"Tom! ~~ Tom tom! ”

The characteristic muffled cannon sound of the 18-pounder cannon rang out, and the huge cannonball stirred up a row of high water columns on the sea surface about two or three hundred meters in front of the Jinfeng, so that Chu Fan had to give the order to stop the pursuit.

Thanks to the powerful reconnaissance ability of the hot air balloon, the direction of the task force in which Chen Xinji and the remaining ships of the Shimazu family fled was clear, so after forcing the Galen ship to land, Chu Fan sent five ships to pursue them separately, and he himself drove the Jinfeng to chase Chen Xinji's No. 2 lucky ship.

It took more than two hours, the Golden Phoenix finally caught up with Chen Xinji, who fled south, and was about to be captured in one fell swoop, but he was extremely familiar with this sea area and used the narrow strait between Zhongyong Island and Xiayong Island to escape - the strait was indeed too narrow, only 2 miles wide, and the dark tide was surging in the middle, God knows how many reefs, Chu Fan did not dare to risk hitting the reef, so he had to detour.

This circumambulation took an extra seventy or eighty miles, and by the time the Jinfeng caught up with the No. 2 Fu ship again, the other party had already rushed into this narrow strait.

This is the old nest of the Shimazu family, the strait is about 7 or 8 kilometers wide, and a battery is arranged on the hillside of the right coast, on which many 18-pounder guns are arranged; On the left side of the strait, four or five schooners surrounded the Dutch, the São Paulo, which had fled in advance, and the salvo just now was fired by the St. Paul.

As a result, the channel, which is less than 10 kilometers wide, is completely blocked, and any ship that tries to break in will be bombarded with 18-pounder guns on both sides; To add insult to injury, the narrow channel has little room for detours, and there is no other option than to storm it.

"This Kagoshima of the Shimazu family is really a good place," Seeing Chu Fan staring at the fort on the right, Yang Dijiao, who was standing beside him, couldn't help muttering to himself, "I heard that there are three forts along the way." Kagoshima Honmaru is even stronger, and the largest fort is on the mountainside of Mt. Atago, opposite Honmaru, which is the easiest to defend and difficult to attack. ”

In this battle, Yang Dijiao first sacrificed himself to take care of the overall situation, showing an extraordinary view of the overall situation; Then the first gang jumped on board, and he was the first to take prisoners, and his bravery and fearlessness impressed Chu Fan; Plus he's extremely familiar with Japan. So after chasing Chen Xinji, he took him with him so that he could consult at any time.

"Wait!" After listening to his introduction, Chu Fan frowned and snorted softly, "Where do you say this is?" ”

"Kagoshima." Yang Dijiao was a little confused, and replied hesitantly.

Kagoshima?

This name is very familiar to Chu Fan - he has known that Japan is rich in gold and silver, but if you really want to ask him where he is, there are only two place names he can remember, one is the famous Iwami Silver Mountain, and the other is this Kagoshima.

Moreover, Iwami Ginzan's main product is silver, which is abundant in Kagoshima. It's even more precious gold! Until the era of Chu Fan's previous life, Iwami Silver Mountain had already been hollowed out and became a ruin; And the fact that Kagoshima's gold mines are still producing shows how rich their reserves are!

"There's a lot of gold here, isn't it?" When he asked this, Chu Fan couldn't help but feel a little radiant - even now that he had a lot of money, he was still a little out of shape when facing a world-famous gold mountain.

"Gold mines?" Yang Dijiao was even more confused, and said, "I haven't heard that there is a gold mine in Kagoshima...... Uncle. Japan is indeed rich in gold and silver, but it is all in the area of Iwami Silver Mountain and Sado Island...... Kagoshima doesn't have that. If there were gold and silver mines, the Shimazu family would be even stronger! ”

Chu Fan was overjoyed when he heard this-he would never remember that there was a gold mine in Kagoshima, but now Yang Dijiao said no, which proves that this super gold mine has not been discovered yet!

It's a godsend!

This time, the Shimazu family colluded with the Dutch to try to blockade Nagasaki and Hirado, which not only provoked Chu Fan's Fuliao army, but also provoked Zheng Zhilong, who was a big man; After this battle. The situation in which the Fuliao Army and Zheng Zhilong joined forces against the Shimazu family and the Dutch had been formed; And the Shimazu family is more relying on the power of the Dutch, as long as the Fuzheng coalition army is pressed, they are not afraid that the Shimazu family will not bow their heads; After beating the Shimazu family, the East India Company surveyed in the name of merchants was no longer a problem; And to seize a piece of barren mountain that seems useless, the Shimazu family must not dare not give it, won't this super gold mountain be in hand?

Come to think of it. Chu Fan couldn't help but feel a little fluttering, as if he had seen the scene of the glittering gold bars being moved into the warehouse of the Fuliao Army in boxes.

"Raise the hot air balloon!" Unable to hold back the ecstasy in his heart, Chu Fan ordered, "Brother Hualong, you come to command, let's take a walk along this coast and survey the terrain." ”

Although Yang Dijiao didn't understand what Chu Fan was thinking, he still commanded the Golden Phoenix to withdraw from Kagoshima Bay, first sailed eastward, crossed the Osumi Strait and headed north through Shibushi Bay, until Miyazaki returned to the entrance of Kagoshima Bay, and returned to the entrance of Kagoshima Bay two days later.

During this period, Chu Fan was almost always on the hot air balloon, standing high and looking far away, he not only saw the topography of the mountains and rivers along the coast clearly, but also hand-drew a rough coastline map and mountain map to prepare for the future attack on Kagoshima.

By the time we returned to the entrance to Kagoshima Bay, the entire task force had already arrived—all the other ships had arrived at this scheduled rendezvous point, except for the sunken Silver Swallow and the Li Guang, who had returned early due to serious injuries.

In the midst of the sails, there were not only the warships of the task force itself, but also six captured trophies—needless to say, the Courage, which was led by Major Hunter and surrendered under a white flag after a day at sea, plus the Shimazu family's ship, the three tall Galen ships stood out in the fleet; The other three trophies were smaller, they were all ships under the Shimazu family and Chen Jinji, who left the battlefield and fled but did not escape the "clairvoyance" of the Fuliao army, and after being chased separately, two were burned, and the remaining three were all captured.

Now that the task force had arrived, Chu Fan decided to take advantage of the situation to give the Shimazu family another dismount - the leader of his Golden Phoenix, with six battleships behind him, dragged the captured three Galen ships into Kagoshima Bay again, and came to the gun emcourse where the pursuit had stopped last time.

As expected, the São Paulo was still moored on the left side to block the channel, and this time a few more ships were added to the fleet, and Chen Xinji's No. 2 fortune ship was impressively on the list—seeing the Jinfeng reappearing, the fleet was obviously in a bit of a commotion, and they raised their sails one after another.

Unlike last time, the Golden Phoenix did not go straight to the fleet, but turned to the battery, which was now equipped with an 18-pounder gun, and could shock the Shimazu family by bombarding the battery.

After shooting for half an hour, a small sampan came out of the crowd in the opponent's fleet, flying a white flag towards the Golden Phoenix.

Chu Fan ordered a ceasefire and looked at the small sampan curiously.

What does the Shimazu family want to do? (To be continued.) )