At this moment, the sea showed her tenderness to the fullest.

A fleet of ships was moving quietly in the middle of the sea.

The ships of this era, especially the ships used for ocean navigation, were basically sailboats, and the sails were open at this time, but because the wind is not very strong today, the speed of these ships is not very fast, and compared with the giant ships that were mechanized as the power to move forward in later generations, they cannot be compared.

There are a total of eighteen ships in this fleet, of which there are ten ships in the middle, all of which are not small, and the overall shape is somewhat similar to the Fu ship, but the parts are slightly different. It is about 20 zhang long and very wide, and the ships are round-bottomed, while these ships have flat-bottomed bellies, and there are wooden walls above the water, and four masts are erected on them.

For example, the main force of the British Royal Navy, the main force of the Spanish Armada, is the legendary warship among the pirates across the Atlantic, all of which are divided into grades according to the number of masts, and the three masts are the absolute main force, and the four masts are already comparable to the legendary battleships of the Black Pearl and the flying Dutchman in the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Of course, these are also four-masted ships, and these ships are very different from those of the pirates. Those Western ships were warships, with pointed heads and cocked at the front and rear, long and narrow in shape, tall, and the overall shape was very light, like a streamlined swordfish, and the speed could reach the peak of the ships of this era.

The big-bellied ships in front of me, which resemble lucky ships, are more like cargo ships, and everything is based on how much cargo they can hold.

The formation of these ten pot-bellied cargo ships was quite compact. The distance between the two will not exceed three hundred meters, and it is still in the sea. This is already a fairly close distance.

It's like a huddle, huddled together.

And on the periphery of these ten pot-bellied ships. It was two large ships, one medium warship and five small ships.

Three well-deserved big ships, those big-bellied cargo ships are big enough, but compared to the two giant ships, they are still far behind.

One of them was a huge ship with eight masts and a pointed bow. This huge ship is not more than 100 meters long, and the big ship has five floors and is more than ten zhang high, and it can be seen from afar. It's like a mountain! The mast is as thick as a giant tree, and the sails are like clouds, and it looks very oppressive!

On the bow of this big ship, a big red flag fluttered in the wind, and the three big characters of 'Wu Yijun' were clearly visible on it.

The other big ship was smaller in size, but it was more than thirty zhang long, and the outside of the big ship. It is even covered with a thick layer of iron leaves, which looks like an ironclad ship! In terms of appearance, it was no worse than the eight-mast ship, and the outer layer of the hull was the kind of push-pull plank. The structure is similar to that of a fortune ship, and it is thought that there are weapons such as cannons and giant crossbows.

In the direction of the bow of the ironclad ship, a flag was raised high. Above it is a pattern of two black apricot leaves hugging each other, which is a slightly abstract flag. It is the well-known Apricot Leaf Banner in Fuso, which was originally the power of the Kyushu Ichiba Otomo family. But fifteen years ago, when the god Tachibana Michiyuki slaughtered all the courtiers of the Otomo family, the Tachibana family has inherited this banner and all the power of the Otomo family in Kyushu.

And the medium-sized battleship has a strong Western-style style, with a pointed head and tail, and a beautiful streamlined shape, although it feels light, but it also looks much thinner.

On the upper and lower decks of this medium-sized battleship, you can also see sliding wooden doors, and it is obvious that there are many guns inside. Although it is the style of a Western warship, the sailors who operate the boats on it are all Han Chinese, and the flag is also the flag of Wu Yijun.

As for the remaining five small boats, they are much smaller, with square heads and square tips, which look quite cute, and the bottom is flat-bottomed, and it can be seen that this kind of boat has a very shallow draft and a large ratio of length to width.

On these ships, the flags are the black apricot leaf flags of the Tachibana family, while on those big-bellied cargo ships, the flags of the Wu Yijun and the flags of the Tachibana family are mixed together.

At the top of the mast of the largest battleship, the lookout was sitting on it, holding a clairvoyant mirror in his hand and patiently looking southwest.

The ship was huge, and the mast was more than a dozen feet high, as thick as a large wine barrel, and it was really necessary to have some guts to sit on it.

Below, a bunch of people gathered, wearing a battle armor Wu Yi Army stationed in Hizengang Sento Chen Yu, Rongyue, and the Rika County Lord of the Tachibana family, Chiyo, were all below, and a group of generals of the Yuri Iron Artillery Team behind were wearing gorgeous scarlets, with giant swords hanging from their waists, and weapons in their hands. However, after climbing the Wu Yi Army, the bird guns in their hands also turned into more powerful flintlock pistols.

Even Zining is not afraid that they will steal the teacher, anyway, with the forging technology of Fusang in this era, even if he sends someone to teach them how to make them, they will be helpless.

If you can't go up the basic industry, you will be blind to everything. Lian Zining's Wu Yijun is so able to develop so fast, the new weapons of the Ordnance Bureau are emerging in endlessly, to put it bluntly, it is still good to rely on the big tree to enjoy the shade, backed by the world's leading forging and iron-smelting process of the Ming Dynasty in this era, blacksmiths and technicians are all ready-made, so naturally everything is much easier.

Chen Yu was waiting a little impatiently below, and raised his voice: "Do you see clearly?" Where's the pups? ”

The people above probably didn't hear what he said, but after a while they took down the clairvoyant mirror and shouted below: "My lord, we are still ten miles away. ”

This is the advantage of the high mast, which can see far away, and with the clairvoyant mirror, it is enough to observe distant targets.

The opponent may not be able to observe himself, which creates an asymmetry in battlefield intelligence between the two sides, and there are many benefits to the battle.

"Damn, these traitors are really ghostly, are we really bullying us?"

When Chen Yu heard this, he scolded fiercely. And Rong Yue's expression was a little dignified.

Naturally, they set off from Hizen Port. Trying to open up a new route, all the way north through Kuyi Oshima. Then enter the mouth of the Songhua River, go upstream, and reach the combined fleet of Wu Yijun and the Tachibana family in Zhenyuan Mansion.

This cooperation, the matter is big, it is a top priority for the Tachibana family, whether it is a dragon or a worm in the future, whether it is entrenched in one place or dominating China, it depends on this file business, it is the Tachibana family can be said to have done their best. The five big-bellied cargo ships that belonged to them were transporting the silver needed for this transaction—a full 1,100,000 taels of silver. That's all the Tachibana family can come up with.

Tachibana Daoxue has made it very clear, that's all, if you want it again, even if you sell me, you won't have a penny, you can do it!

This kind of single-minded approach makes it clear that he has left no way out for himself.

In order to protect these silver coins, they also sent the Tachibana family's most powerful deterrent force in Kyushu - a large ironclad ship transformed by Fufune.

And for this big deal, Rong Yue and Chen Yu also paid enough attention to it, not only sending the Western warship that had just been captured, but also dispatching the force at the bottom of the box-Ma Clipper.

Yes. It's the giant ship they're on now.

This kind of giant ship is the Ming Dynasty Guangdong Naval Division, Fujian Naval Division, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Naval Division, Yangtze River Naval Division, and the trump card of the four major naval divisions - horse clipper.

And the one they are riding in now is the largest of all the horse clippers.

There are nine masts and twelve sails, and the mast towers into the sky. The ship is a four-storey palace-style high-rise building, exquisite and luxurious. It is forty-seven zhang long and twenty-one zhang wide. Not only can it accommodate a large number of war horses, quartermasters and soldiers, but it is also a large ship with strong combat effectiveness! In the year of Yongle, it was equipped with artillery and firearms. After the abolition of firearms, the Zhengde Dynasty was equipped with giant crossbows, trebuchets and poles. It can shoot from a distance and in close combat, and its combat effectiveness is extremely strong!

Forty-seven zhang long, twenty-one zhang wide, nine masts and twelve sails, and the same specifications as the big treasure ship that the Three Treasure Eunuchs took when they went to the West. In terms of size alone, it is more than thirty times the largest warship of the West in this era.

This is Lian Zining used his 100,000 acres of fertile land in Shandong to exchange for Zhang Yanchang, the Marquis of Shouning, with such a friendship between the two, it can be seen how amazing the value of this big ship is. If it is exchanged for a person, it will be ten times the price, and Zhang Yanchang will definitely not sell it.

This giant ship was bought by Lian Zining and placed at the crossing of the Yellow River in Lijin County all the year round, and every time the fleet of the Lian chaebol went to sea, it was used as protection to deter bandits at sea. And this time, when Rongyue and the others went to sea, it happened that the fleet of the Lian chaebol had just arrived, so they borrowed this huge ship.

And after this giant ship named 'Zhenshan' by Cheng Yu came into the hands of Lian Zining, he added a full 120 medium-sized Franc machine guns to it on the original basis - this is almost the powerful firepower of an artillery thousand households, and it has been transformed into a huge killing weapon, which is a strategic force for deterrence.

It's been twenty days since they've been out to sea. Originally, according to the original plan, at this time in the spring, the south wind is the majority, so that the wind goes north, the speed can reach an hour and fifty miles (the speed of about 12 knots), day and night sailing, more than 600 miles a day, then 20 days of time, is enough to reach Kuyi Island, into the mouth of the Songhua River.

But the reality is always very different from the plan, after they went to sea, due to the wind, the speed was never fast, and because of the lack of experience in this route for the first time, they were even led away by the current for a while. Fortunately, for the sake of insurance, they have always sailed in a direction not far from the coastline, and they have had time to correct it, but they have been delayed by various factors, and now the twenty days are only yesterday just after the northern tip of Ezo Island.

It is at least two days away from the southern tip of Kuyi Island, and at least six days away from the mouth of the Songhua River.

The good news is that this route is indeed correct, and it can be reached by sailing along the west coast of Kuyi Island.

And there's the bad news.

They seem to be embellished.

This has to start from yesterday.

Just yesterday, after sailing past the northern tip of Ezo Island, the lookout spotted that there was someone following him, and it seemed to be a fleet, and the scale was not small.

At first, I thought that there were businessmen who wanted to follow them to pick up a ready-made bargain and familiarize themselves with this new route so that they could do business in the future. It took a while to find out that this was not the case at all. The boats were long and narrow. It's fast, but it's not cost-effective to ship goods with this structure. On the contrary, it is more like a small warship.

They all stopped and went, anyway, they always followed the mixed fleet of Wu Yijun and the Tachibana family, and the ghosts were always gone, and they were always so far away, not too close.

This made Chen Yu very irritable and crazy, he wanted to take the initiative, but the problem was that the speed of the 'Zhenshan' was far inferior to these small boats, and it was in vain.

"I'm afraid I'll run into pirates this time." Rong Yue's face was a little gloomy and said: "It seems that he has been eyeing us for a long time, and he didn't appear until now." These people are really patient! ”

Chen Yu said disapprerovingly: "What about pirates? Can these boats compare to our 'Zhenshan'? If they really dare to come up, we will fire all kinds of guns and sink him! ”

Rong Yue glared at him and sneered: "Since they are pirates, people's purpose is naturally to plunder rather than fight, they have nothing to do with us, and our cargo ships are helpless to take them!" They are numerous, we only have three warships on our side, if they want to plunder. What can we do if we get around us and go straight to the cargo ship? Still not watching? ”

Chen Yu was speechless for a moment, and shook his head stupidly. He craned his neck and stopped talking.

He is not afraid of others, but he is very jealous of this 'adult woman', after all, people are pillow people. If you really offend, you can't say anything bad about yourself in the ears of adults!

Tachibana Chiyo also frowned. Said: "What Lord Rongyue said is right, it is estimated that it was when we were in Hizen Port. The news leaked out, and people were targeted. They will never give up easily after staring at this road. ”

As he spoke, the lookout soldier was already shouting, "The other party has hung the flag." ”

In the line of sight of the clairvoyant, an extremely bright flag jumped into his sight. The flag is triangular, with a black base, and on the front, it is a snow-white skull, and the corners of the skull's mouth have two drops of blood-like red, as if it is a blood-devouring skeleton, which looks extremely hideous.

After he explained the characteristics of the skull banner, Chiyo immediately said with a calm face: "Hanging the flag, it means that you are about to attack, the blood-devouring skull banner, I know who it is, this is the ghost king's person." ”

"Ghost King?" Rong Yue and Chen Yu didn't know the doorway, and asked in unison.

"What his real name is, no one knows." Chiyo explained: "This man is very mysterious, no one knows where he came from, and it is like he rose overnight. However, we all know that he is a native of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty, and his territory is the entire large sea area east of Goguryeo to Fusang. He has a lot of power, and there are hundreds of ships under his hands, not to mention the people in the coastal area of Goguryeo, even the officials are afraid of him. Even many Fuso daimyo have been robbed by him. But all ships in this sea must pay him a small flag and buy it, and as long as they buy it, they will pass unimpeded. If you don't buy it, then wait for bad luck! ”

"Isn't this the same as paying rent and paying taxes in our Ming Dynasty?" Chen Yu sneered: "What does he think he is?" It's just a pirate like a cheap dog, can you treat yourself as an official? It's really arrogant, I don't know how thick the sky is! ”

Rongyue said lightly: "What kind of ghost king is this, he is very shrewd!" ”

"That's right." Although Chiyo was already accustomed to seeing Rongyue's shrewdness along the way, he still couldn't help but feel surprised by his keen insight, and said: "Lord Rongyue is right, these pirates robbed and robbed, and if you buy their flag, you don't have to be robbed, it's just that you change it once a year and pay the money once, those merchants are still very willing, and they don't have to take risks to rob, it can be said that it is a two-way thing." ”

Rongyue said lightly: "It's a pity, he pinched us as soft persimmons." ”

Chen Yu interjected: "What if you make this flag yourself?" ”

Chiyo said lightly: "It's all dead." People are killed, goods are robbed, ships are scuttled, and one of the things that the ghost king likes to do most is to tie people to the mast and cut them into bones alive until the muscles and periosteum on the surface of the body are scraped off, leaving only a smooth bone frame. ”

What she said was originally very terrifying, but Chen Yu and Rong Yue were not outsiders, Rong Yue just smiled faintly, while Chen Yu, a war general who was killed in the pile of dead people, smiled coldly, licked his lips, and showed a bloodthirsty expression: "What a son of a bitch." Cheng, then wait for Lao Tzu to tie you to the mast. One knife at a time, a thousand cuts! ”

"Alright. It's useless to talk about this now, let's deal with it first! Rongyue said in a deep voice: "Lord Lihua, Chen Qianhu and I are not familiar with water warfare, this station, you command, we will give full authority." ”

Chen Yu opened his mouth to say something, but he still held back.

He knew his own affairs, and it was okay for him to command the soldiers in land battles, if it was a naval battle. That's not going to happen.

Chiyo couldn't help but admire Rongyue's determination, she nodded: "Then Chiyo is welcome." ”

She raised her voice and asked, "How many ships does the enemy have, what size, and what formation?" ”

"There are about thirty boats, all of which are small boats, similar to our sand boats. The half-moon array, concave towards our side, was half outflanked. ”

Suddenly, the lookout shouted, "From the east there are a number of more ships, about thirteen or fourteen. It's coming to outflank us. ”

Rong Yue and Chen Yu both changed their faces, but they didn't expect that the other party still had a hand in wait.

Chiyo sneered: "I can't see it, this ghost king has a lot of appetite, not only because of the idea of our cargo ship." I even want to keep all three of our big ships! ”

Chen Yu sneered: "I'm not afraid to kill him." ”

Chiyo pondered for a moment and said, "They have too many ships, and there are only three ships we can fight." The bigger the battlefield, the more space they have to pull away. The more bad it is for us, the more they can fight less. We can also take the opportunity to grab cargo ships, and we are afraid that we will fall into a bitter battle. ”

She raised her voice and said: "Give the order to go down, all cargo ships, all sail down, stop, try to be close together, the ships are fixed with cables between the ships, and without orders, they must not leave the formation and not move." ”

"Yes!" One of her generals led the way.

Chiyo said: "Now these pirates know a lot about us, and we know little about them, but we have a case, and they must not know much about the Zhenshan before, so the one hundred and twenty guns above are our biggest killer weapon!" ”

She glanced at Chen Yu and said, "Chen Qianhu, I know that there are also many giant crossbows on this ship, and I hope that after your pirate ship enters the firing range, it will only fire giant crossbows and not artillery for the time being." Then wait until they reach the maximum distance. ”

She smiled coldly: "Ten thousand cannons are fired!" Hit them by surprise, this round of shelling, at least a few of their ships will be bombarded, these pirates will be scared, killed, and they will not dare to move! ”

Chen Yu smiled: "Don't worry! I know the weight. ”

"Good!" Chiyo high-fived: "I will raise the flag, and as soon as this flag comes out, our three ships will fire guns together." ”

"One more thing." Chiyo said, "We have your Lily Iron Cannon Team on that ship, with 200 soldiers and 30 samurai, which is enough for protection." There were 500 soldiers on this Zhenshan, which was enough, but the Western battleship "Virgin Mary" only had some gunners and sailors on it, and once it engaged in a close battle, it would definitely suffer, so it was necessary to transfer about 200 soldiers to it. ”

"No problem." Chen Yu instructed: "Zhang Lin, you take the troops of two hundred households to go to the 'Virgin Mary', a pikeman of a hundred households, and a flintlock musketeer of a hundred households." ”

"Yes, sir." A hundred households came out at the order.

Rongyue said quietly at this time: "I'll go over there too." ”

Chen Yu was taken aback: "It's dangerous over there, what did you do in the past?" ”

Rong Yue smiled slightly: "There has to be someone to speak, don't say it, it's decided." ”

"Okay, that's it! Let's let these damn pirates see who's here to die! Chiyo bit his silver teeth, and a trace of ruthlessness flashed on Qingli's face.

In the vast expanse of the sea, the ten pot-bellied cargo ships began to drop their sails, lower their speed, and began to approach each other, and even lowered the boats, and tied them up with cables, so that they formed a floating island on the sea. On the periphery of these ten cargo ships, there are a few sand ships in the center to respond to the emergency, and further out, there are three huge ships that have lowered their speed, forming a 'C' shape in the south, and are heading at those small ships at high speed.

The defensive formation is already in place. (To be continued.) )