Zheng Sen and Gao Yitong hurriedly left the cabin and climbed to the top of the ship, almost all the soldiers on the ship stood in their respective positions, each holding their weapons, looking east.

During the day, the fleet had just witnessed a Dutch merchant ship brazenly robbing a vermilion ship, and everyone understood the danger at sea.

At this time, the sea is full of dangers, and any sea ship that meets can become a pirate at any time, even if the Ming Dynasty's naval warships in the southeast meet passing merchant ships, it is possible to go to do a vote.

The sea is a place outside the law, even when the Ming Dynasty was strong, it could not control the affairs of the sea, so the three lucky ships loaded with the goods of the Weaving Bureau were not safe.

On the moonlit sea, the sailors stretched their necks to look, Zheng Sen walked to the edge of the ship building in a few steps, pressed the knife on his waist, looked east, and sure enough, he saw more than ten black shadows moving on the sea in the distance, but the sky was dark and the distance was far away, so he couldn't really see it, but it was sure that it was a ship.

Zheng Sen looked up at the stars, asked someone to bring a compass to look at it, and then said in a deep voice: "It's almost Ryukyu, it's a fleet from Ryukyu, but I don't know what identity it is?" ”

Gao Yiqian didn't know about the situation at sea, "Is it a merchant ship from Ryukyu to eastern Zhejiang and Fujian?" ”

"Unlikely!" Zheng Sen shook his head, "Now that the southeast wind is blowing on the sea, it is not this time to go to eastern Zhejiang and Fujian." ”

After speaking, Zheng Sen suddenly shouted to the sailors on the deck: "Swing the rudder, adjust the sails, avoid them, and the fleet will sail north." ”

Gao Yiyan remembered Wang Shilang's instructions, and his face sank, "The general thinks it's Haikou?" ”

Zheng Sen's expression was serious, "It's not clear, but there are many ships on the other side, so you can avoid it, whether it's a Haikou or not, you'll know later." ”

At this time, the sailman on the ship, after listening to the order, immediately untied the sail rope and adjusted the sail surface, and on the stern rudder tower, four sailors pushed the rudder together, the rudder shifted, the hull suddenly creaked and tilted, the sea breeze blew the sail, and the ship broke the waves to the north, changing the original course to avoid meeting with the opposing fleet.

On the mast, the soldier in charge of the lookout stood in the somewhat inclined lookout, grabbed the mast with one hand, looked at the clairvoyant mirror with the other, stared at the black shadow that appeared on the sea with blazing eyes, and suddenly shouted downward: "It's not good, they are also turning, and they are going to chase after them!" ”

Needless to say, the people on the ship all understood that they must have met the pirates.

Gao Yi's face became angry, "Wang Shilang said that the maritime merchants in eastern Zhejiang may collude with the pirates to rob the ship, but I didn't expect them to have such courage in order to stop the imperial court." Now that the Ming Dynasty is struggling, it will not change and die, these people are still for personal gain, hindering the reform of the imperial court, they really deserve to be killed! ”

Chinese merchants must gain political support after mastering huge wealth, and they often tend to combine with the scholars, or train their descendants to become scholars, so as to complete the transformation of their status, so that their wealth can be guaranteed to a certain extent.

Zheng Zhilong is like this to Deng Sen, spending a huge amount of money to train him, and let him worship Donglin boss Qian Qianyi as a teacher, integrate into the circle of the scholar clan, and rarely let him get in touch with the affairs of the Zheng family, but this does not mean that Zheng Sen does not know anything about the sea.

"What is this, the Japanese who were rampant in the southeast back then also colluded with these people." Zheng Sen said a word, and immediately ordered the ship's sergeant, "Hang the flag, and prepare the ship's artillery." ”

The sailors on the bucket lit the lamps, informed the other two ships, and hoisted a yellow flag on the mast.

That is the banner of the Zheng family, the Zheng family is the overlord of the East China Sea and the South Seas, earns more money than the Dutch East India Company in a year, has nearly a thousand sea ships, and its influence is very huge, even the Dutch do not dare to touch the ships of the Zheng family's flag casually.

Zheng Sen, on behalf of the imperial court, didn't want to play the banner of the Zheng family, but there were a lot of ships from the other side, and they had a task and couldn't have any accidents, so they still hung up the Zheng family's flag, hoping that this gang of pirates would be afraid of the strength of the Zheng family and give up robbing the three lucky ships.

However, at this time, it was dark, the flag was hanging, and the other party could not see clearly at the moment.

At the same time as the soldiers hoisted the flag, the sailors on the ship were already in action, and the red cloth on the side and stern of the ship was lifted, leaking a red-coated cannon, six jack guns, and a number of firearms such as bowls.

The sergeants on the deck were busy bringing the rockets, swords, spears, and firearms to the east side of the ship, and quickly reloading, and the sergeants who came out of the cabin hurriedly put on their armor.

The gunners on the ship finished loading the guns, and also loaded the guns of the jack franc machine, and then stared at the black shadow in the east with a serious expression.

At this time, the three Fu ships of the Ming army turned the route from the northeast to the north, and the fleet of Haikou changed the direction from west to northwest.

The three ships were full of cargo, the draft was very deep, and the speed of the ships was slower, while the fleet of Haikou, which was not loaded with cargo, was much faster, and was closing the distance between them and the three ships.

However, the view from the sea is excellent, and although the fleet appears in view, it is still far away.

Although the fleet of pirates is fast, it will not be able to catch up in a while.

The Haikou fleet that came was invited by Xie Sanbin, and they had been waiting in the Ryukyus for more than a month.

When the Fuchuan departed from Ningbo, Xie Sanbin sent a fast boat to feel the Ryukyus first and notify the Haikou, so that Haikou could accurately calculate the time when the Fuchuan arrived in the Ryukyu Islands.

The imperial court set up a weaving bureau to preside over the trade with the Wa Kingdom, and in the short term, it did not have much impact on the Zheng family, but after receiving this news, Zheng Zhilong still attracted great attention.

If the Weaving Bureau made money in the trade with the Wa State, the next step for the imperial court would inevitably be to open the sea, and the blow to the Zheng family would be extremely huge.

Now that the Zheng family has replaced the imperial court, collecting taxes at sea and conducting smuggling trade, if the Ming Dynasty sets its sights on maritime trade, then the Zheng family and the imperial court will inevitably have a fierce conflict.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong did not want to turn against the Ming Dynasty, what he hoped was to continue to maintain the interests of the Zheng family, so the best way was to tell the imperial court that the sea was dangerous and too risky, and the idea of the imperial court would be nipped in the bud.

For this reason, a few months ago, Zheng Zhilong sent his fifth brother Zheng Zhibao to Ryukyu to find a group of pirates active in the East China Sea to intercept the cargo ships of the Weaving Bureau.

Although Zheng Zhilong was not afraid, there was no need to send a ship from Fujian, so he asked Zheng Zhibao to directly contact the largest group of pirates in the East China Sea to handle the matter.

The Zheng family collects protection money at sea, if the sea is too peaceful, it is naturally impossible to collect the money, there must be danger, and the merchant ship will be willing to spend 3,000 taels a year to buy the Zheng family's order flag to ensure safety.

The danger at sea is the Haikou family, they actually have a lot to do with the Zheng family, and some of them are actually people from the Zheng family pretending.

At this time, on a large ship of Haikou, Zheng Zhibao saw the three lucky ships fleeing into the distance, and a sneer leaked from his face, "Hmph, fire the cannon, pursue with full sails!" ”

There was a loud "boom" on the sea, and a red light flashed, which suddenly illuminated a piece of the sea, and then immediately dimmed.

At this moment, there was a whistling sound in the air, and a black cannonball was fired at the Fufu ship at a rapid pace, splashing a column of water on the sea more than a mile away from the ship.

In the distance, the pirate ships fired their cannons one after another, the fire flashed on the sea, the smoke was filled, and the cannon body drove the deck and hull to vibrate slightly, and the sea water spread this vibration far and wide.

Zheng Sen's face sank when he saw the Haikou firing the cannon, judging from the firepower, the strength of this group of Haikou was not weaker than that of the sailors of the Ming army.

"Turn the rudder left!" Zheng Sen shouted, then clenched his fists and roared, "Fire back!" ”

With a loud bang, a cannon on the Fu ship retreated suddenly, the deck trembled, the ship was filled with smoke, the hull dispersed the gunsmoke, and continued to flee forward.

For a time, on the dark sea, the cannon roared and the flames flickered, and the scene was spectacular.

It's just that the distance between the two sides is relatively long, and the accuracy of the artillery is not high, and neither side hits the target.

The fleet chased after me at night, until the sky was getting brighter, and finally the distance was closer.

At this time, on the pirate ship, a one-eyed leader suddenly said to Zheng Zhibao: "Fifth master, this ship has the Zheng family's order flag!" ”

Zheng Zhibao looked through the clairvoyant mirror, and sure enough, he saw the Zheng family's flag floating on the mast.

"Isn't this flag smashing my Zheng family's signboard?" Zheng Zhibao put down the clairvoyant mirror with a puzzled expression.

"Fifth master, are you still chasing after you?" The pirate leader asked.

Zheng Zhibao's eyes narrowed, "Chase, why don't you chase, you must take down these three lucky ships!" ”

(Thank you for your support, ask for a monthly pass, recommend, subscribe)

https:

Keep in mind that the first domain name :.com this book. The mobile version of the mobile version of the wonderful book house is :.com