Chapter 32 Sinking the British Ships Approaching the Dajinsha River

Mu Yi, Wu Sangui, and Zheng Zhilong were on the Hongze Lake, looking at the distant dock and were all excited.

Wu Sangui said: "Oops! I prefer Mr. Chen, who is too temperamental to me! ”

Zheng Zhilong also said: "That is, Chen can always send back such a telegram!" Hehe! This is a soldier! ”

It turned out that Mu Yi and the others reported to the family what the Tokugawa family had sent an envoy, but Chen Yufeng sent back a telegram saying: "Since they said so, you should know what to do!" ”

Wu Sangui and Zheng Zhilong were simply not happy when they read this telegram, and Mu Yi was happy even though he was still in control. What they fear most is something like "pay attention to minimize unnecessary casualties". Sometimes, in order to reduce the casualties of innocent people, you have to increase the casualties of your own team.

Chen Yufeng's telegram made Wu Sangui can't stop saying a few words whenever he thinks about it.

Just as Mu Yi set sail with a large army to attack the island of Honshu, the warships of the Yaogang Navy that had arrived in the Western Ocean (Indian Ocean) sent back a telegram that they had encountered British warships near the mouth of the Dajinsha River (Irrawaddy River).

Zhang Zhimu heard the call from Ouyang He, thought for a while, and said: "Tell the navy that no matter whose boat it is, drive it away immediately, and sink them if you don't obey." It is clear that the British have intervened in Burma, and perhaps this time the Burmese attack to the north is due to the support of the British. Our Ming Dynasty and Burma have been fighting for nearly a hundred years, and the Burmese have taken advantage of a lot. No matter who interferes, we will take all of Myanmar back. ”

Ouyang He put down Zhang Zhimu's phone and said to Chen Yufeng: "What Mr. Zhang means is that no matter who it is, drive them away immediately, and sink them if they don't obey." It seems that the British have intervened in Burma. ”

"It's not surprising that the Xiyi people have already extended their hands to the South Seas, and they have no reason to let Myanmar go." Chen Yufeng looked at the map and said, "I will also inform Qin Peng to pay attention to these movements immediately." ”

Qin Peng telegraphed back: "We have also found that the firearms used by the Burmese army are much stronger than before, and it is likely that the British supported the Burmese king." We will be aware of these developments. Now we are advancing south from the east and west directions, in two ways, and have occupied Mengdingfu, Menggenfu, Jingmai, Mengyang, Manmo, Mubang, Jiangtoucheng, and Moli. The process is being controlled, waiting for the navy to march south along the Dajinsha River from the south. The Burmese army has no way to fight us, and the people of all ethnic groups in northern Myanmar are very supportive of us. When we marched south, it was the people of all ethnic groups who led the way. ”

The British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company both wanted to get the most out of the East, so they were also fighting each other, but the Westerners had an advantage, they found that if this continued, no one would be able to take advantage of it, and they would soon reach a tacit understanding. The Dutch sphere of influence was basically in the Indonesian archipelago, while the British were in Indochina. Of course, the British quickly gained a foothold in India. At this time, the Mughal Empire of India had both a highly developed civilization and a strong military strength, so the British could not occupy a vast area inland for a while, and could only seize points on the east and west coasts of India to carry out sea robbery and predatory trade. The Mughal Empire allowed these "East India Companies" to exist because Western European merchants had silver and gold plundered from the Americas, and they could buy large quantities of India's fine cotton and silk fabrics, which contributed to the further expansion of India's export production. The growth of export commodities has also boosted the production of agricultural products. But how can the British satisfy India alone, and the Burma in front of them has long been their target. However, the British still adopted the method of slow penetration, and they were not in a hurry to attack Burma first, and opened the first envoy to carry out mutually beneficial trade, so that the Burmese king was of course happy. When the British came into contact with the Burmese further, they found that the Burmese king was not satisfied with the existing territory, and had coveted the territory to the north for a long time, but now the army was insufficient. So the British merchant did what he liked and provided him with the best artillery and muskets. At this moment, the king of Burma looked at the British differently. The king of Burma, whose military force had been greatly improved, did not know that the Ming Dynasty had undergone earth-shaking changes, and actually began to attack to the north. Soon they felt their feet on the stones. At the beginning, the surprise attack was a little cheap, and it was quickly lost, and at the same time, it also lost its troops. Fortunately, the Daimyo's army did not attack them immediately. The king of Burma thought that the army of the Ming Dynasty was still the same as before, and those officials did not ask to go in, for fear of taking responsibility, and tried not to find trouble if there was nothing to do. They all want to survive their tenure and leave.

But after the Spring Festival, the king of Burma could get news of the loss of the city almost every day. This made the king of Burma almost nightmares, because the army he sent out was no match for others at all, and there was almost no ability to resist. There was no way for the king of Burma, and he asked the British for help.

The British were of course happy when they heard this, and they waited for this day, and the British told the Burmese king that they could send warships to the Great Jinsha River (Irrawaddy River) to assist the Burmese army in the battle, and with the cannons on the invincible ships of the British, they would definitely be able to defeat the Ming army.

Of course, the Burmese king was happy, he did not know that it was easy to invite the gods and it was difficult to send the gods, and the purpose of the British was that the warships were not ready to leave.

However, the British were also unlucky, and at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River, they encountered the boats of the Yaogang people.

This time, a total of eight British warships came, and they all felt very strange when they saw the Yaogang warships. Although they have heard that the kiln gang people of the Ming Dynasty will use steam to drive the ship, and they can also make the boat sail against the wind. But in that case, they listen to it as a joke. Today, when they met a ship with black smoke and a cargo ship the size of an elephant sitting on a mountain, they all stared at their own ships and watched.

However, the commander-in-chief of the British team, Captain Hart, was more thoughtful, and he wondered in his heart why the warships of the Ming Dynasty suddenly sailed here, and they could not have known that their warships were here to fight with the King of Burma. For a moment, he didn't know whether he should have ordered the cannonade to sink the cargo ship and a kiln warship. He didn't know that these warships were not in the eyes of the Yaogang people at all.

Before they could decide what to do, a signal was put out on the kiln boat asking them to leave. The British laughed and ignored the kiln workers, and they drove the boat like the Great Jinsha River (Irrawaddy River). The Kiln Gang men immediately aimed the cannons on the ships at the British ships. At this moment, the British stopped doing it and immediately pushed out the cannons.

The captain of the Yaogang warship saw that it was too close to the British ship and had reached the range of the British warship, and the captains of the Guangzhou and Taihu also knew that the Yaogang side agreed to fire at the British ship, so he decided to fire the enemy first, so that the opponent could not have a chance to open fire. Because the distance was too close, the anti-aircraft guns in Yaogang were like firing at the head of the British, and in order to save money, the 203-mm cannons on the Canton did not fire, but only used six 130-caliber cannons on the fore and aft decks to fire. At the same time, the 12.7mm revolverning heavy machine guns on the Taihu and Canton also rained bullets at the British warships. The artillery hits a little farther, and the machine gun hits closer.

The British are thinking, we are domineering enough, and we don't have anything to say and open fire when we meet. Such a fierce and powerful cannon is even more powerful than the legend. The ships that were hit by the cannons were immediately blown into a pile of floating debris floating on the sea, and the ships that were funnel by heavy machine guns were even worse, and the ships were full of wailing sailors with broken arms and short legs, and they could not plug the loopholes at all when they saw the sea water overflowing the deck.

These heroic and invincible Britons were sunk without firing a few shots. After scooping up 200 British sailors according to custom, the Yaogang people went against the current in the direction of the mouth of the Dajinsha River, stopped the boats, and lowered many speedboats and tugboats with cranes. The speedboat quickly went upriver along the Dajinsha River (Irrawaddy River) and reconnoitred around. They found several batteries on both sides of the river. A little further upstream there is a slightly larger pier.

The Yaogang Guangzhou warship hit the front and encountered the forts, 203 mm cannons, and directly launched their might, and when the Burmese on those forts did not know what was going on, they fired at close range and destroyed the forts. Finally approaching the pier, the marines jumped onto the pier and quickly occupied the perimeter of the pier to establish a defensive line.

Some craftsmen also boarded the wharf, where they were looking for a suitable place to build a barge. Because the Taihu brought three tugboats, but there were no barges, they had to build barges out of Burmese wood.

The captain of the Canton at the mountaineering pier ordered the naval corps to send two detachments to search along the riverbank, preferably to find a shipyard, so that it would be easier to build barges. It stands to reason that this place is close to the mouth of the sea, and there should be a shipyard near a large pier. However, the outcome will not be known until the soldiers come back from reconnaissance.

After Qin Peng and his team got in touch with the Yaogang warship that had entered the Dajinsha River (Irrawaddy River) through the radio, they changed the speed of the slow attack and launched a strong attack to the south as agreed, which caused the Burmese army to be defeated for a while. The Guangzhou warship also tried to move upstream, because the underwater situation was unknown, so it could only rely on underwater acoustic detectors to detect and move forward. The 20,000-ton Taihu did not dare to go upstream, so they stayed near the wharf and anchored, and the sappers who went ashore immediately went to cut wood to build a floating wharf that the Taihu could unload. On the contrary, six speedboats patrolled freely back and forth on the river, and when they encountered a valuable target, the seven-millimeter heavy machine gun on the speedboat would unceremoniously rain bullets over. For a time, the Burmese army on both sides of the lower reaches of the Greater Jinsha River (Irrawaddy River) was in a panic.

When the king of Burma heard the news that the ships of the British East India Company had been sunk by the Ming army at sea, he was so shocked that he didn't speak for a long time. He knew that the warships of the British East India Company were very powerful, and he didn't hear that the navy of the army was even more powerful! Now that the Ming army is fighting from the sea along the Dajinsha River, and the Ming army is pressing over from the north, it seems that the situation is very bad. The Burmese king remembered that he still used the trick of surrender to deal with the Ming army. He knew that the Ming army officials did not want to fight, especially Burma, which was a very distant place for their emperor, and it was also a barbaric place, and they would not be interested in spending a lot of manpower and material resources to occupy this place, but they had to show surrender and obedience to them, so they felt that it was very face-saving, and they would soon evacuate. However, the road from the sea occupied a wharf near the mouth of the Irrawaddy River, and the threat to itself was too great to be cleared at any cost. Therefore, the king of Burma made two decisions, sending an official to the north to meet with the Ming officials in the north, expressing to them that he would surrender and surrender, and telling the envoy that he would agree to any conditions, as long as the Ming army did not attack again. Another decision was to mobilize men and horses to drive out the Ming army that occupied the docks. The Ming army must not be allowed to take root on the riverbank wharf. In that case, the threat is too great.

This time, the two ships from Yaogang brought more than 500 marines and engineers, and they somewhat underestimated the strength of the Burmese people.

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New progress in "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty": the Battle of Yashan, the defeat of the Yuan army, the counterattack of the Song army, and the landing in Fuzhou.