Zheng Zhilong is not the first time to fight with the Haihan people, naturally he knows very well the strength of the Haihan militia, in the past combat records, Eighteen Zhi has almost never taken advantage of the half, and he has been pressed to the ground and rubbed by the opponent every time. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info Zheng Zhilong didn't even dare to be sure if the casualties caused by his own men and horses to Haihan had reached three digits after so many defeats. Although it had been a year since the last battle between the two sides, Zheng Zhilong did not have much confidence in the will to fight of his men, because even when he himself saw Haihan's two-color flag in his sleep, he was often frightened to wake up.

Zheng Zhilong has been handsome in recent years, with victories and defeats, and he actually looks down on life and death, but in addition to his own life, he is more worried about his family's retreat. His eldest son, Zheng Fusong, currently lives with him on Miyakojima, while his wife Tagawa Matsu and younger son Nanazaemon remain in Hirado, Japan, and live incognito. Although Chen Yixin had investigated in many ways when he led the team to Hirado, due to the intentional cover of the Matsuura clan, he failed to find out the whereabouts of the mother and son.

The name Zheng Fusong is not known to many people, but if it is said that he later changed another name, Zheng Chenggong, it will be known to everyone in later generations. Zheng Fusong was born in Hirado, Japan, in August 1624, and lived with his mother, Tagawa Matsu, until he was six years old. In the original history, Zheng Fusong moved from Japan to Quanzhou, Fujian after his father Zheng Zhilong accepted the recruitment of the Fujian government, but due to the appearance of the Haihan people, Zheng Zhilong did not get the opportunity of the government to recruit An, but has always been regarded by the government as a thorn in the side, and he is eager to deal with it as soon as possible, so Zheng Fusong did not go to the mainland at all after coming from Japan, and went directly to Penghu to settle down.

In the original history, after Zheng Fusong arrived in Fujian, he was admitted to Xiucai at the age of fourteen, married the niece of Quanzhou Jinshi and Dong Yangxian, a waiter of the Ministry of Rites at the age of seventeen, and was sent to Jinling to study at the age of twenty, and successfully entered Nanjing Guozijian for further study. He worshiped under the famous Confucian sect in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and was named "Sen", the word "Damu", and his teacher was the famous Qian Qianyi, a person who was too cold and unwilling to commit suicide and martyrdom, and called Qian Qianyi, an undisciplined person who had an itchy scalp and shaved his hair and braided.

When Zheng Fusong was twenty-one years old, that is, in 1645, the brothers Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Hongkui supported Zhu Yujian, the king of Tang, as the emperor in Fuzhou, and changed the Yuan to Longwu. This unlucky emperor reigned for only one year, but he made a move that had a great impact on Zheng Fusong's life, that is, to give the country a surname, a name, and a title of the governor of the Imperial Forest Army and the commander of Yitong Horse. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't have a daughter, he would definitely have even given marriage in one step, in short, in order to win over Zheng Zhilong, a minister with military power, Emperor Longwu could be regarded as having tried all means. At this time, Zheng Fusong's name became Zhu Chenggong, and the people respected him as the national surname.

Of course, because Haihan's appearance in this time and space disrupted the original development trajectory, Zheng Fusong has become farther and farther away from the life path of "the surname of the country". Under the current situation, it is still unknown whether the Manchurians outside the Guanwai will be able to go south, but the responsibility of turning the tide in the southeastern coastal areas and holding high the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty will probably no longer fall on his shoulders. The trajectory of his future life has changed radically in a way that he is not aware of.

Zheng Zhilong, who sensed the dangerous atmosphere, wanted to send Zheng Fusong away at this time, after all, there was still a family in Japan, and Zheng Fusong's chances of survival would be much better than staying in Miyakojima. But Zheng Fusong appears more on the island on weekdays, and his subordinates and the people on the island also know that the two fathers and sons live together. At this juncture, if the matter of sending Zheng Fusong away is discovered, the military spirit on the island will immediately fall into a state of dissipation, and the risk for Zheng Zhilong is indeed a little bigger.

Just when Zheng Zhilong was in a dilemma, the team sent to the west to reconnoiter the movement of Taipei's Jilong Port sent back the latest news. At present, the Haihan people have imposed a blockade on Jilong Harbor, and all ships can only enter and exit, and nothing can be found in the port, but judging from the number of armed ships patrolling the nearby sea, it is obvious that it is much stronger than usual.

Zheng Zhilong's original hope was shattered, recalling that before the Haihan fleet attacked Penghu on a large scale last year, the harbors of Zhangquan and Quanzhou were also blockaded several days in advance. This was almost a fixed routine before Haihan launched a large-scale offensive, and the blockade of Jilong Port, the closest Haihan port to Miyako Island, seemed to indicate that Haihan was about to launch a new offensive from the local area.

Of course, Zheng Zhilong can also choose to continue to escape, the world is so big, if you escape, there will always be a chance to live, the difference is nothing more than the length of time you survive. But Zheng Zhilong no longer wants to continue to flee, he used to be the overlord of a party with 10,000 armed forces, and now he is suppressed in a corner of the ocean as a rich man, and the psychological gap is so big that it is estimated that he may not be able to bear it if he changes people. If he continued to flee, he would not be able to do it, and he didn't want to cause trouble to his family living in Hirado.

Zheng Zhilong originally wanted his confidants to take his son Zheng Fusong to leave Miyako Island at night, but Zheng Fusong, who was less than ten years old, was reluctant to leave his father's side, although he didn't know why the Haihan people would chase and kill his father and uncles and brothers all the way, but he thought that if he left Miyakojima at this time, it would be a coward's behavior, which was unacceptable to him. This innate courage is probably one of the roots of his growth into a national hero in the original historical trajectory.

Although Zheng Zhilong felt that something was wrong, he really didn't want to be separated from his son at the last moment. He knew that although the Haihan people were warlike, they did not kill the old and the young, women and children, but his son's identity was relatively special, and he was afraid that there would be no good end after being captured by the Haihan people. If this time it really can't stop the offensive of the Haihan people, then it will be a tragic ending for the father and son to cut themselves together at the last moment.

On 1 September, the Haihan fleet set out from Jilong Harbor, and as soon as the fleet sailed out of the harbor, the huge flagship was discovered by the 18 Zhi reconnaissance ships several nautical miles away. Although the sailing ships used by the Eighteen Zhi were far inferior to the Haihan warships in terms of speed, the communication method they used was fireworks, and a single rocket could transmit signals at sea, which was definitely much faster than the speed of the sailing ships.

However, as soon as this fireworks flew on the sea, it naturally couldn't hide the many eyes on the Haihan warship, and Wang Tom only sneered after receiving the report, but he didn't feel nervous because of it. It was only two hundred nautical miles from Jilong Port to Miyako Island, and if the road was smooth, it would only take more than a day to arrive, and even if Eighteen Zhi could have an extra day to prepare for war, it would be impossible to withstand the fleet he led.

Of course, there is another possibility that after Eighteen Zhi got the news, he immediately scattered and fled. In that case, it would be a little difficult for the Haihan fleet to completely annihilate the Eighteen Zhiyu Party. But Tom thought it was unlikely, because there was really no place for these desperate pirates to continue on their run. Either surrender to Haihan or fight to the death with Haihan, these two possibilities are much greater than fleeing again.

In the evening, the fleet arrived at the waters off Iriomote Island and Ishigaki Island, which are still about seventy or eighty nautical miles away from Miyako Island, and if they sailed overnight, they could reach their destination in the early morning. Originally, Tom Wang planned to stay near Ishigaki Island for one night before continuing to advance, but since this operation had been exposed at the beginning stage, in order to avoid long nights and dreams, Tom Wang still ordered to sail all night. However, the sailors had to change shifts to steer the ship, and the speed of the ship was naturally slowed down a lot.

In the early morning of the next day, two islands, one south and one north, one large and one small, appeared in the sea in front of the fleet. According to the markings on the charts, the two islands are Tarama Island and Minna Island. The two islands are separated by about eight kilometres, and the difference in size between the islands is nearly ten times larger. Both islands have a large number of coral reefs nearby, and the water depth near the shore is difficult to accommodate large ships, and only a small number of fishermen are stationed on the islands.

About thirty nautical miles east from these two islands is Miyako Island, the destination of the Haihan fleet. Miyako Island is not actually an island, but an archipelago consisting of Miyako Island and five neighboring islands: Irabu Island, Shimoji Island, Kuroma Island, Ikema Island, and Okami Island. The islands have a total land area of more than 200 square kilometres and are relatively flat for crops.

However, judging from the colonial area created by Shibachi on the west coast of Taiwan Island before, its agricultural development capacity is worrying, that is, the level of planting some rice and vegetables, and not much cash crops are grown, and the situation must be similar after moving to Miyako Island. And there are no natural resources on this island to exploit, and the living conditions of an armed organization like Shibazhi, which is not engaged in production all year round, can be imagined, and it is estimated that there is no other meat to eat except seafood.

This time, instead of constantly sending death squads to hinder the progress of the Haihan fleet as he did last year, Shibachi chose to retreat on the island for defense. But in Wang Tom's view, this kind of response is actually no different from a turtle retracted into a turtle shell, which seems to be safely protecting the vital points around him, but at the same time, he is completely at the mercy of his opponent. In the next landing battle that the Haihan fleet was preparing to carry out, there was ample leeway to choose one of the several landing sites that were available.

There are also a large number of coral reefs in the coastal waters around Miyako Island, so there are not many coasts on the island that can be docked by larger ships, mainly on the northwest coast. Regardless of the question, Eighteen Zhi must have deployed the strongest defense line there.

The fleet's flagship, the Endeavour, took the lead and entered the strait between Irabu and Miyako Islands, approaching the shores of the intended landing site without encountering any resistance.

However, the Eighteen Zhi on the island apparently did not intend to turn a blind eye to the actions of the Haihan warship, and several cannons fired on the shore for the first time, and the cannonballs whistled and smashed into the "Endeavour" and the other warships that followed behind.

"Shoot back!" When Tom Wang saw that the fire was being fired on the shore, he was relieved and gave the battle order very calmly. What he was worried about was not that the Eighteen Zhi Yu would continue to resist stubbornly, but that they all fled in the gap before the arrival of the Haihan fleet. But since there are still gunners on the shore who insist on fighting, it means that Eighteen Zhi did not organize an escape, otherwise it is unlikely that elite troops like gunners will be left on the island and not taken away.

Although the naval guns on the "Endeavour" are all large-caliber and short-bodied, they do not suffer in range, and the shells fired from the ship can hit the gun positions deployed by Shibazhi on the shore. It's just that because of the undulating waves at sea, the hull of the ship is difficult to stabilize, and this kind of artillery bombardment at a slightly longer distance can only aim at a general direction, estimate the launch angle, and then can only rely on random hits.

When the "Endeavour" was launched in the seventh round, a shell finally hit the gun position on the shore, and the gun deployed on the gun position that lacked cover was lifted into the sky with three gunners. During this period, at least three shells hit the "Endeavour", but because of the distance, the shells were basically exhausted when they flew here, and they were unable to cause substantial damage to the thick side of the "Endeavour", which only caused a brief shock to the hull.

During the flagship's struggle, the troop carriers on the periphery also approached the coast, either by hitting the beach or by lowering their boats so that the soldiers could land from within the reach of the island's artillery.

Although the army units participating in the operation this time were not as powerful as the special operations battalion under Qian Tiandun's command, they also had quite rich experience in carrying out this kind of amphibious landing and island seizure operation. As a matter of fact, the army's amphibious warfare course is one of the most basic training subjects in the sea-based Haihan militia group, and every qualified army soldier must master basic landing combat skills, such as armed swimming, rowing, landing and assembly, establishing a beachhead, and counter-landing warfare. A large amount of training allows the soldiers to come here and almost do not need to carry out special adaptive training and terrain reconnaissance, and they can play well in actual combat.

Naturally, the Haihan people who landed on the coast could not hide the eyes of the defenders on the island, but because the artillery in the hands of Shibazhi was already very limited, there was no way to deploy more places, so they could only concentrate on bombarding the "Endeavour" parked at sea, but they were somewhat powerless against the army that was landing ashore in the distance.

Of course, the commander of the Eighteen Zhi would not have watched the Haihan Army land ashore so easily, and then outflank his own artillery, and immediately sent a force to the site of the Haihan landing to intercept it. But compared to the Haihan soldiers who were armed to the teeth, the defenders who only had swords, guns and clubs as their main weapons were really miserable, and such weapons and equipment did not play much of a role in the combat missions they had to perform. (To be continued.) )