: The smoke rises everywhere

The Hangzhou Bay Navy was dispatched in full swing. After all, this was the first battle with the Japanese pirates since the reconstruction of the Ming Navy. Its political significance was far more than the essence of the war itself. Official schools, flag soldiers, sailors, fire chiefs, civil servants, helmsmans, ban idlers, etc. were all on their own. The army rode the wind and waves and rushed to the sea where Han Wu and the Japanese pirates encountered.

The navy's soldiers and soldiers accounted for half of the Navy's troops, half of the newly recruited and trained recruits accounted for half, and a few Peng Fugui's confidants were scattered on various warships.

At this time, Peng Fugui was also anxious. The three warships that went out to sea were led by Qianhu Han Wu, and the deputy Qianhu was his youngest son Peng Xiaobao. This was the youngest son born to him by Mr. Peng's ninth concubine. He was only eighteen years old this year. Although he had been influenced by his childhood, he developed a skill in water, after all, he had never led a soldier alone, let alone being the only one who was against the crowd?

Peng Fugui did not easily provoke Japanese pirates in the East. He would only rob a small group of Japanese pirates when they were alone. In order to avoid trouble, all the Japanese pirates caught were sunk into the sea and destroyed their bodies. Therefore, he did not know much about the real combat power of Japanese pirates.

The blue sea is endless, and seagulls fly back to the blue sky. More than 30 warships are centered on a No. 2 blessed ship, slashing the waves and sailing to the southeast. The three three-masted and three-sailed mail ships are finished in the shape of the font, which is at the forefront of the fleet.

Since the wind blows from the sea to the land at this time, the warships cannot move in a straight line against the wind, and must move in a certain angle to take advantage of the wind force and turn in turn to circumnavigate to the accident site, the direction of the fleet is quite different from the location where Han Wu and others perform martial arts.

On the commanding ship, the rotating rudder focused on keeping the sun as the direction, correcting the direction of the ship, and using the star plate to measure the latitude of the ground. The flag bearer kept lifting and lowering various signal flags according to the command, directing the entire fleet to steer, control sails, adjust the course, and move in an orderly manner.

Yang Ling stood on the coach's ship. Seeing Zeng Shoujie and Peng Fugui constantly issued various orders, he was really anxious. Although the entire Hangzhou Navy fleet had already emerged, even if he was in danger, he could keep the coach's ship safe. However, Yang Ling was the imperial envoy, Gu Dayong and Bai Chongzan were unwilling to take risks, so he opposed him and let him go to sea with the ship.

Yang Ling also knew that he had no effect on whether he went to sea with the ship or not, but on the three ships were young ladies' second brother, young ladies and their brothers had a deep affection. If Han Wu had any good fortune, young ladies would be pregnant at this time, and the consequences would be sensible when they heard the news.

Moreover, this naval battle is of great significance. It not only affects whether the lifting of the sea can be successfully implemented, but others do not know that Yang Ling knows that although the emperor has fully supported it, the imperial court has done its best to invest the funds, and now it relies on coastal merchants to raise funds and invest. If the navy fleet is hit hard by their confidence, they will withdraw funds and withdraw shares to wait and see, and the opposition forces in the government and the opposition will make a comeback again.

So Yang Ling made a cruel decision. If Han Wu's three warships had been annihilated, then the entire fleet would be devoted to defeating this Japanese pirates to restore the political passive situation. If he did not supervise the battle on the ship, it would be difficult to ensure whether the Hangzhou Navy was willing to try his best to do his best. Therefore, Yang Ling insisted on his own, leaving Cheng Qiyun and others, Gu Dayong, Bai Chongzan and others to take charge of the central army, and went out to sea with the ship.

The fleet turned toward the martial arts venue again, and the nine-masted and blessed ships accelerated with sails. The two-row six seven-masted and fourteen-sailed pointed warships were reluctant to leave. The horse and fasteners behind were also arranged in combat formations.

Three whistle boats were walking far ahead, with a clear sky with great visibility. Standing on the bow of the boat, there was no trace of the ship on the waves, Yang Ling could no longer hold back his anger. He couldn't help but walk to the bow of the boat and look into the distance with the railing.

The three whistleboats in front significantly slowed down their ship speed, searching for the tracks of both the enemy and us in a diffuse line.

"Peng Qianhu, is this area of ​​water? Why... why can't there be a ship?" Yang Ling said with a trembling voice.

Seeing that there was no trace of the ship on the sea, Peng Fugui felt relieved and hurriedly said, "Sir, it's better not to find any traces. Maybe Han Qianhu has got rid of the Japanese ships, so let's search forward again."

Yang Ling felt a little in his heart when he heard this. At this moment, someone shouted loudly: "Look at the sea, there are wooden boards on the sea."

Yang Ling, Zeng Shoujie and Peng Qianhu hurried over when they heard this, holding the boat side and looking up at the sea. They saw a few broken wooden boards brought by the waves on the ups and downs. Peng Fugui had changed his color at the sight, "It's the cabin, the ship has sunk!"

When Yang Ling heard this, his heart sank. Zeng Shoujie turned his head and ordered: "Slow down and drop half of the sail!"

At this moment, several corpses were sent faintly ups and downs on the water. Several adults held their breath and stared at the faint figure in the water nervously. The ship slowed down and a flat-bottomed sand boat came out, passing through the two large ships, hooked a corpse with a long hook, and then shouted to the coach's ship: "Sir, this is a Japanese pirate, not ours."

In fact, even if he didn't say it, Yang Ling and others could see clearly from the clothes. Looking at the clothes, the nearby corpses did not look like soldiers from the Ming Dynasty. A glimmer of hope arose in their hearts.

A whistleboat in front came back, hooked the side of the lower layer of the Dafu ship with a hook gun, and then fixed it on the sampan. A hundred households jumped onto the sampan with barefoot barefoot and walked over quickly. This man was the confidant who had followed Peng Fugui for many years, and his water skills were naturally extraordinary.

He climbed to the second floor fort and bowed to Yangling, Zeng Shoujie and Peng Fugui, "Sir, we searched for the nearby sea, but we couldn't find warships of General Han Qian or the Japanese. We searched for more than 40 corpses from the sea, and all the Japanese died."

Peng Fugui's eyes flashed and asked, "Han Qianhu's three warships have just been opened from the Longjiang Shipyard. They are very easy to identify new ships. Have you ever checked the broken boards on the water? Are they Han Qianhu's new ships?"

The hundred households were stunned and said, "This..."

Peng Fugui said angrily: "Bao! Why don't you go check it quickly?"

When the hundred households saw the boss getting angry, they hurriedly agreed, rolled and crawled back to the wardrobe, and directed their soldiers to retrieve the water-mounted boat boards. After inspection, the boat boards were old in color and the wood was not the southern hardwood teak used by Han Wu's warship. Now Yang Ling was relieved. It was estimated that Han Wu had led the warship to escape when he saw that the situation was not good.

He immediately ordered the warship to advance with all sails, and the fleet searched the sea area in a geese-winged shape. After traveling about five nautical miles, the sailors on the commanding ship who were in charge of looking out suddenly shouted: "Note, the sentry ship in front sends back the message, and the warship appears. The warship appears in front!"

The flag bearer immediately issued an order from each ship, and the soldiers on the commander were nervous, and the gunners were in their positions. Yang Ling, Zeng Shoujie and others climbed to the observation deck and looked into the distance. They saw a vague shadow of the ship faintly coming towards him.

After a moment, the lookouts shouted again: "Sir, the whistleboat is sent to you. Revoke alert, cancel alert."

Yang Ling and others were puzzled and they calmed down. When both sides got closer, they saw three whistle ships coming back in a hurry. The canvas behind them were flaunting, and the two fronts and three or five large ships were chasing each other. Zeng Shoujie was shocked and immediately ordered: "Prepare to fight, and surround the left and right wings."

The geese feather-shaped formation gradually turned into a half-moon bent inward. We were facing the large ships opposite. At this time, we could see that the two large ships behind the three urging ships were the landed on the flaunting sails of Hachiman Great Bodhisattva, which was the symbol of the Japanese pirate warship. Zeng Shoujie hurriedly issued a flag order, and the entire fleet began to change its course slightly to both sides with the commanding ship as the center, and faced the enemy ship on the side of the cannons.

However, the news sent by the sailors on the lookout platform was to cancel the combat state. Fortunately, the artillery was neither accurate nor lethal, and the warships on both sides had a clear view. The warships on both sides were still unable to exchange fire. The guards did not know the intention of the sentry ship to send the news back. While he ordered the fleet to set up the most favorable attack formation, he sent a communication boat to meet the sentry ship, and had obtained accurate information.

Peng Fugui's old eyes were very sharp. At this time, he also saw that something was wrong and pointed at the opposite side and shouted: "Sir, look, the flags of the three warships behind the two Japanese ships... were the Ming warships and Han Qianhu warships."

Yang Ling and others looked up and saw that the warships on both sides were closer. The flags of the three warships behind were indeed the military flags of the Ming Dynasty, and the flags in the middle were the characters Han.

Zeng Shou saw something strange and immediately ordered the army to wait for battle. Two Japanese ships from the other side also landed off the sails and quietly moored on the sea. Then they played the surrender flag phrase common among the pirates.

Seeing this, Peng Fugui laughed and said excitedly: "Sir, our warship is safe and sound. These two Japanese ships must have been captured by Lord Han."

Yang Ling almost bit his tongue after hearing this: Han Wu only had three warships and five hundred new recruits, while the other side was eleven warships, and 1,340 Japanese thieves. Han Wu not only failed and fled, but instead captured two enemy ships. Is this possible? But if the situation in front of him was not the case, what explanation could be made?

The fleets of both sides were parked quietly on the sea, confronting each other. They rushed back to the ground to explore the two ships left and right in the middle of the two fleets. The third ship quickly approached the commander. Yang Ling saw the general standing on the bow and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief: The man was Han Wu.

Since Yang Ling was transferred back to the capital last year, Han Wu arranged for Ma Ang to take over his position and transferred him to the navy. After more than half a year of tempering at the sea, Han Wu's already a little darker ground became even darker. The sea breeze and sunlight made his skin rougher, and his jaw had a short beard, which added a bit of calmness.

When he boarded the boat and saw Yang Ling, a trace of joy flashed in his eyes, but after these days of training, Han Wu's steadiness was obviously moving closer to his elder brother Han Wei. He suppressed the joy of seeing his relatives and paid tribute to Yang Ling and Zeng Shoujie seriously according to the military courtesy.

Yang Ling hurriedly grabbed him and said, "Don't rush to see him, Lord Han, what's going on? I heard that your ship and the Japanese pirates encountered it. It was extremely dangerous for me to have many enemies, so Lord Zeng and I led the navy fleet to quickly come to reinforce. Judging from this situation, you have captured two enemy ships. How about our army's casualties?"

Zeng Shoubei knew about the relationship between Yang Ling and Han Wu, and saw this and smiled happily: "It's good that our soldiers and warships are safe. Sir, let's go into the cabin and sit down, and then ask Lord Han to tell me in detail."

Yang Ling nodded repeatedly, and everyone returned to the living room of the cabin to sit down. Han Wei said in detail.

It turned out that Han Wei and Peng Xiaobao were performing martial arts training at sea. Suddenly, more than ten Japanese pirate warships suddenly appeared on the sea. Seeing that Han Wei had no time to turn the bow and retreat, he immediately asked him to take a small boat to report the news. He assembled three warships and rushed towards the Japanese ship head-on.

The main general Han Wei was extremely warlike. Deputy General Peng Xiaobao was born in a newborn calf and was full of energy. He was used to fighting with the shark king Peng Fugui since he was a child. These two people were determined to fight and led five hundred newly trained recruits to attack the Japanese pirates, which made the Japanese pirate general Jiugui Yixiong overjoyed.

The Japanese country was very strict in its siege. The forces of the Ouchi and Hosokawa families were not the only ones that these Japanese pirates could deal with. They lived near the islands of their country, and their military supplies were dependent on the country. Therefore, they collapsed after a fight. All Japanese pirates had to call their friends and come to the Ming Dynasty for their request.

The fleet of Jiugui, a eleven warship, was composed of three Japanese pirates. They had a small conflict with the Japanese pirates who had occupied a small island. Because they thought they were unable to defeat the Japanese pirates, Jiugui had to take his men to continue searching for new places on the sea.

The Japanese pirates did not need to prepare too much supplies. Therefore, they rarely detoured near North Korea, but came directly from the East Sea to the Ming Dynasty. They always used war to support their soldiers. Now the Nine Ghosts have been lingering on the sea for a few days, and they have almost used all their food and drink. Seeing that the Ming army had only three warships, he expected to win in one fell swoop, not only could they get a large amount of supplies, but also possible to obtain these three large warships. They strengthened their own strength, so when they saw the Ming army rushing towards them, they were just in their hearts and immediately ordered the warships to fight.

However, Ichixiong underestimated the combat power of the Ming Navy. In the past, they occasionally encountered each other head-on encounters with the Ming Navy, and had empty salary and less training. The officers were corrupt and sluggish in morale. The Ming Navy was defeated by courage and morale, not because of their courage and morale. It was not that they were not as equipped as theirs, but the three ships of Han Wu did not have these problems.

Although some daimyos secretly support Japanese pirates, they are unable to cope with the pressure of military equipment and cannot provide pirates with a large number of weapons. Therefore, Japanese pirates' weapons are mainly made through smuggling and underground arsenals, so they have no ability to obtain large-scale weapons with complex equipment.

The main weapons of the Japanese pirates were spears and knives. Since Japan did not use coal to make iron or steel, they used carburizing method to make steel, and the forging was excellent, so the quality was better than that of the Ming Dynasty. The Japanese pirates attacked from afar. Only the Japanese pirates had the only large bow. This bow was made of bamboo and wood. It was synthesised with bamboo and wood. It was labor-saving and could shoot heavy arrows. Its lethality was better than the light arrows of the Ming army. However, due to the limited material, it was extremely difficult to maintain at sea, so it was only a few.

As for armor, even if it is leather armor, only the leader can wear it, and artillery is even rarer. They can only use spoils from the Ming army after conquering cities or fortresses and defeating the official army.

Han Wu’s three huge warships were made of good teak wood, and the shipboard could be used for at least sixty years. The whole ship was extremely strong. The Japanese warships were purely shoddy. Due to financial resources and workshop limitations, they could not afford large ships. They mainly used fast merchant ships and imitation shutdown ships. These ships could travel quickly to avoid warships and were suitable for entering shallow water areas and internal waters. However, because the ship was small, it could not fight against large ships, and it was even more difficult to resist the attacks of firearms. It was almost the same for people to carry people, and it was not suitable for water warfare.

This time, Mr. Nine Ghosts and Ichiho, who came with high-quality steel knives, rode more than ten broken ships, and held a small number of long-distance attack weapons, quickly realized the huge gap in their strength, just like when the Boxers fought against the Eight-Nation Alliance.

When they excitedly faced the uneasy Ming Navy, a total of twenty-six artillery on the Ming army warships roared and opened fire after a hundred and forty steps. The two warships immediately dispersed and turned into a pile of sampans on the sea. All the dead Japanese pirates fell into the water.

The other Japanese pirates took advantage of the rapid and lightweight ships, while the Ming army's hull was huge and it was not effective. At the same time, the disadvantage of the difficulty of moving artillery cannons avoided the three warships that approached Han Wu. After seventy steps, rockets shot over the sky, and several more Japanese ships caught fire.

The angry Japanese pirates extinguished the fire while screaming and driving the warships to force them to approach. At a distance of just forty steps, fire dragons sprayed out from the Ming army warship. This powerful bamboo tube fuel can be sprayed out a hundred meters when it is windy. More than a hundred "flamethrowers" make the three Japanese ships that have just been shot by rockets burned quickly, and thick smoke filled the sky.

Taking this opportunity, Peng Xiaobao ordered the warship to leave the battle circle, hovered for half a circle and opened the distance, and used firearms to attack again. Poor that those Japanese ships had countless fearless robbers who jumped on the ship in anger. But they had no place to use their skills.

The three Japanese ships with sails on fire were no longer able to move, and became living targets standing there. They were mercilessly destroyed by the Ming army's artillery. The remaining six Japanese ships saw that the situation was not good, and immediately turned to escape.

Han Wu and Peng Xiaobao were dying and ordered three warships to chase and follow the six Japanese ships. At this time, the Japanese pirates had no weapon to attack the Ming army's warships. The morale of the Ming army was greatly boosted, but the Japanese pirates' ships were very fast. Except for the three sails that caught fire, the Japanese ships that were not too late to be eliminated were forced to stop at the sea. The other three ships fled and soon left the Ming army behind.

When the three warships in Han Wudi approached the Japanese ships that had fallen sails to put out the fire, the Japanese pirates still resisted stubbornly. If they could catch the living Japanese pirates as prisoners, it would naturally be better for encouraging the morale of the army. Han Wu ordered the artillery to stop firing. When the warship approached, it used rockets to use forty steps, flying spray drums to project javelins within twenty steps. When the hulls of both sides approached, the fire bricks and thunder were thrown up.

Such a multi-level weapon attack within a hundred steps made it impossible for the Japanese ship to stand on the deck, let alone counterattack. One Japanese ship was blown up by a powder barrel thrown into the cabin by the Ming army and swept into the abyss by gurgling sea water. The other two Japanese ships fired a few arrows and were forced to surrender.

Under the deterrence of the Hanwei warship, the Japanese pirates obediently put out the fire, took out the spare sail from the cabin and replaced it. Then they were escorted all the way towards the Ming Dynasty, and they were met by Yangling's rescue fleet.

Yang Ling, Zeng Jianxiong and others were amazed after hearing Han Wu's introduction. Yang Ling said happily: "So, my navy killed six Japanese ships and captured two, but none of the warships were damaged? Haha, okay! OK! What is the casualties of soldiers?"

Han Wei smiled bitterly and said, "Are the soldiers... dead? More than 40 people were injured."

Zeng Jianxiong comforted: "Mr. Han, you can win a great victory against 1,200 new soldiers against 1,200 thieves. It is a great contribution. The soldiers only injured more than 40 people, which is nothing."

Han Wei shook his head and smiled bitterly: "I don't know that, except for one of the more than 40 people who were injured by the bows and arrows of the Japanese pirates, the rest of the people... were panicked in their first battle, some fell off the deck, and some were injured. None of them were injured by the Japanese pirates. It seems that our navy officers and soldiers still lacked the experience of combat formations. If the Japanese pirates had powerful warships and artillery, the outcome was really hard to predict..."

The Ming army navy fought head-on with the Japanese pirates, and the news spread quickly. For a time, the people in Suzhou and Hangzhou and even the entire Jiangnan were excited, and the gentry and celebrities were in full swing.

However, the battle report of the victory had just been sent to the capital, and the Japanese pirates along the coast of the Ming Dynasty successively rushed to the coastline that could not be defended for thousands of miles, sneaked into the shore and began to invade a large number of invasions.

The Japanese pirates arrived thousands of ships in a row, covering the sea, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and thousands of miles of coastal areas. At the same time, they warned that the Japanese pirates who had landed on the shore were like tigers, and wolf smoke rose up in an instant.

On April 7, the Japanese pirates attacked Changguowei, Zhejiang. On the same day, three other Japanese pirates attacked Taicang County and Zhapu, plundered Pinghu, Haiyan, Haining and other places, killing and killing hundreds of official troops. On April 9, a large number of Japanese pirates attacked Shanghai, Zhapusuo, Jiangyin and other places.

On April 10, the Japanese pirates attacked Rongcheng, Shandong, killed the county magistrate Lu Jiacheng, looted, collected civilian ships, went south along the coast and entered the territory of Jiangsu, and joined another Japanese pirate. They used fine works to set up an ambush in Sheyang, defeating the officers and soldiers of the garrison. One thousand six hundred Ming army was ambushed by 500 Japanese pirates, and more than 400 were killed. The defeated soldiers hurriedly crossed the river and fled. Nearly 300 people trampled on each other or drowned. The guard commander Chen Jingkuan was killed.

The Japanese pirates won a great victory. In the three days, several Japanese pirates attacked Daozhou, Taixing, Haining, Jiaxing, Yangzhou, and the officers and soldiers of the Ming army guards chased each other, with more defeats and fewer defeats. Yangzhou, thousands of households Hongxing, Taixing, and Feng Zhigong, the general of Ningde, were all killed in battle.

The commanders in various places were not good at suppressing the enemy. The Japanese used the bribed eyeliner to avoid the real and attack the virtual, and succeeded everywhere. The army was anxious to report that it flew to the capital like snowflakes.
Chapter completed!