I want to be emperor

Chapter 397 Battle of the Pearl River Estuary

The attack of Zheng's fleet made the Chu army who had just captured Guangzhou nervous. The navy had sounded the battle horn and started emergency preparations. Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang and Brigadier General Zhao Xinhou who had just surrendered were busy all day long. .

Urgently maintain the ships, add various types of ammunition, make emergency supplements to the shortage of crew members on each ship, and at the same time carry out simple reorganization of the existing fleets in order to better command the fleets.

Because of the urgency of time, in order to avoid disrupting the original structure and affecting the combat effectiveness, because the reorganization is to try not to destroy 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. There are a total of [-] large armed merchant ships of more than [-] tons belonging to the original Zhao Xinhou's department and other pirates who defected to this squadron.

The second squadron is the secondary fleet, which has more than 20 sailing warships of different tonnages. These warships are somewhat similar to the centipede ships in the inland river fleet of the Great Chu Empire Navy. They are all dedicated to offshore and inland river operations. Mainly, the maneuverability is very good, but the 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 are mainly in charge of the remaining large number of small and medium-sized inland river vessels. Generally, the tonnage is small and the draft is shallow, so it is difficult to adapt to the sea conditions in the sea. At the same time, the firepower is not good. Transport materials and so on to start.

Looking at the current strength of the Pearl River Fleet, one can imagine what Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang said back then about the 'fight to the death'.It is also helpless for the navy.

The incoming Zheng Zhilong fleet consisted of 100 to [-] large ships over [-] tons, plus hundreds of other small sampans, making the entire fleet more than [-] ships.

For Zheng Zhilong's department, the 100-odd ships are actually not a big deal. All his ships add up to more than 3000 ships.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong's subordinate is the absolute overlord in the East Asian seas.

The navy of the Ming government is not as powerful as it, and other messy pirates are not as powerful as it, even the Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutchmen who came from afar are not as powerful as it.

And what they rely on is not the size of the ship and the many artillery pieces, but the fact that there are many people on the ship, and they are good at using the way of ants biting elephants to rush up to fight and fight.

Facing hundreds of flexible small boats, even the hundreds or even thousand-ton galleons of the Dutch, just a few large warships still couldn't handle it.

To fight against Zheng Zhilong's fleet like this, Xia Qiuyang and the others really had to show their determination to fight to the death.

Otherwise, it would be easy to despair just 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 vast sea such as the coastal waters to fight, but to strictly guard against the mouth of the Pearl River and use the narrow river surface of the inland river to give full play to the maneuverability of a large number of small and medium-sized inland river 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.

Before the Ming Dynasty, in order to guard against Japanese pirates and subsequent pirates, they also built some forts along the Pearl River.

However, the fort built by the Ming court is said to be a fort, but in fact it is more like a small coastal defense city expanded from the traditional coastal defense fortress city. The main function is to look out and warn. It's okay with little pirates and the like, but it's not enough to deal with local fleets with a large number of naval guns.

Therefore, the forts of the Chu army were not actually built on the basis of the original coastal defense city of the Ming court. Deploy the artillery.

There are mainly Niushan Fort and Cheung Chau Fort. The river where these two forts are located belongs to the waterway within the Lion Ocean. The river is relatively narrow, and the current large-caliber artillery can effectively block the river.

At the same time, these two forts are located on the hills on the shore, the terrain is high, convenient for shelling, but it can also increase the difficulty of the enemy's naval artillery counterattack, 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, in case of emergency, the army also built two forts behind these two forts, that is, on the edge of Guangzhou City, but these two forts are purely for precautions, preventing the enemy from breaking through the Niushan Fort and Changzhou City. Zhou Fort, went deep into the inland river of the Pearl River, and sailed into the river of Guangzhou City.

In addition to taking responsibility for river defense, these two forts are actually more responsible for city defense, and are used to bombard the enemy's ground troops attacking the city.

There are two large and two small forts, a total of four forts, which are emergency forts built by the army.

And these four forts all have the same characteristics, that is, because of time constraints, they are Jiangfang forts, let alone field artillery positions.

There are no masonry structures, all are directly excavated, and then built field artillery positions, plus trenches and earth forts used by infantry.

In addition to the fact that this kind of field artillery position cannot last long, for example, it will become muddy when it rains in the next level, the protection ability is actually not bad.

After all, except for the Chu army who likes to play with large-caliber mortars, other armies generally use solid ammunition for the current artillery. Well, the Ming army also particularly likes to use short-barreled shotguns.

And the anti-gun fortifications made of thick soft soil have a very good effect on solid bullets, and can also avoid ricochets.

Many bastions in history, many of them are solid... It is not just a simple wall, even if it is a hollow bastion, its main building, that is, the artillery barracks, is very thick, and the back is often relatively flat Inclined ramp.

And the solid bastion, that is, the rear of the artillery barracks is solid.

These measures all appeared to resist solid shells.

The many artillery fortifications built by the Ming army before also had very thick low earth walls, which could effectively resist the large number of ambitious solid shells in the Chu army.

The field artillery positions built by the Chu army along the Pearl River today also refer to the anti-artillery system developed by the Ming army in Jiujiang to a certain extent.

Thick low earth walls are used as the main means of protection, and the gun positions and rear camps, ammunition depots and other places are connected by traffic trenches.

These field artillery positions were built very quickly. The engineering troops set off a few days in advance, and with the help of recruited civilian husbands Qing Zhuang, it took only a few days to build the two field artillery positions at Niushan and Changzhou, and they were still in the rear by the way. A simple wooden barracks were built behind the mountains where the artillery could not reach.

When more than 20 long-barreled artillery arrived in Cheung Chau, the engineers and young men had already completed the preliminary work on the site.

The field artillery fortifications on Niushan were completed almost at the same time, and more than 20 artillery pieces of the Seventh Artillery Regiment were stationed.

After the artillery arrived, it also reassured Xia Qiuyang of the navy a lot.

In the past few days, Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang has been worried, and has gathered all the ships that can be concentrated to prepare for the battle. If Zheng Zhilong's fleet tries to go deep into the Pearl River from the Humen area, in order to protect the city of Guangzhou, they will only I can bite the bullet and prepare to fight the enemy fleet in the Changzhou Island area.

But this is the case, the navy does not have much confidence in its own words.

However, with the help of the army artillery deployed in Niushan and Cheung Chau, the navy will be able to fight the incoming Zheng Zhilong fleet with the support of ground firepower.

On June [-]th, Zheng Zhilong's fleet, which had been entrenched in Humen for several days, set off and entered the Sea of ​​Lions.

After this huge fleet entered the Lion Ocean, it was immediately known by the Chu army and navy.

At noon that day, more than a dozen small and medium-sized ships belonging to Zheng Zhilong's fleet arrived at the waters where Niushan-Changzhou Island is located, and had a tentative battle with the Chu Navy.

However, the battle between the two sides was mainly based on shelling, and there was no tragic gang battle.

A little while later, the Great Chu Empire's navy used the ancient fire attack tactics, and more than 30 small boats loaded with flammable materials went down the river and rushed towards Zheng Zhilong's fleet upstream.

But it didn't achieve too good results. Zheng Zhilong's fleet sent a large number of small and medium-sized ships to sink ahead of time, or actively rammed them away, so that these small ships were eliminated before they arrived at Zheng Zhilong's big ship.

Except during the collision process, except that seven or eight small boats in Zheng Zhilong's fleet were ignited and abandoned due to active collisions, none of their large ships were damaged.

In the afternoon, Zheng Zhilong's fleet continued to go deeper, and immediately had a large-scale fierce battle with the Pearl River Fleet led by Xia Qiuyang, who was well prepared.

And in the middle of the fierce battle, the artillery unit of the Great Chu Empire Army suddenly opened fire on many large ships under Zheng Zhilong's command that were close to the fort.

Although the caliber of the army's artillery is not large, generally it is five catties or nine catties, which is not worth mentioning compared to the fourteen catties or even eighteen catties on the battleship. , The hit rate far exceeds that of the opposing fleet's artillery to return fire.

So the result was very good.

After a fierce battle in the afternoon, five large ships over 20 tons in Zheng Zhilong's fleet were either directly sunk or burned and sunk. In addition, more than [-] small ships were sunk in total, with hundreds of casualties. However, Zheng Zhilong's fleet finally chose to return to Humen.

As for the Chu army, the army had more than 400 gunners and other ground troops killed and injured, and the navy had more casualties. There should be [-] people, three large ships were sunk, and [-] to [-] small ships.

The overall loss is relatively large.

However, because the Chu army was fighting at home, the sailors who lost their warships were often able to save themselves by rowing small boats, or were rescued one after another. Some ships were severely damaged and simply rushed to the beach. Casualties were contained.

In any case, the army and navy of the Great Chu Empire finally repelled the invasion of Zheng Zhilong's troops and won a strategic victory: keeping the enemy out of Guangzhou.

After the battle was over, feeling that the two sides fought well in the first joint battle, Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang immediately proposed to capture Humen with the army.

If you say you can't take Humen down, then Zheng Zhilong's fleet entrenched in Humen is like a knife hanging above your head, which will fall down at any time, making people sleep uneasy.

Huang Xiangbin was speechless about this!
Cooperation to capture Humen?

You navy are 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 from the ground ourselves.

However, Huang Xiangbin still did not refuse, after all, Humen always wanted to fight.

Now the Zheng Zhilong fleet is entrenched in the Humen area. If this place is not taken down, the Zheng Zhilong 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 Great Chu Empire. of.

Even in the more powerful Yangtze River estuary, even if Zheng Zhilong's troops are still entrenched on Chongming Island, Zheng Zhilong's troops still failed to completely block the Yangtze River estuary. 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 important point is that in order to resist Zheng Zhilong's troops, the Chu army has built two field forts in Niushan and Changzhou, and the artillery units deployed on them are the Seventh Artillery Regiment and the captured Ziming Army. into

This Humen must be brought down.

Soon, after Huang Xiangbin and Xia Qiuyang continued to discuss, they finalized the plan to attack Humen.

The battle plan is also quite simple. The navy says they are cooperating in the battle, but in fact they can only watch the show from the sidelines. The main force of the battle is still the army.

To this end, the army sent an infantry regiment as the core to strengthen the regiment, and then cooperated with a brigade of garrison troops to attack Humen.

At this time, Humen didn't have any fortresses, nor any big cities, just a few small cities of coastal defense stations. They fought well in the sea under Zheng Zhilong's command, but after they landed, they even attacked the second-line troops of the Chu army, that is, Those defenders are enough.

The No.20 Second Garrison Brigade, which is cooperating with the main force, has already captured three small coastal guards controlled by Zheng Zhilong's troops, and then covered the main force and set up artillery, aiming at the berth. Zheng Zhilong's fleet carried out heavy shelling.

As a result, needless to say, after Zheng Zhilong's unit connected the small coastal guardhouses that lost Humen, they couldn't even guarantee the safety of the berths, so they could only retreat in despair. After this retreat, they retreated directly to the Lantau Island area. .

And the battle on Humen's side proved once again that Zheng Zhilong's troops are good in water warfare, and they can basically suppress Chu Haijun to fight again.

But in the ground battle, there is basically no threat to the Chu Army!
After the results of this 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!

(End of this chapter)