definitely a ship.

Zheng Sen raised his head to look at the stars, asked someone to take a look at the compass, and then said in a deep voice, "We're almost here in Ryukyu. It's the fleet from Ryukyu, but I don't know what it is?"

Gao Yizhen didn't understand the situation at sea, "Is it a merchant ship from Ryukyu to Zhedong and Fujian?"

"Impossible!" Zheng Sen shook his head, "Now the sea is blowing southeast, it is not the time to go to eastern Zhejiang and Fujian."

After finishing speaking, Zheng Sen suddenly shouted to the sailors on the deck: "Turn the rudder, adjust the sail, avoid them, and the fleet sails north."

Gao Yizhen remembered Wang Shilang's instructions, and his face darkened, "The general thought it was a pirate?"

Zheng Sen looked serious, "I don't know yet, but there are many ships on the other side, so avoid them if you can. Whether they are pirates or not, we will find out later."

At this time, the sailor on the ship, after hearing the order, immediately untied the sail rope and adjusted the sail surface. On the stern rudder tower, four sailors pushed the rudder stock together, the rudder shifted, and the hull suddenly creaked and tilted. Blowing the sail, the ship breaks the waves to the north, changing its original course to avoid encountering the opposing fleet.

On the mast, the soldiers in charge of looking out stood in a somewhat inclined looking-out, grasping the mast with one hand and looking around with the binoculars in the other, staring at the black shadow on the sea with piercing eyes, and suddenly shouted: "No! Well, they are also turning, and they are about to catch up!"

Needless to say, everyone on board understood that they must have encountered pirates.

Gao Yizhen's face became angry, "Wang Shilang said that the merchants in eastern Zhejiang might collude with pirates to rob ships. I didn't expect them to be so bold in order to stop the court. Now the Ming Dynasty is struggling, and it has died. For self-interest, obstructing the reform of the court, you really deserve to be killed!"

After Chinese businessmen have mastered huge wealth, they must obtain political backing. They often tend to combine with gentry, or train their descendants to become gentry, complete the transformation of identity, and thus make their own wealth certain. protection.

Zheng Zhilong is like this to Zheng Sen, spending huge tens of thousands of dollars to train him, and let him worship Qian Qianyi, the boss of Donglin, as his teacher, and integrate into the circle of gentry, and rarely let him get in touch with the affairs of the Zheng family, but this does not mean that , Zheng Sen didn't know anything about the sea at all.

"What is this? The Japanese pirates who ran rampant in the southeast back then also colluded with these people." Zheng Sen said, and immediately ordered the soldiers on the ship, "Hang up the flag and prepare the artillery on the ship."

The sailors on Wangdou lit the lamps, notified the other two blessing ships, and hung a yellow flag on the mast.

That is the flag of the Zheng family. The Zheng family is the overlord of the East China Sea and the South Seas. It earns more money in a year than the Dutch East India Company. It owns nearly a thousand seagoing ships and has a huge influence. Even the Dutch dare not move it casually. A ship under the flag of the Zheng family.

Zheng Sen represents the imperial court and does not want to use the banner of the Zheng family, but there are many ships coming from the other party. They have a mission and cannot have any accidents, so they still hang up the banner of the Zheng family, hoping that this group of pirates will be afraid of the Zheng family strength, give up robbing the three lucky boats.

However, it was dark at this time, and the flag was hung up, so the opponent couldn't see clearly at the moment.

While the soldiers were hoisting the flag, the sailors on the ship had already moved into action. The red cloth on the ship's side and bow was lifted, revealing a red cannon, six thousand-jin cannons, and a number of firearms such as bowl-mouth guns.

The soldiers on the deck were busy for a while, taking the rockets, swords, spears, and firecrackers to the east side of the ship and putting them away, and quickly loaded them. The soldiers who came out of the cabin hurriedly put on their armor.

The gunner on the ship finished loading the cannon and the guns of the Qianjin Frangji, and then stared at the black shadow in the east with a serious expression.

At this time, the three ships of the Ming army changed their course from the northeast to the north, and the Haikou fleet changed its course from the west to the northwest. In other words, the pirates obviously wanted to intercept the three lucky boats.

The three lucky boats are full of cargo, the draft is very deep, and the speed of the ships is slower, while the pirate fleet is not loaded with cargo, the speed is much faster, and the distance between the three lucky boats is closing.

However, the view on the sea is excellent. Although the fleet appears in the view, the distance is still far away.

Although the Haikou fleet is fast, it is not possible to catch up with the three lucky boats in a short while.

The pirate fleet that came was invited by Xie Sanbin, and they had been waiting in Ryukyu for more than a month.

When the Fuchuan departed from Ningbo, Xie Sanbin sent a fast boat to Ryukyu Islands first, and notified the pirates, so that the pirates could accurately calculate the time when the Fuchuan arrived at the Ryukyu Islands.

The imperial court set up a weaving bureau to preside over the trade with the Wa country. In the short term, it has little impact on the Zheng family, but after receiving this news, Zheng Zhilong still attracted great attention.

If the Weaving Bureau made money from the trade with the Wa Kingdom, the next step of the court would be to open the sea, and the blow to the Zheng family would be extremely huge.

Now the Zheng family has replaced the imperial court, collecting taxes at sea and conducting smuggling trade. If the Ming Dynasty turns its attention to maritime trade, there will inevitably be fierce conflicts between the Zheng family and the imperial court.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong didn't want to turn against the Ming Dynasty. What he wanted was to continue to maintain the interests of the Zheng family, so the best way was to tell the court that the sea was dangerous and the risk was too great, so as to kill the court's idea in the bud.

For this reason, a few months ago, Zheng Zhilong sent his fifth younger brother Zheng Zhibao to Ryukyu to find a group of pirates active in the East China Sea to intercept the cargo ship of the Weaving Bureau.

Attacking an official ship is tantamount to treason. Although Zheng Zhilong is not afraid, there is no need to send a ship from Fujian, so he asked Zheng Zhibao to directly contact the largest pirate in the East China Sea to handle the matter.

The Zheng family collects protection fees at sea. If the sea is peaceful, they will naturally not be able to collect money. There must be danger, and merchant ships will be willing to spend 3000 taels a year to buy the Zheng family's flag to keep them safe.

The dangers at sea are pirates. There is actually a great relationship between them and the Zheng family, and some of them are actually members of the Zheng family in disguise.

At this time, on a large ship of the pirates, Zheng Zhibao saw the three Fuchuan fleeing to the distance, with a sneer on his face, "Hmph, fire the cannon, and pursue with full sail!"

There was a loud "boom" on the surface of the sea, and a mass of red light flashed, suddenly illuminating a piece of the sea, and then immediately dimmed.

But at this moment, there was a whistling in the air, and a black cannonball shot towards Fuchuan rapidly, splashing a column of water on the sea surface more than one mile away from the ship.

The fleet of pirates in the distance fired their cannons one by one, and the flames flickered on the sea surface, filled with gunpowder smoke, and the cannons drove the deck and hull to vibrate slightly, and the sea water spread this vibration far away.

Zheng Sen's face darkened when he saw the pirates firing. Judging from the firepower, the strength of this group of pirates was not weaker than that of the navy of the Ming army.

"Turn left!" Zheng Sen yelled, then clenched his fists and roared, "Fire back!"

There was a loud "boom", and a cannon on the Fuchuan retreated suddenly, the deck trembled, the ship was filled with smoke, the hull dispersed the gunpowder smoke, and continued to flee forward.

All of a sudden, on the pitch-black sea, the sound of cannons rumbled and the flames of the guns flickered, creating a spectacular scene.

It's just that the distance between the two sides is relatively far, and the accuracy of the artillery is not high, so neither side hit the target.

The fleet chased each other at night, until the sky gradually dawned, and the distance was finally narrowed.

At this time, a one-eyed leader on the pirate ship suddenly said to Zheng Zhibao: "Fifth Master, this ship has the order flag of the Zheng family!"

Zheng Zhibao looked through binoculars, and sure enough, he saw the flag of the Zheng family flying on the mast.

"Nonsense! Who sent the flag? Didn't they smash the signboard of my Zheng family?" Zheng Zhibao put down the binoculars with a puzzled look on his face.

"Fifth Master, should we still chase after him?" the pirate leader asked.

Zheng Zhibao narrowed his eyes, "Chasing, why not chasing, these three lucky boats must be captured!"

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(End of this chapter)