Huang Huan is in a comfortable mood now.

Although he, the titular captain of a gunboat, had only a pitiful 12 men under his command, the pleasure of being in charge of a ship and commanding a group of people was incomparable.

This feeling was not experienced when he was a ship design student in his previous life!

As for working in a shipyard...... He is like thousands of young social animals in the land of China, working hard every day to earn, to earn money, to work, to earn money......

Such a monotonous life, where can it be as happy as it is now!

All the portholes in the command room were opened by our Captain Huang, and the warm river breeze blew in, blowing the captain physically and mentally cool and fluttering. Huang Huan stretched out his arms, as if to embrace the breeze, and at the same time took a few deep breaths, exhaling the turbid and evil qi that had accumulated in his chest for pretending to be crazy and stupid these days.

"Haha! We have a boat of our own! He muttered to himself.

Immediately afterward, he ordered the engine room through the microphone in the captain's room: "Prepare for the ultimate speed test!" ”

"Roger! Turbine Forward Five! The chief engineer's voice came back.

"Forward six!" Huang Huan corrected.

"Yes! Forward Six! ”

The engineer shoveled the coal into the boiler even harder, the steam engine let out a low roar, the paddle wheels on both sides of the gunboat accelerated backwards, and the chimney puffed out thick black smoke, and the speed of the ship gradually increased to the maximum speed of the design. The bow of the boat cuts through the waves of the river and splashes a large splash; The white trail at the stern of the ship winds like a traveler's footprint.

"Right rudder one! Left and right wheels asynchronous one! Sail to the heart of the river! ”

With another order, the gunboat drew a graceful arc on the surface of the river and accelerated towards the depth of the river channel.

At this time, there were not many boats in sight on the river. Caravan fleets rarely sail at night, and the fishing boats are already returning to port at this time of the day, and the boats still on the river are mostly old fishermen who want to grab two more nets before the last rays of dusk fade. Rao was so, and when the passing wooden boat saw this "strange ship" with black smoke and a low roar from time to time, which could move without sails or oars, they were still so frightened that they hurriedly avoided it, lest they could avoid it. Obviously, such a situation also brings our Captain Huang an unparalleled sense of superiority.

In the glimmer of the setting sun, Huang Huan picked up the simple binoculars just produced by Wenjia Workshop, and carefully inspected all parts of the river as far as he could see, trying to find some targets that could be used to blast into pieces--- several basic navigation test items had been completed, and only the artillery test project remained. But the problem is, Captain Huang can't really target the fishing boats of innocent fishermen, right?! The only way was to run to the reeds on the shore or the sandbar on the left side of the river channel and fire a few shots at the place where no one was --- but that would be too boring, and Huang Huan felt bored just thinking of this plan.

"Well, why can't a few bandits or thieves come and give me a dozen......" Captain Huang wiped his face depressedly.

He picked himself up, picked up the binoculars again, and decided to make one last search of the river. If there were no worthy targets or other anomalies, he would order a return voyage--- even if the traverser now had rudimentary industrial production capacity, sailing at night would still be tantamount to suicide.

The objective field of view of the binoculars swims aimlessly across the surface of the river until it ...... Locked in one big ship and seven small boats coming in the distance.

"Huh?"

Captain Huang was shocked in his heart.

The big ship was a flat-bottomed boat, with a rocking oar at the stern, and eight wooden oars sticking out of the lower deck on the side of the ship, and at this time both the oars and the oars were rowing desperately at an incredible speed, as if the people on board were fleeing from something; The small boat that follows closely behind the big boat is more narrow and long, similar in shape to an enlarged version of the dragon boat used in the Dragon Boat Festival race in situ, and there is also a row of oars on each side, except that the boat has a deck and a simple mast, and the oarsman sits directly on the deck. Like the big boats, the wooden oars of the seven small boats are also paddling rapidly, and the slender hulls of the boats are like arrows from the string down the river, closely chasing the big boats that are desperately running in front of them. The speed of the big ships is significantly slower, and the distance between the small fleet and the big ships is getting closer and closer.

The big ship did not display the flag, but the small boats that followed behind were hung with red flags on the masts, and the big word "Hong" on the flag fluttered in the river breeze.

"The Hong family?!"

"Isn't that the Jiangnan Hong family of Dog X? This morning, Lan Wang and Shen Mengze seem to have just gone to their trouble! ”

Huang Huan suddenly felt a surge of qi and blood, and adrenaline was also secreted sharply. He knew that the opportunity to test the gun might come.

"Captain! About a mile from the bow of the ship, a small boat chasing a large ship was found about a mile away! Shall we check it out? At the same time, the foregunner, who was standing on the roof of the captain's cabin and temporarily acted as a lookout, also noticed the situation and immediately reported it loudly.

"Hmph, why don't you go and have a look? We've got you covered! Captain Huang sneered.

"Left helm one, go at full speed, and be sure to intercept those small boats flying the Hongzi flag!"

The "Vernal Equinox" cut through the waves and rushed to the scene of the incident at a speed beyond the reach of traditional paddle boats and sailboats.

As the distance gradually narrowed, Huang Huan saw more clearly: on the deck of the clipper under the banner of the Hong family, in addition to the oarsmen, there was also a row of soldiers, and the sharp blades and strong bows in their hands were particularly conspicuous in the afterglow of the setting sun. Since the big ship and the small boat were already very close at this time, the soldiers on the small clipper had already begun to bend their bows and shoot at the big ship, and more than a dozen feathered arrows fell scattered around the big ship, and five or six were still nailed to the board of the big ship.

At the same time, the big ship and the seven small boats also discovered ---the existence of the "Spring Equinox", in fact, Huang Huan believed that with the conspicuous black smoke coming out of the chimney of his steam gunboat, the people on the big ship and the small boat should have already discovered him, but one of the two parties was busy chasing and the other was busy escaping, and they didn't care about this strange strange ship that could sail without sails and oars.

"The whole ship is first-class combat readiness! All posts are ready to fight! Seeing that the distance had arrived, Huang Huan decisively gave an order to prepare for battle.

"Front and rear gun emplacements! Reload Blasters! Goal: A multi-oarled clipper with the flag of 'Hong'! ”

"Beat me hard, not a single dog of the Hong family is allowed to stay!" Huang Huan gritted his teeth and said.

The gun commander and the gunners of the various positions quickly entered the firing preparation positions, and the shells and powder bags were also carried up from the bilge.

"One blaster! Load! ”

The two gun commanders roared almost simultaneously.