Chapter 183 Dark Night

Zhang Jiace was also dressed in a uniform, dressed neatly, and with a large-scale fleet, crossed the Haitan Strait as if swaggering through the market and sailed to Xinghua Bay.

Zhang Jiace was ordered to sail to Xinghua Bay after departing from Dinghai City and ship 4,000 officers and soldiers gathered in Xinghua Bay to Nanri Island together.

The reason for doing this is also a lesson from the last time. Zhu Yifeng and his staff, including the generals, were afraid that they would put the fleet in Xinghua Bay and be blocked by sea wolves and kill their ships first, resulting in the final officers unable to land on Nanri Island.

So in the end, they decided that the fleet would gather in Dinghai City. After the operation began, Zhang Jiace led the fleet to Xinghua Bay, loaded the officers and soldiers gathered here, and finally launched an attack on Nanri Island from the north and south sides.

Zhang Jiace is very satisfied with this arrangement, because he has actually experienced the power of the sea wolf. The last time the sea wolf shelled Puxi's house, he suffered a big loss. Several sea wolf's gunboats blocked him in the city of Puxi's house, and a round of fire made him gray.

This time, Zhu Yifeng ordered him to ship officers and soldiers in Xinghua Bay first. In this way, he doesn't have to take the lead in person. As long as there is a small time difference, he can ask Yu Zhigao to go to Nanri Island first. If the sea wolf refuses to give up Nanri Island, he will fight with Yu Zhigao's fleet first, regardless of the outcome. , he can act on the other.

If Yu Zhigao wins, then he can go straight to Nanri Island from Xinghua Bay and beat the falling dog. Moreover, his ship is mainly shipped by the mainland division, and finally grabs Nanri Island. At least he has his share of this credit.

But once Yu Zhigao is defeated, he can completely give up leading the team to Nanri Island. At that time, even if someone impeached him to avoid the war, he can also say that it was because the land division delayed boarding the ship, and considering the safety of so many people, he could only give up attacking the island.

In a word, Zhang Jiace made up his mind this time. He said that he could not play this battle first. He would rather let Yu Zhigao grab his head, and he should fight steadily and no longer have any difference.

What's more, before his arrival, he had received a mysterious guest. This man told him a message not to take the lead and go to Nanri Island. The mysterious man left him a letter to him. After reading it, he set it on fire, but left a silver ticket of Fenglong in the envelope, this silver The ticket is 10,000 taels of silver. Of course, only he knows about this. Even his concubine has not mentioned it to her.

On the north side of the mouth of Mulanxi in Xinghua Bay, it has now become a barracks. In the past two months, the officers and soldiers transferred from the mainland have gathered here, gathering a total of 6,000 horses. Of course, it is claimed to be 20,000 troops and hoarded a large amount of materials and grain. After the fleet came, they boarded the ship and went to sea. .

These soldiers and horses are not from one place. They are led by two guerrillas and six thousand presidents, mainly officers and soldiers from Xinghua Prefecture. In addition, there are also town soldiers transferred from Quanzhou Prefecture and Yanping Prefecture.

These officers and soldiers can't talk about military discipline. When they came to the assembly point along the way, the land rushed all the way, which changed the color of the people along the way. When many ordinary people heard the arrival of the officers and soldiers, they immediately abandoned their homes and fled. In the eyes of the people, these officers and soldiers were not as good as bandits.

There is a saying that bandits come like combs, soldiers come like grits, and officials come like shaving. It is that if bandits come, the common people will be like combed once, but if officers and soldiers come, they will be like grits. If officials come, they will be like razors, and the common people can't leave anything.

Daming's military discipline has always been very poor, which almost every common people know. When they are stationed, they will restrain themselves for various reasons and dare not be too arrogant, so as not to harm the people near their station too much, but once they go out to march to war, the army of the army Ji was completely loose.

Along the way, they will strangle the villages they go through in the name of labor. If ordinary people do not obey, they will often be killed. Sometimes officers and soldiers even simply wash some villages with blood and rape them. ** plunder, in addition to some villages where the hard gentry are located, they will also have a little scruples. Ordinary villages will not be easily let go.

And the officials do not want to be too strict with their opponents, because they know that these soldiers have already been complaining because they have been underpaying all year round. In this way, they can make the soldiers cheaper and meet their needs. Otherwise, once these soldiers are used, these soldiers will definitely not Work hard for them, and if you don't do it well, you may take advantage of the chaos to give them a back.

Therefore, the military discipline of the officers and soldiers is corrupt. At this time, the world already knows everything. The people hate the officers and soldiers more than bandits or pirates. Villages in many places will organize township bravery or regiment training to protect themselves. These township brave groups practice farming at ordinary times. Once they meet bandits or pirates, they will jointly protect themselves. Sometimes they even fight against the officers and soldiers. They are to protect the family, so sometimes local regimental training can even fight more than the officers and soldiers.

Zhang Jiace came from Dinghai City on this way, crossed the Haitan Strait and sailed into Xinghua Bay. He was not disturbed by any sea wolf ships along the way. At most, there were one or two fast ships. He stared at their actions on the periphery of the officer fleet from afar. Zhang Jiace did not expel them, allowing these two ships. , followed his fleet far away.

So on the sea north of Nanri Island, although the army fleet swaggered through the market, it always seemed relatively calm, but the Yu Zhigao fleet in the south of Nanri Island was not as leisurely as Zhang Jiace.

Not long after they left Yongningwei, the sky gradually darkened. After winter, the weather on the sea was relatively calm. There were neither strong winds nor strong waves, but there was a faint thin cloud in the sky, which did not affect their sailing at night.

Because the departure from Yongningwei to Nanri Island is in a state of headwind sailing, although this does not have much impact on Chinese ships, it still seriously affects the speed. If the wind goes downwind, they can sail to Nanri Island in just over two days, but now it is winter, and ships going north are heading against the wind. In this state, it will take at least five days to reach Nanri Island.

Yu Zhigao has been holding his strength for a long time and intends to rush to Nanri Island as soon as possible to seize the first success of landing on the island. In addition, if their large fleet is stationed at night, it will take a longer along the way. As Yu Dayao's son, Yu Zhigao is a standard military family and is very clear. What is the speed of soldiers?

So he decided that after the fleet set off, it would not be moored at night. Except for the necessary water boats to dock to get water, all the other ships went all the way to Nanri Island.

On the night of departure, it was still safe. When the fishing boats along the way saw such a large-scale fleet, they quickly avoided them from afar. These fishing boats violated the ban and secretly went out to sea to fish. In addition, recently, the sea wolf patrol boats in several coastal fishing grounds also temporarily left, making some of them not give The fishermen who paid the fishing tax wanted to take the opportunity to make a profit, so they ventured to go fishing.

When they saw such a large-scale fleet coming slowly, they were so scared that they quickly raised their sail and tried their best to escape away from the coast for fear of being caught by the officers and soldiers. At that time, their ships could not be saved.

So when Yu Zhigao's fleet sailed along the way, the sea along the way seemed to have been swept. Even if there were occasional passing boats, as long as they saw this fleet, they would immediately flee towards the shore or the deep sea.

Officers and sailors usually don't deal well with pirates on the sea, but once they go to sea on a large scale, they are actually the same as pirates, even worse than pirates. If they tear off the flags on the ship, they will immediately become pirates, and they are even more ruthless. They often not only hijack the ship, but also kill everyone on the ship. It may only be sunk by them.

Therefore, when the merchant ship is at sea, it is better to touch Shanghai thieves than the ships of the officers and sailors. As long as you see the ships of the officers and sailors, you can run as fast as fast as you can and as far as you can.

The next day, nothing happened to Yu Zhigao's fleet. In order to be on his way, he also restrained his fleet, so that the ships could not move without authorization and leave the fleet.

He also did this for safety reasons, because he heard that the sea wolf's troops acted strangely at sea, and most of their ships were in good condition, and the speed of the ship, especially their flying-shaped fast boats, were even more amazing. For this reason, Chu Cai Lao and Zheng Yiguan, many guys who had been enemies of sea wolves, suffered a lot.

He knew very well that now the sea wolf must also be staring at his fleet. Occasionally, there will be some sail shadows on the distant sea. He guessed that it must be Hailan's sentry to monitor them, but because of the distance, he did not send a ship to expel them. Since he can't hide, he intends to go straight to Southern Japan generously. He went to the island, with the strength of his fleet and the big splint ships of the red-haired people who accompanied them to sail for ten times and forcibly attacked Nanri Island.

However, with the fall of night the next day, Yu Zhigao finally encountered trouble. In this era, night navigation is very risky. Because of the regression of navigation technology, Daming's sea ships should travel along the coastline to ensure that there will be no lost. The terrain of the sea is tortuous, and there is no perfect lighthouse to mark it. If you are not careful, you may be in danger of hitting a reef or stranded.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, if conditions permit, the sea ships will find a temporary berth at night and anchor after dawn, but Yu Zhigao was eager to rush to Nanri Island and ordered the fleet to continue sailing at night.

Such a large fleet has a greater risk of sailing at night. If the sight is not good at night, the ships will collide if they are not careful. Therefore, after nightfall, the fleet must disperse some distance, maintain the distance between the ship and the ship, and hang a large number of lanterns so that the surrounding ships can see them to prevent collision. Situation.

So as soon as it got dark, the fleet immediately evacuated and maintained a loose formation. The sailors on the ship should always be vigilant to prevent sudden collision with other ships.