Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 731 The Final Fire Attack
In order to increase the intensity of the fire, buckets of sulfur and gunpowder were also piled on the ship, and many so-called poisonous Chinese medicinal materials that can emit poisonous smoke were added.According to Xu Tingfa's estimate, with so many attacking boats attacking at the same time, no matter how powerful the Kun bandits' cannons were, they would not be able to reach them.As long as one-third of the warships of the Kun bandits can be burned, the purpose of disrupting the defense of the Kun bandits can be achieved.Xu Tingfa gathered all the remaining naval warships and more than 40 rice boats and salt boats that were temporarily used as division ships, and prepared to take advantage of the fire attack to be effective. .Li Fengjie offered an unprecedented reward: one tael for beheading fake kun, and 50 tael for real kun.Burn down a Kun bandit warship, reward 50 taels for small ones, and 100 taels for large ones; capture a Kun bandit warship, that is, reward 200 taels.

When the Fubo army occupied Ershawei and was temporarily stranded on Henan Island to clean up the scattered bandits, Xu Tingfa ordered Chen Qian to lead the fire attack fleet down the provincial river slowly, and he personally led the navy to hold the battle behind.

"Your escaped for the second time, this time I will give you a chance to make meritorious deeds!" Xu Tingfa said fiercely to Chen Qian before setting off, "Master Fujun has already ordered me to do things cheaply, so you can do it yourself!"

Chen Qian secretly scolded Xu Tingfa for running faster than a rabbit, and this time he was going to use him as a striker to die.But he didn't dare to make mistakes, everyone knew that Li Fujun's eyes were already red, and if he lost another battle, he might really have his head chopped off.

"The last general must be brave and take the lead!" Chen Qianyan said insincerely.

"On the official side, let's talk about it later." Xu Tingfa snorted, and said viciously, "The thieves entered the White Swan Lake and fired three or four shots at the provincial capital. Your and my heads will have to move! Of course ,you are the first!"

"The general will know." Chen Qian crossed his hands and said respectfully.Sweat has already flowed down.As a military officer, the ability to evade is first-class, but the problem now is that it is difficult for him to evade.My own line of defense was in Humenzhai, and I fled all the way to Guangzhou. The Fujun really wanted to murder and blame me, and I was the perfect candidate.

But if he really wants to move forward bravely, he just doesn't have the guts--Chen Qian can see very clearly that trying to fight the Kun thief face to face on the water is not only courting death, but courting death.

But now Li Fengjie and the others are forcing him down, even if he dies, he has to go.Chen Qian had no choice but to choose two fast and flexible long dragons as his boats, and carefully selected dozens of soldiers who were good at water and good at handling boats.Prepare to hide aside as soon as the fire attack ship goes up, and then decide according to the situation.

Night falls.

The task force moored at Ershawei has lowered its military flag and entered the state of night rest.The sentries lit piles of bonfires on the Ershawei Fort abandoned by officers and soldiers.The sentries were watching the distant river vigilantly—the officers on the land had sent out long-range patrol posts, and they had all been specially trained to be able to spot the silhouette of people in the dark night.It is impossible for anyone to attempt to attack the task force from land.

The danger comes from above the water.Although careful arrangements have been made: large ships are in the core, small boats form fixed posts on the periphery, and patrol boats conduct uninterrupted night patrols.But on such a narrow water surface that is not conducive to maneuvering, there is very little room for maneuver in the event of a sneak attack.

At night, Commander Lelin was sitting in a chair on the fort, wrapped in a thick military wool felt cloak—this was made of material bought from the Portuguese, it was warm and waterproof, and it was used for the future mainland strategy plan Do one of several material preparations.Armies and sailors cannot operate in the tropics and subtropics forever.

Lelin wrapped her cloak tightly. As a Hong Kong native, he had never felt so cold in Guangdong at night in the old days—even if it was Christmas in Lan Kwai Fong, he was only a coat at most.But here, even in my British Navy sweater, it's freezing cold.The damp cold air permeated up.

"Why is this Little Ice Age so cold—" He muttered, in order to pass the boring time and space, from time to time he raised his Russian-made infrared telescope and looked around.

Sun Tianbiao cursed secretly——Since he escaped from Lingaowei Station at night and went to Haikou Qianhu Office for emergency, he was kicked all the way from Haikou, Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Haikou like a football. As far as the word "kun thief" is concerned, he will be in charge of everything.When Chengmai was defeated, he jumped into the water to escape in confusion, found a fishing boat on the shore, crossed the sea and fled back to the mainland.After traveling all the way to Zhaoqing, I was almost treated as a beggar.After Wang Zhijun asked him a few words, his complexion became very bad, and then he didn't continue.Sun Tianbiao spent a few days in the governor's bid with no name and distinction, and was kicked to Guangzhou to "listen to use".
In the end, he managed to find a job in the Humen Navy—but he didn't have soldiers under his command, so he just received a dry salary.I have to go out to patrol from time to time, so I don't feel comfortable living the life of a landlord in the guard.

That's not to mention, this time it was my turn to start the attack with the arson ship - it is said that it was because of familiarity with Kun.Sun Tianbiao had no choice but to board the first batch of ten boats and lay down in the cabin, thinking about when he would jump into the water and escape for his life.I couldn't help scolding all eighteen generations of Chen Qian's ancestors.

Seeing the black shadow of the fleet of the Kun bandits in the distance has already appeared indistinctly.Sun Tianbiao's heart was in his throat.Others don't know, but he is very aware of the "legends" of the various thieves.In addition to the powerful firearms, there is also the legendary clairvoyance that can see people at night.Sun Tianbiao originally wanted to report this matter to Chen Qian, who was in command of the battle, but he didn't expect that the other party didn't bother to see him at all, so he just told him to "go forward bravely".

"Fight to die bravely?" Sun Tianbiao muttered, and cursed again, "Paddle slowly! The water is too loud!"

The boat hardly needed any power, and drifted slowly downstream along the current, Sun Tianbiao secretly made up his mind - in this way, everyone could dive into the water and escape from a very far away place, and there was no need to row the boat so hard that it could hit the enemy ship the point.Before he could finish his thoughts, the lights on the river were brightly lit, and he could hardly open his eyes for a moment——Besides the surprise, a strong beam of light had been projected from the direction of the thieves' fleet, illuminating the entire fleet of arsonists .

What was projected was only a medium-power stage spotlight, but it was enough to clearly illuminate the incoming arsonist fleet on the water.

"ignition!"

"Fire!"

Orders were issued almost simultaneously from the battery and the fireship.

The Kun Bandit's artillery roared almost instantly, mixed with crisp and continuous screams like torn clothes, and shells and lead bullets flew in one after another.fell in the middle of the fleet.Several fire rafts were sunk by the waves before they could be ignited.An arson boat suddenly trembled all over, and the wood chips were flying in the air, as if someone was whipping it continuously with an invisible whip.The sailor above jumped up convulsively and fell into the water.

A shell roared and directly hit a fire ship, and the ship full of fuel immediately turned into a sea of ​​flames. Sun Tianbiao even thought he heard the screams of the sailors.

Sun Tianbiao quickly picked up a kindling jar and threw it into the front cabin which was already full of gunpowder, and the flames burst into flames.He didn't care about the greeting, he rolled and jumped off the side of the boat, and then the other people on the boat jumped into the water too.

Ignition was an order, and one ship after another was set on fire, and the first wave of more than a dozen arson ships drifted down the current toward the task force on the mountain on the Ershawei River.

"Brothers, pay attention, hold on!" Chen Qian, who was following behind, did not expect that the Kun thief could emit such a huge light out of thin air in the dark night.Now that sneak attack is impossible, if you want to escape safely, you have to immediately set the boat and fire raft on fire and float down, hoping that the thieves will be caught off guard, and the blind cat will catch dead mice and crash into a few enemy ships.

However, this distance is too far!Chen Qian thought to himself—if he drifted down like this, the gangster would have already run away, so how could he hit the enemy ship?Normally, everyone would light up the fire and run for their lives, but this time there was no room for blame. Chen Qian ordered the rest of the boats to speed up and rush over, and they were not allowed to light the fire until they were in front of the enemy boat.

"Anyone who ignites and abandons the ship without authorization, beheaded!" He shouted on his boat, waving his saber, "Everyone rush up! The gangsters only have a few cannons! If you hit them, you deserve to die. If you don't hit them, we will have a fortune !"

Those who drove the fire to attack the boats were all desperadoes. After being so drunk by him, each of them had only money in their eyes. Seeing that the shells fell on Sun Tianbiao's vanguard fleet, they hurriedly rowed one by one and headed towards the fleet desperately. .

Three minutes after Lelin gave the order to fire, the main commanders of the fleet ran to the deck. Chen Haiyang raised his binoculars, and there were burning ships everywhere on the river in the distance. This was the enemy's fire attack!The spy boats acting as cover on the outside of the fleet were firing fiercely with artillery and typewriters.The searchlights patrolled back and forth on the river.Chen Haiyang estimated the distance, and felt a little more at ease - the nearest fire was still about 3 kilometers away from the periphery of the fleet.According to the general tactics they mastered of using fire to attack ships by the Ming army and pirates, after igniting the fire, there will be no one left on board, and it will be propelled entirely by the current and wind. .

At this speed, I am afraid that many fire attack ships will be burned and sunk before they can float to the anchorage of the fleet.Not to mention that cannons and typewriters are constantly firing at them now.

"Tell Lelin to follow the plan for attacking the enemy's ships with fire." Chen Haiyang ordered, "Be more observant! The enemy may have unlit ships sailing in secret!"

All ships pulled their hawsers.The sailors took their positions, especially the typewriter shooter. They quickly took off the oilcloth gun cover, loaded the magazine, turned the gun frame casually, and stared at the dark water.

Sun Tianbiao's avant-garde was smashed to pieces by artillery and typewriters, and turned into groups of burning wrecks on the water, slowly drifting, swirling, and sinking.The fire attack ship behind passed through the wreckage on the water, and continued to carry out special attack operations with a brave attitude that has rarely appeared recently.

Several small launch boats that had been on fire all the time also came from the anchorage, and used typewriters to shoot the subsequent fire attack ships hundreds of meters forward. The dense bullets swept across the deck, smashing the sailors to pieces, and rushed to the front Some of the fire attack ships lost control, slowed down, and some simply swung across the water and collided with the ships behind them.

Chen Qian watched the striker being intercepted by the Australians again, knowing that there was no hope of breaking through the blockade, so he could only order the fire to be fired angrily. More than 30 fire attack boats and nearly a hundred fire rafts were set on fire together, and the flames on the water surface were blazing for a while, which was spectacular.

These fire boats and fire rafts slowly drifted downstream along the current. Because the speed was too slow and no one was operating them, several of them collided with each other and sank on the way. clean.The rest were pulled to the river bank one by one by the sailors on the sampan who had already arrived at a place approaching 500 meters, and let them burn up.

Seeing the flames in the river, Xu Tingfa thought he had succeeded, and immediately led 40 division ships down the river, ready to take advantage of the momentum to attack.Unexpectedly, before they arrived at the front, they were subjected to heavy artillery fire from the spy boat, and the three division ships in front were hit by artillery fire immediately.Xu Tingfa stiffened his hair and ordered a fierce attack. He placed dozens of ingots of 50 taels of silver on the deck, waved his sword and shouted: "Those who advance, reward! Those who retreat, cut!"

Just as he was yelling to rush forward, "to repay the court's grace", someone brought the wet Sun Tianbiao in front of him.

"My lord—the gunmen in front are firing fiercely, and the ships cannot pass through..."

Before Sun Tianbiao finished speaking, Xu Tingfa immediately shouted: "Drag it, cut it off!"

The soldiers on the left and right immediately pulled Sun Tianbiao, who hadn't recovered from his senses, to the bow of the boat, and beheaded him with one blow.Put the bloody human head on.

"Hang on the mast!" Xu Ting yelled loudly, "Whoever dares to run away will end up like this!"

All the troops trembled immediately, shouting loudly and throwing the firearms on the ship in the direction of Ershawei. The two dragons came out of the water, the swarm of bees, and the fire pigeons, no matter whether the range was enough or not, they shot them all at once, which was quite a spectacle. .Not only did they not hit the thief, but they accidentally injured a lot of sailors who jumped from the fire boat to escape.

"You hit the street... see clearly before hitting..." Shui Yong, who was hit by a rocket for no reason, cursed and sank.

"Attention! The distance of the enemy ship is 430 meters. Load the solid ammo with one round!" The gunners on the spy boat shouted loudly while observing.

The final special attack led by Xu Tingfa lasted until midnight. The entire river was blazing with flames. The sound of guns, screams, cursing and cries for help filled the night sky.As the night darkened, more and more ships were on fire.Finally, the last counterattack of the Ming army also declared bankruptcy.Xu Tingfa escaped by swimming ashore with his own soldiers.Chen Qian took his own boat and fled into Xijiang in one breath.All of the 40 warships participating in the counterattack were lost except for 4 that escaped during the battle.When the sky was twilight, the tired Lelin and the others could only see corpses and broken shipwrecks floating in the river, and green smoke was still curling up from the wreckage.

The task force lost 5 sampans and 1 long dragon in this night battle.A steam boat was hit by a shell on the boiler, causing an explosion, killing 2 sailors and severely injuring the boat.It was the Navy's worst loss.In addition, several ships were hit, but it did not affect the battle.All casualties are 3 dead and 14 injured.They were unable to count the losses of the Ming army. Few prisoners were captured in the dark, and many escaped by swimming ashore in the dark.However, only five or six hundred corpses were salvaged from the water by nearby villagers after the war.

On November 1630, 11 in the Western calendar, just as the mist on Baietan cleared, the Pearl River Task Force of the Australian Song Fubo Army sailed into Baietan.

The iron chain rattled, and iron anchors were thrown from the boat into the blue waves of the White Swan Lake.The dark muzzle of the ship was facing the city of Guangzhou.

The city gates of Guangzhou are closed—the news that Xu Tingfa's counterattack failed has long been brought back to Guangzhou by the rout.The city gate, which was supposed to be opened early in the morning, was not opened for the first time.

Yu Baocun, the prefect of Guangzhou, was watching on the city wall. When he saw the fleet approaching, he quickly got off the city wall and got into a sedan chair.

"Quick! Go to the governor's office!"

Li Fengjue was completely helpless at this time.Xu Tingfa's counterattack failed, and he didn't even know where the others were.None of the forts along the way worked.The 2000 recruits who spent a lot of money bravely ran away with death, and there were less than [-] people left.However, the Franz robot he had placed high hopes on had no intention of dispatching battleships to cut off the retreat of the Kun bandits.According to the letter sent back by Li Luoyou, Folangji seems to have grasped the news that Gao Shunqin requested to close the customs and even expel them. Don't say "borrowing troops to help the war", it took Li Luoyou a lot of effort not to take advantage of the fire. up.

Although the letter didn't say it explicitly, the implication was very obvious: He was asked to negotiate peace with the Kun bandits as soon as possible, so as not to suffer a bigger blow.

Negotiating peace, negotiating peace, Li Fengjie was half frustrated and half annoyed.He originally wanted to make money to negotiate a peace, but he made a wrong calculation at the time, hoping to save a little bit of face before contacting the Australians, but now not only has no face, even the inside is almost lost.Now the thief's fleet is moored at Baietan, ready to bombard Guangzhou anytime and anywhere-making him suddenly in a dilemma.

Negotiating peace will inevitably encounter attacks from many people, especially Gao Shunqin, who is extremely hostile to all overseas people.God knows how he will impeach the court.

If there is a war, there is no certainty of victory at all-even if the Kun bandits do not capture Guangzhou, it is a certainty that they will be dismissed after this round of tossing. If the Kun bandits break through the city, they will lose their lives.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but frown.He sighed.

He Chengzong whispered: "My lord, now there is only a quick payment to let the navy of the thief retreat from the White Swan Lake. After a long time, there is no way to explain it!"

"There's no way to explain it now!" Li Fengjie complained.

"My lord, there is always a way to deal with it right now. If this gangster fights again outside the city of Guangzhou, I'm afraid there will be no way to talk about it!"

(End of this chapter)