The purpose of choosing to start the war in the early morning, when the spirit of ordinary people is most relaxed, is also to be able to attack them unprepared and gain the initiative on the battlefield. ↗ However, for the Ming navy, their task was relatively difficult, because it required them to enter the battlefield first as a bait to lure the Dutch ships away from the vicinity of Nanri Island as much as possible, and then the Haihan fleet would choose the opportunity to insert the Dutch from the flank and Nanri Island to cut off their contact with the pirates on the island.

Most of the ships of the Ming army and sailors were still in the old stocks, and these warships still had a good fight against the pirate ships of the Eighteen Zhi, but they suffered a slight loss in the face of Dutch armed sailing ships equipped with multiple guns, and they could only make up for it with the advantage in the number of ships.

Xie Li did not mean to force the Ming army sailors to be cannon fodder, he had already made it clear to Xu Yuzhuo in his prior communication that the Ming army could "preserve its vital strength as much as possible on the basis of achieving tactical objectives, and there was no need to fight to the death with the Dutch", and the real technical work still needed to be completed after the warships of the Haihan Navy entered the predetermined position.

Xu Yuzhuo naturally would not refuse the kindness of the Haihan people, after witnessing how the Haihan warship won more with less and sank the pirate ship of Eighteen Zhi last time, he had completely become a loyal supporter of the Haihan Navy, and he accepted all the tactical arrangements proposed by Xie Li.

At this time, the pirates on Nanri Island were in an embarrassing dilemma, the Dutch refused Zheng Zhihu's request to land on the island to help in the battle, and Shibazhi's own combat effectiveness was not enough to shake the defense of Nanri Village on the frontal battlefield, if the infantry was forced to charge Nanri Village, the result was likely to be ruined, and the musket array of the Haihan people was not a joke - the last time the Haihan people attacked Nanri Village, Zheng Zhihu sent out more than 200 people to carry out the attack tactics were killed in vain.

But if you don't take the initiative to attack Nanri Village, the purpose of this trip will be difficult to achieve. Compared with the defenders in Nanrizhai, the biggest disadvantage of Eighteen Zhi is the difficulty of supply, once the supply is urgent, even if they do not capture Nanrizhai, they can only choose to retreat, and the current time left for their action is only a few days, whether to fight or withdraw, you must make a decision as much as possible.

Although Zheng Zhihu has always been decisive in killing, it is the first time he has encountered such a dilemma, and he quickly summoned his leaders to discuss countermeasures. But he soon found that this discussion was also futile, and almost everyone under his command was like him, caught in the contradiction between fighting and retreating, unable to make decisions. A group of people quarreled hotly, and then they almost started to make a move, if Zheng Zhihu hadn't stopped it in time, it would have been difficult to add a few more names to the battle damage list of Eighteen Zhi.

"It's all a bunch of useless waste!" Zheng Zhihu returned to his tent and was still angry, his gang of people would only be of some use when they were robbing at sea, and let them go ashore to fight, and the level was only ordinary bandit level. If you want to rely on such a group of people to realize the ambition of Eighteen Zhi to unify the southeast coast, what year and month will you have to wait?

Although he still doesn't understand how the Haihan people trained such an army, he roughly understands why the Fujian military led by Xu Xinsu would choose to hold Haihan's thigh and not let go - if Zheng Zhihu had contacted the Haihan people first, he would probably have made the same choice.

But now the positions of the two sides have been completely opposed, and Zheng Zhihu also understands that Eighteen Zhi has lost such an opportunity, even if he surrenders to the Haihan people, the Fujian government may not be willing to let go of these people who are the leaders. Even if you are unwilling, you can only choose one way to go to the dark.

But in any case, today's start is not good, and the morale has fallen to a very low level, and if you continue to force your subordinates to fight, it may not have a good effect. Therefore, Zheng Zhihu simply ordered the withdrawal of the army and waited for tomorrow to invite the battle. However, he may not have imagined that after this night, the shape of shì would change dramatically.

In order to prevent another night attack by his opponent, Zheng Zhihu ordered that no more people be sent to ambush in the wilderness outside the camp that night - a decision that made Yi Laoer, who was in charge of intelligence gathering, breathe a sigh of relief. There are not many men left under him, and after yesterday's incident, no one is willing to risk their lives to go outside to watch at night, even if the salary is doubled or tripled. After all, although the silver is good, it must also have a life to spend it.

But it is also dangerous to be completely unguarded, Yi Lao Er came up with an effective method at this time, that is, to tie all kinds of chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep and other livestock brought to the island as supplies with ropes, and put some near the camp as a warning signal. These animals are relatively small in relation to their targets, and when they are disturbed, they make a call that allows the defenders in the camp to be on alert in time.

However, this night Nanrizhai did not arrange another sortie, the night before the special operations company of the people almost tossed around the island all night, Qian Tiandun hoped that they could get enough rest time, because the next two sides of the offensive and defensive positions are likely to change, Qian Tiandun needs his infantry to maintain a better combat state to face the follow-up battle.

The Dutch were undoubtedly the easiest camp during this time, and the results of the battle on the island did not have a very direct impact on them, as long as they held the open sea, and did not let the opponent outflank the back road of the eighteen zhi from the sea. When the artillery position of the Eighteen Zhi was overwhelmed by the fire of the Haihan artillery, Vanderwegen even organized a fishing competition on the ship, and finally the first mate of the flagship "Flying Flight" was rewarded with ten silver coins for a large fish four feet long.

But this ease only lasted until the early hours of the next day. At nearly five o'clock in the morning, the lookout on the mast spotted a sizable fleet of ships at least five times as large as the Dutch fleet on the northern sea. Van der Wegen woke up in his sleep with the news and went to the deck to confirm the terrible discovery, before he even had time to put on his uniform.

Half an hour later, the sail shadow of this fleet was clearly visible on the sea level, although the sky had not yet brightened, and the flag of the fleet could not be seen clearly, but Vanderweigen could judge that this fleet should be subordinate to the Daming Naval Division, that is, Xu Xinsu's direct subordinate troops.

"Ring the bell and prepare for battle!" Vanderwegen did not panic, and immediately began to give orders in an orderly manner after confirming the situation: "All the gunners enter the gun emplacement, raise the gun window!" First mate, let someone go to my cabin and get my uniform!"

Although the original intention of the Dutch was not to engage the Ming in the first place, this evasion was not a fear of war, and if the Ming sailors collided with them so incomprehensibly, Vanderwegen did not mind giving them a little lesson as a warning.

The opposite fleet was heading south at full speed, and the sun was already about to leap above the sea, and at this distance Van der Wegen could already confirm the flag on the mast through the guò telescope - yes, this fleet was the Ming Fujian Navy under the command of the Xu family.

"Well, since they have chosen war, then let us fulfill them!" Vanderwegen ordered: "Raise the flag, change the formation of the fleet, seize the upper hand, and prepare to open fire!"

Most of the Dutch armed galleons had some experience in naval warfare, and after the flagship's flag was raised, several other sailing ships quickly adjusted their direction and followed the flagship out of the queue, turning their side guns in the direction of the opponent's approach.

But the Ming army obviously did not intend to weigh the Dutch's intentions so easily, after discovering the Dutch's intentions, the Ming army's naval fleet quickly divided into two ways, skimming to the left and right, and seemed to plan to use similar tricks to seize the head and tail position of the Dutch fleet with the side side.

"Want to play tactics with us?" Vanderwegen scoffed at the Great Ming Marine's response methods. When it comes to naval warfare, the Dutch are so powerful in this era that even the Spaniards, who have a fleet of galleons that are unique in the world, do not dare to say that they can win the Dutch in naval warfare. This change in formation of the Ming army seemed to Van der Wegen to be too obvious in its intentions, and it was difficult to pose a substantial threat to his own fleet.

"Turn around, go west, and we're going to get ahead of them. Vanderwegen gave the next order very decisively.

The advantage of Dutch sailing yachts in terms of speed was also unreservedly reflected at this time. The Dutch fleet changed course and made an arc just enough to intercept the part of the sailors that had turned southwest.

Just as Vanderwegen was still considering whether to use a few shells to warn his opponent to retreat, he was surprised to find that his opponent had fired first.

Several firearms made of bamboo and wood rose from the decks of the opposing ships with their tails in tow, and arced in the air in the direction of the Dutch fleet. The purpose of these firearms was to ignite the sails and hulls of the opponent's ships, thereby paralyzing the mobility of the opponent's ships, and their range was about twenty or thirty kilometers, which was definitely a very sharp weapon in the Far East at this time. However, the results achieved in actual combat cannot fully realize its design intent.

First of all, these primitive rocket-boosted weapons have no accuracy at all, and the operator can only estimate a general direction and distance when firing, and after ignition, it is completely a stage of luck, and the disadvantage of this accuracy can only be made up for by the number of shots, just as the same musket formation should use a queue to shoot to improve the hit rate. However, if the wind at sea is a little stronger, even if ten ships fire a salvo, they will be blown away from the direction by the wind, and it will be difficult to achieve results.

Secondly, most of these firearms are inferior in range and lethal to artillery. Even if the enemy ship was hit by eight out of ten, as long as it was dealt with in time, there would be no trouble, and it was not even as troublesome as the naval guns opening a hole in the opponent's hull to guide them into the water.

The fireworks-like firearms of the Ming army did not have any effect, and most of them fell into the water a few feet away from the Dutch sailing ships. The occasional rocket or two that hit the ship was quickly extinguished by the ship's sailors who were in charge of the damage with dirt bags and damp cloths.

"These Orientals are so arrogant! For the sake of the glory of the company, I must give them a little color!" Although not hurt by this wave of offensive, the "unwise provocation" of the Daming sailor still annoyed Vanderwegen. The boss said that he tried not to start a war with the Ming Dynasty, but he didn't say that he had to endure the active attack of the Ming warship, and he was only beaten and did not fight back, which was definitely not the style of the East India Company.

"Fire! Beat them up!" Vanderwegen gave the order to open fire and attack.

The eight guns on the side of the "Feixiang" were the first to fire, and the shells whistled and fired at the Ming fleet, one of which directly hit the bow of a Ming warship, causing the ship's board to debris to fly, and it could be seen that there were sailors on its deck and immediately fell.

However, the Ming fleet did not stop there, but continued to charge forward. Van der Wegen knew that this was one of the usual tactics of the Ming army, and after approaching the enemy, he carried out arson operations again with various firearms at close range. Compared with long-range firearms, which have little lethality, the Ming army has more means to achieve this combat goal within 20 zhang, and many of them have the practice of throwing or spraying all kinds of flammable and inextinguishable combustibles onto enemy ships, and these offensive means are much more terrible than those long-range rockets. Even if a large ship like the "Feixiang" is surrounded by a bunch of Ming warships, it is difficult to effectively resist the flammable materials flying from all directions. If the distance is further shortened, these Ming warships will also use various tools to fix the two ships, and then jump to the gang to carry out hand-to-hand combat.

"Adjust the course, keep your distance, don't give them a chance to get close!" Vanderwegen knows very well that his disadvantage lies in the small number of ships and personnel, and it is extremely unwise to engage in a short-distance hard fight with the opponent.

Naturally, the sound of artillery battles on the sea also reached the shore of Nanri Island, and the pirates in the Eighteen Zhi Battalion woke up from their sleep and came out to watch the sea battle. Although the warring waters were still several nautical miles away from the port of Nanri Island, the constant shelling of Dutch sailing ships still gave the pirates a shot in the arm - fortunately, the red-haired men were invited to cover the safety of the back road, otherwise they might have been blown up by the Ming army sailors who came quietly in the middle of the night.

"With so much silver from our family, it's time for these red-haired ghosts to exert a little strength!" Watching the Dutchman's sailboat fighting at sea, Zheng Zhihu's psychology was also a little balanced, and the two families who said that they would cooperate to attack Nanri Island, it was too unreasonable for the Dutch to be idle all the time.