In March of the 13th year of Chongzhen's reign, after the painstaking mediation of Fujian officials headed by Fujian Governor Zhang Kentang, and after several days of arduous and fierce negotiations, the negotiations between the Nanyue Army and the Fujian Navy Division on the matter of unified command and joint consolidation of Fujian's coastal defense finally failed!

The gap between the two sides is too great.

The Nanyue Army demanded that Zheng Zhilong hand over all the ships and sailors' port gun positions, and that he could go to the Nanyue Army Naval Division to serve as the commander, and the subordinate generals and leading officers at all levels would be given corresponding positions according to their talents and qualifications.

On the other hand, Zheng Zhilong's side demanded that the original structure be retained, that all the captured personnel be returned, and that the sailors and shipmasters who had escaped or betrayed to the side of the Nanyue Army be handed over to the Fujian Navy Division for military treatment, and that the Fujian Navy Division could declare that it belonged to the command of the Haiphong Yamen of the three provinces, but it would not listen to the announcement, and that the equipment, ammunition, and supplies of the troops should be the same as those of the Nanyue Army Naval Division, and that the military salaries of officers and soldiers at all levels should be doubled with reference to the Nanyue Army Naval Division.

"If I agree to such conditions, then my brain will be hit by the boat!" Li Shouhan threw aside the note sent by Zhang Kentang about the negotiation situation and lazily gave a definition.

"Lord, since we can't talk about it, let's see the real chapter on the ship!"

"That's it! I've fought with the Zheng family's sailors, but there are more boats! When it comes to combat power, it's far behind! ”

"Father! My three battalions of Dongfan soldiers are willing to serve as the pickers for the capture of Xiamen! ”

Many of the generals of the Second Army of the Southern Guangdong Army, including a son and a daughter of Shouhan, asked for help. It is necessary to quickly pacify the Fujian Navy Division and unify the sea surface of the three provinces.

The Zheng family's proposal of such unreasonable conditions not only made it difficult for the Nanyue army to accept, but even those who held a neutral attitude in Fujian and Guangdong officialdom felt that they were indeed a little uneasy about themselves, and it was really unbearable. They all turned to the Nanyue Army to support the use of force against the Fujian Naval Division, or no longer oppose the use of force to solve such an army that did not obey military orders. In this way, Shouhan has a reasonable and legitimate reason for killing Zheng Zhilong, occupying the moral high ground.

"Generals obey orders!" Wang Bao, the head of the camp office, stopped drinking, and suddenly the lobby, which was still very lively and noisy, immediately quieted down, and the generals were divided into left and right according to the second army of the navy and land. According to the formation units, they lined up and saluted, and sang in unison.

"Subordinates are waiting here!"

The generals of the Second Army of the Navy and the Land were followed by the unique grain and Taiwan officials of the Southern Guangdong Army. That is, the supply and security department, although these people cannot go to the front line to kill, but salt and ammunition to save the life and help the wounded. Comfort the wounded. Repair ships, armor, weapons, artillery, and artillery. The burden is no less than that of rushing to the front line.

"Grain, grass, ammunition, boats, provisions, medicine, how is Langzhong disbursing now?"

Shouhan did not ask about the generals of the army, the horses, the ships and artillery, but first asked these grain stations to provide food and medicine.

"My lord, the grain has mobilized enough for the army to eat the grain and meat for February. Vegetables and fruits are prepared to be distributed to various ministries for local procurement. It's spring, and there's no shortage of vegetables. We procured and processed the fried coals from all over the south and distributed them to the troops, including the lord, according to the number of ten-day servings per person. ”

The grain station official came to Shouhan from a passage that everyone flashed open, although there was a little bad pool, he didn't expect that the lord didn't ask about the two armies of the water and land, and asked about the grain platform first.

The coal fried was a popular field ration in the Ming Dynasty, with white flour and a small amount of sesame oil and sesame seeds as a thin cake, broken into a piece of chess pieces and fried, similar to fried noodles, dry cakes or naan and other pasta. However, in the Nanyue Army, because of the problem of grain varieties, wheat is relatively scarce, so it can only be processed with cornmeal mixed with white flour mixed with chicken and duck minced meat.

"According to the standard of 14 catties of hay, 2 liters of fried beans, 1 egg, 1 and a half liters of millet, and 1 tael of salt per horse per day, and the standard of 11 catties of hay, 2 liters of fried beans, and 2 liters of salt per horse for pack horses, donkey mules, etc., we have prepared horse feed that can be used by the combat horses of various departments at the junction of Fujian and Guangdong for one month."

"Another 2,000 wagons were used to supply the supplies of grain, grass, and ammunition to and from the ministries. 10,000 civilians were recruited and recruited to carry ammunition, food, and grass to and from various battlefields, and to carry the wounded. ”

"The officers and men of the land and water armies who have arrived at the front line have been given first-aid kits, and in addition to gauze, bandages, soju, white medicine and other materials, we have also distributed garlic heads for the wounded to simply disinfect their wounds."

"How many stretchers and health trucks are ready? What about coffins? ”

The word that came out of Shouhan's mouth was very cold and obscure, but without this thing, it would affect morale even more after the battle.

"We have prepared 2,000 coffins and 300,000 feet of shrouds." The grain station official also coldly spit out such a number in his mouth.

"3,000 bamboo stretchers were made, and 4,000 of the 10,000 men mentioned above were used to carry the stretchers and transport the wounded. 500 sanitary vehicles and 1,400 sanitary soldiers and langzhong were mobilized from Nanzhong, and in addition to 1,000 people who were ready to open hospitals in various ancestral halls and temples, the remaining 400 people were ready to be reinforced to the various combat units at any time. ”

The sanitary cart was built in the shape of a baggage cart and a cooking cart, but with more springs added to the bottom of the car, it was pulled by four horses or mules when walking, which was more stable and much more comfortable for the wounded soldiers.

"What is the shape of the stretcher?"

"If you go back to the lord, it is a bamboo bed type hard stretcher, with a bracket underneath, and you can put it on the ground for a short rest when you are tired of walking."

After listening to the reply of the grain and Taiwan officials, Shouhan nodded with satisfaction, the financial richness, coupled with the investment that has spared no effort over the years, has allowed the Nanyue Army to establish a relatively complete logistics supply system and medical and health system, and this set of medical and health systems has played a role in setting the sea and pioneering the way for the Nanyue Army to open up in the mountains and forests. In the early days of dealing with countless indigenous villages, it was often the merchant and Langzhong who were the first to go. This Erlang is needed by any normal clan, and no one will turn away a merchant who delivers what he needs to his doorstep, (of course.) It may kill people for money. As for Langzhong, it was even more necessary for the natives in various places where the level of medical and health conditions was extremely low, and he was revered as a figure who could communicate with the gods. Even tribes with a tradition of headhunting will pay great respect to the Han Langzhong who carries a bamboo medicine box on his back.

"There are fewer people, and I want to recruit more these days, and there will be at least 5,000 people who can carry stretchers!"

"Ordered!"

The grain officer turned around and returned to his position and stood up, and Shouhan slowly glanced at the generals at all levels of the land and water armies in front of him. "Did you hear all the words just now? Everything has been prepared for you on the grain table, and even the coffin for the funeral has been prepared, what should you do? ”

"Capture Jinxia! Annihilate the Zheng family! ”

The high-pitched voices of the generals echoed in the lobby of Quanzhou Mansion.

On March 20, the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the naval division of the Nanyue Army was commanded by Zhang Xiaohu and Li Huamei. From Quanzhou Dawan to the south. The third battle of Xiamen was conducted.

That night, a large number of ships of the fleet arrived outside the mouth of Xiamen, and under the guidance of the captain of Zhang Xiaohu's flagship "Three-Headed Tiger," Li Huamei's Aomei, six brigs and four gunboats in the fleet's fleet passed through the outer island chain that night. Sail into the South Waterway of Xiamen.

The rest of the ships. It is to drop an iron anchor outside Kinmen Island. The guns were aimed at the defenders on Kinmen Island, so that they did not dare to make the slightest rash move.

"Commander Zhang, our ships and guns are all in place. The ships are signaling that they are ready, when can they attack? ”

On the twenty-first day, on Zhang Xiaohu's flagship, in the dining room, Li Huamei saw Zhang Xiaohu as a subordinate courtesy. The family is the father and son, and the subject is the monarch and the minister. Prime Minister Cao's words have been fully implemented in the Li family's education of their children. If you stay at home and don't have any deacons and messengers, just a young master, you can naturally not have these subordinates of the Li family in your eyes, but once you are appointed to send envoys, you must have a concept of superiority and superiority for these people, that is, the eldest daughter like Li Huamei, and the eldest son like Li Huayu is no exception.

Zhang Xiaohu, whose temples were already a little sparse and gray, walked to the porthole, looked at the sun in the sky, and squinted his eyes for a while at the clouds and the pennant on the top of the sail, "Now is not the time, Commander Li, you go back to the ship, after two o'clock in the afternoon, after the sun turns, watch the signal action on my ship!" ”

After two o'clock in the afternoon, with a letter cannon on the three-headed tiger, several signal flags waved, and Li Huamei, who was already waiting on her own ship, jumped up, "Aji, but the signal to dispatch?" ”

Tianzhu beauty Aji is also dressed as a sailor, slightly different is that the head is wrapped in a long cotton cloth, this dress is not uncommon in the Southern Guangdong Army, many ethnic soldiers have the habit of wrapping their heads with cloth.

"Exactly! Lord Zhang's order said that the ships should enter the attack position! ”

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the ships of the naval division of the Nanyue Army lifted anchor and pulled their sails, sailed to the designated attack position according to their plan, and began to attack Xiamen Island.

"It's finally here!"

On the Sunshine Rock, looking at the golden three-headed tiger logo on the two giant ships led by him, and the Aoxue Plum Blossom Flag on the mast, Zheng Zhilong put down the telescope in his hand and let out a long breath. He knew these two signs, one was the general of the navy under Li Shouhan, and the other was his baby daughter, and these two people went out together, undoubtedly the general attack on Xiamen began.

"Order the artillery of the batteries everywhere, if the enemy ship has not entered the effective killing range, it shall not open fire, and those who fire the artillery without authorization shall be subject to military law!"

With Zheng Zhilong's order, the defenders on the south shore of Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island, and Yuziwei on the south shore of Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island, and Yuziwei in the direction of the attack of the ships of the Nanyue Army's naval division began to prepare for the launch of the artillery.

These cannons, all of which were purchased over the years by taking advantage of the continuous trade between the two sides during the honeymoon with the Nanyue Army, are all made of nine-turn steel and have gun carriages, and on the basis of the Hongyi cannon, the elevation angle is no longer adjusted with different thickness wooden sleepers, but is transformed, and the angle is adjusted by using spiral iron handles. Although he did not learn artillery shooting techniques such as dense positions from the Nanyue Army, even those illiterate gunners saw a close relationship between the muzzle angle and the firing distance.

These cannons are all guns weighing more than 20 catties, if they are cast with copper and iron, I am afraid that they will weigh seven or eight thousand catties or even tens of thousands of catties of heavy artillery, because they are made of nine-turn steel, only about three or four thousand catties, Rao is so, because it is too heavy, the angle of fire of the artillery is difficult to adjust, the firing boundary is narrow, and it is very difficult for the gun body to move and rotate.

For this reason, Zheng Zhilong's army also has a corresponding method. They inlaid heavy iron bars on the burnt ash ground, and the iron bars were in a semicircle at the tail of the gun, and the four small iron wheels mounted on the gun carriage happened to fall on the iron bars, and people only had to push the gun carriage, and with the screeching sound of the iron wheels on the iron bars, the guns could quickly move left and right to expand the firing range.

"This method doesn't cost much, but one cannon can be worth several cannons!"

This is the evaluation made by the Zheng Zhilong brothers when they inspected the various forts.

These cannons in the Zheng family's army were responsible for one cannon per ten people. Every 20 guns is a basic salvo unit, with one observer. Equip the gunscope. Most of these forts on Gulangyu Island have more than 40 large-caliber guns. There is a thousand officers commanding here. In addition to gunners, guardsmen, grooms, coolies and other types of personnel, a fort has at least nearly a thousand people.

"Fire!"

From the mirror of the artillery team, I saw that the two warships led by them had already entered the range of their own guns, and this shout sounded almost simultaneously from the batteries on Gulangyu Island, the south shore of Xiamen Island, and Yuziwei, and flashed with the command flag. The white smoke on the fort flashed back with the firelight. It quickly condensed into puffs of smoke over the battery.

Zheng Zhilong started at sea. Knowing well the truth of the all-round artillery power of naval warfare, he has paid close attention to the artillery firing training of the troops, except for the purchase of gunpowder and artillery shells from Nanzhong at no expense for the troops to conduct firing training. They also searched everywhere for artillery personnel and technical materials. Xu Guangqi and others compiled in the early years of Chongzhen, the book "Measurement Law" on artillery ranging, and the "Fire Attack Essentials" for measuring the elevation angle of the gun barrel, which have long been collected. Even He Rubin's "Western Fire Attack Artifact" and Sun Yuanhua's "Western Law Divine Machine" have also been collected.

The above-mentioned square (moment) and round (gun) have been actually studied, and the range and ammunition consumption of different elevation angles are also recorded in special books. Gunners and gunners, you must know it by heart. The non-commissioned officers of the artillery corps regularly organize shooting and assessment of their skills, and those who pass will be rewarded, those who are excellent will be promoted, and those who fail will be rewarded with leather whips and military sticks.

One hand is silver, and the other hand is a stick and leather whip, so although the observation and aiming shooting technology of artillery is regarded as a secret skill of the military state, it is treated as a secret skill of the tree. However, since Zheng Zhilong was able to buy artillery from Nanzhong, coupled with a large number of live-ammunition exercises, he used countless amounts of money to accumulate experience, and constantly corrected mistakes. What's more, at this time, you are on the battery, and you don't need to think about your own movement, just pour the shells into the sea.

Zheng Jun's cannonballs immediately splashed huge columns of water in front of and behind the Three-Headed Tiger and Aomei, several of which were extremely close to the side of the ship, providing free shower service for the sailors on board.

"It was a pretty good fight!"

Standing under the main mast, Zhang Xiaohu carefully observed the fire and smoke on the fort with a telescope, carefully counted each gun emplacement, and guessed the type, caliber and quantity of these guns through the position of the gun emplacements and the impact points around the left and right of his ship.

Judging from his expression, he did not take Zheng Jun's three-sided artillery fire in his eyes at all.

"Fire! Fight back! ”

"Master Tiger! Do you want those mortars and Cron gunboats behind to come forward and attack? Their guns are more ruthless?! The gun officer on the Three-Headed Tiger reminded Zhang Xiaohu to make full use of his technical advantages.

"Bastard! Here I want to call the official position of this official! Zhang Xiaohu blurted out the gun officer who blurted out the honorific title in his spare time in a hurry, "Hit the signal!" Tune the six brigs and four gunboats in the back to come up, and let Lao Tzu kill the artillery on the Gulangyu Fort first! Open an opening for the team of the big young marshal behind! ”

Ten gunboats quickly marched in on the passage of the Three-headed Tiger and Aomei, braving the continuous pouring of artillery fire from Zheng Jiajun, including the south coast of Xiamen Island, and returned fire while drumming sails straight towards Gulangyu Island.

The gunners on the fort stripped off their coats under the shouts of the leather whips in the hands of the officers, revealing a body of muscles and bones, and pushed the gun carriage vigorously to adjust the direction of the gun, and to the two-masted clippers who were constantly making serpentine maneuvers and avoiding artillery fire all the way to the Gulangyu Fort.

"Fire!"

The ground trembled in several places, white smoke mixed with firelight, and a deafening sound of cannons rang out, and twenty cannons ranging from eighteen to twenty-four pounds roared one after another, firing scorching shells at these ships that were speeding on the sea not far away, and the thick white smoke and thick smoke and dust instantly covered the thick figures of each artillery.

Dozens of shells of more than 10 catties have drawn a series of ballistic trajectories visible to the naked eye in the air, and the traces of air produced after being heated have left a permanent memory on people's retina. The shells beckoned each other and roared towards the warships of the Nanyue Army at sea!

Zheng Zhiguan, who was the commander of the Gulangyu Fort, held a telescope and carefully traced the trajectory of these shells flying in the air.

The artillery on the Gulangyu Fort has long been well aware of the reefs and reefs on the nearby sea, and has made artillery yuan measurements according to these geographical indications, and the distance between the naval divisions of the Nanyue Army is within three miles, Zheng Zhiguan ordered the cannon, which is the most powerful killing range of these cannons.

The effect of the first round of artillery fire was quite noticeable.

After the huge roar, one after another iron bullets whistled away, and after the smoke, in Zheng Zhiguan's telescope, it was clearly seen that several cannonballs fell on the moving brig, smashing off pieces of ship's planks, and the smoke and dust were mixed with flesh and wood chips. (To be continued......)