Chapter 655 Dilemma
Judging from the course of the fight and the current situation of the battle, Zheng Zhihu realized that this was obviously not the revenge battle he had expected, but that his opponent had set a trap early and was just waiting for his team to step in on their own. It is not yet clear how many troops the opponent has stationed in Nanri Village, but judging from the deployment of troops at sea, it is obvious that the opponent has made preparations early, and even the Dutch who are helping out have also been included in the plan.
Zheng Zhihu thought that the last time Haihan took the lead in attacking Nanri Island, only three warships were dispatched. However, this time there were obviously more Haihan warships at sea - not including the large warship. Including the terrifying giant ship, maybe it is lying in ambush somewhere in the waters around Nanri Island, quietly waiting for a suitable opportunity to attack. Of course, judging from the current situation, Haihan no longer needs to use this killer weapon to control the battle situation.
After the Dutch were defeated, they probably would not come back to rescue the people on the island. The few ships that escaped in the morning obviously did not have enough power to kill a single enemy. The most they can do is go directly to Penghu and inform Zheng Zhilong of the battle situation here. Based on the current situation in Penghu, it is probably impossible to send another support force to rescue the predicament on Nanri Island in a short time.
After a period of chaos, the statistics of each leader's team were finally fed back to Zheng Zhihu. There are currently more than 1,400 members of Shibazhi on the island, including more than 100 injured who cannot continue fighting. There are a total of 73 remaining sea-going ships, 11 of which were seriously damaged in the morning's battle. Without repairs, it will be difficult to continue long-distance voyages. Of course, with the loading capacity of the remaining 60 or so ships, they can carry all the people away with a squeeze, but whether they can leave here safely is another matter.
In terms of supplies, the food and grass currently brought are quite sufficient, because hundreds of people died in the battle and escaped before, so the remaining food can be consumed by the people and horses on the island for at least half a month. But the actual time left for them to stay is not that much, because the return journey will take about two days. If you are pursued by the enemy, you may need to circle around on the sea to escape, and the required navigation time will be doubled.
As for morale, this is what Zheng Zhihu really needs to worry about. After several consecutive setbacks, the morale of this team has become obviously unstable, especially when Shibazhi relied on him in the naval battle this morning. The defeat of the Dutch fleet was a huge psychological blow to the pirates. If he wants to continue fighting with Haihan and the Ming army now, Zheng Zhihu must think carefully about how to regain his morale, and the sooner the better. If this situation continues, it will only harm the ten people trapped on the island. Bazhi is getting more and more unfavorable.
"After lunch, they must be launching an attack, right?" Zheng Zhihu couldn't help but think of such a possibility. Since the opponent has won very smoothly in the previous battles, the possibility of taking advantage of the victory and pursuing a follow-up attack is quite high.
"Here comes someone!" Zheng Zhihu called his soldiers in, and then issued an order: "Place food for the brothers early at noon, and ask the cook to kill a few pigs, and each brother must have a share! Give me The silver box on the ship was taken out, and each person was given two taels of silver. From now on, everyone’s daily salary will be increased by two taels until we return to Penghu safely.”
Zheng Zhihu actually had no idea how much these measures could increase morale, but given the current environment, there were indeed only a few measures he could take. Zheng Zhihu could only hope to deal a certain blow to his opponent in the next battle, and then look for an opportunity to leave the island.
During lunch, Zheng Zhihu also put down his arrogance and asked his soldiers to follow him with a jar of wine. He patrolled around the camp. When he saw the leader leading the soldiers, he went up to offer a bowl of wine and exchanged a few words of encouragement. For those injured men who were unable to move, Zheng Zhihu knelt down and personally fed two pieces of pork to the wounded with chopsticks to show his concern. Although this temporary approach seems too blunt, it can still play a role in winning people's hearts.
However, after noon, there was no movement in the direction of Nanri Village. The garrison there did not seem to intend to take the initiative to attack, and the enemy ships at sea showed no signs of trying to enter the harbor for an assault. What's terrible is that there isn't much vegetation on Nanri Island, and there aren't even trees taller than a human being near the port. Under the direct sunlight of the dog days, Shibazhi's camp is as bare as a steamer. The ground was so hot that it was scalding hot. Under such scorching heat, Shibazhi's troops had to prepare for battle in full gear on the battlefield to guard against surprise attacks from their opponents.
However, this kind of waiting is destined to be in vain. Qian Tiandun in Nanri Village has already made up his mind to drag Shibazhi to death, and Xu Jiaqi does not want to come out to take the credit - in fact, Xu Xinsu arranged for him to be on the island with By stationing the Haihan militia together, the relevant credit has been promised to him in advance. Even if the Ming army only did a little preliminary work, the credit for defeating the pirates after the war would still be attributed to him, the general who led the troops. There will be no second person to compete with him for this credit, so why take the risk to attack Shibazhi's camp again?
The pirates waited from noon until the sun set, sweating profusely, but did not wait for their opponents to take the initiative to attack. Zheng Zhihu had to make some remarks such as "The Haihan people are afraid of the bravery of our army and dare not invite war" to appease the restless military morale. However, people with a discerning eye have actually discovered that Shibazhi is currently in a dilemma, unable to attack even if he wants to, and unable to leave even if he wants to.
However, after the sun goes down, it does not mean that Shibazhi will be able to relax. They have already tasted how powerful the Haihan people's night attacks are on the first day they landed on the island, and now they naturally do not dare to be careless anymore.
Zheng Zhihu couldn't sleep well at all that night. He was woken up by the soldiers three times just because of the warning. The pirates on duty at night heard various strange noises in the dark outside the camp. They suspected that an enemy was about to launch a night attack, so they activated the alarm. But when Zheng Zhihu hurried to the front line, it became silent again.
Zheng Zhihu did not blame the sentry for this. After all, this was his duty. After he made sure that nothing happened, he returned to the camp to rest. Unexpectedly, he was awakened by the alarm again before he fell asleep. When he arrived near the gate of the camp, he learned that someone outside had fired shots into the camp. Fortunately, no one was injured. Judging from the intensity of gunfire, there were at least dozens of enemy gunmen lurking in the darkness outside the camp.
"If someone shoots again, just fight back!" Zheng Zhihu didn't have any good solutions to such harassment, and he didn't dare to send people out of the camp to clean up the nearby area. Although he didn't know what his opponent's tricks were, fighting in the dark was obviously better than his opponent's, and sending people out would probably end up in vain.
When Zheng Zhihu went back to lie down again and had just fallen asleep, he was awakened by the sound of the warning gong outside. This time Zheng Zhihu couldn't hold himself back anymore, and while putting on his clothes and walking out, he muttered: "If the Haihan people don't launch an offensive this time, I will kill the fool who issued the warning!"
However, without him taking action, the fool who issued the warning was already dead. When Zheng Zhihu rushed to the camp gate, he saw several pirates carrying the unfortunate man's body down from the sentry post on the wall. "What happened?" Zheng Zhihu asked quickly: "The Haihan people started fighting?"
"Master Qi, the Haihan people killed our people with crossbows. Before this brother died, he sent out a warning." A small leader immediately reported to him.
Zheng Zhihu knelt down and looked at the man's body. A crossbow arrow, thinner than his little finger, penetrated from the left chest and came out from the back, piercing the heart and killing him. Judging from the injury, it should have been a fatal blow. The warning signal issued before death was probably made up by the little leader.
Zheng Zhihu stretched out his hand to hold the crossbow arrow and slowly pulled it out from the corpse. This crossbow arrow is the same as the weapon used in Haihan's night attack two days ago. It is also made of some kind of metal. It feels cold when you first get it. Its arrowhead does not have the barbs that appear on ordinary bows and arrows. It seems that the user should be very lethal to it. I am confident that there is no need for arrow barbs, a structural design that increases damage.
What made Zheng Zhihu feel chilled was that not only did the crossbow arrow accurately hit the sentinel's heart, but it also penetrated the front and rear layers of cowhide breastplate in one fell swoop, nailing the man to pieces. This kind of lethality was really terrifying. Shibazhi specially set up several fires outside the camp, so that the sentry's visible field of view could be maintained at least about five feet. If the opponent shot the sentry from this distance, the accuracy and power of the weapon would be terrible. In Zheng Zhihu's knowledge, the Ming army's military crossbows seemed to be unable to achieve such power.
Everyone is already dead, so there is no point in asking who sent the warning. Zheng Zhihu took a deep breath, stood up and ordered: "Be on guard before dawn, but there is no need to panic. The Haihan people have nothing to do with us, and they can only engage in such sneaky means to interfere with us. Today's revenge is on I will repay you twice as much on the battlefield!”
However, it seemed that the Haihan people did not even intend to leave Shibazhi a chance for revenge. It was still a peaceful day. The gate of Nanri Village was not even opened, and the navy and Haihan warships outside the harbor were He still maintained restraint and had no intention of breaking into the harbor and fighting Shibazhi.
Now that the situation has developed to this point, anyone who is not a fool can figure out what the opponent is up to. Zheng Zhihu really wanted to send someone to Nanri Village to scold and invite a fight, but he also understood that such a move was probably in vain - if someone went to yell and scold outside Nanri Village, the most likely possibility was that it was not the Haihan people who came to fight, but the call for battle. People were beaten into pieces by the Haihan muskets protruding from the wall.
Since the Haihan people had made up their minds to drag out the war, it was not a situation that could be solved by sending people to yell at them. Although Zheng Zhihu has no military talent, he is not naive enough to think that his opponent will be easily angered. It is obvious that the opponent just wants to continue to delay until Shibazhi has run out of ammunition and food and is unable to fight. At that time, he can easily capture the group of people trapped on the island.
"How can I let you get what you want!" Zheng Zhihu was angry but unwilling to surrender. He was not afraid of death. He had been at sea for so many years, fought so many times on the battlefield, and had more than one or two near-death experiences. He had already seen through life and death, even if the Haihan people put a bayonet on his neck. He will never give in.
But Zheng Zhihu didn't want to die too painfully, and he didn't want to end up humiliatingly becoming a prisoner of war of the Haihan people and dying in a dark prison. Before the situation deteriorates to the worst, he must give it another try and let the people of Haihan know that the heroes of Shibazhi are not easy to surrender. Of course, he had no intention of insisting on facing off against the Haihan people on Nanri Island despite his obvious lack of strength. When should he take action and when should he be patient? He still had his own decisions. trade-off.
"Pass my order, each battalion begins to pack up. After nightfall, all personnel board the ship in batches. When the time comes, the brothers rush out of the port by ship and leave this ghost place!" Zheng Zhihu finally made preparations. Order to retreat. The pirates who brought Nanri Island this time were all the elites of the Eighteen Zhi. It would be a pity to leave them all on this deserted island. Zheng Zhihu still planned to take them back to Penghu as much as possible. As long as the green hills remain, there will be no need to worry about running out of firewood. Next time, we can just find a chance to fight the Haihan people.
As long as the fleet rushed to the sea, no matter how hard the Haihan people fought, their limited warships would not be able to surround dozens of fleeing sailing ships on the sea. Regarding this point, Zheng Zhihu can be said to be quite certain.
However, it was difficult for him to imagine what was going on in his camp. In fact, he was under Haihan's surveillance at all times. On the sea not far from Nanri Island Harbor, there is an uninhabited island with an area of less than 0.1 square kilometers. This island is completely empty except for hills more than 20 meters above the sea level. After the Haihan Navy took control of this place a day ago, a wooden observation deck more than ten meters high was quickly added to the top of the hill on the island. Standing on this observation deck, you can basically have a panoramic view of the entire harbor. . If you add high-end military telescopes, you can clearly see the movements in the Shibazhi camp next to the port.
"Have the pirates started packing up and moving things to the ship?" Xie Li couldn't help but smile after hearing the report: "It seems that Zheng Zhihu can't stay any longer and is planning to run away! We also rested all day Now, notify all units to cancel their rest status immediately and move everyone into combat positions. Two hours later, we will enter the port to give them a surprise.”
(End of chapter)