What Xiong Wencan is most worried about is that the military is "fearful of Kun as a tiger." He had felt this way since he came to Zhaoqing to receive the seal, especially among the defeated generals who had fled and redeemed from Qiongzhou and could not hear the word "kun thief". If you say the word "fight", everyone will shake their head. When it comes to thieves, there are nothing more than the clichés of "strong ships, powerful guns," "fearless fear of death," and "excellent weapons"... Xiong Wencan has almost heard noises in his ears since he took office.
At first he thought this was just an excuse for a defeated general to conceal his defeat - it had been the case since ancient times. However, as time went by, especially after Chang Qingyun came into his presence, he realized that what he said was true. In particular, the Kun thieves made a surprise attack on the Zhongzuo Institute, defeating the imperial court in one fell swoop. The Zheng Zhilong Group, which had the most powerful navy and army in the southeast, not only razed the Zhongzuo Institute to the ground, but also beheaded Zheng Zhilong. Only then did Xiong Wencan have a clear understanding of the strength of the Australians.
Therefore, he never really considered how to fight against the Kun thieves militarily, but more about "appeasement".
Xiong Wencan made his fortune by recruiting Zheng Zhilong, but he ruined himself by recruiting Zhang Xianzhong. Recruitment has always been a "panacea" for dealing with rebels from all walks of life. Therefore, soon after he reorganized the Ming army in Guangdong, he began to recruit the Kun thieves.
However, a few months ago, Chang Qingyun negotiated with Zhenkun, who had sneaked into Zhaoqing, but was rejected by the other party.
Not only that, the other party also reminded him clearly that the Senate was about to march into Guangzhou. If he wanted to save his official position and life, he would have to be transferred somewhere early.
Naturally, Xiong Wencan would not run away just because of Kun Thief's words. He knew that the Australians were by no means empty-handed threats. However, according to the speed at which the army fought, if he were to mobilize the two armies to suppress Qiongzhou, it would take at least eight months to a year to prepare; It will definitely not be possible to set out from Hainan with a few thousand elite troops. It will take no less than half a year to "sweep the ground into troops" in Qiongzhou, coerce the people, and then organize and train the army.
So he made some preparations: he cast many cannons in Foshan; he made many new firearms - many of which were based on military books and the atlases submitted to the imperial court by literati and generals from various places; he expanded the number of troops in various camps. posts. He also hired an additional 5,000 men from the households to supplement the naval forces at various places inside and outside the Pearl River Estuary.
He did not forget the safety of Zhaoqing itself: the first batch of Hongyi cannons equipped with the new Mopan gun mount were installed at the entrance of Antelope Gorge. Not only was a fort set up at the east entrance, but according to the suggestion of a general who suffered a defeat in Humen that year, a guard was stationed beside the fort.
Not only did Antelope Gorge have a fort at the east entrance, he also set up a fort and a sentry camp at the west entrance close to Zhaoqing Fucheng. It turned out that he planned to set up two more forts at the Jiajiang River in the middle of the canyon. However, when he sent people to see it, they all said that the project was huge. . Although the mountains on both sides of Antelope Gorge are not cliffs, transporting the Hongyi cannon, which weighs several kilograms, to the top of a mountain with no roads, and then building a fort there would definitely be difficult within a few years.
In order to prevent the Kun bandits from taking the water route instead of taking the dry road, he set up a new camp on Beiling Mountain northwest of Zhaoqing City and stationed a sentry to guard the canyon mountain road.
Unexpectedly, they came so quickly! The armaments at the Pearl River Estuary, which he had invested a lot of money and food to rebuild, were completely useless: the defenders watched the wind and descended all the way. Not only did the Humen Fort not fire a single shot, but even the city of Guangzhou was opened without blood. The more than 1,000 troops under his guerrilla training that he had worked so hard to rebuild actually surrendered directly to Kun. During the guerrilla training, only a dozen soldiers and servants escaped.
Xiong Wencan secretly regretted it. My so-called strategy of "calmly deploying and resisting step by step" turned out to be a piece of cake!
It is useless to regret at this moment. Since Guangzhou was lost, Zhaoqing was waiting for a place that must be defended.
However, he was no longer allowed to prepare calmly at this moment. Facts have proved that his estimate of the Fubo Army's advancing speed was also wrong. After entering Guangzhou, the Fubo Army hardly made any stops, neither did they "rest for a few days" or "raid for three days". They marched through the city almost non-stop and headed straight for Zhaoqing. From the mouths of the officials and gentry who fled from Guangzhou, he learned that Fubo's army marched up the river by boat without stopping. In just three days, Fubo's army had already arrived at Antelope Gorge.
However, Zhaoqing did not have many troops, and in a hurry it was impossible to mobilize Luoding's east and west mountain ginseng to assist in the defense. Only the Zhaoqing Naval Battalion has become an organic battalion. Even he, the personal servants of the generals and officials who had fled from Guangzhou and other places, and the local guards and troops...the total number was only more than 2,000 people. There are also a thousand Shuiyong from the Dan family.
According to the Tang newspaper, the Kun army gathered in Antelope Gorge was only about 3,000 people, and the navy had hundreds of large and small ships. Several of the large ships have "giant cannons". Obviously, if the navy is allowed to fight them on the river, they will definitely lose. So the idea of "attacking ships with fire" once again became the consensus of the Ming army generals.
Xiong Wencan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as he watched the fire attack fleet set off in a mighty manner. Whether Zhaoqing can hold on or not depends on this.
According to his order, part of the navy's fleet followed the fire attack ship. Once the fire attack ship disrupted the Konthi navy, they took the opportunity to cover up and kill them down the river. Attack ships cannot break the enemy's last river defense line.
"Master Tai Tai, it is useless to leave these division ships on the river," Chang Qingyun remonstrated in a low voice, "If the fire attack ships cannot defeat the enemy, these division ships will be as vulnerable as chickens and dogs. Why not use the whole army? Press on, take advantage of the momentum of the fire to attack the ship, and go with the current, there may be a slight chance of victory..."
Xiong Wencan only twisted his beard and smiled without saying a word. Chang Qingyun couldn't understand. I had no choice but to step aside.
Only Xiong Wencan's deputy general in the Chinese army knew the secret. These ships were to buy time for Governor Xiong to escape. Once the bandits came to the city, he immediately abandoned the city and boarded a boat to go to Wuzhou. However, although the prepared rowing boat has three teams of strong oarsmen taking turns to replace it, it is going upstream after all, and the movement is inevitably slow. If there is no naval warship to block such an obstacle, I am afraid that I will be captured by the thieves before I can get out of the Dading Gorge. Captured alive.
"Enemy ship found! Bearing 265, distance 40 chains, heading 75, speed 7 knots!" the lookout whistle reported loudly.
In fact, even if he didn't report it, Schneider had already seen the exposed mast in the telescope.
"He really came out to fight!" He muttered to himself, as he did every time before entering a battle, his body suddenly became tense. He raised the telescope and adjusted the focus: the first ship appeared in the eyepiece. It was a small rice boat common on the Xijiang River. The bow was equipped with bamboo bundles and was covered with mud. The waterline is low.
Then, a second, third, and fourth ship appeared next to it... densely packed, countless ships came over, and in an instant, the river was full of large and small ships. With the sail hung and the oars rowed, they sailed down the river towards the fleet.
Schneider's scalp was slightly numb. The river here is narrow, and he is in the opposite current, so there is little room for maneuver. You can only seize the distance difference and destroy enemy ships as far as possible from a long distance.
Schneider ordered: "The formation heading is 270. Speed is 5 knots. Prepare for battle."
Ruan Xiaowu issued a firing order: "Grenade, load!" The gunners used ramrods to load the shells and silk powder packages into the chambers respectively. The gunners turned the handwheels, steam spurted out from the gaps in the pipes, and the huge bottle-shaped body pipe rose.
"Loading complete!"
The ranging soldiers kept reporting the distance of the enemy ships: "35 chains! 30 chains!"
The distance between the enemy and ourselves was reduced to 30 chains, and Schneider ordered: "Shoot!"
The battle flag of the Pearl River was raised to the top of the mast. The main gun on the Pearl River vibrated violently, and a ball of flame was ejected from the muzzle. Due to the extremely small tonnage of the Pearl River, the recoil and shock of the artillery made the gunship retreat violently. , causing a huge splash.
The shell roared in the air and drew an arc. Ruan Xiaowu held a stopwatch in his hand and observed the impact point with a telescope.
There was almost no need to aim, and the grenade landed accurately among the densely packed fire attack ships on the river. A red light flashed, and a yellow water column rose into the sky.
Ruan Xiaowu immediately corrected the impact point data.
"Based on the Pearl River, open fire on Suijiang. Grape bombs!"
The 130mm main gun on the 621 modified armed paddle steamer at the end of the formation was straddle-fired at a high elevation angle. The shells passed by the fleet, and the 130mm grapeshot flew into the sky with a whistling sound. Then it exploded in mid-air, spraying a total of 27 iron projectiles of 1 pound each toward the river surface indiscriminately.
In an instant, iron projectiles swept across the hull. Wherever the projectiles passed, broken shipboards, masts, sails, and sailors' heads and bodies flew everywhere. The hot shells ignited bullets covered with tung oil and gunpowder. straw, a fire broke out in the cabin, and then it quickly tilted and sank due to the influx of river water...
"What the hell is this..." Cao Bajiao, who was standing on the deck of the last ship, saw it clearly and couldn't help but be secretly frightened. He couldn't help but shrink his neck. However, the second sound of artillery was heard soon after. This time the impact point of the artillery shell was closer, and the whistling projectiles once again swept across the river. The whistling projectiles shot down from the air and once again harvested the ships on the river. Cao Bajiao was so frightened at this time that he no longer wanted to "take command from the center". He led the people down to the small boat at the stern, cut off the cable, and fled towards the river bank - he did not dare to go towards Zhaoqing. , if captured, they will be beheaded.
"Distance 20 chains!" As the voice of the observation post came, Schneider ordered: "All ships shoot freely!"
A distance of 400 meters is an effective range for both the 37 rapid-fire cannon and the 13-meter typewriter. What's more, it is hitting a surface target. It doesn't matter how large the spread of projectiles is when fired at a high elevation angle.
Dense lead bullets rained down on the fire attack ship in an instant, tearing apart the bamboo shield arranged on the bow of the ship and igniting the straw in the cabin. The fire attack ship was in raging fire, and the sailors on the ship were dying and trying to escape. , the out-of-control fireships collided with each other and drifted along the river towards the fleet.
