After listening to Shi Fu's analysis, Shi Lang suddenly said, "Uncle, what if the escorting Ming army is a fake?"
Um?
This time it was Shi Fu's turn to glare. He stared at Shi Lang and asked, "You...you mean that the eldest son is not here, and the court knows that the Zheng character flag is effective, so they deliberately let people hang the Zheng character flag to pretend to be the Zheng family army?"
"This is just my guess, there is no real evidence!" Shi Lang answered very unconfidently.
"Let me think about it!" Shi Fu lowered his head and fell into deep thought.
Things were becoming more and more complicated, and his mind was no longer in a state of confusion.
They disguised themselves as the Jiannu navy and planned to launch a surprise attack on the Ming merchant caravan.
As a result, they encountered the escorting Ming army flying the Zheng flag.
Considering that the other party might be Zheng Chenggong, sending someone to identify his identity would expose the smuggling with the Jiannu.
So he could only guess the other party's identity!
While he was thinking, a soldier reported: "Sir, the sentry boat reported back that the fleet of the Ming army has stopped."
"Stopped? Why stopped?" Shi Fu hurriedly picked up the clairvoyance and looked in the previous direction.
But the sea was choppy, the distance was too far and there was rising water vapor, so nothing could be seen clearly.
Shi Fu anxiously ran to the side of the ship and shouted at the sentry boat that had just delivered the letter: "What's going on?"
Although the soldiers on the patrol boat could not hear clearly what Shi Fu said, they guessed what he said based on his lip movements.
An officer opened his mouth and mouthed the answer: "They are fighting."
beat?
Shi Fu mouthed the question: "Who fought with whom?"
"Two Ming armies!" the officer answered in the old way.
Two groups of Ming troops fought?
etc...
Shi Fu felt like his head was about to explode.
That is to say.
At this time, two Ming naval forces were fighting on the sea to the north.
So...how many Ming armies are there?
Because strictly speaking, they were also Ming troops, just Ming troops disguised as Jiannu.
The more Shi Fu thought about it, the more confused his mind became. After a while, it was completely confused.
He looked at his nephew Shi Lang and found that he was also in a mess.
After hesitating for a long time, Shi Fu ordered: "Send a patrol boat to approach the Ming army. If it is bombarded, retreat immediately!"
After the order was given, a patrol boat flying the flag of the Jiannu navy left Shi Fu's fleet and rushed towards Zheng Hongkui.
Zheng Hongkui's attention was not on this side at all, because the fight had already started on Zheng Chenggong's side.
He kept giving orders to nearby warships, asking them to support Zheng Chenggong.
"Sir, a Jiannu patrol boat is heading towards us!" reported the soldier in charge of alert.
"Just fire to drive them away, don't chase them!" Zheng Hongkui ordered.
"yes!"
Boom!
Two cannon shots were heard, and the shells flew across the sky and landed on the sea around the patrol boat.
The moment the shell hit the water, it stirred up violent waves, which frightened the people on the patrol boat so much that they shrank their necks.
After seeing the power of Zheng Hongkui's artillery, the patrol boats sent by Shi Fu immediately retreated.
Seeing the patrol boat retreat, Zheng Hongkui continued to give orders: "Send half of the troops to support Chenggong, and the rest stay where they are to guard."
The command flag waved, half of the warships were dispatched, and half of the warships remained anchored.
Seeing this, the escorted merchant ships also stopped and dared not continue sailing.
This place is still a long distance from Nagasaki Port. If they leave the warships behind and sail alone, they will become lambs to be slaughtered if they encounter pirates again.
On the sea to the north, Zheng Chenggong and Shang Kexi had already started fighting.
Shang Kexi learned naval warfare tactics from the Ming army, whose tactics were column artillery battles.
First gain the upper hand, then form a column and charge towards the enemy ship.
In order to avoid being hit, the enemy ship will move to the sides.
Since most of the artillery were placed on the sides of the warships, this gave the Ming army an opportunity to attack.
at this time.
The Ming army would attack with artillery on both sides while maintaining a column formation to cut the enemy ship formation in half.
Then weapons such as muskets, bows and arrows, blowguns, fire bricks, etc. will be thrown at the enemies and enemy ships.
Shang Kexi was a veteran of naval warfare. He wanted to defeat the Ming army with tactics rather than relying on superior military strength.
So at the beginning of the war, he ordered the warships to occupy the upwind direction of the northwest and form a column to rush towards Zheng Chenggong.
Zheng Chenggong is not a simple person either.
Although this was his first actual combat, Zheng Chenggong was very familiar with the tactics of naval warfare, and the soldiers under his command were all elite troops of the Zheng family army.
Not to mention that Zheng Chenggong understood tactics, even if he knew nothing, as long as he did not give random commands, these elite troops could rely on their experience to organize effective defense and counterattack.
"Sir, the enemy has gained the upper hand and is charging towards us in column," the soldier reported.
"Line up to meet the enemy!" Zheng Chenggong ordered, "Get the fire-fighting equipment ready, and the musketeers keep a close eye on the enemy ships. If you encounter an enemy soldier holding a blowtorch, shoot him immediately!"
"Also, our rear ship must pin down the enemy's front ship!"
"Yes!" The herald ran quickly to the command flag and conveyed the military order to each ship.
On the sea.
The distance between the two fleets was getting closer and closer.
The Ming army's fleet sailed from west to east at a slow speed.
Shang Kexi's fleet came from the west, faster than the Ming army's warships.
The two fleets were like two long snakes, crawling on the sea.
"Adjust the rudders and form a column!" The general's roar was heard from all the warships of the Ming army.
The boatmen fought hard and finally adjusted the fleet's formation into a column before Shang Kexi's fleet approached.
Two "long snakes" crawled towards the east at the same time, one in front and one behind.
Because the "snake" in front was slow, it was quickly caught up by the "snake" behind, forming a situation where the head and the tail were connected.
The lead ship of Shang Kexi's fleet launched an attack on the Ming army's tail ship.
boom!
The only cannon at the bow spewed out countless lead bullets.
The Ming army hid behind the side of the ship and avoided the first round of attack.
However, there were still two unlucky guys who were hit by bullets. They did not scream, but instead covered their wounds with pale faces.
With the advantage of speed, the Jiannu's first ship arrived to the left rear of the Ming army's tail ship.
"Fire!" With the order from the Jiannu officer, they, who had the upper hand, launched a saturation attack on the Ming army's tail ship.
Various firearms, from cannons to muskets, fired one after another.
The spray gun sprayed flames at the Ming army's sails.
Fire bricks and other flammable materials were ignited and thrown high into the air, landing on the decks of the Ming army's warships.
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