Chapter 308
Xiaori's army of more than 40,000 can be regarded as the most elite force that Kyushu can mobilize. Among them are more than 6,000 matchlock guns purchased from Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. Of course, Xiaori calls matchlocks iron cannons.
If you just look at the proportion of muskets, the Xiaori army is actually equipped with much higher muskets than the Ming border troops. As for the guards, there is no way to compare.
In addition to more than 6,000 matchlock guns, there were as many as 30 Hongyi cannons and 56 Folang machine cannons. The 86 cannons were called the collapse of the country by the people of Xiaori. Under the attack of Ning Navy artillery, Xiaori As quickly as possible, the nine relatively powerful vassals on Kyushu Island were led by their own troops. In this way, the nine armies were the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma clan, the Kuroda clan of the Fukuoka clan, the Saga clan of the Hizen clan, and the Kumamoto clan. Chuanshi and so on.
The nine feudal lords each led their armies to Ning Haijun's formation. They discovered that Ning Haijun had deployed a defense system along Lu'er City and the wharf.
When I was young, I faced the trenches and parapets arranged by Ning Haijun. It was the first time I saw such fortifications. I asked with some confusion: "This Ming army's defense line... doesn't look very good!"
Hosokawa Tadayoshi rode a war horse and observed the Ming army's position with a monocular telescope. What he saw was only a layer of Luzhai and Juma stakes that were only about ten meters deep, and a wall made of sandbags. Other than that, Nothing else.
Hosokawa Tadayoshi asked in surprise: "Is this the defense line of the Ming army? Where are the fences? Where are the trenches? Where are the walls and watchtowers? Why are there nothing? Isn't this defense line too crude?"
Kuroishi Xinger said: "I can't believe that they went deep into the mainland of Xiaoli and dared to be so confident when surrounded by powerful enemies. They only built such a simple fortification to fool people!"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa said: "Don't underestimate it. The combat effectiveness of this Ming army is very powerful. The bows and crossbows they are equipped with have an amazing range. They are more than twice the range of our longbows and can even be compared with our iron cannons... "
"So the Ming army relied on these powerful bows and crossbows to be confident and didn't take us seriously, so they only built such an extremely crude fortification?"
Yukiji Kuroda, the commander-in-chief of the Fukuoka Domain, sneered: "In my opinion, we don't need to be nervous. First, we will concentrate on destroying their fortifications with all the force. Then the cavalry will charge, and the infantry will follow to cover them up. We will pay a maximum of one thousand casualties." At the cost of one person, we can drive all this Ming army into the sea to feed the fishes!"
Among the armies of the major feudal lords in Kyushu, only the Shimazu clan had fought against Ning Haijun, but it happened that the Satsuma clan lost Kaoji Castle. In the eyes of other feudal lords in his childhood, the Shimazu clan had lost all its dignity and was not qualified at all. Point your fingers in front of them.
Of course, Shimazu Mitsuhisa was also very angry, so he quickly shut his mouth and let other feudal lords' troops suffer.
As all armies were deployed, the sun was already setting and it was already past noon.
"What the hell are they doing!"
Li Dingguo looked at Liu Wenxiu angrily and said: "With tens of thousands of troops, it is very difficult to organize and mobilize. How can it be so easy? They are not as experienced as our old brothers!"
It’s not that the troops under Zhang Xianzhong have never suffered defeats, but the problem is that as Zhang Xianzhong’s elite direct descendants, they have their own management system. In fact, their management model is somewhat like the Tianxiong Army, which uses the same town, county and government as the management method. , regardless of the number of people, but only care about their own group of people.
This is because there was no Mandarin in ancient times, and it was very difficult to communicate in the language. Only people in their own hometowns and counties could communicate. Because everyone is familiar with each other, it will be easier where they are.
It took half a day to do it, which was pretty good. When the Xiaori artillery began to set up, a team of ten Xiaori cavalry galloped over and flew back and forth around the Ming army's defense line. They let out bursts of strange screams that sounded like beasts, but not beasts, and not humans, attracting the Ming Dynasty. They even drew longbows that were about as long as their height and fired arrows at the Ming army's position, trying to lure the Ming army to open fire and consume the Ming army's ammunition and arrows.
It can be seen that the quality of the warriors in these young days is still quite high. All the tactics are linked together and very organized. They are worthy of being elite warriors tempered in two hundred years of war.
It's a pity that the small life is only so big and the pattern is limited. The tactical cooperation that they think is a coincidence is just that in the eyes of the Ming army.
Ning Haijun didn't even bother to look at the little-day cavalry that was flying and bluffing, because compared with the Jiannu cavalry, the small-day cavalry was far behind, let alone compared with the Jiannu cavalry, even if they were Jiannu's servants The Mongolian cavalry is more professional than them in playing cavalry to harass the enemy.
However, Li Dingguo was a little curious and asked Cheng Shijie: "Commander, what are these little dwarfs doing?"
Cheng Shijie did not speak, but Sun Kewang, who wanted to express himself in front of Cheng Shijie, took over the words and said: "What else can you do? It's just to attract our attention, cover the artillery deployment, and test the hands of our army's crossbows and muskets. It’s just the effective range…”
"good!"
Cheng Shijie said: "Hopefully, please keep us informed and don't do anything!"
"yes!"
At this moment, Liu Wenxiu asked: "Commander, what is that?"
Cheng Shijie picked up the telescope and looked in the direction of Liu Wenxiu's finger. He saw dozens of wheelbarrows appearing on Xiaori's position. The wheelbarrows had a huge shield on the front and dozens of sharp spears on them. The car is somewhat similar to the ancient Chinese gate car.
This is an armed vehicle used to temporarily block the enemy after the ancient city gate was knocked open. It is probably learned from the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In my childhood, I improved the door-blocking knife cart and put a lot of wet quilts on it. Something like that.
In this way, Xiaori is equivalent to having an earthen tank that can prevent attacks from fire guns or bowl-mouth blunderbuss. Don't underestimate this kind of earthen tank, at least Ning Haijun's muskets cannot penetrate it.
"It's just a dirt tank, no big deal!"
"What is a dirt tank?"
"Tanks are..."
Cheng Shijie suddenly thought that this thing was the product of centuries later. Even if he lied, Liu Wenxiu and the others would not understand what a tank was, so he had to change his mind and say: "It is an invincible tank. I Those little dwarfs are really idiots. Don’t they need both a shield and a quilt? Wouldn’t it be better to just install loose soil on the car? Not only can it prevent arrows and fire, but it can’t even hit artillery shells.”
"Damn Minggu, now you have to pay with blood for your arrogance!"
Mitsuhisa Shimazu muttered to himself the flag of the Ming army flying in Kaoji Castle.
Of course, now he is even more speechless. Seven of the nine armies are heading towards Ning Haijun's field offensive. As for Kaoer City, there is no one. After all, Kaoer City is the city of the Shimazu family, and it is different from other feudal lords. Nothing to do.
Looking at the earthen tanks getting closer and closer, a Ning Navy officer said: "General, they have entered the mine range, do you want to..."
"Let the dwarfs be happy for a while first, then they will cry!"
Cheng Shijie yawned, waved his hands and said, "Hopefully, you can take charge, I'll go take a nap!"
Just when the Xiaori cavalry saw that the Ming army was not fooled at all, and after their artillery positions were arranged, the Xiaori cavalry retreated like a tide.
Immediately afterwards, the ground at the Xiaori artillery position suddenly shook, emitting a large cloud of smoke and fire, and the loud bangs were connected in a line and slammed into each other like a runaway train, making the eardrums of the Ming army soldiers ring.
Navy soldier Ning, who had been observing the situation over there, shouted: "Shellardment!"
All the Ning Navy soldiers and the soldiers of the Death Battalion almost instinctively jumped into the trenches or anti-gun holes and lay down on the ground. The next second, the heavy lead balls were spinning all the way and slamming towards them with terrifying power!
It has become the instinctive reaction of the Ming army to quickly hide in the trenches when encountering artillery fire. When they hear the sound of cannons, they will instinctively roll towards the trenches. A trench is the boundary between life and death!
The lead ball flew over and hit the Ming army's position. It has to be said that although the accuracy of the solid shot fired by the front-mounted smoothbore gun is very poor, and it depends entirely on the cover when it exceeds 300 meters, and the power is not very good, its destructive power is still quite amazing. Basically, whoever touches it will be broken, and whoever touches it will die. Who, like parapets and the like will be broken after just rubbing.
Eighty-six cannons fired at the same time, and the power was extremely terrifying. With just one salvo, the parapet deployed by the Ming army was smashed into a mess. Several lead balls flew over the parapet, rolled and bounced, and flew over the heads of the Ning navy soldiers. , landed among the temporary detention of Xiaori prisoners, and immediately caused a wave of blood. Several Xiaori prisoners had their heads smashed on the spot, and one was hit in the chest by a five-kilogram shot put, and his whole body was shot. They were all broken, and there was a cracking sound from several legs. The foamy bone fragments mixed with flesh and blood were scattered in radiating directions. The aorta was exposed to the air, and large jets of plasma were spurted out.
The fatally injured Xiaori prisoners fell to the ground holding their shortened legs. They only had time to let out a half scream before they passed out. Even in the coma, their bodies were still twitching.
Li Dingguo's face turned pale in a flash.
To be fair, when it comes to the bravery of the cavalry, the Xiaozhi cavalry is really inferior to the Jiannu cavalry. When it comes to artillery battles, the Xiaozhi artillery is really more professional than the Jiannu Han flag. After all, they were taught a lesson by the Dutch and Spanish.
"Boom boom boom boom..."
The second round of volleys started again in Xiaotian, and the parapet was hit with pieces flying all over the sky. Looking at the speed, anyone who was hit would be stabbed to the core. The parapet shook slightly, apparently struck by a shot put. Surprisingly, when the shot put hit the sandbag, it only penetrated the sandbag and then sank deeply into the sand. It did not cause any substantial damage to the Peng Wall. This seemingly inconspicuous line of defense was as strong as rock.
However, the Xiaori prisoners were still so unlucky. There was a huge warehouse at the dock, which held hundreds of Xiaori prisoners. The warehouse was hit by Xiaori's Hongyi cannon, and the Xiaori prisoners locked inside were crushed. Under the ruins, there were screams, and it was impossible to even scream.
Many people's intestines have been squeezed out, and they still scream?
The tragic experiences of the captives in these small days are extremely vivid interpretations of what "without comparison, there is no harm".
"Damn..."
Countless little prisoners greet these little gunners, it is the Ming people who kill you, why do you always fire at us!
Seeing that he had dozens of casualties, Sun Kewang hurriedly looked at Yuan Shiliang and asked: "General Yuan, when can we fire back?"
"It'll be ready soon!"
Yuan Shiliang looked at the artillery staff holding the calculated shooting parameters, and said: "Every artillery position, listen to my order, bearing XX, elevation angle XX, fire!"
Naturally, the first to fire was the rocket launcher. Fire dragons roared out of the launch tube, pulling out straight parabolas. They rushed towards the artillery position of Xiaozhi. In the blink of an eye, thousands of rocket launcher shells hit Xiaozhi. On the artillery position.
I had never seen a rocket launcher before and asked in surprise: "What is this?"
The artillerymen of the Shimazu family who had seen the rocket launcher ran away. It was a pity that no matter how fast they were, they could not move faster than the rocket launcher shell. A rocket launcher shell fell at the feet of Kuroda Shun. Commander Kuroishi Shun was responsible for commanding the Kuroda family artillery. A ball of orange fire flashed before his eyes, and immediately, his consciousness shattered into pieces.
Not only his consciousness, but also his body and every cell in him were shattered in an instant and disappeared without a trace! The shock wave of the explosion spread like a mountain. A cannon weighing 600 to 700 kilograms rolled and flew into the air with a deafening bang. The rebel soldiers within 15 meters from the explosion point were instantly shattered into pieces, and those within 25 meters were in the flames. In an instant, he fell down wailing, bleeding from all his orifices, vomiting blood in large mouthfuls, and it seemed that he would not survive.
Terrifying flames burst out one after another in the middle of the Xiaori artillery position, and the violent sound of thunder shook them out of their wits. They stood too close together, and each artillery had a powder barrel. The powder barrel was detonated by the rocket launcher and exploded among them. When it opened, more than a dozen or even dozens of people were thrown into the air by the blast wind, torn into pieces and then fell down one after another, with bursts of blood raining down. Even in hell, such a terrifying scene is rarely seen!
With just one salvo, the artillery in Xiaozhi was completely silenced!
A severed arm fell from the sky and landed next to Kuroda Xingji, blood splashing on his body. He looked at the corpses scattered around him and the broken limbs, broken arms and pieces of flesh falling from the sky, and his face turned slightly pale.
Look at Hosokawa Tadori again, the bandit's war horse is struggling like crazy, and his limbs are stiff, his eyes are distracted, and he is almost thrown off by the war horse!
Their eyes met, and each saw the horror in the other's heart: Damn it, what kind of ghost cannons are the Ming army equipped with, and they are so crazy!
Hosokawa Tadari finally controlled his horse and roared at the artillerymen of Liu Shen Wu Zhu: "What are you doing standing still? Fire! Hurry up and shoot down their artillery, otherwise we will all die!"
However, what he didn't know was that the surviving artillerymen around him only saw his mouth opening and closing.
As Xiaozhi's artillery was almost completely wiped out, the attack came to an end.
In the next few days, since there was no artillery cover, Xiaori's attack on Ning Haijun was just a bluff. In fact, Xiaori's Jiulu Road had been chewed for several days, but it had not been gnawed.
Of course, Xiaoli didn't try their best. They always left at the first touch, and each time they used small units to harass and attack.
At first, Sun Kewang thought that he was avoiding the important and taking the easy, and was preparing to make key breakthroughs. But the problem was, gradually he thought about it.
"Commander, what are you doing in your childhood?"
"They're waiting!"
"wait?"
Sun Kewang said with some confusion: "Are you waiting for reinforcements from the Tokugawa Shogunate?"
"It's possible, but what's more important is to wait for the divine wind to blow away our fleet!"
To be fair, Hakata Bay in late September and early October is very windy and rough, with waves rolling like walls, making it very dangerous. This season is the peak season for typhoons. It was during this time that the divine wind in history blew, and the huge waves set off drove the Yuan army to the bottom of the sea.
More than three hundred years later, in mid-October 1945, a super storm also blew up, sinking twelve U.S. destroyers and frigates in one fell swoop, causing heavy losses to the U.S. Pacific Fleet and causing many people to sigh with regret. : "Why don't we hold on for two more months? If we hold on for two more months, maybe we can severely damage the US military under the protection of the kamikaze and turn the tide of the war!"
Of course, reversing the situation of the war was purely voluptuous. In the domestic situation at that time, let alone the divine wind, even if the super storm from Jupiter was brought over, it would be useless. In order to boil the pine oil, even the roots of the pine trees were dug up. This is only enough fuel for the Yamato to make a one-way voyage, and it also severely damages the US military?
But it has to be said that Xiaozhi's delaying tactics played into Cheng Shijie's plan.
If you look at the map, you will know that the four islands were not connected in the early days. Cheng Shijie led the Ning Navy Expeditionary Force to fight against the Shimadzu family on Kyushu Island, with the purpose of attracting reinforcements from the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Despite Cheng Shijie's appearance of not attaching great importance to Xiaori, with the combat power and artillery of the Ning Navy, it is very easy to defeat Xiaori. But the problem is that these Xiaori are like stones in a pit, smelly and hard. The real reason why Cheng Shijie fought in Xiaoli was not to occupy Xiaoli, but to eliminate their vitality.
There are only two ways to break Xiaozhi's will to resist. One is to escape Xiaozhi's so-called divine wind of protecting the country, and the second is to completely defeat their reinforcements.
Compared with Ning Haijun's army, Ning Haijun's navy has more powerful combat effectiveness. If it sinks Xiaori's reinforcements at sea, the cost will be easier than destroying Xiaori's on land.
Under this circumstance, Li Zhixiang led the Ning Navy Fourth Fleet with a total of thirty-six main warships, together with eighteen troop transport ships, to quietly leave Hakata Bay and go to Ogi Castle, the headquarters of the Chosu Domain.
Although there were a total of 278 feudal clans in the country in the early days, in fact, the four strongest clans were the Choshu clan, the Satsuma clan, the Hizen clan and the Tosa clan.
After the Choshu Domain received the Shimazu Domain's request for help, they did not hesitate. They knew very well that it was a national war. Even if they and the Kyushu Domain were beaten out of their wits, they were just having internal disputes. But once the Ming army took over Kyushu Island, From a foothold, it was not just the Shimazu clan that was unlucky, but also the Choshu clan.
"This sea area is really..."
Li Zhixiang looked at Yang Honggui, deputy commander of the Fourth Fleet in front of him. Yang Honggui was a junior officer of the original Zheng fleet. He had been suppressed because his surname was not Zheng. Of course, Yang Honggui was very familiar with the sea conditions near the Xiaori Sea. He had traveled between Fujian and Xiaori many times in more than ten years. .
However, at this time, facing high winds and rough waves, Yang Honggui felt sweat on his forehead, "In comparison, Nanyang is as calm as a bathtub!"
Li Zhixiang smiled slightly and said, "It's exciting, isn't it?"
"It's really exciting."
A small island appeared ahead, and everyone suddenly became very nervous. The lookout stared at the sea with binoculars and loudly ordered the helmsman to correct the course and avoid the rocks that might be hidden under the sea.
Places with islands often mean there are reefs. This is no joke. Those reefs are not visible and have no water. They may seem harmless, but once they hit it, no matter how big the ship is, it will be shattered to pieces. It will kill a big ship. It's human, so you must be careful when passing through this kind of sea area.
Fortunately, every ship has sailors from the Zheng Group who are familiar with the waters in this area, and there are sailors who are familiar with the sea conditions in Xiaoli. This is also the confidence that Cheng Shijie dares to take the initiative to attack Xiaoli.
If there were no sailors from the Zheng Group to serve as pilots for Ning Haijun's warship, it would be really difficult to pass through safely.
However, the problem is that despite all the precautions, a Giant Shark-class battleship "Lanling" still ran aground on the rocks. Fortunately, the Giant Shark-class has 32 watertight tanks, which is more than the 28 water-tight tanks of the Sea Shark-class. Four more. Unless more than one-third of the watertight compartment is filled with water, the battleship will be at risk of sinking. It took most of the day to pass through this dangerous sea area without any danger. In the distance, there is a sharp corner. The shadow of a sail emerged from behind the sea level, then another corner, and another corner...
The lookout shouted: "The enemy fleet has been discovered! There are at least two hundred warships heading towards us!"
Li Zhixiang was overjoyed: "The only warships that can appear in this sea area are the troop transport fleets of the Choshu clan. Kill them, surround them, and annihilate them!"
When the Fourth Fleet of the Ning Navy listened to the orders conveyed by Li Zhixiang on the walkie-talkie, all the warships adjusted their courses in unison, seized the wind, and fully opened the sails.
The strong sea breeze swelled the sails high. Driven by the wind, the warships of the Ning Navy's Fourth Fleet were like arrows, pounced on the unlucky troop transport fleet.
The gunners on the Ning Navy battleship hurriedly opened the gun jacket, opened the ammunition box, took out the shells, and started loading.
More than ten nautical miles away, more than two hundred small sailing ships were cutting through the waves and moving forward bravely, including eleven armed merchant ships of Dutch Galen ships.
These merchant ships are all armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company hired by the Choshu Domain. They can cause some trouble for the Ning Navy, and the Dutch are willing to help. This time, Dutch merchant ships were hired to support the Satsuma Domain and the Ning Navy. Not only did the Dutch not ask for a commission, but they supported more than a thousand mercenary musketeers.
These transport ships or armed merchant ships were loaded with grain, grass and soldiers. Yes, these were the troop transport fleet of the Choshu clan. The Choshu Domain is a relatively warlike vassal. With the war in Kyushu, everyone from the head of the family to the samurai is like a chicken. They are holding back their energy to dominate this war that can shake the whole life. In these hundreds of years Amid the unprecedented changes, he made a splash and gained huge political capital.
Now these large sailing ships carry a total of 13,000 soldiers and 5,000 stones of food and grass. Such a force was quite powerful in the small days. It was a powerful supplement no matter which battlefield it was placed on. The warriors in the small days also had high morale. , singing and shouting at the undulating waves on the sea, enjoying themselves, not knowing that they were running towards the bloody mouth of death.
At this time, the Ning Navy fanned out to surround the transport fleet, and they would be greeted with a merciless blow.
(End of chapter)
