Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1241 Marching Under the Moonlight
In the early morning of September 9, each fleet lifted anchor and set sail in the morning light.Embark on a 19-hour cruise.After departing from Penghu, the possibility of encountering other forces increased significantly. Ming Qiu ordered the squadron of patrol boats to disperse and form a warning circle of about five nautical miles around the formation.All ships encountered by the patrol boats were detained and then scuttled.

In the evening of the same day, the fleet arrived in the nearby waters 40 nautical miles southwest of Kinmen Island.Soon, Ming Qiu ordered all warships to enter the battle state: all steam engine warship boilers were fired up, thick black smoke came out from every chimney, and the bulletproof nets were stretched one by one.Prepare fire hoses on the decks of each ship and check ammunition winches.All wooden railings and extraneous parts were removed and stored under the deck.In order to prevent the fragments from splashing and killing after the shell hits, it also prevents it from becoming fuel after being hit by the enemy's arson weapon.According to the intelligence of the special investigation team, the Zheng family is widely equipped with various arson rockets, whether on ships or on land.

The excess hawsing and rigging were removed, and the mast was tied taut with thin wire ropes.Sandbags filled with sand were tied around the bridge and gun emplacements.Everything was prepared according to the standards of the fleet before it went into battle in the 19th century.

After completing all the combat preparations, Ming Qiu ordered the ship's radio room to call the special reconnaissance teams that had boarded the landing sites the day before to confirm the current specific situation of the Kinmen, Xiamen, Anping and Zheng's fleets.

The special investigation team's report was very brief: "There is no abnormal situation around the target. The sea area around Jinmen is calm." After hearing this, Ming Qiu unconsciously showed a smile on his face.

Although we know that our side is "fighting sheep with tigers", the coordinated actions of these more than 100 ships have already tested the results of the Senate Navy's daily training.However, with their technical advantages, small mistakes and small losses will not affect the battle.He is most worried about encountering bad weather. Although the probability of encountering a typhoon at the end of September is not high, once a large storm encounters, the fleet is likely to cause the fleet to be separated.At that time, he can only withdraw his troops and return to Kaohsiung to make further calculations.

What's more, if there are too many winds and waves in the combat sea area, both shelling and landing will be greatly restricted.Fleets of sailing ships are too much influenced by nature.

Now the special investigation team's report reassures him, he just needs to implement it step by step according to the plan.

At this time, the main force of the Zheng family's fleet was moored at Liuluo Bay.The Zheng family is a maritime merchant first, so most of the ships under their command are integrated with war merchants. Merchant ships are also warships, and there is no strict difference between the two.Merchant ships are also generally equipped with cannons, but the number varies according to different needs.

At this time, the Zheng family's fleet has not yet grown to the largest scale in history.However, after successively defeating and annexing the main sea gangs along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, his strength has expanded to an unprecedented level.All the ships heading to Nanyang and Japan carried his flag.With one order, he can mobilize thousands of ships of all sizes.Form the largest fleet in the East Asian waters.

But most of these ships are not suitable for naval warfare.The ones who can really fight for him on the sea are the biggest ships under his command.When Li Kuiqi defected, he took away most of his warships.Xiong Wencan supported Zheng Zhilong with money and guns, which enabled the Zheng family to build a batch of large Fuchuan-type warships.Not only are these ships far larger than the 400 ships used by officers and soldiers, they are also larger than most European merchant ships in the Far East.

The largest main battleship under its command: the Fuchuan type three-masted gunboat-according to the mapping, photography and calculations of the special investigation team and intelligence agencies.This kind of ship has a total length of 61 meters, a waterline length of 53 meters, a ship width of 13.8 meters, a waterline width of 13.0 meters, a cabin depth of 4.89 meters, a draft of 3.9 meters, and a displacement of about 1200 tons.Each ship is equipped with 8 to 10 Hongyi cannons.Since Fuchuan seldom uses ribs and the mold depth is not enough, it is not possible to set up a full-through artillery deck under the deck, and all artillery must be installed on the deck.Causes the center of gravity of the battleship to be high.In order to avoid the instability of the ship, the number and weight of the equipped artillery are very limited.Therefore, although Zheng Zhilong's warships were comparable in size and tonnage to European ships, the number of artillery was far less than the average number of 24 cannons equipped by European merchant ships, let alone those warships with 32 cannons specially used for sea combat.

According to the number of artillery and the amount of ammunition projected in one shot, Zheng Zhilong's main battleship must have at least four 8-gun warships to replace one, so it is not surprising that he relied on fireboats to win the battle with the Dutch in the Liuluowan naval battle.

Of course, these ships are not only used to defend the Zheng family's maritime hegemony, but also serve as ocean-going merchant ships—after all, there is always the danger of being attacked by Chinese and foreign pirates on the route to overseas trade.Must have a strong armed to ensure security.According to the investigation of the special investigation team, there are currently [-] three-masted gunboats moored in the waters of Anping, Xiamen and Jinmen.Among them, Luowan has the most: there are seven ships, four in Anping, and three in Xiamen and Gulangyu.

In addition to this, the special investigation team also reported sightings of three European-style ships moored at the above location.The displacement varies from 400 tons to 1200 tons.One of the largest "speedboats" is flying the flag of the Dutch East India Company and should be owned by Dutch businessmen stationed in Fujian.The other two ships flying Zheng Zhilong's flag may be European ships that he copied or purchased - the Great Library stated that there is information showing that Zheng Zhilong once tried to copy European-style ships.

In addition to these three-masted gunboats, the Zheng family's fleet also had hundreds of two-masted Fuchuan and Cantonese ships equipped with more artillery.However, according to the report of the special investigation team, there are fewer Hongyi cannons on these "secondary battleships": only 2 to 4 cannons, and most of them are artillery such as Frangji that mainly kill personnel.Most of these ships are moored in the waters off the Jin and Xiamen islands.

As for the artillery equipped on other ships, the good and the bad are even more uneven: not only there are no Hongyi cannons, but there are few Franc cannons. All kinds of crude private cast iron cannons and iron guns are flooded on them, and there are even very old bowls. pistol.It has almost no lethality against enemy ships, and it can only be effective if it is close to the level of jumping gangs.

Whether it is Zheng Zhilong or the other generals of the Zheng family, they all know that it is difficult for them to win a face-to-face battle with the Australians at sea.Therefore, I still plan to use the old method to deal with the Dutch - attacking the boat with fire.For this reason, more than 200 old ships were assembled in Jinxia area, and they were piled full of dry firewood.In addition, various fire attack weapons such as rockets and fire crows were collected from Daming's arsenal and equipped with each ship.

Even so, Zheng Zhilong was still aware of the disparity in strength between himself and the Australians, so on the one hand, he tried to find foreign aid, collecting European-style ship guns, and on the other hand, he also tried his best to strengthen the defenses in Anping and Xiamen.He sent people to manage to buy more than a dozen of the largest and heaviest Hongyi cannons from Guangdong, and built artillery fortifications to strengthen the defense of Kinmen Island and Anping.In addition, an iron chain raft was set up at the entrance of Anping Port to prevent Australian ships from breaking in.In addition to recruiting Lu Yong in Fujian, he also recruited blacks and Japanese who were familiar with the use of firearms in Macau and other places, and purchased a large number of matchlock guns.

In the radio room of the Beginning of Spring, there was a constant ticking sound.The special reconnaissance team is posting the location of the Zheng family's fleet in the bay.The new coordinates were marked on the coordinate chart in the command room one by one.By midnight, the positions of the main warships in the Zheng family's fleet had been recalibrated.

At 9.20 o'clock in the morning on September 4th, Ming Qiu ordered the entire fleet to have the last breakfast before the war. At 1 hour, the First Fleet marched in single column.The four sailing spy boats led the way, followed by five steam-powered warships headed by Lichun, and other sailing spy boat squadrons followed 1 nautical mile away.All ships are under strict light control, and only the navigation signal lights are shining faintly.

Mingqiu was worried that a too good moonlight would expose the fleet ahead of time, but as he approached the golden gate, the clouds in the sky increased, and the moon appeared and disappeared in the clouds.Silently sailing, the outlines of battleships of the First Fleet were only reflected on the sea when the moon emerged from the clouds.

With precise nautical charts and navigation positioning, by [-]:[-] in the morning, Kinmen Island was already faintly visible.With a telescope, you can barely see the forest of masts and masts in Liuluo Bay.Obviously, the other party was not worried about the surprise attack or did not know what blackout was. The lights on the ship and on the shore were scattered, indicating the target for the First Fleet.

Ming Qiu ordered the entire fleet to enter the combat position, open the ammunition depot, and be ready to fire at any time.

Now, the main force of the First Fleet has entered Liuluo Bay, sailing at a speed of 4 knots, and the port side of the battleship is facing this Liuluo Bay.Since the range of the artillery equipped on the sailing ship was not enough, it was decided in the plan that five steam battleships equipped with rifled guns would shoot first, and after the enemy was disturbed, the spy boats would approach and bombard them.

Ning Liujin slept on the plank of the boat, his body covered with a mass of tattered fibers, which may be part of a fishing net, or a sail or a cable.The thing was dirty, smelly, and wet.But none of this bothered him.He slept soundly, the sea waves were not big, and the weather was fine, without rain—even if it rained, Ning Liujin could only stay in this position and continue to try to sleep—he wanted to sleep on the poop or below the deck He was not qualified enough in the cabin.

Ning Liujin is an "apprentice" and the owner of the ship is a distant relative of Liujin. There is a boat in the Zheng family's fleet. Fujian is a place with a lot of people and little land. It was hard to find work, and it happened that the relatives on the boat needed to make up for a few people, so Ning Liujin went there—at least for a living.If he was lucky enough to live a few more years, he might even make some money.

(End of this chapter)