Section 79 Sweet Harbor Wind and Cloud -- Catching Turtles in the Urn

Night gradually descended from the sky, covering the harbor. The sea breeze blows the mist that rises from the sea - a fog that is common in Lingao as we enter early summer. The fog is getting thicker and thicker, and the docks, trestles, coasts, islands, and factories are all surrounded by a layer of soft fine yarn, and only the lights in the buildings can be faintly seen.

Wu De looked at the luminous watch in his hand, it was already eight o'clock in the evening, the lights near the naval shipyard were very bright, and the roar of the steam engine could be heard. It was the sound of loading the Big Whale. The four smoothbore guns to be installed on the Great Whale were transported to Bopu during the day, and in order to avoid the eyes and ears, the loading work was to be carried out by the seamen at night at the docks of the shipyard, without any labor.

According to Jihua, the Admiral of the Great Whale built a parapet wall with straw bags filled with earth, and rice or sugar bags were stacked outside, and in fact several artillery pieces and two platoons of sailors were ambushed inside. As soon as the other side approached, they bombarded the pirate's ships with artillery - according to the description of the sailors on the Guangbing, the pirate's ships were small and medium-sized coastal ships, and they would surely sink if they could not eat a few shells.

If the pirates only dispatched one or two ships, with the firepower that the whale was about to equip, this plan was the simplest and most effective. But in case there are many enemy ships. After all, the surprise effect achieved by a sudden-shot-shot is only once-shot-hit, and it takes a while for the gun to reload and aim. Ships that are not hit can use scattered attacks to avoid the ship's firepower -- the whale is not a sailing ship, it is slow, and it is not flexible to maneuver, and once it is entangled in a small boat and enters hand-to-hand combat, the enemy will be outnumbered and will suffer. If the enemy is attacked and is shocked by the whale's firepower and turns around and flees, the whale's speed cannot be pursued, and the battle becomes a rout. Obviously, it is not enough to use the whale itself, there must be ships to cooperate in the operation.

However, as soon as there are more ships dispatched, it is possible for the cunning pirates to withdraw their tentacles, and it is clear that no matter what mode the navy adopts, the "initiative," the basic condition for victory, is still in the hands of the pirates.

In front of him is a 1/100,000 nautical chart, and then magnified 50 times the distribution map of islands and reefs in the sea near Hai'an Street. This area is dotted with islands, reefs, and dark sands, forming countless waterways and gorges that extend in all directions. Such an environment is naturally especially beneficial for pirates who use light boats.

After pondering for a moment, he dialed Li Di's phone:

"Is the Deng Yingzhou in the harbor?"

"Report! At. ”

"Call that, Wang—" Wu De suddenly remembered that the first mate of Deng Yingzhou seemed to be called Wang Bearded by everyone, "...... The first mate is here at the base headquarters! ”

"The king's beard? Call him right away. ”

Come over for a while, and the bearded man will come. Regarding his beard, the navy was divided into two different factions, one group thought that his beard was beautiful and "British" and asked him to keep it, and the other group thought that the beard was unhygienic and that soldiers should not grow a beard. The argument between the two sides is not over yet. So the beard of the king continued to remain. After a voyage, the crew had to rest for a few days, so he looked clean and energetic, dressed in a first-year-style naval uniform, and no longer had the image of a pirate as before.

"Based on your experience as a pirate in the past, where would you choose to intercept ships entering and leaving Hai'an Street Harbor?" Wu De pointed to the chart, "To ensure absolute security, the other side may have an escort." ”

Wang Dabeard carefully looked at the charts - these extremely detailed things could not surprise him now.

"Here." He pointed to a cluster of black dots on the chart.

Wu De looked fixedly, this place is called "Chrysanthemum Island". It's not a formed island, it's just a bunch of reefs that are exposed. This place is a must-pass in Hai'an Street Port.

He nodded, and it was four nautical miles southeast of this area that Guang Bing was attacked. Wang's bearded experience is correct.

"Weishenme wants to choose here?" Ude asked, because there are several similar reefs nearby.

"The conditions here are the best. There are many islands and reefs, and it is easy to hide boats. As long as the boat is hidden in the Chrysanthemum Island, and people are sent far away from the reef, and a ship can rush out. Take it by surprise. Wang Dabeard said, "If the other side can't defeat it with an escort, they will escape directly through the outer islands, where there are many waterways, reefs, and a lot of underwater sand, and the pursuing ships will immediately run aground if they are not familiar with the route." ”

"Well, what if we're going to catch these pirates?"

"The best way is to ambush the ship in the inner island in advance," said Wang Dabeard without hesitation, "unless the pirates are not prepared to escape through the outer island, the cat jump between the inner and outer islands is the only way, and there is a gunboat there to block it, and it will be flanked in front and rear." I can't run away even if I have the ability to go through the sky. ”

"Good." Wu De thought that if he only looked at the charts, he would not know that there were so many tricks in this reef group with only a few black spots.

"But Neiyu is very difficult to enter." "The waterway is too complicated, and there is no danger except for small sampans, and larger ships entering and exiting the waterway may run aground and run aground." ”

"How big can you get into?"

Wang Dabeard shook his head: "A ship with a maximum of 200 materials." The water in it is very chaotic, and there is a lot of dark sand. ”

"Are you familiar with the access pipes?"

"This—" The king's beard hesitated.

"Tell me the truth," said Wude, "the task is very important. Credit will be given to you when you are done! ”

"Yes," said the bearded man, who was not very standard, "I have indeed been in with someone, only once." Remember some sea routes. ”

"Okay, you get ready, report to the shipyard dock."

The next day, Wu Dedu was busy choosing weapons and choosing men. In this operation, he decided not to send the crossers to participate, and it was completely an indigenous group of people who called the navy. In the evening, he and Wang Dabeard boarded a 100-material dhow and personally went to Juhuayu to reconnoitre.

In order to narrow down the target, except for seven or eight sailors and two officer candidates who were promoted in the first batch and were undergoing training, no one else was brought with them. To ensure safety, the boat was improvised with a motorboat paddle carrier.

The ships sailed for several hours at night. As midnight approached, Wu De estimated that he was now close to his destination, Chrysanthemum Island outside the harbor of Hai'an Street.

The sea is calm and the moon is bright. The ship had lowered its sails and moved slowly on a rocking oar.

"Did you find it?" He asked the bearded king, who was observing from behind the bunker in the bow of the ship.

"Not yet. It should be soon. The bearded man watched the sea intently. Now his eyes are accustomed to the dark, and with the help of a telescope, he can roughly distinguish things within 300 meters of the sea.

The reconnaissance ship moved on.

"There's a black dot in front." The bearded man shouted in a low voice, "Watch the speed of the ship!" ”

At this time, there were not only a few black dots in front of Wu De's eyes, but a large group of black dots. The people on the boat were nervous, did they go the wrong way? There aren't so many small reefs and islands on the chart!

"Stop!" Oude hurriedly ordered the captain.

The reconnaissance ship quickly reduced its speed and, relying on the momentum of inertia, quietly glided forward. Wude looked at the compass degrees, went down to the cabin, turned on the flashlight, and carefully checked the chart. But there is no such strange mark on the chart. Could it be that the sea conditions have changed so much in 400 years? There is nothing wrong with the degrees of the compass, the course of the ship, and the bearing now calculated. Wude thought about it for a moment, and then calculated the time of the tide-tide. That's right, it's the lowest-tide, and it's the full moon, so many nameless reefs are outcropping. This kind of non-waterway-sex-quality sea area is naturally not too finely measured, and after all, the time is 400 years apart. Even if a well-measured channel is accurate, after a few years, it will be unrecognizable due to changes in the sea. Now the only way can only rely on the test deep hammer, go for a period of measurement, and gradually enter the chrysanthemum island.

The water surface of the Outer Island is open, but there are many reefs.

"Now - the tide - the water is low." Wang Dabeard said, "If it were a normal day, most of these reefs would not be underwater. A 100-material ship like ours should be careful not to have an accident. ”

Ude observes the sea conditions. I secretly felt that it was right to call Wang Dabeard as a staff officer. This place, if a big ship that doesn't know the depth of the depth chases it, it is indeed very likely to hit the rocks.

"Now I'm going to enter the inner island." Wang Dabeard said nervously.

The reconnaissance ship passed through a black-colored reef and turned into a narrow waterway. The reconnaissance ship was like an old donkey, walking and stopping for a while, and the sailors held their breath one by one, staring at the strange-shaped reefs that emerged from the bottom of the sea from time to time on all sides, holding hooks and poles and pennies in their hands, ready to deal with sudden situations at all times.

The tide in the waterway was chaotic and abnormal, and the sailors tried hard to hold on to the oars so that they did not crash into the reef. Wang Dabeard recalled the channel he had traveled and guided the direction of the reconnaissance ship. Sometimes he had to make sure that a reef was a marker or not.

After stopping and doing this for about an hour, the boat sailed into the narrow inner island. Then he slowly sailed towards the cat's mouth. Here are two huge reefs. The sea between the two reefs is extremely narrow, and if it is a ship of 200 materials, it can only barely get through.

"That's the cat's mouth." Wang Dabeard pointed to two reefs, "It is said that even a cat can jump over the distance." ”

Wu De nodded: "This is the outer island?" ”

"Yes, as long as the pirates pass through this place, they can go out from the other waterways of the Inner Island, and it is said that there are seven or eight such waterways, and they can all carry ships of one or two hundred materials, that is, someone must guide them."

"Then why don't we enter the inner island from here?"

"I'm not familiar with this waterway—" Wang Dabeard was also blunt, "I heard that there are several dark sands in the sea area near Maoyuekou, which often change their locations, and most of the people who are not particularly familiar with the hydrology here will most likely run aground on it." ”

Oude ordered the scout ship to enter a narrow channel, found a rocky beach that could be reached, threw an iron anchor on top of the rock, grabbed the crevice, and secured the ship.

The whole Chrysanthemum Island, just like his name, resembles the shape of a chrysanthemum, scattered on the surface of the sea. Between the islands and the islands, between the reefs and the reefs, there are many strange and strange backflow channels and small pitiful bays. At low tide, large ships simply cannot move in it. Only the sea surface of the outer island is relatively wide.

Wu De climbed the nameless island with Wang Dabeard and a sailor. He had binoculars around his neck and an oilcloth raincoat. The three of them climbed up the hill with one foot deep and one foot shallow, scaring seabirds and lizards and other animals into running around. Wude paused, noticing the movement on the sea around him.

The entire sea area of Juhuayu is very quiet, only a little fishing fire in the distance. Seeing that there was no movement on all sides, he continued to lead people to climb Xiangshang.

Halfway up the island is a thick layer of wet velvet-like moss, which makes a gurgling sound like a sponge absorbing water when you step on it, and the steep place is very slippery. Several times in a row, they almost fell. When I climbed to the top, it was a fairly flat clearing, overgrown with thorns. Dense hard cao, and dead branches that have fallen sideways. It is interwoven into a natural fence wall. The sailors used machetes to clear the way, and the group came to a relatively gentle open ground near the cliff. When the full moon was in the sky, the sea was sparkling, and the entire sea area of Cat Jump was unobstructed under their eyes.

The view of the place is very good. Wu De said in his heart that an observation post could be arranged here. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind. Isn't this place more of a haode-shoot-strike position than a ship of one or two hundred?

A ship of one or two hundred materials can only be equipped with light artillery, and it cannot be equipped with a few. If you really want to block the attack here, you still can't have an advantage in firepower. Since there are so many small islands in Chrysanthemum Island, it is completely possible to make a fuss about it and arrange some artillery on it. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but be excited that he had found a haode plan.

He glanced at the angle and then looked at his surroundings. Although the slope is somewhat sloping, the slope is gentle, and a little leveling of the ground can be used to place medium artillery. And the area is large enough to accommodate a crew of three or four 12-pounder cannons, as well as a small number of covering infantry.

There were also a few places on the opposite side that might be suitable for placing artillery, one or two in each place, so that there would be a total of more than seven cannons to form a crossfire. Artillery fire from a stationary reef is much more accurate than from a shaky sea vessel. Prepare one or two more boats to intercept at the cat jump plug. As soon as the pirate ships arrived, it was a situation of catching turtles in the urn. Not a single one can run away.

"Let the officer candidates come up!" Ude ordered, "Map here, map the surrounding target references!" ”

After giving the order, he went down to the ship and reported the jihua to Lingao via radio.

"Please ask Chief Ma to coordinate this matter." He added this sentence to the message Zuihou.