Chapter 673: Dawn Operation

Edo, Dongying.

Watanabe stood by the Edo River, looking at the sailing warships under construction, his eyes full of joy.

At present, in addition to the eighteen sailing warships the British helped them build, eighteen sailing warships that the Sam Country people were helping him build had also begun construction not far away.

In this way, his Dongying would soon possess thirty-six sailing warships.

This number would greatly exceed the warships of the Yan Wang.

When that time came, his Dongying would truly become the maritime hegemon of Dongtu.

Most importantly, in this contract with the Sam Country, he demanded that the Sam Country people provide the complete manufacturing technology for sailing warships.

Once the sailing warships were completed, he would also have a group of craftsmen who knew how to build them; from then on, there would be no need to beg the British or the Sam Country people to help them build sailing warships.

"How is the preparation for the five hundred craftsmen selected for the Beidi going?" Thinking of something, Watanabe said.

Two months ago, through the contact between Sato Masahisa and Tiemuta, the first batch of Dongying envoys crossed the Dongying Sea and arrived directly at the Beidi coast.

Immediately, they traveled to the Khan Court and met the Beidi Khan, Mule Hongzhen.

After joining the Anti-Yan Alliance, they chose to form an alliance with Beidi as well.

The Beidi people agreed to trade with Dongying, providing Dongying with warhorses, furs, iron ore, and other goods.

At the same time, they decided to pull Gaoli into the alliance they had formed to jointly deal with the Yan Wang.

Although Gaoli was somewhat reluctant, under the pressure of Beidi, they finally agreed to this matter.

And they, Dongying, promised to provide Beidi and Gaoli with the manufacturing technology for flintlocks and artillery.

Half a month ago, Beidi again requested them to provide five hundred craftsmen to assist them in forging firearms and artillery.

He immediately agreed to this matter.

After all, in his view, if the Anti-Yan Alliance could not defeat the Yan Wang, the Yan Wang would inevitably wipe out the other forces next.

Then, among this alliance, only Dongying and Beidi could extricate themselves from the internal chaos of Dasong.

It was necessary for them to unite as one and continue to deal with the threat of the Yan Wang.

"Reporting to the Great General, it is ready. They can set off tomorrow for Beidi," said Maso Taro.

Watanabe nodded; if not for this Yan Wang, he might have been able to send troops directly into Dasong now and turn Dasong into a colony of Dongying.

But it just so happened that in the north of Dasong, such an unfathomable Imperial Prince appeared, disrupting all his plans.

And once this Imperial Prince unified Dasong, his grand ambitions would never be realized.

Therefore, even if he had to exhaust all his strength, he had to find a way to eliminate this Yan Wang.

Even if he could not eliminate him, he had to win over his enemies to contain him and not give him room to expand.

The Anti-Yan Alliance was only the first step; if the Anti-Yan Alliance failed, having Beidi contain the Yan Wang from the north and Dongying contain the Yan Wang from the east was very necessary.

Promoting the threat of the Yan Wang and winning over the Western Lands countries to deal with the Yan Wang together was the second step.

To him,

This Yan Wang had at most obtained the help of missionaries from the Western Lands, and his achievements would surely be limited.

He could not possibly defeat the Westerners.

In short, he must never let Dasong rise again and tower over Dongying.

As he was thinking about this, a Dongying official hurried over and said to Watanabe: "General, a letter from Lord Sato."

Watanabe was now extremely concerned about the situation within Dasong, so he immediately opened the letter.

After just one glance, he gently frowned.

"Is this Yan Wang crazy? But since that is the case, it is time to give him a surprise," he muttered.

Although this news surprised him somewhat.

But since it had happened, he just needed to proceed with Dongying's plan as a matter of course.

Turning his head, he said to Masho Taro: "Immediately order the Wufeng Pirates to head to Jinghai of Dasong, and at the same time order the Dongying Navy to rendezvous with the Wufeng Pirates and head to the Yanzhou sea area together to ambush the Yan Prefecture Navy and wipe them out in one fell swoop."

During this time, Dongying's eyes and ears had been investigating the situation of the Yan King Fleet.

They discovered that most of the Yan Prefecture warships were docked at Jinghai Wharf.

For this reason, they had been meticulously formulating an ambush plan two months ago.

"Yes, Great General," Masho Taro bowed and saluted.

Watanabe nodded, "At the same time, have one hundred thousand Dongying warriors prepare; if the Yan Prefecture Navy is successfully wiped out, then order our Dongying army to head to Qizhou."

Then, he sighed: "It would be even better if we had the help of the Folangji and the Stedan people, but I just didn't expect our plan to be neutralized by the Yan Wang."

With a fierce look in his eyes, he said: "If that is the case, the Folangji have no value; it would be better to send troops to seize the entire Yizhou and drive the Franks away."

Yanzhou sea area.

At the moment Watanabe issued the ambush order, Zhou Yi was leading thirty-two warships, riding the wind and waves toward the Fukuoka Pier of Dongying.

After weighing the situation, he decided to concentrate all his forces to first eliminate the Dongying naval power in Fukuoka, and then head south to eliminate the Wufeng Pirates.

After three days of sailing, they arrived at the Fukuoka sea area.

Immediately, Zhou Yi sent a warship to the Fukuoka Pier to conduct reconnaissance.

The warship returned, bringing him a piece of reassuring news: the Dongying warships were currently still docked at the port.

However, the soldiers of the Dongying Navy were moving cannonballs, ammunition, grain, and other supplies; this was clearly a sign that they were about to take action.

Looking at the setting sun, Zhou Yi breathed a sigh of relief and said to Gong Ying: "If we had come two days later, the Dongying Navy would likely have launched a surprise attack on Jinghai Port. At this point in time, His Highness's judgment was not off by a single bit."

Pausing, he said, "Let the crew get a good rest tonight, and launch an attack on the Fukuoka Pier tomorrow morning."

"Yes, General," Gong Ying replied.

Immediately, a red flag and a blue flag were raised on the flagship where Zhou Yi was located.

This was the order to launch the attack tomorrow morning, with the time set for the hour of the Rabbit.

After resting for a night, before dawn the next day, Zhou Yi climbed out of bed.

Taking out his Pocket Watch, he stared at the time.

When the Hour of the Rabbit arrived, he ordered the warships to advance.

Every warship captain had a Pocket Watch, and they did not delay, following closely behind the Flagship.

After half an hour of sailing, they arrived at the Fukuoka Pier.

At this time, the sky was dim, and the eastern horizon had just begun to turn a fish-belly white.

Through his Telescope, Zhou Yi saw the Dongying Navy warships lying quietly on the sea surface at the pier, as if they were fast asleep.

A cold sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he had Gong Ying raise the signal for attack.

Under his command, thirty-two warships turned simultaneously.

Sixteen of them sailed north, aligning their broadsides toward the Dongying warships at Fukuoka Pier.

The remaining sixteen sailed south, likewise aligning their broadsides toward the Dongying warships at Fukuoka Pier.

At this moment, at Fukuoka Pier, a Dongying soldier came out of a cabin and went onto the deck to urinate.

Today, they were about to set sail for Jinghai in Yanzhou.

Whistling, the Dongying soldier finished urinating and pulled up his pants.

Suddenly looking up, he saw many massive black objects in the dim light of dawn.

Rubbing his eyes, he prepared to look closer.

Suddenly, a flash of fire lit up, and then he heard a sound like thunder.

Countless red, scorching shells flew toward him like meteors.