Hongwu Survival Guide

Chapter 60
Off the coast of Xiangshan County, the sky is bright. Near an island more than [-] miles south of Zhoushan, the battle broke out suddenly.

There are more than [-] ships of various sizes hidden in the naturally formed island harbor.Although there was mist in the early morning, the sentry scouts still immediately discovered that there were enemy ships outflanking from the east and west sides.

The vigilance of this group of pirates can be said to be high. They were moored in the harbor last night, and they didn't even drop their sails.

After discovering the enemy's situation, the first batch of seven or eight pirate ships cut off the anchor cables in a few tens of breaths. After roughly determining the wind direction and situation, they resolutely headed towards the enemy ships that circled to the west, trying to create a gap to avoid being surrounded.

It would be even better if only one of the three thousand-material ships could be snatched.

Unfortunately, the strength gap is too large.

Among the pirate ships, there is not even a single sea ship with a thousand materials, and the largest ones are only a few lucky boats with five or six hundred materials.

When the seven or eight Kou ships gradually approached the three thousand-material ships, they thought that they could be connected to the board by virtue of the wind direction and reduce the disadvantage of their own ships. Unexpectedly, there was a burst of explosions and screams on the three thousand-material ships.

These are the bowl-mouth guns and rocket crossbows that the navy of the Ming army began to equip very early.

Although many projectiles and crossbow arrows fell into the air, a series of explosions soon sounded on the approaching Kou boat, accompanied by miserable howls.

The first five-hundred-hundred-hundred-year-old ship was attacked the most, and it was also unlucky. After a harsh click, the mainmast suddenly fell down. The force was so strong that it not only overturned the entire blessing ship, but also sank it. A nearby paddle boat.

What's more, this burst of gunfire frightened the minds of many pirates on the ship in an instant.

Of the remaining six ships, half of them immediately chose to turn, planning to escape.

The pirates on the last three ships were not much better. Seeing that their companions were either dead or injured under the cover of a round of firearms, they had lost much fighting spirit in their hearts. They just felt that they could not escape and wanted to get as far as possible. Enemy ships, fight for a pad back.

When the three small boats finally approached one of the large ships with thousands of materials, they were greeted by a row of Ming soldiers on the deck holding three-eyed guns ready to go.

In addition, the three Kou ships that escaped were also slowly turned and run over by another thousand material ship.

At the same time as a wave of attacks was easily resolved here, the figure of a certain huge boat familiar to these pirates also appeared in everyone's field of vision.

Hua Gao stood on the top deck of the five-thousand-material giant boat, watched a battle in the west with the binoculars that he couldn't put it down these days, and muttered a few words that his nephew Hua Yue didn't manage the house, and it was such a waste to deal with a group of miscellaneous fish Firearms and so on, so I turned the camera to the natural harbor in the shape of a 'concave' on the other side.

Realizing that it was impossible to break through, the group of pirates began to go ashore, trying to get into the forest.

In the field of vision of the telescope, Hua Gao also saw many women and children, crying and staggering, and a group of strong pirates stayed on the shore actively, trying to buy time for the women and children to escape.

Why bother!
Silently muttering, Hua Gao has already seen a group of fast paddle boats rushing to the shore.

The first big man jumped out with a spear in his hand.

That's Joan.

The older brother of a certain little ancestor who wrote his mother beside him.

Since he wanted to risk his life to earn fame, Hua Gao didn't mind giving him a chance, and he was specially appointed as a pioneer before.

If it is done, it is good fortune.

If anything goes wrong, it's fate.

Seeing that Qiao An easily flew a few arrows into the enemy's formation quickly, and pierced the enemy's throat with a single shot, Hua Gao began to nod.

Then just keep nodding.

"This style of collapsing the gun is really powerful."

"That throat again."

"Tsk, mother, it's a string."

"Tiger General!"

"Oh, it's so fancy, what's the use of provoking people, I don't know how to save energy for a long time, after all, I haven't experienced many battles."

Hua Gao commented that on the coast, the battle formation organized by two or three hundred bandits was defeated by Qiao An in a blink of an eye with his centurion. Flee to the jungle more than ten feet away from the coast.

Seeing the defeat of the pirates, Hua Gao put down his binoculars, turned his head and said to a soldier: "Command, don't chase into the forest, catch all you can catch, and withdraw the troops for now. Well, Yue'er is here, and the living are also caught." Come up, they are all big animals."

When the soldiers went to deliver the order, Hua Gao didn't raise the binoculars again, but looked at Zhao Xu who was also holding the binoculars beside him, and said with a smile: "I'm so envious, I hear your accent is that Huaixi person, since you are all After you survived, why did you take the initiative to go to the battle to seek death, and guard your little master in peace, that is your great future."

Zhao Xu looked at a certain brave figure who was still rushing left and right on the shore, smiled wryly, and nodded.

However, this time, being forced to take a thousand of his subordinates out to sea by his own petty official under the order of "not accepting the order of the foreign emperor", but can only watch others show off, it is really troublesome.

Hua Gao only persuaded him, and didn't say any more.

Turn around and walk down the gangway to the meeting hall on the second floor.As soon as he entered the door, Huagao went straight to the long table covered with various drawings, admiring the recently completed drawings.

Zhao Xu also followed in.

He also walked to the long table and picked up a page of artwork.

This is an outline drawing of an island.

Using the sketching technique, according to the direction of up, north, down, south, left, west, right, and east, the general appearance of the island is vividly depicted with a bird's-eye view.

There are various markings in the blank space around the artwork, including the name of the island, the height of the peaks on the island, the length and width of the island itself, the depth of the surrounding water, whether it can be used as a port, the distance from some surrounding islands, and so on.

This is the result of Yinghai Division in recent days, a survey and drawing of a series of large and small islands off the coast of Mingzhou.Due to the introduction of concepts such as sketches, scales, and triangulations, compared to the previous island maps that were just big circles and small circles, it is almost a sky and an underground.

Huagao led the fleet to go to sea three days ago. On the one hand, it was to demonstrate to the pirates entrenched in the offshore islands, and on the other hand, it was also to proofread and supplement these drawings.

Of course, only a small part has been completed so far.

After all, there are at least a thousand large and small islands and reefs off the coast of Mingzhou, and the artwork on the desktop is only a small part of the offshore area for the time being.

Speaking of which, in addition to some necessary information, this group of pirates was able to be found this time, mainly because of the help brought by the pile of artwork on the desktop. I just compared the terrain and found a harbor suitable for hiding nearby. There is a harvest.

Zhao Xu put down the sketch in his hand, and walked towards several officials of the Yinghai Division who were busy compiling a large picture.

Looking at the accurate map of the island that will be colored in the plan, Zhao Xu once again thought of a certain statement that his own officials mentioned more than once these days.

Fear stems from the unknown.

In the past, everyone was reluctant to go to sea because of the word 'unknown'.

Looking around, I don’t know where is the sky, where is the shore, and whether I’m going to drift like that forever, and I’m afraid if I’m a person.And those so-called charts in the past, there is or is not, the difference is not big.

At the moment, looking at this brand-new map of islands that is gradually improving, not to mention the exact location of each island in it, with what scale, just measure with a ruler at hand to determine the approximate distance.

With such a reference, and relying on all kinds of new navigation methods, compared to the beginning, Zhao Xu has become less and less afraid of the sea.

There was a voice in my ear.

Zhao Xu broke his thoughts and looked at the opposite side. It was Tu Xiao, the head of the surveying and mapping department under the Yinghai Division appointed by Zhu Yuan.

This slender young man in his 20s who is about the same age as himself has intensively studied the "Sea Island Mathematical Classics" by Liu Hui, a great mathematician in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Various surveying and mapping tools made recently have been integrated to create a whole set of surveying and mapping methods.

Therefore, he was awarded the eighth rank of the official.

Tu Xiao was explaining some of his thoughts to Hua Gao, who stood in front of the map of the island and became more friendly for no reason: "Captain, the watchtower on the ship is not high enough. If our mast can be ten feet taller, I think this picture can be made even better." Be more precise, if there are twenty or thirty feet..."

Hua Gao laughed and cursed and interrupted: "Why don't you turn into a fairy on the spot and fly up for me to see?"

Everyone laughed.

Zhao Xu also laughed along with him.

But I couldn't help thinking, flying up, I wonder if my little official has such ability.Thinking about his weak body, it is impossible to fly by himself, but... maybe there are other ways.

While talking here, someone outside the conference hall reported.

Soon, Qiao An, who was soaked in blood, walked in with a middle-aged man in a bundle.

Throwing the man on the ground, Qiao An clasped his fists and said, "Captain, it's a good luck for you not to disgrace your life, and capture Xun Xun, the leader of the bandit."

Hua Gao restrained his expression, walked over to look at the man with his eyes closed and silent on the ground, glanced at the man's left hand tied behind his back with two fingers missing, and sneered, "Yan three fingers, Yan Qianhu, what a life! Never meet again, that day in Pingjiang, you escaped from Lao Liao, but let him be scolded by the lord."

The man on the ground still didn't open his eyes, but he opened his mouth and said: "If you want to kill, then kill, why use the poems of my ancestors to humiliate you."

Hua Gao was taken aback.

This... where did it involve the ancestors?
Tu Xiao and other scholars in the conference hall saw the doubts of the governor, but a few of them knew that "Where do we not meet each other in life" came from a poem by Yan Shu in the Northern Song Dynasty, called "Golden Garden", which gradually spread to the people, because It is very catchy, and gradually it is regarded as a common saying without a source.

And the one on the ground, also surnamed 'Yan', is a descendant of a famous family.

However, everyone did not help to explain, cleverly pretending not to know.

Hua Gao didn't bother with such details, he shook his head and said: "If it's possible, I, Lao Hua, would also like to chop up all of you, but this...a little ancestor wants to 'attack the heart', and I can only follow along. "

Yan Xun kept silent again.

Huagao was very patient, so he simply squatted down and said to Yan Xun: "I know you are a righteous person and also aware of current affairs. When I heard that my Navy Commander's Mansion was established, I planned to go across the ocean to Ryukyu, Japan to change my way of life. I was thinking about bringing more brothers together, so I waited until now, I don’t want to be sold by someone. Heh, if I didn’t have a new map, you are hiding in the nest outside the waterway in this corner, it would be really hard for me to find .”

Yan Xun still didn't say anything, but turned his head, not wanting to hear Hua Gao continue to talk.

Hua Gao stretched out his hand and forcibly turned Yan Xun's head around, and continued to chatter: "Let's have a discussion, you call out all the arrangements for escaping into the forest, and you count as your surrender. I have official documents, and there are posters on all the islands along the way. The pirates in the southeast sea should surrender to the Linhai Guard within [-] days. All of them will be spared the death penalty. They only need to serve in the army, which can be as short as one year or as long as ten years. If the [-]-day period has passed, there will be only one Dead word."

Yan Xun continued to remain silent.

Hua Gao was very patient: "Old Yan, I know you are not afraid of death, you have no fear of death, just think about those women and children on the island, are you taking them with you, are you trying to survive? The island outside, The radius is only two or three miles, even if I don't attack, people will be trapped to death if they are trapped. Xu Ye surrendered, I am showing great mercy and giving Ye a way to survive."

Yan Xun was silent for another moment, finally opened his eyes, looked at Hua Gao and said, "How can I trust you?"

"It's all said, there is an official document," Hua Gao said, waving his hand, and quickly received a notice, shook it open and showed it to Yan Xun: "Look, the seal of the Navy's Governor's Mansion, the seal of the Yinghai Division, it's clear, you If I lose my integrity, how can I face the people in this world, I am afraid that the history books will write me down, and I will leave a bad reputation for thousands of years."

(End of this chapter)