Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 488 Night Attack on Penghu
What Zheng Zhilong wants is a big victory, not a miserable victory.

In addition, Zheng Zhilong had another reason for choosing to fight at night, that is, once the surprise attack succeeded and a large number of officers and soldiers were captured alive, he would have a bargaining chip to talk to Li Jing.

Zheng Zhilong has been an official of the imperial court for so many years. To be honest, he really doesn't want to go back to the life of a pirate.If there is a little leeway, Zheng Zhilong doesn't want to do too much.

The sky finally darkened. At this time, Zheng Zhilong's fleet was less than ten miles away from the main island of Penghu. With the help of the moonlight, the outline of the island could already be seen clearly.

Zheng Zhilong put down the binoculars, and told a soldier beside him, "Change the flag!"

The soldiers got the order, walked quickly to the mast, and ordered the standard bearer to change the flag.

The flag bearer did not hesitate to accept the order, and quickly lowered the imperial flag, and then replaced it with a pirate flag.

As Zheng Zhilong's flagship was replaced with a pirate flag, the ships next to him saw it and removed the imperial flag and replaced it with a pirate flag.

In fact, changing the flag can be regarded as an order. Changing the pirate flag means that the attack is about to begin.

Zheng Zhilong used more than 300 large and small ships and more than [-] soldiers to attack Penghu this time.

If so many ships want to play a full role when they land, they cannot be arrayed according to the pattern of naval battles, but must be lined up, so as to maximize the advantage of the large number of ships.

If it was daytime, Zheng Zhilong would never dare to do this, because once discovered by the enemy fleet, he only needs to seize the limelight, and these ships of his own will line up in a row and cannot support each other, and the end will be very miserable.

But now Zheng Zhilong is not worried about this problem. Zheng Zhilong came all the way with the wind and did not find any ships. At night, the visibility decreased, and he could not see the enemy ships, and the enemy ships could not find him.

Moreover, Zheng Zhilong judged that even if the navy of the imperial court found his fleet, they would not fight him to the death, because the navy of the imperial court only had so many ships. God can create it.

Zheng Zhilong's judgment was good, and Sun Chuanting really didn't want to fight to the death with him.

Zheng Zhilong was going to attack Penghu Island, and Sun Chuanting knew the news in advance.

Sun Chuanting was able to know the news because someone reported to him, and it was none other than Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin.

Originally, Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin were going to turn against each other directly, but when Sun Chuanting learned of Zheng Zhilong's plan, he immediately blocked their proposal of turning against each other.

Because Sun Chuanting was not afraid of Zheng Zhilong fighting him on land.

Although Zheng Zhilong's military strength is several times that of his, but when it comes to land battles, can Zheng Zhilong's combat effectiveness compare to that of Gao Yingxiang back then?
At that time, Sun Chuanting had no more than ten thousand men under his command, but the Battle of Heishuiyu wiped out tens of thousands of Gao Yingxiang's army, even Gao Yingxiang himself was captured alive by him.

Although Sun Chuanting's troops are not as many as in the past, the combat power is far stronger than in the past, and the weapons are far superior to those in the past.

For Sun Chuanting, the biggest problem in setting up an ambush on the island was to judge from which direction Zheng Zhilong would attack.

If it was in the past, Sun Chuanting would definitely not be able to judge it, but Sun Chuanting has been in charge of the navy for a year, and Sun Chuanting already knows that the most important thing in naval warfare depends on the wind direction, and the effect of fighting against the wind is definitely different from that of fighting against the wind.

Zheng Zhilong has rich experience in naval battles, and of course he understands this truth better than Sun Chuanting, so Zheng Zhilong will definitely come from the direction of the wind.

Now that Zheng Zhilong's attack direction can be determined, all that remains is to determine Zheng Zhilong's attack point.

This is not difficult at all, because Penghu is an island surrounded by reefs, Zheng Zhilong can only choose a place with no reefs or few reefs to attack.

Although Sun Chuanting is not very familiar with Penghu, there are quite a few people on the island who are familiar with the surrounding environment. Just ask casually, and you will know the geographical environment around Penghu.

After mastering the terrain around Penghu, the next thing Sun Chuanting has to do is to determine the wind direction.

The wind direction is the best way to judge, because the geographical feature of Penghu is windy, and the wind is very strong. You only need to stand by the sea to determine the wind direction.

After identifying the direction of the wind, Sun Chuanting carefully observed and selected the ambush location.

And for the sake of caution, the ambush arranged by Sun Chuanting was about four miles away from the sea.

Sun Chuanting's calculation was very good. This distance happened to be the best range for heavy artillery. Although Zheng Zhilong's artillery can also hit this distance, but at such a distance, solid shells basically do no harm.

This is the real gap between Li Jing's troops and other troops. The artillery shells installed by Li Jing's troops are bombs, which are far from comparable to the explosive shells at that time, let alone those artillery that use solid shells.

In naval battles at that time, most of the artillery mounted on ships were solid bullets, in order to penetrate the sides or decks of enemy ships, and it was impossible for open shells to sink ships.

Sun Chuanting had calculated everything, and the people below also set up an ambush according to his arrangement. Unfortunately, Sun Chuanting forgot one thing, that is, the sea has high tide and low tide.

It was low tide when Zheng Zhilong led the boat to Penghu.After the tide ebbed, the ships could not reach the attack distance of the artillery.

But this is not the most depressing part of Sun Chuanting. The most depressing thing for Sun Chuanting is that when Zheng Zhilong ordered the soldiers to land and Sun Chuanting ordered the artillery to attack, an accident happened, because many shells did not explode after being fired.

To be honest, when Zheng Zhilong found out that the island started to fire, he was really taken aback. He didn't expect the island to be prepared.

With the enemy on guard, this sneak attack turned into a strong attack, and a strong attack was not what Zheng Zhilong wanted to see, because Zheng Zhilong had heard that the artillery of Li Jing's army was powerful, so he had to brave the powerful artillery fire to attack forcibly. will suffer heavy losses.

However, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help being overjoyed when he saw countless shells flying out of the island, but there was no explosion after landing.

After being overjoyed, Zheng Zhilong made a decision that he regretted very much later, and Zheng Zhilong ordered the soldiers to continue attacking.

If the line of defense from the shore to the enemy was only a few hundred meters, then Zheng Zhilong's attack might really have worked, because while Zheng Zhilong was pleasantly surprised, the soldiers defending the island were all in a daze.

These soldiers didn't understand why the cannon, which had been well trained, suddenly became unusable, and there were so many shells that failed to explode.

You know, when the weapon suddenly doesn't work, the soldiers will inevitably be in a daze.

In a hurry, many soldiers carried out a second round of shelling, but when the second round of shelling still had the same effect, the soldiers' confidence was a little shaken.

At this time, the role of the chief general and military officer is revealed.

In this battle, the main general in charge of the defense at the front was Lin Shijie, the Penghu defender who had just been promoted by Sun Meng.

Lin Shijie was temporarily awarded the post of Penghu garrison. He knew that this was Sun Meng's high regard for him. Now that Zheng Zhilong attacked Penghu at night, it was time to test him.

Seeing that the heavy artillery suddenly misfired, Lin Shijie immediately ordered to stop the shelling, and then ordered the soldiers to quickly set up portable artillery.

Lin Shijie did not believe that even the portable artillery was useless.

If the portable artillery also loses its function, you can only use rifles to fight the enemy. In night combat, even with moonlight, the visibility of soldiers is still not high, and the effect must be greatly reduced.

Lin Shijie was ready for a hand-to-hand fight with Zheng Zhilong's troops.

Following Lin Shijie's order, the soldiers finally woke up. Now that the enemy is attacking, it is not the time to be in a daze.

Lin Shijie's order can be said to be timely. When the soldiers were in a daze, Zheng Zhilong's troops had already rushed ashore and rushed forward quickly.

If Lin Shijie reacted later, I'm afraid it would really be a hand-to-hand fight.

But everything is just if, when a large number of enemy troops entered the range, the portable artillery began to show its power, and Zheng Zhilong's troops who rushed into the range were blown up in pieces.

Seeing the scene in front of him, Zheng Zhilong quickly changed from surprise to consternation.

Generally speaking, in a well-disciplined army, when the general did not give the order to retreat, if the soldiers retreated without authorization, they would definitely be punished on the spot.

However, most of the backbone of Zheng Zhilong's troops were pirates. Although they later became a regular army, military discipline meant nothing to them.

These guys must go forward bravely in a downwind battle. Even if they are evenly matched with their opponents, they will fight to the end. After all, most capable pirates still have courage.

But these people have never fought such a one-sided battle. Although these people are not afraid of death, they don't want to die in vain. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong's order could not be given, and this group of people retreated like a tide.

Seeing the soldiers retreating one after another, Zheng Zhilong remembered to ask the soldiers to blow the horn to retreat.

But in this one charge, at least hundreds of people fell under the enemy's artillery fire.

Hearing the cries of the wounded soldiers in front, Zheng Zhilong's cheeks twitched.

Zheng Zhilong has also experienced many fierce battles, but like this, he didn't even see the enemy's face, and hundreds of brothers were gone. He really had never fought such a battle.

Seeing the gunfire on the island fade away, Zheng Zhilong finally regained his composure, and then made another decision that he regretted.

He ordered the soldiers to remove the cannon from the ship.

Zheng Zhilong forgot one thing, it is not difficult to disassemble the artillery from the ship, but how to transport these artillery to the shore on the muddy beach.

In addition, what Zheng Zhilong didn't know was that the reason why the shells fired on the shore did not explode was because the beach just ebbed was very soft and could not reach the impact force of the shells that detonated.

Zheng Zhilong didn't seem to understand, but Lin Shijie did.

Although Lin Shijie had never participated in actual combat, he had trained a lot in the use of artillery.He knew that although the artillery often malfunctioned, it was absolutely impossible for so many artillery to malfunction at the same time. There must be some reason for it.

The reason for this can only be that the shell landed on the beach, and the soft beach prevented the shell from detonating.

Wanting to understand this point, Lin Shijie immediately ordered the heavy artillery troops to retreat.

Zheng Zhilong dismantled the cannon, and Lin Shijie dismantled the cannon. The two moved at the same time. Zheng Zhilong's beach was muddy, and it took a lot of trouble to push the cannon ashore.

Lin Shijie's side was also uncomfortable. What good terrain can be found on the island, and it is not so easy to transport the artillery. After transporting to the designated location, there are still a series of issues to consider, such as the shooting angle and whether there are obstacles in front of it.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong and Lin Shijie spent almost the same time getting the artillery ready.

(End of this chapter)