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The name "Underwater Dragon King Cannon" has a history of 80 years, in the 18th year of Wanli in the former Ming Dynasty (1590 AD) was included in Shi Yongtu's book "Heart Strategy", "Heart Strategy Martial Arts Fire Attack Volume" recorded the relevant information of this kind of original drifting thunder "Underwater Dragon King Cannon" with incense as a timing fuse. Originally, the Mawei Army had always used giant ships and cannons to crush the enemy, but when Geng Jingzhong was thinking about preparing to enter the Yangtze River, he thought of a weapon commonly used by the navy in later generations - mines. It can be said that this "underwater dragon cannon" is one of the oldest mines, and it is really the earliest floating mine in the world, and it is the originator of modern drifting mines.

For a long time, I have not heard any soldiers from Europe say that there is such a weapon in Europe, and it seems that this thing was indeed invented and used by China. This Shi Yongtu is a good person, he recorded all the good things in his book, according to Geng Jingzhong's order, the headquarters quickly ordered someone to turn this thing out, and then stepped up imitation, after the imitation came out, it was found that the power was not satisfactory, so the scholars in the scientific research base began to improve. Therefore, at this moment, there is a new type of "underwater dragon king cannon" that can be used.

The original "underwater dragon king cannon" was constructed with a cow urine bubble (that is, a cow's bladder) as a thunder shell, which could maintain water tightness, and black powder was installed inside, and incense was ignited as a fuse to play the role of delayed detonation. The cow's urine bubble is attached to the floating plank under the wings of the geese, and the incense is aerated with the wings of the geese and the intestines of the sheep, regardless of the planks going up and down with the waves. Water cannot be poured in. Ensure that the incense burns normally. And under the cow urine bubble fell a certain weight of stones. It balances the force and keeps the center of gravity stable to keep the drifting stable and not fail to overturn.

Shi Yongtu recorded in the "Heart Strategy" that when this weapon was used, in the place where the enemy ship was anchored, in the place where the water was deep, the heavy stone fell under the wooden plank, and it was lowered down the river in the dark night, and when it floated near the enemy ship, the incense was burned out and then the gunpowder was ignited. The "Underwater Dragon King Cannon" was shot from the bottom of the water, shattering the bottom of the enemy ship, and the water poured into the enemy ship, causing the enemy to sink along with the enemy ship. It can be seen that the fuse of this underwater weapon is based on the distance to the enemy ship and the speed of the water flow to determine the length of the incense, and then predetermined the time of the explosion, it uses the water flow as a driving force, and when it is close to the bottom of the ship, "the incense to the fire, the cannon from the bottom of the water", unexpectedly bombards the enemy ship from the water. "During the Jiajing period of the former Ming Dynasty. On the southeast coast, there were frequent invasions by Japanese ships. In order to deal with the invasion of pirates, the Ming Dynasty sailors did use a lot of "underwater dragon king cannons" to fight against the Japanese who invaded the coast of China at that time. However, according to the records, it seems that the effect is not very great!

This kind of thing does not meet the current needs of the Mawei Navy at all, and the more important point is that when the Mawei Army enters the Yangtze River, it is going upstream, and if you want to use the "Underwater Dragon King Cannon" in this way, you have to blow up your own warship.

"That's it, do you have anything else to say?" At the meeting, Geng Hou reported in detail the situation of his own family and the movements of the Qing army, and Geng Jingzhong also made requirements for the upcoming battle again, and finally Geng Jingzhong asked a routine question.

"Hehe, there's nothing more to say, fuck him! The Qing army will come here and there will be no return! Ning Wu replied with a smile. Everyone has also heard it, Zeng Shuai has already wiped out all the Tulabu, and our actions can't be too slow! ”

"That is, Zeng Shuai's speed is really fast enough, they have just arrived outside Najiashan County on the second day and achieved such a big result, we are already on the third day, but they are one step slower than them!"

"Okay, the soldiers who came to report the news set off from noon and ran wild for four hours to get here, but I don't want you to make fun of it, for the upcoming battle, just follow the plan, nothing will be dispersed, Chao Shun, you let your subordinates immediately go and check the Dragon King Cannon again, to ensure that tomorrow can make a contribution!" Geng Jingzhong saw that the generals had nothing to say, but he was just ready to talk nonsense, so he waved his hand to stop him, and finally ordered Chao Shun, the commander of the Fifth Fleet, to be responsible for checking whether the Dragon King Cannon was reliable again, and it was not affected by the river.

The generals really have nothing to say at this moment, Geng Jingzhong's order, so the generals quickly returned to their camps, inspections, inspections, inspections, are making final preparations, maybe tomorrow as soon as they open their eyes, they will prepare for a big battle, and it is even possible that at night, the Qing army will come to sneak attack, so it is good to make complete preparations as soon as possible.

"Ah Hou, scatter all your men, give me a close eye on the situation on the river, and make sure to ensure that the Qing army has to find out their movements ten miles away." There were only three people left in the temporary conference room, Geng Jingzhong, Wang Zhenbang and Geng Hou, and Geng Jingzhong continued to demand.

"Don't worry, Governor Dadu, all the scouts have been scattered, and there are also spies that we have already laid out in Nanjing, and everything is under control. Moreover, within a range of more than 1,000 meters to the west of our battleship, the Fifth Detachment has taken the lead in laying more than 500 Dragon King cannons, and the Qing army just wants to attack at night, and they can only be unlucky! Geng said confidently and with a sneer.

"That is, this thing has a lot of destructive power, and the explosives in the thunder body are more than ten times more than ordinary grenades, and the combat power is also ten times greater! When I was salting the previous time, a large mine could blow up and sink a medium-sized warship, and even our third-class battleship would be hit hard if it was blown up in a hundred! Wang Zhenbang also nodded and said. When the mine explosion was done in the waters of Fuzhou, a Cangshan ship that had captured Zheng Jun before was used, but with a bang, the whole ship was finished, and the hull cracked a hole in the boss, and with only a stick of incense, a Cangshan ship sank into the sea, but it scared many people.

"So, Dadu Governor, you can rest in peace, our Dragon King Cannon is more concealed, even in the daytime, the Qing army is not close to check carefully, and it is not easy to find. This thing is easy to lay out, and can be used to deploy both large and small ships; Even merchant ships and fishing boats can also be requisitioned to deploy this dragon king cannon in wartime, so I built yì after returning to Fuzhou. In some key sea areas, we can set up some dragon king cannons to strengthen our defense! Wang Zhenbang continued to add.

"That's a bit far. It's possible to build yì, but you have to wait until you go back. Geng Jingzhong smiled and said: "Tomorrow's big war is about whether we can gain a firm foothold in Jiangsu. Although the governor of Pontus and the generals are full of confidence, we still have to be careful, the overturning of the boat in the gutter cannot happen to us. The governor of Pontus has repeatedly emphasized the concept of the lion fighting the rabbit and doing his best, if it is really out, the governor of Pontus will not have the face to see the elders of Jiangdong! ”

"The Lord humiliates his ministers to death! The Metropolitan Governor, his subordinates will definitely do their best to fight this battle, and there will never be any carelessness! Wang Zhenbang stood up and patted his chest and reassured.

"That's good!" Geng Jingzhong's face was still very relaxed, as if he was not half stressed. He also absolutely believes that Wang Zhenbang will not live up to his expectations.

As soon as Chao Shun returned to the camp, he immediately took the soldiers to the front line, and ordered his subordinates to carefully check the underwater dragon king cannon again, the location of hundreds of dragon king cannons was laid by the soldiers themselves, and the positions were also marked, so they were not worried that their own boats would crash into it, and the soldiers checked it again one by one before returning to the camp with peace of mind.

It was not until the 18th century that Europe and the United States began to use mines, first during the Russo-Turkish War in 1769, when Russian sappers first tried to use drift mines and blew up the Turkish pontoon bridge leading to Dunai. Thereafter. Various types of mines are constantly being developed and improved, and are widely used. In the American Civil War and the Russo-Japanese War, mine warfare achieved quite good results. During the American Revolutionary War, the North American people attacked the British warships anchored at the mouth of the Trava River in Philadelphia, and put gunpowder and mechanical shock fuses in small beer kegs to make mines and float down the river. Although it did not encounter a warship at that time, it suddenly exploded when it was picked up by British sailors, killing and injuring some people, which is known as the "Little Barrel War". The perfection and widespread use of bucket structures and detonating devices began in the nineteenth century. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Russian Artupi invented the electrolyte-triggered anchor mine. In the Crimean War in the mid-19th century, Tsarist Russia used this trigger anchor mine in the defense of harbors.

Since then, various countries have attached greater importance to mine warfare and invested a large amount of manpower and material resources to step up the research and manufacture of various types of mines. In the First World War, the two sides laid a total of 310,000 mines of various types, sank 150 surface ships, sank 60 submarines, and sank 580 merchant ships, with a total tonnage of more than 1.2 million tons! By the time of the Second World War, the use of mines had reached its peak in all belligerent countries, with the exception of the First and Second World Wars, when 1.1 million mines were laid and more than 3,700 sunken ships were bombed.

It was not until the 80s of the 20 th century that some Arab countries laid a number of discovery mines in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and more than a dozen passing merchant ships and oil tankers were hit by mines, and the US warships escorting the ship were also damaged. This shows that even in the naval warfare of the advanced wars of later generations, mines were an indispensable weapon. An old-fashioned mine that costs very little is enough to kill a modern warship costing tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. However, the mines of later generations are far from being comparable to the ancient mines of today, and any mine in later generations is also a hundred times stronger than the current submarine dragon king cannon!

In the twentieth century, in addition to the extensive use of anchor mines, new types of non-triggered mines also appeared, such as magnetic induction mines and acoustic mines; In the latter part of World War II, advanced mines such as hydrostatic mines appeared one after another. Typical battles are also on the Asian side. During the Korean War that year, the Korean People's Army laid more than 3,000 mines outside Wonsan Port, and the US military dispatched more than 100 minesweepers and more than 40 support ships, plus many minesweepers, to sweep the land, but the result was that the entire landing plan of the US troops was delayed for as long as eight days. In the Vietnam War, the Middle East War, and the Gulf War, mines were fully used and exerted tremendous power. In particular, during the Gulf War, the Iraqi Navy basically achieved nothing, and only laid more than 1,200 mines, damaging 10 ships of the multinational forces, of which four large warships of the United States alone were destroyed.

It's about to dawn, and although the weather is hot in May, the mornings are still cool. The surface of the river is slightly covered with mist, and a few water birds are hazy mixed with a few water birds flying by, and the harmonious scene is very beautiful. But beauty is usually followed by murderous intentions, and this morning is the best manifestation of this.

"Commander Baowang, the Qing army is coming!" Wang Zhenbang actually woke up a long time ago, but it was still dark just now, so he didn't move in bed. He didn't get into much sleep this night, in case the Qing army suddenly attacked at night (to be continued......