Chapter 241: Collapse

With a clatter, a basket of broken silver was kicked over at the bow by a foot wearing a battle boot.

In medieval-era armies, whether the garrison troops of the Great Ming Dynasty or the European feudal lords currently beating each other's brains out, military pay was always the most critical issue. Without pay, armies would mutiny — commonly known as "making you sorry" — a problem no brilliant commander could solve.

There were two ways to raise military pay: fiscal appropriations, or letting the troops loose to plunder.

It was now 1628. Comrade Wallenstein had just completed a decade-long epic locust plunder across Upper Hungary, Silesia, and North Germany. The mercenaries marching behind Wallenstein's battle flag had looted every inch of ground their feet touched, taking the phrase "raising military pay" to its ultimate expression.

But the Great Ming official army of 1628 still had a slightly higher standard of class than their European counterparts. At this point in time, although the Ming Court's central finances were already in extreme difficulty, they had not yet collapsed; those Ming warlord locusts whose "pay-raising" ability was in no way inferior to Comrade Wallenstein's had not yet been let out of their cages.

Therefore, the Ming governors of this era, whenever they faced a regional war in their jurisdiction, could still more or less squeeze out some silver. Historically, Xiong Wencan, after Zheng Zhilong was driven back to Fuzhou by Li Kuiqi, provided men and silver to build new ships and quickly helped Zheng Zhilong recover his vitality.

And now, the reward silver the Transmigrators distributed to the Ming Navy was precisely the 50,000 taels of silver generously sponsored by Comrade Xiong Wencan.

Seeing the broken silver pieces rolling chaotically across the bow, the official soldiers on the deck began swallowing their saliva one after another. Meanwhile, a tall, Kun-haired "Monk Soldier" officer, holding an iron funnel in his hand, stood imposingly at the bow, with rifle-carrying soldiers and a smiling obsequiously official army commander behind him.

"Our Lord Cao is a man of principle and never mistreats his brothers. For this expedition, every man gets 5 taels of deployment silver upfront."

Amid the thanks of the official soldiers receiving their silver, the Transmigrator shouting through a megaphone made further promises: in the coming battles, anyone who captured a pirate could settle accounts at the Grain Office at 3 taels of silver per person, 2 taels for a dead one, with leaders calculated separately.

And so the troops set off amid cheers.

In fact, by the day the main force set out on campaign, the total number of pirates in Zhangzhou Bay was already under 20,000... Over the past few days, quite a few Shopkeepers who sensed things going badly had withdrawn their shares and fled.

So this amount of reward money was completely affordable for a certain power. Mo Laoxiong had also sponsored 50,000 taels; even without that sponsorship, if spending a hundred thousand or eighty thousand could buy the lives of all the pirates, the Transmigrators wouldn't even blink: if they could capture some able-bodied men, there were many uses for them.

Unfortunately, reality was not so easy. A few tens of thousands of taels of silver could only give those impoverished official soldiers a shot of adrenaline, making them a bit braver in battle — nothing more than that.

The main force for eliminating the pirates still had to rely on the fleet and soldiers the Transmigrators had built up at the cost of countless resources. Everything else was utterly unreliable.

On the morning of August 19, 1628, the Ming Loyalist Pirates, with a total of 180 ships, formally sailed south from the Quanzhou Outer Sea, beginning the second joint Bandit Suppression Campaign since Yu Zigao's defeat.

That afternoon, all troops using Jinmen Island as a fulcrum were fully deployed in position. And Liu Zhe, stationed at the rear Grain Office as the Bandit Suppression Campaign's overall commander, issued the formal order to attack at 2 p. m.

The troop disposition for the entire campaign was as follows: north of Jinmen, the mouth of Liaoluo Bay would be blockaded by 10 Dutch ships leading 50 warships under the Quannan Mobile Corps Commander Force.

As for the Zheng Clan fleet inside Liaoluo Bay... if they attempted to break through, they would face a head-on pounding from the Dutch Fleet led by His Excellency Hans Putmans. Even if they managed to escape by luck, their fate would still be miserable: the entire Shi Jing Zheng clan would afterward be uprooted by the freed-up official troops, the Zheng Clan would be exterminated, and Anping Town within Liaoluo Bay would never again serve as a nest for the Zheng family.

It must be understood that this campaign, by its nature, was an upright and honorable Punitive War. The authorities, punishing rebellion with righteousness, held the moral high ground and naturally would not play by the pirates' underworld code of honor, that nonsense about not touching wives and children.

In fact, confiscating property and exterminating clans had always been one of the most basic means by which the authorities maintained their rule. The reason the authorities couldn't touch the Zheng family before was that Comrade Yiguan was too powerful, and the official troops couldn't defeat him. Now, seeing the Zheng Clan in decline, if the authorities could still tolerate these Commoners — who had both silver and had offended the Emperor and the Fuzhou Governor — continuing their arrogance, they might as well just shut down for good.

Therefore, to complete the great Bandit Suppression Campaign as quickly as possible, the Dayuan pirate leader Liu Zhe, the moment he established the blockade line, had already dispatched a guest to Anping Town to offer "Recruitment and Amnesty."

This time, the Recruitment and Amnesty offer had none of that good fortune of the Fuzhou Governor showing up in person: one swaggeringly arrogant minor official, riding a small boat flying an official Banner, carrying Xiong Wencan's document ordering "Expedite Discretion" — that was the entirety of it. The few mediocrities remaining in the Zheng family would ultimately receive only a merciful promise to "withdraw from the gang, pay tribute, and your whole family will be spared." There would be nothing else.

Not long after the northern blockade line was deployed, the planned key defensive area — the blockade line in the sea south of Jinmen — was also fully laid out.

Because Zhongzuosuo was relatively close to the mouth of the South Channel, fleeing pirates had a high probability of charging this way, so the forces at the South Channel were very substantial: 30 Fuzhou ships from the Mawei Barracks, several "New Lock Ships" equipped with heavy machine guns, a motley assortment of over 60 Fuzhou ships, Bird Ships, East Ships, and Fast Ships led by Qu Dazhong, plus a patrol boat force of over a dozen vessels that had come to Jinmen with Liu Zhe's Logistics Fleet.

These so-called patrol boats were actually the passenger ferries that plied the two banks of the Taijiang every day. These boats, with their pure white triangular sails, agile and fast, were the most suitable type for inshore patrol. Their extremely high speed and ultra-small turning radius allowed them to race back and forth across the sea surface like flying; pirate ships had no speed advantage whatsoever against these boats.

After everything was deployed, at exactly 2 p. m., the main fleet, composed of 8 warships, formally charged into Zhangzhou Bay from the direction of Liaoluo Bay.

And at that moment, Zhangzhou Bay was already boiling like a heated wok.

Ever since the "Terror Night" a few days ago, large numbers of pirate patrol ships had blanketed every corner of Zhangzhou Bay. And when the scouts this morning saw the large force sailing from the north, every single one turned and fled without exception... those who fled too slowly were shot dead by the marksmen on those strange boats.

The various Pirate Leaders who received the fast boat reports — most of them, in accordance with the prior agreement, brought their forces back to Zhongzuosuo. The cowards had all secretly slipped away over the past two days.

And Li Kuiqi, who had been waiting idly at Zhongzuosuo for a change in fortune, upon seeing large numbers of men return, could not help but be overjoyed. He seized the moment to deliver a desperate rallying speech: "The official troops have sealed the door! We now have no retreat left! If we don't fight desperately now, each of your heads will become mere decorations on a platter for claiming merit!"

Before his words had faded, several of Li Kuiqi's trusted lieutenants, leaders unwilling to become slaves, roared out in unison: "Great Boss, let's do it! Better than being the official troops' dogs!"

"Good! Gentlemen, follow me out to sea for a battle. In broad daylight, those few Kun Ships are isolated and weak. Our ships outnumber theirs ten to one — we'll surely have a chance to close in and fight!"

The Bandit Suppression Campaign army arrived near Jinmen at high noon. And when, two hours later, the army had finished deploying and the main fleet set out, the Great Pirate Gang at Zhongzuosuo, having long since received the intelligence, had also unified their thinking, assembled their forces, and begun charging out of Zhongzuosuo.

Thus, at 3 p. m., the two sides met head-on in the sea outside Zhongzuosuo.

Although Li Kuiqi's strength had declined considerably by this point, the Great Pirate Gang, now cornered, still managed to muster over 300 ships of various types. The moment these motley vessels left port, they formed a torrent, stretching out across the sea surface into a three-li-long Pig Rush column, charging toward the outer sea.

In the next instant, Li Kuiqi's core fleet, charging at the very front, immediately suffered a head-on pounding from 44 cannons at a range of 1,000 meters.

With all sails furled and maintaining a cruising speed of 8 knots, the Crossing Fleet easily deployed into a T-formation in front of the pirate fleet. Because the ship speed was relatively high at this moment, the entire fleet's salvo rate was maintained at one round per minute.

At this moment, Li Kuiqi, dressed in a short jacket with a long sword at his waist, his graying hair whipping in the sea wind, stood at the bow. Only now did he finally have the privilege of witnessing the full appearance of a Kun Ship.

A streamlined hull, brown paint, the pure white sails long since furled; what presented itself to Li Kuiqi's eyes were rows of cannon muzzles simultaneously igniting plumes of white smoke.

With no time to further study the secret of the Kun Ships having neither sails nor oars, Li Kuiqi, after the several leading Fuzhou ships were hit and decelerated one after another, gritted his teeth and ordered a full-speed charge — he knew better than anyone that if he could not tear a chunk of flesh from his opponent today, then this day next year would be his own death anniversary.

Reality was cruel.

For one moment, the pirates even glimpsed a sliver of hope: after paying the price of nearly 20 ships, they finally charged within 300 meters of the enemy. But in the next instant, everyone's mouth fell open: the enemy fleet first accelerated instantly, then, like a long worm, executed a massive U-turn in front of everyone's eyes, pulling the distance between the two sides back to 1,000 meters.

Tragically, throughout this entire process, the rain of cannon shells never ceased for a single moment.

The saying "the thief leaves, the building is empty" perfectly describes the current situation. Those diehards, originally brimming with passion and killing intent, eagerly anticipating a head-on clash with the Kun thieves — in this instant, their rage gauge instantly emptied to zero, and they all collapsed completely.

Without waiting for Li Kuiqi's orders, the long snake-like formation began to disintegrate. The mass of small fry following behind the main force now scattered and fled in all directions, and countless thin lines racing toward every point of the compass soon appeared on the sea surface.

As for Li Kuiqi? In the chaos of this moment, he was nowhere to be found — before the total collapse, his flagship had already been sunk, and after he switched to another ship, no one received any further orders from him.