Lu Ming

Chapter 379 Arrival
The fleet, cleaving the waves and sailing at high speed on the sea, quickly approached the five pirate ships that were running slowly, narrowing the distance between the two sides to the visual range.

On the bridge of the "Green Island" frigate at the head of the fleet, a middle-aged man in a blue navy training uniform with the rank of second lieutenant on his shoulders was watching carefully with a telescope.

This man has big ears, a simple and honest face, a straight figure, and a rigorous military appearance. He looks like a regular military officer.However, what outsiders don't know is that this simple-faced man used to be a murderous pirate.

This person is called Cao Hu, and he was the leader of a group of small pirates before.When Zheng Zhilong disappeared and Li Kuiqi's group split, Cao Hu went north to Fuzhou to join the army under the introduction of his old relationship Xu Xinsu.

After being recruited by General Cao, Cao Hu lost his trilogy and ships, and only got the official title of a foreign commissioner.

After observing the collapse of the Li Kuiqi Group on the spot, Cao Hu was sent to the naval training base of Da Yuan along with some other small bosses who recruited and surrendered.

The painful life of a military student has made many people think of quitting. Culture and military discipline are not a big problem for those young people, but for adult pirates who are undisciplined and their three views have long been fixed, it is a bloody bone scraping. scale.The word "reborn" is easy to say, but difficult to do.

More and more people quit one after another, including Du Dewei and Hu Ba, the famous students among the students. The seller became the boss with the silver.

In the end, there were not even half of the pirate officers who could persist until the day of the award.During this period, Cao Hu's successful graduation surprised everyone a little bit - don't look at him with a simple and honest face, but Cao Hu was a well-known cunning in the pirate gang back then.

After the official award, these former little pirate chieftains gained a new life, and they regained their titles and ships.Of course, the new parts are all soldiers who have undergone formal training and can be rotated at any time, and there is no such thing as a big brother or a younger brother.

After the 8-month short-term training course, these half-way officers began to rotate in various positions in the Navy.As for the future path, it depends on their good fortune: those who perform well will get the opportunity to study again and find their place in the empire's future naval construction.

Cao Hu is currently serving as the first officer on the frigate Green Island. This is the third position he has rotated after graduation.

As the fleet approached at high speed, every minute passed, the distance between the enemy and us would be shortened a lot.At this moment, in the lens of Cao Hu's eight-fold Zeiss telescope, the figures on the opposite ships were quite clear, and he could even see the face of someone who was jumping and shouting.

"It turned out to be a group-headed fish. I don't want to see my old friend again today." A smile appeared on the corner of Cao Hu's mouth, and then he put down the binoculars, turned his head and said to another officer beside him: "Captain, confirm that it is under Liu Xiang's command." Pirates, no doubt, I know the leader."

The officer standing next to him also put down his binoculars at the same time: "Well, we have also been recognized, and the other party is lowering the recognition flag."

The speaker was short and dressed in standard military uniform.Although this person is young, the colorful badges of qualifications on his chest represent far more seniority in the army than Cao Hu. Comrade Mao Wujian, who was named by the emperor.

When Comrade Mao Wujian confirmed the identity of the opponent's pirate, he immediately ordered: "Report to the flagship to confirm the identity of the opponent's pirate, and request authorization to fire."

The signal soldier broadcast the code word into the camouflage colored hand microphone. One minute later, the order from the flagship came down: "Permission to fire."

The four dexterous frigates were separated from the main force immediately.After forming the battle line, under the command of the radio station, a white line quickly caught up with the pirate ship downwind.At the same time, the frigate began to switch to the second form: the turbine increased power, black smoke rose, and the sails were lowered by half—it was about to arrive in Guangzhou City, so there was no need to consider the issue of supplies.

When the four warships deftly turned against the headwind, the group-headed fish that were still shouting suddenly shut up.Holding the mast tightly, he looked at the opponent who had rushed to a distance of 200 meters. The scene hidden deep in his memory was revived: half a year ago, countless unbelievers were killed by these monsters who ignored the direction of the wind and were like sharp arrows. The boat is sent to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish.

The group-headed fish knows that according to experience, the opponent will fire soon.Sure enough, when he just thought of this, four school projectiles were fired from the opposite side.

Since the Taijiang-class frigate has a displacement of only 150 tons, there are only four 4-pound guns on board.However, these four cannons fire fast and have fierce firepower. They can completely cut through the single-layer hull of a Chinese-style sailing ship within 6 meters, which is a sharp weapon against old-fashioned pirates.

Four shells entered the water very close to the target, making a high splash.Knowing that the shells like raindrops were about to hit, the roundhead fish no longer hesitated at this moment. He first stretched his neck and looked at the small sandbars and islands on the downstream river, then sighed, let go of the mast, and plunged into the river .

At the same time he entered the water, the naval guns that had been calibrated to shoot at Zhu Yuan began to fire rapidly.A total of 16 naval guns rained shells on the five pirate ships with a rate of fire of 2-4 rounds per minute.

In 5 minutes, in just 5 minutes, several pirate ships were dilapidated, and the world suddenly became quiet.

Dead people are scattered everywhere on the deck of the ship, the blood mixed with the sewage on the deck has turned into a brown color, and the flag that has fallen halfway is lifelessly fluttering in the wind, ropes, sundries, severed limbs and some half-dead pirates are everywhere. Stop and roll around on the shaky deck.

The victor's next actions are very skilled, because they have done the same thing many times: first, the battleship completely lowers its sails, and then uses the power of the propeller to slowly approach the pirate ship.The next moment, the sailors put two rounds of guns on the ship's side, knocking all the wriggling objects within the visual range into a static state.

The next few grapples were thrown, and the boarding team slid down the ropes to the pirate ship.

According to the emergency boarding plan, the team sealed the deck as soon as they boarded the ship to prevent someone from rushing up from below.After controlling the deck, the team members first briefly checked the status of several ships, then turned the sails and steered the ship to resume the course of the ships.

Several pirate ships suffered varying degrees of damage.The rest of the small-tonnage fast boats were nothing more than that, but the largest bird boat was seriously injured due to a concentrated fire, and several places on the hull were leaking.

So two Youguang-class destroyers with a displacement of 500 tons also approached, using the excellent power system of the motor sailboat to hover on the river, and began to drag the spoils with steel cables.

The battle took only 5 minutes, but the follow-up operation took a full hour: these trophies are very important and are good helpers for publicity, so they must be towed away.

After everything was packed, the fast fleet finally officially entered the Pearl River.However, because of the existence of the tow bottle, the fleet can no longer be called fast at this time.

On the surface of the Pearl River, which is far wider than later generations, the fleet went up steadily at a speed of 5 knots.Due to the hydrological data measured by the ship sent by Guangzhou Station in advance, the fleet did not delay along the way, and soon saw Humen Island, which is known as the key of the Pearl River and the gateway to the South.

Humen Island is far away from the two sandbars in the middle of the river, the upper and lower crossbars, and is a key location for controlling the Pearl River.There are not only forts on it, but also water villages and warships. The imperial court is very clear about the importance of this place.

However, this is of no use.Throughout history, Humen Forts have been breached by outsiders many times. From the imperial court in the late Ming Dynasty to the imperial court in the late Qing Dynasty, as long as the country's power declines, these fortresses will become empty shells, which can be broken at a glance.

And what the passing crowd sees through the binoculars is the same scene: dilapidated forts and old Fran cannons, old warships and sailors in dilapidated sailors.
All the traversers who saw this scene, including the native naval officers under their command, quickly reached a tacit consensus: If you want to capture this place, you only need a few rounds of precise salvos, and then you can send out landing troops .

As soon as the fleet came within sight of Humenzhai, the water village quickly dispatched patrol boats to negotiate—before the fleet set off, they had sent official documents to Guangzhou on fast horses, so the local garrison knew that there were sailing boats recently. It's about coming to Guangzhou.In addition, the garrison had seen the flag of the fleet just now, so they quickly dispatched patrol boats.

After exchanging a few words with semaphore, horn and shout across the bow, the patrol boat played semaphore towards the water village.The next moment, several fast boats poured out of Humen Village.Some of them went straight into the water system extending in all directions on both sides of the Pearl River, probably taking a shortcut to report to Guangzhou City; the rest came around the fleet and played the role of clearing motorcycles.

The rest of the voyage went smoothly.The fleet went up all the way, and after passing the famous areas of Shiziyang, Wuchong, and Huangpu, the fleet finally arrived at the end of the trip, the confluence of the three rivers in the south of Guangzhou, a famous tourist attraction: Baietan.

The river is wide, the mist is vast, and the beautiful scenery of Baietan is extremely beautiful at night. "Eight Moon at Etan" is one of the eight scenic spots in Yangcheng in later generations.Several dicks who were working in Guangzhou in the crossing crowd all saw the city government's festive fireworks display in Bai'etan.

The Baietan in the 17th century was no less lively than later generations: the broad lake is full of flower boats carved with jade railings and private tour workshops of rich and noble families, and the sound of golden bamboo is faintly wafting.Small and nimble fruit boats, grain and rice boats, meat and poultry boats, and singer boats scurry around, just like the express cars of later generations, regardless of traffic rules.

And thanks to the big mouth soldiers on the patrol boats who came to report the news earlier, the news that the guest army from Fujian had seized five pirate ships at the Pearl River Estuary had spread throughout the entire Baietan with lightning speed.

So the biggest embarrassment of the fast fleet since its formation appeared: as soon as the fleet showed up at Baietanpu, it was surrounded by cruise ships of all sizes.Prostitutes in red and green, young masters all over silk, bustards, tortoises, singing girls, and official wives peeping behind bead curtains in private tour workshops. The scene was embarrassing for a time, and the frightening fleet commander Wang Bo almost beat him. 110.

(End of this chapter)