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

Chapter 232

Chapter 231

Zheng Zhilong has crossed the sea for more than ten years, although his whole life seems to be cheating. When he was with Li Dan, a sea merchant, Li Dan died. Li Dan did not leave his inheritance to his son Li Guoqi, but left it to Zheng Zhilong and his son Li Guoqi. Xu Suxin, this is Li Dan's cleverness.

Zheng Zhilong did not uproot Li Guoqi, but gave him extremely high treatment, but he had no real power, at least he could be rich for a lifetime.Later, he became sworn brother with Yan Siqi, a senior developer, and after Yan Siqi's sudden death, he inherited Yan Siqi's property as Yan Siqi's brother-in-law.

It is because of the huge inheritance of Yan Siqi and Li Dan that Zheng Zhilong has the capital to start a business, but the problem is that many people, whether he is a member of the official party or Shibazhi, refuse to accept him. After more than a year, he became the king of the sea.

After the initial confusion and tension, Zheng Zhilong quickly calmed down. The warships of Zheng's fleet were not as fast as those of the Ning Navy, nor were they as far as the guns of the Ning Navy. The range, accuracy and power of the Ning Navy's guns were far If you defeat them, if you retreat, you will be knocked down one by one by the Ning Navy Division as a target. The only way is to rush up, use your numerical advantage to surround the Ning Navy Navy Division, divide them, encircle them, and annihilate them one by one. This is the only way. !

"Smoke boat!"

Following Zheng Zhilong's order, more than 120 small boats rushed out of the huge Zheng's fleet.

These small boats were not designed to burn down the warships of the Ning Navy, but to release smoke. The small boats quickly burned to the sky, and then wet straw, quilts and other things were thrown on the fire, and then sea water was poured on them every day. Both small boats produced a lot of smoke.

The thick smoke shrouded most of the warships of Zheng's fleet in the smoke. As more and more warships or small boats raised the smoke, a large area of ​​thick fog appeared within a radius of tens of kilometers of the entire battlefield.

Some Zheng's warships even burned rubber, producing a lot of smoke. It has to be said that Zheng Zhilong's response was very correct and very effective.

"Zheng Zhilong really has two tricks!"

Li Zhixiang has studied Zheng Zhilong seriously, and found that this guy likes to win by surprise and is good at using fireboats. Yu Fang sent a fireboat to burn down the enemy warships in one fell swoop.

However, it is one thing to know what tricks the other party likes to use, and another to be able to defend against it. Just like Li Zhixiang did not expect that Zheng Zhilong actually modified the fire boat a little to form his own barrier.

Although the smog at this time also had a great impact on Zheng's fleet, and many sailors were choked to tears and snot, the problem is that no matter how uncomfortable it is, it is better than being bombarded by Ning Haijun's naval guns.

Ning Haijun tried to fire a cannon into the smoke, and after two rounds, there was no effect. Although Ning Haijun was rich, no matter how rich they were, it was impossible for them to play with precious flowering ammunition.

Taking advantage of the protection of the smoke, Zheng Zhilong ordered the dispatch of water ghost troops to eliminate the mines.

Of course, facing the mines of the Ning Navy, the Zheng fleet had no better way. They carefully fished out the mines from the sea with ropes. In just half an hour, they fished out more than 100 mines from the water.

Although dozens of mines were accidentally touched and detonated during the salvage process, but it is actually a disadvantage for the Ning Navy to use this small bird boat or speedboat to exchange mines.

With the resolution of the mine crisis, Zheng Zhilong, who was full of anger, ordered loudly: "The whole army goes out, press up, and kill them!"

Originally, the smoke had just dissipated, and Zheng's fleet rushed towards Ning Navy's main fleet like an angry bull. At this time, the Ning Navy's warships were very scattered, and some warships were very close to Zheng's warships.

Just as the warships of the Ning Navy fired artillery shells in an orderly manner, hitting the Zheng's fleet, the fireboats of the Zheng's fleet began to appear.

Li Zhixiang looked at the fire boats coming down the wind under the cover of smoke, and there were so many fire boats rushing over, he couldn't help being surprised, and shouted: "Scatter! Spread! Don't be hit by these fire boats!"

The fire boats that appear now are actually mother-child ships, which belong to light ships. The mother ship is three feet five feet long, two feet in front, and one foot and five feet in the back. , and four oars can be drawn, tied to the mother ship with ropes.The mother ship has firewood, fierce oil, gunpowder and fire wire.During the war, the mother ship quickly approached the enemy ship, nailed them together, and set fire to the mother ship, and the descendants returned by the sub-ship.

Due to the barrier of fire and thick smoke, it is also very difficult to attack the sailors and operators on the sub-ship.During the naval battle at Wusongkou, the Ning Navy suffered a big loss from the fireboats of the Zheng fleet.

Fortunately, Li Zhixiang had predicted in advance that Zheng's fleet would send fireboats to fight, and they retreated while fighting, especially seeing the fireboats rushing towards them. As far as Ning Haijun is concerned, it is a tailwind.

With the wind on both sides, the Ning Navy Navy relied on its speed advantage to gradually move further and further away from the Zheng Fleet.

However, seeing that they were about to get rid of the attack range of Zheng's fleet's fireboats, new problems appeared in the Ning Navy.

"Turn the rudder, turn the rudder to the right! What are you doing blankly!"

"Captain, it's bad, our battleship is stuck!"

"its stuck?"

"Yes, our rudder is entangled in the fishing net and cannot turn. If we use brute force, the rudder will definitely be broken!"

"Break it, break it, let's change the spare rudder!"

"Time is running out!"

Li Zhixiang watched the main rudder of the four warships of the Fourth Squadron being entangled in fishing nets. He was not naive enough to think that this was an accident. On this battlefield, it must not be an accident, but a counterattack by the Zheng fleet.

"Boom..."

As the four warships "Liaozhou", "Cangzhou", "Luzhou", and "Zezhou" that could not turn were hit by the fireboats of Zheng's fleet successively, the explosion of gunpowder made the four warships The battleship was blown out with a huge hole, and the sea poured into the cabin.

As a sea shark-class battleship with 27 watertight tanks, although the watertight tanks are closed, the water that can be poured into the sea increases the load on the battleship and causes the speed of the battleship to drop rapidly.

More and more Zheng's warships, like sharks smelling blood, launched a siege to these four warships.

"Fourth Squadron, immediately leave the "Liaozhou", "Cangzhou", "Luzhou", "Zezhou"..."

"We, Ning Haijun, have no tradition of abandoning our brothers and running away!"

The commander of the Fourth Squadron was furious and shouted: "Fight with them!"

Seeing that there was no way to escape, the four warships simply lowered their sails and anchored, acting as sea turrets. The shooting accuracy of the naval guns in motion was far inferior to that of the anchored warships.

As the four battleships hoisted the bloody battle flag, the roar of more than 100 artillery pieces on the four battleships scattered the bloody rays of light in the sky, and the artillery shells hit Zheng's fleet like a rainstorm.

Now Zheng's fleet is in great trouble. Unlike the Ning Navy Navy, which has emphasized the firepower of the bow and stern since its birth, the strongest of all the warships of the Zheng's fleet is the broadside firepower, which means that they can't fire before firing. The broadside must be aimed across the hull in order to use the broadside's firepower.

And their broadside gun firepower is indeed ferocious, a volley can hit Ning Haijun's flesh and blood, but this also means that the surface of those warships has been multiplied several times, and the consequences of facing the shells that hit like a torrential rain can be imagined Know.

Lightning flashed across the surface of the sea, and the waves were churning and roaring like crazy. The thick and thin water columns in the water tank were not one or two, but rows, one by one, soaring into the sky, and the water mist flew up.At the same time as the water column, there are one after another fire columns. They are larger in size, higher in height, and more deadly.

At this moment, Zheng Zhilong felt that the sky was about to collapse, and the earth was about to collapse. He finally realized the seriousness of the problem, and he was really behind in the gang-jumping battle, which he was best at.

If you fall behind, you will be beaten, even if the main battleship of the Ning Navy is less than one-tenth of the main battleship of their Zheng's fleet, if you count the small warships, the disadvantage of the Ning Navy's main fleet is even more obvious.

But the problem is, with such a huge advantage in numbers, they fought very hard in this battle. They suffered three to 4000 casualties and sunk dozens of main battleships. So far, the Ning Navy has only four The battleship was surrounded by them.

Even if they were surrounded by them, the officers and soldiers of the Ning Navy Navy were very tenacious. All the naval guns fired at full speed, trying to jump into the water power of the battle, but were shot into a sieve by the Thunderbolt on the battleship.

Seven black-tailed boats with nearly 900 sailors attacked the Zezhou of the Ning Navy for half an hour, but failed to attack, and instead killed or injured [-] people.

What a shame.

"Daxuan, our direction of development is wrong!"

Zheng Zhilong had to admit that Ning Haijun's achievements in just three years were more remarkable than his more than ten years.

Cheng Shijie is rich and knows how to make money, but the question is, no matter how Cheng Shijie can make money, can he steal the money faster?Do you come a lot?
The answer is definitely not.

Cheng Shijie's main way of making money is to open factories and create wealth.

Zheng Zhilong, on the other hand, used the method of transferring wealth. To put it more elegantly, he transferred other people's money into his hands.Zheng Zhilong is not short of money. If he wants to build his own warship, he has sufficient technical reserves and funds.

However, he didn't feel it was necessary.

Because when it comes to Zheng Zhilong's more than [-] warships, no one dares to have the courage to fight him decisively.

Of course, except for Cheng Shijie.

Under Zheng Zhilong's horrified eyes, the warships attacking the Ning Navy with broadsides were torn apart one after another, turning into a sea of ​​flames...

He couldn't see the miserable appearance of his own fleet, but he guessed that the blow they gave to the Ning Navy Navy was returned ten times by the Ning Navy Navy!

The roaring of artillery, the collision of warships, the flashes of fire one after another, the loud noise of collision of warships, and the screams of dying sailors became the main theme of this blue world.

There are many groups of Zheng's fleet on the small roads, and they launched fierce attacks on the Ning Navy's navy time and time again. The ferocity is comparable to that of piranhas that smell blood.

However, the navy of the Ning Navy has always struggled to maintain a neat front, never fighting alone. Compared with the Zheng fleet, the tactics of this young navy are extremely monotonous and rigid, but when their naval guns roar At that time, no one dared to question the power of this monotonous and rigid tactic.

Every time a fire salvo is fired, there must be warships torn to pieces by them, and there are more than one!Zheng's fleet tried to use ramming angles to destroy the warships of the Ning Navy Division, tried to ram the Ning Navy Division's line with fireboats, and tried to outflank the Ning Navy Division. They used all the tactics they could, but Ning Haijun's navy is like a reef in the sea, no matter how you hit it, it just doesn't move!
What makes Zheng Zhilong extremely uncomfortable is that despite the fact that the main battleships of the Ning Navy are not equipped with many artillery pieces, even the Jusha class has only 48 artillery pieces, including 36 three-inch guns and twelve four-inch guns.According to the same tonnage, Europa's warships are generally equipped with seventy or eighty, or even eighty or ninety artillery pieces.

But the problem is that the rate of fire of the rear-mounted smoothbore gun is too fast. The time for the front-mounted smoothbore gun to fire one shot is enough for Ning Haijun's breech-loaded smoothbore gun to fire five to six shots.

The sailors of Zheng's Fleet are also well-trained, and their loading speed is one of the best in the whole of Asia. However, the Ning Navy Navy is faster than them!

The firing speed of the Ning Navy is not because they are well-trained. If the Ning Navy is allowed to use front-loaded smoothbore guns to fight the Zheng's fleet, the Zheng's fleet is estimated to be able to easily beat the Ning Navy to shit.

The ancient broadside gun tactics also caused Zheng's fleet to suffer a lot. They had to stop at a distance of about 300 meters and turn the hull in turn to let the artillery on both sides fire. This made them a living target for the Ning Navy Navy.

The projectile surface of the ship's side facing the enemy is several times that of the bow facing the enemy, and if it has to stop there, it will be hell if it doesn't get shot!The high-explosive bombs used by the Ning Navy Navy also make it difficult for the warships that have been bombed to leave the battlefield. To no avail, the only thing the sailors can do is jump into the sea and flee for their lives before the fire ignites the powder kegs!

Just when the Zezhou's shells were exhausted and the serious injuries made the Zezhou unable to support it, the officers and men of the Ning Navy detonated the Zezhou. This was the first victory achieved by the Zheng fleet.

However, in order to sink the Zezhou, Zheng's fleet paid for 38 black-tailed boats, [-] Junk ships, and [-] small warships. In terms of numbers, it was [-]. than one.

It's really off the charts.

"No, General Hong was shot!"

Zheng Zhilong is not yet happy, because for Zheng's fleet, sinking a warship of the Ning Navy is the first result of the war with the Ning Navy for more than six months.

No, it should be the third one, because Fuzhou and Gaizhou were also sunk by them.

This is the third ship lost by the Ning Navy.

But the problem is, compared with the loss of Ning Navy, the loss of Zheng's fleet has to be multiplied by a hundred.

Shi Daxuan, whose forehead was cut by sawdust, came to Zheng Zhilong's flagship in person: "Master Admiral, we can't fight anymore, brothers have lost too much!"

"Persist a little longer, Ning Haijun's naval guns should be burning hot, as long as..."

Just as Zheng Zhilong was bandaging Shi Daxuan's wounds in person, another battleship of the Ning Navy was sunk. This was the Luzhou. At the time of the explosion, due to the large amount of water inflow, a rollover occurred. After a stick of incense, the Luzhou sank.

Fighting against the Ning Navy made the Zheng's fleet extremely passive. This is not the combat method that the Zheng's fleet is good at. They are best at fighting gangs.However, after seeing the warship full of armed sailors rushing up to try to seize the ship, being mercilessly shredded by Thunderbolts, Zheng's fleet temporarily gave up the idea of ​​rushing up to fight hand-to-hand, and could only use inaccurate, loading speed The slow-moving muzzle-loading smoothbore continued to carry on.

In fact, the Ning Navy Navy is also fighting. They only use a retreating artillery, and the barrels are starting to glow red.But the red-eyed gunner didn't care about it at all, and he hit it right. If it was too hot, he brought a bucket of water and poured it on the cannon body.

With the sound of "Zi", white water vapor rose up, like a thick fog.

The gunners of the Ning Navy are also exhausted. You know, although the three-inch shells are not very heavy, each shell weighs 38 catties, but the problem is that the shells of the four-inch guns are very heavy, and one shell weighs [-] catties. , without any mechanical assistance, it is all carried by people. After a long time, even hard-working people can't bear it.But no one complained, because everyone knew they were fighting for themselves.

If Zheng's fleet continues to blockade, Liaodong will not be able to obtain raw materials, food and cloth from the north and south of the river, and at the same time, the things produced in Liaodong will not be able to sell.

Because the soldiers of the Ning Navy sailors are most concerned about military exploits. In the past, they were the cavalry artillery of the Ning Navy Army. They received a lot of rewards. Almost every soldier of the Ning Navy is a landlord. land.But they Ning Haijun only receive dead wages, and occasionally have rewards.

They also want to earn a legacy for their family members, so that they can shine brightly and return to their hometowns.

The casualties of the Ning Navy Navy were also heavy. Although the artillery range of the Zheng Fleet was not far away, the cannonballs were not very accurate. The crux of the problem is that quantitative changes will become qualitative changes.

Anything can happen on the battlefield. A Zheng's fleet's junk ship originally wanted to hit the Chenzhou, which was more than 500 meters away from them, but it turned out that there was nothing wrong with the Chenzhou. The Lanling, which was 500 meters away, was hit on the bow deck. Two four-inch guns and two gun groups killed more than 30 people.

Who should I talk to about this matter?

The gunners of Zheng's fleet are indeed very powerful. They found that the warships of the Ning Navy were too fast and maneuverable, so they changed their tactics one after another. .

Once the red-hot lead ball hits the wooden hull, it catches fire immediately, and the chain bomb shreds the sailor's body as well as the sail. They wriggled in pain in a pool of blood.

"General Li, Chief Li Yuan of the First Squadron is injured."

Li Zhixiang said indifferently: "You are the captain of the Guangning, Zou Jing?"

"It's the next official!"

"Now you will be the commander of the First Squadron!"

"Yes, the task is guaranteed to be completed!"

Now that the two sides are really fighting, no one is willing to retreat, even if Zheng's fleet suffers heavy losses, but Zheng Zhilong is unwilling to retreat, who dares to retreat?

Don't look at Zheng Zhilong's usual smile, but the problem is that once Zheng Zhilong becomes ruthless, he will kill the whole family. Who is not afraid of this?
When the Subic naval battle was fought from dawn to dusk, Zheng Zhilong saw that the morale of Zheng's fleet was low, and when he could no longer see the hope of annihilating the main fleet of the Ning Navy, he ordered a retreat.

Zheng's fleet took the lead in breaking away from the battle as if they had received an amnesty.

However, when Zheng's fleet was retreating, Ning's navy did not retreat but advanced, and the artillery fire was more violently bombarded towards Zheng's fleet. The entire fleet was in chaos. More and more warships were shot and caught fire. The bright red rays of the sun complement each other, as if the sky is also burning.

Li Zhixiang watched Zheng's fleet retreat, and they retreated in such a hurry that they didn't even care about the sailors who fell into the sea. It can be said that they fled in despair.

Li Zhixiang put down the binoculars and breathed a sigh of relief: "Finally... we won!"

In this Subic naval battle, the Ning Navy finally won the final victory, and the Zheng Fleet ended in a crushing defeat.In this campaign, 620 of the 160 five main battleships brought by Zheng Zhilong were sunk, 25 were captured, and dozens were severely damaged.

Zheng's fleet lost more than 5000 small warships and more than [-] sailors, but the Ning Navy only captured more than [-] people.

The loss of the Ning Navy was not light. Four warships of the Fourth Squadron were sunk, two of which were sunk, and two of them chose to sink themselves to avoid taking it away by the Zheng fleet.

Li Yuan, commander of the First Squadron, was seriously injured. He was hit by a lead bullet in his left chest. Fortunately, the lead bullet was fired from a bowl-mouth gun, and the power was not very strong. However, Li Yuan's ribs were broken. Four, I don't know if I can survive.

The I Squadron lost one ship and four were damaged.

The Second Squadron did not sink any warships, but eight warships were hit, killing 460 and five people, including Tian Simin, the highest-ranking director of the Ning Navy's navy who was killed in battle in this battle. Mr. Qian is the rank of general in the imperial court.

In other words, Ning Haijun killed one general, injured one general, and four generals were killed in battle. The soldiers killed 630 people, of which five Sea Sharks sank, and eleven Sea Sharks sank. The warships had to be overhauled, temporarily losing the ability to continue fighting, and fourteen warships were injured to varying degrees.

The young Ning Navy Navy withstood the test and told Cheng Shijie with excellent results that they did not live up to his trust and they were worthy of his love!
Li Zhixiang said calmly: "Report the battle report of the Subic naval battle to the commander. The whole fleet returned to Manila to rest and ask the commander for instructions. Manila was renamed..."

(End of this chapter)