Along with the main fleet was a logistics flotilla of 5 ships with hard sails.

The logistics fleet was set up in the usual style of the Traders: a "new lock ship" equipped with electronic equipment was the flagship and led the rest of the ships to the ship.

At present, the number of "new lock boats" is still very scarce, which is the Taijiang shipyard version of the mixed-race old lock ship mentioned above. This type of ship is bulky, with a length of 45 meters, a width of 8.5 meters, a draft of 5.3 meters, and a rated displacement of 400 tons. In the eyes of the Ming people, this is a big ship with 1,500 materials, you know, the most common 400 material fortune ship on the ocean on weekdays, the actual displacement is less than 100 tons.

Due to the Western-style "U" shaped bottom, multiple broadside guns could be installed on the deck of the new lock ship. Of course, such armaments were practically meaningless - their main function was to transport supplies, and in normal times only a Napoleonic 6-pounder gun was installed in the bow to defend itself.

As the main force on the surface of this campaign: the hand-to-hand combat + musket brigade composed of 30 lucky boats, at the moment is still staying in the Maweishui camp for training, and did not go out with the team for the first time.

......

As soon as the slow transport fleet left the mouth of the Min River, it was left far behind by the main fleet. It is the south wind season at the moment, so the fleet heading south from Fuzhou is a ship headwind.

Without the help of engines, the speed of the two Youguang-class destroyers is actually not very high, only 8 knots, and this is still in the case of a tailwind. Therefore, as soon as the fleet left the mouth of the Min River in the early morning, the two destroyers compensated for some of the engines and maintained the speed of the ships at about 10 knots.

10 knots is 18 kilometers per hour. And how much is the sea route from Fuzhou to Xiamen? 200 km. So when 12 hours had passed, at half past six in the afternoon, the fleet had reached the open sea, 20 kilometers east of Kinmen.

After reducing the speed of the ships to only 3 knots, the fleet began to circle the sea, waiting for the night to come, and by the way, preparing for the battle.

The preparation starts with the meal. Since this mission is an offshore operation with supplies, the ship has plenty of fresh ingredients: dinner is a tall Yangzhou fried rice.

Fried rice is perfect for the situation at the moment, as the rice can be steamed in advance, and the peas and diced radish can also be processed in advance. When it's time to eat, the chef just needs to throw the vegetable oil, eggs, peas and diced vegetables into a large pot and stir-fry...... Of course, the most important thing is diced salted pork, commonly known as ham.

Heavy oil and salt, fried rice with a lot of egg drops and diced bacon was a favorite of the soldiers. After eating the rice in the iron rice bowl, each person will also be given a pot and spoon of sugar black tea. The soldiers would gently shake the rice bowl and then drink the black tea and the oil and water at the bottom of the tank.

After eating, the deck department began to clean up and tie up all the items that hindered the battle in accordance with the combat regulations, including the artillery crew and the engine, which were also making their own pre-battle preparations.

After all the preparations were completed, it was already dusk when the sun was setting. At this moment, distant fiery clouds filled the sky, as if to foretell that a flame would rise on the surface of the sea tonight.

By the time the fleet reached the sea east of Kinmen at low speed, it was already dark.

The night is a friend who travels through the crowd. The fleet, with its various electronic devices, was a god-like being in the dark night of the 17th century.

......

At present, in Zhangzhou Bay, there are a total of 3 pirate forces that have been assembled in large numbers.

The largest number of people is naturally Li Kuiqi's gang. The Li Kuiqi group, which is based in Xiamen Zhongzuo, has been recruiting loose shares and integrating the team these days, so its strength is now inflated: there are already more than 500 warships that can go into battle in the big gang, and the strength has reached more than 20,000 people.

The pirate vanguard group stationed in Kinmen West Bay is Zhong Bin, who has only recently been separated from the big gang, and a few soldiers and horses from the outside shopkeepers.

Zhong Bin's soldiers and horses were only recently adjusted to Kinmen. As Li Kuiqi's most powerful ally, Zhong Bin stationed his troops here, the first intention was to monitor the Zheng family's fleet in the northern Weitou Bay, and the second level was to serve as a pioneer in the upcoming raids and drink the first soup - this is also the hidden benefit that Li Kuiqi gave to several allies.

And the third force in Zhangzhou Bay is the Zheng family's soldiers and horses currently entrenched in Weitou Bay. The Zheng family, who was driven back to their lair, is now weak and confused; After losing the leader, they no longer pose a threat to other forces, so the Travelers plan to clean up the gang at the end.

In this way, the main target of tonight is clear: the Kinmen Zhongbin Group, which is stationed in the outermost berth position.

The shape of Kinmen Island is a horizontal dumbbell shape with two large ends and a thin middle, with a missing piece on the left. And the location where Zhong Bin's fleet is stationed at the moment is on the left side of Kinmen, in the gap bay opposite Lieyu.

When the fleet came to the sea area 5 kilometers away from Kinmen, the ships that had been in a silent state began to lower their sails, and the fleet completely switched to propeller power mode - the upcoming battle was likely to have to maneuver greatly on the sea at night, unable to keep up with the frequency of wind changes, and the sail equipment that increased the complexity of the ship became a burden at this time.

After lowering the sails, the fleet began to adopt a low-speed propulsion method with relatively low noise. By the time the point on the watch was pointed at 8 o'clock in the evening, the flotilla had already quietly come to a distance of only 2 km from the enemy. By this time, the vast areas of fishing fire in the bay were already clearly in the eyes of the sailors.

......

At this moment, in the middle island of the flagship of the Ariko, the crossing crowd who had just finished reconnoitering the number of enemy ships through radar and night vision devices were discussing the battle plan.

In front of the crossing were nearly 200 ships anchored in the bay.

A little to the south are 50 elite ships lined up in two columns. This part of the ships is the core force of Zhong Bin and the outside shopkeeper like Chen Xinji, who are all elites of each family.

The rest of the 150 miscellaneous ships were densely packed together next to the large fleet, forming a square line of four columns.

A large number of pirates on the ship, at the moment lighting oil lamps in the cabin of their own nightlife: some gambling, some standing on the bow of the ship singing at the throat, and those who are drunk and carrying wine jugs from house to house, in addition, there are many goods in the dark cabin picking up soap, in short, there is a noise in the Pirate Bay.

"Don't you think there are a lot of enemies here? Why don't you go directly to Xiamen? After reading the information, the chubby chief of staff of the fleet, Wang Xiaohui, looked up and said.

"That's not much? No wonder you're fat, your appetite is really good. Sha Zhengming on the side pointed to the radar screen: "There are at least 200 ships, and one-third of Li Kuiqi's strength is here, is it still too little?" ”

"If you go to the center and left, won't you be able to get the two-thirds?"

"Not necessarily. The pier in the center and left is east-west, and now the south wind is blowing, and our ultimate move is not working well. Sha Zhengming said this, swiped his finger from top to bottom on the screen, and said with a smile: "The boat here is north-south, just right." ”

Although he admitted Sha Zhengming's analysis, Wang Xiaohui still smacked his lips: "Alas, I am always a little unwilling. ”

"Come on, hurry up and give the order."

The next moment, a frigate at the very end of the fleet slowly raised its position.

......

The "big move" that Sha Zhengming and their clouds and mountains have been talking about for a long time is indeed true: This 150-ton Taijiang-class frigate named "Rewave" is the hidden big move of crossing the fleet.

At the stern of the Rewave, there is a multi-stage high-pressure oil pump gun system from Siemens. The system is capable of injecting gasoline stored in the stern of the ship to a distance of 150 meters at a pressure of 14 Mpa meters.

In the distant Miaosu, the barrels of black crude oil that were carried down the mountain by the savages, and the first batch of 2 tons of gasoline were mostly used here...... In order to slaughter their own kind, human beings do everything they can to think about it.

And Wang Bo, the captain of the crossing ships on the Rewave, began to act after confirming the order with Sha Zhengming with a walkie-talkie. With everyone on the seven sister ships watching, the Heat Wave began to slowly start its engines and headed north at low speed.

The Heatwave departed from the southern part of The Pirate Bay. The ship's route was to draw a circle from the left side of Pirate Bay, through the strait between Kinmen and Lieyu, and around the north of Pirate Bay.

The reason for going around at low speed is because you don't want pirates to be alarmed by high-frequency noise. Attacking from the north, because it was a southerly wind, the oncoming sea breeze would blow the gasoline sprayed from the stern of the Heat Wave behind you, rather than on yourself in a funny way.

...... It took 40 minutes to slowly move to 1 kilometer north of The Pirate Bay, and after one last confirmation of the order with a walkie-talkie, the attack was launched.

As the screeching engine sound grew louder, the heat wave, which was covered with ceramic fireproof cloth on all flammable parts, began to rush towards the enemy line while increasing its speed.

It took only a few minutes for the Stormtroopers to increase the ship's speed to 12 knots. At the same time, there was the growing noise of turbines in the silent night wind.

The pirates were quick to react, after all, not everyone was drinking in a loud noise: it was the hottest month of the year, August, and there were also a lot of people out to cool off on the large ships, so many people were now standing up from the bow of the ship and looking to the north where the strange noise was made.

Then they saw the sun.

The Rewave, which had already broken through to the north of the ship formation 200 meters, had no scruples at this moment, and immediately turned on the searchlight on the bow of the ship.

With a bright white pillar of light passing through the night sky, the position of the formation of more than 100 Chinese ships was clearly illuminated at this moment. And the unlucky ones who looked north were all stunned by the bright pillars of light, covered their faces one by one, and jumped to their feet and shouted.

A distance of 200 meters is only a few seconds for a frigate with a speed of up to 12 knots. The next moment, according to the enemy's position illuminated by the searchlight, Wang Bo, who was personally steering, guided the ship to slide steadily 100 meters in front of the enemy ship.

At the same time, seeing that the stern of the ship was already parallel to the other party's ship, Wang Bo's emaciated face finally showed a smile: "I order, launch!" ”。