Chapter 230

On the sea surface of Subic Bay, hundreds of warships of the Zheng fleet are scattered on the sea, and the entire fleet is like a floating city, which is magnificent.

This is Zheng Zhilong's core strength, and it is also the foundation of Zheng Zhilong's domination of the sea. Although in the face of the Zheng fleet and the Ning Navy, there were fewer victories and more defeats before and after, but it did not damage the fundamental strength of the Zheng fleet, they were still the most powerful fleet in the Ming Dynasty, and they also had a place in the world.

In the past, the sailors of the Zheng fleet would drink, eat meat or gamble to pass the boring time, but the Zheng fleet at this time was a little weird. Even if the Battle of Wusongkou was lost, the Zheng fleet was still highly motivated, and at that time, they still had the confidence to defeat the Ning navy.

However, with the overall surrender of the vanguard of the Zheng fleet, it made all the sailors and leaders of the Zheng fleet feel extremely heavy.

"Those black-skinned naval guns are really so powerful, they killed Luo Jiu with one shot from six or seven miles away?"

When he received this news, Zheng Zhilong was very uncomfortable.

Luo Jiu is one of the backbone members of Zheng Zhilong's lineage, with the rank of general of the Navy Division, Luo Jiu was originally the right-hand man of Chen Xinji, a backbone member of Zheng Zhilong's official party, in the first year of Chongzhen, Chen Xinji was killed by Li Kuiqi, and then Luo Jiu became Zheng Zhilong's subordinate, and he was one of the stronger leaders under Zheng Zhilong's command, he originally had nineteen main warships and more than 100 large and small warships.

It's just that in the Battle of Wusongkou, his three main battleships were sunk, one was damaged, and only fifteen remained, as one of the fierce generals under Zheng Zhilong. The most fundamental reason why the First Squadron defeated the fourteen main warships of the Zheng Fleet in one shot was that there was Luo Jiu, the leader of the Zheng Group. Luo Jiu's death directly caused his subordinates to collapse and surrender to the Ning Navy.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Shi Daxuan and said, "Daxuan, have you heard that there is a cannon that can sink a ship with one shot six or seven miles away?" ”

Shi Daxuan shook his head: "I haven't heard that even in Liaodong and Wusongkou, the range of those coastal defense guns of the Ning Navy is three or four miles, usually within three miles. ”

"That's the problem!"

Zheng Zhilong sighed and said, "I originally thought that Ning Haijun was a soft persimmon, but I never thought that they were so difficult!" ”

Shi Daxuan also secretly thought in his heart, Ning Haijun is not only difficult, but also very difficult.

But the problem is that there is no turning back from the bow, no matter how difficult it is, he must continue to fight. If he goes back like this, Zheng Zhilong still has a face?

No, whatever you say, you have to bite Ning Haijun hard, otherwise you will never retreat!

It's just that how to bite Ning Haijun back?

He never found an opportunity, although Shi Daxuan proposed a plan for him, bypassing Wusongkou, landing in a place where the Ning Navy was not armed, and copying it from behind.

The artillery fire of the fortress at Wusongkou is very fierce, but no matter how fierce it is, it is impossible to resist the attack from the back, right? Zheng Zhilong believes that the probability of success is very high, and the most important thing is that even if he fails, he will not lose the battleship, so why not?

However, just as Zheng Zhilong was about to take action, the bigwigs from the court warned Zheng Zhilong not to make trouble, let alone expand the situation.

At first, Zheng Zhilong didn't understand it very well, but it wasn't until Shi Daxuan reminded Zheng Zhilong that if they bypassed Wusongkou and attacked Wusongkou from other places, Cheng Shijie could also attack their Zheng family's strategic places from other places, such as the Dayuan Taichung region, as well as Fujian and Quanzhou, and it would not be possible to end the battle at that time.

The interference of the bigwigs in the DPRK and China was actually because Cheng Shijie played a role in the silver, and Gao Qiqian collected more than one million taels of silver from the mouth of the Yangtze River, of which forty percent belonged to Emperor Chongzhen, more than 600,000 taels of silver, equivalent to one-tenth of the treasury revenue.

This is a huge amount of money, which is different from copying homes, which is just a one-shot deal, and most of them are fixed assets, and large-scale raids on homes, and the land cannot be sold. And this is a long-term capital income, Emperor Chongzhen not only acquiesced in Wu Sheng's garrison in Wusongkou and served as the chief soldier of Wusongkou, but also secretly warned Wen Tiren that Zheng Zhilong could fight with Cheng Shijie, but not excessively.

Cheng Shijie, as the weaker party, was naturally protected by the DPRK.

This actually made Cheng Shijie smile bitterly, Cheng Shijie was ready for Wu Songkou, and he was waiting to give Zheng Zhilong another heavy blow, but he didn't expect that Zheng Zhilong was coaxed by the hint of the big man in the DPRK.

Just when Zheng Zhilong was full of anger and wondered if he would slaughter one or two chickens and monkeys, a hundred thousand light boats rushed over and brought a terrifying news.

Luzon was captured by the Ning navy.

When he received the news at that time, Zheng Zhilong was incredulous, but after repeated investigations, the authenticity of the news was confirmed.

Zheng Zhilong knew that his opportunity had come, Ning Haijun had a fort in Wusongkou, and Manila also had a fort, which was different from the situation in Wusongkou, obviously he could bypass Wusongkou and attack Wusongkou by sea and land, but under the pressure from above, he couldn't do this.

Luzon can, Luzon does not belong to the Ming Dynasty, and the bigwigs in the DPRK and China can't control it, at the same time, once Luzon is taken, Zheng Zhilong can sell Luzon at a good price, you must know that the Dutch covet Luzon for a day or two, and at the same time, the Portuguese, the British, including the Spaniards, all want Luzon.

As long as Luzon was in hand, he could exchange Luzon for dozens of heavy warships, or hundreds or thousands of artillery pieces.

So, Zheng Zhilong went to the Subic Sea, because he could attack Subic Port from the Subic Strait, which was the Subic shipyard in later generations, but now it is only a small port.

Just when Zheng Zhilong caused a major earthquake in the Zheng fleet because of the collective surrender of Luo Jiu's troops, almost all the leaders and leaders were shaken.

"What bullshit six or seven miles away, sunk by a cannon. This is all Luo Jiu, the bastard, who has betrayed Admiral's trust in him, we are also old rivals with Ning Haijun, and it is not the first time to fight, whether it is in Liaodong or Wusongkou, do they Ning Haijun have such a powerful cannon? ”

Zheng Zhilong looked at the generals and said, "Who of you has seen it?" ”

The generals were speechless.

Zheng Zhilong said with a smile: "This is just the heart attack plan of those black skins, if you are afraid, it is their trick, and now they are playing with us to attack the heart, what does this mean?" ”

Hong Xu reacted: "It means that they can't beat us, they're scared!" ”

"That's right, we can't be fooled!"

As he spoke, a bird boat came quickly.

"What? The Denlai Sailor is here!? ”

Zheng Zhilong was ecstatic: "They actually came out of the turtle shell? ”

"It's coming! There are a total of sixty warships, almost all of them are brand new, they are very fast, and the firepower is also very fierce, and a patrol fleet led by Huang Jiang has been annihilated by them! ”

"Great! Finally, I can beat them up when I get the chance! ”

Zheng Zhilong's eyes lit up, he clapped his fists together, looked around at everyone, and said with pride: "Everyone, you don't have to mind Luo Jiu's defeat, this forest is big, there are all kinds of birds, and it is reasonable to suffer a small loss." However, this naval battle is our strong point, and we have been crisscrossing the sea for more than ten years, and we have not met an opponent! And what about the Ning Navy Naval Division? It's just a rabble that has been in the army for three years, and this time we will kill them without leaving a piece of armor, so that they will not be able to return! ”

Hearing that there were only about sixty warships in the Ning Navy Division, Hong Xu and Shi Daxuan, a group of ostrich generals who advocated an immediate retreat, suddenly seemed to have swallowed ten packs of viagra after being beaten with chicken blood, and they were full of energy and shouted: "Yes, we can't beat them in land battles, but they are definitely not our opponents in naval battles, they are here to send them to death!" ”

Hong Xu shouted even more vigorously: "When this fleet is annihilated, we will follow the advice of the Admiral, block the Yangtze River waterway with the fleet, and trap Cheng Shijie in Wusongkou!" ”

In the face of the "weak" Ning Navy sailors, the generals of the Zheng fleet immediately agreed with each other, and Zheng Zhilong immediately ordered the dragon and tiger battle flag of the main battle to be raised, and the flagship took the lead and rushed to the south.

The fleet, which was still listless, was excited, and one closely followed the other to form a combat formation and sailed south. If you look down from the sky, you will see that more than 600 warships are forming two arrows, one large and one small, cutting through the sea and rushing towards the opponent's edge.

The difference is that the Ning Navy is in good order, and all the warships are communicating with walkie-talkies, conveying orders, while the Zheng fleet is more chaotic, and the small boats responsible for the orders are shuttling back and forth in the middle of the huge fleet, shouting loudly, the fleet has sailed out for several kilometers, and some warships do not know where the enemy is, what the number is, and from which direction to kill, just mechanically follow the large force.

In terms of command, the Zheng fleet lost first.

Zheng Zhilong's flagship sailed out more than ten kilometers, and he could finally see the fleet of the Ning Navy through the telescope, but the battleships of the Ning Navy that came with the wind, more than ten kilometers away from them, actually began to turn around, and seemed to be coming violently, looking at the huge scale of the Zheng fleet, he was so frightened that he retreated.

At this time, the morale of the Zheng fleet was even stronger, the momentum was like a rainbow, and the sound of shouting and killing and shouting was loud.

Zheng Zhilong sighed and said, "It's a pity, it's getting dark!" ”

"That's right, it may be that they Ning Haijun just calculated the time and knew that we couldn't fight today, so they deliberately showed their faces to boost their morale!"

Shi Daxuan analyzed: "It is also possible that they lure the enemy deep into ......"

"What Da Xuan said is not unreasonable!"

Zheng Zhilong said with a smile: "Order, pass on the order of the Admiral, all departments must not take the enemy lightly!" ”

On the Guangning, the flagship of the first detachment of the Ning Navy, Zou Jing said with some doubts: "Why don't we fight?" ”

"Hit, hit, hit, know how to fight!"

Li Yuan said angrily: "When the marshal told you, did you forget what you said?" ”

Zou Jing was a little puzzled: "Dashuai said a lot of things at that time, how do I know which sentence you are talking about!" ”

"When the brave meets on a narrow road, who will win against the two armies?"

"Whoever makes fewer mistakes wins!"

Li Yuan nodded and said, "Since you still remember this, then I want to ask you, now that it's getting dark, how can you fight?" Besides, the line of sight is not wide at night, near this sea area, there are many reefs, if you are not careful, you will hit the reef, our warships are large, the draft is deep, it is easier to be hit, the battleships of the Zheng fleet are small, and the shallow draft has an advantage over us! ”

The 60 main warships of the Ning Navy, including 48 Sea Shark-class warships, spread their wings like eagles, guarding the 12 new-type large ships of the Chinese fleet, and began to sail in the direction of the China Sea. The reason for this was to prevent the Zheng fleet from outflanking the left and right with small clippers.

Half an hour later, the sun began to set below sea level, which meant that night was coming, and of course, Zheng Zhilong did not know that his bad luck had struck again.

Zheng Zhilong watched the main battleship of the Ning Navy disappear from sight, and he faintly felt a little uneasy.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Shi Daxuan with some anxiety and said, "Daxuan, do you think those black skins will be a little abnormal?" ”

"Something unusual indeed!"

Fundamentally, the last battle report under Zheng Zhibao's command described that the naval division of the Ning Navy was very brave, even if he knew the enemy, he moved forward bravely, even if he faced an absolute disadvantage, and never thought of a negotiated solution.

Zheng Zhilong had people rob the ships of Ning Haijun and their allies the Shachuan Gang, and even threw the sailors of the Shachuan Gang into the sea and drowned, and captured six or seven hundred Liaodong sailors, in order to force Cheng Shijie to negotiate with him.

As long as Cheng Shijie pays him protection fees like other Jiangnan and Fujian maritime merchants, even if it is like the Dutch East India Company, which adopts the method of annual subscription, he is willing to accept negotiations.

But the problem is that Cheng Shijie doesn't seem to know what kind of negotiation it is, and no one is sent over.

How could they retreat so easily?

Zheng Zhilong's hunch was accurate, Ning Haijun really didn't retreat so easily.

Although Li Zhixiang was born in the naval division of the Dongjiang Army, and the naval combat experience he received was actually backward naval combat experience, the problem was that Li Zhixiang's background was low, and he was just a general officer who belonged to the grassroots officers of the naval division.

After taking refuge in Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie depicted a majestic blueprint for him, as well as the development model of naval warfare, the future naval battle will definitely become a duel between cannons, and the gang fighting will completely disappear in the naval battle sequence.

The direction of the wind, the currents, and the climate are all basic skills that the admiral must master.

Now Li Zhixiang is using the ocean current, which is a branch of the North Equatorial Warm Current, which is generally transferred from the southeast to the northwest.

If there are no storms or other unexpected weather, the current will continue to move northwestward.

At this time, the main fleet of the naval division of the Ning Navy began to drop anchor, and several staff officers of the naval division were calculating the speed of the injection.

"Tell General Li that the direction and speed of the flowing ocean have been calculated!"

"Oh, how fast!"

"Three to five sections!"

"We are about twenty-five kilometers away from the Zheng fleet, and according to the speed of the ocean current, it will take us at most two hours to drift to the Zheng fleet!"

"Let's get started!"

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, the squadron of the Ning Navy began to place mines on the sea, which were equivalent to a huge sea urchin if you looked at the shape.

In fact, this kind of mine has little to do with Cheng Shijie, in the middle of the sixteenth century, the Ming Dynasty was able to produce various types of mines, and the technology has been quite mature, the power is very great, the mine is an important weapon of the Ming Dynasty sailors at that time.

In 1549, the Ming Dynasty independently developed the world's first mine: "underwater mine". The shell of the mine is a wooden structure, elegant and retro, with a beautiful appearance, and the iron anchor is connected by a rope, so that the depth of the drop can be controlled, and the West did not start using the mine until more than 200 years later. According to historical records, during the War of Resistance against Japan and Aid Korea during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty used this kind of underwater mine to sink the Japanese warship, which was the first actual combat application of the mine and achieved great success.

By 1590, the Ming Dynasty's mine technology was more mature, and the clever Ming Dynasty naval army created a timed mine - "Underwater Dragon King Cannon", the name is so domineering, the power of the dragon king as the submarine overlord to shoot the cannon is still needless to say, it is really the dragon king let you die in the third watch, and you dare not stay until the fifth watch. The mine uses ox belly as a thunder shell, and the inside is filled with black powder, which is burned with incense as a fuse, and can be detonated regularly by calculating the burning time of the incense.

It should be said that the improvement of the Ning Navy on the mines is mainly in the aspect of the explosion fuse and the explosion department, two aspects of improvement. Ning Haijun's Gunpowder Bureau invented nitrocellulose gunpowder, that is, smokeless gunpowder, which exploded two or three times as powerful as black powder, and this new type of gunpowder even interrupted the production of chemical fertilizer for military use.

If the artillery of the Ning Navy continues to use black powder as the propellant, the initial velocity of black powder is limited, and the range of the shell is also limited, and the power is even more limited.

The second is the fuze mode, the Ning Navy basically canceled the detonation method of open flame ignition, this kind of mine is to take the contact explosion method, first of all, when the mine is manufactured, the density is controlled, only in the semi-floating state on the sea surface, about one meter away from the water surface.

The second is that it is loaded with sixteen long tentacles, which are similar to pumps, and although the waves will touch this kind of detonating tentacles, they cannot directly detonate the mine because of their lack of strength.

Only when a mine hits an enemy warship, it will be detonated because of the huge impact force, among which this kind of mine is loaded with 68 kilograms of nitrocellulose gunpowder, which is equivalent to the explosive power of 2 or 300 catties of black powder, which is equivalent to more than 30 kilograms of TNT.

The cost of a mine is as much as 580 taels of silver, and this time Li Zhixiang carried more than 500 pieces when he went south.

Because the number is too small, this can only be done in this way to maximize the power.

The relationship between distance and speed, Ning Haijun calculated very skillfully.

After a night of preparation, at dawn, the sailors on the ships of the Ning Navy quickly ate, then checked the equipment, began to raise the sails and anchor, and once again sailed towards the side of the Zheng fleet.

Half an hour later, the lookouts of the Zheng fleet spotted the battleships of the Ning Navy, and the battle alarm sounded over the Zheng fleet.

Zheng Zhilong saw the main fleet of the Ning Navy Division, forty-eight capital battleships lined up in two formations, in the shape of canine teeth, as if two rows of sharp teeth were rushing towards them.

Forty-eight Sea Shark-class warships, rushing to the wind, like a wall to advance, the bow of the cannon ammunition has already been loaded, the gun commander lying in front of the simple gun team mirror staring at the target, his mouth constantly reporting one parameter after another, the hard-pressed gunner hurriedly adjusted Zhu Yuan.

Zheng Zhilong naturally will not sit still, at night, they gather together and form a hedgehog formation, which is to prevent the night attack of the Ning Navy sailors, if they still do not change the formation, waiting to be covered by the artillery of the Ning Navy?

Zheng Zhilong has experienced countless artillery battles at sea, and he has also fought two decisive battles with the Europa Xiaoqiang Dutch, and he knows very well that naval battles require large warships to disperse to avoid being covered by bombing.

Just when the battleship of the Ning Navy was nearly eight miles away from them, the artillery of the Ning Navy actually began to fire.

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

Ninety-six bow guns began to fire sequentially.

Zheng Zhilong had a smile on his face: "Do you still want to hit the luck?" ”

However, at this moment, on the sea about three or four miles away from the Zheng fleet, a stream of water poured out, which meant that the main naval guns of the naval division of the Ning Navy did not copy the fortune of the day before yesterday.

"Hong Xu, you lead people to rush to the left wing, Shi Daxuan leads your people to rush to the right!"

Before Zheng Zhilong's words fell, he heard a loud roar from the southwest.

After a terrifying flash of light and a violent explosion, a blacktail warship disappeared from the sea, leaving only a pile of broken wreckage still floating on the surface.

Zheng Zhilong's face changed drastically, and he muttered, "What...... How could their naval guns hit so far and so accurately? This doesn't make sense! ”

"Lord Admiral, we must press it all up, otherwise, we will be in big trouble!"

Zheng Zhilong also lost his composure, and hissed wildly: "Press up!" Press them up and kill them! ”

It's just a pity that when the Zheng fleet was moving forward with full sails, explosions sounded one after another, and in just half a pillar of incense, more than a dozen battleships were blown up.

Zheng Zhilong finally found the problem: "Their battleship is still seven or eight miles away from us, and we haven't seen where the shells are flying from, what's the matter?" ”

Shi Daxuan sent a flag to Zheng Zhilong: "Lord Admiral, mines...... It's a mine! ”

Under Shi Daxuan's reminder, Zheng Zhilong realized that their fleet was surrounded by mines.

Because of the unknown mines, the Zheng fleet did not dare to move, and urgently lowered the sails, and when they turned, more than a dozen warships were sunk by mines, and they didn't even dare to move.

Fortunately, the battleships in the back could move and retreat, and because they were too dense, there were several collisions.

And when the battleships of the Ning Navy were about five or six miles away from the main advance of the Zheng fleet, they began to turn around, and the two teams became one and cut in from the southeast.

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

Forty-eight Sea Shark-class warships fired shells at Zheng's fleet using broadside boats.

In all fairness, the hit rate of the guns of the battleships of the Ning Navy was not very high, about five percent, forty-eight Sea Shark-class, a total of 576 side guns, even if they had a five percent hit rate, there were still seven or eight or more than a dozen warships hit at each salvo.

The power of the three-inch guns and the four-inch naval guns really can't be blown out, and now they are like shooting targets, knocking out the Zheng family's fleet layer by layer, which makes Zheng Zhilong feel extremely aggrieved.

(End of chapter)