The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 786 Decent Surrender

Zheng Zhihu asked: "Don't the generals of the 'Red Banner Army' take the lead? How can they inspire their subordinates to fight the enemy bravely without a general leading the charge?"

Huang Xinquan said: "The 'Red Banner Army' is different from the old army of the Ming Dynasty. It is an educated and younger army. official.

The participation of senior officers at the general level in the charge will only happen when the large corps are fighting.Your position is the leader of the Longwu Navy, which is equivalent to the actual command of the army. It is of course a violation of the rules to participate in jumping over the ship.

The vast majority of our army are educated young people, and everyone understands their responsibilities, and there is no need for supervisors and demonstrations. "

This kind of regulation is actually Huang Han's reference to later generations. Under normal circumstances, when the company commander and below charge in battle, the battle that the battalion commander and regimental commander charge personally should be very cruel.

The "Red Banner Army" has a total of three hundred generals, and the total number of soldiers is less than four hundred, which is similar to the number of a battalion in later generations. It's the level of brigade commander.

Zheng Zhihu sighed: "How can you feel the strength of the 'Red Banner Army' without being there. This strength is not just equipment and firepower, but comes from the strong heart of every soldier."

Huang Xinquan said with a smile: "So you are in the right place to join the 'Red Banner Army'. One day we will lead the battleship formation into the homeland of the English."

Zheng Zhihu said confidently: "There will be such a day, and I reckon it won't be far away."

At this time, Zheng Zhihu discovered that the special bed crossbow of the "Liaoyang" shot out several steel spears carrying cables and nailed them deeply into the hull of the Charlie. A dozen sailors were already struggling to pull the cables to drag the Charlie closer and capture them.

Not more than a moment after the battle, under the overwhelming artillery fire coverage of the Longwu Navy, the artillery on the six main battleships of the English basically went silent.

Either the artillery was directly hit by solid bullets and knocked over on the deck, or the gunner was sieved by the tens of thousands of shotguns fired by the Fran machine gun in the last three rounds.

Although the English had lost their resistance, the Longwu Navy continued to attack with shotguns, with the obvious intention of killing people!
The naval battle lasted only a little over two quarters. Because the six main battleships of the British army lost more than half of their power due to the interruption of the main mast or the auxiliary mast, the English could not even try to escape.

The surviving Englishmen hid in the cabin and lay prone on the deck. They were unable to fight back and were completely under unilateral shelling.

Many injured crew members were beaten to pieces by successive shotgun attacks because they failed to find the cover in time. They looked so horrible that many crew members lost the courage to fight again.

Before the boarding battle began, because they knew that they would face the fate of being beaten to death if they resisted stubbornly, the bullying Englishmen raised the white flag.

Half of their surviving people, under the leadership of Captain Wilson, made a decent request to surrender. At this time, Wedell, who was once mighty, had been wounded by artillery fire and was receiving surgery from the army doctor.

Huang Yong was not happy, and the consequences were very serious, because during the artillery battle, the Longwu Navy suffered more than [-] officers and soldiers, and more than [-] people died in the battle. Among them, more than [-] educated young soldiers became martyrs.

Wilson did not expect that the English would not be honored after their decent surrender. They were lined up on the deck by the surviving officers, and the weapons such as matchlock guns and waist knives were neatly stacked in front of the team.

Unexpectedly, after boarding the warship, the Ming army pushed them down one by one indiscriminately, and then tied them into rice dumplings and threw them on the deck. They didn't give them a sip of water or a piece of bread for half a day and a night.

On the second day after the naval battle, hundreds of prisoners, including the crew of the warship captured by the English, were taken to the Humen Fort.

There are no wounded or sick here, and the "Red Banner Army" will not waste medicine to treat the Xiyi invaders. Cutting off their heads is their fate.

The news that the Longwu navy wiped out the English and captured all the warships spread like wildfire that day, because it was fighting at the mouth of the Pearl River, which is a densely populated area.

The sound of cannons on the sea was rumbling, and many fishermen and businessmen saw the dragon flag fluttering and told each other, and they all came to the shore to watch. Thousands of people witnessed the exhilarating battle of annihilation at sea.

Most of the Ming troops stationed at the Humen Fort were locals. When they found out that the English executioners who attacked Daming for no reason and killed their relatives were all captured by the "Red Banner Army", they were immediately outraged.

The survivors who were burned down by the English and the families of the crew members who were attacked for no reason got the news that the assailant was defeated and captured by the Longwu Navy under the command of the General Conqueror, and the leader of the Longwu Navy It is Huang Yong, the brother of Liao Guogong, the commander-in-chief of the army.

People around Guangzhou poured into the Humen Fort, begging General Huang Yong to avenge their loved ones.

The bound invaders were terrified when they saw tens of thousands of gnashing avengers. Wilson hurriedly protested loudly, asking General Ming to treat the prisoners of war well, saying that their country would definitely pay a lot of ransom.

Huang Yong can't understand English, and has been serving as an interpreter for Second Lieutenant Marcel Laus, who has been serving in the Longwu Navy.

The generals of the "Red Banner Army" present, including Zheng Zhilong's subordinates, laughed when they learned that the Englishman asked for forgiveness. Zheng Zhilong spat and cursed:
"I have a great Ming Dynasty, Huatianbao, and countless treasures of gold and silver. Can you think of a little ransom from your country? Today, I want you to pay homage to the dead souls killed by you."

Seeing that the Ming army's intention was to massacre close to a thousand prisoners of war, Marcellus couldn't help but change his face. He translated Zheng Zhilong's words to the English.

Suddenly, a small half of the invaders were desperate, and they cried out loudly. Wilson quickly argued:

"Your Excellency, General, please be merciful. We are all soldiers and must obey orders. Attacking forts, burning down Ming merchant ships and towns are all orders given by Commander Wedel, and we are only executors."

The onlookers raised their arms and shouted: "Blood debts are paid with blood, the invaders cannot be forgiven, please generals avenge the soldiers and civilians who died in vain..."

At this time, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, the prefect of Guangzhou, the general of Guangdong, and other civil and military generals hurried to Humen. Noretti also came with a few entourages, and several Portuguese compradors also followed to see how to deal with the English.

The Portuguese predicted that the Longwu Navy would arrive, and the English would definitely not be able to please them, but they did not expect the retribution to come so quickly and thoroughly, and it seemed that none of the English had slipped through the net.

Huang Yong was impatient to argue with the English. After greeting the Governor of Guangdong, Guangxi and Guangdong officials, he asked them to observe how to deal with the prisoners of war.

(End of this chapter)