Lu Ming

Chapter 241 Collapse
With the sound of "crash", a basket of broken silver was kicked down to the bow of the boat by a foot wearing combat boots.

In the army of the Middle Ages, whether it was the battalion soldiers of the Ming Dynasty or the European princes who were fighting each other's brains at the moment, the military noon was always the most important issue.Without the army, the army will mutiny. It is commonly known as "I want you to look good". This is a problem that no wise commander can solve.

There are two ways to raise military noon: financial appropriation, or military looting.

The year is 1628, and Comrade Wallenstein has just completed an epic 10-year locust raid in Upper Hungary, Silesia, and North Germany.The mercenaries following Wallenstein's battle flag, like locusts, snatched up all the places where their feet set foot, interpreting the phrase "raising the army noon" to the extreme.

In 1628, the official army of the Ming Dynasty was still slightly stronger than its European counterparts.During this period of time, although the central finance of the Ming court was extremely difficult, it had not yet collapsed; the locust generals at the end of the Ming Dynasty whose ability to "raise the sun" was not inferior to that of Comrade Wallenstein had not yet been released from the cage.

Therefore, the current governors of the Ming Dynasty can squeeze out some money whenever they encounter local wars in the jurisdiction.Xiong Wencan in history, after Zheng Zhilong was driven back to Fuzhou by Li Kuiqi, sent out money to build a new ship, and quickly helped Zheng Zhilong regain his vitality.

Today, the silver reward given to the Navy by the crossing crowd is 5 taels of silver generously sponsored by Comrade Xiong Wencan.

The officers and soldiers on the deck began to swallow their saliva when they saw the pieces of silver rolling around the bow of the ship.And a tall, bearded "monk soldier" official with an iron funnel in his hand stood at the bow of the ship aggressively at this time, behind him were soldiers with rifles and a smiling officer general.

"Master Cao of my family is very particular about people, and he never treats his brothers badly. For this expedition, each person will receive 5 taels of silver."

Accompanied by the sound of thanks from the officers and soldiers for getting the silver, the crossing people shouting with small trumpets made a promise: in the next battle, anyone who captures pirates can pay 3 taels of silver per person to pay at the grain counter , 2 taels of dead people, and the boss is counted separately.

So the troops set off amid cheers.

As a matter of fact, as of the day when the large army set off, the total number of pirates in Zhangzhou Bay had been less than 2. In the past few days, it has been found that the situation is not good, and there are quite a few small shopkeepers who have withdrawn their shares and left.

So this reward to a certain faction is completely affordable.Not to mention that the old bear also sponsored 5 taels, even if he didn't sponsor, if he took out [-] to [-] taels, he would be able to buy the lives of all the pirates, and he wouldn't even blink if he could capture some strong men. A lot of.

Unfortunately, the reality is not so easy.Tens of thousands of taels of silver can only make those poor officers and soldiers fight a wave of chicken blood, be brave in battle, and nothing else.

The main force for eradicating pirates can still only rely on the fleet and soldiers who have spent countless resources to pile up through the crossing crowd, and everything else is unreliable.

On the morning of August 1628, 8, the three-party coalition forces of the official bandits and the Netherlands, with a total of 19 ships, officially moved south from the outer sea of ​​Quanzhou, and started the second joint bandit suppression operation after Yu Zigao's defeat.

In the afternoon of the same day, all the soldiers and horses with Kinmen Island as the fulcrum were deployed.And Liu Zhe, who was in charge of Liangtai in the rear and served as the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression, gave the official order to attack at 2 p.m.

The deployment of troops for the entire campaign is as follows: 10 Dutch ships will lead the 50 warships under the command of Quannan Guerrilla to block the mouth of Liuluo Bay north of Jinmen.

As for the Zheng family fleet in Liuluo Bay, if they try to break through, they will be hit head-on by the Dutch fleet led by His Excellency Hans Putmans.Even if they escaped by chance, the fate would still be miserable: the entire Ishii Zheng family would be uprooted by the officers and soldiers who freed up their hands afterwards, and the Zheng family would perish. It is expected that Anping Town in Luowan will never become the Zheng family's den again.

You know, in terms of the nature of this battle, it is an upright war against rebellion.The government regards righteousness as an evil, and occupies the name of righteousness. Naturally, it will not play with pirates in the world, and the disaster will not be worse than that of wives and children.

In fact, ransacking the family and exterminating the clan was originally one of the most basic means for the government to maintain its rule.Before this, the government couldn't move the Zheng family. It was because the comrade Yiguan was too strong, and the officers and soldiers couldn't beat him.Now that the Zheng family is in decline, if the government can tolerate this group of grassroots people who have money and offended the emperor and the governor to continue arrogance, they might as well go bankrupt.

Therefore, in order to complete the great cause of bandit suppression as soon as possible, the bandit leader Liu Zhe sent lobbyists to Anping Town to "call for security" as soon as he pulled out the blockade.

The recruiting this time was not as good as the governor's appearance: a terrific little official, riding a small boat with an official flag, and carrying an official document from Xiong Wencan ordering "do things cheaply", that's all.The few mediocre people left in the Zheng family can only get a benevolent promise of "retire from the partner and pay tribute without killing the whole family", and nothing else will be given.

Not long after the deployment of the northern blockade, the planned key defensive area: the blockade of the sea area south of Kinmen was also deployed.

Because Zhongzuo is relatively close to the entrance of the South Waterway, there is a high probability that fleeing pirates will attack here, so the South Waterway has a strong force: 30 Fuchuan from the Mawei Barracks, and several "New Gates" equipped with heavy machine guns. Qu Dazhong led more than 60 lucky boats, bird boats, east boats, and fast boats, and there were more than a dozen patrol boats that came to Kinmen along with Liu Zhe's logistics fleet.

The so-called patrol boats are actually those passenger boats that pull people on both sides of the Taijiang River every day.This kind of flexible and high-speed boat with white triangle sails is the most suitable type of boat for coastal patrols.The ultra-high speed and ultra-small turning radius allow them to gallop across the sea like flying, and the pirate ship has no speed at all in front of these small boats.

After everything was deployed, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the main fleet composed of 8 warships officially entered Zhangzhou Bay from the direction of Liuluo Bay.

At this moment, Zhangzhou Bay is already boiling like a hot pot.

Since the "horror night" happened a few days ago, a large number of pirate sentry ships have filled every corner of Zhangzhou Bay.And when the scouts saw the large troops coming from the north this morning, they all turned around and ran away. Those who ran slowly were shot to death by the gunmen on the weird boats.

Most of the pirate leaders who received the report from the Clippers followed the previous agreement and returned to the center left office with their soldiers and horses-the bastards have sneaked away these two days.

However, Li Kuiqi, who was waiting for change in the middle left, couldn't help being overjoyed after seeing a large number of people return to their positions, and seized the time to mobilize a wave of dying: "The government and the army have closed the door, and everyone is now unable to retreat. , if you don’t work hard, everyone’s heads will become decorations on the plate to invite credit!”

Before the words were finished, several of Li Kuiqi's direct descendants and the little bosses who didn't want to be slaves shouted at the same time at the same time: "The boss, do it! You don't have to be a dog for the officers and soldiers!"

"Okay! Everyone, let's go to sea with me to fight. In broad daylight, those dark ships are weak, and my ship is ten times larger than them. There is always a chance to fight!"

It was noon when the bandit suppressing army arrived near Kinmen.And when the army was deployed two hours later and the main fleet set off, the Zhongzuo Pirate Gang, who had already received the news, had also unified their thinking, assembled the team, and began to rush out of the Zhongzuo.

So, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the two sides met head-on in the sea outside the middle left.

Although Li Kuiqi's strength has dropped a lot at the moment, the pirate gang who was forced to the corner at the moment still managed to gather more than 300 ships of various types.As soon as these miscellaneous boats left the port, they formed a torrent, pulling out a three-mile-long swine brigade on the sea, rushing to the open sea.

The next moment, the fleet of Li Kuiqi's lineage, which rushed to the forefront, was immediately hit head-on by 44 artillery pieces at a distance of 1000 meters.

With all the sails down, the crossing fleet maintained a speed of 8 knots, and easily set up a T-shaped formation in front of the pirate fleet.Due to the fast speed of the ship at this moment, the salvo rate of the entire fleet is maintained at one shot per minute.

At this moment, Li Kuiqi was dressed in bunts, with a long knife on his waist, and his gray hair was dancing in the sea breeze.Until this time, standing on the bow of the boat, he was finally lucky enough to see the whole face of the Kun boat.

The streamlined hull, brown paint, and white sails have already fallen; what Li Kuiqi sees are rows of muzzles that ignite white smoke at the same time.

Ignoring the need to study the secret of the Kunchuan without sails and oars, Li Kuiqi gritted his teeth and ordered the whole team to charge faster after the leading Fuchuan were shot down one after another. The next piece of meat, then next year's today will be my memorial day.

the reality is cruel.

For a moment, the pirates even saw a glimmer of hope: After paying the price of nearly 20 ships, they finally rushed to within 300 meters of each other.However, at the next moment, everyone opened their mouths: the opponent's fleet first accelerated instantly, and then, like a long worm, they made a U-shaped turn in front of everyone, pulling the distance between the two sides to 1000 meters.

Sadly, the rain of shells never stopped in the process.

The so-called "thieves go to the empty building" refers to the current situation.Originally full of passion and murderous intent, the diehards who were looking forward to a positive confrontation with the gangster suddenly cleared their anger gauge at this moment, and all of them collapsed.

Without waiting for Li Kuiqi's order, the snake-like team began to disintegrate.A large number of young men following the main force began to flee in all directions at this moment, and countless thin lines running in all directions appeared on the sea soon.

As for Li Kuiqi?In the chaotic situation at this moment, he could no longer be found—his ship was sunk before the whole collapsed, and then when he changed a ship, no one got his orders anymore.

(End of this chapter)