Zhou Lang now has a total of six European-style armed merchant ships, as well as thirty old lock ships, although the size of the fleet is a little cold compared to the pirates of this era, Zhu Lian fights pirates, often hundreds of ships, but the firepower of Zhou Lang's fleet is not to mention these pirates, even the Manchu Qingshui division is not comparable, each ship has an average of 20 guns, a total of more than 700 naval guns, can completely crush any Manchu battery.

In order not to lose the rare fighter plane of the main force of the Fujian Navy Division to attack Penghu, Zhou Lang sent all the warships to try to complete the battle, and he was also sure that such a powerful firepower was enough to occupy Kinmen and even Xiamen.

The commander of the fleet is Harald, Zhou Lang boldly appointed this Swede as the commander, mainly because he values the experience of the other party, and only he has the experience of the large fleet, and other captains do not have this experience, and even almost all of the captains do not have the ability to draw European charts, and they are completely based on experience and traditional Chinese navigation in navigation.

Due to the rapid expansion of the fleet, a large number of captains are chasing ducks to the shelves, and the most experienced ones are the three pirate leaders. The other captains were from Xie Qinggao's boat. Xie Qinggao's lucky ship has traveled back and forth to India and the South Seas, and on his second trip, Zhou Lang recruited a large number of scholars to follow Xie Qinggao to learn sailing.

Xie Qinggao has rich sailing experience, but in fact, his knowledge of navigation has also been learned in the past two years. When he was in India, he hired a poor Scottish cartographer apprentice, and then combined the other party's cartographic ability and his own sailing experience, he began to sail on the sea, and then in the process he learned a lot of knowledge from the other party, although Xie Qinggao did not learn cartography, but the ability to understand nautical charts was there.

Xie Qinggao took young people recruited from all over Fengshan County to be apprentices, from Taiwan to Nanyang, from Nanyang to India, back and forth for a year, it can be regarded as cultivating dozens of talents who can read nautical charts, but to say how strong their ability is, it is really unsatisfactory.

After these people came back, they continued to practice on Xie Qinggao and Harald's ship, until the old lock boat was built, and they were caught up with the ship as captains one by one like ducks, and their subordinates were recruited fishermen and ordinary people, and they also broke up Qiu Tong's three pirates' subordinates to serve as the junior officers on the ship, so that they could barely drive the old lock boat.

After the fleet was built, Harald was allowed to carry out many exercises, and it looked good, but what the real combat effectiveness was, I am afraid it would have to be tested, which is why Zhou Lang would send all the warships out of desperation, if these people are mature, only ten ships are enough to take Kinmen.

The fleet went to Kinmen, Zhou Lang still left three small sailing ships, brigs, shallow draft Dutch sailing ships, this is a sample produced by the Dutch, the Dutch tried to make Zhou Lang accept the construction of Dutch warships, but Zhou Lang felt that the Dutch ships had a shallow draft and fast speed, but the hull was thin and the firepower was weak, which was suitable for armed merchant ships rather than warships, and was more inclined to British warships, so only three were built as reconnaissance ships, and then they stopped building.

These three ships are now taking turns to travel between Penghu and Tagu Port, compared to the situation in Kinmen, Zhou Lang is more concerned about the situation in Penghu, as long as the Qing army and Zhu Li are still fighting to the death in Penghu, then the plan to attack Kinmen will not be interfered with.

Zhou Lang found that Li Changgeng had a tenacious style, but his attack was very conservative, and he did not directly attack Zhu Li's lair, nor did he attack Magong Port on the main island of Penghu, but started from the periphery first, attacking island by island, and attacking from battery to battery, almost occupying all the important places on the periphery of Penghu.

Zhou Lang couldn't help but be a little worried that Zhu Lian was coming, obviously his opponent was a very experienced and strong enemy, Penghu Island was located in the center of the archipelago, and the loss of the peripheral stronghold meant that Zhu Li was almost in a predicament of being surrounded.

Zhou Lang was worried about Zhu Lian's safety and the outcome of the Battle of Kinmen. If Zhu Mian could not withstand Li Changgeng's pressure and his fleet's attack on Kinmen suffered another setback, the sneak attack plan would basically be bankrupt. If Zhu Lian died in battle, Zhou Lang also felt that it was a pity, after all, the other party was currently one of the largest anti-Qing forces in coastal China, and it was a pity that he would perish.

And Zhu Li's style is different from ordinary pirates, although he also does pirate trading, but more of a sea trade, he is more like Zheng Zhilong, not Zhang Baozai, once corrected, he can easily be transformed into a maritime group, is a rare maritime trade force, it is a pity to die.

A month later, Li Changgeng had already begun to attack the main island of Penghu, and Zhu Meng was in danger.

At this time, the news of Kinmen finally came back, and the two islands of Kinmen and Xiamen were successfully captured.

As soon as he received the news, Zhou Lang immediately ordered 20 old lock ships to be left to defend Jin and Xia, until the technicians accompanying the ships perfected the fort defense of the two islands. The sixteen capital ships immediately returned to Penghu and rushed to Penghu, but not to rescue Penghu, but to rescue Zhu Li.

Zhou Lang's purpose was to use the advantage of his own ships and artillery to suppress the batteries controlled by Li Changgeng, and then break through the blockade of Li Changgeng's fleet and enter the port of Penghu, but not to help Zhu Li hold on, but to respond to Zhu Li's retreat. With Li Changgeng besieging Li Changgeng outside and Zhou Lang's fleet inside, it is impossible for Zhu Li, a pirate, to have any thoughts of defending the flood land.

After giving these orders, Zhou Lang had the heart to think about the situation in front of him.

According to the report of the situation of the Battle of Jinxia, the defense of the Qing army on the two islands was extremely lax, the forts did not play a role at all, and most of the cannons were in disrepair, and there were more than 60 years old. This kind of coastal defense cannot stop the attack of the regular fleet at all.

This news made Zhou Lang very happy, laying Kinmen is the basic requirement, and laying Xiamen is the best choice, so that these two islands can be used to control the sea passage in the Zhangquan and Quan areas, and the Jiulong River and Jinjiang can be used to the two inland rivers leading to Fujian, once the trade is opened, there will be huge commercial benefits.

At the same time, the capture of Kinmen and Xiamen also made Zhou Lang find that it seems that the maritime pattern at this time has returned to the situation of Zheng Zhilong's era at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, like the Ming Dynasty at that time, controlled the mainland, while Taiwan was controlled by maritime forces such as the Dutch and Zheng Zhilong.

With the same situation and essentially the same governing philosophy, Zhou Lang would not be surprised if the Manchu government and the Ming government had taken the same countermeasures.

So he believes that the situation in the Ming Dynasty Zheng Zhilong's era is very necessary to study.

After asking a few old pedants who are familiar with history and local history for advice, an inexplicable idea suddenly rose in Zhou Lang's heart:

"Will the Qing court edict me?"