Liu Mingde's face changed a few expressions, both helpless and happy.

As an old fur dog who has been mixed in the Oriental Ocean for decades, Liu Mingde is very aware of the Zheng family, especially Zheng Zhilong's cunning, that cunning fox can't be lured out with chicken bones, and only with a whole chicken can it reveal its true face.

In order to test the Zheng family, Li Zhaoji obviously invested enough money to use a new Yahat ship built and launched by a trading company shipyard, but Liu Mingde was not worth it for the Hongyan, because he personally supervised the construction of the ship, and watched it take shape little by little, in the busy work, as long as he had leisure, Liu Mingde would go to the shipyard to take a look, and every time the hull of the Hongyan was perfected, there was one more mast, and he would feel excited.

The Hongyan is like Liu Mingde's child, using this beautiful ship as bait, Liu Mingde is still a little reluctant.

The mighty wind blew, and the warship bypassed the headland and sailed out of the bay.

Young Shi Lang stood at the bow of the ship, the silhouette of the center and left was faintly visible in front of him, covered with wild grass and woods, surrounded by white rocks, like the bones of a giant beast with green hair.

He turned his head and looked at the ships behind him, there were two fast crabs and a dhow, this is one of the Zheng family's sailor patrol fleet, Shi Lang mastered this fleet at the age of only twenty-two by virtue of his family background, all three ships are new ships, looking at the brand-new sails, Shi Lang is full of spirit, compared to the wife who married this year, he loves the fleet in front of him that can give him authority and strength.

"If there are pirates, they will hide in the outer islands." Shi Lang looked at the sea and muttered to himself.

Now Zhangzhou Bay is very busy, the Zheng family's Nafu ship, more than 20 large fleets are ready to go, waiting for the south wind together, they will set off to Nagasaki, Japan, to bring all kinds of goods produced in the south and southeast to sell there, this is the Zheng family's most profitable trade route.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong attached great importance to it, and sent a sailor out of the port to sweep the sea in advance, although in Fujian, a large number of pirates have disappeared, but there are many other water thieves, and the Zheng family needs to show their strength at some time.

Shi Lang's task is to sweep the surrounding area, catch some restless guys, and then publicly execute them, and use their blood to consolidate the Zheng family's authority in the southeast sea.

"Lord Garrison, look over there!"

Shi Lang turned his head and saw a three-masted sailing ship, which was the more common type of Yahat among foreign ships, with three high masts, white cloth sails looming in the rainy spring weather, and in front of this ship, there was also a sampan, on which someone was operating something with a long wooden pole, as if exploring the depth of the water.

Shi Lang's eyebrows immediately raised, and he said loudly to the people around him: "Order, lean over, ask for your identity first, and see if it is Hongmao or Franco." Ask the reason again, and if there is resistance, arrest it immediately. ”

The horn sounded in Zhangzhou Bay, and the three warships lined up in a goose-shaped formation, rushing towards each other, the wind on the sea was not small, the wind was blowing from the land, and the Zheng family sailor occupied the upper hand, which could greatly reduce the consumption of oarsmen.

Because on the battleship, Shi Lang did not wear iron armor, but he still put a big red cloak on his shoulders, and the fleet had already unfolded, quickly approaching the enemy, and in his field of vision, the foreign ship was raising its sails in a panic, and even the sampan was thrown down.

The Hongyan was already in chaos, Chen Huaiyu ran on the deck, constantly cursing a young captain, but the captain was calm, beckoned his subordinates to throw away the sampan, pulled the brother who surveyed the channel up, and at the same time stood in the rudder position, together with the jiss and spinnaker, to complete the steering as soon as possible.

The captain was Guo Huaiyi's illegitimate son, Guo Xu, a young man who was a born sailor, and after joining the trading company, he started as a helmsman and became the captain of a dhow-going ship in just four months, responsible for traveling between Macau and Tamsui, as the captain of the notification ship, transporting letters and some valuables.

During the trial voyage of the Hongyan, the biggest loss was that the captain assigned to the ship flashed his waist, so Guo Xu was temporarily recruited and became the acting captain of the ship.

Complex operations came out of Guo Xu's mouth are simple and clear orders, which he learned during his internship on the Dongfang, although he was promoted so quickly because of Guo Huaiyi's relationship, but it is undeniable that among the younger generation of sailors, Guo Xu is one of the best.

"If you dare to force Lai Lai to finish it, Lao Tzu will throw you down!" When Guo Xu ordered the helmsman to turn the rudder, Chen Huaiyu still scolded him in his ear, which finally consumed Guo Xu's patience, he grabbed Chen Huaiyu's shoulder, roared in his ear, and stuffed him into the low stern behind him.

Chen Huaiyu has always bullied the soft and feared the hard, and when he was so frightened, he suddenly lost his voice, but he was duty, and when the turn was completed and Guo Xu's order stopped, Chen Huaiyu still poked his head out and said: "Guo Xu, you have to be clear that buying the water order flag from the Zheng family is the overall situation, and you can't spoil the big thing of the shopkeeper Li." ”

This sentence woke up Guo Xu, and Guo Xu immediately changed the order: "Lower the upper sail, remove the spinnaker and diagonal truss sail, and tell the gun commander that the enemy will fire when he gets close to Baizhang." ”

At the end of the order, Guo Xu grabbed his most trusted sailor and said, "You go to the mainmast and hang up the flags of Dongyin and Du Company." ”

"Yes, Captain." The sailor answered, tied the flag to his waist, and climbed the mainmast like a nimble monkey.

"What are you doing, Guo Xu, why are you hanging the flag of red hair." Chen Huaiyu asked.

Guo Xu said lightly: "I am protecting the fragile relationship between the trading company and the Zheng family. ”

This time, Guo Xu operated the Hongyan and sent Chen Huaiyu to Zhengjia, Fujian, and after entering Zhangzhou Bay, he began to measure the local hydrology, especially the waterway situation, in accordance with the secret order.

Although before coming, Li Zhaoji reminded that this trip may be dangerous, and once the Zheng family launches a provocation and attack, it must be responded to, and it must not be captured, but Li Zhaoji set a premise for this order, that is, all resistance must be after Chen Huaiyu and the Zheng family meet.

In other words, even if the Zheng family fights with the trading company, it should be Zheng Zhilong's order, and it cannot be caused by the impulse of the people at the bottom or a misunderstanding.

Now that the Zheng family's fleet has pounced, it is obviously a situation that the big shopkeeper is trying to avoid.

In order to avoid a direct conflict between the two sides, and in order to make up for it afterwards, Guo Xu immediately ordered someone to lower the unique sail shape of the merchant ship of the trading company and hoist the flag of the Dutch.

Guo Xu ordered the gunner to open fire when the Zheng family patrol ship was close to Baizhang, and it was also for this reason that as long as the fire was fired, the guns and soldiers on the Zheng family patrol ship in the distance would not find that this big ship in the style of a foreign ship was full of yellow-skinned and black-haired guys.

Shi Lang was still misled by his own experience after all.

He thought that the foreign ship was large and inconvenient to turn, so he could approach the wind and give full play to the short-range and high-speed characteristics of the galleys to surround and attack, but no one expected that the foreign ship would turn so fast, and after turning, the sails would move forward, and the speed was even faster than he expected.

This is mainly because the Hongyan came as an envoy ship this time, and there was no other cargo on board except the necessary armament, only some gifts. Moreover, the Hongyan was launched not long ago, and the hull was clean, especially the bottom of the ship, and there was no marine life attached, so it was extremely fast.

When Shi Lang found out, he let the oarsman row and pursue, it was already impossible to catch up, only the dhows he was on could catch up, but this ship was one-third the size of the Hongyan, and there were only two mountain splitting cannons on board, and in the face of the four-pounder guns on each side of the Hongyan, he immediately fell down, and the dhows shuttled in the water column hit by the cannonballs, like a hound chasing a porcupine covered with thorns, even though it occupied a good position countless times, but did not dare to really go up and take a bite.

It was dark, and when night approached, Shi Lang sat down on the dhow and returned home.

"What now?"

After the Hongyan got rid of the pursuit, Guo Xu immediately sent twice as many drinks to the sailors of the whole ship, and Chen Huaiyu appeared beside Guo Xu and asked.

"Back to Tamsui, rest assured, I will write everything today into the logbook and report it truthfully to the big treasurer." Guo Xu said, and he said with a straight face: "If the big shopkeeper is to blame, I will also bear it." ”

"But my duty is ........" Chen Huaiyu was a little hesitant, on behalf of the trading company and the gentry of Guangdong, he asked the Zheng family to buy the water order flag, which was his only business, if this matter could not be done, he could only go back to Guangzhou in disgrace.

Guo Xu smiled: "Of course this thing will be done, I think the big shopkeeper will send you on another ship." ”

Zheng family.

"A Dutch-flagged three-masted ship is also firing directly at you, measuring the hydrographic ....... of Zhangzhou Bay." Zheng Zhilong in the hall listened to Shi Lang's report and muttered to himself, he fell into deep thought, so much so that he forgot to let Shi Lang get up.

Zheng Hongkui asked Shi Lang to get up and took the initiative to ask: "Shi Lang, are you sure that it is a three-masted ship, not two?" Can you read the name of the ship? ”

"It's one, my boat chased it all day, and I didn't see any other ships, and as for the name of the ship, they covered it with a straw mat from the beginning." Shi Lang got up and said seriously.

Zheng Zhilong asked, "Fourth brother, what two ships?" ”

Zheng Hongkui smiled and said: "There are two red-haired boats moored on Dongchun Island, and Zheng Cai is responsible for negotiating, Xu is too busy to explain to the eldest brother, that is, the matter of the past few days." I heard it was a three-masted Ahat, a sloop. ”

Zheng Zhilong's face changed slightly: "Zheng Cai, this guy, is getting more and more bold. ”

Zheng Cai is Zheng Zhilong's nephew, but the age is similar to him, and he was also one of the eighteen Zhi, although the surviving eighteen Zhizhi have joined Zheng Zhilong's Zheng maritime group, but because of the old relationship, there are many internal factions, and Zheng Cai is an important one.

These factions also have their own deals, because in the peace talks with the Dutch back then, Zheng Cai and Zheng Hongkui both went to the big government as hostages and stayed for two years, so after that, whether it was Zheng Cai or Zheng Hongkui, they secretly did some business with the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong didn't care.