Chapter 187 The final fire attack
In order to increase the intensity of the fire, barrels of sulfur and fire medicine were piled on the ship, and many so-called toxic medicines that could poison the smoke were added. According to Xu Ting's estimation, with so many fire attack ships and rafts attacking at the same time, the Kun thief's cannons would not be able to reach them no matter how powerful they were. As long as one-third of the Kun thief's warships can be burned, the purpose of defeating the Kun thief's defense can be achieved. Xu Ting gathered all the remaining naval warships and more than 40 rice boats and salt ships that served as division ships when the expedition came, and prepared to take advantage of the fire attack to be effective. When the Kun thieves fleet was in full swing, he took advantage of the momentum to rush into the enemy's formation and let Shui Yong board the enemy. Boat fight. Li Fengjie offered an unprecedented reward: one tael for killing the fake Kun, and fifty taels for the real Kun. If you burn a Kun bandit warship, you will be rewarded fifty taels for the small one, and one hundred taels for the big one; if you capture a Kun bandit warship, you will be rewarded two hundred taels.
Just when the Fubo army occupied Ershawei and was busy cleaning up the bandits on Henan Island and temporarily stranded, Xu Ting ordered Chen Qian to lead the fire attack fleet to slowly go down the provincial river, and he personally led the navy behind to suppress the formation.
"You, my dear, have escaped from battle for the second time. This time, I will give you a chance to make atonement." Xu Ting said fiercely to Chen Qian before leaving. "Master Fujun has ordered me to act cheaply. You can do it yourself."
Chen Qian secretly scolded Xu Ting for running faster than a rabbit, and this time he planned to use him as a vanguard to die. But he didn't dare to make a mistake. Everyone knew that Li Fujun was already red-eyed. If he lost another battle, he might really have his head chopped off.
"The last general will definitely take the lead bravely," Chen Qianyan said sincerely.
"If it's official, let's leave it to the future." Xu Ting snorted and said viciously, "The bandits entered Baietan and fired three or four rounds at the provincial capital. Of course, both your and my heads will have to be moved. ,you are the first"
"The general will know." Chen Qian crossed his hands and said respectfully. Sweat was already flowing down. The ability of an officer to shirk the blame is first-class. The problem now is that it is difficult for him to shirk the blame. His defense line was at Humen Village, and he fled all the way to Guangzhou. Fu Jun really wanted to kill people and blame others, and he was the perfect candidate.
But if he really wanted to move forward bravely, he didn't have the courage - Chen Qian could see clearly that trying to face-to-face with the Kun thief on the water was either courting death or seeking death.
But now that Li Fengjie and others are suppressing them, they have to go even if they die. Chen Qian had no choice but to choose two fast and flexible Changlong boats as his boats, and carefully selected dozens of soldiers with good water skills and good handling of boats. Be prepared to hide aside as soon as the fire attack ship comes aboard, and then decide based on the situation.
Night falls.
The task force anchored at Ershawei has lowered its military flag and entered a state of rest for the night. The sentries lit piles of bonfires on the Ershawei fort abandoned by the officers and soldiers. The sentries watched the river in the distance with vigilance - the officers on the ground had sent out long-range patrol posts. They had all undergone special training and could detect the silhouette of people in the dark night. It is impossible for anyone to attempt to attack the task force from 6 locations.
The danger comes from the water. Despite careful arrangements: large ships at the core, small boats forming fixed sentries on the periphery, and patrol boats conducting uninterrupted night patrols. But on such a narrow water surface that is not conducive to maneuvering, there is very little room for maneuver in the event of a sneak attack.
Night commander Le Lin was sitting in a chair on the fort, wrapped in a thick military wool felt cloak - this was made of material bought from the Portuguese, which was warm and waterproof, for the future of the continent. The strategy plan is one of several material preparations. Troops and sailors cannot operate in the tropics forever.
Le Lin wrapped her cloak tightly. As a Hong Konger, he had never felt that the nights in Guangdong were so cold in the old time and space - even if it was Christmas in Lan Kwai Fong, the most he could wear was a coat. However, here, even if I am wearing my own British navy shirt, I still feel the cold, damp air seeping in pervasively.
"Why is this little ice age so cold?" He muttered, and from time to time he raised the Russian-made infrared telescope in his hand to look around in order to break the boring time and space.
Sun Tianbiao secretly cursed - ever since he escaped from Lingao Guards Station at night and went to Haikou Qianhu Clinic to seek help, he has been kicked around like a ball from Haikou, Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Haikou, and has only been involved in When it comes to the word "kun thief", everything will be his turn. When Chengmai was defeated, he jumped into the water to escape on a hún luan, found a fishing boat on the shore, crossed the sea, and escaped back to the mainland. After running all the way, I finally arrived in Zhaoqing, and was almost treated as a beggar. Wang Zhijun's complexion turned very bad after asking him a few questions, and then nothing more happened. Sun Tianbiao spent a few days in the Governor's Bureau without any status and status, and then was kicked to Guangzhou to "Tingyong".
In the end, he finally found a job in the Humen Navy - but he had no soldiers under his command, so he only received a salary. He also had to go out on patrol from time to time, which was not as comfortable as living the life of a landlord in the guardhouse.
Not to mention, it was his turn to lead the arson boat attack this time - it is said that it was because he was familiar with the relationship. Sun Tianbiao had no choice but to board the first ten boats and crouched in the cabin, planning when to jump into the water to escape. I couldn't help but scold all the eighteen generations of Chen Qian's ancestors.
Seeing the dark shadow of the Kun thief's fleet in the distance, it had already appeared vaguely. Sun Tianbiao's heart was in his throat. Others don't know it, but he is very aware of the "legends" about various thieves. In addition to extremely powerful firearms, there is also the legendary clairvoyance that can see people at night. Sun Tianbiao originally wanted to report the matter to Chen Qian, who was commanding the battle, but he did not expect that the other party did not bother to see him at all and only told him to "move forward bravely."
"Are you going to die bravely?" Sun Tianbiao muttered, and then cursed, "Paddle slowly, the water is too loud."
The boat needed almost no power and floated slowly downstream along the current. Sun Tianbiao secretly thought - in this case, everyone from far away can jump into the water to escape, and there is no need to row the boat until it can hit the enemy ship. the point. Before he could finish his thoughts, the lights on the river turned bright. For a moment, he could hardly open his eyes. In surprise, a strong beam of light had been thrown from the direction of the thief's fleet, illuminating the entire arson fleet. Bright.
What was projected was just a medium-power stage light, but it was enough to clearly illuminate the incoming arson fleet on the water.
"ignition"
"Fire"
The orders came out almost simultaneously from the fort and the arson ship.
The Kun thief's artillery roared almost instantly, mixed with clear and continuous screams like tearing clothes, and cannonballs and lead bullets flew in one after another. Landed in the middle of the fleet. Several fire rafts were sunk before they had time to ignite. An arson ship suddenly started to tremble, and pieces of wood were flying in the air, as if someone was beating it with an invisible whip. The sailor above jumped up convulsively and fell into the water.
A shell roared in and directly hit a fire ship. The ship filled with fuel immediately turned into a sea of flames. Sun Tianbiao even thought he heard the screams of the sailors.
Sun Tianbiao quickly picked up a can of tinder and threw it into the front cabin that was already filled with tinder, causing flames to burst out. Ignoring the greeting, he rolled and jumped off the side of the boat, followed by others on the boat.
Lighting was the order, and one ship after another was lit on fire. The dozen or so arson ships of the first wave drifted down the water towards the task force on the mountain above the Ershawei River.
"Brothers, be careful, hold on tight." Chen Qian, who was following behind, didn't expect that Kun Thief was so skilled and could actually emit such a huge light out of thin air in the dark night. Now that a sneak attack was out of the question, the only way to escape safely was to immediately set the boat and the fire raft on fire and float down, hoping that the thieves would be caught off guard and the blind cat would catch the dead rat and crash into several enemy ships.
However, this distance was too far. Chen Qian thought to himself - if he drifted down like this, the Kun thief would have run away long ago. How could he still hit the enemy ship? Normally, everyone would just light up the fire and run for their own lives. This time, there was no room for blame. Chen Qian ordered the remaining ships to speed up and row over, and they were not allowed to light fires until they reached the enemy ship.
"If anyone sets fire to the ship without permission, kill them," he shouted, waving his saber on his boat. "Everyone rushes up to the thieves. If you hit the thief with just a few cannons, you deserve to die. If you don't hit us, we will have a fortune."
The people who were attacking the ships with fire were all desperadoes. After being shouted at by him, all of them had only money in their eyes. Seeing that the cannonballs had fallen on Sun Tianbiao's vanguard fleet, they quickly immersed themselves in rowing and sailed towards the fleet with all their strength. .
Three minutes after Le Lin gave the order to fire, the main commanders of the fleet ran to the deck. Chen Haiyang raised his telescope and saw burning ships everywhere on the river in the distance. These were the enemy's agents who were covering the outside of the fleet during the fire attack. The boat was firing fiercely with artillery and typewriters. Searchlights patrolled back and forth on the river. Chen Haiyang estimated the distance and felt a little more at ease - the nearest fire was still almost 2 kilometers away from the outer perimeter of the fleet. According to what they knew about the general tactics used by the Ming army and pirates to attack ships with fire, no one would be left on the ship after it was lit, and it would be driven entirely by water flow and wind. According to the current current on the river, it would take at least 30 minutes to reach the anchorage of the fleet. .
At this rate, I'm afraid many fire attack ships would be burned and sunk before they could reach the fleet's anchorage. Not to mention that artillery and typewriters are now constantly firing at them.
"Tell Le Lin to follow the plan to counter the enemy's fire attack on the ship." Chen Haiyang ordered, "We must strengthen observation that the enemy may have unfired ships traveling in secret."
Every ship has pulled up its anchor chain. The sailors were in their respective positions, especially the typewriter shooters. They quickly took off the oilcloth gun jackets, loaded the bullet trays, turned the gun racks casually, and stared at the dark water.
Sun Tianbiao's vanguard was beaten to pieces by artillery and typewriters, turning into pieces of burning wreckage on the water, slowly floating along the water, swirling, and sinking. The fire attack ship behind passed through the wreckage on the water and continued to carry out special attack operations with a brave attitude rarely seen recently.
Several small boats that had been keeping the fire on fire also came from the anchorage. They moved hundreds of meters forward and used typewriters to blast the subsequent fire attack ships. The dense bullets swept across the deck, beating the sailors to pieces and rushing to the front. The fire attack ships lost control and slowed down, and some simply rolled across the water and collided with the ships behind them.
Chen Qian saw that the forward was intercepted by the Australians again, knowing that there was no hope of breaking through the blockade, so he had to order the fire bitterly. More than thirty fire attack ships and nearly a hundred fire rafts were on fire, and for a while the flames on the water were blazing, making it a spectacular sight.
These fire boats and fire rafts drifted slowly downstream along the current. Because the speed was too slow and no one was operating, several of them collided with each other and sank. Several more were huddled together on the water and burned first. A brilliant light. The remaining ones were pulled to the river bank one by one with long-handled iron hooks by the sailors on the sampans that had already arrived at a distance of 500 meters, and were allowed to be burned.
Xu Ting saw the flames in the river and thought he had succeeded. He immediately led 40 division ships down the river, preparing to take advantage of the momentum to attack. Unexpectedly, they were hit by a heavy fire from a spy boat before they arrived. The three division ships in front were immediately hit by cannons and caught fire. Xu Ting bit his head and ordered a fierce attack. He placed fifty-two ingots of silver and dozens of ingots on the deck. He waved his sword and shouted: "Those who advance will be rewarded and those who retreat will be killed."
While he was shouting to charge forward to "repay the favor of the imperial court", someone brought the imprisoned Sun Tianbiao in front of him.
"Sir, the firepower of the Kun bandits ahead is fierce, and the ships cannot pass..."
Before Sun Tianbiao finished speaking, Xu Ting immediately shouted: "Drag him down and kill him."
The soldiers on the left and right immediately pulled Sun Tianbiao, who had not yet recovered, to the bow of the ship, and chopped off the head with one knife. Present the bloody human head.
"Hang on the mast," Xu Ting said loudly, "Whoever dares to escape from battle will end up like this."
All the troops suddenly trembled, and while shouting loudly to kill, they fired the firearms on the ship toward the tail of Ersha. The two dragons came out of the water, the swarm of bees, and the fire pigeons. Regardless of whether the firing range was sufficient or not, they all shot out, which was really impressive. Spectacular. Not only did they not hit the thief, but they accidentally injured a lot of sailors who jumped into the water to escape from the fire ship.
"You idiot... look carefully before you hit..." Shui Yong, who was hit by a rocket for no reason, cursed and sank.
"Pay attention to the enemy ship's distance of 430 meters. Load the solid ammunition as soon as possible." The gunnery officers on the spy boat shouted loudly while observing.
The final special attack of the navy led by Xu Ting lasted until midnight. The entire river was blazing with fire, and the sound of gunfire, screams, curses and calls for help filled the night sky. As the night grew darker, more and more ships caught fire. Finally, the Ming army's final counterattack failed. Xu Ting only escaped with his own body and swam ashore with his own soldiers to escape. Chen Qian took his boat and fled into Xijiang in one breath. Of the 40 warships that participated in the counterattack, all were lost except for 4 that escaped during the battle. When the sky was twilight, Le Lin and others, who looked tired, could only see corpses and broken shipwrecks floating in the river. Green smoke was still rising from the shipwrecks.
The task force lost five sampans and one long dragon in this night battle. A steamboat was hit by a cannonball in its boiler, causing an explosion that killed two sailors and severely damaged the boat. This was the Navy's worst loss. In addition, several ships were hit, but it did not affect the battle. All casualties were 3 dead and 14 injured. They could not count the losses of the Ming army. Few prisoners were captured in the dark, and many people took advantage of the night to swim ashore and escape. However, after the war alone, there were five to six hundred corpses recovered from the water by nearby villagers.
On November 3, 163o AD, the mist on Baietan had just dissipated, and the Pearl River Task Force of the Australian and Song Dynasty Fubo Army sailed into Baietan.
The chains clattered, and the anchors were thrown from the ship into the blue water of Bai Goose Pond. The black dongdong muzzle on the ship was facing Guangzhou City.
The gates of Guangzhou were tightly closed - the news that Xu Ting's counterattack failed had long been brought back to Guangzhou by the defeated troops. The city gate that was supposed to be opened early in the morning was not open for the first time.
Yu Baocun, the prefect of Guangzhou, was watching on the city wall. When he saw the fleet approaching, he quickly got off the city wall and got into a sedan chair.
"Go to the governor's office quickly"
Li Fengjue was completely at his wits' end at this time. Xu Ting's counterattack failed, and he didn't even know where the others were. None of the forts along the way were effective. The 5,000 Shuiyong recruited with huge sums of money ran away with them dead, leaving less than 2,000 people. But the Folangji people, whom he originally had high hopes for, had no intention of dispatching battleships to cut off the Kun thieves' retreat. According to the letter sent back by Li Luoyou, it seems that the Folangji people have accurately grasped the news of Gao Shunqin's request to close the border and even expel them. Not to mention "borrowing troops to help the war", not taking advantage of the situation to rob Li Luoyou has already cost him a lot of effort. .
Although the letter did not say it explicitly, the implication was very clear: He was asked to negotiate a peace with the Kun thieves as soon as possible to avoid suffering a greater blow.
Negotiating peace, negotiating peace, Li Fengjie was half frustrated, half angry. He originally wanted to negotiate for peace, but he made the wrong calculation at the time, hoping to save a little face before contacting the Australians. Now not only does he have no face, but he has almost lost all his fortune. Now the Kun thief's fleet is anchored in Baietan, ready to bombard Guangzhou anytime and anywhere - putting him in a dilemma.
Negotiating peace will inevitably encounter attacks from many people, especially Gao Shunqin, who is extremely hostile to all overseas people. God knows how he will impeach the court.
If a war breaks out, there is no guarantee of victory at all - even if the Kun thieves fail to capture Guangzhou, it is a certainty that they will be dismissed from office after this round of troubles. If the Kun thieves break the city, they will not even be able to protect their lives.
Thinking of this, he frowned. He let out a long sigh.
He Chengzong said in a small voice: "My lord, now we only have the money to allow Kun Thief's navy to withdraw from Baietan. As time goes by, there will be no way to pay."
"There's no way to explain it now," Li Fengjie said firmly.
"Sir, there is always a way to deal with it now. If this thief starts fighting outside Guangzhou again, I'm afraid there will really be no way to answer it."
