As soon as Zhu Yunwen issued his order, his Imperial Guards quickly began to shout in unison, thoroughly conveying Zhu Yunwen's command.
Upon hearing Zhu Yunwen's order, the five hundred special forces soldiers immediately began rowing and quickly headed overseas.
These boats have been modified; although they are only medium-sized, they not only have oars on both sides, but also something similar to a propeller installed at the stern.
However, in ancient times, these propellers could only be operated manually. They were simply driven by gears, which allowed them to accelerate under tremendous force.
Once put into use, it can make wooden boats faster.
On water, the speed of a boat can sometimes play a crucial role.
Therefore, with the combined power of propellers and oars, these ships are extremely fast, truly moving like fish on the water, swiftly heading overseas.
Because of the vastness of the sea, even though the small island occupied by Japanese pirates was twenty or thirty miles away from Heishui County, it could still be seen from afar by the sea as a small, indistinct island.
After all, the sea offers a very wide view, and the ships were moving at top speed, gradually approaching the islands.
Meanwhile, the Japanese pirates entrenched on these islands showed no fear or panic whatsoever after learning that the Ming Dynasty's so-called naval exercise involved only 500 men.
They were even hoping on those small islands that the soldiers from the Ming Dynasty's military exercises would get close to them as soon as possible, and then be annihilated by their nearly two thousand Japanese pirates.
Upon receiving the news, Japanese pirates from other small islands in the vicinity also gathered there.
Each small island had several hundred Japanese pirates, and when they all gathered on one small island, they numbered more than two thousand.
Therefore, they were very confident and felt no pressure whatsoever when facing five hundred soldiers from the Ming Dynasty.
They even felt that their numerical advantage would allow them to quickly resolve the battle, give the Ming Dynasty a great warning, and severely humiliate them.
At the same time, it can also bring strong self-confidence to the eastern island nation.
Of course, the sea was not only home to the five hundred special forces soldiers trained by Zhu Yunwen and the Japanese pirates on the island not far away.
On some smaller islands or on some seas, there were ships and people from other countries secretly watching the so-called military exercise of the Ming Dynasty.
Furthermore, they learned that this military exercise was intended to use 500 men to eliminate more than 2,000 Japanese pirates on those small islands.
Some people from other countries were clearly also watching the spectacle and the joke unfold.
They certainly didn't believe that the Ming Dynasty could really eliminate a Japanese pirate force several times their size with just 500 men.
So at this moment, everyone was waiting to see the Ming Dynasty make a fool of itself, while Zhu Yunwen remained very calm.
He was also waiting to see the Japanese pirates make a fool of themselves.
And so time passed, second by second.
The five hundred special forces soldiers, in fifty boats, had already approached the island twenty miles away.
At this moment, on that island, more than two thousand Japanese pirates, armed with weapons, were lying in wait for the Ming soldiers to land on the island and fight them.
In their view, this is still a traditional war, just like before, with not much change.
So they're certain they'll win this time.
But what puzzled them soon happened: the five hundred Ming soldiers, traveling in fifty ships, stopped a hundred or two meters away from the island.
A distance of one or two hundred meters is roughly equivalent to a distance of thirty to sixty zhang (approximately 30 to 40 meters).
Now, the range of the light cannons improved by Zhu Yunwen is one hundred zhang, which is about three hundred meters.
Therefore, this distance of thirty zhang is well within the firing range of light cannons, and can be fired with great accuracy.
The Japanese pirates on the small island were somewhat puzzled when they saw the fifty medium-sized ships approach and then stop.
There are still about thirty feet to go, why don't we move forward?
Many of the Japanese pirates were puzzled, but one of their leaders quickly understood and said:
"Isn't that simple? They saw how many of us there were, and they got scared. How could they dare to come any closer?"
Upon hearing this, the Japanese pirates burst into wild laughter. In their view, this made perfect sense; otherwise, there was no other way to explain what they were seeing.
As a result, some Japanese pirates started shouting at the Ming fleet, which was thirty feet away.
"I say, why are these cowards from the Ming Dynasty too afraid to come any closer? Why don't you keep coming? What? Have we scared you out of your wits?"
"If you have so little courage that you want to oppose us, I think you should give up that idea as soon as possible."
"Haha, the Ming army is so cowardly, weak, and useless. They've only just approached, and they're already too scared to land on the island?"
"If that's the case, what's the point of talking about military exercises or annihilating us? It's laughable."
"Cowards of the Ming Dynasty, hurry back! Don't embarrass yourselves here and become a laughingstock, hahahahaha."
These Japanese pirates laughed wildly, completely unaware that they were about to face a terrible disaster.
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