Lu Ming

Chapter 709 Receiving the Line ([-])

After six days of secret talks between the two leaders of Lizhuobao.

Behind the main entrance, on the tall bamboo podium, Mr. Wu and shopkeeper Gu stood side by side, holding binoculars to observe the enemy's surroundings.

Compared with a few days ago, there have been great changes in the castle.

Almost all the houses that were vacant had their roofs taken off.The dismantled building materials turned into a continuous canopy, which was built in all the places where firearms were needed.

Carefully moving the camera over the cannon emplacement behind the main entrance, Gu Ming asked in a deep voice, "Is the cannon ammunition enough?"

"Dozens of shots, too much is useless." Wu Sanye put down the binoculars, grinned, with a bad look on his face: "As long as it rains in this ghost place, it won't stop. As time goes on, the moisture will fade away." Come up, the gunpowder and gunpowder will stop firing."

The muscles on Gu Ming's face trembled.He really didn't want to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the natives: "Didn't it say that it will rain in June? There are still a few days left. Where is the fleet?"

"There is still [-]% of the sea route."

Gu Ming opened his eyes wide: "That's close, will we arrive within three days?"

Wu Sanye smiled wryly: "The road ahead is difficult."

Saigon, later known as Ho Chi Minh City, is about 1200 kilometers by sea from Fort Lidrick.

The current steam fleet of Dayan Kingdom is only the early single-cylinder power system, and the three-expansion machine technology is still climbing.

This level of steam sailing fleet can maintain a speed of six knots when the sea conditions are stable.Theoretically speaking, it only takes five days to travel from Saigon to Fort Licht.

But reality is far more difficult than theory.

The sea conditions in the South China Sea are complex.Around Zhenghe Island, there are thousands of large and small islands, bright reefs, hidden reefs, corals, dark beaches, etc.

In the first few days after the fleet departs, the average speed can be maintained.But as soon as it approaches [-] kilometers around Zhenghe Island, the density of obstacles will increase rapidly.

Although there are already charts, the positions of many small reefs and dark beaches are constantly changing. This requires the pilot ship to use imported sonar to detect the way, and the speed of the fleet immediately slowed down.

Coupled with the poor communication of information among large fleets, fleets even need to drop anchor at night in areas with dense reefs and beaches.

Mr. Wu, who was familiar with the situation, did not give much hope that the fleet would arrive at Fort Lipcone within four days.

Besides, goodness hadn't signed the good guys at Fort Licht to guarantee that the rainy season wouldn't come until after June.

"Don't think about good things."

Wu Sanye took a sharp bite: "Sharpen your knife sharply. This place is very evil. Maybe it's because there is no temple built. Bad things will come true."

The old driver's hunch was always accurate.

Three days later, when the fleet was less than [-] kilometers away, the rain fell from the sky.

The rainy season that came a few days earlier may be just a small accident for others, but it is terrible news for the pioneering team who are nesting in the fort and praying to gods and Buddhas.

Fortunately, the aborigines in the dense forest were kind-hearted, and they didn't make the pioneering team panic for too long.On the day of NO.30 in May, the aborigines relaunched the offensive that had been stagnant for more than half a month.

Fear comes from the unknown.If you really start fighting, you won't be afraid anymore.

With a "boom", accompanied by the roar of the six-inch gun, dozens of iron pellets knocked down the indigenous warriors crowded on the slope in an instant.

At the same time, the sound of less dense muskets also continued.Every time there is a sound, there is a high probability that an aborigine will fall down.

Flying spears, crowded crowds, gun heads protruding from the crack of the door, friction between bones and metal, roaring warriors, pouring blood. The most authentic contest between civilization and barbarism .

A few more rounds of gunfire followed.When all the native ramming teams carrying wooden stakes were knocked down, there was a sharp whistling sound of bamboo tools from behind.Then, the natives receded like a tide.

"Huh..." Gu Ming, who was standing on the bamboo frame, was still nervous by the fierce battle even though he was not on the front line.Seeing the natives retreat, he was temporarily relieved.

"Third Master, it's not good." Gu Ming has been in Lizhuo Fort for a few months, and now he is an expert in firearms: "Listen, there are fewer people getting angry!"

Wu Meng's complexion on the side has sunk enough to squeeze out water: "At least I can get through today."

The Malay Peninsula, located in the equatorial belt, belongs to the marine monsoon belt. The climate is humid and rainy, and the air humidity is above 70% all the year round.

The Cone Fort was built in a hurry, and from the beginning there was no resource to build a special constant temperature and humidity arsenal.Now that the rainy season is here, the humidity in the air is overwhelming.Black gunpowder, which had already experienced resurgence before, in today's battle, the misfire rate began to increase visible to the naked eye, even the gunners and gunners had canopies above their heads.

Misfortunes never come singly, due to the long-term lack of supplies, the stock of gunpowder in Fort Licone has now bottomed out, and there is no room for selection.

Habitually looking up at the sky, I found that under the gray sky, there were only endless rain lines falling, and the geometry of the sky could not be seen at all.At this time, Gu Ming remembered that he was assigned a pocket watch.I took out my watch and looked: it was not yet 4 pm.

Cursing, Gu Ming turned around and said, "I'll go to the back door to have a look."

Wu Sanye nodded: "If the back door is fast, send a few people over."

"Save!"

While Gu Ming was talking, he took his two brothers and climbed down from the bamboo frame together, and ran for the back door.

Today, the routines of the offensive and defensive sides are already very clear to each other.Just like the finals in Game [-], both sides are exhausted, what remains is more willpower, and there is no magic trick to speak of.

The attackers with poor technological capabilities, relying on their numerical and environmental advantages, launched continuous attacks on the only main entrance that could transport troops on a large scale, consuming their opponent's supplies with their lives.

The defending side, which has a technological advantage, is limited by insufficient supplies, but is completely blocked inside the fortress.The chain reaction triggered by this, such as malaria, has become a weight to accelerate the collapse of the defender, forming a vicious circle.

It is already a huge victory for the original site selection that Lizhuobao can persist until now.

The natives of the tropical islands lack the thousands of years of castle attack and defense experience of their counterparts in cold regions.Even though the aborigines learned to build ladders and ants to attack the city with a "brainstorming idea", when a scoop of kerosene was poured on the top of the city, and the seven or eight-meter-high ladder and ants were easily burned into skewers, the aborigines could only fight honestly. Started a fight.

This is also an important reason why Lizhuobao can persist until now.

After trotting all the way, it didn't take long for Gu Ming to arrive at the back door.

The back door is also a gentle slope.Compared with the front door, the black rock platform that is almost close to the coast makes the road from the back door to the pier short and narrow.

In this way, the defensive area and pressure of the back door are much smaller.

Now, this short slope is sandwiched by the wooden pile walls on both sides.

In addition, the rock platform is at the back door, which is a tangent line slightly extending towards the sea.Anyone attempting to go around the sides of the beach to attack the back door would first slow down on the muddy sand and then be shot at an eighty-degree angle from above and the stake wall.

Except for being careless at the beginning, the natives broke in once.After that, the defense of the back door can be regarded as impenetrable.After the aborigines have verified this truth with countless lives, they also gave up taking the back door as the main direction of attack.

Panting, Gu Ming got into the canopy, stretched his head to look down, and asked tightly, "How?"

A big man with beards, sitting on the gun emplacement, smoking a cigarette, said indifferently: "I rushed twice, and I retracted once the tide rose."

What appeared in front of shopkeeper Gu was a sandy beach with a width of only ten meters.

Bounded by the gentle slope separated by the wooden pile wall, on the left and right sides of the beach, there are many sharp slanting thorns with their backs facing each other.It is now the high tide stage, the beach has been covered by sea water, leaving only half of the horse sticking out its head.

Seeing that there is no worries at the back door for the time being, Gu Ming told the bearded man: "Transfer another team to the front door, it's tight there."

When the bearded man heard the words, he immediately waved his hand and ordered the other team in the canopy to go to the front door.

Looking at the back door defense team with less than 30 people left, Gu Ming asked worriedly: "Can you hold it for two days?"

The bearded man smacked his lips, shook his head and said, "I'm afraid the gunpowder will be suspended tomorrow, so it's hard to say."

"I'm afraid the savage also understands, there is something tonight, you should be more vigilant."

Gu Ming raised his binoculars, desperately looking for the flickering figures at the end of the stone platform, and murmured unconsciously: "It's been about a year, and there are so many robes and fathers and sons. I'm afraid this group of savages are stupid, but they can't hear it." Isn't there enough gunfire?"

The sound of "cracking" lightning instantly illuminated the night sky.The blue and white background of extreme light exposure not only shows the pouring rain irrigating the world, but also the small flow of people like ants.

In the middle of the night, there were shouts of killing one after another.

Gu Ming thrust the spear out forcefully, and then felt the familiar resistance.At this moment, through the simple gate, he saw the face of the opposite warrior through the corner of the lightning.

The bare-chested aboriginal warrior opened his mouth wide, and blood flowed like a waterfall between his white teeth, blending with his face smeared with chalk patterns, like a ghost.

"The evil spirits are to die!"

Amidst the stern shouting, Gu Ming twitched vigorously, and saw the native warrior clutching his chest, and fell down amidst the rising pools of blood.

Before he could take a breath, another figure rushed up, trying to insert the sharp spear in his hand into the crack of the door.Gu Ming, with quick hands and quick eyes, immediately stabbed again with all his strength, creating a second ghost under the gun.

After fighting like this for about half an hour, the natives finally retreated again.

Dragging his tired body and panting heavily, shopkeeper Gu slowly backed up to the ring-shaped sandbag fortification, and leaned against it weakly.

At this time, an arm shining with metallic luster stretched out from the side: "Shopkeeper, you are very skilled, drink some water."

Among Gu Ming's subordinates, there are mostly tall and tough northerners.Today, the few with the best physical strength have been incorporated into the strategic reserve team led by He Biandan.

Tonight, all the reserve team members who can wear heavy armor are already on standby in the fortification behind the door.Just wait for the gate to fall, and then go up and fight the natives.

"Gududu" took a few sips of cold water, and the shopkeeper Gu who came back to his senses "Dangdang" knocked on his brother's steel shell head: "Thank you, good brother."

After finishing speaking, Gu Ming wiped the rainwater off his face, and staggered up the bamboo platform.

As soon as he poked his head up, shopkeeper Gu yelled in the sound of rain: "Third Master, I have a crow's mouth~~ The savages are really attacking at night, so I guess we have no guns and ammunition!"

To launch an attack against the heavy rain at night, it is necessary to bring together the most elite forces from all tribes.The aborigines tried this before, but when the offensive was beaten back, they couldn't recover for a long time, so the aborigines hardly launched night attacks after that.

Today, the aborigines resolutely launched a night attack, clearly because they guessed that the opponent had no gunpowder. The elite night attack was the last tough consumption. Even if it was unsuccessful, the number of people was small, and the Fortress that could not be repaired would not be able to survive the daytime tomorrow.

The third master Wu, who was standing on the bamboo platform with a ghost knife in his hand, was watching the wind and the situation, but when he heard Gu Ming shouting, he laughed loudly: "Brother, if you don't say it, the savage won't be able to guess it? "

"The fleet is still two hundred miles away." Turning around, the third master helped Gu Ming who had just climbed up, and patted him on the shoulder: "Don't lose your vigor! People are dead and birds are in the sky, and we will never die together when you and I are rich." .Tomorrow we will fight blood with the savages and see who God will help!"

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The next day, the sound of killing, which had been suspended for a few hours, reappeared at [-]:[-] am in the continuous drizzle.

This time, the weapons in the hands of all pioneers were replaced by familiar spears and steel knives.

In fact, if it was the regular army of the Dayan Kingdom that carried out large-scale hand-to-hand combat, it would definitely be stabbed with a spear.However, the composition of the pioneering army was mixed and lacked training, so it was easy to use swords and spears.

However, switching to a sword and spear meant losing the most powerful long-range attack ability: an hour later, the main gate collapsed under continuous impact.

The excited aborigines rushed into the Zhaimenbao gate amidst roaring roars.

They were greeted by a row of heavily armored warriors.

Stumped limbs were flying, blood was splashing, and the tide receded quickly.

However, the native army, who had spied on the falsehood of the outsiders, dispatched the whole army next, determined to complete their merits in one battle.

Looking from Gu Ming's point of view, the densely packed aborigines have already swaggered out of the dense forest.Across the tens of meters of white sandy beach, the brown and black indigenous people pulled out a human wall that extended to the end of the line of sight, which was spectacular.

There is no need to doubt the ability of the tropical native kingdom to mobilize the army.

In real history, in 1628, in the second year after the traveler came to the new plane, the Matalan Sultanate, which controlled most of Java Island, had mobilized more than [-] tribal warriors, plus no less than [-] seasonal warriors. The army of sexual auxiliary soldiers besieged Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East India Company, for more than two years.

In the end, the Dutch relied on gunpowder weapons and the coordinated operations of Ming merchants and Japanese mercenary samurai to survive until the withdrawal of the indigenous army.

However, the Dutch paid a heavy price: the indigenous army once captured the south and west cities of Batavia and stayed there for a long time.

In addition, Jane Peter Cohen, the greatest governor of the East India Company, also died of dysentery after drinking unclean cellar water due to the long-term siege.

Coincidentally.Large-scale colonial strongholds, including Manila and Cebu, encountered indigenous attacks above a large scale in the early days of their establishment.In the [-]th century, Manila even fell in the war. It was not until the early [-]th century that the Spaniards reorganized their troops and took back the city.

As far as the world is concerned, whether it is the African natives or the native Americans, in the long years of resistance to the colonists, battles of more than [-] people abound. The shock.

Today, the battle that took place in Fort Licone is just a microcosm of the countless territorial battles that will be promoted by the traversers in the future.The entire battle process may be recorded, or it may be artificially erased and replaced with another text. It is convenient for people to declare their sovereignty later.

Gu Ming, shopkeeper Gu Ming, who was sweating or raining on his head, naturally didn't have time to think about the grand proposition of the battle of the Fortress in the imperial epic at this moment.

As the saying goes, if there are more than ten thousand people, there is no limit.Shopkeeper Gu is now overwhelmed by the boundless army of natives.

Watching the next wave of indigenous assault slowly take shape in front of his eyes, shopkeeper Gu pulled over Young Master Yusheng who was also holding a spear beside him: "Where is the third master?"

"The telegraph room is urging troops."

Gu Gangzhu didn't say anything, turned around and went to the headquarters.

Located in the middle of the fort, in Nuoda's headquarters, there are only two people left: Mr. Wu and the telegraph operator.

Then, shopkeeper Gu rushed into the door and asked the third master expectantly: "The flop, the wildlings have come out to set up a formation, where is the fleet?"

"There are still a hundred miles."

Facing Gu's stunned and disappointed eyes, the third master sighed and got up, raised the ghost knife, and then patted the telegrapher on the shoulder: "Invent the code in the navy system: give me a hand."

After finishing speaking, the third master took Gu Dangjia out of the headquarters: "You go to the back door to take care of me, and I will go to the front door."

"Third Master, do you look down on brother?"

"The situation at the back door is not good, maybe which of us will see Hades first."

"Then I'll go take a look."

When shopkeeper Gu ran to the back door, he found that what the third master said was true.

The indigenous troops attacking from the left and right sides against the rock wall, forcibly resisting the tide that has not yet receded, stepped on the calf-high mortar, and used ropes to open the gap in the wooden pile wall.

Defenders who lack long-range firepower can only watch the opponent's display, and have no countermeasures at all.

Half an hour later, the indigenous teams that came from the left and right broke through the wooden wall area.The few defenders retreated from the wooden wall to the last gentle slope, making their last resistance through a narrow road less than ten meters long.

At the highest point of the gentle slope, Gu Ming glanced down blankly: He knew he was going to die, and there was a high probability that he would be before the third master.

At this moment, shopkeeper Gu's left abdomen and right shoulder are bleeding.The reason why it is not obvious on the coat is that the blood that is constantly infiltrating is covered by the dense rain.

The powerlessness caused by the blood loss made Gu Dangjia lean his whole body on the spear.

Afterwards, the dizziness caused by blood loss and low temperature made him hallucinate again: Several fast boats suddenly rushed out of the sea fog in the east, and with the tailwind, like arrows leaving the string, they slanted towards the beach.

The next moment, there was loud gunfire at the bow of the ship, and many shirtless sailors jumped off the side of the ship and started fighting with the natives.

In a trance, a large ship with a "Liu" flag on it appeared in the field of vision.

"No, the fleet should come from the north? Isn't Major General Tian leading the team?"

Shopkeeper Gu, who was slowly sitting down, raised his head and laughed loudly: "It's all an illusion, you can't fool someone!"

(End of this chapter)