A race of retreat and pursuit unfolded on the sea from Dongshan Island to Xiamen.

The retreat of an army is a highly technical task, and it is an extremely testing activity for the organizational and command ability of the generals, the ability of the staff officers to formulate and implement the plans, the degree of respect for military orders by the commanders of the troops at all levels, the ability of the officers at the grassroots level to control the troops, and the unity and cohesion within the army. A project that falls short can turn a retreat into a catastrophic rout.

The retreat from Dongshan Island to Xiamen organized by Zheng Zhilong or the transfer unfortunately evolved into the latter.

From the very beginning, the army's heart was unstable, from the commander to the generals, officers, and soldiers at all levels, they were full of doubts, and they made up their minds to retreat in a hurry, and pulled out the anchor and set sail overnight. There was no mobilization for the whole army, no detailed and comprehensive plan for retreat, and no arrangements were made even for which ships would be the vanguard and which would be the rearguard. Not to mention being materially prepared.

Nearly 30,000 troops and nearly 1,000 ships of all sizes rushed out of various harbors on Dongshan Island and headed straight for Xiamen.

These ships will cover almost the entire surface of the sea.

The big ships rammed the small boats with impunity, the gunboats crossed the course of the cargo ships, and the sail lines of the small ships were twisted together with the big ships.

"Boss Chen! Your ship is blocking Lao Tzu's boat! Get out of the way! ”

"Less nonsense! It's my ship ahead of you! Why should I get out of the way for you?! ”

"Brother Huang, you put your sail down first! Let me untie the sail line first! ”

Noisy yelling, shouting. The dull sound of the collision of ships could be heard farther into the night.

In the middle of the flotilla, escorted by several gunboats, Zheng Zhilong's flagship hung full sails and galloped all the way. In the cabin, Zheng Zhilong, the commander of the Fujian General Army and the Fujian Naval Division, completely lost the majesty of a few days ago, and couldn't help frowning when he listened to the bursts of sound blown into his ears by the sea breeze.

"In such a situation, how can we withdraw to Xiamen?"

"Big brother. Don't worry. The night is dark and windy right now. The fleet was large and the ships were mixed, so it was not surprising that some mistakes would occur. Wait until dawn. Zheng Zhibao, who was advancing with Zheng Zhilong, spoke out to comfort him.

"That's it! Father, Uncle Leopard is right. Wait until dawn to see widely. The flotilla is naturally foolproof! Zheng Sen also spoke comforting beside Zheng Zhilong's tiger skin chair.

"I hope it will be as Fuseson said."

But. When a red sun leaps out below the horizon in the east, it casts an orange-red glow on the sea with a lazy taste, and flags, masts, sails, and artillery of the fleet. And the people who were moving on the deck were dyed orange.

The sailor on the mast of Zheng Zhi's dragon ship took the kettle from his waist, opened the spout with great cherishment, took a sip of the soju inside, and used the heat brought by the liquor to drive away the cold air that penetrated into the cracks of his bones.

He stayed on the mast for an hour, feeling like he was unconscious from the cold wind on the sea.

A sip of soju in his stomach immediately made his throat feel like a fire. Then, along with it, there was a burning sensation in his esophagus and stomach. The sensation of blood spreading to his limbs made him feel a lot more comfortable.

"Lose that horse! The weather of the tenth winter wax moon, let Lao Tzu look out on the mast, what a good errand! He cursed, and he didn't have to worry about being heard. Suddenly, he seemed to have spotted something, on the far side of the ship's side, at the distant sea level, as if something had flashed by.

He rubbed his eyes and held up the frozen telescope to his eyes.

In the camera, almost jumping out from the sea level, more than a dozen ships are speeding from the south towards the Zheng naval fleet that is moving from west to east. On the top of the high mast of the flagship leader, a military flag with several colors such as black, red and gold intertwined, and a plum blossom flag in full bloom in the snow, were unfurled by the violent north wind as if they had just been ironed.

"Enemy attack!" It was as if the sailor had been thrown into the icy waters, and it took what seemed like a hundred years before he uttered these two simple words out loud with almost all his strength. His right hand struck the bell for the alarm desperately.

"The Scarlet-winged Tiger is here!"

"The Scarlet-winged Tiger is here!"

"Right side of the flotilla! Scarlet-winged tiger! ”

The news of the horror spread like a plague through the fleet. The people, who had just recovered from the panic and toils of the previous night, dropped their rice bowls and spilled hot porridge all over the deck.

That's right. The one who came after was Li Huamei, who was nicknamed "Scarlet-winged Tiger" by the Zheng family's sailors.

The pursuing fleet, consisting of six Hurricane ships and the Aomei, and eight patrol ships with twenty-four guns equipped with a battalion of Taiwanese sailors led by Li Huayu, was defeated when it was learned that Cheng's sailors had retreated overnight (escaped?). After the news, he dispatched from Guangao Bay to leave Shi Lang of Nanao Island far behind, and only pursued Zheng Zhilong.

"Call the signal, ask the eldest sister, when will the rocket on our ship be launched?"

On his own ship, Li Huayu, who was not the first time to take a sailor out to fight, held a telescope and looked at the huge and mixed fleet that could already distinguish the outline of the fleet in the distance, and could vaguely see the number of masts.

The chaotic and crowded marching formation of the Zheng Jiashui Division was a delicious meal for a light patrol ship equipped with rocket launchers on board.

With the experience of burning Kagoshima Castle, Li Huayu already has a lot of experience in how to concentrate on the use of rockets, a weapon that has lost its conscience and is inhumane. In his eyes, the ships that were as terrified as lost dogs were nothing more than a pile of planks floating on the sea, piled up there, waiting for him to drop the rocket. Then, there is a fire and burning.

"Tell the brothers, this is the time to test your skills! Give me the real skills! ”

During this period of time in Taiwan, he has undergone great changes in his speech and deeds, and he has a sense of being resolute and resolute.

Rocket. The first large-scale use in real combat, it was for the Spaniards in Luzon, who taught these gentlemen with rockets a lesson at sea and on land with rockets! After that, it was to deal with Nam Nguyen's fleet, and as a result, a fire burned the monkeys and burned the Shimazu family. However, that rocket, like many previous operations used to attack the native villages, was launched at a fixed location and the target was relatively fixed. Shooting at a fixed position at a fixed position naturally does not require too many technical skills.

The recent fire burned Kagoshima Castle. Although the scale of the battle is much larger. However, in fact, there is no escape from the trap of shooting at a fixed position at a fixed position. Hundreds or thousands of rockets poured down on Kagoshima Castle on the surface of the sea, no different from the ones used to attack the recalcitrant local villages, but on a larger scale.

But today, the difficulty of shooting and the technical requirements are much higher.

Move the position against the moving target! Everybody's moving. It depends on who has the highest ability!

But. It seems that these patrol ships with launchers did not hit their original targets. With the dense and chaotic formation of the Zheng Army's sailors, it was not a problem to hit and set these ships on fire.

"Our fleet is about 1,300 steps away from the fleet of the Zheng Army's naval division! The flagship of the Commander of the Forward Fleet waved the flag. Our Sentinel rocket ships can launch rockets at a distance of about 600 paces to disrupt the march of the enemy fleet! ”

"Change the formation! Disperse! Disperse! ”

On Zheng Zhilong's flagship, he kept signaling to the various small fleets outside, trying to evacuate the dense formation to avoid being surrounded by the group of guys of the Nanyue Army, and then used cannons to keep greeting and sent each ship to the bottom of the sea one by one. However, the surrounding ship owners did not seem to see the signal from his ship, and some of them hung all the sails full, and even added auxiliary sails, just running forward, hoping to escape from this water as soon as possible and reach the Jinxia sea as soon as possible. And some people didn't know if their heads were blown by the cold sea breeze, so they actually approached Zheng Zhilong's team, compressing the already very crowded sea surface even more crowded.

"These bastards! Leopard! You and Fuzon go back to your ship, and we don't want to go back with these guys anymore!" Let's ask for more blessings! "Seeing that the sea is getting narrower and narrower, and here and there are their own ships, and there are sails and masts as far as the eye can see, and the frightened sailors, and the filthy garbage are turned up and down by the waves on the sea; Zheng Zhilong finally made up his mind, he was ready to abandon this group of pig-like teammates!

"Eight hundred steps. Seven hundred steps. Six hundred and fifty steps! Li Huayu excitedly looked at the gesture from the rangefinder, turned his head and shouted at the gunner beside him: "What are you waiting for, the ships are loaded!" Ready to launch! ”

On the six patrol ships, thirty rockets suddenly rose up and swooped down on the fleet more than 500 paces away!

Shoot at targets in motion in motion!

Soon, the sea surface was filled with the iconic shrill whistling sound of the rocket, and the white smoke at the tail crossed the air and formed a white trajectory between the sea and the sky, in Li Huayu's eyes, it was like a rafter pen in the hands of the king of Hades and the judge, as long as it fell on any object, it was a flame! This is where the improved version of the shipborne rocket is different.

"Oh my God! What is that?!! Zheng Zhilong saw a series of fire dragons pounce straight towards a shipowner not far from him, and after a burst of smoke from the explosion, several pillars of smoke rose into the air, accompanied by black smoke and red flames rising from the flagship, occasionally mixed with faint explosions, it should be that the ship's powder magazine was detonated by the damn fire.

Twenty of the thirty rockets landed on the bow, stern, deck, mast of the Zheng Navy's fleet, and even one fell on the sail of the mainmast, instantly turning the sail into a huge torch!

On the hit ship, hundreds of sailors, gunners, seamen, and soldiers jumped into the water to escape. The flagship behind them has become a slowly sinking fireball.

"Oh my God! Oh, my God! Zheng Zhibao's mouth was wide open enough to fit his own fist into it. As the representative of the Zheng Group's contacts and negotiations with Nanzhong, he boasted that he was very familiar with the weapons and equipment and combat methods of the Nanyue Army Naval Division, and those huge artillery with excellent performance bombarded in the form of platoon cannons, which could send countless heroic and invincible sea heroes into the Crystal Palace, but this rocket was the first thing to hear of in more than ten years!

"No wonder! No wonder! Fusong said that Shi Lang was suspected of collaborating with the enemy, and it was me instead. I'll be suspicious of Shi Lang too! ”

Looking at the fire dragon with flames and white smoke all over the sky, there was no roar of cannons and the sharp whistle of cannonballs, but it was filled with strange screams, and the fire dragon basically rushed straight towards the dense fleet!

The battle-hardened instincts of the sailors of the fleet saved their lives, and they jumped from the burning ships into the sea to fight for their lives in the waves, despite the freezing cold of the water.

"At most, you will freeze to death in the sea, and you will be burned to death and blown up immediately!"

Zheng Zhilong also opened his mouth wide and couldn't close it, and with less than a bag of cigarettes, Li Huayu was unforgiving and launched more than 100 rockets. Dozens of these rockets have already hit large and small ships in the fleet. The hit rate has reached a frenzied 60%!

Huge explosions and flames rose into the air, and thick smoke and flames created even more chaos in the right half of the fleet.

"Signal the big brother's fleet! Tell them, don't use rockets anymore! Enough heat! The Zheng family is already messy enough! It's time to cut the meat with a cannon! ”

On the Aomei, Li Huamei, who was called the "Scarlet Tiger" by the Zheng family. Put down the binoculars in your hands. calmly commanded Aji beside him.

Flags swing. In an instant, Li Huamei's order was passed in front of Li Huayu.

"Don't launch rockets anymore! Load all the shells and get ready to go up and cut the meat! ”

If it is said that the purpose of this pursuit operation of the Nanyue Army's naval division is to annihilate Zheng Zhilong's naval division in one fell swoop, I am afraid that Li Shouhan to Li Huamei, Li Huayu, Chu Tianlei and others will not believe it. After they learned the information that Zheng Zhilong's troops had retreated overnight. I just thought that if I couldn't let them withdraw to Xiamen smoothly, I had to leave something on the sea to go back, either a ship or a person.

"Want to go back to Xiamen for the New Year peacefully? How can it be so cheap? This is the unanimous view of the whole Nanyue army.

Divide the fleet of Zheng's sailors with artillery fire, and then surround and eat the divided sailors. This was given a name by the image of Shouhan, "Cut meat!" Eat meat! ”

"A man can eat a pig, but not a single pig! A leopard can also bite a flock of sheep, but not all at once! ”

Therefore, the purpose of the Li family siblings is to rush into the Zheng army's fleet with clipper cannons after the rocket has caused so much chaos to the Zheng family, just like a sharp knife cutting a piece of meat on a fat beef cube and dividing the team of small boat owners one by one! Capture or sink!

"Anyuan! Dingyuan! You two boats, take a double boat cross formation, alternate cover! Rush! The signal soldier on the Aomei waved the signal flag in his hand and conveyed Li Huamei's command to the two Hurricane ships.

The Anyuan and Dingyuan, the two hurricane ships at the front of the fleet, rushed into Zheng Zhilong's fleet at the fastest speed, and aimed their flanks at the ships in Zheng Zhilong's fleet that were in a panic to the greatest extent, trying to take advantage of their own fast ships, many guns, and fast guns, and give full play to the advantages of fast launch, large number, and accurate hitting of shipborne artillery, so as to make the already very flustered formation of Zheng Zhilong's fleet more scattered and unable to form effective resistance!

"Fire!" The deck gunner roared, and the impatient gunners pulled the ignition rope in their hands fiercely!

"Tom!" With a dull roar, the guns on the gun emplacements erupted in a stream of flame, firing twelve-pound shells out of the way. Then, the gun body was rapidly pushed backwards by the huge recoil force, compressing the thick spring on the gun carriage tightly, and the huge gun body was blocked by the dense layers of rope nets behind the gun emplacement, and the recoil was consumed very little. Several gunners quickly reset the gun, one gunner used a wool brush in his hand, dipped in vegetable oil, cleaned the gun chamber, and several other gunners nervously and orderly filled the gun chamber with a firing bag, and then stuffed a log board in front of the medicine bag to prevent gas leakage. Immediately after that, shells wrapped in silk were stuffed into the breech.

"Five guns are good!"

"Listen to me! Fire! ”

More than a dozen cannonballs were enthusiastically kissed by the former Catholic Zheng Zhilong's gunboats like Spanish girls.

A shell that deviated from its trajectory swept past the mainmast sail of the Zhengzhi Tiger Seat. The scorching cannonball ignited the sails, and the flames burned the rigging in the blink of an eye. As the rigging was disconnected, the sails on the mainmast fell to the ground, and Zheng Zhihu's ship began to spin in place on the sea.

"Lord Commander! It was the ship of Zheng Zhihu, the fierce general of the Zheng family! Do you want to step forward and deal with him? ”

Li Huamei's subordinates are a bit typical of taking advantage of your illness to kill you, without the slightest chivalrous demeanor, "Don't care about this broken ship, let's continue to move forward and completely cut Zheng Zhilong's fleet!" ”

Throwing Zheng Zhihu, who had lost the power of the mainmast, aside, and pretending not to know, Li Huamei commanded four wind ships, including the Dingyuan and the Anyuan, to continue to frantically carry out the battle plan. In the process of breaking through, they kept bombarding the enemy ships with the guns on both sides of the ship's side, causing the enemy ships to lose part of their combat effectiveness, and then handed them over to the patrol ships under Li Huayu behind to deal with, while the Pioneer 4 ships continued to look for the next group of victim targets on the sea.

One by one, the owners of small boats flying their flags on the mast were turned into delicacies by Li Huamei's sisters and brothers.

"Aggie! Give the eldest young master a signal and let him shout at sea! Those who drop the sails and anchor are considered surrendered! Our army will not attack! ”

As these words were spread on the sea by the big copper horn, one by one the small boat owners looked at Zheng Zhihu, who was swaying on the sea and was already empty, taking the boat, and made a decision in unison.

"Sail down! Anchor! Raise the white flag! We surrender to General Lee! (To be continued......)