stubborn thief

When Jiala Zhangjing Lu Ke saw the three ships stranded in the river, he thought to himself that something was wrong.

The intuition of an experienced general made him grab a telescope, take a look at the enemy ship in the river, estimate its height, then look at the red corner flag exposed on the river bank, turn around and shout.

"Transmit! Sailors, get out of the cabin, reload the guns, lower the right splashboard, and turn the rudder to the right!"

The ship's flags were flying, and the soldiers on the bow and stern towers shouted loudly.

"Sailors, get out of the cabin!"

"Reload the gun!"

"Put down the right water board!"

"Full right rudder!"

One after another, orders were passed from Lu Keyong's flagship through the forecastle and the fore stern, and then passed forward in sequence. When they reached the lead ship, they were passed back again.

At this time, the bow ship kept its sails at full capacity, twisted the ropes, and lowered the starboard side of the raft, which was stored on the deck like a huge oar, into the river.

The following ships followed in the same order.

The right side darts of each warship were released, changing the water resistance on the right side of the hull. Combined with the wind force from the sails, it gathered into a thrust toward the right front, causing the fleet to make right turns on the river from front to back during the voyage.

Lu Ke was very decisive. He saw that the river ahead was a trap and knew that the river could not be turned back. He immediately decided to turn the bow guns of the 24 warships towards the south bank, preparing to force a landing with his troops and engage in a fight with the enemy on the shore.

Although it was called a forced landing, Lu Keyi didn’t actually think it was that dangerous.

He judged that although the cavalry of the Marshal's Office, who were marching secretly on the river bank, were running around and making a lot of noise, their number was actually small.

What he saw and heard was that after passing the territory of Anshan Post, all the way to the northeast was covered with black smoke.

Coupled with the offensive in Liaoyang, no matter how many troops the Marshal's expeditionary force had, they could not withstand the army attacking from all sides like throwing mud and sand.

The cavalry and infantry are not like the navy. Soldiers and horses always need to rest. They have accomplished a lot day and night, and today is the weakest time for the Marshal's Army.

The fleet stopped suddenly and turned, and the sailors on the ships swarmed out. Those holding bows and guns stood on the bow to keep watch, while cavalrymen put down long boards to build a bridge, led their war horses off the ships, and waded ashore on the shallow beach.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle was heard from the willow bank, and several flaming rockets rose into the sky in broad daylight.

On the northwest corner tower of Liaoyang City, called Pinghu Tower, Liu Chengzong leaned on the railing and held a mirror, gazing at the river bank in the distance.

The setting off of fire was the signal for the ambush by the First Brigade's thousand-jin artillery team.

From his position, he had a clear view of the battlefield on the south side of the river twenty miles away.

Under the telescope, Zuo Guangxian's cavalry was intensively mobilized in the fields on the south side of the long dike. As one after another caught fire and rose into the air, a brigade of artillery from the Divine Artifact Division hidden on the willow bank of the long dike opened fire.

Near a mile-long section of the dike, one heavy cannon after another was fired, and the huge cloud of smoke that rose up covered the coast.

When the smoke in the telescope gradually dissipated, the sound of cannons like thunder in the distant sky slowly reached Liu Chengzong's ears.

Liu Shizi counted silently in his mind: twelve silver bars.

Lu Keke's speculation was not wrong. Today was indeed the weakest moment of the Marshal's Army.

During the day and night, they plundered the countryside, attacked and broke through cities, searched for property, took in prisoners, suppressed cities, and attacked and captured Tokyo.

After a series of things were done in a short period of time, the only people Liu Chengzong could move were the two thousand people in Zuo Guangxian's mobile barracks.

In fact, even the mobile barracks did not rest for a whole day and night. It was only relying on the horses that the soldiers' spirits were still okay.

As for the artillery of the Divine Artifact Department under the First Brigade, they transported ammunition at night and artillery during the day. Out of a staff of 640 people, less than 300 could be deployed for combat, which meant they were a spent force.

But when he heard the artillery fire, Liu Chengzong knew that his artillerymen's morale and fighting enthusiasm were at an unprecedented high.

Because he sent a military supervisor.

Twenty-four Yulin cavalrymen, led by Yulin orphan Liu Yiren, were deployed into twelve artillery groups to supervise the battle.

The Battle Supervision Team is something that people hate, but today on the banks of the Taizi River, the Yulin Cavalry Battle Supervision Team is an exception.

Because they received orders from Liu Chengzong to go there specifically to count the results of the battle. The order was just one: the 14-man thousand-jin cannon crew would be rewarded with two newly minted silver bars for every hit.

Zuo Guangxian's cavalry battalion also deployed a similar supervision team.

Liu Chengzong knew that his soldiers were tired, and now was indeed the time when the Marshal's army was most exhausted.

But he is rich!

Ruling Qinghai for five years is not as good as exploiting the land in Liaodong for one day. With so much silver in hand, of course I have to throw it away!

The twelve cannons on the riverbank fired a salvo, throwing out four hundred taels of silver.

The army craftsmen at the foot of the city worked at full power in four furnaces and cast another 200 silver bars.

Picking up money has never been so easy.

If the artillerymen of the Marshal's Army on the willow embankment looked at the military inspector, they must have looked at the pious boy who brought wealth to the God of Wealth with their eyes.

But in fact, they had no time to look at the military supervisor.

Accompanied by the huge roar of heavy artillery firing in succession, smoke and dust rose up on the river bank, and the seven or eight pound artillery shells shot out with force, flew over a hundred steps in an instant, and hit heavily on the sand ship at the end of the fleet in the river.

Nine shells hit the bow at the same time, piercing through the five-inch planking like a piece of paper and blasting into the cabin in the forecastle, but the real casualties were caused by the other three shells.

The trajectory of a bullet deviated slightly upwards, grazed the forecastle and smashed into the deck shed, causing screams in the shed. It smashed a bloody path and leaped onto the deck, where it embedded itself into the base of the mainmast made of one piece of fir wood, splattering blood and flesh.

The other two were slightly downward, both hitting below the bow waterline, drilling two fist-sized holes in the underwater deck and into the bottom cabin.

"bingo!"

Before people on the shore had time to cheer, the bow guns and musket-wielding sailors of the twenty-four sand ships in the river opened fire at the smoke-filled area on the shore.

The warships of the Haizhou Navy did not look very good. The hull planks were not even as thick as the shield-carrying vessels of the Later Jin Dynasty, and there was only one cannon on the ship, mounted at the bow.

Firing this bow gun actually involved a great risk.

The sand ship was not designed to be a ship equipped with artillery. The heavy artillery was installed at the bow. In order to ensure the balance of the ship, a lot of ballast stones were placed in the bottom cabin. The safety basket at the stern, used to slow down in case of distress, was also loaded with stones in advance.

This modification of sand ships to equip them with cannons was actually an innovation during the Battle of Pi Island in the fourth year of Chongzhen.

Because before this, the Ming Dynasty had no enemies in the northern waters, let alone enemies that could use cannons at sea, so the hulls were thin and they did not care about shipboard firepower.

This can be seen from the current war on Taizi River.

There were twenty-four ships, carrying eight 2,000-jin red cannons and sixteen 2,000-jin general cannons. Their firepower seemed to be more powerful than the field artillery of a brigade of the Marshal's Army.

But in fact...their General Cannon is better than the Red Cannon.

Although both weighed 2,000 jin, the General Cannon was cast by Shang Kexi himself after he arrived in Haizhou. He did not have a suitable cannon caster, so the imitation of the Invincible General Cannon had a small caliber and multiple calibers, and could only fire a 6-jin shell. However, the cannon cast by Shang Kexi was more useful than the Red Cannon he had.

His eight 2,000-jin red-haired cannons were cast from cast iron with superb craftsmanship. They could not explode and had an extremely long range.

There is only one disadvantage: small caliber.

This type of red cannon has a caliber of only two inches, fires four-jin round bullets and chain bullets, and the gun body is very thick.

This type of red cannon was cast by Wang Zunde, who was transferred from the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice to the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi in the first year of Chongzhen.

When he took office in Guangdong and Guangxi, the imperial court wanted to buy red-haired cannons. He borrowed a cannon from the Portuguese, took a look at it, and then went back and imitated it himself.

Wang Zunde did not use the copper-wrapped iron technique, but simply cast a cast iron cannon, so the cannon body was thick and heavy, but it was cheap and large in quantity, and one cannon cost less than eighty taels of silver.

At that time, the imperial court was caught up in the Ji Si Rebellion. The capital heard the alarm and was in urgent need of artillery. General Wang sent people to escort his practice work to the capital.

By the fourth year of Chongzhen, Wang Zunde had shipped 175 self-cast cast iron red cannons from Guangdong to the capital.

When Li Jiuchen's gang rebelled, generals from all over the country surrounded and suppressed them. Both sides used artillery manufactured under the supervision of Wang Zunde.

The cannon was certainly well-cast, but its shape was not conducive to field combat.

Wang Zunde cast the city defense cannon for Chongzhen. The 2,000-jin cannon was designed to fire 4-jin shells, while the 2,700-jin cannon was designed to fire 6-jin shells. The design did not pursue caliber and power, but rather sought to ensure large quantity, full power, and durability so that it could defend the capital.

After all, when he sent cannons to the capital, the first thing he had to consider was that the cannons must not explode so as not to delay things at the critical moment.

Because of this, Shang Kexi's Haizhou Navy relied more on its own invincible general cannon.

With a loud bang, twenty-four heavy artillery pieces fired at the smoke on the riverbank one after another. The red cannon fired round bullets, which pierced through trees and crushed rocks; the invincible general fired scattered bullets, and dense iron bullets pierced through the smoke.

One salvo of fire knocked down the artillerymen on the dike and almost suppressed them.

Seeing this scene, Lu Ke felt relieved.

He was familiar with the performance of all artillery, although he was surprised by the power of the Marshal's field artillery, which paralyzed one of his ships with a single salvo.

But as long as his ship-borne artillery can suppress the enemy's artillery in terms of quantity, there will be no problem in the subsequent landing battle.

Because the troops he led were all the most experienced gunners, and the Invincible General was using the Ferrocarrion-type artillery, which had a fast firing rate. As long as he could suppress the enemy's artillery once, he could always suppress them before they retreated or were completely destroyed.

In view of this situation, Lu Keyu immediately ordered his subordinates to wave the flags, and the sailors on the ship rushed to jump off the ship to the sound of drums and waded ashore in the shallow water.

As soon as the sailors came ashore, they were divided into five groups... not five patrols, but five Niulu, with the cavalry leading the way and shooting arrows under the river bank to provide cover; the central army was the reserve force, carrying wood and stones along the coast to protect the subsequent soldiers from landing.

The left and right wings, under the cover of cavalry, went around the river bank from the east and west.

The rear team stayed on the shore to guard the landing boats.

Facing the threat of artillery fire, it was very bold to make such a move.

This is based on Lu Keyong's absolute confidence in the Haizhou artillery.

However, the twenty-four cannons did not actually suppress the Marshal's artillery on the shore.

The Portuguese breech-loading cannon had just completed two shots, and several artillerymen at the bow were struggling to carry a 150-pound sub-gun to change ammunition, and were about to start the third shot.

Suddenly, the field artillery of the Marshal's Army on the dike fired again.

This sudden change made Lu Ke terrified.

Because the Generalissimo is loaded from the breech, although the changing of ammunition is slower than that of the light falconet due to its heavy barrel, even so, the firing rate of the breech-loading gun is not comparable to that of various muzzle-loading guns.

Even the firing rate of small cannons like Yongzhu and Hudun is slightly lower than that of the General Cannon.

On the bow of Lu Ke's ship was a red cannon, which was fired a little later than the cannons on the shore, just a few breaths of time. At this time, the sailor had cleaned the barrel with a gun brush, raised the bow of the gun, and poured gunpowder into it, but there was no time to press it down.

Why did the cannon on the shore fire?

And it was still those positions, and the roar of artillery fire continued.

Twelve rings!

Still twelve rings!

Lu Ke said to his left and right: "It's bad, the enemy also has 24 cannons, and they are firing alternately!"

No matter how skilled in artillery skills or how courageous one is, these steps cannot be omitted, including cleaning the barrel, wiping the inner wall, pouring in gunpowder, tamping and compacting, loading the Trojan horse, and inserting the shells.

Not to mention, during this process they were suppressed by 24 artillery pieces. Even if they were shooting high from low, with shells hitting the long dike like hail, wouldn't the enemy still be scared to the ground? How could they complete the reloading so quickly?

The Marshal's Army certainly did not have twenty-four cannons.

They only had twelve guns, and there were no suitable gun carriages for the heavy city defense artillery captured in Liaoyang City. The General Cannon was a relatively unfamiliar artillery to them. Moreover, the attack to intercept the fleet happened suddenly, and they had no intention of carrying two types of artillery and two types of ammunition.

The artillery fired quickly, for no other reason than these two.

First, the artillery technology of the Marshal's Office is more advanced.

They have a specially built two-wheeled artillery carriage with a balanced center of gravity, and a screw to adjust the elevation angle. Although the screw is often damaged by the vibration of the artillery, even if it is broken and stuck on the carriage, a more balanced artillery carriage can be made use of manual adjustment of the gun body and temporary wooden blocks.

What had a greater impact on loading was the silk ammunition bag that Liu Chengzong wrapped into a pillar.

The six steps of loading, compacting, removing the Trojan horse, compacting, loading and compacting are simplified into one by the ammunition package.

The impact of this thing on the battlefield is greater than the shape of the gun body. Even if the Hongwu cannon uses this, it can still increase the firing rate.

Second, it is the credit of silver bars.

The Marshal's artillery was badly bombarded by the ships.

More than a dozen large cannons fired scattered bullets, covering the positions of the twelve thousand-jin cannons.

Although there were artillery carts, willow trees and long shields placed on both sides by the artillerymen for protection, dozens of people were still injured. One of the field artillery crews was in a bad position, exposed to the field of vision of several ships, and was hit by the scattergun fire of six guns of the Invincible General. A Yulin supervisor and ten artillerymen were directly killed.

The remaining one military supervisor and three artillerymen were also injured.

The gun has lost its combat effectiveness.

However, the wounded Yu Lin supervisor who survived shouted to the neighboring artillery group: "Come on, I'll give you half of the reward!"

The two artillery crews on the left and right, each with abundant soldiers, immediately sent three people over, temporarily formed a new artillery crew for the reward silver, and controlled the artillery to fire again.

The other relatively sound artillery units reloaded even faster, using all the skills they had been trained for a lifetime.

Amid the roar, their own artillery was still firing, which made the cavalry lined up behind the long dike particularly excited. As long as their own artillery was still fighting and pinning down the ships' guns, they would be able to engage in battle with the enemy's landing navy.

Otherwise, the shore would have to be given to the enemy, allowing them to land at ease.

Amid the exciting waist drum music, the Rangers also lined up and rushed out to meet the Haizhou cavalry rushing out from both sides of the long dike. (End of this chapter)