Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 589
On Tosa's side, the battle clouds were already dense, and the shouts of killing were loud. Even the Sekigahara War back then seemed to have never been so fierce. However, in the rear, Awaji Island, which had just experienced the flames of war, returned to calm again.

Even the island has prospered a lot, at least the residents on the island have found work again, transporting military rations, and the food for the 25 troops on the front line has piled up into mountains, as well as medicinal materials, weapons, gunpowder, feather arrows, but Japan is an island country, Sea transportation is not well developed, and the limited ships have to be used as warships. Therefore, the section from Naruto Strait to Harimada has become an extremely busy highway. Every day, tens of thousands of materials are transported to Awaji Island through Naruto Strait , and then transported to the main island of Shikoku by the Awa pontoon bridge built by boats between Awaji and Awa.

Every morning, tens of thousands of laborers carry heavy bags of grain to the south, and the densely packed ants-like figure even became a scene of Awa.

On the other side of the Naruto Strait, the Japanese boats are also busy, loading the grain on the Honshu Island, and then transporting it to Awaji Island. Today, Awaji has become the largest grain storage warehouse for the Japanese army. Standing at the pier, a middle The half-bald senior samurai with his head shaved was sweating profusely, counting the numbers.

"Fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty... one hundred!"

A small writing brush was writing on the paper in a hurry, watching the last stone of grain being loaded with his own eyes, Honda, who had been downgraded from the original vanguard general to the logistics team leader, was sincerely relieved, and in one day of transshipment, the grain and grass transported from the island to Awaji would be gone. It is almost enough, and there is no need to pass through the dangerous Naruto Strait anymore. As for the distance between Awaji and Awa, the nearest point is only more than 1000 meters. This distance should be safe.

Honda is really loyal to the Tokugawa family. The ups and downs of the three generations did not make Honda Masaru feel the slightest bit of demotion. Seeing the luggage being handed over smoothly in his hands, he felt a big loss in his heart. Stone wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then the admiral waved his hand again.

"Wow, wow, next group!"

But when the Japanese people were busy, southeast of Awaji Island, in the Pacific Ocean, a dark cloud was peeping from a distance like an ancient monster.

The demeanor is full, and by the trade wind on the ocean, the huge fleet is galloping forward like an off-string arrow. In the sea breeze, the gold-plated Ming characters, Song characters, and Shi characters are like the flags of an angry dragon. Standing at the bow of the ship with a telescope in hand, Shi Lang looked around comfortably, while stretching his bronze-colored muscles and bones in the sun.

Just as Honda is loyal to the Tokugawa family, he is also extremely loyal to Song Qingshu. After all, he was able to grow from a gangster in Anqing to an admiral with tens of thousands of navy, all of which were picked up by Song Qingshu, and Song Qingshu also rewarded him with a part of the shares of the West India Company just like the Japanese country rewarded fiefdoms. This is an inexhaustible wealth. Even in terms of benefits, he is completely tied to the Song Qingshu bourgeois group.

But after fighting for so many days, as a sailor begging for two-thirds of the army's military expenses to support him, he has been watching the excitement from the sidelines. Shi Lang is almost going crazy, but it's okay, this group of ground mice is After the transportation was completed, it was his turn, the old cat, to do it.

Looking at the busy Apo floating bridge through the binoculars, Shi Lang's mouth revealed a terrifying smile like a shark.

"Hey, do you really think that the commander-in-chief of our family shrank to the corner of Tosa because he was afraid of you? You idiots, if you dare to transport food under the eyes of grandpa, you really are an old birthday star who hanged himself, and his life is too long!"

"Yunlong, coax him!"

"Obey, Commander!"

An admiral with the same sun-tanned skin behind him agreed loudly, and a moment later, the huge hull of the Matsue, which was traveling at a high speed, suddenly moved gracefully, and the dark imitation Armstrong rifled gun was murderously exposed on the side of the ship. head.

Such a huge fleet has already attracted the attention of the Japanese people. Amidst their terrified cries like the end of the world, the dense artillery shells and meteor showers smashed past, and the Abo pontoon bridge was bitten in the aroused water column. Like fried dough sticks, they were easily torn to pieces, and bags of rice that some Japanese farmers had never eaten in their entire lives fell into the sea, feeding fish and shrimp for nothing.

…………

bang.

The pen in his hand, the account book and the ink bottle fell to the ground, and Honda Zheng's face was full of disbelief, and he yelled in horror.

"really!"

"Back to the Admiral, really!"

The samurai of the Japanese army who came to report the news trembled in their calves, knelt and kowtowed their heads in mourning, and kept shouting: "The Ming invaders bombarded Harima Beach, and all the defenses of the shogunate on Harima Beach were smashed. The head storehouse was captured by Akito, and the supply line from Awaji to Awa has been taken by Akito!"

With a buzzing head, Honda's legs suddenly softened and he staggered backwards. What he was most worried about happened. The battle of the Shikoku Islands was simply a trap, and the narrow Naruto Strait was where the Ming army was the shogunate. If the supply line of the excavated grave is cut off, let alone an army of 25, even if it has an army of one million, it will end up starving to death.

After trembling for a while, his normal eyes suddenly turned red again, and he grabbed the Japanese sword suddenly, screaming like a madman.

"Blow the trumpet, summon Mina-sang, whoa, whoa, whoa, fight Ming Kou!"

The trapped beasts are still fighting, not to mention the Japanese ghosts. Amidst the roaring roar, thousands of Japanese ships gathered in the Naruto Strait abandoned their food, and the wolves spread to the sea area around Awa like overwhelming.This is the beginning of the unprecedented sea battle in the history of Japan.

It took only half an hour to burn the front of the Harimada Japanese army, and the Japanese army lacking heavy weapons was easily destroyed by the powerful artillery firepower of the Qihuo army. While waiting for the Japanese army's time, Shi Lang even easily opened a bottle of wine.Foreign monks are good at chanting scriptures, Huaxia has never lacked the curiosity and enterprising spirit to accept new things, and Song Qingshu's small actions to pass the time are also accepted by the generals under his command.

A bottle of wine imported from the West, which is said to be very expensive, has not been finished yet. On the sea level, densely packed Japanese Hachiman Bodhisattva banners have been revealed in the sight of the telescope. The remaining half bottle of wine was thrown into the sea casually. He undid the top buttons of his navy uniform.

"Blow the trumpet, let's fight!"

Compared with the 120 battleships of the Japanese army, the Qihuo army only has 59. However, in terms of scale, it is not inferior to the Japanese army. The largest Japanese warship is 50 meters. The warships of the Qihuo army all have [-] meters. Song Qingshu has gradually separated the warships and merchant ships. Only large ships with sufficient tonnage and sufficient firepower will remain in the army.

However, compared with the raging sea battle, Shi Lang's long-awaited naval battle was carried out in a boring way, chasing!
There is a Roman proverb that a sea battle can ruin your whole day, and that’s what it said. At this time, the Japanese navy was relatively primitive, and most of the firearms equipped on the ships were large projectile barrels. , the total number is only a dozen, and there are only three 40-meter-level daimyo ships. There will be two cabins on board, loaded with two to four large artillery pieces, and their firepower is only a little stronger than that of the Fran cannon. The Japanese army's long-range strikes The main output still relies on bows and arrows and iron cannons.

And at the beginning, Shi Lang didn't give the order to fire the guns, but the entire fleet broke anchor and marched towards the Pacific Ocean.

The last decisive battle was in Japan's Dragon Triangle. The turbulent waves helped the beggar army a lot and severely damaged the combat capability of the Zheng family's offshore fleet. Shi Lang wanted to repeat the old trick.

Two groups of extremely large fleets started chasing at noon until around two or three o'clock in the afternoon. They had penetrated more than 100 nautical miles into the sea. On the sea, looking as far as the eye can see, there is no fixed point of land at all, and a strong sense of crisis immediately fills Honda Zhengze's heart.

After looking down a few times in dizziness, Honda suddenly raised his hand solemnly and shouted: "Send the order, stop advancing, and the army will return!"

Amidst the creaking sound, the closed boats shook their oars one by one, turned the heavy hull 180 degrees like a turtle, then turned around, and began to retreat in the direction of the Great Island of Japan.

"Really boring!"

With the dried squid torn between his teeth, Shi Lang muttered rather boredly. There is still one or two hundred nautical miles away from the Dragon Triangle. Shi Lang is also waving the command flag for the squid that doesn't rot.

"Order the fleet, turn around and catch up!"

Wa is a bit of a boxy ship, which can easily turn around on the spot, but the big ship of the Qihuo Army is a bit clumsy here. The sailors are pulling the triangle sails in front of the ship, busy adjusting the angle of each sail, With the wind, the huge Qihuo army fleet came to a big turn, and caught up with the Japanese army from the flank in the bumps.

But this time, unlike pushing the buttocks behind, even if it didn't deploy, the Qihuo army fleet still had one side facing the Japanese army, and could fire from the side.

It's just that this time it's not the rifled heavy artillery, but the fast-firing Franc machine gun.

The roaring artillery fire spewed out at an extremely fast speed, hitting the Japanese army's Guan ship in a disorderly manner, grape bullets, chain bullets, and lead bullets. The samurai was whirled and sliced ​​by the high-speed moving chain bullets, and was torn apart. The shells hit the ship and the ship was violently bumped. many.

However, this scene made Honda hesitate for a while.

What worries him the most is the battle off the coast of Awa, when daimyo Ida Hikaru's main ship was shut down by an unknown fleet and almost completely wiped out. When asked by the sailors, the answers they got were completely opposite. Many people swore that only five to eight warships of the Ming army participated in the battle.

But now it seems that the firepower of the navy of the Ming army is no more than that. Although it is true that the Japanese were unable to lift their heads, but the ship has not sunk, then the loss is within acceptable limits. It is not impossible to rush to the vicinity of the Ming army and use the melee strength of the Japanese army like the Naruto naval battle.

The Japanese army's supply line was at sea, so the Japanese were even more eager to attack the Ming army's navy fleet. After hesitating for a moment, Honda suddenly gritted his teeth and waved his hand ferociously: "Turn the ship's bow and continue to pursue the Ming army!"

The galloping Japanese army's huge fleet suddenly paused again, and immediately turned the bow with the support of the oars. Seeing this scene, Shi Lang couldn't help raising his head and laughing loudly.

"It's in my nest!"

This time, without his ordering, the captains had already skillfully turned the rudder and turned the sails, and there was another big flutter towards the north. Amidst the white waves, the huge Ming army sailed towards the east again... …

(End of this chapter)