I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 215 Cannons Can Hit So Far
Chapter 214

Shen Boyun was in a pretty good mood.

The boss is actually not the one who is easy to be. Although the boss can eat more and occupy more, he should bear a lot of responsibilities and risks.

When the Shachuan gang was suppressed by Zheng, he couldn't eat well, sleep well, and his head was as big as a bucket.Although this is still the case now, the problem is that these troubles are no longer Shen Boyun's, but Cheng Shijie's.

Now Shen Boyun no longer has to worry about Zheng's more than [-] warships, and he doesn't have to worry about being approached by Zheng's group's pirates and cutting off his head in his sleep.

There is no need to worry, facing Sha Chuan to help all the family members cry, the most important thing is that he can see how Cheng Shijie deals with the Zheng Group.

At this time, the northeast wind blows and turns into a tailwind. With the wind, the speed of sailing is greatly improved.

Shen Boyun sprinkled a handful of colored sawdust from the bow into the water, counting silently in his heart, and when the sawdust on the water surface moved to the stern, he calculated the speed, looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "Marshal, if the wind does not change, there will be another hour to go." , how far can we go to Chongming?"

Cheng Shijie looked at Shen Boyun and said, "Boyun..."

Cheng Shijie's governance philosophy is still to rule the country by law, but as the territory grows larger and larger, especially after the Shachuan Gang joins them, it means that the personnel composition of the Liaodong forces is more complicated.

Cheng Shijie originally wanted to use Thunder's method to deal with it, but the problem is that if this is the case, other forces will not take the initiative to join him in the future, and may even stand on the opposite side of Cheng Shijie.

Cheng Shijie didn't have any psychological burden to deal with those gentry by means of thunder, but the problem was the essence of the Shachuan Gang. In fact, they were just like the Cao Gang, a bunch of bitter people.

"This commander has always ruled the army with military law and Liaodong with military law. You have to understand that you can't do something, and the Shachuan Gang can't override the law!"

Cheng Shijie said with a serious face: "I hope you will handle the affairs of the Shachuan Gang yourself, and don't leave any trouble. I am afraid of trouble!"

Listening to Cheng Shijie's words, Shen Boyun broke out in cold sweat.

The crux of the problem is that he still doesn't know what's going on, Shen Boyun hastily returned to his Jixian, and Gu Siyuan, Shen Boyun's long-term follower and confidant, hastily greeted him: "Master!"

"Siyuan, I have something to ask you. What happened to the Shachuan Gang, which made the commander very dissatisfied!"

"No?"

Gu Siyuan thought about it carefully: "Could it be..."

"What is it?"

"Master, the people under his hands will inevitably have unclean hands and feet!"

Shen Boyun came to his senses: "You mean Chongming Island?"

Chongming Island, shaped like a lying silkworm, is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. It is about [-] kilometers long from north to south and [-] to [-] kilometers wide from east to west.As the largest sand island in Ming Dynasty, the rainfall here is very abundant, and it is a good place to farm.It's just a pity that the weather in this era is not friendly, with frequent strong winds and frequent rainstorms. Life on Chongming Island is not easy.

Chongming at this time is completely incomparable with the prosperous and luxurious Oriental Devils of the later generations. Shanghai in the late Ming Dynasty was still a very poor place, and the real development of such a large piece of land was nothing more than Huating. Just a small piece.

There is no way. Coastal cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macau have developed under the background of close exchanges between the East and the West. Without this background, it is really difficult for them to rely on their meager resources to develop.

However, Chongming’s farming is not being used at the moment. Chongming’s business has begun to boom, and the silk industry is gradually developing. Some of the cotton and silk produced in Jiangnan are also sold to foreign countries from here. These are real. benefit.

In fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, if the Ming Dynasty could open its doors to trade with Europe, the financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty would be resolved soon.Landlords annexing land will also become unprofitable, and ordinary people will have one more way to live because of the rise of industry and commerce.

However, the problem is that the ruling personnel of the Ming Dynasty are civil servants. As the group of carnivorous animals who make the rules, they have never considered the life and death of the people at the bottom. What they represent and maintain are only their own interests.

Chongming is now ushering in the spring. In fact, as early as when the Shachuan Gang took refuge with Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie began to arrange for Chongming Island.

Because Cheng Shijie would not change his strategy because of an imperial decree of Emperor Chongzhen, such as fighting Zheng Zhilong, even if Emperor Chongzhen strictly ordered Cheng Shijie not to fight, what should Cheng Shijie do, or how to fight.Chongming Island became Zhu Weiti's fief, and Cheng Shijie regarded Chongming as his territory.

It's that simple and rude.

At this time, Chongming Island originally had a population of only 5, and more than [-]% of them were members of the Shachuan Gang or their families. Now Chongming Island has become a huge construction site, with a large number of people wielding hoes and shovels, constructing in full swing. Warehouses, expansion of docks, construction of trestles.

Chongming Island is the largest sand island in Ming Dynasty. There are not many places that can be used as docks. The huge Chongming Island is only one-third smaller than the 1000-800 square kilometers in later generations. The land area is only more than [-] square kilometers. It is five adjacent sand islands, which are gradually connected together.

Since the construction of Daxing Chongming Island is about to start, a large number of workers must be needed. The Shen family has turned to Cheng Shijie. The work of supervision, recruitment, and construction naturally falls on the Shen family.

But the Shen family was used to being superior, and when the Shachuan Gang used them for transportation, they would reward them with food, so they had formed such a habit.

In order to speed up the progress of the project, Cheng Shijie recruited workers for the people of Chongming Island at a daily salary of one bucket of rice or [-] yuan.But the problem is, when this matter came into the hands of the Shen family, a bucket of rice became three liters, and fifty renminbi became twenty renminbi.

In this way, although the workers who participated in the construction were also very satisfied, the Shen family withheld money from Cheng Shijie, which made Cheng Shijie very unhappy. Division troops.

"Confused!"

Shen Boyun was trembling with anxiety.

How short-sighted are the people of the Shen family? If their hands and feet are not clean, how could Cheng Shijie entrust important matters to them?Maybe Shen Boyun has already got this impression in Cheng Shijie's heart.

Shen Boyun was so anxious that he quickly ordered to mobilize a wheeled ship. The wheeled ship is called a thousand-mile ship. It uses a pedal-type wheel mechanism to drive the wheel forward. It is not afraid of the wind direction and the speed is very fast. Ships cannot be built too large and can only be sailed for short distances.

Just when Shen Boyun hurried back to Chongming Island,
To the south of Chongming Island is Changxing Island, and to the south of Changxing Island is the famous Wusongkou.
In the 19th year of Ming Hongwu (1386), the Wusong Shouyu Qianhu Office was established.In the 36th year of Jiajing (1557), Baoshan Shouyu Qianhusuo was established in Gaoqiao, southeast of Wusong Shouyu Qianhusuo.

This is the largest garrison of the Ming army at Wusongkou, with two garrisons guarding thousands of households. At present, no fort was built at Wusongkou.In the 17th year of Kangxi (1660), the East Fort was built on the east coast of Wusongkou.In the 57th year of Guangxu (1718), the North Fort was built. The original site was located at the northern end of Nanshitang (now the northern end of Wusongkou National Defense Project), and it was at the corner of the West Fort.

Although there was no fort at Wusongkou at this time, it was built as Wusongkou Qianhusuo. Qianhusuo is actually a small military fortress, especially located in the south of the Yangtze River, the city was built with glutinous rice juice green bricks, occupying an absolute geographical advantage. Easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Just when Zheng Zhibao's huge fleet appeared on the river at Wusongkou, the guarding soldiers of the Thousand Households Office at Wusongkou were stunned.

however……

No matter how powerful a fortress is, there must be someone to guard it. If people are not good enough, even a fortress with a fortified wall is vulnerable.The south of the Yangtze River has been in peace for more than two hundred years, the military equipment has long been abandoned, the smoke of the war against the Japanese war during the Jiajing period has long since dissipated, and the bloody war has also been forgotten. The Ming army stationed at Wusongkou has returned to the old way, and Shangguan continues to find ways to drink blood. The soldiers in the guard continue to try to escape or steal something to eat, how bad is it?

It's so bad that you can ignore them directly!

The first reaction of the guards guarding Qianhusuo was neither to ask for help, nor to assemble to prepare for a counterattack, but to turn around and run in an orderly manner. From the time Zheng Zhibao's battleship appeared in sight to when they arrived at Wusongkou, it took only half an hour. Within a short period of time, the defenders at Wusongkou had disappeared without a trace.

When Zheng Zhibao came to the 1000-meter-long river at Wusongkou, he used a telescope to look at the garrison of thousands of households at Wusongkou. There were no soldiers guarding it, and there was no formation, and there were quiet people on the shore.

Zheng Zhibao was very cautious at this time, for fear of being ambushed, he ordered: "Prepare for shelling, and the landing troops are ready!"

Following Zheng Zhibao's order, the messengers of Zheng's fleet hurriedly issued orders to the ships, and the warships began to turn and move sideways, aiming their broadside guns at Wusongkou.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

The sound of the cannon was like thunder in midsummer, and hundreds of shot balls whizzed out from the muzzle and smashed hard at Wusongkou!

Since the artillery of Zheng's fleet was fired with black powder, although the movement of hundreds of artillery firing at the same time was not small, it blocked his sight.

Zheng Zhilong also couldn't see what was going on at Wusongkou Fortress. After one round of bombardment ended, another round followed, and after five rounds of bombardment, Zheng Zhilong ordered people to land.

When Cheng Shijie arrived at Chongming Island, he knew that Wusongkou had fallen, and even the Ning Navy Navy on Chongming Island, more than 60 kilometers away, had no time to support it.

Just as Cheng Shijie's Eight Princesses entered the Yangtze River Estuary, Zheng Zhibao led the fleet to arrive again. Hundreds of warships crowded at the Yangtze River Estuary. Looking around, almost all of them were warships.

Zheng Zhibao wanted to see how Ning Haijun's combat effectiveness was, but Cheng Shijie didn't intend to enter into a dignified battle with Zheng.

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "Good guy, isn't Mrs. Zheng ready to live? There are hundreds of ships, which is really enough to save face!"

Li Zhixiang said: "Marshal, how will we fight this battle?"

"Don't fight for now!"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Look at Zheng's fleet, it's densely crowded here, we have the upper hand, if we don't take advantage of this wind, we will be sorry to God."

"Marshal, do you mean Fire Attack?"

"That's right!"

Cheng Shijie looked at the [-] gunboats in the fleet and the old ships of the Shachuan Gang and said: "These dilapidated ships have lost the value of repairing. Instead of wasting energy to dismantle them, it is better to use them as waste!"

Li Zhixiang understood Cheng Shijie's meaning, and ordered the Ning Navy's four hundred gunboats to be quickly disassembled at any time. Model, can fire four-pounder or six-pounder.

This kind of artillery is very light, less than [-] catties in total, and it is disassembled directly, and then the [-] gun boats are fastened together with iron locks, and each group of ten ships is a group.

Seeing that the navy of the Ning Navy is changing, the large warships give way to the waterways and let the small ships play.

At this time, Zheng Zhibao hadn't realized that Ning Haijun was preparing to attack with fire, and he thought that Ning Haijun was testing the strength of Zheng's fleet with sailors.

Seeing more than 100 small and broken ships from the Ning Navy Navy, Zheng Zhibao smiled and said: "Old Nine, you go and try the quality of Ning Navy, remember, only send more than 100 ships, I can't let people laugh at me and bully me too much." few!"

The old ninth is Yang Liu, one of the Eighteen Zhi. He ranks ninth, because he followed Liu Xiang against Zheng Zhilong. Last year, he was captured by Zheng Zhilong, and Yang Liu surrendered to Zheng Zhilong.

Yang Liu is a ferocious man, but very brave and good at fighting. This is a ruthless character who can wrestle with Zheng Zhihu. Yang Liu is lustful.

Yang Liuda laughed and said, "Don't worry, fifth master, look at it, I don't need a hundred boats, but eighty boats, let the surname Cheng see how good we are!"

However, at this moment, Yang Liu's nose moved, and his brows furrowed: "The Cheng surname is going to play tricks, get out!"

Zheng Zhibao's expression changed drastically.

Without his order, the battleships of Zheng's fleet began to turn and flee. Due to the haste, five or six ships collided with each other, and the river surface burst into flames. Sailing away with Zheng's fleet.

Cheng Shijie looked at the chaotic Zheng's fleet, and said with some regret: "It's a pity, these pirate noses are really not ordinary spirits!"

Li Zhixiang smiled and said: "Commander, Zheng Zhilong is an expert at playing fire boats, I didn't expect to be fired by the commander today..."

Cheng Shijie said disapprovingly: "Next, it's up to you. The mouth of the Yangtze River is too small, so naval battles must be fought at sea!"

"Also please move, Commander!"

Cheng Shijie actually wants to see how the navy fights, but the problem is that Li Zhixiang dare not let Cheng Shijie take risks. You must know that the development of the Ning Navy faction is getting better and better, and tens of thousands of people follow Cheng Shijie to eat. If Cheng Shijie has a problem, This is ruining the jobs of several 10 people.

What's more, Cheng Shijie doesn't have a son yet, which is what Ning Haijun is most worried about. Once Cheng Shijie has an accident, no one can afford this responsibility, which means that Ning Haijun Group will collapse.

"If the commander-in-chief doesn't move, we can't fight this battle!"

Cheng Shijie also knew Li Zhixiang's worry, he patted Li Zhixiang on the shoulder and said: "Sea battle, I will leave it to you, fight hard, let Zheng Zhilong kneel in front of this commander and sing conquest!"

Cheng Shijie sailed to Chongming Island on the Eight Princesses.And Li Zhixiang climbed the battleship Lushun and raised the command flag: "Now we can finally do a big job!"

When Zheng Zhibao was in a hurry to avoid the burning ship, he was shocked to find that the Ning Navy was divided into two parts, one part was sailing towards Chongming Island quickly, and the other part of the main battleship, about fifty or sixty large warships, was heading towards the sea.

Zheng Zhibao's first reaction was that Cheng Shijie wanted to run away.

"Cheng wants to run away, Hong Xu!"

"exist!"

"Take your men and boats to catch up, and don't let Cheng get away!"

"Yes!"

As one of the Eighteen Zhi, Hong Xu was originally Zheng Zhilong's general and fellow countryman, and he was deeply trusted by Zheng Zhilong. In history, Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and he switched to Zheng Chenggong. In the 15th year of Shunzhi (1658), Zheng Chenggong's northern expedition to Nanjing, Let Hong Xu also serve as a military officer, and stay on Jin and Xiamen Islands together with Huang Ting, the premise governor, and Zheng Tai, the household officer.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the Yangtze River estuary, the main warship of the Ning Navy's navy was sailing on the sea. Taking advantage of the wind, it actually went all the way northward against the wind, which made Zheng Zhibao very anxious.

The navy of the Ning Navy fled in front, and the Zheng's fleet chased after them. The two sides fought a guerrilla war at sea.

Guerrilla warfare is different from escaping. When the Ning Navy sailors ran ahead, they dropped a few mines from time to time, or deliberately slowed down, and then fired at Zheng's fleet.

In short, Ning Haijun's navy has a lot of tricks, and Zheng Zhibao is getting more and more crazy.

Just a dozen kilometers away from the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Li Zhixiang said: "Now the commander-in-chief should go to Chongming, right?"

"almost!"

Shen Shikui said: "Lao Li, how are you going to fight?"

"Hit now!"

Following the order from the battleship Lushun, the main battleship of the Ning Navy Navy began to change from the original long snake formation, with its wings spread out, like a roc spreading its wings.

The navy of the Ning Navy no longer ran away, so the main battleships lined up in two rows and advanced side by side.Carrying hard from the front and outflanking the two wings is exactly what the Ning Navy and Army are good at. Now the Ning Navy Navy has transplanted this tactic into naval warfare. As for whether it will work... To be honest, Li Zhixiang has no idea.

Seeing the warships of the Ning Navy Navy advancing instead of retreating, this made Zheng Zhibao feel a little abnormal.

Cheng Shijie's intention is very simple, Lao Tzu's ship is stronger than your warship, and the naval gun is more powerful than your naval gun, so what tricks do you need to play?Just push it straight!
The Ning Navy sailors are not proficient in handling such large warships with [-] or [-] materials. Even because of an emergency turn, several sailors were thrown out of the battleship, and the other ships were in a hurry. .

In contrast, Zheng's fleet was much calmer. After all, they were begging for food at sea. This kind of scene was just a trivial matter to them, and there was nothing to make a fuss about.

After a short moment of astonishment, Zheng Zhibao reacted immediately, and commanded the fleet to spread out in geese. More than 100 medium-sized and large warships were arranged in the middle. Aimed at the target, armed sailors ready for hand-to-hand combat hold their axes and muskets tightly, and once on board the enemy ship, they win.

Both fleets were approaching at high speed, like two tyrannosaurus dragons, fiercely pounced on their opponents, and in the blink of an eye, the distance between the two fleets was shortened to less than 2000 meters.

"Boom boom boom..."

A large cloud of smoke rushed out of the gun bore, and the strong recoil caused the battleship to pause involuntarily. In the thunder and lightning, more than 200 shells blasted out, forming a curtain of fire, covering the front line of Zheng's fleet!
"Shooting so far away, the surname Cheng has a lot of money!"

Zheng Zhibao is still laughing at Ning Haijun's lack of understanding of naval warfare, and firing at a distance of more than 2000 meters has no effect except wasting shells. However, the problem is that this salvo, especially Ning Haijun's luck, actually hit three ships directly, one of them The small gunboat was directly blown to pieces, and the other one that was hit was a black-tailed boat. Although it did not sink, the explosive shells directly ignited the gunpowder on it.

Seeing the loss of three of his warships in an instant, Zheng Zhibao was horrified: "Ning Haijun's artillery can hit so far?"

(End of this chapter)