With a "bang", a basket of broken silver was kicked to the bow of the ship by a foot in combat boots.

...... The army of the Middle Ages, whether it was the battalion soldiers of the Ming Dynasty or the European princes who were fighting each other at the moment, the military was always the most important issue. Without the army, the army will mutiny, commonly known as "want you to look good", which is a problem that no wise commander can solve.

There are two ways to raise troops: financial appropriations, or plunder.

It was 1628, and Comrade Wallenstein had just completed a 10-year epic locust raid in Upper Hungary, Silesia and North Germany. The mercenaries who followed behind the Wallenstein banner snatched all the space they had set foot on like locusts, and interpreted the phrase "raising troops" to the extreme.

In 1628, the Ming official army was still slightly stronger than its European counterparts. During this period, although the central finances of the Ming court were already in extreme difficulty, they had not collapsed in the end; The ability to "raise the day" is not inferior to that of Comrade Wallenstein's vote for locust generals at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and he has not yet been released from the cage.

Therefore, the current governors of the Ming Dynasty, whenever they encounter a local war in the jurisdiction, they can still squeeze out a little silver. Xiong Wencan, in history, after Zheng Zhilong was driven back to Fuzhou by Li Kuiqi, sent people and money to build a new ship, and quickly helped Zheng Zhilong recover.

And the reward given to the sailor by the crossing public today is 50,000 taels of silver sponsored by Comrade Xiong Wencan.

Seeing the broken silver rolling in the bow of the ship, the officers and soldiers on the deck began to swallow their spittle. A tall, bearded, "monk-soldier" officer with an iron funnel in his hand stood menacingly at the bow of the boat, followed by a soldier with a rifle and a smiling officer.

"My lord Cao is a particular person and never treats his brothers badly. On this expedition, each person will receive 5 taels of silver first. ”

With the thank-you of the officers and soldiers for getting the silver, the traversers who shouted with a small loudspeaker made a promise: in the next battle, anyone who captures the pirates can go to the grain platform according to 3 taels of silver per person to settle the bill, 2 taels for the dead, and the leader is counted separately.

So the troops marched to the cheers.

In fact, as of the day of the expedition, the total number of pirates in Zhangzhou Bay was less than 20,000...... In the past few days, it has been found that the situation is not good, and there are many small shopkeepers who have withdrawn their shares and left.

Therefore, this reward is completely affordable for a certain force. Mo said that Lao Xiong also sponsored 50,000 taels, even if he didn't sponsor, if he took out 108,000 yuan, he could buy all the pirates' lives, and he wouldn't blink if he passed through everyone's eyes: if he could capture some strong men, it would be of great use.

It's a pity that the reality is not so easy. Tens of thousands of taels of silver can only allow those poor ghost officers and soldiers to fight a wave of chicken blood, and they can be brave when fighting, and nothing else.

The main force to destroy the pirates can still only rely on the fleets and soldiers that have spent countless resources on the traversal, and the others are unreliable.

......

On the morning of August 19, 1628, the tripartite alliance of officials, bandits and Dutch, with a total of 180 ships, officially marched south from the coast of Quanzhou to start the second joint anti-bandit operation after the defeat of Yu Shigao.

In the afternoon of the same day, all the troops and horses with Kinmen Island as the fulcrum were all deployed in place. Liu Zhe, who sat in the rear grain station and served as the commander-in-chief of the suppression of bandits, issued a formal order to attack at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

The deployment of troops in the whole campaign was as follows: 10 Dutch ships led by 50 warships under the command of Quannan guerrillas to blockade the Liaoluo Bay Estuary north of Kinmen.

As for the Zheng family's fleet in Liuluo Bay...... If they tried to break through, they would be met with a Dutch fleet under the command of Lord Hans Puttmans. Even if they escaped, the end would still be miserable: the entire Shijing Zheng clan would be uprooted by the officers and soldiers who had their hands freed up afterwards, and the Zheng clan would be wiped out, and Anping Town in Luowan would never become the Zheng family's den again.

You must know that this battle is a righteous war of rebellion in nature. The government is rebelling against the righteous and occupies the name of righteousness, so naturally it will not play any morality with pirates, and it will not be as bad as his wife and children.

In fact, raiding homes and exterminating ethnic groups was originally one of the most basic means for the government to maintain its rule. Before this, the government couldn't move the Zheng family, because Comrade Yiguan was too strong, and the officers and soldiers couldn't beat him. Now that the Zheng family is in decline, if the government can tolerate these grass people who have both silver and offended the emperor and the governor to be arrogant, it would be better to go out of business.

Therefore, in order to complete the great cause of suppressing bandits as soon as possible, Liu Zhe, the leader of the bandits, had already sent lobbyists to Anping Town to "recruit An" as soon as he pulled out the blockade line.

This time, Zhao'an did not have the kind of good thing that the governor came forward: a coaxing little official, riding in a small boat with an official flag, carrying an official document from Xiong Wencan ordering "cheap action", this is all. The Zheng family has a few mediocre goods, and in the end they can only get a benevolent, "quit the gang and pay tribute and don't kill the whole family", there will be nothing else,

......

Soon after the deployment of the northern blockade line, the planned blockade line in the waters south of Kinmen was also arranged.

Due to the relatively close proximity of the Zhongzuo Institute to the mouth of the South Waterway, there is a high probability that the fugitive pirates will impact this side, so the strength of the South Waterway is very strong: 30 Fu boats from the Mawei Barracks, several "new lock boats" with heavy machine guns, a hodgepodge of more than 60 Fu boats, bird boats, east ships, and clippers led by Qu Dazhong, and more than a dozen patrol boats that came to Kinmen with Liu Zhe's logistics fleet.

The so-called patrol boats are actually those passenger boats that pull people on both sides of the Taiwan River every day. This nimble and high-speed dinghy with a white spinnaker is the most suitable type of boat for inshore patrols. Their high speed and small turning radius allow them to fly around the sea, and pirate ships have no speed to speak of in front of these boats.

After everything was deployed, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the main fleet of 8 warships officially entered Zhangzhou Bay from the direction of Liaoluo Bay.

And at this moment, in Zhangzhou Bay, it is already boiling like a hot pot.

Since the "night of terror" a few days ago, a large number of pirate sentinel ships have been scattered in every corner of Zhangzhou Bay. And when the sentinels saw the large force coming from the north this morning, they all turned around and ran...... Those who ran slowly were killed by the gunmen in those weird dinghys.

Most of the pirate leaders who got the news from the clippers still returned to the center and left with their soldiers and horses according to the previous agreement-the bad breeds have sneaked away in the past two days.

And Li Kuiqi, who was originally in the center and left, couldn't help but be overjoyed after seeing a large number of people returning to their positions, and seized the time to make a wave of dying mobilization: "The official army has sealed the door, and everyone is now unable to retreat, and if you don't work hard, your head will become an ornament on the plate to invite merit!" ”

Before the words fell, several of Li Kuiqi's descendants and small leaders who did not want to be slaves shouted at the same time: "Big boss, do it!" I don't have to be a dog for the officers and soldiers! ”

"Good! Everyone, come with me to the sea. In broad daylight, those few ships are weak, and our ships are ten times as strong as them, so there is always a chance to fight! ”

......

It was noon when the bandit army came to the vicinity of Kinmen. And when the army was arranged two hours later and the main fleet set off, the pirate gang of the Central Left Institute, which had already received the news, had already unified their thinking, assembled the team, and began to rush out of the Central Left Institute.

So, at 3 p.m., the two sides met head-on in the sea area outside the center and left.

Although Li Kuiqi's strength has dropped a lot at the moment, the pirate gang who was forced into a corner at the moment still made up more than 300 ships of various types. As soon as these miscellaneous ships left the port, they formed a torrent and pulled out a three-mile-long pig brigade on the sea surface and rushed to the open sea.

The next moment, Li Kuiqi's fleet, which was rushing to the forefront, was immediately attacked head-on by 44 guns at a distance of 1,000 meters.

With all the sails down, the crossing fleet, which maintained the speed of 8 knots, easily formed a T-shaped formation in front of the pirate fleet. Due to the high speed of the ships at the moment, the rate of salvo fire of the entire fleet is now maintained at one shot per minute.

At this moment, Li Kuiqi is dressed in a short fight, with a long knife at his waist, and his gray hair is dancing in the sea breeze. It was only at this time that he was finally fortunate enough to see the full face of the ship.

Streamlined hull, brown livery, white sails long since fallen; What appeared in Li Kuiqi's eyes was rows of cannon muzzles that lit up white smoke at the same time.

Without caring about studying the secret of the ship's no sails and oars, Li Kuiqi gritted his teeth and ordered all of them to speed up the charge after several lucky boats at the head were shot and slowed down - he knew better than anyone that if he couldn't bite off a piece of meat from his opponent today, then next year's day would be his own sacrifice day.

The reality is brutal.

For a moment, the pirates even saw a glimmer of hope: they finally rushed to within 300 meters of each other after paying the price of nearly 20 ships. However, the next moment, everyone's mouth opened: the opposing fleet first accelerated instantly, and then, like a long worm, they made a U-shaped turn in front of everyone, and the distance between the two sides was 1,000 meters.

Sadly, in the process, the raining shells did not stop for a moment.

The so-called thief goes to the empty building, which is the current situation. The diehards, who were originally full of passion and murderous spirits, and were looking forward to a positive wave of thieves, instantly cleared their anger groove at this moment, and they all collapsed.

Without waiting for Li Kuiqi to order, the snake-like team began to disintegrate. A large number of small minions who followed behind the main force began to flee in all directions at this moment, and countless thin lines running in all directions soon appeared on the sea.

As for Lee? In the chaos of the moment, he could no longer be found—his ship had been sunk before it all collapsed, and then when he had changed ships, no one had been given his orders anymore.