At this time in Lingnan, the weather is very hot in the city, but at the beach, the sea breeze blows in your face, which makes you feel very comfortable.
Xia Jing stood on the deck, feeling the sea breeze blowing in her face, feeling a little excited.
Hongmei stood nearby and was equally excited, but she was more worried about the sun damaging Xia Jing's skin.
"Princess, let's go inside the cabin. Standing on the bow of the ship in the strong wind and sun, it won't be nice to get a tan."
Xia Jing stroked her hair. The hair on her head was already very hot from the sun, so she nodded: "Okay."
As she said this, she turned to Ye Fei, who was one step behind her, and said, "Let's go in and discuss."
Ye Fei glanced at the endless sea and responded with a smile, "Okay, please, Princess."
Several people entered the cabin, and Xia Jing asked Xia He to bring over a chart of the offshore sea.
Seeing this, Ye Fei probably knew what Xia Jing wanted to do, so he said, "Go down and invite the Lan family over."
Xia Jing waved her hand, "Go back quickly." But her eyes were glued to the ancient version of the maritime map.
This is the first nautical chart she owns. Simple lines roughly outline the distribution of islands on the sea. First of all, there is a problem with the proportions.
Although this map is simple, it is very precious in this era. It was drawn by generations of maritime trade fleets through navigation routes.
Unlike later generations, the terrain of various places can be easily seen through satellites.
"Princess, the Lan family is here."
Hearing Ye Fei's voice, Xia Jing turned around and saw Ye Fei leading a man of medium build, about forty years old, in.
This man, who is over 1.6 meters tall, is Lan Jian, the second master of the Lan family in Lingnan and the head of the Lan family's maritime trade.
As a businessman who has been on the sea all year round, he can also be said to be a navigator. He is extremely familiar with the offshore waters.
It was also the first time for Lan Jian to meet Princess Qian. Before contacting Prince Qian's palace, he had someone investigate and knew that Princess Qian was Prince Qian's step-concubine. He knew that the princess was younger than him, but he never expected that Princess Qian looked good.
He was so outstanding and his natural beauty really surprised him.
Then I thought that King Qian had a high position and was able to marry a commoner as his concubine. Naturally, she was exceptional. Marrying a wife was nothing more than family background or appearance.
If you can get one, you are lucky, if you can take care of both, you are a winner in life.
Obviously, King Qian is among the lucky ones.
Just as he was lost in thought, Xia Jing said with a smile: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Lan."
Lan Jian composed himself, cupped his fists and saluted, "It is a great blessing for me to be favored by the princess."
Xia Jing laughed out loud after hearing what he said. When everyone looked over, she waved her hand, "Okay, okay, let's discuss the next action. This time, please invite Mr. Lan to come over.
Thank you for your hard work."
Lan Jian said politely: "I don't think it's hard for Lan to serve the princess. It's an honor for the common people."
In order to prevent everyone from being so polite anymore, Xia Jing walked directly to the sea map and said to Lan Jian: "Second Master Lan has been running on the sea for so many years. I believe he must know this sea area very well. What can you tell us?
Tell me, what’s the situation with pirates in this area?”
Xia Jing had previously heard that there were pirates in this area, but she was not very clear about the specific situation.
Of course, the purpose of coming out this time is mainly to train a group of sailors and bring them out to adapt to the life of sailing at sea.
Not long after this came out, a group of elites vomited to the point of vomiting. If they couldn't adapt after a few days of adapting, they would have to be eliminated from this group of elites, and from now on they would only be members of the Marine Corps.
Lan Jian's eyes fell on the sea map, and the surprise in his eyes should not be too obvious.
He looked at Xia Jing and praised sincerely: "Princess, you are very capable!"
Maritime maps are usually passed down from family to family and cannot be purchased externally. Of course, the imperial court also has maps, which are difficult for ordinary people to access.
Princes like King Qian who were not in power in the capital were out of reach.
Xia Jing just smiled and waited for him to explain.
Faced with Xia Jing's expectant look, Lan Jian didn't show any pretense. He stepped forward and looked at the map, then pointed at a sea area and said: "The terrain of this sea area is relatively complex, with islands of different sizes and numerous chessboards. In addition, the underwater
The situation is complicated, and only those who are familiar with this sea area know about things like the reefs, so there is a group of pirates entrenched here."
After hearing this, Ye Fei asked impatiently: "Are you familiar with this pirate nest? Do you know which island they are located on?"
Lan Jian spread his hands with a wry smile on his face, "Princess, I'm telling you the truth, our Lingnan fleet has been robbed by them, but if you want to ask them which island they are on, Shu Lan can't tell you."
Xia Jing frowned slightly, "You don't know their specific location?"
Lan Jian nodded: "Everyone only knows that the pirate leader is called Beibi. He has about a few hundred people and about four or five ships. Nothing else is known about the others."
After listening to his words, everyone present fell into deep thought and dilemma.
Needless to say, the purpose of coming out this time is to exterminate pirates, and also to train troops. It would be nice to give them some actual combat experience.
Nowadays, when sailing on the sea, it is a bit difficult to know the approximate location of the pirates but not the specific location.
In fact, Xia Jing has taken a fancy to the pirate's property, and the ship she is currently on is still rented from the Lan family. In real terms, she currently only has the Xiyi sailboat captured by Xiao Wu, and the other two ships going out to sea this time are both
It was rented from the Lan family.
Now that the docks have been built, we can't stop our plan to develop maritime power because of sea ships, right?
"Beibi, this name is a bit strange, the originator of northern pirates?" Ye Fei couldn't think of a good way, so he focused on the name of the pirate leader.
The corner of Xia Jing's mouth twitched: "."
The name came out of Lan Jian's mouth, but she didn't notice it. After all, Lan Jian spoke with a strong dialect.
But when the name came out of Ye Fei's mouth, she finally recognized it.
North nose!
Hahaha!
I think this pirate leader is either a Xiyi or has contact with a Xiyi, but I don’t know what his situation is?
Hongmei looked at the endless sea and asked worriedly: "Princess, what should we do next? Where to sail?"
"Sail to the pirate waters first." Xia Jing said without hesitation.
Lan Jian's heart skipped a beat after hearing this, "Princess, you must not do this. That sea area is owned by pirates. We used to only deliver food."
Although there are about a thousand people in their three ships, the advantage is not based on the number of people at sea. At sea, it is calculated by the number of ships and firepower.
My own ship knows that the artillery of these two ships can only be said to scare people. If you want to kill the enemy, it is simply a delusion.
Because the artillery was so backward that he picked it up after others eliminated it.
As for the princess's other ship, no matter how powerful its firepower is, it can't support it alone!
The pirates have at least four or five ships, and the sea area is a sea area they are familiar with. This means that the pirates have an advantage.
Xia Jing ignored Lan Jian and turned the ship towards the island.
Two days later, they arrived at this sea area, probably entering a pirate's lair.
Xia Jing stood on the bow of the ship, looking at the black spots on the sky, and said with a smile: "This sea area is indeed the nest of pirates. We were discovered by pirates as soon as we arrived."
Everyone standing on the deck looked nervously into the distance and saw the black spots getting bigger and bigger, and their hearts tightened.
Is this really a pirate infestation?
Especially Lan Jian, who has been on the sea all year round and knows how terrible pirates are.
The people Xia Jing brought were okay. They had only heard of pirates and had never really seen them. In addition to being scared, everyone was also a little excited because they were finally going to fight the pirates!
"Only two pirate ships came." Lan Jian reminded everyone as he stared at the increasingly larger black spots in the distance. At the same time, he breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the pirates did not attack all the ships.
The two sides were getting closer and closer, and the pirates over there discovered that they were two merchant ships and a sailboat, and they excitedly waved their weapons on the deck and screamed!
In their opinion, merchant ships are the easiest to deal with, as they are like moving mountains of gold and silver.
Seeing this, Xia Jing said to Ye Fei: "Let everyone prepare, especially the sailboat, let them take aim before firing."
"Yes, Princess!"
Ye Fei responded excitedly, this is the best way to test the new artillery. This opportunity is rare, so of course you must cherish it.
Lan Jian, who was standing next to him nervously, was very curious. Facing a powerful enemy, why did the master and servant become excited instead of worried?
Do they think they can defeat the pirates who have been here for many years?
Have they forgotten that this is the pirates' lair, and once a war breaks out between these two pirate ships, other ships hidden in the pirates' lair will definitely come to help.
Then it won’t be three versus two, but multiple pirate ships versus three. Don’t make dumplings for anyone!
Xia Jing's entire party entered the first level of combat readiness. She also led people into the bottom of the ship's cabin to guard against being injured by the pirates' artillery.
Ye Fei was commanding this naval battle. When he saw the pirates entering the shooting range, he issued an order: "All warships, aim and shoot immediately!"
Not to mention the two merchant ships of the Lan family, the modified cannons on the sailboats were pushed out from the muzzle. This is the steel cannon that Xia Jing asked the craftsmen to modify. The cannonballs are paper shells, and the gunpowder inside is granular, comparable to
The previous iron bullets were much easier to use and more powerful.
With the roar of cannons, water splashed on the sea in the distance. A cannonball hit the waterline of the pirate ship, and a big hole was immediately blown out. The fate of this pirate ship can be foreseen. The ship will sink even if it leaks.
Sinking was its ultimate fate.
The first round of shelling sank a ship, which the pirates never expected.
Seeing the pirates falling into the water like dumplings, Lan Jian's eyes widened in shock. Are these pirates fake?
How could it be so unbeatable?
If one ship was sunk with just one round of artillery fire, would the other ship be far away from being sunk next?
"Is this because the pirates are too weak or the princess is too strong?"
At this moment, everyone was busy fighting against the enemy, so naturally no one answered his question.
However, if Xia Jing were here, she would probably tell him that in the face of strength, all threats are paper tigers.
Her improved steel cannon was several levels ahead of the artillery of this era, which meant that the pirates were using one generation of artillery, while hers were already the fourth and fifth generations.
The crushing of strength is of course a pleasure.
The pirate was so angry that he jumped up and yelled, "This is cheating! You don't have martial ethics!"
The opponent's artillery is more powerful and has a farther range than theirs, so how can we fight this battle? It's simply impossible to fight!
If you can't win, run away. The remaining pirate ship turned around and tried to escape.
Xia Jing saw that he wanted to escape, so how could she let him escape? She quickly ordered an all-out pursuit!
It's just a pity that the ship was sunk. Now, for her who is in poverty, every ship is extremely precious.
What made the pirates collapse the most was that they found that they couldn't escape even if they wanted to. They didn't know where the other party got the Xiyi sailboat from, and it was much faster than their ship. How could they escape?
They used to go looking for merchant ships to rob, but now they are being chased in their own territory. What is going on?
Is it a natural cycle of retribution?
Just when the pirates were about to fall into despair, they finally found three more ships approaching from their lair.
The pirates breathed a sigh of relief. Reinforcements finally arrived. They stopped running now and turned the ship to prepare to confront Xia Jing and the others directly.
Xia Jing noticed that the pirate ship had stopped running away. She didn't react for a moment and was stunned for a moment. When she saw three more pirate ships approaching from a distance, this time even the Lan family merchant ship became wary.
Three against four, Xia Jing no longer felt relaxed and worried about sinking the ship. She immediately ordered the sailboat to attack with all its strength and sink the stopped pirate ship first.
After destroying this one first, you can concentrate on dealing with the other three pirate ships that came.
Then there was another round of cannon fire, and after the smoke passed, the pirate ship tilted.
On the pirate ship that was later rescued, Beibi took out the telescope and said with a sullen face: "Since I stayed in this sea area, this is the first time I have been provoked by a foreign ship. I will go over later. Don't save me the shells. Give them to me."
Attack with all my strength, I will sink those three ships and send everyone on board to the sea to feed the fish!"
Following his order, the three pirate ships faced the enemy at full speed, loaded with cannonballs, and prepared to sink the opponent's three ships as much as possible.
This is the price they have to pay for coming to this sea area to provoke them.
The pirates were excited, and the elites on Xia Jing's side were equally excited. Both sides wanted to put the other to death, as if they were the enemies who killed their father.
"Boom, boom!"
"What's going on?" Beibi wiped the seawater from his face and looked at everything in front of him in disbelief, "Why did they fire before they were even within range?"
The most important thing is that the other party also fired the cannonball into the front of the ship, and the splashed sea water made his whole body wet.
What does this mean?
It means that the opponent's artillery has a farther range than his artillery!
What is the most important skill to be a pirate?
Of course it's about sizing up the situation and the speed of escape.
Beibi found that the opponent's artillery had a farther range than his, and the battle was impossible, so he promptly ordered his fleet to turn around and escape.
Knowing that he is not his opponent and still fighting to the death is something only a fool can do. How could a pirate leader like him, who was carefree in the South China Sea, overestimate his own capabilities and risk his life!
Ye Fei discovered that the pirate ship was trying to escape, and hurriedly ordered a full-speed pursuit!
This was their first naval battle. How could they let the enemy escape?
Moreover, the princess has already taken a fancy to these pirates' ships and wealth.
Lan Jian, who had been on the boat, was already numb. He had been running at sea for many years, and he really didn't know that a naval battle could be fought like this!
It was simply a one-sided attempt to torture the enemy and escape!
Thanks to Luo Jiuan, Duan Wantong’s mother, A! Ziye, 45. Looking up, your former simplicity, Ye Xingchen 3399, mingliu2056, ChaoQiong, Heart as Still Water, Dark Starry Night for their recommendation and support~
At the same time, thank you for your monthly ticket support from Xinruzhishui~