After more than two days of sailing, the mighty general arrived at Dengzhou, and the lookout saw the assembled fleet of the land and water battalion and the Dengzhou battalion near Changshan Island. When Zhu Yuan saw them, he also saw the mighty general over there, and Zhu Yuan ordered the flag to be raised and let the fleet set sail immediately. It is said that it is a fleet of two battalions, but in fact, the Dengzhou battalion only produced two ships and some sailors, and the main personnel were still from the land and water battalion. After all, the time for the Dengzhou battalion to be rebuilt was too short. Dong Qinghai did not sail together this time, and the Dengzhou camp could not leave him.

After an hour or so, the mighty Admiral entered the ranks of the fleet, and the whole fleet was in a T-shape, heading due south. There were nine ships in the entire fleet, and the mighty Admiral was in the center as the flagship. There is another one in the fleet that is the same as the flagship, and the others are all 500-ton ships, as for how young they are, they did not participate in this battle, not because they don't want to, but because there are not so many qualified sailors, Zhu Houwei can't help but sigh that the navy is really much more difficult to train than the army.

In addition to these nine ships, there were three small boats, all three of which were the fastest clippers, one of which was less than 100 tons before, and the other two were built later, with a tonnage of 300 tons.

The performance of the clipper is very high, but unfortunately it cannot be made big with the current technology, mainly because the keel cannot be erected too long. Clippers are generally slender and long, and the ratio of length to width is generally about six to one. Today, the 300-ton clipper ship is 55 meters long and 9 meters wide. In the past, the keel of the treasure ship was longer than this length, but in less than a hundred years, the keel connection technology has been lost. Even the shipwrights in Jiangnan could not solve this problem, and now the Tianjin shipyard is working hard to overcome this problem, and if successful, it will be able to build a bigger ship.

Three clippers, one is spying on two groups of pirates and one is scouting on the perimeter of the fleet. The smallest tonnage and the fastest are responsible for the transmission of information on both sides.

In the captain's room, Zhu Yuan was frowning and looking at the chart, obviously encountering some problem. Zhu Houzhao couldn't help asking, "What's wrong?" Zhu Yuan stood up, and then Zhengse said, "Second Young Master, maybe we will be able to catch them later." ”

Zhu Houwei listened to it with an indifferent expression: "Why?" Zhu Yuan exhaled, straightened his waist, he had been sitting for a long time just now, he was a little sour, for this close second young master, this action would not be too rude "Monsoon, now the southeast wind is blowing along the coast of Daming, and we are going against the wind." And now the two bands of pirates have reached the sea off Hangzhou. We're still a long way off. Now the boat uses soft sails, which is not conducive to sailing against the wind. We are now only relying on the performance of the boats to be faster than the old ships such as Fukubune. ”

Zhu Houwei didn't think it was serious, "It's okay, at most you can chase farther away, it's impossible to chase to Nanyang." Zhu Yuan was still frowning, "This may be." Although the Japanese pirates were not as fast as Wang Quan, they still chased after them, and it seemed that this time they would not stop chasing them. Because of this, Wang Quan could only go south until the other party was no longer pursuing. By the way, the news that just came back that this group of Dongying pirates came to the island's house. ”

Zhu Houwei suddenly asked solemnly: "Is that the one who attacked Shandong last year?" Zhu Yuan nodded.

"The two murderers are here, and it looks like we can vent our bad anger. These two fleets must be eliminated this time, so that they will not die and shed their skin. Didn't I ask you to have more sailors on every boat? Now it's time to come in handy. Let them work in two shifts to ensure a stable speed. "If the wind is headwinded, the ship will have to take a zigzag route, which will not only make the voyage longer, but also a great test for the sailors.

Zhu Yuandao: "This time Wang Quan is likely to come out in a hurry, and there should not be many supplies on the ship, so we must find a supply point." Zhu Houwei said while pacing, "It is impossible to use the Ryukyus, one is because the Ryukyu State is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and it is impossible to take such a big risk to take in the pirates wanted by the Ming Dynasty, and the second is because the Laidao family has a great influence in the Ryukyus, and I heard that they also control the sugar trade there." And it is impossible to go ashore along the coast, once ashore, there is the encirclement and suppression of the government and the pursuit of the island family from behind, and the attack is carried out on both sides, and it is undefeated. If you attack a small village, you won't get much supplies, and you won't be able to get time. So," Zhu Yuan saw Zhu Houwei's somewhat depressed eyes, and suddenly said with some amusement, "It seems that we are really going to chase Nanyang this time." ”

The fleet is getting faster and faster with the good performance of the sailors, and of course, the wind speed is not fast is also a big reason. Due to the fact that the sailors worked in two shifts, coupled with the knowledge of the surrounding sea conditions, the speed of the ships did not decrease much even at night.

After five days of pursuit, the fleet had already passed the waters of Hangzhou. According to the news that came two days ago, the two groups of pirates continued to move south in the Taiwan Strait, one after the other. Zhu Houwei was in a depressed mood, and it can be said that he hated iron but not steel. Because such a large two pirate fleets sailed along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, they did not attract the attention of the Ming Navy, let alone go out to the sea to clear it. The so-called Fujian Sailor and Jiangnan Sailor are simply nothing. If these pirates are ready to go ashore and invade, I don't know how many Ming people will suffer.

April 19, calm and cloudless, it was a good day to be lazy. The latitude here is already relatively low, the temperature is suitable, he was a southerner in his last life, and Zhu Houwei has adapted very much, but most of the sailors on the ship are northerners, and there have been a few people who are not accustomed to the water and soil, their spirits are sluggish, and their appetite has dropped greatly. Even Zhu Yuan was a little uncomfortable. Just when Zhu Houwei and Zhu Yuan were discussing whether to stay on the shore for a day and put the people with symptoms on the shore to recuperate, the flying clippers sent the latest news back.

At about 7 o'clock in the morning of 18 April, just as the pirates were about to leave the Taiwan Strait, a fleet of ships came from the south and engaged in a battle with the pirates. First, the unknown fleet attacked Wang Quan, and the battle lasted until the evening, and then the back of the island family caught up, originally wanting to pick up a bargain when both sides were exhausted, but unexpectedly, the unknown fleet divided most of the combat power to fight with the island family.

The tripartite fleet started a melee on the Penghu Islands, and except for those who fled the battlefield in the dark, most of the remaining sea ships were already scarred. It is impossible to appear in the news that there is such a description as "blood stains the sea red", but the tragic situation of the battle can still be imagined, and the current naval battle in the East is mainly deck warfare to decide the winner, even in the West, deck warfare is also an important way of fighting.

The current situation is that although Wang Quan's flagship escaped, it was also hit hard, and its speed dropped significantly. "It's time to pursue," Zhu Houwei, who was standing at the bow of the ship, thought to himself.