I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 262: The Ming Dynasty’s Ships Are Strong and Their Cannons Are Powerful
King Yi Sun and his ministers were driven staggeringly to the hill by the sea, where a platform with a canopy was built. Everyone had no choice but to take their seats one by one.

Sitting here, Ganghwa Island and the strait on the west side of the land are all reflected in your sight. Looking up, the land is densely packed with people, more than 100,000 people.

They were in a mess, scattered into groups, and driven by officers and generals, they were busy preparing weapons and repairing equipment.

The shore was densely packed with ships, large and small, numbering over a thousand, which were collected and looted by the rebel army from all over.

A small sampan can only accommodate two or three people; a large official ship can accommodate hundreds of people.

Tens of thousands of people stood in the water, reinforcing the boats, nailing planks, installing fences, inserting sharp poles, and giving full play to their imagination, desperately adding things to the boats, in order to turn these boats into monsters with bared fangs and claws.

Countless flags were planted on the shore, like waves of the sea. When the sea breeze blew, they swept towards Ganghwa Island one layer after another.

There were tens of thousands of soldiers, arranged in battle array and camp, which was boundless.

The flags were fluttering like clouds, the rebel army was so powerful!
King Yi Sun and his ministers were trembling with fear and sweat was pouring down their foreheads and backs.

What on earth do the Ming officers and soldiers want to do!
They wouldn't be planning to surrender themselves and others in order to save their lives if they can't win!
So vicious!

Oh God! Why do you torture us like this?
While King Yi Sun and his ministers were secretly lamenting, two rows of wooden fences were erected on Ganghwa Island near the sea according to the terrain, ranging from fifty to two hundred feet from the sea surface.

The open space was filled with makeshift wooden chevaux de frise, covered with sharpened bamboo and wooden poles.

Behind the wooden fence, rows of Marine Corps officers and soldiers stood in line. They wore round hats, tops and trousers, and red mandarin duck cloth armor jackets, tied with belts, and carried muskets. They faced the sea with murderous intent.

King Yi Sun and his ministers only saw their backs and thought that their formation was neat, but unfortunately there were too few of them.

There are hundreds of thousands of people on the opposite side, and you only have a few thousand of them. They can drown you with just a little saliva from each of them. How can you fight?

Three quarters of an hour after the morning hour, the Korean rebel army, which had been dawdling for a long time, finally began to move. Teams of soldiers, with their heads bowed and their backs bent, were driven aboard by officers and generals.

Some soldiers were showing off their military might. They were wearing all kinds of messy armor, and some even draped brocade and silk on their bodies, which looked out of place.

Some of them looked fierce, holding spears with hideous heads stuck on them, some with white hair and some with yellow mouths.

These soldiers acted arrogantly, as if they were the strongest army in the world. They punched the Heavenly Master of the Ming Dynasty and kicked the Japanese pirates.

They should be the main force of the rebel army. They boarded more than 50 official ships. In addition to the boatmen, each ship was packed with four to five hundred rebel soldiers, totaling nearly 20,000 people.

The Ming army's front-line command post was set up on a hill more than two miles from the shore. General Lu Xiang and other generals held up telescopes and observed the situation of the Korean rebel army four or five miles away from a distance.

"Some of these people are Park In-yong's independent troops, and some are Choi Kwang-jung's big bandits." An officer pointed at the arrogant and ferocious rebel troops and said.

"Damn, these bastards, I don't know how strong they are, but they look good." Prime Minister Lu sneered twice, "Send flags to the Xuanwu Navy and the front team of the Weihai Camp, tell them to pay special attention to these guys!"

"Yes."

At the command of Li Zandao, who was wearing a dragon robe and a winged hat, hundreds of drums were struck. At first, they were beaten in a scattered manner, just like the funeral procession when the host did not give enough money.

Li Zandao was furious. He gave an order and his personal soldiers rushed forward, dragged out hundreds of drummers and beheaded them on the spot.

Heads were thrown randomly on the ground, blood was all over the ground, there was silence in the army, and countless soldiers were trembling with fear.

Li Zandao waved his hand, signaling a new group of drummers to be replaced, and gave the order to beat the drums again.

The drumbeats immediately became much more uniform. Li Zandao nodded with satisfaction and ordered the three armies to use 20,000 advance troops as the vanguard to launch a full-scale attack on Ganghwa Island.

The sails are hoisted, spreading like clouds, thousands of oars are moving in unison, and thousands of boats are racing to set off.

When King Yi Sun and his ministers saw that the sea was densely packed with the rebel army's ships, which threatened to cover the sky and the sun, they wanted to turn around and run, and rob a Ming ship. It didn't matter if it meant going to the ends of the earth, they just wanted to escape from this place first.

There were two great scholars and famous people who, seeing the noise, thought that the rebel army would rush onto the shore any moment and then rush over to catch them, killing them like they were old friends and acquaintances, like slaughtering pigs and dogs.

He was so angry and frightened that he was paralyzed, his eyes rolled back, and he was foaming at the mouth. "Order the Xuanwu Navy to lead the way, and the Weihai Battalion's front team to follow. Fire freely, attack the big ships first, then the small ones."

As soon as Lu Xiang finished speaking, the military order was passed to the towering watchtower next to it. The flag bearer on it immediately waved the signal flag and passed the order out.

Soon, the flagship of the Xuanwu Navy and the flagship of the Weihai Camp's front team sent back signals indicating that they had received the military order.

"Send the signal flare, the navy attacks!"

"Yes"

Three red flares flew into the sky, leaving three long trails, cutting through the sky. People within a hundred miles could see them.

The twelve princely sailing ships of the Xuanwu Navy, with half sail, were lined up in a row and rushed over from the upwind direction. At that time, the rebel fleet had only traveled less than a third of the distance.

The Xuanwu Navy was less than fifty feet away from the rebel fleet. They sailed to the right position and began to fire with the port side guns.

The 24-jin and 18-jin cannons fired one after another. The roaring cannon sounds exploded one after another on the sea, tearing through the air and whistling towards them, deafening the ears of King Lee Sun and his ministers.

Li Sun was so frightened that he slipped off his chair and fell to the ground. Some of the other ministers ran away in fear, wishing they could find a hole to crawl into; some slumped on the ground, leaving a pool of yellow water and a pungent smell; some sat there with pale faces and dull eyes, completely frightened.

On this side, the Korean king and his ministers were behaving in an ugly manner, while on the other side, the Ming navy was rampant and showing off its power.

Hundreds of 24-jin and 18-jin bullets whizzed across the sea, sweeping away everything on the sea like a violent storm.

The more than 50 large ships of the Korean rebel army were the first to bear the brunt of the attack. They were large in size and were intensively bombarded by artillery fire. In just two rounds, these more than 50 Korean official ships were riddled with holes.

The ship was packed with elite soldiers, with blood and flesh flying everywhere, and heavy casualties. Their screams and wails filled the entire sea in the gaps between the roar of artillery fire and the whistling of shells.

After the Xuanwu navy passed through, they turned around in front.

Dozens of Wusong ships of three to four thousand tons in the front team of the Weihai Camp passed directly through the chaotic army fleet that had been beaten to pieces.

The sailors of the Weihai Camp set up twelve-jin and nine-jin cannons, loaded them with shotgun shells, and approached the rebel ships, firing at them.

At such a close distance, the lethality of the shotgun shells was fully exerted, and the chaotic soldiers crowded on the deck were knocked down one after another.

Soon, the decks of these ships turned red, with corpses and wounded everywhere, and broken arms and limbs everywhere. Blood was everywhere, and people would slip if they walked on it carelessly.

After two quarters of an hour, the Xuanwu navy turned its ships around, seized the upper hand again, rushed towards the rebel fleet, and bombarded the remaining large ships again, continuing to destroy and ruin these few remaining rebel ships.

The front team of the Weihai Camp, which had gained the upper hand, also turned their ships around and followed closely behind, once again using 12-jin and 9-jin cannons and shotgun shells to attack the scattered rebel ships.

Two hours later, the three or four miles wide strait was littered with broken ships and sails, corpses, and pools of bright red blood dripped onto the sea surface and were quickly washed away by the sea water.

Among the rebel fleet, there are only a few large and medium-sized ships that can carry more than a hundred people left on the sea.

The remaining ships were all small boats or sampans, and they were all terrified. Together with the remaining large and medium-sized ships, they rowed desperately to the distance to leave this Shura battlefield.

Some of them were dazed and leaned against the shore of Ganghwa Island. Before they could come to their senses, the Marine Corps' cavalry artillery team rushed up to them with a six-jin cavalry cannon, approached them and sprayed them with shotgun shells, turning these lucky ships into dead ships.

Three hours passed, and the sound of cannons was still heard, but it became much sparser. After the rebel army abandoned more than 400 large, medium and small ships, the remaining hundreds of ships fled in all directions, some fled back to the land shore, and most of them fled in all directions and disappeared.

The situation was clear. Hundreds of thousands of rebel troops and thousands of ships were attacked by the Ming navy halfway across the river. All their elite troops were lost, and nearly 20,000 soldiers were either buried in the sea or struggling on the sea. The rest fled in panic.

The Ming navy's fast ships were dispatched, and the armored soldiers were stabbed to death with guns, and the rest were scooped up like fish, tied up like crabs and thrown into the cabin.

King Lee Sun and his ministers were stunned!
This is victory!
The Ming army's strong ships and powerful guns have been deeply engraved in their memories ever since.

(End of this chapter)