Chapter 238: Peeling the Onion (2)

Alongside the main battleship fleet, five logistics fleet vessels with stiff sails also set out.

The logistics fleet's configuration followed the Transmigrators' consistent style: a "New Lock Ship" fitted with electronic instruments served as flagship, guiding the other vessels in navigation.

The currently still very scarce "New Lock Ship" is the Taijiang Shipyard version of the hybrid Old Junk Ship mentioned earlier. This ship type is massive, with a length of 45 meters, a beam of 8.5 meters, a draft of 5.3 meters, and a rated displacement of 400 tons. In the eyes of the Ming people, this was a great ship of 1,500 liao; one must know that the 400-liao blessing ships most commonly seen on the ocean normally had an actual displacement of less than 100 tons.

Because it uses a Western-style "U"-shaped hull, the New Lock Ship's deck can mount multiple side cannons. Of course, this armament is actually meaningless — their primary function is transporting supplies, and normally only a single Napoleon 6-pounder needs to be mounted at the bow for self-defense.

As for the force that was ostensibly the main strength of this campaign: the melee + firearm brigade composed of 30 blessing ships, it was still at the Mawu Water Camp undergoing training and did not set out with the fleet at the first moment.

The moment the slow-moving transport fleet exited the Min River Estuary, it was left far behind by the main battleship fleet. It was currently the southern wind season, so the fleet's journey south from Fuzhou meant sailing against the wind.

Without the aid of turbines, the speed of the two Youguang-class destroyers was actually not high, only 8 knots, and that was with a favorable wind. Therefore, the moment the fleet exited the Min River Estuary in the early morning, the two destroyers compensatorily engaged a portion of their turbines, maintaining the ship speed at around 10 knots.

10 knots is 18 kilometers per hour. And what is the sea route from Fuzhou to Xiamen? 200 kilometers. So after 12 hours had passed, at 6:30 in the afternoon, the fleet had already reached the open sea 20 kilometers east of Jinmen.

After reducing ship speed to only 3 knots, the fleet began circling on the sea surface — the Transmigrators were waiting for nightfall, and incidentally carrying out pre-battle preparations.

Preparations began first with provisions. Since this mission was a coastal operation with supply lines, fresh ingredients were amply stocked on board: dinner was the high-end Yangzhou fried rice.

Fried rice was very suitable for the current situation, because the rice could be steamed in advance, and the diced peas and radish could also be pre-processed. When mealtime came, the cook only needed to throw vegetable oil, eggs, peas, and diced vegetables into the large wok and stir-fry them together... Of course, the most important ingredient could not be missing: diced salted pork, commonly known as ham.

Heavy on oil and salt, with plenty of egg drop and diced salted pork added, the fried rice was the soldiers' favorite. After devouring the rice in their iron mess tins, each person was also allotted one ladleful of sugared black tea. The soldiers would gently swirl their tins, then drink the black tea along with the grease at the bottom in one go.

After eating, the deck department began, according to combat regulations, clearing and lashing down all items that would hinder battle, including critical departments like the cannon teams and turbines, all making their own pre-battle preparations.

By the time all preparations were complete, it was dusk as the sun set in the west. At that moment, the distant sky was filled with red-baked clouds, as if foreshadowing that a blaze would rise from the sea surface tonight.

When the fleet reached the open sea east of Jinmen at low speed, the sky had already gone completely dark.

The night is the Transmigrators' friend. A fleet possessing all kinds of electronic equipment is a god-like existence in the 17th-century night.

Within Zhangzhou Bay at present, there were three groups of pirate forces gathered in large numbers.

The largest in number was naturally Li Kuiqi's Great Gang. The Li Kuiqi group, using Xiamen's Zhongzuosuo as its anchorage, had been recruiting scattered bands and consolidating its forces these days, so its current strength had swelled: the Great Gang now had over 500 warships capable of battle, with troop strength reaching over 20,000 men.

The pirate vanguard group stationed in Jinmen's West Bay, on the other hand, consisted of the forces of Zhong Bin and several outside Shopkeepers, recently detached from the Great Gang.

Zhong Bin's troops had only recently been repositioned to Jinmen. As Li Kuiqi's most powerful ally, Zhong Bin stationed his forces here; the first layer of intent was to monitor the Zheng family fleet in Weitou Bay to the north, and the second layer of intent was to serve as the vanguard in the imminent plundering operation, drinking the first soup — this was also an implicit benefit Li Kuiqi granted to several allies.

And the third power in Zhangzhou Bay was the Zheng family troops currently entrenched in Weitou Bay. The Zheng people, driven back to their old nest, were now weak in strength and lost about the road ahead; having lost their leading figure, they no longer constituted a threat to other powers, so the Transmigrators intended to deal with this bunch last.

With this, tonight's main objective became very clear: the Zhong Bin group at Jinmen, whose anchorage was the outermost.

The shape of Jinmen Island is that of a horizontally placed dumbbell, large at both ends, thin in the middle, with a chunk missing on the left side. And the anchorage of Zhong Bin's fleet at this moment was precisely in that gap bay on the left side of Jinmen, opposite Lieyu.

When the Crossing Fleet reached the sea area 5 kilometers from Jinmen, the vessels, already in a silent state, began to collectively lower their sails, and the fleet completely switched to propeller power mode — the coming battle would likely require large-scale maneuvering on the nighttime sea; sail rigging, unable to keep up with the frequency of wind shifts and increasing the complexity of ship handling, had become a burden at this point.

After lowering sails, the fleet began using a low-speed propulsion method with relatively low noise. When the watch hands aligned with 8 o'clock at night, the fleet had already stealthily reached a point only 2 kilometers from the enemy. And by this time, the large expanse of fishing fires in the bay had clearly entered the crewmen's eyes.

At this moment, inside the island of the flagship Youguang, the Transmigrators, having just finished reconnoitering the number of enemy ships via radar and night vision devices, were discussing the battle plan.

Laid out before the Transmigrators were nearly 200 anchored vessels within the bay.

Closer to the south side were 50 elite large ships arranged in two columns. This portion of vessels was the core strength of Zhong Bin and outside Shopkeepers like Chen Zhongji, carrying the elite troops of each faction.

The remaining 150 assorted vessels of every description were packed tightly together right next to the large ship formation, arranged in a square, four-column formation.

The large numbers of pirates on board were currently passing their nightlife in the cabins by oil lamp: some were gambling, some stood at the bow singing opera at the top of their lungs, there were also those drunkenly carrying wine jugs door-to-door, and additionally, quite a few were picking up soap in the dark cabins — in short, Pirate Bay was filled with a cacophony of noise.

"Doesn't feel like there are that many enemies here? Maybe we should go directly to Xiamen?" the chubby Fleet Chief of Staff Wang Xiaohui said, looking up after reading the intelligence.

"Not that many? No wonder you're fat, your appetite really is something." Sha Zhengming beside him pointed at the radar screen: "At least 200 ships, one-third of Li Kuiqi's strength is right here, and you still think it's too few?"

"If we go to Zhongzuosuo, wouldn't we be able to deal with the other two-thirds?"

"Not necessarily. The Zhongzuo Wharf runs east-west, and the wind is blowing from the south right now, so our big move would actually have a poor effect." Sha Zhengming said, then swiped his finger from top to bottom on the screen and smiled: "The ships here are aligned north-south, just right."

Although he acknowledged Sha Zhengming's analysis, Wang Xiaohui still smacked his lips: "Ah, still feels a bit unsatisfying."

"Alright, hurry up and give the order."

The next moment, one escort ship located at the very rear of the fleet slowly advanced its position.

The "big move" that Sha Zhengming and the others had been so cryptic about was indeed a real thing: this 150-ton Taijiang-class Frigate named "Hot Wave" was the Crossing Fleet's hidden ace.

At the stern of the Hot Wave was a set of Siemens multi-stage high-pressure oil pump spray gun systems. This system could spray the gasoline stored at the stern to a distance of 150 meters away under 14 MPa of pressure.

In distant Miaoli, those barrels of black crude oil carried down the mountain by savages — the first batch of 2 tons of refined gasoline — the majority was used here... Humanity stops at nothing to slaughter its own kind; the more one ponders, the more terrifying it becomes.

And the Transmigrator captain of the Hot Wave, Wang Bo, after confirming the order with Sha Zhengming via walkie-talkie, began to move. Under the watch of everyone on the seven sister ships, the Hot Wave began to slowly engage its turbine, heading north at low speed.

The Hot Wave's departure point was south of Pirate Bay. And this ship's travel route involved making a wide circle far to the left of Pirate Bay, passing through the strait between Jinmen and Lieyu, and circling around to the north of Pirate Bay.

The slow, wide detour was to avoid alerting the pirates with high-frequency noise. And launching the attack from the north was because the wind was currently southerly; the sea wind blowing head-on would carry the gasoline sprayed from the Hot Wave's stern behind it, rather than comically blowing it back onto itself.

... After spending 40 minutes slowly repositioning to a point 1 kilometer north of Pirate Bay, the Hot Wave, after one final confirmation of the order via walkie-talkie, launched its attack.

Accompanied by the ever-increasing shriek of the turbine, the Hot Wave, all its flammable parts covered with ceramic fireproof cloth, began accelerating while charging toward the enemy formation.

In just a few minutes, the charging knight had increased its speed to 12 knots. And simultaneously, the turbine noise in the silent night wind grew louder and louder.

The pirates reacted quickly, for not everyone was drinking amidst the clamor: it was the hottest month of the year, August, and on the large expanse of sea ships, those out cooling off were likewise not few in number, so many people at that moment stood up from the bows, gazing north toward the strange sound.

And then they saw the sun.

The Hot Wave, having already thrust to a position 200 meters north of the ship formation, had no more scruples at this moment and immediately switched on its bow searchlight.

As a bright white beam of light swept across the night sky, the position of the ship formation composed of over 100 Chinese-style ships was illuminated with utter clarity at that moment. And those unlucky souls craning their necks northward were all uniformly dazzled by the bright beam, one by one covering their faces, jumping and shouting.

In the nick of time, a distance of 200 meters for an escort ship moving at a high speed of 12 knots was merely a matter of a few short seconds. The next moment, based on the enemy position illuminated by the searchlight, Wang Bo, personally steering, guided his vessel to slide steadily past a position 100 meters in front of the enemy ships.

At the same time, seeing that the stern was now parallel with the opposing vessels, a smile finally appeared on the gaunt Wang Bo's face: "I command: fire!"