Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 505 Ship Transformation

Liu Er was stunned and said, "I'm stupid, how do you know that I have forty cannons? How long have you been thinking about the heavy cannons in my hand?"

Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "Brother Liu has so many weapons in his hand. If you can hide it from others, how can you hide it from Governor Sun? A few days ago, I asked Mr. Sun to borrow guns, and he told me."

Liu Er stared at Sun Meng and said, "Why don't you borrow it yourself?"

Sun Meng laughed and said: "The cannon in my hand is ready for use, and the cannon in your hand is idle if it is idle, just lend it to Mr. Sun for use."

Liu Er scratched his head in a daze, muttered something, and then said: "Since I promised to help Mr. Sun, I naturally keep my word. I borrowed these forty cannons, but the cannons that will be replenished next time, You have to pay me back as soon as possible."

Sun Chuanting said happily: "Definitely! Definitely!"

Without any hesitation, Liu Er took out a warrant from his bosom, stamped it with his own seal, and handed it to Sun Chuanting: "Go to the military supply department to pick it up."

Seeing that Liu Erlen's warrants were all ready-made, Sun Meng and Sun Chuanting looked at them and shook their heads repeatedly.

"Er Leng, you really don't like writing! How come the warrants are all written by the office in advance?" Sun Meng laughed.

"I'm more tired with a pen than with a knife. Let the book office get ready to save trouble." Liu Er said in a daze.

Sun Meng and Sun Chuanting couldn't help laughing when they heard this.

Sun Chuanting took the warrant from Liu Erleng, called a soldier to give some instructions, and then handed the warrant to the soldier.

After the soldiers left, Liu Er looked at Sun Chuanting in a daze, and said after a moment of thought: "Forty cannons don't seem to be enough, do they?"

Sun Chuanting smiled: "It is definitely not enough to install the guns on the original running positions, but Li Guozhu said that the guns can be installed on the bow and stern, and the sides of the ship do not need to be installed for the time being. That's enough."

"A total of four cannons can be installed on the bow and stern, and only one side can be used in naval battles. Can only two cannons be effective?" Sun Meng asked.

Sun Meng used to garrison troops in Shandong. When Sun Chuanting formed a naval division, he had great help from Sun Meng. Sun Chuanting invited Sun Meng to visit the shipyard in Dengzhou Prefecture, so Sun Meng knew that the artillery was mounted on both sides of the ship. Below the deck, it is also known that during naval battles, the ship is shelling the enemy ship from the side.

Sun Chuanting laughed and said, "At first, I also thought this was unreliable, but Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin said that our ships are far inferior to Hongyi's ships in terms of size, speed, and number of cannons. , if there are no ships that are several times the size of the enemy, it is definitely not Hongyi's opponent.

But the number of our ships is not much more than that of Hongyi, and it is far behind Zheng Zhilong.

If we follow the traditional tactics, we will definitely not be able to defeat Hongyi and Zheng Zhilong.Only by changing our tactics and giving full play to our strengths can we win.

Our strength is that the artillery is far more powerful than Hongyi's artillery, and it is much stronger than Zheng Zhilong's.

This has been verified during the Battle of Penghu and the Battle of Kinmen.

Everyone's artillery has a range of four miles, but after the shells exceed three miles, it is basically difficult for Hongyi and Zheng Zhilong's artillery to hit the target, but our artillery has no problem at all, because the distance within four miles belongs to our artillery. effective range.

Because of this, we were able to destroy Zheng Zhilong's ships in large numbers during the Battle of Jinmen.

If it weren't for the fact that we deployed too few heavy artillery on Kinmen Island, and Zheng Zhilong's fleet attacked at night, and the artillery wasted a lot of shells because they couldn't see the enemy ships clearly, we wouldn't have suffered so many casualties at all. "

Sun Meng and Liu Erleng nodded slightly.

When garrisoning Kinmen, only ten heavy artillery were deployed on Kinmen Island. The fleet led by Zheng Zhibao had a total of more than [-] ships, and more than [-] ships were added later. Although most of them were small ships, the main battleships and medium-sized warships There are seventy or eighty ships together.In fact, only ten heavy artillery pieces could not suppress Zheng Zhibao's fleet at all.

Because the Kinmen sea area is different from the Penghu sea area, there are too many hidden reefs in the Penghu sea area, which restricts Zheng Zhilong's ships from approaching the islands, and when Zheng Zhilong attacked Penghu, the tide was low, and the ships were getting farther and farther away from the island, and the naval guns could not hit the island at all.

In addition, the reason why Zheng Zhilong chose such an opportunity to attack Penghu was mainly to let the soldiers go to the island quietly to capture the officers and soldiers, and then use this as a bargaining chip to negotiate with Li Jing.It's just that Zheng Zhilong didn't expect Penghu to be prepared, so he suffered a big loss.

However, there are few hidden reefs in the Kinmen waters, and Zheng Zhibao chose the side of Liuluo Bay when he attacked. The fleet can be fully deployed, and the Kinmen waters were high tide at that time, Zheng Zhibao's fleet can easily approach Kinmen Island, and the naval guns can fully play their role. .

Since Zheng Zhibao had too many naval guns, ten heavy guns alone could not be suppressed. In addition, fighting at night had a great impact on the sight range of the artillery. The power of the heavy guns could not be exerted, and a lot of shells were wasted.

Therefore, the defenders began to retreat after firing all the shells, and put Zheng Zhibao's troops into Kinmen Island, making the naval guns useless, and then using portable guns and rifles to inflict a lot of damage to Zheng Zhibao's troops.

However, because the original defenders did not have new weapons and did not know how to cooperate with the new army, a large number of casualties occurred.

In the final analysis, the cause of the casualties was the insufficient number of heavy artillery.

If the number of heavy artillery is sufficient, it can completely beat Zheng Zhibao's fleet to the ground.

Sun Chuanting smiled and continued: "Our advantage is that the artillery is powerful, and the disadvantage is that the ship is small and slow. However, during naval battles, because the enemy ship needs to face us with its side when attacking, the speed will drop at this time. Come down, and we put the guns on the bow and stern, so we can attack the enemy ship without a horizontal ship, which means that we are much more flexible than the enemy ship."

Sun Meng pondered for a while when he heard the words, and then slapped his thigh suddenly: "I understand, as long as our ships keep a certain distance from the enemy ships, they can only be beaten passively."

Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "That's what it means. Although Hongyi's boat is fast, they need a horizontal boat, which will delay time. We don't need a horizontal boat, so we can use this time to distance ourselves from them."

"Damn, who came up with this trick? If we fight like this, the enemy ship will have no power to fight back. Even if we install fewer guns at the bow and stern, as long as one cannon hits the enemy ship's vital point, the enemy ship can be eliminated." Ship." Liu Erleng said in surprise.

Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "It was Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin's idea. After seeing the power of our artillery, they came up with this method. But I don't have enough artillery, so I thought of borrowing artillery from Master Liu."

"Didn't your original ship have cannons? How many ships can be installed after dismantling it? How could it not be enough?" Liu Er wondered.

Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "You forgot, Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin also brought more than 30 ships. With so many ships, even if one ship is equipped with four cannons, it would take more than 100 cannons. I used to have a total of 160 cannons on board." There are only [-] guns, how can it be enough?"

"You have more than 30 ships, why are you equipped with 160 guns?" Liu Er asked in a daze.

Sun Chuanting shook his head and said, "160 guns are still not enough! How many guns do you think our military factory can produce in a year? Our military factory has only produced more than 1000 heavy guns in these years, and I can install them on [-] or so ships." Nearly [-]%, if you install it again, other troops can't do it?"

"How come only [-] heavy guns are produced? What have those guys in the military factory been doing all these years?" Liu Er was puzzled.

"Do you think heavy artillery is so easy to produce? Also, do you know how many shells are needed for such a heavy artillery? Iron is needed to make cannons, copper is needed for shells, how much iron and copper are needed for so many cannons and shells? Let's fight the war ahead , It’s easy to shoot, but in fact it’s all money!” Sun Chuanting said.

Sighing, Sun Chuanting continued: "We have only so much Mingtie, and it is not easy to produce 1000 heavy guns. The commander originally planned to distribute these [-] heavy guns to various military regions, but due to the need to To deal with Zheng Zhilong, the commander-in-chief had to allocate most of the artillery to the two adults.

Now to defend Taiwan, the commander-in-chief transferred another fifty guns to Taiwan, and we moved more than half of the heavy artillery produced by the military factory over the years. Do the math, how many guns does the commander-in-chief still have?Master Hong and Master Lu, I guess they won't be able to equip heavy artillery for a while. "

Liu Erleng sighed when he heard the words: "Back then when the commander-in-chief occupied Pingyang Mansion, he was interested in the copper mines in Pingyang Mansion. Over the years, almost all the copper mined was used to produce shells and bullets. It is estimated that there are no more in stock now. .”

Sun Chuanting sighed and continued: "Our Daming treasury is empty, and it is not easy to maintain a big war, let alone fighting on two fronts? I guess the commander is exhausted, so we must fight for the maximum at the minimum cost in this battle. results."

Sun Meng and Liu Erleng nodded at the same time.

"That's why you adopted Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin's suggestion and only installed artillery on the bow and stern?" Sun Meng asked.

Sun Chuanting smiled: "The solution Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin came up with is really good, and it solves our boss' problem."

"These two have some skills! Where are they? I see them." Liu Er was stunned.

Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "The two of them are currently rebuilding ships at the Shijing Shipyard in Quanzhou. The thickness of our ship's deck is not enough. If we want to place heavy guns at the bow and stern, we must thicken the ship's deck. Otherwise, after firing the shells, the artillery recedes will tear through the planks of the ship."

"Oh!" Liu Erleng nodded lightly.

After thinking about it, Liu Er suddenly said: "By the way, didn't you ask me to call Zheng Sen? I think we might as well go to Quanzhou. I'll meet the prefect of Quanzhou by the way. Since I came here this shit day After Fujian, I only saw Lao Tzu once, and Lao Tzu went to clean him up."

"Hehe, it's time for Mr. Liu to clean up the officials in Fujian. The commander-in-chief is waiting for money now." Sun Chuanting said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)