The sudden bad news made Zheng Sen, who had a birthday today, insomnia, and many maritime merchants in Fujian who had insomnia with him, and the sudden action of the Weihai Weishui Division made them feel a heartfelt panic, and they all understood that the original situation of the monopoly was about to end, and it was replaced by a dragon fight, until one party fell bloodily or bowed his head in defeat.

On June 13, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, on the route from Nagasaki to Fujian, a fleet with white sails was heading in the southeast direction, led by two ships with slender shapes, the front end was sharp and prominent, its speed was very fast, sailing on the sea surface like a swallow gliding on the water, it was the swallow-shaped ship of the Weihai Wei Naval Division, and behind this swallow-shaped ship was followed by more than 20 warships full of Western style shapes.

Guo Jingxian stood on the deck of the largest warship in the fleet, holding a telescope in his hand and quietly observing the front for a long time without saying a word, and next to him stood a sailor officer wearing a blue and white sailor uniform with a weathered face.

After a while, the officer said to Guo Jingxian: "Brother Guo, we have been out for more than half a month this time, and there are hundreds of merchant ships in the Fujian area that we have captured, do you think we should also go back to rest?" ”

Guo Jingxian turned his head to look at the officer and said lightly: "Yan Fei, our brothers have known each other for more than ten years. Until the end, Boss Liu and Zheng Zhilong turned their faces, that time we fought with Zheng Zhilong in Humen for a day, that time we lost, after Boss Liu cut himself, the brothers died scattered, I swore at the time, I must avenge Boss Liu, do you remember these? ”

"Of course I do!" Yan Fei also said with emotion: "I still remember that day you took hundreds of brothers to destroy the three warships of the rabbit Xianggong who sold butts in a row, and in the end, there were less than fifty of the more than 300 brothers left. It almost scared the bitterness of those guys. It's a pity, we still lost in the end......" Speaking of this, Yan Fei's voice quickly became low.

Guo Jingxian continued: "After we were defeated, the rabbit prince did not let us go, and sent people to constantly chase and kill us, and finally I fled to Shandong and took refuge in the imperial court, so I picked up this little life." At that time, I was thinking, if I have the opportunity in the future, I must avenge Boss Liu's dead brothers, and now I finally have this opportunity, but you want to go back several times, don't you want to avenge Boss Liu? ”

"Who said they didn't want to?" Yan Fei's face turned red. Then he persuaded bitterly: "But although the rabbit is not very good, but the strength of his subordinates is really unambiguous, although our warships are larger than them and have more artillery, it seems that the strength is not expensive, but after all, the number is still insufficient, if it encounters their large fleet, it is still invincible!" ”

Hearing this, Guo Jingxian's eyes showed a ray of essence, "What are you afraid of?" The people of the Zheng family are not iron-clad, and our ships are bigger, faster, and the cannons are farther than those old ships of the Zheng family. With the right tactics, I believe they can be defeated. Yan Fei, if you are afraid, you can write a resignation to me after you go back this time, and I will release you immediately and never force you to stay! ”

Yan Fei's face immediately turned red, "I...... Who's scared...... Brother Guo, you are too underestimated of me. The head is just a scar the size of a bowl, and I'm afraid of a ball! Since you want to fight to the death with them, the brothers must be with them to the end, and whoever is afraid is the turtle grandson! ”

Watching Yan Fei swell into a purple face. Guo Jingxian smiled faintly, "That's good...... If you can make a contribution at that time, I will personally take credit for you. At that time, it will not be a problem to seal the wife and the shadow. ”

While the two were talking, dark clouds slowly drifted in the sky, one after another, and soon the sky began to become dark, seeing such a situation, Guo Jingxian and Yan Fei's faces immediately changed slightly, and they almost said in unison: "It's not good, the storm is coming, ...... Signal to lower the sails now! ”

The sea is like a mischievous child, the climate changes as it says, one moment it is cloudless, the next moment it immediately becomes irritable, and in less than a quarter of an hour the whole world begins to be extremely dark, and the raindrops like beans pour down from the sky with strong winds, and the originally gentle sea immediately becomes turbulent, and the waves begin to roar towards the fleet.

"Steady...... The mainsail is all down! The side sail is lifted by half ......"

"The helmsman is steady...... The idea is to keep a distance from the surrounding ships! ”

In the face of the sudden storm, the whole fleet was in good spirits, and the sailmen climbed the mast and lowered the sails in the heavy rain, while the helmsman tried to stabilize the battleship, and the gunners in the gun compartments were busy fixing the guns, and the whole ship was full of busy sailors.

"Boom ......"

A bolt of lightning pierced the sky, illuminating the entire fleet and then disappeared into the sky, followed by another flash of lightning over the fleet......

In the face of the majesty of nature, the warships that once seemed to be mighty and huge struggled like leaves in the huge waves.

Guo Jingxian stood in the cab, looking at the lightning that kept passing outside the window, his face was as gloomy as the weather outside the window. The storm came so suddenly that the entire fleet was not prepared at all. The third-class battleship he took was better, the nearly 2,000-ton battleship was not bad anyway, and he was most worried about the six or seven swallow-type ships in the fleet, which had more than 400 tons, although speed was its strong point, but it was much weaker in terms of storm resistance, which was also what Guo Jingxian was most worried about.

"It would be nice if that second-class battleship could be completed and put into service, presumably if it encountered this kind of weather, it wouldn't have to be so wolfy." Guo Jingxian thought to himself.

"Boom ......"

Suddenly, a loud noise sounded in his ears, and the glass in the cockpit also buzzed, and following the flash of lightning Guo Jingxian found that on the right side, which was less than three hundred meters away from him, a mast of a fourth-class battleship suddenly made a creaking sound, and soon the mast slowly fell, and with the fall of the mast, the battleship that was originally struggling in the wind and waves immediately began to spin in the storm.

"Not good!"

He and Yan Fei, who was standing next to him, changed their faces at the same time, and shouted almost in unison: "That's Hao Side's ship!" ”

"Brother Guo!" Yan Fei looked at Guo Jingxian and didn't speak, with a hint of pleading and sadness on his face.

"Order the rest of the ships not to stop and move on!" Guo Jingxian gritted his teeth and continued to give orders.

Yan Fei closed his eyes in pain, and after a while, he turned his head to look at the fourth-level battleship behind him that was getting farther and farther away, he knew that the possibility of a battleship whose mast was hung up by a strong wind in this kind of storm was too small to survive this storm, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was nine deaths. And the most painful thing is that the companions around them can do nothing, and any attempt to stop the ship to rescue in such a storm is to death.

"Resist...... Hold it all on! Holding on is victory! ”

"Brothers, hold on, there is no seed in our Weihai Guardian Water Division!"

The sea was filled with the hoarse shouts of officers.

The storm lasted for a day and a night, and it was not until the next morning that the storm began to dissipate, and when the exhausted fleet finally held out until the storm cleared and the sun hung high in the sky, everyone almost collapsed to the ground, and many of them fell to their knees and wept bitterly, and a feeling of aftermath filled their chests.

As the commander of the fleet, Guo Jingxian also leaned heavily against the wall behind him, and a thick tiredness swept over. At this time, he wanted to lie down in bed and sleep, but he knew that it was not the time, the fleet was just out of danger, and now he had to direct the sailors to check the damage of the ships and whether there was any loss of personnel, weapons and ammunition, and all these things had to be done immediately.

When Guo Jingxian arranged everything, he was about to sit down and rest, when a cigarette was handed to him.

"Come on...... Smoking a cigarette to relieve fatigue. Yan Fei's voice sounded beside him.

The two sat down and smoked quietly, and when a cigarette was almost finished, Guo Jingxian asked, "Is there any news about Lao Hao's ship?" ”

Yan Fei shook his head silently, took out a cigarette from his jacket pocket, lit the cigarette butt, and then casually ejected the cigarette butt out of the cab.

After a while, he said: "The losses have come out, in addition to Lao Hao's ship, we have also lost five brothers, the gun compartment of a fifth-class battleship has been smashed out because the guns have not been fixed, and some other gunpowder has also been wet by the sea, but the impact is not very great." ”

Guo Jingxian nodded: "Well, that's good, it's a blessing in misfortune." It's just a pity for Lao Hao! ”

Speaking of this, Guo Jingxian's heart was a pain, there were three hundred and fifty sailors and fifty guns on the fourth-class battleship, especially its captain Hao Side was also Guo Jingxian's old brother who had known him for more than ten years, and now that it was gone, he didn't know how sad he was in his heart. It's just that Guo Jingxian knows that people who beg for food on the sea have to accept their fate, no matter how beautiful you are in front of people, if you encounter a storm, you have to resign yourself to fate, since ancient times, thousands of ships have been sunk by storms, and they are naturally no exception.

He slowly stood up, patted Yan Fei's shoulder and said, "Okay...... Now is not the time to be sad, when we return to Weihaiwei, we will ask the Hou Ye to build a well-dressed mound for Lao Hao, and ask the Hou Ye to treat him well...... Hey...... What's that......"

"Didi......"

Just as Guo Jingxian was speaking, a sharp whistle suddenly sounded above, and then the lookout on the mast shouted loudly, "Unknown ships have been found ahead, all are on alert ......" (to be continued......