Chapter 222

Zheng Zhilong saw that Morimoto Ichihisa and the others had successfully landed, and he turned his head to look at Shi Daxuan, the staff member beside him: "Daxuan, are you sure that those black skins did not transport cavalry to Wusongkou?" ”

"There are war horses, but there are not many of them, there are hundreds, but they are all on Chongming Island, it is said that they are used by Cheng Shijie for riding!"

Zheng Zhilong was very impressed by the cavalry of the Ning Navy counterattacking his landing force, in front of the cavalry of the Ning Navy, his cavalry did not have any ability to resist, he could not fight and fight, he could not run away, if it were not for some soldiers running into the sea, I am afraid that no one would be able to run back.

Zheng Zhilong actually didn't know that the cavalry and naval divisions of the Ning Navy had always been the shortcomings of the Ning Navy, even if it was a head-on duel with the Mongol servant army of Jiannu, the cavalry of the Ning Navy was still poor, so they could only rely on good equipment and bully the Mongols with poor equipment.

In the face of Jiannu's cavalry, the cavalry of the Ning Navy has no absolute certainty that they can defeat the other party under the advantage of three to one, and the same as the sailor troops, the cavalry is also a technical branch, the equipment has been raised, and the training has also kept up, but the problem is that compared with the cavalry trained by Jiannu since childhood, it is almost meaningful.

However, Zheng Zhilong's territory was either mountainous or subtropical jungle, and his troops were a small number of generals with horses, or a small number of cavalry sentries with war horses, and most of them were short and small Dian horses.

Although the Dian horse has many advantages, it is adaptable to the environment, it is easy to feed, and its endurance is not bad, but the problem is that it is almost hot when sprinting.

The army units of the Zheng group are not only poorly equipped, but also lack the equipment to restrain the cavalry, and even lack the combat experience to restrain the cavalry. When they faced the oppressive attack of the Ning naval cavalry, their first reaction was not to form a formation to meet the enemy, but to turn around and run.

This is actually the stupidest way, even if it is Bolt, his maximum speed is less than thirty-eight kilometers per hour, while the peak charging speed of the war horse can reach the fastest sixty kilometers, and this sprint distance can reach more than a thousand meters.

No matter how much a person can run, he can't outrun a four-legged war horse.

Zheng Zhilong was still faintly uneasy.

Shi Daxuan pointed to the potholed ground on the Wusong port that was bombarded by naval artillery, and even the warriors of Xiaori would fall to the ground from time to time when they charged: "Lord Admiral, this place is not suitable for the use of cavalry at all!" ”

"That's right!"

As long as there were no cavalry in the Ning Navy, Zheng Zhilong was a lot more relieved. With the tenacious combat effectiveness of the samurai of the small days, even if the black skin is fierce and fierce, what else can it do?

The Xiaori warrior was less than one hundred and fifty meters away from the Wusongkou defense line of the Ning Navy.

"Kill ......"

Morimoto roared wildly for a long time, the long knife turned into a ball of knife light, and his short legs spread out, faster than the galloping horse, as fast as wind and thunder, unstoppable. His cronies crowded around him, howling and charging with no indomitable relent. They have become accustomed to charging like this, accustomed to winning like this, and everything has become natural.

At this time, a series of fire meteors suddenly appeared in the originally silent Wusongkou. These meteors exploded as soon as they touched the ground, sending fireballs rising from the ground.

This is actually a grenade equipped by the soldiers of the Ning Navy, of course, unlike ordinary grenades, this is a fire oil bomb. Although the grenade is not very powerful, if the enemy is wearing heavy armor, the explosive shrapnel of the grenade is very limited to the heavy armor soldiers. After all, the charge of the grenade is too small.

However, once the fire oil bomb explodes, it will attach to the enemy, it will catch fire, and no matter how heavy the armor is, it will be useless, and it will be difficult to extinguish in a very short time.

Of course, if it is a simple fire oil bomb, the power is actually limited, and it can only be used in an enclosed space, especially during siege, and it is very effective against stubborn enemies in the building. However, this time the effect was very good, and the Ning Navy arranged five trenches along the coast.

Moreover, it was poured along the terrain to the sea, and the fire oil could flow all the way down the trench to the sea, and under the ignition of the fire oil bomb, a large fireball would soon be thrown around. The flames swept through the wharf and port of Wusongkou, and Wusongkou also turned into a huge torch, and the fire that rushed high could be clearly seen twenty or thirty kilometers away!

As for those small day warriors who charged, they quickly turned into fire men, and at that moment, they let out a terrible scream.

In Morimoto's eyes, there were fire traps everywhere, small day samurai running around everywhere, and smoke everywhere, and his pupils involuntarily shrank: "Damn Ming people, it's a trick!" ”

The screams came one after another, and soon Morimoto Kazuhisa was also hit, he was dipped in fire oil by a small day samurai who was on fire, but he quickly took off his clothes directly, just a piece of burn marks.

Before Morimoto could rejoice, he felt that he had difficulty breathing, and his vision became more and more blurry.

Zheng Zhilong stared blankly at the fire on the Wusong port, speechless for a long time.

Ning Haijun was so vicious, he solved his more than 2,400 small day warriors with a single fire, and with such a big fire, no one could run out at all.

"Big trouble!"

Zheng Zhilong sighed and said, "Hong Xu! ”

"In!"

"Prepare for the second wave of landing forces!"

"Yes!"

Although Hong Xu agreed very happily, from Hong Xu's voice, I could hear his trill, and Hong Xu, the brave general under his command, was actually afraid.

In fact, in the face of the fire offensive of the Ning Navy, there is no one who is not afraid.

The screams of more than 2,400 Xiaori warriors were too loud, and they were three or four hundred meters away from the shore, but they could still hear them clearly.

Just when the screams of the warriors in the small days were getting weaker and weaker, the artillery of the Ning Navy announced to Wu Sheng: "The artillery is ready!" ”

"Fire!"

"Boom, boom, boom......"

A series of violent roars exploded like thunderstorms, and suddenly the guns erupted with smoke and fire, and the ground shook.

Just when Zheng Zhilong's attention was attracted by the fire on the dock, the Ning Navy artillery suddenly attacked, eighteen three-inch smoothbore guns, four four-inch smoothbore guns, aiming at four large battleships with a displacement of about 1,200 tons, roaring at the same time.

Twenty shells swept through the air and smashed into the enemy ship 800 meters away, two-thirds of the shells missed, stirring up high columns of water on the sea, and the sea surface suddenly boiled as if a pot was boiling, and the water columns rose up into the sky, and the water mist rushed and exploded like thunder, but still four shells directly hit one of the junk ships, smashing four large holes in the hull.

Zheng Zhilong looked at the battleship in disbelief, at a distance of more than 800 meters, one-third of the shells hit directly in the first round of fire, this hit rate was already very scary, and the best artillery of the Dutch could not do it.

"The Ning Navy's artillery in Wusongkou is so powerful?"

What Zheng Zhilong didn't know was that the artillery of the Ning Navy shot Zhu Yuan was actually calculated, and in order to improve the hit rate, all the targets within the firing range were divided into grids similar to chessboards, and each small grid had an independent number, and the shooting Zhu Yuan was also marked.

If it weren't for the low accuracy of artillery in this era, if it was replaced by the artillery of later generations, it would have hit the soul with one shot.

"Report the loss!"

Zheng Zhilong didn't care about a Junk ship, at this time, that is, only half a column of incense after the shelling, the Junk ship with a cannon rose into thick smoke, and soon it converged into a black column of smoke and rose into the sky, the fire rushed from the bottom bilge of the battleship, climbed onto the deck, rigging and sails became the best ignition objects, and the powder kegs placed on the ship exploded one after another, emitting a huge roar one after another, the entire Junk ship was blown to pieces of wood, and large fireballs were thrown around.

Flames swept across the deck, all the way up to the top of the mast, and the huge sails turned into torches.

All the soldiers of the Zheng fleet watched all this in amazement, they couldn't believe that just four shells had destroyed such a large ship!

A cold sweat broke out on Zheng Zhilong's forehead, he took a breath of cool air, and muttered, "Even if this ship is not sunk, it will be completely destroyed...... Such a fierce fire...... Fast...... All battleships retreated. ”

If you still want to run at this time, is it too late?

In particular, the cannons deployed by the Ning Navy in Wusongkou are all rear-loading smoothbore guns, and the advantage of rear-loading smoothbore guns is that they do not need to clean the breech, and they can directly stuff the shells into them and fire the artillery directly, just like the artillery of later generations.

The second round of artillery was also fired with twenty shells, and this time two ships and one Junk ship were hit, and the worst thing was that it was not the sulfur incendiary bombs that hit the boats.

Because this kind of artillery shell is too expensive, a shell costs more than 100 taels of silver, and this kind of artillery shell is not mature in the Nanjing Navy, and there are still technical difficulties to overcome.

However, the high-explosive bomb was also fatal to the five or six hundred ton Wuwei ship under the command of Zheng Zhilong.

The cannonballs pierced the deck like chopsticks poking tofu and exploded in the cabin, the terrifying force of the explosion that turned the two walls into sawdust and dozens of sailors into sea urchins.

Coincidentally, the shock wave of the shell explosion blew a torch more than ten meters away, and the torch fell on the hull of the ship coated with waterproof grease and asphalt, and burned violently, almost in the blink of an eye, and the cabin was in flames.

Those poor sailors had never been in such a terrible situation, and they turned pale with fear as they watched the fire spread wildly in the cabin, some screamed in fright, some tried to escape, others tried to extinguish the fire, and the whole battleship was like a stabbed ant nest, and the whole ship was in chaos.

Hardly stopped, just after half a pillar of incense, the Ning Navy's twenty guns fired the third round, and the Hongyi cannon could barely clear out the barrel in this time.

With the third round of concentrated bombardment, three more warships of Zheng's fleet were hit, and one of them was hit by the second round of Junk ship, due to the high-explosive shell, this exploding shell caused serious damage to the deck and mast of this Junk ship.

The Junk ship, which lost power, could still be towed back by the tugboat, but it was a pity that it was hit for the second time, and the cabin of the Junk ship, which was wounded and wounded, was filled with smoke and fire, and the fire spread wildly uncontrollably.

There were several sailors whose clothes were on fire screaming and crawling wildly, rolling to wherever the fire burned, rolling to the vicinity of the gun emplacement, and the flames thrown everywhere detonated the powder kegs piled up nearby, only to see a flash of lightning, the explosion of the sky and the earth made the hull make a terrible cracking sound, and the sailors who ran after the wolves were shattered in the expanding explosion gas, and the screams and cries were earth-shattering.

At this time, the other warships of Zheng's fleet began to turn around and flee one after another, but unfortunately, the sail battleship set off and turned around as flexibly as the warships of later generations, and on the dense sea, several Zheng's warships collided in chaos, and hundreds of sailors were thrown into the sea.

Zheng Zhilong looked at all this blankly as if he had been under the spell of petrification, his face was pale, his eyes were straight, and he couldn't speak. The fierceness of Ning's counterattack and the power of the artillery were completely beyond his most exaggerated imagination, the deafening sound of the cannons, the rushing fires and water columns, and the cries and screams of the sailors seemed to be the silent mockery of him by the Ninghai Navy.

This time was different from the battle of Liaodong, because Liaodong was Cheng Shijie's basic plate, and the port was the most important thing, so the Ning Navy began to fire artillery at a distance of two or three thousand meters when the Zheng fleet appeared, and the artillery effect was not good.

Seeing that the attack on the various ports and wharves in Liaodong was not successful, Zheng Zhilong took small warships to attack along the coastline of Liaodong, and the small warships had a shallow draft, and there were too many places for Zheng's fleet to land on the entire Liaodong Peninsula, and the Ning Navy could not prevent it.

Therefore, the Ning Navy adopted Cheng Shijie's operational theory and adopted mobile defense when its troops were insufficient. The so-called mobile defense is the combat theory created by Rommel of the Desert Fox, that is, instead of spreading out the forces, but focusing on defense, discovering the enemy's breakthrough direction, and directly counterattacking with mobile forces.

"Fuck Niang Lak, fire the cannon, bomb the fuck!"

"It's on fire, put out the fire"

"Save my mother, the fire has burned to the side of the gun position, it will explode immediately, hurry up and jump into the sea!"

"Shoot back, shoot back!"

Hong Xu put the knife on the neck of an artillery commander of the Zheng fleet: "Lao Tzu ordered you, open the cannon!" ”

The artilleryman hurriedly fired a shot, and where the shell hit, only God knows.

The cries of chaotic and tragic death, the rumbling of cannons and thunderous explosions never stopped, combined with the blazing fires on the sea, the sailors struggling in the water, and the shattered hulls of ships, made it feel like hell.

The artillery of the Ning Navy was unforgiving, and each cannon poured out its devastating power at the fastest speed, and at most two or three large warships were targeted at a time, which really took the eight words "firepower first, completely suppressed" to the extreme.

Zheng Zhilong, under the carelessness of the enemy, the Zheng fleet densely crowded at Wusongkou suffered a big loss, and those large warships were hit one after another, and once they were hit, they immediately ignited a fire and could not be extinguished.

In order to save money, the current Ning Navy uses three-inch guns to fire ordinary high-explosive shells when firing cannons, while four four-inch guns fire sulfur shells.

Every salvo, twenty shells are five or six hundred taels of silver, which can be completely used to smash people, and flowering shells are actually also in the Zheng fleet, but the number is very small, and it is not easy to use, there is no way, the cost is too expensive.

Zheng Zhilong almost gritted his teeth. But anger is anger, Zheng Zhilong has to admit that this kind of cannonball is the nemesis of wooden sailing ships, no matter how big the ship is, it will basically be finished after one or two shots.

Damn, where did Cheng Shijie get such a terrible cannonball? I haven't heard of any country equipped with this thing!

It seems that in order to support Cheng Shijie, Xiyi took out all the important weapons of the country.

Zheng Zhilong also knew that the senior commercial attaché and governor of the Dutch East India Company, Putmans, Hans met Cheng Shijie, and he also knew that Spain's Coraquay also met Cheng Shijie, including the Portuguese representatives, all met with Cheng Shijie.

"These dog-day Xiyi, when Lao Tzu passes this level, I won't beat you out of the shit, Lao Tzu has your surname!"

Zheng Zhilong pressed the culprit of everything on Xiyi's head, in fact, he really wronged them, if it weren't for Cheng Shijie, an otherworldly butterfly, it would take more than a hundred years for sulfur cannons and flowering shells to be used in naval battles.

Zheng Zhilong calmed down, ordered the fleet to retreat, widened the distance, and then bombarded the battery with heavy artillery fire, trying to suppress the fire of Ning's naval artillery.

The two sides launched an unusually fierce artillery battle at Wusongkou.

In terms of the number of artillery, the Zheng fleet undoubtedly has an overwhelming advantage, and one of their large warships will be equipped with more than 20 guns, dozens of large-caliber cannons, and more than 600 such warships will fire salvos, and the density of firepower can be imagined.

However, in terms of the power, rate of fire, range and accuracy of the artillery, the Zheng fleet could only be hanged, because their opponents were retreating breech-loading rifled guns, close to the level of mid-nineteenth-century artillery, and more than two hundred years ahead of them.

The smoke of gunpowder spread on the sea, iron bullets were in the air, and scorching lead balls and hail smashed into the forts, and the smoke and flames erupted on the forts, and rows of cannonballs and fireballs slashed through the air, smashing into the fleet on the sea, and the gap was clear at a glance.

The shot put smashed on the fort can basically only break some sandbags, and it is difficult to cause damage to the Ning Navy, and as long as the Ning Navy hits with one shell, their battleships will be seriously injured!

Of course, this does not mean that the Ning Navy will be able to survive such fierce firepower, although the fortifications with first-class anti-artillery effects have been built in advance, there are still people who are carried down from time to time, some have broken legs, some have their heads blown out, and the bloody body is extremely terrifying.

From noon to dark, as the night gradually approached, Zheng Zhilong had to order a retreat, and then plan for the future.

The battle in Wusongkou is destined to attract the attention of countless people.

These spectators include the Dutchmans, the Spaniard's Colaquay, and the Portuguese Zeng Dezhao, all of whom actually watched the whole battle at Wusongkou.

In terms of the scale of the battle, this naval battle was much bigger and bigger than the decisive battle between Great Britain and the Spanish Armada, but the problem was that the result was beyond all of their expectations.

In just half a day, the winner was decided.

Although they did not have detailed information, they could analyze that Zheng Zhilong suffered a big loss, and although Ning Haijun had losses, it was far inferior to Zheng Zhilong.

In fact, this guess is not entirely accurate, the losses of the Ning Navy are not small, four of them are three-inch guns, one four-inch gun was damaged by the ship guns of the Zheng fleet, the artillery killed one hundred and fifty-five, and the infantry of the Ning Navy lost six hundred and seventy-three people, these casualties were mainly caused by the recruits, and the veterans were only a dozen unlucky eggs were hit by shells.

The loss of personnel is still secondary, but the problem is that there is no way to replenish the lost artillery for a while.

Shanghai, Xufu.

Miss Xu Si Xu Shumin was receiving Catherine, and Catherine at this time was completely different from the down-and-out Catherine, she was followed by twenty-seven knights and hundreds of retinues.

Xu Shumin didn't hold Miss Xu Si's shelf, but said with some complaints: "Catherine, you're not a pirate?" ”

"Dear Miss Xu, when did I say I was a pirate?"

Catherine smiled faintly: "Thank God, thank you Cheng, I feel that you helped me return to Venice, the Far East is a rich land, and I am back!" ”

Xu Shumin smiled: "I thought you wouldn't come back!" ”

"How is that possible!"

Catherine turned around and took a huge brocade box from the hand of a handsome maid, opened it in front of Xu Shumin, and immediately, a soft and gorgeous strange light brightened everyone's eyes, and a crystal clear sapphire bloomed in the box with a dazzling light!

This sapphire is the size of a pigeon's egg, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "priceless" at any time.

Even if Xu Shumin treats money like dung, the moment she sees it, her heart beats faster, her mouth is dry, and she can't wait to take it for herself immediately!

Catherine presented the gem with both hands and said respectfully: "This is a greeting gift, thank you for sponsoring my return to Venice, beautiful Miss Xu Si!" ”

Although Xu Shumin was born in the Xu family, a wealthy family, however, this sapphire was something she had never seen, and she had seen less than one-tenth of the size, she swallowed a mouthful of saliva with difficulty: "For me?" ”

Catherine said seriously, "Yes. ”

"That'...... How embarrassing is that? Such a big gem is worth a fortune......"

Xu Shumin said that she was embarrassed, but her hand was not slow.

"Hmph, insincere woman!"

Xu Shumin was bewitched by Catherine and invested more than one million taels of silver, of course, most of the silver was borrowed in the name of Xu Guangqi in the Liaodong Bank. She handed over five cargoes to Catherine, and now Catherine, after more than a year, is back.

Xu Shumin's more than one million taels of silver, after this trip to Europe, became more than 7.7 million taels of silver, a net profit of more than six times.

This means that Miss Xu's current assets are already worth a year's financial income of the Ming Dynasty, and I don't know how Xu Ge would feel if he knew that he had a granddaughter who was rich enough to rival the country.

After completing the delivery of the property, Catherine said: "General Cheng has just won a big battle!" ”

When Xu Shumin heard the news that the Zheng fleet was beaten and fled, she was a little incredulous: "You are going to win in such a short time?" ”

As the Venetian city-state republic and the Ottoman Empire were in the midst of fierce battles, losing one after another, and the overseas colonies were falling one after another, the Venetians needed something too much to help them fortify their towns and keep the Ottomans at bay.

The appearance of cement made everyone's eyes shine, as if they saw hope.

This time Catherine brought back the cement, which made all Venetians ecstatic.

Originally, Catherine wanted to buy more cement this time, so she brought from Venice a large amount of ivory, gold, silver, precious stones, saltpeter, sulfur, and clocks and watches, which were scarce in eastern Liaodong.

However, after watching the Battle of Wusongkou, Catherine changed her mind.

The artillery of the Ning Navy is really too powerful, the range is long, the rate of fire is fast, the key is powerful, Catherine can see it very clearly, the five or six hundred tons of Wuwei ship, at most two guns, this kind of ship will sink. There is also an even more powerful shell, one is enough to sink a thousand-ton ship.

The Republic of Venice was in great need of this artillery.

If Venice had this kind of artillery, would it still be able to use the guns of the Ottomans?

But the problem is that Catherine is not so easy to meet Cheng Shijie.

(End of chapter)