Daming Yinghua

Chapter 80 Bloody Battle
The black shadow of the island is getting closer.

Although it is not a full moon today, the night sky is cloudless, and the moonlight pours down like mercury, reflecting the sparkling sea and illuminating the big ship moored at the edge of the island's shadow.

"Brother Yan, isn't that the bird boat shape that was on Daishan Island before?"

Zheng Haizhu asked behind the telescope.

Yan Siqi said: "It's not a bird boat, it's a Fengzhou."

Zheng Haizhu was even more surprised: "There is such a small Feng Zhou?"

Fengzhou is the ship that the Ming Dynasty sent envoys to when they went to Ryukyu and other vassal states for canonization or rewards.In order to show off the majesty of the country, the imperial court sent large boats, often exceeding fifteen feet, which is equivalent to five or sixty meters in modern times.

Yan Siqi also became curious: "Ah Zhu, you also know about boats?"

"Songjiang is not far from Taicang County in Suzhou Prefecture. The shipbuilding industry there is as prosperous as ours in Fujian. So I also heard that the craftsmen who came to Songjiang to ship boats blew some cowhide. What about the treasure ship?"

"Oh," Yan Siqi explained, "The sealed boats built by the imperial court are really too big. If the wind at sea is not strong enough, I'm afraid they will spin around in place. So we not only made them much smaller, but also changed the size of the boats to imitate the Frankies' boats. sails, masts, and yards.”

Zheng Zhilong smiled from the side: "But we still learned the general appearance of the imperial court's seal of the ship. It's majestic. Anyway, the imperial court can't control us. There is nothing to overstep or not. So when you look at the ship, it belongs to us."

However, in an instant, there was only a "poof", a copper arrow and Zheng Zhilong's last words fell on the deck almost at the same time, nailed to a place two or three steps away from the young man, the tail of the arrow was still shaking.

"Ah!" Zheng Zhilong quickly jumped back, staring at the arrow.

Yan Siqi's complexion changed, and he hurriedly dragged Zheng Haizhu behind him, while ordering the sailors: "Fire the trumpet and tell the brothers on board that we are the ones who are back."

The sailor quickly lit a bamboo tube, and several bright purple rays shot straight into the sky.

At this moment, the distance between the big and small boats was only about ten zhang, and Yan Siqi, who was standing on the small boat, could clearly see the keel and side of the opposite hull under the scattered light from the flares.

"That's not our ship!" he yelled in surprise from behind the binoculars.

……

When there was a sudden bang of bright smoke on the opposite ship, Ma Xianglin, Sichuan soldiers, and Eunuch Liu's brocade guards all thought it was firecrackers, and instinctively fell down on the deck.

Realizing that it was just a trumpet with toner, Ma Xianglin straightened up first, holding up the binoculars that he has been inseparable from these days.

"Miss Zheng? Eunuch Liu, Zheng, Miss Zheng is on the opposite boat."

The illumination provided by the trumpet cannon suddenly gave Ma Xianglin clear vision, but it also made him unable to believe his eyes for a moment.

Why did Zheng Haizhu appear on this sand boat approaching from unknown origin, and there was a tall man standing beside him.

In a short moment, Ma Xianglin, who was used to quickly identifying the enemy's cavalry commander on the land battlefield, already saw that the man was not the appearance and appearance of an ordinary sailor, he should be the captain.

"No arrows allowed!"

Before Eunuch Liu could say something, Ma Xianglin ordered the left and right arrows to point to the deck, raised two lanterns, jumped onto the bow, and waved them alternately in several directions. He used the sign language he had learned during his trip to sea. All seagoing ships should be able to understand it.

On the opposite boat, Yan Siqi really frowned and said, "The other party asked us if we were in danger, let us lean over."

He was still hesitating, only listening to Haifeng sending him a few calls, "Miss Zheng, Zheng Haizhu".

Zheng Haizhu grabbed Yan Siqi's binoculars and carefully discerned the sign language person illuminated by the lantern.

"Brother Yan, that's the general guard of our weaving bureau. Well, I can see clearly that beside him is Eunuch Liu, the admiral of the weaving bureau."

Zheng Haizhu was both happy and surprised.

Fortunately, I did not meet the official ship patrolling the sea.

Surprisingly, the opposite side is not the lucky boat that came to Yuegang from the Weaving Bureau on this trip. Why are Eunuch Liu and Ma Xianglin on it.

She put down the binoculars, and met Yan Siqi's equally suspicious gaze.

"Azhu, how can the Weaving Bureau use the same small Fengzhou as ours? Where's our boat?"

Zheng Haizhu shook his head: "It's not a ship from the Weaving Bureau, maybe they came from Yuegang?"

"Impossible," Yan Siqi said categorically, "There is no way there is such a ship in Yuegang."

Years of experience in maritime trade has made Yan Siqi very adventurous, but since the opposite ship is a member of the imperial court, Yan Siqi immediately raised his vigilance and began to consider how to send Ah Zhu back while keeping a distance.

The two sides suddenly fell into a silent confrontation, only the sound of waves hitting the rocks of the island was heard.

Suddenly, Mr. Liu's shout on the boat broke the silence.

"Over there! Why does it look like a Frankie's galleon?"

Yan Siqi heard this sentence clearly, and hurriedly turned around and raised the binoculars.

Sure enough, two ships appeared on the sea not far to the south. Under the moonlight, the shapes of the sails were quite obvious.

One of them is obviously a hard bamboo sailboat that is common along the coast of Daming.

The other, larger, had a bowsprit protruding forward like a sharp sword, and raised a square cloth sail, reflecting a gloomy white light.

"It's the Frankies who occupy Luzon Island." Yan Siqi said in a deep voice.

Spanish ship?Zheng Haizhu vaguely had an ominous premonition.

But Yan Siqi continued: "The ship next to it looks like a ship patrolling the seas of the Ming Dynasty, is it trying to drive away these hairy monkeys?

"wrong!"

Yan Siqi suddenly raised his voice, put down the binoculars, and shouted to the sailors: "The foreign ship is coming across, they are going to shoot this way! Turn the sails, turn the sails, turn the rudder! Go east, go to deep water!"

Amidst a series of trembling and hasty orders from the master, the sailors, like parts that suddenly rotated at high speed, began to perform their duties swiftly.

However, after a while, sparks shone under the deck of the Spanish sailing ship, "Boom, boom...", the shells flew straight over.

"Boom..."

The missed shell blew up the nearby reefs, and the huge shock wave shook Yan Siqi's sandboat and Liu Gonggong's Fengzhou violently, and the flying debris made the hulls of the two boats ping-pong, and there were even stones. He jumped on the deck and hit two or three sailors who were too late to get down, causing them to scream.

As soon as he saw the flames on the opposite side, Yan Siqi, who was about to push Zheng Haizhu into the cabin, opened his arms, wrapped her in his chest like a hen guarding its cubs, and threw herself on the deck.

In the chaos, Yan Siqi and Zheng Haizhu heard that Feng Zhou, who was closer to the shore than them, also shouted orders.

The rising anchor chain rattled, obviously, Eunuch Liu and Ma Xianglin realized that Fengzhou's fast movement ability must be restored in the shortest possible time, and they could not just sit and wait for death in this unreasonable attack.

"Boom, boom..."

There were two cannon shots in succession.

The cannonball actually went straight to the direction of Fengzhou. Although one shot was too far and fell directly into the bushes on the side of the island, the other flew past the tail of Fengzhou, hitting the vertical girder of the semicircular observation deck. It exploded like fireworks, but fortunately it didn't hurt the nearby masts.

"Damn it, what are they going to do with the hairy monkey who killed a thousand knives!"

Eunuch Liu, who has always been refined and refined, couldn't help cursing in shock and anger.

"Elder-in-law, could they have misidentified the ship?" Ma Xianglin said loudly, "Hurry up and hang up the imperial flag!"

Liu Shimin agreed, and ordered the subordinates around: "Hang up the flag, hang up the flag quickly, and there are lanterns for the Weaving Bureau."

He believes that General Ma's judgment is likely to be correct.

Anyway, today, he and Ma Xianglin have met the people they should meet at sea, whether it is silver, or some important news about the capital and Jiangnan, they have also brought them. When Haidao's boat asked about it, he only said that he came to see Penghu on behalf of Shengshang, and there was nothing wrong with it.

But Liu Shimin wondered, why did the ship patrolling the sea in the Ming Dynasty and the Frankie galleon that fired on the opposite side seem to be sailing together?

At this time, Zheng Haizhu on the sandboat also saw the flag and lanterns quickly raised on Fengzhou.

"Brother Yan, there are firearms on the boat of the Weaving Bureau. At least we can carry them when we are fleeing for our lives. We must go up."

"What if those two ships weren't aimed at us?" Yan Siqi was still hesitating.

"The sea is so big, and they're so close, do you think we won't be silenced?" Zheng Haizhu raised his voice, "Besides, how do you know we're not the target. In the middle of the night, this desolate island, isn't it? Why did two ships, one official and one foreign, approach the pier of maritime merchants and smugglers, and fired without saying a word. Frankies, Frankies from Luzon, think about who you offended just now?"

Yan Siqi stared at Zheng Haizhu, he saw that the woman's eyes were brighter than fire.

Yan Siqi turned around abruptly, and in an instant, he scanned the five or six men on the sandboat, including Zheng Zhilong.

He clearly remembered that these brothers killed the Frankies the hardest in the port of Luzon.

They shouldn't have betrayed him.

Zheng Haizhu was out of breath, where did Yan Siqi's decisiveness go at this moment?

She turned to the side of the boat and looked down at the height, saying: "I don't want to accompany you to death, you don't lean over, I will swim by myself."

Yan Siqi grabbed her, turned around and ordered to the helmsman: "Go and connect with Feng Zhou!"

On the sealed boat, some sailors had seen the sand boat's intentions and reported: "They want to come, do you want to mention anyone?"

Ma Xianglin jumped ahead of Liu Shimin and said, "Tell, mention, the helmsman, slow down, or how will the brothers put the ladder?"

(End of this chapter)