The 24 warships of the Fujian Navy approached Penghu Bay with difficulty in the increasingly fierce northwest wind.
"Mother Mazu!" An old helmsman looked blankly at the sky in the northwest and exclaimed loudly. Shen Yourong turned around and saw that the sky in the northwest was covered with dark clouds, and the dark clouds were quickly rushing toward the ship. The direction of the team. Shen Yourong's heart suddenly tightened: before leaving, a ship's helmsman warned him that when going to sea in this kind of weather, it is easy to encounter black clouds from the north, and once he encounters black clouds, he will It means that the most violent storm is coming.
The weather was not favourable, and before the fleet had time to take shelter at Magong Harbor in Penghu Bay, the dark storm caught up with them. It was dark for a while, and people could not see each other's faces when facing each other. The fleet suddenly dispersed, and the space between the ships was completely filled with water. Amid the storm and darkness, they lost contact with each other.
Before going to sea, Shen Yourong personally rushed to the Guanlong Bridge in Lianjiang City and visited the home of Chen Di, a retired veteran who had followed Qi Jiguang in fighting Japanese pirates and studied military art with Yu Dayou. He sincerely invited Chen Di to sail eastward with the military ship and serve as his staff. military adviser.
Although Chen Di was over sixty years old, he heard that he was going to fight the Japanese pirates. The old man went crazy and agreed. He was a capable man with both civil and military skills. The famous general Yu Dayou once praised him personally: "I should be a famous general. He is a very good general." What a scholar!" Shen Yourong asked him to come out because he wanted to use his maritime combat experience. At this moment, Chen Di's experience came into play.
He immediately and calmly asked Shen Yourong to order the boat to approach the shore immediately, and ordered people to beat gongs and drums, and ordered the boats that could hear the gongs and drums to approach him in the boat. In fact, this was also very dangerous, two people in the darkness It is entirely possible for the ships to collide.
The storm came and went quickly. It took half a day for the rain to stop and the wind to subside. Only then did Shen Yourong realize that there were only 5 boats following him to take shelter here. And his shelter was a narrow bay with a high terrain. It is so dangerous that two ships are not even allowed to run parallel to each other at the exit.
After waiting for three days, only three ships came to rendezvous. Shen Yourong really lost his patience and gathered 8 ships and sailed out of the narrow bay. He was happy to find that 6 warships were cruising in the open sea, looking for There is no trace of him. Other ships may never come to meet him.
Now he has 14 warships and 400 soldiers on hand. Shen Yourong does not hesitate to continue the expedition to the east, and his group of soldiers will not do it anymore. Shen Yourong talks hard, including threats and inducements, plus still With the northwest wind blowing, it was difficult for the ships to retreat to the mainland, so his expedition fleet finally continued to set off.
One day later, the fleet finally saw the island of Taiwan, which was covered with emerald green vegetation. When approaching the waters of Yingang-Beigang, Shen Yourong shouted an order and ordered the fleet to line up in two columns and sail slowly towards Yingang. port. However, when the fleet just entered the inland sea, a loud noise was heard in the port: "Boom!"
"It's a cannon!" a soldier shouted loudly.
"Did the Japanese pirates already know about our arrival?" Shen Yourong said with a frown.
"No, listen to the sound of the cannon. This is at least the sound of several thousand-jin cannons fired at the same time. There are no cannons on the Japanese pirates' ships!" Veteran Chen Di said: "The Japanese pirates must be fighting with other people, no matter what. , General Shen, this is our opportunity!"
There was another sound of firearms firing from the direction of the harbor.
Shen Yourong immediately issued an order to prepare for battle. The fleet maintained formation and slowly entered the port.
A battle scene that made them unable to believe their eyes appeared before the navy officers and soldiers.
Shen Yourong was even more surprised. He saw the strange ship that he had desperately chased half a year ago, slowly circling in the harbor, and having a lively fight with the seven Japanese pirate ships surrounding it.
The strange ship was covered with thorns, and many portholes were opened on the hull. Musket bullets and cannon shot were continuously fired from various parts of the hull. Arrows kept flying out in the thick smoke. The surrounding people were surrounded by thorns. Because the Yawata ship is much shorter than the monster ship, it is difficult to board the ship. You have to climb on the opponent's hull. However, the monster ship keeps spinning in place and keeps firing with muskets and artillery. The Japanese pirates They were suppressed by the opponent's firepower. Even if they got close to the hull, the combatants could not get out of the cabin and climb onto the side of the ship.
Yes, this is the second time Yin Feng was attacked by authentic Japanese pirates in Jingang.
He originally wanted to stop in Taiwan and contact Li Dan who had returned from Luzon. However, he did not expect that the Chinese pirates and private traders had received early warning of the arrival of officers and soldiers, and they all went to various coastal islands to hide from the limelight. What remained were the Japanese pirates and Japanese traders who had spent the winter, as well as about a hundred homeless Han refugees. The Japanese were already domineering in the Yingang area, and they were in constant conflict with the Han people. Suddenly, the Han pirates and private traders came together. After leaving, the Japanese pirates suddenly had no opponent to check and balance. They violated all the rules of the pirate port without any scruples. The merchant ship was robbed.
Yin Feng's Xinxing number is just an extra-large straw.
Originally, the Xinxing sailed into the inner sea of Yingang to take shelter from the wind. Fortunately, this time it did not get too close to the beach, and the ship disembarked from the anchorage. When it was suddenly attacked by Japanese pirates, the helmsman Mai Dahai cut off the cables tied to the anchorage with an axe, and quickly turned around. The rudder turned the ship's bow. The old mercenary Major Coutre fired a cannon at the stern of the ship. The 12-pound iron bullet fired by the huge thousand-pound heavy gun passed over the mast of the leading Japanese pirate Hachiman ship and fell into the sea water by the beach. It caused a splash of water several feet high. Because it was too close to the Japanese pirate ship, the stern heavy gun could not adjust its elevation angle. The purpose of firing from this distance was just to scare the enemy.
The Japanese pirates were indeed dazed for a while, but they immediately understood the limitations of this heavy artillery. The Japanese pirate oarsmen rowed hard, and all the Japanese pirate ships tried to get closer to the Xinxing. The closer they were, the safer they were.
When Yin Feng designed this ship, he originally designed it as a dual-purpose ship. There were fifteen portholes on the left and right hulls for firing cannons. Although he only had four 6-pound bronze cannons, he got them from Macau There are 8 Folan cannons. These are retired and scrapped weapons of the Macau Municipal Guard, and Yin Feng bought them all.
When the Japanese pirates tried to get to the starboard side of the Xinxing hull, more than a dozen portholes suddenly appeared on the lower part of the hull. Four black gun ports protruded from the open windows, as well as countless small cannons and matchlock guns. The Japanese pirates were in excitement, waving their swords and guns, and only a few clever guys immediately lay down on the deck of the ship.
The four 6-pound cannons fired at the same time, and with a loud "boom", the hull of the Xinxing was shaken and seemed to move a few inches to the left. Countless iron sand and gravels were shot out in a fan shape, and the smoke was mixed with the whistling sound, and the sudden explosion With screams, a large number of Japanese pirates were swept down by the hail of bullets. The Yawata ship closest to the Xinxing was the hardest hit. Dozens of Japanese pirates gathered on the deck were swept away and fell into the water like dumplings, leaving behind The only thing on the ship was the blood-stained remains of severed limbs all over the deck.
On the seven Japanese pirate hachiman boats, the people standing on the bow were killed almost at the same time. The rest of the people were lucky and only had a few scratches. The more unlucky ones had either fallen into the water to feed the fish, or were lying in the blood on the deck, writhing in pain.
Called. A Japanese pirate leader wearing armor had his left arm broken. He knelt on the deck and supported himself with a Japanese sword in his right hand. He raised his bloody head and looked at the tall hull of the Xinxing with absent-minded eyes.
"Bang!", there was a gunshot, and his Tianling Gai exploded with blood. He was hit in the head by a matchlock bullet, and his body tilted and fell on the deck.
On the bow of the Xinxing, Yin Feng patted Lin Xiao on the shoulder: "Brother Guangshi, that's good. Your marksmanship is getting better and better."
Lin Xiao put down his musket, loaded the ammunition quickly, and said with a smile: "What's this? It's such a close range, it's weird that you can't hit it."
Not everyone is as brave as Lin Xiao, who has seen blood since he was a child. Although the Danmin sailors have gone through Yin Feng's devilish training, they have never seen such bloody scenes. In the past two years, although every day
Portuguese veteran Coutre was in charge of the training and trained them to death as if they were sailors, but ordinary pirates would not dare to mess with their strange ship with cannons.
The sailors forgot to fire their muskets and bows for a while, and just stared blankly.
"After all, it's the first time!" Yin Feng muttered and said loudly to Lin Xiao: "Go and direct the cannon team to open fire. We can't let the Japanese pirates catch their breath!"
It was still too late, and those ronin warriors who had been fighting in Japan for a long time responded quickly; the uninjured iron gunners and archers gathered together and fired at the Xinxing; the seven ships spread out and opened a large
Arc, trying to outflank Yin Feng's Xinxing, preventing his artillery from being able to fire concentratedly.
Yin Feng asked Mai Dahai to control the boat to keep spinning and slowly move toward the open sea.
Major Coutre commanded the artillery team in the cabin below the deck, assigning Fran cannons to 4 guns on each side of the ship. On the deck, Yin Feng ordered 50 arquebusiers to gather in the center of the ship and stand in a small 6X6 square formation.
, and another 14 arquebusiers went to the stern of the ship to protect the helmsman. He was going to repeat the old tricks he used on the Goa, letting the Japanese pirates board the ship, and then using muskets to deal with them. There were also a dozen archers swimming along the side of the ship.
Shooting. Archers cannot be trained in a short period of time. The bow and arrow skills of these sailors cannot be complimented, but it is still useful to harass them.
Due to the small porthole openings, the ships on both sides were in constant motion. The Japanese pirates' attempt to suppress the artillery with iron cannon fire was unsuccessful. The guns fired sparks and wood chips on the side of the ship, but only a few sailors of the Xinxing suffered minor injuries.
Once a Hachiman ship approached, it would either be knocked away by the Hsing-hsing ship's hull that suddenly came sideways, or it would suffer heavy casualties from the shotgun shells of the Folan cannon, making it impossible to launch a gang-up offensive.
Moreover, the Japanese pirate ships were scattered and outflanked, causing their firepower to be dispersed. The Japanese pirates' firepower was originally not advantageous against the Xinxing, and now the situation is even more serious. Moreover, the dispersion of the fleet also made it impossible to concentrate troops, with only a few scattered
The Japanese pirates desperately stepped onto the deck of the Xinxing and were immediately shot to death with matchlocks by the waiting sailors.
Seeing that his side had the advantage, Yin Feng became more and more excited, waving his revolver, and despite the black man Magaro's repeated persuasion, he always stood on the side of the ship. Unfortunately, a bullet from the iron cannon happened to
It hit him on the shoulder and he rolled over and fell to the ground.
"The captain is injured!" the sailors exclaimed.
At this time, morale cannot be shaken. Yin Feng gritted his teeth, stood up with the support of Magaro, and shouted loudly: "I'm fine, brothers, go to the side of the ship and fire in small groups!"
The moment Yin Feng was hit by a bullet, he suddenly understood a problem: this time the Japanese pirates did not have the firepower to suppress their own side, and they had to change their style of play. Therefore, in the usual training, a team of 10 people and a three-stack shooting tactic came into play.
Effect. Yin Feng's musketeers came to the side of the ship one after another, braving the Japanese pirates' guns and actively shooting at the enemy. Continuous matchlock shooting quickly suppressed the Japanese pirates. In the smoke, the Japanese pirates were shot one after another and fell on the deck, or fell into the air.