The Yangwei opened fire, and the two ships on both sides of the Yangwei were hit by fifteen bombs each. The distance was so close that Fuchuan felt as if someone had put a gun to his head and shot him, and not a single shell missed. The bomb used its huge kinetic energy to break through the thin hull of Fu Chuan and rushed into Fu Chuan's hull. The bomb still failed to stop after breaking through the hull, shattering the cabins and watertight compartment partitions under the hull, and smashing into the bodies of all pirates that blocked the advancement of the shells.
Generally, Fuzhou ships are built with great emphasis on practicality, and the hulls are made very thin. The armored ship was so close, and the kinetic energy of the bombs was extremely high. One bomb even directly penetrated the hulls on both sides of the Fu ship, and fell into the sea behind the Fu ship with a pop.
But most of the bombs stayed inside the ship. When the fuse burned out, the bomb exploded inside the ship. Twenty-nine bombs ejected shock waves one after another, blowing the insides of the two ships into a mess.
Even if one shell explodes inside the ship, it will cause huge casualties and damage, let alone fourteen or fifteen bombs exploding together?
Yang Peng saw sparks spraying out from the gun emplacement of the Fu Ship on the left. The cannons were shaken forward by the shock wave, and even got stuck on the emplacement completely after moving forward. A bomb that hit the middle of the ship seemed to have been blocked by something hard. It did not penetrate deep into the cabin and exploded close to the hull. Wood chips shot out like fireworks, blasting a two-meter diameter hole outside the hull.
The Fu Ship on the right was bombed even more severely, with sparks flying from the hull, and the entire internal structure had been blown apart. The gunpowder barrel on the second deck of the lucky ship was also ignited by the bomb, causing a more violent explosion, which blew away the entire front deck and hull. The hull of the ship had been completely shattered by the explosion of the gunpowder barrel. A cannon was activated by the impact and rushed out from the huge breach in the hull. It flew several meters away and fell into the sea water, causing huge waves.
It is unknown how many pirates were killed on the two lucky ships. There are often one to two hundred pirates on this lucky ship. If bombs are bombarded in this way, one third of them will be killed. The lucky ship in front, whose poop was broken open by the Yangwei, was slowly sinking, and the pirates on board jumped into the sea desperately. In addition to the sailors from the two lucky boats on the left and right who jumped into the sea, the sea was full of pirates who had lost their boats and broken boards, making it a mess.
The Yangwei retreated for a while, shook off the sinking Fu Ship, turned around slightly and chased the other Fu Ships. Flames suddenly shot out from the side of a Fuzhou ship not far away, and six cannonballs were fired at the Yangwei. The two shells hit the target and made a clanging sound on the armor of the ironclad ship. However, a single lucky ship would not pose a threat to an ironclad ship at all.
Originally, the Liu family's more than one hundred blessing ships were arranged in a horizontal formation in order to facilitate the exchange of fire with Yang Peng's fleet. Therefore, after Li Zhi's ironclad ship rushed into the queue of Fu ships, more than a hundred Fu ships were completely blocked by the Liu family's own ships. Except for one or two lucky ships near the ironclad, the other lucky ships could not see the ironclad and could not shoot at all.
Each time, the ironclad ship only had to face one or two lucky ships. Facing an ironclad ship with the combat power of one or two Fu ships, they would be completely crushed. The Yangwei ran at full power and without hesitation rushed towards the lucky ship that fired the gun, and hit the belly of the lucky ship. The Fuchuan's hull was severely shaken by the impact of the ironclad, and it fell violently to the right. The hull lost its balance, and the cannons and supplies inside the hull were rolling around, and no one knew how many pirates were crushed to death.
Are the wooden planks on the hull a match for steel? Under the high-speed collision of the Fuzhou ship, the angle of impact smashed the thin ship planks into a pile of tatters. A piece of sawdust flew in the huge impact, and the hull on the port side of the Fuzhou ship was smashed. The seawater poured in suddenly, and the lucky boat sank little by little.
Like a wild bull, the Yangwei rushed forward for more than fifty meters against the lucky boat, then reversed the propeller and retreated, letting go of the "dying" lucky boat. The Fuchuan, which was leaning to the right, straightened its hull after the Yangwei left, but it tilted to the port side again under the gravity of the sea water. In the end, the ship flipped over to the left, overturned on the sea, and gradually sank to the bottom of the sea.
The surviving pirates on the ship jumped off the ship and swam as hard as they could, but many were still swept deep into the sea by the whirlpool of the sunken ship and lost their lives. The ten armored ships were like ten wild beasts, running rampant in the queue of more than a hundred lucky ships. In the face of war machines far beyond this era, the Liu family's fortune ship was as fragile as paper. In only about ten minutes, the Liu family's fleet lost more than forty ships.
The Liu family's fleet was completely defeated. The lucky ships have lost the courage to show off. How can this armored ship be matched by human power? There were more than 20,000 pirates on board more than 100 ships. They were originally prepared for hand-to-hand combat, but at this time it was useless. Once a ship is hit by an ironclad, it will sink. How to fight a boarding battle? If the fight continues, all the more than 20,000 water thieves may be buried in the belly of the fish.
The lucky ships abandoned their formation and fled west, south, north, and scattered in all directions. The Liu family fleet has given up all resistance and can no longer be called a fleet. Even the Dafu ship, the flagship of the Liu family's fleet, did not dare to stay on the battlefield and fled to the west without hesitation, hoping to escape back to its home base in Jinjiang.
The other nine ironclad ships were like nine ferocious beasts, chasing the fleeing Liu fleet on the choppy sea. Yang Peng waved his hand, and the Yangwei ignored the nearby blessing ships and rushed directly towards the largest blessing ship. The ship had more than thirty heavy guns and was obviously Liu's flagship.
When the sailors on the Dafu ship saw the armored ship chasing after them, they used their sails and oars together and tried their best to escape westward. The Yangwei kept chasing after him for a quarter of an hour before finally forcing him to be 300 meters away from the Dafu Ship.
The Yangwei made a rudder movement and aimed its port side at the Dafu ship a few hundred meters away. The cannon was suddenly fired, and fifteen shells shot straight out of the muzzle and flew towards the Dafu ship not far away.
The stern of the Dafu ship was shot, and four shells were fired into the interior of the ship, causing a loud explosion. Just one bombardment caused the Dafu ship to lose its fighting spirit. The pirates of the Liu family lowered the hard sail and the Liu-character flag, and hoisted the white flag. Yang Peng was stunned when he saw the Dafu ship surrendering so readily, and secretly wondered whether Liu Xianglong was not on the ship?
Soon, the soldiers who boarded the ship to search tied up all the pirates on the Dafu ship and returned to the Yangwei. "Your Majesty, Liu Xianglong and his brother are not on this boat. They knew that this big lucky boat was too eye-catching, so they fled to other small lucky boats."
Yang Peng snorted coldly. "A monk who can escape cannot escape from the temple. Let's go to Fujian to raid the Liu family's home!" On April 28, 10,000 soldiers from the Huben Division surrounded Liu Xianglong's private city in Anping Town, Jinjiang, Fujian.
This is a small city with walls covered with bricks. The walls are four feet high, three hundred steps long and more than two hundred steps wide. There are two gates in the north and south. The pirate captured alive by Yang Peng said that this city was called Dinghai City. Built within the city wall is Liu Xianglong's luxurious private residence, as well as the residences of some Liu family generals. In short, it is the Liu family's base camp.
After Liu Xianglong escaped from the sea, he hid in this city, hoping to rely on the strong city wall to defend himself for some time. The Liu family's navy has been defeated by Yang Peng, but the Liu family is strong in the southeast and still has 20,000 infantry. The Liu family were relatively well-informed and knew how powerful Huben Division was, so they did not go out of the city to fight with Huben Division in the field. Twenty thousand people clung to the thick city wall, hoping to rely on the city wall to protect the Liu family's prosperity.
It should be said that Liu Xianglong's strategy makes sense. There are more than 60 cannons on the Liu family's city wall, including many heavy cannons weighing more than ten pounds. If the opponent was not the Huben Division, basically no troops could capture this private city with 60 cannons. But when encountering Yang Peng's Tiger Master, such defensive power was no longer enough.
Yang Peng unloaded three hundred heavy cannons from the ship and dragged the cannons under the wall of Dinghai City. In order to haul these cannons, Yang Peng recruited people's mules and horses everywhere after getting off the ship. Of course, although Yang Peng recruited people, he still gave money to the people.
After five days of busy work, it was not until the 28th that Yang Peng placed the cannon outside the south wall of Dinghai City. The gunners pushed the gun carriage forward little by little, marched within five miles of the city wall, and began to bombard the forts on the city wall with bombs.
Cannons fired five miles away are not very accurate. But it doesn't matter, even if the cannonball didn't hit the fort and hit the city wall, the Liu family would be injured. Yang Peng was not in a hurry, and let the cannon bomb slowly. When the barrel was hot, he stopped and slowly cooled down. When the barrel cooled, he fired a few more rounds.
Three hundred cannons bombarded the Liu family's "Dinghai City" for two days, firing more than 10,000 bombs on and inside the city walls. The private soldiers of the Liu family were blown away and their morale gradually collapsed.
The soldiers on the wall also fired back with cannon. But the light guns were out of reach, and the heavy guns had no lethality if they ejected solid projectiles five miles away. When a solid bullet is thrown high, the downward kinetic energy is too great, and it will not roll forward at high speed like when it is shot straight, and it will stop moving when it hits the ground. Unless it hits someone just right, it's a shot in vain.
Yang Peng's bomb is different. It will explode even if it is thrown five miles away. The forts on the city wall are relatively strong. When a bomb is thrown, it is difficult to break open the strong fort. It takes three or four bombs in succession to break open the fort. Yang Peng bombed for two days and only demolished more than 20 forts.
But other parts of the city wall did not have such a thick defense. Those battlements were smashed by bombs, and they were broken into pieces when the bomb exploded. Even more vulnerable are the buildings and people in "Dinghai City". The bombs flew over the city wall and bombed the city indiscriminately, turning Dinghai City, which had been run by the Zheng family for more than ten years, into a mess.
Yang Peng was not in a hurry. The cost of a bomb was only seven coins. Even if all the 30,000 bombs on more than 50 ships were used up, it would only amount to more than 10,000 taels of silver. When the bombs were used up, a ship was sent to Hsinchu to transport new ones. Compared with the huge gains from taking down Liu Xianglong's lair, the consumption of these bombs is nothing.
Bombs exploded one after another on and within the city walls, and the projectiles shot out were like the god of death, harvesting the lives nearby. The entire Dinghai City was blown into a Shura hell by Yang Peng.
Although the people in Dinghai City quickly understood that hiding on the ground can reduce the casualties caused by bombs. But even so, more than 10,000 bombs still killed thousands of people in the city.
Yang Peng's casualties were basically negligible. It was a one-sided massacre. Obviously, if the fight continues like this, sooner or later all the people in Dinghai City will be killed by Yang Peng. Yang Peng did not need to attack the city, he only needed to scatter artillery shells five miles away. This is a completely asymmetric war.
In the early morning of the third day, Yang Peng's cannons began to tilt their shells towards Dinghai City again, and the Liu family's private soldiers on the city wall collapsed. Yang Peng wanted Liu Xianglong's life, so why did they lie on the city wall and be blown to death?
Seeing Pao Ze being bombed to death one by one, and seeing the corpses of the soldiers being carried off the city wall one by one, these soldiers could no longer bear this kind of massacre. Several private soldiers of the Liu family rushed down the city wall and fled into the city regardless of the threats from the Liu family officers. The first soldier to flee led other soldiers, and the thousands of soldiers on the south city wall eventually became defeated.
These defeated soldiers rushed into the city with a roar and hid in the buildings in the city. The collapse of the southern city wall quickly led to the soldiers of several other walls. When Yang Peng's cannon fired its third round, all the soldiers in Dinghai City collapsed. The soldiers of the Liu family abandoned their helmets and armor and hid in the city, crowding and pushing, without any courage to fight against Yang Peng.
Yang Peng used cannon to blast open the south gate, built a pontoon bridge on the moat, and sent a thousand soldiers into the city to arrest Liu Xianglong. After being identified by the surrendered pirates, Liu Xianglong was quickly captured in his mansion in the city. The soldiers tied up the Fujian general Wu Hua and took him to Yang Peng's military tent.
At this time, Liu Xianglong's face was pale and his whole body was trembling. How could he still have the demeanor that threatened Yang Peng? His eyes were bloodshot. It was obvious that he had not slept well since escaping from the Battle of Beigang.
When Liu Xianglong saw Yang Peng, he closed his eyes helplessly. However, this pirate leader who was accustomed to dominating the sea was still a bit arrogant, and he actually refused to kneel when he saw Yang Peng. Seeing Liu Xianglong's toughness, Yang Peng smiled and said, "Liu Shen, are you really not afraid of death?" Liu Xianglong's body was shaking, but he straightened his neck hard and said loudly: "Liu Xianglong has been commanding the sea for twenty years, and this life has long been withheld. I'm worried about it. Yang Peng, don't be arrogant. If you don't have that armored ship, how can you be my opponent, Liu Xianglong?"
Yang Peng smiled and said: "Okay, you are tough enough. You are really a tough pirate! I, Yang Peng, will give you a pleasure. I will kill you right here in Dinghai City!" Liu Xianglong suddenly shook his body when he heard this. Shaking, he closed his eyes and remained silent. Yang Peng smiled and asked with bright eyes: "Liu Xianglong, how much money is there in this Dinghai city? If you tell the truth, I will give your wife, concubines and children a way to live, and I will give them a hundred taels each. Run a small business to make ends meet!”
When Liu Xianglong heard Yang Peng say that he would not kill his children, his righteous face relaxed. Yang Peng added: "General, if you don't tell me where the silver is hidden and my soldiers find it, I will send people to hunt down your children."
Hearing this, Liu Xianglong sighed and said slowly: "I have been hoarding silver in Dinghai City for more than ten years. I have saved seven million taels of silver, all in three cellars in my mansion. The prince blew up the rockery in my mansion. , naturally you can see the passage leading to the cellar."
Yang Peng searched Dinghai City for five days, digging three feet into the ground, and finally counted all the Liu family's property. After snatching away Liu Xianglong's property, Yang Peng did not do anything to Liu Xianglong. Yang Peng led the fleet back to Hsinchu and rested in Hsinchu city for two days.
It's the beginning of the fifth lunar month, it's already midsummer, and it's very hot during the day in Taiwan. During the day, Yang Peng hid in the "Prince Yan's Mansion" built by Zheng Hui to rest and read a few ancient books at will. In the evening, Yang Peng took his guards out for a walk.
The sea breeze is strong in Hsinchu at night, blowing away the heat on land. Zheng Hui knew that Yang Peng was out, so he rushed over from the general's house to accompany Yang Peng on the inspection.
Yang Peng inspected the pig and sheep factories in Hsinchu, and then proposed to visit the countryside. Zheng Hui is a capable manager, and Hsinchu's water conservancy facilities are well built. In addition to dragon tail trucks for irrigation, there are also dams built in the countryside. After the dam raised the water level, Zheng Hui built a canal from the reservoir formed behind the dam and used the canal to irrigate the land far away from the river bank.
Yang Peng was riding a horse in the countryside. Looking around, he could only see patches of rice fields everywhere, green under the moonlight. The weather was hot at this time, and farmers avoided the scorching sun during the day and did not come out to work. At night, many farmers are weeding in the fields, and there is a busy scene everywhere.
Yang Peng trusted the reins and walked eastward with his guards until he came to a large area of crops with low stems and leaves. The plant grows leaves one by one from the ridges, each leaf is about half the size of a palm. That area, covering several miles in radius, was all planted with this kind of crops.
Yang Peng looked at it carefully and asked curiously: "Zheng Hui, are these sweet potatoes?" Zheng Hui replied: "The prince is right, they are sweet potatoes. The people in Hsinchu are relatively wealthy and want to eat meat." Pig factories consume a lot of pig food every day, so we encourage farmers to plant sweet potatoes in places that are not suitable for growing rice, and we have also planted hundreds of thousands of acres of sweet potatoes."
Yang Peng nodded. Sweet potatoes are a crop introduced from the New World. Unlike corn and potatoes, sweet potatoes immediately adapted to Chinese soil after being introduced to China and achieved higher yields per mu. In places such as Zhangzhou, Fujian, which has a narrow territory and a large population, sweet potatoes even became the main food crop in the late Ming Dynasty, feeding many local people.
The soil in Taiwan is similar to that in Fujian, mostly red soil, which is also suitable for sweet potato production. But in the prosperous Jiangnan area, sweet potatoes received a cold reception. Excessive use of sweet potatoes will cause a series of discomforts such as abdominal bloating and is not suitable as a staple food. The price of sweet potatoes is very low. The people in the south of the Yangtze River had good harvests from planting rice, but they were unwilling to plant sweet potatoes.
Further north, sweet potato production declines, and it is not as popular as it is in Fujian. But sweet potatoes are cheap compared to rice and flour. If there is a famine, sweet potatoes can save lives. Yang Peng introduced sweet potatoes in Fujian a few years ago as a rotation plant planted after the winter wheat harvest. Most of the harvested sweet potatoes are purchased by pig farms, which also increases farmers' income to a certain extent. So Yang Peng is very familiar with this crop.
Yang Peng looked at those sweet potatoes, thoughtfully, and asked: "Zheng Hui, how many kilograms of sweet potatoes can be produced in Taiwan in a year?" Zheng Hui cupped his hands and replied: "Your Majesty, Taiwan has enough sunshine and rain. If it is managed properly, This acre of spring potatoes can produce 2,500 catties, and the summer potatoes can produce 1,500 catties. In total, one acre can produce more than 4,000 catties a year."
"If sweet potatoes are used as the staple food, this acre of sweet potato field can feed four adults, which is very impressive. But eating too much sweet potatoes will make your stomach uncomfortable. As long as there is rice to eat these days, no one wants to eat potatoes."
"Good stuff! Ask the kitchen to make sweet potato porridge for me to drink tomorrow morning!" Yang Peng praised, said no more, turned around and rode elsewhere. The fifth lunar month is already the typhoon season, and fifty-three ships are rushing back to Tianjing New City to sell goods to Japan and return to Tianjing New City. Yang Peng followed the fleet back to Tianjing New City with a full load of silver stolen from the Liu family.
Returning to Tianjing New City Port, the first thing Yang Peng did was to give bonuses to the sailors, gunners and soldiers who participated in the battle. The fleet has more than 2,000 sailors, nearly 6,000 gunners and 10,000 Tiger Soldiers, each of whom is rewarded with fifteen taels of silver. Yang Peng rewarded nearly 300,000 taels of silver at once, which greatly delighted the combatants who returned home in triumph.
Casualties in this battle were minimal, with only a few dozen soldiers wounded. For the nearly 20,000 combatants, this casualty ratio is very small, and it can be said that there is no risk. Artillerymen, soldiers and sailors took the money and rushed to Cangzhou City and Tianjing New City to spend money, filling Cangzhou's restaurants and brothels.
After this battle, Yang Peng became the overlord on the East Asian sea. The officers and men have outstanding merits and are worthy of the reward of fifteen taels of silver. After returning to the palace, Yang Peng rested for a day and then went to visit the soldiers injured in the battle. Huan Lide was the soldier with the heaviest casualties in this battle. His two right legs were broken by a cannonball from Liu Jiafu's ship, and he lost the ability to move. Although the medical team saved Huan Lide's life after amputation, Huan Lide was no longer able to work.
According to Yang Peng's rules, wounded soldiers like Huan Lide could receive a disability allowance of two to five taels per month and a second-class warrior medal. From then on, they received preferential treatment everywhere in the Cangzhou area. It can be said that although Huan Lide has been disabled since then, his good life will not be lost because of his disability. He can still live a decent life with subsidies and medals.
Yang Peng took Han Jinxin and Mi Weiwei to Sanheng Street in Tianjing New City and walked to Huan Lide's house. Seeing that the prince came to visit the wounded, the people in Sanheng Street were very excited, and they all crowded onto the road to see Yang Peng. When Yang Peng lived in Tianjing New City a few years ago, citizens could often see the "big boss" Yang Peng. However, after Yang Peng entered Yanjing City in these years, the people could no longer see Yang Peng. At this time, given the opportunity, the citizens gathered around to watch the excitement.
Seeing that the citizens missed him, Yang Peng nodded to the citizens on his horse. Unexpectedly, this nod ignited the atmosphere of the street, and the happy people cheered loudly! Yang Peng smiled, jumped off his horse and walked into Huan Lide's villa. Huan Lide rented an entire villa. The Huan family's daughter-in-law was waiting at the door with a little daughter. When she saw Yang Peng, she knelt down and kowtowed, but Yang Peng quickly helped her up. Yang Peng walked into the room, walked to Huan Lide's bed, and said with a smile: "Huan Lide, does the wound still hurt?"
Huan Lide nodded and said, "It still hurts, my lord, but I'm lucky to have saved my life." Yang Peng nodded, took a silver second-class warrior medal from the guard behind him, and wore it. Huan Lide's chest, smiled and said: "Okay, Huan Lide, although you have no legs in the future, you will still be the hero of our Tianjing New City. Whether it is court proceedings or daily things, the entire Tianjing New City will take care of you. "
Huan Lide nodded excitedly and said loudly: "Thank you, Your Majesty." Yang Peng nodded and looked at the furnishings of the Huan family to see what the Huan family still lacked. He suddenly smelled a strong smell and couldn't help asking: "Why is the room so smelly?" Huan Lide's wife blushed and said: "The toilet door may have been blown open by the wind, I'll close it! "
Yang Peng was stunned for a moment, and secretly thought that he originally designed this toilet in a small villa, which had both advantages and disadvantages. It's convenient, but the smell is difficult to control. The toilet originally designed by Yang Peng was connected directly to the underground septic tank, so the strong odor was inevitable.
The originally solemn ceremony was interrupted by the smell of the toilet, which was a bit embarrassing. Yang Peng nodded and said: "The living standards of the people in Tianjing New City cannot be defeated by the smell of this toilet!" Yang Peng smiled and patted Huan Lide on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Huan Lide, I, the prince, will Go back and make flush toilets, and equip your home with the first one, so that your home will never stink again."
What happened after all, let’s see what happens next.
