Lu Ming

Chapter 594
January 1632, 1, the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month.

For travelers from another time and space using a new calendar, a new year has begun.

In the new year, it seems that everything is going well: the new society is thriving, there are countless major events waiting to be accomplished every day, and the travelers are making history every day.

For the Ming court in the far north, the twelfth month of the Lunar New Year is about to usher in the "difficult fortunes of the country"-the Zu Dashou Department who was trapped in the Dalinghe Fort in Liaodong was already more than a month ago. With all ammunition and food running out, Kaesong surrendered.

Although Zu Dashou single-handedly fled back to the Daming-controlled area after the incident, this is no longer important: the last field army of the Ming Dynasty was wiped out by Jiannu, and the Ming court, whose strength and spirit were completely destroyed, lost forever Strategic initiative.

So this twelfth lunar month, the so-called sad year is true: the court is really difficult.

The emperor not only had to deal with the mess left after the big defeat outside the pass, but also faced the increasingly aggressive peasant uprising in the north: the peasant army composed of more than 20 people from Wang Yong, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, etc. up the climate.Those generations sometimes scattered and sometimes gathered, and repeatedly attacked cities and lands around Shanxi, once breaking through Daning, Xizhou, Zezhou, Shouyang and other cities, exhausting the imperial army and terrifying the entire court.

But the good thing is that Emperor Ming is not fighting alone.At this very moment, in a foreign land in the far south, there is also an imperial court, which has experienced several difficulties and hesitated several times in this twelfth lunar month.

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"All are there, ten rounds are fired at a constant rate, ready to release!"

The crude casing copper wire + simple magnetic horn sound transmission system makes the human voice echoing in the gun cabin extremely distorted, and it is also accompanied by the sound of low-quality electric current rattling.

But none of these factors can affect the accurate transmission of orders.

Standing next to the iron loudspeaker, the on-site commander who heard the order for the first time, after visually observing that the artillery positions were ready, he slammed down the small flag in his hand and blew the copper whistle in his mouth at the same time.

In the long cannon cabin, there was a deafening roar.Accompanied by repeated loud bangs, was a cannon whose door was pushed back to the guide rail by the recoil.At the same time, muzzle smoke began to fill the cabin, and visibility decreased a lot.

But the smoke quickly escaped through the convection portholes.Professional gunboats are designed specifically for these problems.If today's external convection environment is not good, you can also turn on the negative pressure exhaust fan to assist in exhausting smoke.

While exhausting the smoke, wearing earmuffs, a short, stocky artillery squad composed of all "third-class disabled" was shouting loudly and nervously carrying out the artillery reset work.

Even if the three-layer gun deck, which tends to cause the ship's center of gravity to become unstable, is abandoned and improved to a double-layer gun bay equipped with heavy guns, after all, it is still a cabin with limited height and space, so the gun crew members are all dwarfs.

The dwarf battery is an essential "part" of a sandwich battleship.

The British Empire was facing the pressure of competition from all kinds of hooligans at sea, so it did everything it could.In the Imperial Fleet, underage minors were used all the year round as gunpowder transporters running up and down.

But looking to the future, the traversing forces have nothing to contend with, so there is no such thing as "child soldiers" in the fleet.Right now, all minors in the control area must receive compulsory education, and there is no need to carry gunpowder barrels on battleships, or go to textile factories to quickly consume their lives.

Fortunately, the average size of indigenous people in this era is generally low, and adults of 1.5 meters abound.After the navy recruits "qualified" gun crew soldiers, after training and supplementing nutrition, these people will become short and sturdy "professional" sergeants.

At this moment, the combat tasks of professional sergeants are very heavy.

The 24-pound forged long-barrel heavy gun has a total weight of more than 2 tons.Even if there is an advanced slide rail system for braking, it still requires a lot of chemical energy from the gun crew and skilled operating procedures before the cannon will return to the firing position again.

Next came another round of mechanical clearing + charging.

The good thing is that this time because it is firing at a constant rate, the gun crew is not in a hurry.Everyone slowed down and used the least labor-saving way to do the preparation process that has been trained countless times.

Not long after, the muzzles of ten 10-pound heavy guns protruded out of the porthole again.The gleaming gun barrel and the suddenly quiet gun cabin brought a strong murderous aura of instant boost.

It took less than 10 seconds for all the gun positions to be ready, and the call that the lower gun compartment was ready came from the big iron horn next to the commander.Less than half a minute later, the familiar electric current microphone of the bridge fire control officer issued an order again: "Allow shooting!"

"Boom."

The double-layer gun deck, with a total of 20 24-pound heavy guns on one side, roared again.

The cast iron shells pushed out of the barrel by the high-temperature gunpowder gas are full of power at this moment.The seemingly dark iron ball has actually raised its temperature and become scorching hot.

One of the iron balls, after being ejected together with 19 companions, soon merged with 22 of the same type fired from another warship.After flying over the water surface of the Red River for nearly 1 kilometer, everyone entered the airspace of the destination of this trip: a city with a strong Chinese style.

After crossing the thick city wall outside the city, most of the kinetic energy of the iron ball has been lost, and the parabolic trajectory drawn by it has become more and more obvious when falling.Afterwards, after flying for nearly 2000 meters, the kinetic energy of the iron ball was finally exhausted, so it slammed into a courtyard in the east of the city leisurely.

This courtyard is paved with blue bricks and covered with blue tiles. It is square and neat. At first glance, it looks like a home for wealthy middle-class people.

For some reason, there was no one in the courtyard at this moment.

The next moment, the iron ball bounced into the backyard.Although it seemed to be slowing down and without any kinetic energy, after a loud "bang", the iron ball smashed through the wall of the firewood room without any hindrance.Finally, after traveling a distance of 2000 meters, the standard 24-pound cast iron shell produced by the distant Yizhou Metal Casting Factory plunged into the pyre and did not move.

It's not over yet.

Three or four minutes later, in the firewood room that had been quiet for a long time, there was suddenly a slight "peeling" sound. Looking carefully, it turned out that a bundle of straw in the woodpile was emitting green smoke for some reason.

Next, the green smoke became more and more intense, and soon turned into thick white smoke: the firewood stored in the firewood room was burned.

Ever since, the fire gradually became bigger and bigger, until it burned through the firewood house, and began to transfer to other surrounding houses.

At this time, the original white smoke has long been transformed into thick black smoke, and with the help of the visible wood everywhere, the black smoke rises into the sky.Anyone can see that there is a fire here and rescue is needed to put it out.

However, when the camera is zoomed out, it is discovered that this big city with many buildings and houses is already full of fires and corpses everywhere, like a hell on earth.

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The southbound large fleet led by Cao Chuan (pseudo), the loyal and brave uncle of the Ming Dynasty, has stayed in the delta area of ​​the lower reaches of the Red River for more than half a month.

In fact, as early as a month ago, the Grand Fleet arrived at Hongji Port.

On the same day, after the special meeting to deal with the situation in the north ended, the cabinet immediately issued a list of the personnel of the southward fleet according to the spirit of the meeting.

In addition to Zhang Dongdong who must set off with the ship, there are also many naval personnel, and there are also some idle travelers who are planning to go to the Indochina Peninsula for inspection.

The large fleet was quickly formed.

Since it is the first time to step out of the "national gate" in the real sense, and it is obviously responsible for combat missions, this southward fleet is quite powerful.It includes not only the two main battleships "Zhenman" and "Fuyuan", but also more than 20 various secondary battleships.

Traveling through the crowd this time, it can be said to be the best of the best.

In addition, accompanied by the Southward Fleet, there are also a large number of civilian transport ships of various types.

After that, some ships were hastily gathered at Baietan, and after performing in front of the natives of Guangzhou, the fleet set off.Along the way, the fleet stayed outside Lingdingyang for 3 days because of the need to meet ships from all over the world.

When the large fleet was finally assembled, they pulled anchor and set sail. The first stop was Qiongzhou.

After demonstrating their strength to the people of Qiongzhou, leaving behind a number of transport ships to unload building materials and various grains and groceries, the Southward Fleet officially went southward, which can be regarded as going out of the country.

It's a pity that the southward fleet didn't move three feet after leaving the country.First, they conducted continuous exercises in the Beibu Gulf for several days, and then they all went to Hongji Port, which is under construction.

At this point in time, it is late November, and the rainy season in Annan is over.

Next came the meat of the show: the large fleet stationed in Hongji Port not long ago actually detected traces of the mobilization of Annan's army with a number of no less than 20000 on the shore.

Therefore, the Marine Corps carried by the Grand Fleet, in cooperation with the "security" force of Hongji Port, was led by the crossing officer himself, and adopted the method of night attack + storm attack, and broke up the forward force sent by the Zheng family to find out the details in one fell swoop. It only took one night to wipe out 800+ enemies.

Immediately afterwards, after leaving a large number of manpower to assist in the defense of Hongji Port, the Southward Fleet went straight up the Red River on December 12st with all its main forces.

Because there are many red sand shale formations in the river basin, the water is red, so this big river originating from Yunnan and ending in the Beibu Gulf was called "Red River" in ancient times.

And the Red River Delta in the lower reaches of the Red River is where the Shenglong Mansion, the capital of Annan Kingdom, is located.

On the morning of December 1631, 12, a giant ship from downstream suddenly appeared on the surface of the Red River outside Thang Long Mansion.Before the bewildered Thang Long Mansion sent envoys to negotiate, the imperialist fleet, which had already emitted billowing black smoke, foreshadowed an ominous omen, and despicably fought undeclared war. The cannon fire that represents death.

Caught off guard, Thang Long Fu City suffered a total of more than a thousand shells that day, and the people's lives and property suffered huge losses.

The fleet that had poured its shells that day quietly withdrew from the Red River at night. Five days later, the replenished fleet knocked off the customs again, and fought a "battle" with the surface fleet urgently dispatched by Thang Long Mansion in the lower reaches of the Red River.

The ending was cruel: the paddling fleet that bravely resisted the invaders could not penetrate the defense at all under the intensive cross-fire.In the end, before the entire army was wiped out, only one fireboat broke within a kilometer of the two "huge ships".

The battle situation continued like this, making the shelling scene that appeared in the previous article once again befall the Thang Long Mansion.

(End of this chapter)