The weather was good that night, the moon was dark and the wind was high, which was a good time to kill people and set fires. Not long after, Lin Xingzhu was already leading his dozens of sentry boats in the dark, and quietly approached the water blockade composed of crab boats.
On the river surface, sixty crab boats were positioned horizontally with their sides facing upstream and downstream, and then they were lined up again, and they lowered their anchors on the river surface. On these crab boats, butter torches burned in the moist mist, giving off a dim yellow light. It can be seen from a distance. As long as these lights are still there, the defenders on the fast crab boat and the old lock boat behind can feel at ease.
On these fast crab boats blocking the river, the sailors who had rowed for most of the day had huddled up in the cabins and fell asleep soundly. The musketeers who had recharged their batteries during the day were now working hard to look towards the dark river. .
However, from a distance, these crab boats look like sleeping beasts on the water, motionless and defenseless.
The surprise attack was successful!
Lin Xingzhu was so excited! Although he is from Fujian and comes from the Zheng family, the Ming Dynasty and the Zheng family cannot give him the position of prince, let alone the commander-in-chief of the navy. After all, he is not ranked among the Ming Dynasty and the Zheng Group. There are too many people who can fight in water, and they are all serious "navy"! But here in the Old Wu family, there is a group of landlubbers. Even though Xia Guoxiang and Hu Guozhu are now the commanders of the navy, these two guys don't understand water warfare at all. Now they can go to the Yangtze River and get on a boat. In the future, if they take over the Ming Dynasty and the "Jiang Army" becomes the "Navy", will those two guys try to go to sea? Don't faint them!
Therefore, Emperor Wu and the two navy commanders told Lin Xingzhu and Cai Luming that after Nanjing was captured, they would be the left and right commanders of the Zhou navy. Xia Guoxiang and Hu Guozhu would still be governors in the future. Those in the middle court would not have time to go to sea. .
As for the title, once it is settled, one by one, the princes will be princes and princes from generation to generation!
But at the same time as she was excited, Lin Xinzhu's heart started beating wildly again - although her opponent this time was branded as the Ming Dynasty Navy, they were actually Zheng family pirates! Even people who don’t understand the navy know the capabilities of the Zheng family pirates! Otherwise, the Qing Dynasty would not have used a method like sea ban and border relocation to deal with them by killing a thousand enemies and damaging themselves by a hundred thousand!
And he also knew that Western armed merchant ships with high freeboards were difficult to deal with. In the great battle of Liaoluo Bay, Zheng Zhilong invested five ships to defeat eight armed merchant ships and fifty Chinese pirate ships of the Dutch East India Company. Ten large bird ships and one hundred fire ships with a carrying capacity of three to four thousand stone (more than two hundred tons) only burned, sunk, and captured three Dutch armed merchant ships. However, the fifty ships that cooperated with the Dutch were uneven. Qi's Chinese pirate ship was completely destroyed. Through this naval battle, the strength of Zheng's navy and Western armed merchant ships can be seen.
However, Liaoluo Bay is a bay after all, and now the Zheng Navy is on the narrower Yangtze River, with headwinds and countercurrents, and was even attacked at the anchorage. Thinking of this, Lin Xingzhu looked back and vaguely saw some small The sentry ship followed.
it's time! Lin Xingzhu took a sharp breath and whispered to the sailor beside him: "Stop the oars, cut the hemp rope, prop up the big shield, and light the torch!"
"yes!"
"Bang bang."
With several dull sounds of an ax hitting the wood, the hemp ropes connecting the two fireboats were cut, and at the same time, the oarsmen of Lin Xingzhu's small sentry boat also stopped paddling.
A large wooden shield was propped up on the bow of the ship, and then two Wu Zhoujun sailors took out butter torches and fire sticks, and lit the torches under the cover of the shield. This torch was a signal. When the people on the small sentry boat following Lin Xingzhu saw it, they immediately cut the rope and released the fire boat.
The sailors on the Crab Boat lying across the river in front of Lin Xingzhu did not see the light of the torches because of the obstruction of the large wooden shield.
Those so-called fire ships are actually sentry ships, but there is only one dead man on board who is responsible for rocking the oars and lighting the fire. The bow has also been modified and installed with long nails made of wrought iron. As long as it is installed on the hull of the wooden ship, it will You can stick to the latter!
These dead warriors who rocked the oars had been recharging their energy before, but now they saw the fire signal, they began to rock the oars with all their strength, stir the river water, and push the boat toward the dots of fire ahead.
It can be said that this fireship surprise attack has been very successful so far!
However, the more than a hundred fire ships released by Lin Xingzhu have an insurmountable weakness. They lack communication with each other, are not organized, do not have any "swarm tactics", and do not even know each other's positions, so they can only rush towards them blindly. Target, then blindly ignite the ship's tinder.
And when the first fire boat is lit, all the crab boats will be alarmed!
"Enemy attack!"
"Fire ship!"
"Quick, lift anchor quickly"
"Boom, boom, boom"
The sixty crab boats on the river woke up from their slumber almost at the same time, and the night musketeers shouted loudly and fired warning shots. The oarsmen who were sleeping soundly were immediately awakened, and the bowmen responsible for commanding these crab boats shouted instructions. The silence on the Yangtze River was completely broken in an instant!
It was not Li Zhongshan who commanded these Ming warships on the Yangtze River. He did not understand what the water wars in the seventeenth century were about? However, after absorbing Zheng Jing as a franchisee, he already has the strongest navy general lineup in East Asia in this era. And the admiral he selected for the Ming Dynasty's "Yangtze River Tugboat" fleet was the famous Liu Guoxuan!
For a character like Liu Guoxuan, of course he had known for a long time that his fleet would be attacked by surprise, and that Wu Zhou's navy would set the ship on fire. But he didn't know whether the attack would happen tonight, tomorrow night, or the day after tomorrow.
Well, it's only three nights and it's unlikely to be delayed any longer. Because for Wu Zhou, the risk of procrastination is also very high. Once the east wind blows on the Yangtze River, the old lock ships of the Ming Army can charge forward with full sail.
It was impossible for Wu Zhoujun's iron chains and pontoons across the river to block fifty old lock ships with full sail, and they were broken by the collision!
Once Liu Guoxuan's fleet passes through the Xiaochikou area, the Ming army will be able to build a pontoon bridge behind Wu Sangui's army and transport hundreds of thousands of people from the north of the Yangtze River to the south of the Yangtze River.
By then Wu Sangui would be unable to retreat along the Yangtze River to Wuchang.
Therefore, this time the old lock ship enters the river to fight, it is a big gamble for both sides!
If you win, you take it all, if you lose, you will lose the water control rights of the Yangtze River, and the subsequent battle will be difficult to fight!
"Bang"
Liu Guoxuan, who was holding a textbook titled "Detailed Explanation of Western Naval Warfare" (Jiang Wutang Naval Major) and reading with gusto under the dim light in the cabin, vaguely heard a gunshot and immediately knew something was wrong, so he quickly put it down. With the textbook in his hand, he asked loudly: "Where to shoot?"
At this time, the guards guarding the cabin also shouted: "Enemy attack. Fire ship!"
"Dang Dang Dang"
The alarm bell rang immediately.
Without saying a word, Liu Guoxuan stood up immediately, picked up the helmet on the table and closed it on his head. Then he strode out of the cabin and walked along the stairs to the stern of his flagship "Great Fortune".
The hull of the old lock ship is copied from the Dutch Galen ship. It has a relatively tall forecastle and stern. The stern is especially tall. The view from the stern deck is quite good. Therefore, the command position of the old lock ship captain was on the stern of the ship.
When Liu Guoxuan boarded the stern of the ship, warning bells had already sounded on all the sleeping old lock ships. I saw one old lock ship after another starting to light up, and the dots on the river suddenly turned into bright lights.
Wu Zhoujun's fireships were also set on fire. The first batch was hundreds of ships, and there may be more later! At this time, with the help of wind and current, it began to rush towards the fast crab boat blocking the front.
Those fast crab boats seemed a bit confused, twisting and turning on the river, trying to avoid the impact of the fire boats. But there were still five or six fast crabs and fire ships nailed together! By the light of the fire, Liu Guoxuan could also see that the sailors on the Crab Boat were pouring water bucket by bucket at the place where their warship and the fire ship were connected. But it doesn't look like there's much hope
As for the other fire boats, they seemed to have been burned in vain. After being avoided by the crab boats, they could only float and burn on the river, and they would soon be burned down and sunk.
Liu Guoxuan was not panicked at all, but ordered slowly and unhurriedly: "All old lock boats should lift anchor and float downstream. Do not raise sails."
"yes!"
Liu Guoxuan added: "Except for the fast crab boats that have been set on fire, they are also moving closer to the old lock boat."
"yes!"
On the Yangtze River, east of Xiaogushan, a fleet of dozens of large-scale ships is moving down the river!
This fleet is the main force of Wu Zhou's navy, with dozens of large-scale ships built in Xiangyang and Jingzhou! The size of these tower ships is similar to the old lock ships of the Ming Dynasty, but they are galloping tower ships specially built for water warfare in inland rivers and lakes. Each building boat has dozens of long oars that can be rowed by two or three oarsmen together, and is also equipped with three-masted hard sails. Although the sail is not as big as that of the old lock ship, it cannot be hung with soft sails. But on the Yangtze River, where strong winds rarely blow, their maneuverability is still far superior to that of old lock ships.
Xia Guoxiang and Hu Guozhu were on two large ships at this time. Among them, the tower ship on which Xia Guoxiang was riding was the flagship of Wu Zhou Navy. Governor Xia was sitting on a grand master's chair, blowing the cool river breeze and listening to the good news sent by his subordinates.
"Report to the Grand Governor, the fire ship surprise attack was successful! Six enemy ships have been set on fire, and the remaining ships have fled!"
"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, the navy of the Ming Dynasty is in chaos, and all ships are fleeing, but the speed is slow..."
In fact, Xia Guoxiang himself could see the things reported below...but he couldn't quite understand them.
Although he had tried his best to build a navy for Wu Sangui in the past two years, no matter how hard he worked, he was still at the level of a shipyard director... and he was still an amateur captain who did not understand technology.
Asking him to direct a water battle would be too much trouble.
All he could see now was the chaos on the river with floating lights everywhere, so he needed a knowledgeable explanation.
"Okay! There will be lots of rewards!"
"This is the order from the Commander-in-Chief: All ships should maintain their formation and attack with all their strength. Don't let any enemy ship escape!"
"This is the order of the Commander-in-Chief: Anyone who burns an enemy ship will be rewarded five hundred taels of silver and be promoted to the third level! Anyone who captures an enemy ship..."
Although Xia Guoxiang couldn't understand it at all and didn't know how to direct it, he still had to give it blindly. Orders came out from his mouth one after another, and the staff and soldiers around him also shouted "order" and "yes" as if they were real... Of course, they were just shouting casually. It is impossible to pass these orders on.
Because it is difficult to command the navy, and there is no radio station or anything like that now, so we all rely on flag language and lantern language for emphasis. It would be okay if it was daytime, but now it is night, it is too dark to see clearly, and I don’t know who is the flagship...
Therefore, the battle strategy for Wu Zhou's navy tonight was issued long before departure. It's just a two-round fire ship attack, then rush in and do it.
What command do you want?
Therefore, those orders from Prime Minister Xia, which everyone heard in a lively manner, could not be spread at all.
But without a command, it doesn't mean that this battle cannot be fought... Anyway, it's the same on both sides, it's just a melee in the dark.
Not to mention that this is the case here in China, it’s almost the same as going to the West to fight naval battles and night battles. Just set off the fire ships and then do it!
In fact, even if they fight naval battles during the day, they are mainly melee battles.
The battle line bombardment was a new method invented by the British, and even the Dutch scorned it!
But Xia Guoxiang, who was pretending to be in command, was still having fun "playing". He had clearly felt that his command was working. His ship was obviously accelerating, and it was getting closer and closer to the Ming fleet that was slowly escaping in front. We were about to enter the distance where we could fire.
"Captain, it's time to set the ship on fire!"
A dog-headed military advisor waving a goose-feather fan reminded him in a low voice.
"Okay, here's the order from the Commander-in-Chief," Xia Guoxiang stroked his beard, as if he was really giving the command, "Send another round of fire ships! Then the whole army will attack!"
"yes!"
As soon as Governor Xia's order came out, dots of fire appeared on the water... This was the second wave of fire ships from Wu Zhou's navy. These fire ships were all towed by building ships. It’s been out for a while!
However, Governor Xia thought that his order had been implemented, and nodded with satisfaction: "Okay! This time the fire ship was launched so fast, and there are rewards for it!"
"yes!"
…
"Full sail!"
While Xia Guoxiang was pretending to command, Liu Guoxuan was actually giving orders. However, the only one under his command now is his flagship "Great Fortune".
The rest of the warships also fought independently. However, just like Wu Zhou's navy, the general strategy was decided in advance.
Now seeing the second wave of fire ships released by Wu Zhou's navy, the Ming army's warships, which had been running slowly, began to accelerate together.
Among them, the old lock ships raised their hard sails - when they sailed westward, they were going against the current and the wind, so they could only be towed by small boats, and the speed was very slow. But now they changed direction and became downstream and windward. As soon as the sails were raised, the speed immediately increased. Those burning fire boats had no sails or oars (the sails were also burned, so of course they were gone). They relied only on water flow, so of course they couldn't move faster. They couldn't catch up with the old lock ships with full sails and smooth flow. Soon they were all burned in the water!
Seeing that the enemy's fireships were burned down, Liu Guoxuan quickly ordered: "Retract the sails and lower the bow anchor."
With a "crash" sound, a huge iron anchor was thrown into the Yangtze River and hooked to the bottom of the river. At the same time, the sail was quickly lowered. Under the combined action of the anchor and the old lock ship's own inertia, this large ship with a carrying capacity of nearly 300 tons suddenly swung across the Yangtze River. It was facing the enemy from the stern, and suddenly it was facing the enemy from the side. .
Liu Guoxuan, who was holding on to the railing, quickly ordered again: "Lower the stern anchor!"
After the stern anchor was lowered, the warship was unable to move across the river, completely turning into a floating fort!
Of course, such a strategy is nonsense at sea, but it is not necessarily the case on the Yangtze River. Fifty water forts and six hundred bronze cannons are spread across the river for only two or three miles, and there are more than a hundred light fast ships around them. Crab boat assists!
This is the killing array designed by Liu Guoxuan for Wu Sangui's navy!
At this time, the sky was already bright and misty, and although there was still fog on the river, the sailors on both sides could still see each other's warships!
"Rush over! Crash into it!"
Xia Guoxiang shouted loudly. Although his order could not be delivered at all, all the Wu and Zhou warships on the river rushed at the fastest speed towards the old Ming army lock ship that had been turned into a floating fort!
But before they really hit the old lock ship, frightening flames were already flashing out of the open gun windows on the old lock ship!
The Ming Navy's bombardment has begun!
(End of chapter)
