Li Jin followed the route planned by the War Department and went all the way south to Fuzhou Prefecture in Fujian Province.
On the third day of going south, we had already arrived near Wenzhou. The journey was relatively smooth and there were no surprises.
However, after arriving in Wenzhou waters, Li Jin and Xu Da had to be cautious.
Whether it was the intelligence from the imperial court or the information obtained by Li Jin, the waters near Wenzhou were where Japanese pirates were most rampant.
Undoubtedly, there must be a huge Japanese pirate force hidden here, but neither Li Jin nor the court could discover this Japanese pirate's lair.
"Wei Guogong, the islands in the Wenzhou Sea are densely covered with stars and have complicated waterways, so the sea here has never been safe."
Li Jin and Xu Da stood on the deck, and Li Jin kept explaining the situation in the nearby sea to Xu Da.
"During the Song Dynasty, there used to be a powerful navy stationed here."
"It is connected to Jiankang City in Suzhou and Hangzhou in the north, and overlooks the entire East China Sea in the south. The geographical location is very important."
"The East China Sea is also a battleground for military strategists. Unfortunately, our emperor has implemented a maritime ban. Some of the military facilities here are all advantageous to the Japanese pirates."
"With so many islands forming an island chain, if the Japanese pirates don't come out, it would be extremely troublesome for us to go in and annihilate them."
“Even if you are not careful, you may run aground on the rocks and become a piece of fish on the chopping block.”
"In some places, once you give up, it will take a lot of energy to regain it."
Listening to Li Jin's slightly reproachful words, how could Xu Da not know the importance of these places.
These days, discussing coastal defense with Li Jin, Xu Da also gained some insights into naval operations.
In the past, Xu Da felt that finding the enemy in the vast sea was simply looking for a needle in a haystack.
Those Japanese pirates are difficult to find as long as they hide in the sea.
This kind of difficulty is much higher than chasing the Mongols in Mobei.
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were never afraid of their enemies and were confident of defeating any enemy who came against the Ming Dynasty. However, what they were most afraid of was not being able to find the enemy.
The most terrifying thing is that you have a lot of military power, but you can't find an opponent to vent it on, and you are eventually consumed alive by the enemy at sea.
But after communicating with Li Jin for a while, Xu Da felt that the sea was actually not that scary.
Even in Xu Da's view, there are many similarities between naval battles and land battles.
Whether it is a land battle or a naval battle, they are all part of war, and marching and fighting are ultimately about logistics.
After all, as long as you are a human being, you need to eat, and eating requires food and grass.
When fighting on land, you must do everything possible to cut off the opponent's supply of food and grass.
Occupy strategic locations, disrupt the enemy's logistics, and let the enemy be led by your nose.
The same goes for fighting on the sea.
It's just that the strategic locations on the land have turned into islands.
In the vast sea, the only way to obtain supplies is through islands.
If you want to wipe out the Japanese pirates, you can only occupy all the islands where the Japanese pirates are established so that the other side cannot obtain supplies. Only in this way can the troubles of Japanese pirates be eliminated forever.
The island chain around Wenzhou, which was supposed to be the bridgehead for the waters controlled by the Central Plains Dynasty, was abandoned by Zhu Yuanzhang. How could this not make Li Jin upset?
"The Emperor has his own reasons for doing this."
When Xu Da saw Li Jin blaming Zhu Yuanzhang, he couldn't help but speak for Zhu Yuanzhang:
"Although Zhang Shicheng was defeated at the beginning, his remaining forces should not be underestimated. These people fled to the island by sea ship in an attempt to continue to fight against the emperor."
"Although Fang Guozhen surrendered in the south, the remnants of his men did not choose to surrender. Like the rest of Zhang Shicheng's men, these people fled to the islands off the coast of Fujian and continued to be enemies of the Ming Dynasty."
"The most abominable one is the pirate Chen Zuyi. This thief caused a bloody storm in Guangdong and Guangxi."
"Even the commander of the navy who sent out to suppress the bandits died in the South China Sea. The entire 10,000-man navy was wiped out. It can be said to be a heavy loss."
"These pirates and remnants of the rebellious gangs are entrenched on the sea near the coast, often plundering the people along the coast to strengthen their own power."
"In order to protect the people along the coast from these people and prevent these forces from getting bigger, the current emperor issued a sea ban."
"Not letting a piece of board go into the sea played a huge role in the beginning. Otherwise, I'm afraid these Japanese pirates would have more than just that little power now."
Li Jin was a little speechless. Since these people were almost riding on Zhu Yuanzhang's head, Zhu Yuanzhang should deal with them severely instead of giving up Haiyang.
Speaking of which, Zhu Yuanzhang still thought of a small farmer, believing that the Ming Dynasty was rich in products and outstanding people, and that the land of the Central Plains alone was enough to feed the hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty.
There is nothing to gain from marching into the ocean, and a lot of effort is required. The gain outweighs the loss. After all, food cannot be grown on the ocean.
It is strange that Zhu Yuanzhang, with this kind of thinking, is interested in the sea.
As for Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen's remnants, and Chen Zuyi, they just happened to meet at the right time and Zhu Yuanzhang found good reasons for himself.
Li Jin was about to continue arguing with Xu Da when he suddenly heard a sharp whistle from the watchtower.
"An enemy ship was sighted southwest."
Li Jin's expression suddenly became tense, he picked up the monocular and started looking southwest.
Sure enough, Li Jin found the ship after just searching for a moment.
The skull and crossbones flag was the same as his own, and the hull was as dilapidated as ever. It looked like it had been through the vicissitudes of life and had been ravaged by time.
The other party had only one ship, while he had more than forty ships. Li Jin was naturally confident and immediately ordered to continue moving forward.
Li Jin's purpose was just to pass through Wenzhou waters as soon as possible, reach Fuzhou Prefecture, and rescue Deng Yu.
During this period, Li Jin didn't want to cause trouble, and Xu Da next to him just had the same idea.
Li Jin saw that the other party only had one ship and felt that the other party would not dare to trouble him, so he didn't take it to heart.
But things always backfired. Li Jin didn't want to cause trouble, but the other party didn't intend to let Li Jin go just like that.
I saw that the broken ship was swaying towards Li Jin, and at the same time, it kept raising flags, asking Li Jin's entire fleet to stop for inspection.
Li Jin almost laughed out of anger when he heard the messenger's message.
It seems that these Japanese pirates are used to being arrogant in this sea area. When they saw that they wanted to leave, they thought that they were afraid of them.
Li Jin looked at Xu Da and asked:
"Wei Guogong, what do you think?"
"What do you think? Of course I'm doing a good deed and giving them a ride."
Xu Da had a cold face. He had no good impression of these Japanese pirates.
If it weren't for the fact that he was on his way and didn't want to cause trouble, the pirate ship just now would have been sunk by his order.
Now that the other party is so ignorant and anxious to reincarnate, of course he must satisfy the other party.
"boom!"
Before Xu Da and Li Jin finished speaking, the other party opened fire first.
The cannonball fell in front of the fleet, stirring up a huge water column, which looked impressive.
Later, the other party sent a signal again, asking Li Jin and Xu Da to stop the boat quickly and undergo inspection, otherwise they would be rude.
Xu Da didn't talk nonsense and directly ordered to sink the opponent without leaving any survivors.
Then, the flagship was like a giant beast waking up, and all the crew members began to get busy.
Then, on the side of the flagship, the black holes of the muzzles were exposed. The densely packed cannons pushed into the muzzles, which looked extremely terrifying.
"Boom boom boom!"
"Boom boom boom!"
Continuous gunfire resounded throughout the sea area of Wenzhou, and the flames of more than a hundred Hongyi cannons continued to bombard the deck of the weak ship.
In less than a moment, the ship was quickly torn apart, disintegrated, exploded, and then sank rapidly.
In less than half a cup of tea, there was nothing left except a small whirlpool.
As for the Japanese pirates on board, they were blown to pieces by cannonballs before the ship sank.
Even those who were lucky enough not to be killed were submerged in the whirlpool along with the ships.
This is the first time that the Ming Dynasty treasure ship roared on the sea, resounding throughout the East China Sea, which means that the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese pirates will enter a new stage.
Since then, the offense and defense have changed. The enemy can go, and I can go too!
