On the evening of May 16, 1629, the beginning of the fourth lunar month, there was only the brightest star in the night sky, and there was no moon.

The No. 1 gunboat detachment of the Liaohai Detachment, stationed on Changsheng Island, left the harbor in the dark of night, drove to the outside of the camp in Beixinkou, Jiannu, and lowered its anchor and parked it.

The camp used by Jiannu to block Changsheng Island was built on the north bank of the Shahe River. According to the observations of the past few days, there are about more than 1,000 taels of soldiers with blue flags inside. At the rear of this camp, Jiannu built a pontoon bridge over the Shahe River, and a large army of Jiannu passed through it day and night.

The purpose of this attack was to destroy the camp that blocked the view, so that the observation posts on Changsheng Island could count the number of people.

The captain of the gunboat detachment was a native of Tianjin, graduated from the Taipei Naval Academy, and had run the smuggling business in Liaodong before joining the army, and could speak Liaodong fluently. At this moment, he was instructing his sailors to lift the tarpaulin covering the bedside, revealing several rows of huge rockets.

"The gunner calculates the data and prepares to aim!" The captain commanded loudly.

At this moment, the detachment of a total of five gunboats was only more than 400 meters away from the camp of Jiannu. Although there was no moon in the sky, with the help of the campfire outside the camp, some Jiannu spotted uninvited guests on the sea.

Vaguely hearing the Jurchen shouts from the other side, the captain smiled and lit a cigarette, took a puff in the cold sea breeze, and suddenly felt a hundred times more energetic. He didn't care that he was discovered by Jiannu, anyway, this mission was only to destroy the camp, not to kill the enemy. If Jiannu gets out of the way, he can still save some work.

The Jiannu on the opposite bank fired several shots. In the glow of the fire, a splash of water several meters high appeared on the sea more than 100 meters in front of the captain.

"Speed up, don't really be caught by Jiannu's blind cat and hit by a dead mouse, it's a bloody loss to die."

The gunner agreed, quickly flipped through the manual under an oil lamp, and finally determined the angle of elevation.

The captain took the oil lamp and personally signaled the lights to the other gunboats. A few minutes later, the first rocket strike began.

A thick earthen wall was built outside the camp of Jiannu, facing the sea. This wall, which was later measured by the army of Changsheng Island, was as thick as a foot and a half of a madness, and could withstand all the fire of our land artillery at that time. However, this time it was not a direct-fire artillery that struck, but a rocket that fell from the sky at an elevation angle.

With a shrill hiss, the rockets with whistles tied to them pierced the dark night sky and flew into the camp protected by the earthen wall in various positions.

Without a telescope, the captain could see the trail left by the rocket's tail flame with the naked eye. In the night sky, which was as heavy as a curtain and as black as ink, the flames of fiery red with a little orange red were extremely dazzling, leaving a vague afterimage in the human retina, so that it seemed that there were countless orange-red tracks in the void. As soon as the rocket flew into the camp of Jiannu, a fierce explosion broke out. Flames rose from the camp, three or four feet above the half-zhang high earthen wall. Sparks erupted from the curling tongue of fire, and the heat distorted the air, obscuring the captain's vision.

More than ten seconds later, while the second round of rockets was still on the launch stand, several explosions with a short distance reached the ears of the captain. He looked up, and the fiery red glow made him unable to open his eyes.

Through the gap between his eyelids, he could clearly see a fiery dragon that might be seven or eight feet tall hovering in the air. The slaves and debris that were lifted up by the explosion were still flying in the air, and they had not yet fallen.

The captain subconsciously spit out a dirty word, and quickly calculated the equivalent of this explosion in his heart, and the smile on the corner of his mouth became rampant: "Awesome, I'm afraid this didn't blow up Jiannu's powder magazine." ”

Several other gunboats were also shocked by the explosion, but immediately cheered. Encouraged by this, the captain boldly ordered to continue approaching, and did not stop until he was more than a hundred meters away from the shore and fired a rocket against Jiannu's face.

After the fourth round, a sampan cruising on the edge issued a warning and observed a fire coming from the upper reaches of the Sand River, possibly the sailors of Jiannu coming out.

The captain glanced at the open rocket box with some dissatisfaction, waved his arms and shouted: "Give the signal, get off the shore!" Expand in battle formation! ”

A sailor stood on top of the gunboat with an oil lamp and quickly ordered the fleet to close the anchor. By the time the Jiannu navy appeared on the surface of the sea five minutes later, the five gunboats had all moved and aimed their side chords at them.

The Jiannu Navy was obviously sluggish, and seemed to not know what to do after rushing out of the sea. There were several particularly ferocious large ships with their bows rushing towards the gunboat detachments, their sails made of hard canvas bulging in an arc in the sea breeze; The rest of the small boats—about twenty of them—wandered around the mouth of the Sand River, and there was always a sense of obscenity that they were about to flee back into the river when something didn't happen.

As the captain personally gave the signal, a total of fifteen side-chord guns on the five gunboats opened fire at the same time. The dazzling firelight illuminated the sea for more than half a second, just enough for the captain to see the Jiannu boat being beaten to pieces.

The gunners huddled into the cramped gunboats, shirtless in the May breeze, showing their muscular muscles. They quickly cleared the chamber of the cannon, stuffed it with a silk medicine bag, and stuffed it with a bag of grape shells.

"Ready—put!"

Three hundred buckshot flew out in an overwhelming manner, looming over the target that had already been pierced by the solid bullets, reducing every piece of wood on the Kennu wooden ship to pieces.

After two rounds of shelling, the Jiannu ship, which was still rushing violently, had lost its light, circled around the sea several times, and finally lost power and stopped. The whole ship swayed slightly with the waves, and the dark boat was silent, like a ghost.

The captain waved an oil lamp and signaled all the gunboats to move forward and attack the remaining Jiannu at the mouth of the sea. As he passed the dead ships, the captain leaned out of the side of the ship and quietly glanced at the cabin.

In the pitch-black cabin, several pairs of eyes were also observing the Changsheng Island gunboat sailing by. As they passed by, they looked at the captain and saw the captain's surprised expression.

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Eternal Island, late at night.

Huang Stone rubbed his face tiredly, and the adjutant beside him handed over a wet towel very doggedly.

Huang Stone took it and wiped his face and stood up. He walked to the map hanging in the front of the room and asked Li Yunrui (Note 1) beside him, "Did they really say that?" ”

Li Yunrui looked at the map, his eyes flashing with a dangerous light: "Back to the words of the adults, those people said this. The subordinates felt that Jiannu's arrangement of the fortress like this was a bit of a big deal, and it shouldn't be what it should be like facing my immortal army. ”

"But on the other side of the river is the Zhenglan Banner, and their banner owner is Mang Gurtai. That's an arrogant man. ”

Li Yunrui bowed his head slightly: "The subordinates still feel suspicious." Do you want your subordinates to ask again? ”

Huang Stone nodded and waved his hand to signal Li Yunrui to go down.

With his hands in front of his chest and his right hand touching his bearded chin, Huang Stone's gaze was focused on the map of southern Liaoning. According to the confession of the Han boatman captured from the Jiannu army, Mang Gurtai, who was in charge of the baggage of the left flank, had stored a large amount of grain and forage at the mouth of the quicksand of the Shahe River, and had not yet transported it to the south of the Shahe River. The boatman confessed that they had previously made a living fishing in the Sand River. When the war broke out, Jiannu raided their villages, took them into slavery, and formed a temporary sailor.

After the raid on the Beixinkou camp on Changsheng Island tonight, they were urgently dispatched. The Blue Banner and White Armor that managed them forced them to attack the gunboat detachment, only to be killed by shells on the way. The Han fishermen took the opportunity to revolt, hacked to death the few Yu Ding who were lucky enough to survive, hid in the cabin, and after the gunboat detachment crushed the remaining boats, they were taken to Changsheng Island for interrogation.

Huang Stone's gaze gradually cleared, and he came back to his senses from the fugue, and his gaze gradually condensed on the quicksand mouth marked on the map.

The hydrological data of the Shahe River are not available to Changsheng Island. However, the estuary of the Shahe River spans more than 60 meters, and judging from the flow of water and Huang Sitong's experience, the width of the river where the Liusha Estuary is located is certainly not small, at least it is not possible for Zhenglanqi to transport the baggage across the river in time after losing a large number of ships.

Huang Stone sighed, and slowly paddled along the sand river with his right hand.

"Herald! Please Zhao Wanxiong, Jin Qiude, Li Yunrui, Lieutenant Liu Shuisheng of the gunboat detachment, and Lieutenant Xiao Wei of the Marine Corps to come over. ”