Chapter 840 Catch them all in one fell swoop
Song Qing was extremely panicked when he saw more than ten Haihan warships approaching. He was worried that if the Haihan people failed to recognize the identity of the ship in a hurry and fired a few shots at the ship, then his situation would be quite dangerous. But at this time, he saw that a sailor had replaced the red flag on the mast, and replaced it with a red and blue flag, which was obviously used to identify people on the battlefield. When the Haihan warship coming from the opposite side saw this flag, it sailed past both sides and pounced directly on the pirate fleet behind it. Only then did Song Qing let out a sigh of relief, knowing that his life must have been saved.
Song Qing looked back at the Yueqing Ship Gang's sailboat, which had already begun to engage in fire with the Haihan Fleet. However, it was only the Haihan warship that was currently firing. Although the Yueqing Ship Gang's ship also had some firearms, it had not yet entered the shooting range. The people on board were The artillery shells that broke through the air were screaming, but they were unable to mount an effective counterattack.
Song Qing realized at this time that when their group was captured the day before yesterday, the Haihan people did not show their true skills at all. They only sent a few small warships and defeated them with two rounds of bombardment. Recently, Haihan's main force was deployed, and the density of artillery fire was not comparable to that of that day. After the several pirate ships in front were bombarded by a round of shelling, water began to enter the hulls one after another, and they immediately staggered around and became chaotic.
"Nantie, what a good thing you have done!" Zheng Ping shouted angrily: "You actually colluded with outsiders to plot against your brothers!"
Nantie was also confused at this time. He never expected that this big deal that came to his door turned out to be a death trap. He also noticed just now that the guide boat Song Qing was on changed its flag and passed directly through the enemy fleet. It was obviously premeditated. Naturally, there will be no more transactions of one hundred thousand taels of silver in this place. This matter was set up by others from beginning to end.
Nantie said angrily: "Master, I was also fooled! When I turn around to catch Song Qing, I will cut him to death with a thousand knives!"
Zheng Pingda refused to believe him. He drew out his sword and said: "If you hadn't come forward to vouch for Song Qing and said there was some huge deal, how would my boat gang brothers be in the current situation? It's a pity that you colluded with this enemy. Although he is a powerful enemy, , but I can’t save your life!”
When Zheng Pingda made a move, Zheng Ping'er and his men immediately turned on each other and drew their swords. This ship was the ship of the Zheng brothers, not Nantie's ship. He only brought a few personal guards with him, and he was immediately at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.
Nantie knew that if he wanted to start a fight now, he would definitely not be able to defeat the Zheng brothers' men, so he could only hope to persuade them: "This enemy has clearly laid an ambush to kill all my gang. The two leaders must not be fooled, and they must do it as soon as possible." Command the fleet to break out!”
"How can I break out of the encirclement with peace of mind if I don't destroy you, a traitor!" But the more Zheng Pingda looked at it, the more he felt that Nantie was an insider, and his murderous intention became more intense.
Nantie shouted: "If I were a traitor, how could I be in the same boat with you two brothers!"
"Knowing people but not knowing their hearts, maybe you have an idea to capture my two brothers alive!" The Zheng brothers had become stubborn at this time. No matter how Nantie tried to defend themselves, they were unwilling to believe it.
"Capture Nantie, maybe his life will be exchanged for our lives!" Zheng Pinger gave the order with red eyes, and the people on the deck immediately surrounded Nantie and others with weapons.
Seeing that the situation was irreversible, Nantie could only lament in his heart and shouted: "Jump off the ship and swim to the shore with me!"
After saying this, he put his hands on the side of the boat and flipped out of the boat. Upon seeing this, several other people immediately jumped out of the sea. It is only a few miles away from the islands on both sides, so it is not too difficult to swim to the islands. Of course, at this time, ships were coming and going in the strait, and the scene was extremely chaotic. Going into the sea was definitely more dangerous than staying on the ship.
"You allowed this traitor to escape!" The Zheng brothers rushed to the side of the ship and saw Nantie bobbing on the sea, already swimming four to five feet away. They were not good at bows and arrows, so they could only grab the spears from others and throw them, but their feet were also undulating, and there was no way to be accurate. The spears missed by a large distance when they hit the water, and could not hurt Nantie at all.
"Get out of here quickly!" As a cannonball passed above the deck of the ship, the Zheng brothers came to their senses and shouted to the sailors to quickly adjust their direction and rush towards the western exit of the strait.
However, the west exit is not a good place. The Haihan Navy has deployed six expedition-class and two exploration-class warships here. Although it cannot completely block the channel, it must rush through the sides of these warships. To withstand at least one round of close range artillery fire. The largest of the Yueqing Ship Gang's ships is only about 200 tons, which is still far behind the smallest tonnage of the expedition-class warships in the Haihan Navy. Its sturdiness cannot withstand Haihan artillery shells at a distance of less than fifty meters. impact on. After being hit, the first few ships took in water and rolled over, blocking the navigable water surface that was not very wide. It was very difficult for the Zheng brothers' ship to go around and break out.
When Song Qing's boat arrived at the outskirts, a small boat came over immediately and took him to Shi Diwen's command boat. After Song Qing climbed up the side of the ship along the rope ladder, he immediately shouted hurriedly: "Hit the ship with the Zheng flag on the bow! The three major bandit leaders of the Yueqing Ship Gang are all on that ship!"
Shi Diwen immediately ordered to adjust the direction of attack, and the three Haihan warships pinched in from west to east, tightly blocking the direction of the Zheng brothers' ship. The officers and soldiers on the warship had already received the order before the war started. There was no need to persuade them to surrender on the battlefield, they could just follow the normal combat procedures. After these three warships entered the firing range, they immediately hit the target with a burst of gunfire.
The Zheng brothers' ship also had four native cannons. However, the pirates on the ship did not wait for a chance to counterattack. The cannonballs flying from the Haihan warship swept away the deck. The four earthen cannons were also beaten to pieces. One of the cannons flew out and hit several pirates, leaving a large blur of flesh and blood on the deck.
The following second round of shelling opened a row of washbasin-sized holes in the side of the ship, and seawater immediately poured into several of them near the waterline. Some people on the ship rushed to the cabin to try to plug the leak, while others grabbed weapons and began to gather to prepare for gang fighting.
However, Haihan didn't even intend to leave them a chance to engage in hand-to-hand combat. When they were still about ten meters away, Haihan's warship slightly adjusted its direction and passed by the pirate ship. This distance allowed the sailors on the Haihan warship to hit the enemies on the opposite deck with their muskets without having to take special aim. A volley of guns hit them, causing the pirate ship to fall down again. The entire battle only lasted for more than half an hour. There was no pirate ship on the sea that was still resisting. The first few ships that were attacked had slowly sunk due to too much water, and the other ships were basically affected. Various degrees of severe damage. Only two ships saw the opportunity early and lowered their sails and surrendered as soon as the battle began.
The Haihan warships began to retreat as a team, and several logistics ships disguised as merchant ships shuttled back and forth in the strait, searching for pirate prisoners on board and in the water. Although this battle lasted only a short time, it was really powerful. When the battle first started, there were a few fishing boats on the sea in the distance, but at this time, no other boats could be seen within the field of vision. Before the war started, Haihan had sent people to land on Xiaomen Island and took control of the few dozen fishermen households on the island. At this time, the army also came to the coast and began to search for the captured pirates who swam to the shore.
This is much easier than searching for prisoners on half-sunken sailing ships at sea. Even if the pirates are lucky enough to swim to the island, they are basically exhausted. Seeing the Haihan soldiers coming in groups, there is no other choice but to capture them. There is no other way.
Song Qing was also performing his last mission at this time, identifying the three bandit leaders of the Yueqing Boat Gang from among the many prisoners and dead bodies. Although Song Qing had previously pointed out that the Zheng brothers' ship allowed Haihan to focus their fire on the attack, the three Haihan warships that rushed to attack fought so happily that they almost tore the ship into pieces, and the ship was taken to sea. The corpses everywhere were hard to identify, and it was indeed a troublesome task to identify them after the war.
Song Qing was not very close to the Zheng brothers and Nan Tie. It was up to him to identify whether it was a living person, but a dead body or even a broken body, then he might not be sure. However, Song Qing was not stupid. He recognized several personal guards around the Zheng brothers from the prisoners captured on the ship, and immediately asked the Haihan people to interrogate them. Only then did we learn that during the chaotic battle just now, the bandit leader Zheng Pingda was hit by artillery fire and was killed on the spot. Zheng Ping'er was missing in the chaos, and the other bandit leader Nantie jumped on his own at the beginning of the war due to internal strife among the three. The sea escaped.
Soon Zheng Pingda's body was identified by his men. The guy's upper body was bloody and bloody, and his face was unrecognizable. Fortunately, there was a shark tattoo on his shoulder blade, and he was identified based on this mark.
Not long after, another bandit leader, Nantie, was also identified from the prisoners captured on Damen Island. This guy was lucky. After jumping from the boat, he swam ashore without incident. However, he didn't expect that his enemy had already made arrangements on the island. Before he could catch his breath, he was discovered by a group of Haihan soldiers. Nantie tried to resist, but was stabbed in the leg by a Haihan soldier's rifle bayonet. In the end, he was shackled and locked back.
The search for the last bandit leader, Zheng Ping'er, took a long time. It took two hours after the battle before someone discovered Zheng Ping'er's body on a secluded beach on Xiaomen Island. There were several wounds on this guy's back. It looked like he died from excessive blood loss and exhaustion while swimming to the pirates.
At this point, two of the three bandit leaders of the Yueqing Boat Gang were killed and one was injured. They have all been brought to justice. The most basic operational goal has been achieved. After receiving the notice, Xu Yuzhuo came to the "Enterprise" and confirmed the identities of the three bandit leaders.
Xu Yuzhuo first thanked Shi Diwen, and then ordered: "Cut off the heads of the Zheng brothers, keep them for safekeeping, and escort them back to Fujian together with the captured bandit leaders!"
Na Nantie was still dissatisfied and asked loudly: "What grudge do we, the Yueqing Boat Gang, have against you? We actually mobilized troops to come from Fujian to set up this ambush and scheme against you!"
"Slap your mouth!" Xu Yuzhuo ordered lightly after hearing this. Immediately, one of his men went over, slapped Nantie's head a dozen times, and his cheeks suddenly swelled up.
"I will tell you to die!" Xu Yuzhuo said calmly: "Last year you intercepted two Fujian merchant ships in Wenzhou Bay and injured two people on board. Later, Fujian sent an official document to Yueqing to investigate the matter. , you may have heard of it?”
These words undoubtedly revealed Xu Yuzhuo's official identity. Nantie sighed and said: "I didn't expect that it actually started from this! It was Zheng Pingda who wanted to kill people to establish his power, so he hurt the lives of two passengers on the ship. At that time, although I I tried to dissuade him, but in the end he did something stupid!”
Xu Yuzhuo snorted coldly and said: "You don't have to shirk the blame. The Zheng brothers have already been punished. This public trial will be on your head! I guess you are lucky, you can live for a few more months!"
Xu Xinsu was deeply resentful of the Yueqing Ship Gang's robbery of ships and injuries last year. Although he had nothing to do with the Yueqing government, he must get rid of the pirates who took action as soon as possible. It may not be a bad thing that the Zheng brothers died in the battle. After Nantie was taken back to Fujian, he had to squat in a prison for a long time, be interrogated in court, and then wait for the Queen to be interrogated and executed. For several months, it was torture every day. Also uncomfortable. None of the three leaders escaped, and Xu Yuzhuo could be considered a success.
Of course, the matter does not end here. The coalition forces are almost out in force to encircle and suppress this group of pirates. The combat cost of three thousand people is not a small amount. In any case, they must find a way to make some seizures to offset it.
Xu Yuzhuo immediately interrogated Nantie and other core members again, asking where the Yueqing Boat Gang's treasure was hidden. There are hundreds of people in the Yueqing boat gang, so it is impossible without some reserves. After spending a few hours figuring this out, Xu Yuzhuo immediately mobilized two crews and escorted several insiders to Yandang Town at the northern end of Yueqing Bay, preparing to dig out the Yueqing Ship Gang's old cellar overnight. Although there are still a few remnants of the Yueqing Boat Gang in the local area, the people under Xu Yuzhuo are not vegetarians. If nothing unexpected happens, they should be able to successfully complete this task.
However, these captured gangsters are not a big trouble for the coalition forces. Xu Yuzhuo did not intend to hand over this group of people to the Wenzhou government, because doing so would expose the true identity of the coalition forces, and the Fujian Navy's entry into Zhejiang waters was an illegal act in itself. If exposed, the Zhejiang government would obtain it. If you report the matter to the court, Xu Xinsu will inevitably be made very passive.
After the coalition forces have taken care of things in Wenzhou, they will continue to move north. It will definitely be very inconvenient to take these prisoners with them. The only solution for now is to use ships to send these people back to Fujian together with Nantie. Xu Yuzhuo wrote a letter, recording the battle in detail, and planned to send it back to his father Xu Xinsu for detailed information.
(End of chapter)