Chapter 231
Zheng Zhilong traversed the sea for more than ten years, although he seemed to be cheating in his life. When he followed Li Dan to the sea, Li Dan died. Li Dan did not leave his inheritance to his son Li Guoqi, but to Zheng Zhilong and Xu Suxin, this is the cleverness of Li Dan.
Zheng Zhilong did not eradicate Li Guoqi, but gave him extremely high treatment, but he had no real power. At least he could be rich and prosperous for a lifetime. Later, he became sworn friends with Yan Siqi and became a high-ranking developer. After Yan Siqi died suddenly, he inherited Yan Siqi's property as Yan Siqi's brother-in-law.
It was precisely with the huge inheritance of Yan Siqi and Li Dan that Zheng Zhilong had the capital to start a business, but the problem was that many people, including members of the First Official Party and the Eighteen Zhi, were dissatisfied with him. It took many years to become the king of the sea.
After the initial confusion and tension, Zheng Zhilong quickly calmed down. The warships of Zheng's fleet were not as fast as Ning Haijun's warships, and they were not as far away as Ning Haijun's naval guns. Ning Haijun's naval guns had far longer range, accuracy and power. To defeat them, if you retreat, you will only be knocked down by Ning Haijun as a target one by one. The only way is to rush forward, use your numerical advantage to surround Ning Haijun, divide them, attack them, and annihilate them one by one. This is the only way. !
"Smoke boat!"
Following Zheng Zhilong's order, more than 120 small boats rushed out of the huge Zheng fleet. These small boats desperately seized the upper wind. These small boats were filled with sulfur, fire oil, dry firewood and other fire starters. .
These small boats were not intended to burn Ning Haijun's warships, but to release smoke. The small boats soon burned into the sky, and then wet straw, quilts and other things were thrown on the fire, and then poured with seawater. Each small boat produced a large amount of smoke.
This thick smoke shrouded most of the warships in Zheng's fleet in smoke. As more and more warships or small boats raised smoke, a large area of dense fog appeared within a radius of tens of kilometers of the entire battlefield.
Some Zheng's warships even burned rubber, producing a lot of thick smoke. It must be said that Zheng Zhilong's response was very correct and very effective.
"Zheng Zhilong really has his wits about him!"
Li Zhixiang has carefully studied Zheng Zhilong and found that this guy likes to win by surprise and is good at using fire ships. In bloody battles with powerful maritime forces such as the Fujian Navy, the Netherlands, and Portugal, he can always successfully paralyze the opponent, and then take advantage of the opponent's lack of attention. As a precaution, he sent a fire ship and burned the enemy warship to pieces in one fell swoop.
However, it is one thing to know what moves the opponent likes to use, and it is another thing to be able to prevent them. Just like now, Li Zhixiang did not expect that Zheng Zhilong actually slightly modified the fire ship to form his own barrier.
Although the smoke at this time also had a great impact on the Zheng fleet, and many sailors were choked to the point of tears and runny noses, the problem was that no matter how uncomfortable it was, it was still better than being bombarded by Ning Haijun's naval guns.
Ning Haijun tried to fire into the smoke, and after two rounds, there was no effect. Although Ning Haijun was rich, no matter how rich they were, they couldn't play with precious shells.
Zheng Zhilong took advantage of the protection of the smoke and ordered the dispatch of water ghost troops to remove the mines.
Of course, facing Ning Haijun's mines, the Zheng fleet had no better way. They carefully fished the mines out of the sea with ropes. In just half an hour, they fished out more than a hundred mines from the water. .
Although more than a dozen mines were accidentally touched and detonated during the salvage process, Ning Haijun actually suffered a loss by using such a small bird ship or speedboat in exchange for mines.
As the mine crisis was resolved, Zheng Zhilong, who was holding back his anger, loudly ordered: "Attack the whole army, press up and kill them!"
The smoke had just dissipated, and Zheng's fleet rushed towards Ning Haijun's main fleet like an angry bull. At this time, Ning Haijun's warships were scattered very widely, and some of the warships were very close to Zheng's warship.
Just as the Ning Navy warships were firing cannonballs in an orderly manner, attacking the Zheng fleet, the fireships of the Zheng fleet began to appear.
Li Zhixiang looked at the fire ships coming with the help of smoke cover, and there were so many fire ships rushing towards them. He couldn't help being surprised and shouted: "Spread out! Spread out! Don't get hit by these fire boats!"
The fire ships that appear now are actually mother and daughter ships, which are light ships. The mother ship is three feet and five feet long, two feet in front and one foot and five feet in the back. It has only two sides of the ship and is hollow inside. There is a small boat with a cover on it and a main mast. , there are four oars for rowing, and they are tied to the mother ship with ropes. The mother ship has firewood, heavy oil, and gunpowder fire lines. During the war, the mother ship quickly approached the enemy ship, nailed it together, ignited the mother ship, and returned in the sub-ship.
Due to the obstruction of fire traps and thick smoke, it is also very difficult to attack the sailors and operators on the sub-ship. During the naval battle of Wusongkou, Ning Haijun suffered heavy losses from the fireships of Zheng's fleet.
Fortunately, Li Zhixiang had anticipated in advance that Zheng's fleet would send fire ships to fight. They fought and retreated, especially when they saw the fire ships rushing over. Most of the Ning Navy's main warships were moving at full speed. Fortunately, the sea was wide enough and the southeast wind direction was against those retreating to the north. For Ning Haijun, it was a tailwind.
With both sides facing a favorable wind, the Ning Navy's navy relied on its speed advantage to gradually get farther and farther away from the Zheng's fleet, while the Ning's navy's warships bombarded the catching-up Zheng's fleet with stern cannons.
However, seeing that it was about to escape the attack range of the Zheng fleet's fireships, Ning Haijun had a new problem.
"Turn the rudder, full right rudder! What are you doing in such a daze?"
"Captain, no good, our battleship is stuck!"
"its stuck?"
"Yes, our rudder is entangled in the fishing net and cannot turn. If we use brute force, the rudder will definitely break!"
"If it breaks, break it. Let's replace it with a spare rudder!"
"It's too late!"
Li Zhixiang watched the four warships of the Fourth Squadron being entangled in fishing nets. He did not naively think that this was an accident. On this battlefield, it could not be an accident, but a counterattack by the Zheng fleet.
"Boom..."
As the four warships "Liaozhou", "Cangzhou", "Luzhou" and "Zezhou" that could not turn were hit by fireships of the Zheng fleet one after another, the explosion of gunpowder caused the four warships to The battleship was blown into a huge hole, and the sea poured into the cabin.
As a Sea Shark-class warship with twenty-seven watertight compartments, although the watertight compartments are sealed, the influx of sea water increases the load on the warship and causes the warship's speed to drop rapidly.
More and more Zheng's warships, like sharks smelling blood, launched a siege on these four warships.
"The Fourth Squadron, immediately leave the "Liaozhou", "Cangzhou", "Luzhou", "Zezhou"..."
"We at Ning Haijun have no tradition of abandoning our brothers and running away!"
The commander of the Fourth Squadron was furious and shouted: "Fight them!"
Seeing that they could not escape, the four warships simply lowered their sails and anchored, acting as sea forts. The shooting accuracy of the moving naval guns was far inferior to that of the anchored warships.
As the four battleships raised the bloody battle flag, the roar of more than a hundred artillery pieces on the four battleships dispersed the blood-like glow on the horizon, and the cannonballs were as dense as a heavy rain and rained down on the Zheng fleet.
Now the Zheng fleet is in bad luck. Unlike the Ning Navy, which has emphasized bow and stern firepower since its birth, the strongest of all the warships in the Zheng fleet is the broadside firepower, which means that before they open fire, The broadside must be aimed across the hull at the target so that the broadside's firepower can be unleashed.
And their broadside firepower was indeed ferocious. A single salvo hit Ning Haijun with blood and flesh flying everywhere, but this also meant that the surface area of those battleships that were hit by bullets increased several times. Facing the torrential rain of shells, the consequences could be imagined. Know.
There was lightning on the sea surface, and the waves rolled and roared like crazy. The water columns as thick as the water tank were not one or two, but rows, rising into the sky one by one, and the water mist was flying. What rose up at the same time as the water pillars were pillars of fire. They were larger in size, rushed higher, and were more deadly.
At this moment, Zheng Zhilong felt that the sky was about to collapse and the earth was about to collapse. He finally realized the seriousness of the problem. He was really lagging behind in gang-hopping, which he was best at.
If you fall behind, you will be beaten. Even if the main battleships of the Ning Navy are less than one-tenth of the main battleships of their Zheng fleet, if small battleships are included, the disadvantage of the Ning Navy's main fleet will be even more obvious.
But the problem is that with such a huge numerical advantage, they fought this battle very hard, costing three to four thousand casualties and sinking dozens of main warships. So far, the Ning Navy has only four A battleship was surrounded by them.
Even if they were surrounded by them, the officers and soldiers of the Ning Navy were very tenacious. All the naval guns opened fire at full speed, and the water power that tried to join forces to fight was shot into sieves by the thunderbolts on the battleship.
Seven black-tailed boats with nearly 2,000 sailors attacked Ning Haijun's Zezhou. They fought for half an hour but failed to attack. Instead, eight to nine hundred people were killed and injured.
What a shame.
"Daxuan, our development direction is wrong!"
Zheng Zhilong had to admit that Ning Haijun's achievements in just three years were more significant than what he had achieved in more than ten years.
Cheng Shijie is rich and can make money, but the question is, how can Cheng Shijie make money? Can he snatch the money as quickly as he can? Come more?
The answer is definitely not.
Cheng Shijie's main way of making money is to open factories and create wealth.
Zheng Zhilong, on the other hand, used the method of transferring wealth. To put it more elegantly, he transferred other people's money into his hands. Zheng Zhilong is not short of money. If he wants to build his own warship, he will have sufficient technical reserves and funds.
However, he felt it was not necessary.
Because when it comes to Zheng Zhilong's more than 3,000 warships, no one dares to have the courage to fight him.
Of course, except Cheng Shijie.
Under Zheng Zhilong's horrified eyes, the warships that used broadsides to attack Ning Haijun were torn apart one after another and turned into a sea of fire...
He couldn't see clearly the miserable state of his own fleet, but he could guess that the blow they inflicted on Ning Haijun's navy was repaid tenfold by Ning Haijun's navy!
The roaring artillery, the collision of battleships, the rising and falling fire, the loud noise of the collision of battleships, and the shrill screams of the dying sailors have become the main theme of this blue world.
Zheng's fleet was surrounded by many groups, launching fierce attacks on Ning Haijun's navy again and again. The ferocity was comparable to that of piranhas that smell the smell of blood.
However, the Ning navy always struggled to maintain a neat line and never fought alone. Compared with the Zheng fleet, the tactics of this young navy seemed extremely monotonous and rigid, but when their naval guns roared At that time, no one dared to question the power of this monotonous and rigid tactic.
Every time they fire a salvo, there must be a battleship torn to pieces by them, and there are more than one! The Zheng fleet tried to ram the warships of the Ning Navy with rams, tried to disrupt the Ning Navy's battleships with fire ships, and tried to outflank the Ning Navy from both sides. All kinds of tactics were used, and a fleet in the classical era had all the tricks. They used all the tactics they could, but Ning Haijun's navy was like a rock in the sea. No matter how hard you hit it, it wouldn't move!
What makes Zheng Zhilong extremely uncomfortable is that despite the fact that Ning Haijun's main battleships are not equipped with many artillery pieces, even the Jusha class equipment only has forty-eight artillery pieces, including thirty-six three-inch cannons and twelve four-inch cannons. According to the same tonnage, Europa's warships are generally equipped with seventy, eighty, or even eighty or ninety artillery pieces.
But the problem is that the firing rate of the breech-loading smoothbore cannon is too fast. The time it takes for the front-loading smoothbore cannon to fire one shot is enough for Ning Haijun's breech-loading smoothbore cannon to fire five to six shots.
The sailors of Zheng's fleet are also well-trained, and their reloading speed is one of the best in Asia. However, Ning Haijun's navy is faster than them!
Ning Haijun's artillery speed is not what they are well-trained. If Ning Haijun uses forward-loading smoothbore cannons to fight the Zheng fleet, the Zheng fleet can easily beat the crap out of Ning Haijun.
The ancient broadside tactics also caused the Zheng fleet to suffer a lot. They had to stop at a distance of about three hundred meters and turn the hull in turns to let the artillery fire on both sides. This made them a living target for the Ning Navy. .
The bullet-explosion surface of the ship's side towards the enemy is several times that of the bow of the ship. In addition, it has to be parked there. It's a hell if you don't get hit! The high-explosive bombs used extensively by the Ning Navy also made it difficult for the warships that were hit to leave the battlefield. It would be fine if they were not hit, but once they were hit, the entire warship would soon turn into a sea of fire. No matter how you attack it, It was useless, the only thing the sailors could do was to jump overboard and escape before the fire ignited the powder keg!
Just when the Zezhou's shells were exhausted and the Zezhou was severely damaged and unable to support itself, Navy officer Ning detonated the Zezhou. This was the first victory achieved by the Zheng fleet.
However, in order to sink the Zezhou, the Zheng fleet spent sixteen black-tailed ships sunk, three Junk ships sunk, and nineteen small warships sunk. In terms of number, three were sunk. Eighteen to one.
It's really off the mark.
"Oops, General Hong was shot!"
Zheng Zhilong was not happy yet, because for Zheng's fleet, sinking a Ning Haijun warship was the first result achieved in more than six months since the war with Ning Haijun broke out.
No, it should be the third one, because the Fuzhou and Gaizhou were also sunk by them.
This is the third ship lost by the Ning Navy.
But the problem is that compared with the losses of Ning Haijun, the losses of Zheng fleet are multiplied by a hundred.
Shi Daxuan, who had a large gash on his forehead from sawdust, personally came to Zheng Zhilong's flagship: "Admiral, we can't continue the fight. The losses for our brothers are too great!"
"If you hold on a little longer, Ning Haijun's naval guns will get hot. As long as..."
Just when Zheng Zhilong personally bandaged Shi Daxuan's wound, another Ning Navy warship was sunk. This was the Luzhou. The Luzhou was hit by the Zheng Fleet's fireship on the left side. After the third collision and During the explosion, too much water entered and it rolled over. After a stick of incense, the Luzhou sank.
The battle with Ning Haijun made Zheng's fleet extremely passive. This was not the combat method that Zheng's fleet was good at. What they were best at was fighting by joining gangs. However, after seeing the warships full of armed sailors rushing to try to join the gang and seizing the ship being torn apart mercilessly by thunderbolts, the Zheng fleet temporarily gave up the idea of rushing forward to fight hand-to-hand, and could only use inaccurate and reloading speeds. The extremely slow front-loading smoothbore cannon continued to hold on.
In fact, Ning Haijun's navy was also struggling. They only used retractable artillery, and the barrels of the guns were starting to turn red. But the red-eyed gunner didn't care at all and kept firing. When it was really too hot, he brought a bucket of water and poured it over the cannon.
With the sound of "Zi", white water vapor rose up, like heavy fog.
Ning Haijun's gunners were also exhausted. You know, although the three-inch cannon shells are not very heavy, each shell weighs thirty-eight kilograms, the problem is that the four-inch cannon shells are very heavy. One shell weighs six Ten kilograms, without any mechanical assistance, depends entirely on people to carry it. Over time, even a strong person can't bear it. But no one complained, because everyone knew that they were fighting for themselves.
If the Zheng fleet is allowed to continue the blockade, Liaodong will not be able to obtain raw materials, food and cloth from the north and south of the Yangtze River, and at the same time, the things produced in Liaodong will not be sold.
Because the Ning Navy soldiers are most concerned about military exploits. In the past, it was the Ning Navy infantry, cavalry and artillery soldiers who made meritorious service. They received a large number of rewards. Almost every Ning Navy soldier was a landlord. Some Ning Navy soldiers already owned more than 1,000 yuan. acres of land. But they prefer that the navy only receive dead wages and only occasional rewards.
They also want to earn a legacy for their family that can be passed down, shine their family name, and return home in fine clothes.
The Ning Navy's navy also suffered heavy casualties. Although the artillery of the Zheng fleet had a short range and the artillery fire was not very accurate, the key to the problem is that quantitative changes will turn into qualitative changes.
Anything can happen on the battlefield. A junk ship from Zheng's fleet. Originally they wanted to attack the Chenzhou, which was more than 500 meters away from them, but it turned out that nothing happened to the Chenzhou. The Lanling, which was at least 2,500 meters away, was hit on the bow deck. Two four-inch guns and two gun batteries killed more than 30 people.
Who should I talk to to explain this matter?
The gunners of Zheng's fleet were indeed very powerful. When they discovered that Ning Haijun's warships were too fast and maneuverable, they changed their tactics one after another, using red-hot solid lead balls to attack the rudder position, and at the same time launching a large number of chain bombs to attack the sails. .
Once the red-hot lead ball hits the wooden hull, it immediately catches fire, and the chain bomb not only shreds the sails but also tore the sailors' bodies into pieces. The sails of the battleships attacked by chain bombs were shattered, and the decks were littered with bones and flesh. The sailors They fell in a pool of blood and squirmed in pain.
"General Li, Commander Li Yuan of the First Squadron is injured."
Li Zhixiang said coldly: "Are you Zou Jing, the captain of the Guangning?"
"It's the official!"
"You are now the commander of the First Squadron!"
"Yes, I promise to complete the mission!"
Now that the two sides are fighting, no one is willing to retreat. Even if the Zheng fleet suffers heavy losses, Zheng Zhilong is unwilling to retreat. Who dares to retreat?
Although Zheng Zhilong usually smiles, the problem is that once Zheng Zhilong becomes ruthless, he will eradicate the roots and kill his whole family. Who is not afraid of this?
When the Subic naval battle lasted from dawn to dusk, Zheng Zhilong ordered a retreat when he saw that the morale of the Zheng fleet was low and there was no hope of annihilating the main fleet of the Ning navy.
Zheng's fleet was the first to break away from the battle as if it was amnesty.
However, when the Zheng fleet retreated, the Ning Navy advanced instead of retreating. The artillery fire bombarded the Zheng fleet more fiercely. The entire fleet was in chaos. More and more warships were hit and caught fire. The fire and the sky were soaring. The bright red glow complements each other, as if the sky is also burning.
Li Zhixiang watched the Zheng fleet retreating, and they retreated in a hurry, even ignoring the sailors who fell into the sea. It can be said that they fled in despair.
Li Zhixiang put down the telescope and breathed a sigh of relief: "Finally... we won!"
The Subic naval battle finally resulted in the Ning Navy's final victory and the Zheng fleet's complete defeat. In this battle, 161 of the 625 main warships brought by Zheng Zhilong were sunk, 25 were captured, and dozens of ships were severely damaged.
The Zheng fleet lost more than 300 small warships and more than 15,000 sailors, but the Ning navy only captured more than 2,700 people.
The losses of the Ning Navy were not light either. Four battleships of the Fourth Squadron were sunk, two of which were sunk. Two of them chose to sink themselves to avoid being taken away by the Zheng fleet.
Commander Qian Li Yuan, the commander of the First Squadron, was seriously injured. His left chest was hit by a lead bullet. Fortunately, the lead bullet was fired from a bowl-mouth gun and was not very powerful. However, Li Yuan's ribs were broken. Four roots, I don’t know if I can survive.
The 1st Squadron lost one battleship and four battleships were damaged.
No battleships of the Second Squadron were sunk, but eight battleships were hit and 465 people were killed, including Director Tian Simin, the highest-ranking general killed in the Ning Navy in this battle, and Director Qian Ping. level, but Mr. Qian holds the rank of General of the imperial court.
This means that the Ning Navy lost one general, injured one general, and four generals were killed. One thousand, six hundred and thirty-three soldiers were killed, of which five Sea Shark-class ships were sunk and 11 were sunk. The Sea Shark-class battleship must be overhauled and temporarily loses the ability to continue fighting. Fourteen more battleships are injured to varying degrees.
The young navy Ning Haijun withstood the test and used his excellent record to tell Cheng Shijie that they had lived up to his trust and that they were worthy of his love!
Li Zhixiang said calmly: "Report the battle report of the Subic naval battle to the commander-in-chief. The entire fleet returned to Manila to rest and ask the commander-in-chief for instructions. Manila was renamed..."
(End of chapter)
