But the three ships of the Jiyuan were not fooled, and they always hung them as if they were leaving. In fact, according to the real speed, the speed of the Guan ship is slightly faster than that of the three ships of the Jiyuan. But the Jiyuan was an empty ship, and those ships were more or less loaded with a lot of supplies and soldiers. Under the advantages of one another, they naturally couldn't catch up with the ship, but were thrown away by the Jiyuan.

But these three ships will not leave easily, but lead the ships around the sea. And whenever they find an opportunity, they will fire. Each time it was three ships attacking one target.

In this way, the two fleets were entangled at sea for nearly half an hour, and just when the people of the Shimazu fleet were tired of watching it, suddenly a closed ship caught fire for no reason!

Sharp-eyed men in the Shimazu fleet shouted, "Look! Why did the ship suddenly catch fire? ”

Birshan, Hisataka hurriedly looked intently, and indeed saw black smoke suddenly rising from a closed ship, and there were occasional flames coming out of the top of the ship! It looks like the fire is not small.

Huashan Jiugao scolded angrily: "How long has it been since these bastards of the water army practiced? He actually set his ship on fire! ”

In fact, Bircheyama Hisataka really wronged these Japanese sailors. This fire was really done by a few of their ships on the Jiyuan! Because the shells fired by those three ships were all arson. In fact, the so-called arson shells at that time were ordinary spherical smoothbore shells. However, they were burned red in a furnace before they were launched. Ignite the opponent's flammable materials with its own heat.

However, this method of firing arson bombs is troublesome. After the gunpowder had been loaded, a cork board was stuffed into it before the red-hot shells could be loaded. A cork board was tucked between the shell and the gunpowder, so that the shell and the gunpowder were separated, so that the red-hot shell would not ignite the gunpowder in advance.

And this kind of shell will not immediately ignite the opposing ship. Instead, it uses its own heat to slowly bake the planks, which take a long time to ignite the boat. But the ship was obviously unlucky, probably because the shells fell on some flammable material, which caused a dull surprise, and the sailors did not find out. So when the fire gets bigger, it becomes out of control.

However, this arson bomb is very ineffective. And it's dangerous. It is a dangerous task to light a cannonball on a ship, and if you are not careful, you will burn yourself. When a cannonball hits an enemy ship, it may not necessarily hit the vital point, but when the cannonball is burned, it will ignite the gunpowder if you are not careful, and finally harm others and yourself!

However, these Japanese sailors were still elite, and the ships on fire quickly stopped and retreated. The sailors began to fetch water to extinguish the fire. It took a while for the fire to be completely extinguished. After this accident, the remaining ships were much more cautious. is no longer as arrogant as he was just now, chasing after the three ships of the Jiyuan. Instead, the distance is appropriate. It seems that they are planning to evict them. Of course, it could also be a trick to lure the enemy!

Hisakama gave a few orders, and a few moments later, several official ships broke off from the group and headed for the battlefield. The chasing ships slowly turned around and returned to the fleet, and it seemed that Kayama Hisaka was planning to make full use of the advantages of more people and more ships.

After all, the enemy only has three ships, and he makes full use of the advantage of his own ships to carry out rotational operations, and it is not necessarily himself who will be dragged down at that time, maybe it will be those three sea ships. However, they were not fooled by the Jiyuan. After two moments of entanglement with the newcomer, they left them and set sail. It seems that they also understand what Hisataka Kayama means.

Seeing that the three ships had run away, Hisataka snorted and returned to the cabin. He pondered for a while, then instructed the samurai beside him, "At night, the fleet should form a circle. At the same time, be prepared to fight back. I expect the enemy to come and attack at night. ”

It was really said by Birch Mountain Hisagao, and in the middle of the night, the three ships of Jiyuan secretly appeared again. However, they were clever not to get too close to the fleet, but to reduce the speed of the ships and fire at the fleet from a distance.

But at such a close distance during the day, the accuracy of the artillery is not very good. Not to mention the shelling in the middle of the night. And even if you hit the opposing ship, there will be no loss. The cause of the fire on the ship during the day has been found. So the Japanese sailors were also on guard. Once the ship is hit, nothing will happen as long as the sailors carry a bucket of seawater and pour it on the shells. So Jiyuan, they fired more than a dozen guns per ship and retreated.

In this way, the three ships of the Jiyuan were entangled with the Shimadzu fleet for three days. Three days later, their reinforcements arrived. Two more Chinese seagoing vessels joined the fleet. As for Liu Pei's new battleship, Gen Quilt did not show up.

When Kayama Hisataka saw the enemy's reinforcements coming, not only did he not get angry, but laughed loudly. Kono asked, "My lord, why are you so happy that the enemy has come to reinforce you?" ”

Kayama Hisaka laughed: "This shows that our opponent is already in a hurry. He sent all the fleets over, and there was no room for the people on the Ryukyu Island to escape. And don't you think that the size of the five-ship fleet is a little bigger? Harassment operations are not something that large fleets can do. ”

Just like Hisaka Kayama said, the scale is completely large, but the results are still not large. Because their number is too small. It's like a piranha facing a giant whale, and the giant whale doesn't care if it bites twice from the small mouth of the piranha, maybe it doesn't even bite through the whale's skin.

But when they became a five-ship fleet, they were a little inflexible. Once, he was almost caught by the long snake array that locked the ship, and the Zhenyuan behind the palace. Although the Zhenyuan escaped, it was also solidly washed by the iron cannon on the deck, killing and wounding several people!

However, the Zhenyuan was not ambiguous, and immediately responded with a heavy cannon. The Japanese sailors on the boat squeaked and screamed. In the end, they had to divide into two fleets to carry out raiding operations. They don't get together until night.

But their results are still there. Although they did not sink a single ship, they did damage more than twenty ships, killing and wounding many Japanese sailors. At the same time, it slowed down the advance of the fleet.

The five ships and the Shimadzu fleet were entangled for eight days. On the ninth day, the Shimazu fleet suddenly accelerated at the signal of Hisakama Kayama, and even at night. Hisataka Kayama's intention was to test whether the team in front of them was in a hurry.

If they're in a hurry, they don't have much to do. If they still don't rush to attack, then I'm afraid that Kayama Hisataka will think carefully about future operations. However, what satisfied Biryama Hisaka was that the thoroughness on the other side was really anxious! They actually tried to sink a ship that was used as bait. The ship was indeed beaten badly at that time, and almost lost its ability to sail. But the other ships almost surrounded the flotilla. And they didn't bother that night. This made Hisataka Kayama very satisfied. He guessed that the enemy might be on the verge of fleeing, so he had to block them on the island before they could transport the bulk of the army away. So he ordered the fleet to maintain its current speed and go straight to the Ryukyus.

On the 13th day of contact between the sides, only one ship of the enemy's flotilla returned. However, he did not continue to harass the Shimazu fleet. Rather, it fell far away from the Shimazu fleet. Hisakama is very satisfied with the current situation. He said to Kono, "It seems that this pirate has nothing too good to do. I reckon the rest of their ships are going to transport their large forces! There is a chance that they will abandon the Ryukyus and flee, so we will have to speed up a little more. ”

Konogami said convincingly, "My lord, you really have no last resort! It seems that the adults will definitely be able to perform miraculous feats again in this battle! I wish you a long time in martial arts! ”

Two days later, just as the Shimazu fleet was about to enter the waters near the Ryukyus. The ship that had been watching them suddenly sped off into the distance, completely disappearing into the distance. And then it never happened again.

Kayama Hisaka proudly ordered the fleet to continue to accelerate. He had made up his mind to keep the pirates on the island as much as possible. For this reason, he did not hesitate to send most of the ships in the fleet, asking them to take the first step to control the open sea of the Ryukyu dock, but not to capture the pier. The samurai, who were eager to make meritorious contributions, happily urged the ship to set off.