Zeng Yiben was right in his guess. It was not Lin Daoqian who attacked Nan'ao Island. As he expected, for Lin Daoqian, who was known for his loyalty, a verbal threat was already the limit.
The forces that attacked Nan'ao Island did not belong to any force in the Fujian-Guangdong waters, but were a coast guard fleet that came from the distant northern Tamra Island, three thousand miles south!
On the tenth day of May, Zhao Hao returned to Jeju Island after completing the sea trial of the new warship.
As soon as he arrived at Jeju Island, he learned two pieces of bad news: Jiangnan Trade's trading post in Ryukyu was taken down, and his father's boss was also taken down before he took office.
At that time, Zhao Hao didn't even know that Zeng Yiben was attacking Chaozhou City, but he was already unable to sit still.
Young Master Zhao couldn't wait for the main force to get ready for sailing, so the next day he led a task force of ten light warships south.
He left in such a hurry that he even got his supplies in Chongming.
After a day's rest on Chongming Island, the fleet continued southward. The 2,000-mile waterway from Chongming to Chaozhou could be completed in ten days at most if the north wind blew strongly.
However, it was already mid-May, and the southerly wind was blowing strongly on the ocean. Even with the help of the southward coastal current, the warships still had to zigzag to resist the headwind, and the speed was shockingly slow - it would take at least twenty days to travel at full speed.
At first, Zhao Hao was not too anxious, and only ordered the Security Department to adjust the intelligence work on Chaozhou and Fujian and Guangdong to the "highest priority". In this way, every time he docked, he would get the latest information about Ryukyu and his father in the first place.
Zhao Hao was not worried at that time. Liu Ying had the Four Elders of Shangshan, and he was already fully grown, and even Liu Bang did not dare to touch him. Zhao Erye also had the assistance of Xu Wei, Pan Jixun, Pan Zhongcheng, and Wu Chengen, and the protection of the governor. As long as he did not commit suicide, he would be fine, right?
He even planned to go to Ryukyu first to hold King Shangyi of Zhongshan accountable, or at least force him to cede Naha Port to the Jiangnan Group as an apology.
But as soon as the fleet arrived in Wenzhou, he received an urgent report that Zeng Yiben was leading a large army to invade, and Zhao Erye was entering Chaozhou to take charge of the city defense!
After hearing the news, Zhao Hao was stunned for a full quarter of an hour.
He felt the strong malice from God!
Because if he had not interfered, Zeng Yiben would have been wiped out by the imperial court in the third year of Longqing, which was the year before last.
During that period of history, Zeng Yiben invaded Baietan and bombarded Guangzhou, shocking the imperial court and bringing shame to Guangdong. So the two provinces of Fujian and Guangdong made a painful decision and decided to send Guangdong General Yu Dayou and Fujian General Li Xi to form a joint fleet to completely wipe out Zeng Yiben and save the face of the imperial court.
The two provinces knew that the government navy was weak and could not match Zeng Yiben's powerful ships and artillery, so they incorporated the Portuguese who had helped the government army and drove Zeng Yiben out of the Pearl River Estuary into the foreign army system and requisitioned their powerful warships to assist the government in the battle.
After the Portuguese stole Macau, they were like an unwelcome tenant, always worried about being kicked out by the landlord. Of course, they were eager to take this opportunity to serve the Ming Dynasty and make friends with Guangdong Province. So they sent all their main forces to assist the government troops in the battle.
Finally, under the joint suppression of China and foreign countries, Zeng Yiben was finally defeated and captured. He starved to death soon after and was beheaded and displayed to the public after his death.
So normally speaking, Zeng Yiben's head would have become a specimen by this time.
But the problem is that because of Zhao Hao's interference, this period of history has changed - in the third year of Longqing, he launched a punitive war against Japan. The Christian daimyo, Romeo Ōmura Sumitada, was afraid of being implicated, so he begged the Jesuits to ask the Nanman for help to protect his safety.
The Jesuits, considering that Omura Sumitada was the only daimyo who had converted, agreed to his request in order to set an example of cooperation between Europe and Japan. They persuaded the Macau fleet coming to trade to stay for a while longer to support Don Romeo.
Who knew that it would attract Zhao Hao's covetousness, and after a sudden "hunting operation", all three Macau ships were captured. The old lock ship with a duck butt didn't matter, but the Duke of Goa and the Oriental Beauty were two of the three main forces of the Portuguese Macau fleet with limited manpower!
Yes, the Portuguese Macau fleet only had three large sailing ships, and the remaining one was a galley. There were still many old lock ships that combined Chinese and Western styles, but they were poorly armed and lacked enough local crew members, so they had no combat effectiveness at all.
Therefore, the Portuguese relied on these three large sailing ships to maintain their presence in the Ming Dynasty waters. Only when the three large sailing ships were unable to handle the situation would the Malacca side send a fleet to support them.
The reason why they only sent such a small number of troops to Macau was not entirely because they were afraid of displeasing the Ming Dynasty. Because Portugal itself had limited strength, it could not maintain a terrifying invincible fleet like Spain while fighting with the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. Portugal's warships had to guard the long sea routes and confront the alliance of the Arabs and Hindus in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The troops were already seriously stretched. The fact that they could squeeze out these three large sailing ships and place them in Macau was already the result of their great emphasis on Eastern trade.
~~
Because of Zhao Hao, two out of three main forces of the Portuguese fleet were gone, and they were unable to participate in the encirclement of Zeng Yiben. As a result, Zeng Yiben successfully broke through the encirclement and continued his pirate career for another two years.
It just so happened that the court's focus shifted to suppressing Wei Yinbao's rebellion, and famous generals such as Yu Dayou were transferred to Guangxi, which naturally gave Zeng Yiben some breathing space. This extremely tenacious sea lord once again gathered a powerful fleet and started to stir up trouble.
Zhao Hao didn't care at that time, because he only had eyes for the Portuguese and Spanish fleets, and didn't take those sea lords seriously at all.
Mr. Zhao should do the same. After years of hard work, he has the best shipyards, arsenals, and naval schools in the world, all of which have created a powerful navy. If you don't even have the confidence to face pirates, then you should forget about it.
But who would have thought that Zeng Yiben, whose life was extended because of himself, would go around in circles and finally face Zhao Hao's father?
Moreover, Mr. Zhao got carried away and took the initiative to get into the encirclement!
These coincidental changes made Zhao Hao suspicious. Will those who change history be punished by history?
But in the sixteenth minute, Zhao Hao came to his senses. No matter what happened, the most important thing was to save his father!
So he ordered the fleet to sail south at full speed, without any stops, and rush to Chaozhou every minute!
Fortunately, the weather was good, the wind was not strong at sea, and there was no typhoon to cause trouble. In early June, Master Zhao's fleet arrived at Dongshan Port in Zhao'an County.
Tang Baolu was waiting there, reporting the latest situation to Mr. Zhao and conveying Mr. Qingteng's advice. Xu Wei was a hostage in Xiawei, so of course he couldn't come...
Although Zhao Hao was extremely anxious, he still chose to trust Xu Wei and patiently took over Nan'ao Island first.
Among them, Tang Baolu and Penghu Station should be credited with the greatest merit. In addition to their duties such as intelligence and pilotage, they also sold a large amount of liquor to the pirates on Nan'ao Island.
In case they didn't have enough money to buy drinks, the business station even agreed to let Ji San and his friends buy on credit. To make the effect more effective, they also put a small amount of knockout drug in the wine. How could they not get drunk?
So when the task force squadron's ten pitch-black black-tailed boats, led by their pilots, quietly entered the Nan'ao wharf under the cover of night, they could even smell the alcohol in the air...
This made things much simpler. Taking advantage of the favorable wind direction, they first released the ten fire boats tied behind the Wuwei ship.
The fire boats were piled with flammable materials such as firewood, vegetable oil, and sulfur. From the Battle of Red Cliffs to the present, it has been the most lethal tactic of naval warfare in the Ming Dynasty and even the world.
By the way, the fireboat was also prepared by Penghu Station.
Moreover, the Coast Guard fleet has an incendiary weapon, the Oda City Rocket, so there is no need to ignite the fire boat in advance, as that would alert the enemy and make them take precautions, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the surprise attack.
When the fire boats collided with the pirate warships, the marines lit the rocket fuses in unison. The Oda City rockets fixed in the launch tubes had a more stable flight trajectory, and could finally be aimed and launched, rather than Brownian motion, where the landing point was random.
At least half of the rockets landed on the ship, some of them suddenly ignited the fire boat, and some directly ignited the sails of the pirate warship. Three hundred rockets were fired, and the entire dock turned into a sea of fire.
Most of the sailors on the ship were drunk, and many of them were burned to death in their drunken dreams. Even those who managed to escape fell into the water in their haste. There were also pirates on fire who jumped into the sea to put out the fire... The scene was in chaos, with the sounds of ghosts and wolves howling.
~~
The operation went very smoothly and the fleet completed the mission without any damage.
But there was no joy on Zhao Hao's face, because he finally realized Xu Wei's intention.
Xu Wenchang was worried that he would rush into Hanjiang River and attack Zeng Yiben's fleet in his eagerness to save his father. That's why he asked him to attack Nan'ao Island first, under the pretext of cutting off Zeng's retreat.
But if we attacked Nan'ao Island, it would certainly alert Zeng Yiben in Chaozhou, and it would be impossible for me to launch a surprise attack on him.
Their side had only ten small warships, while Zeng Yiben had more than a hundred thousand-ton warships, almost covering half of the sea lords in Fujian and Guangdong.
Moreover, the Han River is powerful. How can our fleet, which is going upstream, be a match for the enemy going downstream?
Therefore, no matter how well-trained the coast guards are, how sturdy the Wuwei ships are, or how advanced the artillery on the ships are, they cannot change their fate of being like an egg against a rock.
Zhao Hao finally calmed down after Xu Wei's intervention. Since the lonely painter was willing to be a hostage to help Chaozhou, he could not let him down and let the hundreds of marine police officers who followed him south take risks.
Therefore, after taking Nan'ao Island, he continued to follow Xu Wei's strategy and hid his fleet in the reeds at the mouth of Hanjiang River, quietly waiting for the arrival of Zeng Yiben's fleet.
After waiting anxiously for five whole days, just when Zhao Hao was about to go crazy, the intelligence officer finally came on horseback to report that the siege of Chaozhou had been lifted, Zeng Yiben's fleet had evacuated, and was about to arrive at the mouth of the Han River!
After ensuring Mr. Zhao's safety, Zhao Hao's heart finally settled down, and he was eagerly waiting for Zeng Yiben's arrival.
He wanted to beat up the guy named Zeng. Damn it, I'm here to help you live longer, and you dare to hit my dad!
Go to hell!