Chapter 223

The Battle of Wusongkou ended with a crushing defeat for Zheng Zhilong and the Zheng fleet.

This battle, which lasted only half a day, was extremely tragic, with the Zheng fleet firing tens of thousands of shells at Wusongkou, and the Ning navy also smashing thousands of high-explosive or sulfur bombs at the Zheng fleet.

Although the artillery fired by the Ning Navy only fired more than one-tenth of the cannonballs of the Zheng fleet, the problem was that the strike effect on the Zheng fleet was very significant, in this battle, a total of sixteen large Junk battleships of the Zheng fleet were directly sunk, twenty-five Wuwei battleships were sunk, and more than a dozen battleships were sunk and overturned because of their own collision and rollover accidents in the chaos.

More than 3,000 sailors of the Zheng Group struggled on the sea surface with everything that could float up, wailing for help from the small boat that came to catch people, and even took out all the valuable things on their bodies and handed them to others.

Cheng Shijie looked at this scene, turned to look at Wu Sheng and said with a smile: "Isn't this scene a little familiar?" ”

"Déjà vu?"

Wu Sheng was slightly stunned, a little puzzled by what Cheng Shijie meant.

"It was in Baliwan!"

Hearing Cheng Shijie's words, Wu Sheng reacted instantly.

It is indeed the case, when in Baliwan, the invincible Jiannu Iron Cavalry was attacked by the artillery fire and thunderbolts of the Ning Navy, and was unable to form an army. Jiannu, who was also rampant between the white mountains and black waters, was so embarrassed, and abandoned their pride like this, just like forgetting that they had thought that they could pinch the ants to death Ning Haijun arrogant.

Jiannu, who has always been fearless of death, also lost the will to resist after the defeat, and the confidence to fight, even a small unit of the Ning Navy can chase after them tens of thousands of people.

Thinking of this, Wu Sheng smiled and said: "What the big handsome said is extremely true, and it is really a bit familiar!" ”

Just then, Don came over and asked, "What about these captives?" ”

Before Wu Sheng could answer, Cheng Shijie said lightly: "Are there any prisoners in a small day?" ”

"There are more than a hundred, these small days the samurai are quite fatal, they actually escaped the fierce fire!"

Tang En interrogated these prisoners of life, and knew that when they landed on the shore, they accidentally stepped on the iron thistle placed on the shore by the Ning Navy and stabbed their feet. In desperation, he fell to the back and was not burned by Ning Haijun's fierce fire oil. And in the fierce artillery bombardment, the main target of the artillery of the Ning Navy was the main battleship of the Zheng fleet.

Instead, they escaped.

Cheng Shijie said lightly: "Put them together with their companions, a fire, Ben Shuai doesn't want to see a Japanese dwarf with a knife and still gasp after stepping on the land of Daming!" ”

Wu Sheng vaguely understood Cheng Shijie's attitude, as long as it was the people of the Ming Dynasty, as long as it was not too excessive, he could still leave a life no matter what. But Jiannu or a small day, but there is no such good treatment.

Tang En was not uncomfortable and was preparing to carry out Cheng Shijie's order.

Shen Boyun said: "Commander, killing prisoners is ominous!" ”

"Ben Shuai doesn't believe in this!"

Cheng Shijie pointed to the Zheng pirates who were fished out of the sea and said: "Identify these captives, kill those who should be killed, and those who should be reformed through labor will be reformed through labor!" ”

Shen Boyun muttered to himself: "Killing prisoners is ominous after all, Dashuai, the famous generals of the Tang Dynasty, Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui, all because of killing prisoners, but they ......"

Cheng Shijie was too lazy to listen to Shen Boyun's nonsense.

For small days, Cheng Shijie is to see one and kill another, and he will definitely not be soft.

These surrendered pirate captives were driven by the Ning Navy and let them start digging pits, and soon more than 3,000 captives were clamoring, kowtowing to the officers and men of the Ning Navy, crying, and of course, the most were begging for mercy.

Cheng Shijie walked over and learned that these prisoners were worried about being buried alive by Ning Haijun.

It's like a child who sees a group of ants falling into a pit and has a pile of sand at hand, and he can't help but have the idea of pushing the sand over and burying the ants.

This thought shocked Cheng Shijie, he didn't know why he had such an impulse, because this was not the original plan.

"Is it an evil thought in my heart?"

Cheng Shijie didn't know.

But when this thought appeared, it seemed so natural.

Thousands of people were sentenced to death with a wave of their hands.

What a great authority, wicked and seductive.

The current Cheng Shijie does have such power and ability.

Cheng Shijie thought about it for a long time, and suddenly, he somewhat understood why Xiang Yu, Bai Qi and others would do such a big evil thing, or it was not only a military need, or it was also a psychological hidden impulse.

Fortunately for these captives, Cheng Shijie didn't want to kill them, the pirates of the Zheng clan and the backbone of the Zheng clan are certainly hateful, but the problem is that most of their soldiers are just trying to make ends meet.

Waiting for the capture of the Zheng fleet is definitely not buried alive, the reason why the Ning Navy drove them here is that the Wusongkou fortress is full of lead balls embedded in sandbags or staying on the ground, and the entire fortress needs to be repaired again.

Of course, the small day captives did not have such good luck, they were driven away, drenched in fire oil.

The terrible screams of the samurai of the little day were heard in my ears.

Cheng Shijie thought of Professor Ai's famous saying: "Crime is in the present generation, and merit is in the future!" ”

The original Ming Dynasty, the opportunity to catch the last train of the Age of Discovery, if history can be repeated, of course, the Ming Dynasty will continue to stand in the world's national forest, the Ming people, will always have a strong self-confidence, will not be everywhere kneeling and licking foreign dogs.

The current people of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how poor they are, do not want to marry a woman of different races, because they are worried about giving birth to a string and are sorry for their ancestors, which is the same in Liaodong and in the Central Plains.

In all fairness, the losses of the Zheng fleet in this battle were not light, but the problem was that Zheng Zhilong had more than 3,000 ships, in fact, there were eight or nine hundred main warships, and the loss of fifty or sixty main warships, although it would make Zheng Zhilong feel painful, would not be seriously injured.

Even if Zheng Zhibao's naval defeat is added, Zheng's fleet still has seven or eight hundred capital warships, and the loss is only one-tenth.

If Cheng Shijie's thoughts were heard by Zheng Zhilong, he would definitely refute: "It's really not a backache to stand and talk!" ”

Since the battle with the Ning Navy, the Zheng fleet has failed in the three battles before and after, and the detachment led by Zheng Zhibao has lost more than 50 main warships and more than 200 small warships, and the most important thing is that he has lost the most effective marine unit in Zheng Zhilong's hands, that is, more than 6,000 small day samurai under the command of Kumamoto Taro.

This time, more than 2,400 small day samurai under the command of Morimoto Ichijiu, who had just been recruited, were burned to pieces by Cheng Shijie, and even Morimoto did not come back for a long time.

Coupled with the losses in the battle of Liaodong, not counting the more than 8,000 small day warriors, he has already lost more than 8,000 sailors.

On the sea off the coast of Hangzhou Bay, hundreds of warships are distributed on the sea, and each warship lights up early, and the lights converge into a sea of lights, and the whole fleet is like a floating city, which is magnificent.

That bright sea of lights was silently warning everyone that the Zheng fleet was the most powerful maritime force in the country, even if they had just fought a big defeat, it was still it!

Zheng Zhilong was very depressed at this time, the battle of Wusongkou failed, and this third defeat, whether it was an artillery battle or a land battle, the Zheng clan failed, and he had no power to fight back, and he was crushed and beaten all the time.

It's okay to say about the land war, after all, the strength of the Ning Navy is famous, the Mongolian Tartars, the Manchurian Jiannu, and the rippling Japanese Kou have all made them beat them all over, and they occupy the geographical advantage, and the elite of firearms is unmatched, Kumamoto Taro has fallen into the hands of the Ning Navy, not to mention Morimoto for a long time. Although it was unexpected, it was also reasonable.

However, the Zheng fleet was haunted by the result of the artillery battle, like a stab in the throat. They have always been the only ones who have relied on the fierce artillery fire to bully others, whether it is the Dutch or the Great Ming Navy, in the face of their huge fleet that is enough to cover the sea and the overwhelming artillery fire, they can only tremble!

However, this time they were beaten by the Ning Navy with only 20 or so cannons, and the range of the Ning Navy cannons, the high accuracy, and the power were completely beyond their most exaggerated imagination!

In fact, as early as the fifth year of the Apocalypse, when he fought the Dutch for the first time, he had already found that the iron cannon in his hand had fallen behind, and it was far inferior to the Dutch in terms of range and power. After the defeat of the Dutch at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the British once approached Zheng Zhilong and sold their naval guns.

After the Royal Navy of Great Britain defeated the Invincible Armada of the Spanish Empire, Great Britain at this time did not have colonies from all over the world to support the mainland, and the huge Royal Navy fleet could not be fed.

To be sure, the British fleet at that time was able to achieve the Spanish Armada with a greater element of luck, for example, the original admiral of the Spanish "Armada" at that time was Santa Cruz, he was an experienced admiral, but on the eve of the fleet's departure, he died suddenly. The Spanish Navy was not out of talent, but Philip II had the whimsical idea to appoint Sidonia, who was formerly an army general, to command the "Invincible Armada".

And it was the hubris of Philip II that laid the groundwork for Spain's defeat.

It is true that the British battleships were not as large as the Spanish ones, and their guns were inferior in number and caliber to the Spanish fleet, but their ships were fast and maneuverable, and they used broadside tactics, which made the guns of the British battleships have a longer range and no dead ends.

If Zheng Zhilong had bought the main naval guns of the Royal Fleet of the British at that time, whether it was the naval battle of Liaodong or the outcome of the naval battle of Wusongkou, I am afraid that it would have to be rewritten. You must know that among the British naval guns, there is a cannon with a caliber of one hundred and sixty millimeters, which can reach a range of more than three thousand meters, while the range advantage of the guns of the Ning Navy is not obvious.

But the problem was that the price of the large-caliber naval guns sold to him by Zheng Zhilong at that time was too expensive, and the guns of the same caliber were one-third cheaper for the Dutch and one-fifth cheaper for the Portuguese.

After the failure of Wu Songkou, Zheng Zhilong reacted, and he said to Shi Daxuan: "Daxuan! ”

"What do you command, Lord Admiral?"

"Go to the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Spaniards, and the British, and tell them that I want naval guns, powerful naval guns, and don't use old naval guns to deceive Admiral Ben!"

Shi Daxuan smiled bitterly and said: "Lord Admiral, those Xiyi are only afraid that they will sit on the ground and raise the price!" ”

"Haha!"

Zheng Zhilong smiled disapprovingly: "Tell those Xiyi that Admiral Ben is going to adopt a competitive approach, whoever has more naval guns, whose delivery time is fast, and whose price is low, who will get the friendship of Admiral Ben!" ”

Zheng Zhilong started in trade, especially for trade, he has a lot of experience, and he still monopolizes the right to trade, so he uses the binding of trade power to force Xiyi to make concessions. Of course, naval guns can make money, but it is only a one-shot deal, but the right to trade between the Ming and Europa in the ocean is a long-term benefit.

Zheng Zhilong negotiated Xiyi together, so that he provoked internal competition between Xiyi, everyone knew how much profit was from the trade between the monopoly Ming Dynasty and Europe, not to mention selling it to Zheng Zhilong, even if it was given away for free, they were willing.

Just when Zheng Zhilong was stuck in Hangzhou Bay, he occupied the Zhoushan Islands as a base, and was eyeing Wusongkou, but the problem was that the Ning Navy had launched another batch of new ships in Liaodong, and this batch of new ships included 16 Sea Shark-class 4,000-material warships, eight Seawolf-class 2,000-material warships, and four Giant Shark-class warships.

A total of 28 new warships were launched, of course, if these 28 warships want to become combat effectiveness, it will take a certain amount of time, and this batch of warships did not directly throw themselves into the battle of Wusongkou, but led by Li Fang, Jingzhou Island, Tsushima Island, to the south and southwest, straight to the port of Tamsui.

Chen Dayong conducted a survey on the immigrants in this paragraph, although the people are rich in products, climate matters, and abundant rain, but the problem is that because of the Zheng family's oppression of the immigrants, they are the same as the people of the Central Plains, they do not have three meals and no clothes.

If you want to say that the difference is that there are many prey, wild vegetables, and fruits on Dayuan Island, even if there is not enough food to eat, you can still find something from the mountains or forests that can barely satisfy your stomach, at least not like the Central Plains, where the people of the whole village starved to death.

Chen Dayong selected 800 young men from the 15 towns of Dayuan immigrants and made them soldiers of the Ning Navy and independently organized into the Tamsui Garrison Bureau.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Chen Dayong said to Shang Kexi: "General Shang, release these high-ranking soldiers under your command, and let them use their personal experience to tell those who want to change the current status quo." If they are willing to join our Ning Navy, let them participate in our assessment in half a month! ”

These soldiers from their hometowns are engaged in endless training in the Ning Navy every day, and the recruit training camp of the Ning Navy is simply a nineteen-layer hell.

But the problem is that although these recruits train hard, they are well fed, occasionally have oil and water, and most importantly, they are distributed two pairs of combat boots, two sets of training uniforms, as well as armor and blades at one time.

Most of these high-ranking soldiers were not eloquent, but the changes that happened to them were better than the agitation of words, most of them lived a life of lack of food and clothing, humiliation day and night, and some were even beaten to death, and now the scars have not disappeared, but now they have put on new clothes, eaten enough, and have been given the opportunity to change their fate.

If there is no Ning Haijun, the immigrants of Dayuan are better to die than to live, and they have no choice, Zheng Zhilong stationed more than 8,000 army troops in Dayuan, although the number is not much, it is more than enough to suppress less than 200,000 immigrant people.

But the problem is that with the senior soldiers who joined the Ning Navy, their families are also like the people in Liaodong, who are exempt from tax for five years and ten and a half years for tax, and as long as they kill the enemy in the future and make meritorious contributions, they can also use beheading to earn land for their families.

This made the young men of other senior members feel unbalanced: "They can do it, but Lao Tzu can't?" ”

"Am I not as good as them? No, I'm better than them! ”

"Have food to eat and clothes? Such a good thing? ”

"What's more, the family can also be tax-free! Tax exemption for five years, tax for ten and a half years! ”

"So good? You can try it, and if it doesn't work, you can run away. ”

In just three days, three or four thousand young men appeared outside Tamsui City, and they all signed up to participate in the Ning Navy, and the number was increasing every day.

Chen Dayong said with a smile: "Arrange them to eat a full meal, let them take a good bath, and take care of their personal hygiene!" ”

"Yes!"

Shang Kexi said: "But we don't have much food!" ”

"There is not much food, exchange our steel with the Spaniards, and our supply fleet is coming soon, the food crisis can be solved immediately!"

Chen Dayong said: "The assessment standards of our Ning Navy cannot be lowered, and our Ning Navy does not collect garbage!" ”

On the other side, the scouts of the Red Lady Department in the central region of Dayuan continued to infiltrate in the direction of Taichung and Tainan, and the current village chief Liu should not be said to be the mayor of Liu.

Originally, based on Liujia Village, the immigrants from several surrounding villages were gathered together, and nearly 2,000 people worked together to blow up a small hill, and in this way the current Liujia Town was built.

Liujia Town takes the valley as the main body, which is an east-west valley, east and west, low at both ends, and the middle is the current Liujia Town.

With these two walls, not only can you defend against wild beasts, even if Xiyi wants to attack here, he will hit his scalp and bleed.

Village Chief Liu's name is Liu Asu, he is indeed somewhat famous within a radius of 100 miles, and after his invitation, hundreds of Gaoshan tribes and Atayal people came to Liujia Town to trade.

The indigenous people of Dayuan have the habit of hunting heads, and the Red Lady uses the equipment of the Ning Navy, such as the dog-leg knife, the Tang horizontal knife, the Miao knife, and the broken saber, as well as the recurve bow and crossbow machine, to trade with the mountain people.

When these mountain people saw Ning Haijun's equipment, they immediately drooled.

The Red Lady used these equipment to trade with the mountain people, and the object of the transaction could be prey or human heads, such as Zheng's troops, as well as the human heads of Xiyi, a dog-legged knife, a human head, a horizontal knife, a human head, two human heads, a bow, five human heads, and a crossbow machine.

In just over half a month, these mountain people spread the news throughout the entire Taichung area, and the Dutch had more than 40 heads cut off before and after.

The Dutch were so frightened that they didn't even dare to go out of Tainan Port.

The strategy of the Ning Navy in the Grand Commander is to boil the frog in warm water, and the Ning Navy is like a rope without opening, slowly wrapping around the necks of the Zheng family, the Dutch, and even the Spaniards.

When the mountain people were headhunting, no matter what Spaniards or Dutchmen, even Xiaotian people, as long as they could not speak Chinese, they were their targets, and these heads could not only be exchanged for knives, but also for grain, salt, silk, and rouge gouache for beautiful women.

In the eyes of the mountain people, the head of the person is the silver of white flowers.

After the Battle of Wusongkou, Zheng Zhilong and Ning Haijun were accumulating strength and preparing for another big war.

Cheng Shijie finally relented and could open the Yangtze River estuary, the key is to pay taxes, and it is a tax of 20% per ship, which makes Gao Qiqian and Wu Sheng responsible.

Gao Qiqian never procrastinates on making money, and even trots to drink water and eat, for fear of missing the opportunity to earn a penny.

For the maritime merchants, this is not unacceptable, but Cheng Shijie receives one point, Zheng Zhilong also receives one point, their goods can only be sold at a discount, and the wool is out of the sheep.

"Stop, pay your taxes!"

The Jinyi Wei and Dongchang Fanzi under Gao Qiqian's command are like wolves and tigers.

"Father-in-law, it's a little meaning, it's not a tribute!"

"Get out, you dare to bribe our family, come on, throw him into the river to take a bath, let him sober up!"

Gao Qiqian faced the broken silver handed over by the boss of the boat, and spat out and smeared: "I, this bit of silver is called Huazi!" ”

Gao Qiqian finally saw the money back, and collected more than one million taels of silver in more than half a month, and it is conceivable that there will definitely be more than 10 million taels of silver in a year.

Of course, Gao Qiqian's account is not right, there are many ships going to sea recently, because Cheng Shijie cut off the Yangtze River estuary, which is the number intercepted for four or five months, and there are definitely not so many goods in normal times.

Gao Qiqian immediately wrote a letter to Emperor Chongzhen, telling him what happened in Wusongkou, and the most important thing was silver.

The emperor is forty percent, that is, more than 600,000 taels of silver, and is directly escorted into Beijing.

On the Luzon side, the development of the Ning Navy is also very good.

Zhenghe Port and Zhenghe Port Area have begun to take shape, usually the Spaniards will not go to Zhenghe Port, according to the agreement, Ning Haijun has the right to manage Zhenghe Port, and the law implemented is the "Da Ming Law" and the "Liaodong Management Law", but the problem is that they really can't resist the temptation of food.

After the discovery of potatoes in the New World, they occupied a very important role in the food structure of the Spaniards, potatoes can be used as a staple food, can be eaten as a vegetable, can be used as snacks, and can even be used to make wine, the key is that potatoes are produced.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes were actually brought back to the Central Plains by the Ming people from Luzon, but the problem is that ordinary potatoes were played with flowers in the hands of the Ming people.

Since the fifteenth century, Europe began to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes, but in later generations, Europeans still ate potatoes limited to a limited number of mashed potatoes, potato bread, french fries, etc., and Russians used potato beef stew, which became the peak of potato taste.

Potato beef stew in the hands of the chef of Daming, potatoes and sweet potatoes shine, all kinds of potato cakes, shredded potatoes, potato chips, fried cooking and changing tricks one by one.

Luis, who was the first to try it, was hooked, and with Luis as his guide, more and more Spaniards entered the commercial street of Zhenghe Port District to taste potatoes and sweet potato delicacies.

Of course, potato wine is also included.

It's just that Spain has always been the emperor of the soil in Luzon, and they leave directly after eating.

The local Chinese are also accustomed to being bullied by the Spaniards, and they dare not speak out when they are bullied, after all, a meal is not worth much.

But the problem is that Zheng He's port area belongs to the Ning Navy, and the era of Chinese bullying is over.

On this day, Cheng Shi and Xie Jinglin were wandering around Zhenghegang District, because he was wearing civilian clothes, no one knew them, everyone was in a hurry, and no one even looked at them......

The Chinese in Zhenghe Port are busy earning money to buy more food, and now the market in Zhenghe Port is quite prosperous, vegetables, fruits, yellow grain, flour, edible oil, salt and other foods and non-staple foods enter the market through the sea route continuously, and the prices are relatively low, so the store business of selling these products is very hot.

Looking at the hurried figure on the faces of the Chinese people and the satisfied smiles on their faces, Cheng Shi felt very happy, and it was great that a large number of people benefited from them.

At this moment, a commotion came from the front.

Cheng Shi was still a little puzzled: "What happened?" ”

I saw that the restaurant in front of me called the Lin Family Restaurant was in a mess, and several soldiers in Spanish uniforms were beating a Chinese guy.

Although there were many Chinese people around, no one stepped forward to meddle in their affairs, because they found that the five Spaniards had knives pinned to their waists and muskets on their backs.

One of the bearded Spaniards grabbed the weak Chinese guy and punched him, and the Chinese guy who had been punched in the stomach curled up in a ball.

Cheng Shi yelled: "Stop! ”

The Spaniard who beat him didn't pay attention to Cheng Shi, they shouldn't have understood Cheng Shi's words, and the guy in the shop was beaten and bloodied.

Cheng Shi didn't talk nonsense, he directly took out his revolver, opened the insurance, and shot at the sky.

"Bang!"

With the sound of this gunshot, the five Spaniards looked at Cheng Shi.

One of the Spaniards pointed at Cheng Shi and spoke Spanish.

Cheng Shi naturally can't understand Spanish, but the problem is that sometimes the language doesn't need to be understood, and when scolding, the expression says it all.

"Arrest me, dare to resist, and kill!"

Cheng Shi's guards were also old men who followed Cheng Shijie, and most of them were holding guns, but seeing that the other party didn't use their guns and knives, they rushed forward with their bare hands.

Cheng Shi's guards were very black, and although one of them did not use a gun, he casually picked up a weighing stone that a vegetable vendor had thrown on the ground.

This is called a stone made of iron, and the weight is not light, and if you follow the door of your brain, you will have a concussion if you don't die.

"Bang ......"

The nimble guard knocked five Spaniards to the ground with a pair of fives, two of whom were unconscious, bleeding from their heads.

One of the black-faced female shopkeepers shouted, "Well done! ”

When she shouted, everyone reacted and applauded loudly, and the streets were thunderous with joy, as lively as they wanted.

Wu Shangzhi rushed over when he heard the news, he hurried and hurried, it was still too late.

Five Spaniards were knocked to the ground, and two of them had more breath and less breath, and they couldn't survive, and their heads were smashed out of a walnut-sized hole, which was a miracle if they could survive.

It is a pity that the East does not belong to God, and God does not bless them.

Wu Shangzhi said bitterly: "Major General Cheng, you are in a big disaster!" ”

Cheng Shi smiled disapprovingly: "What kind of trouble did you cause?" ”

"You hit the Spaniards!"

Cheng Shi pointed to Zheng Hegang and said: "This is Zheng Hegang, the territory of our Ning Navy, it is the dragon they want to coil, and the tiger they want to lie down!" ”

Wu Shangzhi patted his thigh and said, "Oh, my mother, how should this end!" ”

(End of chapter)