Chapter 382: Calming Down
"You mean the fleet is at the junction of Haihe River?" Chang Wei asked. ReadМ
After the young pirate spoke, he immediately clenched his fists.
The pirates are indeed here.
"General, the Ship Division is counting on you." Chen Shou was also at his side. At this time, he handed over to Chang Wei with a sincere face.
Chang Wei rolled his eyes, and he ordered the remaining two pirates to be executed, and the one who confessed was imprisoned.
Greatly praised the legal system, and the people who engaged in pirates were executed.
Although he can be spared his life, he cannot escape the crime of living.
Then he left five thousand men to guard the ship's division to prevent accidents.
He led the remaining 15,000 people to march towards Haihe, taking away 36 field guns at the same time.
On the Haihe warship, Heishan nervously waited for the news.
An hour passed and no one came back, so he sent several people to the river bank to investigate.
There are still a few more ships until it's their turn.
If the Ship Division is not prepared, he can still take risks.
If so, he can only withdraw and wait for the next opportunity.
However, the crew sent out for the second time returned in panic after less than a quarter of an hour.
"Sir, it's bad, there are a large number of soldiers coming this way."
A layer of cold sweat suddenly appeared on Heishan's forehead, and he immediately said: "Quickly retreat!"
The order was given, the oars came out from under the boats, and the entire fleet began to turn around.
At this moment, Chang Wei arrived with his troops.
Looking at the fleet fleeing eastward, he immediately ordered his soldiers to shoot along the river bank.
"Bang bang bang..." The flintlock gun sprayed out flames.
The bullets hit the pirate's warship and stirred up clouds of sawdust.
The artillerymen hurriedly unloaded the artillery from the horses and aimed at the pirates' warships with a bombardment.
"Boom boom boom..."
The roar of flintlock guns and artillery rose and fell, and the merchants on other merchant ships were frightened and trembled with fear.
They didn't know why the royal army would attack a fleet.
"Boom, puff..."
The cannonball hit the warship, making a loud noise and then piercing the hull.
A pirate warship immediately leaked water, and Chang Wei even saw someone using something to block it.
"Take the easternmost boat." Chang Wei shouted.
The flintlock guns were unable to cause serious damage to the hull, so they could only rely on artillery. Chang Wei gave orders repeatedly.
Seeing the warships turning around one by one, the artillery general immediately ordered the soldiers to fix the artillery to the horse and move 500 meters to the east.
At this moment, Heishan in the warship was extremely anxious.
Forty-two warships stretch for more than a mile.
His orders could not be quickly transmitted to the easternmost warship.
Now only the warship at the front has turned around, but the warship to the east has not moved yet and cannot move at all.
"Leave the rower alone, and let me kill the others on board!" Heishan shouted.
After receiving his order, the pirates armed with matchlocks boarded the deck and opened fire on the royal soldiers on the river bank.
It's just that their number is obviously not comparable to that of the royal soldiers.
Moreover, the rate of fire of the matchlock gun was extremely slow, and the smoke was thick, blocking the sight.
They immediately suffered a loss in the exchange of fire, and the pirates fell to the deck one by one.
"Now that you're here, don't leave." Chang Wei snorted coldly.
About a quarter of an hour later, he heard the sound of cannon in the east.
At the end of the sight, sawdust was flying from a warship.
At such a close distance, the artillery can exert its maximum power.
The first warship in the east soon became a honeycomb. The river water poured into the warship, and the warship slowly sank, blocking the river.
At the same time, Chang Wei mobilized merchant ships to block the mouth of the river leading to the canal in the west, completely defeating the pirates.
After two hours of fighting, more than forty warships were bombarded and sunk by artillery.
The river was filled with corpses of pirates, and the entire river was dyed red.
All the pirates who swam to the river alive were arrested and taken to prison.
Seeing that dusk was approaching, Chang Wei glanced at the red river water and sent a team of cavalry to Jinghai County to inform King Yan of the news.
However, the cavalry met King Yan who was rushing to Pingcheng halfway, and then returned to Pingcheng with them.
"This guy Bai Shang is okay. This battle was good. The pirates were all wiped out again this time."
At the Pingcheng government office, Zhao Xu told Chang Wei about Jinghai's situation, and Chang Wei nodded slightly.
"It's not a total annihilation. There are still more than thirty ships at sea. It's just that Yanzhou has no navy, so we can only stare." Zhao Xu said.
Two pirate attacks made him more and more eager to own a fleet.
Otherwise, the pirates would use the flexibility of warships at sea to continuously attack Yanzhou.
From Yamada Ichino, he learned that there were more than 30,000 pirates and more than 200 warships on Wufeng Island.
This time the pirates suffered such heavy losses in Yanzhou, Wufeng Island will definitely not give up.
Chen Shou pursed his lips and said, "Your Highness, I promise to deliver twelve warships to the navy before the year."
Zhao Xu felt a little better, "This is the best. In this way, there will be warships patrolling the coast of Yanzhou, and the pirates will naturally not be able to run rampant."
Thinking of something, he asked Chang Wei again, "It is said that the leader this time is a deputy island owner nicknamed Black Mountain. Have you caught him?"
Chang Wei showed an embarrassed look, "Your Highness, a sword has no eyes, let alone a musket. When this Black Mountain was found, it was already a corpse."
"It doesn't matter, I probably know everything that I should know." Zhao Xu just asked casually.
A preliminary understanding of the situation outside of Dasong is enough.
At the moment, he still has to focus his main energy on the north.
After all, this is the deepest crisis.
"Assign another 10,000 people to Bai Shang and order him to patrol the coast and not give the pirates a chance to cause trouble." Zhao Xu added.
Once the pirates land on land, they will still cause great damage.
They will burn, kill and plunder along the way, seriously affecting the lives of the people.
"Yes, Your Highness." Chang Wei responded.
Finally, he looked at Chen Shou, "Master Chen, since this batch of warships is basically completed, we will start building the next batch of warships. It is best to build 24 warships in the next batch. After all, we have the experience of construction. The next is just a matter of silver and the number of craftsmen."
The construction period of the warships is quite long, and he had to invest a huge amount of resources in a short period of time.
Otherwise, if he built twelve warships a year, he might not have the number of warships at the peak of the contemporary Spanish fleet in thirty years.
Moreover, the question asked by Yamada Ichino was obviously about knowing the flintlock.
And the history of flintlock equipment is more than two hundred years.
In modern times, it has been from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century.
From the perspective of Oriental people, their equipment has not changed much during this period.
But he cannot judge from this, they just stayed in the seventeenth century.
Shaking his head, he shook off these chaotic thoughts.
Zhao Xu's eyes became firm.
Since the world is a chessboard, let them play on the chessboard of the world.
After resting for a day in Pingcheng, Zhao Xu returned to Yancheng the next day.
Jinling, Liang Mansion.
Liang Kai was reading in the yard, when a flock of birds flew over and a pile of bird shit fell on the pages of the book.
"Bad luck!" Liang Kai threw the book on the ground in disgust.
Then he suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart.