The simple wooden houses and fences made roaring sounds in the fire, and thick smoke rose straight from the island in more than ten places, spreading high in the sky and not dissipating for a long time.
After a fierce island defense battle ended, Hou Taiyuan and his men left the island highlands they were holding on to and arrived at the location where the pirates landed.
More than a dozen ships abandoned by pirates were stranded on the beach, and more than two hundred corpses were scattered near the coast. Most of these corpses belonged to the pirates who attacked Feilong Island, and a small number were Chinese pirates who died in the battle.
Hou Taiyuan walked towards the coast step by step. The Chinese pirates around him were constantly sending out manpower to collect their fallen companions and dispose of the pirates' bodies.
When he reached the edge of the coast, Hou Taiyuan stopped and looked around at the scene after the battle, his brows furrowed into a straight line.
The pirate raid last night caught the Chinese pirates off guard. Eighteen Chinese pirates who were patrolling the coast were taken away by the invading pirates at the guard post. Without the guard and reminder of the guard post, the pirates on Feilong Island waited until the invading pirates invaded on a large scale.
An abnormality was discovered after landing. However, by that time, nearly half of the pirates had already established a foothold on the coast. Hou Taiyuan led the 300 Chinese pirates who gathered in an emergency to launch a counterattack, but failed to drive the invading pirates into the sea. Instead, they lost 50
With multiple subordinates, more and more pirates invaded. In order to preserve his strength, Hou Taiyuan ordered all pirates to move to the base in the center of Feilong Island, using the steep terrain of the base to resist the pirates' attacks.
The battle lasted for a day and night, but the pirates failed to capture the high ground defended by Hou Taiyuan, and the ships driven by the returning Chinese pirates on the sea had already returned. The ships of both sides clashed on the sea, and five or six pirate ships were killed by the Chinese pirates.
, seven or eight ships were seriously damaged and stranded on the coast, unable to be used.
It was difficult to eliminate the pirates on Feilong Island in a short period of time. At the same time, the returning Chinese pirates continued to launch attacks on the invading pirates.
After insisting on attacking for a day and night, the attacking pirates chose to give up and all evacuated Feilong Island this morning, leaving only ruins and corpses abandoned on the ground to the Chinese pirates on Feilong Island.
The sneak attack on Feilong Island was a premeditated hostile act. Hou Taiyuan thought for a moment and thought of the identity of the pirate who attacked Feilong Island - Babu. The last time Babu and his pirates attacked the fleet transporting Chinese workers, they failed.
After Babu withdrew, Hou Taiyuan successfully occupied a small sail warship and two merchant ships. The news spread to the ears of Babu's group of pirates, who thought they were Chinese pirates.
Taking advantage of them, he sent people to Feilong Island to ask for half of the captured ships and supplies as compensation. However, Hou Taiyuan decisively refused, and the two parties ended up in conflict.
As a pirate who lives on the edge of a knife, fighting with other pirate forces is inevitable due to conflicts of interest. Hou Taiyuan does not regret his original decision. However, looking at Bei’s destroyed island defense facilities and the heavy casualties among his pirates, Hou Taiyuan
Tai Yuan couldn't help but feel pain in his heart.
Of the 600 Chinese workers who were rescued last time, only 500 survived due to injuries and a lack of supplies and medicines on the island. Including the original 300 pirates, more than 800 pirates were already considered a considerable pirate force.
However, after this battle, the newly developed Chinese pirates suffered heavy losses, and there is no exact data on how many pirates are left.
Worried about the current situation of his pirates, Hou Taiyuan inspected the island and summoned Wang Yongtian and other pirate leaders to inquire about the specific losses caused by the pirate raid on Feilong Island.
Wang Yongtian was responsible for managing the financial and logistical affairs of the Chinese pirates. When the war first broke out, he and some pirates were driving a fleet composed of captured small sail warships and several merchant ships to the island of Cuba to purchase supplies. When they returned, they discovered that the pirates were attacking.
Feilong Island, so they attacked the pirate fleet on the sea to distract the pirates from attacking Feilong Island.
After the battle was over, at Hou Taiyuan's urging, Wang Yongtian spent half a day counting the losses on Feilong Island, and finally came up with approximate loss data.
Battle losses mainly include three parts: personnel, island houses and defense facilities, and ships.
In terms of personnel, the total number of Chinese pirates before the war was 812, including 700 combatants. After the battle, 170 were killed, 140 were seriously injured, and 140 were slightly injured. Most of the more than 100 people who were slightly injured were able to recover and regain their combat effectiveness, while the seriously injured pirates
On Feilong Island, which lacks medical treatment and medicine, there is almost only one way to die. Even if you are lucky enough to survive, you will be left with various hidden dangers and lose your combat effectiveness.
Not counting the lightly wounded, nearly half of the combat-effective pirates were lost in the first battle. Even though Hou Taiyuan was mentally prepared in advance, it was still difficult to accept what Wang Yongtian said when he first heard it.
"Three hundred people were lost in the first battle. Did the Nagata brothers miscalculate?"
"I have personally checked the bodies of the brothers who died in the battle and the conditions of the seriously injured brothers. There will be no mistakes."
Wang Yongtian's words made Hou Taiyuan feel cold, "More than half of the combatants have been lost, and external enemies are eyeing them. If they attack again, can their pirates be able to withstand it? Even if they defeat the pirate attack, Feilong Island, which has suffered heavy losses, can still resist it?"
How many people are left?”
"Living in a foreign land, hiding on a small island and struggling to survive. Even in days like this, the nearby enemies will not give the remnants of the Taiping Army a chance. Does God really want to see all the Taiping soldiers die and disappear? Without giving peace
Is there any way for the old army brothers to survive?"
The heavy casualties aroused Hou Taiyuan's despair over the fate of the remnants of the Taiping Army and his brothers. He was filled with resentment and gritted his teeth and said, "Babu wants to destroy Feilong Island, but we can't let him live well. Inform all brothers and gather strength.
Attack Torti Island, we're going to put an end to the niggers!"
"No, General," Wang Yongtian hurriedly dissuaded him. "There were nearly two thousand pirates who attacked Feilong Island. Babu and his group of pirates alone did not have such a large force. All the pirate forces on Torti Island must have united to attack Feilong Island."
, otherwise it would be impossible to do it with Babu’s strength.”
"General, there are three groups of pirates on Torti Island. Their total strength is more than 2,000 people. In addition, Torti Island belongs to their home base. If we attack Torti Island, they can mobilize more forces to deal with it.
In this way, even if we send all the brothers on Feilong Island to attack Torti Island, the result will be that the whole army will be annihilated. General, please consider the safety of all brothers and do not act on impulse!"
Hou Taiyuan was angry in his heart and wanted to use his remaining strength to risk revenge. However, not all pirate leaders were overwhelmed by anger and despair. After Wang Yongtian tried to dissuade him, another old Taiping soldier tried to persuade him.
"If we can't take the initiative to attack, do we have to stay on Feilong Island and wait for death?"
Hou Taiyuan knew that the pirates who attacked Feilong Island were not just Babu's family, so he felt desperate. This attack meant that the Haitian pirate forces represented by Babu were officially their enemies, and Feilong Island had not been attacked before.
, with the strength of 800 people, it is possible to deal with the Haitian pirates, but after losing half of the combat strength, the possibility of surviving in the Caribbean with the remaining pirates and wounded is very small.
Hou Taiyuan sighed and said calmly, "To attack Torti Island is to die with the enemy. However, after this battle, there are only two ways left on Feilong Island. One is to wait on Feilong Island for more than ten days or more."
When the pirates attacked again half a month later, the other option was to stop being a pirate and sell themselves to Cuba as a laborer.
It would be too frustrating to hide on Feilong Island and be choked to death by niggas, and everyone knows the consequences of being a laborer. Since we have been forced to a dead end, we might as well take the initiative to attack and kill a few more niggas to avenge our dead brothers.
It’s better than waiting to die.”
Hou Taiyuan paused for a while and continued, "The houses and fortifications on the island were burned down by fire before the pirates retreated. Even if they didn't listen to the data about the material losses on the island from the Nagata brothers, everyone had a general understanding that the fortifications were destroyed.
, the weapons and ammunition are exhausted, and the Nagata brothers lead the fleet to fight against the superior pirates, the losses will definitely not be small. Comprehensive calculation, Feilong Island can be said to be at the end of its rope."
Hou Taiyuan's performance today is very different from his previous image. Perhaps it is the training since leading the Taiping remnant army to establish a foundation on Feilong Island, which allowed Hou Taiyuan to slowly get rid of the thinking habit of only using force to solve problems.
During this time, we began to consider the possibility of victory in the battle from the overall balance of strength.
Seeing through the balance of strength is sometimes not a good thing. If it were in the past, Hou Taiyuan would not have thought so much. He could solve the problem by confronting the enemy in a swarm regardless of the consequences. However, after clearly measuring the possibility of victory in the war, he knew that taking the initiative to attack was almost impossible.
It is even more painful to have to do it when there is no possibility of success.
Hou Taiyuan told the current situation of Feilong Island, Wang Yongtian opened his mouth to persuade again but found that he had nothing to say, and the wooden house fell into silence.