Zhang Han led the fleet to chase after him, and after a while, he was parallel to the last boat that Haikou had left behind, and there was a distance of nearly a hundred paces between them.

At this time, a sailor on the ship, holding a large horn made of paper tubes, shouted loudly to persuade him to surrender: "Listen to the pirates on the other side, you must all lower your sails and surrender within half an hour, otherwise they will all be wiped out!" ”

Although they were not close, the pirates could still hear clearly. However, the pirates did not hesitate at all, and still fled to Dongji Island wholeheartedly.

The convoy of officers and soldiers did not slow down, and continued to catch up, while shouting did not stop. Soon, the warships of the officers and soldiers caught up with the ship of Qian Laoer, who was running in the front, and the entire fleet of Haikou ships also heard the persuasion notice of the officers and soldiers.

The pirates were all nervously standing on the deck, weapons in their hands, ready to fight with the officers and soldiers who approached. As for surrender, they don't have the mind to do so yet. After all, they still have the shelter of the water village, and they don't know what the consequences of surrender will be. It was only by attacking the northern convoy that they provoked the officers and troops. If they surrender and are executed by the government again, it is better to fight to the death with the officials and soldiers now.

At this time, the fleet of the official army had already exceeded the fleet of the Haikou, Zhang Han asked the fleet to lower the sails, and at the same time let the fleet turn around, and made a semicircle in front of the fleet of the Haikou to the other side of the fleet of the Haikou. The pirates were unmoved, and the ships adjusted their direction a little and moved away from the convoy of officers and soldiers.

At this time, Zhang Han was no longer polite, and immediately ordered: "Order all ships and stone throwers to fire with all their strength to kill and injure the enemy deck personnel." ”

After the order was given, his command ship began to drop bombs first, and the other two ships later began to fire bombs at the pirates with all their might. Although the bombs fired by the catapult were not as accurate on land as they were on a bumpy ship, the bombs fired were dense enough that there were always three or two bombs that could land on the enemy's ship and explode.

Booming explosions came one after another, most of them fell into the seawater, some of them were destroyed by the sea, and only a small splash of water was carried into the bottom of the sea, and some of them could blow up a large column of water. The bombs that landed on the enemy ships could easily inflict massive damage on the pirates crowded on the deck.

Since the two flotillas were going in the opposite direction, only two or three rounds of bombs were fired, and they staggered. At this time, the officer's fleet had to begin to raise the sails on the two masts again, and at the same time, with the assistance of the rudder and two huge oars, quickly turned the bow of the ship and pursued the enemy ship again.

After this period of delay, the fleet of pirates is closer to Dongji Island, and there is not much time to waste. Although they wanted to capture more large ships for their own use, at this time, Zhang Han also had to decisively order the ship's artillery to prepare solid shells.

However, when they caught up with the enemy ship again, he did not immediately give the order to open fire, but continued to use the catapult as the main firepower, until they chased the sea ship that the sea corate ran in front, and then began to concentrate the fire. The gunners lit, fired, and changed the cannon skillfully and accurately, so the projectiles continued to smash at the enemy ships.

The roaring sound of cannon rang out on the sea, and more than a dozen solid bullets roared towards the waterline of Xie Laoer's ship. Even if the planks of the side chords of the sea ship were very thick, at a distance of less than eighty paces, they could not stop the projectiles fired by the three-inch Franc cannon. The projectile smashed large holes into the side of the ship, and the relatively low holes allowed the rippling sea water to easily pour into the cabin.

Although the hole on the side of the ship was only two or three feet large, there was more than one hole, and it was a projectile fired continuously by three warships when they drove past them. Moreover, when the projectile came in, it also injured a lot of sailors in the cabin, so that Xie Lao Er did not have enough sailors and wood to repair the cabin. The sea water poured into the hold, changing the center of gravity of the hull, and the hull began to slowly tilt towards the side of the hole, allowing more and more seawater to pour into the hold, and the hull tilted at a greater angle.

"Mom, the boat is capsizing, run away." The pirates and sailors on the ship shouted in panic and ran. Some are in a hurry to get out of the cabin, some are jumping directly from the other side of the boat, and some are looking for something that will keep them afloat longer. They all knew that the sinking of the ship would form a whirlpool, and if they didn't get away from it sooner, they would have to go to see the Dragon King. If you can get away from the ship earlier, you may be able to pick up a life.

The fleet of officers and soldiers lowered their sails early, and at the same time slowed down the speed of the pulp a little, waiting for the pirate ships behind to send themselves to the door.

Lao Hong's boat, which followed behind, had to turn around, and instead of going in the direction of Dongji Island due east, it became a completely tailwind southeast direction, intending to escape first. However, the distance between the two sides was short, and Lao Hong's boat turned a small arc, just running from the left side of the official army to the right side of the official army, but the distance was closer.

Of course, the officers and soldiers would not let go of this opportunity, and the starboard naval guns opened fire with all their might. However, because the enemy ships were moving outward, the guns were fired diagonally, and the power was greatly reduced, and only some cracks were smashed into the sides of the enemy ships.

The Haikou ships behind saw that although Xie Lao Er in front was about to sink, Lao Hong successfully escaped. So they all began to follow suit, turning the bow of the ship and fleeing into the depths of the sea to the southeast. As for the idea of jumping up and fighting hand-to-hand, I didn't dare to have it at all. Because they saw that many officers and soldiers were waiting for them on the deck with muskets, and before they could get close enough to throw the lock hook, they would be killed and wounded.

However, there are also sober heads, Luo Miaohyun was not affected, and continued to drive firmly towards Dongji Island. He did not forget that the cars and ships of the officers and soldiers were much faster than them with sails alone, and no matter how far they ran, they would be overtaken. At the same time, he was followed by two boats, and they also fled in the direction of the water village.

Zhang Han observed the situation and immediately divided two boats to pursue the pirates who fled to the southeast, and he himself pursued the pirates who continued to flee to Dongji Island. Annihilate these bandits at sea, and then the army will have much less resistance when they come to the island to fight. And he saw that there was an apricot yellow flag on one of the boats, which seemed to be the leader's boat, so he naturally couldn't let it go easily.

Luo Miaohyun saw that it was only ** miles away from the shore, but it was useless for him to be in a hurry, his ship was so fast, he could only watch the warships of the official army catch up. He wanted to fight and hold on to the shore, but two shells and four or five bombs hit his ship, killing and wounding more than twenty of his men at once, and a large hole was cut in the hull.

And one of his men on the ship, out of nervousness and fear, actually snatched the torch of the gunner next to him, lit the fuse of little Frankie, and at the same time nervously shouted: "Die!" You won't let me live, and I won't let you live! ”