Nantou Village, Dongguan County, that is, the area of Nanshan District, Shenzhen, in the Ming Dynasty, there was no lively and prosperous high-rise building Daxia, there was just a dilapidated and desolate earth city, and the surrounding area of the earth city was full of lush grass and trees, and even the villages were very few.

During the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court set up Dongguan to guard the thousand households, Dapeng to guard the thousand households, and later, set up the Nantou Village, forming a military organization with the distribution of the word "product", guarding the periphery of the Pearl River Estuary to resist the intrusion from the sea.

The Ming Dynasty has been established for one hundred and fifty years, Nantou Village, which was just a small fishing village, has developed into a town, with a permanent population of tens of thousands, of course, at this time Nantou Village still looks very shabby, even the city wall is not complete, the buildings in the city are disorderly, and it is obviously not planned.

Nantouzhai only has a city wall built on the side close to the coastline, and it is a rammed earth wall, only a layer of blue bricks is wrapped on the surface, but there are more than a dozen forts on the head of the city, and the muzzles are all aimed at the sea surface of the Pearl River estuary.

At this time, at the head of Nantou City, there was a group of officials looking at the vast sea with a solemn expression, and the leader was called Wang Hong, who was the deputy envoy of Guangdong Haidao, and his rank was four grades. The naval battle of Tuen Mun Island the year before last was fought by this deputy envoy Wang who led the Guangdong naval division, but unfortunately the Portuguese made a comeback last year, and Wang Hong led the Guangdong naval division to attack again, but he suffered a series of defeats and suffered a great loss of vitality. In desperation, Wang Feng had no choice but to lead the disabled Guangdong sailor to shrink back in Nantou Village to lick his wounds, while writing to the court to ask for guilt.

It is said that Nantou Village is less than 100 miles away from Hong Kong in a straight line, and the sea near Hong Kong at this time is full of artillery fire, and the sound is 100 miles, which can be clearly heard here in Nantou City. When Wang Hong heard the movement, he immediately led a group of civil and military officials under his command to the top of the city to watch, and sent several clippers to listen to the news.

An hour later, the clipper ship that had set out to hear the news came back, and the spies excitedly rushed to the city to report: "Lord Wang, great victory, Xu Jin, the governor of Zhejiang, led the sailors to attack the Francophone fleet twenty miles south of Hong Kong Island, and won the battle, sinking and damaging more than a dozen enemy ships. ”

A group of officials were overjoyed when they heard this, and they praised each other, but Wang Feng felt a little bad in his heart, he was killed by the Westerners and lost his armor, but as soon as Xu Jin arrived, he in turn killed the Westerners without leaving a piece of armor, which seemed to be incompetent in comparison.

A subordinate official who was good at observing words and expressions hurriedly explained: "Lord Wang, don't mind, Governor Xu's fleet was built with the strength of the whole country, and the subordinate officials heard that the fleet is equipped with 500 new Franc machine guns alone, in addition to 5,000 flintlock pistols, 2,000 bowls, and more than 30,000 troops, and the strength is comparable to our Guangdong naval division." ”

Wang Feng suddenly became enlightened when he heard this, and smiled with his beard: "Governor Xu is like a god with soldiers, and Xu Changsheng is not in vain, this official has seen it today, and the order will go down, and the whole army will attack to assist Governor Xu to take Hong Kong Island." ”

The Guangdong Navy Division was beaten badly by the Westerners some time ago, and at this time there was a chance to take revenge, and a group of soldiers suddenly felt the same hatred for the enemy, and immediately boarded the ship and prepared to set off after receiving Wang Hong's order.

However, before the Guangdong Navy Division was ready, the clipper ship that had heard the news from the second bow returned, and the spies reported loudly: "The fleet of Governor Xu has been frustrated in its attack on Hong Kong Island and has stopped attacking. ”

The officials of Nanshanzhai suddenly frowned and whispered, Wang Feng was not surprised, he had personally led his troops to attack Hong Kong Island three times in vain, no one knew better than him how tight the island's defense was, so in his opinion, Xu Jin accepted it when he saw it, and it was wise not to choose to attack.

Since Xu Jin was no longer fighting, the Guangdong sailors naturally had no need to fight, and Wang Feng immediately ordered to prepare for the reception.

In about an hour or so, a large fleet finally appeared in the sea near Nantouzhai, and this fleet was naturally led by Xu Jin.

As Wang Hong expected, Hong Kong Island was well defended, and although the strong attack could be taken, the Ming army would inevitably have to pay a great price, so Xu Jin decisively gave up the strong attack, planning to set up camp first and then take the lead in the long run, and at the same time avoid pushing the Westerners too hard. Because the tighter the pressing, the tighter the Westerners will inevitably hold together, on the contrary, relax a little, leave the Westerners time to think and fear, and this seemingly dissociated four-nation alliance may itself divide and disintegrate.

The art of war is cloudy; The upper army is scheming, the second is the enemy, the second is the army, and the next is the siege. Therefore, the most clever tactic is to surrender the army without a fight, and storming the fortress is really the next strategy, often killing 800 enemies, losing 1,000 or even 1,000 losses, unless it is a last resort, otherwise this kind of loss-making business cannot be done.

Xu Jin has led troops to fight in battles over the years, and he has long read Sun Tzu's Art of War very well, and he has continued to train and improve in actual combat, and has gradually formed his own set of styles, and his ability to lead soldiers to fight is becoming more and more sophisticated.

Getting back to the point, at this moment, Xu Jin's fleet finally sailed into the Nanshanzhai port, and there were five captured Western warships behind it, three of which had been bombarded to tatters, and could only be pulled by ropes.

When the Ming army appeared at the dock of Nanshanzhai with hundreds of captives with red beards and green eyes, they were greeted by the cheers of the people of the whole city, and all the soldiers and civilians shouted ten thousand victories, and the sound entered the sky.

Wang Hong, the deputy envoy of the sea route, saw a young scholar stepping on the dock surrounded by the brocade guards, and thought that this must be the world-famous governor Xu, so he shook the sleeves of his official robe, led a group of officials to greet him, and saluted: "Wang Hong, the deputy envoy of the Guangdong sea channel, see the governor." ”

"See the Governor!" Behind Wang Hong, a group of civil and military officials reported to their homes one after another.

Xu Jin politely greeted a few words and then ordered: "There is Lord Lao Wang to prepare a clean place, and there are many wounded soldiers under this commander who need to be placed. ”

Wang Feng hurriedly agreed, and quickly arranged for the place to accommodate the wounded.

Although the battle was a complete victory, the Ming army also suffered as many as four or five hundred casualties. If it was killed or injured by the enemy's guns, it would have been counted, but one-third of these dead and wounded soldiers were caused by the explosion of the artillery, and the guns that exploded were all Franc machine guns, a total of twelve guns were blown up, this was obviously not an accident, but a serious quality problem, so Xu Jin was very annoyed.

Of course, Xu Jin also understood that the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau and the War Bureau could not be blamed entirely, the smelting level of the Ming Dynasty was not as good as that of the Westerners, and he was in a hurry, so the quality of this batch of copycat versions of the Franc machine guns that were driven out in a short period of time was even more substandard, and it was no wonder that it would lead to explosions after continuous excitation.

This is also one of the reasons why Xu Jin gave up on storming Hong Kong Island, if this problem is not effectively solved, it will be fatal, once the Westerners learn of the defect of the Ming army's naval artillery, it will be a big trouble.