Chapter 221
In Chongming Island, all development is on the right track.
Cheng Shijie positioned Chongming Island as a military base and, of course, a cargo transfer station. Shen Boyun was a very capable person. Cheng Shijie left the construction of the defense line to him and a group of staff, while Zhu Weiti wandered around looking for Have fun and enjoy life.
For some people, life is just living, but for Cheng Shijie now, that is just living.
Cheng Shijie first stayed in the old house of the Shen family in Chongming Island. Later, Shen Boyun gave the Shen family's villa to Cheng Shijie. It was a small house. This house was small because it was smaller than the ancestral house of the Shen family. .
It is more than a dozen rooms wide, with a front yard, a main yard and a back yard that are divided into three courtyards. There are two houses next to each other. After being opened up, a medium-sized yard was formed.
Originally this courtyard was called Shen Garden, but now it is naturally called Cheng Mansion.
While enjoying life, Cheng Shijie also valued education. With the joining of the Shachuan Gang, at least the teaching staff had been significantly improved. Cheng Shijie focused on cultivating the second generation of Liaodong immigrants, but did not give up on the generation of immigrants from Liaodong.
The second generation of immigrants can sit in spacious and bright classrooms to study, and the education they receive. The first generation in Liaodong can only take time to improve themselves after work. In the main areas of Liaodong, such as Jinzhou and Fuzhou There are night schools in , Gaizhou and Haizhou, as well as Lushun.
The official, that is, the Liaodong Management Committee does not require adults to attend night classes in principle. However, the official has requirements for the educational level of public officials. Even officers from the Ning Navy must go to the Liaodong Army Academy or Naval Academy to attend a short-term training class. Otherwise, he would not even have the qualifications to serve as an officer at the level of Commander-in-Chief or above in the army.
However, on Chongming Island, Cheng Shijie effortlessly established four new schools. This was the reason why Jiangnan easily recruited poor scholars.
However, not everyone was happy when Cheng Shijie came to Chongming Island. At least most people, including the common people, did not like it. Cheng Shijie knew that Chongming Island was a sand island and was getting bigger. However, due to water and soil erosion, the island Not stable.
For this reason, Cheng Shijie issued an order in March that everyone must plant trees, and there should be twenty trees, including all children born.
It goes without saying that planting trees is important to the environment, but the problem is that the people on Chongming Island do not buy it because their lives are too poor and miserable.
“Being poor actually makes sense!”
Cheng Shijie had to admire the poverty of these people, because the land for each person to plant trees was planned along Chongming Island and along the two main east-west arterial roads.
As long as trees are planted, the land and trees belong to the individual people. If poplars or tung trees are planted, they will become useful in three to five years, which will be a considerable income.
Of course, Cheng Shijie also knew that these people were actually frightened by loan sharks. Even if Liaodong Bank gave them loans, they were unwilling to plant trees.
Shen Boyun looked at Cheng Shijie and said: "Commander, otherwise, our Shen family will take care of all the trees in Chongming. There are now a total of 135,654 residents on the island, a total of 2.71 million." More than three thousand!"
"What a beautiful thought you have! You Shen family are already rich enough, don't take advantage of all the benefits!"
"But if their people are willing to live with their own money, what can they do?"
Cheng Shijie said: "They don't have money, so let them work hard. Shen will be responsible for cultivating or purchasing a batch of saplings. Ninghai Haijun Agricultural Reclamation Company will be responsible for purchasing and let the people plant trees. One hundred trees of each type will be given to them twenty A sapling, these saplings are their personal property!”
In fact, these islanders, like the nomads, do not have much environmental awareness. If they cannot survive on this island, they will go to another place. They are not as deeply dependent on the land as the farming people.
Even though many places are not suitable for survival, especially in Liaodong, many grasslands are not suitable for human survival. The wasteland that has been reclaimed through hard work produces more weeds than crops. If it were an African or a white person, it would not be possible at all. Be patient and hold on.
However, people in the Ming Dynasty are different. They just pull out the weeds that grow. If it doesn't work in one year, it will take two years. As long as they persist, the desolate grassland will sooner or later turn into a prosperous farm.
To be fair, the situation in Chongming Island is pretty good. Although the output of sandy land is limited, the problem is that sweet potatoes, potatoes, and peanuts particularly like sandy land, and there is enough rain. Soon the big hat of poverty will be removed here. .
Not only Chongming Island, but also the fishermen living on the Yangtze River are actually very hard-working. Hairy crabs weighing nearly a pound will be the king crabs in later generations. They need bidding and luck to buy them.
However, in this era, a hairy crab only costs fifty cents.
You must know that a chicken costs between thirty and seventy yuan. Fifty yuan can buy a big chicken, because the daily salary of ordinary people in the capital is actually between thirty and forty yuan. In Jiangnan, it is lower.
Cheng Shijie used his own money to treat General Ning Haijun to eat hairy crabs, but what he didn't expect was that General Ning Haijun would not appreciate it.
"Commander, this hairy crab has no meat and no oil or water. It's better to buy a big fat chicken!"
Cheng Shijie followed his good deeds and bought a few hairy crabs and a few saury fish for a taste. He even went to the riverside and asked fishermen to help him catch pufferfish at a high price.
Zhu Weiti seldom ate seafood or river fresh food in the past, but she followed Cheng Shijie to Chongming and realized the freedom of hairy crabs and river pufferfish.
Only then did Cheng Shijie discover that Zhu Weiti was actually a foodie, eating local snacks everywhere, such as sea bass, mandarin fish, saury, hairy crabs... in various ways.
Including Gu Ziyi, they all gradually gained weight. Gu Ziyi used to weigh at most eighty kilograms, but now her belly can be seen slightly, weighing at least one hundred kilograms.
Cheng Shijie also discovered business opportunities. There was no way to preserve the freshness of these river fresh food and seafood. The business of the fishermen in Wusongkou area was not very good, and they could barely maintain food and clothing.
Cheng Shijie built a freshwater and seafood canning processing factory on Chongming Island. The business became extremely hot, and the prices of fish, shrimp and crabs rose accordingly!
Anchovy, saury and puffer fish are listed as the "Three Delicacies of the Yangtze River". Among them, anchovy is the most precious because it is different from puffer fish and saury. It is a highly seasonal fish and its meat is the most delicious before Qingming Festival. Yes, it plummeted after Qingming Festival.
Therefore, the price of anchovies before the Qingming Festival is higher than that of gold. Once the Qingming Festival is over, no one wants to give it away.
Now that it's April, it's the perfect time to eat shad.
On this day, Cheng Shijie was handling the shad himself, Zhu Weiti was in charge of lighting the fire, and Gu Ziyi was helping.
Just when Cheng Shijie was putting the steamed anchovies into the pot to steam, Shen Boyun hurriedly came over and said, "Commander, something happened!"
"What's wrong?"
"The fishermen who went fishing discovered that thousands of warships from Zheng's fleet were heading towards Wusongkou. They are only less than an hour away from here!"
"Go straight to Wusongkou? It's interesting!"
Zhu Weiti said: "Eat the fish before leaving?"
"No, it's not just an hour to get to Wusongkou from here! It's already a long time!"
"With General Wu here, Zheng Zhilong shouldn't be able to take advantage!"
Cheng Shijie thought about it for a while.
The warships of this era generally traveled around 89 knots or even 10 knots. In two hours, that is more than thirty kilometers. Even if Cheng Shijie rode a horse, it would be difficult to reach Wusongkou within an hour.
Cheng Shijie decided to eat the fish first.
In Wusongkou, Ning Haijun quickly assembled and entered the combat position. Everything was in order. Eighteen three-inch millimeter-caliber breech-loading smoothbore guns and four four-inch breech-loading smoothbore guns all had their gun jackets opened, and boxes of shells were moved out of the anti-gun holes and placed on the gun emplacements.
In just a quarter of an hour, the Ming army soldiers stationed at Wusongkou had completed battle preparations. Although this Ming army nominally belonged to the Wusongkou garrison, in fact, they were also soldiers of the Ning Navy, at least most of them. yes.
The original commander-in-chief of Wusongkou, Wu Sheng, really disgusted Cheng Shijie. He also thought that Cheng Shijie had a use for him, and he began to want to blow up his hair.
Of course, Cheng Shijie would not tolerate him. After beheading Wu Sheng and with the help of Gao Qiqian, Cheng Shijie's guard commander became the Wusongkou garrison commander.
It turned out that Tang En, the governor of Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu, became Wu Sheng's deputy. There are two reasons why Tang En can become Wu Sheng's deputy. First, he is from Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu Institute and belongs to the direct lineage of Cheng Shijie. Secondly, he works hard as the governor of Qianhusuo.
The governor of Qianhu Station is lower than Qianhu, deputy Qianhu and Baihu. In fact, he is only responsible for the prison affairs within Qianhu Station and is also in charge of military affairs. At the beginning, Tang En was on the wrong side of the team and fought with Cheng Shijie. He was beaten to the end by Cheng Shijie and became a top soldier.
However, the problem is that Tang En is also a ruthless person. While serving as a top soldier, he put down his arrogance and fought seriously. He got the opportunity to further his studies at Liaodong Military Academy. As a result, he served as a teaching assistant at Liaodong Military Academy and successfully obtained his graduation certificate. , but he did not develop in a military position, but has been in the military supervision system.
The importance of Wusongkou is self-evident. Cheng Shijie put Wu Sheng in this position and also left supervisors. Otherwise, Wu Sheng would probably be dragged into the trap by wealthy businessmen from Jiangnan.
The weather conditions are now perfect and it is fully visible with the telescope. Under the guidance of the lookout post, Wu Sheng, Tang En and others quickly discovered the sharp silhouettes of sails emerging from behind the sea level.
Tang En said in disbelief, "Good guy, at least eight or nine hundred warships!"
"I'm afraid there will be more than a thousand ships! What a big gesture!"
Cheng Shijie worked hard and struggled for two years to build less than 60 warships. Zheng Zhilong was overwhelmed by more than a thousand warships as soon as he made a move. This courage is really staggering.
This time was different from the last fleet led by Zheng Zhibao. Although Zheng Zhibao had thousands of warships last time, most of them were small ships. But this time, more than 600 main warships were dispatched. Zheng Zhilong took out his own foundation.
Tang En said with some worry: "General Wu, the total strength of our army is only more than 3,100 people, but the enemy has arrived with more than a thousand warships at once. The numbers are hugely different. What should we do?"
Wu Sheng smiled faintly and said: "When we, Ning Haijun, are fighting, when have we ever cared about the enemy's strength advantage?"
Tang En thought about it and it was indeed the case. When he faced the ruthless bandit Qin Wu, Denglai's new army, Kong Youde's rebels, and the Jiannuning navy, they all used more to defeat fewer.
Tang En pondered: "Of course I know that our Ning Navy is very strong, but... But this is different from land warfare! The enemy comes from the sea, with thousands of battleships and thousands of naval guns. They can hit us, but we can't." How can we fight this battle if we get to them!"
"Can this still be simple?"
Wu Sheng smiled and said: "Put the enemy ashore!"
Wu Sheng immediately issued an order: "All artillery should be withdrawn from their emplacements first, and the infantry should enter the artillery defense fortifications. Do not fire back when encountering enemy shelling. When the enemy begins to land, push out the artillery and beat the hell out of them!"
When the Zheng fleet arrived at Wusongkou, they found that Ning Haijun did not fire any guns, which made Zheng Zhilong very strange.
The defender should fire vigorously at this time to block the fleet from the effective range of its own artillery. Compared with battleships, coastal artillery batteries can be well protected, and are not affected by the bumps of the waves when firing. They are more accurate and can be more advantageous in fighting. Under normal circumstances, battleships are absolutely unwilling to collide head-on with shore defense artillery. , let alone touch it.
This was not the case in Liaodong. Ning Haijun's coastal defense guns were very fierce and caused heavy losses to Zheng's fleet. In order to attract Zheng's army troops to land, Ning Haijun also deliberately put the Zheng's fleet's army troops ashore. Stay away from naval gun range.
Just when Zheng's army thought that Ning Haijun was nothing more than that, Ning Haijun actually dispatched the cavalry unit. You must know that Zheng's army is actually a light infantry unit. There is no way. If you accidentally fall into the sea at sea, There is still a chance for the light infantry to climb up.
But the heavy infantry will definitely sink to the bottom like a weight.
As a result, Zheng's army faced a crushing massacre by Ning Haijun's cavalry. More than 5,000 people landed successfully, and less than 300 people ran back.
"What the hell are these black men doing?"
Shi Daxuan laughed and said: "It's possible that they gave up on Wusongkou!"
"How can this be?"
"Your Majesty gave Chongming Island to Princess Chongming. Cheng Shijie can deploy troops on Chongming Island, but Wusongkou is not his territory!"
Zheng Zhilong thought about it and felt that it might be the case. He had received intelligence that Cheng Shijie had more than 6,000 Ning Haijun soldiers on Chongming Island, which was a considerable force.
If Wusongkou is not occupied, the next battle with Ning Haijun will definitely be difficult to fight. But occupying Wusongkou is different. Cheng Shijie is currently robbing maritime merchants at sea. Jiangnan maritime merchants have been unable to go to sea for more than three months because the Ninghai Navy controls the Yangtze River outlet.
However, maritime merchants from Fujian and Guangdong can go to sea, but there is a high chance of being robbed by the Ning Navy. In this case, Jiangnan maritime merchants, Fujian and Guangdong maritime merchants have already stood on their side, and they all blame Cheng Shijie for having lost his way.
After half an hour of preparation, Zheng Zhilong's more than 600 main battleships were composed of black-tailed ships with twenty-four guns and Junk ships equipped with forty-eight guns. As for the single-layer bird ships, they did not even have a chance to participate in the battle.
Zheng Zhilong divided more than 600 warships into three waves, one after another, not giving Ning Haijun a chance to breathe.
Following Zheng Zhilong's order, more than 400 warships and more than 1,000 artillery pieces began to fire shells at Wusongkou.
"Boom boom boom..."
A thunderous explosion suddenly exploded on the sea surface, and a large ball of flame was sprayed out from the muzzle of the Shanghaomen naval gun at the same time. The black smoke spread in all directions like a hurricane, and it was like a black storm was blowing on the sea surface.
The round lead ball flew out from the barrel of the gun at high speed, forming a hail of scorching hail and hitting Wusongkou hard. Before the flames from the muzzles of the thousands of naval guns dissipated, thunder broke out again, and thousands more naval guns fired fiercely.
Since the large-caliber naval guns of Zheng's fleet are all Hongyi cannons, the firing speed of the Hongyi cannons is slow, and the barrels need to be cleaned and the barrels need to cool down.
In order to increase the density of bombing and the intensity of firepower, Zheng Zhilong used naval guns as muskets and launched a three-stage attack.
When the first wave of more than 200 warships fired their port-side guns, they immediately adjusted their course to get out of the firing range, and began the second wave of warships' port-side guns to fire, followed by the third wave of port-side guns.
When the first wave of port-side naval guns began to nervously clear the gun barrels and install gunpowder and shells, the first wave of warships adjusted their hulls and began to fire shells from the starboard guns.
At this time, on the sea surface of Wusongkou, there were hundreds or even thousands of naval guns in each wave. These round things followed all kinds of strange ballistic trajectories, roared and landed on docks, forts, hillsides... and exploded. The huge ball of fire exploded, causing stone fragments to fly everywhere. Not to mention the lethality, the scene alone was scary enough.
The sailors who gripped their weapons and prepared for hand-to-hand combat were greatly boosted in morale, waving their swords and spears and shouting wildly. The lean and lean faces of the young warriors twisted up and let out bursts of laughter. As for the tall and strong black people, they were even more happy. A war dance broke out on the deck.
There is no way, black people's entertainment instinct is too strong.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom..."
This round of bombardment by Zheng's naval guns seemed to be like a violent storm, with no intention of stopping. In fact, any warship has the firepower of a gun battalion. The sound of the cannons was completely indistinguishable. The warships of Zheng's fleet reached three to five hundred meters and fired at Wusongkou with suppressed force.
Solid lead balls, chain bullets, grape bullets, etc. were poured out as if for free. The Zheng fleet was showing off its powerful firepower and terrifying destructive power.
They don't seem to be fighting, but like they are burying people with cannonballs. Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, there are really only a handful of troops who dare to play like this!
The artillery shells fell like hail on the Wusongkou Fortress. The lead balls jumped wildly, the gravel flew, and the smoke filled the air. It was extremely frightening. The morale of Zheng's army became higher and higher. They firmly believed that no army could hold on to the front under such fierce firepower. If they don't break up, after this round of bombardment, they will be able to occupy the Wusongkou Fortress in a promenade posture and hunt down the fleeing enemies!
In Zheng Zhilong's opinion, no army in the world can withstand the bombing of Zheng's fleet. This is his confidence and strength in fighting for hegemony in the sea.
Of course, if it were other Ming army units, they would definitely collapse in such a situation. Not to mention them, even Jiannu would also collapse.
To be fair, the current firepower of Zheng's fleet is much stronger than that of Ning Haijun on the Bali Bay battlefield. How many artillery pieces did Ning Haijun have at that time?
At best, it is less than one-tenth of the Zheng fleet, no, not even one percent. The Zheng fleet has six to seven thousand cannons. At this time, compared to the number of cannons on the battleships, Zheng Zhilong is really stronger than the Spanish Empire. , which is also stronger than Great Britain's naval strength.
The Spanish Armada has a total of less than 200 warships and more than 4,000 artillery pieces. This is the strength of the Spanish Empire to dominate the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.
Zheng Zhilong is actually not weaker than the navy of any country in terms of the number of large warships, and is more powerful than the Ottoman Empire's navy of more than 200,000. His weakness is the artillery. Most of Zheng Zhilong's artillery are old captured artillery, and there are many The age of naval guns has exceeded two to three hundred years.
It's just a pity that the Ning Navy is really not an ordinary Ming army force, especially since they have an independent and complete defense system for land warfare and artillery warfare.
In this era, more than 99% of the army troops have no awareness of artillery defense. They either spread or build strong cities. However, Ning Haijun has a mature trench system, especially the soft soil when digging trenches, which can be used very well. The key to the problem of absorbing the kinetic energy of artillery shells is that the trench is too narrow, and it is difficult to fall into the trench that is more than one meter wide.
At this time, when Ning Haijun built the bombproof cave, it was six feet below the surface, using three-inch-thick wooden boards and logs with a diameter of more than one foot as support pillars. For example, the Wusongkou Fortress used cement pillars made of reinforced concrete. To serve as a pillar, Ning Haijun had done experiments and found that unless a forty-eight-pound gun was used, it would be possible to threaten the anti-gun holes.
Under the intensive firepower bombardment of Zheng's naval guns, Ning Haijun was not without losses. After all, Ning Haijun in the Wusongkou garrison only had more than 3,100 people, and there were more than 4,000 young and strong recruits.
Facing the overwhelming artillery shells, these recruits were frightened. They ran out of the artillery holes and fired randomly. They ignored military discipline and orders.
In this case, the soldiers who ran out of the shell-proof hole would definitely not end well. They would either be shocked to death or smashed into pieces by the shells.
Such high-intensity shelling actually hurt Zheng Zhilong's body.
After all, when a cannon is fired, gold is worth ten thousand taels, and firing a cannon is money.
As three rounds of naval guns were bombarded, Zheng Zhilong looked at a Japanese samurai next to him who had bare feet and two long swords on his waist: "Morimoto-kun, let's see how you perform next!"
In fact, if Zheng Zhibao hadn't wasted Taro Kumamoto who was next to Zheng Zhilong, he would not have been willing to use Morimoto Ikku. Taro Kumamoto was Zheng Zhilong's direct descendant of Xiaoli. As early as the third year of Tianqi, when Zheng Zhilong went to Xiaoli Kingdom, Taro Kumamoto I got to know Zheng Zhilong. At that time, Tokugawa Hidetada ordered Kumamoto Taro to be responsible for protecting Zheng Zhilong, a nobleman of the Ming Dynasty.
As Zheng Zhilong's strength increased, Taro Kumamoto gathered a large number of samurai who had been forced to serve Zheng Zhilong. As Zheng Zhilong fought in the north and south, Taro Kumamoto even risked Xu Suxin's musketeers in the decisive battle with Xu Suxin. The bullets rained down, killing and wounding more than 600 people, and cut off Xu Suxin's head.
In Zheng Zhilong's heart, Taro Kumamoto was his good dog. It was a pity that this dog died.
Ichiku Morimoto also knew that without Zheng Zhilong's protection, he would have no way to survive. There was no place for him in Xiaoriguo, and he had unintentionally offended Cheng Shijie. Although Cheng Shijie was not as powerful as Zheng Zhilong, he was more than enough to deal with him.
Morimoto bowed towards Zheng Zhilong: "General, please rest assured that you don't need to send other landing troops. The 2,400 brave warriors under my command are enough to easily capture Wusongkou!"
In Kazuhisa Morimoto's mind, facing such a sharp bombardment, there should be no survivors in Wusongkou, and they could go ashore to collect the bodies.
It's just a pity that Morimoto thought wrong for a long time, and he was very wrong.
Ikki Morimoto didn't know that this time he hit the iron plate.
Morimoto pulled out a long knife and pointed at Wu Song's mouth: "Kill him, no chickens or dogs left behind!"
Two thousand and four hundred young Japanese warriors waved their swords and howled loudly. They rushed towards the dock in more than sixty small warships. They moved quickly, rowing the boat like a swordfish, and rushed ashore in a few strokes. A large number of young warriors jumped out of the boat and rushed straight towards Ning Haijun's defense line without stopping.
When Cheng Shijie arrived at Wusongkou, he happened to see these little warriors rushing ashore with clatter, still five or six hundred meters away from Ning Haijun's defense line.
"How is it going?"
"Some recruits were killed in the bombing, so it's not a big problem."
Cheng Shijie looked at Wu Sheng and said: "These young warriors, all leave me fertile land!"
At this time, Cheng Shijie looked a little ferocious. Wu Sheng had seen this scene before on the Baliwan battlefield.
"Promise to complete the mission!"
Wu Sheng ordered loudly: "All artillery troops ignore their landing troops and landing ships. The target is their large warships. Concentrate firepower to sink their large warships!"
After receiving the order, Ning Haijun's artillerymen hurriedly ran out of the artillery hole, then pushed the artillery into the artillery position.
Of course, there is no way for artillery to fire immediately.
The warriors were barefoot these days, and soon after they landed on the shore, there were screams.
Morimoto said angrily: "What's going on?"
"There are nails on the ground, and our warrior's feet were pierced!"
"Baga, as a warrior, you can't even overcome this small problem!"
Ning Haijun did not immediately start to fight back. After all, the distance was too far. Regardless of crossbows or muskets, they were helpless at a distance of four to five hundred meters.
However, it does not mean that the samurai can successfully log in these days.
"Puch!"
A young warrior fell into the mud and struggled to get up. He didn't feel anything unusual. In fact, it was the fierce fire oil released by the Ning Haijun defenders.
However, there is a pungent smell of sulfur or gunpowder smoke everywhere in Wusongkou.
There was nothing unusual about these little days.
There were still fifty or sixty meters away from Ning Haijun's formation.
Cheng Shijie ordered: "Light the fire and serve, roast the suckling pig, not the Japanese pig."
(End of chapter)
