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Wuqiu Island is a small island with a circumference of two miles. It is located outside Meizhou Bay in Fujian, about 30 miles away from Pinghaiwei in Putian.
The brothers Huang Dan and Huang Erdan were sailing in a small boat, casting nets in the waters of Wuqiu Island. While they were busy, they were also looking around anxiously.
Yesterday, there was a rumor that hundreds of red-haired devil warships were coming. Today, most fishermen did not dare to go out to sea to fish, and even if they did, they only cast their nets near the coast.
The Huang Dan brothers were from a poor family and relied on fishing to make a living. The brothers cursed the red-haired devil harshly, but still risked their lives to come to Wuqiu Island.
Wuqiu Island is known as the "natural fishing warehouse" for its superior geographical location. It is the third largest fishing ground in the East China Sea after Zhoushan Fishery and Penghu Fishery.
Fishermen along the coast of Putian can usually catch groupers weighing several kilograms in this sea area, as well as lobsters more than two feet long, eels more than ten feet long, and hairtail. If they are lucky, they can catch half a load of large yellow croaker in one net.
"Brother, look! Dolphins! Dolphins!"
Huang Erdan, who was looking around, suddenly screamed, which scared the eldest Huang Dan, who thought it was the red-haired ghost calling.
He looked up and saw countless dolphins leaping on the sea. They were flying very fast, constantly jumping out of the sea and then diving back down. The scene was spectacular.
It is common to see groups of whales and dolphins cutting through the waves on Wuqiu Island, but it is rare to see such a spectacular sight of thousands of dolphins leaping across the sea. Huang Dan forgot to close his mouth as he watched.
Fishermen on the coast regard dolphins as auspicious animals. Dolphins have a friendly appearance and like to get close to humans. They often play happily around ships on the sea, and they sometimes save people in distress at sea.
Huang Erdan suddenly shouted again: "Brother, look, what is in the sky... the sky... the sky... the sky?" Huang Erdan's voice trembled a little.
"This... this... this..." The eldest brother Huang Dan was the same. Looking at the ten huge flying birds in the sky, he was so scared that he could hardly speak, "Oh, they are flying towards us, run..."
In midair, a huge bird was swooping down towards them, and it seemed to be making strange cries of "Yo-ho!" Huang Dan was so scared that he pulled his brother into the water, chanting in his heart, "Ancestor bless you! Mazu bless you!"
The sea breeze was blowing. In mid-air, Yan Xiaotian was flying happily in the sky on his hang glider, chasing the dolphins leaping over the sea. His hang glider was covered with feathers, and it looked like two huge wings.
After finally seeing a fishing boat, Yan Xiaotian immediately dived down in a weird way, and saw the two people on the boat jumped into the sea in fear, and he screamed in joy.
After several months of practice, they were very skilled in controlling the hang glider, diving to 50 to 60 meters above the sea surface and then quickly pulling up, just like a roc spreading its wings and soaring.
The other nine hang gliders also approached and circled around. Xia Liang flew to Yan Xiaotian's left and shouted, "Captain, something is wrong!"
Yan Xiaotian shouted back: "What's wrong?"
"Captain, Wuqiu Island is an important fishing ground. Under normal circumstances, there would be many fishermen coming to Wuqiu Island to fish. Now there is only this lonely fishing boat. Something is wrong." Xia Liang shouted while flying parallel to Yan Xiaotian. He was from Putian, Fujian, and was very familiar with the situation in this area.
"Something is wrong. Quanzhou Port has always been busy. Even if we can't go to Southeast Asia, we can always go to Japan. It's not far from Quanzhou. We haven't seen a single merchant ship for such a long time... Hurry, go back and report to Governor Di."
After Yan Xiaotian finished shouting, he turned first and flew north. The wind on the sea was strong and the gliding speed was also very fast. After flying a few miles back to the north, he saw nearly a hundred warships scattered on the sea, sailing south in a mighty manner.
One of the giant ships was particularly eye-catching. It was like a moving castle on the sea, with a huge hull and twelve tall masts full of sails.
Yan Xiaotian and his men kept lowering their altitude and flew past the towering masts of this huge fleet. When the Qin soldiers on the ship saw them, they let out strange cries and cheers. Some waved in greeting, while others aimed their rifles at Yan Xiaotian and his men, as if they wanted to shoot down these enviable guys.
On the huge treasure ship, which was nearly 150 meters long and 50 meters wide, there was a landing platform 70 meters long and 20 meters wide on the top deck on the left side;
Yan Xiaotian and his team skillfully controlled the hang glider, approached the giant ship from behind, and then slowly descended until they landed on the huge take-off and landing platform.
Every time a hang glider landed, several soldiers would rush up to the deck to help Yan Xiaotian and his men catch the hang glider to prevent any accidents.
After several months of practice, Yan Xiaotian and his "naval aviation" teamed up with the "ground crew" on the deck, and the ten gliders quickly and safely landed on the huge deck.
Yan Xiaotian and Xia Liang quickly entered Di Zhongxing's command cabin. Di Zhongxing was looking at the sea chart. When he saw them come in, he asked, "What's the situation?"
Yan Xiaotian said, "Commander Di, the enemy's fleet is likely heading north. We are very close to Quanzhou, but not only have we not seen a single merchant ship, but there are also few fishing boats around Wuqiu Island. This area used to be an important fishing ground near Putian. This is all very abnormal."
Di Zhongxing had originally felt that something was wrong, and after being reminded by Yan Xiaotian and Xia Liang, he became even more vigilant.
In this era where communication is basically based on shouting, once a fleet sails into the vast ocean, all it can know is often only what is within its sight.
However, by analyzing some phenomena, we can still find some clues.
For example, in the past few months, due to the unrest in the sea, there are fewer merchant ships traveling back and forth, so it is normal for merchants not to go to Southeast Asia. But if the enemy is still on the coast of Guangdong, there must be merchant ships from Quanzhou heading to Japan.
Now there is not a single merchant ship to be seen. After careful analysis, there can only be one reason, and that is that Quanzhou Port is threatened.
Di Zhongxing did not dare to delay and immediately sent Ke Chenshu to command the only clipper ship in the fleet to sail south. The biggest feature of the clipper ship is its high speed, which can reach up to 14 knots and can sail 100 miles in an hour, which is beyond the reach of other ships.
After receiving the order, Ke Chenshu immediately took the clipper and headed south at full speed.
The sails of a clipper ship are particularly high, reaching nearly three-quarters of the length of the hull. On the mast, which is more than 30 meters high, the huge sails are like black clouds, providing powerful power to the hull.
The short freeboard made it look like it was flying close to the sea surface. The blade-like bow swiftly split the waves at the bow, and soon left the fleet behind far behind.
Ke Chenshu was from Fujian. He was one of the seven people selected by Qin Mu to study in the Naval Academy. Qin Mu kept them by his side for quite a long time. It was no exaggeration to say that they were close ministers to the emperor.
The only clipper was given to him to command during this trip southwards, which was also the emperor's instruction. In short, he was a naval general who was highly favored by the emperor.
There were twenty-one white Europeans on his clipper, and there were many mercenaries on the ships of various European countries.
In fact, even in the Zheng family fleet at that time, there were many white and black sailors, and sailors from Japan, Korea and other Southeast Asian countries were even more common.
These twenty or so white men were the Spanish mercenaries captured in Luzon.
These people did not care which country they fought for. Now that they had escaped the fate of being captured and were employed by Qin, this was a great fortune for them, so they devoted themselves to working for their employers.
Chinese ships generally used hard sails, and it was precisely because of the existence of these mercenaries that the Qin army was able to quickly master operating soft-sail warships.
After sailing for more than an hour, a soldier on the deck suddenly shouted: "There's a cannon! There's a cannon!"
After hearing the shouting, Ke Chenshu walked out of the command cabin and indeed heard bursts of gunfire coming faintly in the sea breeze. Although it was only faint, it was continuous, which showed that the battle must have been extremely fierce.
"Hurry, hurry up!" Ke Chenshu yelled immediately, "Everyone, wait, get into combat mode immediately, hurry!"
The soldiers on the ship suddenly became busy, loading their guns and positioning their cannons. The sailors who were controlling the sails shouted slogans and constantly adjusted the sails. The sun was scorching on the deck and everyone was sweating profusely.
After sailing south for nearly half an hour, when they were about to reach Quanzhou Bay, the sound of artillery fire became more intense and choking smoke floated over the sea. Lookout Fang Xiaosong was looking south with a telescope on the tall mast. For a moment, he was so surprised that he couldn't stop talking.
Through the faint smoke, we could see hundreds of warships engaged in a fierce battle on the sea more than ten miles away. In the sea area of more than ten miles in radius, the enemy and our side were entangled in a bloody battle to the death.
There were more than a thousand cannons roaring continuously, tongues of fire gushing out, shaking the heavens and the earth, changing the wind and clouds, and shells falling on the sea like raindrops. Columns of water continued to rush up, and the waves surged.
All the visible sea surface is filled with warships fighting. The scene is so grand, majestic and unparalleled. The shouting, fighting and howling sounds like waves are overwhelming and make people's hair stand on end.
Hundreds of Qin army's black sailing ships rushed forward under the enemy's overwhelming artillery fire. One after another, their hulls were blown sideways and their masts were broken. Although the casualties of the soldiers on the ships could not be seen, it was obvious without thinking that it would be extremely tragic.
Some of the enemy's huge ships have turned into giant torches. The entire ship is burning fiercely, with flames illuminating the sky, blazing flames and billowing black smoke.
Many of the Qin army's warships were blown up or set on fire. Rockets were flying in the sky, strings of grenades were thrown at enemy ships, balls of fire were billowing in the violent explosions, and corpses were floating everywhere on the sea. The sea was truly a place of blood and waves like mountains.
This extremely heroic scene, with blood and fire all over the sky and the sound of killing like a tide, made Fang Xiaosong's hand holding Yongyuan Jing tremble slightly, and he mumbled something incomprehensible... ...
Fang Xiaosong was a little at a loss. Facing the huge battlefield with blood and fire flying everywhere, what should they do on their clipper ship that had broken in alone
*****************(To be continued...)
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