Li Zhi did not reply to the pretentious Zheng Zhilong.
On March 30, Li Zhi led forty-three armed merchant ships and ten ironclad ships out of Dagu Port and headed for Taiwan.
Instead of waiting for Zheng Zhilong to strike him unexpectedly, it is better to take the initiative and find Zheng Zhilong to come out for a decisive battle.
Li Zhi not only brought a huge fleet with him on this expedition, but also loaded 10,000 Tiger Soldiers on the ship. After five months of training, these soldiers have adapted to the bumpy environment on the ship. Although the shooting accuracy is lower than
On land, but if you get close, you can still hit it accurately. With these 10,000 soldiers on the ship, Li Zhi can engage in a close-range battle to seize the ship with Zheng Zhilong.
The fleet left the Bohai Sea, crossed the Yellow Sea, entered the East China Sea, and headed for Taiwan.
The weather in April is very good. Cotton-like thin clouds lie on the blue sky, which makes people feel relaxed and happy. More than fifty steamships are spread out in a long array on the sea, chopping the waves. The steam engines
The thick smoke coming out of the chimney also formed a line, which looked very spectacular.
Li Zhi took the first ironclad ship "Yangwei" as his flagship. At this time, he was standing on the poop looking at the horizon in the distance, thinking about how to force Zheng Zhilong's fleet into the distant sea for a decisive battle.
The lookout man on the lookout pole suddenly shouted: "There is a fleet ahead!"
The crew members cheered up after hearing this, and took their places, running to the combat position. Two quarters of an hour later, the lookout shouted again: "It's a merchant fleet composed of fourteen lucky ships!"
After the Qingming Festival, the northeast wind prevails in the East China Sea and is very stable. Merchant ships from Fujian and Guangdong often return with the wind at this time. Apart from Zheng Zhilong's fleet, there is no other fleet composed of fourteen merchant ships. Li Zhi
I didn't expect that I would meet the Zheng family's caravan on the sea, so I smiled.
The sailboat of the Zheng family fleet was driving slowly and was chased by Li Zhi from behind.
Li Zhi's fleet chased for another half hour, and Li Zhi's flagship Yangwei was no more than ten miles away from the Zheng family's fleet. Li Zhi looked ahead with a telescope and found that the fourteen lucky ships had a deep draft and were obviously fully loaded from Japan.
Carrying cargo. The heavy ship sailed very slowly, with a tailwind speed of only six or seven knots.
On the top of the mast of the lucky ship, a large flag with the Chinese character Zheng fluttering in the wind.
Zheng Kaicheng laughed loudly and said: "Master, this is good. The Zheng family's caravan just made money from Japan, and now we have captured them all."
Li Zhi waved his hand and said: "Since he wants to rob our Hsinchu, we won't be polite to him. We will go up and rob him!"
The flag commander hoisted the flag and conveyed the order to the entire fleet. Not long after, nine ironclad ships rushed up at full speed. The ten ironclad ships approached the Zheng family fleet little by little at a high speed of nine knots, forcing them to the Fu ship.
One mile away.
Although the Zheng family's fleet is a merchant ship, there are still cannons on board. Some ships have six, some have eight or nine, and some have more than a dozen. However, not all of these cannons are Hongyi cannons, many of them are
A Fran cannon that can only fire at close range.
Seeing the steamship approaching, the people of the Zheng family knew of course that it was Li Zhi's fleet. One fleet was approaching another fleet on the sea, and it was very likely that they were about to plunder. The sailors of the Zheng family panicked and shouted,
Entered a state of combat.
Before the Zheng family could fire their guns, the ten armored ships turned around and faced the Fuchuan fleet with their broadsides, and fired first.
One hundred and fifty heavy guns opened fire like a barrage of cannons, and a huge roar sounded like thunder in the middle of the fleet. One hundred and fifty explosive shells flew quickly towards the two last ships. Most of the shells were fired.
It failed, but a dozen shells still penetrated the hull of the Fuchuan and fell into the hull of the Fuchuan.
Li Zhi stood on the poop and waited for a while, then he heard a rumbling explosion. One after another, explosive sparks emerged from the sterns of the two Fu boats, blowing the sterns of the two Fu boats into pieces.
.
Zheng Zhilong's sailors had probably only heard of explosive bombs before, but they saw them this time.
A shell fired into the hull close to the waterline caused terrible trauma to the last Fu ship. A huge hole appeared on the waterline, and seawater poured into the two Fu ships like a waterfall. This ship
The lucky boat suddenly lost speed, its bow gradually tilted up, and it was about to capsize.
The sailors of the Zheng family jumped from the deck into the sea one after another, swimming forward desperately, trying to escape the whirlpool near the sunken ship.
Under sudden attack, the thirteen Fu ships were not to be outdone. They collectively turned the rudder, turned the hull, aimed the broadside at Li Zhi's iron-clad ship, and opened fire. More than fifty large and small artillery shells were fired at the leading iron-clad ship "Dingguo"
"No." Shoot away.
Most of the shells missed and fell into the sea, causing dozens of huge splashes next to the Dingguo. Four shells hit the Dingguo. The solid shells hit the hull of the ironclad, stimulating
There was a spark and a huge metal collision.
However, these four shells failed to penetrate the armor of the armored ship. The small shells bounced away with a bang. Even if a heavy cannon of more than ten pounds was fired, it would only make a few centimeters of dents in the one-inch-thick iron armor. Then the shells would be lost.
It gained momentum and rolled into the sea.
Generally speaking, Fu ships have few ribs, weak horizontal structures, and cannot be equipped with larger heavy guns. They are incapable of penetrating the armor of ironclads. The Zheng family's merchant fleet could only be beaten in front of ironclads.
Seeing the strong defense of the ironclad ships, the sailors and soldiers on the ten ironclad ships shouted in unison, and the sound spread for several miles. Zheng Zhilong's merchant fleet was suddenly enveloped in an atmosphere of despair. Li Zhi held up his telescope to observe the merchant fleet on the opposite side.
A sailor saw the sailors across from him all looking panicked.
The armored ship pursued forward for another minute, turned around again, and fired 150 rounds of explosive shells at the Zheng family's fleet from the side.
Amidst the screams, the cannonballs hit the sterns of the last three ships. There was another rumbling explosion, and the sterns of the three ships were filled with flames. It was unknown how many sailors were killed by the exploding bombs.
Another lucky boat had its hull below the waterline blown open, water poured in, and it also sank.
Zheng Kaicheng stood next to Li Zhi and said regretfully: "My lord, why haven't the Zheng family's sailors surrendered yet? It's a pity that the goods on the two sunken ships were lost."
Li Zhi nodded and used his binoculars to observe the Zheng family's fleet, which was stubbornly resisting.
The Zheng family fleet seemed to not believe that all the ships here could not be penetrated. This time they aimed at another ironclad ship "Anbang" and fired a salvo. More than fifty shells flew towards the Anbang, and six shells were fired at once.
It hit the armor and made a huge clang sound.
However, the armor of the ironclad ship was still intact and it completely withstood the test of six shells.
The sailors of the Zheng family were completely desperate when they witnessed this scene. Before Li Zhi's ironclad ship could fight back, the flagship of the Zheng family's merchant fleet hoisted the white flag and took off the hard sail. Then not long after, all the other small boats were hoisted.
The white flag was raised and the Zheng family fleet surrendered.
When Zheng Kaicheng saw the dozen white flags, he slapped his thigh and shouted: "My lord, we are rich!"
Li Zhi smiled and said: "Organize people to board the ship and see how much cargo can be grabbed this time."
Zheng Kaicheng agreed, and asked the flag soldiers to hoist the flag, and ordered each ironclad ship to send people to board the enemy ship to inspect. The soldiers of the Huben Division rowed small sampans and boarded the Fu ship, confiscated all the swords on the Fu ship, and sent the sailors to the Fu ship.
They were all tied up and all the black powder on the ship was thrown into the sea. After working for more than an hour, Zheng Kaicheng returned to the Yangwei with great joy.
"My lord, I am afraid that more than 600,000 taels of property have been robbed this time."
