Section 80 Sweet Harbor Storm - Sea Encounter

To the east, about six nautical miles, a flotilla of a dozen ships of varying tonnage and size appeared.

The Great Whale's first mate, Le Lin, raised her binoculars and watched intently at the voyage of the ship in the distance.

The wind was blowing the whale's two hard sails, pushing the ship at a speed of 2 knots per hour, and the first mate looked at his watch. The ship had already left Hai'an Harbor for two hours.

The whale had entered Hai'an the previous night and had unloaded the 200 stone of rice that had been brought on board. Later, it was loaded with 200 stone sugar. The original Jihua whale does not load sugar goods, after all, its task is to act as a bait, and there is no way to ensure the safety of the goods in the battle-sex-, whether it is flooding, fire or contamination by human blood, this sugar can never be sold anymore, and sugar is also a very good incendiary agent, in case the fire is not a joke in the battle.

But if you don't pretend to be any sugar, you can't act as bait, and the opponent has placed eyeliner on Hai'an Street.

Xi Ya raised his binoculars and watched the voyage of these ships intently. Because he deleted too many posts on Lingao BBS, his popularity among the masses dropped sharply, and in addition, it was revealed that the so-called "deduction on the map" he engaged in during working hours was all a game of computer wargames, and now he is anxious to find an opportunity to perform meritorious service. This time it was a sea operation, and the backbone of the navy had sailed a lot, and the big whale was also responsible for the bait mission, basically preparing for artillery bombardment and white-knuckle combat, and there was no problem with letting an army take command. Of course, the driving of the ship is still the responsibility of the navy people.

"First mate," he said, turning to the first mate, "this is the pirate hired by Haiyitang?" ”

"Very likely," replied Lelin, "but I can't see it yet, but I'll see it when I get closer." ”

"Alright," said Xi Ya, "order to be on guard." Tell everyone to make the necessary preparations. ”

Immediately, the order was conveyed to the entire ship. All preparations for war were immediately implemented. The number of lookouts increased to four.

"Report to Detachment A that a suspicious vessel has appeared 6 nautical miles from our ship." Standing in the back stern, Xi Ya felt a bit like the general in the movie, but the deck was full of straw bags, which looked boring.

Detachment A consisted of two fishing boats, which were responsible for providing direct cover for the whales, so as not to be outnumbered and violently attacked. They are on standby 10 nautical miles south of the whale, keeping their distance. According to Jihua: In the event of a battle, detachment A will rush to reinforce it. The task of detachment A was to cooperate with the whales to destroy them on the spot if there were less than four enemy ships, and if there were more than four enemy ships, to use maneuver and firepower to protect the whales and repel the enemy ships, and at the same time to force the enemy to flee to Juhuayu, where an ambush circle had been set up.

The flotilla is approaching at a fairly fast pace. Now the wind on the sea is not very strong, but the speed of the other party is obviously fast.

"They're using the oars," Lelin said, "and they're desperately chasing us." ”

"Probably yesterday, as soon as we entered the port, someone gave them a message, otherwise how could it be so accurate." Xi Ya looked at the approaching fleet, and thought that there would be a fierce battle in a while, and his heart was very excited. Although he has been a soldier, it is the first time that he has done such a real thing.

The flotilla was again - approaching - two nautical miles. Lelin estimated that their speed was at least 4 knots. In addition to sails, each boat also used at least six to eight oars for rowing. Now, there can be no misunderstanding of the intentions of this fleet.

"It's a pirate!" Lelin lowered her binoculars

"That's right." Xi Ya replied, "Prepare for battle!" ”

The bell on the Great Whale was quickly struck, and the sailors came out of their cabins and ran to their respective positions, mixed with army gunners in gray-colored uniforms and red-colored artillery collar badges. They were on board with four 12-pounder cannons.

The sailors quickly carried the sugar bales piled up on the outer layer to the cabin, and the other straw bales did not need to be moved, and the inside was full of sand, which was mainly used as a cover for temporary gun emplacements in addition to the cargo. Four artillery pieces and ammunition crates were hidden deep in these bunkers, covered with straw mats. The sailors pressed two pumps to pump up the seawater to wet the bags and decks to prevent the enemy from using arson.

It was Gu Dachun's fleet that came, and ten ships of various sizes had set off from an island near Xu Wen last night. Although there were only 10 boats, seven of them were joined by individual households on a temporary basis. These ships were all gathered together by Gu Dachun recently. The five thousand taels of silver that Zhu Sanye gave him, plus the sugar money he grabbed this time, made him feel very excited, and even more excited This cheap brother-in-law has not looked down on him very much in the past, and since he successfully intercepted Guang Bing and robbed two hundred stones of sugar, his attitude towards him has changed greatly, and it can even be said that he relies on him very much, which makes him feel very angry. Naturally, attitudes have become more positive.

Seeing the strange-looking and clumsy ship in South China in front of him, Gu Dachun felt that victory was already in sight. He even felt that he had gone a little too far to get these help boats, even if his three boats were surrounded by them, it would be enough to solve the problem. This time, Zhu Sanye clearly sent a message to him through Qiu Han: grabbing sugar is a trivial matter, and the key is that in the future, except for Haiyitang's ship, no one will dare to transport a boatload of sugar from Leizhou.

Gu Dachun naturally understood that the words that had been passed on last time were just "to let them know that they were powerful", but now the meaning is very different - if people don't dare, the best way is to kill people and set fires. So this time, he made up his mind not to show mercy to his subordinates.

I wish the third master that he wants him to add ships and cannons and expand the team, which is not difficult. Once you go to Jiangping, you can recruit a large number of rough fishermen who live in this borderland, who are neither Vietnamese nor Ming, and who are destitute and will participate in the robbery activities at sea when they have the opportunity. Some can also bring boats, which can be regarded as bringing their own production tools. Gu Dachun quickly recruited seven large ships and nearly six hundred people.

It's just that cannons and gunpowder are not very easy to do, Gu Dachun didn't use these things in the past, and temporarily found a lot of connections, only to find a workshop in the countryside of Qinzhou that specializes in privately casting cannons and bird guns, and bought more than ten cannons at the price of forty taels of silver each. However, gunpowder--is very difficult to handle, Zhu Sanye helped him get a few buckets from the sailor in Leizhou, and he managed to buy some himself. It's kind of equipping all three of his ships. However, they don't have qualified gunners, and the pirates are not likely to serve this thing, and they are very wary of this kind of thing that jumps straight back when it hits, and sometimes blows itself apart, so the battle will still be dominated by jumping gang white-knives combat. Now the pirates were gathered on the deck, with all sorts of equipment in hand, ready to jump in and fight as soon as they got up.

Whether the pirates are attacking the Great Whale head-on or encircling it, this is bound to be a battle with a huge disparity in strength between the two sides. Le Lin put down the binoculars, only to feel a chill on the back of her neck.

In the middle of the ten ships of the opposing side, it can be seen that there are three large brigs with three or five cannons mounted on them. The remaining seven ships are sloops and brigs, but the tonnage is smaller, similar to the type of coastal fishing boats commonly found here. There are no signs of the installation of artillery. But the deck of the ship was densely packed with dark-skinned men, and although their expressions could not be seen clearly through the binoculars, the glint of the weapons in their hands in the sunlight was enough to make people shudder.

The opposing side has eleven to fifteen cannons. There are only four artillery pieces on the whale to fight. The more than 100 sailors on board had to fight with seven or eight hundred. It's definitely a battle of friend and foe. Of course, the Great Whale enjoyed a certain advantage in artillery fire, enough to deal a heavy blow to a reckless enemy - as long as it did not allow them to get too close and kept a certain distance. Large whales can gradually eliminate them using accurate artillery fire.

In short, the crossing crowd should do everything possible to avoid engaging in combat. Once this happens, Zuihou will definitely have the upper hand in numbers. In a battle at sea, the number of both sides is more important in a hand-to-hand battle than in a land battle - there is no way back in a battle on a ship, and to flee is to die.

Nearly half an hour had passed, and it was evident that the flotilla had taken another step forward, approaching the whale. The whale is still moving at its original speed. It seems that he knows nothing about his fate.

Xi Ya couldn't help but observe the pirates' movements. It looks like the enemy doesn't realize it's a trap. The ship's combat readiness was quickly prepared. Sailors and gunners, everyone took their positions and stuck to their posts. The gunners intently measured the distance of the ships and adjusted the angles of the guns; The sailors lay in ambush behind the straw bag barricade and, at the command of the officer, hurriedly snapped the bullet-drug-bag to reload their Minnie rifles. Because it was a battle on a ship, bayonets were inconvenient to use, and all sailors and sailors were issued with a machete.

"Send a report to Detachment A: Ten enemy ships, which are continuing to approach our ship at a distance of 1.5 nautical miles." A second telegram was sent.

At about eight o'clock in the morning, the pirate fleet had moved to a nautical mile upwind of the Great Whale, and the pirates were illiterate and had not learned any naval tactics, but the strategy of gaining the upper hand in naval warfare was still clear. They rowed the boat with a large oar. The head of the Great Whale heads south, maintaining this direction. Gu Dachun's fleet lined up and pounced on it: three brigs were in the center, and the other seven were lined up on both sides, three on the right and four on the left, trying to outflank the whale from the side and surround it in the core. First kill and wound the people on the deck with artillery bombardment, and then lean on the ship to fight and seize the ship.

"They must not be allowed to approach our ship." Xi Ya said to Lelin, "First concentrate all your firepower to repel one of the wings." He looked through the binoculars, "All xiangyou gunside-shoot-hit." ”