Chapter 230
On the sea of Subic Bay, hundreds of warships of Zheng's fleet were scattered on the sea. The entire fleet was like a floating city, which was spectacular.
This is Zheng Zhilong's core strength and the basis for Zheng Zhilong's dominance at sea. Although the Zheng fleet faced the Ning navy, they won less and lost more, but it did not damage the fundamental strength of the Zheng fleet. They are still the most powerful fleet in the Ming Dynasty, and they have a place in the world.
In the past, the sailors of Zheng's fleet would drink, eat meat or gamble to pass the boring time, but at this time, the Zheng's fleet was a bit strange. Even though they failed in the Wusongkou naval battle, the Zheng fleet still had high morale. At that time, they still had the confidence to defeat the Ning navy.
However, with the overall surrender of the vanguard of Zheng's fleet, all the sailors and leaders of Zheng's fleet felt extremely heavy.
"Those gang of black-skinned naval guns are really so powerful that they killed Luo Jiu with one shot from a distance of six or seven miles?"
Zheng Zhilong was very uncomfortable when he received the news.
Luo Jiu can be regarded as one of the key members of Zheng Zhilong's direct lineage, with the rank of naval officer. Luo Jiu was originally the right-hand man of Chen Zhongji, a key member of Zheng Zhilong's official party. In the first year of Chongzhen, Chen Zhongji was killed by Li Kuiqi, and then Luo Jiu became Zheng Zhilong's subordinate. Qu is one of the more powerful leaders under Zheng Zhilong. He originally had nineteen main warships and more than one hundred large and small warships.
However, in the Battle of Wusongkou, three of his main battleships were sunk and one was damaged, leaving only fifteen ships. As one of the fierce generals under Zheng Zhilong's command. The First Squadron shot down fourteen main battleships of Zheng's fleet with one shot. The most fundamental reason was that Luo Jiu, the leader of Zheng's group, was on them. Luo Jiu's death directly caused his subordinates to collapse and surrender to Ning Haijun.
Zheng Zhilong looked at Shi Daxuan and said, "Daxuan, have you heard that there is a cannon that can sink a ship with one shot six or seven miles away?"
Shi Daxuan shook his head: "I have never heard that even in Liaodong and Wusongkou, the Ning Navy's coastal defense artillery has a range of three or four miles, usually within three miles."
"That's the problem!"
Zheng Zhilong sighed and said: "I originally thought that Ning Haijun was a soft persimmon, but I never thought that they would be so difficult to deal with!"
Shi Daxuan also thought to himself that Ning Haijun was not only difficult to deal with, but very difficult to deal with.
But the problem is, there is no turning back when shooting a bow. No matter how difficult it is, he must keep shooting. If he went back in such a dejected manner, would Zheng Zhilong still have the nerve to act like a fool?
No, no matter what, you must bite Ning Haijun hard, otherwise you will never retreat!
But, how to bite Ning Haijun back?
He never found a chance, although Shi Daxuan gave him a plan to bypass Wusongkou, land at an undefended place by Ning Haijun, and outflank him from behind.
The artillery fire at Wusongkou Fortress is very fierce, but no matter how fierce it is, it can't withstand the attack from the back, right? Zheng Zhilong believes that the probability of success is very high. The most important thing is that even if it fails, the battleship will not be lost. Why not?
However, just when Juan Zheng Zhilong was about to take action, the big boss from the imperial court warned Zheng Zhilong not to make a fool of himself, let alone escalate the situation.
Zheng Zhilong didn't quite understand it at first, but until Shi Daxuan reminded Zheng Zhilong that if they bypass Wusongkou and attack Wusongkou from other places, Cheng Shijie can also attack their Zheng family's strategic locations from other places, such as the Taichung area of Dazhan. , as well as Fujian and Quanzhou, will not be able to end by then.
The intervention of the big shots in the DPRK was actually due to Cheng Shijie's role in giving the silver. Gao Qiqian confiscated more than one million taels of silver from the Yangtze River estuary, 40% of which belonged to Emperor Chongzhen, and more than 600,000 taels of silver, which is quite a lot. One-tenth of the national treasury revenue.
This is a huge sum of money, which is different from a house raid. A house raid is just a one-time sale, and most of it is fixed assets. If a house is raided on a large scale, the land cannot be sold. This was a steady stream of long-term capital income. Emperor Chongzhen not only acquiesced to Wu Sheng's stationing in Wusongkou and served as Wusongkou's general soldier, but also secretly warned Wen Tiren that Zheng Zhilong could fight Cheng Shijie, but not excessively.
As the weaker party, Cheng Shijie was naturally protected by the DPRK.
This actually made Cheng Shijie smile bitterly. Cheng Shijie was well prepared for Wusongkou and was waiting to give Zheng Zhilong a heavy blow. However, he did not expect that Zheng Zhilong gave up due to the hint of the big boss in the DPRK.
Just when Zheng Zhilong was filled with anger and wondering whether he should kill one or two chickens to scare the monkeys, a small boat came over in a hurry and brought a scary news.
Luzon was captured by the Ning Navy.
Zheng Zhilong was in disbelief when he received the news, but after repeated investigations, he confirmed the authenticity of the news.
Zheng Zhilong knew that his opportunity had come. Ning Haijun had a fort at Wusongkou, and Manila also had a fort. The situation at Wusongkou was different. It was obvious that he could bypass Wusongkou and attack Wusongkou with a sea and land attack, but he could be forced from above. He couldn't do that due to the pressure.
But Luzon can. Luzon does not belong to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, and the big bosses in the DPRK have nothing to do with it. At the same time, once Luzon is captured, Zheng Zhilong can sell Luzon at a good price. You must know that the Dutch covet Luzon for more than a day or two. At the same time, the Portuguese, British, and Spanish all wanted Luzon.
As long as Luzon is in hand, he can trade Luzon to Xiyi for dozens of heavy warships, or hundreds or thousands of artillery pieces.
So, Zheng Zhilong came to the Subic Sea, because he could attack the Subic Port from the Subic Strait. In later generations, this was the Subic Shipyard, but of course it is only a small port now.
Just when Zheng Zhilong's collective surrender by Luo Jiu's troops caused a major earthquake in the Zheng fleet, almost all the leaders and leaders were shaken.
"What the hell, six or seven miles away, it was sunk by a cannon. This is because Luo Jiu, a bastard, betrayed the trust of this admiral in him. We are also old rivals with Ning Haijun, and this is not the first time we have fought against each other, whether in Liaodong or In Wusongkou, does Ning Haijun have such powerful cannons?"
Zheng Zhilong looked at the generals and said, "Which of you has seen this before?"
The generals were speechless.
Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "This is just a tactic by those gangsters. If you are afraid, then you have fallen into their trick. Now they are playing a tactic with us. What does this mean?"
Hong Xu reacted: "It means they can't defeat us and are scared!"
"Yes, we must not be fooled!"
Just as he was talking, a bird ship came quickly.
"What? Navy Denglai is here!?"
Zheng Zhilong was ecstatic: "They actually came out of the turtle shell?"
"Here we come! There are sixty warships in total. Almost all of them are brand new. They are very fast and have strong firepower. A patrol fleet led by Mr. Huang Ba has been annihilated by them!"
"Great! Finally got the chance to give them a good beating!"
Zheng Zhilong's eyes were bright, he looked around at everyone with his fists, and he said with great pride: "Everyone, don't worry about Luo Jiu's defeat. This forest is big and there are all kinds of birds. It is reasonable to suffer a small loss. But this naval battle But it is our strength. We have traversed the sea for more than ten years without encountering an enemy! And what about the Ning Navy Navy? They are just a group of ragtag soldiers who have been in the army for three years. This time we must kill them and leave no one behind. Call them Pianfan is not allowed to return!”
Hearing that the Ning Navy had only about sixty warships, Hong Xu and Shi Daxuan, the Ostrich faction generals who strongly advocated an immediate retreat, suddenly felt as if they had taken chicken blood and swallowed ten packs of Viagra. They were all in high spirits and wailing. He shouted: "Yes, we can't defeat them in a land battle, but they are no match for us in a naval battle. They are here to die!"
Hong Xu shouted enthusiastically: "Once this fleet is annihilated, we will follow the admiral's suggestion and use the fleet to block the Yangtze River waterway and trap Cheng Shijie to death at Wusongkou!"
Facing the "weak" Ning Navy, the generals of the Zheng fleet immediately unified their opinions. Zheng Zhilong immediately ordered to display the dragon-tiger battle flag for the main battle, and the flagship took the lead and rushed south.
The originally listless fleet was excited. One ship followed the other to form a combat formation and sailed to the south. If you look down from a high altitude, you will see more than 600 warships forming two arrows, one large and one small, cutting through the sea and rushing towards the opponent's edge.
The difference is that Ning Haijun's navy is in order, and all warships are using walkie-talkies to communicate and convey orders, while Zheng's fleet appears to be more chaotic. The small boats responsible for delivering orders shuttle back and forth among the huge fleet, shouting loudly. Roar, the fleet has sailed several kilometers, and there are still some warships that don't know where the enemy is, how many there are, and which direction they are coming from, so they just follow the large force mechanically.
In terms of command, Zheng's fleet lost first.
Zheng Zhilong's flagship sailed more than ten kilometers away, and he could finally see the Ning Haijun fleet through the telescope. However, the Ning Haijun warship coming with the wind, more than ten kilometers away from them, actually started to turn around, and it seemed to be coming in a menacing manner. Seeing the huge scale of Zheng's fleet, they were frightened and retreated in confusion.
Now the morale of Zheng's fleet was even higher, the momentum was like a rainbow, and the sounds of killing and fighting were loud.
Zheng Zhilong sighed and said: "What a pity, it's getting dark!"
"That's right, maybe Ning Haijun calculated the time correctly and knew that we wouldn't be able to fight today, so he deliberately showed his side to boost his morale!"
Shi Daxuan analyzed: "It is also possible that they are luring the enemy deeper..."
"What Daxuan said makes sense!"
Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "Order, please pass on this admiral's order. All ministries must not underestimate the enemy and advance rashly!"
On board the Guangning, the flagship of the Ning Navy's first detachment, Zou Jing asked with some confusion: "Why don't we fight?"
"Fight, fight, fight, just know how to fight!"
Li Yuan said angrily: "Did the commander forget everything he said when he lectured you?"
Zou Jing was a little confused: "The commander-in-chief said a lot of things at that time, how could I know which sentence you were talking about!"
"When two armies meet, who wins?"
"Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins!"
Li Yuan nodded and said: "Since you still remember this, I have to ask you, how can we fight now that it is getting dark? Besides, the view is not wide at night. There are many reefs near this sea area. If you are careful, you will hit the rocks. Our warships are large and have deep drafts, making them easier to attack. The warships of Zheng’s fleet are small and have shallow drafts, so they have an advantage over us!"
Ning Haijun's sixty main battleships, including forty-eight Sea Shark-class battleships, spread their wings like eagles, guarding the twelve new large ships of the Chinese fleet, and began to sail towards the China Sea. The reason for this is to prevent Zheng's fleet from using small speedboats to outflank them.
Half an hour later, the sun began to sink into the sea level, which meant the arrival of night. Of course, Zheng Zhilong did not know that his bad luck had befallen him again.
Zheng Zhilong watched Ning Haijun's main battleship disappear from sight, and he felt vaguely uneasy.
Zheng Zhilong looked at Shi Daxuan anxiously and said, "Daxuan, do you think those black men are a little abnormal?"
"It's indeed a bit abnormal!"
Basically, the last battle report under Zheng Zhibao's command stated that Ning Haijun's navy was very brave. Even if they didn't know the enemy, they would move forward bravely. Even if they faced an absolute disadvantage, they never thought of negotiating a solution.
Zheng Zhilong had people rob the ships of Ning Haijun and their allies, the Shachuan Gang, and even threw the Shachuan Gang's sailors into the sea to drown, and captured six to seven hundred Liaodong sailors, all in order to force Cheng Shijie to negotiate with him.
As long as Cheng Shijie pays him protection fees like other Jiangnan maritime merchants and Fujian maritime merchants, even if he adopts an annual subscription method like the Dutch East India Company, he is willing to accept negotiations.
But the problem was that Cheng Shijie didn't seem to know what the negotiation was about, and no one was sent over.
How could they retreat so easily?
Zheng Zhilong's hunch was accurate. Ning Haijun actually did not retreat so easily.
Although Li Zhixiang was born in the Navy of the Dongjiang Army, the naval combat experience he received was actually backward naval combat experience. However, the problem was that Li Zhixiang came from a low background, and he was just a junior officer in the navy.
After joining Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie described to him a majestic blueprint and the development model of naval battles. Future naval battles will definitely become a duel between cannons, and gang-hopping operations will completely disappear from the naval battle sequence.
Wind direction, ocean currents, and climate are all basic skills that naval generals must master.
Now Li Zhixiang is using ocean currents. This warm current in the South Central Sea is a branch of the North Equatorial Warm Current. Generally, it moves from the southeast to the northwest.
If there are no storms or other unexpected weather conditions, this current will continue to move northwest.
At this time, the main fleet of the Ning Navy Navy began to anchor, and several naval staff were calculating the speed of the inflow.
"Tell General Li that the direction and speed of the current have been calculated!"
"Oh, what speed!"
"Three to five knots!"
"We are about twenty-five kilometers away from the Zheng's fleet. According to the speed of the ocean currents, it will take up to two hours to reach the Zheng's fleet!"
"Then let's get started!"
"yes!"
After receiving the order, the Ning Navy's Central Military Squadron began to place mines on the sea. If you look at the appearance of this mine, it is equivalent to a huge sea urchin.
In fact, this kind of mine has little to do with Cheng Shijie. In the mid-16th century, the Ming Dynasty was able to produce various types of mines, and the technology was quite mature and powerful. Mines were an important weapon for the Ming Dynasty navy at that time.
In 1549, the Ming Dynasty independently developed the world's first mine: the "underwater mine". The shell of the mine is a wooden structure, elegant and retro, with a beautiful appearance. A rope is connected to the anchor, so that the depth of the mine can be controlled. However, Western countries did not start using mines until more than 200 years later. According to historical records, during the War to Resist Japan and Aid Korea during the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty used this underwater mine to sink Japanese warships. This was the first actual combat application of underwater mines, and it was a great success.
By 1590, the Ming Dynasty's naval mine technology was more mature. The clever Ming Dynasty navy created a timed mine - the "Underwater Dragon King Cannon". The name is so domineering. Needless to say, the power of the cannon fired by the Dragon King as the overlord of the seabed is really powerful. If you die at the third watch, you dare not stay alive until the fifth watch. The mine shell is made of cow's bladder, with black powder inside, and incense is burned as a fuse. The mine can be detonated regularly by calculating the burning time of the incense.
It should be said that Ning Haijun's improvements to mines are mainly improvements in two aspects: explosive fuses and explosive parts. Ning Haijun's Gunpowder Bureau invented nitrocellulose gunpowder, which is smokeless gunpowder. Its explosive power is two or three times that of black gunpowder. This new gunpowder even interrupted the production of fertilizer for a time and was exclusively used by the military.
Starting to use various aspects, Ning Haijun's artillery fired farther because of the different gunpowder. If Ning Haijun's artillery continued to use black powder as the propellant, the initial velocity of the black powder's explosion was limited, the range of the artillery shells was also limited, and the power was even more limited.
The second is the fuze method. Ning Haijun has basically canceled the detonation method of open flame ignition. This kind of mine uses a contact explosion method. First of all, when the mine is manufactured, the density is controlled so that it only floats semi-floatingly on the sea surface and is no more than 10 meters away from the water surface. About one meter.
Secondly, it is loaded with sixteen long tentacles, which are similar to a pump. Although the waves will touch the detonating tentacles, they are not powerful enough to directly detonate the mines.
Only when a mine collides with an enemy warship will it detonate due to the huge impact force. This kind of mine is loaded with 68 kilograms of nitrocellulose gunpowder, which is equivalent to the explosive power of two to three hundred kilograms of black powder, and is equivalent to more than 30 kilograms of black powder. Kilograms of TNT, even a thousand-ton wooden warship, if hit by one, would be destroyed or disabled.
But the cost is a bit expensive, much more than artillery shells. A mine costs up to 580 taels of silver. This time Li Zhixiang carried more than 500 when he went south.
Because the number is too small, this method can only be adopted to maximize the power.
Ning Haijun calculated the relationship between distance and speed very skillfully.
After a night of preparation, at dawn, the sailors on the ships of the Ning Navy quickly ate, then checked the equipment, began to raise the sails and anchor, and once again sailed towards the Zheng fleet.
Half an hour later, the lookouts of Zheng's fleet spotted Ning Haijun's warship, and a battle alarm sounded over Zheng's fleet.
Zheng Zhilong saw the main fleet of the Ning Haijun Navy. Forty-eight main warships were lined up in two lines, forming a canine shape, as if two rows of sharp teeth were rushing towards them.
Forty-eight Sea Shark-class warships are rushing forward like a wall, seizing the wind. The cannon ammunition on the bow of the ship has already been loaded. The gunner lies in front of the simple artillery mirror and stares at the target. He keeps reporting parameters one by one. It's so hard. The gunners were busy adjusting Zhu Yuan.
Zheng Zhilong naturally would not sit still and wait for death. At night, they gathered together and formed a hedgehog formation to prevent Ning Haijun's night attack. If they still did not change their formation, were they waiting to be covered by Ning Haijun's artillery?
Zheng Zhilong has experienced countless artillery battles at sea. He also had two decisive battles with the Dutch, a small force in Europe. He knew very well that naval battles require large warships to disperse to avoid being bombarded.
Just when Ning Haijun's battleship was nearly eight miles away from them, Ning Haijun's artillery actually started to fire.
"Boom boom boom..."
The ninety-six bow guns began to fire one after another.
Zheng Zhilong had a smile on his face: "Do you still want to get lucky?"
However, at this moment, streams of water rose up on the sea about three or four miles away from the Zheng fleet, which meant that the Ning Navy's main naval gun did not replicate the good fortune of the day before yesterday.
"Hong Xu, lead your people to the left wing, and Shi Daxuan will lead your people to the right wing!"
Before Zheng Zhilong could finish his words, a huge roar was heard from the southwest.
After a frightening flash of light and a violent explosion, a black-tailed warship disappeared from the sea, leaving only a pile of broken wreckage still floating on the sea.
Zheng Zhilong's expression changed drastically, and he murmured: "Why...how can their naval guns shoot so far and so accurately? This is against common sense!"
"Admiral, we must all press forward, otherwise we will be in big trouble!"
Zheng Zhilong also lost his calmness and shouted wildly: "Come on! Press on and kill them!"
It's just a pity that when Zheng's fleet was moving forward with full sail, explosions were heard one after another. In just half a stick of incense, more than a dozen warships were blown up.
Zheng Zhilong finally discovered the problem: "Their warship is still seven or eight miles away from us, and we haven't seen where the shells are flying from. What's going on?"
Shi Daxuan sent a signal to Zheng Zhilong: "Admiral, the mine... is a mine!"
After Shi Daxuan's reminder, Zheng Zhilong realized that their fleet was surrounded by mines.
Because of the unknown mines, Zheng's fleet did not dare to move and urgently lowered the sails. When they turned, more than a dozen warships were sunk by mines. They did not dare to move now.
Fortunately, the warships behind them could move and retreat. However, due to the high density, several collision accidents occurred.
When Ning Haijun's warships were about five or six miles away from the main forward of Zheng's fleet, they began to change direction. The two teams became one team and cut in from the southeast.
"Boom boom boom..."
Forty-eight Sea Shark-class warships used broadside boats to fire cannonballs at the Zheng fleet.
To be fair, the Ning Navy battleship's artillery hit rate is not very high, about 5%. Forty-eight Sea Shark-class ships have a total of 576 broadside guns. Even if they have a 5% hit rate, they are still During each salvo, seven or eight or a dozen warships were hit.
The power of the three-inch cannon and the four-inch naval gun is beyond imagination. Now they are like target shooting, destroying Zheng's fleet layer by layer. This makes Zheng Zhilong feel extremely aggrieved.
(End of chapter)
