Dragged down by the speed of the No. 2 Fu ship, the speed of the entire fleet could only be maintained at a state of more than four knots and less than five knots.

And when the oars were added to the full drive sprint, Huang Han's warship and Huang Yong's flagship could reach a speed of eight or nine knots, and now there are nine such warships, all with a displacement of around 800 tons.

The rest of the old lock-boat warships without external oars had a displacement of four or five hundred tons, and the speed of the ships could reach more than six knots when the wind and water were favorable.

When he came to the expected sea hunting ground, Huang Han of course had to train in actual combat, and the sailors trained how to fight naval battles for more than a year, but unfortunately they basically didn't get the opportunity to show it, and of course they had to show their fangs when they entered the waters of the Japanese country.

Huang Han contacted Huang Yong through the flag, and Huang Yong led a large warship with a displacement of 800 tons of oars and nine old lock-ship warships with a displacement of 4 to 500 tons to escort the merchant ships along the agreed route to Edo Bay.

He led seven old lock ships with a displacement of more than 700 tons and oars to increase their speed and follow the route in search of pirates, striving to be able to rob the ships and cargo.

In these years, the maritime force was overwhelming, and most merchant ships had a few guns, and even had expensive bronze runs, which were called armed merchant ships.

The fifty merchant ships brought out by Huang Han were completely different, and in order to save costs, the ships were not equipped with cannons, which belonged to the existence of no force.

Huang Han believed that in order to have force, it must be overwhelming, and to be able to fight, it is necessary to win the battle, on the contrary, simply give up the battle, and the force that does not hurt is the most embarrassing.

To equip a merchant ship with five or six guns, it is necessary to equip it with gunners and to conduct training, and this kind of unprofessional armed merchant ship has slow speed and limited firepower, so it is not necessary to fight naval battles, and the cost of self-protection is too high.

As a result, merchant ships simply did not defend professional transportation to do business, and when they encountered the enemy without the escort of warships, they chose to flee with full sails.

Huang Han believed that it would be great to leave the safety of navigation to professional sailors, and that as the number of new warships launched by the "Red Banner Army" increased month by month, the area of activity would gradually expand, and it would not be a problem to maintain the safety of unarmed merchant ships in the system.

Robbing pirates is just a clever name, Huang Han is ready to rob all the ships that can be found, because in this era, maritime merchants and pirates have a nest of snakes and rats.

After all, the benefits of a successful robbery are too great, and the cost of a sea ship is at least more than 10,000 taels of silver, and the goods loaded are more than 10,000 taels of silver.

The "Red Banner Army" system was built because Huang Han opened the golden finger and directly took the ready-made old lock ship type with a simple structure and the most cost-effective argumentation that had been demonstrated by later generations, and the cost price of a sea ship with a displacement of five or six hundred tons was close to 15,000 taels of silver.

This is still in the case of the extensive use of steel forged keels, and the demand for giant trees is not demanding.

It can be seen that the robbery was successful, and the account was about 20,000 or 30,000 taels of snowflake silver at a time, who is not willing to take risks with such huge profits?

Seven old lock ships sailed with full sails, and Huang Han's boat was naturally the flagship, and there was no full drive at this time, and the speed of the ship was between five and six knots.

In the lookout of the main mast of the ship, the old sailor who observed with a clairvoyant mirror was looking at the horizon, and in the bow command cabin, the captain Shen Xianyi and the two first mates were also holding a clairvoyant mirror in the distance.

On the deck, the junior flag officers and above rank of the Marine Corps of the Marine Division were all holding clairvoyant mirrors to look around, they were all eager to find a ship on the sea, and everyone was looking forward to showing off in front of the master of the family, and practicing the gang jumping battle for more than a year.

In a war with the enemy's navy, it is necessary to win a naval battle with unparalleled firepower, but there is no need to fight a war for the sake of robbery, and it is necessary to fire as little artillery as possible, and strive to use artillery fire to deter enemy ships from being captured as intact as possible.

Therefore, all the Fulong cannons on the Huang Han warship were prepared to be loaded with loose bullets, and the loose bullets loaded in the 12-pound Fulong machine guns were composed of more than 300 small iron balls of about three or four coins, and a large area of erosion was blasted out by one cannon.

Three or four dollars of iron can only damage the ship, and how terrifying is the lethality of the sailors and gunners?

In this era, there should be no warships in Asia that can be regarded as warships, and the warships used by sailors should belong to the category of armed merchant ships, and there are no special gun decks and gun cabins, and several six-pounder iron-core copper cannons equipped with them are deployed in the open air on the upper deck.

Huang Han estimated that as long as his warship was close to firing a round of scattered bombs, he would basically be able to defeat the enemy ship and lose its force.

At this time, under the alert of Minnie's gunners, the marines of the division launched a broadside battle with their own guns and jumpers with bayonets on their hands, and the cold-armed sword and shield men took the lead in occupying the command compartment of the enemy ship and controlling the rudder, and a ship was captured.

This time, I went to sea and selected a 100 Mini gunner, two first-class self-generated gunslingers, and a sword and shield sibling.

On each wheeled ship, there are two small flag sword and shield men in hand-to-hand combat, three small flag sailor marines in their own bayonet guns, and a small flag Minnie gunner to carry out precision strikes.

In order to train the young soldiers, it was expanded into a thousand sailors and marines. The number of sailors and gunners in the sortie reached 3,000 people, half of whom were children over the age of fifteen who entered the apprenticeship.

On average, there were two or three hundred people on a warship, and the number of warships on which Huang Han rode was five hundred.

This is also due to the fact that a large number of Furlong cannons are equipped with sub-guns, because if all Hongyi cannons are used, each cannon must not be less than five people to complete the firing, and the use of the Furlong cannon can be completed in a team of at least two people.

Considering that the artillery bombardment of the platoon line at the time of engagement would basically avoid firing guns on both sides at the same time, and also because of the small number of gunners, only one side gun was used to arrange the gunners.

In the event of a fierce battle on both sides, sailors and marines act as loaders, and professional gunners take care of aiming and firing.

Seven warships with a speed of eight or nine knots opened a distance of about two nautical miles to search and advance, and each ship had at least 30 telescopes to observe the sea, and there was a high probability that merchant ships would be spotted on this main channel.

At noon on the third day after breaking away from the main fleet, the good news came, a group of merchant ships was found in total, a total of five, after careful observation by Shen Xianyi, there were two No. 2 Fu ships and three Japanese Zhuyin ships, all of which were armed merchant ships, each ship was equipped with five or six six-pounder guns, and no larger guns were found.

Asian armed merchant ships do not have special gun decks, and the guns are arranged on the upper deck, and the sailors on the lookout can use the clairvoyance to see the guns and guns of these ships clearly.

The sailors on these five ships are more mixed, and from a distance, they have already found Japanese people with flower brains, there should be many Han people, and many people look like Luzon people.