When thirty-six "rocket boats" led by Liu Guoxuan appeared on the river near Xiangkou Town, the war immediately broke out!
The first Qing warship to fight was a small galley called a balak boat. This kind of warship was very similar to the "rocket boat" led by Liu Guoxuan. They were both speedboats that used both oars and sails. The only difference is that the "rocket boat" is stronger and equipped with a rocket launcher. The trumpet bluffing ship pursues lightness and takes into account firepower. It is usually equipped with a Franco machine gun on the bow, and the cabin is also equipped with a turtle-dove foot musket, a bow and arrow, and a grenade hammer. However, this type of ship does not pay much attention to protection, and there are no bulletproof baffles around the ship's side.
In the Yangtze River Navy built by Shi Lang, the main task of this kind of trumpet-bluffing ship is to protect the gunboats equipped with general cannons and trebuchets, and is responsible for gang warfare.
In addition, there is a smaller sentinel boat in Shi Lang's navy, which is less armed and lighter. It is mainly responsible for reconnaissance, sending orders and transporting personnel and materials to land.
And when Shi Lang led the main force of gunboats to fight in the waters near Xiangkou Town, there were thirty or forty horn boats five miles upstream of him, and another dozen or so boats five to ten miles upstream of them. A guard ship.
So when Liu Guoxuan's warships appeared fifteen miles away from Shi Lang's gun fleet, they had already been discovered!
After several sentinel ships reported the news of the approaching Ming fleet back to Shi Lang's flagship, General Shi immediately made a judgment - the Ming navy was seeking death! With so many large and small warships, how could they be defeated by a sneak attack by thirty or forty "trumpet bluffing ships"?
Therefore, Shi Lang ordered his trumpet bluff boats to retreat to the vicinity of the gunboats and use the hulls of the gunboats to hide. When the Ming army's "horn bluff boats" approached, they suddenly rushed out and fought with them in order to provide the gunboats with U-turn shooting and collision create opportunities.
Therefore, when Liu Guoxuan led his fleet to approach the Qing gunboats, the Qing trumpet boats that had been ambushing behind the gunboats swarmed out. Three of them spotted Liu Guoxuan's general's flag, and they all pounced on it. They probably wanted to kill the general and capture the flag, right?
Liu Guoxuan, who was one against three, did not panic at all, and even personally commanded the rocket launcher - this rocket launcher was mounted on a cleverly designed wooden frame and could rotate left and right and swing up and down.
When launching, a gunner needs to support the rocket barrel with his shoulders, then raise or lower his shoulders to adjust the high and low shooting angle, and aim by turning his body left and right. The other gunner is responsible for ignition, range measurement and directing the other gunner to raise or lower his shoulder to adjust the firing angle.
Liu Guoxuan first ordered the gunner carrying the rocket barrel to aim at a Qing army trumpet bluff boat rushing in front, and then shouted: "Shoot flat! Hold still..." while he quickly loaded the rocket. With the leads at both ends, I also used my gloved hands to gently hold up the other end of the rocket launcher tube.
As flames and smoke erupted from the tail of the rocket launcher, a rocket made a harsh "Qiuqiu" sound while flying towards a Qing army trumpet bluffing boat more than a hundred steps away.
Almost at the same time, a sub-cannon mounted on the bow of the horn-bluffing boat also opened fire.
But it is a pity that the firepower on both sides was exhausted - neither the rocket boat nor the horn boat was a big target that was easy to hit, and they were both traveling at high speed.
But this rocket still shocked Shi Lang and Tu Hai, who were commanding on their own ships.
This guy is like a small boat carrying rockets!
Why is there still such a way to play? It's not easy to hit a ship with this rocket's horn, and it's not that difficult to hit Shi Lang's and Tu Hai's ships.
What's even more frightening is that more than 20 gunboats, including Shi Lang's and Tuhai's ships, have just completed their turns and are facing the small boats with their bows, and they are still moving forward at full speed.
This is to hit the rocket yourself!
"Lower the sails and reverse the ship!"
General Shi's reaction was very quick. When he saw the rocket fired by Liu Guoxuan, he knew that this battle was over and he had to run away quickly!
But it was difficult for his big ship to turn around, and now there was a southeasterly wind on the river, so he could only lower the sails and reverse the ship, and use the oars to paddle away.
But how can a big boat outrun a small boat by rowing?
So General Shi then issued two more orders: "Load the bow cannon with shotguns, aim and fire...all the musketeers come to the bow of the ship!"
This is already the most correct measure!
But facing the dimensionality reduction attacks of thirty-six "rocket boats", it was still a futile struggle.
Now the only thing that can protect Shi Lang's heavy gunboats are the twenty or thirty trumpet boats.
However, relying on those horns to bluff the ship's bow cannons and firing a few shots at a long distance is simply not enough to withstand the Ming army's rocket boats... The only way is to risk a fatal collision!
But the problem is, those horns are threatening the lives of the little slaves on the ship, aren't they?
Why should they sacrifice themselves to protect Tu Zhongtang and Shi Junmen?
So when the sailors on these horn-bluffing boats saw that the opponent's rocket boat could launch thunder rockets, they immediately became intimidated. It was too late to hide, so who would dare to hit it? If you can fire a few cannons from a distance, you will be worthy of the small salary given by the emperor.
And at the same time that Tuhai issued a series of orders, there was already a round of artillery-rocket exchange between the horn boats and rocket boats on the river!
Liu Guoxuan's rocket boat fired a total of more than twenty rockets, while the horn fleet fired thirty or forty cannons.
Although the horns and bluffing ships have the upper hand in terms of firepower density, how can the small lead bullets fired from the sub-cannons be compared with the rockets in terms of strike effect?
Some of those small lead bullets may have hit their targets and caused some casualties, but they failed to stop any of the rocket boats from moving forward.
And when two rockets exploded on the two horn boats, blowing them into "horn fire boats", all the horn boats and sentinel boats on the river were frightened. The sailors stopped working and turned around to escape without waiting for Tu Hai and Shi Lang's orders.
This made two coaches, Tu Hai and Shi Lang, very angry, especially Shi Lang. He was so angry that he first used a Fujian curse word, and then said loudly to Tu Hai: "Tu Zhongtang, you are here to take charge, and I will lead the death squads." Destroy these rocket ships!”
As he spoke, he pulled out his sword with a clang, waved it and said, "Anyone who is not afraid of death, come with me!"
After shouting, he took a dozen Fujian people and rushed down to the deck without looking back, boarded a sentry ship, and rushed towards the Ming army's rocket ship without hesitation.
When Tuhai saw Shi Lang's bravery, he couldn't help but pick up Thumbs up and praise him - as expected of Batulu, he was so brave!
But there is a downside to being unstoppable, that is, those rocket boats did not fight against Shi Lang, but "passed by" the whistle boat that Shi Lang was riding.
When Tu Hai saw this scene, he knew he was up to something bad, but he had nowhere to run now. A sentry ship originally hung behind his ship was driven away by Shi Lang.
So he had no choice but to draw out his sword, point forward, and yell: "Fire!"
"boom......"
As soon as the cannon fired, Tuhai saw at least eight rockets flying toward him at extremely fast speeds. Before he could react, he felt the deck beneath his feet tremble at least three times.
It’s over, I got hit!
As soon as Tu Hai thought of this, the ground beneath his feet was shaken. Tu Hai, who was standing on the side of the ship, Tu Zhongtang, couldn't stand firm and was overturned. With his head down, he fell into the Yangtze River with a "pop" .
But now Tuhai is deep and watery, and before the war started, he asked his Goshiha to get a big gourd and tie it to his belt.
So now he didn't need to save his life, he just floated up from the water by himself. At this time, he found that his ship was burning, and thick black smoke was coming from the bow. It seemed that it was not going to work.
"boom......"
When Tu Hai was about to find a boat on the water to swim over, he heard a loud noise from another boat. He followed the sound and looked around, only to see another Qing gunboat on the water dozens of steps away. It's "on" and burning.
But this was not over yet. In less than half an hour, violent explosions continued to be heard on the Yangtze River. One by one, the Qing gunboats were turned into floating torches by rockets-these boats There is a lot of gunpowder and sugar powder, which is very easy to ignite!
It wasn't until all the gunboats on the river near Xinzibao emitted billowing smoke that the incoming Ming army rocket boats turned around and left under the "driving" of the Qing army's trumpet bluff boats and whistle boats.
Tu Hai, who was floating in the Yangtze River with a gourd in his arms, was so distressed that he even wanted to die - how many times had he failed? What's the explanation from the emperor?
Let's die for our country...
Just when he was about to lose his mind, he suddenly heard Fu Honglie's voice from a whistle boat: "Tuzhongtang, is it Tuzhongtang? We are looking for you! Tuzhongtang, we have won, Master Shi is chasing us. ...The rebel rocket ship was repulsed by us!"
Won?
Tu Hai was stunned for a moment, then raised his head and looked at the surrounding river. The Ming army's warships were indeed retreating, while the Qing army's trumpet ships and whistle ships seemed to be pursuing... They really won!
Tu Haixin said: "Your Majesty, our Qing Dynasty has won again, but if we win like this a few more times, the Qing Dynasty will win to death!"
