Wang Zhi, the head of the Hui Merchants Association, is a native of She County, Huizhou, and Luo Longwen, a merchant of the same township, his original name was Wang Kuo, and "straight" is just his nickname, but everyone is used to calling him Wang Zhi, but the original name is ignored.

Due to Wang Zhi's quick reaction, he led dozens of thugs under his command to escape from Shuangyu Port smoothly, and fled to the sea to the south with a bow and three masts. Originally, Xu Dong, the head of the Hui Chamber of Commerce, should have been on the island today, but this guy was lucky, and he sailed away from the island at noon, returned to Ningbo Fucheng, and participated in a banquet, which was a fluke.

Although the local officials of Ningbo Prefecture have already made it clear, but now that even the 500 battalions under the command of Lord Qincha have come, Wang Zhi does not think that the local officials of Ningbo Mansion can protect himself, so he does not dare to sail the ship back to the mainland to dock, but has been fleeing south, intending to escape far away, first to avoid the limelight, but it is really not possible, so he simply fled to the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong to start a new business.

Because it was a tailwind, the three-masted sailing ship puffed up its sails and sailed fast, which made Wang Zhi's uneasy mood a little calmer, but at this moment, a sail shadow appeared on the sea behind him, Wang Zhi couldn't help but be surprised, and hurriedly took out a monocular.

Wang Zhi's monocular is not the kind "invented" by Xu Jin, but was purchased from Westerners, and the lens is also made of glass, which is better than the lens polished by crystal in terms of clarity and magnification.

Wang Zhi held the monocular and observed for a while, and couldn't help but let out a long breath, and there was indeed a two-bow and six-masted ship behind him, but fortunately it was not from the Ming army, and the lion flag hanging on the ship he recognized as the ship of the Francois merchant.

The two merchant ships had six masts and a total of thirty-two sails, so that although the size of the ship was huge, it was very fast in the downwind, and gradually caught up with it, and overtook the three-masted galleon on which Wang Zhi was riding.

"Hey! Hey! Outside the king, the geese will go first! A bearded man on the bow of the ship waved his hand to Wang Zhi on the boat on this side, and his mouth of Chinese was half-baked, which sounded very funny.

Wang Zhi had done business with this bearded Yangfan a few times, so they knew each other, the bearded Yangfan was Spanish, and his name was translated as Rona Dao, but this guy gave himself a very sassy Chinese name - Ximen Junxiu.

Wang Zhi was in a bad mood at this time, and he waved his hand casually in response, and at this time, the foreigner's second six-masted sailboat passed by, and several foreigners carrying arquebuses on the boat jokingly whistled at Wang Zhi's side, and laughed loudly: "Too full (slow)...... Nimon is too full, bye-bye! ”

Wang Zhi's men were so angry that they raised their middle fingers in response, which was a contemptuous gesture used by Westerners.

The two-bow six-masted sailboat of the Francophone surpassed Wang Zhi and continued to drive quickly south, and the bearded Rona said to his companion next to him with a proud face: "The artillery of the Ming people is very backward, if our cannonballs are enough, maybe we can destroy the Ming naval division." ”

The first mate next to him nodded and agreed: "It's really strange, the artillery level of the naval divisions in different places in the Ming Kingdom is so different, and the artillery of the Ming National Naval Division just now is too much worse than the Guangdong Naval Division!" ”

It is necessary to mention here that Xu Jin dedicated the drawings of the Fran cannon to Zhu Houzhao of Ming Wuzong, when Ming Wuzong ordered the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau to try to build, after almost two years of repeated tests, last year the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau finally made the first batch of imitation Furang cannons, and handed over to the Guangdong Navy for trial. In last year's Battle of Tuen Mun Island, the Cantonese sailors used Franc cannons to defeat the Portuguese who tried to occupy Tuen Mun Island.

In fact, Emperor Zhu Houxi had already issued an order last year to cast 500 more Franc machine guns in Nanjing, but it has not yet been equipped to the coastal guards.

Just as the bearded Luo Nadao and others were talking contemptuously about the Ming army's sailors, a sailor in charge of guarding the mast suddenly issued a loud warning.

Luo Nadao hurriedly raised his binoculars to look, only to see hundreds of large and small ships on the sea in the distance, and the sails covered the sky and the sun, blocking the channel for several miles.

"The cunning Ming army sailors have set up an ambush!" Rhona scolded angrily.

The first mate, Pillair, smiled disapprovingly: "What are you afraid of, the artillery will open the way, just rush over!" ”

A sinister smile appeared on Ronaldo's face, and he shouted: "Prepare to fight!" ”

The sailors on the two large ships immediately moved in high spirits, methodically carrying ammunition and adjusting gun positions, and dozens of Fran machine guns were aimed at the Ming army's fleet, and as long as the captain gave an order, ten thousand cannons were fired in unison.

It is worth mentioning here that the Franc cannon is a smoothbore cannon with rear loading shells, using the method of sub-mothers, one mother cannon with several sub-guns, so it is very quick to change shells, and three cannons can be fired within 20 seconds at the earliest, which is very perverted.

However, the Franc cannon also has a fatal shortcoming, that is, the reloading sealing technology is not up to standard, and the barrel tolerance is large, resulting in strict air leakage, so the firing range is generally not high.

Of course, if the Fran cannon is against the traditional bowl cannon of the Ming army, the advantage is still overwhelming.

"Fire!" When the distance between the two sides came into range, the bearded Rhona laughed and shouted, and dozens of Fran cannons roared and fired at the same time.

At the same time, the Ming army on the opposite side also fired artillery, although the rate of fire was not as fast as the Franco cannon, but hundreds of artillery pieces were fired at the same time, and the power was also extraordinary.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The sound of the cannon was deafening, and the sea was filled with smoke, and Wang Zhi, who came from the rear, was startled when he saw this formation, and secretly rejoiced that the two Western-bow ships ran to the front to be substituted for the dead.

"Turn the rudder, turn the rudder!" The king shouted hoarsely, and dozens of people on the ship hurriedly messed around for a moment, and finally adjusted the speed, swept the edge of the battlefield and turned the rudder to flee east.

At this time, more ships that had escaped from Shuangyu Port arrived, and they all followed Wang Zhi's ass in a hurry, heading east to the depths of the sea. Originally, it was safest to sail along the coastline, but at this moment, in order to escape for his life, he couldn't care so much, so he could only flee to the depths of the vast sea.

Xia Yan naturally wouldn't let these thief ships run away easily, so he immediately transferred half of the ships to chase Wang Zhi and the others, while half of the ships continued to besiege the two Western ships.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The artillery battle continued, and the artillery of the ancients was originally poor, let alone on the choppy sea, so although the artillery fire was fierce, it rarely hit the target, and it was good to be able to hit one out of ten cannons. So the two sides hedged each other while placing the casual cannon, ready for hand-to-hand combat.

It's just that as the distance between the two sides continues to approach, the accuracy of the shells naturally improves, and at this time, the advantages of the fast rate of fire of the Franc cannon are reflected, and the tongue of fire in the muzzle of the cannon is almost never broken, so in an instant, several ships of the Ming army were sunk, including the ship on which Yu Dayou was riding.

However, Yu Dayou, the kid, was lucky and was not injured by the explosion, and was rescued by the wingman as soon as he fell into the water.

"Boss Yu, no, the Westerners' artillery is too fierce to withstand it." Feng Lao Liu roared urgently.

Yu Dayou wiped a handful of water marks on his face, and said angrily: "If you can't stand it, you can't top it, open fire!"

At this time, the distance between the two sides was less than 100 meters, and boom, two shells of the Ming army finally hit one of the Western ships, knocking down a mast on the spot, and the Western ships immediately deviated from the course.

Yu Dayou was overjoyed and said: "Yes, just fight like this!" ”

The foreigners on the Western ship hurriedly adjusted the angle of the sails and struggled to correct the course of the ship.

The ships of the two sides were getting closer and closer, and several more warships of the Ming army were damaged and sunk, and when the two sides were fifty meters apart, Yu Dayou decisively ordered the fleet to split into two, and the two sides spread out to make way for the channel.

The Westerners were overjoyed when they saw this, but they were not afraid of deception, and rushed directly through the gap.

"Hehe, the green snake should be ready!" Feng Lao Liu looked at the two Western-bow ships that had fled and laughed sinisterly.

Whether that method works or not, Yu Dayou didn't know the bottom in his heart, so he was not blindly optimistic, and ordered all the ships to chase after him, while putting the mallet butt cannon, but the bow of the Western ship that was shot just now ran slowly, and was unlucky to be blown off two masts, so the speed was greatly reduced.