The battle took place in the sea before Li Zhe's fleet was about to reach Sibu Island.

By the time the two cruisers at the outpost of the fleet spotted the pirate ship blocking the way, things were already irreversible.

The lookout of Li Zhe's fleet had just spotted the battle signal coming back from the cruiser in front, and within a few minutes, the ship behind the rear hall had also spotted the pirate ship surrounding him.

There are enemy situations in front and behind, especially at a distance of ten miles ahead, the cruiser in front has already engaged the enemy, the cannon is rumbling on the sea, and the enemy has not given his side time to react at all.

He immediately summoned the commander of the escort fleet, this is a middle-aged man who is about forty or fifty years old, hereditary Qizhou County Uncle, Shi Minglun, young and strong, rich in combat experience, and has served as the commander of the Tianzhu Naval Division for many years, otherwise he would not have been chosen to be responsible for this escort.

"It's serious, isn't this your average pirate?"

This was the first thing Shi Minglun said when he saw Li Zhe.

"What do you mean?"

Until this moment, Li Zhe did not understand the seriousness of the matter.

But after many years of fighting at sea, Shi Minglun far understood the inside story behind this better than him, and he patiently explained to Li Zhe:

"Our fleet is more than a thousand large ships, nearly one-third of which are warships, strong combat effectiveness, one ship can rival dozens of ships of the enemy, and the rest of the ships are also large-tonnage merchant ships, and they also have the power to fight at sea, ordinary small pirates will never dare to attack us, such as a large fleet like ours, small pirates are afraid that they will run away as soon as they see it.

If we want to pose a threat to us, we need at least more than 20 warships, or 30 armed merchant ships of more than 2,000 materials, and hundreds of small and medium-sized pirate ships to besiege us, so that it is possible to sink our ships one by one, but as far as I know, there is no pirate in the South Seas who has this strength. ”

Li Zhe listened,

"And what do you mean?"

Shi Minglun frowned and said, looking anxious:

"If something is abnormal, it must be a demon, since the pirates know that things cannot be done, the only possibility is that they have united, Governor, I am afraid we need to ask for help from the nearby court sailors."

Although as the commander of the fleet, it is a bit embarrassing to ask for help from other people's sailors, but the stakes are high, and Shi Minglun will not support the hero.

Li Zhe listened, thought for a moment, and was still willing to believe Shi Minglun's judgment, after all, he himself had never led a naval division, compared to the army, the naval division was a real technical arm in any era, and he still had to respect the opinions of experts as a layman.

It's too late to send out for help.

The three briefing ships in the fleet were prepared for this situation. Li Zhe listened to Shi Minglun's advice and sent two notification ships to ask for help from the Central Plains Imperial Naval Division in the Gulf of Siam above and the Ningwang Naval Division in Dinghai.

After the request for help was dispatched, the situation of the fleet at this time was already worse, and as Shi Minglun expected, after the entire fleet continued to travel north for about a quarter of an hour, not only the front and back, but also a large number of pirate ships appeared in several other directions around it, most of which were small ships under 500 materials. There were various types of ships, and their speed varied, but there were hundreds of them in total, and they slowly but surely surrounded their own fleet from the east and west.

The black pressure is overwhelming, looking at the past, the pirates have almost covered the entire ocean, the momentum is magnificent, and the sails raised cover the sky and the sun, is it really his Li Zhe's difficult day today.

Why did these pirates find themselves?

As Shi Minglun said, attacking the Tianzhu fleet was definitely more than worth the loss for the pirates.

Even if it is really successful, I am afraid that it will also cause the anger of the Central Plains Imperial Court and the Tianzhu Domain, and then the pirates on the entire Nanyang Sea will probably face a catastrophe.

Even if you don't wash your hands in time, I'm afraid you won't be able to escape.

In the past, the reason why pirates were able to survive was purely because the imperial court did not pay attention to it, if a major incident was committed, the imperial court and the Tianzhu clan united, and the pirates who fought today may not be able to escape to the ends of the earth.

The pirates are out of their brains and will come to attack his fleet.

There must be something wrong with this.

"Order the front and rear fleets, move closer to the center of the Grand Fleet, and concentrate our firepower!"

At this time, the decisive battle was inevitable, and Li Zhe certainly knew that the more he divided his troops, the more unfavorable it would be for his side.

"Yes!"

The order was conveyed, and the lookout on the high lookout on the mast informed it in the language of the flag.

Not long after, the original front and rear two cruising fleets also approached the large fleet, separated by a distance of several hundred meters, forming a dense formation, the merchant ships on the sea in this era are also armed merchant ships, how many cannons, Shi Minglun will form a dense formation of all the merchant ships, cover each other, and all the cruisers are converged with the three capital ships under his personal command, ready to rush into the pirate ship formation to fight.

Shi Minglun's strategy plan is to use the turtle shell formation to defend the merchant ships, and the warship fleet will see the situation to kill the main force of pirates, to deal with this kind of rabble, or to capture the thief and capture the king first, if you can kill the pirate leader led by it, then the other small pirates are very likely to disperse without a fight.

Otherwise, if the warships are also mixed with the merchant ships, then the merchant ships will drag down the rhythm of the sailors' warships too much, and the gains will outweigh the losses.

Li Zhe agreed with Shi Minglun's decision to let this guy attack with the warfleet, while he himself decided to guard the merchant fleet.

The plan has been decided, Shi Minglun led the warship fleet to attack from the right side of his side, Li Zhe and Liu Jueye, Fang Yuanwai and others, stood on the bridge of the big ship, holding a clairvoyant mirror, watching Shi Minglun's fleet draw a huge beautiful arc on the sea, rushing straight to the pirate ship on the right.

At this time, on the surface of the sea, hundreds of pirate ships under black pressure, like a swarm of bees, surrounded Li Zhe's fleet in the center from all around.

Shi Minglun's warship fleet was like a group of charging knights, directly inserted into the center of the pirate ship array.

When Li Zhe and the others saw it, they were all terrified!

In the pirate ship array, dense firelight lit up on the sea, and dozens of cannons hit the warship directly, which was a sight to behold

Fortunately, most of the pirate ships are small, and the guns that can be carried on them are also small, and most of the guns hit the side of the warship just scratching, Shi Minglun's fleet is like a sharp sword straight into the middle of the pirates, Li Zhe and others saw with their own eyes that their own warships are incomparably huge compared to the pirate ships, as high as mountains, and when they rush into their formation, they are like tigers entering a flock of sheep, rampage.

In particular, the three huge capital ships at the head of the ship, with the ramming angles on the bow, all ran over the pirate ships along the way, and they were invincible.

And all the pirate ships along the way, shouting at their own warships, running around and roaring, hitting the capital ship but directly able to bounce away, the Tianzhu Navy warships used in the shipbuilding are the top ship materials, and the side of the ship is more than a foot thick.

Seeing this scene, Li Zhe knew what it meant to be a big boat fighting a small boat, and a small fish eating dried shrimp.

The secret of strength and weakness on the sea, the feeling is only four words, a strong ship and a sharp cannon!

The pirates couldn't stop the interspersing of Shi Minglun's fleet at all, and in the end, even Li Zhe could see Shi Minglun's purpose, and he had already divided the enemy ship into two ends, and surrounded the pirate ships that were close to the inside of the big fleet on the right side.

After seeing that the tactics were completed, the side gun compartments of all the warships of the entire fleet were opened, revealing all the guns inside, ten warships, a total of hundreds of guns, firing at the enemy warships that were cut off in the circle!