At this moment, Zheng Zhilong already regretted that he had taken the liberty of going to war with Liu Pei! He didn't expect Liu Pei to be such a difficult and crazy person! He actually dared to fight with someone more than ten times his strength, and he fought so well! But at this moment, there is no turning back from the bow, if he admits defeat, he will never be the dragon head of the sea! The sea does not accept the weak!

Zheng Zhilong stayed in the room for a long time and completely calmed down before going out. All he had to do now was to reassure his current allies and hope that they would not waver, lest they weaken his own power again. At the same time, he urged his own people to seize the time to continue to track down the whereabouts of Liu Pei's fleet.

But the sea is vast, and he keeps looking for Liu Pei's lair in the sea by relying on wrong inferences, how can this get any effect?

In the blink of an eye, the end of the month is approaching. During this time, Zheng Zhilong was surprised to find that he had only lost three ships this month. And three ships of a flotilla. So Zheng Zhilong guessed that Liu Pei had retracted into his lair and didn't plan to fight against him? Maybe it won't be long before Liu Pei's envoy comes. Thinking of this, Zheng Zhilong was even a little complacent, feeling that he had completely gained the upper hand.

Other maritime merchants have also found out about this situation. Many of them have come to similar conclusions to Zheng Zhilong. Only a small number of people feel that things are not as wonderful as everyone thinks. Liu Pei dared to start a war with an opponent who was more than ten times his strength, where would he retract his hand so easily? The only possibility is that he is resting, gathering strength. When Liu Pei appears again, I'm afraid it will be a big battle! But no one said it. They just watched coldly as things unfolded.

It was a dark and windy night, and a strange-looking ship took advantage of the night to quietly approach the new island. Not only does this ship look weird, but even the color is weird! From the bow and stern, the whole ship is black, even the sails are black! This makes it hard to spot in the dark, especially after all the lights have been extinguished, like a ghost on the sea!

If anyone in the know saw this small boat, they would be surprised to find it. This is a ship that shouldn't be here! It's the famous clipper!

The clipper boat, also known as the clipper sailboat or the clipper sailboat, is a type of high-speed sailboat that originated in the United States. The starting speed is generally more than 20 knots! It's the fastest sailboat ever!

The first clippers were represented by the Ann Makin, built in 1832 with a displacement of 493 tons and a sail suit, and many people believe that she was the first real clipper. However, she still does not have a hollow bow, so she is still not qualified in reality, and can only be called an AF-clipper.

On January 22, 1845, the Rainbow, designed by American naval architect John Griffiths and built at the Smith-Dimon shipyard in New York, was launched. The ship has the hollow bow of the flying clipper's signature and is recognized as the world's first true flying scissor sailing boat. Although it has an aspect ratio of 5, it has not yet reached the astonishing speed that the clippers could achieve in the future. However, the completion of the "Rainbow" still caused a sensation in the world shipping industry, and her design features were later copied by many ship designers. Her birth represents a great leap forward in the development of sailing.

The most famous figure in the history of the development of American clippers is Donnell McKay. He was a Boston-based naval architect and builder who developed 33 high-performance clippers. This type of ship has a small freeboard and less superstructure, which not only improves the stability of the ship, but also gives full play to the role of the sail. The boat sails almost close to the water surface, the length-to-width ratio is generally greater than 6:1, and its underwater shape is designed to minimize the resistance to improve the speed, but to maintain a certain lateral resistance profile, resulting in a particularly beautiful waterline, and even in the first waterline surface has a concave, long and sharp curve scissor-shaped head column is a situation suitable for racing, and can split the waves (cut the waves) at sea to reduce the wave resistance, so it is called the flying clipping boat.

The bow column also extends the length of the hull, and a slash is extended along the bow column, which can hang some more support rope spinnakers at the bow, which is conducive to expanding the capacity of the sail; The hollow bow makes it easy for the boat to lift its head in the waves, improving its course stability in the waves. The sloping waterline that gradually changes at the rear transitions harmoniously to a narrow round tail, harmoniously blending in with the graceful bow shape.

This kind of clipper ship is more obvious is that the sail area is very large, generally use 3-4 masts fully equipped with sails, often with high masts, its height up to 3/4 of the length of the ship, on the top mast sail also hung with moon sails and support sails, sometimes on both sides of the ship there are extended sail trusses, called wing sails, can hang wing sails, more large sail lateral extension area. The mast is farther away from the stern before the 3-mast clipping, so a slightly shorter slash can be used with less interference between the sails. It can be seen that the transverse dimensions of the sail greatly exceed the width of the boat.

Although the clipper ship is fast, it is a pity that it cannot be a warship! This is because the bow of the clipper can split the waves and prevent the waves on the deck, and the ship in the past will not drive in the ocean, so it is not very important to pay attention to this, and the other is that the speed of the ship before World War I was generally slow, so the waves are not very obvious, but as the speed is getting faster and faster, the bow of the ship is prone to bury in the sea, which is very dangerous. Therefore, the fast clipper ship is destined to be only a merchant ship.

This small clipper boat was specially asked by Liu Pei to be built by the masters. Originally, Liu Pei was just thinking about building a few smaller clippers as messenger ships. After all, Liu Pei's current territory is too scattered, and he has to run back and forth between Shandong and Liu Pei from time to time. It would be convenient if there was a fast boat. So Liu Pei miserably arranged to build three shrunken version of the clippers. I didn't think that as soon as the war started, the clipper ship came in handy! Liaison between fleets, transporting the seriously wounded, emergency supplies, they did a great job!

The black clipper lowered its sails and slowly approached the side of the cliff on the new island, then slowly stopped. A small boat was lowered from the boat, and six people rowed the boat close to the bottom of the cliff. A man got up and looked for something in the vines clinging to the cliff.

Soon, the man found a thick camouflaged rope in the vine. Six people climbed the cliff along the rope. These six people are all dressed in black and pants, with black scarves and masked! It's impossible to see their presence at night.

After climbing the cliff, several people scattered without discussion. After about an hour and a half. The six men regrouped at the top of the cliff and climbed back to the boat along the rope. They covered the rope and returned to the clipper, and the ship hoisted its sails and quickly disappeared into the pre-dawn night.

At this time, Xindao had become a supply depot and anchorage for Zheng Zhilong's side. Zheng Zhilong didn't want to attack Niijima at first. He knew very well that a lonely island meant nothing. As long as he eliminated Liu Pei's sea power, this island would easily fall into his hands. And the people who let Liu Pei stay there are not moving, and he is also preventing others from getting this island first.

But as the war progressed, Zheng Zhilong needed a victory to boost morale! So he remembered Shinjima at this time. As long as he wins the new island cleanly and beautifully, he can use this victory to prove that he has the ability to defeat Liu Pei!

But what drove him crazy was that when the team he sent landed on the new island, he found that the people on the new island had disappeared! However, except for a sign on the beach that says "Trespasser Die", the facilities inside are very well preserved. It seems that Liu Pei feels that he can come back here.

Liu Pei not only expanded the cottage, but also built a large barracks on the wharf. His subordinates reported back to Zheng Zhilong that the cottage and barracks were full of tables, chairs and beds, and even food and condiments. It's as if the people inside are just going out temporarily!

At first, Zheng Zhilong thought that Liu Pei would poison the food and water left behind. However, upon closer examination, no signs of poisoning were found. The pirates tasted it and there were no problems. This made Zheng Zhilong unable to understand what Liu Pei was thinking? Why did he think he would be able to come back?