The mouth of the Yangtze River, the white water ocean, the blue waves are mighty. Fastest updates

The blue flag on the Nanhai was waved to the northwest in the wind. The southwest monsoon, which runs north from the trade wind belt, is influenced by Chinese mainland and is more often southeasterly here.

The shadow of Chongming Island is clearly visible in the distance, and Chongming Island is not the third largest island in China in later generations, but a continuous sandbar at the mouth of the Yangtze River. These sandbars can suddenly rise out of the sea, or they can collapse into the water overnight and disappear.

This is directly related to the direction of the local wind. If it is not a typhoon day, the southeasterly wind in spring and summer at the Yangtze River Estuary will be offshore wind, with stable wind speed and low waves, which will help the sediment accumulation in the estuary. In winter, the northeast winds brought by the cold wave are onshore and blow for a long distance, and the large waves will sharply wash the tidal flats, causing the sandbar to collapse.

Shou Xiang took back the binoculars and asked Liu Jinqing beside him: "Is there a garrison on Chongming Island now?" ”

Liu Jinqing lowered his head and replied: "My lord, there is a team of Zhao'an pirates stationed on Chongming Island now. The leader's name is Gu Zhong, nicknamed Netcang Gu San, also known as San Mazi. ”

"Yo, it's a peer."

Liu Jinqing plucked up the courage to ask, "Do you want to go to Chongming?" ”

Shou Xuan shook his head, he knew how powerful the Yangtze River Estuary was. There are countless reefs and shoals at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the wind direction is even more uncertain, and it is too dangerous to sail into the Yangtze River. In the early years of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Taicang Liujiagang was once prosperous and became the busiest seaport in China at that time. But slowly, the sediment of the Yangtze River silted up Liujiagang, and the interval between the impassability of large ships and the complete abandonment was not long. Many people will be curious, where did the Manchu Qing invade Jiangnan and the sailors of the Ming Dynasty go? The answer lies in this Yangtze River estuary, Chongming Island.

Anyone who simply looks at the map can easily think of entering the river from the sea, occupying Zhenjiang to cut off the transportation of the Grand Canal, and thus stirring up the situation in the world. This is an irresistible temptation, and many people in the late Ming Dynasty, the British two hundred years later, and later generations thought of it. But in the 17th century, it was extremely difficult to achieve such a campaign goal, Wu Zhikui, Huang Fei, Jing Benche, Shen Tingyang, Zhang Mingzhen, Zheng Chenggong, countless Ming Dynasty generals led the army to Chongming one after another, or encountered shoals, or encountered hurricanes, or after landing, the wind direction changed suddenly and could not retreat and was slaughtered by the Qing army. The Ming army in the southeast buried more than 100,000 people and thousands of warships at the mouth of the Yangtze River on Chongming Island, almost to no avail. The mouth of the Yangtze River was like a black hole that devoured the lives of countless Ming soldiers. If these forces were invested elsewhere, Nanming would never have perished as quickly as it did in history.

The most powerful naval division of the Ming army was undoubtedly Zheng Chenggong's department, the Zheng family naval division marched into the Yangtze River for the first time, and encountered strong winds on the sea surface of Yangshan in Pudong, and Zheng Chenggong almost gave his life at the mouth of the Yangtze River. He was a little stronger, and although he escaped almost single-handedly, he was able to reorganize the surviving fleet. In the second year, he sailed into the Yangtze River and arrived in Nanjing, and Shou Xu felt that Damu might as well not go in, and the loss of entering the Yangtze River was greater, almost all the main forces were buried, and the last hope of revival of the Ming Dynasty was also buried.

Guarding the order, only the British succeeded, because they had steam warships.

Harris recalled for a while, and said to Shou Xu: "Your Excellency, this is the largest inland river in China that you are talking about, and his river basin is the economic center of China?" ”

Shou Xuan nodded and said, "Yes, the Yangtze River Estuary is the real gate of China." Guangzhou and Yuegang do not have the radiation capacity of the Yangtze River. ”

Harris took a slight measurement on the map, "The map shows that it's nearly 3,000 miles long. ”

"It's actually longer, this map is not accurate." The orderly finger lightly swiped across the map, "The Yangtze River is like the aorta, and the large tributaries are the secondary arteries, Mr. Acton, and those large tributaries are also magnificent and surging rivers." The various small tributaries are the capillaries, which carry nutrients throughout South China. ”

Harris was a little fascinated, "I can imagine, Your Excellency. ”

Shou Xuan sighed slightly, "She is also my mother river." ”

Harris saw that Shou Xiang was a little reluctant, so he asked, "Your Excellency, are you sure we really won't drive in?" ”

Shou Xuan still shook his head, "Our Galen can't get in." ”

The description of the Yangtze River estuary route in the "Haidao Jing" is, "There are the last people sand, Po Po sand, and three-legged sand in the south, which can be avoided." In the Yangtze River, there are twin towers in the north, Fanjiagang Beach in the southwest, Zhangjia Beach in the southeast, and Lujia Beach in the estuary, which can be avoided. There is a dark sand area outside the mouth, which is connected to the sand of Chongming Zhou, which can be avoided. ”

The "Book of Maritime Ways" reminds Shou Zhi that there are many shoals and sandbars at the mouth of the Yangtze River, but he can't tell Shou Shou how to sail. The waters around the mouth of the Yangtze River are now undergoing rapid island-building activities, and the sandbanks change every year, resulting in real-time updates of waterway data. If you want to be safe, you can only test the depth of the water while sailing. However, the speed and direction of the Yangtze River make it difficult to sail slowly, and the longer the delay, the more dangerous it is, and if the wind direction changes, the battleship is in danger of being photographed on the shore.

Harris thought for a moment, "Your Excellency, do you remember my suggestion after the Battle of Mazen?" ”

Shou Xuan turned to look at him, "Oarboat? ”

"Your Excellency, we have a few more medium-sized columns."

The fleet did not stop at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and continued to move north along the coastline of Nanzhili into the Yellow Water Ocean. Soon it will be the mouth of China's second largest river. In order to ensure the transportation of Hebei, the overall idea of controlling the Yellow River was to protect the north and release the south, protect the north embankment of the Yellow River, and let the Yellow River flow south. As a result, the Yellow River forms a huge drainage system between the Huai River and the Si River, and the Haikou is also tangled with sediment and countless reefs.

In response to this change, from the Yangtze River onwards, most of the merchant ships in northern China are now flat-bottomed sand boats. The orderly fleet consisted of Galen and wide ships, all of which were battleships with a deep draft at the bottom, and did not dare to approach the coastline at all.

In the sea area of Haizhou, the marked channel is Yuntai Mountain and Yingyou Mountain, and the channel between the two islands is Yingmen. On the sea surface on the east side of Yuntai Mountain, the sea icon says "Zhenggang is a good boat." Since crossing the Yangtze River, the four words of Yixing Langshan were written directly on the face of the order, and after completing the simple mapping of the Yellow River estuary, the fleet took the right rudder and sailed into the deep-water channel on the east side of Yuntai Mountain.

Shou Xiang no longer wanted to continue to survey the shipping lanes of northern Jiangsu and Jiaozhou Bay, and it was the end of September, and the occasional northeast wind made him feel that he had to hurry. On the right side of the fleet, in one day, the sea water turns from green to black-green, and after seeing the black-green water, it turns due north, and after two days and nights, the sea turns blue, which is the black water ocean. The wind direction was generally smooth, and after two days and nights in the Black Water Ocean, the water turned green again. Although it was a short voyage across the ocean, it was also a mature route for the Ming Dynasty, and the junk ships in the formation did not feel much surprise.

Ming Dynasty ships using the Black Water Ocean route were very complicated to navigate here, relying heavily on the color of the sea and the comparison of nautical charts. This is not a problem for the orderly fleet, there is no need to copy the Ming Dynasty charts in everything. Since it was a voyage with no land in sight, the latitude was measured and turned to the northwest, directly into the Bohai Sea. The sea water turned green again, it was the green water of the Beiyang Ocean, close to the coast, and inadvertently passed Weihaiwei. There are more and more northeasterly winds, which is the time of the monsoon. Several of the fleet's ships have no hard sails, and they can hardly sail when the wind is headwind, and they can only anchor in Zhifu Bay to wait for the wind.

Fengsui, which belonged to the jurisdiction of Otoyama Shouyu Qianhu, lit wolf smoke again, and Shou Xian sent a landing party ashore to fetch water. The Ming army in Denglai was slightly more active than the Ming army in the south, and several times sent soldiers to reconnoiter the team that landed to fetch water, and small boats of the Ming army also appeared around the fleet. Orderly ordered the battleship to open the gun doors and roll out all the guns. Dozens of black-hole cannons were pointed at the coast. Not to mention that the Ming army of Denglai launched an attack on the Galen battleship, even Wang Huizhi's 6 Junk battleships they couldn't defeat.

Shou ordered to wait in Zhifu Bay for a week, and when the wind direction improved, he released the ocean again, and approached Dengzhou along the coastline. To Shou Order's shock, he encountered the Ming Dynasty fleet that was waiting for him.

About 80 medium-sized junk ships and 60 small boats have lined up in the bay, and various flags flutter in the wind on the top of the mast. Behind them, on the wall of Dengzhou Water Village, there were dense shotgunslingers.

All the officers on the flagship quickly walked to the bow of the ship and pulled out the binoculars in an orderly manner. In the fleet of the Ming Dynasty, a large yellow flag was waved in the wind on one of the largest warships, and the large ships had slightly smaller Cao and Dai flags in the column. In the small boats on both wings, there are colorful battle flags such as Chenzi, Liangzi, and Wang Zi.

"The Storm is out of the ship and protects the four ships of Lu Congxian." Shou ordered quickly, called guards, but in fact surveillance. When he saw the Ming Dynasty sailors, his first concern was that the follow-up junk ship turned around and ran away.

Seeing that the Ming Dynasty sailors were in formation with their backs to Dengzhou Shuicheng, they guarded the order and then ordered: "Nanhai and Raphael go forward, open the gunners on the side of the gun, and cover the follow-up ships." ”

The Ming Dynasty assembled such a large fleet in Dengzhou, so that Shou Ling did not expect it at all. Although there are not many large ships, these more than 100 warships also need at least 4,000 sailors, and there are obviously thousands of infantry in Dengzhou Water City.

"How can there be so many Ming troops in Dengzhou?" He turned his binoculars to look at the city, and the way the soldiers stood and the ordnance that the city had prepared made him immediately judge that they were veterans of battle. Shou Xian remembers the Dengzhou Mutiny 12 years ago, which turned this area into white ground. And the Ming army, a feudal army, was very difficult to rebuild after the whole army was destroyed.

Harris whispered to Shou Order, "Admiral, what should I do?" ”

Shou Xiang frowned, the two battleships of the Nanhai and the Raphael together still have 44 guns, and if they really fight, they may not be sure. Although the ship of the Ming army sailor is quite old, the sail surface is at least kept clean to a certain extent, and the formation is not chaotic at all, and he is also a veteran.

While Shou Zhi was hesitating, Wang Huizhi's fleet turned the rudder and sailed forward to a parallel position on the starboard side of the Nanhai. They lifted the jackets of the bow guns, and the sailors ran back and forth on the deck, carrying the shells and the Franc guns onto the ship's surface. The brow of the orderly stretched slightly, the ally has 12 ships, at least 6 large ships, and a single ship is definitely stronger than those ships of the Ming army.

There was also a human voice from the port side, and Shou Xuan turned his head to look, and Lu Congxian nodded to him lightly on the deck. His four lucky boats also came up.

4 plywood ships, 16 large and medium-sized junk ships, against a whole Ming fleet.

"Hit?" Harris asked.

Shou Xuan did not answer, turned to the deck and shouted, "I need a volunteer to deliver a message to the Ming army on the other side." You may or may not die. If you die, I will send the pension to your home, and if you don't die, I will send you to military school. ”

After a long time on board, the Chinese sailors' understanding of the military academy is the future.

"My lord, I'll go." Without an impassioned voice, Liu Jinqing calmly walked out of the queue.