Win the Ding 1617

In March of the 13th year of Chongzhen, after the painstaking mediation of Fujian officials headed by Fujian governor Zhang Kentang, after several days of arduous and intense negotiations, the Southern Guangdong Army and the Fujian Navy negotiated on the unified command and joint consolidation of Fujian's coastal defense. , finally - failed!

The gap between the two sides is too great.

The Southern Guangdong Army asked Zheng Zhilong to hand over all the ships, sailors, and port gun positions. I can serve as the commander of the Southern Guangdong Army's navy division. The subordinate generals and officers at all levels will be given corresponding positions according to their talents and seniority. Shoulder to shoulder the same, never favor one more than another.

On the other hand, Zheng Zhilong demanded that the original organizational system be retained, and that all captured personnel be returned, and that the sailors and ships who escaped or betrayed to the Southern Guangdong Army should be handed over to the Fujian Navy for military law enforcement. , but listen to the tune but not the announcement, and the equipment, ammunition, and supplies of the troops are the same as those of the Nanyue Army Navy, and the salaries of officers and soldiers at all levels must be doubled according to the Nanyue Army Navy.

"If I agree to such a condition, I will be hit by a ship!" Li Shouhan threw aside the report on the negotiation situation sent by Zhang Kentang, and lazily gave a definition.

"My lord, since we can't reach an agreement, let's see the truth on the boat!"

"That's right! I have fought against the Zheng family's navy, but it's just that there are more ships! In terms of combat power, it's far behind!"

"Father commander! My three battalions of Dongfan soldiers are willing to serve as the picks for attacking Xiamen!"

Many generals of the Second Army of the Southern Guangdong Army, including the son and daughter of Shou Han, volunteered one after another.It is necessary to quickly calm down the Fujian Navy and unify the seas of the three provinces.

The unreasonable conditions put forward by the Zheng family not only made it difficult for the Southern Guangdong Army to accept, but even those who held a neutral attitude in the official circles in Fujian and Guangdong felt that they were indeed a little bit out of their own accord, and it was really intolerable.One after another, they turned to the Southern Guangdong Army to support the use of force against the Fujian Navy, or no longer opposed to using force to solve such an army that did not obey military orders.In this way, Shou Han has a reasonable and legal reason for killing Zheng Zhilong, and occupies the moral high ground.

"Listen to the orders, generals!" Wang Bao, the head of the battalion affairs office, stopped shouting, and the hall, which was still very noisy just now, immediately fell silent, and the generals were divided into left and right according to the two armies of water and land.According to the organizational units, line up and salute with crossed hands and sing in unison.

"Subordinates are waiting here!"

After the generals of the Second Army of the Water and Land Army, there were officials from the Southern Cantonese Army who were unique in grain and Taiwan.That is to say, the supply and security department. Although these people cannot go to the front line to fight in person, they can save lives and heal the wounded with food and ammunition.Comfort the wounded.Repair ships armor weapons artillery.The burden is no less than rushing to the front line.

"How are the food, ammunition, ships, supplies, medicines, and doctor's deployment now?"

The Shou Han doesn't ask the generals about the soldiers, horses, boats and cannons, but first asks about the supplies and medicines of these food platforms.

"My lord, we have mobilized enough grain, rice and meat for the army to feed the army in February. Vegetables and fruits are going to be distributed to all ministries for local procurement. It is spring now, and there is no shortage of vegetables. We purchase and process from various places in Nanzhong After frying it with coal, it will be distributed to the troops according to the number of servings that each person can eat for ten days, including yours, my lord."

The Liangtai official came to Shou Han from a passage that everyone avoided. Although it was a bit wrong, he didn't expect that the lord would ask about the Liangtai first instead of asking about the two armies.

Coal fried is a popular field ration in the Ming Dynasty. It uses white flour and a small amount of sesame oil and sesame as pancakes, which are broken into chess pieces and fried, similar to pasta such as fried noodles, dry cakes or naan.However, in the Southern Guangdong Army, because of the variety of food, wheat is relatively scarce, so cornmeal is mixed with white flour and minced chicken and duck for processing.

"According to the daily supply of fourteen catties of hay, two liters of fried beans, one egg, one and a half liters of millet, and one tael of salt for each war horse, the daily supply of ten catties of hay for each pack horse, draft horse, donkey and mule, etc. With two liters of fried beans, two liters of millet and one tael of salt, we have prepared horse feed that can be used by the war horses of various ministries at the junction of Fujian and Guangdong for a month."

"Another [-] trucks were used to supply food, grass, and ammunition needed by various ministries. [-] people were recruited and used to carry ammunition, grain, and grass to and from various battlefields, and transport the wounded."

"The soldiers of the land and water armies who have arrived at the front line have each distributed first-aid kits. In addition to gauze, bandages, shochu, white medicine, etc., we also distributed garlic heads for the wounded to perform simple disinfection of the wounds themselves."

"How many stretchers and sanitation vehicles have you prepared? Where are the coffins?"

The word that came out of Shou Han's mouth was very cold and unlucky, but without this thing, it would affect morale even more after the battle.

"We have prepared 30 coffins and [-] feet of shrouds." The Liangtai official also spat out such figures coldly.

"Three thousand sets of bamboo stretchers were manufactured, and 4000 of the 1000 civilians mentioned above were used to carry the stretchers and transport the wounded. Five hundred health vehicles, 400 health soldiers and doctors were mobilized from Nanzhong In addition to the [-] people who are going to set up hospitals in various ancestral halls and temples, the remaining [-] people are going to be strengthened at any time in the various departments of the war. Calculated in this way, every hundred people in our army can have one doctor or medical soldier."

The sanitation cart was built according to the shape of the baggage cart and kitchen cart, except that more springs were added to the bottom of the cart, and it was more stable when it was pulled by four horses or mules, which was much more comfortable for wounded soldiers. .

"What shape is the stretcher?"

"Returning to the lord, they are all bamboo bed-style hard stretchers with brackets underneath. When you are tired from walking, you can put them on the ground to rest and tidy up."

After listening to the report from the grain and Taiwan officials, Shou Han nodded in satisfaction. The rich financial resources and the spare no effort over the years have allowed the Southern Guangdong Army to establish a relatively complete logistics supply system and medical and health system. The medical and health system played a role in setting the sea and pioneering the pioneering work of the Southern Guangdong Army in the mountains and forests.At the beginning of dealing with countless aboriginal villages, the shopkeepers and doctors are often the first to enter.These Erlangs are needed by any normal tribe, and no one will turn away the peddlers who deliver what they need to their doorsteps. (Of course, they may seek money and kill.) As for the Langzhong, the level of medical and health conditions is extremely low It is even more necessary for the natives everywhere, and is enshrined as a figure who can communicate with the gods.Even tribes with a tradition of headhunting will show respect to the Han doctor who carries a bamboo medicine box.

"There are fewer civilian husbands. Try to recruit more in the past few days. At least 5000 people can carry stretchers!"

"Order!"

The Liangtai official turned around and returned to his own position, and the guard slowly glanced at the generals of all levels of the land and water armies in front of him. "Did you hear what I said just now? Everything has been prepared for you on the food table, even the coffin for the funeral. What are you going to do?"

"Take Jinsha! Wipe out the Zheng family!"

The high-spirited voices of the generals echoed in the hall of Quanzhou Mansion.

On March 13th, [-]th year of Chongzhen, the Navy of the Southern Guangdong Army was commanded by Zhang Xiaohu and Li Huamei.Launch the boat from Quanzhou Dawan to the south.Conduct the third Xiamen battle.

That night, a large number of ships from the fleet arrived outside the gate of Xiamen. Under the leadership of Zhang Xiaohu's flagship "Three-Headed Tiger" battleship captain, Li Huamei's Ao Mei, six brigs and four gunboats in the fleet across the outer island chain.Smooth sailing into Xiamen South Waterway.

the rest of the ships.It is to cast an anchor outside Kinmen Island.The guns were aimed at the defenders on Kinmen Island, so that they did not dare to act rashly.

"Commander Zhang, our ship's guns are all in position. The ships have sent a signal. When they are ready, when can we launch an attack?"

On the 21st, on Zhang Xiaohu's flagship, in the dining room, Li Huamei met Zhang Xiaohu with the gift of his subordinates.The family is father and son, and the affairs are monarch and minister.Prime Minister Cao's words have been fully implemented in the Li family's education of their children.If you stay at home and don't have any deacons and errands, if you are just a young master and lady, you can naturally ignore these subordinates of the Li family, but once you are ordered to assign errands, you must have a concept of superiors and subordinates for these people, that is, The eldest daughter like Li Huamei and the eldest son like Li Huayu are no exception.

Zhang Xiaohu, whose temples were already sparse and gray, walked to the porthole, looked at the sun in the sky, then squinted his eyes for a while to look at the clouds and the pennant on the top of the sail, "Now is not the time, Commander Li, you should Go back to the boat, after [-]:[-] noon, when the sun turns, watch the signal on my boat!"

After two quarters in the afternoon, with the sound of the signal gun on the Three-Headed Tiger and the wave of several signal flags, Li Huamei, who had been waiting on her own ship, jumped up impatiently, "Aji, this is the signal to dispatch!" ?”

Aji, a beautiful woman from Tianzhu, is also dressed as a sailor. The slight difference is that her head is wrapped with a long cotton cloth. This dress is not uncommon in the Southern Guangdong Army. Many ethnic soldiers have the habit of wrapping their heads with cloth. .

"Exactly! Lord Zhang's order says that all ships enter the attack position!"

At [-]:[-] p.m., the ships of the Nanyue Army Navy lifted anchor and sailed, sailed to the designated attack position according to their plan, and began to attack Xiamen Island.

"finally come!"

On Sunlight Rock, seeing the golden three-headed tiger logo on the two leading ships and the Aoxue plum flower flag on the mast, Zheng Zhilong put down the telescope in his hand and let out a long breath.He knew these two signs, one was Li Shouhan's navy general, and the other was his precious daughter. When these two people were dispatched together, it was undoubtedly the beginning of the general attack on Xiamen.

"Order the artillery of the forts everywhere. If the enemy ship has not entered the effective killing range, it is not allowed to fire. Those who fire without authorization will be subject to military law!"

Following Zheng Zhilong's order, the defenders on the south bank of Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island, and Yuzaiwei on the southern waterway of Xiamen in the attacking direction of the Nanyue Army's navy ships began to prepare for firing the artillery.

These cannons were all purchased during the honeymoon period with the Southern Guangdong Army over the years. They were all made of nine-turn steel and had cannon mounts. On the basis of the Hongyi cannon, wooden sleepers of different thicknesses were no longer used to adjust the elevation angle. , but to be modified, using a spiral iron handle to adjust the angle.Although I didn't learn artillery shooting techniques such as secret positions from the Southern Guangdong Army, even for those illiterate gunners, there is a close relationship between the angle of the muzzle and the shooting distance.

These cannons are all guns weighing more than [-] kilograms. If they were made of copper and iron, they would probably weigh seven to eight thousand kilograms or even tens of thousands of kilograms. Because they are made of nine-turn steel, they only weigh three to four thousand kilograms. Left and right, this is the case, because it is too heavy, it is difficult to adjust the shooting angle of the artillery, the shooting field is narrow, and it is very difficult to move and rotate the gun body.

For this reason, Zheng Zhilong's army also had a corresponding method.They inlaid thick iron bars on the ashes of the ground. The iron bars formed a semicircle at the tail of the gun. The four small iron wheels installed on the gun carriage just fell on the iron bars. The wheels creaked harshly on the iron bars, and the artillery could quickly move left and right to expand the shooting range.

"This method doesn't cost much, but one shot is worth several shots!"

This is the evaluation made by Zheng Zhilong brothers on this small invention when they inspected various forts.

For these cannons in the Zheng family's army, each ten men in the armor are responsible for one cannon.Every 1000 gates is the basic salvo unit, with one observer.Equip a cannon sight.Most of the forts like Gulangyu have more than forty large-caliber artillery.There is an officer with the rank of a thousand generals commanding here.In addition to gunners, guards, grooms, coolies and other personnel, there are at least nearly [-] people in a fort.

"fire!"

From the artillery mirror, I saw that the two leading warships had already entered the range of their own artillery. From Gulangyu Island, the south bank of Xiamen Island, Yuzaiwei and other forts, this shout sounded almost simultaneously, followed by the flashing of the command flag.The white smoke on the fort flashed back along with the flames.It quickly condensed into bursts of smoke over the fort.

Zheng Zhilong started at sea.Well aware of the principle of relying entirely on artillery power in maritime operations, he paid close attention to the artillery shooting training of the troops, except that he spared no expense in purchasing gunpowder and shells from Nanzhong for the troops to conduct shooting training.They also searched for artillery talents and technical information everywhere.Xu Guangqi and others compiled the book "Measurement Method" on artillery range measurement in the early years of Chongzhen, and "Fire Attack and Essentials" on gun barrel elevation angle measurement, which have long been collected.Even He Rubin's "Western Fire Attack Artifact Theory" and Sun Yuanhua's "Western Magic Machine" are also collected.

The use of the square (square) and round (gun gauge) mentioned above has been actually studied, and the range and ammunition consumption of different elevation angles are also recorded in special documents.Gunners and gunners, you must keep this in mind.Regular shooting and assessment of the skills of artillery sergeants are organized. Those who pass are rewarded, those who are outstanding are promoted, and those who fail are rewarded with leather whips and army sticks.

One hand is silver, and the other is a stick and whip, so although the artillery observation, aiming and shooting technology is regarded as a secret military skill by the Nanyue Army, it is treated as a tree-climbing skill and kept secret.But since Zheng Zhilong was able to buy the artillery produced by Nanzhong, plus a lot of live ammunition practice, he used countless money to accumulate experience, constantly corrected mistakes, and had gun mirrors and telescopes. The level has reached a very high level.What's more, he is on the fort at this time, so he doesn't need to consider his own movement, just pour the shells onto the sea.

Zheng Jun's shells immediately splashed huge jets of water around the Three-Headed Tiger and the Aomei. Several jets of water were very close to the ship's side, providing free shower services for the sailors on board.

"It's not a bad fight!"

Standing under the main mast, Zhang Xiaohu carefully observed the fire and smoke on the fort with a telescope, carefully counted each gun position, and deduced the type of these guns based on the positions of the gun positions and the impact points around the left and right sides of his ship. And caliber, quantity.

Judging from his expression, he didn't pay attention to Zheng Jun's three-sided artillery fire at all.

"Fire! Fire back!"

"Master Tiger! Do you want those mortar guns and Kron gun boats behind to attack? Their guns are more ruthless?!" The gunner on the Three-Headed Tiger reminded Zhang Xiaohu to make full use of his technical advantages.

"You bastard! I'm going to call you my official title here!" Zhang Xiaohu said to the gunner who blurted out his honorific title in his spare time in a hurry, "Send the signal! Bring up the six brigantines and four gunboats behind." , Let me kill the artillery on the Gulangyu Fort first! Open a hole for the team of the young marshal behind!"

The ten gunboats sailed quickly in the channel made aside by the Three Tigers and the Aomei, braving the continuous artillery fire from three places on the south coast of Xiamen Island and other Zheng's troops, fighting back and sailing straight for Gulangyu Island.

The gunners on the fort, shouting with whips in the hands of the officers, took off their jackets, revealing their muscles and bones, and pushed the gun mounts vigorously to adjust the direction of the gun muzzle, and aimed at those who were constantly doing Maneuvering in a serpentine shape, the two-masted fast boat was running towards the Gulangyu Fort while avoiding the gunfire.

"fire!"

The ground trembled and trembled on several forts, the white smoke was mixed with flames, and there was a deafening sound of cannons. Twenty cannons ranging from 24 pounds to [-] pounds roared one after another, firing at these speeding guns on the sea not far away. The coming ships fired hot shells, thick white smoke, thick smoke and dust, and instantly covered the thick figures of the artillery.

Dozens of shells weighing more than [-] kilograms drew ballistic trajectories visible to the naked eye in the air, and the air traces produced after being heated left a permanent memory on people's retinas.The shells called each other and roared to attack the warships of the Nanyue Army at sea!

Zheng Zhiwan, who is the chief executive of the Gulangyu Fortress, held up his binoculars and carefully traced the trajectory of these shells flying in the air.

The artillery on the Gulangyu Fort had long been familiar with the reefs and submerged reefs in the nearby sea, and they had measured the artillery elements based on these geographical indications, and Zheng Zhiwan ordered the artillery to fire when the distance of the Nanyue Army Navy was within three miles. The most powerful killing range of these cannons.

The effect of the first round of artillery fire was quite obvious.

After the huge roar, iron bullets roared away. After the smoke passed, in Zheng Zhiwan's telescope, it was clearly seen that several shells fell on the moving brig, smashing pieces of the ship. , smoke and dust mixed with flesh and sawdust. (To be continued..)