Win the Ding 1617

A race of retreat and pursuit unfolded on the sea from Dongshan Island to Xiamen.

The retreat of an army is a highly technical task. For generals’ organizational and command abilities, staff’s ability to execute plans, the degree of respect for military orders by commanders at all levels, and the ability of grassroots officers to control the troops, the army Internal unity and cohesion are extremely challenging activities.One project falling short could turn a retreat into a catastrophic rout.

The retreat or transfer from Dongshan Island to Xiamen organized by Zheng Zhilong unfortunately turned into the latter.

From the beginning, the morale of the army was unstable. From the commander to the generals, officers, and soldiers at all levels, they were full of suspicion. The retreat was hasty and they made up their minds, pulling out the anchor overnight.Neither did they mobilize the entire army, nor did they formulate a detailed and comprehensive retreat plan, nor did they even arrange which ships would be the forwards and which ships would be the rear guards.Not to mention making material preparations.

Nearly 3 troops and nearly a thousand large and small ships rushed out of various harbors on Dongshan Island and headed straight for Xiamen.

These ships will cover almost the entire surface of the sea.

The big ship rammed the small boat recklessly, the gunboat was in front of the cargo ship's course, and the sail ropes of the small boat were tangled with the big ship's.

"Boss Chen! Your boat is blocking Lao Tzu's boat! Get out of the way!"

"Stop talking nonsense! It's obvious that my boat is ahead of you! Why do you ask me to get out of the way?!"

"Brother Huang, lower your sail first! Let me untie the rope first!"

Noisy scolding, shouting.The dull sound of the collision of ships spread farther in the night.

In the middle of the fleet, under the protection of several gunboats, Zheng Zhilong's flagship galloped all the way with full sail.In the cabin, Zheng Zhilong, the commander of the Fujian Army and the Fujian Navy, completely lacked the prestige of a few days ago. Hearing the sound of the sea breeze blowing into his ears, he couldn't help frowning.

"In such a situation, how can we withdraw to Xiamen?"

"Brother, don't worry. It's dark and windy at night. The fleet is full of people and the ships are miscellaneous. It is expected that there will be some mistakes. It will be fine after dawn." Zheng Zhibao, who was traveling with Zheng Zhilong, comforted him he.

"That's right! Commander-in-law, Uncle Bao is right. Wait until dawn to broaden your horizons. Naturally, the fleet will be safe!" Zheng Sen also comforted Zheng Zhilong's tiger-skin chair.

"I hope it's as Fusong said."

but.When a round of red sun jumped out from under the eastern sea level, it cast orange-red light on the sea with a lazy taste, and threw the flags, masts, sails, and artillery of the fleet.There are also people who are active on the deck, all dyed a layer of orange.

The sailor on the mast of Zheng Zhilong's ship took the water bottle from his waist, opened the spout with great care, took a small sip of the shochu inside, and used the heat from the shochu to drive away the pain that had penetrated into the cracks in his bones. chill.

He stayed on the mast for an hour, feeling that his whole body had been frozen by the cold wind on the sea and lost consciousness.

After taking a sip of soju, his throat immediately felt like it was burning.Then, followed by his esophagus and stomach, there was a burning sensation of a burning fire.This feeling was spread to the limbs by the blood, which made him feel a lot more comfortable.

"Drop that horse! It's a bad job for me to watch from the mast in the winter and the twelfth lunar month!" He cursed, and he wouldn't worry about being heard here.Suddenly, he seemed to have discovered something. On the far sea level on the right side of the ship, something seemed to flash past.

He rubbed his eyes, and raised the frozen binoculars to his eyes.

In the camera, it almost jumped out from below the sea level, and more than a dozen ships galloped from the south to the Zheng's naval fleet that was traveling from west to east.On the top of the high mast of the leading flagship, there is a military flag intertwined with several colors such as black, red and gold, and a plum blossom flag that is blooming in full bloom, blown out by the violent north wind as if it has just been ironed.

"Enemy attack!" The sailor seemed to have been thrown into the icy sea water. It seemed that it took as long as 100 years before he exhausted almost all his strength and shouted these two simple words loudly.With his right hand, he desperately struck the bronze bell for the alarm.

"The Scarlet Winged Tiger is here!"

"The Scarlet Winged Tiger is here!"

"The right side of the fleet! Scarlet Winged Tiger!"

The frightening news spread quickly through the fleet like a plague.The people who had just recovered from the panic and exhaustion of last night dropped their rice bowls and spilled hot porridge all over the deck.

That's right.It was Li Huamei who was given the nickname "Scarlet Winged Tiger" by the Zheng family sailors who came after her.

The pursuit fleet, which consisted of six galleys and the Aomei, as well as eight patrol ships with 24 guns equipped by the Taiwan sailor battalion led by Li Huayu, learned that Zheng's navy had retreated overnight (escape?) After hearing the news, they dispatched from Guang'ao Bay, leaving Shi Lang of Nan'ao Island far behind, and just chased Zheng Zhilong.

"Give a signal and ask my eldest sister, when can the rocket on our ship be launched?"

On his own ship, it is not the first time that Li Huayu has led a navy to an action battle. Holding up the binoculars and looking at the distance, he can already distinguish the outline of the fleet, and can vaguely see the huge and mixed ship with the number of masts. fleet.

The chaotic and crowded marching formation of the Zheng family navy is simply a delicious meal for a light patrol ship equipped with a rocket launcher on board.

With the experience of burning Kagoshima City, Li Huayu already has a lot of experience in how to concentrate on using rockets, a weapon that is devoid of conscience and inhumanity.In his eyes, those frightened ships were just a pile of planks floating on the sea, piled up there, just waiting for him to throw the rockets on them.Then, fire and burn.

"Tell brothers, this is the time to test your abilities! Show me your true abilities!"

After serving as a command envoy in Taiwan for this period of time, there has been a big change in what I say and do, and I feel a bit more vigorous and decisive.

Rocket.The first time it was used in actual combat on a large scale, it was used by the Spaniards in Luzon. These gentlemen who planned to violate the principles of international trade used rockets to teach them a lesson on sea and land!Afterwards, they dealt with Nanruan's fleet. As a result, the group of monkeys were burnt to death, and the Shimadzu's family was burned to their knees.However, the rockets that time were used to attack the native villages in many previous operations, the launch position was fixed, and the target was relatively fixed.Naturally, there are not too many technical requirements for shooting from a fixed position to a fixed target position.

The fire that burned Kagoshima Castle not long ago.Although the scale of the battle is much larger.But in fact, there is no escape from the stereotype of shooting from a fixed position to a fixed target position.The rocket ship poured hundreds of rockets on Kagoshima City on the sea, which is actually no different from the one used to attack the stubborn native villages, but on a larger scale.

But today, the shooting difficulty and technical requirements are much higher.

Move position against moving target!Everyone is moving.It depends on who is more capable!

but.It seems that these patrol ships with launchers just missed their original targets.With the dense and chaotic formation of Zheng Jun's navy, it is not a problem to hit and ignite these ships.

"My fleet is about [-] steps away from the fleet of the Zheng Army Navy! The flagship of the vanguard fleet has sent a semaphore. I wait for the patrol rocket ship to launch rockets at a distance of about [-] steps to disrupt the march of the enemy fleet!"

"Change formation! Spread out! Spread out!"

On Zheng Zhilong's flagship, he kept signaling to the various small fleets outside, trying to disperse the dense formation to avoid being surrounded by the Nanyue Army. He greeted each ship and sent them to the bottom of the sea one by one.However, the surrounding ship owners didn't seem to see the signal from his ship, and some of them filled up all the sails and even added a second sail, just rushing forward, hoping to escape from this water area as soon as possible and arrive in Jinan as soon as possible. Xiamen sea surface is safe.And some people didn't know if their heads were damaged by the cold sea wind, but they actually moved closer to Zheng Zhilong's team, compressing the already crowded sea even more.

"This group of bastards! Zhibao! You and Fusong go back to your boat, we don't want to take these guys back with us anymore! Everyone wish for luck!" Seeing that the sea became more and more narrow, everywhere It was his own ship, with sails and masts everywhere he could see, panicked sailors, and dirty garbage being tossed up and down by the waves on the sea surface; Zheng Zhilong finally got his heart out, and he was ready to abandon these pig-like teammates!

"Eight hundred steps. Seven hundred steps. 650 steps!" Li Huayu looked excitedly at the gesture from the rangefinder, turned his head and shouted at the gunner next to him: "What are you waiting for, load the ships! Get ready! emission!"

Thirty rockets shot up from the six patrol boats, heading straight for the fleet more than [-] paces away!

Shoot at moving targets while in motion!

Soon, the sea was filled with the iconic sharp whistling sound of the rocket, and the white smoke from the tail streaked across the air, forming a white trail between the sea and the sky. The book of life and death is like a big pen, as long as it falls on any object, it will be a flame!This is where the improved version of the carrier rocket differs.

"Oh my God! What is that?!" Zheng Zhilong saw fire dragons rushing towards a ship owner not far away from him. After a burst of smoke from the explosion, several columns of smoke rose into the sky, accompanied by Seeing the black smoke and red flames billowing from the flagship, occasionally mixed with faintly audible explosions, it should be that the gunpowder depot on the ship was detonated by the damn fire.

Twenty of the thirty rockets landed on the bow, stern, deck, and mast of Zheng's navy fleet, and one even landed on the sail of the main mast, turning the sail into a huge torch!

Hundreds of sailors, gunners, sailors, and soldiers on the hit ship jumped into the water to escape.The flagship behind them has become a slowly sinking fireball.

"My God! My God!" Zheng Zhibao opened his mouth wide enough to stuff his own fist into it.As the representative of the Zheng Group in contacting and negotiating business contacts with Nanzhong, he boasted that he was very familiar with the weapons and equipment and combat methods of the Nanyue Army Navy. The hero of the sea was sent to the Crystal Palace, but this rocket is the first time I have heard of it in more than ten years!

"No wonder! No wonder! Fu Song said that Shi Lang was suspected of collaborating with the enemy. If it were me, I would suspect Shi Lang too!"

Looking at the fire dragons with flames and white smoke all over the sky, instead of the roar of cannons and sharp whistles of shells, there are strange screams, and the fire dragons are basically rushing straight towards the dense fleet !

The instincts of the sailors in the fleet saved their lives. Regardless of the icy cold sea water in the twelfth lunar month, they all jumped into the sea from the burning ships and struggled for their lives in the waves.

"In seawater, at most, you will be frozen to death, but you will also be burned to death immediately, or blown to death!"

Zheng Zhilong also opened his mouth wide and couldn't close it, and Li Huayu fired more than a hundred rockets in a short bag of cigarettes.Dozens of rockets have hit ships of all sizes in the fleet.The hit rate reached an insane [-]%!

A huge explosion and flames rose into the air, and the smoke and flames created even greater chaos throughout the right half of the fleet.

"Send a signal to the big brother's fleet! Tell them, don't use rockets anymore! Enough is enough! The Zheng family is already in chaos! It's time to use cannons to cut flesh!"

On the Aomei, Li Huamei was called "Crimson Winged Tiger" by the whole Zheng family.Put down the binoculars in your hand.Calmly ordered Aji beside him.

The flag waved.In an instant, Li Huamei's order was conveyed to Li Huayu.

"Stop firing rockets! All are loaded with shells, ready to go up and cut flesh!"

If it is said that the purpose of the Nanyue Army navy's pursuit operation is to wipe out Zheng Zhilong's navy in one fell swoop, I am afraid that everyone from Li Shouhan to Li Huamei, Li Huayu, Chu Tianlei and others will not believe it.After they learned that Zheng Zhilong's troops had retreated overnight.I only thought that they would not be able to retreat back to Xiamen smoothly, and no matter what, I had to leave something on the sea back, whether it was a boat or a person.

"Want to go back to Xiamen for the New Year in such a peaceful way? How can it be so cheap?" This is the unanimous opinion of the Southern Guangdong Army.

Use artillery fire to divide the fleet of Zheng's navy, and then surround and eat the divided navy.This was given a name by Shou Han's image, "Cut the meat! Eat the meat!"

"One person can eat a pig, but not in one meal! A leopard can also kill a group of sheep, but not in one bite!"

Therefore, the purpose of the Li family sister and brother is to rush into Zheng Jun's fleet with the Clippers' sharp guns after the rockets have created so much chaos for the Zheng family, just like cutting a piece of fat beef with a sharp knife. A piece of meat will separate the teams of small ship owners!Either captured, or sunk!

"Anyuan! Dingyuan! You two ships, adopt a cross formation of two ships and cover alternately! Advance!" The signalman on the Aomei waved the signal flag in his hand, and conveyed Li Huamei's order to the two blasting ships .

Anyuan and Dingyuan, the two blast ships at the front of the fleet, rushed into Zheng Zhilong's fleet at the fastest speed, aiming sideways at the panicked ships in Zheng Zhilong's fleet as much as possible, trying to use With its own advantages of fast ships, many guns, and fast guns, the advantages of fast firing, large numbers, and accurate shooting of ship-borne artillery were maximized to make the already panicked formation of Zheng Zhilong's fleet even more chaotic, and even more helpless. Form effective resistance!

"Fire!" The deck gunner roared, and the impatient gunners pulled the fuses in their hands fiercely!

"Boom!" With a muffled roar, the artillery on the emplacement ejected a stream of flames and fired twelve-pound shells.Then, the gun body was quickly pushed backward by the huge recoil force, which compressed the thick spring on the gun mount tightly. The huge gun body was blocked by the dense rope net behind the gun position, and the recoil force was consumed with little left.Several gunners quickly reset the cannon. One gunner cleaned the gun bore with a wool brush in his hand, dipped in vegetable oil, and the other gunners filled the gun bore nervously and orderly. A round wooden plank to prevent gas leakage.Immediately afterwards, the silk-wrapped shells were stuffed into the barrel.

"Five guns are good!"

"Listen to my password! Fire!"

Another dozen cannonballs, like a Spanish girl, went to kiss the gunboat under Zheng Zhilong, a former Catholic.

A shell that deviated from its trajectory passed the mainsail of Zheng Zhihu's ship.The hot shells ignited the sails, and the flames burned the rigging in an instant.With the disconnection of the rigging, the sail on the main mast slumped to the ground, and Zheng Zhihu's ship began to circle in place on the sea.

"Master Commander! That is the ship of Zheng Zhihu, the titan of the Zheng family! Do you want to go forward and deal with him?"

Li Huamei's subordinates are a bit typical of taking advantage of your illness to kill you, and they have no chivalry at all. "Don't worry about this broken ship. Let's move forward and completely split Zheng Zhilong's fleet!"

Throwing Zheng Zhihu, who had lost the power of the mainmast, to the side and pretending not to know, Li Huamei commanded the four galley ships including Dingyuan and Anyuan to continue frantically executing the battle plan.Split the Zheng Zhilong navy fleet composed of hundreds of warships, armed merchant ships, and cargo ships, and use its own speed advantage to break into the formation of enemy ships. , causing the enemy ship to lose part of its combat effectiveness, and then handed over to the patrol ship under Li Huayu to deal with it, while the fourth pioneer ship continued to search for the next group of victims on the sea.

The small ship owners who hung their own flags on the mast were turned into delicacies by Li Huamei and his brother.

"Aji! Send a signal to the young master and let him shout out at sea! Those who drop the sails and anchor are considered surrender! Our army will not attack!"

As the words were spread on the sea by the big copper horn, the small boat owners watched Zheng Zhihu, who was already empty on the sea, making a decision in unanimous agreement.

"Sail down! Anchor down! Raise the white flag! We surrender to General Li!" (To be continued...)