Chapter 708 Failure to block

Among the Eighteen Zhizhi, Zheng Zhilong is the head of the family, and the other seventeen families are ranked in order according to their strength. He Bin and Guo Huaiyi, who defected to Damuan Port, are the last two, and Liu

Xiang and Li Kuiqi were also seated relatively far back and did not have much say in the Eighteen Zhi. Li Kuiqi knew that he could not resist the mission assigned by Zheng Zhilong, but at this juncture he still tried his best to gain some benefits for himself.

The two were ordered to leave, but when they were leaving, Liu Xiang pulled Li Kuiqi and whispered: "If the battle situation is unfavorable, it is important to evacuate as soon as possible to save your life!"

Li Kuiqi looked at Liu Xiang and nodded slowly. He also understood why Liu Xiang gave such a reminder. After all, the two of them would join forces to fight the enemy. If the steps were not consistent, there would probably be trouble. Even if they couldn't fight, they would have to escape.

, you must try to synchronize as much as possible, otherwise your companions may be trapped on the battlefield and unable to escape.

The two returned to the camp and ordered their troops and generals respectively. However, Penghu Island and Magong Port were in chaos at this time, and their process of gathering troops was not smooth. Half an hour later, they boarded the ship and set out to sea, but they failed to do so.

Each of them assembled a fleet of one hundred ships as requested by Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong watched the two people's fleet slowly sailing away from the shore on the pier, and ordered without expression: "Let the team boarding the ship speed up. Individuals are not allowed to carry large items, and don't carry jars and jars of things onto the ship.

!”

When he first made the relocation plan, Zheng Zhilong still hoped to scrape the ground and take away everything he could from Penghu, so that he could settle down in the new place faster. But the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse, and the entire relocation plan could not be completed.

Not only several days in advance, but also the time available for boarding and setting off was greatly shortened. In order to ensure that the evacuation of the large forces was completed before the arrival of the enemy fleet, Zheng Zhilong could only order to abandon part of the baggage and target

Those are the guys who have to put all the wardrobes, rice boxes, bed boards and toilets on the ship and take them away. If these people are allowed to slowly move the large items to the ship, I'm afraid it won't be enough for another three days.

Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi hurriedly and slowly caught up with the coalition's leading fleet about thirty nautical miles west of Magong Port. The leading fleet consisting of four hundred-material clippers did not undertake the task of maritime operations.

Therefore, after discovering the pirate fleet leaving the port to attack, they quickly slowed down and at the same time issued a firework warning to inform the large forces behind them.

"It seems that Shibazhi hasn't had time to evacuate them all."

After receiving the feedback from the front, Wang Tom said to Yan Chujie and Qian Tiandun who were also on the flagship: "They actually sent a fleet to attack us. There are only two possibilities. One is that Zheng Zhilong has gone crazy, and the other is that he is trying to attack us."

Their retreat buys time."

Judging from the one-sided record of the Haihan militia in past battles, Shibazhi's courage to face Haihan in a head-on confrontation at sea should have long since disappeared. After two battles on Nanri Island last year, Shibazhi has obviously

Realizing the huge gap between the two sides in terms of maritime armed forces, they never sent a fleet to fight along the coast of Fujian. As long as Zheng Zhilong didn't go crazy, he should be very clear about the possibility of defeating the Haihan fleet at sea.

Very little.

"It's good to warm us up. How many ships have arrived from Shibazhi?" Yan Chujie not only didn't feel nervous at all when he heard the news, but he was even more excited.

"Hundreds of them. However, the number of large ships with more than 400 pieces of material is at most one-tenth, so they won't pose much of a threat to us." Wang Tom said easily: "If everything goes well, the battle can be resolved in about an hour.

.”

Tom Wang's tone was very relaxed, but he did not slack off when commanding the battle. He asked the sailors to hang the flag on the main mast of the "Majesty", and asked the troop transport and supply ships to slow down and use his own fleet to

In the center, the other two fleets led by Shi Diwen and Roger were on the left and right wings, forming an arc formation towards the direction of the Shibazhi fleet. The warships of the Ming army followed closely behind, responsible for the battleship on the battlefield.

Check for leaks and fill them in, and help clean up the fish that have slipped through the net.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the fleets of both sides encountered each other at sea. Although Shibazhi had a large number of ships participating in the battle, in terms of displacement, there was a big gap compared to the Haihan fleet. Especially in the battle with the "Dignity Class"

Comparing the size of the ship, the so-called big ship on Shibazhi's side also seemed very small. Before the battle even started, Shibazhi had already lost one in terms of momentum alone.

The Haihan fleet skillfully grabbed the T-shaped head to form a formation, and then used its side guns to give the Shibazhi fleet a fierce bombardment. At a distance of two hundred meters, Shibazhi basically had no way of fighting back.

With little strength, they could only passively withstand the Haihan artillery fire. Some sailboats with smaller hulls were seriously damaged after withstanding this round of artillery fire, and had lost the ability to continue fighting.

The communication between Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi before the war obviously did not play a very good role. After the first round of confrontation, some damaged ships tried to turn around and leave the battlefield. However, this attempt was not effective in the sea where the speed was obviously superior.

The Han fleet seemed a bit futile in front of them. The three Hai-Han fleets began to separate and cut the Shibazhi fleet in a line formation, and the first priority was to attack the pirate ships trying to escape from the battlefield.

Although some pirate ships bravely rushed to the Haihan warship and tried to complete the attack by jumping gangs or setting fire after getting close, under the fierce naval gunfire, such attempts had basically no chance of success.

Sex. Occasionally, one or two ships can get close. Before the sailors can climb up the high side of the ship, a row of gun barrels have been stretched out from above, shooting at the targets on the deck of the pirate ship from a high position. They don't even have leather armor.

The resistance of pirate sailors to this kind of attack is basically zero. Those who react quickly may be able to crawl into the cabin to escape. The others can only serve as living targets for the Haihan sailors to practice shooting.

Only half an hour after the war started, the Shibazhi side had basically lost the will to fight. Although only about a quarter of the ships lost the ability to continue fighting, Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi believed that there was no practical significance in continuing the fight.

Then he ordered the retreat to begin.

However, the flagship they were on had been identified by Haihan, and it was not that easy to escape from the battlefield. "Prestige Signal" and "Prestige" each focused on a target and pursued it at full power.

In this era, there was no sailboat that could escape the pursuit of the Haihan steam battleship by speed. Therefore, Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi soon discovered that their plan could not keep up with the changes in the battlefield.

There is no escape.

Liu Xiang's boat was intercepted first after two masts were broken. However, the people on the boat obviously did not intend to surrender and still tried to use cannons, bows and arrows, blunderbuss and other weapons to attack the approaching "threat signal".

Resistance. However, after two rounds of grape bullets swept across the deck, those who were still alive on the boat chose to surrender. After all, they watched their companions being torn into pieces by the flying grape bullets. The impact was enough to make people lose the ability to continue fighting.

courage.

The sailors who boarded the ship later found a pale Liu Xiang in the cabin. The guy was not seriously injured, but was frightened and desperate, making his mood a little unstable.

Li Kuiqi, another leader of the Eighteen Zhizhi who went into battle, was obviously a bit worse off. He caught up with the "Wei Feng" and used the 48-pound cannon on the bow of the ship to hit its tail. The original goal was to destroy its tail rudder.

In order to make it lose its ability to sail, the gun directly penetrated the stern of the ship and blasted into the cabin, blasting Li Kuiqi into a ball of flesh and blood. The sailors who then boarded the ship to search could only find it from the body fragments.

to prove the identity of this unlucky guy.

The two flagships leading the team were captured, and the remaining ships had no intention of fighting anymore and fled for their lives. Wang Tom, who was thinking about business in Penghu, did not let his troops continue to pursue the fleeing pirate ships.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Zheng Zhilong had received the battle report that the blockade had failed. This news actually did not exceed his expectations, but what made him a little disappointed was that Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi not only failed to effectively prevent the enemy fleet from advancing, but instead

Even he couldn't escape. As a result, excluding Zheng Zhihu who died in the battle, He Bin and Guo Huaiyi who defected, Shibazhi has lost five leaders. Even if it can save the group, it will probably have to change its name in the future.

It’s called “Thirteen Zhi”.

As the enemy fleet approaches, the time left for Shibazhi to evacuate Penghu has also entered a countdown. However, from the time Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi led their troops to attack until the news of the defeat came back, they boarded the ship and left.

The number of personnel in Magong Port is only a few thousand, and there is still a large gap between the goal of evacuating all personnel.

"Pass my order. The team originally arranged to stay on the island should immediately board the ship and leave the port to intercept the enemy!" Zheng Zhilong had no choice but to move out the death squads from the bottom of the box.

According to the pre-plan, Shiba Zhi will leave an armed force of 2,000 people to deal with the enemy on the island to buy more time for the large army to escape. Half of the 2,000 people are Zheng Zhilong’s private army

, and the other half is made up of several people who were drawn by lot. Since this force wants to stay and fight the enemy to the end, it naturally has to be prepared to die in battle. But in order to be able to block the menacing enemy fleet

, Zheng Zhilong can only use this power in advance now.

Before the troops set off, Zheng Zhilong had people put out silver boxes and gave five taels of silver to each participant. If they could come back alive, they would also get the other half of the equivalent reward. However, the pirates who received the silver

Most of them didn't have any relaxed expressions, because they also knew that the chance of coming back alive and well after leaving was slim.

The second blocking fleet met the coalition fleet ten nautical miles west of Magong Port. Different from the first blocking fleet that was quickly destroyed, this fleet had almost dispatched all the existing ships of Shibazhi.

All warships, and the commander of this fleet is Zheng Zhilong's clansman Zheng Zhiwan. The will to fight is much more determined than the first fleet that was forced into battle.

Under the artillery fire of the Haihan warship, this fleet did not collapse in one blow again. Instead, it rushed forward despite the artillery fire and fought with ten or more warships attacking one target.

It has to be said that although such a tactic was costly, it did still have a certain effect. Not long after the war began, an "exploration-class" warship, the "Swiss Crab", failed to turn in time and was directly attacked by five pirate ships. Although

The ship used grapeshot to quickly clear the deck of one of the ships, but several other pirate ships still successfully completed the boarding battle.

The yelling pirates brandished steel knives and harpoons and jumped onto the ship's side to the deck of the "Swiss Crab". However, only three or four out of ten pirates were greeted by volleys of guns and could successfully cross the two sides.

The other unlucky guys were basically shot and fell into the sea.

What made the pirates feel very depressed was that even if they successfully boarded the deck of the enemy warship, they still could not gain any advantage in hand-to-hand combat. These Haihan sailors wearing indigo short shirts and dark skin were all

They are equipped with a kind of firecracker with a shining spear tip at the front. There will be at least two or three rounds of volleys during the slightest fighting break, and then they will engage in battle with the firecracker like a short spear in their hands. Although some pirates with outstanding bravery

It can also hurt the opponent with the weapons in its hands, but it will usually lead to an immediate attack from three or four short spears. And the power of this thing is no less than that of a fire blunderbuss. If it is stabbed by one, it will often fall to the ground immediately.

Already.

The muskets currently used by the Haihan Navy are actually the same model as those of the Annan Militia. They are short-barreled large-caliber flintlock guns equipped with a one-foot-two-inch bayonet. The original intention of this short-barreled musket is to be suitable for relatively narrow operations.

space, and fires large-caliber shotgun shells to cover close-range areas, which is very suitable in situations such as boarding battles at sea. A squad of sailors fires a salvo, and the firepower can almost cover one side of the ship's side.

Although the pirates jumped to the "Swiss Crab" one after another, the results they achieved were very limited. More than 80% of the fallen bodies on the deck were from Shibazhi.

The time left for the pirates was not long. Just a moment later, the other two "Exploration-class" warships serving as frigates quickly approached the "Swiss Crab", and nearly ten artillery pieces fired at it at a distance of less than twenty meters.

These pirate ships carried out bombardment.

The other pirate ships that tried to intercept the "Dignity-class" battleships ended up even more miserable, because the "Dignity-class" warships had a small-caliber gun deck on the upper deck and a large-caliber gun on the lower deck. The ship's side was much higher than that of the pirate ship.

, after the warships of both sides approached, the lower artillery deck happened to be facing the deck of the pirate ship. A cannonball passed by like a wind and a cloud, tearing the ship plank into pieces together with the pirates, and forcibly tore a large gap across the hull of the pirate ship.

Kouzi.
Chapter completed!