Yuan Jin and Li Zhong's two ships rushed into Penghu Bay first. Most of the other Jinghai Gang's ships rushed in after hesitating for a while. Only two ships did not move and only anchored at the mouth of Penghu Bay.
.
In addition to the blue paint on the bow of the ship, one of them also had the word "Flying Tiger" written in red paint. It turned out that the Flying Tiger was the ship of pirate Li San from Hui'an County, Quanzhou. After being hunted by the government and aristocratic families for many years, it was finally recovered.
Found the organization, and now has joined the "Jinghai Gang", a peripheral organization of the Chinese United Company's war fleet.
Pirate Li San was originally a fisherman. He was already in his forties and had long wanted to quit. Unfortunately, the piracy situation along the coast of China was not good these days, and he had not yet earned enough money to buy a house. His son Li Kuiqi was 12 years old this year.
To make a living at sea, he followed Li San on a pirate ship at such a young age.
At this time, the young man Li Kuiqi slipped down from the mast and came to his father and asked anxiously: "Dad, why don't we follow?"
Li San gave his son an angry shudder and cursed: "You have no brains. Didn't you hear the order from the big boss? You are not allowed to enter Penghu Bay to fight with the red-haired barbarians. Uncle Lu said that the big boss has strict orders. We are here now."
His subordinates are begging for food, and you can always do things according to his orders."
Li Kuiqi pointed forward unconvinced and said: "So, they all acted against the order? Brother Yuan Bage and the others also went!"
Li San shook his head: "We can't compare with them; they were originally subordinates of Uncle Li Dan of Quanzhou, and now Uncle Li's sister is also one of the owners of the company. Someone is protecting them!"
Li San kept shaking his head; "These people don't know how powerful the red-haired barbarians are, haha,..."
The Dutch main battleship "Orange" is anchored in Magong Port in Penghu Bay. The anchor position is about 3 miles away from the coast. Dutch sailors and soldiers are preparing for landing and have put down 5 small boats on the sea. At this time,
The sailors fighting on the top of the mainmast sounded the alarm.
"What's going on?" Admiral Wei Malang walked out of the hatch and asked an officer with a frown: "What's going on?"
"There are ships entering the bay. They are some Junk ships approaching us. There are about a dozen ships with unknown weapons and equipment. The fleet is approaching in a horizontal formation and seems to be hostile."
"Junk ship? Are there any markings?" Admiral Wei Malang asked.
"The bow is blue, and there is a flag with a circle pattern on a blue background. I don't know where the ship is." The watching sailor replied.
Another sailor slid down the cable from the bucket, ran to stand at attention in front of the admiral and saluted, and then reported: "I just discovered that two of the 12 Junk ships have bow guns. According to the current wind strength
With moderate wind direction, we will approach our ship in about an hour.”
Wei Malang looked at Li Jin, who said with a grimace: "It shouldn't be a warship belonging to officers and soldiers. They won't fly under such a banner, and they won't catch up with us so soon."
Wei Malang nodded: "So, are they the local pirates? They really don't know how to live or die. I give an order: everyone is ready to fight!"
The Dutch sailors still boarded the small boats, seemingly preparing to land at Magong Port while fighting the pirates. In fact, Wei Malang really looked down on the dozen or so Junk ships and did not think they would do anything to the Orange.
threaten.
The other two auxiliary ships of the Dutch fleet, the Junk ship, carried more than 100 sailors and a large amount of supplies and were scheduled to be used to build a base. They sailed to the port beach to prepare to cover the landing of the small boats.
The Orange moved towards the mouth of the bay, and Yuan Jin and others began to regret it. About 3 miles away, in the harbor where the sea breeze was blowing, a three-masted giant ship like a hill was slowly moving. The mast was full of
The white canvas is blown by the sea breeze. This huge ship with a load capacity of 900 tons, 6 24-pound guns, 18 9-pound guns, 36 4-pound guns, a length of 30 feet, and a width of 56 feet is driven by the sails.
Then, he came to greet Yuan Jin and others' boat.
Yuan Jin had often interacted with Folangji people at sea, but this was the first time he met the Hongmao Yi head-on. "Damn, Hongmao's ship is so big!" Yuan Jin took a breath of cold air.
Yin Feng's Xinxing is the larger ship Yuan Jin has ever seen, but this Dutch warship is really too big. Xinxing is only two-thirds of its size at most. Moreover, as the distance gradually gets closer, it can already
I saw numerous gun windows densely distributed on both sides of the Dutch warship.
Yuan Jin was immediately startled: "Damn, how many cannons are there!" He looked at the only 500-pound Folan cannon on the bow of his ship. It's not even enough to fill the teeth of others!
What Yuan Jin saw was the gap in naval power between China and the West at that time. Taking the Qi Jiguang Navy recorded in the "New Book of Jixiao - Naval Administration" as an example, there were 4 Fu ships, 2 Haicang ships and 4 Cangshan ships in a whole naval camp.
The main weapons equipped on the ship totaled only 40-70 artillery pieces, which was barely comparable to an ordinary Western warship. Moreover, many of the artillery pieces used by the Fu ship recorded by Qi Jiguang were separated rear-loading Folang models.
The gun has poor air-holding performance and its range is far inferior to Western front-loaded naval guns of the same period.
One of Yuan Jin's men said cautiously: "Bago, there are too many red-haired artillery pieces. What should we do?"
Yuan Jin said angrily: "Damn, I'm afraid of death! Let's go around in circles with him and don't confront him head-on..."
"Boom!" The roar of the cannon reverberated around the bay, and the Dutch warship opened fire. A huge column of water rose into the sky, only a few feet away from Yuan Jin's ship, and the water spray soaked Yuan Jin's whole body.
At a distance of 2 miles, the Dutch warship opened fire continuously, bombarding the Chinese pirate ship with 12 heavy cannons on the left side of the ship, then turned around and fired another salvo with the cannon on the right side. Seemingly to show off their force, the Dutch
Those 4-pound cannons also fired, causing smoke to fill the entire battleship, and water columns rising one after another around the Chinese pirate ship rose into the sky.
At this distance, the corsair's Franco cannon could not hit the Dutch warship at all, and it was completely in a passive position where it could only be beaten and unable to fight back.
Yuan Jin directed his ship through the water in an attempt to get close to the enemy in order to fire a cannon. However, 600 meters away from the Dutch warship - about 400 paces away, a 9-pound iron cannon shell hit Yuan Jin's stern.
In the helm cabin, the huge rudder lost control, and the ship slid straight forward, unable to make evasive maneuvers.
Yuan Jin was shocked: "Brothers, paddle quickly and turn around!" His boat was in the style of a bird boat, with 4 pairs of oars. But it was too late, because his boat rushed forward and caused a stir.
The Dutch's idea; a minute later, the Dutch concentrated 20 guns on the port side and fired a salvo at Yuan Jin's ship. Water columns rose from the sea and immediately surrounded Yuan Jin's ship. A round of chain rounds hit Yuan Jin's ship while spinning.
The mast of Yuan Jin's ship was broken; two semicircular cannonballs connected by a 1-meter-long iron chain, centered on each other, rotated in the air and passed over the sea, entangled the mast of the pirate ship, and suddenly the mast canvas and crossbar were entangled and torn.
The center was broken and shattered, scattered in all directions, and the mast was broken into two pieces and fell down. Yuan Jin's boat lost power and became a living target for anyone to slaughter.
The other pirate ships of the Jinghai Gang had already lost the courage to fight when the Dutch fired their first salvo and turned around one after another.
After Yuan Jin's boat was hit, only Li Zhong's boat turned the steering wheel forward in an attempt to rescue Yuan Jin; the other boats had already turned around and fled towards the mouth of Penghu Bay.
On the bow of the Dutch warship, Wei Malang put down his telescope and was not interested in this kind of boring battle without suspense. He asked his colleague Li Jin: "These Junk ships are very good merchant ships, but they are not enough as warships."
Qualified. So, Uncle Jin, what are the naval warships of the Ming Empire like?"
The Dutch called Li Jin "Brother Jin" according to the pronunciation of the Fujian dialect. Li Jin looked at the Chinese pirate ships with downmasted masts on the sea in the distance, sighed and said: "In fact, most of the Ming Empire's warships are of the same style.
This kind of lucky ship, like these pirate ships, has almost the same structure as civilian ships."
Wei Malang nodded: "Really? Then, when will there be news about your nobleman from the palace?"
Li Jin thought for a while and said: "According to the efficiency of the imperial bureaucrats, I'm afraid it won't be very fast. I have asked two businessmen, Pan Xiu and Guo Zhen, to serve as envoys to submit your request for trade to the Fujian officials. At this time
It should be on its way to be sent to His Majesty the Emperor for review."
At this time, Li Jin did not know that Pan Xiu had been arrested by Fujian officials on charges of collaborating with espionage. Guo Zhen, another businessman who delivered diplomatic documents for the Dutch, did not dare to enter Fuzhou City or go there.
After seeing the official report, Guo Zhen was hiring a small fishing boat and hurried to Penghu.
At this time, the huge Orange trembled, and a loud rumbling sound rolled past his ears. Li Jin looked up and saw that the two Chinese pirate ships were swaying around and dying. The rest of the pirate ships had already escaped, and the Orange
The ship had no intention of pursuing it and turned around and headed towards the coast. On the coast, five small boats carrying 60 sailors were about to land on the beach.
…
At Quanzhou Port, Shen Yourong's ship had just docked. The Deputy Envoy of the Fujian Patrol and an official from the Xingquan Bingbei Road were already waiting there. Although Shen Yourong only had the title of Commander-in-Chief, there are two kinds of Commander-in-Chief: Beiwa
The commander-in-chief is generally the commander-in-chief, and the commander-in-chief of the Japanese army often acts in a capital command system, with heavier powers and more soldiers under his jurisdiction. The commander at the next level is called the commander-in-chief, and the commander below the commander-in-chief is the sentry officer. This kind of commander-in-chief
Generally, it is the commander-in-chief of Qinyi. The other kind of commander-in-chief, also known as the commander-in-chief of name and color, has fewer troops, about 500, and is the commander of a small battalion.
Shen Yourong is the commander-in-chief of Wuyu Water Village, equivalent to the third rank, so Haidao Deputy Ambassador Zheng Junlan is very polite to him even though he is his nominal superior.
Zheng Junlan came forward first, saluted and said straight to the point: "General Shen, Governor Xu Master has sent an order for you and me to go to Fuzhou to discuss the matter of the red-haired barbarians. Without further delay, there is no need to make other arrangements. Let's go on your boat?"
Shen Yourong was startled and asked quickly: "Master Zheng, what happened?"
"The Hongmao Yi requested to occupy Penghu and open the sea for trade according to the old practice of Fo Langji living in Macau. News from the sea patrol said that the Hongmao Yi had already gone to Penghu."
"Sure enough, it is indeed Penghu!" Shen Yourong immediately connected the movements of the fishing boats along the coast, and while letting the deputy envoy of the seaway board the boat, he said: "The trouble now is not only the red-haired barbarians, but also the unruly bandits along the coast. I'm afraid
They will go to rescue the Red-haired Barbarians, and then provide internal support for the Red-haired Barbarians when the officers and soldiers go to encircle and suppress them." Then he told Zheng Junlan what his patrol warship had discovered.
Zheng Junlan was also surprised: "Is this happening? You must be on guard against it."