Zhang Jiace was also dressed in military uniform, neatly draped, with a large-scale fleet, like a swagger through the Haitan Strait, swaggering towards Xinghua Bay.

Zhang Jiace was ordered to set off from Dinghai City this time, first sail to Xinghua Bay, and load the 4,000 officers and soldiers gathered in Xinghua Bay in Xinghua Bay, and go to Nanri Island together.

The reason for doing this is also the lesson of the last time, Zhu Yifeng and his staff, including the generals, were afraid that they would put the fleet in Xinghua Bay and assemble it, and be blocked here by the sea wolves, so they would kill their ships first, and finally the officers and troops would not be able to land on Nanri Island.

So in the end, they decided that the fleet would assemble in Dinghai City, and after the start of the operation, Zhang Jiace would lead the fleet to Xinghua Bay, load the officers and troops assembled here, and finally launch an attack on Nanri Island from the north and south sides with the fleet of Yu Zhigao and the red-haired people from Quanzhou.

Zhang Jiace was very satisfied with this arrangement, because he had already experienced the power of the sea wolf once, and the last time the sea wolf shelled the Puxi Institute, he suffered a big loss, and was blocked by several gunboats of the sea wolf in the city of Puxi.

This time, Zhu Yifeng ordered him to go to Xinghua Bay first to load the officers and soldiers, so that he didn't have to take the lead in person, as long as there was a small time difference, he could let Yu Zhigao go to Nanri Island first, if the sea wolf refused to give up Nanri Island, then he would first engage Yu Zhigao's fleet, and no matter whether he won or lost, he could act at the opportunity.

If Yu Zhigao wins, then he doesn't have to delay for long, he can go straight to Nanri Island from Xinghua Bay, and beat the water dogs, and the main shipment on his ship is Lu Shi, and finally grab Nanri Island, at least this credit has his share.

But if Yu Zhigao is defeated, then he can completely give up leading his team to Nanri Island, and even if someone impeaches him to avoid the battle, he can also be inferred that it is because the land division has delayed the time of boarding the ship, and considering the safety of so many men and horses, he can only give up attacking the island.

In short, Zhang Jiace made up his mind this time, the exposed rafters rot first, saying that he can't fight this first formation, he would rather let Yu Zhigao grab the first skill, he must also fight steadily, and there can be no more mistakes.

What's more, before he came this time, he had received a mysterious guest, this person told him a message, asking him not to take the lead and go to Nanri Island, this mysterious person left him a letter, he read it and set it on fire, but left a silver ticket of the Hong Leong in the envelope, the face of this silver ticket is 10,000 taels of silver, of course, this matter is only known to him, even if it is his concubine, he has not mentioned it to her.

In the past two months, the officers and soldiers transferred from the interior have all gathered here, and a total of 6,000 men and horses have been gathered, of course, it is claimed to be 20,000 troops to the outside world, and a large amount of materials and grain have been hoarded, and they have only waited for the fleet to sail and go to sea.

These soldiers and horses did not come from one place, but were led by two guerrillas and 6,000 presidents, mainly officers and soldiers from Xinghua Prefecture, as well as town soldiers transferred from Quanzhou Prefecture and Yanping Prefecture.

When they came to the assembly point along the way, they walked all the way on land to grab all the way, which made the people along the way change their complexion, and many ordinary people heard of the arrival of the officers and soldiers, and immediately abandoned their homes and fled, and in the eyes of the common people, these officers and soldiers were not as good as bandits.

There is a proverb that says that bandits come like a comb, soldiers come like a grate, and officials come like shaving, which means that if bandits come, the common people will be combed through a comb, but if the officers and soldiers come, then they will be like a grate, and if the officials come, they will be like razors, and the common people will not be able to leave anything.

The military discipline of the officers and troops of the Ming Dynasty has always been very poor, which almost every ordinary person knows, when they are stationed, they will be more restrained for various reasons, and they dare not be too arrogant, so as not to harm the people near their station too hard, but once they want to go out to march and fight, the military discipline of the officers and soldiers will be completely loosened.

Along the way, they would wantonly extort the villages they passed through in the name of the labor army, and the ordinary people would be killed at every turn if they did not comply, and sometimes the officers and soldiers would even simply wash some villages in blood and carry out rape on a large scale; Lewd and plundering, except for the villages where some gentry with hard backgrounds are located, they will also have a little scruples, and other ordinary villages will not let go lightly.

And the officials are not willing to be too strict with their subordinates, because they know very well that these soldiers have already held back their grievances because of the perennial arrears, and it is just in this way that the soldiers can make some money cheaper and meet their needs, otherwise, once these soldiers are used, these soldiers will definitely not work hard for them, and if they don't get it right, they may take advantage of the chaos to give them a look behind their backs.

Therefore, the corruption of the military discipline of the official army, by this time, is already known to the world, the common people hate the official army more than the bandits or pirates, many local villages, will organize the township or regimental training to protect themselves, these township warrior regiments practice the usual farming, once they encounter bandits or pirates, they will join the township to protect themselves, and even sometimes they will confront the official army, they are to protect their families, so sometimes the local regimental training is even better than the official army can fight.

Zhang Jiace traveled from Dinghai City on this way, sailed through the Haitan Strait and sailed into Xinghua Bay, and was not disturbed by any sea wolf ships along the way, at most there were one or two fast boats, watching their actions from the periphery of the official fleet, Zhang Jiace did not expel them, and let these two ships follow his fleet from afar.

Therefore, on the sea north of Nanri Island, although the official and military fleets have been ostentatious, they always seem relatively calm, but the Yu Zhigao fleet in the south of Nanri Island is not as leisurely as Zhang Jiace.

Soon after they sailed out of Yongningwei, the sky gradually darkened, and after winter, the weather at sea was relatively calm, there were neither strong winds nor waves, but there was a faint layer of thin clouds in the sky, which did not affect their night sailing.

Because from Yongningwei to Nanri Island, it is in a headwind sailing state, although this is not too big an impact on Chinese ships, but it is still strict zhòng affects the speed, if the wind is downwind, they can only take more than two days to reach Nanri Island, but now it is winter, northbound ships, in a headwind state, it will take at least five days to reach Nanri Island.

Yu Zhigao had long been holding back his strength, planning to rush to Nanri Island as much as possible to grab the first opportunity to land on the island first, plus they had such a large ship group, if they were stationed at night, they would have to delay for a longer time along the way, as Yu Dayou's son, Yu Zhigao is a standard military family, and he knows very well what it means to be a soldier.

Therefore, he decided that after the departure of the fleet, there would be no berthing at night, and the rest of the fleet would not stop all the way except for the necessary ships to dock to get water, and rushed directly to Nanri Island.

On the night of the first day of departure, it was safe and sound, the fishing boats along the way saw such a large group of boats, and they quickly avoided them from afar, these fishing boats were in violation of the ban, secretly went out to sea to fish, and the patrol boats of the sea wolves in several fishing grounds along the coast recently also left temporarily, so that some fishermen who usually do not pay fishing taxes to sea wolves want to take advantage of the opportunity to make a profit, so they take the risk of going to sea to fish.

When they saw such a large fleet of ships approaching slowly, they were immediately frightened and hurriedly hoisted their sails, and fled desperately away from the coast, for fear that they would be caught by the officers and soldiers, and their ships would probably not be able to be saved.

Therefore, when Yu Zhigao's boat group sailed along the way, the sea surface along the way seemed to be swept through, even if there were occasional passing boats, as long as they saw this boat group, they immediately fled towards the shore or the deep sea.

The officers and sailors usually deal with pirates on the sea, but once they go to sea on a large scale, they are actually the same as pirates, or even inferior to pirates, tearing off the flags on the ship, they are immediately pirates, and they are even more ruthless, often not only hijacking ships, but also killing everyone on board, and even the ships may be scuttled by them.

Therefore, when a merchant ship is at sea, it would rather run into pirates than the ships of the official army and naval divisions, as long as they see the ships of the official and military naval divisions, they can run as fast as they can and as far as they can.

During the day the next day, Yu Zhigao's boat group did not encounter any incident, and in order to hurry, he also restrained his boat group, so that all ships were not allowed to act without permission and leave the boat group.

He also did this for safety reasons, because he heard that the sea wolf's subordinates were acting strangely at sea, and most of their ships were in good condition and fast, especially their flying fast boats, which were even more elusive, so Chu Cailao and Zheng Yiguan, many of the guys who had been enemies of the sea wolf, suffered a lot.

He knew very well that now the sea wolf must also be staring at his fleet, occasionally there will be a little sail shadow on the sea in the distance, he guessed, it must be the sea blue to monitor their sentinel ship, but because of the distance, he did not send a ship to expel them, since he can't hide, then he plans to go straight to Nanri Island generously, with the strength of his fleet, as well as the big plywood boats of the red-haired people who accompany them on the voyage, he will drop ten times and forcibly attack Nanri Island.

But as the night fell the next day, Yu Zhigao finally ran into trouble, in this era, night navigation is a very risky thing, because of the regression of navigation technology, so that when the Ming Dynasty sailed at sea, it was necessary to sail along the coastline to ensure that there would be no miscarriage, and the coastal terrain was tortuous, and there was no perfect lighthouse to calibrate, a little careless, it may cause the danger of running aground or running aground.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, if conditions permit, the ships will find a place to anchor temporarily at night and then anchor after dawn, but Yu Zhigao was anxious to rush to Nanri Island and ordered the fleet to continue sailing without stopping at night.

With such a large group, it is more risky to sail at night, and the sight is not good at night, and the ships will collide if they are not careful, so after nightfall, the fleet must spread out some distance, maintain the distance between the ships, and hang a large number of lanterns to let the surrounding ships see them, in case of collisions.

So as soon as it gets dark, the fleet immediately disperses and maintains a loose formation, and the sailors on board must always be vigilant in case they suddenly collide with other ships.