Off the coast of Xiangshan County, the sky was just dawning. Near an island more than sixty miles south of Zhoushan, fighting suddenly broke out.

There were more than 30 ships of various sizes hidden in the naturally formed island harbor. Even though there was mist in the early morning, the scouts still immediately discovered that enemy ships were outflanking them from the east and west.

The vigilance of this group of pirates is quite high. They were anchored in the harbor last night and their sails were not even dropped.

Upon discovering the enemy's situation, the first batch of seven or eight pirate ships took dozens of seconds to cut off the moorings. After roughly determining the wind direction and situation, they decisively headed towards the enemy ships coming around from the west, trying to create a gap and avoid being surrounded.

It would be better if we could seize even one of the three Thousand Materials ships.

Unfortunately, the difference in strength is too big.

Among the pirate ships, there was not even a single sea-going ship with a thousand materials, and the largest ones were only a few lucky ships with five or six hundred materials.

When the seven or eight pirate ships gradually approached the three Qianliu ships, they thought they would be able to get on board with the wind direction and reduce the disadvantage of their smaller ships. Unexpectedly, there was a burst of explosions and screams from the three Qianliu ships.

This is the bowl-mouth blunderbuss and rocket crossbow that the Ming Navy navy began to equip very early on.

Although many projectiles and crossbow bolts fell into the air, a series of explosions soon erupted from the approaching pirate ship, accompanied by miserable howls.

The first 500-ton pirate ship was attacked the most, but it was also due to bad luck. After a burst of harsh rattling sounds, the mainmast suddenly tipped down. The force was so strong that it not only capsized the entire lucky ship, but also sunk it.

A nearby paddle boat.

What's more, the sound of firearms instantly frightened the minds of many pirates on board the ships.

Half of the remaining six ships immediately chose to turn around and plan to escape.

The pirates on the last three ships were not much better. Seeing that their companions were killed or injured under the cover of a round of firearms, they had lost much fighting spirit in their hearts. They just felt that they could not escape and wanted to get as close as possible.

Enemy ships, fight as a backstop.

When the three ships finally approached one of the large ships with thousands of materials, they were greeted by a row of Ming troops on the deck holding three-eyed blunderbuss and ready to attack.

The other three pirate ships that escaped were also directly run over by another large Qianliu ship.

While this wave was easily dealt with, a huge ship that was quite familiar to these pirates also appeared in everyone's field of vision.

Hua Gao stood on the top deck of the five-thousand-material boat, holding the monocular telescope that he couldn't put down these days, and watched a battle in the west. He muttered something about how his nephew Hua Yue was not good at running the house, and was so wasteful in dealing with a group of trash fish.

With this in mind, he turned the camera to the natural harbor in the shape of a 'concave' on the other side.

Realizing that it was impossible to break out of the encirclement, the pirates began to go ashore and tried to get into the forest.

Within the field of view of the telescope, Hua Gao also saw many women and children, crying and stumbling. There was also a group of strong pirates who took the initiative to stay on the shore, trying to buy time for the women and children to escape.

Why bother.

Saying something silently, Hua Gao had already seen his fast paddle boat rushing to the shore.

A big man jumped out first, holding a spear.

That's Joan.

A certain little ancestor’s brother who writes about his mother.

Since he wanted to risk his life to earn fame, Hua Gao didn't mind giving him a chance. He had specifically chosen him to be a pioneer before.

If it is accomplished, it is a blessing.

If anything goes wrong, it's fate.

Seeing Qiao An easily flying a few arrows and quickly rushing into the enemy's formation, and accurately stabbing the enemy in the throat with one shot, Hua Gao began to nod.

Then he kept nodding his head.

"This style of spear-breaking is really powerful."

"There's that throat again."

"Tsk, mother, come in bunches."

"Tiger General!"

"Oh, this is too fancy. What are you trying to do by provoking people? You don't know how to save your energy and last for a long time. After all, you haven't been through battles for a long time."

Hua Gao commented that on the coast, the battle formation of two to three hundred bandit soldiers was barely organized and was completely destroyed by Qiao An and his hundred-man team in the blink of an eye. Seeing that the Ming army also came ashore one after another, the bandits finally collapsed and marched together. Escape from the jungle more than ten feet away from the coast.

Seeing the defeat of the pirates, Hua Gao put down his telescope and turned to a soldier: "Give me the order, don't chase into the forest, capture all the ones I can, and withdraw the troops for the time being. Well, there is no one alive at Yue'er's place. When you catch them, they are all big animals."

When the soldiers went to deliver the order, Hua Gao did not raise the telescope again, but looked at Zhao Xu, who was also holding a monocular telescope beside him, and said with a smile: "Don't be envious, your accent is from Huaixi, since you are from the capital. After surviving it, why did you take the initiative to go to the battlefield to seek death? Just stay with your little master peacefully, that is where you will have a greater future."

Zhao Xu looked at a brave figure still rushing left and right on the shore, smiled bitterly, and nodded.

However, this time, I was forced to go to sea with a thousand of my subordinates by my own petty officials on the grounds that I would not accept the orders of my foreign lord, but I could only watch others show off. It was really disturbing.

Hua Gao only gave a word of advice and said no more.

He turned around and walked down the gangway to the meeting hall on the second floor. As soon as he entered the door, Hua Gao walked straight to the long table covered with various drawings, admiring and appreciating the recently completed drawings.

Zhao Xu also followed in.

He also walked to the long table and picked up a page of artwork.

This is the outline of an island.

Using sketching techniques, following the direction of up, north, down, south, left, west, right and east, with an overlooking view, the general appearance of the island is very vividly depicted. With the meticulous brush strokes, the mountains and water flows on the island are clearly visible. .

There are various annotations in the blank space around the artwork, including the name of the island, the height of the peaks on the island, its length and width, the depth of the surrounding water, whether it can be used as a port, the distance to some surrounding islands, etc.

This is the result of the Marine Corps in recent days. It is a survey drawing of a series of large and small islands off the coast of Mingzhou. Because of the introduction of concepts such as sketching, scale and triangulation, compared with the previous ones, they were just big circles and small circles. The map of the island is almost one in the sky and one on the ground.

Hua Gao led the fleet to sea three days ago, on the one hand to demonstrate to the pirates who were entrenched on the offshore islands, and on the other hand, to proofread and supplement these drawings.

Of course, only a small part of it has been completed yet.

After all, there are thousands of large and small islands and reefs off the coast of Mingzhou, and the artwork on the desktop is only a small part of the offshore.

Speaking of which, in addition to some necessary information, this group of pirates was able to be found this time, mainly due to the help brought by the pile of drawings on the desktop. I just compared the terrain and searched for a harbor suitable for hiding nearby, and it was very easy. There is almost a harvest.

Zhao Xu put down the drawing in his hand and walked towards several officials from the Ying Hai Department who were busy compiling a large picture.

Looking at the precise map of the island that was planned to be colored, Zhao Xu once again thought of a statement that his own officials had mentioned more than once these days.

Fear comes from the unknown.

In the past, people were reluctant to go into the sea because of the word ‘unknown’.

Looking around in the vastness, not knowing where the sky is, where the shore is, and whether we are going to keep drifting like that, it is a person who is afraid. But there is not much difference between those so-called nautical charts in the past, whether they have them or not.

Now, looking at this new map of the islands that is gradually improving, regardless of the exact location of each island or what kind of scale it is, just use the ruler at hand to measure it, and you can determine the approximate distance.

With such a reference, and relying on all kinds of new navigation methods, Zhao Xu no longer feels that the sea is scary compared to the beginning.

A voice came to my ears.

Zhao Xu broke away from his thoughts and looked across the way. It was Tu Xiao, the head of the Surveying and Mapping Department under the Yinghai Department appointed by Zhu Yuan.

This tall, lanky young man in his twenties, who is about the same age as himself, has carefully studied the "Island Calculation Classic" written by Liu Hui, a great mathematician in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. He also combined it with sketches, scales and other knowledge given by his own junior officials. There are various surveying and mapping tools that have been developed recently, which have been integrated to create the current surveying and mapping method.

Therefore, he was awarded the eighth rank.

Tu Xiao was explaining some of his ideas to Hua Gao, who was inexplicably becoming more friendly when standing in front of the island map: "Captain, the observation deck on the ship is not high enough. If our mast can be ten feet higher, I think this map can be better." To be more precise, if it is twenty or thirty feet..."

Hua Gao interrupted with a smile and a curse: "Why don't you turn into a god on the spot and fly up for me to see?"

Everyone laughed.

Zhao Xu also laughed together.

But I couldn't help but think about flying. I wonder if my junior official has such ability. Of course, with his weak body, it is impossible for him to fly by himself, but... maybe there are other ways.

As they were talking here, someone reported outside the meeting hall.

Soon, Qiao An, who was covered in blood, walked in personally carrying a middle-aged man bundled into a ball.

Throwing the man to the ground, Qiao An clasped his fists and said, "Captain, I'm so lucky to have lived up to my command and captured the leader of the army, Banquet Xun."

Hua Gao calmed down his expression, walked over and looked at the man on the ground who had his eyes closed and said nothing. He glanced at the man's left hand that was tied behind his back and was missing two fingers. He sneered: "Feasting for three fingers, feasting for thousands of households, what is life like?" We don't meet each other everywhere. That day in Pingjiang, you broke out of Lao Liao's encirclement, but he was scolded by the master."

The man on the ground still didn't open his eyes, but he opened his mouth and said: "Kill if you want, why are you using the poems of my ancestors to humiliate me?"

Hua Gao was stunned.

This...is it related to the ancestors?

Tu Xiao, who was next to Hua Gao, could see the governor's doubts, but he knew that "There is no place in life where we don't meet" comes from a poem by Yan Shu in the Northern Song Dynasty, called "Jin Zhao Garden", which gradually spread to the people because it is very popular. Spoken, has gradually been regarded as a common saying without origin.

As for the person on the ground, whose surname is also ‘Yan’, she is from a famous family.

However, Tu Xiao did not help explain and cleverly pretended not to know.

Hua Gao did not bother with such details, shook his head and said: "If possible, I, Old Hua, would also like to chop you all into pieces, but here... there is a little ancestor who wants to 'attack your heart', so I can only go along with it."

Yan Xun remained silent again.

Hua Gao was very patient and simply squatted down and said to Yan Xun: "I know that you are a righteous person and you are aware of current affairs. When you heard about the establishment of the Navy Commander's Office, you planned to go across the ocean to Ryukyu, Japan to find another way of living. It's just that I thought about bringing more brothers with me, but I waited until now, but I didn’t want to be betrayed. Hehe, if I didn’t have a new map, it would be really hard for me to find you hiding outside the waterway in the corner."

Yanxun still said nothing, but turned his head slightly, not wanting to hear Hua Gao continue to talk.

Hua Gao stretched out his hand and forcibly turned Yan Xun's head away, and continued to talk: "Let's discuss it. If you shout out the plan for escaping into the forest, you will be considered as surrendering. I have the official documents with me, and they are posted on every island along the way.

If a bandit in the southeastern sea voluntarily surrenders to the Linhai Guards within thirty days, all of them will be spared the death penalty. They only need to serve, which can be as short as one year or as long as ten years. If the thirty-day period has passed, then only one will be left.

It’s a dead word.”

Yan Xun continued to remain silent.

Hua Gao was very patient: "Old Yan, I know you are not afraid of death, and you are not afraid of death anymore. Just think about the women and children on the island. Are you taking them with you and not saving them just to survive? This island outside,

The radius is only two or three miles, and even if I don't go in for suppression, I can trap everyone to death. I am showing mercy and giving you a way to survive."

Yan Xun was silent for another moment, finally opened his eyes, looked at Hua Gao and said, "How can I trust you?"

"As you said, there are documents," Hua Gao said and waved, and quickly received a notice, opened it and showed it to Yan Xun: "Look, the seal of the Navy Commander's Office, the seal of the Yinghai Department, and this,

This is incredible. It is the seal on the handle of my lord's sword. You are well-informed and must have known about the "kill first and report later" thing. With these three seals as a guarantee, how can I face the world if I lose my integrity?
Chapter completed!