Historically, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the closed country was opened by the strong ships and cannons of the great powers, which made China enter a process of humiliation.

Nowadays, the ships of the Ming army are approaching the coastal areas, and the artillery is roaring, so that the Qing Dynasty can see the importance of coastal defense in advance.

The lower reaches of the Min River, from the confluence of the Wulong River and the Nantai River in the southeast of Fuzhou to the estuary, are commonly known as the Majiang River, also known as Mawei. In ancient times, Fuzhou was attacked from the sea, and it was traced up the river to the city, and it has always been an important place for soldiers to defend.

Under the joint attack of the Ming army and the Zheng army, the naval division of the Qing army had no power for naval warfare. Geng Jingzhong shrank his forces in Fuzhou, held on to wait for reinforcements, and also made defensive arrangements for Mawei, the gateway to the sea. The only ships were assembled on the Majiang and Minjiang rivers to intercept them, and three barrage cables were hastily pulled up in an attempt to block the Ming army's waterway attack.

The Ming army was prepared for the barrage of the river, because after the formation of the Yangtze River Naval Division, when formulating the battle plan, it took into account this obstacle according to the previous battle situation and the intelligence of the spying, and formulated a countermeasure.

Fire, which is the most primitive, has been used since the Three Kingdoms period, but it is more time-consuming; Using artillery, or sending troops to attack ashore, destroying the stakes or winches tied to the iron cables, Zheng Chenggong used it in Guazhou when he led the army into the Yangtze River, and compared the shooting level of artillery, as well as the strength and combat power of landing operations; Explosives with gunpowder are feasible after testing, but they require a special blasting device, but it is still worth it for a breakthrough and victory.

Of course, the Ming army studied and practiced all of these methods in order to use them selectively in different situations. In the face of the iron cable on the Ma River, in view of the fact that there were not many Qing troops on the shore, the Ming army naval division used the landing destruction method. Under the cover and support of the ship's artillery, the marines drove small boats to land on the beach, and routed the defending Qing troops with a tight battle formation and fierce muskets. Destroyed the winch. The flotilla runs through the guò and continues to travel upstream.

The smoke is up! Commander-in-chief Deng Yao put away the binoculars, and the corners of his mouth turned up, as if mocking. This is actually what he wants to achieve, to make the Qing army in Fuzhou feel pressure, and play a role in containment. Of course, the sailor was able to forcibly rush to the city of Fuzhou. But this time, the marines who came with the fleet were only 4,000 men, and they could not withstand too many losses.

"Master Hou, there is an enemy ship ahead." A staff officer conveyed a signal from an observer on the mast.

"Oh, the Qing army still has the ability to fight water?" Deng Yao frowned, and then smiled coldly, "Order, the forward fleet will attack, the second fleet will support, and the marines will advance along the coast." The Third Fleet is docked and ready to provide artillery support. ”

Self-confidence comes from strength and from victory. From the establishment of the water division to the present, the investment can be said to have been uninterrupted. Even buying on credit, plus capturing and manufacturing, the number of ships of the Ming army's naval division was not comparable to that of the Zheng family, the largest in Asia, but in terms of the number of large ships and the number of artillery pieces, they were almost equal. And many of the guns were newly purchased on credit from Britain and France. In terms of overall quality, it has surpassed the Zheng family.

The horsetail is still a horsetail, but it has not yet been designated as a military port. It also did not build a complete defense system at the end of the Qing Dynasty. There are forts, but they are very few, and the number of artillery is not much, and they are even inferior to the newly equipped artillery of the Ming army in terms of range and power. The dozens of Qing warships that came to meet the attack in a hurry were small and weak, and there were few thin guns, making it even more difficult to resist the strong ships and sharp guns of the Ming army.

In enemy formation. The water columns were stirred up one after another, and the Ming army relied on the advantage of range, and the Second Fleet took the lead in firing with cannons, and the shells crossed the water and swept past the forward fleet. Fall on enemy warships, or smash into the river. Smoke rose from the air, and the flags and broken masts on the enemy ships were thrown into the water.

The forward fleet is a fast ship, which is quite flexible, and is suitable for both offshore operations and rushing in the river. Taking advantage of the fact that the enemy ship was somewhat confused by the cannonballs of the hooded guns, the clippers rushed forward bravely and opened fire with Furlong cannons within range, followed by muskets and rockets.

In the firelight, the cracking of the mast, the sound of drums, shouts, howls, the clashing of battleships, the sound of cannons, and the sound of gunfire overwhelmed the noise of the river.

………………

When night fell, the mouth of the Yang family in Wusongkou was rumbling with cannons and firelight.

Wusongkou, with dangerous terrain, is the gateway to southeast national defense. From the eighth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1651) to the twelfth year, the fleets of the Ming generals Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan attacked Wusong four times and entered the Yangtze River three times. In the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, Zheng Chenggong led a large army into the Yangtze River and approached Nanjing, and the Qing Dynasty government was greatly shaken. In the seventeenth year of Shunzhi, Lang Tingzuo, the governor of Jiangnan, was ordered to build a fort at the mouth of Yangjiazui in Wusong, on the west bank of the Huangpu River.

In less than two years, the Qing army built two forts in Yangjiazui, with a total of 32 artillery pieces, including eight 10,000-jin guns, four 5,000-jin guns, and 20 thousand-jin guns. An embankment wall was built around the fort, and a trench was dug outside the embankment wall, and wooden piles were erected.

Although there was a fort, it was in the open air, which was a relatively big flaw. Then there is the shooting technology of the artillery of the Qing army, which is really not flattering.

The Yangtze River Naval Division led by Chen Shangchuan had more than 40 cannons bought from British warships. The cannon was smaller in caliber and lighter in weight than the cannon, but it had a long barrel and fired a 17-pounder shell at a range of 2,500 meters.

In this way, the artillery battle with the Yangjiazui fortress of the Qing army is equivalent to "the Ming army can fight you at will, and you can't fight back".

Several medium-sized warships went back and forth on the water, bombarding the Qing batteries with side-string guns in turn, while the Qing artillery shells could only stir up columns of water in the water.

The artillery shells of the Ming army became more and more accurate, and the gravel on the Qing army's batteries flew sideways, and the smoke was filled. After an earth-shattering bang, the gunpowder of one of the forts exploded, and the fire dazzled the human eye, and thick black smoke rose up. In less than an hour, the Qing army was silent on the battery, and no more shells flew. More than a dozen sampans carrying the soldiers of the landing team headed towards the beach, and the Ming army began to land, preparing to occupy the battery and destroy it completely.

"Use a fast boat to send a message to Zhoushan, and let Deputy Commander Yang send warships over from time to time to take a look, and the Qing army can't easily build another battery." Chen Shangchuan put down the binoculars and ordered the staff officer beside him.

Although the Qing army's forts did not pose much of a threat to the Yangtze River Naval Division, this deterrent could not be ignored. After all, this is the only way to enter the Yangtze River and get out of the sea, and if there is no escort by warships equipped with long guns, it will be a problem for other ships to figure out guò.

"If you can send troops to occupy this place, or Chongming Island—" Duan Zhiying, who had been promoted to deputy commander of the Yangtze River Naval Division, stopped talking and shook his head with a wry smile.

"Yes, but it won't work out for the time being." Chen Shangchuan was also helpless, "If the Zheng family can obey the dispatch and concentrate on fighting, the warships will be like clouds, and if there is another Nanjing Campaign, maybe the entire Jiangnan will be decided." Now, I can only be patient and go step by step. ”

"I don't know how much strength the Thirteen Families' sailors have?" Duan Zhiying had some expectations, "If the two join forces, it will be good if they can cross the Yangtze River and be invincible." ”

"Huh." Chen Shangchuan laughed twice and teased: "I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you." Thirteen families are in a remote corner, how can they have a lot of financial and material resources to build big ships and artillery? ”

Duan Zhiying smiled and argued forcefully: "Even if the thirteen sailors are not good, with our strength, it is not something that the Qing army can resist. ”

"That's a good thing." Chen Shangchuan was also angry when he heard this, turned his head to look at the fleet that had been lit up on the sea, and said: "With these hundreds of warships and sharp artillery, even if the Qing army gathers ships from all over the Yangtze River, it may not be our opponent. ”

As if in response to Chen Shangchuan's confident words, gunshots and explosions rang out from the fort on the shore, but they soon calmed down. The resistance was slight, the Qing army was either dead or wounded, and most of them had fled, and the Ming marines easily occupied the Yangjiazui Fort, which the Qing court spent a lot of money and took more than a year to build.

The Yangtze River, there will be a new battlefield for oneself to fight, a new world to gallop. Duan Zhiying's gaze had already moved to the west, and he narrowed his eyes slightly, not knowing what he was thinking.

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Zhoushan, backed by Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo and the vast hinterland of the Yangtze River Delta, has strong geographical advantages, and is located at the intersection of China's north-south coastal routes and the Yangtze River waterway, and is the maritime gateway and channel of the Yangtze River basin and the Yangtze River Delta.

The Qing court's coastal relocation was not only carried out on land, but also the people on the coastal islands were forced to move to the interior. This made it easy for the fleet led by Yang Yandi to land in Zhoushan and occupy it.

came back, Luo Lun, who joined the army, walked across the gangplank in a few steps, jumped onto the land of Zhoushan, couldn't help but feel damp in his eyes, and blinked vigorously before he stopped the tears that were about to fall.

As an armed member of eastern Zhejiang of the former Lu Dynasty, it is understandable to return to this familiar base where he has fought several bloody battles. Luo Lun can still control zhì, and some soldiers from eastern Zhejiang have already cried.

The people and horses of the eastern Zhejiang system had been mixed and placed in the Ming army and were absorbed and digested. However, this time, the strategy of focusing on the naval division was fully launched, and some people were selected and sent to the Yangtze River Naval Division and Yang Yandi's detachment respectively.

Very simply, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan have entered the Yangtze River three times, and many generals in the department have experience in fighting in the Yangtze River, Ye Jin, Wang Fa and others are the forward generals of the Yangtze River Water Division; After years of armed battles in eastern Zhejiang, they had restrained the Qing army in Zhejiang from entering Fujian in the south, and they were also very familiar with the situation along the coast of Zhejiang.

When he saw Zhoushan City, which had been almost demolished into ruins, Luo Lun finally couldn't hold back his tears, he remembered that when the Qing army was besieged, countless robes fought bravely and shed blood; There is also the tragedy of a literati bachelor who was unwilling to be humiliated and committed suicide and martyrdom.

…………… (To be continued......)