Chapter 1117 Internal and external troubles

Although Shen Zhixiang replaced Shang Kexi's position in Pidao, the Changshan Islands, which were previously under the jurisdiction of Shang Kexi, were not immediately placed under his name. Shen Shikui preferred to let the experienced and prudent deputy general Jin Riguan guard the Changshan Islands.

, instead of his nephew who is very talkative and powerful. But because Shang Kexi and Kong Youde both have naval forces, Hou Jin will no longer sit back and watch the Ming army deploy to an island very close to the Liaodong mainland. Shen Shikui is sure to deal with bad naval battles.

The Hou Jin Army, however, was not completely sure that it could cope with the counterattacks used by its former comrades-in-arms.

However, just when Pidao was preparing to re-enter the Changshan Islands, Shang Kexi led the Houjin Army to attack Zhenjiang Fort. Now Shen Shikui did not dare to easily separate his troops, because Zhenjiang Fort was only more than thirty nautical miles away from Pidao.

It only takes three or four hours for the warships to overwhelm them, and the Houjin Army may use Zhenjiang Fort as a base to launch an offensive against Pi Island at any time. Even if Shen Shikui knew that Changshan Islands was a treasure land that could produce food, he still had to take care of Pi Island first.

Regarding the security issues at the base camp, we can only endure and shrink the defense line.

Shen Zhixiang is naturally very dissatisfied with this situation. He finally got the opportunity, but he has no way to get the treatment he deserves. Now Dongjiang Town has lost Lushun, Changshan Islands, Zhenjiang Fort and other places. After his vitality was seriously damaged,

, the troops were all on guard near Pidao, and he, the so-called third-in-command of Dongjiang Town, had nothing to do. The military power was also concentrated in the hands of Shen Shikui and Kim Rikuan. Even if Shen Zhixiang wanted to go to North Korea to collect food, he would have to have

Only Shen Shikui's approval was required to apply for a ship, which was far inferior to the independent authority Shang Kexi had when he guarded the Changshan Islands.

On this day, Shen Zhixiang was still assigned the seemingly insignificant task of leading a patrol in the northwest waters of Pi Island. The purpose was to prevent the Houjin Army from the direction of Zhenjiang Fort from launching a sneak attack on Pi Island. However, Shen Zhixiang knew the possibility of this happening.

The risk is negligible, because Pidao has also received intelligence long ago that the epidemic occurred in Zhenjiang Fort before the beginning of summer. As a result, the local Hou Jin Army lost a large number of personnel and has temporarily lost the ability to initiate large-scale battles.

.This so-called patrol at sea is just a means to keep the people on Phi Island calm, and it does not have much practical effect.

Shen Zhixiang received such a boring job, so naturally he had no mental motivation to complete it seriously. After going to sea, he returned to the cabin and lay down. He would have to stay at sea for at least two days on this trip, and there were no entertainment activities on the ship, so he could only

I drank and slept to pass the time.

However, this mission was not as dull as he expected. Just when Shen Zhixiang was sleeping deeply, he was woken up by his subordinates: "Sir, there is a situation at sea!"

Shen Zhixiang suddenly woke up, quickly got up and put on his clothes, walked out of the cabin and onto the deck. Sure enough, he saw patches of sail shadows on the sea level in the distance, and it seemed that they were heading towards Pi Island.

"Prepare for war! Prepare for war!" Shen Zhixiang knew very well that there was no Ming army stronghold in the northwest. The ships coming from there could never belong to his own camp, and as far as he knew, no other troops had been sent to the island in the past few days.

If a ship goes to this direction to perform a mission, there is a 99% chance that the person coming is an enemy warship.

However, the three patrol boats led by Shen Zhixiang don't have much combat power at all. The most powerful weapons on board are several small-caliber Fran cannons. The range and power of this thing are extremely limited, and it is basically impossible to reach a distance of more than 20 feet.

They are just decorations. They can only be used at close range during battles. In addition, there are several bird cannons on each ship, but in a combat environment like the sea, such a sparse few bird cannons can only play a small role in boarding battles.

Basically it can only be used as a decoration to scare people.

Shen Zhixiang can only hope that the other party is the fleet of the Hou Jin Army. In that case, even if there is a gap in the number of ships between the two sides, he will still be able to fight. But if it is the former Ming Army Navy who defected to Hou Jin, then he will probably first

Running away to save one's life, whether it's Kong Youde or Shang Kexi, has much more experience in fighting than him, so it's hard to get any good results from a head-on confrontation.

But as the distance got closer, the surprise on Shen Zhixiang's face became more and more difficult to hide. The ship that came was not a standard warship of the Ming army, but it was definitely not a sea ship of Hou Jin. The dozen ships coming from the opposite side were unexpectedly

It looked like something he had never seen before, and he couldn't tell which country's ship it was. What's more important was that the size of the ships on the other side was astonishing. The smallest one weighed about 500 yuan, which was almost obvious.

The army has reached the upper limit of its current warships. The three ships commanded by Shen Zhixiang are almost enough together in size.

"Turn around and go back to Pidao!" Shen Zhixiang was not a reckless man. After realizing the huge difference in tonnage between the ships on both sides, he did not choose to rush forward to fight, but decisively avoided it, planning to send the warning back to Pidao first, so that

The troops on the island can have time to prepare for war, which is the main purpose of the fleet performing patrol missions at sea.

However, Shen Zhixiang soon discovered that he had made this decision a little late. The opponent was coming from the northwest at an unexpected speed. Shen Zhixiang roughly estimated the speed and found that the opponent was at least half as fast as his ships.

Above. If you keep running at this speed, you may be intercepted by the opponent before you get back to Pi Island.

"Send the signal and retreat separately!" Shen Zhixiang decisively used the emergency plan, notifying the other two ships to run separately to distract the opponent's attention and increase his own chance of escaping pursuit. Even if one of the three ships could escape back to Pi Island,

It can also play its due role.

While Shen Zhixiang was sweating profusely from anxiety, Wang Tom laughed hard from behind: "These Ming soldiers... run so fast, they think we are the Houjin navy!"

Wang Tom could naturally guess about why the Ming warships slipped away so fast. He thought that these guys might not be very good at fighting, but their ability to escape was second to none. They actually knew how to be flexible and escape separately.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m well-trained or because I’ve escaped from experience.

However, Wang Tom certainly had no intention of actually intercepting these Ming warships. However, this misunderstanding probably could not be eliminated for the time being, so he could only wait until Phi Island. In order to prevent the other party from further deepening the misunderstanding, Wang Tom ordered

Let the fleet slow down a little, lest the other party really thinks that they are preparing to attack Pi Island, and an armed conflict will end badly.

Shen Zhixiang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the fleet at the rear was being pushed further and further away. Of course, he did not think that the other party was deliberately letting go, but felt that his split retreat strategy had worked. However, he did not think about it at the moment.

Dare to relax, but still urge the sailors on the ship to move at full speed, striving to get back to the island as soon as possible.

"The enemy is coming from the sea, please quickly ask the Governor to gather the troops and prepare to fight!" The first thing Shen Zhixiang did after landing ashore was to take out his military talisman and have people rush to report to Shen Shikui.

Shen Shikui was shocked when he received the news. He thought to himself that Hou Jin was going so fast that he didn't even have any time to breathe!

Dongjiang Town has been experiencing bad luck since last year. First, the former governor Huang Long died in battle in Lushun, and Hou Jin took away the last base of the Ming army on the Liaodong Peninsula. Then at the beginning of the year, Shang Kexi defected to Hou Jin and was taken away three feet away.

All the personnel and materials in the Changshan Islands were lost, causing Dongjiang Town to lose this frontier position against Hou Jin. Before summer, under the guidance of Shang Kexi, the Hou Jin army raided Zhenjiang Fort and took away the land closest to Pi Island.

The stronghold compressed Dongjiang Town's sphere of influence to a small area near Pi Island.

Dongjiang Town was a thorn in Hou Jin's side. Shen Shikui knew this very well. He also understood that the other side and the soldiers and civilians in Dongjiang Town would definitely fight to the death. Sooner or later they would raise troops to attack, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.

In his original expectation, Hou Jin would need at least a few more months to solve the epidemic problem encountered by Zhenjiang Fort, and then use it as an outpost to gather troops. When everything was ready, winter would probably arrive, so it would be possible to delay this.

It’s next year. During this period, Dongjiang Town can recharge its batteries and see if it can get more official assistance from Shandong or Tianjin, arm more Dingkou on the island, and strive to retake Zhenjiang Fort and Changchang.

Mountain Islands, stabilizing Dongjiang Town’s control in this area.

However, the enemy chose to attack in late summer and early autumn, which seemed to indicate that the enemy did not want Pidao to survive another winter. Although Shen Shikui understood his current situation, he was not someone who was willing to surrender and immediately

He and Lieutenant General Jin Riguan gathered their troops separately to prepare for battle with the incoming enemy.

Currently, there are three full battalions of naval forces on the island, and there are more than 20 warships. Shen Shikui believed that there should still be enough power to fight, so he ordered Jin Riguan to lead the warships to leave the port and wait for a suitable attack.

Timing. If the opponent intends to attack the island, then your own fleet will attack its retreat. If the opponent wants to deal with the fleet first and then attack the island, then avoid fighting and spend as much time as possible with the opponent in circles on the sea. This is not a fear of battle.

The reason is that the Dongjiang Town Navy cannot afford to lose its personnel and warships. Once damaged, it will be difficult to replace them. If they are engaged in head-on battles every time, after a few battles, the navy will be wiped out by just battle losses.

. Therefore, we should delay as long as we can. Try not to rush into a head-on confrontation with the opponent. Wait for a while to see if the domestic situation has improved and whether we can provide Pidao with more troops and weapons to launch a counterattack.

As soon as Jin Riguan and his naval fleet left the port, Shen Shikui saw the silhouette of sails appearing on the sea to the north. He immediately asked Shen Zhixiang to carefully identify whether it was the fleet that had just been chasing him at sea.

It is somewhat difficult to identify the identity of a ship several nautical miles away, but the logo of the Haihan Fleet is really conspicuous. The main sail of the flagship is a half-red and half-blue two-color sail, which can be clearly seen from a long distance. Shen Zhixiang

Naturally, he also noticed this feature and immediately responded: "It is this fleet!"

After the other party got closer, Shen Shikui was able to identify the size of the ship's hull. He was really shocked by the size of the flagship. No such large warship had ever appeared in Dongjiang Town or Denglai Prefecture before.

.However, Shen Shikui can basically conclude that this ship was definitely not built by the Hou Jin Kingdom who was not good at naval warfare. If they had this ability, Dongjiang Town would have been raided a few years ago, and how could it survive until now.

At this time, the combatants on the island have basically entered a state of preparation for war, and the naval warships have also circled to the east side of Pi Island to wait for opportunities. If the opponent rashly launches a landing battle, Shen Shikui is at least 50% sure to stop it on the beach.

.

Seeing this unidentified fleet arriving a few miles away from the island, the other party slowly slowed down and did not directly impact the port, but stopped on the sea. Then a small boat was lowered from the largest sailboat.

In the boat, several people paddled towards the port.

"What is this for? Are the gold thieves still planning to offer courtesy first and then fight to persuade me to surrender?" Shen Shikui snorted and said: "Zhixiang, go to the port. If the gold thieves persuade them to surrender, then they will give up!"

Just as Shen Zhixiang was about to be ordered to leave, Shen Shikui added: "If the person who comes here is nice to talk to, don't hurt his life, just drive him out."

Although Shen Shikui played a less honorable role in a series of mutinies in Pidao in the past two years and did a lot of fighting for power, he was extremely loyal to the Ming Dynasty. In the original history,

In 1637, the Qing general Ma Futa led his army to conquer Pidao. After being captured, Shen Shikui not only refused to surrender, but also mocked Ma Futa severely. In the end, he was sentenced to be beheading, which can be regarded as a heroic death.

A loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty.

In Shen Shikui's mind, the option of "surrender" does not exist. His purpose in Pidao is to lead the local soldiers and civilians to continue fighting against Houjin, just like his predecessors. Even if the enemy troops have already invaded the territory, he will still

He would rather fight than surrender and defend to the end. Seeing that the enemy sent out a small boat with the intention of persuading him to surrender, he was not even interested in meeting the enemy's envoy, so he asked Shen Zhixiang to send him away.

The envoy who took the small boat to Phi Island to meet the Ming army was one of Wang Tom's adjutants. Xie Li, a naturalized naval captain who currently serves as the first mate on the flagship of the fleet. He served as the captain of the Haihan Navy before it was officially established.

He is already a general under Wang Tom. In the past few years, he has also followed Wang Tom in the north and south, and has made many military exploits. He and the South Vietnamese general Wu Sen are currently the naturalized officers who are most favored by the top brass in the navy.

It is very likely that he will become the first naturalized fleet commander to be appointed besides time travellers.

In addition to Xie Li, Sun Bing, who was born in the Northeast, was also on board the boat, temporarily acting as Xie Li's deputy. Sun Bing had previously served in the Fuzhou Guard in Liaodong and had a good understanding of the situation here. If necessary, he could assist Xie Li in peace talks.

provides some help.

The small boat rowed by eight sailors soon sailed into the port and docked. Shen Zhixiang stood on the shore and looked at the several Haihan soldiers who were walking onto the gangplank with suspicion. He had never seen such attire.

, these people are neither the Hou Jin people nor the Ming army, and their costumes are obviously different from those of the Japanese pirates and Koreans.
Chapter completed!