Late Ming Dynasty: The Counterattack Begins with Sea Pirates

"Have the newcomers almost finished their training?"

"Reporting to Master, we've practiced everything we needed to several times, so there shouldn't be any major problems," Liu Qingjiang said.

The order is given: everyone board the ship and weigh anchor!

Liu Qingjiang was somewhat surprised. He looked at the master and asked in a low voice, "Master, what are we going to do? Didn't you mention before that we should hide our strength? Is this big ship going to set sail now?"

Chi Honghai gave an affirmative answer to Liu Qingjiang's doubts: "Although the Tianquan is a large ship with sufficient combat power, the sea is not the domain of a single ship. Coordinated operations require practice."

Liu Qingjiang didn't understand what coordinated operations meant at first, but he understood what the old man meant: it all came down to cooperation, cooperation, and more cooperation!

Back when I was working under Liu Xiang as a pirate and fighting against the government, I didn't suffer from a loss in numbers, but rather from a loss in teamwork. And the two sailing warships from Guangzhou Prefecture that I robbed and killed under the master's leadership were quite a pleasure.

With all seven ships hoisting their sails and lowering their anchors, they set sail towards the southwest waters of Hong Kong Island under Chi Hung-hai's command.

The reason for choosing the southwest sea area is that there are usually few ships coming from the open sea in this area. Even if there are, they will go southeast around the near sea to Guangzhou Prefecture.

To be on the safe side, Chi Honghai did not allow anyone to hang identification flags on the ships, and each ship was prepared with a flag used by the Franks and the Dutch. If they encountered other ships, they would hang the flag to avoid being recognized.

Because the entire fleet consisted almost entirely of Western-style warships, when the flag was raised, most people wouldn't have much suspicion, especially after seeing the large ship; they wouldn't think that the ship was in the hands of Easterners.

Upon reaching the southwestern open sea, the seven ships were arranged in a V-shape, with one ship positioned in the very center of the formation and at the very front.

However, this is only the formation used during navigation. In the event of a naval battle, this formation would not be very effective against Chi Honghai, whose main means of attack is firearms. In contrast, this V-formation is more suitable as a wolf pack tactic, rushing to board the enemy ship.

In regular training, Chi Honghai incorporated signal flags into the communication method, which to some extent replaced the original information transmission method of drums and horns used by the Ming Dynasty navy.

The reason is simple: traditional drumming and horn blowing are mainly for identification by sound, but the transmission of such signals is very limited if the distance is far. In addition, the transmission of such sound is generally used in close combat at boarding points. However, nowadays, the sound of artillery is no less than that of drumming and horn blowing, and may even drown out the signal sound during salvo firing.

However, signal flags are not affected by this, and they can be viewed with binoculars even at greater distances, making them much better than traditional methods overall.

Once the yellow signal flag was hoisted, the large ship slowed down. As the smaller sailboats on either side caught up, the entire fleet adjusted its direction during the journey, changing from a straight line to a diagonal one, and gradually straightening into a straight line.

The entire fleet sailed through the bay in a line resembling the Nike logo.

Chi Honghai stood on the deck, enjoying the sea breeze, and carefully checked the situation of the ships in front and behind him with a monocular telescope—no one had fallen behind, which was good, very good for him.

However, this is just a queue.

"Open the starboard gun port," Chi Honghai said to Liu Qingjiang.

"Open the starboard gun port!" "Open the starboard gun port!" "Open the starboard gun port!"

As the orders were passed down, all the gun ports on the two decks of the Tianquan were opened at once. The gun muzzles inside the cabin were pushed to their firing positions, and the wooden boxes filled with shells were moved next to the gun mounts. The gun ports were not large and the brightness was not very good, but it was still possible to find a direction by looking out during the day.

This order was transmitted to the deck of the Tianquan while signal flags were raised to convey the message to all ships.

"Master, there's just an empty sea right across from us, how about we..." Liu Qingjiang reminded him from the side.

Chi Honghai understood that it wasn't that Liu Qingjiang was worried he would find fault with the shooting training, but rather that every shell on the ship had to be bought from the Portuguese, as the Chinese didn't yet have the means to manufacture qualified shells.

When the cannons roar, gold is worth a fortune; every shot fired reduces the gold reserves. Who wouldn't feel the pain?

Chi Honghai was naturally heartbroken. As a businessman, he knew how to be meticulous with money. But he also understood that now was the time to spend money where it was necessary, instead of trying to save a little. Otherwise, if he were to die one day, he wouldn't be able to spend any more money.

"No, we have to fight, even if it costs money." Chi Honghai's tone was firm, showing no sign of reluctance.

"The training days have been intense recently. Have you and Instructor Lang taught this formation's moving artillery firing?" Chi Honghai first said to Liu Qingjiang, and then used the same words translated into French to say to Instructor Lang.

After receiving accurate answers from the two, Chi Honghai nodded in approval of their work.

He walked to the bow of the ship, picked up the command flag, and pointed it at the center of the semicircle: "Fire in formation, begin!"

The red signal flag was immediately hoisted onto the mast. About ten seconds later, a small plume of white smoke was seen in the distance ahead, followed by several cannon shots. Huge splashes of water were shaken up in the empty sea. Before the waves had fully spread, a second sound reached our ears, and cannonballs once again shattered the waves.

Three sporadic cannon shots rang out one after another, the loud noise coming from below the deck. Everyone on the deck, except for Instructor Lang, was startled. Although the ship was tall, thick white smoke still drifted up to the deck.

Sixty-four cannons fired simultaneously. Chi Honghai watched as the distant sea was blasted into a dense net by the cannonballs, and he was extremely excited. Not only him, but everyone present was also very excited, because apart from Instructor Lang, no one had ever personally witnessed so many cannons being fired at the same time.

After the cannon fire rang out three more times, white smoke rose again from ahead, until it was the Tianquan's turn once more.

But Chi Honghai did not issue another order to continue firing. He had already seen the effect he wanted to see—neat ranks, successive artillery strikes, and overwhelming firepower.

Therefore, there is no need to fire those sixty-four cannons again.

"Master! This is amazing! Absolutely amazing! There isn't another ship like this in our Ming Dynasty, is there?" Liu Qingjiang initially looked around at the side of the ship, then ran to Chi Honghai with a face full of surprise, "With the Tianquan ship here, who would dare to cause us trouble?"

Chi Honghai was also thrilled by the bombardment he had just received. As far as he knew, Zheng Zhilong's flagship was nothing special. Who else in the entire Ming Dynasty could have such a powerful warship?

The emperor? If he were rich, would there still be refugees fleeing south from Hubei?