This can be regarded as a rare grace on the issue of pirates by the Datang Navy in dealing with pirates, you must know that the Datang Navy caught pirates before, regardless of the pirates of that country, they were all shot and then hung on the port to dry.

In the past few years, in several major treaty ports such as Shanghai and Wusong, the maritime merchants or pirates who entered and exited the port, well, no matter who they were, could see a very spectacular scene, hundreds of wooden poles were erected in the port, and the corpses of pirates who had been dried were hung on the wooden poles!

The faint of heart will have nightmares overnight when they watch it!

However, after the pirates along the coast of Datang were gradually swept away, this spectacular scene was no longer visible, at most, I saw a few pirates being hung up and dried, but the spectacular scene of hundreds of people being hung up and dried is gone forever.

Luckily for the pirates of Yakushima, except for a few or so who were shot and hung up, everyone else had a chance to live.

This made the surviving pirates feel grateful, and in a few days a rudimentary wooden dock was re-established in this small port, allowing the fleet to berth more ships at the same time.

Of course, those pirates didn't have the opportunity to say: We didn't work so hard because of gratitude, it was the soldiers of the Datang Marine Corps who supervised with bayonets, as long as they worked a little slower, it would be a whip immediately, as long as they dared to resist, they would immediately go down with a bayonet.

Before this new dock was built, more than a dozen pirates had died before bayonets for resisting!

These dead pirates told the remaining pirate captives with their lives: work hard!

Thanksgiving, thank you for being paralyzed!

But when these pirates loot ships and kill crews, they don't feel so angry, they just think about how much money they can get for the money they can get by robbing another merchant ship today, and the value of the cargo on it is huge.

The pirates of this year are different from the Somali pirates of later generations, the pirates of later generations play extortion, but the pirates of this year play murder, robbery and shipbuilding, and now there are so many pirates active in the East Asian seas, and the maritime merchants who give sea trade are a huge threat.

In order to maintain the prosperity of maritime trade in East Asian seas and to safeguard the maritime interests of the Tang Empire, cracking down on piracy has always been the main responsibility of the Tang Empire's navy, and the navy is also very willing to crack down on piracy.

In addition to military exploits, it is also for the sake of military spending, but also for the development of the Navy itself!

When there are many pirates and the interests of maritime trade are damaged, not only will tax revenue be lost, but more importantly, when there are not many interests in maritime trade, the upper echelons of the empire will definitely not care so much about maritime trade, and since they care about maritime trade, they will not care about the navy.

If the navy wants to develop, it must make the empire's maritime trade prosperous and earn a lot of benefits for the empire, so that the navy can have the value of existence, be able to pay attention to it, and have enough military spending.

Because of this consideration, the navy will actively fight piracy, and even find ways to establish colonies and supply ports overseas, not for the sake of merchants, but for their own development.

Rear Admiral Feng Qirong took the officers of the Ryukyu Squadron to the shore for a symbolic inspection, and it was not long before he returned to the ship, they were the admirals of the navy, and the fleet of more than 20 ships floating on the sea was still waiting for their command.

With so many officers ashore, if an enemy attacked from the sea, a fleet without command would become a living target, and it would be impossible to command such a large fleet by relying solely on sailors and junior officers.

After taking Yakushima, Feng Qirong and the others took their staff to study the charts, and felt that Tanegashima should be taken in the future, and they were ready to make a temporary decision that after taking this island, they would use this island as the main supply port in the Osumi Islands.

Because the terrain of this island is relatively flat, suitable for farming, and at the same time, there are more indigenous people on the island, and the conditions of the port are relatively good.

I decided to choose Yakushima because I felt that there were more pirates on Yakushima, and the pirates also operated the port, thinking that the facilities of the port would be better, and the terrain was more complicated, which was suitable for defensive operations.

However, after landing and observing, it was found that the pirates' construction force was too scum, and the port did not have much use at all, only a simple dock with a wooden trestle, and there was not much land available for cultivation, which was not suitable for long-term stationing and open use.

However, if you want to attack Tanegashima, you need to face a problem, that is, although there are not many pirates on the island, there are more natives, and they have a perfect administrative rule and a certain amount of armed forces, so it may take a lot of effort to defeat them!

This place is currently under the rule of the Shimadzu family's retainer Zijima clan, and this Tanegashima has long been an important overseas trading place, and many merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty will pass through here when they go to Fuso to trade, or even choose to trade in this place directly.

Because of the foreign trade here, they know more about the outside world, and the iron cannon in their mouth, that is, the arquebus, actually began to flow into Fuso from here, and they were the first to use and the first place to manufacture arquebuses on a large scale.

This means that they are heavily armed with arquebuses, which is a threat to the landing force of the Ryukyu detachment!

But as long as this place is taken, then it can basically be declared that the entire Osumi Islands have fallen under the control of the Tang Empire, and Tanegashima is very close to the Osumi Peninsula on Kyushu Island, and it can be reached by small boats without any big ships.

It can become an important springboard for the Tang Empire to attack and infiltrate into Kyushu Island!

In addition, if they take and control this island, then they don't have to waste their energy on Yakushima, and when the time comes, they can only leave a small number of people to garrison Yakushima, and the main forces can be used to prevent Tanegashima from coming.

After all, they have few troops, and most of them will be brought to the Osumi Peninsula to continue to exterminate pirates, and the number of troops left on the Osumi Islands is only about 200 at most, and if there are more, it will affect the follow-up operations.

So the next day, Feng Qirong led the fleet to set off and went to Tanegashima not far away, there are not many pirates on this island, but there are more natives, and there is a little trouble in land battles, but there is absolutely no problem with the battle on the sea.

At present, not to mention this small sub-island clan, even if it is the Shimazu clan, or even the entire Fuso, there is no sea power to speak of!

They are still stuck in the period of ancient warfare, and basically there are no modern naval forces, although there are many ships of some big names, but these traditional ships are vulnerable to the guns of modern warships.

Therefore, Feng Qirong's plan to attack Tanegashima was also very simple, blocking their harbor for a burst of artillery bombardment, killing their traditional warships, and then landing, and fighting according to the situation after landing.

If there are too many enemies, then they will hold the port with the support of naval guns, and if there are not many enemies, then sorry, they will sweep the whole Tanegashima Island.

For this, they chose to land near a port in the south of Tanegashima!

The speed of the fleet was not fast, but it was not slow, and in less than a day they actually reached the sea off the port south of Tanegashima, after all, the sea distance between Yakushima and Tanegashima was only more than twenty kilometers.

However, after arriving at the sea outside this port, Feng Qirong found that the natives in the port were already prepared, and a large number of chaotic boats poured out of the port, it was obvious that they were not willing to be blocked in the port and then passively beaten, they wanted to resist!

Seeing more than a dozen indigenous ships rushing out of the port, a smile appeared on the corner of Feng Qirong's mouth, and then said: "Order the transport ship to turn around and avoid in advance, and the frigates will follow closely with their own ships, implement line tactics, and use the side guns to let these natives see how the naval battle should be fought!" ”

Hearing Feng Qirong say that he wanted to turn, and then use line tactics, the adjutant on the side was slightly surprised, his commander was obviously making a big fuss, this is just a dozen small boats, even if he doesn't need to change formation, he can directly rush up and hit them with artillery, he can clean them up one by one.

But now, it's a line tactic!

You must know that this tactic is generally used in the decisive battle of the fleet, in order to bring out the most powerful firepower in the fleet!

In these years, most of the guns of warships were loaded on the side side, although guns were also deployed in the bow and stern, but there were generally not many, and the battle was usually on the side of the enemy.

When you use the bow of a ship against the side of an enemy ship, you'll be beaten to pieces!

However, Feng Qirong is now willing to put on a formation for the main showdown to face the battle, and he has nothing to say, anyway, the result is the same!

So, the huge fleet of the Ryukyu detachment began to break away, the transports began to turn to avoid in advance, and one cruiser and four frigates stepped forward, and then listed a straight vertical formation.

However, it didn't take long for this straight column to turn, and when the small and medium-sized warships of the Fuso people who rushed out of the harbor rushed up, it was still about three hundred meters away.

Feng Qirong took back the binoculars, and then ordered: "Turn left sixty degrees, and all frigates must follow their own ships closely!" ”

Immediately, he turned to the adjutant and said, "Don't you think this is a good opportunity for live-fire training?" ”

Hearing Feng Qirong say this, the adjutant was also a little speechless, this took the Fusang natives as training objects, and let those Fusang people know, I am afraid that they will be angry to death.

As Feng Qirong's order passed down, his ship began to turn, and the four frigates behind it also followed one after another, and turned at the position where Feng Qirong's ship began to turn!

At this time, they formed an angle of about fifty degrees with the more than ten ships of the Fuso people who rushed over, but this was not enough!

It didn't take long for Feng Qirong to order the turn again!

This time the turn is only twenty degrees, which is to gain the upper hand, but also to get a better angle of attack!

It was not long before the five warships of the Ryukyu Squadron, which had completed the second turn, began to engage in a formal exchange of fire with the ships of the Fuso.

Feng Qirong's ship was a cruiser, and it was the flagship, and it was the first to make contact with the Fusang people, and it was the first round of salvos!

After the rumbling cannon sounded, it also announced that this naval battle with serious unequal strength broke out, and it was also the first naval battle between the Tang Empire and the Fuso people!