When the morning light brought 10,000 points of light to the Black Water Ocean, the voyage of the shipping fleet entered the early morning of the third day.

The neatly dressed commander walked up to the stern of the ship, and then solemnly picked up the suona hanging on his chest, and blew the wake-up song 'Mulan in the army'.

The use of suona for military orders is not a clumsy imitation of the PLA military horn by Zhao Gongzi, but a method of heralding that has always been used in the Qi family's army. There is a cloud in Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao Xinshu Wu Bei Zhi", "Where you hold the horn and flute, you are playing suona." ’

The high-pitched and brisk suona sound soon spread to every corner of the Wuwei boat.

Hearing the wake-up horn, Chu Liuxiang reflexively opened his eyes and rolled over from the hammock.

The new recruits of the artillery crew got up early and prepared wet cotton towels for him to wipe his face.

Chu Liuxiang took the cotton towel and wiped his face vigorously, dispelling the residual sleepiness. The recruit handed him his blue turban, black waist-length armor, blue linen coat, and linen shorts of the same color, and waited for him to be dressed neatly.

This is also the uniform attire of the security guards, the only difference is that the neckline of his cotton armor is embroidered with two eye-catching red bars.

Because he has now been promoted to the head of the bow gun group of the flagship, and has been promoted to the rank of second class constable.

The rest of the gunners, who had been in the army for a year, had a red bar embroidered on their necklines. The new recruit who had just joined the security team was empty.

According to the "Regulations on the Rank of Security Personnel" promulgated by Jiangnan Security Group, the first year of joining the security team is a reserve police officer, and after one year and passing the assessment, he can be promoted to a third-class police officer. After three years and passing the examination, they can be promoted to Police Officer II.

The security brigade has only been established for a year, and even the earliest security guards are not qualified to be promoted to the rank of second-class police officer. Chu Liuxiang was able to embroider two bars, naturally because the first shot was accurate, and he was unusually promoted by one level.

Don't underestimate this level, the security team is highly hierarchical. In normal times, subordinates should take the initiative to salute and give way when they encounter superiors, and use honorifics. And at each level, there is a significant increase in income. The monthly allowance of the reserve police officer plus the allowance for going to sea can get 2 taels of silver. The third-level police officer rose to 5 taels a month. And a second-level police officer like Chu Liuxiang can even get 8 taels!

A skilled worker in Suzhou City earns only one or two five per month. The Coast Guard members receive very high salaries. Even if you don't count the subsidy for going to sea, Chu Liuxiang can get 4 taels of silver a month, which is still a super high salary.

Of course, this high salary is not so easy to get, it is the result of they withstanding the perverted torture of Tong Zigong, and persevering day after day under Wang Rulong's strict military regulations. Only half of the brothers who joined the training brigade at the same time as him were able to get on board in the end, and the rest were sent to the shore to stand guard.

Chu Liuxiang knew that the brothers on the ship were envious of his excess, and he proudly straightened out his police rank while reminiscing about the past. 'I'm a farmer in Yimeng Mountain who can't get enough to eat, how can I shoot so accurately? ’

In the midst of the stinky fart, suddenly there was a terrible gong sound on the boat!

Chu Liuxiang was stunned for a moment, and then blood gushed upward, and he hurriedly shouted at his brothers who were sorting out internal affairs: "Hurry up and get on the gun position!" ”

That's a warning signal for the enemy!

Although most of the time it is a drill, no one dares to slack off. Otherwise, in addition to bearing the captain's scolding, you will also have to wash the deck and brush the toilet of the whole ship, and even get a demerit if it is serious.

Demerits are terrible, once demerits will be lost when you are promoted, twice you will be demoted, and you will have to get off the boat three times!

~~

Chu Liuxiang rushed out of the cabin with the gunners and climbed onto the bow deck. The gunners untied the ropes and lifted the rain blankets, revealing four gun wagons.

The loader and the gunpowder man lifted the wooden floor next to the gun carriage, revealing a built-in cannonball bay. The powder keg was lifted from the cabin, the rainproof cloth was unfastened, and then the gunpowder man took a quantitative wooden spoon to fill the propellant, filled the hand-filled solid pig iron bullet, and inserted the fuse.

After the gunpowder man covered the powder keg and raised his thumb, the deputy gunner lit the torches, and the four main gunners, including Chu Liuming, held the fire rope and waited for the firing order.

From the time they heard the gong to the time they completed the preparations for the launch, it took only three minutes. All the movements are smooth and coordinated, and it all depends on the physical memory left by the practice day after day.

The order to open fire was not sounded for a long time, and Chu Liuxiang only then did he have the bother to look around to see what the situation was now.

He had the best view from the bow, and he had an unobstructed view from the surrounding area.

I saw the chief sailor standing outside the wheelhouse door of the stern, blowing a whistle rhythmically, directing the sail pilots to desperately pull the sail rope of the stern wild fox sail to assist the thirty-meter-long ship to turn the rudder in the direction of three o'clock.

The stern and side gunners were also in place, although Chu Liuxiang never regarded the Francophone as a cannon.

The Marines spread out the bamboo thorn rows to prevent the enemy from connecting the strings, and piled up bunkers on the deck with sandbags, and finally covered the ship's vulnerable areas of fire with seawater-soaked quilts.

Looking into the distance, the entire fleet was also under the command of the flagship signal flag, changing the formation with difficulty.

Ten black-tailed ships were heading to the east of the sea, ready to form a formation to meet the enemy.

The other ten escort ships sailed a hundred meters away from the blacktail ship, preparing to form a second battle line.

Eighty grain ships were moving closer to each other, preparing to form a dense defensive formation. The sound of gongs and drums, shouts, and trumpets resounded in the sky, and the calm sea was chaotic.

Was this a drill, or did you really encounter pirates?

Chu Liuxiang was full of questions, picked up the monocular assigned to the bow gun group, and looked in the direction of facing the enemy.

A tiny island appears in the shot. Chu Liuxiang is already taking this route for the fourth time, and naturally knows that it is Maro Island, which is fifteen miles away from Jeju Island, and it is also an important landmark in this route.

Usually, though, it's supposed to turn north, not east......

While he was thinking wildly, he suddenly saw through the telescope a row of tiny black dots, moving rapidly from the direction of Maro Island, towards his own position!

"Sure enough, there is an enemy!" Chu Liuxiang's blood is surging up again, this time I want to be promoted to a first-class police officer!

~~

In the wheelhouse of the stern, Wang Rulong stood in front of the command platform with a cold expression, looking at the unknown fleet that was approaching with binoculars.

It was the lookout post on the mainmast, and an ambush had been spotted a moment earlier.

The line of sight on the sea is very transparent, and the lookout posts are equipped with high-powered telescopes, so normally the enemy situation will be discovered earlier.

However, the other party cleverly used the cover of Maro Island to hide his tracks.

It wasn't until they sailed out of the back of the island and seized the upper hand that the lookout post suddenly spotted the enemy's track and sounded the gong to warn!

But at this time, the opportunity to find out before the enemy and quietly turn is gone. The enemy has already seized the upper hand, and running away is the worst option.

What's more, Wang Rulong has fought for half his life, and he has never escaped without a fight.

So, there is only one battle!

The flagship captain on the side, Haierge, also held a telescope and looked nervously at the enemy situation.

By this time, it was already possible to see the number and shape of the enemy ships.

"Good guy, this has to be sixty or seventy boats......" Brother Haier gasped, he was the captain of the Qi family's army back then, and he fought against the Japanese on the coast, but he had never seen such a big battle.

"Seventy Japanese ships." Wang Rulong said in a deep voice.

The level of shipbuilding in Japan at this time was the level of the Song Dynasty. The style is basically carved out of a mold, and a house is carried on the boat, like a painting boat on the Qinhuai River. It's just a difference in size.

"The flagship is an Otaku ship, and there are more than a dozen ships around it, and the rest are smaller Xiaozao." Wang Rulong frowned, and concluded: "It must be the Mishima Wokou!" ”

"How do they know, our sailing schedule?" Brother Haier said with a gloomy face: "It seems that someone has sent a message to the widows!" ”

"Don't worry about that yet!" Wang Rulong put down the binoculars, moved his neck, and said with a cruel smile: "In my life, Lao Tzu's favorite thing to do is to fight the Japanese invaders." It's time to have a good time! ”

As he spoke, he walked to the door of the wheelhouse and shouted to the bow battery: "Chu Liuxiang, do you see the biggest ship?" It's the only boat with sails! ”

"See!" Chu Liuxiang replied loudly, the big ship that looked like a building ship was very conspicuous.

"When the range is up, just hit the fuck!" Wang Rulong ordered loudly: "Let the Japanese on that ship taste the power of our coast guard!" ”

"Great!" I heard that the enemy was a Japanese robber, and Chu Liuxiang became even more energetic. He usually listens to the chiefs boasting about the glorious deeds of killing Japanese devils back then, so he envy them. I have always been sorry that I didn't get the opportunity to shoot a few Japanese criminals.

Unexpectedly, the opportunity suddenly came.

He turned his head excitedly and shouted to his brothers, "I heard you!" It's the Japanese who came, and we can't afford to lose the captain's face! ”

"Whew!" The gunners roared, they all grew up listening to the deeds of the Qi family's army, and naturally had a natural contempt and hunger for the Japanese invaders.

Chu Liuxiang raised his finger to measure the distance, but it was still too far, so he could only shout in a low voice: "Calm down first, and then fire the cannon when you get closer." ”

"Hmm." The gunners, who were going to light the arquebus, stopped.

The Coast Guard still follows the Ming army's traditional thinking of water warfare, concentrating its main firepower on the wide bow of the ship.

Chu Liuxiang and his gunners operated a total of four artillery pieces. The four guns were similar in style, with a slender barrel and a slightly thicker tail. The middle two doors are larger, with a length of 1.7 meters and a weight of 1,000 catties. The gun body has three cannon hoops, the muzzle has a crosshair, the cannon lug is located in front of the third gun hoop, and the fire door is provided with a medicine pool and a fire door cover.

A large iron ring was cast at the end of the gun tail, which was threaded with a thick cable to fix the gun carriage to the deck and counteract the recoil when the gun was fired. It can also facilitate soldiers to quickly drag the cannon out of the shelling position and drag it back from the shelling position, whether it is loading ammunition or cleaning the gun chamber, so as not to delay the battle.

At this time, the mainstream naval guns in Europe were roughly like this. Although people's cannons are cast in bronze, these knockoffs made in Foshan are all cast in iron. However, the cannon gall was cast with wrought iron, and an iron hoop was added to the outside, which greatly reduced the risk of exploding. It can be said that apart from being bulky, there is nothing wrong with it.

Of course, bulkiness is the biggest problem. The two bronze snake cannons on the side, although they look much more delicate, but in fact, the caliber is only a little smaller, the range and power are not much inferior, and they will hardly explode.

No way, the bronze cannon of this era is better than the iron cannon.

Chu Liuxiang has always maintained a ranging posture, and when the distance between the two sides came to 1.2 kilometers, he said sharply: "Prepare to shoot!" ”

The gunners lit the arquebus.

"Launch!" Chu Liuxiang ordered without hesitation.

The fire rope ignited the fuse, and in the roar, four cannonballs whizzed out!