The toss of the rebel army attracted the main attention of the Ming official army, and even Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, received an order to lead his troops to Henan to besiege the rebel army. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info The pressure on the security army has been greatly reduced.

Zhang Chu rarely had a few days of relaxation, even so, Zhang Chu was not idle, seizing this rare opportunity to strengthen the defense line and expand the team. Because I don't know what's going to happen next.

Sure enough, within a few days, a big trouble came to the door. This trouble comes from the sea, from Zheng Zhilong, the sea overlord in the south.

Zheng Zhilong was born as a pirate, although he was finally recruited by the Ming court, he actually did not lose control of the Ming Dynasty's sea power, and became more and more powerful. Up to now, Zheng Zhilong has more than 3,000 ships of various types, and there are more than 100,000 people on land and sea. He relied on his powerful fleet to defeat the fleet of the Dutch East India Company in the Battle of Kinmen off the coast of Fujian, and since then he has controlled the sea routes and charged the docking fees of merchant ships from various countries. All ships passing through the waters of southern China have to pay protection money to Zheng Zhilong, and a large ship has to pay 3,000 taels of silver, and if you pay the silver, you can get a Zheng family's order flag, and if you don't pay the fee and want to pass through the sea area controlled by Zheng Zhilong, you will not escape the fate of being robbed.

Zhang Chu has built up a fleet to carry out overseas trade in recent years, and gradually attracted Zheng Zhilong's attention, but most of Zhang Chu's fleet took the route of Japan, and there were few opportunities to pass through Zheng Zhilong's territory. Moreover, most of Zhang Chu's fleet was armed merchant ships equipped with artillery, and there was no way for a small group of pirates to take such a fleet.

One of the more important reasons for this is that Zheng Zhilong has no energy to divide his troops to deal with Zhang Chu, because all of Zheng Zhilong's energy has been spent on dealing with his former sworn brother Liu Xiang in the past few years.

Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong were both sea thieves, and after Zheng Zhilong returned to the imperial court, he used the name of fighting pirates to eliminate dissidents, and cracked down on the big and small pirates in the seas of East China and South China one by one, either surrendering or being eliminated. Liu Xiang couldn't get used to Zheng Zhilong's domineering behavior, and was even more unwilling to succumb to Zheng Zhilong, and always maintained his independence.

There have been many large and small battles between the two sides, and Zheng Zhilong has never been able to eliminate Liu Xiang.

It wasn't until not long ago that Zheng Zhilong found an opportunity to surround Liu Xiang in the sea outside Humen, Guangdong, and fought hard. Liu Xiang committed suicide in defeat, and Zheng Zhilong's worst enemy was eliminated.

Zheng Zhilong wiped out all the enemies in his mind, drew his sword and looked around to prepare a long roar: "Who is competing with me?" Only then did he find that a new opponent had appeared beside him. This opponent is Zhang Chu's security army.

The first to be discovered by Zheng Zhilong Group was Zhang Chu's base on Liuheng Island.

Zheng Zhilong and the others found that when he was fighting with Liu Xiang for life and death, a group of people occupied Liuheng Island and rebuilt the port on the island, and the fleet from the port transported a shipload of goods to Japan and even the South Seas, and these ships did not pay Zheng Zhilong protection money.

Zheng Zhilong was of course very angry at this kind of behavior of grabbing food, and the angry Zheng Zhilong restored his pirate nature. Zheng Zhilong, who has been a pirate for many years, likes to take a simple and crude approach to people who snatch food from their mouths. He decided to send a fleet to snatch the fleet of the gang on Rokuyoko Island and destroy Rokuyoko Island again.

For the sake of safety, Zheng Zhilong sent a fleet of ten No. 1 Fu ships and more than forty other large and small ships led by his fifth brother Zheng Zhibao to go straight to Liuheng Island.

In order to capture the merchant ships of the security forces, Zheng Zhibao took the fleet directly to the sea not far from Liuheng Island, and his purpose was to intercept the merchant ships and capture them.

Zheng Zhibao's strategy was very successful, and they lurked outside Liuheng Island for a short time when they received reports that a fleet of ships had sailed from Liuheng Island.

Zheng Zhibao immediately ordered his fleet to meet it. The two sides were getting closer and closer, and lookouts on the masts kept sending back information about each other.

The other side has ten medium-sized Western cargo ships, which seem to have a deep draft, and should be carrying a lot of cargo. Although Zheng Zhibao was a little strange why there was a Western cargo ship in this place, he would not let go of anything about the fat that came to his mouth.

"Full speed ahead to surround the flotilla in front." Zheng Zhibao gave the battle order.

The crew of the Zheng family are all sailors who have been adrift at sea for many years and have rich experience in ship management and combat. Without Zheng Zhibao's arrangement, they already know what to do. More than 50 warships lined up on the surface of the sea and drove towards the flotilla in front, each performing their own duties, some of them attacking head-on, and some of the fast boats scattered to overtake, determined to wipe out the opposing flotilla.

With more than 50 warships against 10 cargo ships, this is called killing chickens with a knife. The crew members of the Zheng family were all thinking about what cargo might be on the merchant ship opposite, and what the boss could share with everyone at that time.

The cargo ship on the opposite side was also very vigilant, and soon spotted Zheng Zhibao and their fleet. Knowing that the comer was not good, he immediately took advantage of the wind to turn and fled in the direction of Rokuyoko Island under the leadership of the ship.

Although the large warships in the Zheng family's fleet were not as agile as Western cargo ships, some of the other small ships had the advantage of speed, and they pursued the merchant fleet closely, and soon approached the distance between the two sides.

"Boom, boom!" Several loud noises were heard, followed by several high columns of water splashing around the Zheng family's fleet. There was artillery on the cargo ship, which surprised Zheng Zhibao a lot. However, Zheng Zhibao, who had fought with the Dutch, knew the weakness of the artillery, and the reloading of the artillery after the cannon was fired, and it would take a long time for the second shot to be fired.

"Full speed pursuit!" Zheng Zhilong briefly issued the order, and the herald waved the flag to spread the order to the entire fleet. The Zheng family's fleet rushed towards the merchant ships desperately.

It didn't take long for the guns on the merchant ship to fire again, much shorter than Zheng Zhibao had expected. However, the cargo ship was fleeing with all its might, and only the stern guns were available, posing no threat to the Zheng family's fleet.

The clippers on both sides are about to be in place, and they can capture the cargo ship as long as they get up and jump on the cargo ship.

Seeing the hope of victory, the crews of the Zheng family's fleet rushed to the deck with weapons in hand, shouting loudly and preparing to jump into the gang.

Zheng's ship drove to the side of the cargo ship, which also gave the cargo ship's side guns a chance to fire. The rumbling cannons rang out one after another, and heavy shells flew out with a whistling whistle, sending the pursuing battleships with sawdust flying, splashing water on the sea, and several battleships were directly punched out of several large holes. The crew was wounded quite a bit by shells and flying sawdust.

The sailors were in a hurry, and the speed of the Zheng family's fleet suddenly slowed down.

The cargo ship broke out of the encirclement and fled in the direction of Liuheng Island.

"Chase, chase me, today we are going to set foot on Liuheng Island." Zheng Zhibao shouted hysterically. (To be continued.) )