I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 222 Lighting the Fire and Serving the Roasted Japanese Pig
Chapter 221

On Chongming Island, everything is on the right track.

Cheng Shijie positioned Chongming Island as a military base. Of course, it was also a cargo transfer station. Shen Boyun was a very capable person. Cheng Shijie entrusted him and a group of staff to complete the construction of the defense line, while Zhu Weiti went around looking for it. Have fun and enjoy life.

For some people, life is to live, and now Cheng Shijie is called life.

Cheng Shijie initially stayed in the Shen family's old house on Chongming Island. Later, Shen Boyun gave Cheng Shijie the Shen family's other courtyard. .

This is a courtyard with a width of more than ten rooms. The front yard, the main yard and the back yard are three-entry courtyards. There are two houses next to each other. After opening up, a medium-sized courtyard is formed.

Originally this courtyard was called Shen Garden, but now it is naturally called Cheng Mansion.

While enjoying life, Cheng Shijie also paid attention to education. With the help of the Shachuan Gang, at least the number of teachers has improved significantly. Cheng Shijie focused on cultivating the second generation of Liaodong, but did not give up the generation of Liaodong immigrants.

The second generation of immigrants can sit and study in spacious and bright classrooms. The education they receive is that the first generation of Liaodong can only take time out of work to improve themselves. In the main areas of Liaodong, such as Jinzhou and Fuzhou , Gaizhou and Haizhou, as well as Lushun have evening schools.

The official, that is, the Liaodong Management Committee does not require adults to go to night school in principle, but the official has requirements for the education level of public officials. Even the officers of the Ninghai Navy have to go to the Liaodong Army Academy or the Naval Academy for short-term training courses. Otherwise, he would not even have the qualifications to serve as an officer above the rank of Bai Zong in the army.

However, on Chongming Island, Cheng Shijie established four new schools with little effort, which is why it is easy for Jiangnan to recruit poor scholars.

However, when Cheng Shijie came to Chongming Island, not everyone was happy, at least most people, including the common people, did not like it. Cheng Shijie knew that Chongming Island was a sand island, and it was getting bigger all the time. However, due to the erosion of water and soil, the island Not stable.

For this reason, Cheng Shijie issued an order in March that everyone should plant trees, twenty trees at that time, and all children born would be counted.

Needless to say, planting trees is important to the environment, but the problem is that the people on Chongming Island don’t buy it, because their lives are too poor and too bitter.

"It makes sense to be poor!"

Cheng Shijie had to be convinced of the poverty of these people, because the land where everyone planted trees was planned, along Chongming Island and along the two main east-west roads.

As long as trees are planted, the land and trees belong to the individual people. If poplar or tung trees are planted, they can become useful in three to five years, which will be a considerable income.

Of course, Cheng Shijie also knew that these people were actually scared by usury, even if Liaodong Bank gave them a loan, they were unwilling to plant trees.

Shen Boyun looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "Commander, why don't we own all the trees in Chongming, and the whole island now has a total of 13 residents, with a total of more than 650 trees!"

"You have a beautiful idea! You, Mrs. Chen, are already rich enough, don't take all the benefits!"

"But those common people are willing to make trouble with their own money, so what can they do?"

Cheng Shijie said: "They don't have money, so let them work hard. Shen's is responsible for cultivating or purchasing a batch of saplings, Ning Haijun Agricultural Reclamation Company is responsible for purchasing, and let the people plant trees. Each kind of [-] trees will give them [-] saplings. saplings, these saplings are their personal property!"

In fact, these islanders, like the nomads, do not have much environmental awareness. If the island cannot survive, they go to another place, unlike the farming peoples who have a deep sense of dependence on the land.

Even if many places are not suitable for survival, especially Liaodong, many grasslands are not suitable for human survival. The wasteland cultivated through hard work grows more weeds than crops. If it is replaced by Africans or whites, there is no such thing as Be patient and persevere.

However, people in Daming are different, they just need to pull out the weeds that grow, if not in a year, it will take two years, as long as they persist, the desolate grassland will turn into a prosperous farm sooner or later.

In all fairness, the situation in Chongming Island is pretty good. Although the production of sandy land is limited, the problem is that sweet potatoes, potatoes, and peanuts are particularly fond of sandy land, and there is enough rain. Soon, the big hat of poverty will be removed here. .

Not only Chongming Island, but even the fishermen living along the Yangtze River are actually very hard-working. Hairy crabs weighing nearly one catty will be king crabs in later generations, and they need to be auctioned and lucky to buy.

However, in this era, a hairy crab only costs fifty Wen.

You must know that a chicken costs between [-] and [-] renminbi, and you can buy a big chicken with [-] renminbi, because the daily salary of ordinary people in Beijing is actually between [-] and [-] renminbi. lower.

Cheng Shijie paid out of his own pocket and invited Ning Haijun to eat hairy crabs, but what he didn't expect was that Ning Haijun didn't appreciate it.

"Marshal, this hairy crab has no meat and no oily water, so it's better to buy a big fat chicken!"

Cheng Shijie followed good advice, bought a few hairy crabs, got a few saury back to try something new, and even went to the river to ask fishermen to help him catch puffer fish at a high price.

Zhu Weiti seldom ate seafood or freshwater fish in the past, but following Cheng Shijie to Chongming, he realized the freedom of hairy crabs and puffer fish.

It was only then that Cheng Shijie discovered that Zhu Weiti was still a snack foodie, eating local delicacies everywhere, such as sea bass, mandarin fish, saury, hairy crab... eating in different ways.

Including Gu Ziyi, they all slowly put on weight.The original Gu Ziyi was at most eighty catties, but now she can slightly see her belly, at least one hundred catties away.

Cheng Shijie also found a business opportunity. There is no way to keep these river fresh and seafood fresh, and the business of the fishermen in the Wusongkou area is not very good, and they can barely maintain food and clothing.

Cheng Shijie established a canned river and seafood processing factory on Chongming Island. The business has become extremely hot, and the price of fish, shrimp and crab has risen accordingly!

Shad, saury and puffer are listed as the "three delicacies of the Yangtze River". Among them, shad is the most precious, because it is a fish with strong seasonality, and the meat quality is the most delicious before the Ching Ming Festival. Yes, after the Ching Ming Festival, it plummeted.

Therefore, before the Ching Ming Festival, shad is more expensive than gold, and after the Ching Ming Festival, no one wants to give it away.

It is now April, which is the best time to eat shad.

On this day, Cheng Shijie himself was handling the shad, Zhu Weiti was in charge of lighting the fire, and Gu Ziyi was helping.

Just as Cheng Shijie was putting the steamed shad on the pot, Shen Boyun hurried over and said, "Commander, something happened!"

"what happened?"

"The fishermen who went out to sea to fish found that thousands of warships from Zheng's fleet are heading towards Wusongkou, and there is only less than an hour's journey from here!"

"Going straight to Wusongkou? Interesting!"

Zhu Weiti said, "Leave after eating the fish?"

"No, it's too late to get to Wusongkou from here, it's already too late in an hour!"

"With General Wu around, Zheng Zhilong shouldn't be able to take advantage of it!"

Cheng Shijie thought about it too.

The warships of this era are generally around eighty-nine knots or even ten knots, which is more than 30 kilometers in two hours. Even if Cheng Shijie rides a horse, it is difficult to reach Wusongkou within an hour.

Cheng Shijie decided to eat fish first.

At Wusongkou, the Ning Navy immediately assembled and entered the combat position, and everything was in order.Eighteen three-inch guns with millimeter caliber breech-loading smoothbore guns and four four-inch breech-loading smoothbores were opened, and boxes of shells were moved out of the anti-bunker holes and placed on the gun positions.

In just a quarter of an hour, the soldiers of the Ming army stationed at Wusongkou had completed their combat preparations. Although this Ming army nominally belonged to the Wusongkou garrison, in fact, they were also soldiers of the Ning Navy, at least most of them were yes.

Wu Sheng, the former general of Wusongkou, really disgusted Cheng Shijie. He also thought that Cheng Shijie could be of use to him, so he began to want to blow up his hair.

Of course, Cheng Shijie wouldn't let him down. After beheading Wu Sheng, with Gao Qiqian's help, Cheng Shijie's commander-in-chief of the guards became the commander-in-chief of Wusongkou's defense.

Tang En, who was formerly governor of Dengzhou Weizuo Thousand Households, became Wu Sheng's deputy.Tang En was able to become Wu Sheng's deputy for two reasons. One was that he was born in Dengzhou Weizuo Thousand Households Office and belonged to the direct line of Cheng Shijie's direct line.The second is that he himself is more hardworking, and he is the governor of the Thousand Households.

The governor of Qianhusuo is lower than that of Qianhu, Deputy Qianhu and Baihu. In fact, it is only responsible for prison affairs within Qianhusuo, and also manages military affairs.At the beginning, Tang En missed the team and followed Cheng Shijie against him. Cheng Shijie pushed him to the end and became a leader.

However, the problem is that Tang En is also a ruthless person. During his tenure as a leader, he put down his airs and fought hard. He won the opportunity to study at the Liaodong Military Academy. As a result, he worked as a teaching assistant at the Liaodong Military Academy and successfully obtained the certificate of completion. However, he did not develop in a military position, but has been in the military supervision system.

The importance of Wusongkou is self-evident. Cheng Shijie put Wu Sheng in this position and left behind supervisors. Otherwise, Wu Sheng might be dragged into the water by wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River.

The weather is fine now and fully visible with a telescope.Under the guidance of the lookout post, Wu Sheng, Tang En and the others quickly discovered the sharp sail shadows emerging from behind the sea level.

Tang En said in disbelief, "Good guy, there are at least eight or nine hundred warships!"

"I'm afraid there will be more than a thousand ships! What a big deal!"

Cheng Shijie worked desperately, and after two years of hard work, he managed to produce less than 1000 warships. When Zheng Zhilong made a move, more than [-] warships were pressed against him. This kind of courage is really staggering.

This time is different from the fleet led by Zheng Zhibao last time. Although Zheng Zhibao had thousands of warships last time, most of them were small ships. This time, the main battleships alone dispatched more than 600 ships. Zheng Zhilong took out his own family background .

Tang En said worriedly: "General Wu, the total strength of our army is only about 1000 people, but the enemy army has brought more than [-] warships in one go. There is a huge gap between the number of people and the number of people. What should we do?"

Wu Sheng said with a faint smile: "When we fought in the Ning Navy, since when did we care about the superiority of the enemy's troops?"

Tang En thought about it for a while, and it was indeed the case. When he faced the bandit Qin Wu, Denglai's new army, and Kong Youde's rebel army, including the Jiannu Ning Navy, he also fought the few with more.

Tang En pondered: "Of course I know that our Ning Navy is very strong, but... But this is different from land warfare! The enemy army comes from the sea, with thousands of warships and thousands of guns. They can fight us, but we cannot If we see them, how can we fight this battle!"

"Isn't this simple?"

Wu Sheng laughed and said, "Put the enemy on the shore!"

Wu Sheng immediately issued an order: "All the cannons should be withdrawn first, and the infantry should enter the artillery fortifications. If they encounter enemy artillery fire, they must not fire back. When the enemy troops start to land, then push the cannons out to beat the mother!"

When Zheng's fleet arrived at Wusongkou, it was found that the Ning Navy had not fired, which made Zheng Zhilong very surprised.

At this time, the defending side should fire with all their strength to keep the fleet out of the effective range of their own artillery.Compared with warships, coastal forts can be well protected, and they are not affected by the waves when firing. They are more accurate, and they are cheaper to fight. Under normal circumstances, warships are absolutely unwilling to head-on with shore artillery. Yes, I can't even touch it.

In Liaodong, this was not the case. Ning Haijun’s coastal defense guns were very fierce, and Zheng’s fleet suffered heavy losses. In order to attract Zheng’s army to land, Ning’s navy also deliberately put Zheng’s army on the shore. Stay out of range of naval guns.

Just when Zheng's army thought that Ning's navy was nothing more than that, Ning's navy actually dispatched a cavalry unit. You must know that Zheng's army is actually a light infantry unit. There is no way. If you accidentally fall into the sea at sea, Light infantry still had a chance to climb up.

But the heavy infantry must sink to the bottom like a weight.

As a result, Zheng's army faced the crushing massacre of the Ning Navy cavalry. More than 300 people landed smoothly, and less than [-] people ran back.

"What the hell are these black skins doing?"

Shi Daxuan laughed and said, "It's possible, they gave up Wusongkou!"

"how can that be?"

"Your Majesty gave Chongming Island to Princess Chongming. Cheng Shijie can deploy troops on Chongming Island, but Wusongkou is not his territory!"

Zheng Zhilong thought about it and felt that it might be the same. He has received information that Cheng Shijie has more than 6000 Ning Navy soldiers on Chongming Island, which is not a small force.

If Wusongkou is not occupied, the next battle with Ning Haijun will definitely not be easy.But occupying Wusongkou is different. Now Cheng Shijie is robbing maritime merchants at sea. Jiangnan maritime merchants have been unable to go to sea for more than three months because the Ning Navy navy controls the estuary of the Yangtze River.

However, maritime merchants in Fujian and Guangdong can go to sea, but there is a high probability that they will be robbed by the Ning Navy.Under such circumstances, Jiangnan Maritime Merchants, Fujian and Guangdong Maritime Merchants have already stood on their side, and Cheng Shijie is all to blame for going out of his way.

After half an hour of preparation, the more than 600 main warships under Zheng Zhilong's command included 24 guns on the Wuwei boat and 48 guns on the Junk boat.

Zheng Zhilong divided more than 600 warships into three waves, one wave after another, without giving Ning Haijun a chance to breathe.

Following Zheng Zhilong's order, more than 400 warships and more than 1000 artillery pieces began to fire shells towards Wusongkou.

"Boom boom boom..."

The thunderous explosion exploded suddenly on the sea surface, and a large group of flames spewed out from the muzzle of the Shanghaomen naval gun at the same time, and the black gunpowder smoke spread around like a hurricane, like a black storm blowing on the sea surface.

The round shot ball flew out of the barrel at high speed, forming a burst of scorching hailstones and smashing hard at Wusongkou.The flames from the muzzles of the thousands of naval guns hadn't dissipated yet, and thunder broke out again, and thousands of naval guns fired violently again.

Since the large-caliber naval guns of Zheng's fleet are all Hongyi cannons, the firing speed of the Hongyi cannons is slow, and the barrel needs to be cleaned and cooled.

In order to increase the density of the bombing and the intensity of the firepower, Zheng Zhilong used the naval gun as a musket and launched a three-stage attack.

After the first wave of more than 200 warships fired their port guns, they immediately adjusted their course to get out of the firing range, and the second wave of warships fired their port guns, followed by the third wave of port guns.

When the first wave of port side guns began to tensely clean the gun chambers and install gunpowder and shells, the first wave of warships adjusted their hulls and began to fire shells from starboard guns.

At this time, on the sea surface of Wusongkou, there are hundreds of naval guns in every wave. These chubby things rowed strange ballistic trajectories and landed on the docks, forts, and hillsides... Huge balls of flames collapsing and sending stone chips flying, not to mention the lethality, the scene alone is scary enough.

The sailors, holding their weapons tightly and preparing for hand-to-hand combat, were highly motivated, brandishing swords and spears and shouting wildly. The lean and thin faces of the samurai from the old days twisted and let out bursts of laughter. As for the tall and strong black men, they were even more joyful. Do a war dance on the deck.

No way, the entertainment nature of black people is too strong.

"Boom boom boom boom boom..."

This round of bombardment by Zheng's naval guns seemed to be like a violent storm, with no intention of stopping at all. In fact, any warship has the firepower of an artillery battalion.The gunfire was completely indistinguishable, and the warships of Zheng's fleet reached 500 meters, and they fought fiercely at Wusongkou.

Solid shot puts, chain bombs, grape bullets, etc., poured out as if they didn't need money. Zheng's fleet was showing off its powerful firepower and terrible destructive power.

They don't look like they are fighting, but they seem to be burying people with shells. Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, there are really only a handful of troops who dare to play like this!
The artillery shells fell on the Wusongkou Fortress like a hailstorm. The shot balls jumped wildly, the gravel splashed, and the gunpowder smoke filled the air. It was extremely frightening. The morale of Zheng's army increased. If they don't break up, after this round of shelling, they will be able to take a walk and occupy the Wusongkou Fortress, chasing and killing the fleeing enemies!

In Zheng Zhilong's view, there is no army in the world that can withstand the bombing of Zheng's fleet. This is his confidence and strength in fighting for hegemony in the sea.

Of course, if it is other Ming army troops, the area will definitely collapse, not to mention them, even Jiannu will also collapse.

In all fairness, the current firepower of Zheng's fleet is much stronger than that of the Ning Navy on the Baliwan battlefield. How many artillery pieces did the Ning Navy have at that time?
At best, it is less than one tenth of Zheng's fleet, no, not even one percent. Zheng's fleet has six or seven thousand artillery pieces. At this time, compared to the number of naval guns of battleships, Zheng Zhilong is really stronger than the Spanish Empire , and stronger than the naval power of Great Britain.

The Spanish Armada has a total of less than [-] warships and more than [-] artillery pieces. This is the strength of the Spanish Empire dominating the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong is not weaker than any other country's navy in terms of the number of large warships, and is stronger than the Ottoman Empire's more than 20 navy. His weak point is the artillery. Most of Zheng Zhilong's artillery are old artillery captured. There are many warships The age of the cannon has exceeded 300 years.

It's just a pity that the Ning Navy is really not an ordinary Ming army, especially because they have an independent and complete defense system for land warfare and artillery warfare.

In this era, more than ninety-nine percent of the army has no awareness of artillery defense, and either spreads or builds strong cities, but the Ning Navy has a mature trench system, especially the soft soil when digging trenches, which can be very good The key to attracting the kinetic energy of the shells is that the trench is too narrow, and it is difficult to fall into a trench that is more than one meter wide.

At this time, when Ning Haijun built the anti-blasting tunnel, it was six feet below the surface, using three-inch thick planks and logs with a diameter of more than one foot as support columns, like the Wusongkou Fortress, but it used concrete columns made of reinforced concrete As a pillar, Ning Haijun has done experiments, unless the 48-pound heavy gun is used, it is possible to threaten the anti-bunker hole.

Under the intensive firepower bombardment of Zheng's naval guns, the Ning Navy was not without losses. After all, the Ning Navy in the Wusongkou garrison only had more than [-] people, and there were more than [-] young and strong recruits.

Facing the overwhelming artillery shells, these recruits were terrified. They ran out of the artillery holes, and when they came, they could not care about military discipline and orders.

Under such circumstances, the soldiers who ran out of the anti-blasting holes would definitely end badly. They were either shocked to death or smashed to pieces by shells.

Such a high-intensity bombardment actually made Zheng Zhilong very painful.

After all, once the cannon is fired, it is worth ten thousand taels of gold, and shooting cannons is money.

Following the bombardment of three rounds of naval guns, Zheng Zhilong looked at a barefoot Japanese samurai beside him with two long swords on his waist and said: "Mr. Morimoto, the rest will depend on your performance!"

In fact, if Zheng Zhibao hadn't wasted Kumamoto Taro next to Zheng Zhilong, he would not have used Morimoto Kazuhisa. Kumamoto Taro is Zheng Zhilong's direct descendant of Xiaori. Then I met Zheng Zhilong. At that time, Tokugawa Hidetada ordered Kumamoto Taro to be responsible for protecting Zheng Zhilong, a nobleman of Ming Dynasty.

With the improvement of Zheng Zhilong's strength, Kumamoto Taro gathered a large number of underprivileged samurai to serve Zheng Zhilong, and with Zheng Zhilong's expedition to the north and south, in the decisive battle with Xu Suxin, Kumamoto Taro even risked Xu Suxin's musket team The rain of bullets cut off Xu Suxin's head while more than [-] people were killed or injured.

In Zheng Zhilong's mind, Taro Kumamoto was his good dog. Unfortunately, this dog died.

Morimoto also knew for a long time that without Zheng Zhilong's protection, he would have no way out. There was no place for him in the Xiaori Kingdom, and he accidentally offended Cheng Shijie. Although Cheng Shijie was not as strong as Zheng Zhilong, he was more than enough to deal with him.

Morimoto bowed to Zheng Zhilong for a long time: "Your Excellency, please rest assured that you don't need to send other landing troops. The [-] brave warriors under my command are enough to easily take Wusongkou!"

In Kazuhisa Morimoto's heart, in the face of such sharp shelling, there should be no living people at Wusongkou, and they can go ashore to collect the corpses.

It's just a pity that Morimoto Yijiu was wrong, and it was very wrong.

Morimoto didn't know for a long time that he hit the iron plate this time.

Morimoto drew out a long knife for a long time, and pointed at Wusong's mouth: "Kill it, and the dogs will not be left behind!"

60 small day warriors brandished long knives and howled loudly, and rushed towards the pier in more than [-] small warships.They acted quickly, rowing the boat like a swordfish, and rushed ashore in a few strokes. A large number of small day warriors jumped off the boat and rushed straight to Ning Haijun's defense line without stopping.

When Cheng Shijie arrived at Wusongkou, he happened to see the warriors rushing ashore these days, 600 meters away from Ning Haijun's defense line.

"how is the situation?"

"Some recruits were killed, it's not a big problem."

Cheng Shijie looked at Wu Sheng and said, "All the warriors in these days will leave me with fertile land!"

At this time, Cheng Shijie's face was a little ferocious. Wu Sheng had seen this scene on the Baliwan battlefield.

"Guaranteed to complete the mission!"

Wu Sheng ordered loudly: "All artillerymen don't care about their landing troops and landing ships, they are targeting their large warships, and concentrate their firepower to sink their large warships!"

Ning Haijun's artillery received the order and hurried out of the anti-gun hole, then pushed the artillery into the artillery position.

Of course, there is no way for the artillery to fire immediately.

These days the samurai was barefoot, and not long after he landed, there was a shrill scream.

Morimoto was furious for a long time: "What's going on?"

"There are nails on the ground, and our warriors have pierced their feet!"

"Baga, as a warrior, I can't even overcome this little problem!"

The Ning navy officers and soldiers did not immediately start to fight back. After all, the distance is too far. No matter whether it is a crossbow or a musket, it is helpless for a distance of 500 meters.

However, it doesn't mean that the samurai can successfully land in these small days.

"Push!"

A soldier from a small day fell a dog and gnawed on the mud. He struggled to get up and didn't feel abnormal. In fact, it was the fierce fire oil released by the Ning navy defenders.

However, Wusongkou is full of pungent sulfur or gunpowder smells.
These little days don't feel out of the ordinary.

There were still five or sixty meters before Ning Haijun's formation.

Cheng Shijie ordered: "Ignite the fire and serve, roast suckling pig, not roasted Japanese pig."

(End of this chapter)