Captain Barreto's ship is called "Happiness", which is probably the auspicious name of the ship. Therefore, after being caught by the hurricane for three days and three nights, it only lost a lot of canvas and the cabin was partially damaged and flooded, and there was no major damage.
Hinder. When 300 people from the First Battalion of the Chinese Military Academy Student Army boarded the ship in Fuzhou, they took two ships. There were more than 200 people on the Xingfu, including Zhao Yi, Yin Bin, and more than 100 people including Li Jigong.
The other ship has disappeared.
The lucky "Happiness" was originally filled with cargo imported by Captain Barreto from Juhua Island, such as Liaodong ginseng, mink skin, deer antlers and other local products as well as a large amount of ironware. During the violent typhoon for three days and nights, the ship's
The bottom compartment was partially flooded, and some local products had been soaked by the sea water, and they looked like waste. Finally, there was enough food on the Happiness, but there was a lack of cloth and other materials on the ship. If the Happiness wanted to continue south, it could run with only one sail.
Immobile. Now, we must find a place on the coast where the ship can dock for a while so that the hull can be repaired and a new batch of canvas can be obtained.
The problem is that this may be the southern coast of North Korea, and the rebellion against the Chinese army in North Korea should still be spreading in the southern region. At least when they left Fuzhou, there was no news that Major General Yan Siqi had captured Seoul. Barreto
The captain discussed it with the student soldiers on the ship and decided that they could not go ashore rashly.
"Captain Barreto, are you not sure where this place is?" Zhao Yi, a tall man, stood on the bow of the ship and looked at the coastline with a telescope: "I can't see any villages or houses, but there are a few small streets.
Fishing boats on the beach.”
Captain Barreto also held up his binoculars and looked hard at the coastline from the side of the ship: "There are trees and jungles everywhere, and there are also fields, but why can't you see people?" He raised his head and said to Zhao Yi in skilled Hokkien: "Yizai
,can you see people?”
"I can't see anyone. Where is this place?"
"I have never been to Korea, but when I returned to Taiwan from Nagasaki, if there was a strong wind, I would go to Tsushima Island to take shelter. From my experience, this should be the southern coast of Korea opposite Tsushima Island.
"I've only passed by this area before and never landed ashore." Barreto turned around and called the captain, needleman, sailing boatswain and others, spread out a navigation chart on the bow of the ship, and while observing the coastline, he
They discussed it for a long time. In the end, they still didn't come up with any results.
The needle master in charge of navigation was an old Portuguese sailor who had studied in Prince Henry’s sailing school. He fiddled with the compass for a long time, then looked at the sky in a daze for a long time, sighed and said: “It is daytime now, I can’t see clearly.
The positions of several stars cannot determine our specific location."
Everyone had no choice but to sigh, helplessly riding a gust of east wind, and slowly approached this section of the coastline. Because he was not familiar with the sea conditions here, the captain did not dare to bring the ship close to the coast, and always kept the position about two miles away from the coastline.
It was already afternoon, but everyone still didn't find any harbor where they could temporarily anchor, not even one of the locals. There were only a few sparse and uninhabited shabby wooden houses on the entire coastline, and they had all been burned by fire, leaving only
The dark roof beams make the entire coast look very desolate and withered.
"What's going on? Isn't it said that there are many fields and people in the southern part of Korea? How come half a day has passed and you haven't even seen a ghost?" Zhao Yi said very puzzled.
"Could it be that our troops have already reached here?" Yin Bin said: "When I boarded the ship in Fuzhou, I heard that the foreign mercenary army had landed in Busan. Maybe it is very close to Busan?"
"Foreign Legion?" Barreto sniffed and sighed: "If they are really fighting nearby, it is very possible that this place will become a no-man's land."
The student soldiers and crew all showed expressions of disgust, envy or curiosity. The Foreign Legion is famous for its ferocious fighting, and their usual military discipline is so-so. Once they participate in combat, the brutality of burning and killing in the combat area is unparalleled by the Chinese Army.
All ministries are incomparable, because all the trophies captured by the Foreign Legion can be processed internally, and half of them do not have to be turned over to the headquarters. Therefore, Yin Feng has never been willing to use this unit on the battlefield of the civil war, although many of the troops in this unit
Many Europeans and Eurasians have settled in Taiwan.
At this time, the sailor on the lookout on the top of the mainmast, the only one with canvas, sounded the alarm. The crew immediately took their places after hearing the news. The lookout waved a small red flag vigorously on the top of the mast, which meant
An unidentified ship appears ahead!
There is a 36-pound naval gun on the bow of the Happiness, and the boatswain is already directing the crew to load propellant packs and shells. Zhao Yi and Yin Bin looked at each other and immediately directed the members of the student army to get weapons and prepare for battle.
Barreto stood on the bow of the boat, looking far into the distance. However, he was not the lookout who claims to be "able to see small fishing boats ten miles away in the daytime." Even if he looked hard with his binoculars, he could not find anything in front of him.
Appear.
Half an hour after the lookout sailor sounded the alarm, Barreto, Zhao Yi, Yin Bin and others, who were crowded at the bow of the ship, saw a gray-white sail shadow appear on the northwest sea.
Everyone was busy loading ammunition into the flintlock muskets, and mounted several small French muskets on the bow.
"Can we turn the helm and head out to sea to avoid it?" Barreto asked the boatswain.
The boatswain shook his head and said: "Our ship has been damaged and flooded, and there is only one sail available. We cannot risk leaving the coastline, otherwise we will be unlucky if we encounter another small wind!"
"Then, go hide on some small islands along the coast..."
"It's too dangerous. We're not familiar with the sea routes here. If we hit a rock or get stranded, we have to sit back and wait for death!"
At this time, there was a faint sound of gunfire from the front.
The lookout came down from the mainmast and came to the bow of the ship panting: "My boss, my boss, gentlemen, in front of us are our naval ships fighting against the Korean ships!"
"What?" Everyone was shocked and crowded to the bow of the ship to hold up their binoculars to observe. As a result, they could only vaguely see a group of single-masted sailing ships, and could not see anything else clearly.
Yin Bin turned around and looked at the lookout curiously, and asked: "Brother, those ships are at least ten miles away from my ship. Can you really see clearly?"
"Yes, I saw the naval flag!" the lookout replied proudly and confidently.
Yin Bin and a group of student soldiers clapped their hands and realized that the rumor that the sailors' eyes were comparable to telescopes was indeed true.
…
Almost five years ago, when the Chinese Navy's Beiyang Fleet (then called the Northern Fleet) was on an expedition to the Tumen River, it was attacked by the North Korean Turtle Ship Fleet in Busan. Afterwards, the Chinese Army eliminated the last remaining essence of the North Korean Turtle Ship Fleet.
The fire destroyed most of Busan. Later, Zeng Qi and Yan Siqi forced North Korea to sign a contract with the Chinese Army, which clearly stipulated that the Port of Busan is a naval logistics base for the Chinese Army.
Due to the tense war in Liaodong, the Chinese army has no time to operate the Busan Port. Only a small detachment of the Beiyang Fleet is stationed here. Only five old-fashioned Fuchuan gunboats are stationed here, plus 200 sailors and marines to guard the dock fortress.
.Those five Fuchuan gunboats are obsolete items from the earliest escort navy fleet.
However, due to the gradual expansion of pioneering immigrants from the Tumen River Estuary, the Heilongjiang River Estuary, and Sakhalin Island, the Port of Busan has become a supply base for many Chinese company ships plying the Tsushima Strait.
The North Korean anti-Chinese military coup had an impact on the Port of Busan. When the local North Korean defenders rose up in response to the coup call, a fleet of the pioneering regiment happened to be passing by in the port. Therefore, the remaining troops of the Beiyang Fleet and the militiamen of the pioneering regiment joined forces to organize the uprising.
The Korean soldiers in Busan suppressed the coup. Many Korean people in Busan relied on Chinese companies and the Chinese army to make a living, so basically no Korean people in the city responded to the coup. The entire city of Busan Port was controlled by the Chinese army's Beiyang Fleet.
However, farmers in the surrounding areas of Busan, led by local rural gentlemen, responded to the instigation of North Korean officials in Jeolla Province and Gyeongsang Province, organized a large number of "volunteers" and launched an attack targeting Busan. More than a dozen teams of volunteers
More than 50,000 North Korean officers and soldiers from Jeolla Province and Gyeongsang Province combined to besiege Busan. However, the number of the Chinese Army's Busan Port garrison, plus the militiamen of the Pioneer Regiment, never exceeded 1,000. With such a disparity in troop strength ratio, North Korea
People attacked Pusan for half a year, but failed to capture an inch. The advantage of Pusan's terrain, as well as the gap in war technology and tactics between the two sides, cannot be filled by the numerical advantage alone.
Of course, the sea traffic in Busan has always been smooth, and the Chinese army has sea control, so the Chinese defenders in Busan have always been able to obtain ammunition and food supplies from Ryukyu and Liaodong. No matter how hard the Koreans on the land side try, they cannot completely encircle them without sea control.
Busan.
Half a month ago, the Foreign Legion of the Chinese Company, which was fighting in the direction of Pyongyang, arrived in Busan and immediately changed the situation of the war: the foreign legion used sharp firepower to clear the way and launched a counterattack against the besieging North Koreans. The North Koreans, who had been besieged for half a year and achieved nothing, were already demoralized.
The foreign legion's counterattack was a complete victory. However, the foreign legion could not stop the car as soon as the fighting started and chased the North Korean army all the way to Gyeongju, 200 miles away. At this time, the North Korean volunteers who had not hidden far away came
After receiving support from the Jeolla Province officers and soldiers, they returned and re-encircled Busan, and also cut off the communication channel between the Foreign Legion and Busan.
At the same time, the navy commander of Jeolla Province finally gathered a group of navy warships and attacked the Busan Port from the sea.
The place where Barreto Jr., Yin Bin, Zhao Yi and others drifted with the boat was the southern part of Gade Island, more than ten miles south of Busan Port. The Happiness drifted north-east for half a day with the current and wind direction.
, have arrived at the sea outside Busan Port. The naval battle scene they saw was the scene of the Jeolla Navy attack and the Chinese army. The Happiness unexpectedly broke into the fighting sea area.
At this time, a North Korean ship had already discovered the Happiness, and determined from its flag and ship type that the Happiness must be a ship of the Chinese army. Immediately, five or six Korean dhows left the group and surrounded the Happiness.