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

Chapter 231 Zheng Zhilong is extremely aggrieved
Chapter 230

On the sea surface of Subic Bay, hundreds of warships of Zheng's fleet are scattered on the sea surface. The entire fleet looks like a floating city, which is magnificent.

This is Zheng Zhilong's core strength, and it is also the foundation for Zheng Zhilong to dominate the sea.Although facing the Zheng's fleet and the Ning Navy, they won less and lost more before and after, but it did not damage the fundamental strength of the Zheng's fleet. They are still the most powerful fleet in Ming Dynasty, and they have a place in the world.

In the past, the sailors of Zheng's fleet would drink, eat meat, or gamble to pass the boring time, but the Zheng's fleet at this time is a bit weird.Even if the sea battle at Wusongkou failed, the morale of Zheng's fleet was still high. At that time, they still had the confidence to defeat Ning Haijun.

However, with the overall surrender of the vanguard of Zheng's fleet, all the sailors and leaders of Zheng's fleet felt extremely heavy.

"Those black-skinned naval guns are so powerful, they killed Luo Jiu with a single shot six or seven miles away?"

Zheng Zhilong felt very uncomfortable when he received the news.

Luo Jiu can be regarded as one of the backbone members of Zheng Zhilong's direct lineage, and he was appointed as a naval officer. Luo Jiu was originally a capable officer of Chen Zhongji, a backbone member of Zheng Zhilong's official party. In the first year of Chongzhen, Chen Zhongji was killed by Li Kuiqi, and Luo Jiu became Zheng Zhilong's subordinate Qu is one of the most powerful leaders under Zheng Zhilong's command. He originally had [-] main warships, including more than [-] large and small warships.

It's just that in the sea battle at Wusongkou, three of his main warships were sunk and one was damaged, leaving only fifteen ships, as one of Zheng Zhilong's fierce generals.The first squadron shot down the fourteen main warships of Zheng's fleet with one shot. The most fundamental reason was that Luo Jiu, the leader of Zheng's group, was on them.Luo Jiu's death directly caused his subordinates to collapse and surrender to Ning Haijun.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Shi Daxuan and said, "Daxuan, have you heard that there is a cannon that can sink a ship at a distance of six or seven miles?"

Shi Daxuan shook his head: "I never heard that even in Liaodong and Wusongkou, the coastal defense guns of the Ning Navy have a range of three or four miles, usually within three miles."

"That's the problem!"

Zheng Zhilong sighed and said, "I originally thought that Ning Haijun was a soft persimmon, but I never thought that they are so difficult to deal with!"

Shi Daxuan also thought to himself, Ning Haijun is not only difficult to deal with, but very difficult to deal with.

But the problem is that there is no turning back arrow when opening the bow, no matter how difficult it is, he must keep fighting.If he went back in such a disheveled manner, would Zheng Zhilong still have the guts to mess around?
No, no matter what you say, you have to bite Ning Haijun hard, otherwise you will never retreat!

But, how to bite Ning Haijun back?

He has never found a chance, although Shi Daxuan proposed a plan for him to bypass Wusongkou, land at a place where the Ning Navy was not deployed, and flank him from behind.

The artillery fire at the fortress at Wusongkou is very fierce, but no matter how fierce it is, it is impossible to resist the attack from the back, right?Zheng Zhilong believes that the probability of success is very high, and most importantly, even if it fails, the battleship will not be lost, so why not do it?
However, when Juan Zheng Zhilong was about to take action, the bigwigs from the imperial court warned Zheng Zhilong not to mess up, let alone expand the situation.

At first Zheng Zhilong didn't quite understand, but until Shi Daxuan reminded Zheng Zhilong that if they bypass Wusongkou and attack Wusongkou from other places, Cheng Shijie can also attack their Zheng's strategic locations from other places, such as the Dayuan Taichung area , as well as Fujian and Quanzhou, will not be able to end at that time.

The interference of the tycoons in the DPRK and China was actually because Cheng Shijie played a role in the silver. Gao Qiqian confiscated more than 100 million taels of silver from the mouth of the Yangtze River, of which 60% belonged to Emperor Chongzhen, more than [-] taels of silver, which is equivalent to the treasury's finances. one-tenth of income.

This is a huge sum of money, which is different from house raids. House raids are just a one-time sale, and most of them are fixed assets. If a house is raided on a large scale, the land cannot be sold.And this is a steady flow of long-term capital income. Emperor Chongzhen not only acquiesced that Wu Sheng was stationed at Wusongkou and served as the commander-in-chief of Wusongkou, but also secretly warned Wen Tiren that Zheng Zhilong could fight Cheng Shijie, but not too much.

As the weak side, Cheng Shijie was naturally protected by the court.

This actually made Cheng Shijie smile bitterly. Cheng Shijie was ready for Wusongkou, and he was waiting to give Zheng Zhilong another heavy blow, but he didn't expect Zheng Zhilong to be persuaded by the suggestion of the big boss in the court.

Just when Zheng Zhilong was full of anger, wondering if he should kill one or two chickens to make an example to the monkeys, a light boat rushed over and brought a frightening news.

Luzon was captured by the Ning Navy.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't believe it when he received the news, but after repeated investigations, he confirmed the authenticity of the news.

Zheng Zhilong knew that his chance had come. Ning Haijun had a fort at Wusongkou, and Manila also had a fort. Unlike Wusongkou, he could bypass Wusongkou and attack Wusongkou by sea and land. pressure, he couldn't do it.

But Luzon can. Luzon does not belong to the mainland of Ming Dynasty, and the big bosses in the court have nothing to do with it. At the same time, once Luzon is captured, Zheng Zhilong can sell Luzon for a good price. You know, it is not a day or two that the Dutch covet Luzon Yes, at the same time, the Portuguese, the British, including the Spaniards all want Luzon.

As long as Luzon is in hand, he can exchange Luzon to Xiyi for dozens of heavy warships, or hundreds of artillery pieces.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong came to Subic Sea, because he could attack Subic Port from the Subic Strait. In later generations, this was the Subic Shipyard, but of course it is only a small port now.

Just when Zheng Zhilong's collective surrender of Luo Jiu's troops caused a major earthquake in Zheng's fleet, almost all the leaders and leaders were shaken.

"What bullshit is six or seven miles away, and was sunk by a cannonball. This is because Luo Jiu, a bastard, has failed the admiral's trust in him. We and Ning Haijun are also old rivals, and this is not the first time we have fought against each other. Whether in Liaodong, or At Wusongkou, do they Ning Haijun have such powerful cannons?"

Zheng Zhilong looked at the generals and said, "Who have you seen?"

The generals were speechless.

Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "This is just a trick of those black skins. If you are afraid, you have fallen into their trick. Now they are playing tricks with us, what does that mean?"

Hong Xu came to his senses: "It means they can't beat us, they're scared!"

"Yes, we must not be fooled!"

While talking, a bird ship came quickly.

"What? The Denglai Navy is here!?"

Zheng Zhilong was ecstatic: "They actually came out of the turtle shell?"

"Here we come! There are a total of sixty warships, almost all of which are brand new, with high speed and fierce firepower. A patrol fleet led by Huang Bazong has been wiped out by them!"

"Great! I finally got the chance to beat them up!"

Zheng Zhilong's eyes lit up, he clapped his fists, looked around at the crowd, and said with pride, "Everyone, don't worry about Luo Jiu's defeat. This forest is huge, and there are all kinds of birds. It is reasonable to suffer a small loss. But this naval battle But it is our strength. We have traveled across the sea for more than ten years and have never met an enemy! What about the Ning Navy Navy? It is just a group of mobs who have been in the army for three years. Pianfan must not return!"

I heard that the Ning Navy Navy only has about [-] warships. Hong Xu and Shi Daxuan, the ostrich generals who insisted on retreating immediately, seemed to have been injected with chicken blood and swallowed ten packs of Viagra. Called: "Yes, we can't beat them in land battles, but they are definitely not our opponents in sea battles. They are here to die!"

Hong Xu shouted even more vigorously: "When this fleet is wiped out, we will follow the Admiral's suggestion to block the Yangtze River waterway with the fleet and trap Cheng Shijie to death at Wusongkou!"

Facing the "weak" Ning Navy Navy, Zheng's fleet generals immediately unanimously agreed. Zheng Zhilong immediately ordered the dragon and tiger battle flags for the main battle to be unfurled, and the flagship took the lead and rushed south.

The fleet, which was still listless, was very excited. One followed by another to form a combat formation and headed south.If you look down from a high altitude, you will see that more than 600 warships are forming two arrows, one large and one small, cutting through the sea and rushing towards each other.

The difference is that the Ning Navy and the Navy are in order. All warships are communicating with walkie-talkies and conveying orders, while Zheng's fleet is relatively chaotic. Hey, the fleet has sailed for several kilometers, and there are still some warships who don't know where the enemy is, how many are there, and from which direction they are coming, but they just follow the main force mechanically.

In terms of command, Zheng's fleet lost first.

Zheng Zhilong's flagship sailed more than ten kilometers away, and he could finally see Ning Haijun's fleet through the binoculars. However, the Ning Haijun's warships coming downwind, more than ten kilometers away from them, started to turn around, as if they were approaching aggressively. Seeing the size of Zheng's fleet, they retreated in embarrassment.

Now the morale of Zheng's fleet was even stronger, the momentum was like a rainbow, and the voices of shouting and killing rang out.

Zheng Zhilong sighed and said, "What a pity, it's getting dark!"

"That's right, maybe they, Ning Haijun, calculated the time correctly and knew that we would not be able to fight today, so they showed up on purpose to boost morale!"

Shi Daxuan analyzed: "It is also possible that they are luring the enemy to go deep..."

"What Da Xuan said is not unreasonable!"

Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "Order, pass on the admiral's order, and all ministries must not underestimate the enemy!"

On the Guangning, the flagship of the first division of the Ning Navy, Zou Jing asked with some doubts, "Why don't we fight anymore?"

"Hit, hit, hit, you know how to fight!"

Li Yuan said angrily: "When the commander-in-chief gave you a lecture, did you forget everything you said?"

Zou Jing was a little puzzled: "The commander-in-chief said a lot of things at that time, I don't know which sentence you said!"

"When you meet on a narrow road, the brave wins. Who wins when two armies fight against each other?"

"Whoever makes fewer mistakes wins!"

Li Yuan nodded and said: "Since you still remember this, I want to ask you, now it's getting dark, how do you fight? Besides, the sight is not wide at night, and there are many hidden reefs near this sea area. If you are careful, you will hit the rocks. Our warships are big and have a deep draft, so it is easier to be recruited. The warships of Zheng's fleet are small and have an advantage over us!"

The 48 main warships of the Ning Navy, including [-] sea shark-class warships, spread their wings like eagles, guarding the twelve new large ships of the Chinese fleet, and began to sail towards the China Sea.The reason for this is to prevent Zheng's fleet from outflanking with small fast boats.

Half an hour later, the sun began to sink into the sea level, which meant night was coming. Of course, Zheng Zhilong didn't know that his bad luck had come again.

Zheng Zhilong watched the main battleship of the Ning Navy disappear from sight, and he felt a little uneasy.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Shi Daxuan anxiously and said, "Daxuan, do you think those black skins are abnormal?"

"It is indeed a bit abnormal!"

Basically, the last battle report under Zheng Zhibao's command stated that the Ning Navy's navy was very brave.

Zheng Zhilong had people rob the boats of the Ning Haijun and their allies, the Shachuan Gang, and even threw the sailors of the Shachuan Gang into the sea to drown, and captured six or seven hundred Liaodong sailors, in order to force Cheng Shijie to negotiate with him.

As long as Cheng Shijie pays him protection fees like other Jiangnan and Fujian maritime merchants, even if he takes a yearly contract like the Dutch East India Company, he is willing to accept negotiations.

But the problem was that Cheng Shijie didn't seem to know what the negotiation was, and no one was sent over.

How could they retreat so easily?

Zheng Zhilong's premonition was correct, Ning Haijun really did not retreat so easily.

Although Li Zhixiang was born in the navy of the Dongjiang Army, the naval combat experience he received was actually backward naval warfare experience, but the problem is that Li Zhixiang's background is low, he is just a general, a grassroots officer belonging to the navy.

After taking refuge in Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie drew a grand blueprint for him, as well as the development model of naval warfare. Future naval warfare will definitely become a duel between cannons, and gang warfare will completely disappear in the sequence of naval warfare.

Wind direction, ocean currents, and climate are all basic skills that naval officers must master.

Now Li Zhixiang is using the ocean current, a warm current in the South China Sea, which belongs to a branch of the northern equatorial warm current, and generally moves from the southeast to the northwest.

Barring storms or other unexpected weather, the current will continue to move northwest.

At this time, the main fleet of the Ning Navy Navy began to break down, and several naval staff officers were calculating the speed of the injection flow.

"Report to General Li, the direction and speed of Liuyang have been calculated!"

"Oh, what a speed!"

"Three to five quarters!"

"We are about 25 kilometers away from Zheng's Fleet. According to the speed of the ocean current, it will take up to two hours to drift to Zheng's Fleet!"

"Then let's get started!"

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, the Central Squadron of the Ning Navy began to place mines on the sea. If you look at the shape of this mine, it is equivalent to a huge sea urchin.

In fact, this kind of mine has little to do with Cheng Shijie. In the middle of the [-]th century, the Ming Dynasty was able to produce various types of mines, and the technology was quite mature and powerful. The mines were an important weapon for the Ming Dynasty sailors at that time.

In 1549, the Ming Dynasty independently developed the world's first sea mine: the "underwater mine".The shell of the mine is a wooden structure, elegant and retro, with a beautiful appearance. The anchor is connected with a rope, so that the depth of the launch can be controlled. Western countries did not start using mines until more than 200 years later.According to historical records, during the War to Resist Japan and Aid Korea during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty used this kind of underwater mine to sink the Japanese warship. This was the first actual combat application of the mine and achieved great success.

By 1590, the sea mine technology of the Ming Dynasty became more mature. The clever Ming Dynasty navy created a timed sea mine—"Underwater Dragon King Cannon". If you die at the third watch, you dare not save your life until the fifth watch.The shell of the mine is made of ox gills, black powder is installed inside, and incense is burned as a fuze. The mine can be detonated at regular intervals by calculating the burning time of the incense.

To say that the Ning Navy's improvements to mines are mainly improvements in two aspects: the explosive fuze and the explosive department.The Gunpowder Bureau of the Ninghai Navy invented nitrocellulose gunpowder, that is, smokeless gunpowder, whose explosive power is two or three times that of black gunpowder. This new type of gunpowder even interrupted the production of chemical fertilizers for a time, and was exclusively used for military use.

Starting to use various aspects, the artillery of the Ning Navy can hit far because of the different gunpowder. If the artillery of the Ning Navy continues to use black powder as the propellant, the initial velocity of the explosion of the black powder is limited, the range of the shell is also limited, and the power is even more limited.

The second is the fuze method. The Ning Navy has basically canceled the detonation method of igniting an open flame. This kind of mine is a contact explosion method. First of all, when the mine is manufactured, the density is controlled, and it is only in a semi-floating state on the sea surface. About one meter.

The second is that it is loaded with sixteen long tentacles, which are devices similar to pumps. Although the waves will touch the detonating tentacles, they cannot directly detonate the mine because of insufficient power.

Only when the mine hits the enemy's warship will it detonate due to the huge impact force. Among them, this mine is loaded with 68 kilograms of nitrocellulose gunpowder, which is equivalent to the explosive power of two or three hundred kilograms of black powder, and is also equivalent to more than 30 kilograms of TNT. , Even if it is a thousand-ton wooden battleship, if it is hit by one, it will not die or be disabled.

It’s just that the cost is a bit expensive, much more expensive than artillery shells. A mine costs as much as 580 taels of silver. This time when Li Zhixiang went south, he brought more than 500 mines.

Because the number is too small, this method can only be used to maximize the power.

Ning Haijun calculated the relationship between distance and speed very skillfully.

After preparing overnight, at dawn, the sailors on each ship of the Ning Navy quickly ate, then checked their equipment, began to hoist the sails and anchor, and headed towards the Zheng's fleet again.

Half an hour later, the watchmen of Zheng's fleet spotted Ning Navy's battleship, and the battle alarm sounded over Zheng's fleet.

Zheng Zhilong saw the main fleet of the Ning Navy Navy. The 48 main battleships were lined up in two lines, in the shape of canine teeth, as if two rows of sharp teeth were rushing towards them.

48 Sea Shark-class battleships are rushing to the wind, pushing forward like a wall. The cannons on the bow have already been loaded. The gunners hurriedly adjusted Zhu Yuan.

Naturally, Zheng Zhilong would not sit still. At night, they gathered together and formed a formation of hedgehogs to prevent night attacks by the Ning Navy's navy.

Zheng Zhilong has experienced countless artillery battles at sea, and he also had two decisive battles with the Europa Xiaoqiang Dutchman. He knows very well that naval battles require large warships to disperse to avoid being bombarded.

When the warship of the Ning Navy was nearly eight miles away from them, the artillery of the Ning Navy started to fire.

"Boom boom boom..."

The 96 bow guns began to fire in sequence.

Zheng Zhilong had a smile on his face: "Do you still want to hit the big luck?"

However, at this moment, a gust of water rose from the sea about three or four miles away from Zheng's fleet, which meant that the main guns of the Ning Navy's navy did not replicate the good fortune of the day before yesterday.

"Hong Xu, lead your men to the left, Shi Daxuan lead your men to the right!"

Before Zheng Zhilong's voice fell, he heard a huge roar coming from the southwest direction.

After a terrifying flash and violent explosion, a black-tailed warship disappeared from the sea, leaving only a pile of broken wrecks still floating on the sea.

Zheng Zhilong's face changed drastically, and he murmured: "Why...how can their naval guns hit so far and so accurately? This is not in line with common sense!"

"Master Admiral, you must press all of them, otherwise, we will be in big trouble!"

Zheng Zhilong also lost his composure, and hissed wildly: "Press up! Press up and kill them!"

It's just a pity that when Zheng's fleet was advancing with full sail, there were explosions one after another. In just half a stick of incense, more than a dozen warships were blown up.

Zheng Zhilong finally found out the problem: "Their battleship is still seven or eight miles away from us, and they haven't seen where the shells came from. What's going on?"

Shi Daxuan sent a semaphore to Zheng Zhilong: "Master Admiral, mines... are mines!"

Under Shi Daxuan's reminder, Zheng Zhilong realized that their fleet was surrounded by mines.

Because of the unknown mines, Zheng's fleet didn't dare to move. They lowered their sails urgently. When turning around, more than a dozen warships were sunk by the mines. They didn't even dare to move now.

Fortunately, the battleships in the back could move and retreat. Due to the crowding, several collisions occurred.

When the warships of the Ning Navy were about five or six miles away from the main forward of the Zheng's fleet, they began to change direction, and the two teams became one team, cutting in from the southeast.

"Boom boom boom..."

Forty-eight sea shark-class warships fired artillery shells at Zheng's fleet using side boats.

In all fairness, the hit rate of the Ning naval battleship's shells is not high, about 5.00%, 48 Sea Sharks, a total of 570 six side guns, even with a hit rate of 5.00%, it is still in every volley , Seven or eight or a dozen warships were hit.

The power of the three-inch guns and four-inch naval guns can't be blown out. Now they are like shooting targets, destroying Zheng's fleet layer by layer, which makes Zheng Zhilong feel extremely aggrieved.

(End of this chapter)