Daming pirates

Zhang Jiace was also dressed in military uniform, neatly draped, and led a large-scale fleet through the Haitan Strait as if swaggering through the city, and sailed to Xinghua Bay in a swaggering manner.

Zhang Jiace was ordered this time. After setting off from Dinghai City, he first sailed to Xinghua Bay, where he loaded the four thousand officers and soldiers who had gathered in Xinghua Bay this time, and headed to Nanri Island together.

The reason for doing this is also based on the lesson learned from the last time. Zhu Yifeng and his staff, including military generals, were afraid that if they gathered the fleet in Xinghua Bay and were blocked by sea wolves, they would kill their ships first, resulting in

In the end, the army was unable to land on Nanri Island.

So in the end they decided to assemble the fleet in Dinghai City. After starting the operation, Zhang Jiace would lead the fleet to Xinghua Bay, load up the officers and soldiers assembled here, and finally join Yu Zigao and Hong Mao who came from Quanzhou.

The Japanese fleet launched an attack on Nanri Island from both the north and south sides at the same time.

Zhang Jiace was very satisfied with this arrangement, because he had already experienced the power of the Sea Wolf once. The last time the Sea Wolf bombarded the Puxi Institute, he suffered a big loss and was killed by several gunboats of the Sea Wolf.

He blocked the city of Puxi and fired a barrage of artillery fire, leaving him disgraced.

This time Zhu Yifeng ordered him to go to Xinghua Bay to load the officers and soldiers first. In this way, he did not have to take the lead in person. As long as there was a small time difference, he could let Yu Zigao go to Nanri Island first. If Hailang

If he refuses to give up Nanri Island, he will fight Yu Zigao's fleet first, and then he can act according to the situation regardless of victory or defeat.

If Yu Zigao wins, then he can attack Nanri Island from Xinghua Bay without delay, and beat the drowned dog hard. Moreover, the main cargo on his ship is the land division, and finally seize Nanri Island, at least

He deserves a share of this credit.

But if Yu Zigao is defeated, then he can completely give up leading his team to Nanri Island. Even if someone impeaches him for avoiding the war, he can also argue that it is because the Lu division boarded the ship and delayed the time, and considering so many

For the safety of his troops, he could only give up attacking the island.

In short, Zhang Jiace had made up his mind this time, and the exposed rafters would die first. No matter what, he could not take the lead. He would rather let Yu Zigao take the lead, but he had to play steadily and never make any mistakes again.

What's more, before he came this time, he had received a mysterious guest. This person told him a message and asked him not to head to Nanri Island. This mysterious person left him a letter. After reading it, he

He set fire to it, but left a Hong Leong banknote in the envelope. The face value of this banknote was 10,000 taels of silver. Of course, only he knew about it. Even if he was his concubine, he would

Never mentioned it to her.

The entire northern side of the mouth of Mulan River in Xinghua Bay has now been turned into a military camp. In the past two months, officers and soldiers transferred from the mainland have gathered here. A total of six thousand people and horses have been gathered. Of course,

Known to the outside world as an army of 20,000 people, it has hoarded a large amount of supplies and food, and only waited for the fleet to arrive before boarding the ship and setting out to sea.

These soldiers and horses did not come from the same place. They were led by two guerrillas and six thousand presidents, mainly officers and soldiers from Xinghua Prefecture, and there were also town troops transferred from Quanzhou Prefecture and Yanping Prefecture.

There was no military discipline among these officers and soldiers. When they came to the assembly point along the way, they would grab and grab people all the way, which made the people along the way change their expressions. Many people immediately abandoned their homes and fled after hearing the arrival of the officers and soldiers.

In the eyes of ordinary people, these officers and soldiers are worse than bandits.

There is a proverb that says, bandits come like a comb, soldiers come like a grate, and officers come like a shave. It means that if the bandits come, the people will feel like they have been combed with a comb, but if the officers and soldiers come, they will be like a grate.

If the officials come, they will be like razors, and the people will be left with nothing.

The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have always had very poor military discipline. Almost every common person knows this. When they are stationed at the station, they will restrain themselves for various reasons and do not dare to be too arrogant, so as not to harm the people near their station.

It's too hard, but once they go out to march and fight, the military discipline of the officers and soldiers will be completely loose.

Along the way, they would use the name of labor force to force the villages they passed. If ordinary people disobeyed, they would be killed at every turn. Sometimes, the officers and soldiers would even bloodbath some villages and commit rape, plunder, and rape.

Except for some villages where gentry with strong backgrounds are located, they will still have some scruples. Other ordinary villages will not let them go easily.

And the officials are not willing to supervise their soldiers too strictly, because they know very well that these soldiers have already simmered away their resentments due to long-term arrears of pay. It is just in this way that the soldiers can get some advantages and satisfy their needs.

It is necessary, otherwise once these soldiers are used, these soldiers will definitely not work hard for them. If not, they may take advantage of the chaos to attack them from behind.

Therefore, by this time, the corruption of the military discipline of the officers and soldiers was already known to the whole world. The people hated the officers and soldiers more than bandits or pirates. Villages in many places would organize village warriors or regiment training to protect themselves.

Yongtuanlian usually works on the land. Once they encounter bandits or pirates, they will unite with the village to protect themselves. Sometimes they will even confront the official army. They are to protect their families, so sometimes the local group training is even better than the official army.

beat.

Zhang Jiace traveled from Dinghai City, sailed through the Haitan Strait and then into Xinghua Bay. He was not harassed by any sea wolf ships along the way. At most, there were one or two fast boats, and they were far away.

Watching their movements from the periphery of the official fleet, Zhang Jiace did not expel them, and allowed these two ships to follow his fleet from a distance.

Therefore, on the sea north of Nanri Island, although the official and military fleets were swaggering around, they always seemed relatively calm. However, Yu Zigao's fleet to the south of Nanri Island was not as leisurely as Zhang Jiace's.

Not long after they sailed out of Yongningwei, the sky gradually became dark. After the onset of winter, the weather at sea was relatively calm. There were no strong winds or big waves. There was only a thin layer of clouds in the sky, which did not affect their night sailing.

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Because they are sailing against the wind from Yongningwei to Nanri Island. Although this does not have a great impact on Chinese ships, it still seriously affects the speed. If the wind is favorable, they can sail in just over two days.

It is possible to sail to Nanri Island, but it is winter now, and it will take at least five days for ships heading north to reach Nanri Island under headwind conditions.

Yu Zigao had been holding back his energy for a long time, planning to rush to Nanri Island as soon as possible and seize the first opportunity to land on the island. In addition, their large fleet would have to be delayed longer along the way if they anchored at night. As Yu Dayou's

My son, Yu Zigao is from a standard military family, and he knows very well what it means to be a soldier with great speed.

Therefore, he decided that after the fleet set off, it would not anchor at night. Except for the necessary water boats that had to dock to collect water, the rest of the fleet would not stop all the way and rush directly to Nanri Island.

On the night of the first day of departure, everything went smoothly. When the fishing boats along the way saw such a large group of boats, they hurried away from a distance. These fishing boats all violated the ban and secretly went out to sea to fish. In addition, recently

Sea Wolf patrol boats from several fishing grounds along the coast also temporarily left, causing some fishermen who usually did not pay fishing tax to Sea Wolf to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, so they took the risk to go fishing.

When they saw such a large fleet approaching slowly, they were immediately frightened and quickly raised their sails and fled away from the coast as hard as they could for fear of being caught by the army.

It can't be saved.

Therefore, when Yu Zigao's fleet sailed along the way, the sea surface along the way seemed to be scanned. Even if there were occasional passing ships, as soon as they saw this fleet, they would immediately flee towards the shore or the deep sea.

The navy of the navy is not very good at dealing with pirates on the sea, but once they go to sea in large numbers, they are actually just like pirates, or even worse than pirates. If they tear off the flags and flags on the ship, they will immediately become pirates.

And they are more ruthless, often not only hijacking ships, but also killing and silencing everyone on board, and even the ship may be scuttled by them.

Therefore, merchant ships at sea would rather run into pirates than ships of the navy. As long as they see ships of the navy, they can run as fast as they can and as far as they can.

During the day the next day, nothing happened to Yu Zigao's fleet. In order to rush on his way, he also restrained his fleet and ordered each ship not to move without authorization and break away from the fleet.

He also did this for safety reasons, because he heard that Sea Wolf's tribe behaved strangely at sea, and most of their ships were in good condition and fast, especially their Feizihao clippers, which were even more elusive. For this reason

Chu Cailao and Zheng Yiguan, many of the guys who had been enemies of Sea Wolf, all suffered a lot.

He knew very well that Sea Wolf must be staring at his fleet now. Occasionally, a little sail shadow would appear on the sea in the distance. He could guess that it must be Hailan's sentry ship monitoring them. But because of the distance, he

He didn't send a ship to expel them. Since he couldn't hide, he planned to go straight to Nanri Island. With the strength of his fleet and the red-haired men who accompanied them sailing,

The large plywood boat defeated Shihui with one force and forcibly attacked Nanri Island.

But as night fell the next day, Yu Zigao finally ran into trouble. In this era, night sailing was very risky. Because of the regression of navigation technology, the Ming Dynasty's ships were more difficult to navigate when sailing at sea.

It is necessary to sail along the coastline to ensure that you will not get lost. The terrain along the coast is tortuous and there is no perfect lighthouse for calibration. If you are not careful, you may be in danger of running aground or being stranded.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, if conditions permit, sea-going ships will find a place to park temporarily at night, and then lift anchor after dawn. However, Yu Zigao was eager to reach Nanri Island and ordered the fleet to continue sailing at night without stopping.

For such a large fleet, the risk of sailing at night is greater. The visibility is not good at night, and the ships will collide with each other if they are not careful. Therefore, after nightfall, the fleet must spread out some distance to maintain the distance between ships.

A large number of lanterns should also be hung so that surrounding ships can see them to prevent collisions.

Therefore, as soon as it gets dark, the fleet immediately evacuates and maintains a loose formation. The sailors on the ship must also remain vigilant at all times to prevent sudden collision with other ships.