"The Fucha Yangtze River is more than 600 miles away from the sea, and there are shoals and sand knots in every section, and its deep flood is only one line, with twists and turns."

————

In the first month of the first year of Hongguang, the mouth of the Yangtze River, the confluence of Baishuiyang and the river. Undersecretary of the Operations Department of the Naval Command Department Harris. Acton stands in the stern. Pulling open the binoculars, Chongming Sha was in sight.

On the flagpole at the top of Melville's mast, the Star Bird flag, the Navy Winch Flag, and the Orca Heraldic Flag of Order were pulled southeast by the sea breeze. The wind speed is 16 knots, the sea surface wave is 1.1 meters high, and the tip of the wave is foaming white.

Looking at the fleet, the galleys had already complied with the order to turn their bows into the waves, with a draft of more than 1 meter, struggling in the wind and waves.

This is only slightly greater than the average wind speed and wave height in the spring at the Yangtze River Estuary.

Harris: "Your Excellency, why did you order the ship to be stopped in the wind?" The brothers on the ship of Gallier should be upset by now. ”

The Melville had good grounding performance against the wind, and the flagship was not much at risk in such strong winds and waves. The Galleria ship was in some trouble.

Shou ordered to turn the telescope, scanned the main channel of the Yangtze River back and forth, and only said two words, "Wait for the tide." ”

It is very difficult to enter the mouth of the Yangtze River, and for naval warships, entering the Yangtze River is one of the biggest challenges, and it is necessary to be cautious in keeping order.

From Zhenjiang Jingkou below, it is 50,000 square kilometers of Yangtze River Delta Plain. Due to the influence of geostrophic deflection force, starting from Zhenjiang, the Yangtze River rotates to the right, and then rapidly expands to the southeast, reaching a width of 90 kilometers between Subeizui at the north end of the Yangtze River estuary and Nanhuizui at the south end.

The entire Yangtze River estuary section is trumpet-shaped, with a total length of 200 kilometers. The river flow is mighty, but the riverbed ratio is very small, the estuary is broad, the flow rate is gentle, affected by the sea tide topping, the Yangtze River carries a large amount of sediment from the upstream to form a sandbar and a river dam near the estuary, and forms a sand spit on both banks.

The combined influence of wave erosion and geostrophic deflection force caused by the cold wave northerly wind caused the southern channel of the estuary to be deepened and widened, and showed a development trend. The Beiqi Road is becoming more and more shallow, narrow, and showing a downward trend. When the Nanqi Road became the main channel of runoff of the Yangtze River, new sandbars and sand bars developed, prompting the river to divide again and continue to shift to the southeast. With the development and evolution of the estuarine channel, the estuarine delta continues to extend to the sea.

The last years of the Ming Dynasty were the stage of rapid development of sandbanks such as Chongming Island, which continued to rise from the river, and under the washing of the big waves brought by the north wind, they continued to collapse and change at any time. In a fierce island-building campaign around 1644, Chongming became a large island, and Changxing Island also rose from the water in the same year.

Shou Xuan carefully observed the channel with a telescope, and in the main channel of the Yangtze River near the south of Chongming Island, there are three sandbanks, Moren Sha, Po Po Sha, and Sanjiao Sha, which must be avoided.

The first sentence of the Haidao Sutra's description of the Yangtze River is, "Those who live on the Yangtze River are also troubled by shipping." "Even the local sailors and maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty were not easy to pass through this section of the river. It is necessary to wait for the suitable flood season before the ocean can be opened, and near the mouth of the river, the water must be poked carefully, and when the wind is moderate, the sail must be lowered into the harbor for a while. If when the river arrives and the wind is expected to breathe, but the wind becomes stronger, it depends on whether the lives of the people on the ship are hard or not. A gust of wind and waves blew the anchor cable, just waiting to be slapped ashore.

For this voyage into the Yangtze River, the fleet was fully prepared with iron anchors. Even Jin Shiying's sand boat didn't bring stone and wooden rafts, all of them were four-clawed iron anchors, at least in terms of anchors, he hollowed out his old book.

The ports on both sides of the Yangtze River are not good to be alike, in the spring and summer, they are moored in the harbor, only to anchor that is to die, the conflict between mountains and rivers and waste floods, the ship can be photographed to the shore in the port, and it is necessary to use a strong rope to drive a deep pile.

Shou Xian put down the binoculars, pointed to the Chinese navigation sailor beside the helmsman, and said to Harris: "Don't look at the blue waves in front of you, but even the old helmsman who has been running here all his life doesn't know where there will be dark sand. He only knew that the dark sand was connected to Chongming Island. ”

In fact, the underwater delta of the Yangtze River covers an area of thousands of square kilometers, and only the gods can figure out where the dark sand is in this era.

Harris thought for a moment and said, "Your Excellency, do you mean that these sandbanks in front of you are like icebergs, and only a tip of the water is exposed?" ”

Order's face was solemn, "Almost, even the sandbar is moving at any time, although the amplitude is small. ”

The wind and waves are in a tolerable range for the time being, but in order to avoid running aground in the large waves of the estuary, it is necessary to wait for the tide.

The tidal situation is still relatively easy to observe, China has had a monograph on tides since the Three Kingdoms, and the observation of sea tides in the Tang Dynasty has a mature system.

The tide of the Yangtze River Estuary is a semi-daily weekly tide with a wide range of influence. In the flood season, the tidal current can reach Jiangyin, and the following Jiangyin is the tidal river section. In the dry season, the tide can reach the vicinity of Zhenjiang. Above Jiangyin is the tidal river section, which affects Datong in the flood season and can reach Anqing in the dry season. The tidal range of the estuary gradually increases from top to bottom, with the average tidal range of Nanjing being 0.66 meters, Jiangyin being 1.63 meters, and Wusongkou reaching more than 3.0 meters.

At noon, the navigator signaled that it was OK.

Orderly, the signal officer immediately followed the flagship's turn signal flag on the mast lift. Today the ships sent a single senior helmsman to take the helm himself, and the hull was slowly straightened, and the sailors ran over the deck in a column carrying the mulsers, driving the booms, and eating the wind on the starboard side. The battleship leaned to the port side. According to the sea road, drive on the west (south) bank, and the Yangtze River is still deeper in the south channel at this time.

The operation of sailing out of the Yangtze River is the opposite of entering, because the big waves at the mouth of the river have to wait in the river for the low tide to open the ocean. There is a certain law in the change of tides, the time of low tide should be appropriate, at least during the day, the wind and waves can not be big, and it is not suitable for a few days to go out of the river and release the ocean. You also have to avoid typhoons and cold waves throughout the year, and there is really not much time window for insurance.

The fleet sailed to the vicinity of the Waigao Bridge, and the wave height quickly decreased, only 0.3 meters. This is because the mouth of the Yangtze River narrows, and the river withstands the waves.

Shou ordered to breathe a sigh of relief, and the first hurdle was passed safely. From the Waigaoqiao, it entered the navigation area where the Galie ship had an advantage. The sky is getting dark, and further forward from Waigaoqiao, is the defense area of Wu Zhikui, the governor of the Ming army, and the chief soldier of the Wusong Water Division.

Shou Xuan asked Liu Jinqing, an intelligence staff officer, "Do you know the situation of this Wu Dudu?" ”

As far as Jincheng is concerned, the focus of intelligence gathering must be on the major maritime forces, and it is not clear how much they know about the situation in the Yangtze River.

"My lord, we don't know much." Liu Jinqing replied fluently, "Wu Zhikui is a native of Huating, Songjiang, and has accumulated great achievements in the battle between Nanzhili and Liukou. Originally, he was stationed in Zhenjiang, and he had just been promoted to the commander-in-chief of Wusong. Now he has more than 5,000 soldiers, 100 Sichuan long sword soldiers, and his subordinate generals Xia Huchen and Wang Ming are all known as 10,000 enemies. ”

"Ten thousand enemies, very dramatic description." Shou Xuan smiled, "Whether it's a dramatic or a real nickname, we don't want to cause trouble, and order the fleet to lean towards Chongming Island." ”

Although Wu Zhikui should not be the opponent of the Jincheng fleet, Shou Xuan did not want to have a misunderstanding with the Ming army.

Between the sands of Chongming, there are some sneaky ships, which are obviously not merchant ships or fishing boats. Shou Xiang sneered, this style, at first glance, is a peer. The fleet's vanguard battleship, the Galleon Whampoa, fired its bow cannon and fired warning shots. The Melville had no guns out, and the battle flags fluttering on the mast clearly indicated the identity of the fleet. On the Chinese sea, except for Zheng Zhilong, there have been no pirates who dare not back down in front of the three battle flags of Jincheng in recent years.

The boats quickly disappeared into the crooked channel of Chongming Zhushan.

Scattering the pirates, the Melville ran into another problem, and the tide receded.

Despite the navigator's efforts to find a suitable shipping lane, the Melville dedicated its first stranding to the Yangtze River. It is too normal to run aground in the Yangtze River, not to mention a Galen ship like the Melville, and even a small fishing boat can run aground at any time.

"Check the mouth of the Yangtze River into the sea to goose nose mouth as the first portal, the mountain is steep and dangerous, protruding in the middle of the river, the river water is straight, down the mountain, the river surface is deep and the flood is very narrow. From the mouth of the river to the mouth of Beijing, stretching for hundreds of miles, although the ocean is endless, in fact, the water is high on the beach, the sand line is knotted, or south or north, twists and turns, although the sand fishing boats on the Yangtze River are often stranded, regarded as a daunting way. ”

The Melville hoisted the longboat and measured the depth of the water with a plumb, probing that the bottom was full of fine sand.

Sailors were sent down to the hellish bottom chamber to carefully inspect the seams of the ship, and no obvious water seepage was found.

Running aground here does little harm to the hull of the ship compared to running aground on a coral reef, except that it scrapes off the protective layer on the bottom of the ship. However, fresh water can kill ship maggots, so you can ignore this problem for the time being.

With the current tide height there was no way, and the wind was acceptable, so the sailors climbed the mast to operate, stepping on the footline to put away the sails. Six iron anchors were dropped at the bow and stern to hold the hull in place. The Melville came to rest on the river.

Chongming Island is not far away, and this was originally the territory of the Chongming pirate Gu Zhong. The information of the pirates, Taipei should be more comprehensive. Gu Zhong is nicknamed Netcang Gu San, and the people in the rivers and lakes call Gu San Mazi. Gu Zhong started from Baimao Port as a part-time job for Chongming's private salt scoop Huang Shangzhong, and after Huang was killed by the official army, the troops scattered. Gu Zhong lurked in Chongming Zhusha with his brothers, cooperated with the pirates to level Wang Lu Da and Liao Er, robbed merchant ships in the Yangtze River estuary, and accumulated a lot of wealth. After Lu Da's strength grew, his brain was hot and he wanted to fight Chongming County. It didn't come down. The spoils of war were unevenly distributed, and they were slaughtered by the people.

Shou Order, listening to Liu Jinqing say this, is really related. There was a time when he was most afraid of this, whether in the East or West, it was always difficult for pirates to distribute the spoils, and if they were not careful, the brothers would kill the captain. So he only made rules at that time, regardless of the specific distribution of the spoils, and threw the pot to the ship's chief and crew assembly, which is the predecessor of today's Senate.

"After Lu Da died, what happened to this group of Chongming pirates?"

Liu Jinqing continued Gu Zhong's briefing, "After the death of King Paping, the remaining pirates elected Gu Zhong and Liao Er as leaders, but the results of the two votes were not high, so they simply separated and set up two battalions. Gu Zhong even went to Suzhou and Changzhou, and went north to Miaowan and went deep into the Huai River, where he was defeated by Shi Kefa, who was the governor of Caoyun at the time, and was recruited to serve as the commander of the official army and the navy. After Hongguang Tianzi ascended the throne, Gu Zhong was transferred to Jingkou to defend the Yangtze River.

"In other words, there is no defense force worth mentioning on Chongming Island now?"

"Yes, sir."

Shou Xuan thought for a moment and ordered, "Please ask Battalion Commander Filhoff, Commander Kim, and Chen Qianhu to board the ship." ”

……

The Melville lit two oil lamps at the stern, and in the stern commanding compartment, the guests were allowed to choose between spirits and corn liquor at will.

All four of them are holding wine glasses and standing around the map.

Shou Ling pointed to the southeast area of Chongming Island, "Everyone, I have decided to build a camp on Chongming Island. ”

Filhoff had no opinion, he did not understand China, and he was obedient to the decision to keep the order.

Jin Shiying and Chen Zhijun glanced at each other, and they didn't quite understand that Shou Xian started at sea, but no matter where he went, he wanted to build a camp fort or something.

Seeing the puzzled expressions on their faces, Shou Xuan explained, "To ensure a way out, please pay attention to this issue." ”

Jin Shiying's heart was cold again.

Chen Zhijun felt that it was nothing to build a camp at the mouth of the river, so he asked, "How many soldiers does the lord plan to keep?" ”

"You all saw just now, there are some pirates in the sands of Chongming, and if there are fewer soldiers, at least 300 people must be needed."

The camp that can accommodate 300 people is not small, Jin Shiying sighed, "Then I will send someone to Jiangbei tomorrow to cut wood." ”

Orderly nodded in agreement.

Wu Zhikui is stationed in Jiangnan, so he still doesn't want to make extraneous branches, and goes to Jiangbei to cut wood.

The next day, the two galleries lowered their stout oars and tied the Melville with cables. Taking advantage of the high tide, nearly a hundred oarsmen rowed together and dragged the stranded battleship out.

On Chongming Island, the main body of the walled wall adopts the traditional Chinese craft - rammed earth, and the soil is smashed layer by layer with tools by manpower. The amount of earthwork in the lower fortress of the same area is too large, and it is difficult to build under the current conditions, so the traditional Chinese square castle is used. Build a circular corner tower at each of the four corners, and the wall does not need to be too thick. The Order left the castle with 4 guns, one for each turret.

In order to facilitate the movement of artillery, Filhoff left half of the field artillery company, put 4 four-pounder guns in Chongming Village, and left 1 whole company of infantry. In addition to the army, Shou Xiang also left the guard platoon in Gushan in Chongming.

Jin Shiying looked at Chen Zhijun and strengthened his subordinates who originally belonged to Liang Hexiang, the same Dengzhou sailor, and the two departments had a total of 100 people and stayed in Chongming Village. Jin Shiying also left all the tiger squat guns in Chongming Village.

Combined, the two armies were just over 300 men. In terms of warships, Shou Xiang left 2 lama ships in Chongming Village, and Jin Shiying left 3 smaller sand boats. Galleys can be used as sentry skies, sand boats can be used as transport ships, and in extreme cases, they can retreat with all their soldiers.

On the Jincheng side, Gushan's military rank is the same as that of the army infantry company commander, both of whom are captains. The two were more senior, and Lone Mountain was on board when the Banshee set sail from Jamestown. Shou Xiang appointed the more senior Gu Shan as the commander of the Chongming Zhai garrison, and considering that he knew basically nothing about China, Shou Xiang asked Liu Jinqing, an intelligence staff officer, to stay as an assistant.

Shou Xuan admonished Gu Shan, "You enjoy the right to command the operation, but you must respect the friendly forces of China, and you must not ignore any suggestions from the staff officers. ”

"Understood, sir."