The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 358 Traitor, this is your fate
December 1776, 12. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the forty-first year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing navy, with 155 warships and 13,000 officers and soldiers, set out from Weizhou Island and headed for the mouth of the Baiteng River.

The fleet commander, the admiral of the Fujian Navy and the sixth Duke of Haicheng, Huang Shijian, was originally reluctant to set off.

But there was no way, their family was born of traitors, not only did they inherit the title of Haicheng Duke, but they also got the privilege of opening Zhangzhou Prefecture.

Although it was later handed over, the Huang family still had the final say in Zhangzhou Prefecture. Such honor and favor meant that the Huang family had to obey the orders of the Eight Banners ladies.

Now that he was summoned by top Eight Banners nobles like Agui and Fukang'an, he really didn't dare to delay too much.

Fortunately, the dark clouds covering the sea a few days ago have passed, and the wind and waves on the sea are not big. The sea surface is sparkling in the sunlight and is peaceful.

But the wind was a little unusual. It was a southeast wind that was not common in winter.

"When Cao Mengde went on his southern expedition, he must have been harmed by this winter's southeast wind. Haha."

Huang Shijian started joking for a moment, but halfway through he suddenly realized that it was a bad omen and stopped talking in embarrassment.

His confidant, Cai Panlong, the captain of the navy's flag, could only smile awkwardly and try to smooth things over.

"Under the command of the commander, our navy boasts hundreds of warships, skilled soldiers, and powerful weapons. We crisscross the southern kingdom, forcing both the Western Barbarians and the Japanese pirates to flee. We are not like Cao Cao's northern army, which is so landlubberish that it can't withstand a southeasterly wind!"

Cai Panlong was quite brave in battle, relatively proficient in naval warfare, and did not do many bad things. However, he had a notorious descendant, Cai Yingwen, who generated electricity with love.

Huang Shijian knew that he had spoken out of turn, and when he heard Cai Panlong's words to smooth things over, the embarrassed look on his face disappeared. He was about to say a few more words when he suddenly saw black smoke billowing in the distance. This was the signal smoke released by the fleet's outermost ships as a warning.

Huang Shijian and Cai Panlong looked at each other, feeling a chill in their hearts. Damn, they just said that Cao Mengde was defeated by the southeast wind, and now there is an enemy situation. Isn’t it a bit too coincidental?
"The enemy is still far away. It will take at least three quarters of an hour." Cai Panlong was experienced in naval battles. He quickly climbed up the mast to observe.

Although the Qing navy at this time was completely incomparable to that of Shi Lang and Huang Wu, it was not yet extremely rotten, and there were still a few generals who knew how to fight.

But that's all. If it were the Xing Tang Army's navy, at this distance they could not only use smoke signals to warn, but also use the color and shape of the flags on the masts to convey basic information about the enemy.

"I don't know what ship it is. We can't see it clearly yet." Cai Panlong jumped off the mast and said to Huang Shijian.

Huang Shijian's face was serious as he slowly said, "Who else could it be? It must be the Mo thief's fleet. How dare ordinary pirates or Western merchant ships dare to come and cause trouble when they see our fleet of hundreds of warships deployed in large numbers?

Hoist the flags, beat the drums, and head west. Wait until the wind abates or changes direction before engaging the enemy."

There was nothing wrong with Huang Shijian's arrangement, because in the naval battle at this time, wind direction was the most important.

If you have the upper hand, you will have mobility and can adjust your formation at any time. You can also choose when, where and how to start fighting at any time to gain the initiative.

If it is a battle between European fleets, they should use triangular sails to take an elliptical route against the wind, so as to seize the upper hand and adjust the formation before the enemy ships arrive.

However, the boats Huang Shijian had were all Chinese rigid sailboats, without triangular sails, and basically had no ability to sail against the wind, so he could only speed up and leave, waiting for the wind direction to change.

Unfortunately, the opponent they met this time was beyond their imagination.

If there was any aspect in which the Xing Tang Army was generationally different from the Qing Dynasty, it was definitely not the army but the navy.

At this time, the naval strength of the Xing Tang Dynasty was weaker than that of the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Portugal, and only slightly stronger than that of a state like Venice, but it was still a modern sailing fleet.

Not to mention large ships like the battleships Jingning and Zhongzhen, even the fifth-level sailing cruisers like Zhongjian were much more powerful than the Qing Navy warships.

The Qing Dynasty's artillery could not even damage a third-class battleship like the Jingning from a distance of 100 meters.

Manuel Bonn stood at the bow of the Fortune. Although it was only a 410-ton ship, which was considered a small ship among the fifth-level sailing battleships, Manuel Bonn had great confidence in facing the old warships of the Qing Dynasty.

Moreover, the Lucky was already running fast, and now with the wind in its favor, it was running even faster.

Manuel Bonn soon discovered the Qing fleet. He shouted at the helmsman to adjust the direction and ram from behind the Qing signal ship, which weighed only seventy or eighty tons.

The two sides were so close that even the waves stirred up by the Lucky caused the old ship, weighing more than 70 tons, to shake violently.

A burst of flintlock fire rang out, and the soldiers on the Lucky ship began firing from a distance of several hundred meters.

This was certainly a bluff, but the Qing navy on the opposite side clearly lacked combat experience. They panicked and actually raised the sails and turned around to run away.

Manuel Bonn was delighted. "Follow him, follow them, and use him as cover. Have the second one follow, and we'll charge together."

So, such a strange scene appeared on the sea: several small signal boats left outside by the Qing navy were running for their lives, and behind them a large number of Xing Tang army fleets barely formed a long snake shape, using it as a cover, and constantly firing guns to stimulate the nerves of the Qing army, making them run faster.

After a quarter of an hour of chasing each other, they were very close to the main force of the Qing army.

Manuel Bonn suddenly raised the triangular sail to adjust the direction, and the six six-pound cannons on the bow immediately opened fire.

With a bang, a shell accurately hit the stern of the signal boat in front. The projectile weighing more than six pounds dived forward from the stern and flew out from the bow, causing wood chips to fly everywhere and screams.

This round of salvos was just the appetizer. The Lucky quickly moved to the west and headed directly for the lead ship of the Qing fleet. The thirteen eight-pound cannons on one side opened fire one after another.

Well, it's still quite far away, and the waves on the sea can't hit many ships. It's just to create a tense atmosphere and scare people.

Sure enough, seeing the "big ship" like the Lucky with 30 guns opening fire, the Qing army's fleet also responded, regardless of whether they could hit the target or not, they also opened fire back.

For a moment, columns of water rose from the sea, and the black smoke did not dissipate for a long time even under the southeast wind.

Cai Panlong was delighted when he saw that the fleet rushing towards him had only one large Western-style soft-sail ship, and the rest were familiar Chinese-style hard-sailed ships, and their attire was similar to that of pirates.

"General, there are sun and moon flags, which are the fleet of Mo thieves, but they are similar to pirates."

Huang Shijian felt relieved. He snorted coldly, "Humph, if you want to break through my formation, then try with your life.

Jump in and help, the Water Ghost Team, get ready, as soon as the enemy ships get close, we'll give them a taste of our power."

At this time, the Qing navy still had a large number of hand-to-hand combat soldiers who wore short jackets and shorts and carried swords and rattan shields.

Well, it’s not that the European navy didn’t have hand-to-hand combatants, but for ships like the Qing army, almost 30% to 40% of the troops on a ship were hand-to-hand combatants, which was still a bit too ancient.

The Chinese warships led by Tankaer had no intention of fighting the Qing Dynasty. Their mission was to find the Qing fleet, intimidate and harass them, slow down the Qing fleet's speed, and buy time for the main force of the fleet.

Therefore, when Cai Panlong and other Qing hand-to-hand combat soldiers were ready for boarding battle, they saw that the second Danjia brought dozens of small-sized Guang ships and passed through their formation without stopping.

Only the Lucky, equipped with a triangular sail, ran to the front of the Qing fleet and continuously fired harassing shots, making the front few warships extremely nervous and afraid to sail at full speed.

Huang Shijian was surprised, and suddenly looked up to see the dark clouds covering the top of the fleet. He screamed suddenly.

"Oh no! These are just the vanguard to delay us. The main force of the enemy army is coming soon."

Huang Shijian was still quite skilled. In the vast sea with not very strong wind, the smoke created by the gunpowder rose in the air like a black cloud, which was simply a perfect sign.

"We can't go to Annan anymore. Hurry, follow the wind north and head to the area around Longmenhai Danshui Bay. If that doesn't work, we can go to Guli Military Camp."

Although it is a bit embarrassing, this is the most correct option. The freshwater bay of Longmen Sea is the Qinzhou Bay in later generations, and the Guli military camp is probably in the area of Beihai City in later generations.

Seeing that the enemy's vanguard had large Western ships, Huang Shijian immediately lost the courage to fight.

Landlubbers like Agui and Fukang'an don't know how powerful the Western ships are, but Huang Shijian makes a living in this field, so he knows something about it.

However, communication at sea was extremely difficult, and the Qing navy was poorly trained. After issuing the order to head west to the mouth of the Bach Dang River, it was suddenly changed, making it impossible to guarantee the transmission of the order.

So, as soon as he gave this order, the Qing fleet's originally relatively orderly long snake formation immediately became chaotic, with most of it still heading west and a small number heading north.

There are also some who are fighting fiercely with the Lucky. These officers and soldiers rarely fire at others and even rarely receive training.

At this time, they fired one shot after another, and there were no casualties. The adrenaline was directly raised. The soldiers were immersed in the imagined pleasure of firing and killing the enemy. They didn't even remember what their mission was or why they were looking at the flags.

In the midst of this chaos, the main force of Major General Fragosse's fleet arrived.

Hearing only a burst of terrified cries, Huang Shijian saw, without having to climb the mast, several huge sails suddenly appear on the sea in the distance, these soft sails swollen by the southeast wind. Then, the huge hull appeared before the eyes of the Qing navy officers and soldiers. The 1,400-ton Jingning, equipped with 74 guns, suddenly emerged from the seabed like a monster.

The larger the ship, the stronger its inertia. This type of ship will accelerate very slowly at the beginning, but after a period of time, once the speed increases, it will not be slow at all.

This was the first time that Major General Fragosse was so excited. The Qing fleet in the distance did not seem like an enemy, but more like fragments of marquisate titles.

"Go straight ahead, don't give them any time to react." The major general roared, and then the huge Jingning went straight in between the first few large black boats of the Qing Dynasty.

As early as when it was about to approach these ships, the gun ports of the Jingning were opened, and the naked French gunners were as excited as baboons in heat.

They came from the lowest class in France and were even more fanatical than Major General Fragossels, because even if the Major General couldn't get the title of Marquis, he still had the title of Count. If these gunners couldn't get the title, they really wouldn't get it.

The two ships intersected, with the Qing Dynasty's black boat facing the Jingning with its bow, and the Jingning facing the surrounding Qing Dynasty's black boats with its left and right sides.

"Fuck you, fire at these southern bandits!" A Qing captain roared and personally pushed a small cannon to the bow of the ship.

With a bang, he roared and lit the fuse himself. Then he watched the more than three-pound shell shoot out like an arrow and hit the target accurately.

But before they could cheer, everyone was stunned. Because the opposite ship was taller than them, the shell did not hit the deck directly, but hit the hull instead.

The imagined scene of wood chips flying everywhere and a hole being gouged in the hull did not appear. Instead, the shell hit a huge rock, creating a small white dot, then bounced and fell directly into the sea.

"Fuck your mother!" General Qian cursed again, then fell to the ground with a scream.

But it was too late, the eight eight-pound cannons on the Jingning's forecastle began to wash their decks.

Of the eight shells, three hit the black boat.

One of the bullets hit a small cannon, sending it flying into the air. It then fell onto the deck with a clang, and two or three unlucky soldiers were instantly smashed into a pulp.

The second one hit the deck of the black ship, creating a huge hole in it, and the sailors on the lower deck screamed miserably.

The third one was even more powerful, sweeping close to the deck. Seven or eight melee soldiers were caught off guard and were knocked to the ground by the shell. For a moment, half of their legs and broken intestines and stomachs were all over the deck.

Captain Qian breathed a sigh of relief. It would be better for me to let my friend die than for me to die. Fortunately, he was fine.

Then he heard the gunner beside him scream miserably. It turned out that the bow of the Jingning had passed, and now in front of them was the hull, and the rows of 36-pound cannons were facing them.

There was a flash of fire, and a shell weighing more than 30 kilograms whizzed out. General Qian didn't even have time to scream before he was hit by the huge projectile.

His upper body almost completely disappeared, leaving only two legs and a pelvis. He was carried by the huge impact force and thrown into a corner of the shabby hull like a rag doll.

The artillery on both sides of the Jingning opened fire one after another, causing huge casualties.

After passing through the middle of the Qing fleet, Major General Fragosse personally took control of the rudder and slowly turned the Jingning sideways.

At this time, the Qing fleet was still heading west as usual, while the Jingning had already turned sideways, with several sails lowered and the speed reduced to the slowest.

Then, the Qing Dynasty ships passed by the Jingning like a slide.

The most unlucky one was an old-fashioned Fujian ship of more than 500 tons, as it happened to be within the range of all 35 guns on one side of the Jingning.

With the thunderous sound of cannons, the old grandfather with a weight of more than 500 tons disintegrated directly, and the 36-pound cannon shells completely penetrated its entire hull.

Within two minutes, the large ship of the Qing navy was reduced to pieces of broken wood and a broken bow.

The Qing navy soldiers were horrified by this brutal scene, and some ships even tried to retreat and escape, but at this time, Zhou Yuanquan led a squadron headed by two level five sailing cruisers to block them.

Being attacked from both sides, the Xing Tang Army still had two battleships, so there was simply no way to fight.

The fleets of both sides bombarded each other in the chaos, and it soon became a one-sided game of whack-a-mole. Any Qing ships that were hit would be smashed to pieces.

In particular, the artillery of the Xingtang Army heated the shells before firing, and often only a few hits were needed to set the Qing warships on fire.

The big black ship that Huang Shijian was on was trying desperately to escape, but he had been targeted. Count Olivier led two level five sailing cruisers and was desperately chasing after him.

"General, we can't run away. Let's fight them."

On the wide sea, the advantages of the soft sailboat were brought to the limit, and Count Olivier quickly caught up with Huang Shijian.

Another level five sailing cruiser commanded by Mo Gongqing, a member of the Mo clan, had even surpassed Huang Shijian and was lying across the distance waiting for them to collide.

"Slow down and fight them!" Huang Shijian stopped running. "I also have seventeen cannons on the side. I won't lose!"

This is a game for the brave. After Huang Shijian's warship slowed down, Count Olivier's warship came from the side, and the two warships faced each other side by side.

奥利维耶伯爵这艘五级风帆巡航舰排水七百吨，有炮42门，一侧固定有13门18磅加农炮和6门8磅加农炮，还有4门可以移动的36磅榴弹炮。

Although Huang Shijian's flagship of the Fujian Navy weighed more than 36 tons and had 17 guns, the 8 guns on one side were all 16-pound guns, and the two heavy -pound guns were on the forecastle and sterncastle and could not be moved.

The two ships crossed each other, separated by only a distance of more than 100 meters, and both sides poured all their firepower on each other.

Due to insufficient training, the Yellow Ship made many mistakes during the tense moment, and only eleven of its 17 guns successfully fired.

The hull of the Austrian ship, built to strict standards, withstood the test. It withstood eight of the eleven shells. Some failed to penetrate the hull, and even if some did, their kinetic energy was exhausted and not much damage was caused.

The three shells that successfully destroyed the ship bounced on the lower deck, swept through the sailors, and killed more than ten people on the spot, but no one panicked.

"Fire!" The artillery commander on the left shouted, and it was the Austrian ship's turn to fire.

The eighteen-pounder shells whizzed out and easily penetrated the Yellow Ship's hull.

A Qing Dynasty gunner and several sailors were loading when they suddenly felt the solid hull break open. The gunner had no time to react and was turned into meat paste.

A sailor was caught in a cannonball and flew away, with his heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys all over the ship.

At the same time, the shells also splashed a lot of wood chips around, and countless gunners and sailors cried and struggled on the ground, some of them had almost no good meat on their faces.

At the same time, on the upper level, Cai Panlong was holding a shotgun and wanted to snipe the officer on the opposite side, but with a bang, the 36-pound howitzer opened fire, and it was an explosive bomb.

In an instant, it was as if a small sun exploded in the air. The huge impact directly knocked Cai Panlong to the ground. He spat out a mouthful of blood and felt a burning pain in his internal organs.

This was a symbol of internal organ displacement. Just as he was about to get up, a heavy musket fired and hit Cai Panlong directly on the head. With a bang, it was no different from a watermelon exploding.

His superior, the admiral of the Fujian Navy and the sixth generation Duke of Haicheng, Huang Shijian, was even worse off.

He was also knocked to the ground by the exploding shell, and then an eight-pound cannon fired from the open deck bounced towards him.

Huang Shijian screamed miserably and tried to dodge using his hands and feet, but he was powerless. How could a person be faster than a cannonball?

The shell hit Huang Shijian's waist, knocking him flying and then hanging on the rope of the mast.

Huang Shijian spat out a mouthful of blood foam and felt a chill in his lower body. He tried to look down, but found that everything below his pelvis was gone, and his large and small intestines were falling out of the hole in his belly.

With a "puff" sound, the gap became bigger, and the gushing large and small intestines were pulled into a straight line, hanging on his body and swinging back and forth continuously with the swaying of the ship.

Waves of severe pain rushed into Huang Shijian's mind, and he screamed miserably. Every time he swayed, it felt as if someone was slowly cutting him with a knife.

It was unknown how long it took, until his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were all shaking and falling down, and Huang Shijian finally received the reward of going to hell.

The battle lasted from early morning to evening of the same day. The Fujian Navy of the Qing army was completely wiped out. Of the more than 150 warships, only about 20 were lucky enough to float to Qinzhou Bay, and most of the rest were sunk, burned, etc.

More than thirty ships were captured, with 13,000 officers and soldiers, and less than 2,000 managed to survive.

In this one battle, the Qing Dynasty's navy in the southeastern half was completely destroyed, leaving only the inland sampans in the hands of the Yangtze River Navy Commander and some small offshore boats of the Zhejiang Green Camp.

(End of this chapter)