From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 802

On June 21, west of Dongfan Island, two cruisers stood in the vast sea.

The sun was shining, and the sea reflected the halo. The two captains were standing on the deck at this moment, looking at the huge island at the end of their sight.

It was like a giant beast, entrenched in the sea, carrying thousands of lives. Although it was motionless, it seemed to exude a magnificent vitality.

"Move!"

The captain of the self-reliance ship was named Xie Shidun. In fact, he didn't have a big name at all. He was called Shidunzi since he was a child, which means hard life and easy to feed.

Although this method was useless, the facts also proved that he was the only son of the old Xie family who could grow up hungry.

He joined the army at the age of fourteen, and until now, thirty years have passed. With his rich experience and enterprising attitude, he finally became the captain.

Although he had not been in contact with this kind of cruiser for a long time, he began to study it from the construction process and had already figured it out.

In fact, it was not just him. Each captain of these ten ships was an outstanding person, and there was absolutely no water.

An old official like Zeng Cheng would not make any mistakes in employing people.

"They really moved!"

Xie Shidun growled, and then shouted to the cruiser next to him: "They moved! There are quite a few! There are four ships!"

On the cruiser next to him, Captain Ouyang Gong, who was standing on the deck, responded with a serious face: "Retreat first! Go west! See if they will follow!"

The sail quickly adjusted the direction, and the sailors began to exert their strength. With shouts, the cruiser quickly moved to the west.

The wind was strong, and the cruiser was not slow.

But the four battleships that sailed out of Dongfan Island were always following closely behind.

Xie Shidun seemed to understand something and shouted at the top of his voice: "Something is wrong! They are heading towards the Fuzhou dock!"

"Fuck you, they really want to participate in this battle! Go get them!"

Having said that, he still acted according to Zhou Yuan's plan and began to signal with flags to stop the Dutch battleships.

Both cruisers signaled with flags, but it was obviously useless. The opponent's speed only increased and the distance began to close.

Ouyang Gong's face was a little solemn. Compared with Xie Shidun's hot temper, his personality was much calmer.

"Go! Keep moving west! Don't fire!"

He shouted loudly: "The wind is too strong now. If we close the distance and fire, we will suffer a great loss."

His voice was almost drowned by the wind. Although they were only thirty or forty feet apart, he could hardly hear the other party's words.

Southeast wind, it is blowing southeast wind now.

The other party is just in the upwind direction, which not only has a great impact on the speed of the ship, but also has an even greater impact on the shells!

The range of the upwind shells will decrease, which will easily lead to an embarrassing situation of "the other side can hit me, but I can't hit the other side", which will make us very passive.

The smoke of war will also cover with the strong wind, blocking the view of the warships in the downwind direction.

This is a pursuit and blocking battle, which means that both sides cannot stop and bombard each other, so the problem of the side elevation angle in the upwind direction will also be avoided.

In any case, it is disadvantageous to our side.

Ouyang Gong thought everything through, so he shouted: "Retreat first! Wait until the wind is smaller!"

Xie Shidun shouted: "You can wait, but pay attention to the time. We must leave a gap for the Chaoshang fleet. If we delay too long, we will be under greater pressure at that time."

Ouyang Gong knew this truth, but in any case, he could not fight at this moment.

This is the first mission of the cruiser, and it must not fail.

This scene must be sung slowly.

…

“They’ve moved. Two battleships and a cruiser.”

On the high building of Xiangzhou Wharf, Zhou Yuan and others looked at the dock of Haojing. A total of three ships were heading towards the eastern sea.

Guan Lu whispered, “We proposed to extend the time for handing over prisoners temporarily, and it was extended for five days. Although McPherson agreed readily, he must be suspicious.”

“He may have guessed that the Chaozhou merchants’ fleet had moved, so he sent three ships to intercept them.”

Zhang Tao said, “Then what should we do? Let the Henggao and Hengfeng ships stop them?”

No one responded to him, and everyone just looked at Zhou Yuan.

They found that Zhou Yuan’s face was very solemn.

Kolodiya said: "Master Zhou Yuan, did you find something wrong?"

Zhou Yuan was silent for a moment, then said: "McPherson has three battleships and two cruisers."

"Two battleships and one cruiser have been dispatched at this moment."

Kolodiya said: "So Haojing still has one battleship and one cruiser left. They will definitely not be able to stop the attack of the Henggao and Hengfeng ships. This is a good thing."

Zhou Yuan said: "A few days ago, the two Chaozhou merchantsA large ship sailed eastward to the island pirate country and was stopped by McPherson's two battleships. "

"Now, his ship appears here..."

"It means that after forcing back the two large ships of Chaozhou merchants, McPherson withdrew all his forces to Haojing."

"This means that he has consciously guarded against the safety of Haojing itself. This old fox seems to have guessed what we are going to do."

Kolodiya said: "What if he guessed it? He can either watch the fleet of Chaozhou merchants go by, or watch Haojing be beaten by us. He has to choose one of the two."

Zhou Yuan shook his head and said: "He withdrew all the ships. Isn't he afraid that the Chaozhou merchant fleet will not go to Nanyang, but to the island pirate country?"

"In fact, this shows that Dongfan Island has reached a cooperation with McPherson, and the Dutch have joined this drama."

"If I guess correctly, the self-reliance ship and the self-confidence ship are being attacked by Dutch warships at this moment. "

"The two sides may have already started fighting."

Hearing this, everyone's faces became serious.

It turned out that just one ship, Haojing, could see so much information, and even analyzed that the self-reliant ship and the self-confident ship had already exchanged fire with each other.

Is this the difference between a war genius and an ordinary person?

Guan Lu couldn't help but said: "Sir, this season is mostly southeast wind. If the self-reliant ship and the self-confident ship exchange fire with each other, they are in the downwind direction and will suffer a great loss."

Zhou Yuan said: "So they won't fight, they will choose to run. The cruiser is fast, and the Dutch may not be able to catch up."

"But at this speed, if the self-confident ship and the self-reliant ship do nothing, the Dutch will quickly catch up with the Chaozhou merchant fleet to the west."

"At that time, the Hengyong ship and the Hengpan ship faced not only McPherson's two battleships and a cruiser, but also the Dutch warships. ”

“In this case, even if we take over Haojing, it is not worth it. The goods of Chaozhou merchants are the wealth of Fujian and Guangdong provinces for two years.”

Zhang Tao changed color and said, “What should we do now? Facing the Dutch and Portuguese at the same time, we are stretched to the limit.”

Zhou Yuan narrowed his eyes and was silent for a long time.

Then he suddenly said, “Guan Lu, hurry up, send a pigeon to Fuzhou Prefecture to let the Fujian and Guangdong navy go out.”

“Their ships are behind, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be used.”

“I will lock them in the sea between Fuzhou Prefecture and Dongfan Island, and don’t even think about supporting them.”

Guan Lu nodded immediately and hurried down to make arrangements.

Kolodiya said, “Is it in time? Even if it is a pigeon, it will take time, right?”

Zhou Yuan said, “It takes time, but independent ships and self-confident ships are not free, it all depends on the commander’s understanding and ability. "

"The show is about to begin. I hope these two cruisers can give us a good start."