Dragon Sea Empire

From the bottom of his heart, Shen Yourong did not approve of starting a war against the Zhonghua Company at this time. For one thing, he had a good impression of Yin Feng, and he didn't think he was bent on rebelling. He was just born overseas and didn't know the dignity of the court, so he needed to be comforted and appeased; Second, although he believes that the Chinese company should not use weapons against the barbarians in Lusong, Yin Feng's dispatch of troops to Lusong was supported by various seagoing merchants along the coast. The common people in Fujian are at odds with the government.

Reluctantly, the governor, the commander in chief and other superiors strictly ordered him to go into battle. As a standard soldier, Shen Yourong had no choice but to obey the orders and lead the troops into battle.

In the past few years, he has already inquired about the defense situation of Penghu through fishermen and spies; I went through the motions and went to Penghu for a few days before returning home, but also because of this, the officers and soldiers of the Chinese company's defense situation on Penghu Island are relatively familiar.

The Chinese company's spies in Quanzhou also inquired about the movements of the officers and soldiers. Penghu and Taiwan had already made preparations, but they did not find out the exact date when the officers and soldiers would dispatch troops. The command ability of the headquarters forced the navy of the headquarters to rush on the road overnight, led by the Guo brothers who were familiar with the waterways of Penghu, and attacked Penghu Island in the middle of the night.

Shen Yourong is such a soldier, although he disapproves of this operation, once he takes action, he will strive to do his best.

Although the garrison of the China United Company set up an observation post on the southern cape of West Island, Shen Yourong risked only letting the leading ship light a lantern in the dark night, and the rest of the warships followed this light. Due to negligence, the sentinels of the Chinese company failed to call the police in time, causing Shen Yourong's 40 warships to rush into the inner sea of ​​Magong Port.

There is a wooden temporary lighthouse on Cetian Island in the harbor, which was built by the Chinese company and guarded by sentries. Finally, the sentry on Cetian Island made an alarm in time and fired a three-pound cannon in time. Suddenly, the entire bay resounded like thunder. gunfire.

Originally, the Chinese Army was stationed at Niangma Palace, where they fought fiercely with the Dutch a few years ago. Now, the commercial fortress stationed by the Chinese company guards is at the end of Fenggui on the south line of Magong Port. High, facing a piece of hills and gravel; the other side is close to the bay, the coastline is completely within the range of the cannons of the merchant fortress, and the beach is long and narrow, which is not conducive to the enemy's landing attack. There.

The leader of the warship fleet is Mai Yazi, a 20-year-old boy from Danmin in Yazhou. Although they also received a warning from Quanzhou, they never expected that the officers, soldiers and sailors would dare to attack at night. Most of the sailors are still in the fort. Under the technical conditions at that time, the difficulty of a sneak attack at sea can be imagined, and they are understandable for thinking so. Although the sailors got up quickly when they heard the sound of the guns, only two brigs had sailors on duty at night. The sails were raised and anchored in time, and the rest of the warships were attacked by the fireboats of the officers and soldiers of Wuyu Water Village, and they were burnt to pieces in an instant. It's already on fire.

Maltzi himself was on night watch on a warship, and rushed out of the anchorage in time with another ship, using artillery, powder barrels, and rockets to open the way, relying on his familiarity with waterways, rushed out of the encirclement of officers and soldiers along the coastline, and headed for Taiwan for emergency However, in order to cover the malt, the brother of another warship turned around and rushed towards the officer's warship. As a result, he was surrounded by dozens of naval warships and sank in Penghu Bay.

More than 200 sailors who had lost their warships retreated to the Shangguan Fortress in time, and assisted the infantry brothers of the garrison to repel Shen Yourong's navy with cannons and rockets.

Shen Yourong's spies had never been able to enter the fort to investigate, so Shen Yourong did not expect that there were cannons and rockets in the small fort, and there were a lot of them.

This fortress is a square building with stone walls. Its length and width are about 70 steps. The four corners are hopeful towers. , There is a circle of ditches one person wide and one person deep around the fortress, with doors on all sides, and movable suspension bridges to enter and exit.

The stone wall is not high, but there are wooden platform corridors built along the wall, just enough for the guards to poke their heads out and shoot with muskets outside the wall. This small fortification was built on the basis of the so-called Italian multi-bastion system. It can give full play to the role of firearms. Moreover, Baozhai has three 24-pound cast iron guns, all of which are on the side facing the sea. They are the latest artillery produced by the Chinese company just shipped in a month ago; The field artillery and the garrison were all replaced with flintlock muskets with bayonet holders. Half of the sailors had matchlock guns, and most of the rest of the sailors also had hand-to-hand weapons on warships such as crossbows and swords.

According to the configuration of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, 560% of the 80.00 people in the fort had firearms. This does not include cannons and rockets. The configuration is really luxurious and extravagant.

On Shen Yourong's 40 warships, except for each ship having a Frang machine gun, among the nearly thousand soldiers under his command, there were only fifty gunners and fifty quick gunners, and the rest were cold weapons. The gun is an improved product of the early Japanese matchlock gun, which is the style Qi Jiguang got from the Japanese pirates, and it was something 80 years ago; the fast gun is a matchlock gun of even worse quality, with no front sight or rest, and the range is very short.

Therefore, after Shen Yourong got rid of the naval warships of the Zhonghua Company, he had just encouraged the soldiers to launch a landing battle when he was caught off guard by artillery fire rockets. The lead bullets from muskets killed a lot of people on the beach, and the rest of the people had no experience in firearms warfare at all, so they ran around on the sandy beach at a loss.

Shen Yourong was also a little dazed for a moment, and was about to order to withdraw troops, when suddenly he saw a rocket fired from the watchtower facing the sea in the north of the fortress, trailing a long tail of smoke, and with a sharp whistle, it rushed straight at Shen Yourong to call Flag Flagship.

"Boom," the rocket fell towards the sea at the limit of its range, and exploded on the sea surface more than ten steps away from Shen Yourong's ship, creating a ball of flames. This fire can still burn on the sea surface. This is the weapon of the Chinese company. The straight-rod rocket just invented by the research department has a large amount of tung oil and gunpowder in the warhead, which is specially used to burn ships.

Although Shen Yourong had experienced hundreds of battles, he had never encountered such a fierce firearm attack when fighting at sea, and he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

For some reason, the other party stopped shooting suddenly, and Shen Yourong didn't think too much about whether it was fraudulent, and quickly withdrew all his soldiers back to the boat, then sailed the boat away from this beach, and docked at the mouth of Magong Port far away, just a few meters away from the Zhonghua Company Commercial Hall. The fort has a full five miles.

Luo Yiwen's brigade of 3500 soldiers and more than 100 sailboats arrived at noon the next day and found that Shen Yourong had taken the lead. He reprimanded him for the fact that there were more than a hundred casualties during the landing, and then he sent the officers and soldiers of Shen Yourong's department to patrol the mouth of Penghu Bay, and go away from the battlefield to cool off. officers and soldiers.

Luo Yiwen's officers and soldiers first occupied Cetian Island and Niangma Palace to build camps, and did not attack the Shangguan fortress for three days in a row.

The garrison captain of the Penghu Merchant House of the Chinese Company is Zhao Xuanming, the former commander of the second infantry sentry. He is a nephew of Zhao Jiaao and Zhao Tie. He once guarded the port when the Spanish envoys came to Taiwan and negotiated with the Spaniards. He strictly observed discipline at the time, so after a few months of training in the military academy, he was transferred to the Penghu Garrison as the captain.

Zhao Xuanming was very reluctant to be transferred here. He thought he was going to Luzon to fight the Spaniards and avenge his brother. Now that the officers and soldiers came to attack for no reason, he took his anger out on the officers and soldiers. After the defeat, all the guard posts of the Chinese company all over the island were withdrawn to the fortress, and the strongholds of Xiyu, Cetian Island and Niangmagong were abandoned, and all personnel and materials were concentrated in the Fengguiwei fortress.

When the officers and soldiers didn't come to attack, Zhao Xuanming took the initiative to attack Luo Yiwen's Niangmagong camp at night, and blew up the entire camp with a new type of iron grenade. In the dark night, he was attacked again, and was killed by a group of sailors who were familiar with hand-to-hand combat. A hundred officials from the Zhangzhou Guard who went out of the camp to pursue them were killed in battle. More than 20 officers and soldiers were killed, including being killed by a grenade in the camp. , Trampled to death in the chaos, Luo Yiwen's troops killed more than 100 people overnight and injured countless people.

Luo Yiwen completely underestimated the enemy, so he didn't believe what Shen Yourong said: the defenders in the fort had a lot of firearms, he thought it was Shen Yourong's excuse for his defeat.

After the camp was attacked, he became annoyed and drove 3000 officers and soldiers along the coastline to attack Fengguiweibao by land.

The side of Fengguiwei Fortress that faces the land has an advantage in terrain, coupled with the strong firepower inside the fortress, the results of the officers and soldiers' attack can be imagined. Not even one of Luo Yiwen's soldiers could approach within 50 steps of the fortress. Zhao Xuanming knew that Shen Yourong Who is it? Yin Feng once warned them not to conflict with Shen Yourong's troops, that's why he let Shen Yourong go on the first day of the battle; On the side of the forward line where the officers and soldiers attacked, the officers and soldiers fell in pieces with intensive shotgun fire. The 100 soldiers of the garrison fired at the top of the wall. The flintlock guns with ammunition were handed over to the comrades on the wall to shoot, and the almost continuous bullets swept down the officers and soldiers holding wooden shields.

Most of the officers and soldiers who participated in the battle had no experience in dealing with pure firearms warfare. Although they also had cannons, Franc machine guns, and bird guns, the range did not reach the wall of the fort at all. The guns of the Chinese company garrison had already hit their heads. Yes, the war turned into a unilateral massacre of officers and soldiers by the Chinese company garrison from the very beginning.

In one morning, Luo Yiwen's soldiers killed and injured nearly 600 people. Luo Yiwen was completely confused by this. He was completely at a loss, so he had to retreat to his own camp. One cannon, several Franc guns, and numerous knives and guns.

After a temporary truce for five days, Luo Yiwen tried to sneak attack at night. As a result, his soldiers stepped on a mine with a steel wheel ignition device outside the ditch of the fortress, killing more than ten people for no reason, and alarmed the defenders. Under the blow, he had to retreat. In the following days, Luo Yiwen desperately asked Zhu Wenda, the commander-in-chief stationed in Quanzhou, for reinforcements.

Zhu Wenda had no choice but to send more than 1000 sailors from Fenghuomen and Nanri Shanshuizhai and [-] banner troops from Dajin Qianhu Office gathered in Quanzhou Port again. .

Therefore, Zhu Wenda mobilized the officers and soldiers of Fuzhou Zhongwei, Fuzhou Zuowei, and Funingwei to gather in Quanzhou, and at the same time urged the Zhejiang General Soldier for reinforcements.

General Wen Chu under the jurisdiction of the General Army of Zhejiang Province, General Guards of Taiwan and Jin Yan, and Rangers just arrived at Quanzhou Port on this day. Zhu Wenda issued a fish ban order on this day, which caused people's resentment along the coast of Fujian to boil.

Zhu Wenda is very confident in the 800 nominal Wu soldiers transferred from Zhejiang. They are strong soldiers who became famous in the Qi Jiguang era and basically retained some of the discipline and tactics taught by Qi Jiguang. Yiwu soldiers were very popular during this period. As soon as there is a war in various places, they rush to transfer soldiers from Yiwu to fight. As a result, the general soldiers of Zhejiang Province and local officials complain to the court that Yiwu is unable to undertake more military service due to the decrease in population. It is a rare thing for him to give soldiers in Zhejiang special preferential treatment and full food in terms of treatment; it is normal and natural for him to deduct the food and pay of soldiers under him usually as a daily habit.

Zhu Wenda stationed 100 soldiers in the Quanzhou government office, and sent dozens of people to monitor near the houses of the Zeng family and Yin Feng's family. The Quanzhou government office also sent servants to help monitor, but Zhu Zongbing did not trust these local government officials. ; These people have interests with the Zeng family and the Zhonghua Company, and it would be good to hope that they would not be helpful, so on the day when the Zhejiang soldiers arrived, he sent a hundred household officers named Fuzhou Zuowei to lead more than 20 soldiers. Surveillance of Huaxing Alliance.

The fisherman who was beaten on the wharf was Mito, a Dan citizen from Quanzhou, and he was not well-known. Everyone called him Li Qi, and he was also one of the secret agents of the Zhonghua Company in Quanzhou Port. The next day, he used the name of selling fish He was observing the situation outside the temporary barracks of Zhejiang soldiers outside Quanzhou Port. At night, he sneaked into the north gate of Quanzhou City, but found that the surrounding area of ​​Huaxing Lianhe was guarded by officers and soldiers.

After wandering around for a long time, in the dead of night, he finally got his chance; the officers and soldiers guarding the back door of the Huaxing United were all huddled in a corner and fell asleep.

Li Qi took advantage of the cover of the dark corner of the wall, climbed over the wall and entered the backyard of Huaxing Lianhe, went directly to Xu Xinsu's bedroom through familiar ways, and then lightly knocked on the window.

Xu Xinsu, the chief treasurer of China United Company and Huaxing Union Company, Huaxing Qianzhuang Fujian Branch, was not asleep at all. When he heard the sound, he jumped up from the bed holding a flintlock pistol, squatted at the window and asked softly, "Who is it?"

Li Qi replied in a low voice: "I, Qi Zai"

Xu Xinsu heard the voice of the person coming, and hurriedly opened the door to let him in. There was no time to greet him, so he asked directly: "How are the officers and soldiers doing?"

Li Qi grabbed the teapot on Xu Xinsu's table, took a sip from the spout and said, "There are more soldiers, this time they are soldiers from Zhejiang. I heard that there are soldiers from Yiwu who are very capable of fighting."

"How many people?" Xu Xinsu lit a candle, took out a pen and paper, and began to grind and write, asking, "Besides the soldiers from Yiwu, there are also those troops."

"Zhejiang soldiers have very strict defenses and do not let me approach the camp. I don't know the exact number of people. I watched for a day and estimated that more than 3000 Zhejiang soldiers came. They brought hundreds of ships with some sailors and rudders on board. workers, I don’t know how many people there are,”

Xu Xinsu frowned, shook his head, and said, "A few days ago, there were about 1 officers and soldiers from Fujian, and this time there were [-] soldiers from Zhejiang. This soldier Zhu is very generous. In this battle, the total strength of officers and soldiers has exceeded [-] taels." Thousands of people, I don’t know what’s going on in Penghu.”

Li Qi laughed: "Please don't worry, the shopkeeper. I found out that the Penghu Fortress is still in the hands of the ship owner. The officers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and they just couldn't take it down."

Due to the war in Penghu, Quanzhou's coastal sea route was cut off. Xu Xinsu still didn't know the news of Manila's victory. He shook his head worriedly and said, "The strength of the troops is too great. I hope the captain's brigade will come back quickly. I only have the last two soldiers left here." It’s just a carrier pigeon, and after this news is sent out, there’s nothing I can do… I hope Penghu can stay on guard for a while longer.”