Ning Liujin's relative's boat was not big, costing only 200 yuan at most. It was just one of the countless fake boats in the Zheng family's fleet. [No pop-up novel website] The hull is very old, but it is still strong. Two privately cast cannons were installed on the ship. Thick and short, covered in yellow-red rust. When the cannon is fired, it jumps three feet high. Although it is tied with a rope, the gunner will still be hit if he is not careful. At Ning Liujin's feet were several large baskets of scrap metal, small stones and pieces of porcelain used for cannonballs. Several jars of gunpowder were thrown under the mast, which was covered with a few straw mats.
Apart from the captain, the most important person on the ship is the fire chief. He can memorize the needle, read the compass, and recite the tide song. He and the helmsman at the helm are second-in-command. Below are the hard-working guys who can fire cannons. It was barely considered a three-way operation, but the danger was too great. Less than half a year after Ning Liujin came on board, the gunners had already changed twice. When one of the cannons was fired, the cannon jumped up and hit him, and he vomited blood and died on the spot. When the cannon was fired, the gunpowder sprayed out from the cannon door, burning his face. He was rolling around shouting at the sky and the earth when the captain asked him to throw him away. Gone to the sea. Ning Liujin was so frightened that he secretly vowed never to become a gunner.
"Apprentices" like Ning Liujin are not considered human beings on the ship. No one took his status as a "relative of the ship owner" seriously. All kinds of work plus fists and kicks were thrown at him. Not long after boarding the ship, he was raped by a gangster one night while he was sleeping. Later, he was brutally raped many times - this kind of thing is common in pirate gangs, and everyone doesn't take it seriously.
In order to eat, he had no choice but to swallow this breath with hatred and humiliation. I hope that one day I can make a difference on the ship and join the ranks of the second class - now there are wars at sea every day. The captain and Huo Chang died very quickly. Some of the men climbed into the captain's cabin after a few battles, and even took away the captain's wife and children.
This time they gathered in Kinmen to fight against the bandits. The boat owner had a few too many drinks one night. He was frothing at the mouth and said that this was the decree of the imperial court. General Zheng was going to lead everyone to conquer the Kun bandits. He said that after defeating the Kun bandits, everyone would be rewarded.
Ning Liujin had no idea what the Kun thieves were. He only knew that they had big and fast ships, and it was said that they were more powerful than General Zheng. Of course, most people didn't dare to say that openly. In fact, let alone the Kun thief, who was Liu Xiang who had fought with them before. He has no idea how powerful it is. In his opinion, fighting is just for the food, and who to fight is a matter for the leaders to consider. Ning Liujin's only concern was not to lose his life during the war.
5 a.m. on September 20th. The outline of Kinmen Island is already faintly visible. A lookout spotted the silhouettes of numerous ships 3 nautical miles north of the fleet. The officer on duty in the firing control room immediately used an infrared telescope to observe Liao Luo Wan. He saw many ships anchored along the shore of Liaoluo Bay, three or four rows deep. They are all small and medium-sized ships. Slightly farther to the west, seven three-masted gunboats with a displacement of 1,000 tons are moored.
The Lichun quickly raised the signal flag and used light signals to notify each team and squadron. Prepare for battle as a single column. 5:10. An order was issued from the Beginning of Spring: Advance, the enemy is at Liaoluo Bay!
At 5:12, the 130mm main gun of the Lichun opened fire first from 3 nautical miles away, and then the four ships of Ignition, Wind Control, Wave Rider and Yangbo opened fire in sequence. The fire ejected from the 130mm cannon reflected the bay red.
Ning Liujin was in a deep sleep. Suddenly, a loud thunder-like sound resounded through the sky. He thought a thunderstorm was coming, so he quickly opened his eyes. The moon and stars are sparse in the sky. In the midst of surprise. I saw a ball of fire rising outside the fleet, and then quickly dimmed. The men who were sleeping on the deck all woke up and were startled.
"Quick! Load up the cannon! Someone is coming to kick the camp!" the captain's voice rang urgently.
The guys quickly loaded the artillery or muskets. The gunpowder can was opened and poured directly into the barrel. Ning Liujin is not responsible for firearms. He immediately picked up the steel fork he carried with him and stood beside the ship's side, just staring at the dark sea.
From his angle he could see almost nothing. His ship was mixed among many small and medium-sized ships in Liaoluo Bay, and only the ships and masts could be seen.
But from the distant clouds hanging from the sky, a flash of red light could be seen, and then there was a roar of thunder. Dull explosions came one after another. The guys on the boat all had their eyes widened, not knowing what they were about to face.
"Hurry, raise the sails and lift the anchor!" The owners of every ship were shouting. No matter what they were facing, if they continued to stay here, they would obviously be waiting for death. Ning Liujin was also rushed to lift the anchor. The wet cable rubbed his hands so much that it hurt, but everyone was shrouded in fear and pulled on the cable desperately regardless.
Suddenly, a bright light cut through the sky and the sea, and it seemed to be a section of burning air, rotating on the water. The source of the light was vaguely a large black ship with a tall mast, moving very fast against the wind. Liujin thought he must have seen it wrong, because there was no way a boat could sail in this direction - it was a pure headwind.
The bright light pointed at a sailboat and stopped turning. Several orange flashes flashed across the phantom-like ship, and then the sailboat connected to the bright light turned into a ball of fire, and the sail was rolled up toward the sky like a mat. Some fragments flew past the firelight and penetrated into the unknown dark night.
The bright light suddenly disappeared again, and everyone was stunned as they watched the burning boat quickly break into two pieces and submerge under the water. The flames floating on the water also quickly extinguished and dimmed.
"Your mother, raise the sail quickly!" The captain was the first to react, kicking and beating several crew members along the way. "Sail hoisted! Full sail!" he shouted.
The Beginning of Spring led four gunboats to pause their firing after the first round of shelling on the Liaoluo Bay ship group, and quickly corrected their shooting at Zhu Yuan. Their target was the seven main gunboats further away. The previous round of shelling was just for the follow-up. The squadron of secret service boats indicated targets for firing.
The squadron of secret service boats followed, but their guns had a much shorter range, so they kept their guns silent and continued sailing into Liaoluo Bay. Each gun has been loaded with grenades, and the gunners have loaded the flare tubes and are ready to fire.
Artillery was fired sporadically from the Zheng family fleet in Liaoluo Bay, but the best artillery equipped on these ships could not reach more than 1 nautical mile. For the sailors on the ship, it was not a spectacular event. Just a fireworks show. Each squadron, under the command of the squadron leader, continued to approach the enemy fleet in neat formation.
The Lichun sailed forward for 1 nautical mile, and when it was 2.5 nautical miles away from the seven three-masted gun ships, Mingqiu looked at his watch and gave the order on the bridge to "turn on the searchlights and fire the entire fleet." Li Ziping, the captain of the Lichun, had repeatedly calibrated his shooting points in the gunnery control room and was waiting for the order to fire. As soon as Mingqiu finished speaking, the Lichun fired its first salvo, accurately covering a three-masted gunboat. The towering water column instantly submerged the enemy ship.
After the Lichun opened fire, the main guns and side guns of each ship opened fire one after another under the guidance of searchlights, and dozens of shells flew away with red trails. Countless water jets were raised at the anchorage.
Li Ziping carefully observed the rising and falling water column with a telescope. Suddenly, a red flame flashed in the water column, and a dull explosion sounded immediately:
"One hit!" the observation post immediately shouted.
"Keep shooting and maintain speed." Li Ziping ordered on the bridge. The gunners on the main battery deck in front of the bridge were loading ammunition. He used a gun brush to clean the barrel of the gun, then filled the silk maroon powder bags one by one, pushed the grenades one by one into the barrel, and then fired them.
Every time it was launched, the Lichun would vibrate, and gun smoke and gunfire would sweep across the deck. The vibration, high temperature, and gun smoke made the front deck a purgatory. But the sailors who were operating the gunnery screamed excitedly, and some even took off their shirts. Their faces and bodies were all stained black with gunpowder smoke and gun oil.
"Damn, it feels a bit like the clouds on the slope." Li Ziping felt the spicy smoke blowing past his face in the sea breeze, making him almost breathless. The bridge beneath his feet was shaking: the roar of boilers, the roar of steam engines, the roar of cannons... mixed into a powerful and powerful war music of the steam cannon era.
The sky grew brighter as the distance grew closer, and now they no longer needed searchlights. The gunner continued to correct the target according to the landing point of the water column. The gunners shot more and more accurately, and balls of red and yellow flames continued to explode in the dense water column. Although several ships in the fleet of seven gunboats have pulled anchor, they are almost helpless under the intensive and accurate gunfire of the first battle team. The wooden hull will be damaged as long as it is hit by a grenade. The shell and deck caused serious structural damage. Shrapnel mixed into splinters and flew across the deck. Blood and flesh were flying everywhere on the deck, making it feel like a hell on earth. There were no controls on flammable materials on the deck, and a fire broke out quickly after being hit by a shell. A gunboat was hit directly on the ammunition magazine at the stern of the ship, causing a large explosion that blew it into two pieces.
From the beginning to the end, although there were a few gunboats that managed to fire back, the number of guns was too small and the range was not enough, which brought almost no damage to the ships of the first team. Only when the first battle group approached 1 nautical mile away, a few shells fell into the column, but they did not hit any targets. At this time, almost all the gunboats had been hit, and most of them had sunk into Liao Luo Bay or turned into burning hulls floating on the water. The last two three-masted gunboats also completely lost their ability to fight back after the next round of shelling, and sank to the bottom of the sea one by one in the subsequent shelling.
