Chapter 47 Fan Chengkun led the team to set off and met Zheng Zhibao at sea

Within two days of the start of the war, Zheng Zhilong mobilized a large number of troops to the Minjiang defense line, and he believed that Li Zicheng had nothing to do if he held the Minjiang defense line in the north. Because Fujian is full of high mountains, the west is the continuous Wuyi Mountains, the middle is Daiyun Mountain, and further east is the sea where Zheng Jiajun can dominate.

After two days of fierce fighting, Zheng Jiajun found that the resting Dashun army was not as afraid of death as before in addition to the more fierce artillery. This made the front-line generals of the Zheng Jiajun, who had been somewhat relieved, also think, Li Zicheng's Dashun Army should be revenge after repair, why is it now defeated as long as it makes contact, is there any conspiracy? Because they have the impression that the Dashun army is not afraid of death, and all the battles in the past were fought to the death, but now it suddenly seems that it is not the original Dashun army at all.

However, this kind of news, the former enemy generals of the Zheng family army will not report it to Zheng Zhilong, because only the more difficult the former enemy shouts, the more powerful the attacking Dashun army, the more rewards and support they can get.

Three days after the start of the battle, Fan Chengkun and his fleet also took advantage of the night Yang Fan to set off. Fan Chengkun's fleet consisted of five steel-hulled warships, six steam-powered ships, two 5,000-ton steam-wood sailing ships, and four 1,000-ton steam-wood sailing ships. The flotilla brought a division of Shixiu's Second Army plus more than 10,000 reinforced artillery, and more than 5,000 people from Fan Chengkun's Marine Corps. Coupled with the fact that a lot of but important material was carried, the entire fleet was somewhat overloaded. Due to the large number of people on board, there was no guarantee that they would all eat normal meals during the voyage, and each infantry soldier who boarded the ship was given canned food, biscuits, pickles, and other food. Originally, Fan Chengkun wanted to rent some wooden sailing boats to help transport soldiers, but the wind direction at sea was not right, which was not conducive to transporting troops to the south, so Fan Chengkun organized a lot of tugboats to transport another division from Zhenjiang along the canal to Hangzhou Bay. Fan Chengkun wanted to send the infantry with the fleet ashore before sending a boat to Hangzhou Bay to pick up the soldiers of this division.

There are two 5,000-ton ships in Fan Chengkun's fleet, the new ship is called Gaoyouhu, and the first ship is called Hongzehu.

Fan Chengkun's headquarters is on the Hongzehu.

The ship went out of the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the 5,000-ton ship was like a flat boat, shaking very much. Lin Zongwei said to Fan Chengkun embarrassedly: "Alas! I stayed in the kiln for a long time and didn't get on the boat, so I was a little seasick with such a little wind and waves! ”

"This season we sail south is basically a headwind, and it's good to come back. Our sailboats can be powered by the wind. "Fan Chengkun has now adapted to life on the ship, which is often exercised on the ship.

"It doesn't matter, as long as it's a little bit windy, the sailboat can borrow power." Lin Zongwei said, "If you can't borrow strength, you are not afraid, our steam power, there is no problem to withstand such wind." Now it seems that the power of our original modified ship is a little worse, but if they can borrow a little wind, fortunately they have sails. ”

"I'm not worried about anything else, what I'm worried about is whether our infantry can go ashore to fight when they get to the place after two days at sea like this?" Fan Chengkun said with some worry.

"I think they've been training with a waveboard, so they should be able to get used to it, right?" Lin Zongwei is also very worried about this.

At this time, Mu Yi, who had entered the command cabin from the outside, happened to come in and heard what they said, and said with a smile: "Hehe! You don't have to worry too much. Our Marine Corps guarantees that nothing is a big deal. I dare say the infantry, as long as the guns are fired, one by one they can forget about seasickness. ”

"I hope we don't run into Zheng Zhilong's ship before we get to Quanzhou, I don't want to start a war in advance." Fan Chengkun said.

"It's okay, there is no telegram on Zheng Zhilong's ship, and the delivery of the letter from our ship is not as fast as our south. They don't mess with us, we don't pay attention to them. Their so-called clippers are slower snails than us. Hehe! Mu Yi said with confidence.

"Fight, we are not afraid of them, but what we want is to maximize the benefits after the fight. The sneak attack on Quanzhou is our first step, which is to ensure that our Quanzhou branch will not be lost, and all the warships of the Zheng family army in Quanzhou port will be taken. Fan Chengkun said, "The second step is to blockade Anping Town (Anhai) without Zheng Zhilong getting the news, and block the retreat of Zheng Jiajun's army at sea." In this case, Zheng Jiajun will be in chaos without a fight. ”

"I don't think it's a big problem," Mu Yi said, "Whether Zheng Jiajun can be completely and cleanly solved depends on how Li Jing and the others are." We have no problem blocking Quanzhou and Anping Town, but with such a long coastline in Fujian and most of the people in Fujian supporting the Zheng family's army, it is easy for them to escape from any place to the sea. It depends on whether General Li Jing's people can keep an eye on them. ”

Lin Zongwei was a little seasick, he didn't eat anything in a daze, and he didn't know how long it was, someone came to Lin Zongwei's cabin and shouted: "Mr. Lin, Commander Fan is invited!" ”

Although Lin Zongwei was confused, he knew that Fan Chengkun would not invite him if there was no matter, and Fan Chengkun knew that he was seasick.

Lin Zongwei, who was weak, came to the cab with high spirits and saw Fan Chengkun, Mu Yi and others looking at the charts and studying something.

As soon as Lin Zongwei came in, Fan Chengkun was not polite, he was concerned about how he was seasick, and said directly: "Mr. Lin, you came just in time." The Qinzhou and Fenzhou ships in front of us both sent telegrams, and they found that there were more than a dozen warships in front, and some of them were larger in tonnage than ours. ”

"Zheng Zhilong has several large boats, which are more than 30 zhang long. The ship is equipped with more than 3,000 pounds of cannons, and more than 100 large and small cannons. Mu Yi said that apparently he knew a lot about the situation of Zheng Zhilong's army.

"I heard that Zheng Zhilong has three such warships, which are said to be larger than my ** Fu ship, which is naturally bigger than our ship, and our ship is built according to the ** Fu ship, which is only more than 20 zhang long. But I have never seen Zheng Zhilong's big boat. Lin Zongwei said.

"Mr. Lin is right!" Mu Yi said, "Although our Ming naval army and the Hongmaofan (Dutch) fought for the Penghu Islands in the 'Penghu Water Battle' won a tragic victory, the twelve Dutch warships destroyed more than 70 Ming warships. In the end, he left safely under the siege of tens of thousands of sailors in the Ming Dynasty. Shows that our warships are already lagging behind. Zheng Zhilong learned the shipbuilding technology of Hongfan (Netherlands) and combined our own strengths to build such a big ship. Such ships are not able to be fought by ordinary warships at sea. But we met two ships today, and it was a pity to sink them, and if we didn't sink them, they saw our fleet, and we were exposed, and we didn't dare to guarantee that they wouldn't open fire when they found out that we had such a large fleet. ”

"This is the matter of inviting Mr. Lin to discuss." "We could see them from afar through the telescope from the mast, but now they can't see us." But we don't have much time left to make a decision. ”

"Where are we now?" Lin Zongwei asked.

"On the sea east of Fuzhou, that is, outside the port of Mawei." Mu Yi replied.

"Hmmm! It must have been Zheng Zhilong's fear that we would attack Fuzhou from the sea, so he sent his own housekeepers. Lin Zongwei analyzed.

"Just now I was discussing this matter with Mu Yi, we wanted to fight over, our wooden boat came back, let our five steel-hulled boats come up, and suddenly attack and sink them. Then ignore them and continue to accelerate towards Quanzhou. In this way, someone sent a letter to Zheng Zhilong, and we were not as fast! Fan Chengkun explained to Lin Zongwei.

"Although it is a pity that these ships were sunk, our ships are full of soldiers, and if they hit a shot, the loss would be too great. Hit it! Lin Zongwei also agreed with Fan Chengkun's opinion.

Mu Yi gestured on the chart and said: "We are now moving forward against the wind, and they can't run if they want to." Sink them, we try not to leave them alive! ”

"Huh! The last time we drove the fortune boat to Quanzhou, there were several Zheng Zhilong's boats to greet us, and this time he asked us to move our hands and feet before going ashore. Interesting! Lin Zongwei said with a smile, forgetting about seasickness.

At this time, it was reported that it had been determined that there were eleven Zheng Zhilong's warships in front.

Fan Chengkun said to Mu Yi: "How to do the work, you have the final say!" ”

Mu Yi smiled and said, "Hehe! I've been waiting a few years, and it's time to get some hands dirty. Fighting at sea is different from fighting on inland rivers, and the mood is different. It's a pity that it's not the Hongmaofan boat that came. ”

After speaking, Mu Yi picked up the radio microphone and said into the microphone: "Attention all ships, attention to all ships, battle alarm!" Battle Alert! Listen to me, Xiurong! Fenzhou! Qinzhou! Liaozhou! Zezhou! Five ships in front, others in the back, and the ships behind do not overtake our command ships. There were eleven enemy ships in front, and we ordered the five warships that came out to meet the enemy in a horizontal formation, taking advantage of our superior artillery fire and long-range fire, and sinking all the enemy ships. Do not accept the surrender of the enemy! ”

Hearing Mu Yi's order, all the warships sounded the battle alarm, and the three steel-hulled warships that followed the flotilla accelerated to catch up, and after catching up with the two warships in front, they formed a horizontal line and drove forward. At this time, the lookouts above Zheng Zhilong's fleet also saw the black smoke coming out of the Yaogang fleet on the sea in the distance.

The fleet sent by Zheng Zhilong had just arrived here, and because it was a tailwind, the fleet was moving at high speed. Their purpose was Mawei Port, and they came to support the sailors of Mawei Port. Because the last time Li Zicheng's army attacked Fuzhou, it was won with the support of the artillery fire of the warships on the sea. Zheng Zhilong judged that if the people of Yaogang really supported Li Zicheng, they would send their steam ships to support Fuzhou. Even so, Zheng Zhilong didn't expect that the people of Yaogang would come to his empire. This time, he sent a fleet of eleven warships, mainly two large ships. At sea, this is an almost invincible fleet. And this time, Zheng Zhilong sent his younger brother Zheng Zhibao to personally lead the team.

Before leaving, Zheng Zhibao was still very dissatisfied and said: "Is it enough to use me to go to sea in person for such a little?" ”

Zheng Zhilong said: "Fourth brother! No way, it's for the sake of safety. I'm worried that Li Zicheng has not moved Fuzhou, but Chen Bing has not moved, and he must be waiting for foreign aid. We don't wait for the kiln gang people to come back to support Li Zicheng. Now that the people of Yaogang have known that we have hired Qiankun Men to kill them, they will not be without a reaction! ”

"The Yaogang people have set up a big stall in our shop in Quanzhou. We might as well not do it, and collect all the ticket numbers of their shops first! Zheng Zhibao said hatefully.

"No, no, if we don't turn our faces with the kiln people, it's better not to turn our faces with the kiln people!" Zheng Zhilong said, "We are not afraid of them at sea, but we have no way to deal with them on land anyway, Li Zicheng, who was bloodied with us, saw that the Yaogang people had to escape, and we were not opponents!" ”

Zheng Zhilong has a total of three younger brothers, Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Zhifeng (Zheng Hongkui), and Zheng Zhibao. Zheng Zhihu died in battle while exterminating the pirate Liu Xiang, and now he has two younger brothers left. Zheng Zhibao is the fourth of the four brothers, and he is also Zheng Zhilong's favorite brother and the most trusted brother. Zheng Zhibao has been active at sea all the year round, and he is very concerned about the sea situation, if Zheng Zhilong did not think that it was very important to go to Fuzhou to support this time, he would not have sent his brother there.

Although Zheng Zhibao felt that his brother was making a big fuss, he still didn't dare to delay, and Yang Fan went to sea to rectify the fleet. Fortunately, it was a strong southerly wind, and when they sailed out of Quanzhou Port, they hung their sails and moved at full speed. On the big boat, Zheng Zhibao looked at the sea and sky in the distance, thinking that such a big ship didn't need to fight, and the ordinary warships were scared away. If you are not convinced, there are more than 3,000 catties of cannons on board. There are more than 20 cannons of more than 1,000 catties, and which one of them is impatient and dares to provoke us. I'm really looking forward to the kiln people.

What Zheng Zhibao didn't expect was that perhaps God met Zheng Zhibao's expectations, and his fleet happened to meet the Yaogang people off the coast of Fuzhou.

The fate of this Zheng Zhibao was thus decided.

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Mt. Fuji erupted, Japan was earthquaked. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".