Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1246 Xiamen's Counterattack

The people who had already gathered in front of Dunren Pavilion suddenly exploded the camp, and there was a scene of howling ghosts and howling wolves. There was no longer a chilling atmosphere of holding their breath and waiting for death. The crowd eager to survive staggered and fled in all directions, eager to escape the sudden death.

Ying Yu began to shoot one after another according to a fixed rhythm, dropping a shell every 10 seconds.The dense shells fell towards the courtyard.With the deafening explosion of the shells falling on the stone floor in the yard and on the roof, puffs of flames and black smoke shot straight into the sky, and gravel, tiles, bricks and broken logs flew across. The yard was already full of dead bodies.

Ying Yu knew that his artillery could not be fired too accurately, as long as the shells roughly covered the area centered on Dunren Pavilion.Moreover, with the increase of falling bullets, gunpowder smoke and dust became denser, and it was already difficult to accurately locate them by the observation of observers. There must be a lot of missed bullets.However, this is already insignificant. After the bombardment of 20 grenades, no one in Zheng's mansion is willing to stay.

He held his breath, waited 20 seconds after the last grenade was fired, and then started firing shrapnel.He no longer calibrated the target, but fired at the entire Zheng Mansion, trying to kill and injure a large number of fleeing people.

Clouds of black explosive smoke exploded in the sky, and iron pellets were sprayed on the ground. You pushed each other, and the people fleeing in the courtyards and corridors were harvested and killed by waves of "iron hail".A shell exploded at the gate of the courtyard, knocking 25 people to the ground like mowing grass.

Those who ran away didn't know what happened to them. They subconsciously felt that they couldn't stay here for a long time, and ran frantically towards the various exits of the mansion, screaming meaninglessly, pushing and trampling each other, women Children, children and the elderly were ruthlessly pushed and trampled, and many people were trampled to death alive. The aisles and doorways were filled with dead bodies and groaning wounded

Zheng Zhilong is not in the mansion at this time, he is in Xiamen these days: in order to set up a munitions factory in Gulangyu Island.Hale's line brought by Zheng Zhifeng, the other party's extravagant statements and a few firearm samples provided greatly aroused his interest-for more than a year, he felt that the "technical level" between himself and the Australians was too far behind. Without "strong ships and sharp guns", the maritime trade hegemony that I have been striving for will be taken away by the Australians.

The mysterious Chetchidan expressed his willingness to build a weapons factory for them to manufacture "new red cannons" that are not inferior to the Dutch or Portuguese. In addition, he can also provide them with the same "cannons" as the Australians.Of course, the latter is expensive.But this has brought great hope to Zheng Zhilong, who is increasingly feeling desperate.

If it weren't for such a sense of urgency, he would not have agreed to Zheng Zhifeng's proposal to cooperate with Qiezhidan Paul so easily.In order to formulate the "rearmament" plan, in addition to sending people to Macau to recruit "black fans" as mercenaries, he also sent people to Japan to recruit Japanese ronin whom he was more familiar with, and to buy copper materials for casting cannons.

He was woken up by the soldiers when the first wave of gunfire came from Anping.But he didn't know what happened in Kinmen. He only heard the rumble of cannons and the flames. It was obvious that someone was attacking Kinmen Island.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't judge who the enemy was and how the enemy army was coming: it was tens of miles away from Kinmen Island by sea, and a small sailboat would take half a day to complete the one-way journey. Even if Kinmen Island sent an envoy immediately, it would not arrive until noon Gulangyu Island.

He can only trust the guard of the Golden Gate.His brother Zheng Zhihu was stationed at Jinmen.There are many brothers and family brothers who accompanied Zheng Zhilong in the uprising, but Zheng Zhihu's relationship is the most unusual. Zheng Zhihu once followed him in Macau and was a pirate in Japan. He has the deepest relationship with him and is deeply trusted.Moreover, he is brave and courageous, with outstanding martial arts skills, and has repeatedly made military exploits in the battle to wipe out the heroes of the sea.At that time, it was known as "the dragon is wise and the tiger is brave".That's why Zheng Zhilong put this brother in Kinmen to guard the keys of Xiamen Bay and Weitou Bay for him.

At this moment, he was standing on the Sunlight Rock on Gulangyu Islet, overlooking the thick smoke and flames in the direction of Jinmen—no matter who came, they must be crowded with people and boats.It must be a bitter battle on the Kinmen side.

"Did Erye Huan send you a letter?" He asked the soldiers around him again.He had made an agreement with Zheng Zhilong that if there was any important news, he would send someone to send it on a fast horse if he couldn't wait to send a boat to deliver the news.

"Report to the general, not yet."

Zheng Zhilong watched the sky that was gradually turning white, the thick smoke and flames were getting bigger and bigger, the sky near Jinmen Island was almost completely covered by black smoke, he secretly felt that something was wrong, it seemed that the battle on Zheng Zhihu's side was not going well, things Without delay, he ordered at once:

"Beat the drums and raise the shaft immediately!" He waved his sleeves, "Prepare the boat, let's go back to Zhongzuo City!"

The cannons of the Chinese army convening a meeting sounded, followed by the sound of dense drums and whining horns. The generals of the Zheng family who had been wandering hurriedly put on their clothes and rushed to the big tent of the Chinese army in the city on the left of the center. go.

Half an hour later, the first batch of fire attack ships sailed under the cover of other ships-the commander was Zheng Lian stationed in Xiamen.The ships moored in Xiamen came out in full force, except for a small number of small boats that were not very useful, and half of the fire attack ships were left behind. After all, it is more advantageous to use fire attack ships in the waters between Gulangyu Island and Xiamen Island .In case Zheng Zhihu and the reinforcement fleet were unable to resist the enemy, the enemy would take advantage of the opportunity to invade Xiamen. As long as he had the fire attack ship in hand, he still had a last chance.

At the same time, he sent two teams of personal soldiers to go to Anping by sea and land separately. The guard of Anping was his clan brother Zheng Zhiwan.Zheng Zhiwan's ability is limited, but he is honest and prudent, and Anping is surrounded by the islands of Kinmen, so the guard does not need to be very skilled, as long as he is mature and prudent to maintain the order in the city and the safety of Zheng's family.

However, if the enemy forces really approached the city of Anping, Zheng Zhiwan had no idea whether he could defend the city and protect the safety of the whole family of Zheng's family with Zheng Zhiwan's ability-especially his wife Dong and his wife who came from Japan. The son Fu Song who came here is now in the city.Although he felt that Zheng Zhihu might not be defeated in Jinmen—even if Jinmen was captured by the enemy, the opponent might not dare to go deep into the Shijing River, which is very unfamiliar in hydrology and geography, and lay out a formation to besiege the heavily guarded Anping City.However, if a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, it is more appropriate to temporarily transfer his family members to Jinjiang County.

At this time, Zheng Lian was on his flagship. This flagship was not a three-masted gunboat, but a three-masted ship bought from the Portuguese with a lot of money not long ago-an old Portuguese merchant ship with 24 doors. Bronze cannons, the largest of which can fire 24-pound shells.In order to operate this Francophone ship, many sailors were specially recruited from Macau and Manila.It is currently the most powerful ship in the Zheng family fleet.Zheng Zhilong handed over the ship to him as his flagship, which seemed to hold him in high regard.Zheng Lian also hopes to show himself well at this critical juncture.

Zheng Lian and his brother Zheng Cai were not born in the Ishii Zheng family of Zheng Zhilong, but the Gaopu Zheng family.He is not the younger brother of Zheng Zhilong or the fake son of the Zheng family as is generally believed.The two brothers defected to Zheng Zhilong in their early years and soon became the backbone of his subordinates.Zheng Cai became a guerrilla resident in Xiamen Island in 1640, only one or two levels lower than Zheng Zhilong.Zheng Cai has been stationed in Xiamen for a long time, managing foreign trade at the mouth of the Jiulong River. Before Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the two brothers formed a powerful hilltop inside the Zheng family.After Zheng Zhilong was taken captive to Beijing, Zheng Cai controlled the main overseas business of the Zheng Group, which was once enough to compete with Zheng Chenggong for the position of head of the Zheng Group.It is not unreasonable for Zheng Gongcheng to regroup and first target Zheng Cai and Zheng Lian brothers in Xiamen.

The main force led by Zheng Lian is three three-masted gunboats and two European-style sailboats, as well as dozens of Fuchuan and Guangzhou ships. More than 100 fire attack ships were loaded with dry wood and sailed in groups on the other side.Every day, the ship is equipped with iron hooks and chains to ensure that the fire ship can be tightly connected to the target ship.

At this time, it was the wind, and Zheng Lian led the fleet to muster the sails and headed towards Jinmen.

Although Zheng Lian was not clear about the situation on the battlefield, he also knew that there must be a hard fight ahead.Only the Dutch, Liu Laoxiang and Australians dared to venture into Weitouwan.The Dutch and Liu Laoxiang have always been in collusion. Not long ago, when Liu Laoxiang attacked Fujian, the sailboats commonly used by the Dutch appeared in the fleet.

However, Liu Laoxiang was defeated in Min'anda not long ago and suffered heavy losses. It is absolutely impossible to make a comeback so soon.If it was the Dutch, their businessmen had never seen anything unusual on the boats in Xiamen-ninety-nine out of ten of the surprise raids on Kinmen were Australians.

Thinking of the Australians, Zheng Lian couldn't help feeling secretly nervous. He heard that the Australians' ships were strong and powerful. Even the leader himself dared not confront them head-on. If they came to make a surprise attack, he had to be extremely careful.

While the reinforcement fleet of the Zheng family was rushing forward, the five steam battleships of the First Squadron were also heading for Xiamen at a speed of [-] knots. Due to the fast speed of the First Squadron, the transport ships and motor boats transporting the landing troops could not Closely following the team, so the landing troops: four infantry companies and a small number of attached artillery were loaded by five ships separately by short-distance shipping.Small hairpins for landing were also placed on deck.

According to the standards of the 19th century, the First Squadron entered the battle with Zheng Lian in an extremely dangerous state, with soldiers and ammunition stuffed under the deck and small boats strapped on the deck.If one shell is hit by the enemy, it is enough to cause serious casualties and damage.However, the superiority in firepower and maneuverability they possessed made the veteran officers not need to worry about this—as long as the maximum efficiency was enough.

(End of this chapter)