Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 347 Succeeded in surprise attack!The shelling begins! (Seeking a monthly pass, asking for a subscription)

The weather was good that night, the moon was dark and the wind was high, which was a good time for murder and arson.Not long after, Lin Xingzhu already groped and led his dozens of sentry boats, and quietly approached the water blockade formed by fast crab boats.

On the surface of the river, sixty fast crab boats were lined up with their sides facing the upstream and downstream, and then anchored on the surface of the river.On these fast crab boats, there are butter torches burning in the damp mist, emitting a dim yellow light.It can be seen from a distance, as long as these lights are still there, the defenders on the fast crab boat and the old lock boat behind can feel at ease.

On these fast crab boats blocking the river, the sailors who had been paddling for most of the day had already curled up in the cabin and slept soundly. The musketeers who had recharged their batteries during the day were looking at the dark river with energy now. .

But from a distance, these fast crab boats are like sleeping beasts on the water, motionless and defenseless.

The surprise attack was successful!

The excitement in Lin Xingzhu's heart!Although he is from Fujian and was born in the Zheng Group, Daming and Zheng cannot give him the position of prince, let alone make him the captain of the navy.After all, he is not ranked among the Daming and Zheng's groups. There are too many people who can fight in the water, and they are all serious "navals"!But on the old Wu's side. A group of landlubbers, don't look at Xia Guoxiang and Hu Guozhu who are now the commanders of the navy, but these two guys don't understand water warfare at all.Now they can go to the Yangtze River and sit on the boat. In the future, when Daming is taken down, the "Jiangjun" will become the "Navy", so let's go to sea and try it out?Don't faint them!
Therefore, Emperor Wu and the two naval governors told Lin Xingzhu and Cai Luming that they would be the left and right governors of the Great Zhou navy when Nanjing was conquered. Xia Guoxiang and Hu Guozhu would still be governors in the future. .

As for the title, once it's done, the county princes will be princes one by one, and there will be generations of princes in the future!

But at the same time as she was excited, Lin Xinzhu's heart was beating wildly again - although the opponent this time was under the name of the Great Ming Navy, the root was Zheng's Pirates!Even people who don't understand the navy know what Zheng's pirates are capable of!Otherwise, the Qing Dynasty would not use the method of killing one thousand enemies and self-defeating one hundred thousand to deal with them!
Moreover, he also knows that Western armed merchant ships with high freeboard are very difficult to deal with. In the big battle of Liaoluo Bay, Zheng Zhilong invested five in order to defeat eight armed merchant ships and fifty Chinese pirate ships of the Dutch East India Company. Ten large bird ships with a load of three or four thousand stones (more than two hundred tons) and one hundred fire ships eventually only burned, sunk, and captured three Dutch armed merchant ships, but the fifty ships that matched the Dutch were uneven. Qi's Chinese pirate ship was wiped out.Through this naval battle, the strength of Zheng's navy and Western armed merchant ships can be seen.

However, Luowan is a bay after all, and now Zheng's navy is on the narrower water surface of the Yangtze River, and it is against the wind and the current, and has been raided at the anchorage. Thinking of this, Lin Xingzhu looked back, and vaguely saw some small The sentinel boat followed.

it's time!Lin Xingzhu took a sharp breath, and whispered to the sailors beside him: "Stop the oars, cut the hemp rope to set up the big shield, and light the torches!"

"Yes!"

"Bang bang."

With the sound of a few dull axes hitting the wood, the hemp ropes connecting the two fire boats were cut, and at the same time, the oarsmen of the small sentinel boat that Lin Xingzhu was on also stopped rowing.

A large wooden shield was propped on the bow again, and then two sailors of the Wu and Zhou army took out butter torches and torches, and lit the torches under the cover of the shield.The torch was a signal, when the people on the small sentinel boat following Lin Xingzhu saw it, they immediately cut the ropes and released the fire boat.

As for the sailors in front of Lin Xingzhu who were on the fast crab boat lying across the river, they couldn't see the light of the torch because of the big wooden shield.

Those so-called fire boats are actually fast whistle boats, but there is only one dead man on board who is responsible for rowing and lighting the fire, and the bow has also been remodeled, with spikes made of wrought iron installed. It can be nailed to the latter!
These dead men who were rowing the oars were all recharging their energy before, but now they saw the signal of the fire, and then they started to row the oars with all their strength, moving the river water, and pushing the boat towards the dots of fire ahead.

It can be said that this fireboat raid has been very successful so far!

However, there is an insurmountable weakness in the more than a hundred fire boats released by Lin Xingzhu. They lack communication with each other, have no organization, do not have any "swarm tactics", and do not even know each other's positions, so they can only rush towards target, then blindly set fire to the ship's kindling.

And when the first fire boat is ignited, all the fast crab boats will be alarmed!

"Enemy attack!"

"Fireboat!"

"Quick, quick anchor"

"Bah, bah, bah"

The sixty fast crab boats crossing the river woke up from their stupor almost at the same time, and the musketeers on duty shouted loudly and fired warning shots.The oarsmen who were sleeping soundly were awakened immediately, and the bows in charge of commanding the fast crab boats gave out instructions loudly.The silence on the Yangtze River was completely broken in an instant!

It was not Li Zhongshan himself who commanded these Ming warships on the Yangtze River. He didn't understand what the water warfare in the seventeenth century was like.However, after absorbing the franchisee Zheng Jing, he already has the strongest lineup of naval generals in East Asia in this era.And the admiral he selected for the Daming "Yangtze River Tugboat" fleet is the famous Liu Guoxuan!
A character like Liu Guoxuan, of course, knew that his fleet would be attacked by surprise, and that Wu Zhou's navy would set fire to the ship, but he didn't know if the attack would happen tonight, tomorrow night, or the night after tomorrow.

Well, that's three nights, it's unlikely to delay any longer.Because for Wu Zhou, the risk of procrastination is also very high.Once the east wind blows on the Yangtze River, the old lock ships of the Ming army can charge forward with full sail.

It was impossible for Wu Zhoujun's iron chains and pontoon bridges across the river to block fifty old lock boats with full sails, and they were broken!

And once Liu Guoxuan's fleet rushed past Xiaochikou, the Ming army could build a pontoon bridge behind Wu Sangui's army and transport all 10,000+ people from Jiangbei to Jiangnan.

At that time, Wu Sangui would have no way to retreat to Wuchang along the Yangtze River.
So this time the old lock ship entered the river to fight, it was a big gamble for both sides!
If you win, you take all. If you lose, you will lose the right to control the water of the Yangtze River, and the battle after that will be difficult!

"Bah"

Holding a textbook called "Detailed Explanation of Western Naval Warfare" (Jianwutang Naval Major) in the cabin under the dim light, Liu Guoxuan, who was enjoying reading, faintly heard a gunshot, and immediately knew something was wrong, so he quickly put it down With the textbook in his hand, he asked loudly, "Where to shoot?"

At this time, the guards guarding outside the cabin also shouted: "Enemy attack. Fire boat!"

"Dangdang"

The alarm bell rang immediately.

Without further ado, Liu Guoxuan stood up immediately, picked up the helmet on the table and put it on his head, then strode out of the cabin and walked up the stairs to the poop of his flagship "Daji Dali".

The hull of the old lock ship was copied from the Dutch Galen ship. It has a relatively tall forecastle and poop, and the poop is particularly tall. It is quite good to see from the poop deck.So the commanding position of the captain of the old lock boat is on the poop.

When Liu Guoxuan boarded the poop, the warning bells had already sounded on all the sleeping old lock boats.I only saw one after another old lock boats start to light up their lights, and the original dots on the river suddenly became brightly lit.

Wu Zhoujun's fire boats were also ignited. The first batch was hundreds, and there may be more in the future!At this time, with the help of wind and current, he began to rush towards the fast crab boat that was in the front.

But those fast crab boats seemed a bit chaotic, twisting and turning on the river, trying to avoid the impact of the fire boat.But there are still five or six fast crabs and fire boats nailed together!With the light of the fire, Liu Guoxuan could still see the sailors on the fast crab boat pouring buckets of water to the place where his warship and the fireboat were connected.But it doesn't look like there's much hope
As for the other fire boats, they seemed to have been burned for nothing. After being avoided by the fast crab boats, they could only float and burn on the river, and they would soon be burned and sunk.

Liu Guoxuan didn't panic at all, but ordered in a calm and unhurried manner: "All the old lock boats should lift anchor and float downstream, don't raise the sails."

"Yes!"

Liu Guoxuan said again: "Except for the fast crab boats that have already been set on fire, all of them are moving closer to the old lock boats."

"Yes!"

On the Yangtze River, east of Xiaogu Mountain, a fleet of dozens of large-scale ships is going down the river!

This fleet is the main force of Wu Zhou's navy, with dozens of large-scale ships built in Xiangyang and Jingzhou!The size of these building boats is about the same as the old lock boats of the Ming army, but they are paddle sail building boats specially made for water warfare in inland rivers and lakes.Each building boat has dozens of long oars that can only be rowed by two or three paddlers, and is also equipped with three-masted hard sails.Although the sails are not as big as those of the old lock boats, they cannot hang soft sails.But on the Yangtze River where there is little wind, their maneuverability is still far better than that of the old lock boats.

Xia Guoxiang and Hu Guozhu were taking two building boats at this time.Among them, the building boat that Xia Guoxiang took was the general flagship of Wu Zhou Navy.Governor Xia was sitting on a grand teacher's chair, blowing the cool river breeze while listening to the good news from the people below.

"To the Commander-in-Chief, the surprise fire boat attack was successful! Six enemy ships have been set on fire, and the rest of the ships have all fled!"

"Report to the Commander-in-Chief, the navy of the Ming army was in chaos, and all ships fled one after another, but the speed was slow..."

In fact, Xia Guoxiang himself could see the things reported below... It's just that he couldn't quite understand them.

Although he has devoted himself to building a navy for Wu Sangui in the past two years, no matter how hard he works, he is still at the level of a shipyard director... and he is still an amateur captain who does not understand technology.

Asking him to direct the water battle is also to drive the ducks to the shelves.

Now he can only see the chaotic and floating flames everywhere on the river, so he needs to have a knowledgeable explanation.

"Okay! There are many rewards!"

"The order of the commander-in-chief is passed down: All ships should maintain formation and attack with all their strength, and don't let an enemy ship get away!"

"Branch of the Commander-in-Chief's Order: Anyone who burns an enemy ship will be rewarded with 500 taels of silver and promoted to three ranks! Anyone who captures an enemy ship..."

Although Xia Guoxiang couldn't understand at all, and didn't know how to direct, he still had to direct blindly.Orders were issued from his mouth, and the staff and soldiers around him also shouted "De Ling" and "Yes" as if they were real...Of course, they were just shouting casually.It is impossible to transmit these orders.

Because the command of the navy is inherently difficult, and there is no such thing as a radio station, it all depends on semaphore and lamp language to force the reinforcement.It would be fine if it was daytime, but now it's night, it's so dark that you can't see clearly, and you don't know who the flagship is...

So tonight's battle strategy for Wu Zhou's navy was issued long before departure.It's just two rounds of fireboat raids, and then rush up and do it.

What command do you want?
Therefore, Xia Guoxiang's orders, that is, everyone listened to the excitement, could not be spread at all.

But without a command, it doesn't mean that this battle cannot be fought... Anyway, both sides are the same, just fight in a scuffle.

Not to mention that this is the case here in China, going to the west to fight naval battles and night battles is similar. After setting off the fireboat, let's do it!
In fact, even if they fought naval battles during the day, they were mainly melee battles.

What battle line bombardment, that is a style of play just invented by the British, even the Dutch sneered at it!

But Xia Guoxiang, who was pretending to be in command, was still "playing" very happily. He already clearly felt that his command was working. His ship was obviously speeding up, and it was getting closer and closer to the Ming army fleet that was slowly fleeing ahead. It seems that we are about to enter the distance where we can shoot.

"Captain, it's time to set fire to the ship!"

At this time, a dog-headed military division with a goose-feather fan reminded him in a low voice.

"Okay, pass on the order of the commander-in-chief," Xia Guoxiang stroked his beard, as if he was really commanding, "set off another round of fireboats! Then the whole army will attack!"

"Yes!"

As soon as Commander Xia gave the order, dots of flames appeared on the water... This is the second wave of fire boats from Wu Zhou's navy, and these fire boats were all towed by building boats.Been out for a while!
However, Governor Xia thought that his order had been carried out, and nodded with satisfaction: "Okay! This time the fireboat was set off so fast, there will be a lot of rewards!"

"Yes!"

……

"Full Sail!"

While Xia Guoxiang was pretending to command, Liu Guoxuan was actually giving orders.But now he is under his command, and only his flagship "Da Ji Da Li" is the only one.

The rest of the warships also fought on their own.However, like Wu Zhou's navy, the general strategy was decided in advance.

Now seeing the second wave of fire boats released by the Wu Zhou navy, the Ming army warships that had been running slowly began to speed up together.

The old lock boats raised their hard sails—when they sailed westward, they were against the current and the wind, so they could only be dragged by small boats at a very slow speed.But now they have turned the other way and become downwind, and the speed of the boat immediately rises as soon as the sails are raised.Those burning fireboats have no sails or oars (the sails are also burning, so naturally they are gone), relying only on the current, of course they can't speed up, and they can't catch up with the old lock boats with full sails and smooth sails.After a while, it was all burned in the water!
Seeing that the enemy's fireboats were all burnt out, Liu Guoxuan quickly ordered: "Leave the sails and get off the bow and anchor."

With a bang, a huge iron anchor was thrown into the Yangtze River, hooked to the bottom of the river, and at the same time, the sails were quickly lowered.Under the combined effect of the anchor and the inertia of the old lock ship, this large ship with a load of nearly [-] tons suddenly crossed the Yangtze River, facing the enemy from the stern, and suddenly turned into facing the enemy from the side. .

Liu Guoxuan, who was holding on to the railing, quickly ordered again: "Drop the stern anchor!"

When the stern anchor was lowered, the warship could not move across the river, completely turning into a floating fort!
This kind of fighting is of course foolish on the sea, but it is not necessarily true on the Yangtze River. Fifty water forts and six hundred bronze cannons are spread across the river within two or three miles, and there are more than 100 light fast crabs around. Ship assist!

This is the killing formation designed by Liu Guoxuan for Wu Sangui's navy!
But at this time, the sky had already brightened, and although there was still fog on the river, the naval officers and soldiers of both sides could still see each other's warships!

"Rush over! Hit it!"

Xia Guoxiang shouted loudly. Although his orders could not be transmitted at all, all the Wu Zhou warships on the river rushed towards the old lock ship of the Ming army that had become a floating fort at the fastest speed!
But before they actually hit the old lock ship, frightening flames flickered from the open gun ports on the old lock ship!
The shelling of the Ming army navy has begun!

(End of this chapter)