After the new army set off for the expedition, the leaders at all levels in the capital and Emperor Chongzhen began to pray, hoping for a victory in the Haizhou War. At the same time, Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian, was also waiting for news of a war, but he did not have the leaders in the capital.
That kind of worry.
Yesterday, during the coastal defense guerrilla attack, his parents Zheng Zhilong came to him excitedly and reported that he had received news that several groups of pirates at sea who had never caught a trace were gathering together with the Dutch to plot against his fleet. He
He decided to take this opportunity to wipe out the pirates and the Dutch in one fell swoop. From now on, the southeast coast would be his, Zheng's, domain.
As for the source of Zheng Zhilong's information, although he did not tell him, Xiong Wencan vaguely knew it. Because one of Zheng Zhilong's most common methods was to bribe his opponent's subordinates and develop his insiders.
But he didn't care about this, because it was just a means for Zheng Zhilong to defeat the enemy. Xiong Wencan couldn't help but get a little excited when he thought about the prospects Zheng Zhilong told him.
If there were no other pirates and Dutchmen on the sea, and the smuggling business was all in the hands of Zheng Zhilong, the money he would receive would be unimaginable.
With this expectation, Xiong Wencan agreed to Zheng Zhilong's plan to attack with all his troops and took out all the warships in the port to achieve his goal of annihilating the pirates and the Dutch.
Xiong Wencan was in his back office, drinking the best tea from the Ming Dynasty, waiting for the outcome of the war.
When it was almost dusk, he couldn't sit still. Without asking his servants, he stood up several times to check the sky. But until dark, Zheng Zhilong had not returned yet.
Xiong Wencan could estimate that Zheng Zhilong would definitely catch a big fish this time. According to Zheng Zhilong's character, he would chase and beat his prey to death, so he came back late!
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but shake his head, and felt a moment of silence for Zheng Zhilong's opponents.
Xiong Wencan didn't want to wait any longer and ordered his servants to have dinner.
But when he had just sat down and was about to drink some wine and have a heart-warming meal with his concubine, there were rapid footsteps outside, and then the door was pushed open with a clang, and a person broke in.
"Zhongcheng, it's bad, Zheng Youji was defeated, Zheng Youji escaped, Zheng Youji..." The person who came was the deputy steward he sent to the port to prepare for Zheng Zhilong.
Xiong Wencan thought that he had heard wrongly at first, but when he saw the deputy steward's frightened look, his heart trembled, and the bowl in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.
"What's going on?" Xiong Wencan turned pale and yelled at the deputy steward, interrupting the deputy steward's incoherent words.
The deputy steward was yelled at by Xiong Wencan and finally said something else: "When the villain saw a few bow boats on the sea escaping to the port, followed by the overwhelming number of ships chasing after him, he knew that Zheng You had been defeated, so he hurriedly ran to Zhong Cheng
Report."
"Damn it, it's so dark, how can you tell the difference? Could it be that the pirates were in a panic and were forced to come to the port?"
When Xiong Wencan heard this, he immediately became angry. After saying this, he called in the personal guards and prepared to whip the deputy manager for lying about military information. He was so surprised that he had to give him a beating to remember.
But at this moment, there were hurried footsteps at the door again, and then another person broke in.
Xiong Wencan was angry in his heart. He would have a good temper, so he opened his mouth to yell and curse, but he lost all manners.
"Zhongcheng, Zhongcheng..." The person who came was out of breath and must have arrived in a hurry.
But Xiong Wencan did not curse, because he had clearly seen that the person coming was Zheng Zhilong himself, and it was the first time he had seen the panicked look on Zheng Zhilong.
"What's going on? What's going on?" Xiong Wencan's mind went blank and he asked Zheng Zhilong repeatedly.
Didn't we agree to destroy the pirates? Didn't we already know their plot? Didn't you, Zheng Zhilong, have insider information? Why were you still defeated?
Zheng Zhilong grabbed the Dahongpao that was left on the coffee table by Xiong Wencan and forgot to ask the servants to remove it. After a heavy drink, he finally returned to his heroic character and no longer panicked. He gave Xiong Wencan a detailed report of the war.
It turned out that everything went smoothly at the beginning.
Zheng Zhilong led the fleet to block the pirates led by his biggest rival Liu Xiang and the Dutch warships in a bay. When he was launching an offensive and preparing to annihilate them in one fell swoop, their ambush appeared behind them.
Originally, Zheng Zhilong didn't care how many ambushes the pirates had, but he didn't expect that the leader of the ambush was nearly twenty Dutch warships, and they were not ordinary armed merchant ships.
Its speed, quantity and quality of artillery were the most powerful warships he had ever seen. Before Zheng Zhilong had time to adjust his battle formation, he rushed up behind him and beat him up.
As soon as Zheng Zhilong saw the Dutch warships, he knew that he was going to lose. Because he only had a few warships with bows that could barely compete with the opponent, and the others were only capable of fighting pirates. They were not like the Dutch at all.
Rivals of level battleships.
Thanks to his usual kindness to his subordinates, his subordinates were willing to cover him and lead his most precious warships to leave the battlefield and escape back to his home base.
In addition, it was getting dark, and Zheng Zhilong's men were not good at it, so he finally escaped.
There were shore guns at the port, and the firepower of several warships that had escaped back blocked the pirates and the Dutch fleet from entering.
Seeing that the situation was stabilized, Zheng Zhilong hurried to the governor's mansion to report what had happened.
After Xiong Wencan listened, he was silent. At this time, he could vaguely hear the sound of artillery coming from the port.
After a while, with a glimmer of hope, he asked Zheng Zhilong: "Can we still counterattack?"
Zheng Zhilong was speechless after hearing this. He shook his head and replied: "Zhongcheng, I only have three warships left. How can I defeat them? I came here to persuade Zhongcheng to go to the inland for inspection. Here is
Not safe.”
"What, they can break in?" Xiong Wencan was shocked.
Zheng Zhilong nodded and said: "If it were me, I would definitely use pirates as the vanguard at dawn and capture the port at the expense of some ships. Not only would I sink the remaining ships, but it would be better if I also occupied this place, which would be a big blow.
It depends on the morale of the Ming Dynasty. When the government and the opposition are shaken, they will have a lot of room to choose whether to fight or to talk, and they will feel free to do so."
Xiong Wencan heard it very familiarly, and suddenly remembered that this was not the trick Zheng Zhilong used before, which finally made him take over from his predecessor, and used a recruitment strategy to deal with him.
Xiong Wencan thought for a while, and finally shook his head and said: "If I run away and the court pursues it, it will not end well. I have decided to wait until I see the situation tomorrow!"
On the second day, accompanied by Zheng Zhilong, Xiong Wencan climbed to a high place and looked down at the port. He was shocked by the dense warships on the sea. He did not expect there to be so many warships.
In the end, he couldn't bear the pressure and was ready to listen to Zheng Zhilong's advice and escape from here. But just when he explained this to Zheng Zhilong, the fleet at sea slowly left the port.
This made Zheng Zhilong feel baffled. Although his fleet was almost wiped out, if they captured the port at this time, it would be of great benefit. Why did they withdraw?