Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 200 Letter from Zhoushan
At the west gate of Tongshan City, eight muscle-bound pirates pushed the winch column to the rhythm of trumpets. The gate, which weighed more than a thousand kilograms, was slowly raised, and a densely packed group of pirates emerged from the door opening.

"Commander, the gate of Tongshan City is open." A soldier from the Third Bureau of the Army shouted to the tree from a big tree a mile away.

"Huh?" Xiao Zhou, who was sitting under the tree to rest, stood up when he heard the words, raised his head and said to the soldier on the tree, "Come down, and I will go up and see for myself."

After the soldier climbed down from the tree, Xiao Zhou took off his waist knife and hung it on the long card stand standing beside him. Then he hugged the trunk of the tree with his limbs and jumped up.

When he was a beggar, he often climbed trees to dig out bird eggs. Later, he worked as a shifter on a sea ship for more than half a year. Although he has grown a lot taller now, there are still very few people in the War Department who can only climb trees. can defeat him.

Xiao Zhou quickly climbed up the big tree and stood on a thick branch. At this time, the morning sun had just risen from the sea level. Xiao Zhou put up a pergola to block the dazzling sunlight. Looking towards the east of Tongshan City, he saw that the gate had been raised to the highest point, and the pirate team was walking out of the door.

"Display the white flag!" Xiao Zhou quickly ordered his soldiers to unfurl the white flag among the five flags.

The soldier quickly unfurled the white flag and raised it high. This did not mean surrender, but meant encountering the enemy. When the ambushing soldiers at the back saw the white flags in front, they would also unfurl the white flags layer by layer to convey military information to the rear.

After a while, Xiao Zhou saw a steady stream of pirates leaving the city, so he began to order again: "Grind the green flag!"

Xiao Zhou's soldiers unfolded the green flag among the five flags, then raised it high above their heads and moved it quickly. The moqing flag represents the large number of enemy troops, and the military information is quickly passed back through the five-square flags of the ambushing troops layer by layer, until they reach the sentry on the watchtower at the east gate of the military camp.

"Zheng Zhilong fell into the trap?" Wu Guoyi was a little stunned. He didn't expect that the method of stimulating generals that had not worked in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms would actually come in handy in real war.

Soon, Lin Hai and Wu Guoyi, who had just finished breakfast in the Chinese military tent, received the news.

Unfortunately, after they came down, they found that the suspension bridge was full of people. They still had to stand behind the trench and wait. At this time, several more springboards were hung from the top of the city. The group of people could finally use the springboards to cross the trench, so more pirates One after another, they all used hooks and ropes to get down from the city wall.

The two of them left the central military tent and came to the Dongying Gate. They climbed up the ladder and climbed to the observation tower. One of them looked at Tongshan City with a monocular telescope. They saw that a suspension bridge had been put down on the trench outside the city. Outside the trench There are already hundreds of pirates standing there.

Some impatient pirates directly hooked the parapet with hooks and climbed down from the city wall along the rope. Hook ropes were often used to climb the bulwarks of large ships during wartime, and each of these pirates used them very skillfully.

The pirates who came out first stood together in small groups, with all kinds of weapons in their hands, and their uniforms were all messy. Behind them, more pirates were squeezing out of the gate of the city tower, and then walked across the ditch from the drawbridge. The whole scene was chaotic like a market.

"Guoyi, come with me to see the situation." Lin Hai said in a deep voice. The watchtower at the east gate of the military camp was high enough to see Tongshan City.

"What a fucking mess!" Lin Hai shook his head as he looked at it. It seemed that it would be good if the battle could be fought before noon.

The armies of these days take a lot of time just to line up. The Dutch infantry is famous for being able to line up two thousand men in only 22 to 23 minutes. This is because Prince Maurice used military archeology to learn from the ancient Roman military system. A new training method was created based on this. At the same time, other armies in Western Europe needed an hour to complete a thousand-man level formation.

By the time of Napoleon, the French army could switch between line formations, columns and hollow square formations in just a few minutes. Therefore, the infantry became the undisputed king of the battlefield, while the cavalry was completely reduced to a supporting role, and its importance in the battle was even Not as good as artillery. Some travelers think that with the popularization of bayonets and flintlocks, they can defeat the Manchus by lining up to shoot. Then they must first ask themselves whether they have access to the scientific and perfect training system of the imperial period, and whether they can awaken all the people by themselves. of modern national consciousness.

"Chief, shall our army hold fast in the wooden city, or go out to meet the enemy?" Wu Guoyi asked Lin Haidao from the side.

"What do you think is the chance of winning out of the city to meet the enemy?" Lin Hai asked smoothly.

"I think it should be 90%," Wu Guoyi replied seriously.

"Are you afraid that I will be proud if you say less?" Lin Hai replied with a smile. This was just a joke. The war is dangerous, and anything can happen on the battlefield.

"My subordinates suggest that we go out to the city to fight in the field so that we can quickly launch a pursuit after defeating the opponent." Wu Guoyi continued. At this time, he was even more eager to have a cavalry team on hand. Whether it is sentry, chaos or pursuit, the cavalry can play its full role. Their role is greater than that of infantry.

"Guoyi's words are just what I want. I finally got the pretty boy named Zheng out. How can we sit in the wooden city? What if that guy sees that the camp our army has set up is so strong and retreats again? Wouldn’t it be that Mo Yu’s beautiful and wonderful pen was in vain?”

Lin Hai said to Wu Guoyi: "Let's go, follow me back to the central military tent to dispatch troops and generals."

The two came down from the watchtower and walked towards the central military tent while roughly discussing the formation to face the enemy.

After returning to the Zhongjun tent, Lin Hai ordered to summon all the chiefs of each bureau to come and listen to the order. At this time, Viper handed over a letter and said: "Master Chief, this is a letter from Master Xu of Zhoushan."

"Just received it?" Lin Hai took the letter and tore off the sealing paint.

"Yes, Sir, Commander Shi just sent someone to deliver it. It should be transferred from Tamsui to the front line." Viper replied respectfully from the side.

Lin Hai opened the envelope and took out the letterhead and read it roughly. The content of the letter was very short, but he remained silent for a long time after reading it.

"What's the matter? Chief." Wu Guoyi saw that Lin Hai was distracted during the battle, and finally couldn't help but ask. Normally, he would never talk at this time.

"It's nothing." Lin Hai shook his head and smiled, then put the letter on the oil lamp and burned it with a calm expression.

The news Xu Xinlan sent back from Zhoushan was simple. Her nine-thousand-year-old birthday was coming soon, and Pan Ruzhen, the governor of Zhejiang, was privately collecting silver taels to renovate the Wei Zhongxian Shrine next to the Yuewang Temple in West Lake. He hoped that Lin Hai could contribute 50,000 taels.

In addition, Li Shi, the weaving eunuch of Suhang, also heard about Lin Hai's name for some reason and asked him for a bribe of 50,000 taels. This damn eunuch is even more shameless than that Mr. Pan Du. He doesn't even use a pretense and just blatantly asks for protection money.

(End of this chapter)