Since ancient times, the most tragic battles have often been battles in which the enemy and the enemy are evenly matched.

Or at least each side feels that they have a chance, and the advantage is mine, so they will keep betting on the table and not stop when they lose.

And Zheng Gen at this moment is obviously in this situation.

If there was no expectation at the beginning, no psychological expectation, then I am afraid that when he saw Zheng Chenggong's fleet artillery fire so fierce just now, he should have directly screamed and chose to stop.

However, he firmly believed that Zheng Chenggong was the last of his strong crossbows, and when he returned from Burma, he was close to running out of ammunition and food, and urgently needed to return to Guangzhou for supplies, and the artillery fire in front of him was only a temporary bluff, and there was no stamina.

If you don't take advantage of Zheng Chenggong's illness this time to kill him, let Zheng Chenggong go back to Guangzhou Spring Water and return to the full blood blue, and then fight after two god costumes, it will be even more impossible.

As a result, naval warfare naturally entered into a pure confrontation of fist-to-flesh and armor-piercing artillery. Groups of Vietnam's main gunboats rushed up frantically and ferociously, exchanging shells with Zheng Chenggong without any fancy fancy.

The 70-kilogram iron ball smashed through the main gunboats of Vietnam one after another, constantly entering the water, and finally occasionally the powder magazine was penetrated and exploded.

In the era of sail warships, because the hull was wooden and the weight was too light, in fact, even if the waterline was penetrated into the water, it was rarely sunk, unless there were too many holes and the reserve buoyancy was completely exhausted.

The main reason for the direct explosion and sinking of the warship was basically the explosion of the ammunition depot. It can be said that six or seven of the ten shipwrecks were all ammunition depot explosions, and two or three were destroyed by fire, and only one was directly damaged by penetrating wounds and sank into the water.

At this moment, the same is true of the confrontation between the artillery of the Vietnamese Navy and the Daming Navy. A stick of incense, a quarter of an hour, half an hour, as the confrontation continued, several Vietnamese gunboats that were sunk by the explosion of ammunition depots appeared one after another, and several ships full of fire drifted like dead fish on the sea.

Zheng Chenggong's flagship alone detonated the powder magazine cannon and sank a Manila heavy cover with a three-story gun deck, as well as two heavy Karak gunboats. As a result, one Galen gunboat was hit by fire with a hole, and two were pierced and broken, temporarily losing their combat effectiveness.

From this point of view, Zheng Chenggong's flagship itself directly achieved three kills and three assists, and the exchange ratio reached six times, the key is that although it also has wooden armor pierced, it does not have any fatal injuries except for a certain degree of damage to the mast and sail.

"The prince is really far-sighted, and the Shen family's understanding of naval warfare is no less than that of our Zheng family. He actually judged that the main cause of the sinking of the heavy gunboats was the explosion of the powder magazine.

This is when I designed the battleship in the Ming Dynasty, I emphasized the need to install the protective armor of the command cabin and the powder compartment. ”

Zheng Chenggong himself sat on the flagship, hiding in the fleet commander's room, listening to the sound of artillery in his ears and the results reported by his subordinates, and he couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart.

Daming has Zhu Shuren, a traverser, and of course he is well versed in the most well-known lessons of the sail warship era.

In later generations, anyone who has a little bit of military fan attributes knows that most of the sinking causes of sail battleships are gunpowder explosions.

However, these experiences, in the real world, need to be summarized in the three Anglo-Dutch wars, and even the later summary of the Napoleonic wars, to completely become a consensus, which is a lesson in blood.

Da Ming can directly copy the answer, in the design of the battleship, the focus is on protection, in two types of individual compartments plus steel plates, which in the era of solid iron ball shells, it is equivalent to direct invincibility.

After all, until the 1860s, during the civil war between the north and the south of another time and space, the warships equipped with steel plates bombarded each other with solid iron bullets, and they could not penetrate each other.

In the Battle of Hampton Anchorage on March 9, 1863, the "Virginia" of the Confederate and the "Monnet" of the Northern Confederacy were scraping each other for a whole day, and finally only achieved zero breakdown of each other.

At this moment, Zheng Chenggong's flagship is also a model of this kind of absolute defense. Although the planks on the side of the gun deck could not withstand the bombardment of the face within 200 paces of 30 catties of iron bullets, and several holes were punched, but these holes did not affect the navigation at all, and all of them were above the waterline, so some sailors were killed and wounded, and several cannons were damaged.

No matter how much the Vietnamese insist on scraping, they will only be slaughtered unilaterally.

And as the artillery battle continued, half an hour, an hour, the Vietnamese finally confirmed two facts in despair:

First of all, Zheng Chenggong's battleship has a defensive power far beyond their imagination, no matter how much it bombs, it will not lose its combat effectiveness, at most the firepower will be weaker, and the mast and sail will be damaged.

Secondly, the "Zheng Chenggong lacks ammunition, arrogance is only temporary, and the food will stop after the gunpowder is exhausted" has not happened, and it seems that it is far away.

What's worse is that with the engagement so close, both sides will shout with wooden horns to beat each other's morale when they have the chance. And even if the cannon at sea is loud and shouts too much, there will always be heard by the enemy.

Zheng Chenggong asked his subordinates to desperately proclaim, "Zheng Zheng dog thief, you have fallen for my family's plan, the Dutch in Malacca have been subdued by my Daming, and Lao Tzu's ammunition was sold to us by the Dutch!" You suffer as much as you want! ”

As this news spread more and more, the Vietnamese finally couldn't hold back completely.

After Zheng Chenggong keenly recognized the vacillation of the Vietnamese Navy, he also decisively made an attempt to further collapse the wall and divide and disintegrate.

"Temporarily contain Zheng Zheng's fleet, and then concentrate your firepower on the gunboats of the Ruan Phuc forces on the left flank, and chase me down!" Cooperate with the shouting! Let him know that daring to wade into this troubled water is death! ”

Zheng Chenggong had done his homework before the war, until the Vietnamese had a complicated sphere of influence within the two dynasties and four surnames. In the face of the strong Ming in the north, the "Emperor Wei of Vietnam" and the "King of Wu of the Great Wei of Vietnam" may temporarily share the same hatred, but when it comes to the moment of life and death, they must still be dead friends and not poor people.

So, at the critical point of the collapse of morale, Zheng Chenggong chased Nguyen Phuc's fleet for a concentrated bombardment, and Nguyen Phuoc's fleet finally chose to withdraw from the battlefield like Kobayakawa Hideaki in the Battle of Sekigahara, and fled wildly, not even caring about the disconnection between the remnants of the gunboats and the Hiroka.

After defeating Ruan Fuwei, Zheng Chenggong's pressure was greatly reduced, and then he turned the muzzle of the gun to deal with Zheng Gen, which became more and more devastating, and it was simply a wall that everyone pushed down.

In the end, the tragic artillery battle lasted from morning to afternoon, and with the three-story gun deck Manila type that Zheng Gen personally rode on, it was sunk by Zheng Chenggong's fleet with a face beating and cannon, and the battle of the destruction of the Vietnamese Navy finally came to an end.

The Ming army pursued the dead and chased the north, slaughtered in all directions, drove the remaining Canton ships that could not escape, and cut the Vietnamese formation to pieces.

On the ocean off the coast of Shunhua Mansion, bloodstained ship wreckage and broken sails were scattered everywhere, and the total number of shipwrecks and burned ships was no less than 100.

……

"Hue victory! The Vietnamese ugly class was overpowered, and dared to intercept Zheng Guogong on the way back, but was easily destroyed by Zheng Guogong and punished Zheng Gen, the coach of the Vietnamese sailors! Burn and sink 100 enemy ships! Kill more than 10,000 enemies! ”

The news of the naval battle of Hue, with the smooth return of Zheng Chenggong, of course, immediately returned to Guangzhou at a rapid speed.

And when the news arrived, even the emperor Zhu Ciyu himself in the southern tour was directly shocked.

Because at that time, he was also ready to go out of the city to the dock of the South China Sea to welcome Zheng Chenggong's triumphant return from the expedition to Burma, and then encouraged the labor army, encouraged the soldiers to make persistent efforts, and the supplies were restored to a good state, so he continued to work hard for the Ming Dynasty and fought to the death with the Vietnamese.

As a result, the wine, meat and fruits prepared by the Lao Army for the victory of Burma have not yet been eaten, and the second good news is directly superimposed, how can this not make the monarchs and ministers of Guangzhou dumbfounded?

It's like what was originally said, you first go back to the spring water to return to the blood and blue, and then come out with two god costumes and then go out in a wave. As a result, after reading the scroll back to the city, I saw that the good guy had five more heads on his back.

Zhu Ciyu, who was still blaming himself and depressed two months ago for the frustration of the patrol detachment sent out to deter off Vietnam's coastal waters, was suddenly given a shot in the arm. Thanks to Uncle Zheng for helping him save the scene, after this southern tour, he didn't have to worry about being educated by his father when he went back.

Zhu Ciyu came to the dock with the wine and meat of the pro-army and the labor army, and when Zheng Chenggong got off the boat, he personally poured wine for Uncle Zheng.

Gu Yanwu and others were also on the side, pouring wine for the other generals.

In addition to wine, meat and fruits, the wealthy merchants in Guangzhou also specially boiled hundreds of large pots of herbal tea to dissipate the heat for the soldiers returning from the tropical expedition. After all, it is already the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and this scorching heat and fever are not a joke.

"Uncle Zheng is really my Ming Dynasty's supernatural giant, Dinghai Shen Needle, talking and laughing between the ashes, this is also said. With Uncle Zheng here, why worry about the thieves in the South China Sea. ”

"Your Majesty has a good reputation, but the minister only followed the regent, learned the essence of naval warfare before and after the saddle, and integrated it with talent, so that he was lucky today.

It was all due to our great prestige, which was able to deter the Hongyi in Malacca, Batavia and other places, so that they felt guilty that they had sold warships to Vietnam before, and this time they had to take the initiative to sell ammunition to our army, so that the minister was able to defeat the intercepted enemy fleet on the return journey with sufficient ammunition. ”

Zheng Chenggong was modest, and thus let the emperor and the ministers of Guangzhou know the inside story of the battle.

Although Zhu Ciyu solved the doubts in his heart, he still couldn't help but sigh: "Even so, Uncle Zheng can anticipate the enemy's opportunity, and think that the Vietnamese may intercept halfway, so as to prepare in advance, and he can be regarded as knowing himself and knowing his opponent, and the holy hand of the soldiers." ”

Not to mention the feast and reward that day, the army rested and replenished for many days after returning to port, and pulled the battleships damaged in the battle into the shipyard for repair.

In the remaining days of July, the imperial court was not in a hurry to expand the sword army, and the time entered August in a blink of an eye, and it was a little cooler by a minute or two, and the lightly wounded were almost raised.

Seriously wounded and damaged ships will certainly not be able to participate in the next phase of the battle, so they will not be needed.

Zhu Ciyu waited for Zheng Chenggong to recover before he earnestly discussed the military aircraft with him to see when it was appropriate to use troops on the Vietnamese land.

Zheng Chenggong said that there were not many remnants of the Vietnamese navy, and that he could maintain a sea supply line from Guangxi to the Vietnamese capital of Thanh Hoa (near present-day Hanoi, but closer to the mouth of the Red River than Hanoi), and could even carry a small number of land forces to launch a direct landing operation.

It's just that, after consultations, everyone felt that there was no need for the army to land all of them, after all, it would be too troublesome. Because now in the most dangerous mountainous area on the border of Vietnam, Lang Son and Gao Ping are still in the hands of Mo Jingyu, the envoy of Annam, and the Ming Dynasty has troops to help him defend the city.

As long as you cross Lang Son and Gao Ping, it is not difficult to enter the Red River Valley by land. The only difficulty is the trouble of transporting supplies over the mountains, while it is easier for soldiers to enter on two legs.

After accounting, considering that Li Dingguo is still maintaining order in the newly occupied areas of Burma, the imperial court asked Sun Kewang, who was also a general like Li Dingguo, to support Mo Jingyu and attack Thanh Hoa by land from Gaoping.

Zheng Chenggong led the fleet and transport fleet to escort Liu Wenxiu to land at the mouth of the Red River, and went upstream, cutting and interspersing with Sun Kewang's division, and then replenishing Sun Kewang's food, medicine and ammunition by sea.

As a result, the measure of "cutting off the shipping capacity in the upper reaches of the Red River" that the Vietnamese had been preparing in their hearts and minds completely came to naught, because the Ming army did not need to transport supplies from Yunnan to Vietnam through the upper reaches of the Red River.

As an aside, the supply conditions of the sea route in the Ming Dynasty are actually even better than those of later generations in the late 1970s.

Now, Zheng Chenggong's navy has completely crushed the Portuguese and Dutch goods bought by the Vietnamese, which is an unprecedented huge favorable situation, and the army will be ashamed of its ancestors if it does not grasp it.

……

The follow-up military operation against Vietnam has completely entered garbage time.

The Ming Dynasty was divided and collapsed, and the landing and direct attack were used at the same time, destroying the withering and decaying Zheng Zheng's main force in batches, and the Vietnamese army was killed and wounded and captured by no less than 1200,000 people. Zheng Zheng's all-conquering soldiers were almost all destroyed.

And the price paid by the Ming side is not high, because there is Mo Jingyu, a local snake, to help him fight the vanguard and resist damage. In the future, it will also help the Ming Dynasty maintain governance and suppress the civil resistance in Vietnam.

And the condition promised by the Ming side is to recover the dangerous and poor land in the mountainous areas of Mo Jingyu's Gaoping and Lang Son Erfu, and exchange him for the fertile land of the plains and the former capital of Vietnam, Thanh Hoa, and use Thanh Hoa Mansion as Mo Jingyu's new territory, and allow him to be hereditary as a Xuanwei Division for several generations.

As for whether to change the land and return to the stream in the future, it is difficult to say. But at least Mo Jingyu himself and his children and grandchildren should still be able to be used as pawns of the Ming Dynasty and have full utilization value.

And Nguyen Phuc Wei of South Vietnam, in the end, because the Ming Dynasty did not have the energy to digest so many new territories for the time being, was temporarily subdued by Gu Yanwu's envoys, accepted the nominal canonization of the Ming Dynasty, no longer insisted on the Zhengshuo of the Li Dynasty, and was willing to help the Ming Dynasty to attack Zheng Zheng, in exchange for the Ming not to do anything to him and recognize his rule in the south.

After all, in the consideration of the Ming Dynasty, the Red River Plain area of North Vietnam has been the territory of China since ancient times, and the Jiaozhi County of the Han Dynasty was located here, and the Tang Dynasty also controlled it. It was later thrown away by the Zhao family of the Song Dynasty after five dynasties and ten kingdoms, so it is very reasonable for the Ming Dynasty to take it back now.

In his previous life, when Zhu Shuren himself read history books, he never recognized the so-called "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms", because this name was originally defined by the Song Dynasty in order to cover up his shame, and the real one should be "Five Dynasties and Twelve Kingdoms".

Because the Jiaozhi Kingdom and the Goryeo Kingdom also stood on their own in the decades between the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, in the eyes of the people in the Tang Dynasty, there was no difference between the Goryeo Jiaozhi and the Southern Han Dynasty and the Southern Han Dynasty and the Later Shu and Wuyue.

If the Song Dynasty wants to boast that it has reunified the regime that split out after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, then it should recognize the five dynasties and twelve kingdoms, but it doesn't have that ability, the twelve only fight back ten, and two are separated forever.

The area south of Thuan Hoa and Da Nang is not considered "since ancient times", it is the new territory that grew out of the more than 600 years after Vietnam became independent after five dynasties and ten kingdoms, slowly expanding southward and destroying Champa and other places, which really has nothing to do with the Han and Tang dynasties. There are priorities in things, and assimilation is difficult, so there is no need to step on the quagmire.

In this way, with the final defeat and death of Zheng Zheng, the Vietnamese Li Dynasty also came to an end. At the end of the Li Dynasty, the king was killed along with Zheng Zheng, and Ruan Phuc was on the verge of declaring that he would no longer recognize the Li Dynasty, and established himself as a king and a vassal to the Ming Dynasty, and also killed all the relatives of the distant branches of the Li Dynasty in the southern region.

Although there are still countless chaotic soldiers in Vietnam, which can be tossed for many years, at least there is no need to involve too many troops and material resources of the Ming Dynasty, let Mo Jingyu, a puppet, slowly clean it up.

(End of chapter)