After the surrender of more than 2,000 people of the Basai tribe in the chicken coop, You Degao gave an order and began to rebuild the city in the depths of the bay south of Jilong Island, which is the main urban area of modern Keelung.

It is also named Keelung by You Degao, which is taken from the meaning of prosperity.

But despite the name, in fact, You Degao and others did not focus on Keelung.

The Northern Expedition first seized this place, just to find a stable base for the future war.

With the cooperation of all 8,000 soldiers and 2,000 aborigines, by July, Keelung City had preliminarily completed the work of leveling the land and relocating sewers.

The newly built Keelung City is not large, with a circumference of only about four miles.

In order to facilitate the further expansion of the city area in the future, and to speed up the construction progress, only wooden walls were built for the entire castle.

After the initial construction of more than 50 new wooden houses for the garrison of the remaining troops, the whole fleet repaired for three days and left the port again on 13 July, leaving only 500 soldiers to garrison Keelung.

Now that the Tamsui area has once again been controlled by the aboriginal Fengrou Society, You Degao does not want to distract himself, bypassing the estuary of the Tamsui River and going straight to Penghu.

His primary target is still the powerful Zheng family.

At this time, Taiwan was still more barbaric than civilized, and although there were hundreds of aboriginal villages on the island, they were all in a state of slash-and-burn, fishing, hunting, and nomadism.

As for the Han people who migrated to the island, they mainly gathered near Dayuan and others in southern Taiwan at this moment, which is why the later Guo surnamed Ye directly set up Chengtianfu in Tainan instead of modern Taipei.

But at this time, the Zheng family still focused on Quanzhou and the Penghu Islands in Fujian, and Taiwan was just a backup option for them.

Until Shi Lang attacked Taiwan a few decades later, there were only more than 200,000 Han people on the entire island.

The Penghu Islands, as the stronghold of the Zheng family's long-term operation, and the fact that there are no eyes and ears of the imperial court far from the mainland, have more than 300 ships of various types moored here, most of which are of course merchant ships, but there are still more than 70 warships of various types.

The Military Intelligence Bureau has not wasted any effort in this year, they have long disguised themselves as business travelers to spy on Penghu and other places, so You Degao has a clear map of the sea area of the Penghu Islands.

In the Taichung area, a hundred miles north of the Penghu Islands, the fleet of the Fubo Division was sheltering from a storm in a fjord.

On the constantly shaking Sun Wu, the captain's room of You Degao was filled with smoke.

More than two dozen high-ranking officers of the Fubo Division gathered together to discuss how to attack Penghu again.

You Degao slammed his fist on the map, and the cigarette in his hand kept smoking.

"At present, Luzon is not long in the future, we can't effectively occupy Penghu, and it's good to be able to take Tainan under control, there are tens of thousands of Han people here, and there is enough ruling base."

"Therefore, this operation is mainly to attack the Zheng family's living forces, their fleet is too threatening to us, what good suggestions do you have?"

"Since it is to annihilate the enemy's living forces, then it is best for us to rely on the method of movement warfare to fight," Zhao Jingyong's fingers drew a circle around Penghu.

"There are many reefs around Penghu, although we have sea charts, but after all, we are not as familiar with geography as the Zheng family, and it is easy to fall into their trap when fighting here, so I suggest that it is best to lure the Zheng family's fleet out of Penghu."

"What if they don't come out?" , You Degao's eyes were blazing, "If I am the commander of the enemy army and see an unknown fleet attacking, the first priority is to arrange someone to investigate the situation, rather than rashly attacking." ”

"The Zheng family is mainly concentrated on Magong Island, then we will be blocked in the south of Xiyu Island, and there are more reefs in the strait between the north of Xiyu and Baisha and Magong, and we can only sail small boats, I don't believe they are not in a hurry."

Jiang Baolin shook his head, "It's not proper, if the Zheng family sends someone back to Quanzhou to report the news, then they will be attacked from both sides, no matter how strong our strength is, it will be easy to fall into a crisis." ”

"Damn", the officers in the captain's room were so angry that they scolded their mother.

Penghu is this problem, it is all composed of islands, and no fleet can complete a complete blockade.

After thinking for a long time, You Degao snuffed out the cigarette butt and said: "In this way, let's send a fleet to raid into the Magong Sea area, sink as much as we can, and leave after the fight, let's go to the west again, go directly to Quanzhou, and let the Zheng family take care of one thing and lose the other." ”

"In a hurry, the Zheng family will inevitably gather a fleet in all directions, and we can just give full play to our advantage of the freedom to come and go, and annihilate the Zheng family fleet in batches, after such a few waves, the strength of the Zheng family fleet will be greatly damaged, even if we want to fight a decisive battle, we are not afraid."

"Okay, just do it", Zhao Jingyong and the other officers thought about it and nodded in agreement.

A group of people hurriedly discussed specific tactics.

On 19 July, according to the observation of the lookout, the next three days should be sunny.

The fleet of the Fubo Division pulled anchor from the bay early in the morning and set sail towards the Penghu Islands in the southwest.

Along the way, the merchant ships that kept coming and going discovered this huge fleet, and the Fubo division tried to intercept it as much as possible if it could, and forced them to change their course away from Penghu if they couldn't.

Because of the large number of small frigates escorting the operation, the operation to clean up the merchant ships was relatively smooth.

But in the vast sea, there will always be fish that slip through the net.

When the fleet of the Fubo Division arrived outside Magong Island, they were surprised to find that the Zheng family's fleet had been assembled and was preparing to sail beyond the bay.

"The direction is 306 degrees northwest, thirty miles away, and it is estimated that there will be more than 200 enemy ships."

With the high-pitched shouts of lookouts on the forward warships, the first collision between the two strongest maritime forces in East Asia began between the Taiwan Strait.

Because all the equipment was equipped with telescopes, the Fubo Division discovered the opponent earlier than the Zheng family.

"The fleet is divided into three and outflanked."

On the Sun Wu, You Degao issued an order with a solemn face.

The mixed fleet of thirty-four warships could easily lead to a situation of recklessness and confusion, so he simply divided the fleet into three groups.

As the flags on the flagships came, Wu Qi and Han Signal, as the flagships of the other two fleets, took the lead in leading their respective warships to row out white waves on the sea surface and act separately.

It wasn't until about twenty miles apart that the Zheng fleet discovered the traces of the Luzon fleet.

Seeing that the opponent's fleet was divided into three, the Zheng family's fleet also changed formation.

On the flagship of the Zheng family's fleet, Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Zhibao put down the monocular in his hand a little anxiously.

The Zheng family has been dealing with the Dutch for so long, so they naturally have similar equipment, but the visibility is worse than that of the Liu family's high-precision eight-fold mirror.

"Fuck it, where did this fleet come from, is it a red-haired ghost?"

Zheng Zhibao had participated in the Battle of Liuluo Bay with Zheng Zhilong, and now he still has a deep impression of the Dutch's plywood warships.

Now seeing so many plywood boats coming to the ocean, Zheng Zhibao's first thought is that the red-haired man is here again.

But he thought about it for a moment, "No, the red-haired don't have such a large fleet. ”

Zheng Zhibao had an unbelievable look in his eyes, and shouted loudly to himself: "Could it be a Luzon person?" ”

The establishment of such a large force as the Luzon General's Palace, and it is on the island of Luzon not far from the mainland, the Zheng family, as a hegemon in the South China Sea, is naturally very clear about it.

It's just that Luzon has been developing with peace of mind in the past year, and there is nothing to do with it, so why did you suddenly attack it today?

Zheng Zhibao was puzzled in his heart.

"Oh, my lord, how to fight and give a word quickly", Zheng Zhibao's general Shi Tianfu was anxious.

"Afraid of what?" , Zheng Zhibao glared angrily, "Ten years ago, we were able to defeat the red-haired plywood boat, this time we can, it's still the old way, let the arson boat bully first, and other ships of all sizes are ready to jump into the gang battle." ”

"Lao Tzu still doesn't believe it, there is still a master who can pick up my tiger's whiskers on the South China Sea, brothers, give Lao Tzu a good life, and there will be a reward for turning back."

"Roar"

Unlike the Liu family, the Zheng family did not have an effective administrative force to control it due to the lack of literati, and the combat still maintained a pirate style.

It's a pity that this time they encountered the Fubo Division, which had strong firepower and had completed the transformation of tactical thinking from the Cold Weapon Age to the Firearms Age.

Previously, the Zheng family was able to defeat the Dutch in Liuluo Bay, mainly because of the Dutch's lack of military strength from afar.

You must know that at that time, the Dutch only had a total of nine Western-style warships, and the rest were all men and horses under Zheng Zhilong's old brother and old rival Liu Xiang.

The 20-mile sea route is not far away, but it is not close, and in only two quarters of an hour, the two fleets have been deceived to a range of six miles.

At this time, the Zheng family fleet was finally able to fully see the true face of the Luzon fleet.

"Hiss"

On the Zheng family's large bird boat, Zheng Zhibao couldn't help but exclaim.

"Fuck it, the Luzon boats are bigger than the red-haired ones."