For Zheng Zhihu, the eighteenth Zhi guard on the island, the news of the Haihan mission's visit to Fujian had reached here more than half a month ago. ¢£, even a few days ago, Zheng Xinzhi failed to organize an assassination operation in Zhangzhou City, so the Fujian government began to arrest the businessmen who worked for Shibazhi, and these situations were also under Zheng Zhihu's control.

The failure of the assassination will attract the retaliation of the Haihan people and the Fujian government, which is almost a sure thing, Zheng Zhihu also has a certain psychological preparation for this, but he really didn't expect the Haihan people to play so big, and he actually rushed to Nanri Island directly with the Ming army's sailors. When he received the warning signal and sent ships to attack, Zheng Zhihu was actually a little unclear -- the three warships wanted to attack Nanri Island? You must know that the sailors had used countless brains to fail to take this place, and although the Haihan militia was very powerful, it was inevitable that some of them were too blind.

Zheng Zhihu very much hopes to defeat these uninvited guests on Nanri Island, and when he returns to Penghu next time, he can also humiliate Liu Xiang, who blew the Haihan people into the sky. Zheng Zhihu even announced a bounty before the battle, as long as he could capture the real Haihan people, he would reward silver, and three hundred who lived 1,000 taels and died, he believed that such a high bounty would definitely stimulate his subordinates to fight desperately on the battlefield.

However, the reality is still a little different from his prediction, and these people under him are desperate, but they can't even touch the hair of the Haihan people, and they have been bombarded by the three big ships while going around in circles. By the time the gang realized that the shape was wrong and they needed to retreat, the Haihan people had completely grasped the initiative on the battlefield, and as a result, only thirteen of the twenty-five ships on the expedition came back, and several of them were also damaged and needed to be repaired before they could be put into the next battle.

The current situation is actually very clear, the other party is obviously coming for Nanri Island, if you want to defend, the remaining sailing ships will definitely not be able to repel the opponent at sea. And if the remaining ships were allowed to withdraw from the port of Nanri Island as before, and attack and disturb the battle on the periphery, it would probably be ineffective - the Ming naval division did not play at all in the previous battle, and it was obvious that they were plundering for the Haihan people on the periphery. If they painted the gourd in the same way, leaving the Ming army on the periphery, and the Haihan people responsible for landing and attacking the camp, the remaining limited number of ships would also be difficult to have the effect of harassing the battle.

The only thing to be thankful for is that according to the news that came back from Zhangquan and Zhangquan Prefectures before, there were only three warships in the Haihan mission that visited Fujian this time, although it was not very honorable to say, but Zheng Zhihu really did not have to worry about the Haihan people not using any tricks in addition to these three ships. However, even the current three Haihan warships have already made Zheng Zhihu feel incapable of coping.

At this time, Zheng Zhihu's staff gave him an idea, and immediately sent a boat back to Penghu to report and move the rescue troops. If the action is fast enough, the rescuers will be able to reach Nanri Island in about five days.

The voyage from Nanri Island to Penghu is about 100 nautical miles, and Zheng Zhihu's clipper can arrive in more than a day, and counting the time it takes to deploy troops to prepare after receiving the news, five days can already be called a very high operational efficiency. But the biggest uncertainty in this plan is whether the pirates on Nanri Island will be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive. If the camp had been conquered by the combined forces of Haihan and the Fujian government before this, the hurried rescuers would have suffered a big loss on Nanri Island, and the consequences would be worse than the loss of Nanri Island.

However, Zheng Zhihu was still more confident in the fortification of the camp, after all, the Fujian Ming army came to Nanri Island to attack five or six times, and each time they returned outside the camp. Although the combat strength of the Haihan militia is better than that of Eighteen Zhi, Zheng Zhihu thinks that it is not so simple to conquer Nanri Village, which is almost like a small city, at least the thousands of subordinates on the island should be fine for ten days and half a month.

This is also the disadvantage that the place is too remote, if Zheng Zhihu often goes to the two cities of Zhangquan to walk around, he should have heard of the achievements of the Haihan militia in the past in Annan. Even if you don't meet the merchants of Annam, you will definitely hear about the glorious results of the Haihan militia last year in sweeping away the banditry in the northern part of Qiongzhou Island within a month. Then at least he would know that the Haihan people's ability to fight on land, especially to attack cities, was not at all weaker than their appearance at sea.

However, Zheng Zhihu misjudged in this link, he thought that with the defense force on the island, it should be enough to hold out until the reinforcements arrived, so he immediately dictated, asked the staff to repair a letter, and then sent a clipper to Penghu overnight to move the rescuers.

Zheng Zhihu's distress letter did not describe the situation on the island as critical, but described the current situation as an opportunity to deal a heavy blow to the Fujian government and the Haihan people. This is not entirely Zheng Zhihu's arrogance, he thinks that he should take advantage of the fact that Haihan has not sent many warships to Fujian this time, seize the psychology of the other party's eagerness to attack Nanri Island, and use the advantage of troops to block it here and slowly clean it up.

Although more than 20 ships can't do the other party's three boats, Zheng Zhihu doesn't care, he knows that Haihan's arms sales to Fujian are extremely strict, and when the Ming army fights, the shells are counted and fought, and these Haihan warships are estimated to be difficult to replenish ammunition and carry out effective maintenance in Fujian. If 25 boats can't be defeated, what about 250? No matter how powerful you Haihan people are, there are always limited shells and gunpowder on board, right? No matter how fast your boat runs, the people on board always have to rest, right? Eighteen Zhi doesn't have much else, but there are many people and many boats, so you can play slowly with Haihan. Haihan's warships were indeed large, but as long as they ran out of ammunition and had the slightest intention of retreating, the many small ships of Eighteen Zhi would be able to rush up and swallow these large ships like ants devouring elephants.

Zheng Zhihu's considerations are indeed very practical problems, and he can think of these aspects as a bit of a brain, but what he does not know is that on the day the content of this joint military exercise was determined, the Guangzhou Office had already received a telegram from the mission from Fujian, asking them to immediately organize cargo ships to transport a batch of ammunition and coal from the munitions warehouse in Zhennan Port to Fujian, so that in case the war could not be resolved in a short time, these Haihan warships participating in the war could be replenished nearby. Within 12 hours of receiving the telegram, a supply fleet of five cargo ships had sailed out of Guangzhou to Zhennan Port to load supplies. Counting the day after the combined fleet departed from Zhangzhou, the supply fleet should have almost arrived there.

Although the supplies transported from Guangdong could not support these ships in Fujian's long-term operations, if it was only a short-term skirmish that lasted for ten days and half a month, Haihan's logistical supply capacity could still be satisfied. What's more, in the minds of Commander Haihan, the goal of conquering Nanri Island does not take so long. At the beginning, Shi Diwen said that he could win it in a day or two, and if it took too long, it would also affect Haihan's face.

After the naval battle, the coalition fleet withdrew in the direction of Quanzhou, and Zheng Zhihu also sent a ship to follow and monitor. The next day, as soon as the Allied fleet raised its flag and set sail, the pirate ships on the distant sea carried the news back to Nanri Island by means of a signal relay - it was obvious that the enemy was going to take advantage of the victory and pursue the attack on Nanri Island.

Of course, Zheng Zhihu will not use the remaining ten or twenty ships on the island to block the coalition fleet, which will not have much effect except for increasing casualties, after all, the elite on the island was exhausted yesterday, and it only lasted less than an hour under the opponent's offensive. In order to preserve the living force, Zheng Zhihu ordered all the ships on the island to withdraw to the sea first, and then look at the direction of the shape on the periphery. If the Ming army and the Haihan militia really planned to land on the island, then maybe there would be a chance to carry out the basic tactics of sneak attack and half-crossing attack, Zheng Zhihu had heard of it.

As for the remaining thousand troops on the island, Zheng Zhihu gathered all of them in Nanri Village, and he personally commanded them. After yesterday's defeat, Zheng Zhihu smelled the danger, so he had already asked the pirates on the island to start reinforcing the wall again, and put all kinds of artillery guns in the warehouse, no matter whether they were loud or not, and how powerful they were, and put them all on the wall first-even if they couldn't frighten the enemy, it would be good to give their subordinates courage.

At the same time, Zheng Zhilong further increased the amount of reward for combat exploits, as long as he killed the enemy in this battle and won the head, whether it was Haihan people or not, all of them were rewarded, the soldiers of the Ming army were rewarded with five taels of silver, the short-haired soldiers of the Haihan militia were rewarded with ten taels of silver, and the head of the Haihan people was raised from three hundred taels to one thousand taels, and if they could be captured alive, the reward would be three thousand taels!

However, the incentive effect of this bounty was obviously not as good as it was before the previous day's battle, as many people did not return to the island after yesterday's battle, and the speed of defeat was also a blow to the pirates. Although Zheng Zhihu has ordered that the pirates who went to war yesterday are not allowed to talk publicly about the state of the engagement, this does not really serve to keep the mouth shut. The pirates were still quick to learn from the survivors about the battle - it was just a one-sided beating from start to finish.

It is difficult to give more confidence to the pirates on the island who have not yet fought against the Haihan militia, if it were not for the big leader Zheng Zhihu on the island, the pirates on the island would have scattered and fled after yesterday's defeat.

Early in the morning, the news of the combined fleet's departure from Dongqiao Bay returned to the island, and there was really no atmosphere of war in Nanri Village, but more of the anxiety on the faces of the pirates. Eighteen Zhi had never won against the Haihan militia, and in the past, these people would laugh at Liu Xiang and his men for not being able to fight, but after really encountering the Haihan militia on the battlefield, they understood how terrifying the strength of this opponent was.

The ships of the Combined Fleet came faster than they thought, and received the alerts more and more frequently, so that the pirates began to talk about whether the Haihan people came by boat or flew directly from the sky, how fast they could be.

Zheng Zhihu was commanding on the front line at this time, and of course he heard these "discordant" voices, and his face was very ugly because of this. However, he was a little glad that he had sent out the boat on the island early, otherwise he would have to wait until the other party moved himself, and maybe the ship would be blocked in the harbor of Nanri Island because it was too slow.

Compared with Zheng Zhihu, Shi Diwen and Xu Xinsu on the deck of "Wei Signal" were in a much better mood. Shi Diwen said with a smile: "Lord Xu, it seems that the situation is the same as we expected, after yesterday's fight, Eighteen Zhi no longer dared to send ships to intercept us." ”

Xu Xinsu nodded and said, "As the old man expected, their ship probably hasn't stopped on Nanri Island now. In the first few attacks on the island, Shibazhi used this tactic, and only when we landed, did he seek an opportunity to attack. ”

Shi Diwen said: "Then wait for the cover of the periphery, but it will be handed over to Lord Xu's sailor!"

Xu Xinsu hugged his fists and said: "Please rest assured, the old man personally supervised the battle this time, and he had already made his attitude clear to the soldiers under his command last night, whoever dares to escape in front of the battle today will be immediately killed and exiled! If Eighteen Zhi is still playing the old trick of half-crossing, the old man will fight with him today!"

Shi Diwen said with a smile: "It's not so strict, as long as the sailor can cover our militia to complete the landing and set up a good beachhead." Wait for us to free up our hands and feet, and then slowly clean up the remnants of the defeated army at sea. ”

In Shi Diwen and Morgan's landing operation plan, attacking Nanri Village was secondary, and the key was to land and seize the beachhead. This time, the Haihan mission did not bring many land forces, so it had to transfer some gunners and sailors from the three warships to land and fight. Even so, the number of militia groups that can participate in the battle to seize the island is only two or three hundred. After consulting with Xu Xinsu yesterday, 200 people were temporarily recruited from the Ming army to assist in the landing as logistical baggage troops.

The fleet sailed smoothly all the way to the northwest of Nanri Island, and Shi Diwen and Morgan confirmed the situation of the harbor from the telescope, and there was not even a small sampan here, and it could be seen that the fortified wall of Eighteen Zhi Qingye was still relatively thorough. However, they did not destroy the pier facilities such as the pier bridge in the harbor, which is probably because they still have a bit of luck, thinking that they can hold this island attack battle, and they will not have to spend time and effort to rebuild the dock facilities in the future.

The Haihan militia was naturally happy to see this, and emptied the ship space and left the trestle, which completely vacated the position for the Haihan warship to dock. The only thing that is a little inappropriate is that Haihan is not very familiar with the water conditions of the port here, so the larger "Wei Signal" cannot be directly approached, and a small boat must be sent to measure the water depth on the shore first.