Just when the pirates didn't know what was going on, a series of roars continued to sound, and the cannonballs exploded in the water one after another. The blast of water columns shocked Mo Guanfu.
Based on his knowledge, the artillery shells used by the Xishan Army, Yichuan, and Daiqing Shuiying in these days were all solid iron bullets or chain bullets. When they hit the water, they were like a fleeting spray. He had never even heard of exploding shells.
Mo Guan walked to the port side of the bow, raised his telescope and took a look. He saw that the barbarian ship a few miles away was moving diagonally from the northwest to the southeast. There were faint puffs of white smoke on the starboard side of the ship. . What followed closely was the roar of cannons and the continuous explosion of water jets in his own fleet.
"Take your mother! When did the Zheng family hook up with Yang Yi?" Mo Guan yelled angrily.
As soon as he finished speaking, the pirates on each ship only heard a loud "boom". Under the gaze of everyone searching around, they saw a ball of fire suddenly rising from the bow of a crow boat belonging to the belly of the cannon, and scattered in all directions. The sawdust turned into a deadly weapon, and there were seven or eight more corpses on the front deck.
"What kind of cannon is this? It can actually hit such a distance!" The pirates were stunned at each other. The foreign ship was clearly more than four miles away from their own side.
Guo Xuexian had no intention of making fun of these pirates. They were just dozens of crow boats, not Manchu sailing battleships. Although Beihai No. 2 is currently downwind, there is still half a tank of oil on board, which is enough for the time being.
So he decided to take the zigzag line, penetrate diagonally, and use several rounds of artillery fire to completely overwhelm his opponent and quickly resolve the battle. As for whether he wants to kill Mo Guanfu's lair, we can talk about the future later.
When Beihai 2 was less than two kilometers away from the pirates, the gun positions on the starboard side fired in turn. The North Navy's 75mm cannon fires extremely fast. In this time and space, it can't even compare to the D30. The fifteen cannons fired three times in the blink of an eye.
At this time, the ocean surface where the pirate fleet was located seemed to be boiling, and several ships, large and small, were hit by bombs. The most serious explosion directly blew a large gap under the bow of a black boat, and seawater poured in instantly. The watertight compartment under the bow of the ship.
"Send the signal, this battle is unwinnable, retreat quickly!" Mo Guanfu had already seen that the opponent's cannons were firing fast and densely, and they were all "explosives". If the more than 30 ships of our own party continued to pursue If we go down, I'm afraid I'll have to explain everything.
The minions on the ship had already been frightened and were ready, just waiting for him to speak. When the foresail and mizzen sail of the black boat were lowered by half, the helmsman and co-helmer who heard the order immediately used all his strength to pull the tiller. The 800-stone wooden boat began to slowly turn around on the sea.
However, the biggest disadvantage of Chinese-style hard sailing boats is that they are not very fast. While the skinny hull made it easier to turn around, the square bow greatly affected speed. Although the separate watertight compartment has good sinking resistance, it does not have dense ribs and thickened hull plates, and its damage resistance is far inferior to that of a sailboat.
Mo Guanfu wanted to run away, but it was actually too late.
As Beihai 2 moved toward the southeast, it passed by the tail of Zheng Wenxian's Guangzhou fleet. Zheng Lianchang stood on the deck with a face full of anxiety. He held the telescope given by Guo Xuexian in his hand and searched back and forth on the deck of the five ships.
Zheng Wenxian and Lin Daosheng, who had survived the disaster, had seen the Northern Navy flag flying on the sailing ship and the whale statue on the bow through the telescope, and the big stone in their hearts finally fell to the ground. Too suspenseful! In half a day at most, he will definitely be caught up by Mo Guanfu.
"Ah Yi! Ah Yi!" Zheng Lianchang suddenly saw his son and Lin Daosheng waving their arms on the side of the boat from his field of vision, so he also waved his arms and shouted. However, at this time, the sound of gunfire was rumbling below the deck, and even if he shouted at the top of his lungs, the other side could not hear it.
Guo Xuexian also saw Zheng Wenxian through the telescope, and then smiled and stepped forward to Zheng Lianchang and said loudly: "Uncle, you should feel relieved now, right?"
Zheng Lianchang put down the telescope and said loudly with a smile on his face: "Thank you, my mother-in-law!"
"Uncle, hold on tight, we're going to turn around!"
After giving instructions to Zheng Lianchang, Mrs. Guo immediately issued an order, the motor slowed down, and the white sails of the mainmast and mizzenmast were quickly furled upwards under the drive of the winch. The huge hull suddenly stopped, the helmsman slammed the steering wheel, and the stern motor slowly pushed The ship began to turn.
At this time, half of the ships in the pirate fleet had just completed the turn, and Mo Guanfu heard his men shout: "Boss, look!"
He heard the sound and looked to the north, and saw that the "Yi Ship" was also starting to turn, but the other side was turning so fast that Mo Guanfuda felt bad. He shouted to raise the sails and speed up, only hating that he was on board There are no two wings.
It's too late.
As the Beihai No. 2 got closer and closer to the pirates, the fleeing pirates finally saw the four Chinese characters written on the bow of the "Yi Chuan".
"Boss, look quickly, there are words on it!"
Hearing the shouts of his men, Cannon built a tent with his hands, squinted for a moment, and then cursed: "Push to the street! I only know the word 'two'!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the pirates saw the gun doors on the other side's port side opening one after another, and more than a dozen black gun barrels were exposed. At this time, the faces of the pirates on each ship changed drastically. They no longer cared about the distance and started shouting and firing in panic.
However, the range of those front-loaded iron cannons of several hundred kilograms installed on the stern and sides of the ship is really impressive. Even if the muzzle of the cannon is raised, it can only shoot for more than a mile at most. An iron ball as big as an egg falls into the sea and is gone in the blink of an eye. trace.
When Beihai 2 was still one kilometer away from the pirate fleet, Guo Xuexian immediately ordered to open fire.
In an instant, the sea water boiled and gunpowder smoke filled the air. Beihai No. 2 was like a sea monster that kept spitting out tongues of fire, throwing fireballs into the fleet of the Xishan pirates. There were explosions and screams, and the pirates suffered heavy casualties. Those who abandoned the ship and jumped into the water were like dumplings in the pot.
Mo Guan, who was fleeing to the south, lay on the side of the boat, looking at the horrific scene behind him, and was frightened out of his mind.
"It's over!" Mo Guan Fushu couldn't figure out why that terrifying "barbarian boat" helped the Zheng family. After working hard for more than half a year, back before liberation, more than 30 ships and 2,000 people were all gone!
In this battle, the Beihai No. 2 sank a total of 27 large and small crow boats, killed and wounded thousands of pirates, and captured more than 300 people.
The pirate leader was shot dead with a cannon, and Liang Wengeng was seriously injured and fell into the water, his whereabouts unknown. Mo Guanfu escaped hastily because he was the fastest to escape, and there was a boat behind him to support him. The boat he was on was only slightly injured and he escaped in a hurry.
The luckiest brothers were Wushi Da and Wushi Er. They had previously besieged the two boats of the Red Flag Gang and ended up falling behind. So when they saw Mo Guanfu's buttocks leaking urine from a distance, they immediately turned around and ran away.
The Xishan pirates were greatly weakened after this battle. After the group returned to the Jiangping seaport in Annan, Chen Tianbao, who learned the inside story, was so angry that he almost started a fight with Mo Guanfu. Ruan Hui was furious when he learned about it and sent someone to severely reprimand Chen Tianbao.
As for Guo Xuexian, if the Beihai No. 2 had not run out of diesel, he would have dared to pursue them all the way to Annan. After that, Beihai No. 2 escorted the nine Guangzhou ships back north, preparing to send them to the Macau Shipyard for repairs.
After this disaster, the Zheng family was in a life-or-death situation with the Xishan pirates. Zheng Lianchang finally realized that he had no choice but to leave.
...
In Yangzhou in April, the spring scenery is bright, the peach blossoms are red and the willows are green, and the Slender West Lake outside the city is also a time when catkins are like smoke and flowers are blooming. Whether they are literati or salt merchants, they all come to take a boat ride on the lake.
Those who pay attention to elegance usually just post to invite friends, recite poems and write articles, and go on a leisurely trip. The more secular ones will make an appointment with a few friends and go to Xiao Qinhuai to book a boat ride to enjoy the scenery and watch the wind and moon. As the saying goes, "It's shameful to invite friends to visit a brothel, and go on a boat on the lake together."
However, in the hustle and bustle of this spring day, an anonymous report letter was suddenly received at the Yangzhou Prefecture Yamen on the east side of Tongsi Bridge, causing the face of Ma Huiyu, the prefect who had just been transferred here, to change drastically. He knew that once the things in the report letter were confirmed, not only would countless people be killed in Yangzhou City, but the entire Jiangnan literary world would also change. He himself might also be implicated, affecting his career.
Magistrate Ma was a member of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han Army. He was a Jinshi in the 36th year of Qianlong's reign. He stayed in the capital for more than ten years and was finally released the year before last. First, he served as the prefect of Zhenjiang for two years. This year, he asked someone to spend more money, and then he changed to be the prefect of Yangzhou.
As an aside, in the history of another time and space, Liu Zhixie, the leader of the Sanyang Sect, was captured by Ma Huiyu, the then Chief Envoy of Henan, in the fifth year of Jiaqing.
The report letter was found on the ground in the backyard of the government office. Because there was nothing written on the envelope, the housekeeper asked around first, but no one knew where the letter came from. However, when he curiously opened the thick envelope, he was shocked when he saw the contents inside, and hurriedly reported it to Ma Huiyu.
Magistrate Ma was also shocked when he saw the contents of the letter. Although he had just arrived in Yangzhou not long ago, everyone mentioned in the article was a famous scholar. Among them, the scholar named Jiao Xun, his wife was also the cousin of Xinke Hanlin Ruan Yuan.
In this report letter, the complainant claimed that Jiangdu scholars Jiao Xun, Jiang Fan, Huang Chengji, Zhong Huai and others colluded with the imperial court to rebel against the Beihai pirates. Since the first month of the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong's reign, several people have been everywhere
"What should we do?" Ma Huiyu did not immediately send a report to the governor's office, nor did he find the general judge in charge of the lawsuit, because the location of the crime involved his family's back house, so he first consulted with his staff.
The staff member's name was Fang Jingzhai, who was over fifty and was a successful candidate in Suzhou. He and Ma Huiyu had known each other since they were in the capital and had been friends for more than ten years. After Ma Huiyu was released, he invited him to come to Xiangmu, and the work was very safe.
Fang Jingzhai was shocked after reading the report letter carefully, and then suggested to Ma Huiyu not to alert outsiders first, but to quietly find the person who submitted the letter and check his or her intentions to determine the authenticity. If it is false, then the believer will be severely punished; if it is true, it will not be too late to report it to the governor.
So Magistrate Ma set a two-day deadline and ordered Fang Jingzhai to be responsible for finding the anonymous whistleblower.
This kind of thing is actually not difficult to check. Just ask for the entry and exit records of the back door of the government office, and then call people to interrogate them one by one. In the evening, a porter who was responsible for delivering food every day revealed his flaws during interrogation and finally admitted that he secretly threw the letter into the backyard while the servants in the kitchen were unprepared.
"What a good dog!" Fang Jingzhai sneered: "Who asked you to bring the letter into the government office? Get it right now! If you dare to grab it randomly, I'll let you try the power of a stick!"
"Master, have mercy on me! I'll attack you all! I'll attack you all! Master Jiao asked this villain to do it!"
Fang Jingzhai said: "Who is Mr. Jiao? Tell me your name!"
"It seems that his name is Jiao Yingyuan. We call him Mr. Jiao on weekdays. He is a prison student and lives outside Guangchu Gate."
At this time, the clerk in charge of recording couldn't help but was stunned. Fang Jingzhai ignored it after seeing it and continued to ask: "How many benefits did he give you to do such a bastard thing?"
The porter said calmly: "Five, fifty money."
Then Fang Jingzhai asked Jiao Yingyuan where he lived, how he gave the money, how he explained it, what time, etc., and then he ordered someone to take the porter into custody.
It was getting late at this time, and Ma Huiyu had already gone back to the back house to rest. If anything happened, he could only report it tomorrow. The clerk in charge of recording showed the confession to Fang Jingzhai. Just as he was about to leave, he heard the other party ask: "Your Excellency just now looked strange. Could it be that you know that Jiao Yingyuan?"
The clerk held up his hands and said: "Mr. Fang, the matter in Jiao Jiansheng's family has been raging from the year before last to the year before last, and many people in Jiangdu know about it. You and Mr. Fu Zun have just arrived, so naturally you don't know about it."
"Oh? Just tell me."
In these days, no matter whether they are county magistrates or prefects, they don't care about small local affairs when they go to any place, unless there is a serious rebellion or a heinous case. Although staff should make preparations in advance so that their superiors can provide advice when needed, they are more concerned about the gentry and wealthy businessmen, as well as the relationship networks behind officials at all levels, which is the so-called "only the top, not the bottom."
"This Jiao Jiansheng, I really can't say anything about him." The clerk recalled it for a while, and then told Fang Jingzhai from the beginning.
Jiao Yingyuan was from Jiangdu County and lived outside Guangchumen. The most famous among his relatives is the scholar Jiao Xun, who is Jiao Yingyuan's cousin according to his seniority.
There are four direct brothers in the Jiao family, and they have already divided the family and property, each living his or her own life. The other brothers were able to provide for themselves, but Jiao Yingyuan was the only one who was idle and liked to gamble. After a few years, he exhausted all the production and sales of the land he had allocated, and then repeatedly borrowed money from his brothers and cousins. Words of resentment.
In the fifty-third year of Qianlong's reign, several creditors jointly pressed Jiao Yingyuan for a total of 2,300 taels of silver. Jiao Yingyuan could not repay the money, so after a public consultation by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, his family's rural grain house was valued at 1,500 taels of silver and handed over to several creditors to sell it off to pay off the debt.
Unexpectedly, Jiao Yingyuan was resentful, so he discussed with his good friend Huang Neng, who was the secretary of the Jiangdu County government office, and Huang Neng wrote the complaint on his behalf. In October of the same year, he filed a complaint with Jiangdu County in the name of Jiao Yingyuan's mother, Wang. The government accused several creditors of "inducing gambling to seize property" - that is, setting up a trap to lure Jiao Yingyuan into gambling, and then cheating together, causing him to lose everything.
It is said that the reason why Jiao Yingyuan did not file a complaint in his own name was because prison students who participated in gambling would be punished by the local academic administration.
Unexpectedly, when Jiao's mother, Wang, found out about this, she sent her second son to go to the county government office with a document, saying that he did not write the complaint, but that it was a false accusation. The county government then gave Jiao Yingyuan a heavy lecture and dropped the case.
At the beginning of the 54th year of Qianlong's reign, Jiao Yingyuan borrowed 300 taels of silver from his cousin Jiao Xun for gambling. When Jiao Xun found out about it, he angrily reprimanded him. As a result, Jiao Yingyuan went to Huang Neng again to discuss, planning to accuse Jiao Xun of embezzling money and food from the clan.
Unexpectedly, this time it was his mother Wang who stood up and told the Yamen the whole story, and the case was dismissed. The Yamen also ruled that Jiao Yingyuan must immediately find a way to repay the money he owed Jiao Xun.
Unexpectedly, Jiao Yingyuan's fourth brother supported Jiao Xun in the conflict. In April last year, Jiao Yingyuan sued his fourth brother to Yangzhou Tongzhi Yamen. The reason is that the adopted son brought back by the fourth brother from outside is not qualified to inherit the Jiao family's property and should be expelled back to his place of origin.
Then, his mother Wang took action again, first scolding Jiao Yingyuan for threatening revenge, and then asked the fourth son and the clan leader to go to the Yamen to testify. Not surprisingly, Jiao Yingyuan lost the lawsuit again and was "disciplined" again.
Later, Jiao Xun went north for several months and did not return until the year before. And his wife Ruan is a well-educated, courteous and kind-hearted person. She usually just serves her mother-in-law at home and never pays attention to other things outside.
The clerk finally sighed: "Huang Jue's Jiao family has been a scholarly family for generations. Jiao Litang is famous for his talent and learning, and he is extremely filial to his mother. How could he have such a relative!"
Fang Jingzhai nodded after hearing this and asked the clerk to go back and rest. Early the next morning, he reported the situation to Ma Huiyu, and Magistrate Ma became angry when he heard it. At this time, he also estimated that Jiao Yingyuan was probably a false accusation. However, the matter involved treason and treason, so it was impossible to dismiss the case so hastily.
"Master Fu, please give me two more days for this matter. I would like to inquire with the neighbors around Jiao Yingyuan's house."
Magistrate Ma thought for a moment and agreed to Fang Jingzhai's request.
