Chapter 205
The naval battle at this time is like a giant tooth shark facing a dozen whales. Seeing that it is one against many, it will be more dangerous than bad. However, every time the megalodon opens its huge mouth, it will definitely bite the whale and make it dripping with blood.
This is the case with this new warship of the Ning Navy. Although it does not have many guns, it has only twenty-four guns in total, including eight guns on the left and right sides, four guns on the front main deck, and two guns on the second deck. Two doors, one on the aft deck. Compared with the Europa battleship, which has dozens of cannons at every turn, it is simply inferior.
However, even for such an inferior battleship, the firepower is extremely fierce, and the rate of fire of the artillery is extremely fast. There is no way that this is the rate of fire of the breech-mounted artillery. Of course, the Europa battleship will also be equipped with some Folang machine breech-loaders. Cannons are used for close range bombardment.
The rate of fire of the Folan machine is also very fast. If equipped with enough sub-cannons, at least in the artillery sequence of the Ning Navy, it can fire thirteen shells in almost one minute. This speed will not be matched by the artillery armies of later generations. Nothing, but in this era, the rate of fire is a bit scary.
"Bagayalu, isn't it true that the navy of the Ming Dynasty is useless and can't even defeat pirates? What's going on with this warship?"
Morimoto grabbed a guy dressed as a Han next to him and asked in a roar: "Why did you lie to me!"
"I...I don't know...I..."
Before he could finish his explanation, Morimoto Ichibo couldn't bear it anymore and quickly drew out his samurai sword and slashed horizontally. The Han man's head somersaulted like a balloon and floated out, bringing with it a rain of blood: "You My conscience is very... broken!"
Although they were retreating quickly, Morimoto Ikku seemed to have fallen into an ice cellar. They still had thirteen black-tailed ships at this time. It can be said that they still have strength, but what can they do if they still have strength? On the sea to the south is Zheng Zhilong's territory, and they cannot rob it.
Otherwise, those who bought Zheng Zhilong's protection money will settle accounts with Zheng Zhilong. Zheng Zhilong will not offend those small businessmen, but these days, there are no small businessmen who dare to be maritime merchants. They all have huge abilities and backgrounds behind them. Zheng Zhilong cannot afford to offend such a person.
Therefore, Zheng Zhilong's only way is to kill anyone who dares to cause trouble on his territory, just like Liu Xiang. You must know that Liu Xiang is one of the eighteen maritime merchant groups and owns more than 600 ships, including There are more than 20,000 sailors and pirates. He was also forced to jump into the sea by Zheng Zhilong.
Yang Tiansheng, Yang Liu, Yang Qi, Zhong Bin, and Li Kuiqi, one of the Eighteen Zhizhi, were captured alive by Zheng Zhilong, and Liu Xiang was forced to commit suicide. Now the other members of the Eighteenzhi Alliance, except He Bin and Guo Huaiyi, have defected to the Netherlands. Except for the people, everyone else has taken refuge with Zheng Zhilong. Now Zheng Zhilong is quite powerful, with 200,000 troops on land and sea, which is more than Ning Haijun.
Of course, Zheng Zhilong cannot fight on land, but he is more than enough to dominate Nanyang. There is no way to survive in Nanyang. However, now that the Ming Dynasty has the Ning Navy in the north, there is no hope that it can no longer plunder the coast like during the Jiajing period. In order to buy this shabby fleet, he even smashed the coffin into it. They owe a lot of debt and run back empty-handed. Why don't their creditors eat them?
At this time, Li Zhixiang was no longer fighting alone. As a sea trial of a new ship, it was naturally impossible for a single ship to go to sea. He was actually followed by more than 30 gunboats. The speed of these gunboats was too slow to keep up.
As the new ship engaged in a fierce artillery battle with the pirates, these small gunboats with 400 materials followed. Morimoto looked at the more than 30 gunboats chasing after him for a long time. Although the distance was too far, he could not see clearly. The true size of these gunboats made him feel lucky that he survived and escaped quickly this time, otherwise he would have been in big trouble.
At this moment, Ning Haijun's warship hit the fifth shell, which hit a gunboat called "Mayun", which was a Karasuo ship directly under Kato Kashige.
Katoshige Kato was lucky. The shot did not hit the deck, but the undulations caused the trajectory of the shot in the chamber to change. The shot actually flew over the "Mayun" and was within a short distance. There was an explosion about five feet on the deck, or nearly one-third of the main mast.
The violent explosion broke the main mast of the Mayun and lost two-thirds of the mast, which meant that the Mayun almost lost its forward kinetic energy. If it were normal, the impact would not be big. They still have spare masts on the ship. At worst, install it.
Now, they don't have any chance.
Kato was once again driven into a panic. He refused the retainer's offer to escape in a lifeboat, but instead ordered: "Fight back to the death!"
Because they knew they couldn't escape, if Europa's warships came, they would raise the white flag and surrender. But the problem was that they were not in the habit of surrendering easily in their childhood. You must know that after Xiaori surrendered to his opponents, he tortured and killed prisoners of war and captives, so he used himself to save others. They thought that as long as they surrendered, the end would be extremely miserable.
"Sideways!"
As the main rudder of the Mayun began to turn, the Mayun aimed its broadside at the Ning Haijun's new ship, and the ten broadside guns on the Wuwei ship were aimed at the Ning Haijun's new ship.
"Five hundred meters!"
"Three hundred meters"
The Mayun sent the most threatening blow to the Ning Navy warship, firing a salvo of ten artillery pieces. It was a pity that the pirates these days did not fire solid shells, but grape bullets.
Grape bombs use net bags to bundle the shotgun into a bunch, much like a bunch of grapes, hence the name grape bombs. Although the range is not comparable to that of solid bullets, a single shot fired at close range can knock down dozens of enemy soldiers instantly. In naval battles, it can knock down large areas of enemy officers and sailors, achieving the purpose of paralyzing enemy ships.
In these small days, pirates aimed to capture merchant ships and did not have time to change their bombs. In naval battles, the correct use of grape bombs is to use grape bombs to paralyze the sailors and soldiers on the enemy warships before jumping gangs.
Hundreds of small grapeshot bullets were like shotguns, setting off a wild flight on Ning Haijun's new ship, making the sails snap and cut out many holes. Seven Navy sailors were killed directly in action, and dozens were injured...
This shot only caused so much damage to Ning Haijun's new ship. This shot made Li Zhixiang and the sailors and soldiers on the new ship furious.
The six three-inch guns on the bow fired a salvo, and the six shells opened fire at a distance of about 250 meters from the Mayun. This time the Mayun was unlucky enough to reach my grandma's house, and four of the shells hit directly. Four huge orange-red fireballs soared into the sky on the Mayun.
The shock wave of four huge shells tore the entire black-tailed ship apart. As large bursts of flames and explosions sounded, the Mayun disappeared directly from the sea. The four blooming shells plus the gunpowder on the Mayun were all gone. Like a volcano erupting.
The Mayun exploded and sank. One of the samurai swords was blown by the shock wave to Ning Haijun's new ship. Coincidentally, the sword hit the bow gun on the second deck like shrapnel, causing heavy damage to the gun barrel. Although The cannon left a gap about two inches long and three minutes deep.
Li Zhixiang ordered the artillery not to fire. It would be great fun if the heavily damaged artillery exploded.
The shipbuilding technicians on this new ship recorded: "Never fire within 250 meters, as it may cause accidental damage!"
With the sinking of the five small warships, the morale of Ning Haijun's soldiers was greatly boosted: "Master Li, this gun is so useful!"
"Do you still need to tell me?"
"Should we apply to Cheng Shuai to replace all naval guns with these breech-loading smoothbore guns?"
"it is necessary!"
Li Zhixiang said: "We should also equip some squatting tiger cannons!"
"Why equip that thing? It doesn't hit very far. Infantrymen don't even care about this kind of cannon!"
"Just because the infantry doesn't care about us doesn't mean we are useless. If we do it within a range of more than 200 meters, the pirates would be able to drink from a guy like this!"
Li Zhixiang was also very helpless, because the ten shotgun shells of the Ma Yun cannon caused some damage to the sails of the new ship. More importantly, they were not going to sea for combat, but for sea trials. The cannonballs on the battleship had already Almost exhausted, as the pirates scattered in the small days, they could only retreat with hatred.
However, the gunboats of the Ning Navy arrived later and began to salvage the drowned samurai. Not to mention that there were quite a lot of samurai these days. After half an hour of salvage, more than 400 drowned samurai were rescued and boarded the ship. .
Among them is Kuuki Hirotaka, one of Kato's sixteen generals. Kuuki Hirotaka participated in the Korean War with Kato Kiyomasa, and during the war, he participated in the Battle of Ulsan Bay. The 19-year-old Kuuki Hirotaka escorted Kato Kiyomasa. Breaking through the blockade of the Ming army, he forced his way into Daoshan City and achieved great success.
Now fifty-three years old, Kuuki Hirotaka has a hot temper. The first moment he was rescued on the boat, he shouted: "I am Kuuki Hirotaka. Who dares to fight with me!"
No one in Ning Haijun's navy can understand Xiaoli, but despite the language barrier, Jiugui Guangtong's arrogant look and squeaking ghost screams, you don't need to think with your head, think with your knees, you know that there are no good words in his mouth .
The naval soldier Ning was very angry. Without saying a word, he took a crossbow or a musket and fired at Kuuki Hirotaka.
Immediately there was a sieve on the deck. Yes, he had become a sieve.
When Li Zhixiang returned to Port Arthur, he learned that Cheng Shijie was looking for him. He and Shen Shikui hurried to Jinzhou.
He also sent this warship and the sea trial report of the new ship. The sea trial of the new ship was very effective. This new ship was unanimously approved by the officers and soldiers of the Ninghai Navy.
Thanks to the results of this naval battle, this new ship was named: "Sea Shark Class".
Cheng Shijie ordered the Lushun Shipyard to build the first batch of eight Sea Shark-class ships. It was not that he did not have the strength to build more, but the artillery could not keep up.
The production speed of breech-mounted smoothbore guns is not fast. You must know that a Sea Shark-class battleship needs to be equipped with 192 guns, and you must know that the artillery of the Ning Navy also needs a large number of artillery. A battle between sea and land inevitably arises.
After arranging the production tasks, Cheng Shijie noticed that the problem he wanted to solve had already been solved.
"Are you saying that these five ships were built by pirates in the early days?"
"That's right, we captured more than four hundred little pirates!"
Cheng Shijie frowned and said, "Why did you capture these little dwarfs?"
"Commander, this is what I think. These little dwarfs have been making a living at sea for a long time and are proficient in naval warfare. Let's bring them here..."
Cheng Shijie didn't have a good impression of the pirates in his childhood. He said directly: "You are not afraid of them..."
"They are not five feet tall. What are you afraid of them for?"
"Most of them are gay..."
"gay?"
When Li Zhixiang understood what a fagot was, he immediately shook his head and said: "Throw them all into the sea and drown them!"
"They can swim!"
"Tie a hundred kilograms of rocks to them. If they can still swim up, consider them awesome!"
Cheng Shijie continued: "Did you sink all the black-tailed boats this time?"
"Seventeen ships, all of them are black-tailed ships!"
Shen Shikui smiled bitterly and said: "The characteristics of the black-tail boat are obvious, and we will definitely not admit it!"
Song Xiance said with a gloomy face: "We are going to face Zheng Zhilong!"
Cheng Shijie solemnly said: "Never mind Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhihu, the sea is the lifeline of Liaodong's survival, and our own lifeline can only be in our own hands."
"That's what I said, but the problem is that I'm afraid Zheng Zhilong won't take it easy..."
Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Forging iron requires hard work. As long as we are strong enough, Zheng Zhilong will be friendly. If we are weak, we deserve to be beaten. If we don't want to be beaten, then we must practice hard and strengthen maritime patrols. Since Shanghai, Bei, if they cross the line, I’ll beat them up!”
"yes!"
Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "We are now seriously lacking in maritime power, so we should continue to expand the shipyard. It makes no sense to expand the Lushun shipyard. Eight giant shipyards are enough. Then build a new shipyard in Jinzhou Donggang to cooperate with Just like Lushun Shipyard, we will build eight large docks to ensure that our shipbuilding speed can keep up!"
"Shipbuilding speed can be increased, but the problem is the artillery!"
"The artillery foundry also needs to be expanded, and artillery should be given priority to the navy!"
Currently, for the Ning Navy in Liaodong, Jiannu is not a threat for the time being. The only threat comes from the sea and from Zheng's pirate group.
To prevent Zheng Zhilong from causing trouble, he could only arrange for Ning Haijun to patrol and expand the scope of the patrol. If you want to exterminate a group of pirates at sea, if you don't have reliable intelligence, you will only be blind and hit the dead mouse.
The pirate incident also reminded Cheng Shijie that the matter of the strategic grain reserve warehouse was urgent. Just when Cheng Shijie was preparing to establish a strategic grain reserve warehouse system in Liaodong, there was one thing that he had to come forward to handle.
This time, the person who came to Liaodong was Li Wang, the crown prince of Zhaoxian of North Korea (the original word was pronounced Wang, which cannot be typed). He was the eldest son of Li Zhu and was named crown prince in the fifth year of Tianqi.
As the crown prince of Joseon came to Liaodong, Cheng Shijie naturally had to come out to receive him. After all, Zaiji was also a crown prince with a different status. After spending a few days with Prince Zhaoxian in Liaodong, the officials accompanying Prince Zhaoxian vaguely suggested to Song Xiance that they I want to purchase Liaodong-style armor and weapons and equipment.
For North Korea, the armor produced by Liaodong is not only of good quality and strong defensive power, but the key is that the manufacturing price is lower than that of their own, especially the defensive capabilities, which are simply incomparable.
Cheng Shijie naturally welcomed the sales that came to his door. What surprised Cheng Shijie was that purchasing armed equipment was just child's play, while the larger purchase orders were for luxury goods, such as luxury four-wheeled carriages, silk, gold, and jewelry.
In fact, although there are more than a dozen textile factories of various sizes in Liaodong, which produce woolen cloth, cotton cloth, linen cloth, linen cloth, grass cloth, canvas and other cloth and clothing, they do not produce silk. They mainly meet the needs of Liaodong and are economical. Mainly crops.
Many people don’t know that the sales of products in Liaodong, North Korea, have always been good, whether it is porcelain, furniture, or of course luxury four-wheeled carriages. In addition to having bridge-type shock absorption and spring shock-absorbing systems, this kind of carriage also has bearings, As for the steering mechanism, these devices have some technological content.
The most important thing is that North Korea requires these carriages to be made of good wood and inlaid with gold, copper, silver and various precious stones. Because they were equipped with too many luxury goods, such carriages were actually very expensive. One cost as much as 6,000 taels of silver. North Korea purchased fifty of them in one go.
Looking at the wealthy purchasing group, Cheng Shijie lamented that North Korea is really rich, or in other words, the North Korean royal family is really rich. The strange thing is that they spent 350,000 taels of silver to purchase weapons and equipment, but spent 300,000 to purchase carriages. Liang of silver, including other luxury goods, the total purchase price is as high as more than one million taels of silver.
Then these orders became part of the weapons and equipment. As for Prince Zhaoxian of North Korea returning to North Korea, how to explain that the weapons purchased by North Korea are so expensive is beyond the scope of Cheng Shijie's consideration. Cheng Shijie has nothing to do with people spending their own money. .
Immigration is the focus of development in Liaodong. However, as the population of Liaodong has exceeded three million people, especially the four states in southern Liaoning, there is not much land left. In addition to the mandatory migration to Liaoyang, the fifteen and eight independent With thousands of households, most of the immigrant people would rather have land in southern Liaoning that is not suitable for farming than land in Zhongwei or Guangningwei in Liaoning.
The problem now faced is that Liaodong spends too much money, and needs to invest more in education. After the Ning navy expands its army, it also needs to conduct large-scale joint exercises, as well as road and ditch construction, especially the need to build a new shipyard. , expand new warships, expand artillery factories, there will inevitably be serious funding gaps.
To solve this problem, it is nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
But Song Xiance proposed another way to let farmers solve farm management problems by themselves. He suggested that newly arrived immigrants could borrow money from banks and then purchase land from the management committee. They would manage it themselves and be responsible for their own profits and losses.
Cheng Shijie frowned: "Since then, risks have been weighing on the people. How can they resist the risks? Farming now requires not only your own efforts, but also God's face. If you encounter natural disasters or man-made disasters, this is not forced. Leading the common people to hang themselves?"
Song Xiance explained: "What I mean is that based on all this, it is all based on voluntariness!"
"Voluntary? You won't use coercive means to make people volunteer, right?"
Cheng Shijie believes that this so-called voluntariness is not actually the true voluntariness of the people. "Voluntariness" under the threat of a knife is not only not good governance, but also harmful to the people.
"Lord, among the current immigrants, there have been many self-cultivated farmers who want to avoid taxes, as well as small landowners. They have some savings, but they are not willing to be our military households."
Ning Haijun’s agricultural reclamation company is responsible for managing the military households in the fields. The company is responsible for providing seeds, farming tools and land, and arranging farming for the military households in the fields. Thirty percent of the income goes to Ning Haijun’s agricultural reclamation company.
However, as time went by, especially when Cheng Shijie severely punished the slaves, Liaodong gradually stabilized. At the same time, taxes in various parts of the Central Plains became heavier and heavier. Not to mention the escape of the peasants, even some small landowners could not bear it. Living.
Those small landowners had no backing, no background, and no tax-free privileges. Ordinary farmers were like stones and could no longer squeeze out oil. Therefore, these gentry and officials set their sights on ordinary small landowners.
Despite their reluctance, these small landowners could only sell their land to gentry with connections and backing at low prices. Some small landowners sought refuge with relatives and friends. Those with no connections had no choice but to go to Liaodong to try their luck.
Currently, in Liaodong, only military and martyred families have independent land. Private individuals can only purchase commercial land, which is neither gravel land nor alkali wasteland suitable for farming.
However, the people of the Ming Dynasty were very good at farming, just like Guo Changxi, a businessman in Guide Prefecture, Henan Province. He was originally a cloth merchant, but because he had no backing, he was eaten up by the big fish and the small fish. He couldn't hold on anymore and had to sell it. They came to Liaodong with hundreds of taels of silver in their ancestral houses and shops.
Last year, Liaodong had a bumper harvest of potatoes and sweet potatoes. He followed the trend and purchased a batch of grinding machinery, preparing to open a mill to process potato flour.
He purchased more than 150 acres of floodplain land in a wide section of a tributary of the Liao River and prepared to build a factory. However, the problem was that when he was just about to start construction, he found that more and more mills were being built and the profits were getting thinner and thinner. If not, you will lose money.
Guo Changxi found that the soil he had on the river beach was of good quality, although it was mostly covered with rocks. Is this a problem? The people of the Ming Dynasty were obsessed with farming. Not to mention just a few stones, even a stone mountain could be moved away bit by bit if necessary. Therefore, this problem was not a problem at all for Guo Changxi.
Guo Changxi hired some refugees to collect stones on the river beach, and used the stones he picked up to build a river embankment. In this way, at the beginning of spring, he used the 150 acres of commercial land under his name for planting. crops such as wheat, soybeans, and corn.
For Song Xiance, Guo Changxi was obviously taking advantage of the loopholes of the Liaodong Management Committee. The commercial land he purchased was not used to build factories, but was transformed into fertile farmland, especially along the Kuanshui River. Watering was very convenient. Such a meal After the operation, it turned out to be good farmland.
Guo Changxi's success was immediately imitated by others. Some purchased swamp land in southern Liaoning, while others purchased hillside land.
Along the Kuanshui River, it has been transformed into a small town with 6,000 to 7,000 acres of fertile land, which suddenly brought an income of 50,000 to 60,000 taels of silver to the management committee.
(End of chapter)
