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Chapter 80 Sweet Harbor - Encounters at Sea
To the east, about six nautical miles away, a fleet of about a dozen ships of varying tonnage appeared.
Le Lin, the first mate of the Great Whale, raised her telescope and watched the course of the distant ship attentively.
The wind blew gently on both sides of the whale's hard sails, pushing the ship to move at a speed of 2 knots per hour. The first mate looked at his watch. The ship has left Hai'an Port for two hours.
The big whale entered Hai'an last night, and then unloaded the two hundred stones of rice carried on the ship. Later, another two hundred stones of sugar were loaded. In the original plan, the whale did not carry sugar. After all, its mission was to act as a bait. It was unable to ensure the safety of the cargo during the battle. Whether it was flooded, burned, or contaminated with human blood, the sugar could never be sold. , and sugar is also a very good burning agent. It is not a joke to catch fire in a battle.
But if you don't pretend to be sweet at all, you won't be able to act as bait. Your opponent has placed spies on Hai'an Street.
Xi Yazhou raised his telescope and observed the voyage of these ships attentively. Because he deleted too many posts on Lingao BBS, his reputation among the masses has dropped sharply. In addition, it was revealed that the so-called "chart deductions" he did during working hours were all computer war games. Now he is eager to ask for help. Find an opportunity to perform meritoriously. This time it was a maritime operation, and the backbone of the navy had gone on many long voyages. The whale was also responsible for the decoy task. It was basically prepared for artillery bombardment and hand-to-hand combat. There was no problem in letting the army take command. Of course, the navy is still responsible for driving the ship.
"First mate," he said, turning to the first mate, "this is the pirate hired by Kai Yi Tang."
"It's very possible," Le Lin replied, "But it's still unclear right now. It will be clear when we get closer."
"Okay," Xi Yazhou said, "order to be careful and alert. Tell everyone to make necessary preparations."
Then the order was immediately conveyed to the whole ship. Various war preparation measures were immediately implemented. The number of lookout posts increased to four.
"Send report to detachment A that a suspicious ship has appeared 6 nautical miles away from our ship." Xi Yazhou stood on the stern, feeling a bit like a general in the movie, but the deck was full of straw bags, which looked a bit unsafe. It makes people feel boring.
Detachment A consists of two fishing boats and is responsible for providing direct cover to the whale to prevent it from being outnumbered and raped. They waited 10 nautical miles south of the big whale and kept their distance. According to the plan: Once a battle breaks out, detachment A will come for reinforcements. The task of detachment A is to cooperate with the whales to destroy them on the spot if there are less than 4 enemy ships. If there are more than 4 enemy ships, use mobility and firepower to protect the whales and repel the enemy ships while forcing the enemies to flee. Juhua Island - an ambush circle has been set up there.
The fleet was approaching at considerable speed. The wind on the sea is not strong now, but the opponent's speed is obviously very fast.
"They are using oars," Lelin said, "and they are chasing us desperately."
"Maybe someone tipped them off as soon as we entered the port yesterday, otherwise how could it be so accurate." Xi Yazhou looked at the approaching fleet and was very excited at the thought of a fierce battle coming soon. Although he had been a soldier, this was his first time doing something like this with real swords and guns.
The fleet approached another two nautical miles. Le Lin estimated that their speed was at least 4 knots. In addition to sails, each boat also uses at least six to eight oars for rowing. Now there could be no misunderstanding as to the fleet's intentions.
"It's just a pirate" Le Lin put down the telescope
"That's right." Xi Yazhou replied, "Prepare for battle."
The ship's bell on the Great Whale rang quickly, and the sailors came out of the cabin and ran to their respective fighting positions, including Army gunners wearing gray uniforms and red artillery collar insignia. They came aboard with four 12-pounder cannon.
The sailors quickly transported the sugar bags piled on the outer layer down the cabin. The other straw bales did not need to be moved. They were filled with sand and soil. They were mainly used as temporary gun bunkers besides pretending to be cargo. Four artillery pieces and ammunition boxes were hidden deep inside these bunkers, covered with straw mats. The sailors operated two water pumps to bring up seawater to wet the straw bags and deck to prevent the enemy from using arson tools.
It was Gu Dachun's fleet that came. Ten ships of different sizes set out from an island near Xuwen last night. Although there are only ten ships, seven of them are temporarily joined by single operators. These ships were all gathered together by Gu Dachun recently. The five thousand taels of silver given to him by Mr. Zhu, plus the candy money he grabbed last time, greatly cheered him up and made him even more excited. This cheap brother-in-law had never thought highly of him in the past, but since he successfully intercepted Guang Bing and robbed him, After arriving at Two Hundred Stones of Tang, his attitude towards him changed drastically, and he could even be said to be very dependent on him, which made him feel very proud. Natural attitudes also become more positive.
Seeing the strange-looking and clumsy-looking ship in South China in front of him, Gu Dachun felt that victory was already in sight. He even felt that it was unnecessary for him to recruit these boats for help - even three of his boats would be enough to solve the problem. This time, Master Zhu sent a clear message to him through Qiu Han: grabbing sugar is a trivial matter. The key is that in the future, except for Haiyitang’s ship, no one will dare to ship another ship of sugar from Leizhou.
Gu Dachun naturally understood the implication of these words. The previous words were just "to let them know how powerful", but now the meaning was completely different - to make people dare not, the best way is to kill people and set fire to them. So this time, he made up his mind not to show mercy.
Zhu Sanye asked him to add ships and artillery to expand his team, which was not difficult. Once you go to Jiangping, you can recruit a lot of rough fishermen who are half fishermen and half bandits. They live in this land where there is no care. They are neither Vietnamese nor Ming people. They are all impoverished and will join the sea if they get the opportunity. robbery activities. Some can also bring boats, which can be regarded as bringing their own production tools. Gu Dachun quickly recruited seven large ships and nearly 600 men.
It's just that cannons and gunpowder are not easy to make. Gu Dachun didn't use these things in the past. After finding some temporary connections, he found a workshop specializing in privately casting cannons and gunpowder in the countryside of Qinzhou, and bought them for forty taels of silver each. More than ten cannons were fired. However, gunpowder was difficult to obtain. Zhu Sanye helped him get a few barrels from the navy in Leizhou, and he managed to buy some himself. It can be regarded as equipping all three of his ships. However, they don't have qualified gunners. The pirates are not very good at serving this thing. They are very wary of this kind of thing where the gun body will jump straight back when fired, and sometimes it will blow to pieces by itself, so the battle will still be fought with jumping gangs. Hand-to-hand combat is the main focus. Now this group of pirates has gathered on the deck, holding all kinds of equipment in their hands, ready to join forces and fight as soon as they get close.
Whether the pirates attack the Great Whale head-on or engage in a siege, this is bound to be a battle in which the strength of the two sides is extremely disparate. Le Lin put down the telescope and felt a chill on the back of her neck.
Among the opponent's ten ships, three large two-masted ships can be seen, with three to five cannons installed on them. The remaining seven ships have single or double masts, but are smaller in tonnage and are similar to the common coastal fishing boats here. There were no signs of mounted artillery. But the deck of the ship was densely packed with dark-skinned men. Although their expressions could not be clearly seen through the telescope, the glint of the weapons in their hands in the sunlight was enough to make people feel frightened.
The opponent had eleven to fifteen cannons. The Whale had only four guns to contend with. The more than 100 sailors on the ship had to fight with 700 to 800 people. It must be a battle with huge disparity between the enemy and ourselves. Of course, the Great Whale enjoys a certain artillery advantage, which is enough to deal a heavy blow to rash enemies - as long as they are not allowed to get too close and maintain a certain distance. Large whales can use accurate gunfire to gradually eliminate them.
In short, the crossing forces must do everything they can to avoid side-to-side combat. Once this happens, strength in numbers will definitely prevail in the end. When fighting at sea, once a hand-to-hand combat occurs, the number of people on both sides is more important than when fighting on land - there is no retreat in a battle on a ship, and escape means death.
Almost half an hour passed, and it was obvious that the fleet had taken another step forward and was approaching the whale. The whale is still moving forward at its original speed. He seemed completely unaware of his fate.
Xi Yazhou couldn't help but observe the pirates' actions. It seems the enemy didn't realize it was a trap. Preparations for battle were quickly made on board. The sailors and gunners all stayed at their posts. The gunners concentrated on measuring the distance of the ship and adjusting the angle of the artillery; the sailors lurked behind the straw bag wall and, under the command of the officer, hurriedly bit open the ammunition bag and loaded their Mini rifles. Since this was a shipboard battle and bayonets were difficult to use, all sailors and sailors were given a machete.
"Send report to Detachment A: Ten enemy ships are continuing to approach our ship, 15 nautical miles away." The second telegram was sent.
At around eight o'clock in the morning, the pirate fleet had moved one nautical mile upwind of the Great Whale. Although the pirates were illiterate and had not learned any naval battle tactics, they still knew the strategy of gaining the upper hand in a naval battle. They used large oars to row the boat closer. The whale headed south and maintained this direction. Gu Dachun's fleet formed a formation and rushed forward: three large two-masted ships were in the middle, and the other seven ships were arranged on both sides, three on the right and four on the left, in an attempt to encircle the whale from the sides and surround it at the core. First use artillery bombardment to kill and injure the people on the deck, and then board the ship to fight and seize the ship.
"We must not let them get close to our ship." Xi Yazhou said to Le Lin, "Concentrate all firepower to repel one of the wings first." He looked at it with a telescope, "Everyone shoots to the starboard side."
