The darkness has passed, and light has returned to the world, making human killing more calm.
After resting for the night, the East China Sea Fleet set off again and pounced towards Zheng Zhibao and Shi Daxuan.
Last night, these two people stayed at Cezi Mountain.
Seeing the East China Sea Fleet approaching with great momentum, Zheng Zhibao did not waste any time and quickly ordered to continue fleeing.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the four main warships of the East China Sea Fleet passed through the strait between Jintang Mountain and Cezi Mountain and officially entered the Zhoushan Inland Sea.
Although the East China Sea Fleet was getting closer and closer, Zheng Zhibao laughed wildly.
"Zuo Hua has taken the bait. Send a message immediately so that the elder brother can make preparations."
A fast boat sailed out of Zheng Zhibao's fleet and quickly disappeared on the water.
The East China Sea Fleet divided its forces outside Jintang Mountain.
The four main warships continued to move south, and the remaining old warships all stayed in place.
The Zheng pirates on Jintang Mountain saw this scene and quickly reported to Zheng Zhilong.
"As long as those four new warships come in, we will be done. The remaining old ships are just turtles in the urn."
At noon, between Yangluo Mountain and Xiaoxie Mountain on Zhoushan Island, Zheng Zhibao and Shi Daxuan rushed in.
It seems that they are desperate to avoid the East China Sea Fleet and plan to take advantage of the numerous nearby islands and complex river channels to escape the pursuit of the East China Sea Fleet.
Even before that, Zheng Zhibao deliberately let the East China Sea Fleet close the distance, causing the last three warships of his side to be sunk.
"Commander, do you want to pursue us? Behind us is Panzhi Island. If Zheng Zhilong is really hiding there, it will be difficult for us to turn around."
Zuo Hua always held a telescope and kept observing the situation around him.
"If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you catch the tiger's cub? In order to lure Zheng Zhilong out, we have to fight hard."
Everyone in the East China Sea Fleet had no objections and followed his orders and followed Zheng Zhibao closely.
"The third boss, Xia Jun took the bait."
Zheng Zhibao was overjoyed when he saw the East China Sea Fleet entering the waters near Panzhi Island.
"Send the signal and light the smoke. This time I will use Zuo Hua's head as a flagon to comfort Hong Xu's spirit in heaven."
Among the generals of the Zheng family, Zheng Zhibao and Hong Xu have the best relationship.
Hong Xu's whereabouts in Japan were unknown. Zheng Zhibao only thought that he had died in the hands of Xia Jun and wanted revenge.
There are people from the Zheng family on the nearby islands.
Seeing the signal on the ship, they immediately lit up the beacons.
On the flat sea, the weather is very clear, and the straight smoke column can be seen clearly even dozens of miles away.
Almost in the blink of an eye, smoke was ignited on one island after another, and spread infinitely to the left and right.
Finally, there were several wolf smoke rising into the sky even on the big island of Zhoushan.
The smoke alone seemed to have woven into a huge net, tightly trapping the East China Sea Fleet in it.
In the river behind Daxie Mountain, Zheng Zhilong was already fully armed and recuperating.
When he saw the smoke rising, he immediately turned his silence into movement and rushed to the bow of the ship.
"Send the order, all troops are dispatched!"
More than a hundred warships in the river quickly raised their sails and lined up in a long line heading north along Daxie Mountain.
Obviously Zheng Zhilong planned to go around to the north of Daxie Mountain, and then go back to the back of the East China Sea Fleet to completely block Zuo Hua's retreat.
On Panzhi Island, Zheng Zhibao and Shi Daxuan no longer retreated.
They quickly crossed over and aimed their guns at the East China Sea Fleet.
At the same time, on the surrounding islands, Zheng's pirates also launched hidden artillery and began bombarding the four battleships.
These islands are very compact, so the water in the middle is not very wide, so Zheng's artillery can hit the East China Sea Fleet.
For a moment, the sound of cannons rumbled and the water column surged.
The four battleships were hit from time to time, causing sawdust to fly everywhere.
Fortunately, this kind of battleship is very strong and is difficult to be penetrated by solid artillery shells.
However, casualties are inevitable.
Being on the battlefield, Zuo Hua's heart was as solid as stone, and he began to give orders calmly, regardless of the sacrifices of the soldiers.
"Order all ships to return fire freely, follow the flagship and not leave."
There are new changes on the water surface.
Just behind the small mountain Tsui where the East China Sea Fleet had just passed, countless small boats suddenly appeared.
There was only one oar on each ship, and they rushed towards the East China Sea Fleet.
The boat was covered with firewood, and oil must have been poured on it. There were sharp spikes on the bow, like a swarm of locusts.
As expected, Zheng used fire attack tactics again.
At this moment, as long as the East China Sea Fleet turns around and retreats, it will definitely collide with these fireships head-on, and they will die or be peeled off.
It can be said that the East China Sea Fleet has a formation of fire ships behind it and blocking troops in front. It seems to be in a completely desperate situation.
Zuo Hua didn't panic at all and pointed to the southwest.
"Change the course and go up to Xiaoliangmen Mountain."
The helmsman obeyed the order and quickly got busy.
The battleship was originally sailing at full speed. Although it deflected at this time, it still continued to speed with the help of strong inertia.
On the Zheng family's side, the person commanding the fire boat formation was Zheng Hongkui.
Seeing Xia's warships turn around, he thought that Xia's army wanted to retreat along the same route, so he immediately shouted: "Use all your strength. If you let the enemy escape, we will behead them all."
During the battle, Zheng's rewards were heavy, but the punishments were also heavy.
Under strict orders, the sailors kept shouting and rowing the boat into the air.
In fact, it was July and the south wind prevailed.
Zheng's fire ship array came from the north and was traveling against the wind, so its speed would be greatly affected.
But Zheng Hongkui also has a way.
He did not let the fire ship rush directly to Xia's warships, but headed west.
In this way, the numerous fireships were equivalent to building a wall to the north.
If the Xia Army warship really returned the same way it came, it would have to rush through the middle of the fire ship formation.
The effect is exactly the same as that of a fire ship crashing into it.
However, Xia Jun's further actions exceeded everyone's expectations in the Zheng family.
The East China Sea Fleet did not turn completely, but just turned slightly to the southwest, and its speed continued unabated despite the artillery fire on various islands.
"Hmph, Zuo Hua, a coward, just thought of running away now, is it too late? He's like a headless fly. He's afraid he'll be hit and killed here."
Zheng Zhibao sneered, thinking that the East China Sea Fleet was not familiar with the terrain nearby and would go into a dead end by itself.
Regardless of the actions of the East China Sea Fleet, they just ordered everyone to fire as hard as possible to cause damage to Xia Jun's warships as much as possible.
Although the third-level battleships are fast, larger and sturdier, they are still wooden sailing ships. They took countless shells in just half an hour, and many of the ships were riddled with holes.
Fortunately, Zheng's artillery skills were very poor, and the hit rate was pitifully low, and it did not cause fatal damage to the third-tier battleship.
The four warships faced the dense barrage, fought back desperately, and broke through at full speed.
Zheng's warships and the artillery on the shore all suffered heavy blows.
It was not until this time that the gap in artillery performance between the two sides was fully reflected.
Even if the Zheng family was under siege, the damage would still be greater than that of the East China Sea Fleet. This chapter has been completed!