He Bingwen said with a wry smile when he heard this: "Lord Cheng, marching and sending troops is not a child's play, and it is a bit of a bit to decide to cough cough by drawing lots."

Cheng Qiyun said with a smile: "Since marching and fighting is not child's play, I am a woman and a general, how can I get an idea?" ”

He Bingwen was speechless, so he had to smile bitterly: "Is Lord Cheng blaming me for prevaricating?" When it comes to warfare, regardless of land or water, there are all similarities in the deployment of troops and generals, and there are naval divisions and generals in specific tactics, so why should this officer worry about it?

In fact, Lord Yang often said that war is not a war for war, and you can't try to be happy for a while. But He is good at fighting, and he is a layman when he talks about government affairs, so I can't tell whether this battle should be fought, when it will be fought, and to what extent. Lord Cheng has always followed the Governor's side, and he knows more about the thoughts of the Governor, so this official sincerely asks for advice."

Cheng Qiyun smiled and said: "If you don't say this a long time ago, it will be over, then I will temporarily serve as the counselor of any adult today to help you come up with ideas." Judging from what Adney said, the Francophone we are talking about is not one country, but two, and now the Luzon Franc machine, the Manchurian Franc machine, and the Macau Franc machine are all from one country, and we don't know how they relate to each other.

Second, Western pirates have the support of the imperial court, and even some regular armies are actually engaged in pirate trading, so we don't know what the identity of the Manchurian pirates is.

Therefore, it is impossible to speculate on how the 'pirates' will react to the annihilation of this gang of smugglers, and whether it will disrupt the current temporary stalemate. After all, no matter how many enemies are killed in the battle array, it will not become a reason for the country to have a grudge, but because the smugglers assassinated a corrupt official with a grudge, they killed more than 1,000 women, children, and children. ”

Cheng Qiyun glanced at He Zongbing, and saw that he was fascinated by what he heard, so he continued: "But on the other hand, the Francophile who occupies Manchu Jia will never give up without force deterrence, so the battle with them is settled, he saw the strength of the Daming Sailor, and he was willing to give up the idea of taking advantage of it, and in the future, he would do business with Daming in a proper manner, from this point of view, he didn't have to be too polite to them." "However, they are now the supremacy of the sea, and they have taken the lead and mastered the ocean line from west to east. If the Ming Dynasty wants to develop shipping, it cannot but face up to their existence. The two countries are thousands of miles apart, and if they really fight each other, because of the long front and long distance, neither will be able to hurt the other's roots. The continuous war consumes financial resources, and maybe other countries will fish in troubled waters, so why bother?

"So", Cheng Qiyun picked up the tea and said with a smile: "So this battle is going to be fought with knowledge, not only to hurt him, to beat him, but also to form incomprehensible hatred." ”

He Bingwen listened thoughtfully, and said in a deep voice: "What Lord Cheng means, this battle still has to be fought, but it is necessary to kill as few people as possible, so as to leave room for future transformation."

Cheng Qiyun said happily: "Exactly! ”

When Adney heard that more than half of the island was made up of women and children from the Franco, she couldn't help but feel compassion and said, "It is difficult to surrender without a fight, but it is not difficult to minimize casualties. They fled in a hurry, there were not many guns on board, and there were many women and children, so it was difficult to guarantee their combat strength.

If we divert their warships away during the battle, and transport troops to occupy Huzhou Island while the island is empty, cut off the back route of the warships, and at the same time take the women and children on the island as hostages, and then announce that once they surrender, the imperial court will be lightly punished, and forgive them will no longer have the determination to burn jade."

Mr. He's eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "Wonderful, Ming Xiu plank road, secretly cross Chen Cang." Taking hostages, throwing rat traps, and finally attacking the heart, Miss Adney's plan is very clever."

Adney smiled a little heartily. She didn't come up with this plan, Da. Gamma's fleet often used this tactic when attacking the indigenous tribes due to the limited strength of the fleet.

Relying on the sharpness of their firearms, they used a force to lure the native warriors away, and then the other lurking troops took the opportunity to invade their tribes, taking women and children hostage before threatening them to surrender.

It's just that the natives are forced to surrender, and often the young and middle-aged people who are fighting are slaughtered, and 'light hair' is always an empty phrase, and if their forces are not enough to control the entire tribe, slaughter becomes an inevitable means.

Cheng Qiyun said: "I just saw a few generals interviewing and rehearsing warships outside, and they were mentioning the tactics of using small boats to fight big ships and many ships to fight fewer ships. The combat power of this force is limited, and we are mainly forced to land, so it is not appropriate to kill and injure a large number of people, so we should let the fleet try out this tactic with them."

He Bingwen smiled: "Do you say Peng Shark's 'five-point plum blossom array'?" Hmm" He thought for a moment, and then raised his eyebrows and said, "Okay, that's it!" Come on, beat the drums and gather the generals! ”

"Seraphim, this is not the way to go, we should risk escaping to Manchuga, although there is a great water master to block us, but as long as we rush over, we will be safe, what now? Standing here, I can see the land on the other side, and the Ming court will definitely send troops."

A blonde man shook his head impatiently and said, "Pires, stop complaining, the people of Manthorn are a group of pirates, we haven't dealt with them, maybe some Spaniards."

The short fire hammer dangled on the belt around his waist, he tore off a stalk of grass, and his leather boots climbed to the top of the cliff through the lush weeds, and he crossed his waist and gasped: "Even if they are Portuguese, they are just a combination of a bunch of hooligans, prisoners, and robbers."

The officials of the Ming Dynasty may have cut off our heads as punishment, but in the hands of these pirates, they will sink all our men into the sea, and then rob us of our gold coins and play with our women. ”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Dear Pires, if this is the case, I would rather fall into the hands of the Ming Dynasty than be dismantled by the double-edged axes of the pirates and thrown into the sea to feed the fish."

As he spoke, he walked to a rock on the edge of the cliff and sat down, and the blue sea under the cliff was as clear as a piece of jade, and the waves that slapped on the rocks were as white as the lilies adorned with the jade, and the waves pushed out white lines, like beautiful patterns.

He rested his elbows on his knees and held his forehead irritably, and the sea breeze ruffled his hair as troubled as his mood. Pires, a red-haired man in his forties, gave Seraphim a reassuring pat on the shoulder before sitting down next to him.

The seagulls flew low through the air, and there was a chirp, and Pires muttered in a low voice: "We only have enough food to eat for seven days, and the news of the killing of the officials in Macao must have been reported to their political axe, I don't think they will sit idly by, and they have to find a way."

When they first came here, they landed on the island and asked the people who were going to the Mazu temple to make incense about the name of this place, and the people mistakenly thought that they were asking the name of the temple, so they replied "Ma Ge", and these Portuguese people who did not understand the language decided that this place was called "Macan", and now although they know the real name of the place, they have become accustomed to calling it Macan.

"I know it's safer to flee to Luzon now, but it's hard to say if I'll be able to hold my ground. In addition, the 'Mermaid' was so badly shelled that we had to stop at the port for repairs, and the most regrettable thing was that we had three merchant ships that did not return, and we fled from Macao in a hurry, and I am afraid that we would be separated from them."

Seraphim stood up excitedly, spread his hands and shouted, "My God, those are the three cargo ships I just financed, they don't get the news, they will be confiscated by the Ming army when they return to Makao." Damn it, my ship, my boat, my boat! ”

His last sentence 'Boat' suddenly raised an octave, like a ghost scream, which startled Pires, and hurriedly said: "Seraphim, calm down, calm down, the Chinese say: 'Stay in the green mountains, not afraid of no firewood', as long as we regain a foothold in Luzon, the ship is not as many as we want."

Seraphim pointed to the sea as if he had seen a ghost, and continued to shout: "Boats, so many boats! My God, it's the battleship of the Ming army! ”

Pires turned his head in amazement, and there were indeed dozens of warships on the sea heading towards here, with sails spread, riding the wind and waves, Pires's face couldn't help but change greatly, and he also cried out strangely: "God, there are so many ships!" Hurry up, get out of the way! ”

Seraphim looked at it fixedly, narrowed his eyes and said: "It's all small ships, there are no large warships, we can't outrun it in terms of speed, we can kill them with our firepower, come on, go down the mountain immediately and let the battleships out of the port, if they are blocked in the bay, they will be finished." Sink them, ram them in, and we'll have plenty of time to fix the Mermaid before they send out a large fleet, and then flee to Luzon." Let's go, Pires! ”

When the crisis came, the surnames of the two speculative smugglers were stimulated, and they hurried down the mountain to gather warships to go to sea to meet the battle. When they lifted anchor and hoisted their sails, and slowly sailed out of the bay, the same number of flat-bottomed sand boats appeared behind the Ming warships, and halfway turned, taking advantage of the characteristics suitable for sailing in shallow waters and reef areas, and approached the reefy side of Huzhou Island, and the Portuguese warships that were turning out of the bay did not notice this other enemy at all.

The Portuguese had five warships, but the Mermaid was badly damaged during the escape and was being repaired ashore, leaving only four warships, in addition to two armed merchant ships with four guns.

According to their understanding, such warships are equipped with two guns per ship, and this kind of firepower is obviously not in their eyes, so the 'Pirate King', which acts as the vanguard, did not wait for the battleships on both wings to cooperate, so they accelerated their speed and rushed towards the Ming fleet, wanting to sink a few Ming ships and crush the Ming warships from the momentum.

The white-haired Peng Shark stood at the bow of the ship with his hands on the side of the ship, while Han Wu and another sailor general stood next to the steering wheel. This was the first time that a multi-ship with weak firepower was used against a dense but relatively small number of enemy ships, and it was a technical warfare.

Peng Shark squinted his old eyes and watched the movement of the enemy ships, and the large battleship in the center broke away from the ranks of the winged flotilla and suddenly rushed forward without the cover of the two-wing ships, which immediately attracted his attention.

The main sail of the enemy ship fell to the ground, and when Peng Shark saw this, he immediately ordered: "The enemy ship is going to attack, each ship is separated, cut and surrounded!" ”

The massive hull of the enemy ship slowed down, the hull began to tilt, and the row of hovering broadside guns had already exposed the first muzzle. But the experienced Peng Shark gave the order to disperse as early as when the other party lowered the mainsail. The maneuverability of the boat was in full play at this time.

The 'Pirate King', whose huge hull was slowly moving to the attack position, was stunned to find that the Ming warships marching in a jagged shape on the opposite side had been divided into two teams and sailed left and right, and an open sea area in the middle was completely given to them, and the 'Pirate King', whose hull had completed the horizontal attack, had to readjust its position.

However, taking advantage of this opportunity, four small Ming warships approached it from the bow and stern direction as if they were crazy. At the same time, the Ming warships divided into two wings were scattered again, two teams into four, four teams into eight teams, each consisting of four or five ships, taking advantage of the sudden insertion and the flexibility of the hull, while avoiding the gunsoft points of the Portuguese ships, while trying to approach them.

"Boom, boom, boom", the Portuguese ships that arrived later opened fire first, and the artillery fire stirred up a column of water at sea, but due to the avoidance of the Ming warships, and at the same time, the vanguard warships had penetrated into the Portuguese camp, so that their artillery could not be fired without scruples, and the damage caused was limited.

With a "tom", a Ming army clipper stuck to the 'Pirate King', the huge hull of the 'Pirate King' shook a little, and the sailors grabbed their tomahawks and firearms and rushed to the side of the ship, lying on the gang of the boat to shoot and throw weapons at the boat.

However, they were surprised to find that the Ming army wearing helmets and holding rattan cards did not try to board the ship at all, and did not throw the hook or sickle onto the side of the ship, but only heard a sound of "dong dong tom", and then the Ming army abandoned the warship like cowards and jumped into the water and swam away desperately into the distance.

I don't know what was piled up on the ship, the fire spread instantly, and the fire ship was like a maggot attached to the 'Pirate King', the ship could also do it, and the fire was burning continuously, and the sharp-eyed sailors found that the Ming army had nailed more than a dozen iron cables to the board of the 'Pirate King' with the 'Ship Nail Gun', so the sailors had to curse and throw down their knives and guns to get the pumping and extinguishing equipment.

However, at this time, several other Ming ships approached, and they used a large number of incendiary firearms, rockets, spray cans, fireballs, fire thistles, smoke balls, smoke cans, etc., although they did not cause too much damage to the Portuguese ships, but they also made a miasma of smoke, so that the sailors were overwhelmed. Due to the proximity of the ship, although there were only two guns on the Ming ship, they fought in circles, and the Portuguese battleship was huge and the target was obvious, so the damage should not be underestimated.

An armed merchant ship was hooked by a Ming warship, the cannons on board were useless, four ships hooked the merchant ship with hooks, and soldiers began to climb towards the ship, and another ship swam with fire and bows to suppress the ship's fire as cover.

"Oops! Fighting like this is simply an ant eating an elephant, and our firepower advantage will not be brought into play at all! Seraphim, who was careless for a moment, was shocked and immediately ordered all the warships to leave the battle and get rid of the encirclement of the Ming army, so that they could reopen the battle formation and attack with long-range combat and artillery.

The Portuguese warships forced their way through, but the 'Pirate King' had already burned a large hole in one side of the ship's side, and the waves at sea were not high at this time, otherwise the wind would set off huge waves and the 'Pirate King' would inevitably capsize if the water rushed into the cabin. The other 'Seram' also dragged the fireboat, and fled with smoke rising from its butt.

In addition to the fireships of the Ming army, three other ships were destroyed by their warships, and the Ming army was more in terms of casualties, but two of the four Portuguese warships were damaged, which was a loss they could not afford.

The 'Pirate King' gathered the warship, and rearranged the attack formation in shock, they only had five ships left, there were ordinary Portuguese merchant ships after repelling the Ming army's three attacks, and finally the Ming army rushed onto the ship, Seraphim ordered the fleet to get out of the battle circle, the ship was still parked in place to fight for control, and now it looks like it should have been completely occupied by the Ming army, because it also joined the Ming army's battle formation, and put itself in an attack formation.

The troop carriers were already quietly approaching on the other side, and a large number of infantry waded ashore. Due to the large size of Huzhou Island, the Portuguese did not arrange guards on this side at all, and sent scouts to explore the terrain and probe the enemy's situation to search for nearly three miles of mountain roads and found no suspicious traces, and they had already rushed back to report.

Peng Xiaochao showed off his strong muscles, carried a ghost-headed knife on his shoulder, and ordered those foot soldiers to clean up the formation with a straight face. Adney stood alongside him in a heroic posture, dressed in a full suit of bright silver fishscale armor with a gleaming silver helmet on her head, but she had no sword in her hand, and only two short firearms stuck in her belt.

Her armor was not actually made of iron, but paper armor, which was light and easy to handle. Originally, He Bingwen and Cheng Qiyun were resolutely not allowed to play, and both of them knew Yang Ling's important surname, but Adney insisted on coming. Besides, it was Adney who was good at the Francophone language and could quickly gain the trust of the women and children on the island and appease them, so in the end the two had to agree, and secretly told Wu Hanchao and Song Xiaoai to protect her safety.

At this time, Song Xiaoai was squatting next to her with a smile, and couldn't help but look at Wu Hanchao retching there, she beat Wu Hanchao's back while sneering: "Master Peng has said that this sea ship is not as stable as the inland official ships, so you can sit down and stand, hehe, Wudang's jack drop can hold your feet, but it can't fix your stomach, right?" ”

"Gwoe~gag~, dead girl, lighter, gag~~, why are you okay?"

"Hehe, I haven't been on a boat before, but it's fine, how do I know", Song Xiaoai smiled.

"General Wu is okay, right? Otherwise, let him stay and rest for a while, and we'll take the army there," Adeney said with concern.

Wu Hanchao stood up with a wry smile, shook his head and said, "I'm fine, I'm ready to go, I can keep up."

Just kidding, he's tasked with protecting Adney, so he can't stay here by himself. Slowly, Adney was an extremely important figure in improving the firearms of the Ming army, and he was careless just because of the status of the Governor's fiancée.

The Ming army set out along the winding coast, with archers and musketeers in front and sword and shield men behind, and there were no hoplites and equipment in the army.

The Portuguese were camped on the sunny side of the hill, with sixty armed guards in their tents, and the sailors of the Mermaid were working hard, all of whom were ready to fight, and the rest were the wives, children, and servants of the Portuguese smugglers.

Because there was a war going on at sea, although they couldn't see the battle from here, all the family members stood on the shore and looked into the distance worriedly, and when the Ming army appeared from behind them, no one had noticed it, and finally it was the sailors on the ship who first noticed that the Ming army was rapidly approaching, and hurriedly shouted.

Panicked women and children screamed and scattered, soldiers grabbed their weapons and searched for cover, the sound of fire guns rang out one after another, and the shore was filled with smoke. Two Portuguese suddenly stood up behind the rocks in front of them, and several archers hurriedly set up their arrows to aim, only to hear two "bang" sounds, and the fire guns in the hands of the two Portuguese had already flown out far away.

Adenie crouched back behind the stone with two smoking firearms, staring at the battle ahead with only a pair of beautiful eyes, and was about to reload her ammunition when the two frightened Portuguese were shot through the body by several sharp arrows and fell down. Adney frowned and shouted, "Don't kill those who have lost their weapons, try to capture them alive!" ”

At the same time, she raised her voice and shouted in Portuguese to the other side, but even though she understood her language, how could the Portuguese believe it, and still relied on the rock shelters here and there to resist stubbornly. But they can fight too few soldiers, in addition to the stalemate of the battle on this hillside, there have been Ming troops scattered to capture the fleeing women and children, soon to form a four-sided encirclement, the Portuguese under the Ming army's bow and arrow and fire under the pressure of the counterattack has become weaker and weaker on the sea, the two sides clashed again, the distant Portuguese began to strike with fierce artillery fire, but after the first round of competition, the Ming army has some experience in the plum blossom dot matrix cutting encirclement, the hull movement is more flexible, the angle is more tricky.

It seems that there are four or five Ming warships in a group, each with its own goal, interspersed with detours. The cannonballs exploded around them, and their agile and rapid movement minimized the possibility of them being reloaded, and they returned fire with artillery fire while approaching with a purpose, and after losing three more ships, they formed a group of encirclements again, like a flock of crazy little piranhas, staring at a large shark with fangs and sharp teeth, but nowhere to put its mouth, attacking with impunity.

The main ships of the Portuguese were under intense artillery fire, and once the ships of both sides formed a mixed formation, they could not form an effective strike, and the situation was like a giant waving his fists and a cloud of air to fight, and Seraphim was about to go crazy.

At this moment, a series of explosions were heard, the sound of the explosions was dense and violent, and Serafo looked in horror at the place where the explosion sounded, only to see that the flames were still ringing, and the smoke and flames were billowing from the 'Maria'.

With another dull explosion like a series of thunderbolts, the whole ship was broken in two, and the sea water quickly poured into the belly of the ship, and the two severed ships were pressed together in the middle, and the bow and stern of the ship were raised high, and some sailors who were lucky enough not to be killed screamed and jumped desperately from the ship into the sea.

The battle seemed to cease at this moment, and all the people looked at the huge ship that was fifteen feet long and three stories high, and sank into the sea inch by inch in the sound of explosions, and watched it surrounded by smoke and fire. Finally someone exclaimed: "God, the powder magazine of 'Mary' has been hit, it has been sunk!" ”

The Ming warships also stopped attacking for the time being, and the gunners on the five small ships besieging the 'Maria' were stunned and did not know who fired the shells so coincidentally, and they hit the ammunition depot of the enemy ships, so that the behemoth was sunk.

Under normal circumstances, even if this huge ship stopped there and let their artillery attack, I am afraid that if all their shells are fired, they may not be able to sink the enemy ship, and this probability is so small that the ecstatic Ming army sailors are even stunned.

The desolate sound of the conch woke the two warring sides, and Pires looked in the direction of the bay in despair, only to see a small merchant ship staggering towards the battlefield, with a glaring white flag flying from the mast.

The ship was getting closer and closer, and everyone could clearly see that there were more than a dozen women, old people, and children standing on the bow of the boat, and behind them were Ming sergeants with bright armor, swords unsheathed, and bows wound.

The fighting spirit of the Portuguese quickly faded, and although they also fought, they were not really warriors. The sinking of the Maria, the devastation of the Pirate King, and the fact that the island had been occupied and his wife and children had become captives made these desperate smugglers fearful.

Seraphim noticed that the soldiers were looking at him with hesitation, especially when the Portuguese family members at the bow of the ship shouted, 'Lay down your arms and surrender, the Ming court will be lenient', and many of the weapons in their hands were slowly lowered.

Seraphim knew that the tide was turning, and his ship had been flooded with some of the sea by the rising waves in the fierce battle, and the hull was tilted a little, and he staggered to the side of the ship, and only after a while shouted: "Lower the flag, we surrender!" ”

His men immediately carried out the order without hesitation, and Seraphim looked to the south of the sea, squeezing out a smile that was worse than crying: "Maybe Pires was right, if I had fled to Manthorna".

When Yang Ling secretly returned to Fuzhou City, he heard rumors in the streets and alleys that the army had won another great victory and captured a large number of ghosts. Both men and women vividly described the situation when the prisoners of war had just been escorted through Fuzhou City, and Yang Ling didn't know what was wrong, and he couldn't help but feel nervous.

If something goes wrong in his absence, as manager, he will undoubtedly bear all the blame. Yang Ling heard that the people had been escorted to the camp of General He's army, and he hadn't even returned to the governor's mansion, so he hurried through the city and went straight to the camp.

Yang Ling rushed into the big tent, and at first glance, he saw two blonde and blue-eyed men standing in the tent, and two other people standing next to him, as if they had just been pulled out of the coal pile, and the whites of their eyes were particularly obvious. Yang Ling was stunned and exclaimed in surprise: "Negro? ”

At this time, a surprised exclaim: "Dear Yang, you are finally back", and as he spoke, a handsome little general wearing a bright silver fish scale armor suddenly threw himself into his arms.

(To be continued)