The fleet, which was cleaving the waves on the sea and sailing at high speed, quickly approached the five pirate ships that were slowly running away, bringing the two sides closer to the eye range.

In the bridge of the frigate "Green Island" at the head of the fleet, a middle-aged man wearing a blue navy training uniform and the rank of second lieutenant on his shoulder was holding a telescope and observing carefully.

This person has big ears, a simple face, a straight body, and a rigorous military appearance, and he looks like a regular officer. However, what outsiders don't know is that this honest man was a pirate who killed people without blinking.

This man's name is Cao Hu, and he was the leader of a small group of pirates before. When Zheng Zhilong disappeared and Li Kuiqi's group split, Cao Hu went north to Fuzhou to defect to the official army under the introduction of his old relationship Xu Xinsu.

After being recruited by General Cao, Cao Hu lost his troops and ships, and only got the rank of general of a foreign commission.

After observing the collapse of the Li Kuiqi group at the scene, Cao Hu was sent to the naval training base of the senior member along with some other small leaders who recruited An Toucheng.

The painful career as a military cadet has made many people retreat - cultural and military discipline classes are not a big problem for those young people, but for adult pirates who are casual and have long fixed their views, it is bloody deboning and scraping scales. Rebirth is a word that's easier said than done.

More and more people quit one after another, including the two brothers Du Dewei and Hu Ba, who are famous among the students, when they found out that being an official in the new society was not so popular, and the most dragged was the capitalist, so they took the money that the seller used to be the boss at the beginning.

In the end, the pirate officer who could hold out until the day he was awarded the title was not even half of what he was at the beginning. In the middle of this, Cao Hu's successful graduation surprised everyone a little - don't look at his honest face, but in the pirate gang back then, Cao Hu was a famous treacherous man.

With the official title, these former pirate leaders were given a new lease of life, and they regained possession of their tribes and ships. Of course, the new troops are all soldiers who have undergone formal training and can be rotated at any time, and there is no such thing as a big brother or a little brother.

At the end of the eight-month short-term training course, these half-way officers began to rotate through various positions in the Navy. As for the future path, it depends on their cultivation, and those who perform well will be given the opportunity to further their studies again and find their place in the future naval construction of the Empire.

Cao Hu currently holds the position of first mate on the frigate Green Island, which is his third position after graduation.

As the fleet approached at high speed, the distance between the enemy and the enemy was much closer every minute that passed. And at this moment, in the lens of Cao Hu's eight-fold Zeiss telescope, the figures on the opposite ships were already quite clear, and he could even see the face of someone who was jumping to his feet and shouting.

"It turned out to be a tuantou fish, and I don't want to see my old friend again today." A smile appeared on the corner of Cao Hu's mouth, and then he put down his binoculars, turned his head to the other officer beside him, and said, "Captain, it is confirmed that it is a pirate under Liu Xiang's command, I recognize the leader." ”

The officer standing next to him also put down his binoculars at the same time, "Well, we have also been recognized, and the other party is lowering the recognition flag." ”

The man who spoke was short and wore a standard officer's uniform. Although this person is young, the colorful seniority badge on his chest represents Comrade Mao Wujian, who is far more senior than Cao Hu in the army.

When Comrade Mao Wujian confirmed the identity of the opponent's pirate, he immediately ordered "to inform the flagship to confirm the identity of the opponent's pirate and request authorization to open fire." ”

The Signal Soldier whispered to the fascinated colored microphone. A minute later, the command on the flagship was conveyed "Permission to fire." ”

The four dexterous frigates then detached from the large force. After forming a battle line, under the command of the radio station, a white line quickly caught up with the pirate ship with the wind. At the same time, the frigate began to switch to the second form of the engine to increase the power, black smoke rose, and the sails were lowered by half - it was about to arrive in the city of Guangzhou, and there was no need to think about supply.

When the four battleships began to turn deftly against the headwind, the Tuantou fish, who was still scolding, suddenly shut up. He hugged the mast tightly, looking at the enemy who had rushed to within 200 meters, and the scene hidden in the depths of his memory was resurrected half a year ago, countless brothers who did not believe in evil were sent to the bottom of the sea to feed fish by these strange ships that ignored the direction of the wind and were like sharp arrows.

Tuantou Yu knew that, as a rule of thumb, the opponent would soon be able to fire. Sure enough, as soon as he thought of this, four school projectiles came from the opposite side.

Since the Taijiang-class frigate had a displacement of only 150 tons, there were only 4 6-pounder guns on board. However, these four guns were fast and powerful, and they could cut through the single-layer hull of a Chinese sailing ship within 500 meters, making them a powerful weapon against old-fashioned pirates.

Four shells entered the water very close to the target, making a high splash. Knowing that the raindrops of cannonballs were about to hit, Tuantou Yu no longer hesitated, he first stretched his neck to look at the sandbar islands on the river downstream, and then sighed, let go of the mast, and plunged into the river.

At the same time as he entered the water, the naval artillery group that happened to be firing at Zhu Yuan began to fire rapidly. With a rate of fire of 2-4 minutes, the 16 guns rained down on five pirate ships.

In five minutes, in just five minutes, several pirate ships were already in ruins, and the world suddenly fell silent.

The ship's deck was now littered with dead men, blood mixed with the sewage on the ship's surface and turned brown, half-fallen flags drifting lifelessly in the wind, ropes, debris, severed limbs, and some half-dead pirates rolling around on the shaky deck.

The victors were skilful in what they did next, as they had done the same thing many times, first lowering the sails of the battleship and then slowly approaching the pirate ship using propeller power. The next moment, the sailors placed two rounds of guns on the side of the ship, and all the objects that were still wriggling in the visual range came to a standstill.

The next few hooks were tossed, and the boarding team slid down the rope to the pirate ship.

According to the emergency boarding plan, the team nailed the hatch as soon as it boarded the ship to prevent someone from suddenly rushing up from below. After taking control of the deck, the team members first briefly checked the condition of several boats, then turned the sails and steered the boats, resuming the course.

Several pirate ships have varying degrees of damage. The rest of the small-tonnage clippers were gone, but the largest bird boat was badly injured due to a fire, and the hull leaked in several places.

So two Ariko-class destroyers with a displacement of 500 tons also came over, hovered on the river with the excellent power system of the sailing ship, and began to tow the trophy with steel cables.

The battle only took 5 minutes, but the follow-up operation took a full hour, and these trophies were very important and were good helpers for propaganda, so they had to be towed away.

After everything was put to a halt, the fast fleet finally officially entered the Pearl River. However, because of the existence of towing oil bottles, the fleet was no longer fast at this time.

On the surface of the Pearl River, which was far wider than that of later generations, the fleet went up smoothly at a speed of 5 knots. Due to the hydrological data measured by the ship sent by the Guangzhou station in advance, the fleet did not delay along the way, and soon saw Humen Island, which is known as the key to the Pearl River and the gateway to the south.

Humen Island and the upper and lower horizontal blocks are far away from each other, and they are the key positions to control the Pearl River. There were not only forts, but also water villages and warships, and the importance of the imperial court to this place was clear.

But it didn't help. Throughout history, the Humen Fort has been broken by outsiders many times, from the court at the end of the Ming Dynasty to the court at the end of the Qing Dynasty, as long as the country is in decline, these fortresses will become empty shells, and they will be broken when they are stabbed.

And what the traversers now see through the telescope are the same tattered turrets and old Furlong cannons, the same old warships and sailors in tattered shackles

All the traversers who saw this, including their native naval officers, quickly came to a tacit understanding that if they wanted to capture the place, it would probably only take a few accurate salvos before sending out a landing force.

As soon as the fleet came to the visual range of Humen Village, the water village quickly sent a patrol ship to negotiate—the fleet had already sent an official document to Guangzhou on fast horses before departure, so the local garrison knew that a sailing ship had recently come to Guangzhou. In addition, the garrison had already seen the flag of the fleet just now, so they hurriedly dispatched patrol ships.

After exchanging a few words with flags, horns and shouts across the bow of the ship, the patrol boat waved the flag against the water village. The next moment, a few more clippers poured out of Humen Village. Some of them went straight into the water systems on both sides of the Pearl River, probably taking a shortcut to Guangzhou City to report the news; The rest came around the fleet and played the role of a road-opening motorcycle.

The rest of the voyage went smoothly. The fleet went all the way, after passing the famous sections of Shiziyang, Wuchong and Huangpu, the fleet finally came to the terminal of the trip, the confluence of the three rivers in the south of Guangzhou, the famous tourist attraction Baietan.

The river surface is wide, the smoke waves are vast, the scenery of the beautiful white goose pond is extremely beautiful at night, and the "goose pond night moon" is one of the eight views of Yangcheng in the later generations. Passing through Zhongli, several dicks who worked in Guangzhou at the beginning have seen the festival fireworks display of the municipal government in Baietan.

In the 17th century, the white goose pond was no less lively than that of later generations, and the wide lake was full of carved railings and jade flower boats and private amusement shops of rich and noble families, and the sound of golden bamboo was faintly floating. The small and nimble fruit boats, grain and rice boats, meat and poultry boats, and singing boats scurried around, just like the express cars of later generations, and did not care about the traffic rules.

Thanks to the blessings of the big-mouthed soldiers on the patrol ships who came to report the news in advance, the news that the guest army from Fujian had captured five pirate ships at the mouth of the Pearl River in one fell swoop had spread throughout Baietan.

As a result, the biggest embarrassment of the fast fleet since its formation appeared as soon as the fleet appeared in Baietanpu, it was surrounded by large and small pleasure boats. The scene of the prostitute dressed in red and green, the boy who was covered in ayaluo, the bustard, the turtle princess, the singing girl, and the official wife who was hiding behind the bead curtain in the private tour was very embarrassing for a while, and the bluffing fleet commander Wang Bo almost hit 110.