On October 9, the 14th year of Yongli, the camp of the Takasaki Sailor Division, hunting with flags, gongs and drums sounded in unison.

On the wharf were a 800-material Daifuku ship, seven 400-material Daifuku ships, 12 200-material centipede clippers, six 300-material Guang ships, and six 500-ton Spanish galleons "borrowed" from the Nanyang Company.

This is a large-scale voyage, and Wang Xinyu will set off with more than 2,000 officers and men of the Navy Division, more than 2,000 officers and men of the Marine Division and more than 4,000 people and Zhuang to Yanping City on Luzon Island. After arriving there and settling down Minzhuang, the officers and men of the Marine Battalion of the Marine Division waited for the opportunity to attack in Yanping City.

Wang Xinyu and Zheng Yun stood on the pier, and the two said goodbye reluctantly.

"Childe, the New Year is less than two months away! You're not here for the Mid-Autumn Festival, you must come back for the New Year! Zheng Yun looked at Wang Xinyu with big watery eyes, and her heart was full of attachment and reluctance.

Wang Xinyu stretched out his finger and swore to the sky: "It's a sunny day, I, Wang Yu, swear, please Miss Zheng let go of 10,000 hearts, and my son will definitely come back to marry Miss during the New Year!" ”

Wang Xinyu's voice was very loud, and the people on the dock heard it, and they all turned their heads to look at Wang Xinyu and them.

Zheng Yun's face was as red as a red cloth, and she scolded softly: "Son, be quiet, I heard it!" ”

At eight o'clock in the morning, the bell rang for the departure of the ship.

"It's getting late, get on board! Childe goes early and returns early! Zheng Yun reminded softly.

Wang Xinyu hugged Zheng Yun with a fist and bowed his hand, and Zheng Yun returned a thousand blessings. Then Wang Xinyu boarded the boat, and each ship put away the cables and set sail to pull the anchor. After a few moments, the fleet left the dock and sailed into the depths of the sea.

Early the next morning, the fleet arrived at Nanao Island, where more than 2,000 people were picked up.

Wang Xinyu did not stop at Nanao Island, and after picking up the people who were preparing to emigrate overseas, the fleet immediately pulled anchor and set sail, all the way to Luzon Island.

It is already late autumn and the wind direction has changed to northwest. The direction of the wind and the direction of the fleet was completely downwind, and under such favorable conditions, the maximum speed of the sailing ships that year was sixteen knots! However, Wang Xinyu's fleet is not so fast, because the speed of various ship types is different, and to maintain the formation of sailing, the speed can only be used at twelve knots.

The fleet sails at a high speed of 12 knots, from Nanao Island to Dingguo Bay, in fact, there are only more than 500 nautical miles, in the case of downwind, the fleet does not need to take the "zigzag" line, it is completely a straight line, and completely with the help of the sea breeze, it only takes two days and two nights to arrive at Dingguo Bay.

At that time, Chinese-style soft sailing ships could go against the wind, while Western-style soft sailing ships could not go against the wind, and when encountering headwinds, Western-style soft sailing ships could only take the "zigzag" route and sail with crosswinds.

The fleet arrived at Yanping on the morning of 12 October.

"Dear boss! Nice to see you again! Albert, who had changed into a new Navy uniform, greeted him with his officers and sailors.

The fleet docked on the wharf, and the officers and men of the Nanyang Company wearing Western-style naval uniforms stood straight, held their heads high, and stood in a square formation, and the snow-white naval uniforms reflected the golden glow of the morning sun, which was pleasing to the eye. Two navy ribbons on the sailor's hat flipped like a swallow's tail in the morning breeze. The shawls on the shoulders fluttered in the wind, like ripples rolling on the sea.

Wang Xinyu inspected his Nanyang Company Navy with great satisfaction, and even the officers and men of the Ming Army Naval Division who were not incorporated into the Nanyang Company were envious and jealous of the uniforms of the Nanyang Company's Navy.

"Come with me, Mr. Albert!" Wang Xinyu beckoned Albert to his own mansion.

After entering Wang Xinyu's mansion in Yanping City, the two sat down as guests of honor.

Wang Xinyu asked Albert first: "Mr. Albert, how are you training with those sailor recruits I recruited?" ”

Albert replied: "Back to the bosses, they are all smart! All are good soldiers! I have to admit that you Orientals are really smart! We trained for a few days on the return voyage, and then at sea for a few days, and the growth rate of these recruits was amazing! ”

"In this way, I will allocate you another batch of veteran gunners, plus the veteran sailors you brought yourself, and you will immediately set off and go to the coast of Guangxi to the coast of Guangdong for actual combat training!" Wang Xinyu said to Albert with a smile.

"What?" Albert was taken aback, "Actual combat training? Who is the boss going to do it to? ”

Wang Xinyu smiled "insidiously": "Do it to the Qingguo Water Master!" I'm going to carry out a shoreline clean-up plan! ”

The so-called "coastline cleaning" operation is to lead the LinkedIn fleet, starting from the coastline of Guangxi, to Hainan Island, to the coastline of Guangdong, and then to the coast of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and all the way to the coast of Shandong, sending all the Qing army sailors to the bottom of the sea, helping the Qing court to properly implement their sea ban order, so that the Qing court can truly prevent sails from entering the sea. The ships were sunk, and it wasn't really the most thorough piece of sail that didn't go into the sea.

Originally, the Qing court's ban on the sea was a 15-mile boundary from the sea, and it was limited to prohibiting civilian vessels, including merchant ships and fishing boats, from entering the sea, but the Qing army still retained its own sailors. It was not until two years later in the first year of Kangxi, when the order to move the sea was really implemented, that the Qing court would self-destruct the sailors and truly prevent a single sail from entering the sea.

Because in the first year of Kangxi, Shi Lang, Huang Wu and others were afraid that the imperial court would order them to fight Taiwan, so they simply implemented a thorough sea relocation order and self-destructed the water division. If the sailor is gone, how can he let himself fight Taiwan? At that time, all the Qing army's naval divisions would go ashore and move to a distance of 30 to 50 miles from the sea, which would save the cost of shipbuilding and the cost of building forts and cities along the coastline.

But now the Qing army's naval division still exists, which causes trouble for Wang Xinyu to implement the plan to emigrate overseas, so Wang Xinyu must pull out those nails, in order to ensure that the land division lands and attacks the county seat, and creates favorable conditions for the people to emigrate overseas.

Watching Wang Xinyu's fingers move on the map, Albert was very worried: "Qing is a big country, with such a long coastline, and they have such a large population, if we provoke them, will we be retaliated by them?" ”

Wang Xinyu laughed: "The Qing Kingdom seems to be huge, but the coastal defense is zero!" As long as your fleet doesn't land, they'll just stare dryly! You start sweeping from Guangxi first! After sweeping, go to Guangdong and destroy the Qing army sailors on the Leizhou Peninsula for me! Then wait for me off the coast of Macau, and I'll look for you there. After we meet, we will fight into the mouth of the Pearl River together and destroy all the Tartars' Guangzhou sailors! Then we swept over the coast of Guangdong! ”

"As long as the boss orders, I will definitely carry it out!" Albert assured.

Wang Xinyu said again: "But after we swept through Zhejiang, it is estimated that we will celebrate the New Year, and I will go back to Xiamen to get married." As for the Tartar sailors in the north, I'll leave it to Mr. Albert to clean up yourself! ”

"Getting married is a life event! Of course I can't delay my boss getting married! Don't worry, as long as the boss explains, we will definitely complete it! Although Albert was so reassuring, he was somewhat sure of the "shoreline cleanup" plan, and he was not very sure about it.

Wang Xinyu explained one more thing, he pointed to the map and gestured on it: "Mr. Albert, you let one of your own cronies take my two Spanish galleons here, flying the Spanish flag, so that the Dutch will not stop you when passing through the Strait of Malacca." After I went to Chennai and sold the goods, I had to buy a batch of warships and come back. When he came back with his warship, he went south from the Indian Ocean, and when he got here, from here in Bali into the South China Sea, and then from the sea east of Borneo, so that he could return to Luzon. ”

Albert asked, "Why don't you take the Sunda Strait and make such a big detour?" ”

"Mr. Albert, have you forgotten? Didn't we kill the Dutch merchant fleet? The Dutch must have thought that you had come in from the Sunda Strait! If they see a British-style ship coming, they will definitely intercept it! And if we changed to Bali this time, they would definitely not have thought that the British ship would come again! ”

"Haha! The owner is really clever! Albert gave a thumbs up.

After Albert left Wang Xinyu's mansion, he immediately returned to the naval headquarters and launched an emergency assembly.

After arranging for a crony to go to Chennai, Albert began delivering supplies to his own fleet. Large quantities of shells, gunpowder, food and fresh water were brought aboard.

Albert had planned a four-month voyage on the surface, and supplies were well prepared. Because it was fighting in the coastal area, fresh water could be replenished at any time, and even if it did not dare to go ashore to replenish fresh water, the fleet could get fresh water from various islands along the coast.

Chickens, ducks, cattle, sheep and live pigs bought from Borneo and near Manila were brought on board, along with food such as bacon, sausages, beer and grain.

According to Wang Xinyu's request, the fleet of the Nanyang Company was divided into two types: battleships and supply ships. Supply ships are also armed with artillery, but the main task of supply ships is not to fight, but to transport various supplies to the fleet. Therefore, most of the chickens and ducks, as well as cattle, sheep and live pigs were transported to the supply ship, so as to keep the air fresh and the environment clean and tidy inside the battleship. Later, the navies of various countries also learned the method of supply ships created by Wang Xinyu, and used supply ships to transport goods, which improved the efficiency of the navy, reduced the burden on the warships, and ensured the quality of life on the warships.

In the afternoon, Albert set off with the fleet.

The huge British fleet pulled anchor and set sail from Yanping Harbor.

The warships that set off were: two fourth-class cruisers, three fifth-class cruisers, thirteen sixth-class privateers, and four captured Dutch merchant ships, which were used as supply ships and went straight to the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi in a murderous manner.

From Dingguo Bay to Hainan Island, there is a distance of more than 700 nautical miles. At this time, the northwest wind was blowing, the wind direction was not very smooth, and the fleet could only sail in crosswinds, and the speed was about eight knots, and after a long voyage of four days and four nights, the fleet arrived near Hainan Island at noon on 16 October.

"We passed directly through the Qiongzhou Strait!" Albert gave the order.

"Commander, isn't it too risky for us to go through the Qiongzhou Strait?" Zhang Yukun, deputy commander of the fleet, asked.

Zhang Yukun was originally Wang Xinyu's personal soldier, because he had good water quality and was familiar with naval operations, so he was singled out to be Albert's deputy, which was actually the seed of a future senior admiral.

Albert replied: "This is what our boss asked, the boss feels safe, and we just carry out the order!" ”

The huge fleet swept through the Qiongzhou Strait, and did not encounter a single ship of the Qing navy along the way. By the time it got dark, the fleet had already entered the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin.

The fleet slowed down and sailed slowly in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin .

After daybreak, the fleet arrived in the outer waters of Qinzhou Bay.

On the sea, a small boat of the Guangxi Navy Division of the Qing Army was cruising. Suddenly, someone exclaimed: "Fleet! The fleet of the Xiyi people! Lots of big ships! ”

The Qing army's sailors looked at the sea in the southeast direction, and saw a huge fleet of ships with white sails heading towards them. That fleet was clearly a Westerner fleet, but it didn't fly any flags, only the black skeletal pirate flag!

Even if it was just a small privateer of 150 tons, it was already a huge ship on the coastline of China back then! You must know that Zheng Chenggong's main gunboat is a 400-material Dafu ship, that is, a 220-ton Fu ship, which is already a very large ship. Ordinary ships, that is, tens of tons to a hundred tons. And the privateer ship of more than 200 tons is even more behemoth in the eyes of the Qing army sailors!

"Which country's fleet is this?" The Qing army was always puzzled.

The fleet rushed towards the dinghy of the Qing army's sailors, and before these poor Qing soldiers could react, a huge battleship had already crashed into the Qing army's dinghy.

Only a tooth-aching sound of wood cracking was heard, and the Qing army's boat was smashed into two, and the Qing soldiers on the boat fell into the water one after another.

"Help!" The Qing soldiers who fell into the water struggled in the sea, shouting for help.

A privateer approached and captured the Qing soldiers who had fallen overboard.