"In spring, there is a strong east wind, which brings swallows to build new nests. In summer, there is a strong south wind, which blows the sun like a basin of fire..."

There are not many children's songs that Yang Zhenhui can sing, and this is one of them.

Fortunately, he still remembered this children's song, which made him know that there are many east winds in spring, and the southeast wind likes to blow in Liaodong Bay in spring in March.

The southeast wind blew, and the fleet led by Yuan Jin, which was mainly composed of galleys, did not require oarsmen to appear. It could maintain a certain speed by relying only on the sails and sailed towards the sea outside Songshan.

Ningyuan City is not far from Songshan City, and the distance on land is only one hundred and fifty miles at most.

If all Yang Zhen's men were cavalry, then day and night would have arrived anyway.

If it is a mixture of horse and foot, and if you are carrying guns and baggage, the speed may be slower. In addition, if you camp at night and do not rush, it may take more time.

But no matter what, three days is enough.

This is the speed and time under normal circumstances, that is to say, it is like this when there is no ambush, pursuit or interception by the Tatar cavalry.

So, if you take the sea route, the distance may be a bit longer, but in terms of time, you can travel day and night, and there will definitely be no Tatar ambush or interception, so no matter how slow it is, it will not be slower than "Mabu Camp takes the land route"

The advance is slow.

Therefore, after two sunrises and sunsets, in the early morning of the third day, when the sun had just climbed above the sea level, Yang Zhen roughly calculated the time and asked Yuan Jin to be found.

"Brother Yuan! Brother, we have calculated the time. It should be almost the same! Should we send out a few small boats to check the situation along the coast! Once we miss the best landing place, we may be delayed for a day or two!

"

"Brother Yang, don't worry! As a brother, you know what you are doing! After my brother went to Juehua Island Naval Camp, he has never had the chance to visit Songshan City and Jinzhou City! But he has been to the Military Food City on Bijia Mountain twice! Before

In order to ensure that there are no mistakes in the transportation of grain and grass, my brother has also made an on-the-spot inspection of the terrain around the mouth of the Xiaoling River. Where the boat can be sailed and where the shore is reliable, it is all in my mind! You can relax!"

Yuan Jin was a pirate leader and had been working in the navy in the Denglai area since he was recruited. He was most concerned about the hydrological conditions on these coastlines. Seeing Yang Zhen's concern, he immediately said this.

However, as a supporting role in this trip, Yuan Jin still followed Yang Zhen's suggestion and quickly passed the order, asking all ships to lower their main sails, slow down, and slowly begin to gather the fleet's formation.

Then, two more small boats, centipede boats, were sent out, rowing oars, and sailed towards the west coast.

In the early hours of this morning, the ship passed the sea outside Bijia Mountain. In order not to disturb the garrison at Bijia Mountain's military food city and not to leak the news that Yang Zhen and his party were heading north by sea, Yuan Jin specially asked the team leader to take a boat far away from the waters of Bijia Mountain.

Drive for a while and distance to the depths of Liaodong Bay.

Calculating the time, we have already passed the Beacon Hill sea area, and now it is indeed time to head west to find a suitable docking place.

It took two days and three nights to sail around the sea. For Yuan Jin and the oarsmen and boatmen under his command, this was just routine, and there was nothing special about it.

For them, it is common for them to float on the sea for ten and a half days without landing or docking, and even losing sight of islands and land.

But for the landlubbers under Yang Zhen, especially the three hundred Mongolian soldiers led by guerrilla Xu Changyong, the experience of these two days and three nights was like being in hell.

Problems with wind and waves, seasickness, eating problems, vomiting, and the smell of feces and urine from the accompanying horses all tortured these people to death.

When the fleet slowed down and began to gather its formation, they all ran to the deck to catch their breath. Every one of them seemed to be seriously ill, listless and half-dead.

Yang Zhen's men and Zu Keyong's men were doing much better. Although they were not feeling well, they could still hold on.

Most of these Han troops were soldiers from the Liaodong Guards Station, and some were simply from fishermen along the coast of Liaodong. They were not afraid of riding on sea ships, facing the wind and waves on the sea, and facing the endless and bottomless sea.

It's not that strange and scary.

Even though they suffered from various physical discomforts, they continued to complete various tasks assigned to them by Yang Zhen.

In the past two days, taking advantage of the relatively quiet time at sea, the men of the musketry team, under the command of Zhang Chen and Zhang Guogan, finally completed the "replacement of match ropes into flintlocks" of Lumi gun.

Zhang Degui and Yang Shen, on another large ship, finally used oil paper bags and silk bags that they didn't get anywhere to quantitatively pack the maximum safe dosage of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Folang Machine.

Hundreds of medicine packs came out, and the urgent needs for landing were finally found.

Pan Wenmao, who also belonged to the artillery team, had never even been on the artillery team's ship. He just focused on getting a brazier under the cabin, setting up an iron pot, and continuing to boil saltwater.

During the process of boiling saltwater day and night, the smell emitted from the cabin was extremely unpleasant, not only choking the mouth and nose, but also irritating the eyes.

But no one dared to say anything, even Yang Zhen himself could only endure it silently, because he had already leaked the news with his mouth open, saying that Pan Wenmao was ordered to develop new propellants.

And if they can't come up with this new propellant, the "Lumi gun" they modified will be no different from a fire stick.

As for Li Lu, except for one visit when Yang Zhengang boarded the ship, he did not show up at other times. He was also preoccupied with the filling and sealing of various types of soil bombs with his adjutant Pan Xi.

All kinds of wine jars and pottery jars with big bellies and small mouths, as well as various iron boxes and porcelain bottles collected in Ningyuan City, were all regarded as treasures by Li Lu and Pan Xi.

Li Lu and Pan Xi seemed to suddenly have an enlightenment. Even the various large conch shells filled with sand and gravel used for ballast on the ships of Yuan Jin's fleet were replaced by Li Lu and Pan Xitao.

.

The sand was poured out, then stuffed into gunpowder bags wrapped in oil paper, and then filled with broken stones knocked from various ballast stones, which became the "hand grenades" prepared by the grenadiers to throw.

In two days and two nights, three to four hundred of these "conch shell" grenades were loaded.

Let us say that at noon on the seventh day of March, one of the two boats sent by Yuan Jin to dock to explore the situation came back and reported that six or seven miles west and slightly north from where the fleet anchored, the Xiaoling River enters the sea.

The estuary of the river is flooded with mudflats.

To the south of the river mouth, there is a sandbar with dry reeds on the shore. It faces the land across the swamp, but there is a dilapidated camp on it. There is no flag or stove smoke in the distance.

Yang Zhen was overjoyed after hearing the report from Yuan Jin's naval camp sentinel, and kept shouting: "Okay! Good! Great! God is helping me! Brother Yuan! We immediately raised the sail, turned to the northwest, and headed there.

Stop at the sandbank!”

For Yang Zhen, what surprised him the most was not that their current anchorage was close to the mouth of the Xiaoling River, but the sandbar not far south of the mouth of the Xiaoling River.

What's more, there is a camp that was once used on the sandbank.

No matter how dilapidated the fort is, even if it is now reduced to ruins, it at least shows that the sandbank can be used to station people and horses. It is not a temporary or seasonal sandbank.

Yang Zhen has no way of knowing the situation around Songshan City, so he doesn't dare to just find a place to dock the boat in a daze, and then land and set up camp. What if he encounters Tatars?!

And this sandbank near the mouth of Xiaoling River provided him with a place to stay.

So after hearing the news, he was overjoyed and immediately urged Yuan Jin to command the fleet, adjust its direction, and dock at the sandbank.

However, Yuan Jin did not immediately give the order, but remained silent and just looked towards the coast, seeming to be thinking about something.

Yang Zhen was confused when he saw this, looked at Yuan Jin and said: "Brother Yuan! Is there anything wrong?!"

"Brother Yang! The weather is fine today and the wind and waves are light. This is originally a good thing! However, for a fleet as large as ours, it is not a good thing to anchor at the shore at this time! If the Tatars are on the coast
Chapter completed!