The attack of Zheng's fleet made the Chu army that had just captured Guangzhou nervous. The navy had already sounded the clarion call for battle and began emergency preparations for war. Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang and Brigadier General Zhao Xinhou, who had just surrendered, were busy all day long. .
Urgent maintenance is carried out on each ship, various types of ammunition are installed, and crew vacancies on each ship are urgently supplemented. At the same time, the existing fleet is simply reorganized to better command each fleet.
Because of the urgent time, in order to avoid disrupting the original structure and affecting the combat effectiveness, the reorganization is to try not to damage the personnel structure on the original ship.
On this basis, Xia Qiuyang urgently reorganized the Pearl River Fleet into four squadrons: the First Squadron, the Second Squadron, the Third Squadron and the Fourth Squadron.
Among them, the First Squadron is the core main fleet. A total of thirteen large armed merchant ships of more than 200 tons owned by Zhao Xinhou and other defected pirates were all incorporated into this First Squadron.
The Second Squadron is a secondary fleet, with more than twenty sail-oar warships of varying tonnage. These warships are somewhat similar to the centipede ships in the inland river fleet of the Great Chu Empire Navy. They are specialized in offshore and inland rivers. Mainly focused on combat, its mobility is very good, but its firepower is relatively weak.
The above-mentioned more than 30 ships are currently the main combat ships in the Pearl River Fleet.
The Third Squadron and the Fourth Squadron respectively control the remaining large number of small and medium-sized inland river vessels. They are generally small in tonnage and shallow in draft, making it difficult to adapt to the sea conditions in the sea. At the same time, their firepower is not very good, and they can basically only be used for Let’s start with transporting supplies and so on.
Looking at the current strength of the Pearl River Fleet, one can imagine the 'death battle' that Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang talked about back then. It is also a helplessness for the navy.
The incoming Zheng Zhilong fleet consisted of forty or fifty large ships of more than 100 tons, plus hundreds of other sampans and small boats, and the entire fleet had more than a hundred ships.
For Zheng Zhilong's troops, these more than 100 ships are actually nothing. All their ships add up to more than 3,000 ships.
At this time, Zheng Zhilong's command was the absolute overlord in the East Asian waters.
The navy of the Ming court was not as powerful as it, and other messy pirates were not as powerful as him. Even the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch who came from afar were not as powerful as it.
Moreover, they do not rely on large ships and many artillery, but rely on the large number of people on board, and they are good at using the ant-biting-elephant method to rush in and fight gangs.
Facing hundreds of flexible boats, even the Dutch's sailing ships of hundreds or even thousands of tons, just a few large warships were still unable to carry them.
If they want to fight against Zheng Zhilong's fleet, Xia Qiuyang and the others must really be determined to fight to the death.
Otherwise, it would be easy to despair just by looking at the huge fleet on the opposite side.
After preliminary discussions, Xia Qiuyang, Zhao Xinhou and others unanimously decided not to foolishly go to the offshore and other vast seas to fight, but to strictly defend the Pearl River estuary and use the narrow surface of the inland river to give full play to the maneuverability of a large number of small and medium-sized inland warships. At the same time, it can also be supported by ground firepower from the Army.
The navy is actively preparing, and the army is also urgently building forts for the safety of Guangzhou.
In order to guard against Japanese pirates and subsequent pirates, the Ming Dynasty also built some forts along the Pearl River.
However, the fort built by the Ming Dynasty is said to be a fort, but in fact it is more like a coastal defense town expanded from a traditional coastal defense city. Its main function is lookout and warning. The real defensive function is relatively limited and can deal with some Japanese pirates with weak firepower. It's okay with small pirates and the like, but it's not enough to deal with a local fleet with a large number of naval guns.
Therefore, the Chu army's fort was not actually built on the basis of the original coastal defense city of the Ming Dynasty. Instead, the forts were excavated in places with difficult terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and convenient for controlling waterways, and then built them again. Deploy artillery.
There are mainly Niushan Fort and Cheung Chau Fort. The river surface where these two forts are located belongs to the waterway within the Shiziyang Ocean. The river surface is relatively narrow, and the current large-caliber artillery can effectively block the river surface.
At the same time, these two forts are located on the mountains on the shore. The terrain is high, which not only facilitates shelling, but also increases the difficulty of enemy naval gun counterattacks. And because they are located on high ground, even if the enemy sends infantry to attack, it is easier for our own side to defend .
In addition, as a precaution, the Army also built two forts behind the two forts, on the edge of Guangzhou City. However, these two forts were purely for precaution to prevent the enemy from breaking through the Niushan Fort and Changchun Fort. Zhou Fort, deep into the inner river of the Pearl River, and sailed into the city of Guangzhou.
In addition to being responsible for river defense, these two forts are actually more responsible for city defense and are used to bombard enemy ground troops attacking the city.
There are two large and two small forts, a total of four forts. This is an urgent fort built by the army.
And these four forts all have the same characteristics, that is, because of time constraints, they are not considered Jiangfang forts, let alone field artillery positions.
There are no masonry structures, all are field artillery positions constructed directly by digging the soil, plus trenches and earthen fortresses used by infantry.
Apart from the fact that this kind of field artillery position cannot last long, and will become muddy if it rains, for example, its protective capabilities are actually pretty good.
After all, today's artillery, except for the Chu army who particularly likes to use large-caliber mortars, other armies generally use solid bullets. Well, the Ming army also particularly likes to use short-barreled shotguns.
Thick, soft-earth anti-gunnery fortifications have a very good effect on solid bullets, and can also avoid ricocheting bullets.
Many of the many bastions in history were solid...not just a wall. Even if it was a hollow bastion, its main building, the fort road, was very thick, and the backside was often relatively flat. Incline ramp.
As for the solid bastion, the rear of the artillery base is solid.
These measures are all designed to resist solid shells.
Many of the artillery defense fortifications built by the Ming army before also had very thick low earth walls, which could effectively resist the large number of ambitious solid artillery shells from the Chu army.
The field artillery positions now constructed by the Chu Army along the Pearl River are, to a certain extent, based on the artillery defense system developed by the Ming Army in Jiujiang.
Thick low earth walls are used as the main means of protection. The artillery positions and rear camps, ammunition depots and other places are connected by communication trenches.
These field artillery positions were constructed very quickly. The engineering troops set out a few days in advance. With the help of young civilians recruited, it took only a few days to build two field artillery positions, Niushan and Cheung Chau, and they were still at the rear. Simple wooden barracks were built behind the mountain where direct artillery fire could not reach them.
When more than twenty long-barreled artillery arrived at Cheung Chau, the engineers and young men had already completed the preliminary construction work there.
The field artillery defenses on Niushan were also completed at about the same time, and more than 20 artillery pieces from the 7th Artillery Regiment were stationed.
After the arrival of these artillery pieces, Navy Xia Qiuyang was reassured.
In the past few days, Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang has been on tenterhooks and has gathered all the ships he can to prepare for the battle. Once Zheng Zhilong's fleet attempts to continue deep into the Pearl River from the Humen area, in order to protect the city of Guangzhou, they can only Bite the bullet and prepare for a decisive battle with the enemy fleet in the Cheung Chau Island area.
But even so, the Navy doesn't have much confidence in its own words alone.
However, with the help of the army artillery deployed in Niushan and Cheung Chau, the navy would be able to have a good fight with the incoming Zheng Zhilong fleet with the support of ground firepower.
On June 6, Zheng Zhilong's fleet, which had been stationed in the Humen area for several days, set off and entered the Lion Ocean.
After this huge fleet entered the Lion Ocean, it was immediately known to the Chu army and navy.
At noon that day, more than ten small and medium-sized ships belonging to Zheng Zhilong's fleet arrived at the waters between Niushan and Changzhou Island, and had a tentative battle with the Chu navy.
However, the fighting between the two sides was mainly based on shelling, and no tragic gang-hopping fighting occurred.
Later, the Dachu Imperial Navy used the ancient fire attack tactic, using more than thirty small boats loaded with flammable materials, sailed down the river and pounced on Zheng Zhilong's fleet going upstream.
However, it did not achieve very good results. Zheng Zhilong's fleet sent a large number of small and medium-sized ships to either sink them in advance or actively ram them away so that the threat to these small ships was eliminated before they could reach Zheng Zhilong's big ship.
Except for the fact that during the collision, seven or eight small boats in Zheng Zhilong's fleet were set on fire and abandoned due to active collisions, none of their large ships was damaged.
In the afternoon, Zheng Zhilong's fleet continued to penetrate deeper, and then had a large-scale fierce battle with the Pearl River Fleet led by Xia Qiuyang, who was well prepared.
In the middle of the fierce battle, the artillery troops of the Dachu Empire suddenly opened fire fiercely on many large ships commanded by Zheng Zhilong near the fort.
Although the caliber of the army's artillery is not large, generally five or nine pounds, which is not worth mentioning compared to the fourteen or even eighteen-pound naval guns on the battleships, they rely on being condescending and impressing with their silence. , the hit rate far exceeded the opponent's fleet's artillery fire back.
So the results are very good.
After an afternoon of fierce fighting, five large ships of more than 100 tons in Zheng Zhilong's fleet were either directly sunk or burned and sunk. In addition, a total of more than 20 small ships were sunk, with hundreds of personnel losses. Such losses were suffered. Finally, Zheng Zhilong's fleet finally chose to return to Humen.
As for the Chu army, the army suffered casualties of more than a hundred gunners and other ground forces, while the navy suffered more casualties, probably three to four hundred people. They sank three large ships and twenty or thirty small ships.
The overall loss is relatively large.
However, because the Chu army was fighting on its home field, sailors who lost their warships were often able to row small boats to save themselves, or were rescued one after another. Some ships were seriously damaged and simply washed up on the beach. Therefore, many sailors who lost their ships could still be rescued. Casualties are under control.
In any case, the army and navy of the Chu Empire finally repelled the invasion of Zheng Zhilong's troops and achieved a strategic victory: blocking the enemy outside Guangzhou.
After the battle, feeling that the two sides had fought well the first time they fought together, Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang immediately proposed to capture Humen together with the army.
Saying that Humen cannot be taken down, then the Zheng Zhilong fleet entrenched in Humen is like a knife hanging above the head, which can fall down at any time, making people uneasy to sleep.
Huang Xiangbin was speechless about this!
Cooperate to capture Humen?
Your navy is not afraid of the wind flashing your tongue when you say this...
With the current strength of your navy, how can you cooperate with our navy in combat? If we really want to attack Humen, we have to fight it from the ground ourselves.
However, Huang Xiangbin still did not refuse. After all, Humen would always be attacked.
Now Zheng Zhilong's fleet is entrenched in the Humen area. If this place is not captured, Zheng Zhilong's fleet can use this place as a base at any time, and then continue to harass Guangzhou City and control the entire Pearl River Estuary. This is obviously not acceptable to the Chu Empire. of.
Even in the area where the Yangtze River estuary is more powerful, and even if Zheng Zhilong's troops are still entrenched on Chongming Island, Zheng Zhilong's troops still have not been able to completely block the Yangtze River estuary. The ships of the Da Chu Empire are hiding, but in fact they are still Can go directly to sea.
The Pearl River estuary is no exception. Zheng Zhilong's troops cannot be allowed to occupy Humen and then directly block the Pearl River estuary through this place.
Another very important point is that in order to resist Zheng Zhilong's troops, the Chu army has built two field forts in Niushan and Changzhou. The artillery units deployed on them are the 7th Artillery Regiment and the captured Ming Army. Made
This Humen must be captured.
Soon, Huang Xiangbin and Xia Qiuyang continued to discuss and finalized the plan to attack Humen.
The battle plan is also quite simple. The navy says it is cooperating with the operation, but in fact it can only watch the show from the side. The main force in the battle is the army.
To this end, the army dispatched a reinforced regiment with an infantry regiment as its core, and then cooperated with a brigade of garrison troops to attack Humen.
At this time, there were no fortresses or large cities in Humen, only a few coastal defense towns. Zheng Zhilong's troops fought well at sea, but after landing ashore, they attacked the Chu army's second-line troops, that is, Those garrison troops are quite choking.
Before a main force group had exerted much force, the 22nd garrison brigade, which was operating in coordination, had successively captured three small coastal guard towns controlled by Zheng Zhilong's troops, and then covered the main force in setting up artillery, aiming at the berths. Zheng Zhilong's fleet conducted a fierce bombardment.
Needless to say, after Zheng Zhilong's troops connected several coastal guard towns that had been lost in Humen, they could not even guarantee the safety of the berths. They could only retreat in a gray manner. This retreat went directly to the Lantau Island area. .
The battle at Humen once again proved that Zheng Zhilong's troops are good at water warfare and can basically suppress the Chu navy to fight again.
But in ground battles, there is basically no threat to the Chu Army!
After the results of the series of battles at the Pearl River Estuary were reported back to Fuzhou, Zheng Zhilong looked up to the sky with a look of helplessness and sighed!
