Chapter 656 Defeat

The various supplies that were painstakingly transported from Penghu were piled on the dock of Nanri Island for several days before they could be put to use. Now they had to be reloaded. Of course, not all the baggage had to be reloaded.

The ship was shipped back to Penghu, and part of the supplies had to be thrown here in order to reduce the burden. Zheng Zhihu ordered that only necessary supplies such as ammunition, weapons, food, grass, and fresh water be loaded on the ship, and all other supplies were abandoned, so that the load on the ship would be smaller and the sailing speed could be faster.

, and this is also the hope of escaping from the encirclement.

Although Zheng Zhihu had been unable to fight his opponents and retreated in his past battles, this was the first time in his memory that he had retreated so passively. To the outside world, he was just a pirate leader, but in the ten

He is a general with military power within Bazhi, and such a failure is a shame for a senior general - he did not achieve the goal of the battle, did not create enough trouble for the enemy, and the battle was declared at the very beginning.

At the end, although you can still hold on, the outcome is actually decided.

Zheng Zhihu's current mood is even worse than when he lost the artillery battle that day. He can tolerate the gap in weapons and combat levels with his opponents, but this defeat at Nanri Island can be said to be a complete loss, from beginning to end.

There was not even a chance of victory. This was a huge blow to the self-confidence of a general leading troops. Even if he could return to Penghu safely this time, Zheng Zhihu knew that he would probably not have another chance in the future.

An opportunity to lead troops to fight the Haihan people.

While Zheng Zhihu was sitting in his tent thinking about life, suddenly a soldier came into the tent in a panic and reported: "Master, the enemy ships outside the harbor are moving!"

Zheng Zhihu immediately came to his senses, grabbed his waist knife and walked out: "Hurry up and give the order to the gunner!"

Shibazhi was blocked in the harbor by the combined fleets of the Fujian Navy and the Haihan Navy and was unable to escape, but it did not sit still and wait for death. In order to prevent the opponent's warships from breaking in from the sea, Zheng Zhihu arranged all the remaining artillery on the dock.

, the muzzle of the cannon is facing the direction of the harbor entrance. However, Zheng Zhihu is not very sure whether the remaining ten cannons can block this opening, and he knows very well that once the opponent really launches an offensive, it is very likely that

It will be a thunderous attack, leaving no room for chance, and there will be no chance of any luck.

When Zheng Zhihu rushed to the pier, he could already see the opponent's warships appearing on the sea surface at the entrance of the harbor one after another. They were only about two miles away from the pier. At this distance, Shibazhi's artillery was still temporarily

Unable to exert its power, Zheng Zhihu could only watch helplessly as his opponent's ships approached the port little by little.

"Stop when the distance is about the same. We don't need to get too close." At the same time, Xie Li also issued an order on his ship: "No ships are allowed to rush in, and they are only allowed to fire from a safe distance!"

Xie Li didn't really intend to rush into the harbor to kill the pirate sailboats. The harbor was less than 1500 meters from east to west and less than 1000 meters from north to south. The area was too small. If the fleet couldn't even deploy its formation if it rushed in, it would definitely be

Mixed with Shibazhi's ship, the use of heavy weapons such as artillery would be a nuisance weapon and could easily hurt one's own people. Therefore, the tactics adopted by Xie Li were relatively conservative, which was to let the Haihan warship equipped with heavy artillery in a safe place.

Directly bombard the pirate ships in the harbor from a certain distance.

It is actually difficult to achieve the sinking effect of shelling at this distance. The main purpose is to create panic in the Shibazhi on the shore. After all, these pirates' last hope of leaving Nanri Island is these ships. If

Once the ship was destroyed, they completely lost the possibility of escaping.

And not all the artillery on the Haihan warship can exert its power at this distance. The design of the naval gun is originally to pursue close-range lethality. The barrel is shorter, and the range is therefore closer, which is better than that used by the army.

The range of artillery of the same caliber is almost half. Only about one-third of the artillery on warships can cover the range of pirate ships in the harbor.

But despite this, when the Haihan warship started bombarding, Chaos still appeared in Shibazhi's camp as expected. Some pirates who were unwilling to sit still and wait for death rushed to board the ship, trying to escape from this passive environment of being beaten.

But there are also a few people who have remained rational and believe that now is not the best time to escape. Even if they want to run away, they should wait and see the situation before making any decisions.

Zheng Zhihu was one of the few people who still maintained his sense. The reason why he did not organize an escape in a panic was because he realized that the bay was too small and the fleets of the Ming army and Haihan did not dare to rush in to meet them.

Side battle. But now the firing distance of the Haihan warship is too far, so it is difficult to cause substantial damage to the Shibazhi fleet in the harbor. If the ship rushes out, it will give the opponent close range artillery fire.

chance, the chance of the ship being hit will be greatly increased.

However, the pirates under his command were not in such a calm mood to analyze the situation. After two peaceful days, almost all the pirates' nerves were already highly tense, and everyone was waiting for the final battle to break out.

Haihan took the initiative to launch an offensive from the sea at this time. In the eyes of most people, this was interpreted as Haihan's general attack. If he didn't escape by boat at this time, did he have to wait until the Haihan people sank all their ships?

At the port?

Leaving Nanri Island alive is the only hope left for every pirate now, but Zheng Zhihu's previous command obviously did not get the approval of his subordinates. After all, from the first confrontation between the two sides two months ago to this comeback, they attacked again.

On Nanri Island, Zheng Zhihu didn't even take advantage of the slightest, and all his tactics were restrained by his opponents. How could anyone willingly obey his command and dispatch? Therefore, regarding Zheng Zhihu's decision to order to defend the port,

Not everyone is willing to do this, and some small-time leaders who have long been dissatisfied would rather risk their lives and escape under shelling than continue to squat on the island waiting for an unclear outcome.

And the escape of these people has attracted more people who originally had a wait-and-see attitude - everyone else has escaped, so why should I stay and wait for death? When there are many people and boats, I might just take advantage of the chaos and get out.

Zheng Zhihu looked at the chaotic situation at the port, and the expression on his face was full of despair. He did not expect that he spent so much manpower, material and financial resources to organize the attack on Nanri Island. In the end, he did not even have a chance to confront his opponent on the battlefield.

Before it appeared, our own side was already in a state of defeat.

Seeing hundreds of people swarming on the dock to board the ship, Zheng Zhihu knew that he could no longer stop these irrational people. Even if he wanted to pursue the responsibility, he would probably have to wait until he returned to Penghu alive.

"Pack your bags and get ready to board the ship and go to sea!" Zheng Zhihu reluctantly gave the order. Even if he stayed now, he would definitely not be able to gather the morale of the army again and organize a decisive battle with the opponent. The only solution for now is to follow the trend and first

Let’s talk about escaping from Nanri Island.

However, this was not the worst situation. Just a moment later, someone came to report that the defenders of Nanri Village had been dispatched and were less than two miles away from the pirate camp. And there were many large mules and horses in the team.

The vehicle is suspected to be towing several Haihan cannons.

It rained all night, and Zheng Zhihu had no time to think about why the enemy forces on land and sea, which were so far apart, could move so synchronously. The top priority was no longer how to resist the enemy's two-pronged attack, but how to seize the opportunity.

The only chance of survival is to get out of this predicament as soon as possible.

Zheng Zhihu's run directly led to the complete collapse of the Shibazhi camp. No one was willing to stay behind to face the wolf-like Haihan militia. When Takahashi Nan led the leading troops to arrive outside the Shibazhi camp

, it was already quiet here, and there was no one on the wall responsible for keeping an eye on the enemy.

"Set up the cannons and blast open the gate!" Takahashi Minami did not rush to charge. Instead, he asked people to set up the two three-pound small-caliber cannons that arrived at the same time as the leading troops. While blasting the door, he also took a look at his opponents.

Do you still want to set up an ambush?

With the sound of two cannons, the wooden gate of the pirate camp trembled and fell into the dust. Afterwards, not to mention the human figure, there was not even the slightest movement. The sound of shelling from the distant sea could be faintly heard.

Takahashi Minami pulled out the command knife from his waist and pointed forward: "Follow me! If you encounter any resistance, we will kill them all!"

The situation at sea was not much better than on land. Although the warships of Haihan Navy were not enough to block the entire sea, Xie Li came up with a way to make up for it based on the battlefield situation. He concentrated Haihan's warships in

The east side of the harbor exit was lined up in a battle formation, while about a third of the gap was left on the west side. In this way, the pirate ships escaping from the harbor would definitely not choose to attack the Haihan warship head-on.

Instead, the array will bypass this dangerous area and grab the one third of the width of the safe channel.

However, since the pier in the harbor is on the east side, these pirate ships will also be exposed to the artillery firing range of the Haihan warship when they circumvent this dangerous water area. Even if they can escape from the artillery fire and enter safety

The waterway does not mean that it is already safe, because outside this safe waterway, more than 40 warships of the Fujian Navy were densely lined up in an arc-shaped circle with two layers of inner and outer layers, waiting to rush out.

The pirate ship fell into a trap.

Compared with attacking targets thousands of meters away, the hit rate of naval guns when shooting at close-range targets is obviously much higher, and these live targets are still queuing up one after another, allowing the gunners on the Haihan battleship to

They were very busy for a period of time. In order to maintain the continuity of firepower output, the naval officers had to order only half of the ship's broadside guns to be used for attack. When the gun body overheated and needed to cool down, the other half of the gun was used to replace it.

Although the density of artillery fire is difficult to ensure that the target is sunk within a short range of one thousand meters at the port entrance, it is difficult for most pirate ships to avoid being shot, and once the belly, mast, stern rudder and other key parts of the ship are hit, the ship's navigation will be affected.

The speed will be immediately significantly affected, and at the same time it will block the narrow channel, impeding the fleeing pirate ships behind it.

Zheng Zhihu's boat did not choose to take the shortest escape route to compete with other pirate ships to see who had better luck. Instead, he chose the near-shore route, making a large circle in the harbor and then sailing to the escape channel on the west side. And in the distance,

The sight of the Haihan warship was blocked, making it difficult to aim at the ship and shoot.

Zheng Zhihu looked back at the pier. The last group of pirates were still hurriedly boarding the ship, while the Haihan militiamen had already entered the camp. They were only about a hundred feet away from the pier. The last group of pirates who boarded the ship were large.

Some of them were injuries from previous battles. Obviously, these people would not have much chance to escape from Nanri Island. Zheng Zhihu clenched his fists tightly, and his eyes almost burst out of fire. He really wanted to fight with Hai Hanmin.

He wanted to fight against the enemy, but he also knew that even if he stayed on the island, it would not change the outcome of the battle.

Shibazhi lost, badly. They lost not only Nanri Island and the elite troops they brought this time, but also the belief in a decisive battle with the Haihan people in the future. Giving up Nanri Island and fleeing back to Penghu, maybe they can

Let Shiba Zhi maintain temporary peace, but Zheng Zhihu has a strong feeling in his heart that the Haihan people will not give up. When a certain time comes, they will definitely send troops to Penghu and continue to kill Shiba Zhi. And this opponent will not

The Ming army was so easy to deal with in the past. Not only were they good at conquering and fighting, but they also seemed unable to bribe them with profits. The entire southeast coast had only heard of so-and-so being secretly bribed by the Haihan people, but never heard of anyone who had bribed the Haihan people.

Han people.

"After I go back, I have to advise my elder brother to find another way. Fighting with the Haihan people like this is really not an option!" Zheng Zhihu now remembered that before going to war, a counselor suggested temporarily avoiding their edge but was rejected by him. He felt a little regretful. If Fujian really

If you can't stay any longer, you can go north to the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to find a big island to stay, or going south to Luzon Island is also a good choice. Why bother to fight to the death with the evil star Haihan? Even if you have to move, it's still a problem.

It's troublesome, but it's better than the current situation of being passively beaten.

Before Zheng Zhihu could recover from his meditation, a cannonball passed over his ship, breaking the main mast in the middle, and the deck suddenly became a mess. This cannonball came from the westmost ship.

A Haihan warship, and it was from the bow gun. The gunner also saw that the pirate ship was about to enter the escape channel, so he fired a cannon to try his luck. Unexpectedly, one shot into the soul broke its main mast. This was also Zheng Zhihu's hit.

Destined.

"Don't panic! Push the mast into the sea and keep moving forward!" Zheng Zhihu saw that the fallen mast pressed the ship to the side, and quickly organized the sailors to save themselves. His ship was a three-masted ship, even if it was lost

The main mast and main sail still have the power to move forward, but the speed is much slower.
Chapter completed!